HOORAY for
Terenia!!!
(I did it! I finished! Aren't you all proud of me? 
)
I wish to thank
Terenia, too,
for her initiative and
dedication with turning up with the questions. And to apologize for
any inconvenience in my part, for I too was one of the ones harassing her about finishing this first run of our re-reads. You've been awesome in providing us with a space to discuss and share our views as fellow fanatic readers.
Have some karma, too! +1
It's also been awesome being able to hear each others views in this awesome series, everyone. Awesome sense of cyber community!
I too looked forward to these reads. Some notable comments by notable figures.
Here's hoping there will be more re-reads in the future. After all, there's a whole new generation of Ani-readers out there.
And may we disown our children if they show no interest in this series at all!!
Suggestions: Perhaps we could do an
Everworld one and, by the time we finish, the Ani-re-launch series would have enough progressed enough for the newbies.
...It began with 6. It will end with 5...
^
Anyone else also sort of shakes their head at this statement?!
^ My favorite cover in the entire series.
1) What did you think about Rachel's final two chapters of the series? What about her death in general?
First of all:
was my reaction. For even though it was setting up to be
that way in the previous book, being a big arse Rachel fan, I was holding on with my dear life to the hope that Rachel, would come through, and someone completely unexpected, like Tobias (let's be honest, the dude contributed nothing to the war since its escalation), was the one who had that ominous dialogue with the Ellimist back in
The Ellimist Chronicles.
I too don't think Rachel needed to die. It really didn't fit the philosophy of the series, where they survived so many tough spots in animal morphs, they had beaten death on numerous occasions, themselves, even. But naturally, if she was going to, I am thankful that it was there at the end, where she made it totally count.
2) Visser One gets relatively few lines in this book; essentially all we see of him is his surrender. What do you think of his last few moments 'on screen'?
Agreed with
Chad29, here.
Where WAS the last big horrendous morph... At this stage we hadn't seen The Abomination pull one for a significant number of books (when WAS his last memorable one???). It shouldn't have been as simple as fooling him around in his own turf. As it is, Visser Three felt like he didn't put up a fight like we would kind of expect the big nemesis of the entire series to.
And then I referred back to the insight Jake as a controller gave us on the Yeerks' mentality. Unlike humans, Yeerks will totally give in when all odds are against them. Not a good excuse for a Yeerk tyrant, but I think it works with what was presented to us before, it THAT's really the rationale behind this Visser's let down.
3) What do you think about the interactions between Jake and the Andalite military?
It was more American than anything, me thinks. In a way it was good to go through the previous Andalite let downs through the series, for he knew how to act appropriately with the Andalites. He was securing Earth's interests because he knew the Andalite nature. Had he been too trusty, things would have been out of his hands...
All I can say is, if it wasn't for the freed Alloran, Jake would have gotten us in the sh>BEEP!<its! I reckon it was one of the major things that gave Jake credibility in his achievements in the eyes of the Andalites. The Alloran free-Controller was another one of those unseen unexpected factors Jake was able to reap from during this last big showdown (ref.to the Yeerk pool flush, the free-Controllers in the Mothership, etc.). And it was great seeing that the War Prince still had some sway over the Andalite military, even after all those years.
But you wouldn't want to play 'finder's keepers' with a powerful ally.
4) Each of the Animorphs reacts differently to the end of the war. Some (Marco) are seemingly fine, while others (Jake), clearly have issues. What do you think about each of these Animorphs reactions?
Cassie was possibly the one who was most solidly portrayed, me thinks. Despite her being absent to Jake and all, she had pursued a career that dealt with her commitments to the cause, the Hork-Bajirs. She had also moved on, finding another partner there. Marco just seemed to lay back and reap from celebrity status, which isn't very glorious in my books, but can't say he hasn't earned the right to do so.
Ax was always the alien, stuck to his people's ways, and, in some ways, the one who walked away easy. He made it back to his own family/people/planet, possibly re-encountered Estrid. Yes, I KNOW that put him in the path of The One later on, but I honestly think his outcome was the least worse. I would have liked to have seen more of Ax's psychological picture post-war. All we got was that he was now his own Prince, also rightfully deserved, don't get me wrong. But was it too much to hope for that long-awaited window into the Andalite Homeworld.
