1000 Reasons Animorphs Should NOT Be Considered a Children's Series

[Chad32]

How about the fact that nowhere does it say one needs to be loyal to one's entire race? Some of these people may have no loved ones, and suffer a horrible life that's made better by introducing someone who values you as something. Some people might just be trying to make the best of a dire situation because they want to minimize the mental torture and don't want to spend the limited free time they get in a cramped cage. Different people live different lives, so unless you can have a conversation with each individual you shouldn't judge them.

[Blazing Angel]

Yeah thats the reason people jump off bridges but isnt that what therapy is for?

[Chad32]

I just don't like to judge them too harshly. Sure there are probably some sleaseballs, but in a series that has sympathetic Yeerks and unsympathetic Andalites, I find it a bit awkward to paint all voluntaries with the same brush.

[Blazing Angel]

that is true. Maybe the yeerks, instead of sacking the andalite world, asked to make some kind of artificial body (visser three got the yeerk box but I bet if they worked hard enough they could make a mobile form that can provide kadrona.

[Aquilai]

Well not everyone has the money for therapy and you have to know/admit there's a problem before you can even consider therapy. Also I'm not sure that you need to be in such a dire situation to be receptive or at least open to having a Yeerk in your head. There is definitely lots of areas where the shades of grey should be painted rather than black and white.  How do you judge a host to have betrayed or have been disloyal to their species? By the time you are a host it's too late for you to decide against it so the betraying your race question might be more related to how much in line your thinking is to the Yeerk's enslavement campaign. I think the books try to demonise voluntary hosts where voluntary hosts mean people who agree with the Yeerks enslavement and think more of their selfish desires rather than other humans' freedoms. This isn't too difficult a concept for a child to understand but it could have been shown a bit more clearly.

If you think about the way you (and your Yeerk) live your life, in a sense not much will massively change for the majority of controllers. In the discrete phase of the Yeerk invasion controllers still continue their lives as you would. An example of a point of interest might be say the Yeerk prefers meat over vegetables for a vegan host. It's possible for the host to appear like they've changed their minds to their friends and family. In this case the host would probably try to resist the most at feeding times and be more cooperative for the more mundane and routine parts of their life. Generally Yeerks try to placate their hosts by not making such big changes. People will fight the most for the key moments in their life but a lot of their lives is pretty ordinary. You find out what really matters the most to you.

Should you feel guilty that the Yeerk has helped you improve your tests at school or organise your work life more efficiently? Perhaps the Yeerk has resolved issues with people in your life to get along better. Should you feel bad about any improvements at all to your life? Given that the host cannot really control anything it's been talked about in another topic that people would cooperate at one point to some degree. Where cooperate means not be a nuisance to the Yeerk. There are some people who would try to constantly fight but it's more likely an understanding is reached such as: ordinary life Yeerk automation might be tolerated and planning/execution of human enslavement might be when the host will try to be the most disruptive.

Sorry all that was a bit off topic but, as far as the idea being not a children's series goes, for complexity it's not too bad. Applegate gets to the key themes concisely which is perfect because as a child I understood the impact of these things enough to be interested by how things happened and the different points of view rather than being bogged down by too much description of say the surroundings or objects. As a child you let your imagination run away by the mystery and you fill in the details to get on with the story. It's true that it's not like a children's series in the sense that it's not about children having fun with their friends or falling out or school. It just has more important things and more implications than an ordinary children's series which is why I think so many of us enjoy Animorphs.

[Zero_Messiah]

Considering the vast majority of us first read the series as kids and apparently enjoyed it (otherwise, why are we here? )... I think it works fine as a children's series.

Jake? Murderer. Actually, they're all murderers, but Jake takes 17 000 sentient beings, 17 000 yeerks which could have included the Yeerk Peace Movement, and flushes them into space with a single command. Blackmails an android incapable of violence, sends his cousin, the only family he has which understands the things he has been through, to kill his brother. Both of them end up dead. Do things get better? No, he goes through PTSD.

Umm... okay, I see how you say that about Jake, but for the rest it doesn't really work. Unless you're going to sit there and tell me that what a soldier does in battle is the same as what a serial killer does. Because it isn't.

[spoiler=Murder]–noun
1. Law . the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder), and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder).
2. Slang . something extremely difficult or perilous: That final exam was murder!
3. a group or flock of crows. [/spoiler]

Based on that definition, each of the animorphs commited second-degree muder; they did not go in intending to kill a lot of people, hork bajir or taxxons. Therefore, no premeditation. However when forced into it, they attacked and willingly and intentionally killed to save themselves. You may say that they were soldiers in a war, and what they did was no different than what a soldier did, but there are many examples where they intentionally killed people who were either defenseless or when they were asked to back off. (well, most of them)

Cassie: killed Aftran's brother. She even admits she did it after the command was given to retreat, and she feels absolutely nothing for it. it is this lack of feeling that forces her to temporarily quit the animorphs.

