How should #54 have ended? (Unmarked spoilers!)

[YeerkSalad]

Spoilers may be unmarked here. If you haven't finished the series, don't read this thread!

So yeah. If you'd written the series, how would you have ended it? Would you have ended it differently if it were a TV series/movie?

I would have ended the series similarily, but the final book would be a LITTLE more epic. I didn't like V1's surrender. He didn't seem as crazy and impulsive as his character usually was.
INSTEAD...
Let's say that Jake hasn't flushed the Pool into space yet - they entered from a different direction. Also, let's say that there are some escape pods near the Pool. (Do you see where I'm going with this?) The Animorphs become pretty distracted with Rachel's death and all, and V decides that the Blade Ship is screwed. At the bare minimum, this coward wants to survive. He attempts to get to the Pool's pods while the characters are getting the feels. Ax leaves them to it and chases the visser to the Pool. Marco gets an idea and follows them. Cue epic Andalite fight scene. Eventually, after a large dose of awesome, V1 is knocked into the Yeerk Pool.
V1 is now in the perfect spot for what Marco needed.
He presses a button.
A shieldy airlock thing closes over the Pool.
V1 and over 17,000 other Yeerks are flushed into space.

I know... this removes the trial scene. The Animorphs'll be partially reunited in some other way.

Also, I'd like the final scene to be a bit different. I like the idea of the characters (including Cassie) coming together one last time, albeit in their final act. But let's remove The One from the picture and simply have the Blade Ship be full of the last Controllers.

Last thing: it'd be interesting/depressing to have the Yeerks discover the Pemalite crystal and reprogram the Chee to be jerk-faces. Thoughts?

[Chad32]

I wouldn't have made it a downer ending, introducing a new threat just so most of the surviving Animorphs could go off on a suicidal mission. It wouldn't hav been all parties and rainbows. It would have taken time to heal. They would have healed, though. Marco's ending would be almost the same, except he'd take proper vacations instead of morphing lobster in a pool. Cassie would become a zoologist, using morphing power to be in tune with animals. Jake would join the military. Rachel may become a cop, or get into extreme sports. Tobias would become Human, move in with his mom, and become a pilot so he can still fly.

Rachel, Tom, and the Auxilaries would live, because if you've established for 50+ books that sympathetic named characters don't die, you don't throw it out in the last book or two. Toby takes her people to her homeworld to take it back.

The war has a lasting effect on people, but they get through it over the years. One of the themes in the early books in "hope", after all. It's a war story, but it's also a kids series. You think The Land Before Time and secret of NIMH would be the classics they are if Little Foot's group got eaten and Frisby and her kids drowned in mud? I doubt it.

[YeerkSalad]

I have a little bit of a different view. I think that named characters should be "allowed" to die. Otherwise, I like your ideas!

[Chad32]

I have a little bit of a different view. I think that named characters should be "allowed" to die. Otherwise, I like your ideas!

That is something you should establish early. I don't mind if characters die. song of Ice and fire is a good book series, and it doesn't really have protagonists, or main characters. It has POV characters that haven't died yet. You're either going to let people die from time to time, or you're going to make sure everyone lives. You don't get to the last book and start killing three long running characters, and a whole group of new guys. It does not make your series more realistic, especially when later you decide somehow a 2-3 year old alien gets to have a seat on the US Congress!

[YeerkSalad]

I agree that Applegate should have killed off more characters earlier.

Personally, I am pretty anti-happy ending when it comes to what to change for the last Animorphs book. If there were a happy ending for Animorphs, I'd wonder if the authors were patronizing and mocking their audience, especially since the entirety of the series was all about not talking down to its demographic and being realistic about war, even in a sci-fi setting. There just aren't happy endings in war. Even if all the remaining Animorphs recovered, they're never going to be the same. Bittersweet maybe, but not happy.

That said, I don't want a super depressing downer-ending either! I disagree with the majority of fandom calling it a downer-ending, especially since so many things in the last book and within the series itself point to them surviving. I like the open-endedness of the last book, I don't think I'd change that. I've seen some fans like it being open-ended because they like the idea of a downer-ending. Having it open-ended, in my opinion, is a good idea in general because I've probably read nearly every post-book 54 fic out there and people have come up with some pretty creative ideas for what happens next or what the One even is. (I have my own theories, too.)

