This is more of an assessment than a question, and I’m rather new to the Animorphs fandom, where—unlike in bigger fandoms—it’s much easier to find stories so well written that they rival the book series itself. I’ve also come to learn that there are basically two types of post-war Animorphs fics: one in which Rachel remains dead, and one in which she survives or returns.
The former can explore the impact her death has on the people around her and offer meaningful insight into how they deal with grief and try to move on with their lives.
The latter offers a great opportunity to explore how someone like Rachel—who molded herself into the perfect weapon of war—struggles in peacetime, and how this affects her relationships with friends and family.
Then there is the very rare third type, where both things happen: Rachel dies but somehow returns—like in Eleutherophobia, where her return does not nullify the impact her death had while also exploring how Rachel's life during and after the war could be considered a tragedy of its own.
To sum it up, being part of this small but dedicated fandom is awesome!
I agree that this is one of the nicest fandoms I've ever been in, which I'm reminded of every time I step a toe into any other major franchise. I think it's a bunch of factors (lots of lovely people here!). But a big one is Animorphs being out of print for decades, which means that:
most of us are old enough to have some perspective on the fact that no fandom argument is ever that important
there's no room to bicker over how the series will end or what will happen next
shipping wars could still happen in theory but won't have the vehemence of debates over whether something is secretly canon
it predates the current culture of harassing creators on social media to try and force the direction of canon
Like, there are still arguments about what goes into the gaps within the text — the cynical view of Eva/Peter vs. the more romantic read; my hopeful view of the ending vs. others' annoyance with its ambiguity; my jaded assumption that the yeerks will all become cetaceans after the war vs. others' optimistic view of yeerks all becoming human after the war; etc. But most of those are pretty mild, because we recognize they're low-stakes and will ultimately go unresolved.
I do remember it wasn't always this way. Like, in the forms of the 90s and 00s we had Marco/Rachel vs. Tobias/Rachel shipping wars (Jake/Rachel was the weird dark horse), and I don't like thinking about the arguments over Cassie back then. But people have mostly matured, and learned not to get too attached to the version of the story that exists in their heads when lots of other versions are equally valid. If Star Wars is the object lesson in fandom becoming so calcified it literally can't be pleased anymore, then Dracula's the counter-example where we all agree that canon is deeply flawed and aberrant reading is part of the fun. And I feel like Animorphs is way closer to the Dracula end of the spectrum these days, and I'm so SO happy about it.