Jake: 17 000 yeerks, in book 53. In book 6, he boiled a tub of yeerks. Book 26, he killed the Howler. You could say that it was in self defense and the Howler was trying to kill him, but remember that the Howlers are basically kids. So he kills an alien kid (whose only real crime was their master) to survive. Nobody ever brings it up because it was a weird mission.

Ax: Dracon beams in bug fighter into yeerk Pool, several times.  Result; boiled yeerks in their defenseless state.

Marco: Can't think of too many, but I do recall he does step on Edriss after the Yeerk bails from his mom. There are probably more, such as when he was willing to kill Karen after he discovers that she is a controller, and she knows their secret. True, he didn't actually intend to kill her, but Marco is the most ruthless of the animorphs, aside from Jake at the end of the war.

Rachel: Probably a lot. She and Ax was David's watchmen for two hours. By the way, that was probably 'a fate worse than death'. Trapped as a rat? I think that would count as a 'war crime' at the very least. Death would have been preferable, and David even says it right out at book 48; just kill him. Also, she destroyed the Kandrona, while you could say it was necessary and it was a war, her (and the animorphs) actions resulted in tons of Yeerks being starved; many of them died hungry. Imagine if a single person made a move that resulted in essentially, all the people over the world starving, including the good people (Yeerk Peace Movement?) you may have dealt a huge blow to the enemy, but how many other bystanders did you get killed in the cross fire?

Tobias: Not much killing, since his morphs rarely have the power to kill. He fights in his bird body, and the most he could do was blind someone.

Also, as much as you'd like to think that what they did was necessary (and of course, it was for their survival) it doesn't make them feel any better about what they did; they have ended so many lives to preserve their own, and even if you can call it justified, at the end of the day, the blood is still on their hands (figuratively) and they will have to live with what they do; Jake? Didn't do so well. Rachel? Didn't have to deal with it, because she died. Cassie? Dealth with it, because she ultimately stuck to her morals. Marco? Dealt with it by sinking into the materialistic lifestyle. He'd gotten his parents and family back, and became a superstar. Tobias? Didn't do so well; lost the only person that loved him. Ax? Did great, because the Andalites are pretty much honoroble murders and respected him immensely. Then he got assimilated by the borg... er, One.

[NateSean]

Yeah thats the reason people jump off bridges but isnt that what therapy is for?

Lets not forget how easily Tobias became a voluntary controller in MM4. Sure, he resisted in the end, but this is Tobias and look at what he went through. If you can forgive him you can forgive the others.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     There's a different thread for this topic about voluntaries and why they shouldnt be demonized somewhere on this forum.

     Let's try to stay on topic.

[Aldrea2011]

I agree with point #1 on why it isn't a kids series. First animorphs book I read (#2, The Visitor) I read it because there was a cat on the cover and I loved cats and the only thing I remembered from it before I really got into the series was that some girl morphed into a cat and went into someone's basement and almost went over the two hour limit. And then there was something about a hawk... lol. Now the series makes much more sense and the science makes sense to me and I remember it and understand it better.

[Toc']

I don't know how many of you agree with me, but I just have to say that is sort of bothers me--if not completely pisses me off-- when someone sees me reading an Animorphs book, or talking about Animorphs and say, "Dude, you're eighteen. Why are you reading a kids series?"

I did not have this problem as I hid the fact I was still reading those books after elementary school to everyone except one friend (my "bff" at the time, and she did tease me!)
 


Back to topic: Why are those books not for kids or for kids.

First you would probably need to separate the series in 2 parts since it evolved as the readers evolved and it really got darker towards book 40 something and then you would need to define "kids".
Are you talking about 8 to 10 kids ? Or 10 to 12 kids? Or...?
You say that the characters are "children" around 13, but at that age many children are considered teens more than children.


To me those books are well suited for young people around the age of 10 (start of the series) to 13(end of the series) so that I cannot really argue your position that those books aren't for "kids" (if kids means young teens).



I'll add some points to your list "why they are for kids(=young teens)":


7) The shortness of sentences which is something that I actually really appreciate. A lot. ( )

8 ) The simplicity of the text. Simple words are used, no long descriptions full of complicated adjectives, sentences are mostly turned towards action rather than description...


