Animorphs with an older audience.

[Chad32]

It was a weak excuse and a contrived death, in a series that's well established for the main characters always surviving.

By the way, what was her excuse for getting Ax assimilated? What was accomplished by that, that couldn't be accomplished by the terrorists? The terrorists were continuing conflict, and I know Rachel would get in on that.

You want to give the message that what amounts to a true warrior can't cope in peacetime, but then you want to give the message that there will always be some conflict. But the warrior that likes to fight still has to die, even though peacetime won't last for very long. To me, it turns into a broken aesop.

[voodooqueen126]

The death of every animorph but Cassie was basically death by theme.

[Chad32]

I've never read about death by theme. How does that work?

[voodooqueen126]

I guess i sort of thought of it then... I guess I mean that Rachel died of the books moral mesage or theme (that war,  even the most just war like a war against brain slugs who want to enslave humanity is wrong/awful and that people who enjoy this couldn't function in normal society)

[Chad32]

That makes her death even worse than before. Rachel died due to the author's personal views and agenda. I know some people say authors that listen too much to fans are selling out to the fanbase, and that she was trying to teach stuff, but is it really right to push your personal views on the fans like that?

[voodooqueen126]

Not necessarily bad too have a theme…I happen to disagree with KA Applegates theme… but without a theme stories become pointless

[animefanboy]

I was kinda annoyed when she said wars don't end joyfully. My response to that would be: What about the end of World War II? You know, there is a famous painting about that, shows a navy sailor kissing a nurse? That seems pretty happy to me.

[Chad32]

Yeah. One of those wars didn't start a baby boom for nothing. We used it to get ourselves out of a recession, then we put an end to it. It was awesome.

Someone once said that there's no such thing as a good war, or a bad peace. However, it's not good to talk in absolutes.

[animefanboy]

Exactly, there are always shades of gray. If it wasn't for the war, America would have found it much harder to get out of the Depression.
She could have said that end of war can also be sad, remembering the fallen or whatever, but to say that the side that wins does no celebrating at all is absurd. Also, she backed it up by saying life isn't a wrestling match or whatever, I doubt anyone thought of comparing war to that. Anyways, she was trying to prove a point, however, I don't think it was worth it.

[voodooqueen126]

having said that, it would be ridiculous if in 3 years fighting an alien invasion, that nobody died.

[Venus]

Yeah that's a good point, but it's just as ridiculous to make it right up until the end before having a death.

[voodooqueen126]

Which is why as i said a few other times:
a cell system recruiting many people with a high death rate would be more realistic. In real life, the series may have started with Jake and co, but probably ended with a completely different set of people with perhaps one survivor.
for instance in the vietnam, death rates were so high  that if went like this: Lee, Tuan and Nguyen (the only vietnamesish names i know i couldn't bring myself to say alice, bob and carol) join the vietcong, Lee dies and is replaced by Hua, Tuan dies and is replaced by Luu, Lee dies and is replaced by Cam, Nguyen dies and is replaced by Bian, Hua dies and is replaced by Thuong, Luu dies and is replaced by Ton, Cam dies and is replaced by Phan, Bian dies and is replaced by Duong... etc etc etc until by the end of it the people who knew Lee (and knew where Lee was buried more importantly) have long since died and the people who knew them have also long since died, so that the final team would have or knowing nothing in common with the originals.
Depressing isn't if you applied this to the animorphs.

[Chad32]

It's not rediculous for everyone to survive if you have a super cosmic being out there making sure there's always a way for you and your friends to survive.

And it's no less rediculous for everyone to survive for three years, then have someone die in the very last battle.

I've said before that if people died from time to time (not every book, but scattered around), then it would be realistic, and it would be fine. But not this.

[animefanboy]

Exactly, I mean come on, they are not the Teen Titans, (the superhero team with the highest death rate). I can understand almost why Rachel died, but...other then that, it doesn't make much sense. Except that Tobias is the universe's whipping boy.  :'(

[Venus]

 Yeah he was, that poor boy was cursed. The list of reasons he had to kill himself was so long that i was honestly surprised that he was still alive when Jake went to look for him for that final mission.