If Cassie had a lot more edge as a character...

[Shenmue654]

I think the problem people are having with Cassie was that Cassie was very human. She made stupid, arrogant, foolish decisions based on some desperate desire to cling onto her morality in the face of war. Ironically I kind of like her as a character because of these psychological failures. It's exactly what a real, self-centered person with her sort of mind would do.

Though I think the other issue people are having is that the author favored her as a character. This is probably true.

My personal closest sympathies belong to Jake, actually. He's at once the most peculiar and the most ordinary of the Animorphs. A regular kid thrust into a position only he can take but doesn't want. Fun stuff.

[filmstu2005]

Actually, Cassie made the abrupt decision to bar Jake from killing his own brother all for the sake of the morphing cube with the possible future in mind. If I'm not mistaken, the book says that something inside her told her to let Tom take the morphing cube. So she did. And later on, even Jake questions her angrily, saying that her wolf morph could have stopped Tom without killing him. Why didn't she go after him? And Cassie isn't quite sure of her actions but she totally believed that what she did was correct, and I'd even go as far as saying she'd probably do it again, given the same circumstanes. It wasnt till later that she saw her actions as justifiable.

Cassie does things for a reason, this seemed like a more mystical reason that even she could not fully comprehend, but she went with her gut. It wasnt till after she did what she did that she began to see the many possiblilities. And even Ax and Jake were floored by her actions once she openly discussed them with the group.

Cassie was one of my favorite characters. I loved reading about her from ther perspective of the other Animorphs. But i really was not fond of her own books. Ugh, she was not entirely the same person. She was less hopey, more average, and had way more enthusiasm then she's been shown to exhibit.  I guess its her actions in the other books (minus her own) that really bring out her character.
I esp love when its her and Rachel in a scene together. You can really see the chemistry and the reasons for why they're best friends. They play off each other well

[JohnBlaze]

I never understood why there was so much Cassie hating!! Cassie was one of my favorite characters growing up, and even more so now as an adult. I think her constant search for some kind of moral peace with everything that she had to do was far more interesting and relatable than, for example, Rachel's blind bloodthirstiness. I think many readers liked Rachel so much (and Marco for that matter) because we all secretly wish that how we would be able to be life threatening, war-like situations; brave, efficient and unemotional. When in fact, most of us would have had the kind of internal struggles Cassie often voiced. That being said, I guess characters like Rachel and Marco are more fun to read.

But I totally agree that she had the potential to have a dark, manipulative side. Though I think we had enough darkness with Rachel, especially towards the end there.

They were people's favorite b/c they were more entertaining to read....I mean, the only entertaining book Cassie had was the Helmacrons book. With them 2 being more entertaining to read, we easily grasped their personalities and character...well that's my opinion.

And honestly, Cassie's my least favorite, but I still liked her character in the book series. She was a lot braver than people realize, we saw it against the Veleek, and many times her morals were put to the side for the greater good of the fight.
Post Merged: July 07, 2010, 01:54:22 AMIf i'm not mistaken, didn't Jake mention it in The Answer? He said something like "you knew this would happen all along?" Cassie knew wat she was doing, or at least, had an idea and got lucky when it worked out

[11:11]

It's interesting, when I was a lot younger and starting to read the series Cassie and her books were always my favorite. At like 8 or 9 I, get this, I liked her because of the animals she morphed on her book covers best. But that aside, once I really started getting into the books I felt like I could relate most to her character and her morals. As the series progressed and I got a little older I found her morality to be just too much and she fell to be my least favorite of the Animorphs. Not saying that I don't like good characters, because I do, but I think that books where Cassie's shown more "edge" and is more manipulative I find to be the most intriguing for her. After re-reading the series it's easy to see that Cassie really has the least character development compared to everyone else so it's kind of nice to see her every now and then break out of character and not always being the saint that the writers made her out to be (this excludes her "betrayal" at the end of the series, I'm more specifically talking about like the David incident).

[JohnBlaze]

get this, I liked her because of the animals she morphed on her book covers best. 