Tobias' felt so unrealistically lame, I don't know. Personally, his relationship with Rachel had started feeling artificial post-
The Illusion. There was really nothing in their relationship that sold them as this deep thing we are led to believe Tobias has going for him here. To only get his more Tobias whining in this final book and him going hermit ignoring the others was lamejuice on his part.
I was very much like "Tobias can just drop dead" by this stage with him. How dare he blame Jake for his pain, I kept thinking.
Jake was naturally the one I mostly worried about. To see a strong character like him so utterly depressed and introverted by the end was really harsh.
The way they brought him back was cool (ref.chucking him in the sea and forcing a dolphin morph), he did try a comeback when the need for him came again. But he just wasn't the same...
I guess, none of them will ever be.
Though I am of the belief that passively strong such as Cassie and Tobias don't make it far in war, and strong characters such as Jake and Rachel reel from the wounds upon surviving through one, while characters like Marco come through after collecting his pieces, I was touched by where KA and MG leave us with the characters.
5) Jake (and only Jake) is put on trial for war crimes, but is not convicted. Should he have been?
No way! This was a war unlike any ever seen before! They were kids (still were during the trial!), alien invasion through infiltration, and then an open-war, they had an exclusive formidable weapon as their only true edge over the enemy and they themselves made the Yeerk resistance up as they went, due to the simple fact that they couldn't count on anyone else, really. The dynamics of the group forced him to step up to a position of leadership. Jake EVIDENTLY wasn't proud of what he did and he never fully boasted glory, so no, I don't think he was guilty. Neither of the Anis were.
6) What do you think about the disintigration of the relationships that the Animorphs had?
It made me sad for their 13 year old selves. But the disintegration had already started during that final arc, really.
7) We see a little bit of Earth in a post-war society. Andalites treat the planet as a tourism destination, Taxons live as anacondas in the Amazon and Hork-Bajir have a preserve in Yellowstone. These are small bits of information, though, given that humanity has suddenly been thrust into a society where aliens are very real and very present. What other changes do you think may have happened on Earth?
I had a serious problem with the status of Earth after all this.
Did you guys think it was cool to have that element of the morphs being available to humans now a good thing?
It felt like it lacked credibility and was a bit irresponsible of Jake and the others. The Anis had experience with human history and the leniency for destruction. They were conscious of what would happen if humans had access to this tech (ref. David...)
Furthermore, I'd like to reinterate something that I've said before, back when the Yeerks were suddenly running around morphing, that I think
morphing, to have protagonists that could turn into animals, was the unique guimmick of the series itself. It may be fictional, but it was still credible and cool limiting it to the heroes who were fighting the war in some corner of the USA.
But to suddenly have parties on Earth running around using it (ref. free-Controllers, governments of major nations, international military forces) without the actual Yeerk war there just got a bit silly. It was no longer unique to me and lost its touch.
It would have been more realistic for the Anis to instruct the government to recruit the morph capable free-Controllers that survived in an incentive to look after them (after all they were casualties in this war) and had allowed the Andalites to keep their tech, because, let's face it, it was
theirs to begin with.
It just doesn't feel quite right.
8 ) What do you think about the forced nothlitism (and yeah, I'll say it, genocide) of the Yeerks? Was it the best option? What forms do you think the Yeerks were given to morph permanently?
There
is something fundamentally wrong with changing a species, even if for the sake of a greater good. Again, it's something that it always seems to be Cassie's domain. It wasn't quite genocide, though, because it wasn't the whole species didn't undertake the process. And I can't see the Andalites taking it on to resolve their war throughout the universe.
Like Aftran, some sort of aquatic morph, to go with their aquatic habitat, was most likely. But knowing Cassie, so long as their enemy (Yeerk and Taxxon) were going to be a resident of Earth, she would have vouched for them to be turned into endangered species such as tigers, pandas, orangutans, numbats... she had already set sight on the anacondas.
9) The final story arc involves the remaining Animorphs going off into Kelbrid Space to save Ax, and they eventually discover The One and make a suicidal attack on it. Was this final sequence necessary?
That was memmorable scene, but totally cheap to end in such a cliff hanger. That is all I'd like to say.
Note: It kind of frustrated me to have these new alien species introduced right at the last few pages.
