Is the Ellimist meant to criticize Christianity

[Chad32]

I was only half serious. Sorry if I was offensive.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

PM'd you, Chad.

[Chad32]

I've got no new messages past the response to the Screwed Up PM. Try again?

[goom]

Which one of them is Mike? Use the psuedonym, not the real name.

A lot of people call people by names, and not screennames.I call people by what I call them when I speak to them. I call him Mike, I'm not going to change that for you. I'd appreciate you not ordering me around. Kthanks.

he wasn't being completely serious, jess.
anyways, it's confusing for a lot of people.
mike is phoenix.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Goom, I took care of it. No need to step in.


(sorry, that came out wrong the first time.)

[goom]

Goom, I took care of it. There was no need for you to step in.

okay, back on subject.

It's stated quite often that the Ellimist is weaker than Crayak.  Isn't good supposed to be stronger than evil?

i always found them about equivalent in power, crayak being (possibly) slightly stronger.

[SarahConnor2]

This is an interesting topic. Never really thought of it before now since no one ever worshipped the Ellimist or Crayak, at least not to my knowledge. I haven't yet read the Ellimist Chronicles, or even all the Animorphs books (SHAME ON ME, I know...). I do see the correlation between Ellimist and God (whatever they may be to you), Crayak and Satan. In the Bible, God and Lucifer have played at least one game that I know of, and it's in the book of Job, if I remember correctly. For those who may not know of the story, Satan bets God that if he took away Job's belongings, friends, and family, Job would rebuke God and swear him off. Of course, Job is remains faithful and prays to God, so God wins, per usual. And I'd say Job loses, but that's just my opinion.
It's a messed up game they play, just as the Ellimist and Crayak do.

[RYTX]

It's stated quite often that the Ellimist is weaker than Crayak.  Isn't good supposed to be stronger than evil?

Whether or not that is true, good and evil being reasonably objective as the are, if it is taken that good is stronger than evil, than that makes for a VERY boring story.
Bring it down to yeerk v. animorph, if the animorphs, our good guys had had the upper hand the whole time, thing would be much shorter and much duller.
You want to root for the good guy, and the underdog, there in the good guy should be disadvantaged for the most part. Makes the victory much more impressive.

As for the topic head, I say no. I don't take the Ellimist as a religious thing in any sense, including Christianity
He's a plot device used to varying effectiveness. Applegate rarley seemed to criticize anyone, something I liked about these books
Though she did seem to have it in for the Boy Scouts at times

[SarahConnor2]

I agree that she's not wanting to criticize Christianity, or any religion. If anything, she's merely comparing God and Satan with the Ellimist and Crayak. That's all.

[voodooqueen126]

Unless it is Zoroastrian: In their religion (plus the gnosts and the Mandaeans)  God and the Devil are engaged in perpetual struggle and are equal in power.
Although this is not necessarily criticism of any particular religion you could view the Ellimist as representing the 'trickster' archetype.
Ax specifically refers to the Ellimist as a trickster god in book 6.
Until the Ellimist came to the Andalites they used sign language, he gave them thoughtspeak and all Andalites that use thoughtspeak (presumably all Andalites) are his descendents...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster_god
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_hero
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythical_origins_of_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_myth