Book 19: The Departure

[gh astly]

Really, this is a book where I think Cassie's actions are more justified than most other books. You're completely right in saying that most people would have quit long ago, and it does raise some good questions about what would happen if a different group of kids found Elfangor in the construction site.
Imagine five Davids. That would be pretty terrible.

[Tobias_Marco]

People criticize Cassie a lot for what she did here, but you have to take a few facts into consideration: She's terribly young (maybe 13 at the time?); she's in a war that only 6 of them (currently) fight in against an entire empire; she has a family who knows nothing of it; she could be killed at any moment; and she just needlessly killed a sentient creature who, were it not for the Yeerk, was a peaceful innocent. Add to that, she's probably wounded and killed a number of innocents before that event aswell...

I think 99% of kids her age would have quit a long, long time ago. She needs some credit for returning to the fight when most kids wouldn't even have started it.




Did I just defend Cassie?

<Yes, yes you did.>

[mostafahmed]

The best thing about the book is that it is a big step that creates peace and shows that yeerks are somehow good in a way. Teaching us how Smart yet naïve Cassie is. It kinda explains jake's interest in her.

[lady_summoner]

This book combined with #18 gives a lot of depth to the series. The Andalites aren’t all good and the Yeerks have an understandable motivation for taking hosts.

The natural morphing doesn’t really make sense, but there’s a lot of nonsensical things in the series and this particular one doesn’t bother me.

<Lets also take a moment to think about how this once freed host now is not showing up to meetings of the Sharing anymore and how the other Yeerks might notice this and re-infest her and scan her memories, and see that this little girl saw what seemed to be the Human morph of one of the 'Andalite Bandits', and that this Andalite stayed in Human morph for a lot longer than the time limit, and then still managed to morph some how.>

I wondered that too. My guess is that Aftran may have set a few things in place before returning to the Yeerk pool. After all, I think it was Aftran and not Karen who got the funding for the animal clinic.

[YeerkSalad]

Until I read this book, I wanted to punch Cassie on a regular basis. This time, however, I began to think she was a better character.
Let's hope that 20-54 don't prove me wrong.
Natural morphing, though? Really, Applegate? OH DEUS EX MACHINA, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?

[iamkeon]

Later in the series, someone (maybe Rachem, yes Rachem) wonders about the natural lifespan of the red-tailed hawk. If ever there were a good end point for as stagnant a character as Cassie, it would be the post script to her becoming and remaining a nothlit.

She would live with Rachem or Jake for a month to a year, and then die. It would be the first true Animorph casualty of the war. It would show that there are stakes here, that things don't always tie up neatly for our protagonists. That not everyone gets to go home. KA has stated that Tobias went nothlit in the first book to show that there are stakes. Tobias, I feel, was the easy answer.

In fact, I would argue that Tobias becoming a hawk was generally a net positive in comparison to his life before the construction site, but I digress.

My point is that there should have been consequences. There should have been real loss, and grief, and potential new conflict within the Animorphs as a result of this book's events.

[iamkeon]

I would also like to add that I loved the image of Marco in the rain, eyes dark and seething with rage, looking down at Cassie in the muddy forest and telling her how stupid she is. It was one of the first moments of real anger and resentment within the group that didn't seem to have an easy fix. I wondered at the time what lasting repercussions this would have. Could the others still trust her? Did they need a contingency plan for scenarios like this? Would Jake need to create rules for them to follow, and would some sort of disciplinary system be necessary to enforce them?

I'm not a Cassie hater, just someone who wishes her character suffered consequences and grew as a result of them. I like the whole Aftran storyline, but I definitely agree with others who think Cassie had her cake and ate it too a little too frequently. I guess that's to be expected when the character is a cipher for the author.

[Ylva]

This is the only book apart from the first one I do still remember most of the plot. I even remember the last words: "Geht und fangt diesen Schmetterling!" / "Go and catch that butterfly!" I guess I was 14 years old reading it. And hell, I felt so sorry for the poor little yeerk who has no chance to really live without his host. I had read all of the books before and never considered the yeerk point of view. Today I think this aspect comes up quite late in the whole story and I guess that today I would have figured it out for myself before book number 19. But it's after all a book written for children/teens and kids at this age do need someone who clearly show them a certain point. So all of this had to happen and Cassie had to make her sacrifice - but it would have been too hard I she would have died for this. So they went and caught the butterfly.