The many unresolved "loose ends" of Animorphs...

[zaprowsdower]

Am I the only one who likes not knowing who the One is?

[DinosaurNothlit]

Hey, 41 was actually one of my favorites.  Why?  Because (unlike sooo many plots that just provide a stupid hand-wave at the end that 'oh, by the way, it was all a dream') I think this one was intended to be viewed as a dream from the start.  And it still manages to be a compelling story, even if it is just a dream.  I see it as very important and revealing character development for Jake.  The mere fact that his mind can compose such a bizarre and twisted horror-story shows how much he's been through, and hints that he's maybe starting to lose it.

I think the voice at the end was utterly and completely unnecessary.  I think the author was trying to avoid the 'it was all a dream' cliche, so they wanted to hint that it was something more than a dream, when, IMO, it didn't actually need to be anything more than that.  Who knows?  Maybe Jake just dreamed the voice, too.

I do, to some extent, appreciate the sense of mystery behind the One.  I just think he was introduced too late in the series for it to feel like a serious 'mystery.'  It just ends up feeling like something the author ran out of time to explain.

[Azguard]

maybe the voice was something K.A. was thinking about using later on but didn't? kinda like how she did that with Crayak in the beginning of the series.

[dolphin4077]

I liked #41 too, mostly because of the Tobias posing as Elfangor part.  Also I think 41 is one of those books that had a lot of wasted potential.  Jake had this huge relevation, and it no affect on the rest of series.   

[Chad32]

The One came totally out of left field, and was unnessecary to the plot. If she wanted to let us know that conflict never ends, then the terrorists fill that same role without giving us a bolivian army ending or introducing new big bads. No wonder many people file that under discontinuity.

[estrid]

ya the discontinuity was dumb, it was an unecessary filler book that just added to the lose ends. and I agree with the whole visser 3 thing. it never made sense how BOTH visser 1 and visser 3 were always seeming as if they were  both on probation with the council, yet somehow visser 1 was tried and convicted, and visser 3 was able to jump to visser 1? and what about visser 2?

[Chad32]

Visser two didn't seem bitter at all when he showed up in book 48. He was all for the new Visser One's plan. I guess that's another loose end. He didn't seem quite as bad as esplin. I mean, if Ax pulled Esplinn into a jet and said he was going to fire on the Yeerk Pool if he didn't surrender, Esplin would have said go ahead. Visser Two doesseem to care more than that for his people.

I don't know. It's confusing.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Here's something that's always really bothered me.  I never understood how the heck Visser Two wound up a visser at all, let alone such a low-numbered one.  Every other high-ranking Yeerk in the series is an arrogant, self-centered, and heavily ambitious jerk, and it is their ambition and arrogance that seems to allow them to ascend through the ranks.  In Yeerk world, you only are given what you are willing and able to take by force.

But Visser Two doesn't fit that profile at all.  He's a butt-kisser, who seems to care about everyone except himself.  How does such an altruistic (for a Yeerk) toady become a visser?  It sure didn't work for Chapman, and Chapman has been kissing V3's butt for far longer than Visser Two has.

EDIT:  And that was book 46, not 48.

[Chad32]

Oopsie, 46. Yeah it doesn't seem to fit, and was never explained. It would make more sense if V3 became V2, and V2 became V1. Though promoting V3 at all doesn't make a lot of sense.

[Azguard]

it does if V2 was a butt kisser.

Who knows, maybe V2 blackmailed his way up to Visser Two.
Or...someone else did it for him without him knowing.
Maybe there was internal Council politics involved.
Maybe it was a deal involving hosts or planets, or ships.
Maybe V2 was a former leader back in the old days when the Yeerks were still planetside, and they promoted him to V2 just out of respect and fear.
Maybe the former V1 (before marco's mom) was a mentor to V2 and pulled him up along the ranks.
Maybe V2 helped with the creation of the current Council of Thirteen and so was promoted.
Maybe he accidentally invented new technology that only he knew how to work.
Maybe V2 was a former Council of Thirteen member that was actually demoted to V2 for being too nice.

I don't know, but I could come up with a couple more.

[rachel91]

this is really farfetched but I think maybe *41 was foreshadowing for the end of the book where Jake's decision between the world and Cassie kinda showed which one was more important to him in the end. They didn't end up together, he fit all the pieces together alone, without anyone's advice and made no attempt to reconcile with her after the war.


Post Merged: June 14, 2011, 10:33:00 PMand also i think the voice at the end of 41 was THE ONE. maybe he had been watching jake and the rest and in the end, and eventually used this elaborate ruse to bring them about, whatever it was that happened.

and i dont think V2 was being too nice. most of the yeerks, their force, the central pool were based in the town. it seems disturbingly unlikely that an alien invasion would be centred on one town but im pretty sure thats how it is (i cld be wrong). destroying that one town would probably do more damage to the yeerks than to the humans

[Morilore]

it does if V2 was a butt kisser.

Who knows, maybe V2 blackmailed his way up to Visser Two.
Or...someone else did it for him without him knowing.
Maybe there was internal Council politics involved.
Maybe it was a deal involving hosts or planets, or ships.
Maybe V2 was a former leader back in the old days when the Yeerks were still planetside, and they promoted him to V2 just out of respect and fear.
Maybe the former V1 (before marco's mom) was a mentor to V2 and pulled him up along the ranks.
Maybe V2 helped with the creation of the current Council of Thirteen and so was promoted.
Maybe he accidentally invented new technology that only he knew how to work.
Maybe V2 was a former Council of Thirteen member that was actually demoted to V2 for being too nice.

I don't know, but I could come up with a couple more.

My idea is that Visser Two has no real authority or responsibility, and he was promoted to the rank in a very hamfisted attempt by the Council of Thirteen to promote patriotism and devotion as Yeerk virtues.

[Alan Fangor]

Oh, I hate unresolved ends in the book series...I'm too accurate in these cases, I want to know everything, even what happened to Joseph-Dont-know-what (or something like this) 

Ok, seriously, there are many unresolved questions. I voted for Jake's parents and Rachel's dad : what about them? They are dead, free.or?...and how did they react to the death of Tom and Rachel? And Dan? Has he ever tried to contact his family after they became fugitives? Has he ever known something about this? And after the war? What happened to Berensons brothers, as they both lost a child?

And there are other things like the fate of David. And Chapman and his family? Tidwell and the Yeerk peace movement? Some Andalites like Estrid and Gonrod and Prince Galuit? The Hork-Bajir planet? Visser Two? Loren? Nora Robbinette? The Chee? It's a very long list 

[MoppingBear]

Here's something that's always really bothered me.  I never understood how the heck Visser Two wound up a visser at all, let alone such a low-numbered one.  Every other high-ranking Yeerk in the series is an arrogant, self-centered, and heavily ambitious jerk, and it is their ambition and arrogance that seems to allow them to ascend through the ranks.  In Yeerk world, you only are given what you are willing and able to take by force.

But Visser Two doesn't fit that profile at all.  He's a butt-kisser, who seems to care about everyone except himself.  How does such an altruistic (for a Yeerk) toady become a visser?  It sure didn't work for Chapman, and Chapman has been kissing V3's butt for far longer than Visser Two has.

EDIT:  And that was book 46, not 48.

we dont see very many high ranking yeerks though.  visser 3 is on several occasions mentioned as being an anomaly.  most of the council of 13 seem to be of the firm but fair types.  visser 2 may well have gotten through the ranks by saving a large number of yeerks from certain death somehow.

[yunyun]

I so wish they put how tobias and ax and the other animorphs told Loren about Elfangor. That would have been so funny