Do you think the series is too brutal?

[Cookie]

I have to say I agree with you, and to be honest that happens with many of the themes in Animorphs.

[spoiler]Ahem, for example: Jenny LINES (drug reference), weird host/Yeerk foursomes, the Animorphs raiding a crack den, Saddler being shoved down to rot at the bottom of an elevator shaft, Marco + a million poor Hork-Bajir controllers running around holding their insides in. David being trapped as a rat, Tobias pooping himself when he's being tortured etc etc. [/spoiler]

Plenty of it made me think "wait...WHAT have I just read that's meant for kids!?" and I've only started to grasp that after re-reading the series 10 years later. Because of the action and the vocab/writing style of Animorphs it is easy to gloss over the more grotty details, and for them not to be terribly graphic. Forgive the comparison but it's sort of like a Disney film when the younger audience can understand and enjoy something on their level but the adults can on a more mature level. Once you start thinking about things it becomes more apparent when you have the age and maturity to do so.

Heh.  I've heard that it's particularly American to censor sexuality more heavily than violence.  Probably true here.  Tobias and Rachel might hold hands (GASP!), but we won't have any issues with dismemberment and extended torture scenes.

I think I have to agree with that, although Animorphs was primary an action/sci-fi novel, sexuality is a hugee part of normal adolecent develpment and I really think more could have been written in exploring how the war etc really affected this part of the main characters which would made for some pretty deep and hefty character development. But we never got past the stage of "Cassie likes Jake. As in likes Jake" which is incredibly two dimensional and boring. But I think the censorship/age appropriateness of these novels sadly put a sure barrier of unacceptability on any potential smexchyness.

(Edited for my lack of proper forum decorum)

[MissySelenity]

I always thought that the series leaned more towards teens then children, any way I loved the action in it.

[Cornson]

I think the serires has a lot of what tv tropes calls fridge horror. Things go over kids heads or they are caught up in the action and don't dwell on the more gorey aspects. It isn't until after you put the book down and reflect on what you read that you realize how horrific some of that stuff was. And no matter how much damager the Animorphs took their human bodies always made it out without a scratch. So it is easier to see what happened as action rather then violence.

overtired actually sums it up quite nicely

[Cornson]

I have to say I agree with you, and to be honest that happens with many of the themes in Animorphs.

Ahem, for example: Jenny LINES (drug reference), weird host/Yeerk foursomes, the Animorphs raiding a crack den, Saddler being shoved down to rot at the bottom of an elevator shaft, Marco + a million poor Hork-Bajir controllers running around holding their insides in. David being trapped as a rat, Tobias pooping himself when he's being tortured etc etc.

Plenty of it made me think "wait...WHAT have I just read that's meant for kids!?" and I've only started to grasp that after re-reading the series 10 years later. Because of the action and the vocab/writing style of Animorphs it is easy to gloss over the more grotty details, and for them not to be terribly graphic. Forgive the comparison but it's sort of like a Disney film when the younger audience can understand and enjoy something on their level but the adults can on a more mature level. Once you start thinking about things it becomes more apparent when you have the age and maturity to do so.

Remember to use the spoiler tag mate, its there for a reason -.-' (comes from a guy that have only read the first 8books and just got a massive spoiler) .....    :'(

[Bealocwealm]

I read the dang thing when I was six-seven. Not ALL of it, mind, but a good portion. Nope, it's never the gore which got to me (and note I was a sensitive kid -- I was scared of Aztecs!) It is, as someone on this thread said, mostly Fridge Horror.

It's the bits WITHOUT gore that got to me.  The aquarium and swimming pool scenes in #15, in which nobody got hurt, are the scariest bits of the books to me.

[Noelle]

Adult references that children won't get happens in almost all literature except really young picture books, I think.  Part of it is adults looking for it, and some of it is authors including it just to see if they can capture a small adult audience to boost their profits.  I mean, look at movies like Shrek, there's tons of "kid inappropriate humor" there when you look at it with an adult mind.  I think it runs on the assumption that if they are old enough to "get" the reference, they are mature enough to understand it without being corrupted.  "Jenny Lines" means nothing unless you already know about drug culture, and if you know about drug culture you probably have already made a moral decision about it.  A ten year old isn't going to randomly go "oh, what a strange name, I'm going to google it HOLY CRAP MY INNOCENCE IS GONE!"


