Series re-read #44 The Unexpected

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

The Yeerks are transporting pieces of a crashed blade ship somewhere. The Animorphs want to get the scraps and show them to the world. But a string of bad decisions leaves Cassie stuck on board a plane. It's going to someplace with the letters SYD, but she doesn't know until after she lands where that's at. The controllers catch onto her and in the fight, she ends up bailing out. Now she's alone, in the middle of the Australian outback. And Visser Three is there too.

I know this one is gonna get dumped on, because of the last time around LOL.

I don't like the whole isolating a single character for the whole book thing. It doesn't do much for me not having the whole group involved in the adventure.

And according to one of our Australian fans, there are some not-so-good Aussie depictions or stereotypes in the whole thing.

At least next week's is a book I enjoy a little more.

Comments

[blue_rampion]

Okay, I know there are many, many issues that people would have with this book. Stereotypes being among them. And I am sure that others will go into great detail about them. However, there is one thing that is seriously, hopelessly, glaringly wrong with this book that I feel the need to point out.

To help illustrate this point, I have drawn a handy map. Examine this map closely, and see if you can figure out what is wrong with this book.



This is how planes usually fly form the US to Australia, and vise versa. I have personal experience of this, in fact, from when I visited the US. I traveled between Sydney and San Fransisco, and since the consensus is that the Animorphs lived somewhere in California, this provides a rough estimate. This is a fourteen hour flight. As you can see, there is pretty much NO LAND flown over during this flight. I know I spent some time wishing my plane would just land on one of those tiny islands we would see occasionally so that I could actually move around, but alas, that was not possible. It is water all the way.

[blue_rampion]

And yet, somehow when Yeerks attack, Cassie is flying over the Australian Outback. Somewhere relatively close to Alice Springs, in fact. This is curious. Sydney is on the east coast of Australia. Alice Springs is somewhere near the middle. It takes several hours to get to Alice Springs form Sydney. Therefore, the only conclusion is that somehow, Cassie's plane took this flight plan:



Yes, apparently after spending at least fourteen hours flying over nothing but ocean using up lots of highly expensive fuel, this plane decided that the most effective way to Sydney was not to go directly there, but to spend a few extra hours flying over the goddamn outback before presumably turning around and going to Sydney again. We can't be sure, since Yeerks attacks. Possibly the plane was hijacked by people desperate to get to Perth. Possibly the pilot was an idiot, and about to crash the plane into Uluru. We will never know.

But, it's pretty clearly that this entire book is based of something which would never happen. Because if Cassie had really been on a plane headed to Sydney that was attacked by bug fighters someone in the middle of it, logically what should have happened was this:



And then, alas, from there we can only conclude that the next event was this:



Rest in peace, Cassie. Rest in peace.

[blue_rampion]

But we can't have Cassie die, can we? Sure, all of the people who hate Cassie would rejoice, but there are people who like her! Or who at least don't want to see her dead on the ocean floor. But perhaps Cassie is fortunate. Perhaps when the plane crashes, it crashed near the end if it's journey, when it was close to Sydney:



At which point, Cassie is saved by a hot Aussie Bondi Lifeguard! Niiiiiiiiiice. Go Cassie! (Of course, just after being saved Cassie would then be berated for not swimming in between the flags and getting caught in a rip, thereby ruining all chance of a hot Lifeguard fling)

And several days later, Lourdes arrives, and all the other Animorphs are insanely jealous of the fact that Cassie got to spent a few days on holiday in Australia. Rachel will never forgive you for all the shopping you didn't do.

But what if the plane didn't crash close to Sydney? What if it just crashed somewhere out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but Cassie was at least able to morph something that prevented her from dying on impact? There is no way she could swim to Australia or the US. Not even if she morphed. Where would she go?



Alas, after having managed to swim to a nearby island, Cassie spends the rest of her life there, slowly going insane and talking to a coconut. And anyone who ever managed to come close, by pure chance, will flee and forever tell tales about the strange animals that would yell at them in their heads for destroying the environment.

But! There is one last scenario. Cassie manages to get to the sea without dying: but there is no island nearby to swim to. No land anywhere nearby. Just ocean, on and on. She only has one option for survival: morph, and become a nothlit forever.



...at which point, she can meet up with Aftran and have an epic romance filled with hot lesbian whale sex! Or possibly hetrosexual whale sex. Maybe even yaoi sex. Since we don't actually know the genders of their morphs.

