I'm more upset that Jake's older brother (the whole reason they raided the yeerk pool) ran back in to fight a horde of aliens and Visser 3 barehanded after just being freed and subsequently recaptured. I know his character was written to be gung ho and always fighting but that felt weird because I can't think of a single person that would run back into an angry swarm of aliens that took control of their body. Felt like a weird plot point
this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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Animorphs
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Animorphs.
Cool friends fighting aliens...more accurately, the pariah of a fascist civilization, minutes before being eaten alive in front of said "ccol friends" persuades and then bioengineers human child soldiers to facilitate an end to an ill-conceived and failing war now reduced to unilaterally exterminating a parasitic, physically disabled species, itself undergoing a violent civil rights movement on their own planet based on their self-recognized flaws, struggling to realize its place in a universe where godlike beings exist and decide not to offer remedy(rules of the god game) and spectate while the parasites overwhelm all vulnerable species in the known universe.
The child soldiers agree to resist the parasites, but at least a minority of them believe genocide is the wrong answer. After being physically and emotionally tortured, shot, repeatedly disemboweled and having their limbs hacked or bitten off by hosts of the parasitic species, however, all of the child soldiers begin taking violent, morally devastating actions that end their lives as they know them.
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That's a fair point . I think it is weird that Tom chooses to martyr himself and I also think it makes sense in the grand realist scheme of how organically the writers introduce not just the discrete and symbiotic personalities of the characters but the motivations and the larger themes of what will be a series, war and terror and desperation and sacrifice and especially being completely out of their depth. All those humans being led to Yeerk pools to become Controllers are POWs in a war they hadn't known they were fighting, and just like you'll have someone jump on a grenade or throw themselves at overwhelming odds to try to buy their friends or the strangers around them a few seconds of time, I think the writers are hammering home that these are desperate children at the end of their rope. The story is set up to lull you into a more juvenile adventure; their friend is almost turned but is saved, guards fight them but are completely overpowered by their new Animorph power, they bolster themselves with goofy confidence and jokes.
And then everything has to come crashing down to let you know that this story will destroy these children because war does not end well no matter what side you're on. Visser Three morphs and shows them that their animals are pathetic compared to his power, humans and aliens are engulfed in flames, Tom is helpless, Tobias is trapped as a hawk, the Animorphs switch from conquering to fleeing, surrounded by death and their own defeat and shame by instead of rescuing hostages, getting a countless number of them killed, many burned alive. The Animorphs know that they've already lost, everyone does. And then someone is desperate, or brave or weary enough to jump on a grenade. People don't jump on grenades when things are going well, but when there is nothing left. Maybe it's bravery, maybe defiance, maybe they are just tired and want to get everything over with.
Tom is showing readers that the only thing these children have left to give in order to fight forces they know they cannot win are their lives, and Visser three knocks Tom aside casually, illustrating that giving even their lives might not make a difference. The war will destroy them, no matter what they do.
Oh, The final scene really gets to me too, where
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Tobias reveals that he's trapped as a hawk. I literally couldn't believe it. I was like well, there's going to be something to save him, or he's going to try really hard and change back to a human and retain his morphing power, but there's what two dozen books before he is not trapped as a hawk?
It was really hard to feel that loss so immediately, and that was also an intentional disclaimer that everyone is not going to be okay in this story, these main characters aren't as protected as you think they are or as many YA book series would make them out to be.
I just reread the first book and the line Jake writes "only in my memories" made me tear up.
Ooh yeah that is a devastating line.