Favorite Animorph

[Serraph105]

Tobias for me. It was some mix of him being a hawk, being free/trapped, and being truly tragic all at the same time that made him by far the most interesting character for me.

[Natureboy3]

Tobias is #1. No contest. 

[niknik]

Marco was my favourite when I was younger, although lately I find myself enjoying Ax’s books most… I chuckle right the way through

so, again, i get back to whether marco couldn't have taken jake's place easily. they can both make those logical decisions... and i think marco could have intelligently factored in emotions the way i suspect jake did, when planning theoretical missions.

so... blah-dy blah-dy blah. just some personal musing.

i think he could have, though it wouldn't have been as effective. everyone misses things, and i think marco acting as jakes "sanity check" was most effective. i think after the first couple books he was motivated enough to stay in the war and lead. but every commander needs an XO that will make sure he doesn't miss anything, i thought they worked very well together. i guess long story short, if jake up and died, yes marco could have made it work, but if jake was still around, i think their current relationship was the most efficient and beneficial

Jake will always be the best leader full.stop. 

While I agree that Marco would have been the best choice for leader after Jake, I just don't think the other ani's would have taken him seriously enough to follow him in the same manner they followed Jake - Rachel especially...  hell, I don't think even Marco would have taken himself seriously enough most of the time; and as they always point out through the series, the ani's feel they need a leader who either: never secondguesses themself, or never lets on that they're secondguessing themself – something Marco just wouldn't be able to hide

If Jake were lost towards the last dozen or so books in the series, I think that the remaining ani’s would be unable to co-ordinate (or restrain?) Rachel in their missions.  Therefore, Rachel decides to kick butt on the Yeerks her own way, with or without the other ani’s.  We know Tobias will always choose to go with her, and seeing as Ax is bound by honour to kill V3 then he would more than likely join Rachel, too.  So we have a team of three to continue the fight, without a leader but inevitably doing it Rachel’s way.

Marco I’m unsure of; he would either follow (very peed off) to be the brains, make sure they weren’t killed and to (try to) temper Rachel’s bloodlust; or, as was earlier suggested, hide in the mountains with his parents.  I also don’t know what Cassie would do – would she use losing Jake as her final “out”, or would she continue the fight in his memory?  Hmmm

[itw2009]

haha.... that's a lot of speculation. ^^ i guess, to add: i think that cassie, like marco, would still be able to use family as a reason to fight. if you've lost one person close to you, don't you fight all the harder to keep what you've got left?

but i agree with you- marco would end up second-guessing himself. he's pretty analytical that way. ^^; and you definitely can't underestimate the power of good relationships between the leader and his posse. xD

[g33kgirl]

Rachel because she was most like me LoL!  I thought her death was poetic and very well written.

Marco and Ax are a close 2nd- Marco cuz I liked his ability to keep the humour in the face of war and Ax because it was cool seeing an alien's POV on the humans as a race.

I thought it was good watchimg Jake's leadrership go form black and white to falling between shades of grey.

Cassie was least favourite.

[A ghost you know]

Close one for me.

I ended up going with Rachel because I had no trouble identifying with her. From her slowly-growing battlelust, to her no-nonsense "let's do it!" attitude, to her comment that "being brave isn't about not feeling fear, it's about being scared to death and still not giving in", to the way she died (<You have fought well, human>), I knew we were alike. (Yes, if you're wondering, Rachel is the inspiration for my username)
The only two differences we really have are #1 my gender and #2 my "beauty" - I'm not attractive, and like it that way.

Jake takes a close #2, I think. I really saw and felt him growing older and older as the series went on; some of those decisions really had to hurt him, especially his last (sending Rachel to her death). I perfectly understood his "old souls" comments.

Tobias comes in at #3.

Ax is #4; he was quite an interesting study. On the one hand, he's got to do what his people - the Andalites - want; on the other hand, especially later in the series, his bonds with the Animorphs really tightened. I found some of his decisions and internal struggles to be less than commendable, but he always knew exactly what he was doing.

Marco is #5. He cracked me up, but I didn't like his attitude of laughing it off. You can't just do that with life...

Cassie is #6. I can sympathize with her moral concerns, but they were really, really inconsistent. (To be fair, that wasn't just Cassie; it was like all of the Animorphs started losing everything but their goal of winning the war by two-thirds of the way through the series, and had nearly lost everything but their goal of winning by the end of the series. Probably typical human behavior.)

[ellie]

Marco has always been my fav (as many of you know). I liked his Hamlet complex and how he just laughed everything off. I cant stand people who take life too seriously, and the problem with those people is that when something serious does happen to them no one takes them seriously because they're always so serious. Life is meant to be fun, not depressing. I also have a thing for funny, sarcastic, cute guys. (I still have the biggest crush on him!!!!)

Anyway, I have never liked Tobias although as an adult I can read his books without rolling my eyes as much. Tobias annoyed me with his "oh I have no family so Im gona live as a bird even though I could morph to human and hang out with my friends." He was just kind of boring and didnt really say much unless if it was important or if he was asked. Although towards the end of the series I do like how he became more confident and more sociable.

