[Animorphs] Twelve years, and still counting~
I often claim my great passion for Harry Potter and countless novels that I have read and loved dearly. But they will never ever surpass you in my heart, Animorphs.
It’s been twelve years since Animorphs ended. But I would go back and re-read them all through my life. They reinforced the ideals of my youth - Free will. Humanity. Morality. How the lines of right and wrong blurred and how complicated life could get. Those books continue to thrive in my heart and in my memories as something beautiful and wonderful and heart-wrenching. I cried when Rachel died. I cried tears of pride when the Auxiliary Animorphs made their first stand and fought their first fight. When Tobias carried Rachel’s ashes. When the Yeerk in Peregrine Falcon morph begged Ax for freedom. And countless other times throughout the series.
So thank you, Animorphs, for teaching me a lot. Thank you for nesting in my heart and in my mind. For making me laugh and cry and think and wonder.
And thank you, K.A. Applegate, you are my hero.
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"Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don’t end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily.
Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones.
That’s what happens, so that’s what I wrote.
Jake and Cassie were in love during the war, and end up going their seperate ways afterward. Jake, who was so brave and capable during the war is adrift during the peace. Marco and Ax, on the other hand, move easily past the war and even manage to use their experience to good effect. Rachel dies, and Tobias will never get over it. That doesn’t by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it’s a start.
Here’s what doesn’t happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn’t a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don’t do a lot of celebrating. There’s very little chanting of ‘we’re number one’ among people who’ve personally experienced war.
I’m just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I’ve never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn’t going to do it at the end. I’ve spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I’ve written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I’m a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I’d wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war."
[ K.A. Applegate, from a letter after the ending of the “Animorphs” series ]