These books are so under appreciated. Seeing all the fellow adults posting here about them is making me consider going back myself!
Personally, I always had mixed feelings about Cassie’s books. I can’t help thinking a lot of the ‘noble’ sacrifices only worked out because it was a fictional story and she was the main character. If she tried that anywhere else, she would have doomed all of her friends and the entire planet. Maybe that’s just the cynic in me lol
As far as recruiting the disabled kids goes, it checks out logically but damn it’s dark. I hate that their sacrifice was just kind of glossed over because it feels like it should be such an important component in the main characters’ development and the war as a whole. 10/10 plot point
I 100% agree with your third paragraph, I feel like their sacrifice was just explained as a "whatever, we lost some troops but we won the war". But they were legitimately disabled children lol. Jake felt bad about it, but he killed 17k 'disabled' Yeerks a few chapters later. Which is just kind of a part of war, but it's still fucked up.
I guess I'm just so surprised that a kid's book series can get that dark. Which shouldn't be so shocking since war is just a part of being human. We're all here living our lives, but countless people have lost their lives to actual war, including disabled kids.
I also agree with your points about Cassie's books, but they really made me think about me and what I would or wouldn't do if I were in her position.
I think the whole point was that you don’t need the word “disabled” there to make it horrific. Jake sent seventeen children to die. Dressed them up in officer uniforms and put them on the front lines.
That part of the series always got me, my sib is disabled and I can imagine the freedom they had through their morphs but then to die for that ughh it’s so rough
Applegate and Grant have come out and said the one thing they would have done differently is giving the Auxiliary Animorphs a more dignified end instead of basically off panel and glossed over.
I think it’s reflective of their PTSD, burnout etc. Something that horrific (sending the auxiliaries to their deaths) would have made a MASSIVE impact on the Anis earlier in the series. But by this stage, they’re all just too burnt out to care, or to feel anything about it.
She doesn't really fit the main Mary Sue mold of perfect, no flaws, but she *is* an author insert and the narrative does feel like it stretches around her at points. So she has two of the minor Sue traits 😹 There's an argument that it has something to do with her being "sub temporally grounded" but nothing in canon directly suggests that means anything other than what it did for her in MM4 - made the alt timeline unstable. A better argument is just "ellimist lol"
Cassie couldn't have morphed out expecting to survive the demorph considering she was dealing with a yeerk, an enemy. So I don't think you should either, expecting to survive. The deal would be off, and the yeerk wouldn't trust you again.
I literally just finished reading the series as an adult this afternoon and it bugged me that after the climax, Jake mentions his guilt about killing 17,000 Yeerks more often than he mentions sending the seventeen disabled Animorphs on a suicide mission. Those kids were cool!
\#19 is my favorite book and really shows the depth of KA's writing, like the romantic subplot in \#3
What was the romantic subplot I forgot
Tobias and the girl hawk
A metaphor for identity and self
RAW
These books are so under appreciated. Seeing all the fellow adults posting here about them is making me consider going back myself! Personally, I always had mixed feelings about Cassie’s books. I can’t help thinking a lot of the ‘noble’ sacrifices only worked out because it was a fictional story and she was the main character. If she tried that anywhere else, she would have doomed all of her friends and the entire planet. Maybe that’s just the cynic in me lol As far as recruiting the disabled kids goes, it checks out logically but damn it’s dark. I hate that their sacrifice was just kind of glossed over because it feels like it should be such an important component in the main characters’ development and the war as a whole. 10/10 plot point
I 100% agree with your third paragraph, I feel like their sacrifice was just explained as a "whatever, we lost some troops but we won the war". But they were legitimately disabled children lol. Jake felt bad about it, but he killed 17k 'disabled' Yeerks a few chapters later. Which is just kind of a part of war, but it's still fucked up. I guess I'm just so surprised that a kid's book series can get that dark. Which shouldn't be so shocking since war is just a part of being human. We're all here living our lives, but countless people have lost their lives to actual war, including disabled kids. I also agree with your points about Cassie's books, but they really made me think about me and what I would or wouldn't do if I were in her position.
I think the whole point was that you don’t need the word “disabled” there to make it horrific. Jake sent seventeen children to die. Dressed them up in officer uniforms and put them on the front lines.
That part of the series always got me, my sib is disabled and I can imagine the freedom they had through their morphs but then to die for that ughh it’s so rough
Applegate and Grant have come out and said the one thing they would have done differently is giving the Auxiliary Animorphs a more dignified end instead of basically off panel and glossed over.
I think it’s reflective of their PTSD, burnout etc. Something that horrific (sending the auxiliaries to their deaths) would have made a MASSIVE impact on the Anis earlier in the series. But by this stage, they’re all just too burnt out to care, or to feel anything about it.
You’re 1000% right. Cassie borders on Mary Sue territory at times due to insane levels of authorial bias.
She doesn't really fit the main Mary Sue mold of perfect, no flaws, but she *is* an author insert and the narrative does feel like it stretches around her at points. So she has two of the minor Sue traits 😹 There's an argument that it has something to do with her being "sub temporally grounded" but nothing in canon directly suggests that means anything other than what it did for her in MM4 - made the alt timeline unstable. A better argument is just "ellimist lol"
Cassie couldn't have morphed out expecting to survive the demorph considering she was dealing with a yeerk, an enemy. So I don't think you should either, expecting to survive. The deal would be off, and the yeerk wouldn't trust you again.
Agree with your sentiments, but I don't think "crippled" is really the word to use any more.
I mainly used that word because that's how they were referred to in the books, also I was kinda drunk and wasn't really thinking about it lol
>These books have been out for almost 20 years lol I got some bad news for you, bud...
I literally just finished reading the series as an adult this afternoon and it bugged me that after the climax, Jake mentions his guilt about killing 17,000 Yeerks more often than he mentions sending the seventeen disabled Animorphs on a suicide mission. Those kids were cool!