An Anti-War War Series

Animorphs is a book series by K.A.Applegate that tackles war in a surprisingly realistic manner. This is especially surprising as the intended audience of this series is young adults. I originally started to read the series when I was around nine years old.

Below I will list some of the major ways that even though this series focuses on the fighting against the Yeerks, it is really an anti-war series.

The Animorphs series talks about how sometimes in war the moral choices aren't always the best option. Cassie helps the group have a good moral center, but even she sometimes goes into dark territory. She decides that the punishment for David which is worse than death and she also erases a man from existence. Alloran tells Elfangor that some have to bloody their hands just so others can walk away clean. Some answers raised about decisions made in war don't have any easy answers, if they have a clean cut answer at all in the Animorphs series.

Animorphs, while being a Young Adult series, shows how much the war changes the characters. How they start off one way and by the end everyone has changed. Cassie and Ax are the two that make it out the best. Cassie was able to keep herself mostly normal and Ax just goes back to the Andalite military which is what he was training for before he crashed on Earth.

Finally, the Animorphs series shows that connections made during a war can end once a war is over. Cassie and Jake, one of the most adorable couples in the series, end up apart by the end. Cassie realizes that Jake has changed too much from the boy she first fell in love with. Rachel's death causes Tobias to live life as a hawk and it isn't until the mission to rescue Ax that he returns to society. Ax goes away from Earth as he is back in the Andalite military, though he finds that he can never truly be comfortable with other Andalites again. Marco tries to keep close to Jake but their friendship isn't like it was before or during the war.

So war, according to Animorphs, is necessary at times but isn't full of heroes. It's much too bloody for those.