Did anybody think that David

[MarigoldLesley]

I kinda peeked at Wiki before i started the series...but besides that, I knew David was going to be a total jerk when he joined. He didn't have enough good in him. And besides, Marco was against him- and I'm always with Marco.

[firetiger777]

I don't think David is as evil of a person as everybody has thus far made him out to be. I think KA created him as a foil to the Animorphs. David like the Animorphs all lead normal lives before learning about the invasion, but how David responded is what separates him from the Animorphs. I don't think David is evil, but rather weaker than the Animorphs in determination and mental strength. When David lost his life to the yeerks, he started succumbing to selfish and easy acts.
I don't really think it's possible for anyone to proclaim that David was obviously going to turn evil or bad before reading the 21, or even 20. All of the other Animorphs have moments of weakness, Rachel's aggressiveness, Marco's ruthlessness, Jake's cold practicality, but in the end they "do the right thing" and emerge a hero. On the other hand, David who also started to face such decisions that showed his true characteristics chose to do the easy and selfish thing, rather than the right thing.
I guess, what I'm trying to say that to me, I feel like it's near impossible to know for sure that David would have turned out bad, but there were definately signs pointing to it when he made decisions, and its the accumulation of these decisions that made him more progressively "bad"

[morfowt]

I don't think David is as evil of a person as everybody has thus far made him out to be. I think KA created him as a foil to the Animorphs. David like the Animorphs all lead normal lives before learning about the invasion, but how David responded is what separates him from the Animorphs. I don't think David is evil, but rather weaker than the Animorphs in determination and mental strength. When David lost his life to the yeerks, he started succumbing to selfish and easy acts.
I don't really think it's possible for anyone to proclaim that David was obviously going to turn evil or bad before reading the 21, or even 20. All of the other Animorphs have moments of weakness, Rachel's aggressiveness, Marco's ruthlessness, Jake's cold practicality, but in the end they "do the right thing" and emerge a hero. On the other hand, David who also started to face such decisions that showed his true characteristics chose to do the easy and selfish thing, rather than the right thing.
I guess, what I'm trying to say that to me, I feel like it's near impossible to know for sure that David would have turned out bad, but there were definately signs pointing to it when he made decisions, and its the accumulation of these decisions that made him more progressively "bad"

very nice first post

[adeon222]

Yes, great job expressing yourself...

I do not agree, however... I don't think that David lead a 'normal' life before he found out about the invasion... I mean, he named his cat Megadeath and his snake Spawn... 

But seriously, David had major issues before his revelation... Deep down inside, he cared about his parents... but it's obvious that besides himself he didn't care about anyone else... He was overly paranoid and a selfish jerk before he joined the Anis...
(Plus, I don't see how you can see what he did to Sadler and his family, as well as the rest of the Animorphs as anything other than evil...)

[Chad32]

I think what he did to Saddler was extreme, but not totally evil. Thinking it's okay to kill people just because they're in morph is twisted and illogical. Selling out the world for the sake of his parents is what heroes in other stories do a lot.

Evil Guy: Give me the device that will allow me to operate my doomsday weapon and destroy civilization, and I will free the woman you love.

Hero: Okay, but only if you promise to free her.

I mean that's shown as the "right" thing to do, and it's not so different from what David was doing. So I can't count that as evil. Though sometimes the Hero takes a third option, I think they usually do what the evil Guy wants, then does something that luckily makes everything turn out okay in the end. And that's supposed to justify giving into the Evil Guy in the first place. Of course Visser Three wouldn't really free his parents, but then who does?

He was bad. I just wouldn't say he was a complete monster.

[adeon222]

I'm not saying that it was evil for him to want to get his family back... But let's think about this for a second...

David had about a hundred times better chance to get his family back by joining and helping the Animorphs than he had by turning against them and trying to steal the blue box and ransom it back to the Yeerks... What he did was evil because it was not for his parents... It was for him. He wanted power and he wanted his family and he wanted the freedom to do whatever he wanted without the Animorphs trying to impose morality on his actions...

[Chad32]

Yes because Jake is so good at rescuing family members from the Yeerks, isn't he?[/sarcasm]

Yes I know David did it partly for himself. He wanted his old life back, and his parents were part of his old life. The only part that had remained with him, as he moved from place to place so often.

[morfowt]

what exactly would you have named your cat and snake? compared to what I can think of, David's names don't seem too out of the ordinary at all...

[SuperBlue]

I knew that I didn't like him at all, before I even got halfway through 20... but I do remember my horror and outrage growing by leaps and bounds as he committed moronic/creepy/evil act after moronic/creepy/evil act...

By the end of the trilogy I was like, "Wow... This guy has psychological problems on the Hitler level..."

I always wanted to know what exactly David did to Saddler's body. I imagined he morphed lion and had a meal.

I always pictured David somehow sneaking Saddler out of his room and throwing him down one of the hospital's elevator shafts. Even if he survived the fall(not likely, depending on what floor they're on) he'd be screwed once the elevator came down

[esplin]

Despite the David trilogy being my favorite part of the main series, I do have to say I was not all that surprised that the 'new' Animorph did not last. By book #20 the Animorphs were set in everyones mind, and a newcomer would never really be accepted by the readers as anything but an unnecessary addition. I think it was the right strategic decision for the series to make David a traitor, as it did more to develop the Ani's characterization than anything else in the series (with the possible exception of Tobias and Taylor).

So yeah...I wouldn't say I expected it, but I wasn't surprised by it either.

Thats pretty much how I felt.