I agree, i think the wolf cover is one of my favorite ones

[Chad32]

Even if she did know, I still don't think that would make it more right. She took it upon herself to do something that would change things as dramatically as possible, when they always vote on important decisions.

[Shenmue654]

I did like what happened to Cassie in Book #41. Although it struck me at the time as quite far out of character, the manipulative side of her shown in that guerilla war was probably an accurate shift in her personality. We got to see so few examples of the part of her mind closest to my own, unfortunately. 
 
It's interesting however that Jake would see that as a logical progression. Considering he was in love with her. And it was created from his fears and memories. I guess that proves that somewhere in there he knows there's more to Cassie than what he sees daily.

[Alex Oiknine]

When I was a kid, Cassie was one of my favorite characters, aside from Ax and Tobias. (The only one who has remained one of my favorites is still Ax, though to be honest it's not like I actively dislike any of the characters - though I do have lots of complaints about Cassie.)

The thing is, when I got older and read the stuff, I was constantly stuck wondering this or that about the series. Cassie's an estreen. Okay, we can say she works with animals or that she's more spiritual, etc., etc. Cassie's the only one other than Tobias (who turns out to be Andalite in some strange way, so I guess this could be called forshadowing unless that wasn't planned at the time) who can hear Ax's call under the ocean (Cue blame on morphing powers). Cassie can do morphing anomalies that apparently haven't been duplicated even by Andalites who have done careers like morph-dancing their entire life - and she's never had training in the act of morphing, this talent is au natural. (Well, everyone has a right to be special?) Cassie's a space-time anomaly. Well, I guess anyone can get lucky twice... Cassie is so magnificent and awesome she can get through three missions where she's basically the only useful or present character and still win (Okay, this is getting a little unrealistic.) Any mistake Cassie makes (or risk) turns out to be the benefit and major turning point in the war (What? Really? No real mistakes?). Three of the books are essentially solo-Cassie journeys - The Departure, The Sickness, and whichever one she ends up with Aldrea.

So when I've read as an adult, my problem with Cassie is not that she's human - it's that somehow, unlike the other characters in the series, Cassie always manages to come out looking like an infallible goddess. The other characters, by contrast, have a lot of problems and seem way more human to me...

That, and when I read later on I'd also note things that really bug me. I haven't mentioned my problem with "noble savage" type commentary or "isolated from the world" types of commentary put in either by Cassie or just a general book, but there definitely were a few problems with them.

I could go on, but there's lots of reasons Cassie fell out as one of my favorites.

[11:11]

I agree with everything you said. It's weird especially since as a kid Cassie, Ax and Tobias were my favorites and now, like you, only Ax is still among my faves. What really bothered me I guess is how the writers made Cassie into such a saint. Like yeah she had human qualities and morals and stuff, but on the other hand she did no wrong. The favoritism towards Cassie just got to be too much in my opinion. After re-reading through the series, and being a bit older, I feel like the human qualities of what they were going through and the emotional turmoil of what they were doing/had done were better shown through Jake's character and the voice of morality was better shown through Tobias...

[Chad32]

That's probably the main thing that irks me about what Cassie did in 50. I don't remember anyone except maybe Jake verbally thrashing her for what she did. Tobias even told Jake that excluding her from a meeting was beyond wrong, and he didn't even defend himself. He even did it by accident and I think felt guilty about it.

Then again, I'll have to get around to rereading the final arc to really talk about it.

[EscafilDevice]

Cassie is as obvious of an author-insert as Bella Swan.

[dolphin4077]

Alexolknine, I agree 100% with your assessment of Cassie.

Even if she did know, I still don't think that would make it more right. She took it upon herself to do something that would change things as dramatically as possible, when they always vote on important decisions.

What bugs me even more about the unilateral decision was that she still could have gotten her way if there was a group meeting.  She would have easily gotten support from Tobias and Jake.  Marco would have been on board once he figured out the strategic benefits.  Rachel has always been supportive of Cassie.  Understandably, Ax would've been the biggest holdout, but he has grown up enough to make decision based on doing what's right rather than what the Andalite military wants.   