What I would change about the book is ditch the chapters that are nothing but summaries and flesh the end out some more. I had trouble processing so much of what happened because it was written like, "This happened and then this happened and then we did this," which is too disconnected and jumbled for me.
We never got to know the new characters that they spent a year or so with in space, never got any chapters in their POV either. Not having a chance to get to know them, it's easy to see why the audience would be bitter about half of the original Animorphs being gone and think of the new characters as nothing but Rachel, Cassie, and Ax expies. I even thought it was really disappointing to have them come in out of nowhere at the very end. Not getting to know them makes it hard to care whether they live or not, because they're not the Animorphs we've known and loved for years. I would keep them but flesh them out, give people a chance to like or dislike them.
I do also agree that at least some of the Auxiliaries should have lived. Not just using disabled children as canon fodder but also killing them all off, from a writing stand point, is quite messed up to me as a disabled person! And then to never mention them again afterwards? What the heck.
Lastly, I think I wouldn't have given any hints about the One at all if I were K.A.A. When she shot down the theory that it had something to do with Father or whatever it was that had shown up briefly after Jake's future dream, it got rid of some cool theories and was quite a disappointment.

THIS. THIS. THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS. THIIIIIIIIIISSSSSS.

[Chad32]

I doubt very few wanted a clear happy ending, and it's not definite that Jake's group actually died, but the ending is extremely bitter with very little sweet. Some of which went bitter, because Marco left the good life to possibly die in space. Any hints in the earlier books that they may survive ramming the bladeship went out the window when rachel and Tom died. Established rule about character death gone.

That's usually what people point to when someone complains about the ending. accusing them of wanting a flowers and rainbows happy ending, and then we have to explain that no, we don't want it going way to the other extreme either.

I mean, name me one historical guerrilla group that fougth for years, never suffering casualties, up until the last battle. I bet their aren't any, and talking about realism at the very end doesn't make much sense.

[Phoenix004]

Let's say that Jake hasn't flushed the Pool into space yet - they entered from a different direction. Also, let's say that there are some escape pods near the Pool. (Do you see where I'm going with this?) The Animorphs become pretty distracted with Rachel's death and all, and V decides that the Blade Ship is screwed. At the bare minimum, this coward wants to survive. He attempts to get to the Pool's pods while the characters are getting the feels. Ax leaves them to it and chases the visser to the Pool. Marco gets an idea and follows them. Cue epic Andalite fight scene. Eventually, after a large dose of awesome, V1 is knocked into the Yeerk Pool.
V1 is now in the perfect spot for what Marco needed.
He presses a button.
A shieldy airlock thing closes over the Pool.
V1 and over 17,000 other Yeerks are flushed into space.

I know... this removes the trial scene. The Animorphs'll be partially reunited in some other way.

Also, I'd like the final scene to be a bit different. I like the idea of the characters (including Cassie) coming together one last time, albeit in their final act. But let's remove The One from the picture and simply have the Blade Ship be full of the last Controllers.

I still feel like Jake had to be the one to flush the Yeerks, but aside from that I like your version. It has the downside of not freeing Alloran but a proper tail blade showdown between Ax and Visser 3 would have been awesome. It wouldn't have eliminated the need for the trial, but it would certainly have given them more of a just cause for doing it.

I also prefer the idea of ditching the One and having them end it instead with a final confrontation with the surviving Controllers aboard the Blade Ship. The Animorphs still get to go down fighting, but without the unexplained mystery of a brand new enemy coming out of nowhere and driving the readers nuts.

I used to hate the evil cliffhanger ending, but aside from the frustration of not knowing who the One is, I don't mind it as much now. Partly because, in my opinion, most post #54 fics or alternate ending fics just aren't that great (no offense intended). A lot of them have some form of happy ending where everything somehow works out, which to me is unrealistic and quite frankly boring.

I do wish that the ending had been less rushed though. #54 should have stretched out the final battle and ended with Earth's victory, then they could have written #55 as a more fully fleshed out post-war story. So much potential and unanswered questions had should have been developed more in the post-war years.