9) The plot itself is mostly action oriented, and this despite Cassie's "whining moments".


10) The violence may not be a point in favor but is definitely not a point against.
First because the ones which typically get hurt (at the start of the series) are the yeerks and those yeerks are firstly introduced as evil beings.
Second because until late in the series, there are no real strong consequences on the main characters, the ones the reader gets attached to (apart from Tobias, but as it happens in the very first book, which is not even narrated by him, it is hard to empathized). Often the books conclude with them gathering around food or some group activity.

Besides the perception the reader gets of the "evil aliens" slowly evolves with the books in a carefully planned way (at least at the start of the series) and young teens are old enough to be receptive to the moral conflicts introduced by the author. Book 19 does a really good job at handling the motivations of each specie and at giving a "human face" to the enemy. I think that at least by the age of 12 an average teen should be able to understand the moral issues this book brings.


11) The humor. Book 14 cracked me up when I was 9. I laughed from the start to the end. Not something that would work on me anymore. In general the humor is adapted to young teens (except Ax's joke about the symmetry of the shelves, this one is for all ages).




A big point that I'd like to make here, even if not really in a list because it would cross several list points is that the grey vs black and white, the moral issues etc... Are the main reason why those books are really good for young teens and why they may seem dull to adults.
Because when you are 11/12 you start rebelling against authority (of adults), or at least questioning it, you create your own identity and you start questioning some of the knowledge and moral you were given so far by your family, school...
The kids in animorphs do the same, they discover the shades of grey, they cannot trust adults, and with the battle for earth they discover new/hidden parts of themselves... All those things echo to what the readers feel, and maybe help him raise questions as well (book 19,THC,...).

The turn off part for older teens is that they generally already went over this. They know adults can be dicks, life is not all white and black,... Let's say that when you are 18, you won't be attracted to animorphs for its intellectual challenges since it mostly addresses issues you should, by that age, have already thought of (in class, with your friends, or by yourself)

[NateSean]

10) The violence may not be a point in favor but is definitely not a point against.
First because the ones which typically get hurt (at the start of the series) are the yeerks and those yeerks are firstly introduced as evil beings.

I agree with some of your points. But this I have kind of an issue with, because it seems to imply that so long as something is evil from your perspective, which is going to be influenced by what someone tells you or your interpretation of events, then it's okay to commit an act of violence to them.

Yet, the violence committed against the Yeerks in all of those books was also being comitted to innocent Hork-Bajir, whom we are told in the very first book were mostly involuntary controllers who lost their planet.

And as most kids at the age groups you are referring to have a hard time seeing shades of grey, I would say that alone makes it questionably geared towards young adults who have had experiences with the real world and the concept of prejudism at the very least.

[Toc']

And as most kids at the age groups you are referring to have a hard time seeing shades of grey, I would say that alone makes it questionably geared towards young adults who have had experiences with the real world and the concept of prejudism at the very least.

One of the goal of the author is to make the kids realize this. That comes progressively with the story (book 13 for the horks, and the THC).

In short, that's why I think those books are especially suited to young teens, because it helps them raise questions about things they might have not wondered before since they are generally exposed to a white and black literature before, with the villains on one side and the heros on the other side.

But to older teens this part loses interest because they don't need long digressions on why it's bad to hurt innocent beings and why hork bajirs are victims and why the heros are not all white etc etc...

[Aquilai]

It's understandable for the Animorphs to be sceptical about the good/evilness of Hork Bajirs early on even if they were just told that they're to be pitied but in combat situations they'd probably focus more on survival. Whilst the Animorphs do go looking for fights their intention (for the most part) isn't to inflict maximum casualties rather they have a mission and an objective. It's probably bad that the books sort of promotes violence but young readers can tell the difference between real and fictional. In a world where children can take on adult humans/aliens it's less about the fighting and more about the situations.

I think the different perspectives of each team member stresses the different views so that even children can tell the shades of grey. When people read from Rachel's perspective there is a sense of a warrior spirit who looks for fights whereas from Cassie it's someone who is caring and empathetic. The balance of these views makes even children realise there is right and wrong times for violence.

[Blazing Angel]

I am stunned by the deep thought that has gone into this and im a little sad becauseI feel like im not contributing much.

[GalagaGuru]

One thing I always thought was a little jarring as a kid was the Ellimist. He's basically a God that fights what amounts to the Devil. While Cryak is definitely the greater of the two evils, the Ellimist is not exactly a squeaky clean moral figure, either, and can really make someone (like me) think hard about any possible real Gods, and whether or not they're really worth the worship. Not exactly what you think of in the same vein as "children's entertainment".