Gee, I think what really happened is KA hated Animorphs all along. The cruel irony of it being a consistent best seller haunted her day and night. She probably hated every stupid brat that kept buying her books every month and decided to ruin their lives by trashing her series. That's because she's a really nasty selfish hack of a writer, right?
The attacks on KA here are getting a little ridiculous.
When, exactly, did KA start to care about being realistic? NOTHING about Animorphs is realistic, that was half of the fun.
Book one? When the first mission failed spectacularly. When Cassie told the others the policeman who'd captured her would no longer be a problem. When Tobias became trapped in morph.
This was the tone KA set right from the start of the series. On top of that, all four Chronicles had dark, bleak endings. Foreshadowing, much?
Animorphs was not a fun happy fantasy story that took a completely unanticipated left turn into dark, bleak reality in the last book. If that's what you think, you were not paying attention. Dark, bleak reality was present throughout the series, always keeping the wild fantasy story grounded.
You dont think that it's a fantasy to picture that 6 kids would be able to stand up to an entire militant army that specialized in capture and had the best cloaking, technology, and overall experience around?
The fact that they even
lived through the first mission at all is a fantasy. You're right, I agree, Animorphs did have some very dark moments. All of the character's have suffered in some way (some more than others), but I just dont think the ending did it justice. Too many loose ends weren't tied up. Make a story end as depressing as you like, just at least make it a complete ending.
I'd be all for it if she re-wrote the book, didnt make any changes to the core story, but just added more detail and went a more in-depth to what happened to some of the others (Loren for example), and I'd have liked her to go deeper into Jake's psych. W
As for what you said about Rachel being the one who does all the dirty work, I agree, but that doesnt mean sacrificing yourself. Sorry, but I just cant believe that that was her complete goal (or anyone's for that matter).
Also, as for Tobias getting stuck as a nothlit in the first book contributing to the theme, I think the point gets mooted when a supernatural being not only gives him his powers back, but takes him back into time so that he can aquire himself.
Also, I feel I need to say, I dont hate KA as a person or as a write (obviously, considering I keep reading her material), it's just for some reason talking about Animorphs kind of brings out something in me (I guess because they were my childhood heroes growing up). I realize that what I say sometimes comes out very harsh, especially towards KA, and I'm sorry. I do need to work on that.
To her credit I have read Remnants (not a lot of it, only the first 2 books), and I will say that I did enjoy it and if there were more available I would probably finish it.