Haters to the left

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

This is from that scene in The Extreme where they have to eat dead seals.

"Cassie?" Rachel said.

"What?" she replied, a hint of anger in her voice.

"What should we do?"

"Why are you asking me? ... It's obvious what we
have to do. And not just to the bear's leftovers, but to any live seal we can find. What I don't understand is why you're asking me for permission. Do you guys think I'd put an animal's life over yours? Or mine, come to think of it? ... When did you start thinking I was some kind of fanatic? We're freezing, we're starving, and I'm going to go all tree-hugging, never-eat-anything-with-a-face on you?"

"Well, I can never tell what you'll think," I whined, taken aback and feeling like I'd insulted Cassie.

"Here's a clue. Don't kill a sentient creature except in absolute self-defense, try not to wipe out endangered species, and if you're going to raise animals for food, treat them as well as you possibly can. But when you're a wolf, a starving wolf wandering around the frozen
Arctic, and you see a meal, eat it."

Or how about from The Solution:

David hadn't asked who the mastermind of the plan was. Who it was who
had so accurately appraised his emotions, his need to build his ego, the
fact that he would choose me to be his "companion." Cassie, of course.
Cassie had worked it out, step by step, after Jake and I failed to come
up with anything.

Megamorphs 2:

"We adapt," Cassie said grimly. "That's what animals have to do in order
to survive. Our environment is massively different. No civilization to rely on, surrounded by brutal predators. So we adapt. Or we get eaten."

"Great. Robinson Crusoe meets Jurassic Park. Look at us. We have nothing," Marco said. "No homes. No food. No tools. No weapons. We don't even have shoes!"

"Well, we're going to have to make all those things," Prince Jake said. "And we do have one big weapon: We can still morph. Maybe we can't fight a T-rex, but we can fly, and we can escape."

"We have food and shoes right here," Cassie said. She was looking at the dead Tyrannosaurus. "Ax has his tail. We can use the hide to make sandals. Skin from the lower leg there looks pretty tough and thick. We cut out some skin, remove the meat and eat it. Then we use ligaments and tendons to lace up the sandals."

I believe Prince Jake and Marco were shocked. Humans are strangely squeamish at times. I can never predict when.

"Wow," Marco said. "Wow. You're kind of getting into this, aren't you, Cassie?"

Cassie walked up to the dinosaur and placed one hand on its leg. She tested the skin with her fingertips. "Look, Marco, my best friend is gone. Tobias is gone. I don't want any more names added to that list. We need food. There's no Burger King anywhere nearby, okay? We're not big
or mean enough to be predators in this environment. We've moved way down on the food chain. The best we can be is scavengers. Here's thousands of pounds of protein. We eat some now, and we smoke some for jerky so we can eat later."

If anything, Prince Jake and Marco appeared even more shocked. And I felt the same. This was an aspect of Cassie I'd never seen. But then, Cassie is more involved than the others in the facts of environment. She had sized up the situation and realized that in this new world she and her fellow humans were no longer masters.

Finally, this is what happens when people don't like Cassie:

"How did you do that?" the man with the southern accent demanded. And then, like some vile punctuation, he added a word I won't repeat.

It was like a slap. I couldn't answer. I just gaped. ... This small battle was all mine. I didn't want any help.

"You don't like black people, Mr. Davis?" I said pleasantly. "No problem. I can turn white. Watch me."

Most of the time I'd probably have let it go. I'd been called names before. I'd run into racism before. Mostly I figured people like that were just sad, weakminded fools. So most of the time I just avoided people like that. But I had been in three wars since breakfast. I had seen Jake shot down. I'd just learned that Rachel, my best friend, was gone. I was sad and ashamed and filled with rage, all at once. So this wasn't "most of the time."

White fur began to grow from my face. Actually, it was clear fur, hollow needles of fur that were designed to keep the polar bear warm. But the fur looked white, taken altogether. My hands swelled, big as dinner plates. Long, raked claws extended from the fingertips. I was growing whiter. And bigger. Much, much bigger.

"It's some kind of voodoo trick!" Davis wailed.

Tobias was back on his feet, arms crossed over his chest, looking on calmly. "You two guys may want to step back out of the way because I don't think Davis here is going to be having a very good day."

I loomed larger and larger. Davis began to back away, pressing against one alley wall. But sheer amazement and disbelief kept him from running until it was too late. Finally, he broke and ran. I slammed a pile-driver front leg into the wall and blocked his way.
[Don't you like me?] I asked.

