I love Elfangor, not because he was a "perfect" hero, but because he was set up to be one and then wasn't--he knew it, but very few other people did. I think at the beginning of the Andalite Chronicles--which awesomely ended with a mediocre artish Elfangor losing a tail fight--we can see a lot of similarities between Ax and Elfangor--the same high-reaching dreams, he unspoken fear that they are out of reach, the idealism. The main difference, IMO, seems to be that Elfangor is more flexible than Ax--he fairly quickly accepts Loren as a (near) equal to example, while Ax generally remains somewhat aloof to humans--even the Animorphs--throughout most of the series. I have no doubt that some of this difference was for purely plot reasons, but it's still interesting to see the difference. In some ways, I think Ax's inflexibility protected him from the guilt Elfangor faced in that it kept him from "running away"--both literally and figuratively--as much as Elfangor did. And my g-d, Elfangor must have been saddled with guilt--guilt for leaving Loren and her son, guilt for helping (unwittingly) in Alloran's infestation, guilt over lying and being called a hero because of it, guilt over running from war, etc. (On a semi-related note, I always loved that he thought of Arboran as becoming the hero he "always wanted to be", while he doesn't see himself as much of a hero at all), etc. On the other hand, I think his happiness when he was human and/or with Loren greatly surpasses any degree of happiness we see in Ax over the series.
Does anyone else wonder about Elfangor's reliability as a narrator in the AC? Is it possible he's using the hirac delest as a way to relive his guilt before dying, a last confession of sorts? To have maintained the status he did as a warrior and legend, he must have done more great things than ram the Bladeship, yet he really doesn't seem to care about the positives, and seems to see the only positives as his wife and don, presumably the reason he kept fighting so hard to protect earth. And improbably or no, I thought it was only fair that he recognized Tobias in his final moments as who he was. I wonder if he had doubts about giving his child to a life as a warrior (which he disliked in the end), or if he just saw it as a way for Tobias to fulfill his duty as an Andalite.
I wonder if Ax would have respected Elfangor nearly as much had he heard the hirac delest, in all its imperfection.
Finally, the just awesome: Elfangor swiping at Visser 3 as Elfangor lays dying? Bad ass. The dying comfort Elfangor left Tobias in his DNA? Awesome. The letter he left Tobias? Also awesome. Elfangor/Loren? An amazing ship, second only to R/T for me--genuine and believably evolving. I think how much Elfangor cared about Tobias--a son he met only at his deathbed and only for an instant really shown through--and it was Elfangor's affection, not his heroism, that defined him for me.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-10-19 12:13 am (UTC)Does anyone else wonder about Elfangor's reliability as a narrator in the AC? Is it possible he's using the hirac delest as a way to relive his guilt before dying, a last confession of sorts? To have maintained the status he did as a warrior and legend, he must have done more great things than ram the Bladeship, yet he really doesn't seem to care about the positives, and seems to see the only positives as his wife and don, presumably the reason he kept fighting so hard to protect earth. And improbably or no, I thought it was only fair that he recognized Tobias in his final moments as who he was. I wonder if he had doubts about giving his child to a life as a warrior (which he disliked in the end), or if he just saw it as a way for Tobias to fulfill his duty as an Andalite.
I wonder if Ax would have respected Elfangor nearly as much had he heard the hirac delest, in all its imperfection.
Finally, the just awesome: Elfangor swiping at Visser 3 as Elfangor lays dying? Bad ass. The dying comfort Elfangor left Tobias in his DNA? Awesome. The letter he left Tobias? Also awesome. Elfangor/Loren? An amazing ship, second only to R/T for me--genuine and believably evolving. I think how much Elfangor cared about Tobias--a son he met only at his deathbed and only for an instant really shown through--and it was Elfangor's affection, not his heroism, that defined him for me.