Author Topic: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.  (Read 37749 times)

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Offline Arbron

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #240 on: January 06, 2009, 10:06:47 PM »
still, it was a very bad ending. why rachel?

Offline Liz

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #241 on: January 06, 2009, 11:31:54 PM »
ok...can someone help me here? why is it that I did not feel one bit depressed by the ending? almost every person, after reading the ending for the first time, felt depressed. why not me?

Possibly because I myself am a bit of a romantic at heart. I know that was a major factor in my not liking the book. But I don't know. Maybe you're head isn't up in the clouds or caught up in some fantasy that, even you know will never come true, a part of you still hopes that maybe, just maybe it will.
Either that, or you're just N-V-T-S nuts.

Heh, I'm quite the romantic myself and I really liked the ending, depressing as it was.

Offline Uza-chan

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #242 on: January 07, 2009, 12:26:37 PM »
*insert text here*

haha, nice post.
stumble upon is great, ain't it?

thanks :D And, huh? XD

oh, you meant it literally.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/

it's a cool tool for finding websites.
i found this forum via dArt.

lol! Sorry, I guess I use words like "stumble" to sound smart :P I didn't know there was a website with a name like that XD Wow, I get how you'd think I used it. *bookmarks site* :D

Offline Azguard

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #243 on: January 07, 2009, 06:19:26 PM »
you should see bored.com and something.com ^^
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Offline KOFSoldier

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #244 on: February 11, 2009, 10:02:11 PM »
THIS IS THE REVIVAL, lol.

No seriously.

Offline ChimichangaChupacabra

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #245 on: February 11, 2009, 10:35:05 PM »
still, it was a very bad ending. why rachel?

*Headdesk*
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Offline John3Sobieski

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #246 on: February 12, 2009, 08:07:59 AM »
Here's the way I see #54.

Yes, this is a war story, and it is accurate in some ways. But there's a lot I have gripes with. First and foremost is Rachel's death. It was totally needless. She was sent on an assassination mission against Tom when it wouldn't matter to the tactical or strategic situation if Tom lived or died. Then, since she was on the Blade Ship, she got massacred. She had no chance to get out alive, and killing Tom was pointless, making Rachel's death pointless. There are a lot of useless deaths in war, but Jake could have easily avoided this one if he was using half a brain at the time.

Yes, war puts strains on relationships. Heck, just being in the military puts strains on relationships. I have no grippe against Jake and Cassie breaking up. Stress on everything is the nature of the job of the warrior.

There are people who can't cope afterwards. I can dig up numberless examples. I have no problem with Jake and Tobias being empty shells afterward.

In war, I do believe that there can be winners and there can be losers. I know that I did not imagine the tapes of euphoria that were captured at victory parades at the end of WWII. Or at the end of WWI. The very nature of the Animorphs war would have been one where there would be great celebration at the end. In WWII, it was either the American Republic or the Japanese Empire that would be in ruins. By the nature of the war, neither could survive the end. So, when we won, we celebrated. By the nature of the Animorphs war, either the human race would be enslaved or the Yeerks would be kicked off the planet. The Yeerks were kicked off the planet. The simple fact is that you always celebrate when you manage to survive.

Well, that's what I got.

Offline Chad32

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #247 on: February 12, 2009, 11:29:32 AM »
Killing Tom wasn't pointless, since with him on the bladeship he would have destroyed the pool ship. Since he was killed, the pool ship and other Animorphs were not annialated.

And I do believe she could have gotten out alive. My favorite scenario would be Allaron using a code that could disable the weapons and engine of the bladeship, and render it useless. Just the kind of code that V3 might implement to control everything he has. Then use the tractor beam to draw it into the pool ship. Thus the Yeerks inside would have to hand over Rachel and Tom, as well as the other hosts and escafil device, just to live.

The other points you made I agree with.


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Offline JFalcon

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #248 on: February 12, 2009, 01:25:30 PM »
(Takes a deep breath)

. . . okay. I read through all of everyone else's post and I have to say I wish I'd joined the board and been here sooner because there's a lot of points where I wanted to say something and the time has now passed, I don't want to bring up old arguments so I won't . . . this is very hard to do, I so desperately want to say some things but no I won't.

One thing I do want to say, and won't bother to stop myself from saying though is that I personally don't see Animorphs as science fiction, Contact was science fiction. Star Wars, and indeed Animorphs are more like science fantasy, yes I'm one of those geeky people. I'll say no more on the subject.

