Opinionated Animorphs Book Guide - #4 The Message

[Kaldary]

Even though the Jesus Whale was stupid and out of place, I’ve always liked this book. It’s one of my favorite of the early books. I have sort of a love hate relationship with Cassie. I always liked her because she loved animals and knew so much about them. But I also found it annoying when she would moralize, especially when it wasn’t necessary. He books also either tended to be either very silly, or a bit boring. Notable exceptions are 19 and 29.

[irishcorndog18]

Christian Bale Batman voice!

[bebe54321dreamhands]

surfing with the alien ha :)

[Ragitsu]

@bebe54321dreamhands

Good choice, I must say.

[YoungPhinoxofFlame]

love the opening song

[thor55121478]

we learn that visser 3 has a cool underwater battle morph.

[azgone34]

i like cassie and all, but her morl issues sometimes are bullshit and that's why i like marco and rachel better

[nicholishere]

how do they morph like that/

[colombo259]

God, I can't stand Cassie.

[tmaytin]

@colombo259 ,I love cassie.So shut up. I totally also agree with her SAVE THE SKUNKS!!! attitude in no. 9.

[yarealpoof]

This was the first Animorphs book I read. I thought it was kind of ridiculous for many of the reasons you listed, and so I wrote the series off without going back and revisiting the previous entries. After starting from the beginning I've got to say that this book really was a step back and I was too harsh in judging the series around this book. Throughout the series Cassie's convictions are both misplaced (usually) and make her seem generally hypocritical.

[FuzzyNecromancer]

I actually found the whale thoughtspeak an interesting idea as a kid, since a subscribed to a "maybe we already coexist with sapient life-forms without knowing it" ideology.

[jocopman]

(i hate to use this nostalgia critic qoute on dolphin vs shark scene) DOLPHIN PUNCH !!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheSharaLint]

I love that you fuck up Elfangor and Ax's names every time you say them. Bravo.

[knownbeforetime]

Lol, this book is pointless because MM4 demonstrated that Ax could have saved himself. Just why was he holding on to that Shark morph?

[IamMeHere2See]

First off, I love your opening responses to Cassie's introduction. Hilarious.

I confess bias on this book, it being my first introduction to the series. Maybe I should read it again. Cassie to me has always seemed overly cautious about offending people and doing something she would later regret. Sure, sometimes it's like she has her head in the clouds, & often comes off as preachy, I was still glad to have a person willing to question the ethical dilemnas of their decisions.

[IamMeHere2See]

She doesn't always think it through, as you pointed out by unterly debunking her thinking about what the Animorphs do imitating Yeerks. But I like what she brings to the group and the story as a whole

As for the whale . . . well, I was "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" before I read this book, so I was more open to the idea. I was young.

Marco's my favorite character. Just putting it out there in case someone was wondering.

[NateSean]

Not the popular opinion, of course, but I don't think you're being all that harsh. I think you're dead on about Cassie's personality because she is basically the same hypocritic "Don't Drill for Oil while I Drive to the Supermarket one block from my House" protester.

[orbitaldeerhunter]

yayyyyyyyy paper mario reference 

[Setzer2500]

You know, the whole DEM thing could have been prevented by having Ax be the talking whale.

[dogman15]

I pronounce Ax's full first name as "Ax - im - ILL - ee". Dunno why you say "Ax - IM - ill - eye". How do they pronounce it on the TV show? What's official?

[jocopman]

@dogman15 no one really knows how to say it but most most of the animorphs community pronounce it Ax - IM - ill - eye at least thats how 90% of the people i watch pronounce it

[dogman15]

@jocopman: You could also say it "Acks - ZIM - il - ee". Don't get me started on the rest of his name... (Esgarrouth-Isthill?)

Okay fine, I'll try. "ES - gar - oath" and "IS - thill". Then again, most Andalites don't have to speak their names out loud; they just think (thought speak) their names, so pronounciation isn't as hard when it's just with your brain.

[jocopman]

@dogman15 yeah like i said no one really knows thats just what i find is the popular way of saying it

[TahirK1189]

What KA should have written is that while they were underwater, Cassie gets another vision and is suddenly sure of the ship's location.

[IShouldHaveDevilHorn]

I actually really like Cassie. She's my favorite character, and even though she thinks with her way too compassionate heart instead of her head. That's why she comes across as stupid. I don't think the whole comparison with the morphing and the Yeerks is dumb. I think it makes sense. How would you feel if someone asked you if they could copy your body so you would get blamed for everything they did?

[MagDuke]

Cassie was always my favorite after Tobias (and that one's based purely on female sympathy for his chracter). Why does everyone not like her? I don't understand!

[LordOmberus]

I hate to be a grammar (Well, pronunciation..) nazi, but that's "Dayus-Ecks-Mahkeena."

[EruvadhrilEdainwen]

Why does Visser Three's tailblade face the opposite direction to the other Andalites'?

I'm really enjoying these reviews. I was really into Animorphs back in the day but I never finished the series. Ah, nostalgia... I might have to pick the books back up where I left off to see how it ended. Hopefully I'll get to it before your reviews catch me up.

[JunkyardBreadfruit]

WHOO! MST3K reference for the win! (I promised myself I'd never say "for the win," but the hamdingers made me do it.)

[sharndim]

Your funniest review.

[ASnakeintheGrass]

Once again, a great review. You have reminded me how much I loved the series. I might have to go back and reread them (I have all of the books).

And yeah. Cassie was annoying as hell. I really felt like I was just plowing through them just so I wouldnt miss anything important. But I guess it does say something for Applegates writting that the character styles are so distinct.

[MisterH37]

While your critque makes logical sense, I still found it awfully harsh on Cassie, but you admit bias, so at least you're aware of your harsh. I hope you're kinder when you get to 19 and 29, they're some of my favorites. (Although I'm pretty sure you're going to bash the hell out of 19, since it's basically Cassie at her maximum Idealism)

The "Taxxons are basically condoms filled with pudding" comment was effing hilarious. I'm still laughing at it.

[poparena]

Actually, 19 is my favorite Cassie book (though I should point out that I haven't read most of these books in years, so that's subject to change. I just reread 5 for the first time in over ten years, and it's WAY better then I remember it). Though the butterfly thing at the end makes no sense whatsoever.

I will have a lot more to say about Cassie as we go along, but this particular book has so little substance that I didn't feel it was warrented this time.

[MisterH37]

Looking back at the Cassie books, a lot of them are either really emotional and philosophical (9, 19, 29), really, really stupid (14, 24), or both (39-ugg).

I also disagree with your statement that the ocean-centric books are stupid. 15, 18, and 27 are some of the best in the series. (36 however needs to be forgotton)

[mariofan6100]

@poparena on your tags the last 3 words are magic, talking, whale! XD

your the best greg!

[tenchimaniac]

XD talking whales ofcourse K.A. Applegate that makes perfect sense and is obviosly not a plot conveniance...

[sagekiller]

Another awesome video! I totally agree with you about Cassie XD