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Animorphs Re-Read 2020 The Message
Apr. 15th, 2020 06:47 amObsidianwolf X Re-Reads Animorphs 2020 Book Four: The Message
Since I make no secret of my dislike of Cassie what I'm about to say may sound strange but this is one of the best of the early books and it is hands down the best Cassie book in the entire series in my opinion. Now in hindsight all the normal problems with Cassie are there but at this point in the narrative they haven't grown into real problems. At this point it could have been part of the arc that she should have had.
An interesting thing to observe about Cassie in this opening of this book is her tendency to decide on a course of action that is flawed and stick to it appears fairly early. Her turning into a squirrel to find out what is taking their birds is heavily flawed and nearly gets her eaten by Tobias and/or a Fox and just like her later bad ideas it some how works out.
Another interesting bit is one of the strengths folks point to in an attempt to defend Cassie is how well she reads people and this book does show she has some talent in that area. Though it also shows it as very superficial she does clue in on how people are very well but only on a surface layer. Honestly just enough to manipulate them. All of her observations of her friends are technically accurate but just scratch the surface even with so little in the way of seeing them. Which is just another example of how a character like Cassie who wasn't a creator's pet could have been very interesting because that skill set can be wonderfully helpful or downright dangerous often both at the same time and that is never acknowledged by the narrative outside of incidents where other character praise her for it.
We also get our first dose of Cassie's moral dilemmas that aren't moral dilemmas at all in her reluctance to morph Dolphins. Now It does show an interesting facet to her character that isn't actually intentional. She likes Dolphins and thinks they are smarter than other animals so it's wrong to morph them. Yet she ignores that Gorilla's and elephants are also highly social intelligent animals that show awareness of things just like dolphins. Hell even wolves are highly social and show traits like mourning so if she's going to have this faux moral delima about turning into a dolphin she should have it about nearly everything but she doesn't she rates the importance of animals on her feelings about right and wrong not on any objective measurement. Of course part of that is simply author ignorance on things but that only applies out of universe in universe Cassie is just biased. Which in a competently written arc could have been a really interesting character flaw.
Instead it just eventually turns into a major annoyance. It isn't as pronounced here so it's more tolerable as long as you tune out any knowledge you have of later works. Now I like that the message is transmitted as dreams and connected to the morphing tech but frankly I once again get a bit too annoyed with only Cassie and Tobias receiving it. Again I'd have been fine with others getting them later but once again it is Cassie is special and this was back when Tobias was going to be important before that went away so they are the only two who get it.
I suppose now we need to address the standard sci fi plot of whales and dolphins being even more intelligent than we actually think they are. The Hollywood whales and dolphins are a bit annoying the dolphins are too nice(read up on real dolphins some times) but since it's standard sci fi fare it's forgivable even though I think their inclusion is probably the weakest part of the book.
Now let's discuss Marco's near death and the conversation Cassie has with him. Taken just by itself it's almost touching but combined with knowledge of later books it really reads like Cassie needs him to make her feel better about things. That's the biggest issue I keep having in this reread I can tune out a lot of what's to come but the parts that really irritate me stand out. Cassie and Marco's dynamic here in a competant arc would have been a real asset to the series but it was never allowed to grow realistically instead becoming what it eventually becomes.
Now let's discuss two final bits the first is the introduction of Ax who will be an important character in the series even if I get slightly annoyed at the set up for the two biggest annoyances. The Prince Jake don't call me Prince bit which gets repeated way to often and then the everyone is wierded out by Ax's human form bit. I wouldn't have minded it if he faded but they keep harping on it constantly.
Still Ax's introduction does help bring home more of the stakes to them which again in a competent arc would have led to folks like Cassie developing like the others do but that was never allowed to happen.
And now the very end when Cassie sneaks out to play with the Dolphins. This ending is meant to be cute and all but it bugs me. She's risking discovery by Security to go play with the Dolphins. Anyway that's book four done.
Since I make no secret of my dislike of Cassie what I'm about to say may sound strange but this is one of the best of the early books and it is hands down the best Cassie book in the entire series in my opinion. Now in hindsight all the normal problems with Cassie are there but at this point in the narrative they haven't grown into real problems. At this point it could have been part of the arc that she should have had.
An interesting thing to observe about Cassie in this opening of this book is her tendency to decide on a course of action that is flawed and stick to it appears fairly early. Her turning into a squirrel to find out what is taking their birds is heavily flawed and nearly gets her eaten by Tobias and/or a Fox and just like her later bad ideas it some how works out.
Another interesting bit is one of the strengths folks point to in an attempt to defend Cassie is how well she reads people and this book does show she has some talent in that area. Though it also shows it as very superficial she does clue in on how people are very well but only on a surface layer. Honestly just enough to manipulate them. All of her observations of her friends are technically accurate but just scratch the surface even with so little in the way of seeing them. Which is just another example of how a character like Cassie who wasn't a creator's pet could have been very interesting because that skill set can be wonderfully helpful or downright dangerous often both at the same time and that is never acknowledged by the narrative outside of incidents where other character praise her for it.
We also get our first dose of Cassie's moral dilemmas that aren't moral dilemmas at all in her reluctance to morph Dolphins. Now It does show an interesting facet to her character that isn't actually intentional. She likes Dolphins and thinks they are smarter than other animals so it's wrong to morph them. Yet she ignores that Gorilla's and elephants are also highly social intelligent animals that show awareness of things just like dolphins. Hell even wolves are highly social and show traits like mourning so if she's going to have this faux moral delima about turning into a dolphin she should have it about nearly everything but she doesn't she rates the importance of animals on her feelings about right and wrong not on any objective measurement. Of course part of that is simply author ignorance on things but that only applies out of universe in universe Cassie is just biased. Which in a competently written arc could have been a really interesting character flaw.
Instead it just eventually turns into a major annoyance. It isn't as pronounced here so it's more tolerable as long as you tune out any knowledge you have of later works. Now I like that the message is transmitted as dreams and connected to the morphing tech but frankly I once again get a bit too annoyed with only Cassie and Tobias receiving it. Again I'd have been fine with others getting them later but once again it is Cassie is special and this was back when Tobias was going to be important before that went away so they are the only two who get it.
I suppose now we need to address the standard sci fi plot of whales and dolphins being even more intelligent than we actually think they are. The Hollywood whales and dolphins are a bit annoying the dolphins are too nice(read up on real dolphins some times) but since it's standard sci fi fare it's forgivable even though I think their inclusion is probably the weakest part of the book.
Now let's discuss Marco's near death and the conversation Cassie has with him. Taken just by itself it's almost touching but combined with knowledge of later books it really reads like Cassie needs him to make her feel better about things. That's the biggest issue I keep having in this reread I can tune out a lot of what's to come but the parts that really irritate me stand out. Cassie and Marco's dynamic here in a competant arc would have been a real asset to the series but it was never allowed to grow realistically instead becoming what it eventually becomes.
Now let's discuss two final bits the first is the introduction of Ax who will be an important character in the series even if I get slightly annoyed at the set up for the two biggest annoyances. The Prince Jake don't call me Prince bit which gets repeated way to often and then the everyone is wierded out by Ax's human form bit. I wouldn't have minded it if he faded but they keep harping on it constantly.
Still Ax's introduction does help bring home more of the stakes to them which again in a competent arc would have led to folks like Cassie developing like the others do but that was never allowed to happen.
And now the very end when Cassie sneaks out to play with the Dolphins. This ending is meant to be cute and all but it bugs me. She's risking discovery by Security to go play with the Dolphins. Anyway that's book four done.
