Jake, I imagine, would stay and try to reason with Aftran. Ax, with his deep-seated hatred for Yeerks, might have instinctively knocked out Cassie with his tail. Each of the other team members might have reacted differently. Kind of like Tolkien not liking the publisher retitling the third book in the series The Return of the King.

Once Aftran brought up the caterpillar, the cover made sense to me, and I knew how the story was going to end. Cassie sacrificed herself in a way that is just. I need to lie down after reading this book.Īx hand-waiving Cassie's sacrifice away with a, 'Well natural morphing resets the clock' is clearly a face-saving measure to keep the series children friendly.

Is predator morality superior to parasite morality, or does it just look that way because we're natural predators? And why does referring to ourselves as 'natural predators' sound so uncomfortable?įuck. Hell, I can't think of any popular series out there that comes close to the vexing moral question in this book. A Song of Ice and Fire has nothing on Animorphs. 'Oh yes, you are,' she said, her face distorted and twisted with contempt. We don't kill them, cut them into pieces, and grill them over a charcoal fire in our backyards.' How many pigs and cows and chickens and sheep do you kill each year to survive? You think being a predator is morally superior to being a parasite? At least the host bodies we take remain alive. 'It's what we are,' she yelled back, 'We're parasites, you humans are predators.

This is some of the most complex and vexing moral questions from a book I've ever read.

Animorphs the departure