The concluding scene in which ::: spoiler spoiler Cassie actually goes through with the surgery at having a bit of a breakdown :::
was maybe the most stressful thing I had ever read up to that point.
I had read a more dramatic events in other books, but I knew the gang so well that it was extremely harrowing seeing Cassie make this decision.
18 Comments
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 43d
One more question, actually. I see you've done these mulling over posts for the numbered books, but I don't see any for the mega morphs or chronicles. Do you mind I make posts for them? This community seems to be mainly just you, and I don't want to overstep if you're hoping to keep it that way. Haha
Varyk@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 42d
Responding here first: Please make posts about any Animorphs content you feel about. Your thoughts, fan art, any positive and especially thoughtful Animorphs content. My entire intention in creating this com was a landing page so that other fans could contribute their thoughts about every aspect of the series. I'm extremely grateful to have another contributor(zero obligation at all), and I may start co-reading the latter half with you so that I can respond more enthusiastically to your comments.
I care about this series a lot and thank you for being here.
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 42d
Oh that'd be totally cool! I'm on 29.5 right now. I'm kind of inconsistent in my reading, sometimes I can get through 2, 2 and a half books, other times I'll go a week without listening at all. Just depends on how heavy the schedule is and what's going on.
Varyk@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 42d
That's great. you mean halfway through 29 or on elfangor's secret, which is insaaaaane?
you can make replies or make your own posts, i think the more seeds we plant the more comfortable future posters will be.
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 42d
Elfangor's secret. And yes. Insane! I'll make a post for it when I finish the book (hopefully tomorrow, I'm about half way through). But for now I'll just say, hearing Jake say "a lot of blacks" threw me for a loop, even after I knew they were in a fascist reality!
Varyk@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 42d
For sure, i remember that line specifically tripping me up each time I read 29.5 despite the alternate-universe setting.
The only thing I ask with this community is that since people are still coming to the series for the first time and finishing it for the first time(literally just had another new finisher pop in last month suggesting a podcast, Nevermorphed, hosted by a first-time reader), try to keep post titles/images spoiler -free and mark revealing body posts and comments with spoiler tags.
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 42d
I'm using eternity for android to use Lemmy, and my spoiler tags don't seem to work, at least on my end. >!tell me if they work on your end?!<
Varyk@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 42d
nope, but this format should work:
::: spoiler spoiler
spoiler stuff here
:::
View source and you can see the actual formatting, it's just a few colons before and after.
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 43d
This is probably my favorite book in the series so far. Absolutely loved it.
Note on the following, as I wrote it, I realized it was coming across as complain-y, but it's not that. I just don't have anywhere else to voice these things, and I'm getting them out. Haha. Genuinely loved this book.
Additional edit, this one is getting long with a bunch of speculation at the end. Haha
The failed mission as eels was a great twist. Sometimes missions fail, sometimes they have to be aborted. We don't see that enough, I think. This made everything feel more realistic to me. Genuinely good dramatic build up here.
I fully did not expect Cassie to have to go through with the surgery. Like at all. I just assumed there was some deus ex machina coming. That was legitimately harrowing.
Something I don't understand, though. Eric (I'm doing audiobooks this time around, and I don't remember. Is it Eric or Erik?) says his "father" was a doctor centuries ago. Are the Chee capable of performing surgery on a human? Does slicing into someone violate the non violence clause in their programming? Because if so, that makes for an interesting case of a doctor, and if not, why did Eric not perform the surgery under Cassie's guidance? Surely it would have been safer, given that he is an android, and cannot sweat into Ax, or accidently get a tremor at the wrong time.
Another little plot hole that bugs me. Eric has a yeerk in his head. He has a tiny kandrona emitter that keeps the yeerk alive. Which means he knows how to make a kandrona emitter. Surely they could have found a home for Astrid. They could have converted a kiddie pool into a yeerk pool for her, they could have allowed her to live with one of the Chee. There were ways to keep her in the fight. She began the peace movement, she was a valuable soldier in the fight against the yeerks.
Which, on that note, a couple thoughts I've had since beginning this reread:
One of the reasons the yeerks are all so "fall in line"y behind Visser 3 isn't just that he's a tyranical dictator. Soldiers defect from those all the time. Being threatened with death is nothing new. But it's because he controls the food source. "Defect and I'll hunt you down" leaves room for hope, but "do as I say or I take away literally every milligram of food on the entire planet" is different. There is literally no hope at that point. Do what they say, or starve to death slowly, painfully. That's a helluva motivator. You may start believing the propaganda just to make yourself feel better about what you're doing at that point. And that's not even to mention the whole Cassie/Astrid conversation from 19 about blindness and deafness in their yeerk state. Visser 3 feels like a Saturday morning cartoon villain sometimes, but the yeerks as a whole, (and even Visser 3 in some of them) are really quite nuanced, layered characters that you just don't expect from a kids series about alien slugs and morphing into animals.
