Top 11 Saddest Animorphs Moments

[Myitt]

I just wanna add...the death of the Yeerk in #6. 

[Venom]

I don't remember the exact quote, but I think my number 1 is when rachel is on the verge of dying and she asks herself why tobias is in his human morph, before realizing that its because hawks can't cry

that got me pretty teary eyed

[XtheoniongirlX]

Come to think of it, Marco had a surprisingly large amount of sad scenes. First off there's the often-quoted "Cold, man" one that's a perfect balance between awesome and sad along with his entire arc involving Eva, but I thought the way he described Jake in the last book to be just as depressing too.

"He doesn't put flowers on her memorial or whatever, there's always lots of those. He goes when no one's around, late, after hours. The guys at the gate let him in. He parks and just kind of sits there like he's hanging out with her. I don't think he talks to her. Sad as it is to say, I wish he did. Talking to a dead person is better than not talking at all. He sits there for an hour, sometimes two, stares out at the ocean. Watches the sun go down. Then he leaves. Sometimes I think he's waiting there hoping Tobias will show up."

When I was first reading through the series I didn't think much of him because of his role as the joker in the group, but really... looking back on the series, he's probably the most fleshed-out character of the Animorphs. At the risk of sounding pretentious, Marco was actually prettay, prettay, prettaaaay deep.

[Pippi]

I don't think I can name 11 right now but here goes.

Being a new fan who just finished reading the series, the saddest ones for me are the freshest most recent ones with number 1 being:

1) Rachel's death and everything surrounding it. Her final moments with the Ellimist, "you were brave, you were strong, you were good, you mattered"

2) Her funeral (Her mother crying throughout the ceremony & Tobias carrying her urn away)

3)Jake visiting her funeral ground frequently

4) And Jake, Tobias and Marco naming the ship after her all made me cry. I never believed that the death of a fictional character could affect me that much, to be honest with you guys I'm still upset about it right now. And I know I'll never forgive K.A for killing her in a way that could have been prevented.
I guess reading 54 books consecutively made me feel like I atually knew the characters, like they were my friends, so when she died, It really felt like I'd lost a friend. Joining you guys on this board to talk about it, has helped me cope with it better, so I should say THANK YOU to you guys.

5) Also another scene still fresh in my memory is the first time the auxillary Animophs demorphed for the first time with only three of them becoming healed and the rest returning back to their previous state. The way the crawling and falling was described was beyond heartbreaking.

6) Tobias torture at the hands of Taylor.

7) the psychochological torture that the Crayak put Rachel through coupled with the scene of her looking at herself in the broken mirror and crying like a baby. The image of Rachel in the broken glass to me was a reflection of her psychological state *shakes fist* darn that Crayak.

I'll add more in later posts.

[XtheoniongirlX]

5) Also another scene still fresh in my memory is the first time the auxillary Animophs demorphed for the first time with only three of them becoming healed and the rest returning back to their previous state. The way the crawling and falling was described was beyond heartbreaking.

Yes! That scene really tore at my heartstrings (especially on a re-read when you know how unceremoniously they'll be killed off) ... poor guys must've entertained that fantasy of being physically whole again until they demorphed. And if I remember correctly, none of them were described to be crying/visibly upset (which somehow makes me feel even more bad: it's like they were grimly thinking "Yep... back to square one").

One more that I'd like to mention involving Jake just before the beginning of the countdown;

My father stood, walked to Jake's side, and put his hand on his shoulder. "I don't understand all of this, Jake. I don't really know what happened to your parents. But until they come back...or...well, I want you to consider yourself part of our family."

Jake's mouth went tight. Yes, he was going to cry. I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. If Jake lost it, I'd lose it. We'd all lose it. We'd all just break down into a sobbing, screaming, guilt-ridden terrified group. Kids. Adults. Hork-Bajir. Probably even Ax.

Hold on, I mentally willed Jake. Hold on.

I saw Rachel watching him, her blue eyes wide with concern. Even her mother, not Jake's biggest fan these days, seemed to be waiting for his reaction. The Hork-Bajir watched Toby. They would take their cue from her. But Toby's eyes were glued on Jake. Her massive lower jaw jutted forward. Jake was the center. If the center didn't hold...

It seemed like we waited for hours. But it was probably only thirty or forty seconds before Jake stood taller and expelled his breath in a long, steady stream. He met my eyes, then my dad's. When he spoke, his voice was clear and strong.

The way I see it, this was really the last time Jake was ever in on it with the entire group. This was the last personal and intimate moment he ever had with everyone participating in the war effort. After this, everyone became a means to an end of stopping the invasion. I remember when I first read this, to me it was - and forgive me for using a tvtropes term - a crowning moment of awesome. But in retrospective, it wasn't. He was no longer on equal ground with them. He wasn't just their leader anymore; he was in a league of his own. He was already a dead man walking.

