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

[Kitulean]

I think at this point we should just let that go because I'm not going to change your opinion and you're not going to change mine.

[XenomorphLV426]

Well, yes, but that's a cop-out.

[Kitulean]

No... it's just saying that you won't change my mind so stop trying to tell me that my opinion is wrong. I'm not saying that yours is wrong. Stop acting like the way I feel or think about something is somehow offending you. I don't have to answer any further than I have, so please stop pushing. Just step away from it. It's called an opinion, please learn to let people have them.

[XenomorphLV426]

I never said your opinion is wrong.  Only that everything in the book points to the opposite of what your opinion is.  You're still allowed to have it.

[morfowt]

But the book shows that he didn't give up, and that's what I take issue with.  Everyone's entitled to an opinion, except for when there's hard evidence to counteract it.

Like, I could say "in my opinion Katherine Applegate wrote these books all on her own!", but there's pretty concrete evidence to say that's not the case.

Just like the fact that the Visser could either surrender or be certainly killed, and the Visser's established personality, and the fact that the book's canon establishes that Yeerk's won't fight when they have no chance of winning, that all points to Visser Three not "giving up", rather being beaten.

Opinion's all well and good, just not when there's no grounds to hold it.

I still don't get your logic on opinions. It's a FACT that KA didn't write all the books herself. Saying she wrote all the books herself isn't an opinion. it's fact...that's wrong.

[Kitulean]

That's his point, he's trying to say that my saying what I said and calling it my opinion is as bad as saying that and calling it an opinion.

[morfowt]

...wait...what? I didn't get that.

[Kitulean]

I was saying that my opinion was that Visser 3 just gave up at the end of the book when he shouldn't have after 54 books of build up. Xeno was trying to say that my stating that opinion was the same sort of thing as someone saying that K.A. wrote all the books, since the latter is obviously factually inaccurate.

[morfowt]

oh, now I get it.

[traycon3]

this isnt going to change my opinion... Animorph has always been science fiction... why choose the ending to be realistic.
I think the people who choose to read fiction books want to escape from the real world, not having a sad ending reflecting what maybe teir trying to escape.

I know this has gotten a bit debatish, just judging from the few posts I've read. (Because I am honestly too lazy to read through 20thousand or so posts to see what's been going on.)

But I have to say I agree with xoxogabyxoxo. I do tend to read books to escape reality. That's why I like fiction.

However, my reasons behind not liking the Animorphs series don't simply stem from that. I've read plenty of books where characters die. And, yes, while I may get annoyed or cry or whatever, if the story's still good, I'm going to keep reading it. (F.E. Death Note)

But, I'm saying this now. After 18 years of life, I've realized that the world isn't full of rainbows and idealistic things from childhood. I didn't quite have the same understanding roughly 7-8 (maybe more, I honestly don't remember exactly how long ago it ended) years ago, when the series ended.

I was upwards of 11. You know the time. When you're full of optimism (despite the fact that you are, in fact a pessamist). When you think that everything is going to have a happy ending. When you get overly upset when it doesn't. (Old Yeller. A.I.) You don't really understand things like war tearing apart people, tearing apart relationships, tearing apart families. You think that everyone will survive and be happy. You think, incorrectly, that Jake and Cassie are going to get married. Or you're expecting Cassie to die, since it was constantly forshadowed. You think that Tobias and Ax and Rachel and Marco will all be happy doing something.
You don't expect to get harshly dumped into reality at the end of the series when everything else seemed to be, well, formulaic. There's a problem, problem gets worse, an Animorph or more may get captured, everyone gets out alive, everything's at least marginally ok. You expect that in the end of the series everyone will be fine. No one will die and everyone will be happy. Yes, you'd be ok with maybe a hint that the Yeerks are still out there. That maybe others will have to fight them.
You do not expect "Ram the Blade Ship" to be the last thing you read. To be left with everyone pretty much going to die, in your opinion, except Cassie, who is going to marry some guy you don't care about because she's suppose to marry Jake. Right?
Only nothing happens the way you expect. And you find yourself sitting in your room, crying.

And then you read the letter from K.A. herself. The letter that, in your opinion, sounds more like a cop-out. Like "sorry guys, but I couldn't think of a good ending, so I'm going to leave it up to you."

No one has to agree with my opinion. (And I'm honestly not sure what made me switch from first person to second, but once I started I couldn't stop.) This is just what I feel.
About the letter at the end: that's honestly all I can remember of it. It may be completely wrong, but considering I haven't touched that book since, except to shove it in a plastic bag for donation, I'm having to work from very faulty memory. And I really mean no offense to K.A., but that's just what it felt like. To me.

You can agree, you can disagree. I just felt that I needed to get it out. Mostly because if I didn't, my mind would bug me about it for the next couple of months until I did.

And as for K.A. not writing all of the books...Oh. I didn't know that. Well, actually I sort of read something about ghostwriters on the forum earlier, but I guess it's just that stupid 11-year-old in me going, "lalalalala I don't want to hear it lalalalalala".