As for my thoughts on the final book? I didn't hate it when I was a kid, but it made me feel kind of numb, I don't know how else to describe it. See I wanted to read them since I saw the first book in schoolastic's little advertisement thingy, but I'd only been with the series since the 5th book came out, because I was poor and they were never in stock at the library and then one day I saw book 2 and 4 sitting on the shelf and grabbed them while everyone else in my class was fighting for book 5. Yeah I'll never forget that moment, the feeling of triumph I had over getting what I could get even though everyone else thought I was an idiot for not getting what was newest . . . anyway I'd been following the series pretty loyally since the first time I opened the books, in fact I read books 2 and 4 in one sitting, breaking only when nature screamed (as opposed to called) and I was a kid so sure they're like a 1-2 hour read nowadays but it took me all day back then.
So anyway I followed the characters, saw them fail and succeed, grew up with them, saw close call after close call and I identified the most with Rachel, I saw myself having the most in common with her from aspects of her family life to her questioning her own self, I identified with it all and then finally . . . Rachel died, and I, a guy, cried. I don't cry over book characters, that was a whole new experience for me and at that very moment I realized that no matter what else happened I wasn't going to forget that book so how could K.A. be a lazy writer? Even if she didn't write the whole series the worst you can say is that maybe she shouldn't have been signing her name on the ghost written books, no lazy writer evokes emotion and a lot of you have admitted to feeling emotion on this book.
I felt numb at the end because we were told one of them would die, and it wasn't hard to guess it would be Rachel yet at the actual moment it was overwhelming for me, the power of that moment I really can't see how anyone could say K.A. didn't like Rachel either because let me tell you that death scene could have gone so much worse. Maybe Rachel wasn't K.A.'s favorite character, but I don't think she hated her, I don't think she hated any of them. I don't see K.A. as being the best writer out there but that moment was one of the best she's ever written and one of the best I've ever read.
The fact is the final book was powerful, at least to me at the time, that was how I felt as a kid reading the book, and like most others it depressed me.
But I think that was necessary, see it sticks with you, if it had all ended happily it wouldn't have been special, it would have been just like any other story, just like Star Wars where killing the emperor ends the war instantly and destroying Alderan has no political downside. It's only in the expanded universe that those two things failed to be true and frankly Animorphs could have used an expanded universe, it could have started with the Ghost Writers taking over, writing their own spinoffs and by now many of the writers could have been fans because we've all grown up and I'm sure some of us have writing talent.
They're rare, few and far in between but there are fan fictions out there as good as what you find in print.
K.A. left the ending open and nobody did anything with it.
She has humanity in a sort of alliance with the Andalites, the Yeerk empire is overthrown and humans are now, at least apparently, becoming a space faring species with a new, bigger war on the horizon. Instead of just one planet and one group of kids we have the opportunity to see a larger scale conflict, each of her ghost writers could have had their own world to write about and there'd still be plenty left over for the imagination, and since much of her audience had been growing up the new books could have grown up too, no more dumbing things down so much, no more complaining about school and dissing math.
Frankly I think the saddest thing about 54 is that that's where it all ends. We could have done so much more with it, as an aspiring writer myself I wouldn't be at all opposed to writting something for Animorphs, I think a lot of writers out there would have agreed, it could have gone on after 54 even with people disliking 54.
My main complaint with Animorphs' ending would be the cliff hanger though, and like I said if there'd been an expanded universe that wouldn't be a problem at all. Another reason I felt numb as a kid was that the story apparently wasn't over, but I wasn't going to get to see any more of it, K.A. had moved on and I had to too . . .
But I haven't, not completely anyway, I mean I read other books now, but I still think of Animorphs, I re-read the entire series (minus the books I don't have: alternamorphs and megamorphs 4 which I didn't even know existed until recently) once a year or so. I read the last book too, do I have problems with it? Yes, I have a few things I disliked about it, but do I consider it bad? No. Is it wrong? No. Tragic? Yes, but that made it different, powerful, memorable.
Now don't get me wrong because I actually agree that it's not the right ending for the series. I agree that it didn't feel the same way the rest of the series did, but even from the first time I read it, I've had the feeling, which gets reinforced every time I re-read it, that this wasn't supposed to be the END end, it was an ending yes, but it was also a beginning, a new arc, a new series maybe, I think that Animorphs would have continued and I used to wonder why it didn't, as a kid I thought K.A. must have just become bored, nowadays though I think it deserved an EU, and I kept wondering why it never got either a continuation or an EU.
Until I saw K.A.'s response to the criticism (I hadn't seen it before) and man, she comes off as being pretty ticked off as us, her readers, I can see her not being terribly eager to do anything more with Animorphs.
Still, the final book was memorable, it was powerful, it wasn't perfect but it was as strong as a children's book can be. Allow me now to make myself an even greater fool in everyone's eyes by comparing #54 to the quote in Dark Knight: It was the ending Animorphs needed, but not the ending Animorphs deserved.
I think that would have been #60.
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Offline KOFSoldier

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #249 on: February 12, 2009, 02:33:11 PM »
Very impressive JFalcon, very impressive!

I feel somewhat similar. Judging by her response, she is definetly a little pissed at us for the criticism of the ending, but then again, what did she expect? She ended it in a cliffhanger! She knew we were going to get mad, she even apologized in the Author's Notes! I admire her for doing it a little though, because that was very risky.

