Animorphs and religion

[Chad32]

I do agree, Hylian Dan. Religion can seem much like The Sharing. Sometimes it strengthens people, but sometimes it controls them. That's part of the reason I left the church. It just didn't seem to fill any voids that I felt needed filling, and over the years I found the bad parts of it.

[Coal Kropotkin]

to be honest i noticed the lack of religion early in the series, it wasn't until i read the elimist chronicles (right about book 10 is when i read it) that i saw the religious undertones.

i also noticed that the sharing reminded me something fierce of seven day adventist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh-day_Adventist_Church.

[Shock]

I do agree, Hylian Dan. Religion can seem much like The Sharing. Sometimes it strengthens people, but sometimes it controls them.

like communism!

[Chad32]

I'm actually in favor of the ideal of communism, though it hasn't been historically successful. Capitalism seems to be the most historically successful, though it also has flaws.

[Coal Kropotkin]

i know how you feel.
 personally i love the ideal of communism.
it just has a helluva lot of problems in practice V theory.

[Shock]

I'm actually in favor of the ideal of communism, though it hasn't been historically successful. Capitalism seems to be the most historically successful, though it also has flaws.

communism doesn't work simply because all the heads that make the decisions are all under one party and thus there is no other party to oppose them when they need to have a reality check.

[Aleron]

I know it's already been said once or twice, but it's easier to write a story for all audiences if you don't put God in it.  The series showed that some characters might have been religious (or at least came from religious backgrounds), which tells me topic was kind of unspoken yet implied (kind of like its romantic relations--just because makeout sessions weren't openly stated doesn't mean they didn't happen).  It might have been K.A.'s idea, or it might have been Scholastic's.  Either way, it worked.

[esplin]

I would like to learn about the different religions of the aliens.  The hork bajir had an interesting one.

[Terenia]

There was mention of a Leeran god as well. And I know the Andalites had religion and superstitions, long before their 'almighty technology'.


The Hive that the Taxxons prescribe to is almost like a religion.

[esplin]

I want KA to write like an encyclopedia with all that stuff expanded upon. 

[Aleron]

I want the character bible.  No sense in the author wanting you to write fan-fics if you don't have the tools to do it effectively.

[Dameg]

An encyclopedia would be great! Nobody made any? Nobody wanna make it?

[JFalcon]

I want the character bible.  No sense in the author wanting you to write fan-fics if you don't have the tools to do it effectively.

Well they might have felt like there wasn't a market for it, the last book got such a bad reaction. Besides look at D&D/FR and Star Wars, their source books range from thirty to fifty US dollars apiece, battletech sourcebooks ran at an average of thirty as well . . . those are just the ones I collected and therefore know about, and Animorphs easily has enough potential to encompass a small series of source books that would have been hard on my wallet as a poor middle-school kid, and it'd be impossible to find these days if they had released it.

Now if they released one now it'd be a different story, it might be cheaper at least, but so long after the fact I don't see it happening . . . unless the rumored movie had actually happened, then that might have created enough interest to see an EU and source books provided the movie didn't totally bite, which given the TV series isn't something I'd bet money on

An encyclopedia would be great! Nobody made any? Nobody wanna make it?

It'd be tricky to compile one without K.A.'s support, we could take information from the books but in some places it contradicts itself so . . . yeah. Be a fun project to try though, wouldn't it?

[Hylian Dan]

SPOILER WARNING

Whoa, I was just going skimming through book 54 and I noticed this line:

Terrorism had grown as a problem. Many of the worst were religious cults convinced that the presence of alien species on Earth was delaying a hoped-for Armageddon.

Book 54, as the ending, is closing the book on the overall story and its themes. So for that reason this line has extra resonance.

And right at the very end, there is this language:

Weird to see that wild, messianic glow in the eyes of a man you knew was really just a Yeerk slave. It was a disturbingly human expression.

Animorphs was filled with commentary about human nature. That line is the last direct comment on the subject.

And then there's the description of The One:

The face that filled the screen and more was a shifting image, a slow dissolve from what might be a robot's face, a machine with a rat-trap mouth and steel eyes, into a sweet, feminine, almost elfin visage...

The appearance of The One is a trap. One form is beautiful and alluring, another is terrifying. This reminds me of a scene from Everworld book 9 involving Senna, who uses religion as a tool. Senna appears to dwarves as a beautiful goddess, and the dwarves refer to her as the Lady. She convinces the dwarves to trust her, which they do, and then her group destroys the dwarves.

Jake stared back at the foul thing on the screen. I saw what he saw, and I felt as if my brain was shutting down. In that shifting alien face was every corruption, every evil, and such power that it seemed impossible it could be present in just the narrow confines of the onrushing Blade ship.

Remember the emphasis Animorphs placed on not letting your brain shut down.

It's a little chilling, and sad, how book 54 saw the rise of religion-inspired terrorism in the Animorphs universe, and four months later 9/11 occurred.

[voodooqueen126]

When 9/11 happened I imagined and hoped it was Yeerks, alas it was only Islamo fascists.
I have said this else where but:
In peace/easy times the need to belong to a group is a terrible weakness, people use drugs, become scientologists, moonies, communists and Nazis.
War/struggle this same urge is productive, people join Irgun and Lechi, their nation's army, freedom fighting organisations etc and organised religion
btw i saw the Sharing as more of an atttack on cults rather than organised religion.