Cassie's Betrayal

[Azguard]

Cassie may be the strongest Animorphs after all. She remains pretty consistent to her ideals and morals throughout the series. Even under all that pressure, I think she still stuck to her guns and made the choice she believe was right. I don't think we'll ever know how much goes on inside her head, but I think she represents the strongest aspects of Humanity. She is like Allison Kim, or of those sort.

[Chad32]

You shouldn't isolate that climactic moment when Cassie lets Tom escape and ignore the rest of the book, how the writer set up Cassie's decision.

Jake was depressed and was no longer being a good leader. Cassie didn't know how to handle the situation. She calls him a coward then regrets it immediately. Subsequently she bites her tongue and follows Jake as he makes morally questionable decisions and gives morally questionable orders. She holds back because she knows Jake isn't in the mood to deal with her questioning his judgment. She gets frustrated with the naivete her parents display among the Hork-Bajir, but her dad calls her out on the immoral way he thinks she and the Animorphs have been acting. Cassie gets frustrated and flies away without saying goodbye, afterwards realizing that it's possible she won't see him again.

If you isolate that one moment when she stops Jake, you overlook how the whole book was setting up that there was all this pressure building up on Cassie, coloring her judgment in that crucial moment.

Hey Dan. I don't see you around as much as I thought I might.

You may be correct. I haven't read that book in so long (or much of the final arc), that I don't remember much besides that part. I guess with all that pressure, she didn't see the third option.

[filmstu2005]

You shouldn't isolate that climactic moment when Cassie lets Tom escape and ignore the rest of the book, how the writer set up Cassie's decision.

Jake was depressed and was no longer being a good leader. Cassie didn't know how to handle the situation. She calls him a coward then regrets it immediately. Subsequently she bites her tongue and follows Jake as he makes morally questionable decisions and gives morally questionable orders. She holds back because she knows Jake isn't in the mood to deal with her questioning his judgment. She gets frustrated with the naivete her parents display among the Hork-Bajir, but her dad calls her out on the immoral way he thinks she and the Animorphs have been acting. Cassie gets frustrated and flies away without saying goodbye, afterwards realizing that it's possible she won't see him again.

If you isolate that one moment when she stops Jake, you overlook how the whole book was setting up that there was all this pressure building up on Cassie, coloring her judgment in that crucial moment.

I couldn't agree with you more. The book was set up that way. And the was pressure on Cassie. I think this sorta justifies that Cassie was sort of 2nd-in-Command, Jake's lieutenant. She felt responsible, especially for Jake's lack of leadership, and she took on that responsibility, she tried to make up for what he couldn't.  She did what she could, she really tried. And when it came down to making the Ultimate decision, she chose with what she "saw"

[V2113]

I think it's K.A.'s fault. She ran out of good ideas so she came up with an end. The end!

[cenovia]

I think Cassie always knew the morphing cube was the answer but she knew that her friends and the andalites would never agree to grant morphing ability to the enemy, period. But It would've been too big of a risk if a plan like that had backfired. How would you even hope to implement it? The Animorphs didn't even really trust the rebels, except for Aflan. I think when Cassie saw Tom running away with the cube, she knew that was the only chance to make the others see the possibilities. It was a completely stupid and risky thing to do but ultimately it was her choice that ended the war.

[Chad32]

How would you implement it? Well, you could spread word through the YPM Yeerks that if anyone wanted out of the war they could be given morphing ability. Any Yeerk that wants out can meet somewhere to be given morphing ability, and become any nothlit they want. The Anis could also do this for the Hork-Bajir controllers captured by the Free Hork-Bajir.

This way, the Anis retain control of the cube, and any benefit of giving the Yeerks morphing ability will be gained without the drawback of the enemy having morphing ability.

[Hylian Dan]

I think Cassie always knew the morphing cube was the answer but she knew that her friends and the andalites would never agree to grant morphing ability to the enemy, period. But It would've been too big of a risk if a plan like that had backfired. How would you even hope to implement it? The Animorphs didn't even really trust the rebels, except for Aflan. I think when Cassie saw Tom running away with the cube, she knew that was the only chance to make the others see the possibilities. It was a completely stupid and risky thing to do but ultimately it was her choice that ended the war.

I don't think it was a premeditated act. More like in the heat of the moment Cassie acted based on her instinct, her perception of who she was, who Jake was, her perception of morality and her understanding of the enemy.