[Kitulean]

I think the point some of us are trying to make is that... most of us first read these books as young early teens. Some of us grew up with them and some got into the series after it was over, or almost over. But in any case, the vast majority of us were in our early teens when we were brought into the wonderful universe of the Animorphs, a universe where children could stand up for themselves, and for the world. It was a universe where we could be taken seriously, where people just like us were risking their lives and fighting, and even if what we did meant nothing in comparison to that, at least one author was taking us seriously and letting us believe that we weren't a joke, that kids like us weren't a joke. Reading the books we could transfer part of ourselves to Jake, Tobias, Cassie, Rachel, or Marco, and have hope.

Maybe you say I'm taking it too seriously, but it WAS that serious to a lot of people. We spent... years growing attached to these characters, seeing them grow, seeing them fail and succeed. For some of us, it wasn't 'cool' to like Animorphs. We stuck with it because we loved the characters, and the story.

We grew up with them, and that's why we feel like we deserved a real ending, not just what we got. Maybe what happened was realistic. Maybe there never is a real final confrontation. Maybe people die and others lose their nerve and others can't go on after a war. Maybe one war always does lead into another pointless war.

But you know what? We didn't read the books to read a history of war. We didn't read the books to see the psychological effects of leaving a war behind. We didn't read the books to see all the characters we loved fail in the end. We read the books because we loved them. We loved the characters. Maybe it's unrealistic to expect a happy ending, but we were children, and teenagers. It's unrealistic, but we deserved it. We deserved the chance to maintain our optimism. We deserved the chance to see good win in the end. We deserved the chance to see Rachel be with Tobias. We deserved the chance to see Cassie be with Jake. We deserved the chance to see Ax avenge his brother.

In the end, we deserved the chance maintain the hope that what we did would matter. The series wasn't about a war story to me. It was about six kids doing the impossible and making a difference. It was about winning, even if you stumble along the way. It was about Jake, Tobias, Rachel, Marco, Cassie, and Ax.

In the end, I think K.A. forgot that and made it a story about war, more than characters. She wrote a very well written ending, with many twists I didn't expect, some I even liked. She wrote a good ending, for a war story, but I don't think she wrote a good ending for the Animorphs story, and I don't think she wrote the ending we, or they deserved.

[morfowt]

hmm...maybe that's the difference. I only spent a year reading the entire series, so maybe that's why I wasn't that affected by the ending...although the fact that I wouldn't do anything even if I don't like something also has something to do with it.

[Terenia]

I think the point some of us are trying to make is that... most of us first read these books as young early teens. Some of us grew up with them and some got into the series after it was over, or almost over. But in any case, the vast majority of us were in our early teens when we were brought into the wonderful universe of the Animorphs, a universe where children could stand up for themselves, and for the world. It was a universe where we could be taken seriously, where people just like us were risking their lives and fighting, and even if what we did meant nothing in comparison to that, at least one author was taking us seriously and letting us believe that we weren't a joke, that kids like us weren't a joke. Reading the books we could transfer part of ourselves to Jake, Tobias, Cassie, Rachel, or Marco, and have hope.

Maybe you say I'm taking it too seriously, but it WAS that serious to a lot of people. We spent... years growing attached to these characters, seeing them grow, seeing them fail and succeed. For some of us, it wasn't 'cool' to like Animorphs. We stuck with it because we loved the characters, and the story

Well said, Cerulean. This is exactly how I feel. When I was in middle school reading each book ravenously as it was published it was not the "cool" thing to do. In fact my seventh grade year was quite miserable as a direct result of my love for Animorphs. Spitballs being thrown at me, being tripped in the halls, isolated on the bus, the whole shebang.

I certainly did not stay with the series because it was the cool thing to do. I fell in love with it and had to see it through.

However, I think our similarities end there Cerulean. Initially I was torn up by the ending. I HATED it. I wanted to burn the book, and maybe all of the other ones as well. But KA's note at the end helped me give a little bit of peace to the situation.

Now that I'm older I guess I can understand what she was going for more. And I guess I've come to accept it. I do think that perhaps it was a bold (and definitely unpopular) move given her loyal reader base. But I do...respect her...for still getting her message across. I think the message has, to an extent, always been about war rather than simply a story about the characters. The two are intertwined, and it is hard to separate the Animorphs from the war from how the war affects them.

[Kitulean]

I do see where you, and she at the time, are/was coming from... good god I just raped the english language into an unrecognizable state... But you get my point, I hope. I see your point, and I do see hers for doing what she did, in ending the series the way that she did. But seeing a point and agreeing with it are two different things. Since that is the way that K.A. felt she needed to end it, good for her, I admire her for sticking to her  beliefs, but I still must stick to my own in saying I feel that it was the wrong ending for the series, after reading for upwards of 6 years, to have every character die or fail or leave just... it felt... wrong, and it still does.

My opinion is, and probably always will be that I think KA should have given the series a different ending. I'm really glad that a lot of people did enjoy it, and I still enjoy the entire series up to the last couple books.

However, I will probably always disagree with the way it ended, which is why I prefer to read alternative endings. But that's just me, and my choice that affects nobody else, thankfully.

