Author Topic: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.  (Read 37494 times)

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Offline ANItiger13

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #90 on: July 06, 2008, 10:45:01 PM »
She said she'd like to write a 55-60, but it's up to scholastic. I don't know what it would be about, but it'd be cool if it happened.

I'd like to know where she said this, because I'm fairly sure she ended the series in the first place because she felt that Animorphs had had its run and it was time for it to end. I believe Scholastic would've allowed her to continue on by renewing her contract, but they stopped it because it was her decision to do so. (I got this from Morphz, who were covering that news story at that time) In fact, Animorphs still had 1 book left in its contract after #54, which was meant to be Megamorphs #5 (or a series bible for the fans), but it was instead moved into the Remnants contract so that series could have an extra book.

She said it in a message or something. I remember reading it on Project AM, but that's gone, so I don't know where you could find that now.
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Offline Hylian Dan

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #91 on: July 06, 2008, 11:44:07 PM »
A bunch of people at livejournal I think put together a huge email to KA with their praise and thoughts about Animorphs, and at least one person asked if she would ever continue the series. KA responded to them, and mentioned that she'd be willing to write books 55-60 if Scholastic gave them the contract. So she wasn't really saying, hey I'm going to try to get Scholastic to let me continue the series now, she was just explaining the situation pretty much and how it wasn't in her hands.

I loved the ending of Animorphs, even Cassie staying behind and the One and Ram the Blade Ship. I'm pretty sure the One is meant to be a representation of the evil the Animorphs had been fighting against from the start--controlling slaves, stealing bodies, cults that surrender freedom to become part of something greater--in addition to representing the themes of morphing and changes. So the ending was KA's way of making a final statement about her characters, how they're heroes--unafraid of insane death-defying stunts--who are always going to be fighting on the side of freedom. The outcome isn't as important as understanding what the Animorphs stand for and that they'll continue fighting.

I think it's a bit weird how The Andalite Chronicles, a dark story with endearing characters and an utterly tragic ending, is beloved by fans while the outcome of the final arc is so despised by many.

Offline Chad32

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #92 on: July 07, 2008, 10:45:31 AM »
I think it's a bit weird how The Andalite Chronicles, a dark story with endearing characters and an utterly tragic ending, is beloved by fans while the outcome of the final arc is so despised by many.
Because it wasn't the very last book. It was a bittersweet ending, which in itself I didn't mind.

However, the last book has more bad things happen than good things, and doesn't really give closure. Someone posted that the fact the Animorphs are the ones that defeated the Yeerks was a major bone KA threw to us. Personally, I wouldn't care who defeated the Yeerks as long as the ending was more good than bad and actually ended.

When I watch TV shows, I don't mind episodes ending in cliffhangers in the middle of a season. I do hate it when the last episode of a season ends in a cliffhanger, and I have to wait months to see what happens.

Animorphs is worse, because the cliffhanger will never be resolved. There was no good reason for Rachel to get killed by five amateurs. There was no good reason to end the series with a cliffhanger. There was no good reason for Tobias to leave everything he still had in the world just because he lost his girlfriend.


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Offline ThermalRider

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #93 on: July 07, 2008, 11:39:54 AM »
Tobias didn't lose just a girlfriend. He lost the love of his life, the one person that he cared for more than any other and the one that felt the same way about him. She was his lifeline to humanity. Without her, he felt he had nothing left in his life. If the war was still going on then maybe he would have kept fighting, but with the fight against the Yeerks on Earth over, he had nothing left to come back for.

Offline Chad32

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #94 on: July 07, 2008, 11:53:31 AM »
Tobias didn't lose just a girlfriend. He lost the love of his life, the one person that he cared for more than any other and the one that felt the same way about him. She was his lifeline to humanity. Without her, he felt he had nothing left in his life. If the war was still going on then maybe he would have kept fighting, but with the fight against the Yeerks on Earth over, he had nothing left to come back for.
Well, he's wrong about that. Somebody should have snapped him back to reality. Helped him get over it.