I use to love Cassie as a kid (shes why I became a vege) but as an adult I find her rather immature and inconsiderate.

Jake I never really liked either, he was too serious. Reminded me of someones dad. Not cool.



So my favourite goes Marco x's 100 ---> Ax-----> Rachel ----> Jake -----> Cassie ----> Tobias
Yay Animorphs

[Aluminator (Kit)]

I love them all so much. I picked Rachel as my favorite, but asking me to actually order them the way the rest of you have been... yeah, it's just not going to happen. My thoughts here have been rearranged into the order in which they first narrated their books-

As a kid reading the series, I never found Jake remarkably interesting. He spent most of his narratives wondering about his decisions, and to me, leading has always been something you just do, more than something you overthink. Reading the series now, I really appreciate him a lot more, though. I feel his strength and the confidence he gave the team got them through more situations than I can count, and I have more interest in his thought process than I used to. His interest in the military that seems to have been nurtured by the war is something I always thought was kinda cool, and wish they would have commented on just a few more times throughout the series.

I absolutely love Rachel during the first half or so of the series. She's brave, and increasingly ruthless and reckless, but still very intelligent with a great sense of humor (a lot of my favorite conversations in the series consist of the early-books banter between her and Marco- she's awesomely witty). During the later half of the series, her character got so messed up and so smashed down to one dimension, I can't honestly say I liked her much anymore... sad day, but I feel like Rachel's "Rachel" got lost in the mix somewhere.

I always liked Tobias, and he never really came across as super-whiny to me. I dunno. I guess I could sympathize with his angstyness to a certain degree, but there's more to his personality, and honestly, I really liked him for the most part. He had a few moments that really bugged me (falling to the ground and freaking out for like an hour mid-battle when he realized his cousin was Visser 3 in disguise) but I admired his ability to keep fighting and keep moving forward through all the **** the series threw his way. Is some sympathy for his angst a requirement for liking his character, maybe?

When I've read the series, I've never really seen any reason to dislike Cassie. I never really liked her all that much as a kid, but now, I admire her bravery and willingness to always, always stand up for what she believed was right. That's not a remarkably easy thing to do. I can see why a lot of people don't like her, but to me, she was a wonderful contrast to... basically all the others in that regard. It does really bug me, however, that she decided in book 9 that she was willing to do what she had to in order to defeat the Yeerks, and yet her moral dilemmas continue after that as if it'd never happened- she never even thinks about it again. It may be people like Marco and Rachel who win wars, but there can't be peace without a few Cassies around.

Marco's an incredible character to me. He's complex and emotionally very deep, but at the same time, he hides it well, and he's always looking at things logically to try to figure out how to win. I'm a lot like all the Animorphs in certain ways, but I'm probably closest in personality to Marco, not least of all because of his sense of humor and his outlook that it's better to laugh than cry. I really respect his strategic mind, and how well he held it together throughout the war. I think his sense of humor got a bit screwed up in some of the ghostwritten books, though.

Ax was always my favorite as a kid. I think I just liked seeing someone almost as socially awkward as I was. Plus, y'know... aliens are cool! These days, reading through the series, I got a bit sick of the fact that every single one of his narratives seemed to deal with his loyalty to the Animorphs. Like Cassie's reason for fighting, it seems like it's just a string that he never gets ahold of in spite of multiple narratives about it. If he'd actually learned a lesson and maybe developed a little as a character, he'd have been more interesting to me. Still watching him struggle with human culture was always a joy, and the stories about what he was like back at the academy ("I wasn't paying attention that day... and there was this female...") never fail to make me smile. I really wish we'd gotten more information on him throughout the series.

Too much? I likes my Animorphs...

[itw2009]

i'll be the first to admit it: i didn't read the whole page of prose, there, buddy.

the one thing that i might be overthinking but will still bring up for its potential validity is cassie's progression....

part of it was the ghostwriter's general tendency to, as you sort of put it, smash 3D characters into 1D lines... but i think that cassie's logical, psychological development was lost on some of the readers because the development was implied and not stated outright. i.e., originally, she saw things as more of an undefined yet b&w cloud of "i haven't experienced this, but here is what i kindasorta think i feel about 'x' situation". once she really got caught up in the war, she was forced to solidify her position on issues that she'd had no business reasonably judging to begin with. so it looks like she's hypocritical but really, imho, she's just getting better at understanding herself, her context, and her morals. people change- that doesn't make us all hypocrites. and ESPECIALLY at that age... i think we do a lot of changing.

iow, i don't believe that cassie acts on a contradictory moral set, and i don't think that katmike intended it that way and i don't think that cassie feels that way about it, either. anyhoo, i only really bring this up because several people have said similar things previously.


on a slightly different note, i think that there is a level of emotional complexity in characters that the audience CAN understand, and then deeper levels of emotional complexity that, when unexplained (spelled out), make a character seem "vague" and "undeveloped".

joss whedon's characters? the guy is a MASTER at making characters only so developed. similarly with rachel and marco- i think they're "deep"... but not as deep as cassie or tobias. i think that cassie and tobias spend so much time in self-reflection that they naturally are the "deepest" and most complex of the group.

imho, i felt that katmike could have done a little more with ax' character... all of the important "development", imho, was done in ghostwritten books and then forgotten. and then... well, what was up with jake? i felt he was the most 2d of ALL of the characters. D:

[JohnBlaze]

In order....