In conclusion: Cassie kicks it all over town.

This post was brought to you by numbers 22 and 25 and the letters character bashing sucks.

Comments

[ayuette.livejournal.com]

Amen to this is all I have to say.
I'm pretty fed up with character bashing, at this point. Cassie was always one of my favorites as a kid. She could be fierce if she had to be and that's why I loved her. <3

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yesssssss. I'm sick of hearing people going off about Cassie daring to express criticism of others. Cassie had ethics and she applied them and that actually is a good and admirable thing, and frankly it's people like Rachel and Marco who were in charge of you know Guantanamo Bay and shit and actually, if there had been a few more Cassies in the previous administration or if there were more Cassies in power, generally, I just think the world would be a lot better off. I mean yeah, she's flawed! Of course she is! But the rest of the Animorphs' flaws get celebrated and acknowledged as part of their being human, whereas Cassie's flaws get beat all out of proportion, and the stuff that she does that is AWESOME people actually seem to HATE. Like, how dare Cassie be good at treating animals! OMG! WTF!

[cxrdevil.livejournal.com]

it's widely acknowledged that the polar bear scene is excellent, and anything with dinosaurs is awesome, but cassie still doesn't know when to shut up or curb her opinions, which is less cool than being able to speak one's mind, although on the internet there isn't a difference because everyone is a jerk.

we can love parts of cassie (small, widely dispersed parts) or love all of her, but that doesn't change the fact that she annoys plenty of people all to hell and her judgemental nature is grating. plenty of people hate harry potter because he's a jerk to his friends, or bella because she has no soul. all animorphs fans make fun of tobias for being emo at least once in our lives

cassie may have some neat moments but then so does jane eyre, and even those of us who love jane do not argue the point that she is an opinionated feminist jerk who hallucinates

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Everything you just said in your comment is subjective asshattery. You think Cassie doesn't know when to shut up. I think Jake's a jock whose angst about Tom is uninteresting and that without Cassie speaking up from time to time the Animorphs would have destroyed the world. You think Cassie's grating. I think she's usually the only one of the Animorphs with a brain between them (except maybe Tobias, and what I really find funny about that is that Tobias usually AGREES with Cassie and people don't go around bashing him.) You think Cassie goes on and on. I think Marco goes on and on. And all of those things are FINE. I'm right and you're wrong, but they're FINE.

But two things aren't fine with me: the hateful language and attitudes towards Cassie displayed here. I mean I just don't think it's cool and I actually find it really unpleasant to be part of a community where it's considered OK to go "Oh jeeze why didn't Cassie die in X scene? Let's all fantasise about when/how KA could have killed her!"

There's a difference between saying 'I don't like Cassie' and saying 'Cassie sucks.' That line is character bashing and people are crossing it with Cassie all the time. I think it's bad fucking manners, frankly.

[senri.livejournal.com]

I'm fine with people disliking Cassie and discussion of her flaws and poor decisions, which she makes - along with all of the other Animorphs, who have their own flaws and flubs. But I start to feel kind of uncomfortable when there are posts solely for bashing and people fantasizing about how and when KAA could or should have killed her off, which has also been said.

IDK she has some pretty awesome moments. It's nice to be reminded of that, when at times I feel sort of awkward being on the quieter side that likes her.

[staysleeping.livejournal.com]

THIS

[dither-spaz.livejournal.com]

MORE:

< Cassie, get over it. This is the late Cretaceous, according to Bird-boy
here, > Marco said coldly. < There are no humans. No human civilization.
No human morality or religion or philosophy. This is hardcore nature.
We're down to survival, here. Survival. That's all that counts.>

< Surviving and getting home, > Rachel amended.

< There are humans here, > Cassie said. < Us. We are human civilization. We
have all that stuff inside us. It doesn't matter what year it is. >

< Okay, you're right, > Marco snapped. < It doesn't matter. If this were
1998 or 2000 or 2121, it would still come down to surviving. And when
it's down to kill or be killed, all that morality and guilt and all is
crap. >

Cassie stopped morphing. For a while no one said anything. Then, at
last, Cassie said, < You know something, Marco? You're my friend. I'd do
almost anything for you. But you're wrong. Yeah, we're just animals
ourselves. But we're the animals who can think. We're the animals who
can imagine something better than kill or be killed. I don't think
predators are immoral. I'm not an idiot, whatever you may think. But I'm
a human, okay? And I have to think and care, and I have to feel things.
Otherwise I might as well be some gang banger, or a Nazi or, or - >

< A Yeerk, > Ax supplied.

