Series Re-Read: The Andalite Chronicles

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

Ok now we're up to TAC, instead of last week like i originally thought lol.

I don't have time to transcribe the back cover blurb, but it's the story of what came before the Animorphs. The story of Elfangor's Hirac Delest, his final statement.  It also tells us about Alloran's background to a point, and a little more about Visser Three.

What were the things people were discussing about the timeline in this one in relation to other books?

Are we still debating whether we're dealing with the same Chapman here?

I'm anxious to hear everyone's thoughts on this one in general.

Next week is The Unknown

Comments

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

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.

But that's a whole different chunk.

I think I'll write about Alloran next.

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

You have me curious...why do you think #34 works against HBC?

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

lol I hate that book

it...UGH it contradicts so much, it's poorly written, it changes genre and tone and everything willy nilly, and...I really don't want to say too much now, that reread will be a good proper venting

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

I CAN'T BELIEVE NOBODY WANTS TO TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK!!!

whatever imma keep going. I kind of already wrote about this on RAF, so if you read it there, my apologies.

CHUNK THE SECOND: Why Alloran is Innocent

All right, so considering the entire second part of TAC is called "Alloran's Choice," I figure this needs to be addressed here.

Alloran is my favorite secondary character. I like him a lot, mainly because I think he's a lot more complex than the shallow villain he's sort of painted as. He's very tragic. He and Arbron I think really get the worst punishments of anyone throughout the series. Eesh, a Taxxon nothlit? Is there any animal worse to be trapped as? And slave to the single most deranged, insane, reckless Yeerk in existence? Imagine the guilt that goes into that! Just really creative and really, really icky.

I guess to start, I do have to delve into THBC a little bit. But let's backtrack a little.

So Alloran's great crime, the reason he's disgraced and sent off on a thankless errand with two inexperienced arisths is because he released a Quantum Virus during the Hork-Bajir conflict.

But the craziest thing that I got from this reread of THBC is that he didn't actually release the virus. So, naturally, that inspired the first fic I wrote lol

ALDREA AND DAK RELEASED THE VIRUS.

This is another reason why I like TAC more than all the Chronicles that followed. At the end of each of those, all of the main characters end up doing something (or not doing something, or saying something) really really stupid, and all Elfangor does is humbly throw in the the towel. But yeah. Rather than bomb the lab that the virus is in, rather than calling Andalite Command and tattling, Dak and Aldrea remove the virus from the room in a container and then lose track of it

srsly dummbbb anyway.

So the fact of the matter is, we really don't know what Alloran's intentions with it were. He didn't release it, so we can't blame him for that, but why was he making it in the first place?

We get some Monday morning QB-ing in this book about his thoughts:

<The most important thing in war is to destroy your enemies, Aristh Elfangor. Nothing is more important than destroying your enemies. Do you understand?> p. 169

<They are the enemy. Hypocrites! You're all hypocrites! We lost the Hork-Bajir war because of weak, moralizing fools like you! Because of fools like you, I am disgraced and shunned and sent off on trivial errands with nothing but arisths under my command...What is the difference how you destroy the enemy?...What does it matter if you kill them with a tail blade or shredder or quantum virus?> p. 174-175

As far as I'm concerned, most of this is meaningless because he's had five years of shame and disgrace to brood over his decision. I mean, two guesses who those "moralizing fools" were, but other than that, this is all kind of crazed jabber to me. The human mind...well, Andalite, but you get my point...can rationalize and justify itself into some pretty deep and delusional corners.

The only thing we get LIVE, IN THE ACTION, AT THE MOMENT in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles is this:

"<It's over Alloran,> Aldrea cried. <You are not going to destroy the Hork-Bajir!>
<I'm trying to save this planet, you fool!> Alloran said." p. 185 HBC

So what does that mean?

