Cassie

[Chad32]

19 is definitely a pivotal book. No doubt there. I kind of wish the YPM was fleshed out more, though.

[Kitulean]

Sure #19 is VITAL to the plot that was told, but it's also introduces headache inducing plot holes like why the little girl was NEVER reinfested or even ever really mentioned again (the concept of 'just don't tell anyone you aren't a yeerk anymore' is abysmally dumb, to me).

The entire 'cassie's moralism saves the world' thing was just the writer bending the plot to fit rather than thinking at all logically, and the amount of times Cassie 'happens to be right' or is 'proven right in the end' or has anyone who happens to disagree with her made out to be this terrible person is what makes me hate her so much.

That and the fact that I hold her personally responsible for the deaths of Rachel and all those Auxiliary Animorphs. "So you stop Jake from possibly fatally wounding his brother, something there is very little chance he'd actually have to do to just 'stop' him, and ended up handing the yeerks Andalite technology that up to then they had NEVER had before outside of Visser 3 AND gave up what was essentially your only remaining advantage. Nice job, hypocrite."

[estrid]

"So you stop Jake from possibly fatally wounding his brother, something there is very little chance he'd actually have to do to just 'stop' him, and ended up handing the yeerks Andalite technology that up to then they had NEVER had before outside of Visser 3 AND gave up what was essentially your only remaining advantage. Nice job, hypocrite."

yes! i mean, jake was a freakin tiger, tom was in a pathetic weak human body and he was unarmed. there is no way jake woulda had to kill tom. one swipe of that paw with the claws sheathed woulda sent tom flying and the cube woulda been his. yet another huge plot hole as well as another reason cassie's hypocricy destroyed the mission

[Alex Oiknine]

stfu Rachel had AWESOME early books

I disagree with that highly. I think she's an awesome character but that her plots all sucked. If I don't read kids her books for the most part, I can explain what happened in her books (the important developments... when there are any... which relevant to the series arc there often isn't...) in like... Ten seconds. Maybe thirty for things like #7 where the Ellimist pops up.

I was really ticked off at the inequity of characters getting cool plots. And IMO Rachel was ripped off plot-wise more than any of the other characters. She's not in my top three, but that's the main reason why - the plots she got stuck with.

If she wasn't an awesome character, I wouldn't have read most of her books the first time... Heh.

[Chad32]

I agree with both Kitulean and Kit Kat. It's well established that a Human controller, even armed with a dracon, could not defeat a tiger and wolf. I also know that Cassie was not thinking ahead when she did that, and it was just the author that made things work out.

I don't know why Karen was not reinfested or killed. It's established back in book 8 that the Yeerks are very particular about Humans that know too much. They are not left alone.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I was about to ask how we know for sure that Karen wasn't re-infested, but if I recall Cassie checks on her at the end of the book right? Then again, is there anyway of saying for sure that she wasn't taken again later in the timeline?

On the other hand, many of Cassie's books, despite important events occurring (like #4, the discovery of Ax) fail to capture my interest. The better points of the plot are overwhelmed with moral rationalizing and it really becomes grating after awhile. That said, there are definite exceptions to the rule: #19 and #29 are two of my favorite books in the series.

That's my whole problem in a nutshell. Maybe if she hadn't been so overbearingly vocal in her morals? It was good that she had them more than the others, but there's few things I hate more than having a 'message' shoved down my throat, and that's what Cassie does every book she's the lead in.

[Chad32]

Karen knew who Cassie was. If she had been reinfested, then all the anis would have been captured quickly. So she was either killed offscreen, moved and hidden, the Yeerks forgot about her (highly unlikely), or she was reinfested at the last minute and the Yeerks already knew what Karen knew.

[Gyt Kaliba]

Ohh...right, duh. I forgot about her knowing the Animorphs too. ^_^;

Having them have to hide her or them re-infesting her near the end when it's all in the open would both be interesting routes that I'd have liked to see taken.

[Galladerotom]

Cassie was the groups ethical concious, I think her only flaw was that sometimes she didn't face the reality of the situation.

-When she let the yeerks have the morphing device she was only thinking of the consequences on Jake, not for the war.

-In book 16 when Visser three's brother tells them how he survives she asks Jake to kill him, because she can't bring herself to do it.

She also lucks out way too much, first the morphing device introduces a new way of survival for the yeerks, second when the animorphs have a chance to take out the yeerk pool and it turns out to be a trap she is the one who shuts it off because of the YPM.

[Chad32]

I wonder if I'm the only one who laughed in book 16 when Cassie said she was a horrible person for telling a kid he couldn't trust a controller. She said he couldn't trust his father because he's infested, and the kid is well aware of what a Yeerk is. Yes he's young enough to think a wolf is a dog, but old enough to follow a chatroom conversation. I guess that's what TV Tropes calls Narm. Something meant to be serious, but is actually really funny.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I'd honestly never looked at it that way before Chad, LOL. Good point.

Then again, that was always something else I liked seeing tackled in these books though, were that kids could understand and handle more than adults give them credit for.

Back on topic, if pressed to where I did have to pick a favorite book/moment for Cassie, to counter-point some of the bad I've pointed out, I guess I'd have to say...#34 The Prophecy, though that's partly cheating since my favorite bits of that are the parts more with Aldrea.