All right I'm slowly coming to the realization that I can't possibly get everything I have to say about this book out in one go, so we're going to do this in chunks.
CHUNK THE FIRST: Why The Andalite Chronicles is better than The Hork-Bajir Chronicles
I'm fully aware that a lot of people like that book better than this book. I am by no means not okay with that. Meaning to say I'm fine with that, lol, um...what was I saying?
Oh. Right. I mean, I like that book a lot too. It's definitely a lot more action, a lot more exposition about how the war started, a lot of information we wouldn't have had otherwise. Better worldbuilding. It set up Toby, which works for it, but it also set up #34, which works against it.
Anyway, they're different books that focus on different themes. But as I've grudgingly come to accept, the best stories always have the best character development.
For a while, I wasn't really sure why, or even if, Elfangor was a better developed character than Dak, Aldrea, and proto-Visser Three. I mean, that in itself is pretty compelling evidence: Elfangor himself got to narrate almost four hundred pages and Dak, Aldrea, and Esplin all had to split like what, 200? But as I read both of these books, I had to accept that Elfangor and Dak and Aldrea (especially those two, since they're technically our "heroes." Who is the real centerpiece of that book would also be interesting to talk about in that reread--my vote's for Aldrea.) were all given the same amount of set-up. We got physical descriptions, aspirations, fears, family life, etc. Ten pages in, we're all still neck and neck.
But the difference is very clear by the end of the respective books.
So what happened in the meantime?
My opinion is pretty much, I mean, everything.
Let's look at character progressions. Aldrea wants to be a warrior at the beginning of THBC. She gets that want. By the end, she gets conked on the head and stuck in Hork-Bajir morph and realizes that she loves Dak. Or actually, he realizes he loves her but we don't really get her proclamation. I mean, it's implied, but I'm just saying.
Dak, on the other hand, is "different." We find out what that means, and what he has to do with it. He has to fight. He doesn't like that. He wants to learn from the Andalites. He does it anyway. He loses. He runs away with Aldrea.
Now we get Elfangor.
At the beginning of TAC, Elfangor wants to be a hero. He's a pretentious, arrogant little snit with traces of humility and honor lodged in there. He goes on lots of adventures. He makes friends with a human girl. He fucks up. A LOT.
By the end of TAC, Elfangor is a different person from when he started out. He has been *truly* humbled. He's gotten the chance to reevaluate his ambitions and desires. He grows up a little.
He changes.
I really don't think Dak and Aldrea changed all that much during the course of THBC. Aldrea was nice to Dak at the beginning. She was a little arrogant at the beginning. She was a little arrogant by the end. Dak was grudgingly compliant with her at the beginning. He was grudgingly compliant with her at the end. They ended up together, which was trademark delicious Applegate weirdness/cuteness, but I honestly really never doubted that.
Dak and Aldrea are pretty static characters. Not necessarily flat, but not really dynamic, either.
Elfangor is. We get to really see how his experiences have effected him. How the machine that is his character has processed his triumphs and failures, like real people do. Dak and Aldrea seem archetypically immune to the things that happen to them, almost. Not entirely. But just, moreso than Elfangor.
Elfangor changes, I believe, for the better.
And that's why the last 30 pages of this book are among the most devastating I have ever read.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-09-22 04:06 am (UTC)CHUNK THE FIRST: Why The Andalite Chronicles is better than The Hork-Bajir Chronicles
I'm fully aware that a lot of people like that book better than this book. I am by no means not okay with that. Meaning to say I'm fine with that, lol, um...what was I saying?
Oh. Right. I mean, I like that book a lot too. It's definitely a lot more action, a lot more exposition about how the war started, a lot of information we wouldn't have had otherwise. Better worldbuilding. It set up Toby, which works for it, but it also set up #34, which works against it.
Anyway, they're different books that focus on different themes. But as I've grudgingly come to accept, the best stories always have the best character development.
For a while, I wasn't really sure why, or even if, Elfangor was a better developed character than Dak, Aldrea, and proto-Visser Three. I mean, that in itself is pretty compelling evidence: Elfangor himself got to narrate almost four hundred pages and Dak, Aldrea, and Esplin all had to split like what, 200? But as I read both of these books, I had to accept that Elfangor and Dak and Aldrea (especially those two, since they're technically our "heroes." Who is the real centerpiece of that book would also be interesting to talk about in that reread--my vote's for Aldrea.) were all given the same amount of set-up. We got physical descriptions, aspirations, fears, family life, etc. Ten pages in, we're all still neck and neck.
But the difference is very clear by the end of the respective books.
So what happened in the meantime?
My opinion is pretty much, I mean, everything.
Let's look at character progressions. Aldrea wants to be a warrior at the beginning of THBC. She gets that want. By the end, she gets conked on the head and stuck in Hork-Bajir morph and realizes that she loves Dak. Or actually, he realizes he loves her but we don't really get her proclamation. I mean, it's implied, but I'm just saying.
Dak, on the other hand, is "different." We find out what that means, and what he has to do with it. He has to fight. He doesn't like that. He wants to learn from the Andalites. He does it anyway. He loses. He runs away with Aldrea.
Now we get Elfangor.
At the beginning of TAC, Elfangor wants to be a hero. He's a pretentious, arrogant little snit with traces of humility and honor lodged in there. He goes on lots of adventures. He makes friends with a human girl. He fucks up. A LOT.
By the end of TAC, Elfangor is a different person from when he started out. He has been *truly* humbled. He's gotten the chance to reevaluate his ambitions and desires. He grows up a little.
He changes.
I really don't think Dak and Aldrea changed all that much during the course of THBC. Aldrea was nice to Dak at the beginning. She was a little arrogant at the beginning. She was a little arrogant by the end. Dak was grudgingly compliant with her at the beginning. He was grudgingly compliant with her at the end. They ended up together, which was trademark delicious Applegate weirdness/cuteness, but I honestly really never doubted that.
Dak and Aldrea are pretty static characters. Not necessarily flat, but not really dynamic, either.
Elfangor is. We get to really see how his experiences have effected him. How the machine that is his character has processed his triumphs and failures, like real people do. Dak and Aldrea seem archetypically immune to the things that happen to them, almost. Not entirely. But just, moreso than Elfangor.
Elfangor changes, I believe, for the better.
And that's why the last 30 pages of this book are among the most devastating I have ever read.
But that's a whole different chunk.
I think I'll write about Alloran next.