Marco and Cassie made an attempt to help Jake, and they should have made one to help Tobias.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2008, 11:55:38 AM by Daphnes »


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Offline Estelore

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #95 on: July 07, 2008, 02:56:51 PM »
How was he wrong? His entire family was dead-and/or-worthless, his best friend/uncle was off doing his own Andalite thing, and the only person he loved was dead. He blamed Jake for her death, and Marco and Cassie he blamed for their association with him and their failure to stop him. All of them reminded of his own pain and loss. How do you expect him to 'snap out of it'? There was nothing on Earth to give him a good enough reason to care. To 'snap out of something', you have to have something to LIVE FOR. He had nothing, by his own definitions.
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Offline Chad32

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #96 on: July 07, 2008, 02:59:52 PM »
He still had his mother. He could have left with Ax. Ax is his shorm and family, so there would be little reason not to leave with Ax.


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Offline EscafilDevice

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #97 on: July 07, 2008, 05:19:58 PM »
I think it's a bit weird how The Andalite Chronicles, a dark story with endearing characters and an utterly tragic ending, is beloved by fans while the outcome of the final arc is so despised by many.
Because it wasn't the very last book. It was a bittersweet ending, which in itself I didn't mind.

However, the last book has more bad things happen than good things, and doesn't really give closure. Someone posted that the fact the Animorphs are the ones that defeated the Yeerks was a major bone KA threw to us. Personally, I wouldn't care who defeated the Yeerks as long as the ending was more good than bad and actually ended.

When I watch TV shows, I don't mind episodes ending in cliffhangers in the middle of a season. I do hate it when the last episode of a season ends in a cliffhanger, and I have to wait months to see what happens.

Animorphs is worse, because the cliffhanger will never be resolved. There was no good reason for Rachel to get killed by five amateurs. There was no good reason to end the series with a cliffhanger. There was no good reason for Tobias to leave everything he still had in the world just because he lost his girlfriend.

Exactly.

The Andalite Chronicles broke my heart. It was dark, it was a love story, and it was one of the best books in the series. You can't really compare it to the last book.

FearlessLeader put it very nicely with his food analogy, so I'm not going to rehash all of that. Of course I think that an artist should have free rein over what they want to produce. However, someone who writes a children's series through Scholastic is in the business to make money.

I think K.A is eloquent and creative, but she certainly isn't untouchable. I don't know how many of you like Star Wars, but I consider Star Wars to be my other not-so-guilty science fiction pleasure. Look at how many of those super-nerd Star Wars fans vilified George Lucas for putting Jar Jar Binks into Episode One - he was, and basically still is, the butt of every Star Wars joke. And guess what Lucas did? He wrote him out of the series by drastically reducing his role, but did it in a way that helped the series.

George Lucas and K.A. Applegate both created amazing stories. However, they did it because they wanted to make money. If George Lucas wasn't concerned about making a profit, he would've made Star Wars into one of those low-budget indie B-movies. (It could be said that Lucas needed the big studio money to get the effects, but Lucas was already in the business and he probably could've worked around it if he were stuck with an indie budget.)

I'm not saying that indie films are the only films that are good and all big-budget films are terrible. That's irrelevant, I've seen good and terrible films from both types of companies. But it's a fact of life that if someone wants to make money, they'll go to a big publishing house or a big movie company because that's where the money is.

I think the woman is a creative genius, but I don't think of her like I think of French artists starving to death because nobody will buy their paintings. I'm not saying one is better than the other - it's simply her devotion to her work, or lackthereof. If she were so serious about her "art" as you like to put it, don't you think she would've written more of the books herself? Yeah, some of the ghostwriters were fantastic, but #37 is the best example of someone missing Rachel's character entirely. And didn't she say that she "revised and edited them"? She obviously didn't do that much editing because there wouldn't be so many KASU's. There's a difference between writing out Jake's thoughtspeak in #1 and retconning things later on, but there were glaring errors in later books that she didn't pick up on. For a "serious artist", she didn't seem very serious.

