#ani 19

[emeraldmew]

It does sort of bug me that the conversation turns to pigs and cows rather than to pointing out that humans enslave and exploit each other. Maybe it cycles back around to it later in the book. Maybe it doesn't.

It's not like Animorphs to shy away from humankind's cruelty to other humans and the Civil War has been brought up in text before.

Maybe it's that Karen is young and a kid her age (and complexion) may not have learned about human slavery yet? She refers to slavery as "a human concept" at one point.

Maybe it's to emphasize how alien a yeerk perspective of taking a host is by comparing it to food rather than enslavement.

Whatever the reason it does kind of frustrate me that this is one of the times Animorphs doesn't go there with the more direct comparison. On the other hand, maybe it's better to separate out sci-fi horrors from real atrocities?

I don't know. Call this one mixed feelings.

[bluefox4]

Currently reading The Departure and it makes sense that this book is here. That this is the point that Cassie decides to try to leave the team.

The Secret is right after The Alien where Ax tried to assassinate Visser Three. Visser Three wanted to capture/kill the Andalite Bandits before, but there was now a direct attempt on his life. Of course he is going to try to tear up the local woods trying to find their hiding spots: There was a direct attack on HIS life.

So while Cassie spirals downward after killing the termite queen during that book there is actually help provided by the others. They all take turns looking after the baby skunks since that appears to be what Cassie needed at the time: Keeping something alive. Jake and Cassie talk directly about the issue.

And it wouldn't have made since to put The Departure right after The Change because everyone got a little morale boost at the end of that one. They saved two Hork-Bajir! And Tobias regained his ability to morph with a few caveats. Cassie leaving the team after that book wouldn't actually make sense.

But then after The Unknown the team gets hit with new trauma after new trauma. The Escape the rest of the team finds out that Marco's mom is the host body of Visser One and that they may or may not have killed her by the end of that book. The Warning had not only Jake nearly dying which was also traumatic for the rest of the team not just Jake, we also had Cassie realizing that she probably crossed a line she never thought she would cross: Wanting to murder someone and asking Jake to murder someone for her. There is a reason that at the end of that book she took a risk to try to warn Gump about not trusting his father. And she felt terrible about that because she comes from a healthy family. She thought it was evil to tell a child to not trust his own father for his safety. Then we had The Underground where Cassie admits that she doesn't know where the moral lines are anymore. The war has made everything hazy in terms of what is right and wrong. The Decision was hard on everyone. And then there was In the Time of Dinosaurs where we had all of that. She thought Rachel and Tobias were killed. She lost herself to the Tyrannosaurus morph.

With everything that hit in there, it makes sense that this is when Cassie decides that she needs to leave. That this is when the war has gotten to be too much for her.

And I think its nice to have a character arc that zig-zags a bit instead of following a clear straight line. Because sometimes that is what happens.

[lochnessie]

Liveblogging The Departure (Animorphs #19) pt 3

yeah dude! that's why you don't give up your body for the one slim hope that it'll go well! gosh we know that Cassie's family history has roots in human slavery, i want more exploration on that. i mean i know applegate is white but this little black girl essentially just enslaved herself! aaaaaaaa Also Aftran he/him pronouns i guess. cassie, go diving around his mind for yeerk gender studies

yeah cuz 3 sentences later Aftran is a she! We know it takes a throuple joining into one sacrificial body to make more yeerks so i guess Aftran was lying about her parents being worried about him? ugh im so confuuuused

oh wow this image will stay in my head. this poor little bloody redhead with her hand holding onto little yellow wildflowers. god i hope she makes it out of this book okay.

damn. this book really went there. okay im back on board this is my favorite one so far. And Jake's POV in the next chapter how suspenseful and new!! i was genuinely surprised even though Cassie said at the beginning that Jake would help her tell this tale. I thought she meant he was going to be narrating the next book but no! here we are! unprecedented! im having a great time, Aftran makes their case extremely well. It's kind of a dumb solution, but still cool.

this is a really good breakdown of everyone, Jake, but I dont think you're totally accurate about everyone's reasons. There's more to it for all of them of course, but idk. i feel like someone else could look into this better than me. It's not that Jake's wrong but...idk idk i couldnt write up a good enough analysis of everyone and their reasons well enough to refute it. fuck i love this book.

yeah no there are real actual tears in my eyes. fuck dude. I'd thought earlier that Cassie and Aftran would talk more because Cassie could thought-speak to Aftran, but I guess she didnt?? and she's about to go butterfly which i hope will somehow undo her nothlit status idk but this whole page. Jake's words, Rachel deciding above all else that keeping Cassie (and her name!) safe is more important than her rage!! Ax's anger and twitching tail! Tobias' quiet statement and Marco making sure the leopard didn't kill her!! god these kids love each other so much and knew how much Cassie loved loved loved the world i cant do this guys fuck im so glad i joined this book club

and she's experiencing vision and colors for the first time again being reborn as a butterfly just like Aftran aaaa it's so poetic!!!!!

i'm laughing my fucking ass off this is so stupid but i dont care!!

