We all know the Animorphs all committed some horrible evil in the war against the Yeerks at some point, but to me, Cassie's biggest evil, the one thing that sets Cassie apart from everyone else, her one great, totally unforgivable crime is to erase John Berryman from history. Granted, there was a lot at stake, but come ON! They couldn't think of any, ANY other way to ensure V4 never found the Time Matrix? Hell, they could have just intercepted Visser Four before he found the Time Matrix. And for those of you will say, "But they didn't know where he was before he found it," THEY HAVE A MACHINE THAT TAKES YOU ANYWHERE YOU THINK IT. How hard would it have to be to think, Take me to Visser Four before he finds the Time Matrix by ___ hours/days.
She just erased one man from history, and it didn't even have to happen. This is a fundamental perversion of the highest degree. And if you believe in afterlife, spirits, souls, this only makes it more unforgivable and more horrific. Cassie, at that point, went from me to being a meaning-well-but-misguided-idealist to being a Complete Monster. And she never has an Oh My God What Have I Done moment either. In fact, before I read #54. The Beginning, I was hoping she'd be tried for war crimes because of this. What, is she too cowardly to tell the world she made it so one person never existed? Wouldn't surprise me, but they'd probably excuse it as "the world isn't ready to know about the Time Matrix" and stuff like that when they should be in JAIL. It makes you wonder if they really WOULD have been tried for war crimes if the governments of Earth had a full scope and understanding of what they REALLY did during the war. Most of the things they glossed over. That would make for an interesting topic, so I'll leave it at this.
Thoughts?