Things That Bug

[CounterInstinct]

Personally, I'm totally fine if #41 is never mentioned again. Least favorite book in the series by FAR. Ugh.

OT:
What are you talking about? 41 is a great book!
Many people don't like it because it doesn't make sense. Ironically, it does make sense because it's just a dream. Jake's dream. That's why the Venber tastes so bad, because it symbolized Jake's disgust every time he bites an enemy in his tiger morph.

That's also the reason everything goes conveniently for him. His subconscious makes ways for him to survive.

It's actually a great book if you just think it's Jake's dream.

And, also, maybe the reason they repeat is lines is for the new readers. I mean, it was made so you can start reading from ANY book. Unlike HP or LOTR.

[LisaCharly]

Ugh, 41 is terrible. The only good things about it are the Marco/Rachel interaction in the beginning and the scene with Tobias as Elfangor. Everything else is saccharine ("do you think someday I'll free my friends?" amazing art kid), irrelevant, wannabe clever ("get it, Rachel's all ugly now? Because she's so pretty? Oh and also Marco's a Visser just like his mom! IRONIES!") or just wall-bangingly stupid (Jake conclusion of "I almost sentenced Rachel and Marco to death, but you know what I really regret? Not stopping to pander to Cassie's need to mope!"). And not to mention the frigging moon ray. Moons are not suns, Yeerks! Really, that's the best Jake's subconscious can come up with. I could have taken it being nonsensical if it wasn't so dang bad in every other way, too.

I mean, I'm one of Cassie's few devoted fans, and even I wanted to beat her upside the head in that one. And Jake for pandering to her. Again, he nearly sentenced Rachel and Marco to death, but his biggest problem is that he didn't play nursemaid to Cassie's pollyannaing? Terrible conclusion to a terrible book. I can't believe I waded through 150 pages of that - twice - for that sorry excuse for a payoff.

I mean, I love me some nonsensical dream sequences. They're my favorite thing to write and among my favorite things to read. One of my other peeves in the series is that their dreams/nightmares are often too linear - Jake's dream in #6 or Marco's dream in #30 being examples of that. Neither of them really have dream logic to them, and that bothers me. Meanwhile, by contrast, Marco's dreams in #5 and #15 have really deranged nightmare logic to them, which works for me, and Cassie's in #19 are flashbacks, which also makes sense.

But #41 doesn't make sense in normal logic or follow the rules of dream logic. It feels less like the "and then surreal stuff happened and I instantly understood it and/or didn't question it" nature of dreams or the "my subconscious is unloading all its crazy onto me at once in a completely impossible way!" of nightmare logic. There's no jumping back and forth in the sequence of events, there's no fixating on repetition, there's no people randomly changing identities, no big location switches. It's too linear and plausible for dreams and too stupid and convenient for reality. It just feels like someone had ten pages of ideas and then just did a bunch of "...and then!", and added a few incongruities to try and have it masquerade as a dream.

So, it fails as a story, it fails as a dream, it fails as a plot set-up, it fails as an insight to Jake's character, it fails as a standalone piece...*whew* Pretty much, I hate #41. I hate every page and nearly every letter on that godforsaken book. I like to pretend it didn't happen and thankfully, the series canon pretty much agrees, as it's never mentioned again.

As for repeating lines, it's the specific descriptions that bother me. It's like KA came up with a few stock phrases to have the Anis use whenever they morphed, and just recycled them. Lazy writing. There are so many other words that also convey "bulge".

[Kitulean]

Yeah, the copy/paste descriptions get tedious after awhile. AND YES, them not bombarding Ax with questions about everything bugs the crap out of me, as does them not going after every morph they could possibly get. Of course, that would eliminate the standard book plot of 'problem - find morph that will solve it'

Also, Dameg, that whole bit with the woman in #1 and Karen is why, in my fanfiction rewriting of #23, the woman from #1 is revealed to be Loren, who has been fighting a one person guerrilla war since being freed from infestation (remember, Tobias never saw her), and SHE takes Karen on the run with her to keep them both safe and to make sure Karen is never infested to give away the Animorph identities.