And Karen lives!! and saves the clinic! i genuinely thought that leopard was gonna kill her ngl im so glad she made it and that Aftran will come back later at some point. I hope she's not super pissed that by some crazy ass loophole, Cassie made it back to her life. Especially after killing Aftran's 'brother'. But I'm really glad Cassie was able to reconcile the warring parts of her and make just a sliver of peace and color in this dark dark world. She deserved that.

What a good book omg. Thank you for starting this book club, @emeraldmew . I knew this series would be worth it but I'm so glad I have some schedule to keep me accountable to reading them and a few people who read what I have to say about them. Fingers crossed I can make it through the rest of these books without reading too many spoilers and that this will be entertaining for all of you really cool talented animorphs fans who read these silly little liveblogs. I'm so pumped for more animorphs already. Brb gonna listen to the morphclub episode on this book and then get to reading the next one asap! <3

[imperfectskeleton]

I can’t find the original post, but someone said a while back that Rachel and Ax’s relationship is “you have to START the hard thing. You’ll have backup.” This has been living in my brain, and is now paying rent.

It is true at the end of #21. Ax gets Rachel. In #15, they go charging off to kill Visser One together. But in #19, he directs his anger at Aftran first, makes the first threat, and then steps aside for her. The relationship goes both ways, and here, it’s personal. Ax finds the outlet first, but he saw Rachel knock Marco down for speaking against Cassie when the last conversation she had with her was walking away in disgust.

This is Rachel’s fight, and she’ll have backup, but she has called for the first move, and Ax will let her be the one to make it. Both of them would hold if Jake shook off the shock and asked them to. In the end, they do. They are the most loyal and obedient soldiers of this little army - that’s why they would kill for Cassie even when she is beyond help. It’s why they choose not to kill for her.

Rachel holds the anger the longest. She has been cut the deepest by this book - she has been worrying for months about what it can mean for Cassie to not know what’s right. As much as she was hurt by Cassie suggesting she isn’t right, nothing could make her believe defending the people she loves is wrong. They have the power, she has to use it.

Ax doesn’t let his anger go and step away from Rachel because he wants this to end peacefully so much as to spite Aftran for calling him heartless. If Jake had made the call, he would have helped. Cassie demanded that Jake kill for her three books ago. His team wouldn’t have let him kill for Cassie now.

Marco is the only animorph who wouldn’t have killed out of anger in this book. He would have killed, and he wouldn’t have regretted it, because he couldn’t have solved things Cassie’s way. It was the only logical solution, and someone had to do it, and Cassie wouldn’t. But he also is working with the most information when they find a little girl crying over a caterpillar. He would have followed Jake’s orders if he had to. He would have killed Cassie , Aftran, and Karen alone if he had to. Instead, he stops the leopard, stays the execution, because he is the first to realise that CASSIE has done the hard thing this time. She has achieved the impossible in a way that no other battle in the war to date has, with spectacular self sacrifice that cannot allow him to view her as the selfish coward he wanted her to be in his resentment. They can’t be certain yet, but Marco chooses, before Jake, more actively than Jake, to let Cassie’s choice stand. She hit him below the belt, but she was right. Marco has to care about at least one Yeerk host. He cares about Tom too. And he will not let this little girl, Yeerk and all, die. Aftran and Karen are a threat to security, but life is hope, and he has been moved by Cassie enough to believe that someone who has been in her head would, however cruel they may be.

There is no question that Tobias would follow Cassie to peace. If Marco is the least idealistic because of his childhood, Tobias is the most idealistic in spite of his. Even more so than Cassie, because if Tobias can make the right choices and save the world in the face of the bitterness, he can matter. He knows this is the hard thing, and he certainly wants to stand by it.

They all finish the hard thing for Cassie in the end. If she will not be the one to do the hard thing, then Rachel will be the one to protect it. No animorph will start and finish a hard thing alone without first pushing the others away.

Even then, they will find each other and they will be there.

[doodlee-a]

The Departure

Okay, I gotta rave about one of my absolute most favourite books in the Animorphs series.

Firstly, I adore the cover. I think in terms of aesthetics, it may be one of the best covers with a morph sequence.

I then love the theme of this story. Cassie could be considered a static character here, where she's not the one changing, but the world is changing around her. These characters can be very tricky to pull off well, but it can be very cool when they are. I think about Captain America and Superman as good examples.