They could have explored how society reacted and changed in the face of alien encounters, or shown us more of how Earth's military has been utilising the morphing technology. How about going more in-depth on which stories the Animorphs did or didn't share with the rest of the world? Did they tell anyone about the Chee or Ellimist/Crayak? That would upset a lot of religious groups (or create new ones). And forget about the Visser One trial with Jake and the others, what about the numerous other cases which could easily be brought against the Animorphs? Justified or not, they did recruit a bunch of handicaped kids to fight an alien invasion and got them all killed in the process. Pretty sure that's just cause for an interrogation at least.

[Chad32]

I don't see much unethical against using handicapped people. They needed to recruit people that Yeerks would overlook, and they wouldn't be able to control adults as well as people more their age. Getting them all killed was just because KA decided they should all get killed.

[Dylan]

I agree that Applegate should have killed off more characters earlier.

Killing off any of the animorphs is only something that could have happened in the end.

Ellimist/Crayak? That would upset a lot of religious groups (or create new ones).

Here's an interesting cliffhanger ending idea. The Crayak has started a cult which will lead the world into an apocalypse, and the remaining Animorphs must stop him. I feel like this is a bit more connected to the series, but it still provides the "War doesn't end" theme.

[Chad32]

No, killing off animorphs could have happened early. Just let them keep the box from the start, do some recruiting here and there with people they can trust, and every few books one or two members die. If you want something approaching realism. After three years of survival, killing off people at the end doesn't make it more realistic. What's realistic about that?

[Dylan]

No, killing off animorphs could have happened early. Just let them keep the box from the start, do some recruiting here and there with people they can trust, and every few books one or two members die. If you want something approaching realism. After three years of survival, killing off people at the end doesn't make it more realistic. What's realistic about that?

I wouldn't really kill off animorphs untill atleast book 53. By the way your saying it all the original 6 animorphs would have bitten the dust by book 10, which sounds horrible. You can't really get attached to any of the characters due to the fact that the characters are dying every 2 two books. And if characters were coming and going that quickly, they wouldn't really be all that developed. You can't get much out of the characters if their arcs last 3 145 page books total.

[Chad32]

It is a risk you take when you kill off an interesting character, but it also leaves room for new interesting characters. I just think you either do it that way, or you don't do it. I'm certain people like Ned Stark too, but at least when he died it set the pace for the rest of the series. Rachel and Tom's deaths, and in a way especially Jara's, was just jarring. A cheap tear jerker to make an obvious statement that death happens in war. Yeah, we know that. Did you really have to shoot established fundamentals in the foot just to be captain obvious?

[YeerkSalad]

I don't think that character deaths should be SUPER frequent. You know the TV series Primeval? It's a British sci-fi drama with a lot of cast changes. By the final season (as of 2011; the show might return), only about [spoiler]3[/spoiler] of the original cast members remain. But this was over the course of 36 episodes, and some characters didn't die - they just couldn't take it and left.
Anyway, I'd like cast changes, but a few characters should stay throughout.
Rachel: Dead
Jake: Alive
Cassie: Leaves - #19 gets rid of the loophole
Tobias: Alive
Marco: Dead - shot by dracon beam as he kills Edriss.
Aximili: Condition unknown - captured by Controllers instead of taken by The One
Melissa: Alive
Auxillary Animorphs: Some alive, some dead

I still think it'd be interesting to have the Yeerks find the Pemalite crystal and use the Chee in the last few stories to cause delicious destruction. Erek is the last "regular" Chee, and he screws things up like he did in 53-54.

[Dylan]

I disagree with leaving Cassie as a butterfly, I don't really feel like that would give her character justice. Doesn't it make more since if Jake dies than Marco or Rachel. He's the leader, and it could be a leader's sacrifice.

[Phoenix004]

I don't see much unethical against using handicapped people. They needed to recruit people that Yeerks would overlook, and they wouldn't be able to control adults as well as people more their age. Getting them all killed was just because KA decided they should all get killed.

I'm not saying I'm against them recruting the Auxiliary Animorphs, it was a necessary tactical decision. But do you seriously think that after the war it wouldn't have got them in trouble? Maybe it wouldn't have gone as far as an actual trial (crap happens in war and they had just saved the world and all) but it's still something I think deserved mentioning.