Character Discussion Jake and Rachel

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

They were kinda close, but it's said in a few books that they were on different sides of the family...didn't always do get togethers together. I would love to have seen a joint family thing with them, I can imagine the two of them glancing around, wondering if anyone besides Tom is a Yeerk.

Do we know which relatives of the two married? I do think Jake said it was cousin by marriage...or Rachel did, someone. Would have to be an aunt and uncle I think.

Comments

[dgcatanisiri.livejournal.com]

Thinking about it, I'm actually kind of disappointed that their familial relationship didn't come up as much as it could have, like for example exactly the situation you suggested. What is the point of having them be related when there is no serious usage of that connection? I can't recall Jake ever interacting with Jordan and Sara - I may be forgetting some time up at the Hork-Bajir camp, but the fact of it is, the fact that they're cousins seems pretty much a non-factor in the scheme of things, other than maybe being used as a tie for what drew Rachel in and made her the happy accident. The only time I recall it being used in the story was during the David trilogy and the whole thing with Saddler. I know that their families did drift apart after the divorce, but still, if Jake and Rachel are attending the same school, surely they'd be close enough that, for example, Naomi might hit up Jake's parents for baby-sitting or some such. It would have been interesting, for example, to see Tom try and convince Jordan and Sara to join the Sharing and how both Jake and Rachel react to that.

That said, their similarities are interesting, particularly in the fact that they are both the ones to really be pulled into the whole war effort. Rachel is the soldier who lost herself in war and Jake became the general who depended on her to do that. There's just enough differences in their attitudes that it affects how they are changed by the war, but as time goes on, you can sort of see them encouraging those traits in the other, particularly General Jake encouraging Rachel's darker side, and how she wouldn't hold back. That's why he sent her after Tom - she would be willing to kill him, and no one else could. And she knew that was why he sent her.

Both respected the other, and both knew what they were becoming because of the war. I would have liked to see more of their personal relationship, some discussions between the two. The only time that the two really spent in one-on-one conversations that I can recall with clarity was him being a flea on her back when she was Fluffer.

[a-happy-book.livejournal.com]

THIS.
is everything I want to say on the matter.

I really can't say anything other than I didn't really read the books when they were in the Valley so I can't remark on Jake's interactions with Sara and Jordan. As for Naomi hitting up Tom to babysit the kids while Rachel is 'conveniently' out for the night makes me LOL - would love to see a fic of awkward!Yeerk/Tom trying to persuade Jordan and Sara to go to the Sharing meetings. :P

(Plus you have an Ephram Brown icon. FTW.)

[caitieness.livejournal.com]

brb writing fic where tom tries to get jordan and sara to join the sharing.

but yes i agree with all of this.

[acts_of_tekla]

Wouldn't they have been a bit young? I know we've seen kid Controllers, but the only one I really remember is Karen, and she was taken because they were after her father, IIRC.

[dgcatanisiri.livejournal.com]

It would be about getting them to join up when they're young. Their minds are more malleable, and so the Yeerks would be more likely to figure out ways to make them into voluntary Controllers when they got older. The Sharing was about finding a way to create a way to infest the world without shots being fired, after all. Get them when they're young, teach them to accept this thing, maybe even play it up as a gift, or something that if they choose will bring them status or whatever... It may not always work, but it'd be an opening, and you know someone would fall for it. And it all starts with one - a voluntary Controller can be used to sway others to accept it.

[geritar.livejournal.com]

They had a lot of really great interaction in #22. They had that very serious talk where Rachel asked him why he told Ax to get HER and not any of the other Animorphs... and he admits that he sees she's changing, embracing her dark side, etc. etc.

#22 is my favorite book in the entire series because of the Jake/Rachel stuff and the realizations that Rachel makes about her dark side.