[Loligo]

The thing that always bothered me the most was the way K.A.A. always portrayed sharks as mindless eating machines (that for some reason, always seemed to attack Marco...) Yes, they are very efficient predators, but for all of the research she did on other animals, you'd think she'd be able to look past the stereotypes people create for sharks.

[CounterInstinct]

@41:
First of all, dream logic. It doesn't make sense. I mean, sometimes I dream about very contradicting things every 5 seconds.

there's no fixating on repetition

Remember the old hawk?

there's no people randomly changing identities

Again, Tobias. An old red tailed hawk at first, then an Andalite nothlit. Marco's rank change. Jake's dad.

no big location switches

there were quite a few. It just so happened that Jake "blacks out" everytime there was a big switch (funny, huh?).

Again, he nearly sentenced Rachel and Marco to death, but his biggest problem is that he didn't play nursemaid to Cassie's pollyannaing?

maybe subconsciously, Cassie's yammering was more important to him. It's a guilty trait that he doesn't show in the real world, like how Tom is more important than the world to Jake.

[Dameg]

Also, Dameg, that whole bit with the woman in #1 and Karen is why, in my fanfiction rewriting of #23, the woman from #1 is revealed to be Loren, who has been fighting a one person guerrilla war since being freed from infestation (remember, Tobias never saw her), and SHE takes Karen on the run with her to keep them both safe and to make sure Karen is never infested to give away the Animorph identities.

I also tried to explain Karen's freedom in my fanfiction... even if it isn't perfect, I made her leave with her parents in another country where they couldn't be found, maybe with the help of the Yeerk resistants.
But still, it would have been really hard for her to be free, it would almost need a volume to do that correctly ^^'
If they rewrite a little the Animorphs for the new release, I'd like they explain how she stayed free, and how Aftran stayed undiscovered so long.

[Nara]

Another thing that was annoying, besides the lack of dog morphs, was the sound effects in every battle scene and very often in morphing scenes too. There were too many sound effects and too often, one WHOOOM here and there is just entertaining but too much sounds too childish.
Oh and those generic morphing scenes bored the hell outta me. Seriously, I have no idea how many times I have had to read what it's like to become a fly.

[LisaCharly]

@41:
First of all, dream logic. It doesn't make sense. I mean, sometimes I dream about very contradicting things every 5 seconds.

That's what I'm saying. #41 makes too much sense to be a dream and not enough to be a real story. It's in that awkward limbo where it's just a lame story.

Now granted, my responses to these next parts may be incorrect since I haven't read #41 in a year and am not going to suffer it again.

Remember the old hawk?

Nope. Totally forgot. Good point.

Again, Tobias. An old red tailed hawk at first, then an Andalite nothlit. Marco's rank change. Jake's dad.

Marco's rank change gets noted, which breaks the dream logic of "stuff changes and I accept it without question" for me. I mean, it sometimes happens in dreams, I think? I've never had that happen in a dream where I was like "hey, suddenly I get it's a dream because you aren't who you just were!".

That said, totally forgot the other two, so good points there.

there were quite a few. It just so happened that Jake "blacks out" everytime there was a big switch (funny, huh?).

Totally forgot again. Good point. Does he lampshade this or does he go with it?

maybe subconsciously, Cassie's yammering was more important to him. It's a guilty trait that he doesn't show in the real world, like how Tom is more important than the world to Jake.

Which is one heck of a disappointing thing to find out about Jake.

