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

[XtheoniongirlX]

If that's true, that she is barred from writing her own story...that's just nightmarish.  If it was me I'd fight tooth and nail in court for the right to write my own story.  And I'd probably still lose if I signed a contract

Goes to show, READ BEFORE YOU SIGN.  lol

She's not barred from writing more Animorphs. Considering how popular the series was I'm certain Scholastic would have loved for her to continue writing and publishing more novels than she already did until the series finally ran out of steam. But she ended it on her own terms. I mean really, we have 60+ books in the complete series.

Also I would hope she would tell her fans if she were barred from writing more but wanted to, though I suppose there's something against that in the contract as well.

. . . I seriously hope people don't actually believe this.

[SkyMorpher]

Yeah, me too. I know there are other instances of such a thing...The Cheetah Girls franchise is a notable one.

[Tobichel]

I definitely disagree with the ending of the series. K. A insists that a war story shouldn't end happily, point taken. If that's the case then everyone is supposed to lose something one way or another. How come Rachel dies, Tobias is forever depressed, Jake never recovers but Cassie got over it all within a few years despite the fact that she waz the weakest during the war? Oh and not to mention that Marco got the perfect life he always wanted with both parents intact. Really i just think that K. A was biased towards the characters afterall she said it herself that Marco and Cassie were her favourite characters so only they get to have happy endings.....so wrong and unfair.

[Noelle]

This may be strange, but I don't really understand, if she was happy with her ending, why she seemed to feel offended/felt the need to address it.


I mean, writing is an art, and enjoyment of art will always be subjective.  There will always be a portion of people who hate your story no matter what, just like there will always be people who like your story no matter what.

If people want to rant about the ending, whatever, let them, their right and their loss if they didn't like it. (And I will probably be the first to rant about the ending.)


What struck me as a little off-color about the letter (other than what I stated earlier) is that she just seems really unfair to certain sects of her audience, like the audience that was sad they did not get a happy ending.  It seems as though she is basically talking down at them like children.  We know wars happen, we know we will someday be voting age, we know wars suck, um, hello, we read your books.  We know happy endings aren't always true.


I personally like sad endings.  Some people don't.  No reason to fault them.  Some people want to read happy endings because if they wanted a sad ending all they have to do is turn on CNN.

[XtheoniongirlX]

What struck me as a little off-color about the letter (other than what I stated earlier) is that she just seems really unfair to certain sects of her audience, like the audience that was sad they did not get a happy ending. [...] We know wars happen, we know we will someday be voting age, we know wars suck, um, hello, we read your books.  We know happy endings aren't always true.

I don't think she was addressing the people who were just sad about how the ending turned out. I think the letter was directed at those who were very vocal about how they thought it was a dreadful ending and who went as far as to not consider it canon. Not liking a downer ending is totally justified, I agree, but you don't have to go on and on about how much of a travesty that ending was to such a good series. And unfortunately the fans who hated the ending are much louder than the ones who liked it/didn't like it but understood what she was going for. You couldn't expect her to just ignore that.

I guess you could say the whole "War is bad" part of her letter is condescending, but she pretty much had to repeat it to justify the way the ending turned out.

It seems as though she is basically talking down at them like children.

I personally thought she avoided this; she didn't pander to her fans. She didn't apologize and say "I guess you're right guys, but it's already written..." She was straight to the point and didn't beat around the bush. I thought it was admirable how she stood her ground.

And it was pretty much the nicest way she could say "Suck it, 12-year-olds."

On a slightly unrelated note, the only contradiction I could see regarding her justification and the ending is the fact that Marco joined Jake and Tobias for the last mission. Jake was just lost after the war, and Tobias made the decision to sever his remaining ties to humanity. But Marco had his parents reunited (and what of poor Nora, eh?) and was enjoying the spoils of war. No matter which way I try to see it, I think it was out of character for Jake to convince Marco to join.

[Chad32]

Marco had been keeping an eye on Jake for a while. He really cared about the guy, and didn't want to let him go off without Marco. I thought it was much better than what Cassie did.

[Noelle]

On a slightly unrelated note, the only contradiction I could see regarding her justification and the ending is the fact that Marco joined Jake and Tobias for the last mission. Jake was just lost after the war, and Tobias made the decision to sever his remaining ties to humanity. But Marco had his parents reunited (and what of poor Nora, eh?) and was enjoying the spoils of war. No matter which way I try to see it, I think it was out of character for Jake to convince Marco to join.

I do kind of actually see your point there.  I agree that Marco took care of Jake.  But Jake was kind of better because he was going on a mission.

