Seriously Though, Why Didn't the Animorphs Just...

[donut]

Contrast it with book 17 or even 22.  She may never had excellent people skills, but she did have good decision making abilities.  It all went out the window later, especially in the book where Jake leaves.  I  thought most that book was out of character for her, but I also thought her character was screwed up more than any character other than Cassie later in the series.

     That's all her books were about, eventually.

     Gotta wonder whose fault it was--K.A's, the Ghostwriters, or both?

Definitely ghost writers.  KA always stressed in depth characters.  The ghostwriters just kinda took the most obvious part of the character and ignored everything else.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     True. But the plots and stuff were still her idea, no? And I think she had to go over the manuscript before publishing...But I'm not sure.

     I just have to wonder if, maybe, K.A just got bored after the David Trilogy. There were still great books in the series--some of the best were post-David. But does anyone else get that feeling?

[donut]

I felt that way after book 26.  Except for book 25 which seemed 'off', all the ones before 27 were still really good (other than 4... that was.... yeah).  MM3 was pretty good though, and Visser is one of my favorites.

Honestly, I'm not sure how the ghostwriters worked.  I always knew something weird happened to the series partway through, but it wasn't until I got on here that I found out they were ghostwritten.

[Chad32]

Usually outside of her books everyone thought she was like a berserker, but her own books humanized her. Even in book 48 she came to the decision that taking Crayak's offer was bad all on her own. Plus the last thing she thought of before dying was shopping. It's just sometimes they try to stress how much darker she was than the others, and imply that she wouldn't be able to cope after the war.

I felt sorry for her because she was one of the strongest characters on the team. She would have been able to handle it.

[TobiasMasonPark]

Even in book 48 she came to the decision that taking Crayak's offer was bad all on her own.

     I would certainly hope she would be able to easily decide that the evil creature that has plagued her and her friends since Animorphs 26: the Attack would not be one worth trusting

It's just sometimes they try to stress how much darker she was than the others, and imply that she wouldn't be able to cope after the war. I felt sorry for her because she was one of the strongest characters on the team. She would have been able to handle it.

     I have to disagree there--on her being able to survive the war.

     Rachel was opened to a whole new world, one she could never have conceived of before the war. Now, I'm not saying that Rachel would have had a meltdown once the war was over, but I think she would definitely be bored, or maybe even a tad upset that the war had ended at all--though, she probably would have hated herself for thinking that. But do you think Rachel could just go back to a normal life, pursuing a normal job--I personally pictured Rachel as becoming a lawyer, like her mom-- when she has done so much more? Even Marco seemed to get a little bored living his life of luxury, so who's to say that Rachel wouldn't have longed for the action of her Animorphs days?

     Then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Rachel would have managed to adjust perfectly. I just think that, given how Jake, Marco, Cassie, and Tobias never really maintained what you'd call a normal life, it's fair to say that Rachel couldn't either.

[Snakie]

     True. But the plots and stuff were still her idea, no? And I think she had to go over the manuscript before publishing...But I'm not sure.

     I just have to wonder if, maybe, K.A just got bored after the David Trilogy. There were still great books in the series--some of the best were post-David. But does anyone else get that feeling?

This.

There were books that were undeniably poorly written and in which characters really didn't behave as they should have, and that's on the ghost writers.

Near as I can tell, however, she never had a ghost writer come up with the idea of a book.  She outlined every story in detail before handing it off to a ghost writer.

If all the books still had solid premises and just weren't executed effectively we could put it all on the ghost writers, but that's not what we see here.  We get creepy mermaid people, entering Marco's body Magic School Bus style, and Cassie does Australia.  No ghost writer could have made those stories good.

RE: Rachel.  I've ALWAYS thought she was the "right" Animorph to give her life to the war and one of the reasons for that is the belief that I simply don't think she'd have done that well post war.  At best, I imagine post-war Rachel engaging in all manner of high risk behavior to her own detriment post-war.

[Chad32]

I have more or less the opposite belief. I think among Marco and Cassie, she would have done fine. There are plenty of jobs that give excitement and moderate risk. I don't think she would have gone crazy or anything. I'm not even sure I'd say Cassie took it well. Just pushing everything about it aside is surely not the healthiest thing to do. Though people do handle stress and PTSD in different ways.