It vaguely reminds me of Rachel in her final moments when she's talking about how she was already dead and mourning her life. Of course with her it was more passionate, and short. With Jake it was numb, and drawn-out.

It's the one difference you can make between Tobias and Jake post-war. Tobias suffered and lamented. Jake wandered aimlessly.

[Green armadillo ette]

I recently read The Conspiracy. Ax coming out after torturing Chapman and declaring that, and I paraphrase, "Though he may be many things, he is not a torturer." is way up there.

[Snakie]

1) Tobias becoming a nothlit

Honestly I'm surprised this one isn't higher on more lists.  Its definitely implied that he did it on purpose, but in my mind that makes this moment more saddening, not less.  One of the (many) things that kept me reading this series in the early going was that they didn't shy away from such a hard hitting event so early on in the game.

2) Arbon trapped as a Taxxon forever

Yeah, he was kind of a jerk, but this moment always stuck with me, particularly given his later role in the anti-Yeerk movement.

3) Pretty much the entire 3rd book (Tobias dealing with his new life as a hawk and struggling with interactions with the Animorphs)

People have already mentioned and talked about this one.  There are any number of events within this book that could make the list on their own, but I'll lump it together for the sake of fitting more events.  Some highlights:

*Tobias confessing to Rachel that he doesn't remember what he looked like
*Seeing the group nearly end up stuck as half-wolves, not only with the look of hatred Marco sends Tobias's way but also his reaction to their celebration of not being stuck
*Freaking out in the mall and nearly crashing into the window (saved by Marco's intervention)

4) Rachel's death

Honestly, this one SHOULD be number one, but for some reason the above events all had more of an impact.

5) Release of the quantum virus on the Hork Bajir home world

One of those moments (when the Hork Bajir is triumphantly holding the container with the virus and destroyed by it) that I have so clearly pictured in my head.  Really tragic stuff, and really the first thing that made me really dislike the Andalites.

6) Elfangor's death

Only as low as this because the reader is processing so much other stuff at this stage in the book.

7) The moment when its revealed that most of the auxiliary Animorphs are not healed and really are being unfairly used

I saw someone else discuss this one.  Ditto to what they said.

David apparently killing Tobias and gloating about it

Yeah, he ended up fine in the end and David's belief that he was dead was ultimately his undoing, but unlike Jake's death in MM3, I really BELIEVED Tobias was dead at this moment.

9) Jake falling apart on the witness stand when accused of genocide

Probably saddening because the attorney was at least partially right.  Wasn't this killing of defenseless Yeerks exactly what Elfangor so loathed about Prince Alloran in the Chronicles?

10) Tom trying to warn Jake about the sharing and Jake's realization that his brother really is a controller
11) The Chapman parents' futiley fighting their Yeerks when realizing their daughter may be in danger

The last two make the list because they are really are the first two instances in which we really understand the futility of being a controller.  These moments were, in my mind, critical early-book moments for establishing the real emotional stakes of the war that was being fought.

[The Spectre]

I don´t think I can get a top 11. But here´s what I´ve got so far.


3) Rachels deaths (and everything sorrounding it)
2) Tom´s death (Jake never got his brother back)
1) The series ending (it broke my hard even harder than Harry Potter did, and that´s saying an awful lot)

[taite]

this thread is reminding me of SO MANY SAD MOMENTS.  :'( bawwww
one I don't see mentioned yet is the end of MM3. when john berryman tells them all about how he tormented the yeerk in his head, and then when he realizes what they're going to do to him and still tells them where his parents met because he knows it's for the greater good......;___;

[rachel91]

54:
I don't know where he found the strength to lift that urn but he did. He flew away, low at first but then catching a thermal, he bore the urn into the sky (cassie on rachel's funeral)

HBC:
Only a few of the monsters survived. But it didn't matter because we didn't need the monsters anymore. We'd become them (Dak hamee)

And I could see Aldrea now. Different now. Hork Bajir. But still Aldrea. I could see her. and that would be enough (dak hamee)

[arahs22]

Rachel's death. I almost stopped reading, it was so sad.

[Kern]

I'm in the midst of re-reading the Animorphs. I might have forgotten some sad moments, but still.

#1: (I can't believe no one's picked this among their top 11 yet.)
<They're done for,> Cassie said.
<Hopefully, at least Visser One didn't escape,> Tobias said. <I'd like to think she is down there, trying to figure out how to hold her breath right about now.>
It was just the kind of thing I would have said.
Jake and Ax were silent. I knew Jake would tell Cassie now. If he didn't, Rachel would. They would all know. Jake and Rachel and Ax already knew.
They knew that my heart was ripping apart. They knew that I was crying. Or crying as well as any shark could.
I had lost my mother once. Not I'd lost her again...

