What did you like/dislike about the Animorphs?

[theyoungphoenix]

I hated the last book. Made me cry like a million billion times.  :'(

I loved all of the different morphs that they used.

[Bealocwealm]

I really disliked some of the ghostwriting (some of it I loved), the helmacrons, and the incredibly abrupt introduction of The One on the last book. Oh, and the lack of editing (KASUs anyone) bugged me, though I understand that particularly with later books, the production schedule was so fast that they just didn't have time.

I LOVED the character development and character-driven aspects, I loved the mechanics of the morphing and, well, all of the technology -- I loved the dream sequences, hell, I even usually love the filler (Cassie's Australian Adventure, anyone? I actually enjoyed the hell out of that book.) Oh, and I LOVE the Chronicles books, all of them. And the time travel. And the animal psyches. And MOST THINGS.

[theyoungphoenix]

Haha. I enjoyed the Australian adventure as well. What do you mean by MOST things??

[Cookie]

There were so many things I loved about the Animorphs.

I loved the sense of humor and fun, but how devastating brutal and harsh things could be as well. I loved all the characters and their individuality, and how they changed.  Sadly I think one of the things this series missed out on through scholastic was the ability for the books rating to grow with the reader ie going from a child's book to a teenagers series much like Harry Potter. I also it would have worked better as a more continuous story format instead of an episodic format. Although the subtle brutality of the books sometimes was disturbing for me to read as an adult. Fact is I adored these books as a child and still do as an adult, which speaks for itself.

[Snakie]

Loved:

Almost everything.  The alien species, the way morphs were handled, the shifting narratives from book to book, you name it.

Disliked:

Some of the plot devices used were very convenient, like the freak morphing accident that somehow put them right in the middle of the Yeerk-Leeran conflict, the loophole that allowed Cassie to demorph after becoming a butterfly nothlit, the existence of something that effectively brought Aldrea's personality back from the dead (that was a bad idea in general, actually), I could go on and on.

Sci-fi and fantasy authors are notorious for using their genre to create "easy" ways to make things happen, but I felt like new elements were brought in with weak explanations way too frequently.

[NateSean]

I really disliked some of the ghostwriting (some of it I loved), the helmacrons, and the incredibly abrupt introduction of The One on the last book.

I always saw that as KA giving fanfic writers something to work with when the series was gone. Like when your parents go away for the weekend but they leave you with some money to order pizza.

What I liked about Animorphs.

Getting to escape reality for a few hours on that one day of the month when I would come home with the new book.

What I disliked:

Having to wait a whole month between books. And that even longer period of wait between The Stranger and Megamorphs 1.

[MissySelenity]

I hated how the Animorphs pretended not to be friends. Who cared if they hung out with each other in a group? Hello, Jake is cousin to Rachel and Cassie is her best friend. That was the main thing that bugged me.

[Snakie]

^To expand on that, the secrecy thing always annoyed me a little bit in general.

I realize the "I can't tell you my last name" thing was just kind of a cute gimmick/hook to get you to read the books, but the whole thing as a way of keeping secrecy was just silly.

I can't tell you my last name, but I can give you enough information to determine where I live, I can tell you that one of us is Visser One's hosts' son, I can tell you that one of us is the sibling of a rapidly rising controller, and I can tell you that I go to a school where the Principal plays a central roll in the Yeerk invasion, and above all, I can tell you I'm human, which is ALSO supposed to be a secret!

It never bugged me that much of course, but it always seemed like a really cheesy hook that doesn't pass any level of scrutiny.

[Chad32]

Yeah the whole "not telling you my last name" is pretty silly when we know so much about the characters. V1's host's son. The daughter of the woman in charge of the zoo, the brother of an esteemed controller whose host was captured in a known way, and the daughter of an attorney that's a single mother, and who has two sibling. That's pretty specific. We know so much about them that even if their first names were fake, which they aren't, then we'd still have plenty of information to go on.

[NateSean]

Going even further with that, why is it we only ever learned Jake and (I'm assuming) Rachel's last names?

[theyoungphoenix]

Going even further with that, why is it we only ever learned Jake and (I'm assuming) Rachel's last names?

Yep, pretty much it, everyone else just makes them up.

[MissySelenity]

Oh yeah the thing that really gets me is how they start off nearly every book with explaining who the Animorphs are and the yeerks. It gets really annoying though I get why they did that, I skip the introduction part lol. Then again I'm only on book 14 so far, is it the same for the rest of the series?

[theyoungphoenix]

Oh yeah the thing that really gets me is how they start off nearly every book with explaining who the Animorphs are and the yeerks. It gets really annoying though I get why they did that, I skip the introduction part lol. Then again I'm only on book 14 so far, is it the same for the rest of the series?

Pretty much, except for, like, the last few I think.

[Adam]

Liked:
Realism - Nothing is ever really "black & white" (apart from maybe Visser 3), and it doesn't hold back on realistic cruelty and difficulties
Alien species - So good that I named a song after one!
Concept - Morphing animals to defeat parasitic slugs? Genius!

Disliked:
Realism - Can be downright depressing at times! Example: an entire peaceful, tree-loving species brutalised and enslaved to near extinction in perhaps the cruelest possible way? Grim stuff!
Inaccesibility -  The stuff listed above may have made it a little too much for a lot of the target age group. Maybe this is why it never caught on?

[theyoungphoenix]

The stuff listed above may have made it a little too much for a lot of the target age group. Maybe this is why it never caught on?

Could've been... We might never know...