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Animorphs 19 The Departure...
Jul. 8th, 2019 06:43 pmI've been dreading getting to this book because it is in many ways IMO the book where Cassie's arc becomes fundamentally broken and her static creator's pet status asserts itself. Sure she had her less than stellar moments before but before this book they could have been signs of an arc where she went from a childish form of morality into a more adult one.
Because IMO that is the biggest problem with Cassie she has a very immature morality that lends itself to her hypocrisy and making frankly bad or horrific decisions. Then her creator's pet status kicks in and she's shielded from all the fall out.
It really shines through in this book because the beginning of this book is just awsome Cassie reaching the breaking point, quitting and some real hard necessary truths are said by the others to her. If she'd had an actual over arching arc then this should have been the pivot point where she began to change. What that change should have been doesn't matter if it was staying idealistic but embracing a more adult view of how to stay that way and interact with the war or learning to set aside her concerns for the greater good. It doesn't matter just something but instead Cassie's morality doesn't change at all and instead the novels that follow this one constantly excuse it or have the others acting as if her morality is so much more developed then theirs when it is actually very shallow and child like.
I'd even be fine with her keeping the shallow and child like morality if the others and the narrative actually called her on it and realized its limitations. That could have been an interesting conflict later in teh series Cassie learns the others don't value her opinion and lie to her face to keep her from sabotaging mission but that never happens. Instead it is plain to see that she is the creators pet espousing the creators views on topics. I mean I have never cared for author tract creators pet characters regardless of my opinion on the views they state.
Anyway after a stellar beginning we reach the Aftran conflict and this is where the book gets shaky. It is actually a good idea but it begins to fall apart as Cassie begins making reckless dangerous choices with no forethought and no follow through by the narrative that culminates in the whole Cassie decides to prove her commitment by becoming a caterpillar. The others then decide to let Aftran fulfill her deal with Cassie out of sentimentality and everyone is rewarded with the ass pull of the century when Cassie becoming a butterfly lets her demorph despite going over the limit.
Which makes the end of this book in the same realm of bad as some of the worst books of the series. So it makes it a hard book to comment on. I mean there is no real follow through on the Karen situation(I mean how did they free her and keep her safe) and it is abundantly clear that despite this whole victory being mostly luck. Cassie was followed by the only vengeful yerk who was able to convinced to give up the life even the narrative says yerks should be pitied for not having. There is nothing in later books to imply Cassie every considered doing anything wrong.
There are never any moments where similar events happen and it backfired spectacularly making it clear how lucky Cassie was and maybe making her reconsider doing that in the future. None of that and it really hurts Cassie as a character. The static creators pet role the narrative forces her into really hurts her likability.
Up next the David trilogy which I will not post about till I've reread all three so it might be a few days.
Because IMO that is the biggest problem with Cassie she has a very immature morality that lends itself to her hypocrisy and making frankly bad or horrific decisions. Then her creator's pet status kicks in and she's shielded from all the fall out.
It really shines through in this book because the beginning of this book is just awsome Cassie reaching the breaking point, quitting and some real hard necessary truths are said by the others to her. If she'd had an actual over arching arc then this should have been the pivot point where she began to change. What that change should have been doesn't matter if it was staying idealistic but embracing a more adult view of how to stay that way and interact with the war or learning to set aside her concerns for the greater good. It doesn't matter just something but instead Cassie's morality doesn't change at all and instead the novels that follow this one constantly excuse it or have the others acting as if her morality is so much more developed then theirs when it is actually very shallow and child like.
I'd even be fine with her keeping the shallow and child like morality if the others and the narrative actually called her on it and realized its limitations. That could have been an interesting conflict later in teh series Cassie learns the others don't value her opinion and lie to her face to keep her from sabotaging mission but that never happens. Instead it is plain to see that she is the creators pet espousing the creators views on topics. I mean I have never cared for author tract creators pet characters regardless of my opinion on the views they state.
Anyway after a stellar beginning we reach the Aftran conflict and this is where the book gets shaky. It is actually a good idea but it begins to fall apart as Cassie begins making reckless dangerous choices with no forethought and no follow through by the narrative that culminates in the whole Cassie decides to prove her commitment by becoming a caterpillar. The others then decide to let Aftran fulfill her deal with Cassie out of sentimentality and everyone is rewarded with the ass pull of the century when Cassie becoming a butterfly lets her demorph despite going over the limit.
Which makes the end of this book in the same realm of bad as some of the worst books of the series. So it makes it a hard book to comment on. I mean there is no real follow through on the Karen situation(I mean how did they free her and keep her safe) and it is abundantly clear that despite this whole victory being mostly luck. Cassie was followed by the only vengeful yerk who was able to convinced to give up the life even the narrative says yerks should be pitied for not having. There is nothing in later books to imply Cassie every considered doing anything wrong.
There are never any moments where similar events happen and it backfired spectacularly making it clear how lucky Cassie was and maybe making her reconsider doing that in the future. None of that and it really hurts Cassie as a character. The static creators pet role the narrative forces her into really hurts her likability.
Up next the David trilogy which I will not post about till I've reread all three so it might be a few days.