I swear. Ms. A loves to torture Marco. As much as I know it's necessary, I dislike that he has to go through all this.

Come to think of it most of my moments are Marco moments. He's a strong character (and my favourite). He's a person forced to do what he has to do but will do what has to be done. And that makes all his sad moments even sadder.

#2:
Book 30, where he had to headbutt his mother off the cliff.

#3:
Book 35 in general, where he was dealing with a dad who didn't know his wife was dead. And Nora. Even though it was quite humourous, I still felt it was sad.

#4:
The entire scene with Aftran and the Animorphs in #19 where Cassie gives up everything and makes her sacrifice.

#5:
Tobias at Rachel's funeral and Jake at Rachel's grave in #54.

#6:
Watching the Auxiliary Animorphs die in #54. What, so they were brought in only to be used as a diversion?! That was where the Animorphs mood turned. Using disabled kids just showed how desperate they were.

#7:
The battle on board the aircraft carrier on #47. Humans and Animorphs fighting alongside eah other against the Yeerks. Ax threatening to drop the nuke on the city. A "floating island of death", I think the carrier was termed after the battle.

#8:
Temrash replaying Tom's pleas to Jake while in his head in #6. Temrash is sick, twisted and evil.

#9:
Erek's little VR show in the huge underground kennel in #10 displaying the destruction of the entire Pemalite race.

#10:
Rachel's and Ax's comments about never being able to get David out of their heads. and what they had to do to eliminate the threat. Somehow I just think it would have been less cruel to just kill him outright then and there once he was trapped.

#11:
Elfangor's murder. Enough said.

[Morilore]

The specific thing that was saddest to me about Rachel's death was the chapter of Tobias's, three years later. Living as a hawk, all along, loathing human company.  Hiding from his emotions in his hawk body again, now with no one and nothing to connect him to humanity.

[EverEstreen]

For some reason, quotes are really strong in my head, so my Top 11 are mostly quotes and the circumstance they were spoken in.

1. "JAKE, STOP HER" - Tom/Tom's Yeerk to Jake before Rachel kills him
This is the last thing "Tom" ever says to Jake, and thinking about this while knowing how haunted Jake will be by sending his cousin to kill his brother in the post-war years is really heartbreaking. I can't help but think if Jake ever wondered whether or not a little part of those words was spoken from his brother as well as the Yeerk in his head. Did Jake wonder what if, moments before death, Tom even managed to gain control, and those three words were entirely his own?

2. "<You go Elfangor,> Arbron said gently. <Go save the galaxy.>
<Leave him,> Alloran said. <Aristh... I mean, Warrior Arbron is a casualty of war.>"

3. "Not to get all Prince of Egypt on you, but... Behold!" - Marco to Eva in #35, atop the mountain where he would later push her off
The later scene where Marco actually pushes Eva off the cliff is really sad too, but I know this quote will ruin me on every re-read. Marco knows what he's inevitably going to do, and even in all that dread, he manages to pull out a little bit of the humor his mother taught him to have in the hope that maybe, maybe Eva can recognize him.

4. "You know what Marco and I used to talk about? Whether Batman could beat Spiderman. Whether Sega was better than Nintendo. Whether some girl would rather go out with him or me. And now...
'What are we anymore, Marco? What has happened to us?'" - Jake to Marco
After so many battles, Jake has grown into a reluctant war general, and his best friend has become his T.O.

5. "He never knew that I was the tiger. He never knew how close I had come to freeing him." - Jake in #1
All the sadder considering that Tom does eventually find out, though he's never freed.

6. Tobias morphing to human to cry for Rachel before she dies

7. "This is low.... This is so far beneath you, Jake." - Erek to Jake in #53

8. Jake morphing in front of his infested family to give them hope

9. "It's a beautiful world... I'll miss it." - David in #48

10. "Cassie held my hand, and in the darkness where no one could see me, I cried." - Ax

11. You may now demorph.

[XtheoniongirlX]

Another one worth mentioning was Erek arguing with Cassie and Jake right after Tom's assassination was pulled off. I guess this fits more in the 'Disturbing' category than 'Saddest,' but yeah. I don't know why it bothered me so much... it still tears me up that this is how his relationship with the crew ends, on such a bitter note when he used to be a constant, reliable ally. It's out-shadowed by the other heart-breaking events that happened before/followed that book, sure, but even to this day I always feel a pang in my chest every time I'm re-reading an earlier book featuring a brief appearance by Erek and remind myself that he never made up with them.

As for a more on-topic incident that happened around the same time, Cassie falling out of love with Jake when Marco got him to admit the satisfaction he felt flushing those 17 thousand Yeerks out into space really tore me up, too. The end of the war is when he needed you the most, Cassie! God damn you.