K.A's response to the final book criticsm.

[SuperBlue]

yes, and 13 yr olds changin into animals and stopping a whole army of aliens is very realistic

[CounterInstinct]

2. That's what makes Jake so depressed. You don't always get what you want, you know. This is not Cinderella.

Anyway, Marco did point out in as early as book 1 that this not some video game war but some reality, where you have to kill your own brothers, right?

At least chainging into animals is theoritically possible with nanotechnology. Flipendo, Woah there. Animorphs is SCIENCE fiction. SCIENCE. Harry Potter- Magical fairyworld.

[SuperBlue]

At least chainging into animals is theoritically possible with nanotechnology.

.....what?

[CounterInstinct]

Theoretically, if Z-space exists. We DO can send our mass to Z-space and get some mass from it... thus morphing... Theoretically though... 

Plus, the story happens in OUR world. Coke, Pepsi, Spiderman, Cinnabon, The Gap! It has to be realistic. HP happens in a world where Griffins and intelligent owls exist.

[CounterInstinct]

in case someone lazily skips....

Dear Animorphs Readers:

    Quite a number of people seem to be annoyed by the final chapter in the Animorphs story. There are a lot of complaints that I let Rachel die. That I let Visser Three/One live. That Cassie and Jake broke up. That Tobias seems to have been reduced to unexpressed grief. That there was no grand, final fight-to-end-all-fights. That there was no happy celebration. And everyone is mad about the cliffhanger ending.

    So I thought I'd respond.

    Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don't end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily. Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones.

    That's what happens, so that's what I wrote. Jake and Cassie were in love during the war, and end up going their seperate ways afterward. Jake, who was so brave and capable during the war is adrift during the peace. Marco and Ax, on the other hand, move easily past the war and even manage to use their experience to good effect. Rachel dies, and Tobias will never get over it. That doesn't by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it's a start.

    Here's what doesn't happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn't a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don't do a lot of celebrating. There's very little chanting of 'we're number one' among people who've personally experienced war.

    I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.

    So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.

    If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad. I couldn't have written it any other way and remained true to the respect I have always felt for Animorphs readers.

    K.A. Applegate

[SuperBlue]

Theoretically, if Z-space exists. We DO can send our mass to Z-space and get some mass from it... thus morphing... Theoretically though... 

Plus, the story happens in OUR world. Coke, Pepsi, Spiderman, Cinnabon, The Gap! It has to be realistic. HP happens in a world where Griffins and intelligent owls exist.

and Animorphs is in a world where blue centors and alien slugs exist. Im not seeing a big difference here yet. Plus Harry Potter took place in the real world too(remeber the fourth book I forgot when but Harry was telling Sirius about Playstation.

[morfowt]

they're aliens. there's a very good chance aliens exist. now apparently griffins are from earth...

[CounterInstinct]

Most of it takes place in Hogwarts. Okay, the slugs exist, but there is an explanation, theoritical explanation though. How do you explain how glowing sticks emit balls of energy? At least Ax explains Z-space.
Anyway, enough with the minor details. Animorphs is written realistically because K.A thinks we are mature, intelligent readers that can accept reality. Just read the latter parts of the letter.

I don't think Fairy Tales are good either. I personally believe Cinderella stretched up the truth to make her sisters look bad. 
The Prince is there was a pervert who only looked at beauty. (search only for the most fair in the land, huh)

[SuperBlue]

they're aliens. there's a very good chance aliens exist. now apparently griffins are from earth...

finally Counter gets sum backup this was startign to get boring.

back on topic

until I get sum proof of alien existence, Im gonna chalk them up on my list of imaginary creatures just like Griffins, werewolves, and phoenixs

[Terenia]

I have always been an avid hater of the ending of Animorphs, for many of the same reasons you guys have stated. But on a closer look, I think thats the point.

We aren't supposed to like how Animorphs ends. It ends with tragedy, loss, depression, and hey, guess what, another war to top it off! Yippee!! It isn't fair, it isn't right and it certainly isn't a video game victory. And that was the point.

I don't like the ending. It pains me to see the characters I loved and followed for six years reduced to realistic war wounds and deaths. I don't like it, but I can respect it. Because it really is a realistic representation of what war is about. I think a "perfect ending" would have cheapened the series.

Also, I'm not sure what everyone means about Rachel being one-dimensional (or any of them really). I thought Rachel was extremely one-dimensional in a lot of the ghost-written books, but in the last book we finally got "our" Rachel back for like...three chapters.

Anyways, as I said. I don't like the ending and I never will, but I can respect it.

I think the one change I would suggest would be to make it longer, like MM or Chronicles length, so it seemed less rushed.

[morfowt]

yeah it is getting boring...though not the way you think.

[SuperBlue]

I don't think Fairy Tales are good either. I personally believe Cinderella stretched up the truth to make her sisters look bad. 
The Prince is there was a pervert who only looked at beauty. (search only for the most fair in the land, huh)

why r u comparing my idea on wut the animorphs endiing should've been with a fairy tale? just cuz sumthin has a happy ending where the good guys win and the bad guys die doesnt make it a Fairy Tale. As a matter of fact, not all fairy tales end too hapilly either. in sum versions of the 3 little pigs, only one pig survives, and I'm not sure if this is really true, but in the original little mermaid, the mermaid dies.

[CounterInstinct]

Because that ending is perfect. Okay... I'll stop using fairy tales as a term. I'll use Cinderella instead. 
Wait a minute, what is your definition of "hated the ending".

I admit, I felt remorse for Rachel, and wished she didn't die. I didn't like it that she died, of course. But as a whole, its hard to explain but, I like how it ended. The ending wasn't bad, literature wise. But... I dunno, its kinda hard to explain.

I'm not exactly thrilled either in our debate. It was getting boring in my part as well.

I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.

Seriously, please just read this. I've just fed up with people who cannot accept that things can go wrong, can go bad... nuff said. I don't want to elaborate this any furthur...

[morfowt]

you know how I said it was boring. it's this debate as a whole that's boring, and everything inside it. the part where counter backs up k.a. and me trying in vain to help is getting boring. everybody hating the ending is boring. arguing is boring. so many refrences is broing. I'm boring! (well I'm bored anyway).

[ANItiger13]

I like that K.A. didn't end it happily. I hated that about HP...It ended WAY too happy. All this great build up...All was well. So, the ending was great to me, but I completely understand how people could criticize it.