And it's the quality of the book. There's a difference between disliking a genre or medium and disliking content. Putting personal preference aside, there are good paintings and there are bad paintings. Let's say that there's a painting of a monster devouring a baby in an art museum. For the sake of this example, it's a bad painting because the monster and the baby's mother are too far apart, which creates boring, empty space that looks bad. The lighting is also bad. Next to it you have Goya's "Saturn Devouring His Son", which is a masterpiece. The subject matter is the same, but Goya's painting is better because of the contrast, the colors used, the facial expressions, etc.

If she wanted to write this last book the way she did, fine. But she shouldn't get pissy at people who didn't like it because WE'RE the ones who have made her filthy rich. I don't have to eat at Jose's Mexican cafe, but if I order a crispy chicken taco and get a cold enchilada, I have a right to be angry. I don't have to go back, but Jose can't say that I'm in the wrong for not liking his crappy food when I'm the one who bought it. FearlessLeader's analogy was better, but you get the idea.

Really, how dare she end Animorphs on such a bad note and then tell us to buy her next series in the farewell. Oh and, surprise surprise, she had Remnants ghostwritten too. I think she's lazy and arrogant, which breaks my heart because she's certainly up there with George Lucas. I would not be so angry if I didn't love Animorphs so much.


Offline jsh357

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #98 on: July 07, 2008, 05:34:06 PM »
If she wanted to write this last book the way she did, fine. But she shouldn't get pissy at people who didn't like it because WE'RE the ones who have made her filthy rich.

I agree with some of what you say, but I just can't agree with this point.  She wasn't angry at fans for not liking the last book--she was angry at them for misinterpreting its message.  I mentioned earlier that she probably shouldn't have written the response at all, and that's why.  An author cannot expect his or her readers to uniformly interpret a work in one particular way, and KA made that mistake in writing this response. 

The example of George Lucas is one of the reasons I dislike him (even though I love the original trilogy of Star Wars).  Once he had become popular, he didn't mind whoring out his series to every fan on the planet.  Personally, I hang on to the belief that he toned down Jar Jar because he himself realized how stupid the character was, but I have no faith in Lucas anymore.

Another good point I saw in this thread that I wanted to enforce was the one about reading this series at different age levels.  When I was a kid, I probably would have been mad at that ending too for similar reasons that others have brought up.  Today, I thought it fit in very well with the theme of the series and was completely appropriate, even if not perfect.  Whether KA cared about the series or not, she was still its creator--I applaud her for not selling out to her fans in the ending.

But I'll agree that the Remnants preview was totally pretentious and inappropriate at the tail of the book.  I'm willing to bet it was Scholastic's decision to put it there, though.  It probably needed the sales.

Offline morfowt

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #99 on: July 07, 2008, 05:36:54 PM »
so at what age would it be good to read the ending. I read it this year when I was thirteen, although I already knew the main points long before that.

Offline jsh357

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #100 on: July 07, 2008, 05:46:35 PM »
Ha ha.  Well, there isn't any particular age; it's all about the experiences one has, which tend to occur in the teenage and young adult years.  It's just that I see the world in a completely different way now than I did when I was a preteen.  I've made my own video games and short movies and worked with others on them, experiencing the power of creative control and even the relationship with audiences.  I've studied English Literature for the past three years.  While I'm not an expert on either subject, and likely won't ever be, I still picked up on a lot more while reading these books than I ever would have before.  ("More" probably isn't the right word--it's that I pick up on different things)  Of course, there are other experiences I've had that have changed my reading, and not everyone has lived my life, nor I theirs.

One example.  I used to hate Cassie, like a lot of readers, because she made stupid mistakes, loved the enemy and didn't want to be involved in the story at all.  Now that's why I find her the most fascinating character in the series. 

So really, it isn't about age so much--I didn't mean to stress that word--it's about perception.  I imagine that if you or any reader were to read the series again in ten years like I did, especially after forgetting most of it, you would see it in a whole new light as well.  Especially at the age you claim to be--going from 13 to 23, people change a lot.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2008, 05:48:53 PM by jsh357 »

Offline EscafilDevice

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #101 on: July 07, 2008, 05:48:56 PM »
If she wanted to write this last book the way she did, fine. But she shouldn't get pissy at people who didn't like it because WE'RE the ones who have made her filthy rich.

