Thoughts on the ending

[Chad32]

but...actually I'm not gonna say it for fear of debate starting...oh what the heck. but howlers are sentient creatures.

Are you talking about the rule of not morphing sentient creatures without permission? It's been broken before, I believe, and saving Tom without having someone wind up dead would justify morphing a Howler.

[morfowt]

I was replying to when you said it should've been jake instead of rachel on the blade ship in #54...

doesn't matter if it's been broken, it's still wrong. If there was no other way, sure, like in #21 or #46. there was no other choice. (well actually, that's not really true. there's always a choice, but you get my point)

[Chad32]

I was replying to when you said it should've been jake instead of rachel on the blade ship in #54...

doesn't matter if it's been broken, it's still wrong. If there was no other way, sure, like in #21 or #46. there was no other choice. (well actually, that's not really true. there's always a choice, but you get my point)

I'm actually not sure what you mean by that. I'm not trying to be stupid to stand by my point, though. I just don't quite understand that paragraph.

[morfowt]

Maybe it should have been Jake in Rachel's place. I'm assuming he still had the Howler morph. It wouldn't matter how many there were, or what they started morphing. Jake as a Howler would be able to grab Tom, wreck the bladeship's controls, and get them both out with minimal risk.

I was replying to this.

then I replied to this:

Are you talking about the rule of not morphing sentient creatures without permission? It's been broken before, I believe, and saving Tom without having someone wind up dead would justify morphing a Howler.

with this:

doesn't matter if it's been broken, it's still wrong. If there was no other way, sure, like in #21 or #46. there was no other choice. (well actually, that's not really true. there's always a choice, but you get my point)

[CounterInstinct]

From the start, the Animorphs have made this self-imposed rule(s):

1. Never morph Sentient creatures without permission.
2. Never write off an innocent life.
3. Fight the enemy, don't become them.

Although the Animorphs find it impractical to follow this rule, they still do, because they also believe that.
"We fight Yeerks, we don't become them".

Controlling other sentient beings' bodies is wrong. It is what a Yeerk would do.

Plus, Jake couldn't and wouldn't go... He was the one irreplaceable person to infiltrate the pool ship. He was the leader of the only Earth Resistance faction. Only he had the most influence to persuade the Andalites to give them the morphing cube. Plus, who would give orders in the battle inside the ship? Rachel? 

[Chad32]

In the end, it seems like they broke all three rules. Jake manipulated Eric, and killed 17,000 Yeerks. He also wrote off his own brother.

Someone else could have taken charge of the pool ship mission. Marco, perhaps. Or Ax. Jake was the only one with a morph that could take on a small army of morphers in the Blade Ship.

I always found the first rule kind of silly, anyway. The morph doesn't really have it's own thoughts, other than instincts. It's not like they morphed a sentient creature, and the creature started talking to them.

[morfowt]

*sigh*...this is why I didn't want to mention it. Because most fans really hate the no sentience rule.

[Duff]

But if jake had been the one then he would have had to explain the entire plan to the other animorphs so that they could follow it, including telling them all that he would be sacraficing himself, which they wouldnt allow. nobody knew what rachel was doing, because jake knew they would try to stop it

[Chad32]

Going to the Blade Ship to morph a howler wouldn't be sacrificing himself. It would be a solid and near foolproof way of getting Tom out without having to kill him, as well as disabling the Blade Ship.

She could have brought some Alternamorphs with her, or actually used the dracon guns in the room instead of morphing bear. There were a lot of ways she could have lived, but Applegate just had to kill her and Tom off. To give a more realistic ending to a fictitious war. In a book series where the main audience is kids and teenagers.

And then she says how shocked she is so many fans didn't like it? Well, duh! Didn't know her fans very well, after all, did she?

[morfowt]

I loved it...

brought some alternamorphs? alternamorphs were those choose-your-own-story animorphs books.

not if jake howled. If jake howled, he could very likely kill everyone on the blade ship.

[CounterInstinct]

Marco could lead? No way can he talk to the War-Prince that lead the Yeerk extermination on Earth seriously. I mean it. even if they won the battle, the Escafil device may not be shared and an Earth-Andalite peace movement whatever may not be established without Jake.

[Chad32]

I loved it...

brought some alternamorphs? alternamorphs were those choose-your-own-story animorphs books.

not if jake howled. If jake howled, he could very likely kill everyone on the blade ship.

There's more to Howlers than the howl. Besides, a short howl wouldn't kill anyone. Just a kind of concussion blast kind of thing. Sure, if he kept it up they would likely die. However, he'd use the howl at his discretion.

By alternamorphs, I meant to extra handicapped people that the Animorphs gave morphing power to. Auxilary Animorphs. That was the word I was thinking of.

[CounterInstinct]

Actually, a howler would not be able to do much damage without the Howl. They used Dracons/shredders/flechettes/whatever in the battle against the Animorphs, right? Sure, they would not be able to kill the Howler, but how would the Howler kill without a howl? or a weapon? Punch the Polar bear to death? Tire Tom's snake in continuous biting? 

[morfowt]

I wonder if howlers could be affected by the venom...

[CounterInstinct]

haha, i always assumed they were immune from any poison... After all, they are Crayak's personal shock troops.