[Hylian Dan]

In the end, I think K.A. forgot that and made it a story about war, more than characters. She wrote a very well written ending, with many twists I didn't expect, some I even liked. She wrote a good ending, for a war story, but I don't think she wrote a good ending for the Animorphs story, and I don't think she wrote the ending we, or they deserved.

I don't agree. I think the ending was very appropriate to the sort of story we'd been reading for years. The series opens with Elfangor's death. From the start, the characters question whether they'll end up killing their own family members. Book one ends with Tobias trapped as a hawk. That's the starting point of the series.

Consider the nature of the messages and dilemmas that resonated throughout the series. The tragedies the characters face in The Andalite Chronicles or the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. These fantasy space-opera stories get harshly realistic endings yet the storyline set in our world is supposed to get a fluffy fantasy ending?

One of the reasons Animorphs resonated so much with me was the way the characters consistently had to come to terms with the not-ideal realities of their lives. They weren't handed miraculous escape ropes that would make all the crappy dilemmas go away. When their lives sucked they had to adjust.

Even now no easy answers leaped to mind. I
could not easily have stood the bullying. I could
not easily have survived the loneliness. In my
fantasies I could construct fantastic escapes, but
in reality there was no easy way. My life was non-
fiction, not some story where the endings are al-
ways happy. I couldn't simply become a different
person. I couldn't just have some great insight
that would save me from myself.
All I could have done, really, was wait. I could
have endured. I saw that now. It wasn't a dra-
matic answer. Wasn't exactly inspiring.
Endure. Outlast. Outwait.

"It's just so bogus," Jordan said. "I mean, he was just riding his bike
and then, like, all of a sudden his whole life is maybe over."
 I nodded. "Yeah. Life isn't fair."
 Jordan rolled her eyes at me. She knows a dumb cliche when she hears one.
 "Sorry," I said. "Look, bad stuff happens. Doesn't mean it's going to
happen to you. Doesn't mean it's going to happen to me or Sarah or Mom or Dad."
 "Yeah, but that's what's so weird and all. I mean, I feel like scum
because I felt kind of glad it wasn't me. You know? It was like 'Whew!
Close one!' But that's not right. I should just be sad. And I am. Only
it's not just sadness. It's also, like, 'Glad it wasn't me!' And then I
was all, like, 'I would never ride my bike like that.' You know, the guy
who ran into him is saying Saddler just shot out into the street without
looking. So I'm thinking Saddler got run over because he was stupid and
careless. But that's not right, either."
 "It's not right, but I think it's probably normal," I said. "I mean, you
don't want to think it could happen to you. So you have to come up with
excuses. Ways it could never happen to you. You end up blaming the
person who got hurt. Because then you don't have to think about what if
it was you it happened to. You even start getting mad at the person it
happened to. Like 'How dare he drag me down into all this pit of
darkness? How dare he get hurt and make me feel bad?'"
 Jordan nodded. "That's just so wrong, though."
 I shrugged. "Yeah, probably. But it's also how people are. You don't
want to go around thinking, 'It could be me next. It could be my sister or mother or father.'
You're going to do anything you can not to feel that way. You have to
put up a wall between you and the fear. You have to cut yourself off
from it, tell yourself you're safe. Bad stuff only happens to people who
are careless or stupid or evil."

I spent a couple of days thinking about what my dad had said. About moving on with our lives. Making a new start. About our being a team.
I'd also thought about what Cassie had said, about having to deal with what "is," things as they are, and not how I wished they were.
And I remembered Jake's immortal words of comfort. "I don't care what your problems are. You deal with this, right now."
But mostly, I remembered what I've always believed. What my mom taught me. That while some things are just plain awful, most things in life can be seen either as tragic or comic. And it's your choice. Is life a big, long, tiresome slog from sadness to regret to guilt to resentment to self-pity? Or is life weird, outrageous, bizarre, ironic, and just stupid?
Gotta go with stupid.
It's not the easy way out. Self-pity is the easiest thing in the world. Finding the humor, the irony, the slight justification for a skewed, skeptical optimism, that's tough.
Anyway.
The past was over and done with.
Time to get on with my life.

Life would have been a lot easier for me if I could have been a simple,
ruthless animal. If all my decisions were straightforward. If everything
made sense.
But that's not the way it is for human beings.

Stuff like this is part of what really elevated Animorphs as a series. These characters had amazing fantastic lives, but I got to see how they struggled to cope with everything that makes life so confusing and difficult and complicated. The plot didn't hand them escape ropes, they had to rely on their various coping mechanisms. Some fared better than others. They all had their high points and their low points, and I could look at how they dealt with their problems, what worked and what didn't, and apply that to the way I live. If, after 62 books of this sort of drama, I had to read, "Everything worked out in the end, all these nasty problems went away, and they all lived happily ever after," I would have felt horribly betrayed. That's not how life is. These characters were so human because I watched them deal with life the way it is, and an ending that threw away that sense of reality to toss the characters into a new world where life goes the way you want it to would have hideously compromised the realism of the characters and my ability to relate to them.