There was actually a deleted scene from the end of the book. The book ends with Cassie saying she knew somehow that letting Tom escape was somehow the right thing to do. Immediately after that, in the full version of the scene, she loses that confidence and pretty much goes, "What the hell did I just do?"
The deleted scene also included Cassie concluding that Tobias had chosen to be trapped as a hawk, that it wasn't an accident. The scene was cut because of a gaping plot hole involving Jake returning to the hospital. The text was posted on the morphz forum I think, a long time ago. I'll see if I can dig it up when I have time.

Anyways, I think it was an absolutely brilliant move on KAA's part for Cassie to surrender the morphing cube. For one thing it was a staggering cliffhanger and moved the plot in a great direction. It also echoed the idea of Seerow's Kindness in an interesting way; the war began and ended because of similar acts.

[Kitulean]

Sorry, I just... what she did led directly to the death of one of my favorite characters and caused the other to become a recluse. So for that I just can't forgive her even if what she did in the end paid off. There were better ways to go about it. I think she honestly didn't think it through at all. She acted on instinct, and as has been proven in the past, Cassie's instincts in a war leave something to be desired.

[Liz]

The Japanese say something about going with your gut instinct rather than your brain, don't they? I can't remember the phrase. >.<

Anyway, I don't think it was a bad thing that Cassie went with her instincts in that case.  She's usually been right about going by instinct (#19 comes to mind with the whole Aftran situation, I'm sure there are others).  And in #54, Marco told Jake that he needed to make crazy, reckless decisions sometimes, and not second-guess himself.

[Kitulean]

Yes but I specifically was saying that Cassie's gut instinct in battle isn't usually the best thing to go with. She's too much of a pacifist for war.

[filmstu2005]

I think Cassie always knew the morphing cube was the answer but she knew that her friends and the andalites would never agree to grant morphing ability to the enemy, period. But It would've been too big of a risk if a plan like that had backfired. How would you even hope to implement it? The Animorphs didn't even really trust the rebels, except for Aflan. I think when Cassie saw Tom running away with the cube, she knew that was the only chance to make the others see the possibilities. It was a completely stupid and risky thing to do but ultimately it was her choice that ended the war.

 And if reread that moment, you'll see that Cassie recognized the setting very well. The dark forest, Jake in tiger morph, chasing a very nervously frightened Tom through the woods....

Jake had mentioned this dream many times, the dream of him chasing after Tom. (Read #6 The Capture), and Cassie took note that the dream had been made corporeal. And she knew the outcome of the dream, that Jake would kill his brother. So she saw a lot in that moment and went with her instincts, which have usually never been wrong.

I agree. It was a brilliant move on KA's part.  Tell me more about this deleted text from the original manuscript. What else was in it?

[Chad32]

I think Cassie always knew the morphing cube was the answer but she knew that her friends and the andalites would never agree to grant morphing ability to the enemy, period. But It would've been too big of a risk if a plan like that had backfired. How would you even hope to implement it? The Animorphs didn't even really trust the rebels, except for Aflan. I think when Cassie saw Tom running away with the cube, she knew that was the only chance to make the others see the possibilities. It was a completely stupid and risky thing to do but ultimately it was her choice that ended the war.

 And if reread that moment, you'll see that Cassie recognized the setting very well. The dark forest, Jake in tiger morph, chasing a very nervously frightened Tom through the woods....

Jake had mentioned this dream many times, the dream of him chasing after Tom. (Read #6 The Capture), and Cassie took note that the dream had been made corporeal. And she knew the outcome of the dream, that Jake would kill his brother. So she saw a lot in that moment and went with her instincts, which have usually never been wrong.

I agree. It was a brilliant move on KA's part.  Tell me more about this deleted text from the original manuscript. What else was in it?

There are two problems with this.

1)Did Jake even ever mention that dream to anyone? Sure it was mentioned to the reader, but I don't remember him mentioning it to her or anyone else.

2)Jake didn't kill Tom in the dream. He became Tom, and Tom became the tiger. So she basically helped that dream become a reality.

[morfowt]

1. actually yes he did in #6.

[Chad32]

My mistake then. I doubt she would remember something like that from two years ago, though.

[Hylian Dan]

I agree. It was a brilliant move on KA's part.  Tell me more about this deleted text from the original manuscript. What else was in it?

Found it. It's about a third of the way down the page:

http://morphz9768.yuku.com/topic/604/t/Deleted-Scenes.html?page=1

My mistake then. I doubt she would remember something like that from two years ago, though.

Nah, given the way Cassie analyzes people, I think she would file that sort of thing away, take note of it.