It's not really specific enough, I think, to extrapolate actual intentions. But the way he phrased that...I really don't think he intended for the virus to get released at all. I think he was going to use it as a threat, blackmail, a Damoclean sword...there's a better term that I can't think of right now, but you know what I mean. He was going to carry the bigger stick and fight the Yeerks off the planet without even taking a swing.

Now I think, in the grand scheme of things, my theory is disproven. Or at least REALLY REALLY weakened by the last book when he's all "20 YEARS WAS A LONG TYME TO THINK AND NOW I HAVE LURNED MY LESSUN! ;)" But that's just one reason I don't like the last book. Among others.

And I think the fact that he names his ship after his wife is one of the most tragic details in the entire series. Even more than the end of THBC.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

Okay I think I'll do this one and then maybe a "miscellaneous" or something.

Or not idk

CHUNK THE THIRD: The Last 30 Pages
So this, like I said, is what makes this book. I mean if you're going to be a real pedantic biblio-phile, this is actually a pretty blatant deus ex-machina coming and saving the day to make all right with the world.

So why does this work so goddamned well?

I don't know, but I'm going to try to find out.

I'm going to start with this: "I met a lot of humans in the computer field. My human friend Bill used to come over to my room and we would exchange ideas. It was hard for me to simplify my knowledge enough for him to follow. Everything had to be explained in simple human terms, using words like 'window' to explain a childishly simple concept. And my human friend Steve thought it was a huge breakthrough to use symbolic icons and a simple pointer rather than a lot of complex language." p. 302

Erek gets a few historical in-jokes throughout the series, but I think this is the best. I only got half of it when I was 13 or w/e (before Steve Jobs became as ubiquitous as Gates, I guess) but even then...I don't know, I find it hilarious that Elfangor has such a huge impact on Earth and doesn't even know it or think it's a big deal. Maybe another reason the Ellimist let him stay as long as he did? Maybe the only reason? Who's to say?

I like the summary of his time on Earth--that he finished undergrad + grad school in under three years, and that was with tempered effort, that he drove around in a yellow Mustang, everything. I love all the emotional stuff that gets included:

"I buried the Time Matrix in a patch of woods. I performed a Frolis Manuever: the mixing of different DNA to form a single morph. I found ways to come in contact with humans and absorb bits of several DNA patterns. And when I had enough, I morphed human for the first time. And the last time." 300
I mean, as lol-tastic as it is trying to imagine just how a big fatty Andalite acquired humans without them realizing it, just little reversals and parallelisms like that last sentence are like emotional punches in the face for me. And they're really good at them. idk.

"But the most important thing I did as a human was to marry Loren." 302
As questionably believable as I find their romance, I can't help but "baww" at this.

"And I only thought of my own people, and my own family, and my own world some of the time. Not every minute. Not every minute." 303
idk :/

Then our favorite Deus Ex-Machina comes, and idk, just Elfangor's reactions are really poignant and understated. If I'd've written this, I would have gone OVER THE TOP with the emotions but they do really reel it in, and I think it makes it work even better.

Hmm let's see...

"I looked out the window, expecting to see Loren's car pull up at any moment. But then I realized what a fool I was being. If the Ellimist didn't want us to be interrupted, we wouldn't be." 307
I love this detail and idk why. It's like, idk, exactly what I would do. You always look for an out.

"The human girl Loren was meant to marry a human." 309
This is exceptionally depressing because as the series goes on you really find out the Ellimist ESSENTIALLY LIED

"'I have a brother? He was born? I knew my family was preparing--' 'In this broken timeline, no. But you should. He has a job to do. And so does another person who you do not even know exists." 309
So again, wtf are you talking about Ellimist, but at the same time omg I'm tearing up

"I felt warm liquid run down my cheeks. Tears. A human thing." 310
I JUST WANT TO CRADLE HIS HEAD IN MY LAP OMG

"I tried to smile, but it twisted cruelly on my lips" 311
UGH KEEP THE PUNCHES ROLLING GOD

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

And here, in my opinion, is the emotional climax of the whole thing:

