Holy shit. Now there's a fuggin blast from the past.
Rachael, Jessie, Jake, Axe, Tobias, Marco...think that was them.
And of course, Vissr 3

No Jessie, but there was a Cassie :D And Ax has no e at the end, but otherwise you got it!

Been a while, I'll admit.
Never did see where the endgame ended up.

The endgame is brutal and brilliant. I highly recommend rereading ;D

Was discussing this recently. I remember being upset by the ending in summer of 2001, and saw KAA's letter about it, which proved prescient, what with September 11, 2001 and all that descended from there.

I have mixed thoughts on some of the books, especially after reading the now-deleted Cinnamon Buhnz blog where they blow open some major issues mostly in the ghostwritten books. Particular note to Cassie in #37 advocating against assisting an Andalite mission to assassinate Visser 3 under the excuse that "it's murder, revenge, and serves no legitimate purpose". This, despite her being involved in at least 2 prior attempts to assassinate Visser 3 herself (#8 and #36), and the fact that killing a high ranking enemy military officer is a time-honored tactic in war. Visser 3 is the leader of the invasion; Taylor/Sub-Visser 51 is by that point established to be the next highest ranking Yeerk in that area of space, but it's very clear that she rose to her position more for being a Psycho For Hire than for any actual skills. The sudden absence of Visser 3, even if he weren't in an Andalite body, would result in months of chaos where the Animorphs could run wild, as Taylor tried and failed to keep the plates spinning until the Council of Thirteen could get someone with an official rank higher than hers on site to take over.

I do feel that the last book should have ended way earlier (a lot of the stuff after the timeskip, to my memory, has a certain level of "We missed the exit, now we gotta go 10 more miles down the highway before we can turn around" feel to it.) However, as the entire series is at core a deconstruction of the tropes around teenagers working to save the world, and how being a child soldier will FUCK YOU UP, I agree with Applegate that to end the core war and plot with a picture perfect ending where the villains lose, the heroes win, and then they all have cake would've been literary malpractice.

I understand that I hold the minority opinions amongst fans, but I will die on this hill.

Die on the hill of the book could have only ended the way it did? If so, I'm right there with you. Except the auxiliaries. I'm still salty about that haha.

It sucked. It was to show how far Jake had fallen from his ideals. He saw his chance to win the war. All he had to do was break all the rules that he'd followed the entire series. Jake decided that the ends of winning the war justified the means by which he did it, and made the call that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few, and sent people to die in full knowledge they'd never return.

War makes monsters of us all.

Ohhh yes, my fave aliens from that series. ;w; Love how you've drawn this guy!

I still have a bit of a bias to andalites (in looks, not politics hahaha), but the hork bajir have such a tragic, messy story. I love it!
And thank you!

Love to see these spiky babies! Makes me want to draw them again

Do itttt!