1. Rachel: her narratives were outstanding, like the whole problem with being a psychotic war junkie, and the way she was at the end...superb.

2. Marco: He was funny, and easier to relate to as far as males go, plus I agree with his methods.
3. Jake: He reminds me of myself when i'm getting upset, low talking, lol.
4. Tobias: His narratives were just great in general
5. Ax: When he was with Marco, it was always comical...otherwise, didnt care too much.
6. Cassie: I never really agreed with her morals, but I still liked her overall.

[AbstractIndigo]

I like all the major characters, but some significantly more than others.


1. Rachel

My favourite character. Brave, witty, and intelligent, she - like Marco - has the ability to do what has to be done.

My own interpretation of her wasn't some psychotic maniac as later ghostwritten books made her out to be, but simply someone who allowed them to become immersed and addicted to the adrenaline rush as a means of coping with the stress placed upon her. The unpleasant realisation of this and her coming to terms with this aspect of her character is also something I think many of us can identify with.

2. Marco

A close second with Rachel, Marco is likewise an intelligent character who thinks actions through logically. Like Rachel, he is willing to do what has to be done. Whilst I share a different sense of humour to Marco - more akin to Rachel's - I can probably identify most closely with him.

3. Tobias

Probably the most introspective character in the series, I found his narrations to be interesting.

4. Ax

Some of his comments and interactions earlier on in the series are hilarious, though his character loses quite a lot of depth (outside of his narrations) because he often sides with Jake without voicing his own opinion.

5. Jake

I like Jake as a character and can empathise with the difficulties of leadership, but I generally felt his character became somewhat one-dimensional towards the end (though one could argue this was partly due to the ghostwriters skewing the characters).

6. Cassie

Simply at times her moralizing is exceptionally irritating, and she's one of the most hypocritical characters in the series, which is superbly pointed out by Marco at one point.

My reaction can be summarised by the excellent quote "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing". Unfortunately Cassie with her childish idealism and self-indulgence in many cases is a direct hindrance to the characters doing what has to be done.

That's not to say some of her moral concerns are baseless, far from it. Just that sometimes you do need to do horrible things to prevent a greater evil from occurring. And it's also very easy to sit back and take the moral high ground when someone else has made the tough decisions, and because they took those tough decisions you actually enjoy the luxury of being able to sit back and judge the decision in the first place.

I also find her actions come extremely close to breaking my suspension of disbelief because she repeatedly survives what can be described as truly insane tactical decisions (giving up her life to save a single girl, surviving a decision which would have a 99.999% of getting everyone else killed). Compare that to the dangers other characters place themselves in danger via important and tactically useful missions.

[Ferahgo]

Over my many years of reading and rereading this series endlessly, I've got to say that my favorite characters have changed a lot. When I was an introverted, nerdy middle schooler, my favorites were Tobias and Ax. As I grew into a more aggressive and dominant personality, my favorite became Rachel and Jake. I've always appreciated Marco for his intelligence and strategic mind as well. I have no idea currently who my favorite character is - possibly Ax or Rachel.

The only Animorph who I have consistently disliked over the years is Cassie, for many of the reasons already mentioned above.

I definitely thought she was very important to the overarching plot of the series, and wouldn't have preferred the series without her, but I've never had so many instances of wanting to reach through the paper and wring a protagonist's neck before.

[donut]

(a quick disclaimer, I stopped reading the series in the upper 30s 10 years ago, started rereading them and am somewhere in the 20s so I don't have a perspective on the later parts of the series)

Tobias



Except for his homelife (and being a hawk) he's pretty much exactly like me.

10 years ago 2nd was marco, now it's a tie bw jake and marco

I've got marco's sense of humor, ruthlessness, and incredibly bad luck with women
but now I've experience first hand what it's like to be a leader, and I can tell you, almost everything that Jake went through, and felt, I have too at some point.  Never been in combat, but I have done plenty of STX and that weird and scary moment, when a decision has to be made, even though you have absolutely no idea what to do, and you have to act completely confident in it, even though you have no confidence at all, that's a very strange feeling and one of the most important jobs of a leader.  I think it was captured pretty well in the books.

I'm not really sure what order the last three are though, the order changes too much for me to really place them.

[crystalclear]

Too bad you can't change your vote. When I read the first 30 books Jake was my favorite, but that was like 5-6 years ago. Now I've just finished the series and I must say I like Marco I still like Jake, but he's number 2 now

[Enki]

Ax is my absolute favorite. After that it's Tobias, Jake, Cassie, Marco, then Rachel. I'm more or less ambivalent about Marco, but I have to say I genuinely dislike Rachel. I HATED David. I really wished someone would have punched him right in his rotten little mouth.