That isn't to say she doesn't struggle. She has to change her biases about Yeerks and see that they are not one unified idea. They are individuals. I also love that it's not making peace with the whole yeerk race, but making peace between one human and one yeerk. It shows how change often happens with small steps, and our ability to influence individuals around us is more important that massive global change. Real change happens one person at a time.

Karen and Aftran are such a cool combo, and it's cool to realize that while Aftran has a lot of anger, she was also getting tired of the fighting. Initially she says she was assigned to Karen and hates it, but as the story goes, she says she chose Karen. Aftran is ready for change and she and Cassie are able to open each other's eyes.

I also love that it's Marco who finds her first. Marco is ruthless, but he's also incredibly intelligent and has the capacity to think things through. Because of that, I also love when all the others are paralyzed trying to decide whether or not to let the leopard kill Karen, Marco is actually the one who stops it, which might feel out of character, but it just works so well. (I also love that he just yeets the cat).

The butterfly clock reset is a bit of a stretch, but I think most importantly, it drives the story forward. I'm willing to look past it, because the whole series would be worse off without Cassie. It's also just really funny to picture all the kids trying to catch a butterfly.

And then I love that Cassie gets to see Karen again. To see that Aftran kept her promise. I also want to share an absolutely brilliant piece of fanfiction here which explains how Aftran and Karen were able to keep the promise (and it also has some of my fanart at the end) so check this out! It honestly slots perfectly into canon for me: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25679572

[emeraldmew]

Yeerk biology 101!

Three adult yeerks join into one and split apart into grubs. If the grubs further split you get twins like Esplin Nine-Four-Double-Six Prime and Lesser.

Of course dissolving into baby yeerks kills the parents. Can any three yeerks join together for this? I've seen it theorized this may mean yeerks have three sexes but it could also mean sex differences aren't even a thing to yeerks at all.

On their own yeerks navigate with smell, touch, and hearing. The fact that they can see when they take hosts that can implies fascinating things about how they evolved to infest other life forms. That they can find beauty in a sense they don't naturally have even more so.

It reminds me of that one post (can't find it at the moment unfortunately) about how eldritch madness isn't about an ant suddenly understanding a circuit board but rather about understanding it and then having to go back to being just an ant again. Man does that apply to the yeerks.

It's also sort of a neat parallel with how Ax reacts to taste.

[emeraldmew]

oof the difference between book 19 Jake and book 53 Jake

[emeraldmew]

All hope for human freedom might die. Unless . . . unless Karen was destroyed right here, right now. I turned away and walked to a dried-out, fallen tree. I grabbed a long, forked branch. I levered by weight against it and worked it till it splintered and cracked. It was a strong, stout branch. Three feet long, thick, with a fork at one end. I gripped it tightly and carried it back to Karen. One swift, sure blow to the head. That's all it would take. I could knock her out and leave her tied up with her own shoelaces and let nature do the rest. I saw the apprehension in her eyes. "Here," I said. "This will make a good crutch. Wait here while I find some smaller sticks to make a splint."

Cassie chooses kindness when doing so could undo everything she and the others have fought for so far.

It's a powerful moment on it's own but even more so in the context of coming off Megamorphs 2 where we see the Mecora's kindness failing to spare them. And after learning about Seerow's Kindness back in 8 as well.

We see kindness betrayed in Animorphs over and over, but the books also make it clear: Kindness isn't the problem. The onus of betraying kindness is on the one who takes advantage of it, not on the one who offered kindness in the first place. It's one of the few places the books set a firm line instead of leaving it to debate.

...

but also look at how much Cassie characterization happens here. She's avoiding "kill" in favor of "destroy" - a common Animorphs-ism in the earlier books especially - but at the same time "Karen" uses "kill" throughout the conversation where she's breaking down the ways Cassie could kill her.

She never considers killing Karen outright for the sake of the world either, just leaving her helpless to the nature of the cold and the animals which would both be a) still her fault even if she doesn't do the actual murder and b) probably a more horrible way to die depending on what eventually gets her.

When Cassie is kind she's risking it all and putting it on the other party to decide what to do with the cards she's shown. When she's cruel she attempts to distance herself from the responsibility or the actual killing blow. But responsibility can't be given away, only shared.

I can see why this could make people dislike Cassie as a character but it's honestly a pretty realistic way to handle things. She's a kid who has grown up seeing violence as a bad thing and trying her best to be a good kid. It's an incredibly hard situation to be in for anyone, let alone a 13-14-year-old who is also acutely aware that the child host of the yeerk will end up with the same fate as the actual brain slug.

And in the end she decides to risk it on kindness.