I had finished morphing back to Tyranosaurus. I waited for Marco to
toss out some clever comeback. It never came. Instead, as we once again
headed for the Nesk camp, I heard him whisper so that no one but me
could hear:

< You know, Jake? I see why you like that girl. >

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Cassie FTW.

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

Awesome post. Thank you!

[jenil.livejournal.com]

Icon: hell yes.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

My pleasure (and hey, thank you for bringing Martha Freaking Jones to the party!)

[jenil.livejournal.com]

When I first read the books, I didn't appreciate Cassie's character. I thought she was a goody two shoes and wasn't as tough as the others. So much so that when I stopped buying Animorphs regularly, I actually stopped buying her books.

Now, however, after completing my collection and reading them all, I realise that I think the reason I never appreciated, or, let's say, disliked her character was that I saw too much of myself in her. I wanted to be someone like Jake.

Now though I see what I didn't see before. I appreciate her strength, her ability to stand up to her group of friends, her awareness of her morals, but not so much that she is blind to anything else.

I would hope to be more like Cassie than anyone else in the books.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Now though I see what I didn't see before. I appreciate her strength, her ability to stand up to her group of friends, her awareness of her morals, but not so much that she is blind to anything else.

I would hope to be more like Cassie than anyone else in the books.

This with a bullet. I think she's amazing and I so agree with you.

[rayerai.livejournal.com]

RIP, real!Cassie.

I'd also like to submit #50. Pretty much all of it.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I haven't read #50 for ages! I really should do a re-read soonest. <3 Cassie

[jenil.livejournal.com]

#29, The surgery on Ax.

That was just a pretty stupid book in general, though.

At least, I think that's the reason I've only ever read it the once.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

people are free to have whatever opinions they want, let's not force a schism in the middle of the community :)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Dude, I'm not: I just posted some paragraphs of Cassie rocking it. Do you consider that to be more or less likely to force a schism than a bunch of posts about how much Cassie sucks?

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

I think we need to solve this problem with PIE.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

PIE! Good plan.

[staysleeping.livejournal.com]

Okay in that other post the other night, I don't know if I'd exactly say I was "bashing" her I was just stating my annoyance of things she did and said. tbh, Cassie's my least favorite of the characters and I find her a bit more tiresome than the others to say the least. I agree with the most of the scenes you mentioned too btw.

Really though I feel like disagreements about a character is good. It brings more discussion to the table and makes for a more interesting community. Tbh I get annoyed of all the characters at various points, it's just Cassie who always comes up the most *shrugs*

[blue_rampion]

For all that I've been...making fun of Cassie with my stick figure and Whale!Cassie/Whale!Aftran OTP drawings, I would like to state that I do really like her. And my drawings were more in the spirit of affectionate parody than character bashing.

The problem with Cassie is not her character, or who she is: it's that she suffered from inconsistent portrayal, and from often being given significant roles in the weaker books, especially later on in the series. She's an incredibly complex character: there's a wonderful mix of a desire to live life according to her morals mixed with hypocrisy and an obligation to say what the right thing is even when she doesn't actually know herself, and genuinely careful personality that holds a harder, pragmatic, and manipulative core inside.

She is a tough character to get right. And, unfortunately, many of the ghost writers in particular often failed to get her right. They failed to remember all those layers she had and just focused on the "caring earth mother" part of her. They failed to incorporate the lessons she had already learned, resulting in her often learning lessons she'd learned before without any acknowledgment that she had been through all this before. They failed to show all of her Awesome.

The result, unfortunately, is that lesser writing turned many people off Cassie. And that fully appreciating Cassie means being able to recognise where her portrayal let her down and being able to move past that. This is something not everyone can do: and, even then there's going to be the odd person that doesn't like her anyway, cause there's always someone who dislikes a particular character. I can understand why people dislike Cassie: but I do think it's a shame that more people can't appreciate her for the character she should be: the one who appears early on in the series, and in the moments you've detailed.

[rayerai.livejournal.com]

For the record, I named my cat Cassi. This is not a coincidence. And she was my best friend (I'm Rachel) for all 13 years of her life.