I agree with some of what you say, but I just can't agree with this point.  She wasn't angry at fans for not liking the last book--she was angry at them for misinterpreting its message.  I mentioned earlier that she probably shouldn't have written the response at all, and that's why.  An author cannot expect his or her readers to uniformly interpret a work in one particular way, and KA made that mistake in writing this response. 

I thought it was in very poor taste.

I didn't misinterpret the ending, I knew exactly what she was going for. I just think she implemented it badly.

Quote
The example of George Lucas is one of the reasons I dislike him (even though I love the original trilogy of Star Wars).  Once he had become popular, he didn't mind whoring out his series to every fan on the planet.  Personally, I hang on to the belief that he toned down Jar Jar because he himself realized how stupid the character was, but I have no faith in Lucas anymore.

George Lucas is money-hungry, but keep in mind that he doesn't consider Expanded Universe to fit into the top tier of Star Wars canon (G-canon, if I'm not mistaken). He just wants it as he left it.

Yeah, Jar-Jar was a marketing tool to young Star Wars fans. I don't think he needed angry fans to tell him Jar Jar was irritating and pointless, but it certainly helped.

The point I was making wasn't that an author or a movie creator needs to dictate what their fans want. It's that they can't expect their fans to automatically love what they produce just because it's from them.

Quote
Another good point I saw in this thread that I wanted to enforce was the one about reading this series at different age levels.  When I was a kid, I probably would have been mad at that ending too for similar reasons that others have brought up.  Today, I thought it fit in very well with the theme of the series and was completely appropriate, even if not perfect.  Whether KA cared about the series or not, she was still its creator--I applaud her for not selling out to her fans in the ending.

I don't think she was selling out because how would she have known people wouldn't have liked the last few books before #54 came out? Animorphs books were released every month - that's not really enough time for a bunch of fans to come knocking on her door telling her they hated #53 and that Jake shouldn't have flushed the Yeerk pool.

I'm not saying that she should write the ending a certain way because I want it that way. I'm saying that it was a bad-quality ending and would've been more entertaining written another way.

And about your maturity levels thing. I'm seventeen years old, so I read that book when I was ten. I thought it was crap back then and I've thought it was crap ever since. My opinion didn't change much, and I'm a pretty smart girl. If anything, my reasons for disliking it have become more complex.

Quote
But I'll agree that the Remnants preview was totally pretentious and inappropriate at the tail of the book.  I'm willing to bet it was Scholastic's decision to put it there, though.  It probably needed the sales.

For such a starving artist, she really gives in to Scholastic, doesn't she.

Offline jsh357

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #102 on: July 07, 2008, 05:54:54 PM »
And about your maturity levels thing. I'm seventeen years old, so I read that book when I was ten. I thought it was crap back then and I've thought it was crap ever since. My opinion didn't change much, and I'm a pretty smart girl. If anything, my reasons for disliking it have become more complex.

I said nothing about maturity, though I can understand interpreting what I posted that way.  There's a difference between "studying something for four years" and "living for four years," which is why I point out that age itself has nothing to do with the way we interpet fiction.  And naturally, I wasn't implying that your opinion would totally change.  Mine did (or actually, I never read #54 before, but I have a feeling I would have hated it then), but yours stayed the same, only with new reasons.  In either case, it's a good reason to reread the series, eh?

And I certainly didn't mean to imply that anyone was unintelligent.  I'd agree; you seem pretty smart, even though I disagree with some of your points.  The fact that you can back up your points proves it well enough.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2008, 05:57:22 PM by jsh357 »

Offline morfowt

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #103 on: July 07, 2008, 05:55:16 PM »
well...scholastics publish the book...

Offline ANItiger13

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Re: K.A's response to the final book criticsm.
« Reply #104 on: July 07, 2008, 05:57:09 PM »
well...scholastics publish the book...

He's got a point there...
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