Character Discussion: Cassie

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

Here goes...the character who often seems to get the most negativity, and sometimes it's for good reason. I know my LJ folder is gonna be swamped this week, but I'll turn you loose anyway LOL

I do like the animal loving part myself...but there are things that some of you say about her that I can see as well...both positive and negative.

Comments

[acts_of_tekla]

I dislike the way Cassie is written a lot more now than when I was reading the books as a kid. That is probably because in the meantime, I've earned a degree in Peace and Justice Studies, focusing on bioethics (a subject in which I attribute my interest at least partially to Animorphs). So I've basically spent four years learning how to form concrete arguments regarding ethics, and the way that Cassie's arguments tend to be written flat out sucks. "It just feels wrong" does not qualify as an argument.

It didn't *really* bother me until I was rereading #43. Admittedly, the book has kind of an Idiot Plot, but Cassie just walking out on the mission was a real head-desk moment -- not because I dislike that she went against the group or stood up for what she believed in ('cause that's always awesome), but because she didn't say that they needed to talk to Taylor sans Yeerk, like she had in #19. A six-year-old deserves to voice her own opinion, but an eighteen-year-old doesn't -- even when the stakes are even higher in many respects? That just makes no sense.

I think that had the post-David arc books not been largely ghost written, we would have seen a much more complex Cassie. IIRC #20 is the first book where her ability to manipulate people is remarked upon, and I really would have liked to see more of that -- especially because it comes *after* Cassie's big "What have I become and what will I become if I keep doing this?" freak out in #19. I really would have liked to see her deal with the internal fallout of acknowledging or realizing that she was being manipulative at some point.

I think the problem may have been that the ghost writers thought that "moral compass" meant "character who is a saint" rather than "character who can see the possible consequences of the group's actions and points them out". "Moral compass" in that sense *is* necessary to this sort of story and cast archetype.

[blue_rampion]

I think the problem may have been that the ghost writers thought that "moral compass" meant "character who is a saint" rather than "character who can see the possible consequences of the group's actions and points them out". "Moral compass" in that sense *is* necessary to this sort of story and cast archetype.

That, I think, is exactly what happened.

[natural-blue-26.livejournal.com]

I think the problem may have been that the ghost writers thought that "moral compass" meant "character who is a saint" rather than "character who can see the possible consequences of the group's actions and points them out". "Moral compass" in that sense *is* necessary to this sort of story and cast archetype.

= Ani-Gospel truth. Well said!

[almighty-patsy.livejournal.com]

I really would have liked to see her deal with the internal fallout of acknowledging or realizing that she was being manipulative at some point.

YOU ARE SO RIGHT