...and that concludes what is wrong with this book! And yes, since I know you're all thinking it: I am clearly deranged for having thought up and bothering to draw all of this

this is my new canon.

[rayerai.livejournal.com]

(http://img31.imageshack.us/i/applausek.gif/)

it would certainly make more sense than canon

[blue_rampion]

Hah, any particular scenario, or ALL OF THEM AT ONCE? :P

Re: it would certainly make more sense than canon

[rayerai.livejournal.com]

ALL OF THEM AT ONCE, DEFINITELY.

But mostly the epic romance. I swear half the time Cassie had more ~sparks & tension~ with Aftran than Jake, anyway.

...Or she could have eloped with Whatshisface and his dog. I mean, that's legit too.

[blue_rampion]

Clearly Whale!Cassie/Whale!Aftran should be everyone's new OTP

Though you're forgetting the hot Bondi lifeguard! Clearly she needs a fling with one of them too

[blue_rampion]

Or even just...look at a map? I mean, it's not hard to look at the Pacific Ocean and think, "hmm, after flying over all of that ocean, a plane's not really going to keep going before going back to Sydney, is it?"

also really I meant I'm more insane for bothering to draw pictures of all this and think up alternate scenarios orz

[blue_rampion]

Hah, thanks! (I'm glad someone likes my stick figures XD)

[ruka-nanjou.livejournal.com]

You totally made my day!

*can't stop laughing*

[blue_rampion]

Hah, I'm glad you liked it! :P

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

So it was ANIMORPHS that screwed up that detail, and not Lost. Because that's what I kept thinking about this whole book.

THANK YOU.

[blue_rampion]

...Does Lost also involve people flying to Sydney? /does not watch it

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

It's about a plane that crashed on an island in the middle of the Pacific--a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. Weird, creepy things happen. But later on in the series there are flashbacks showing them in Sydney and I got the idea that it was a coastal town, so this book confused me all to heck.

[blue_rampion]

Ah, I see! But yes, Lost got it right then XD

Fact is, every major Australian city is coastal. And pretty much most of the minor cities as well. Since the middle is well...the Outback. It's not exactly the most livable area. (And, even if the people were going to Alice Springs or something, they'd still have to stop and transfer at a coastal city anyway, because it's such a long flight where there is literally no chance of refueling. Not to mention that flights to Alice aren't exactly frequent.)

[almighty-patsy.livejournal.com]

If the movie that is never ever going to happen is made I demand bug fighters follow your plans.

[blue_rampion]

Well the books say that bug fighters look like bugs so IT COULD HAPPEN...maybe we'll get a cartoon somehow

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

like it could be a headwind/tailwind kind of thing

or it's just fucking stupid

lol reading your whole comment I kept hoping like BUT WHEN IS SHE GOING TO LAND ON THE LOST ISLAND AND GET KILLED BY THE SMOKE MONSTER

oh well :) well done

[blue_rampion]

Hmm, a headwind that takes her halfway across the country on a journey that takes at least a few hours by air, somehow without air control going "OH CRAP THIS ONE PLANE IS GOING OFF IN THE WRONG DIRECTION ALLTOGETHER" or the plane crashing because it's run out of fuel. Riiiiiiight XD (I think we'll go with "just fucking stupid" option)

ffff, I'm sorry, I don't watch lost. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE SMOKE MONSTER IS. (...but maybe in the "Cassie gets stuck on an island" scenario it leaps out from behind that tree and eats her?)

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

lol well the island they crashed on was on a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles IDK IT JUST SEEMED TOO PERFECT

and yeah the headwind thing is not nearly enough to explain the stupid away. How did this book even get past what little quality control is left in the publishing world, idek...

[blue_rampion]

Maybe the monster thing actually IS Cassie, who's been horribly warped by her years on the island...

And admittedly...inaccuracies regarding Australia is kinda something we're used to by now. I mean, the world thinks we're all like Steve Irwin. (And it isn't helped by the fact that we also consider making tourists believe ridiculous things about Australia a national past-time...)

Still, doesn't excuse the fact that just looking at a map would show a major flaw in this plot.

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

It would be a this book that would make a Lost/Animorphs crossover possible, wouldn't it?

OMFG CASSIE WAS THE POLAR BEAR!!! IT ALL MAKES SENSE!

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

be this*