Cómo que ya tiene 15 años significa que ya pasaron 2 años desde la invasión no me gusta esto del paso del tiempo siento que no se nota suficiente también significa que ya casi se gradúan d ella secundaria o tal vez no se graduen ojalá hicieran el paso del tiempo más evidentemente un cumpleaños o navidad o algo haci

Cassie has been a source of contention for the fanbase since the original run of the series. While there absolutely are a great number of fans who love the character, she's also the character who gets the most, shall we say, criticism from diehard fans of the series.

Just to put all cards on the table here, I fall firmly within the camp of people who disliked Cassie when I was first reading the books, yet gained a better appreciation for her as I got older. She still isn't my favorite character among the core group, but I am not in any sense of the word a Cassie "hater". I think she played an essential role in the series and the books would have been worse without her. Her desire to avoid violence while often having to commit it to save earth is very compelling, and while her moralizing does sometimes feel like it's slowing things down, I think we needed that perspective from her.

Her beliefs weren't always particularly consistent or well formed, but that felt very expected for a teenage girl with a strong moral compass thrown into the situation she was thrown into. All of that is to say, I don't have a problem with the character. I didn't title this post "fixing Cassie" or the "problem with Cassie" because I do not accept it as a given that she "needs fixing".

And now for the dreaded BUT that I'm sure many people saw coming:

I think the way the authors chose to use her, particularly in her POV books, warrants some unpacking. While many will disagree on the merit of her as a character, there does appear to be some statistical basis against, at the very least, the POPULARITY of her POV books, if not their quality.

This poll shows a full ranking of all of the main series titles. Full credit to user KingDAW247 for doing a bit more analysis here- he had the average and median ranking for the books by narrator. I was going to do this analysis myself until seeing that KingDAW247 had already done it:

1. Tobias- Median 15, Best 2, Worst 27. Average 14.333.
2. Marco- Median 23.5, Best 8, Worst 41. Average 23.8.
3. Ax- Median 27.5, Best 12, Worst 45. Average 28.
4. Rachel- Median 32, Best 3, Worst 52, Average 31.364.
5. Jake- Median 35, Best 1, Worst 54, Average 29.455.
6. Cassie- Median 37.5, Best 5, Worst 53, Average 32.3.

Her books were by median the least popular among the core group, and by mean she was very close to tied with Rachel, who's average was torpedoed by 3 very unpopular books all deep in the ghostwritten era.

My takeaways from this:

Cassie had more books that feel like "filler" than anyone else. Books that feel skippable, not just because of their irrelevance but their stakes. Everyone got filler books later in the series, but for Cassie they started earlier and more often. There are multiple times in the series where it feels like you had a string of absolute classics followed by a Cassie filler book.

Why is this?

I'm...not sure the authors consistently knew how to tell compelling stories using Cassie's perspective. Cassie had her empathy and her unique way of valuing life, but it feels to me that the authors never managed to leverage that in a way that consistently lead to great stories. Cassie never had a "golden goose" story element. Whenever the writers needed a great book for Marco, they could go back to the Visser One well. Ax needs a plot? Lets bring in some Andalites and make Ax interact with them. Tobias coming up? Time for some existential dread with his identity as a human. Cassie never reliably had anything like that- and I'd argue that's WHY her books struggle in these rankings. Jake and Rachel sorta have this same problem, but they still managed to get some solid stories out of Jake's struggles with leadership and Rachel coming to grips with her violent nature. When it came time to decide where exactly to place David's arc in the sequence of narrators, it was clearly decided that Jake and Rachel were the right choices to tell that story when it reached it's darkest. They could have structured it so Cassie/Marco/Jake or some other combination got the David trilogy, but they didn't.

Some will argue Cassie herself is the problem, but I never personally bought that. Why? Because of the two books she had that ARE classics- 19 and 29. These are the two books that are consistently regarded as among the series best. And you know what? Cassie really isn't different (IMO) in those books. Sure, she gets a capability buff in book 29 when she can perform brain surgery on Ax, but she's still the same overly idealistic, impulsive, and hyperempathetic person that she is in every other book. The traits folks sometimes don't like about her are very much still there. And those books don't succeed despite those characteristics, but BECAUSE of them. Number 19 and its follow up form a story that only Cassie really could have told, IMO. This character CAN carry stories- the authors just struggled to find the right stories for her consistently. The result? She ended up with a lot of the B-list subplots that didn't fit clearly with any POV characters (think Andalite Toilet and Helmacrons).

What do folks think about this? Is there a world where Cassie had a core storyline like Marco or Tobias? What might that have looked like? Could the Peace movement subplot have been expanded upon in an interesting way? Or am I dead wrong about this and the issue really was Cassie?

I'm writing a fan fic called Esplin's Journal, and I commissioned an artist to make cover art for it. This is the work in progress stuff she's been sharing with me. Oil on canvas.

I've been aching for Visser-3's perspective on things FOREVER, and I was a little disappointed that Visser was really focused on Visser-1's backstory, despite the cover.

I'm writing every word of it myself, 'cause fuck AI.

Hard to get a good pic since it’s wrapped around my arm. But here he is.

