What would happen with jake and cassie at the end?

[Aldrea Hammee]

I would make a couple of changes to the ending.

I'm not going to get into the "whether or not Rachel should have died" debate, but personally, I have more of a problem with the way she died rather than the fact that she did die. KA chose to kill her off, and that's fine. And her death scene is one of the best written scenes in the whole series. However. Rachel's heroic death is completely cheapened by what Erek did, and if you're going to kill a main character off at the last minute, do NOT have it happen for nothing. Rachel's mission was to a) create a diversion so the Blade Ship could be taken out, and b) save Tom if possible. None of that happened, and I think it was an unecessary defeat. We get that war is hell, but everything doesn't have to turn out so dismally for everyone who fought. I wouldn't make it so Rachel lived, but I'd make it so she was at least able to carry out her final mission successfully. Tom's Yeerks kill her, but the Blade Ship gets taken out.

Secondly, I would get rid of The One completely. Could have been a cool character, if introduced before the last ten pages of the last book. The way it got introduced, though, is crap. You don't start a new storyline in the last third of the series' final book and then just leave everybody hanging. So, instead of Ax getting assimilated or whatever, I'd have some other threat pop up. Maybe a pocket of rogue Yeerks that escaped Earth somehow and are trying to enslave a new planet. Ax comes to Earth and enlists Jake and the others, besides Cassie, to help fight it. They name their ship The Rachel and take off into the sunset. Anis still go out fighting, humanity was saved, and there's at least a bittersweet feeling, instead of a depressing, unfinished one.

I would not have Cassie go with the Anis, because Jake made a good point. She DID move on from the war. She was a peacemaker, not a warrior. And I'd still have them split up. As others have said, I think Jake was scarred by the war, and he and Cassie grew apart, especially from #50 on. After Earth was saved, they wouldn't have the war in common anymore, and I don't think their relationship would've survived.

[Red]

I would make a couple of changes to the ending.
Secondly, I would get rid of The One completely. Could have been a cool character, if introduced before the last ten pages of the last book. The way it got introduced, though, is crap. You don't start a new storyline in the last third of the series' final book and then just leave everybody hanging. So, instead of Ax getting assimilated or whatever, I'd have some other threat pop up. Maybe a pocket of rogue Yeerks that escaped Earth somehow and are trying to enslave a new planet. Ax comes to Earth and enlists Jake and the others, besides Cassie, to help fight it. They name their ship The Rachel and take off into the sunset. Anis still go out fighting, humanity was saved, and there's at least a bittersweet feeling, instead of a depressing, unfinished one.

This. This is a good idea.

[Chad32]

I wouldn't have minded if they cut off before introducing a new villain, though I believe the terrorists would have done just fine without them going off planet or something. She introduced a new villain group, but didn't stick with it for some reason.

[Shenmue654]

To be honest...to suggest that war veterans or trauma survivors are going to be "fine with a little therapy" is kind of offensive to me somehow. It cheapens everything they did and made it through. Sure, you can become a more whole person through the efforts of sheer willpower and counseling. Some very strong people can even come out of it better than they once were, starting philanthropist organizations and whatnot.

But it always has an impact. There's this lingering fear even in the best of us, this part of the mind that now has to be prepared should it happen again. That cannot trust as easily, that carries old wounds that still hurt. I have never experienced anything close to the trauma the Animorphs went through, but I know this fear. Unless of course you repress it. You're better, but you're never really the same person again.

True, maybe there was a way to avoid Rachel's death. It was a slightly needless way for K.A. to show what war does to you. Maybe Jake didn't need to become a wreck and lose Cassie. But if it wasn't that, it would have been something else.

If the Animorphs had ended smiling saying, "Well until then, we fight."....like kids...I think I would've puked from the ignorant stupidity of it all. XD They lived through a war. There's gonna be some bittersweetness to it. Aldrea probably has my favorite interpretation so far. Speaks more to the power of their spirit.

 

 

[Chad32]

I wouldn't expect them to ever be the same again, but I would expect them to all be able to move on. Although Tobias was the only one who never really moved on with his life. Jake went through some bad times, but he was starting to get through it when he got a job. I mean, Jake had it worst as the leader, and if he could get through I don't see why Rachel wouldn't.

Maybe "bit" wasn't the proper word, but I have a friend who went through three years of war too. He's not going to be an emotional wreck for the rest of his days. Sure he has nightmares, but we all have nightmares.

[Shenmue654]

All of them? Really? Let's assume for a second that Rachel did make it out of this war and survived to Animorphs present day. But more important than that...let's play the odds.

There are five Animorphs, all of which have vastly different perceptions even at the onset of life and reality in general. I suppose Tobias counts, but he was warped already. Even assuming all of the Animorphs were "perfectly normal", at least one would get PTSD but be okay in the end and another would never recover. People are rather complicated, and not all of the Animorphs were strong people in any case.

I suppose most of them would move on with their lives, though still haunted by a lingering sense of mistrust. You're right on that. ((I still maintain that it would be very, very hard to get rid of this completely. It's like that mental flea that bites your ass saying you're worthless and nobody loves you, except weirder and worse. Though each person has a different response, some much more coherent than others. )) But all of them? Unlikely. Though Rachel shouldn'tve died. :3