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

[XtheoniongirlX]

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.

As far as I know, this is really the only American-made book series aimed at children that had a downer ending. The others were bittersweet at worst. Plenty of other series that children could've read for an idealistic/optimistic ending, and probably were reading at the same time.

I do feel bad for those who were reading this series exclusively, outside of their school curriculum. It must've been absolutely soul-shattering for them after ~60 books of emotional investment.

[Chad32]

It was pretty soul shattering even for people like me who was used to reasonably happy endings who thought it came out of nowhere. It's like KA and others think there's no gray area between what we got, and "they all lived happily ever after". We all know war is bad. You don't have to kill all most of the main cast to grind it in. And yes I do go ahead and say Jake and the others died, since the series is over anyway. If I felt like making a fan fic where they survived, I would have just changed the ending (and other things) altogether.

[XtheoniongirlX]

Mm, very true... Jake being depressed is one thing, and I'll always argue that him and Tobias agreeing to the suicide mission was all in-character. But having all of the boys dead by the end of the book was hammering the point a little too blatantly, I think. Applegate was always good at subtlety - it's what made the books so much easier to enjoy on a 2nd/3rd read-through, so I have to admit I was disappointed that she simply killed the majority of them off, Marco's being absolutely illogical and Ax's totally out of nowhere.

You can stop reading here, because now I'm just ranting. A small part of me thinks she had Marco agree to the mission because she felt he would have to be punished for agreeing with Jake about that momentary feeling of satisfaction at the knowledge of flushing out 17,372 Yeerks into space, (an order that was carried out by Ax, who met a cruel and unusual fate some time later) a statement which clearly horrified Cassie and was probably the straw that broke the camel's back in the possibility that she could ever marry and settle down with him. Maybe it was Applegate's way of ensuring that she won't ever be tempted to come back to the series.

It makes me a little sad. I earnestly wish I could justify why she did what she did.

[Pippi]

I do feel bad for those who were reading this series exclusively, outside of their school curriculum. It must've been absolutely soul-shattering for them after ~60 books of emotional investment.

*sniff* thanks XtheoniongirlX for understanding how people like me feel.

To reiterate other posters point of view, if I wanted realistic, I wouldn't be reading fiction. From now on, before I invest my emotions in another series, I'll ask around if it has a happy ending. So, I don't end up mourning for another long period of time.

[Noelle]

At least we have fanfic.  But what always strikes me as sad about the series is it seems like a lot of the GOOD fanfic is aimed at fixing the series/ending, not just for love of the series.


I have always wondered, it is EXTREMELY rare, but if the KA's would give the blessing for a writer to continue the series, since it still has a decent fandom going on today.  (At least it seems so, could not be.)

[yunyun]

Yeah, it'll be pretty cool if you wrote another series that continued animorphs.

[Noelle]

Yeah, it'll be pretty cool if you wrote another series that continued animorphs.

I'm not that talented, but I'm sure someone out there is.  Maybe one of her ghostwriters would be interested.

[Kal]

Well if Animorphs was realistic, all the kids would have been killed in the first book. Or they would have been caught by the yeerks with many of their near cover blowing antics.

I think that it would have been better to have killed a character in the middle of the series. It would have been shocking, jarring, and more "realistic" as opposed to the character that dies in the climatic final battle.

Besides we got some pretty silly books in the series. (Atlantis, alergic morphing, helmacrons)

I was kind of disappointed that Rachel died. I was most curious to see how the war affected her when it was over.  Jake or Cassie dying could have been more affective. Jake because he was the fearless leader and the one breaking down, and Cassie because she was the moral compass of the group. Though if she were the one to die, I'd probably start hearing Aerith's theme. Cassie was also kind of untouchable.

That said, I didn't mind the downer ending. I just didn't like the cliff hanger. Would it be so unrealistic if all the characters had retired from fighting in wars? Ax included? They could have just mentioned that another war was coming and now the next generation would have to fight. Plus it felt like a very annoying sequel hook. It also sucks that we didn't have any girl characters left.

I guess on top of that, if felt a little rushed.

I also didn't like KA's attitude in the letter.

[esplin]

Well if Animorphs was realistic, all the kids would have been killed in the first book. Or they would have been caught by the yeerks with many of their near cover blowing antics.

I think that it would have been better to have killed a character in the middle of the series. It would have been shocking, jarring, and more "realistic" as opposed to the character that dies in the climatic final battle.

Besides we got some pretty silly books in the series. (Atlantis, alergic morphing, helmacrons)

I was kind of disappointed that Rachel died. I was most curious to see how the war affected her when it was over.  Jake or Cassie dying could have been more affective. Jake because he was the fearless leader and the one breaking down, and Cassie because she was the moral compass of the group. Though if she were the one to die, I'd probably start hearing Aerith's theme. Cassie was also kind of untouchable.

That said, I didn't mind the downer ending. I just didn't like the cliff hanger. Would it be so unrealistic if all the characters had retired from fighting in wars? Ax included? They could have just mentioned that another war was coming and now the next generation would have to fight. Plus it felt like a very annoying sequel hook. It also sucks that we didn't have any girl characters left.

I guess on top of that, if felt a little rushed.

I also didn't like KA's attitude in the letter.

Karma for you ma'am.  It appears you had none and now you do.

[Snakie]

I was fine with most of the ending.

I had no issues with Rachel dying.  I thought the notion of everyone getting through was completely unrealistic and it wouldn't feel right if the war ended without a personal sacrifice of some sort.  Rachel, being the one most clearly and absolutely defined by the war, seemed the right choice.

I had no issues with post war drama with respect to Jake and Tobias, either.  Anyone who expected this to end gloriously given the path we took simply viewed the series in a much different way than I did.  This war was anything but glorious and always ambiguous.  Why would anyone expect it to end differently? 

As for the Jake/Cassie relationship, I dunno.  Maybe I simply didn't have as much invested in that as some other people did.  I wasn't upset.

As for the ending with The One:  Well, I said I was fine with ALMOST all of the ending.  Sure, I get that war sometime leads to more war.  But I can't see any reasonable rationale for introducing a brand new character in the finale pages of the book, providing almost no explanation for its existence or nature, and having it be the core of the "endgame" for this book.  That was jaw dropping.

Overall, I wasn't nearly as put off by the finale as others were.  The only part of it that really, really bothered me was The One.

[yunyun]

I think that it would have been better to have killed a character in the middle of the series. It would have been shocking, jarring, and more "realistic" as opposed to the character that dies in the climatic final battle.

Exactly. Totally agreed.

[Snakie]

I think that it would have been better to have killed a character in the middle of the series. It would have been shocking, jarring, and more "realistic" as opposed to the character that dies in the climatic final battle.

Exactly. Totally agreed.

Yeah, I'll buy that.

I don't doubt that there would be detractors of that decision as well, though.