Animorphs #16: The Warning

rest in peace.

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Also, apparently it seems that Animorphs #16 is really where the series really gets real for the first time.  I mean, even in The Andalite Chronicles we got to see some harsh stuff with wartime morality, Elfangor unwittingly allowing Visser Three to be created, Seerow's kindness, and Elfangor's unwillingness to comply with the order to flush out the helpless Yeerks.  And in book #8, we actually see Ax get a chance to kill Alloran, but can't bring himself to, despite Alloran begging to be killed.  I wonder if Alloran would have taken his own life in that moment, if he could.  I imagine that he would have.  In the end, it seemed like there was no other way, no way for Alloran to be free.  I think everyone thought this.  In fact, even in my memory, Alloran had died in the end.  But apparently my memory here was wrong, which makes Ax's choice actually meaningful here.

Anyways, in Animorphs #16 we get Jake almost dying, trying to hold himself together and push past his own fear because he isn't =allowed= to be weak, and we see the harsh toll that the war has taken on Jake by this point, and how he already feels the pressure.  Out of all of the Animorphs' struggles, I've always sympathized with Jake the most.  Having to always be the one with the answers, the one in charge, the one that is accountable for the mistakes.  Yeah dude, I've been there.  It's rough, and it takes a toll on you.  Forever.

And Marco, always the intelligent one, has already figured out that this war is going to change them.  Jake denies it, but deep inside he might know as well.  But Marco's little joke about how Jake thinks to go back to a normal life afterwards, really hits hard this second time around, knowing just how much this impacts their lives throughout the years.

We see Jake wise beyond his years at the understanding of his role, and this foreshadows his acute understanding of everyone else's roles.  There's going to be a lot of this in later books, especially with Jake struggling to handle Rachel's volatility, and even later, David, and Jake has no choice but at some point to start treating his friends as soldiers rather than individual people.  At least, that's how I remember it.

Then we get to the end where Jake has to figure out what to do with Fenestre.  We see the first hintings of Cassie's hypocrisy, where thinks of Fenestre as being so vile that he needs to die, but at the same time isn't willing to do it herself.  This is something that Cassie will struggle with later as well, because in war there is no "right" thing to do.

Anyways, yeah, definitely feels like an inflection point in the series.