Group Re-Read: The Ellimist Chronicles

[Kotetsu1442]

...but getting a new story, that was waaaaaaaay before the Andalite X Yeerk war, that doesn't really leave us any wiser in the bigger schemes of the Ellimist X Cryak 'game', at THIS stage in the series, was, really, empty fulfilment to me, as a fan and as a reader. Excuse my sincerity.

Oh, well your sincerity is certainly more than excused, it is quite appreciated; the only reason I asked in the first place is because I like to see things from others' views as well as explaining mine. And this reasoning here is particularly clear to me now, I actually started a thread where I asked if others thought it was a good thing or not when an author decides to write their own "The Ill-Advised Curiosity" of their novels, using the Civil War side-story of #47 as an example. In essence, that would be the main problem I would say that I have with TEC as well.

[TheEllimist]

It has been years since I've read this book, so the details are lost to me, but there is one big theme which stuck out to me greater than any other in the series. I thought this book highlighted the symbolism of the Ellimist and Crayak being like God and Satan.
Firstly, the physical body of the Ellimist is described much like angels from Revelations in the Christian Bible.
When the Ellimist goes and lives as an Andilite, he is the Andilite; which goes along with the idea of Jesus being God. The Andilite goes off alone to report back to the Ellimist as he lives his life, much like Jesus's rhythms of going to places away from people to pray. The Ellimist even impregnates one of the females and they are all surprised that she gave birth without doing "it."
Later in the book as the Ellimist and Crayak are battling, the Ellimist is at a point where he is in 3 dimensions of reality, Zero-Space, Real Space, and the bottom of a Black Hole. This is likely a reference to the Christian concept of God being a trinity.

The very attitude taken by the two characters is taken straight from some peoples concepts of who God is and what he is like and who Satan is and what he is like.
Many people see God as a being who is omnipotent and omnipresent, but doesn't act. Taking a-make-the-smallest-move-possible role to attain the desired out come.   
Crayak on the other hand has one goal, be better than the Ellimist and defeat the Ellimist. Oh yeah, and destroy worlds. This character is right in line with many perceptions of the character of the Devil. He is more willing to take an active role; a direct approach, but he is limited by the Ellimist (their agreement to rules).

This whole set up points to idea that: in Animorphs world, the Ellimist is mistaken for God and Crayak for Satan.

Are there other ways you see symbolism in The Ellimist?
Do you agree? Disagree?
Why?

[Nar Klawip]

Sorry TheEllimist but you totally reminded me of this!

http://www.exposingsatanism.org/animorphs.htm

[RYTX]

I agree that the Ellimist and Crayak came off as not too subtle allusions to a god of good and evil dynamic but I do query:
Where are you getting that they did not do "it" in siring his Andalite spawn? I see no reason to believe they didn't mate in a typical-and probably freaky-deaky-Andalite fashion.

http://www.exposingsatanism.org/animorphs.htm
So it's Animorphs fault I'm a soulless heathen
Good to know

[Chad32]

I'm pretty sure they did it, and no one was surprised about the birth.

I dislike that they made Crayak two dimensional in this book. I was under the impression from 26 that he wants to make the perfect species that dominates the galaxy. Not just destroy all life for the Evulz.

[TheEllimist]

I thought that the Ellimist had impregnated the Andalite female in some unusual way, I suppose I remembered wrong.

Anyway, I feel like the article posted was written by someone who is a little paranoid. I doubt that KA intended to instill anti-christian ideas in children's heads.

I have a feeling she was drawing on large and popular themes to make her story more appealing.
The same goes with the theme of "some kid gets thrown into a situation and tries to figure the best way to work through it." It appeals to the audience of regular kids who are reading the books. They can imagine who the main characters are better because the reader can fill in the blanks and spaces with details of him/herself.

[Terenia]

KA has specifically said that she did not try to infuse religion into Animorphs, but it's hard to ignore the blatant God/devil symbology here. I suppose a more secular view would merely be "ultimate good" versus "ultimate evil", which is a theme present in most religions and in atheism and agnosticism. There are quite a few intersting parallels, though.

[Gafrash]

But seriously, what were everyone's good moments in this book?
I was just looking forward to the Ellimist X Cryak meetup/showdown the entire time, and to get what we got, was a bit of a let down.

[Chad32]

I liked reading about him trying to help people. Basically playing a real version of his game. I liked reading about his backstory, though it seemed a bit over done. Too similar to other backstories, if you know what I mean.

I expected some background on Crayak, and some mention of the Time Matrix. Maybe some mention of the Yeerks and such. Some details about their current game concerning the Andalite/Yeerk war.

[Terenia]

I enjoyed how directly this book related to role-playing, since when it came out I was so fully immersed into the Animorphs RPG world via AOL. I loved that Ellimist's character tried so hard and couldn't get anything right. What was it he was called? A "heroic loser" or something like that? Yet through it all he didn't lose his basic drive to do good. I found that impressive.

[Baranth]

I have a question to pose.

Why does it seem like the entire plot of this book is nearly the same as what happens throughout the Remnants series?

[Gafrash]

Is anyone able to list any of the numerous new races/species that are stated throughout sections of the book?

Conversely, a random question: was there any winks and nods to The Five here in the Ellimist Chronicles?!

[NateSean]

There was a race called the 333.

Gotta give KA this, the Ellimist Chronicles made me feel like I was truly an alien world. It wasn't like Hork-Bajir or TAC. It's like, I knew they were Andalites and Hork-Bajir, but I still felt like those planets made sense to me. Even the hybrid world created by the Time Matrix was something familiar.

But the Ellimist lived in a place and time that really made me feel like I was no where that could even come close to being like somewhere I have been. (Except for the entire cultural MMORPG thing, but besides that)