[Alex Oiknine]

I agree with everything you said. It's weird especially since as a kid Cassie, Ax and Tobias were my favorites and now, like you, only Ax is still among my faves. What really bothered me I guess is how the writers made Cassie into such a saint. Like yeah she had human qualities and morals and stuff, but on the other hand she did no wrong. The favoritism towards Cassie just got to be too much in my opinion. After re-reading through the series, and being a bit older, I feel like the human qualities of what they were going through and the emotional turmoil of what they were doing/had done were better shown through Jake's character and the voice of morality was better shown through Tobias...

You know what's really funny? Ax betrays them at least three times in the series that we know of (The Decision, The Deception, and The Sacrifice). There are several times where he goes out of his way to be a traitor to the humans and the human cause, only to come back because these are his comrades and he just can't accept the Andalites treating humans as inferior at the cost of their entire species. Twice or more he referred to himself as human, and completely ignores that later on. The Decision and in The Sacrifice? He's just plain mean until he is put in a situation where he has to remember he loves them and they're his comrades. Unlike his brother Elfangor around the Taxxon Home World, he suggests and flushes the Yeerks of the Pool Ship around Earth into space.

Yet in some ways these disappointing decisions make him really human and believable. He's separated from his people, he's proud of being an Andalite, the Yeerks are his primary goal, and he's hardened by war - unlike Elfangor, who tried to make the honorable decision long before he'd become war-hardened.

Hahaha, we had this conversation in the LJ community too, so I've had the opportunity to really think about the reasons why Ax remained a favorite while Cassie did not.

[Chad32]

It's his motives more than anything else. Ax has loyalty issues because he's not Human. Cassie has loyalty issues because she doesn't want to change herself. Any time Ax has loyalty issues it's because he wants to be loyal to his friends and his people. However Cassie's people are the same as her friends, so any time she does something stupid she's betraying her friends and her people.

[11:11]

You know what's really funny? Ax betrays them at least three times in the series that we know of (The Decision, The Deception, and The Sacrifice). There are several times where he goes out of his way to be a traitor to the humans and the human cause, only to come back because these are his comrades and he just can't accept the Andalites treating humans as inferior at the cost of their entire species. Twice or more he referred to himself as human, and completely ignores that later on. The Decision and in The Sacrifice? He's just plain mean until he is put in a situation where he has to remember he loves them and they're his comrades. Unlike his brother Elfangor around the Taxxon Home World, he suggests and flushes the Yeerks of the Pool Ship around Earth into space.

Yet in some ways these disappointing decisions make him really human and believable. He's separated from his people, he's proud of being an Andalite, the Yeerks are his primary goal, and he's hardened by war - unlike Elfangor, who tried to make the honorable decision long before he'd become war-hardened.

Hahaha, we had this conversation in the LJ community too, so I've had the opportunity to really think about the reasons why Ax remained a favorite while Cassie did not.

I know I do find Ax frustrating when he constantly has his inner battles of humans vs Andalites, but like you said it's understandable since he's an outsider on Earth among his friends. I guess I find all of his betrayals excusable since for #18, he was so much more naive and it was the first time he was among his own species, #46 he was doing what he knew had to be done and he even got support from half the team, and #52 yeah he contacted the Andalite fleet, but he never really went through with anything with them.

Also, I like how in all those books even when he knows he's betrayed them or he's mad at them or they him, he always says things like "I'm glad I'm going back to my forest where I live" or "I kept seeing their faces" or "Despite Prince Jake's suspicions and Rachel's anger I felt at home" which made all his betrayals even more excusable since even though his actions were doing what he thought was necessary to winning (for the most part) he still cared about all of them. I'm sorry I don't think what I'm trying to say is coming out very good. Anyways, I better stop, this is a Cassie thread not an Ax thread haha.    

Who are you on LJ? I feel like I should know this since I recognize that userpic...