Thoughts on the ending

[Starsword]

The ghostwriting kind of depresses me in that the series started out so strong. I wish that the authors just pushed and wrote them all. Yes, it would take some time, but if you've put this much time into something, do it well.

[Chad32]

One of the things that confuses me is the character changes. Did the characters change because that's how KA wanted it, or just because the ghostwriters didn't understand them well enough? Was it character development, or character derailment? I'd prefer to think of it as derailment.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterDerailment

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterDevelopment

[estrid]

i agree, i woulda been willing to wait for a book straight from KA. some of the filler books were just beyond ridiculous.

[Viss3r]

What books did you think were just ridiculous?  For me i wasn't a big fan of 28, 36 and 48 Were the ones that bumbed me out... But i never really thought and still don't think that after a point they got really bad... I do think that that instead of 44 they should of got the aux animorphs in because they were to short lived.

I liked the ending although Rachel was one of my Favourite characters... It just sucked with the massive cliff-hanger and nothing new at all for the what is it 8 years now? Because i don't think the Animorphs are dead.

Plus did anyone else get worked up in the letters to the fans where is says 5 megamorphs.

[Masterz1337]

I recently have re-read the entire series (thanks to the E-Book section of this site ), and it was even better than I remembered it. I started reading around book 7 when they were first being published, all the way till the end and I always really liked the final arc and ending.

Until reading the comments here, I had no idea there was so much hate for the final book, and Rachel's death. I thought the series had a perfect ending, with the active Animorphs launching one of their classic near suicidal attacks.

For me at least, Rachel's death was really what finally beat the Animorphs. The team fell apart, and had she not died, everyone would still be together. I loved how they could save the universe, but only at the cost of their own happiness. In a nutshell, I always felt KAA was trying to tell us that in war they could save everyone but themselves.

Does anyone feel the same as me on this? I'd also be interested in why some didn't like the ending, and what you thought the ideal ending should have been

[Alic]

i was only upset because they couldn't kill off someone else.
like cassie.

[Myitt]

Personally, I loved the ending, too. 

[Funky Poacher]

I liked the book a lot. I liked that Rachel died - it made sense. It would have also made sense to kill her a long time ago, concidering her penchant for being a crazy berserker, but concidering the missions and the fighting, anyone could have died. But leaving that until the last book really made it hit home. I also appreciate the way it was treated - I liked the last Rachel chapter, her unfinished thought. Maybe I don't mind that they killed her because she's probably my least favorite character, aside from Marco.

I liked the chapters that followed, and I really liked that Tobias' chapter wasn't until years after Rachel's death, which I've seen people grumble about. It left one to wonder, and fill that part in them selves. I think the reader can go to some pretty dark places for his character that might not have been appropriate for a "kid's book" (I use that loosely).

I guess the only thing I didn't like was... either it was a cliff-hanger, or that it ended with that book. I don't like the idea of Ax just being... what, nothing? What the hell is with that about? And I always wanted to see Tom be saved. On the other hand, I do like that with one swift blow both Jake's cousin and brother bit it - I don't know who hated Jake more, Applegate or Cryak.

Anyway, I don't hate the book. It's one of my favorites.

[goom]

i might've liked it if she had spread the book out more (like the chronicles/megamorphs).
it felt a bit rushed, jumping here and there.

rachel dying at the ending was upsetting, not just because of the obvious; i didn't like it how she kept them all alive JUST until the ending.
if they were going to die, they should have done it throughout the series.

welcome to the forum, by the way. make sure to post in the intro/departure section!
also, anybody mind if i merge this thread in here? (http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=2849.0)

[SuperBlue]

it wasn't the book that I hated per se, just the overall execution of the book. Like Goom said earlier it felt waaaaay rushed and if it were up to me, Rachel would have been the only ani who died and Tom would live long enough to have one of those heartfelt talks with his baby bro before bear rachel chomps down on him

[Gumby]

Exactly what Goom said. in about 150 pages or so, they went from Rachel dying, defeating the Yeerk Empire (how?) to establishing contact with Andalites, getting mega-rich, all getting super-famous, then the suddenly out of the blue pretty much started the whole series again, what with the Kelbrid, strange alien ship, The One and all. I hope the series is continued after the re-release this year.

[Chad32]

Before coming here I didn't know so many people would actually like the ending. Although most fans really hated it. I hated almost the entire thing, except that Marco and Ax got what they always wanted.

It left over a dozen or so loose ends dangling, they killed off a character for no good reason in a contrived way, left Tobias unhappy because somehow he deserves to be unhappy (seriously, KA said Tobias remained unhappy because that's just how it should be), we get a big cliffhanger just so she can show conflict never ends, which is BS. It was short, rushed, and wrong, and somehow people think the ending would either be this or the other extreme where everyone high fives each other and they all live happily ever after.

Judging from her own narrations, I don't believe Rachel was a psycho, so I do think she'd be able to cope. If you're going to kill people off, don't wait until the end to do it.

It reminds me of the James Patterson books I used to read that ticked me off because he'd kill someone off near the end just to have a bittersweet ending.

I'll never understand why people like the ending, but I guess I'm a little happy that some people are content with it. If you like the ending, good for you. I just don't.

[rebelxluck]

I liked 54 a lot. I liked the ending, and pretty much everything, although I do understand people's frustration with the jumping around and out-of-the-blue villain. The rushing around I attribute to the limited page count, and I think KAA covers the essentials and I don't mind filling in the blanks myself. The One, now, I'm not so sure about. I likehow it ends with Jake's order to ram the ship, and how they went off on this new adventure, and how it's open to interpretation. But The One, itself? Ehh.

I disagree that Rachel should have died sooner. As the books get progressively darker throughout the series, it makes sense for one of the protagonists to die in the end. Masterz1337 mentions the team falling apart after her death and the end of the war, and think about it, if Rachel died sooner, Tobias would have called it quits, and I'm not sure how Jake would have coped. I don't mind that she died for apparently no reason, either. She still fulfills her role as being the ruthless warrior in killing Tom--Jake couldn't have asked anyone else to do this--and hey, even the grandest plans go awry. I mean, it wouldn't be an Animorphs mission if something didn't go horribly wrong. As the Ellimist tells her, she still mattered.

I wouldn't have minded if Tom lived. Or maybe I'd have just been fine if we saw something from his perspective just once. I really want to know what he thought when he found out about Jake because the idea just warms my heart.

About Tobias being unhappy--I'm with KAA on this. I don't think Tobias has much of a will to be happy after Rachel's death--contentment with a simple existence, maybe, but happiness is a human thing, isn't it? And he doesn't want anything to do with human society after the war. So yes, in a sense, he deserves to be unhappy because he's making himself out to be. Jake is pretty much the same until he starts to get his **** together, and even then he's still obviously damaged (how much do I love his conversation with Marco about redeeming himself and Marco calling him on his issues? So much.)

[goom]

merging threads, both deal with (relatively) the same subject.

[estrid]

i was only upset because they couldn't kill off someone else.
like cassie.

i love you patty!