Somewhere in the series it was mentioned that the Andalites are the only ones actively opposing the Yeerks throughout the universe, but that they also had two major allies. At least it was good to allude to one of them here.
But it felt like such a waste to go and create a new enemy right on the last few pages.
Or not show the Andalite homeworld, for that matter.9) If you just wanted to have them start a new adventure, then have them fight the terrorists. you don't need to have them go to another galaxy and come up with a new Big Bad for them to fight. You don't need The One in order to have new conflict. And if they just had to leave the planet, why couldn't they go fight Yeerks on the Hork-Bajir Homeworld?...
Sacred poo!!!
Whoa Oh Em in the Gee!!!
That would have been perfect, dude!!
Off to the 'Hork-Bajir world next' would have addressed an open plot and would have fit in spirit with the ending! What's more Toby would fullfill her prophecy and Alloran would have had a chance to redeem himself through the help of the Anis.
WHY DIDN'T KA & MG CHOOSE THIS?!?!
10) There are a ton of possible questions for this book, so I'm going to let you go off on whatever tangents you want now.
My notes:
It might be just me, but the Mothership felt small. All that left-right running around in there, being within thought-speech reach, a yeerk pool featuring a low-ceiling... I was imagining the Yeerks great big ship being huge, along the lines of Darth Vaders' 'That's no moon' huge.
Visser One kept alive in a maximum prison on Earth?! That
is shouting for a sequel!
After everything they'd been through, it
did feel unfair to have him survive when Rachel doesn't.
Whatever happened to the families?!
It felt a bit loose to have these characters sort of build up around the final arc, and not give them any sense of closure/participation in the ending here.
Rachel's mum and sisters get their 2cents worth at funeral.
It's easy to see Cassie's parents collaborating with their daughter to help the Hork-Bajirs and Taxxons post-war.
And indeed, Loren! Tobias practically never mentions her again!?!?!?!?
And what about Jake's parents experience as Controllers.
Last Question: Did you like it? Why or why not?
Expectations were high for this book. I think it was inescapable, as ardent fans, we were going to be sad to open a book that finally ended the series and we would get upset by whatever KA and MG chose to leave us with. Didn't matter how they cut it. So sure enough, at first I felt real let down by
The Beginning. Partly because, though the writing had picked up here, the series had sort of lost its 'writing' steam mid run.
Reading it later, a little older, and also reading into the author's note some more, I realized the need for such a finale. It comes down to a war story. And wars are not pretty, that's just it.
I am of the belief that if Animorphs continued on with some second series, it just wouldn't be the same.
I say leave it as it is. To change anything now would be disrespectful to all those cherishing memories we have of our teens growing up with this series. Leave all the high, gritty, funny moments, leave all the KASUS..... leave Rachel dead!! and
God bless KA & MG for their epic work on this series.
...And one more thing: Ms. Applegate, if you ever read this, I hope you'll also read my earlier post in this and other threads to get an idea of all that these books mean to me. But I have a colossal problem.
A Bengal Tiger.
I'm insulted. I am.
For years, Jake's morph, a Siberian Tiger, is ionic for the species: arguably second as a relevant morph only to the red-tail, and only cuz Tobias lived as a red-tail!
But still, the intimacy of the acquiring, the reverence it earned from their enemies, it's symbolism in Jake's personal life, with Tom, for David and James- correct if I'm wrong, but this is the one signature morph that is unique to a single Animorph.
But in the opening chapters of the final book the word bengal is the there, and I know, most people, self include would be hard pressed to note the difference, but that this mistake is put in, that it's not cleaned up in editing.
I know it's a simple little thing, but that makes it all the worse-after years support and devotion, ghostwriters and fillers, that this in the finale-that we can be still be left to these careless errors, it hurts. Feels like negligence, like we don't deserve any better, to let this happen now of all times
RYTX-duuude! You are a riot!
For I too used to NGHAAAAAAAARRRRRGH! at that single line in this book for this silly detail. I kept blaming on ghostwriters, but we learnt here that it was KA herself who wrote the last few books.
No butter, it's ok, Katherine and Michael have long since earned our credits and respect by this stage, and are kinda used to correcting the KASU's in our own heads as we went by this stage, so we know better, mate.
Peace, y'all.
