#47, The Resistance: Ill-Advised?

[Kotetsu1442]

OK, so The Resistance is pretty much unarguably "The Ill-Advised Curiosity" of the Animorphs series except for a weak amount of parallelism with Fitzhenry's story. I'm just wondering whether Ani fans think this is an enjoyable technique in general, or if it really just depends on the author to make it work. If that's the case, did it work well with The Resistance? Why/why not?

[Chad32]

I didn't like the Fitzhenry part, but I realise that the books tend to have two plotlines going for most if not all the main books, and I guess they couldn't come up with something better.

I don't think Jake's issue is really comparable to brother against brother, because it isn't his brother he's fighting. I know they always call him Tom because they never gave his Yeerk a name, but it's not Tom. So it's not brother against brother.

[zaprowsdower]

But to Jake it was always like fighting his brother, he says that in every one of his books.
I liked the FitzHenry story because it gave Jake this sort of parallel, an ancestor who had to fight a seemingly hopeless and unending fight for him to relate to. It also showed that the trials and troubles of war were here long before the fight for Earth, and likely to go on into the future.

[Chad32]

I guess so. In his mind he was fighting his brother. Which kind of makes it weird when he blows up at Marco towards the end, saying it's not his brother.

[zaprowsdower]

Which book was that?

[Chad32]

It was in the final arc somewhere. I think after Tom's Yeerk makes the deal with them to get in the pool ship.

[JohnBlaze]

I liked The Resistance....it could have been written a lot better if they'd cut out have of Fitzhenry's part, then it would have been more of a fight and whatnot.....just sayin

[CounterInstinct]

I liked The Resistance....it could have been written a lot better if they'd cut out have of Fitzhenry's part, then it would have been more of a fight and whatnot.....just sayin

I think the Fitzhenry part was a good part of the book. It compares Jake's struggles with him. Like making the blacks fight. Making the HorkBajir fight even if they know they were going to lose.

Plus, it kinda brings the possibility that "Hey, maybe the Animorphs lose at the last book too.".

[anijen21]

Honestly I hated it. It was like the author realized the battle for the Hork-Bajir valley was only going to take 70 pages and they needed something to help fill it up, and oh, a late-night airing of Glory on TBS. Perfect.

Plus, I don't want to start a fight but I read some really uncomfortable implications into the whole comparison...like if the blacks were supposed to be compared to the Hork-Bajir, does that mean they're big, stupid brutes who are actually loving and peaceful deep down? Idk, I haven't read the book in a while but I remember getting that feeling near the beginning and getting really icked out, but the parallels were muddled a little bit by the middle/end of the book, mostly with the introduction of the sci-fi nerds that died or whatever, which made it less allegorical and more, I don't know, counterpunctual I guess. But...short answer, I hated 47.

[JohnBlaze]

I liked The Resistance....it could have been written a lot better if they'd cut out have of Fitzhenry's part, then it would have been more of a fight and whatnot.....just sayin

I think the Fitzhenry part was a good part of the book. It compares Jake's struggles with him. Like making the blacks fight. Making the HorkBajir fight even if they know they were going to lose.

Plus, it kinda brings the possibility that "Hey, maybe the Animorphs lose at the last book too.".

I'm not sayin it wasnt good...it just didn't need to be that long....idk, it could have been shorter.

and i agree, but if the fight had've been drawn out like the other 1600 fights we've read, no problem....this book had a lot of potential, but wasnt capitalized upon

[EscafilDevice]

I agree with anijen

I like the main plot and the sci-fi nerds though.

[A ghost you know]

I guess so. In his mind he was fighting his brother. Which kind of makes it weird when he blows up at Marco towards the end, saying it's not his brother.

Jake had to "wear a mask" in front of the others, just like Marco did. They had to be able to justify missions that could get their family members killed, which is a heck of a lot easier when you think of those family members as Yeerks. Deep down, though, both recognized that they were fighting their family.

Personally, I liked the parallel storylines. I think the dual storylines gave us a good look at history repeating itself, although the storylines finally parted at the end (FitzHenry lost, didn't he? I don't recall for sure).

[Kotetsu1442]

Honestly I hated it. It was like the author realized the battle for the Hork-Bajir valley was only going to take 70 pages and they needed something to help fill it up, and oh, a late-night airing of Glory on TBS. Perfect.

Plus, I don't want to start a fight but I read some really uncomfortable implications into the whole comparison...like if the blacks were supposed to be compared to the Hork-Bajir, does that mean they're big, stupid brutes who are actually loving and peaceful deep down? Idk, I haven't read the book in a while but I remember getting that feeling near the beginning and getting really icked out, but the parallels were muddled a little bit by the middle/end of the book, mostly with the introduction of the sci-fi nerds that died or whatever, which made it less allegorical and more, I don't know, counterpunctual I guess. But...short answer, I hated 47.

I agree with your thoughts on the parallelism. Other than the tenuous "Fighting a losing battle and allied with people who are... um, different I guess," all other parallels break down and become meaningless at best or else counter-punctual. Oddly enough, the book that has a 'parallel' to the civil war is really the only Jake narration where he doesn't bring up the 'brother against brother' struggle at length in his mind.

It's this lack of real, meaningful parallelism that makes Fitzhenry's story an "Ill-Advised Curiosity". So is it the problems in the execution of Fitzhenry's story, or should "Ill-Advised Curiosity" stories be avoided in general?