I thoroughly enjoyed the way The Departure unfolded. Full of memmorable moments. And I LOVED ITS ENDING!!!
It is this ending that makes me not understand what K.A. is on about with the whole 'No happy endings in war' argument, but, anyways, this is the deepest meaninful Animorphs book I've read. There's just so much at play here!
The Departure becomes a big stepping stone in Cassie path through the series. Does anyone else feel reverberations of this story towards the series end?! Actually, even in Jake's narration I get this feeling. too.
It explores Cassie's complexity. In my mind Cassie is a superhero because of this story... I don't know many humans that could do what she does.
Cassie not only put her friends, but HER OWN LIFE, in front of her morals, of what she believed in. She jumped a ferocious leopard, in HUMAN FORM, to protect the enemy!!!! Any average human being would have done the rational. Neglected the little 'enemy' to die. It was the only safe solution. Much like with the solution Cassie herself found for the Animorph traitor, David.
But Cassie's intuit wouldn't let her. With it she found another way.
Cassie is a prime example of Irrational X Rational turning out to be good. She is to be admired. I am ashamed to say I would not have been capable of such feats. I certainly wouldn'have had the balls to become a 'caterpillar-nothlit'.
1) Does Cassie's decision to quit come as a surprise to you? She reasons that she is quitting to avoid becoming numb over the war. Do you think this is a good reason to quit? Or selfish?
...As for the deal, I thought it was a brilliant way to test both of their characters. But the more I think about it, does anyone else think it was a little weird Cassie was willing to make a huge sacrifice for an enemy but not for her friends....
What did surprise me, and I agree with
dolphin4077 above; the only bone I have to pick at Cassie in the story, is the feeling that she put her friends second to her morals... This book literally proves that her morals come before anything in her life. Even the life of her friends, even the freedom of Earth, etc... she carried herself like nothing can come before her morals here.
She was literally saving her sworn enemy instead of protecting her friends. But there was more to it than that, wasn't there?! The thing is that Cassie had Karen in the equation during the whole ordeal. Cassie lets Aftran into her, so she could save the innocent little child.
I don't think there was a good reason, and Cassie is anything but selfish. But a girl that was truly conflicted by what she was preaching and what she was doing.
Btw, anyone have any thoughts on Marco's role in this book? Why did KAA have him be the one that first finds Cassie? Personally, I thought he showed a lot of layers of character in this book.
I think, maybe, K.A. opted for Marco being the one to find Cassie because of their character contrasts. It only showed, that if Marco (who had given her a somewhat hard time early in the story and at this stage was on the way to becoming calculating and somewhat ruthless) had the capacity to accept Cassie's 'project' with the enemy here, there's no reason the others shouldn't.
In the end, both him AND Jake, along with the others had to make the same decision.
2) What do you think about the time Karen/Afran and Cassie spend together? What about the deal they make?
It was the classic 'disarm and convert the powerful enemy' plot, wasn't it? And yet, luckily, their deal had worked out so well. Aftran, in the end, turned out not to be like the other Yeerks, ruthless and thirsty for power. I think had Cassie come across, say, Tom's Yeerk that was in Jake's head, things would have been a 'little' different. In particular to where she let the Yeerk into herself.
I think later one Cassie would have flashed to this experience, of feeling the a Yeerk's giddy over being a bird. It makes me wonder, at what stage after getting the Blue Cube, would Cassie have seen the potential for a way out of this war.
2. I thought their interaction was great. It was really cool to see another side of the Yeerks, especially so soon after finding out not all Andalites are good guys...
Also, it is in this book that KA triggers our sympathy for the Yeerks.
The Yeerks, as twisted and evil, as I think they are, are still worthy of pity and 'sorry'.
In my view, Prince Seerow, and the Andalites of that time, did the Yeerk species a great deal of injustice (well-meant as it was, don't get me wrong) by showing them what they didn't and couldn't know. Only natural evolution should dictate whether a species is right and ready to conceive new wisdoms and different faculties. As it is, the Yeerks evolved sentient helpless, but perfectly fine and actually thriving in their Homeworld's pool. Infact, they had created their language of ultrasonic squeaks (or whatever) and governing system of the Council of Thirteen and so on. What's more, they were slugs with parasitic properties.
To them, and to any parasite, 'slavery' is a human concept, yes. And in their world, their planet gave them the circustances to infest different hosts and experience their world through different senses. The Gedds and whatever other creatures they infested would have been appropriated/adapted for their parasitic lifestyles.
These are all things of THEIR Homeworld. Much like we have parasitic life beings on our planet here. They aren't considered truly evil. It's the way Nature worked.
The minute these guys turned foot on the Andalites and spread throughout the galaxy, they became evil to me. AND cowards, because they began hiding behind bodies of innocent individuals; abandoning them when pain or imminent death reached their hosts.
They were craving for something regardless of the means.
3) Was it a good idea for the Animorphs to honor the deal Cassie and Aftran had? Or too risky?
Waaaaaaaay too risky!
Even with Aftran keeping her part of the deal, there really was NO GUARANTEE she could have omitted all the Animorphs secrets with the Yeerk technology she would have been subjected to in the Empire. She would have been interrogated by her sub-visser and what's more her host may also speak. It was a big risk! No questions about it!
4) Quotes to comment on:
Rachel had an expression I've almost never seen on her face: She was hurt.
"Rachel, we can still be --"
"No, we can't," she said, cutting me off. "See, you've just said the whole world can drop dead, so long as you, Cassie, don't have to end up turning into me."
This is Rachel getting offended by Cassie's indericted underlying message about her morals. And I could relate to her feeling abashed by Cassie's conduct, too. I don't think I could be best friends with someone who doesn't say it but secretly ultimately disapproves of my person. Rachel is literally the opposite of Cassie. Unlike Cassie, Rachel would have put her morals and safety before the safety of her friends on the line, any time, any day, and I say good on her!
<Maybe we'll lose, maybe we'll win," I [Jake] said. <But if we win and someday it's all over, you'd better hope there are still plenty of Cassies in the world. You'd better hope that not everyone has decided it's okay to do whatever it takes to win.>
Jake had more than his responsibility at stake here. But I don't think he fully understood, nor believed, what he was stating here. Had he believed a word he said here, he wouldn't have felt so jaded by what Cassie had pulled on him in The Ultimate.
'Life is sacred. Even the life of an Enemy.'
I have posted this quote on another thread, because it's something I truly took into my person from this series. It's the reason why Cassie is such an interesting complex character. I can't bring myself to hate anyone who, like Cassie, leads their life following this philosophy. EVEN inspite fighting a war.
5) Do you think Aftran's change of heart was portrayed realistically?
Hmmm... Hard to say. They didn't exactly become best of friends at the end, so I would say, yes.