Another thought I'd had much earlier in the series, but that this one brought to mind was yeerks and morphing technology.
We know from the Hork Bajir Chronicles that the yeerks did not have an empire, or were even imperially minded, prior to Seerow's Kindness. They were at least partially symbiotic with the Gedd, the Gedd not being intelligent enough for it be this big moral question in their using their bodies. The Yeerks wanted to expand past their planet, and due to Andalite laws and customs, they weren't given the technology to do so. They had access to it, but it was a controlled access. Andalite soldiers blocked the machinery and so on. So the yeerks, being a species biologically adapted to just taking what they wanted, took what they wanted through violent means. But it occurs to me, had the morphing technology been available at the time, if the yeerks had had access to that instead, I don't think we would have seen a Yeerk empire grow in the same way.
The Yeerks are slavers by their biology, right? But look at human chattel slavery. I'm an American, so we'll use that as the example. Europeans enslaved Africans because they didn't want to do the work. They wanted someone else to plough the fields, someone else to clean the kitchens, someone else to raise their kids. It is slavery by the lazy and the entitled.
But the yeerks are different. Every Hork Bajir controller fighting battles has a yeerk in its head. Every human controller working construction likewise has a yeerk physically feeling the bodily exhaustion, thirst, hunger, et cetera. The Yeerks are doing the work themselves, just as much as the controller. This is not slavery by the lazy. They aren't trying to get out of work, they are trying to live a life that doesn't completely fucking suck. So if they could morph, why would they need to enslave? Sure, there's the whole moral dilemma about morphing a sapient creature (one I genuinely don't share, to be honest), but that's a helluva lot better than making mind-slaves of entire planetary populations.
If the iskoort offer an alternative in the form of custom designed, clones symbiotes, then I think the morphing technology offers a distinctive third way that's even better.
I have a suspicion that's going to be one of the solutions towards the end of the series, but since I never finished it as a kid, I don't know. No spoilers please. Haha
Okay, that's way too long. If you read all of that, I'm really sorry lol
Varyk@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 39d
Yea, I love this book as well, certainly near the top of my list this reread.
Erek, and I think you're right; I seriously doubt a Chee would be capable of performing surgery on a living being because they would have to cut into flesh, which must be considered violence by their extremely strict pacifism.
As for the kandrona, there are a lot of limitations that the chee put on themselves when interacting with the Animorphs and other species, regardless of the apparent consequences. They still interfere when they feel they should, but often don't, although it seems like chee boundaries are easier to define than those of the ellimist or crayak.
the chee also tend to momentarily lend support, but have made it clear they are actively disinterested in being lomg-term assets in an ongoing war, which operating, maintaining, providing supplies and building infrastructure for a kandrona pool would require.
When I was growing up, Cassie was probably my least favorite character, but every subsequent reread she grew on me more, and especially during my latest reread, until she may now be my favorite character, or at least her books and emotional dilemmas are the ones most interesting and resonant with me these days.
I feel like she's the only one taking the whole situation gravely seriously from the beginning and truly considering all the angles, while everyone else is caught up in the adventure of it all, albeit through different lenses(Rachel violence, Marco strategy, Jake responsibility, but all "for the war", "to beat the Yeerks", which is never Cassie's only goal, or even starting point.
Yeerks are absolutely people, and I think the authors are taking great pains to make that very clear in this book specifically in case readers missed all the hints pointing that way so far(I sure did). There are sides to the war, but the sides are comprised of individuals. Personhood is a dynamic that will continue to be explored and developed throughout the series.
the yeerks are definitely slavers by and slaves to their biology.
If any of my answers sound curt, I'm being reeeeal careful about spoilers.
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 39d
Haha. I love it, and appreciate the restraint.
Tobias was always my favorite on my first read through, and he definitely still is my boy, but reading later in life, Cassie and me just see eye to eye on so much. And Rachel... Whoo, boy, so I feel kindred with Rachel sometimes, battling the anger and the temper inside yourself.
Dammit, man, how did they write this good and nuanced of a series for kids‽ It's wild.
Varyk@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 38d
yea, totally crazy. Grant said after the first few books, they were literally given zero notes for the entire rest of the series and were left to their own devices, they just had to keep up that insane production chedule.
They were allowed to go as dark and complex as they wanted and explore any topic, which really paid off.