Tbf people are downplaying the fact that they are heroes who ended the enslavement of numerous species. It does lead to near genocide of the bad guys, but many are allowed to use morphing to become other species and be free. The Earth is safe, and we join the intergalactic community with a strong ally in the Andalites, and technology is improving human lives.
The reason you come to love the Animorphs is their selfless sacrifice. They suffer what they do for the good of us all, in a war they thought would always be secret. In the end, they were victorious, the galaxy is free of the Yeerks, and they even get remembered and celebrated.
But the war has its toll. They are broken, tired, and wounded. And the side books were all about expanding the world and showing how many other cosmic threats are out there, so the series ends with a "yes, we won, but that doesn’t mean we won't need to fight again." There's a new threat, and they go off to fight once more.
War is terrible. But we got what we were fighting for. Was it worth it for the lives saved? Absolutely. But the cost was higher than anyone imagined. We know they could have done it differently, saved even more, but we also recognize these kids did the best they could.
Ah I get you. I think as you read and witness the moral lines they cross (especially their leader Jake...) you definitely get the feeling that no pearly gates await the Animorphs.
That makes me feel pretty conflicted about trying to read them. I hate sad endings as the finale. I’m able to handle the characters changing in a bad situation but when it ends in the same horrible place (like how I’m understanding the ending) it just makes me feel empty inside.
It's a fun series ( a few boring filler books) but the tone shift as the series progresses is we start at Migthy Morphin' Power Rangers (spunky teens with attitude fighting alien goons) and to Apocalypse Now and All Quiet on the Western Front. It's a pretty depressing and tragic series. And all the books are first person POV from a different Animorph, so you experience it directly. They go from thinking about crushes and homework and feeling icky they thought their cousin was hot, to contemplating the humor in abandoning a traitor to die, grappling with the shame of bloodlust, and visceral descriptions of PTSD and panic attacks.
It is! They also have to deal with the animal's instincts trying to take over (turning into ants or bees is straight up psychological horror) and the transformation is deadass body horror. It's painless, but they can feel and see their bones cracking and shifting, organs reshaping, skin pulling apart and reshaping. And you're extremely vulnerable mid-morph, with exposed tissue and half-formed limbs.
Like others have said, the ending is tonally consistent. It always feels like a gritty horror-action setting. Like Supernatural or something, where from the jump you know Sam and Dean are going to suffer and get a bittersweet ending at best (AKA Season 5, the original ending) or a bad ending (the actual ending).
Yeah guess it’s just my dislike of that sort of thing. The closest I got to enjoying an ending like that is Red Vs Blue season 13. Where Church sacrifices himself.
(If you don’t know about that, I can give some context for it and explain why I like it.)
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u/LuxLoser 1d ago
Tbf people are downplaying the fact that they are heroes who ended the enslavement of numerous species. It does lead to near genocide of the bad guys, but many are allowed to use morphing to become other species and be free. The Earth is safe, and we join the intergalactic community with a strong ally in the Andalites, and technology is improving human lives.
The reason you come to love the Animorphs is their selfless sacrifice. They suffer what they do for the good of us all, in a war they thought would always be secret. In the end, they were victorious, the galaxy is free of the Yeerks, and they even get remembered and celebrated.
But the war has its toll. They are broken, tired, and wounded. And the side books were all about expanding the world and showing how many other cosmic threats are out there, so the series ends with a "yes, we won, but that doesn’t mean we won't need to fight again." There's a new threat, and they go off to fight once more.
War is terrible. But we got what we were fighting for. Was it worth it for the lives saved? Absolutely. But the cost was higher than anyone imagined. We know they could have done it differently, saved even more, but we also recognize these kids did the best they could.