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

[embergryphon.livejournal.com]

I like Cassie. Especially early Cassie. 'Cause y'know, early Cassie follows the pattern of characterization- strong positive trait with corresponding character flaw. Rachel: brave but reckless. Marco: strategist but detached. Cassie: strong beliefs that she stands up for, but doesn't deal well with war. And she doesn't! She's all, "No, guys, we totes should fight!" in #1, and then in #4 she's given her Reason to Fight ("They'll destroy the environment?! D=") and then by #9 she realizes that the Animorphs are going to do morally questionable things. She starts to see things from the Yeerk's perspective and doubts whether humans are really any better. She complicates things; in being able to see deeper and further than her compatriots, she sees too much, and it bothers her. She has a termite-related breakdown.

And you think, wow! Like Tobias having to learn to stand up for himself now that he's a legit predator, like Jake having to learn to have confidence in his decisions and stand by his mistakes, like Marco and Rachel having to learn to separate the darker parts of their personalities from the rest of them in order to preserve their sanity/humanity, Cassie, too, will have to change! She will have to learn to be hard, to be rational, to juggle morality with practicality and come to some happy medium. She'll have to learn to focus, to rationalize, to grit her teeth and save her tears for later.

Does this start to happen? Yes! Look at #16- she wants to kill Jim Bob Jones or whoever, but she can't bring herself to do it; she wants Jake to do it, but he won't, so in the end, she(?) just makes it so someone else will do it, someday, for her. Is Cassie changing as a character?
This could have been the beautiful part of #19- if Cassie had really had any internal debate at all. Instead, it was pretty much, "Oh hey I like you let's eat mushrooms!" The only character development, really, happened in Aftran. I liked that book because of Aftran. =/ And I think Cassie's actions could have worked (one stupid decision after another) if the repercussions had been real. But of course they weren't. And the outcome would have been beautiful if Cassie had struggled, if we had been given some evidence that she would do the hard thing, she would grow in complexity as a character, if there hadn't been some compelling reason. But there is really no reason given- it all just works out.

There are moments where this development seems to have happened, as though on its own, magically. Cassie tearing at her parents in defense of recruiting the Auxiliaries, for instance. Cassie dealing with David. (David did so much for this series, shizzle) Cassie doing what needed to be done in #41 and then somehow surviving without a shoulder to cry on afterward. But for the most part? I wanted to see conflict, I wanted to see her struggle with herself, like everyone else had to do. But instead, her flaws (her inability to cope with the war) just grew into virtues in and of themselves, and suddenly she's also the paperweight of the universe and keeps it from being distorted, and she can see the future and she knows when people are lying and she never needs to change.

Except the one time where she kills a Taxxon while in freefall with a Dracon beam. That's pretty sweet, actually. But I don't think any of them care as much about Taxxons as about Humans, Hork Bajir, or baby skunks.

All in all? I like Cassie. I don't like that she seemed to get more and more saintly, more unsullied, as everyone else was developing into the screwed up soldier versions of themselves towards the end of the war. I miss Cassie with flaws, Cassie with breakdowns; uncertain, nervous Cassie that can pill a opossum (not easy! D=) but can't forget killing a termite. Instead, she becomes, by the end, this holier-than-thou character that could fix everything with her powers of love and hope. It's a little disappointing.

And I'm also always bothered by the moral questions that DON'T come up, because for some reason Cassie can't look bad. (BuffaHuman = good, AntCassie = OHGODKILLITWITHFIRE. Marco saving his dad = admittedly stupid but necessary for his own emotional state; Cassie stopping Jake from killing Tom = she had a plan, guys, don't worry!)

[blue_rampion]

I like to hope that the kind of change you describe is what should have happened in the later books. Because you are right, you do see glimpses of her heading in that direction before the ghostwriters take over. I guess we can only assume that the ghostwriters weren't able to get a handle on her, that they forgot that her flaws were flaws. She was at her best when she had to war with the darker sides of herself, and we just didn't see enough of it in later books.

[natural-blue-26.livejournal.com]

Very well said :)

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

exactly, Cassie never had to reconcile her *role* in the war with her own humanity. And that AntCassie thing pissed me off so much. She could have been done well--in the car I was thinking the whole *Manipulative Cassie* could have come out in #31--imagine if they had sent her to torment Chapman instead of Ax. She could have had that demon, she could have developed that dark side, she could have been as complex and dynamic as the rest of the group, but you're right. It all just managed to work itself out with her.