YOU HAVE A SON, ELFANGOR
<No! You can't take me away! I have a son!...That changes everything! Don't take me away!>
Maybe it's because Andalites are normally so zen and blah that seeing them beg or cry or plead is just so unsettling...and I mean, it's not like this situation is one you should be zen or blah about. It's an out-of-character touch that works perfectly, I guess. It just breaks my heart, not only knowing that Tobias' life is shit because he didn't have a dad, but that his dad wanted him and they were like two objects attracted by mutual desire but unable to ever meet. Except for one terrible night in a nasty construction site where one is murdered and the other has about 72 hours left as human. Yikes.

And here, "I saw pain and hardship and loneliness for him. But then, like a distant nova, I saw a flash of light, far at the edge of a still uncertain future. Across the galaxy, my brother's line reached to join with my son's. And four other bright, shining time lines formed togetjer with those two...And I knew the union of six time lines, one Andalite and five human, was the entire point of the Ellimist's 'noninterference.'" 314
It's just like so solemn and grandly significant, in a way. I don't know. I still don't really get why this works so well but I've srsly got a lump in my throat just from writing this. Ah well. Thesis failed.

[sporadicfungian.livejournal.com]

omg no i totally agree that moment just about destroys me. i actually came back after skimming a few bits to mention the bill & steve joke, which really is kind of amazing (especially the line about "using simple metaphors like 'windows'"), and that moment where he learns about his son... aghh.

one of these days we should like have a discussion post about the parent-child bond in the animorphs books and the way it affects different characters, because now that i think about it this whole thing - marrying loren, living as a human, having a son that's not really his - is sort of darkly paralleled in visser. i mean think about the way the book lets that line just hang, so simply, confident in its own significance - you have a son - and then later when marco asks eva how she's so sure visser one isn't going to just destroy the whole planet, eva says "because. she has children." idk, i think the two moments taken together are interesting - almost like photo negatives of each other.

aaand the last two pages, with tobias being all sad and elfangor dying on a note of hope... i'm done. it's perfect. i'm tearing up too.

[karma-fucked.livejournal.com]

And here, "I saw pain and hardship and loneliness for him. But then, like a distant nova, I saw a flash of light, far at the edge of a still uncertain future. Across the galaxy, my brother's line reached to join with my son's. And four other bright, shining time lines formed togetjer with those two...And I knew the union of six time lines, one Andalite and five human, was the entire point of the Ellimist's 'noninterference.'" 314

That line and imagery makes me tear up.

I need to re-read both THBC and TAC before I can comment about this book.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

Miscellaneous

CHUNK THE FOURTH: Last one I promise
Okay now I'm just going through my notes...yes I take notes djmp...lol there are SO MANY INCONSISTENCIES here I will just name a few:

All right so the Dome connects to a shaft that is the main part of the ship, right? And they can detach, like the saucer section can detach from the battle bridge of the Enterprise D. It would make the most sense for the Dome to connect at the center, right? BUT THERE'S A FUCKING LAKE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DOME. So how do they get from the Dome to the ship?

...is this too pedantic? Hold on let me find something else.

I just don't buy this: "We would have defeated the Pool Ship and its fighters. But there was a Blade Ship in orbit as well." xii
Okay, let me remind you of the scale we're dealing with here. I drew this from the description in #5:



Now, the tentacles on the Pool Ship are a quarter mile, so there's our scale. Dome Ships are between 1/3 of a mile and 1/2 mile across. So a Blade Ship making a difference in that fight is like half a David versus two Goliaths to me. I don't know that I buy it.

Ooh here's one: "We had shoved the Taxxons and the badly wounded Hork-Bajir into the cargo hold of the ship." 77
Wow, there's some fresh, live Hork-Bajir DNA you could have acquired and avoided getting anyone stuck in Taxxon morph.