Also, I wonder why she's never let someone else write an Animorphs spinoff? Your post brought up several good points, but the main one that stuck out in my mind (besides how good Rachel's death scene was) was that she left the world completely open. Does anyone know if she would be down with letting someone else take over? Surely, she had to have been asked about this before somewhere.

Offline Champion

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #250 on: February 12, 2009, 06:56:10 PM »
JFalcon should get a award for that. Not only did he cover everything possible without writing a book, he had an awsome childhood story to boot. anyway, Rachel was doomed to die a warrior. think about it, she lives to fight, she's always jazzed to kill some yeerks. Theres a moral there, - THose who live by the sword shall die by the sword. That IS Rachel's motto

Offline KOFSoldier

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #251 on: February 12, 2009, 07:35:29 PM »
JFalcon should get a award for that. Not only did he cover everything possible without writing a book, he had an awsome childhood story to boot. anyway, Rachel was doomed to die a warrior. think about it, she lives to fight, she's always jazzed to kill some yeerks. Theres a moral there, - THose who live by the sword shall die by the sword. That IS Rachel's motto

I agree.

As a matter of fact, I even agreed with KA's reasoning for killing off Rachel. It makes perfect sense.

I STILL don't like the fact that she died though, but I have to hand it to her, if the story had a perfect happy ending, I probably wouldn't be on these message boards 8 years after it ended.

Offline Chad32

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #252 on: February 12, 2009, 07:45:28 PM »
It didn't really make perfect sense within the context of the series. It's been established that there's always going to be a way out, and they always survive. even if she was a warrior, and warriors tend to live and die by the blade, it doesn't mean she had to be killed off in the very last battle.

I guess different people have different thought processes. Some think it makes perfect sense, and some think it doesn't make sense at all.

I like how the Avatar: The Last Airbender developers did their show. Even though the show was about a war, they never let the war take over the show. They stayed within their demographic.

I think I would still be here at this board today, even with a happy ending. If I didn't enjoy the rest of the series so much, especially the beginning, then the ending may have just ruined the whole thing for me.


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Offline KOFSoldier

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #253 on: February 12, 2009, 07:58:19 PM »
It didn't really make perfect sense within the context of the series. It's been established that there's always going to be a way out, and they always survive. even if she was a warrior, and warriors tend to live and die by the blade, it doesn't mean she had to be killed off in the very last battle.

I guess different people have different thought processes. Some think it makes perfect sense, and some think it doesn't make sense at all.

I like how the Avatar: The Last Airbender developers did their show. Even though the show was about a war, they never let the war take over the show. They stayed within their demographic.

I think I would still be here at this board today, even with a happy ending. If I didn't enjoy the rest of the series so much, especially the beginning, then the ending may have just ruined the whole thing for me.

I might not have come across the way I meant to in my last post.

I understood her thought process on it, but I certainly felt differently. Actually, I'm more on your side on this matter. I think that there was definetly a way out of it, and if Jake had been thinking properly, I'm sure he would have seen it. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised that the reason he was so depressed now is because he's probably seen a million different ways to save everyone, but it's too late now.

Offline JFalcon

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #254 on: February 12, 2009, 11:50:30 PM »
 Agreed because many fans have seen ways out for Rachel, some of them far fetched but none the less I can see Jake coming up with far fetched ideas and believing them plausable, grief does that to people. I myself have something of a tactical mind and there are points where I'd think "no, that's wrong, do this instead" while reading the books, but it's easy to analize after the fact, much harder to think of the right plan at the exact moment its needed.

JFalcon should get a award for that. Not only did he cover everything possible without writing a book, he had an awsome childhood story to boot. anyway, Rachel was doomed to die a warrior. think about it, she lives to fight, she's always jazzed to kill some yeerks. Theres a moral there, - THose who live by the sword shall die by the sword. That IS Rachel's motto

Thanks, I'm glad it didn't just come off as rambling :)
But one of the things I like about Rachel was that she wasn't killing yeerks just because she liked it, she rationalized it with legitimate reasons. I think the reason a lot of people only see it as rationalizing is that she seemed to come up with a new reason each book, first it's because yeerks destroy families, then it's because her friends need her, then it's because they enslave teen pop stars and so on until it's simply because she's not afraid to do the dirty work, but I don't think it was ever Rachel making up excuses for the killing, reasons to get away with being violent, I think she was just constantly seeing more and more reason that the battles had to be fought, I think in some cases the ghost writers failed to grasp that, contrastly I think it's clever that none of the other characters ever did since the stories are from their perspectives, Rachel's mind was always just her mind.
"I would be a ghost of this dynasty before I'd be a general of rebels and traitors!" ~ Pang De, Romance of the Three Kingdoms

"My brain! My brain! Me hurty to think!" ~ Zim, Invader Zim

"Fight it off? You must have me confused with someone who's brave." ~ Church, Red vs Blue