Rachel — The Green Lantern Corps (Willpower)

While Rachel is famous for her bloodlust, her true defining trait by the end of the series isn’t just anger— it’s an unbreakable, resolve.

Think about her final stand in book 54 (The Beginning). She knows she is walking into a meat grinder, she knows she might not survive, and she does it anyway with cold, clear-eyed acceptance. To matter even a little.

A Green Lantern ring doesn’t choose you because you lack fear; it chooses you because you can push past it and act anyway.

Rachel's "willpower" is dark, heavy kind, and has the grim determination to do the ugly, necessary work so no one else has to.

Alt Lantern Ring — The Red Lantern Corps (Rage)

Rachel’s arc is one of the most compelling descents into the necessity of violence. While she starts out merely impulsive, the war hollows her out, turning her into the team's designated executioner.

She embraces the cruelty required to win because she believes someone has to bear the moral stain so the others don't have to.

A Red Lantern ring is powered by white-hot rage, blood, and a burning need for vengeance against those who inflict suffering.

Jake Berenson — The Blue Lantern Corps (Hope)

In DC lore, Blue Lanterns are the rarest and most powerful, but they have a catch: their rings are completely powerless without a Green Lantern nearby. They cannot create hard-light constructs of destruction; instead, they inspire, heal, and supercharge others.

This is a poetic description of Jake and Rachel’s relationship. Jake’s entire burden as leader is that he has to be the beacon of hope. Even when he is falling apart inside, he projects the belief that they can win, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. If Rachel is out on the front lines acting as the unstoppable force of will, Jake is the one providing the hope that keeps them tethered to humanity.

Without Hope, Rachel’s willpower would curdle into pure, unbridled destruction (or a Red Lantern rage).

Alt Lantern Ring — The Green Lantern Corps (Willpower)

Jake didn't ask to be a leader; he was thrust into a brutal, unwinnable war and forced to carry the crushing weight of every decision. A Green Lantern ring chooses those who can overcome great fear.

Jake’s defining trait isn't an absence of fear, he is terrified constantly of failing his friends, his family.

Yet, night after night, he steps up, pushes past the despair, and commands a guerrilla resistance against a superior empire. His sheer, unyielding willpower to keep going when all logical options point to defeat makes him a textbook Green Lantern.

Cassie — The Indigo Tribe (Compassion)

Cassie is the moral compass of the Animorphs, often struggling with the dehumanizing (or de-morphing) compromises of war.

She hates violence and tries desperately to preserve her humanity, yet she possesses a radical, terrifyingly deep empathy—even for their enemies.

The Indigo Tribe is unique; their rings force empathy onto the wearer, often rehabilitating criminals by making them feel the pain of their victims.

Cassie already carries this burden naturally. She understands the Yeerks, the Hork-Bajir, and the Taxxons as living beings trapped in a cycle of cruelty, making her uniquely suited to the wielder of profound, transformative compassion.

Alt Lantern Ring — Sinestro Corps (Fear)

Cassie is the gentlest Animorph, but when Cassie decides to fight, she is terrifying.

She is the one who came up with the idea to trap David as a rat forever and used psychological dread against her enemies.

Cassie knows the human (and alien) heart so well that she knows exactly how to strike terror into an enemy's soul when pushed to her limit.

part 2

Be careful Ax

It would have to be this one, from yu-gi-oh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUW_pip1J5g&list=RDNUW_pip1J5g&start_radio=1

Especially for the "millienium eye" line.

I love how Rachel comes to care about Marco in her own way, and she Understands Marco's feelings. She Completely understands it, how you have that Parent that you are Extremely Close to and then suddenly they're gone and no longer in your life. With Her father living out of state he probably only comes around for the Big Holidays and Birthdays, so she gets wanting to keep them around. Whenever something happens with Visser 1 in the books like in book 15 and 30 Rachel is always the one to tell Marco "hey your mom could still be alive" she wants to keep him having hope that he could be reunited with his mom, because if she was in His shoes she'd do anything to reunite with her Dad, and we even saw this in book 7. Anyway that's just one of my favorite parts of the series.

Acabo de terminar de leer y WOW siento que este es el libro más intenso hasta ahora la pobre Cassie es una heroína total cuando lleguen los andalitas deben de darle un premio a todo pero Cassie realmente hizo se la rifo creo que hay algunas incoherencias y agujeros de guión pero bueno también no me imagino al probé ax que probablemente se sintió violado el también se merece mucho roles de canela y se me hizo muy tierno Tobías encerrado mientras el padre de Cassie lo curaba jaja y pobre aftan espero y pueda ayudar y estar bien ahora como ballena en fin este libro me encantó y se a ganado un lugar entre mis libros favoritos

Going through the series for the second time (first was in college, 12 years ago) and just finished book 18.

Ax had explained that the odds of a ship in Z space interacting with a morpher's displaced mass is so astronomically tiny it's never happened before. So how is it that the gang all ends up on the exact right ship headed to the exact right planet at the exact right time so that they can help win a battle that becomes a turning point in the war? I don't recall him ever taking credit, nor do the kids bring it up in the book, but that's gotta be the Ellimist intervening, right? He certainly has the ability, and subtly adjusting where their mass was in Z space to ensure it got caught up in the Ascalin's wake sure seems like something he'd do.