There's definitely no doubt that Animorphs is definitely one of the more 'adultish' of the YA literature, and personally I like it partially for that very reason.  It explores real morals, not the morals of "waaaaaa I don't have a boyfriend."  I think the kids that read it are better for it anyway.  I'd rather my kids read violence as terrible and harmful and scary than "oh handsome boy beats up someone for gurlz and that's so cool!"

[Cookie]

Remember to use the spoiler tag mate, its there for a reason -.-' (comes from a guy that have only read the first 8books and just got a massive spoiler) .....    :'(

I'm really sorry Cornson I've fixed it now. It was unthinking of me to post without using the spoiler thingie and I hope this doesn't ruin you're enjoyment of the rest of the series

Adult references that children won't get happens in almost all literature except really young picture books, I think.  Part of it is adults looking for it, and some of it is authors including it just to see if they can capture a small adult audience to boost their profits.  I mean, look at movies like Shrek, there's tons of "kid inappropriate humor" there when you look at it with an adult mind.  I think it runs on the assumption that if they are old enough to "get" the reference, they are mature enough to understand it without being corrupted.  "Jenny Lines" means nothing unless you already know about drug culture, and if you know about drug culture you probably have already made a moral decision about it.  A ten year old isn't going to randomly go "oh, what a strange name, I'm going to google it HOLY CRAP MY INNOCENCE IS GONE!"


There's definitely no doubt that Animorphs is definitely one of the more 'adultish' of the YA literature, and personally I like it partially for that very reason.  It explores real morals, not the morals of "waaaaaa I don't have a boyfriend."  I think the kids that read it are better for it anyway.  I'd rather my kids read violence as terrible and harmful and scary than "oh handsome boy beats up someone for gurlz and that's so cool!"

I think the more adult references are actually one of the reasons why people still love Animorphs ten years on as its the type of book which you can enjoy as a child and but it has enough meat to if for you to enjoy as an adult. It pushes boundaries  and that's great.

I actually think kids reading books that have the morals of "waaaaa I don't have a boyfriend" is much more dangerous to be honest. Its generally not a good idea to teach kids that you're whole self worth and self esteem is based on the fact that you have a boyfriend.

[Jetstream]

Remember to use the spoiler tag mate, its there for a reason -.-' (comes from a guy that have only read the first 8books and just got a massive spoiler) .....    :'(

Honestly mate, if you're gonna read this forum you're probably gonna get some hard core spoilers. The book series ended over ten years ago. Very few people here are censoring their posts with the notion that someone might consider this series a new thing. Hell, there are entire threads (lots of them) openly discussing the end of the series.

[SkyMorpher]

Yes, but don't forget it's being re-released now. It's not unthinkable that new fans could surface.

[Jetstream]

Yes, but don't forget it's being re-released now. It's not unthinkable that new fans could surface.

I once had someone unironically yell at me for spoiling that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father in 1998.

New release or not, it's very old. If you don't want spoilers ten years after the fact, avoid discussion forums related to them until after you have read the thing. It is FAR too late.

[Gaz]

I started reading this series in 4th grade, and the violence never bothered me. My parents never did either and at the time my mom didn't want me watching the animated Batman series because she thought it was too violent. I watched it anyway. Lol.

To be honest, it was Everworld that took me more by surprise than anything in Animorphs. I did start crying while reading at one point when I believed a character had died (but wasn't really dead it turned out).

[Nateosaurus]

I was 8 when I started reading them and I never really thought it was too brutal..

And for todays standards it really isn't that bad

[esplin]

I started reading this series in 4th grade, and the violence never bothered me. My parents never did either and at the time my mom didn't want me watching the animated Batman series because she thought it was too violent. I watched it anyway. Lol.

To be honest, it was Everworld that took me more by surprise than anything in Animorphs. I did start crying while reading at one point when I believed a character had died (but wasn't really dead it turned out).

Everworld freaked me out as well.  I was probably twelve when I was reading it.  I didn't get sad over it but I remember thinking about how much more mature it was then Animorphs. 

By today's standards though neither Animorphs or Everworld are that bad.