Jake had a military past, while I don't think he really liked the war he fit the role of a military member/leader.  Tobias didn't have anything left in the galaxy except Ax, I can see why he'd go.

Marco...all throughout the series he talked about wanting to be done with the war and do exactly the things he was doing, chasing chicks and being rich.  He had everything he wanted. 



I guess the one way I can justify it is, even though throughout the series, he talked like he was selfish, he really was one of the most selfless.  He killed his own mom, he fought the war even though he had really little desire to do so.


What I definitely don't understand about Marco is why he went with the plan to go ahead and ram the bladeship when he had so much fun stuff going on at home.  I can see Tobias and Jake being ok with a suicidal plan.  But Marco had a reason to live, and from what I can tell in the novel they had a way out (just running away, they said the ship was fast enough.)

[Ember Nickel]

And it was pretty much the nicest way she could say "Suck it, 12-year-olds."

Who's the target audience of the series, agewise?

[Chad32]

That certainly wasn't the only out of character moment in the series, and I'm sure the only reason jake said that was to call back to when Elfangor did it. Like KA wanted us to think Jake was being cool like Elfangor, even though ramming the ship made no strategic sense.

[XtheoniongirlX]

That certainly wasn't the only out of character moment in the series

Never said it was. But in my opinion it was the only out-of-character moment in the last book.

Like KA wanted us to think Jake was being cool like Elfangor, even though ramming the ship made no strategic sense.

Kind of a moot point, because going out into a vastly unknown and uncharted territory in that one ship didn't really make much strategic sense to begin with. I thought it was implied that Jake took it on as a suicide mission, and just wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. Hence why it bothered me that Marco readily agreed. Yeah, he's Jake's best friend and that didn't change at all after the war when most of the insight on Jake's state of mind was voiced by Marco. But he didn't have a death-wish as strong as Tobias nor Jake. Doesn't feel like Marco to end his life out of pure sentiment. He even admitted that he legitimately enjoyed living life as the king, and that it didn't feel empty/unfulfilling.

And it might have made for some interesting conversation between the two aboard the Rachel if Tobias and Jake went on that last trip alone.

Marco had been keeping an eye on Jake for a while. He really cared about the guy, and didn't want to let him go off without Marco. I thought it was much better than what Cassie did.

The loss of his wife sent Marco's dad spiraling into a deep depression. How do you think he'd react to the news of his only child's death? What if it permanently split up Marco's parents after just so recently being repaired? What if one/both of them committed suicide out of grief? All questions I believe Marco would've asked himself once he realized there's very little chance he'd return home. And Jake would've known better than to bring him along.

[Chad32]

You bring up good points. I wouldn't put it past Jake or Tobias to use this as a suicide mission, and after seeing what happened to Ax, Jake might have thought just screw it and kill them all. They all deserved better. Especially since just before this, Jake was just starting to improve. He came out of his funk enough to get a job, which at the very least was a step in the right direction.

[XtheoniongirlX]

They all deserved better.

In the end this is pretty much the one sentiment every single Animorphs fan can agree upon. I praise Applegate for not pulling any punches in the finale and playing it as realistically it could have been played aside from a few minor complaints, but dammit, they deserved to enjoy what Marco enjoyed for their services to Earth. It really is nothing short of a miracle. They earned their happy ending! ;_;

[Chad32]

Yeah. Before the series ended, I thought about what they might do. Marco would do exactly what he did. Tobias would become Human and date/marry Rachel while becoming a pilot. Marco could buy him whatever he would want to fly in. Cassie would be a zoologist, using her morphing power to gain information that no one else could. Rachel would join the military or police force, or something like that. I imagined Jake might just take it easy, or perhaps join the military as a trainer. He wouldn't be on the front lines, but he'd teach new recruits. At the very least the military would want him on board. Yes they'd still have some issues, and it could take years to fully recover, but surely none of them would be forever broken.

[yunyun]

And it was pretty much the nicest way she could say "Suck it, 12-year-olds."

Who's the target audience of the series, agewise?

Its in the 8-12 zone in book stores. So I'm guessing around there.

[Chad32]

Yes, KA is screwing over her demographic because the people who originally started reading the books have gone above the young reader demographic that the books are for. I would like to think most 10-14 year olds are still innocent enough that they want a happy ending. It's like films made by Don Bluth. Land before Time was made for kids, and it was really dark, but that was ok because there was a happy ending at the end. Same with Secret of NIMH. This is part of the reason why I hated the ending so much. Yes the series was dark, but it was originally for young readers and the biggest theme was hope. This is an idealistic viewpoint that is relevant to children.