[Tilas]

While I never did get to finish reading the series, I do know how it all turns out, and it made sense to me.... mostly. I always figured if one of the main were to die it'd be Rachel or Ax.  When I was younger I thought Ax would go out in a blaze of glory in a final battle with Visser 3/1 causing both of their deaths. I dunno, it sort of seemed fitting for him to die fighting like his brother, but actually taking the Visser down with him.  As for Rachel, she was too twisted by war, she almost had to go, she'd never be able to re-adjust to life as a civilian.

[SuperBlue]

three questions:

1. Why did the Animorphs never try to attack Visser 3 in mid-morph? If it takes them a few minutes to morph birds then imagine how long it'd take for one of his giant abominations to be complete. Maybe they were distracted by Hork Bajir or something whenever he's morphing but I don't remember it ever crossing any of their minds to even attempt it.

2. Why didn't Cassie just stop Tom herself instead of stopping Jake from killing him? Maybe I read it wrong (it has been a while since I read that book) but they were both chasing Tom when he had the morphing cube. Sure Tom was athletic from basketball and Andalite hunting but there's no way in hell he could outrun a Tiger and a Wolf. If Cassie was so worried about Jake's shattered psyche from killing his own brother, she should of have incapacitated him. Tom lives, they keep the morphing cube, nobody's a traitor or a murderer.

3. Why did Rachel go fight Tom and Co. alone in #54? If she was kicking all that ass by herself, there's a good chance she could have lived if she at least had Cassie or Tobias (those two weren't doing anything anyway if I recall. At least Tobias wasn't) backing her up.

[Chad32]

1. Usually he has soldiers with him. There was an occassion during the David arc where Ax got close enough to put his blade to v3's throat, and got him to order his troops to back off. Generally they just don't do it. Also sometimes they just don't know what he's morphing, and he may be morphing the more dangerous parts first.

2. I've had a big rant about that. The only thing I can say is neither character was thinking clearly.

3. I just chalk it up to KA wanting Rachel to die, so she died. Regardless of what you might say either way, it's obvious the author wanted the character dead, so Rachel died.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     1) They probably weren't out to kill him--refer to the "better the enemy I know" bit.

     2) Giving the morphing cube to the Yeerks ended the war.

     3) I reread 54: the Beginning, and Rachel wasn't kicking as much as as one would think. She was pretty bad ass, but it didn't change the fact that it was something like six to one. But yea, you'd think she would have had back up. But, for story's sake, it made her sacrifice significant.

     Edit: I posted this just as Chad responded.

[Tilas]

three questions:

1. Why did the Animorphs never try to attack Visser 3 in mid-morph? If it takes them a few minutes to morph birds then imagine how long it'd take for one of his giant abominations to be complete.

The same reason no one ever attacked Sailor Moon during her 3 minute glittery flashy magical transformation sequences.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     ^So, the Animorphs were too busy staring at a naked Visser Three to attack him? Because that's why I figured the mooks didn't attack Sailor Moon while she transformed.

[Chad32]

     1) They probably weren't out to kill him--refer to the "better the enemy I know" bit.

     2) Giving the morphing cube to the Yeerks ended the war.

     3) I reread 54: the Beginning, and Rachel wasn't kicking as much as as one would think. She was pretty bad ass, but it didn't change the fact that it was something like six to one. But yea, you'd think she would have had back up. But, for story's sake, it made her sacrifice significant.

     Edit: I posted this just as Chad responded.

Yeah, there was the idea of leaving him alive, which would make it even more dangerous, since you're trying to incapacitate him without killing him and have to hold back.

Yeah the idea of giving the cube to the Yeerks ending the war is debatable, but I'd rather not go into another big rant unless you want to go there.

The only two things that kept Rachel from clearing the bridge was not quite killing the polar bear morpher, and not paying attention to what Tom was morphing. Though honestly since when does a tap not render a Human unconscious anyway?

Like I said, if Applegate wnated her to live, she would have had rachel succeed. she wanted Rachel to die, so Rachel died regardless of anything else happening.

[TobiasMasonPark]

Yeah the idea of giving the cube to the Yeerks ending the war is debatable, but I'd rather not go into another big rant unless you want to go there.

     Sure, why not? It's technically on topic. Go for it.