Could things have worked out with David?

[Astarte]

I've watched poparena's reviews and I agree with him 100%, I think if the Animorphs made more of an effort with David, then he just may have worked out. I mean, staying with the Chee would have been a nice touch, especially since he'd have all those things he wants, a bed, a shower, etc. Also, while it is inexcusable for David to drop Saddler down an elevator shaft and assume his identity and his "never kill humans" is so much crap, it is equally inexcusable that Marco is so mean to David. Like poparena said, he just flat-out hates him and that, in my opinion, is one of the pushes that drove him over the edge.

Well, what do you think?

[NothingFromSomething]

I always kind of saw it as, yeah, Marco's unnecessarily dickish toward David, but that doesn't really excuse that David overall has a total lack of character and he'd probably always go off the reservation.  The type of guy that, horrible as things may be for him, looks for excuses in life anyway and has a tendency to go for revenge and retribution just as a personality trait.

[Astarte]

Yeah, that is a good point, David does kind of make excuses, but boy, it sure doesn't make liking Marco any easier. I actually hate Marco more than David, which is kind of scary, isn't it?

[NothingFromSomething]

I think it sort of stemmed from their first interaction, though.  I can't remember the specifics, it's probably been a half decade since I've read the book, but didn't David sort of brush Marco off in some sort of "alright, whatever, loser" manner when they met at school?

Not an excuse for Marco, but they both seemed to have got off on the wrong foot right from the start.

[Chad32]

I agree that if they put more effort into it, including sending David to the Chee instead of having him sleep in a loud and smelly barn, things may have turned out better. There was something wrong with David, but it partly stemmed from not having any friends. If they had tried harder, he may have reformed.

As for his first interactions with Marco, the guy suddenly runs up to him like "Yo man, nice box", acting kind of weird because he knew exactly what the escafil device was. If he had been more casual about it, or just waited until he could sneak the box away, it would have been better.

It seems like the author knew david wasn't going to be permanent, so she got everything the way she wanted without it being really organic. We're supposed to focus more on how he broke into a hotel than the fact that a barn full of animals is about the worst place for him to actually get some rest.

[Snakie]

I think K.A. intended to write this character as someone who was never going to work out.

The bad feelings Marco gets with respect to David are intended to foreshadow how much of a psychopath he eventually ends up being, and the fact that he kills the crow for no reason is meant to accomplish the same thing.

That's how K.A. meant to write it.

With that said, I don't think K.A. provides us with enough to come to that conclusion ourselves.  There is a lot of friction between David and the Animorphs early on and the Animorphs make a series of very drastic mistakes where David is concerned, and at this stage its hard to tell whether things would have worked out.

Tag on the fact that we really don't see much of David until after he loses his parents to the Yeerks and has his entire world uprooted and I think the picture gets even murkier.  At the very least we can say that its certainly POSSIBLE that things could have worked with David.  The only thing that makes me hesitate is the fact that I don't think any of the other characters EVER would have done what he did with Saddler.  That shows a level of ruthlessness and cold bloodedness that I think may have caused serious problems down the road, even though we have characters (Marco and Rachel) who show lesser levels of cold bloodedness at various times in the series.

[NothingFromSomething]

There was something wrong with David, but it partly stemmed from not having any friends. If they had tried harder, he may have reformed.

Dangerous, dangerous way of thinking.  I hope you don't apply that train of thought to instances in real life.

[Chad32]

I don't see how that's any more dangerous than anything else they do. Granted he likely needed professional help, but they already had one guy on the team that wasn't exactly well adjusted. Tobias decided his life would probably be better spent as a bird, tried to commit suicide not long after that decision, and afterwards was more bird than human.

Can you elaborate on your post some?

[NothingFromSomething]

This stuff about "David moved from town to town a lot and didn't have close friends" as stemming his, you know, animal cruelty, murderous rage, identity theft & ambivalence about the whole world potentially ending.  And the "reform" line.  Come on.  Generally speaking, people don't reform, that's a new-agey line to make people feel better.

Most likely, no matter what the circumstances, David would have been a major screwloose.  It's as much who he is as a person as the situation he finds himself in.  Throw Jake or Cassie or Tobias in his shoes?  Rachel or Marco?  Nah, no abject cruel, vengeful murderer.

[Chad32]

People do change over time. Yes David did some bad stuff. He seemed to have jumped off the slippery slope soon after V3 offered to release his parents, and became much worse a bit more suddenly than expected.

I think it's kind of funny about Rachel, since many people seemed to believe she was so changed by the war that she wouldn't be able to function in normal society again. Hence why KA killed her off. I think David only really went to the extreme he did because that's what KA wanted to happen. It was a bit rushed. The reviewer actually says as much.

[NothingFromSomething]

I don't know if Rachel was killed off because Jake couldn't picture her future post-war, Rachel'd have been just fine.  It was just a suicide mission, best plan they had, and along with Jake himself she was the only one who'd actually kill Tom.

Always bugged me how people interpreted Rachel as some gung-ho war-loving maniac.  Not really how it was, she was just all about doing the hard thing, making the hard choices, and combined with that adrenaline-junkie thrillster personality, she was just good at war.  Not enjoying it.

David was something else, he was actually gleefully sadistic.  He was the kid who burns ants with a magnifying glass and torments cats & dogs, y'know?  That type.

[Chad32]

I agree Rachel would have been fine after the war. I'm just saying that while David was bad, the actions the animorphs take does not help things. Why was Marco so insensitive, especially since you'd think the family thing would give them something to relate with each other? Why did they shift him around, and put him in the barn when Erik could have given him a guest room?

[NothingFromSomething]

The Marco thing is kind of moot, though, as even if he was behaving badly toward David, it's small-time stuff when compared with his reaction.  No matter how the others had treated him, David was a bad, bad dude right from the get-go.

[Astarte]

I don't know if I agree with you there, Nothing. David never necessarily screamed "pure evil" from the start. He was a little troubled and bratty, but that could have fixed itself in time. Besides, the Animorphs have all done things that were cruel or outright surpassed David's actions, like Cassie erasing a man from existence, Tobias killing off the Mercora race, Jake killing off 17,000 Yeerks, and if Marco had killed Karen, I'd include him in this list too. And they all worked out. I'd say in the end, it was a series of circumstances that doomed David, most of which were the Animorphs' total inability to commit to David. I get Mrs. Applegate wanted to make it look like Marco was justified in hating David, but the way I see it is that was part of the problem that led to him rebelling in the end, just like Jake forcing David to sleep in a freezing barn instead of putting him with the Chee or God forbid, just letting David sleep where he wants. Then again, the Animorphs were rushed to save the world leaders. Imagine if there was no ticking clock. Could things have worked out? Would they have been better willing to commit to David and see the problems he was having?

[Chad32]

Things may have been different if they didn't also have a very important mission to work with. I don't remember if there was mention of the barn being cold, but just the noise and smells would be enough to drive anyone out of there.

The Anis always seem to have multipl things going on, neither of which they could or should ignore.