Also for the record, I still ship Cassie/Aftran. If you go back to the enormous write-up I did of Cassie in like February or whatever, I mention this.

;)

[(Anonymous)]

You know what I never understood? In #54, Marco writes a book and it's an instant bestseller. Cassie also writes a book and it peaks at #4 or something. Like a book by one of the saviours of the human race wouldn't hit #1 overnight?

[mattiris.livejournal.com]

You know what I never understood? In #54, Marco writes a book and it's an instant bestseller. Cassie also writes a book and it peaks at #4 or something. Like a book by one of the saviours of the human race wouldn't hit #1 overnight?

[almighty-patsy.livejournal.com]

Weren't they more locally famous? I mean, admittedly it was a very localised invasion (which I didn't realise until re-reads as an adult, like okay Yeerks, you might not have yeerk-chickens but you still should know not to put all your eggs in one basket)), but I thought maybe they were not exactly SUPER DOOPER WORLD FAMOUS #1 OF ALL TIME celebrities?
I mean, people do amazingly heroic stuff - even amazingly heroic stuff that has huge consequences - all the time. A lot of the fame comes from spin.
That or I'm an idiot, you know, whatever.

[almighty-patsy.livejournal.com]

Oh my drama.
As it turns out everyone is being nice and awesome and CUDDLES so I won't add to it (also apparently I am very bad at this because most of the "ARGH WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU BOOKS" are where I totally love her and some of the "HAHA KICK THEIR ARSES!" moments are what annoy me about her... I AM THE MOST UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE OF ALL IT SEEMS), just want to second the vibe here that - you know, not wanting to annoy anyone with the things I do say :) I usually just go with threads wherever that turns (THE MOST UNIQUE SHEEP OF ALL).

[caitieness.livejournal.com]

my feelings towards cassie are very on and off, depending on the book and moment. however in fanfic i've found her the most interesting to write and read. i'm finding this cassie battle very interesting.

[rayerai.livejournal.com]

Yes, what you said. Exactly.

[daphne-23.livejournal.com]

Fabulous post. Thank you. :)

I have enjoyed reading a lot of the criticism directed at Cassie's character here, because it's something I never thought particularly deeply about when reading the books, and Cassie has always sat fairly firmly in the middle of my personal ranking of the Animorphs, below Tobias, Ax and Jake but above Rachel and Marco, so I don't have strong feelings about her either way. But I don't like the character-bashing, and it doesn't add anything to the discussion; it only closes down lines of argument by making it somehow not ok to admit that you like Cassie (or any other character that happens to be the focus of the hatred).

Cassie is flawed because she attempts to adhere too strictly to an over-idealistic system of personal morals which she also applies inconsistently, making a strong stand on certain points, or on certain occasions, and then not on others. She's also (on average) 14 or 15 years old - this doesn't make her a bad person, this just makes her a TEENAGER, and a very well-depicted one too. What I appreciate about Cassie is that while she doesn't have all the answers and she does make some major mistakes, she does ask the right questions. And while I certainly don't dislike Rachel and Marco, their flaws worry me much more.

I also hold a somewhat controversial point of view by absolutely loving #19. I think it's one of the stand-out books of the series. I simply don't understand the whole furore about Cassie leaving the Animorphs - it seems fairly obvious she would have returned in a short time anyway, even if she'd never met Karen, and also, well, do not a number of the other Animorphs seriously consider leaving the fight? The obvious examples are Marco in #5 (he makes it quite clear he's going to leave, and actually that book could have been plotted in such a way that he does leave, then returns once finding out his mum is V1) and Rachel in #7, but you could even stretch it slightly to include Tobias in #3 and Jake in MM#4. That leaves Ax with the shining moral record - but then wasn't he always considering heading back to the Andalites?

As for the rest of #19, Cassie makes some very major mistakes, which do highlight the flaws I mentioned above. But she is nothing short of heroic in her final decision to become a caterpillar nothlit. If she'd backed out at this point, people really would be much more justified in calling her a hypocrite - but she didn't. I think this is pretty much her finest moment.

[sunshapedgarden.livejournal.com]

I agree. I LOVE #19. It's one of my all-time favorites, and it illustrates a lot of what I love about Cassie. She takes a huge risk and basically sacrifices herself for a chance at peace. And I love the belief she expresses here and in 26 that not all Yeerks are necessarily evil. She seeks to understand the enemy, and I say that's a huge asset.