^^^I agree. And I too felt bad when KA wrote Rachel off and tried to explain her as a violent bloodthirsty psychopath spiraling out of control. As if a 16 year girl who clearly lost her voice through ghostwriting wasn't capable of living without a war. Yeah, right.
Rachel seemed plenty excited about living past the war. And she was smart. Sure, she lost her train of thought with crazy ideas, but she was smart in most of her books until she was given to the ghostwriters. The Rachel that narrated the beginning of the last book, The Beginning, was almost angelic to me. She was calm, driven, dutiful, sympathetic, and still powerful. Not some blazing lunatic.
I hate what they did to her. They seemed to at least help Rachel get off that ridiculous path in The Return, when who she was and what she had to do became clear to her, although she was broken and scared. Still, showing her recovery and a smarter side through the narrations of the others would've helped. I think her having that recovery wouldve conflicted heavily with the final task that Jake asked of her, and it would have been an interesting read while fitting more into her death. But instead they made her into a dumb blond. So i dont care, the final book was heavily flawed. Heavily.
Sorry, but if it was only the ghostwriters' fault, then why is Rachel still about as bloodthirsty and out of control in the final arc books? Even in the final book she notes that her against all those warriors was how she liked it. Even waaay back in book 4 or so, when KA was definitely still writing the series, Cassie notes sadly that Rachel now has all war-related mottos and quotes on her bulletin board in her room. I think that KA always intended for Rachel's dark side to come out in the war, and for her to not really be able to live in a post-war world afterwards. She'd have been a little like Patton in that way--who could be very aggressive and over-confident and harsh, and sometimes clever in war, sometimes not so much, and always gung-ho, but who did not do well after the war. Or like Jake--though I think part of his melancholy had to do with Rachel and Tom's deaths, as far as I can tell. And Jake too had sworn to Cassie immediately before that he would lead a full life after the war. So I don't think Rachel's progression was all that unrealistic and OOC, and do agree that she probably would not have done well after the war without action, based on the rest of the series--including those written 100% by KA.
To be a little more on topic, I too love the C/R dynamic, such as when Rachel tries to get Cassie to shop or break out of her shell a little or pursue her relationship with Jake (with some prime hilarious moments in "The Sickness," for example).