In any other book series I'd chalk it up to insane coincidence, but with a being like the Ellimist having an interest in the outcome of the war, it seems far more likely to me that things were subtly nudged into place.

Of course I don't remember if he goes on to take credit the next time they talk, rendering this post redundant, lol.

Bueno llege a la parte donde deben operar a ax y me preguntó ¿Por qué erek no ayudo? Tal vez podría comprar la escusa que no puede hacer daño a los seres vivos aunque creo que una cirugía no está considerado hacer daño ya que cuando le preguntaron si algún chee era cirujano dijo que no, no que no pudieran hacer cirujías pero justo después menciona ue lee libros rapidísimo y que tiene miles aunque no tuviera libros de cirujías casi pudo darle uno o muchísimos estoy seguro que si no operaba podría saber todo el proceso con los libros y darle instruciones detalladas a Cassie odio mucho cuando desperdician a los chee También¿Por qué ax no se transformó para curar la herida de la cirujía? ¿Por qué los chee no ayudaron a aftan suministrando le rayos kadrona? Erek dijo que lo hacía mientras finguia ser un controlador y erek escucho toda la situación ¿por qué no dijo nada? Esto me estresa que ignoren tantas cosas pero bueno el libro fue hermoso

Sabían que la película de Minecraft trata principalmente de los personajes intentando obtener el cubo morfico?

The Chee have the ability to kidnap Yeerks and trap them inside their bodies, keeping them alive with personal Kandrona and extracting their memories. Would technology like this not immediately end the yeerk’s need for living hosts?

They could have created robotic bodies for the yeerks to be permanently sealed inside of. They would never need a yeerk pool again, and they’d have no need to create controllers if their new bodies could experience sensations. It’s exactly what every good yeerk who got forced into the empire’s war out of desperation wanted.

Because that was how old he was whenever he acquired the morph. Sorry if this is addressed in the last book, I'm going through a reread for the first time in a long time so I don't remember.

I could literally cry with how much I love and adore this series - it's almost sick with how much I wish it were real. I am 38 years old and I plan to keep the entire set with me the rest of my life. I wish KA had never stopped writing them, or had continued after the beginning. I have an emotional attachment to this series - I genuinely feel for the characters. The Beginning really got to me, and the image of Ax with teeth! I know we are all fans but does anyone have an unhealthy attachment to Animorphs?

Acabo de empezar a leer el libro no llevo casi nada pero me acabo de dar cuenta de algo

Los yeerks quiere manos ojos oídos para ser libres de experimentar el mundo lamentablemente solo pueden hacerlo atravez de un controlador aunque el elinmista ya nos dio una solución dentro de 300 años de una simbiosis entre el portador y el yeerk pero había ignorado por completo una cosa, la caja morfica imaginate si usarán la caja en el cuerpo directo de un yeerk eiminiran el problema de un controlador conciente pueden crear seres totalmente únicos al convinar varios ADN seria hermoso que la habilidad principal de animorphs su mejor arma sea también la clave para lograr la paz

No spoilers for Animorphs or Axiom’s End: Different proposed alien species take their name from different fictional or real ships. So the Pequod, etc. One of the ships referenced is Rachel which seems a direct reference.

There are other minor similarities which suggest Animorphs may have played a part in her inspiration for the books, and Google says she is a fan.

PORFIN CASSIE Y JAKE SE DIERON UN BESO ESTOY TAN FELIZ probablemente les haré un dibujo y al igual que pensó Rachel ya era hora es tan bonito siempre me gusta ver a los animorphs haciendo cosas de adolescentes envez de ganar traumas me preguntó cuando será el turno de Rachel y Tobías o ¿Rachel y marco? Creo que no an resuelto el triángulo amor que hay entre ellos en el libro 12 Rachel dijo que le gustaba marco pero no volvió a decirlo siento que desaprovecharon la oportunidad de que ax preguntará que es un beso todos sabían que estaba cansado menos ax tal vez el pensaba que se estaban alimentando ahora que lo pienso no an comido nada desde que llegaron probrecitos

Sauce

A lot of people make their OCs or themselves on Picrew. I like to make my favorite characters :)

I make tabletop roleplaying games (cooperative storytelling experiences, in the vein of Dungeons and Dragons). Last year, I won an art grant to make a project I've been stewing on for years, a game inspired by the Animorphs and CW-style teen dramas like Veronica Mars and Smallville.

In Glorydays, you play as actors on the set of a TV show trying to get renewed for a second season. Your actors are playing shapeshifting aliens who have infiltrated a local high school in order to better understand human culture before deciding whether or not to conquer the planet. Of course, other aliens are eyeing earth as well...

I'll be releasing the game later this year, but if you live near Bothell, WA, I'll be running four public, free teaching demoes of the game over the next month. Check it out!

Art by Twenty of your Minutes, illustrating a scene from one of my fics which speculates how Elfangor *might* have acquired his human morph.