What happened to Rachel?

[Chad32]

I would wonder if there was an afterlife afterall, and if some guy up there really was going to send me to Hell just for not devoting my life to him.

[Kotetsu1442]

I would wonder if there was an afterlife afterall, and if some guy up there really was going to send me to Hell just for not devoting my life to him.

Are you sure that that is what you would wonder? Because if you think that that is even a remotely relevant question then wouldn't that be a little late to start wondering about it? 

Myself, I'm not sure that anyone can say what their thoughts in their last moments will be about until they face them, but I would guess that they would be about anyone I'm leaving behind (I think that my initial leanings toward Rachel thinking that is probably as much me projecting as it is a likely answer).

[Chad32]

Actually I wonder that kind of thing from time to time, but I would say that at the end of this life is the best time to wonder about a possible afterlife. I think about a possible aterlife from time to time, and only thta often, because I have so many things in this life to worry about. I have so many things going on. If you're lying in a hospital bed (best case scenario, I think) and about to die, then the only possible future is the afterlife. If there is none, then that's ok too.

I suppose I could think about other people, though, but maybe not.

[Azguard]

well, if you don't believe in the afterlife, then you probably would think about other people.

[Chad32]

I'll just have to see when the time comes.

[zaprowsdower]

Animorphs was very big on the "no afterlife" thing. Once she dies, the Ellimist talks about her personal time-line curling into nonexistence, nothingness. She's dead. Nothing left of her, except for the memories other people have. Time-lines can be changed, altered, recreated or destroyed, but afterlife? Nah. Not in the Animorphs universe.

I disagree. All we know about the timeline strings is that they cover things in their physical life. Like the Greek Fates, where when someone dies the string of their life is cut, their string in Animorphs coils into nothingness, signifying death. But it says nothing that excludes the immaterial, the soul, which is not of the body. Animorphs never discussed religion outside of reference or sometimes when the characters discussed morality, but in doing so didn't say that there weren't things like the afterlife.

[Kotetsu1442]

I concur, the one thing Animorphs was 'very big' on was not telling you what the author was very big on and only took a definite stance on a few specific issues; otherwise KA says that she and Grant "...hate simplistic answers to complicated questions.  And we also really hate lecturing or acting like we have all the answers.  In most cases we want to lay out the facts, lay out the issues, and let the readers figure out what they think." (http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,4471.13.html). Avoiding discussing the afterlife wasn't saying "There is no afterlife" it's just that it was outside of the scope of what they/KA wanted to explore with readers.

[JohnBlaze]

well. if you were on the last stretch of your life literally after fighting this war...what would be the last thing you wondered?

If Ax could get diabetes from Cinnabunzuh overload

[Zeus974]

well. if you were on the last stretch of your life literally after fighting this war...what would be the last thing you wondered?

I would say that I would wonder if I would at least continue some form of existence or just stop being able to think

[Canicula]

...if I'll see them again.

At least I think I would wonder if there is any form of afterlife and if there is a afterlife if I will see the ones I love again

[yunyun]

Well, I like to think that Rachel lives happily after ever with Tobias and Cassie and they are pretended that the war never happens. But in my little fan fic universe, Rachel is brought back to like, in the fight for Ax (#54) and they go though the entire war again, with each of the Animorphs getting killed. Then they live happily ever after in afterlife

[Darth Zakryn]

I think the evidence is safe to conclude that there IS no afterlife in the Ani universe. Now, granted I don't believe this is so in real life, but in the Animorphs universe it is shown you can time travel and erase people from the past, as well as CREATE entire species from literally nothing. It sure makes it sound like life is cheap, not something disposable and common as found in Animorphs.

That said, I do think Rachel was wondering SOMETHING about her upcoming death. Whether it was "I wondered if I would still live" or "I wondered if I would dream" is up for debate, but obviously her death was all that was on her mind.

[yunyun]

I think the evidence is safe to conclude that there IS no afterlife in the Ani universe.

But technically it never said that, and I really don't see how it is that way. Just  because it may make it seem that life is cheap, doesn't mean that is no afterlife. Afterlife has just about nothing to do with that.

[Noelle]

I think the really only clue that KAA gave about the existence of/lack of an afterlife came in MM3.  When Jake comes back he says that he doesn't even know what happened to him, he didn't know he died.  He just popped out and then popped into existence.  That, to me, would suggest that there is no afterlife, because he was not conscious of the fact he even died.

However, that isn't conclusive, because the Time Matrix had screwed that whole time line up.  Even though he didn't recognize any sort of after life, he technically didn't die.


Other than that, it can go both ways with Rachel.  She could have passed into another reality.  Or it could have just ended.  I don't see any real evidence in the book either way.

[Darth Zakryn]

Read up on the tropes The Nothing After Death and Cessation of Existence. If Rachel's soul still lived, it might have just been floating aorund in an empty void, forever doomed to be haunted by her failures and her choices.