See, I could understand if Cassie's life was more important to him than anyone else's. That, actually, makes a lot of sense for the character and is completely believable. But it wasn't Cassie's life at stake - she was just having a whingefest after a battle where at least two members had much more of a right to complain than she did. And Jake didn't shut her down so much as just not cater to it. So...yeah. Doesn't reflect either character well. It makes Cassie look like an overemotional, selfish, clueless whiner and Jake look like a lovesick, obsessive idiot. Personally, I like that both characters are flawed - they are, after all, teenagers, and Cassie is an emotional, sanctimonious whiner sometimes, and Jake is an idiot sometimes, but this conclusion just felt like character derailment for me. Mostly for Cassie, because I really like her in most of the other books, and this book is just everything that Cassie haters complain about times ten.

Anyway, I just hate #41. Maybe if the ending was different I'd be okay with it, but as it stands I hate what the book says about the characters and I think it's a lame story. You bring up good points and things I missed because I haven't read it in a while, but the point is, it doesn't feel like a dream to me and the payoff makes me want to punch puppies. You've done a good job defending it and maybe someday I reread it, but probably not since it makes blood spontaneously shoot from my eyes.

[Dameg]

One of the problem with Animorphs is that the writing style is childish and the story pretty mature. It's a strange mix... It would have been better if they wrote it like HP, it would have fitted better to the story...

[CounterInstinct]

@41:
I do agree that the ending sucked and the character portrayal was a bit off.

it's also kind off bugging that Jake always say that "Rachel is beautiful, but I don't think of her that way.". Kind of makes you think on how Jake really views Rachel a the start of the series.

[Chad32]

It makes me think Jakes sees her as pretty, but isn't attracted to her. I see my sister as pretty, but I wouldn't want to bone her.

[Coal Kropotkin]

I loathed 41... It just sucked, IMO. (Also, AWESOME! Another Cassie fan! ) IDK, maybe I hated because I normally know I'm dreaming when I'm dreaming... But, you're right, dreams don't make ANY sense except to the one dreaming them, and only WHEN you're dreaming them. There's always "tra lalalala I'm in LA! BAM! Now I'm in Alaska! And that makes sense! Not gonna question it.. Was always here" kinda thing. Jake didn't have that in 41. It just didn't seem weird enough to be a dream, and wasn't real enough to an actual event. It just sucked. But, I hate dream books/episodes. I hate it when I read something, or watch something, and then find out that NONE OF IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED! To me, it seemed like 41 was the AppleGrant experimenting with Acid. -_-

[Galladerotom]

Most of things I can't stand revolve around some people's morphing theories that involve nanobots.

Also I hated when K.A. would create an excellent character and then completely drop them for the rest of the series, ex. the other andalites that survived the battle I mean one cannot morph the other is going to die and we still don't know what happened.

[CounterInstinct]

IDK, maybe I hated because I normally know I'm dreaming when I'm dreaming.

wow, you're reallly... Cassie-like! In a sense.

But, you're right, dreams don't make ANY sense except to the one dreaming them, and only WHEN you're dreaming them. There's always "tra lalalala I'm in LA! BAM! Now I'm in Alaska! And that makes sense! Not gonna question it.. Was always here" kinda thing.

maybe because, like you, Jake had a feeling that he was dreaming? YOU always dream knowing you are dreaming right, it happened to me once, and I tried to control it to fit my needs (Cassie being able to thought-speak w/o being in morph). Also, when you're nervous, you nervousness also affects your dream (unable to morph).

It just didn't seem weird enough to be a dream, and wasn't real enough to an actual event. It just sucked. But, I hate dream books/episodes. I hate it when I read something, or watch something, and then find out that NONE OF IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED! To me, it seemed like 41 was the AppleGrant experimenting with Acid.

Then you also probably hate Megamorphs 2-4 and book 11.

[Coal Kropotkin]

I forgot what book 11 was... And no, the Megamorphs happened... In a sense.  Didn't hate them, but they weren't my favourite books.

Also, how does that make me Cassie-like? I should also rephrase that: I normally know I'm dreaming when I remember the dreams. I rarely remember my dreams, so I don't know about those, but the ones I do remember, at least 70ish% of them I know I'm dreaming. The other 30ish% are nightmares, and I don't know I'm dreaming. D: