Unrealistic *Spoiler*

[Vanish]

When re-reading the series I found it unrealistic and bothering that even though all the main Animorphs characters were in hundreds of battles , no one died until the very last book. As much as I loved all the characters (besides Cassie haha) I think it would have made it more exciting if maybe one or two more would have died off during the series to give the reader the belief that anyone could die at any moment. For example after Tobias became a Nothlit, I think it added to the fear, atleast a little, of someone getting trapped in morph more and in turn made the story better. I know that the Animorphs universe itself was unrealistic but the series and characters had a lot of realistic things about it which is in my opinion part of what made the Animorphs so great.

Does anyone agree with me on this or do you think it would have hurt the story and the chemistry of the characters too much?

[Estelore]

I think it would have been a maybe-improvement if they had started off with one or two more kids involved, and Cassie died (which would redeem her general ish-ness), and one of the other extras died. Then maybe if another had been taken by the Yeerks, but the Ani's had to make a last-second choice to kill him before they get exposed. Jake survived infestation, which brought THAT particular fear home to us, but having somebody enslaved-then-dead would bring it even closer to home by illustrating the importance of secrecy and the value of freedom even over life.

But eh. I still love the series enough as-is; my post here is merely speculation of how I would have written it.

[Vanish]

haha oh yeah same here, I love Animorphs so much and I think its one of the greatest series ever written. Great ideas Estelore, I think if the animorphs had to kill one of there own because of infestation, it would have been a very dark and interesting moment in the series and would have shown the desperation of the characters need to win no matter what.

[Estelore]

*nod*

One of the big things about the series that bugged me was that it really did not get stressed ENOUGH (in my eyes) that this war wasn't just about humanity: there is a muchmuchmuch bigger picture here, and it involves humans, the whole of Earth, and all sentient cephalized species.

Having a couple mid-series deaths and really MAJOR moral/ethical decisions, decisions with massively profound consequences... it could only deepen the series, and it would give RAF so much more food for thought and discussion.

[goom]

i've argued the same point many times.
if k.a. wanted accuracy (war has sacrifices), she could have gotten rid of a few during the middle. *cough* cassie *cough*
keeping them ALL alive against impossible odds (only to have 1+ killed at the very end) doesn't seem fair, one way or the other.

it wasn't my series, but it still didn't feel 'right'.

try and keep the title a bit more specific (but thanks for including the spoiler warning!)

[MoppingBear]

killing a character is always dangerous for a creator of a series, because there are always people who get attached to characters (even cassie) that is why you dont see it happen often anywhere. in heroes, every time someone died, fans complained and the character was brought back. the only character to ever truly die in comics (bucky) recently came back to life as well.

[Dameg]

Yeah that's always hard to sacrifice a character. The only way to "cure" the missing, is to put another good character to replace it.
KAA could have done it. She added Ax and David, and the new Animorphs near the end, but she could have added more of them in other books and kill one of the main character, replace it by another one...
It's a challenge for the writers. ^^

[RYTX]

I definitely see a deterrent to a lot of people if you start nicking off characters, realistic as it would be, but in Ani-verse I see that being a problem too: we have a reasonably close community with with groups of kids dead or disappearing this stages a problem. Plus I envision our heroes being pretty demoralized in fighting a covert war where their teammates keep dying-I don't see them pushing through that as well as they did otherwise

[Chad32]

If she did kill one or two off once in a while it would have made the series more realistic. There would be a risk of the new person being deemed a replacement scrappy, but it would have been more real.

However it's either fanon or canon that the Ellemist always makes sure there is a way out. That justifies them always living through things that should kill them, because someone a lot more powerful than V3 was watching out for them. That's one thing that made it so jarring that Rachel died. It's like E dropped the ball.

I wonder if she would have gotten away with character death, though. Would she be forced to sell to an older audience if the Anis were killed off for real more often? She was walking the line as it was.

[Kotetsu1442]

I think it really cheapens/ruins the story to believe that "the Ellimist did it." For one thing it makes the Ellimist and Crayak's game if he is able to make sure that the Anis make it out OK everytime. Furthermore, it cheapens the efforts of the Anis, because then really wasn't their own actions that mattered in the war.

Of course, I agree that unrealistic as is and that this made some of the suspenseful situations harder to take seriously. The clearest example I always go to is this: at one point Tobias is dead, very clearly dead, quite undoubtedly dead... The book ends and he's still dead. But I couldn't even make myself care, instead I was annoyed because I couldn't even convince myself that it was possible that he was actually dead; instead I knew without a doubt in my mind that not only was he not dead, but I was also quite sure that he would come in 'unexpectedly' to save the day at a critical moment when otherwise something terrible would happen. It actually made the rest of the read more annoying because I knew that this literary device was being used and had to just wait for it to happen.

In all fairness, I certainly concede that KA wouldn't necessarily have known just how far the series was going to go from the beginning and wasn't prepared for this problem, so that by the time she was far enough into the series to have to say "You know, it is unrealistic that the Anis keep making it out safe and sound every time" it was too late to set up some characters to be part of the early team and sacrifice them for an early demise. At this point, she didn't have a dozen or so adults (who are a lot easier to kill off without hurting too many fans' feelings) but only 6 kids who were all justifiably necessary for the entire series.

So, unrealistic: yes, but also necessary with the series established as it was within the first couple of books. I guess this is just one of those situations where you have to apply suspension of disbelief; to accept that even though it is an unlikely story it happens that way anyways. Personally, I prefer it when the story stands on its own right in a "yes, it makes sense that it would play out like that" way, but if a story is good enough, as Animorphs certainly is, I am more than willing to suspend my disbelief as necessary and enjoy it.

