Did anyone dislike Jake's orders? (regarding Rachel)

[Tiana]

Well Rachel was known for her bravery..it wouldnt have really fit to have someone else do it with her standing there and watching on screen.

Agreed.  If she found out Jake had asked someone else to do it, she would probably have done it herself anyway.

True, Rachel did say that in book #54.

I just find it hard to believe that she would be so willing to die, even if this is Rachel we're talking about lol. As she was dying, didn't she say that she was already missing her life and she wanted so much to live?

I thought it was harsh of Jake to "sentence" her to death like that anyhow.

[filmstu2005]

Which is why I thought that entire book was so anti-climatic. Sorry, i dont care what anyone says or argues. The last book was Sh**ty. The plot was all over the place, there was no definite story, there was no real ending. Just forced thoughts action. No one but Rachel and Jake were in character, Jake for falling to despair once again. If you have a problem with my theory, thats ur problem alone.

The story just fell short. I feel that Jake was a huge coward for not going after Tom himself. It was his brother. It was Jake who kept wondering for the entire series if it was his own brother he'd have to destroy. Wouldn't it have been more exciting if Jake fought Tom face to face himself? Didn't Jake used to have that dream, like he mentioned in Book 6 The Capture, that he was a tiger stalking Tom in the forest, and when Tom turned around suddenly it was Jake who was the prey instead. Wouldnt that have been a much better analogy brought to life to finish off the series?

Well, whats done is done. And that is a good point someone made. Why send Rachel by herself? Its not like they didnt have the Auxillaries to help her out. She didnt have to do it alone. Rachel against an entire ship of Yeerks? Come on now. Thats a bit harsh and a horrible move if you were playing chess.

[Vivi9087]

One thing to remember though, at the very end she really only wanted to know that she mattered in the war effort. 

[Duff]

Jake couldnt do it himself cause he was vital to the mission on the pool ship

and sending a few auxilaries, you could make the argument that jake didnt know any of them well enough to ask something like that of them, and he needed jason to lead the team so he couldnt do it and asking him to pick someone could have made him pull them all out of the mission or something and blow everything. Basically the auxiliaries werent ready to deal with something that extreme, and jake telling them about it could compromise everything

but in the end, its more poetic that she went alone

and she was just backup, jake hoped to be able to disable the ship and not need her, it wasnt a 100% suicide mission

[Starsword]

I thought it was pretty bold, and downright awesome that Applegates killed off arguably the most liked character, it really tested the reader as much as the character. How would the reader respond? Of course, we know the result of what everyone thinks, but it was also the most believable situation.

[RYTX]

The whole morality of the family vs family thing i don't think should be an issue. Yeah it sucks, but I don't think Tom and Rachel were ever that close; I doubt she and Jake where that close before the war.
Someone was needed to stop the blade ship, and probably take down some folks in the process: Ax; needed for the pool ship codes, Marco maybe but he would be more likely to resist that type of mission; Cassie, hell to the no, Tobias, again maybe but it wouldn't be as effective.
This was a smash and grab job, and she was best suited for it.
Even though the result just sucked

[filmstu2005]

Jake couldnt do it himself cause he was vital to the mission on the pool ship

and sending a few auxilaries, you could make the argument that jake didnt know any of them well enough to ask something like that of them, and he needed jason to lead the team so he couldnt do it and asking him to pick someone could have made him pull them all out of the mission or something and blow everything. Basically the auxiliaries werent ready to deal with something that extreme, and jake telling them about it could compromise everything

but in the end, its more poetic that she went alone

and she was just backup, jake hoped to be able to disable the ship and not need her, it wasnt a 100% suicide mission

Wasnt it Jake who also said that very night, "before the night is over the casualties will be so high and i won't care because we are GOING TO WIN." ? The fate of the world was at stake. Jake seemed to have gotten over the issues. He just wanted to win and didnt care how. So sending an auxilliary Animorph to accompany Rachel was definitely not beneath him. In fact, it would have been a blessing compared to him sentencing them to being slaughtered, fighting directly in front of the Yeerk Pool Ship where it blasted them each to death.

It was also the same Jake who flushed out a thousand defenseless Yeerks into cold space. That part I didn't get. Its not like he didnt burn a bunch of thousand Yeerks to death in #6 right before he became a Controller. But then again, maybe he was able to learn through Cassie that Yeerks are also sentient creatures, and not all of them are bad.

[Duff]

I wasnt saying that it was above him to ask one of the poor little crippled kids to kill themselves, I was saying that he didnt know which one to ask because he didnt know them. Lets say the one he asks freaks out, tells all the others, they all freak out and they all quit, there goes the plan. he couldnt risk losing them because they were so vital in another capacity, they didnt need all of them, but trying to take a few could have compromised the whole group

[Vivi9087]

Also don't forget that all except 3 of the Aux. were still crippled.  So if he asked one of them, they'd have to go from flea to very vulnerable crippled state, to battle morph.  They also had next to no battle experience and like stated above, they couldn't really be depended on that much.

[wotw2112]

The aux animorphs were going into an almost certain death situation anyway.  They never even blinked.  Why should any one of them even think twice about going into a slightly different suicide situation?

Also chiming in to give a nod to a few comments:

1st to filmstu2005:  Extactly right.  The last book was disappointing.  It just seemed so...out of line with the rest of the series.  Storyline and characters both just seemed so disjointed.
 
It ended up just being a "really?" moment.  As in "really, did it just end that way?" and "she is really going to leave it hanging after I've just read 54+ books with almost pathological dedication?".

Also, good point that Jake should have been the one to sacrifice himself taking out Tom.  Having Rachel do it was just a bit weak after all the build up.

2nd to Duff: good point about the immobilization plan.  Kinda forgot that in my blind rage.

[morfowt]

weren't Jake and the others going to try to stop the dracon beams before the yeerks killed all of them? so it wasn't a complete suicide mission.

[Duff]

The aux animorphs were going into an almost certain death situation anyway.  They never even blinked.  Why should any one of them even think twice about going into a slightly different suicide situation?

They didnt know it was a suicide mission tho, they thought that that was the actual battle they were leading, not the distraction. They were brave enough to go into a battle with pretty bad odds for sure, but Rachel knew that she was going in with zero odds of survival. I'm not saying none of the auxiliaries were capable of that, but Jake couldnt risk finding out if they were.

Also, he needed someone to sit quietly to await their death, if he had picked a few others who seemed willing and able and then they got cold feet and freaked out while on tom, then the whole thing would have been ruined. He could only trust one of his team to do exactly what needed to be done so fearlessly.

[filmstu2005]

weren't Jake and the others going to try to stop the dracon beams before the yeerks killed all of them? so it wasn't a complete suicide mission.

Thats funny. Cause i seem to remember that they ALL died. Yep, sounds like a suicide mission to me. They knew the chances of them coming back were slim, so they were aware. As was Rachel. I honestly see no difference. At least on the Blade Ship an auxiliary Animorph could possibly find a nice place to demorph and remorph, while as on the battlefield in an open war directly in front of the Yeerk Pool Ship, there was no such room where a crippled child could do that. And since that's true, he could've spared one of his mobile auxiliary animorphs, one of his lieutenants that could walk.

Sorry, but none of it made sense. Wasn't entirely well thought out, now was it. But hey, even writers make mistakes. It happens.

[morfowt]

the original plan was to stop the dracon beams, however they failed to do it in time. that's what i was trying to say.

[Duff]

I think he was trying to quote me, yes, it was definately a suicide mission, but they didnt know that, they thought they had a chance. And you didnt address my other point