Idk just stuff like this too: "I felt sick down to my bones" 98
He says this while in Taxxon morph. It is my understanding that Taxxons have no bones. Especially since, four pages later, he says "I heard bones growing inside of me." 102
lol

LOL IK I'M BEING VERY PEDANTIC but you have to be critical to find this good stuff too :')

Okay I have a project in mind now: The lifetime of the Time Matrix.

"It had been hidden on the planet called Earth. It had been buried deep in the ground in a desolate-looking area of blowing sand. And a huge stone pyramid had been raised over it." 57
So it sits there for a while.

Shit I can't find when (or if) the Ellimist makes it in the Ellimist Chronicles...but I think he...no...I really should look harder...I really don't think he does. I read the part where he makes the Pemalites and he doesn't mention giving it to them...whatever let's just start our timelines from the pyramids

I think it's safe to assume that the Chee put it there. I have no idea what book it is but I'm about 80% sure Erek says at one point that he worked on the pyramids.

So Elfangor and co. take it out, use it, and then he buries it at the future site of his death...

...The Animorphs chase Visser Four around and then undo his timeline, so it ends up back at the construction site because technically it was never used, and that's where it died, right? I mean not DIED but that's where it was at the end of the series, right? That issue doesn't get any closure, does it?

that was a lot less cool than I thought it would be. Whatever. Let me just flip through the rest of my notes real quick...

Oh I really like this line: <Aren't lost causes sometimes the best causes, Elfangor?> 154
ILU ARBRON

idk I think I really picked everything out of this book.

I'll shut up now. I think I'll need a week off. 14 is pretty innocuous anyway.

[sporadicfungian.livejournal.com]

lol by innocuous do you mean one of the few cassie books you don't hate her in?

(not that i'm projectin or anything)

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

lol no she pisses me off a little in that book too

but only a little

I mean it's about HORSE CONTROLLERS and a THEME PARK FIGHT how much is there really to say about that idk

[tobiasfliesfree.livejournal.com]

"Now, the tentacles on the Pool Ship are a quarter mile, so there's our scale. Dome Ships are between 1/3 of a mile and 1/2 mile across. So a Blade Ship making a difference in that fight is like half a David versus two Goliaths to me. I don't know that I buy it."

I have to disagree here. The Blade ship may be smaller, but it'd be far more maneuverable than the Dome Ship and much more heavily armed than the fighters and the Pool Ship, and Ax points out in the prologue of The Alien that it could easily evade Dome Ship armaments. So a Blade Ship would make a huge difference in a battle like this.

[geritar.livejournal.com]

"I saw pain and loneliness for him. But then, I saw more pain and more loneliness for him. I saw a flash of light, and four other bright shining lines formed together with my brother's and my son's, and there was... pain... and loneliness... and then those five lines disappeared, and there was more pain and loneliness for my son. oh shit, sry. D:"

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

haha ikrite

"That's when I knew there was still hope for my adopted people, the humans. And sure, they would be saved. But when I look at the people that I directly influenced, I can't help but notice that they pretty much all lived lives of despair. Alloran spent 20 years murdering people against his will. Loren ended up blind, amnesiac, and in poverty. Tobias lost pretty much everyone he cared about and only came out of retirement as a member of one of Earth's foul, untamed beast species to save my brother, who got assimilated by the Borg or something.

"And Lord knows how my parents feel about all of this.

"In fact, now that I think about it, I failed as a Taxxon. I failed as a human being. My deeds as an Andalite are measured as success, but I really just hurt all of the people closest to me.

"My hirac delest is done. I go...in peace?...to my death. And I leave as my last legacy a single word for all the free peoples of the galaxy...

<Nope...>"

[geritar.livejournal.com]

lmao.

but.

:C

[sleepall-day.livejournal.com]

I love this comment so much :') This, plus the above one saying that the Chronicles are what set this series apart from the other series. I totally agree.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh good there is another Chronicles fan in this community. I thought I was taking crazy pills there for
a second :)