[Chad32]

It was all part of Ellemist and Crayak's game. It doesn't cheapen the efforts of the Anis. All Ellemist did was get them together and make sure they aren't put into an impossible to survive situation. Everything else is the Animorph's doing. I think it justifies their survival very well, and is the most realistic reason that they did survive until the end. It's better than them being just that lucky, or just that good. Or the bad guys being just that bad. Of course they were bad, but you can partially justify that with the thought that the Council doesn't give V3 the best troops. He's off in the middle of nowhere, fighting a handful of enemies, and has a habit of killing his troops for trivial reasons.

[Kotetsu1442]

It was all part of Ellemist and Crayak's game. It doesn't cheapen the efforts of the Anis. All Ellemist did was get them together and make sure they aren't put into an impossible to survive situation. Everything else is the Animorph's doing. I think it justifies their survival very well, and is the most realistic reason that they did survive until the end. It's better than them being just that lucky, or just that good. Or the bad guys being just that bad. Of course they were bad, but you can partially justify that with the thought that the Council doesn't give V3 the best troops. He's off in the middle of nowhere, fighting a handful of enemies, and has a habit of killing his troops for trivial reasons.

Well yes, the Earth/Yeerk war could have gone either way and that the Ellimist made sure that they had a way to make it through while the Crayak made sure that the Yeerks could conquer Earth. It was then up to the characters from both sides to play it out their own way. But to say that with every mission the Anis decided to go on the Ellimist was allowed to provide them a way out does cheapen it, removing any real meaning to the debating, planning and worrying that they did beforehand.

Sure, when they are directly presented with a Crayak/Ellimist challenge (The Iskoort conflict for example) then yes, for it to be fair conflict to decide that outcome it has to be able to go either way. But if every time that they decide "The way we are going to solve this problem is to go Yeerk Pool" then the Ellimist is allowed to give them a backdoor out of the Yeerk pool, then they really can't make a wrong decision until they are actually in the heat of battle.

So I would say that, no, for the most part you have avoid the "the Ellimist/Crayak did it" explanations unless we know them to be a move they were making, and instead assume that for the most part the Ellimist and Crayak must have to stand back and watch how it played out.



On the other-hand, V3 having hand-me-down troops is a good point that adds some verisimilitude. As is the poor actions/decision making on the bad guys' part, though that often is in itself unrealistic; yes V3's arrogant oafish and stupid actions sometimes made the Anis' survival more reasonable, but it is unrealistic that someone that unable to control his ego would have lasted that long moving up the ladder in the Yeerk Empire.

[Chad32]

I really don't see the problem you're talking about, but I guess I can just agree to disagree here.

They could still plan, and they could still die. It's just that he made sure there was always a way out, if they found it.

[Alex Oiknine]

I think for a kid's series it would have been hard to keep kids into it had several characters died in the middle. Let's face it, Remnants didn't do that well. Other famous series (Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl for starters) all manage to keep most of the main characters alive. Animorphs was at least real enough to take one of the ones most precious to us, one of the narrators. In Harry Potter there were characters you loved that died, but none of the main three. And the main three lived happily ever after. In Artemis Fowl... Sad, but not a main character.

For a kids series, it was plenty horrific. People shot, entrails falling out, PTSD, people willing to run out of the war in spite of the damage it would do to civilians just to not be in it anymore (MM#4, The Andalite Chronicles), treachery, a loss of morality, tearing family apart, torture... I could go on pretty continuously about it.

From a first-person narrative I can understand why there weren't 20+ characters from the beginning. And losing a narrator! I always wonder what my cousins will think when they've read the series just to get to #54, and the character that always came right after Jake dies. Someone from the beginning, someone they got the thoughts of in every Megamorphs and 1/6th or so of the overall books.

Heck, I was starting high school when #54 came out and I remember my friends and I thinking it was so traumatic. You didn't need to be a genius to realize how much worse real war would be and how many people you would lose.

I think if, reading the series, there had been more narrators, people dying, etc., etc... A lot of kids wouldn't have even bothered, because there wouldn't have been anyone you could fall in love with. I don't know if even I would have bothered. Now, as an adult, I think I would. But back then? The whole point of a novel series was to have home characters you could come back to and be in love with. Speaking of literary love here, of course.

So, unrealistic? Yeah, quite a bit - especially considering their ability to make it as long as they did without Ax. A stupid decision in execution? No, absolutely not. For 9-12 year olds I think it was totally the right choice. Get them in love, get them to feel that comradeship, rip their heart out and show them the harshest war reality at the finish line.

Didn't like the final arc of the series, but speaking purely of how it ended I thought it was pretty smart.

[Kotetsu1442]

For a kids series, it was plenty horrific. People shot, entrails falling out, PTSD, people willing to run out of the war in spite of the damage it would do to civilians just to not be in it anymore (MM#4, The Andalite Chronicles), treachery, a loss of morality, tearing family apart, torture... I could go on pretty continuously about it.

I think most here would agree (correct me if I'm wrong) that it was 'realistic' in the sense that the aspects of it being a war were clear, I don't think it needed to be more horrific. We're mostly just talking here about that even as 'real' as it got, you still knew that the six main characters would make it out just fine. And yes, trying to have 20+ main characters wouldn't be personable enough for you to really start caring about them and yes, lots of main characters don't need to keep dying while you're still trying to get to know them. But setting up an extra character at the beginning, getting to know them peripherally through Jake in book #1 just like the rest of the Anis, then having them die within the next couple of books would have left the feeling that it wasn't just going to be like a little-kids cartoon where every main character made it out safe and sound; remember, this is a young adult series, maybe still 'kids' from our perspective, but ready for more suspense than a small child.