Rachel (Animorphs)

Rachel is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of K. A. Applegate's Animorphs series. Her full name is never explicitly mentioned in the books, but her relation to her cousin Jake Berenson through their fathers makes it most likely to be Rachel Berenson.^[1]

Biography

Before the war, Rachel was very involved in gymnastics and had a lingering obsession with fashion. She was also a model student and she manages to maintain excellent grades throughout most of the war. Her parents are divorced. Rachel's father is Dan, a news anchor on television; Rachel is Jewish on her father's side.^[2] Her mother is Naomi, a lawyer. She has two younger sisters, Jordan and Sara. Her mother and sisters are later told the truth about the invasion and are relocated to the Hork-Bajir colony during the end of the war, largely against Naomi's will (she attempts to escape a few times with her two other daughters, angering Rachel—her relationship with Rachel is very strained during the end of the war and she becomes increasingly wary of Rachel's dark side). Jake and his brother Tom are her cousins.

Marco often sardonically calls her "Xena, Warrior Princess" or "Ms. Fashion", and Jake has referred to her (in his thoughts) as "the war goddess". She is best friends with Cassie, though this relationship is often strained throughout the series due to Cassie's more pacifist attitude, contrasting with Rachel's warrior side. Rachel also has feelings for Tobias and the two start dating near the middle of the series. In the beginning, Melissa Chapman (daughter of the Human-Controller Chapman) is one of her best friends, but their friendship decays over time and Melissa is only mentioned a few times in the series.

Although Marco occasionally jokingly flirts with her, Rachel's main relationship throughout the series is with Tobias, despite the difficulties involved. On one occasion, Rachel is asked out by another boy at school. Although tempted by the idea of a more normal relationship, she turns him down, recalling the lengths Tobias had gone to in the past to help her and the depth of feelings between them.

Rachel's recklessness develops into disturbing, violent, degenerative, sometimes sadistic (or even sociopathic), tendencies during the series. She is frequently described as something of an adrenaline junkie, being "addicted" to the "rush" of the war and the feeling of battle and conquering her enemies. Rachel is brought face-to-face with the dark part of her tortured personality in The Solution, The Separation, and in The Return. She is also shown to be claustrophobic and short-sighted.

Rachel is frequently bothered by her violent nature, and towards the end of the series, tortured and despaired because of it. Her dark side is both criticised and indirectly (sometimes directly) used by the rest of the Animorphs, with the exception of Tobias. Rachel herself acknowledges her role in the group and sacrifices her mental wellbeing to protect the other Animorphs, as seen in The Solution. Towards the end of the series, along with her sacrifice on the Blade Ship, K.A. Applegate turns Rachel into a martyr.

In the last book, Rachel unquestioningly accepts a proposal made in secret by Jake (who cannot commit himself given that he is needed to direct the consummation of a parallel objective) to be sent off in a suicide mission to kill his brother, Tom—a mission that, if accomplished in conjunction with the parallel mission, would guarantee victory to the human race. In the Blade Ship that Tom's Yeerk borrowed from Visser One and whom he consequently betrays, after he morphs into a snake form and bites her while she is in her grizzly bear form, she succeeds by biting down and killing him (both the real Tom and his Yeerk). After Rachel demorphs from her grizzly bear morph, she is killed with a single blow by another Yeerk Human-controller in a polar bear morph.

Right at the moment before Rachel dies, the Ellimist—once considered the "puppet master" by Rachel—freezes time and temporarily heals her. From this act the Ellimist wished to maintain a degree of humanity—a trait he feared was disappearing due to the impersonality that was forced upon him by the malevolent and seemingly irrational Crayak. At that moment, the Ellimist was truly sad for Rachel, considering the roles that both he and the Crayak played in the events leading up to Rachel's death, especially the psychological torture she endured at the hands on the Crayak. Although helpless, the Ellimist wished to do something to "soothe" Rachel right before she died, given that souls do not exist in their universe (as implied in The Ellimist Chronicles).

Whilst in the frozen time, the Ellimist recounts the story of his life (as detailed in The Ellimist Chronicles), so as to try and explain to a weeping and raging Rachel whether her life, characterized and engulfed by despair and the violating corruption she had to endure, along with her death—had made a difference, and whether it was all worth it. He finishes his story, and Rachel expresses her understanding of his actions and forgives him—the two things which the Ellimist has most desired. He ends by saying that she had not only been brave and strong, but that she was good and that she mattered; however, being shackled, he cannot save her and has to let her die. She was 16 years old at the time of her death.

Relationships with the other Animorphs

• Jake: Despite being cousins, Jake and Rachel maintain one of the weakest relationships among the characters (except at the end of the series). Jake often ponders on Rachel's bloodthirsty and degenerative nature, while the darker side of Rachel's mind wonders on what would happen should she ever challenge Jake's leadership - something however that she stops doing towards the end of the series, after she confronts David and the Crayak, and along with them, her dark nature. When Rachel accepts her final mission that they both knew would be very dangerous, Rachel tells Jake not to be overwrought by his decision, knowing fully well the burden under which Jake is placed. Jake is distraught by having had to send off Rachel to kill his Yeerk-infested brother, and never recovers.
• Tobias: Before the start of the series Rachel and Tobias weren't friends, though it is implied that they had some prior knowledge of each other. They quickly develop feelings for each other, and eventually begin a relationship and fall in love.
• Cassie: Rachel and Cassie are best friends. However, tension develops between them over the course of the series: Cassie is increasingly wary of Rachel's dark nature, and Rachel in turn becomes impatient with Cassie's morality. Cassie's integrity and coherence are questioned by the reader when she leaves Rachel to hunt down David by herself, who she then captures and with whom is thus alone, helplessly sobbing while deciding on whether she will have to kill a serene and accepting David or not (his fate is never revealed). Rachel feels she is often used as a tool to protect the innocence of the rest of the Animorphs - her dark nature is fueled by their veiled hypocrisy (except for Tobias - this is debatable, but he has his own psychological problems to deal with even though he loves her), and this is something which she doesn't rebel from, voluntarily sacrificing herself in order to protect their well-being.
• Marco: Rachel and Marco often argue, though their verbal sparring is good-natured. They are similar in terms of ruthlessness, although Marco is inherently much more calculative and strategic; a side which contrasts with her increasingly reckless nature. He is the least affected by her death, given his philosophy towards life. In Megamorphs #4: Back to Before, a book where an alternate-reality is concocted by the Ellimist and the Crayak, she agrees to date him.
• Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill: Rachel is initially distrustful of Ax and is in general indifferent towards him. They rarely, if ever, interact one-on-one. Ax is ruthless and calculative like Marco, but unlike him, Ax is more sensitive and becomes evermore apprehensive of Rachel's bloodthirstiness - something that he considers to be unfit for a warrior and akin to a mental illness.

Family

Immediate:

• Father Dan is a news anchor. He is divorced and lives by himself. In #7, when he was moving out, he offered Rachel the opportunity to stay with him and fly back every weekend to see her mother and sisters, but Rachel declined.
• Mother Naomi is a lawyer and is extremely headstrong and contentious. When she is forced to hide in the Hork-Bajir valley, she tries to escape a few times. Not popular among the Hork-Bajir, despite helping them draft a constitution and was in the process of teaching them to read and write.
• Sister Jordan is two years younger than Rachel, and was implied on some occasions to have a crush on Marco.
• Sister Sara is younger than Jordan.

Rachel's family

• Uncle Steve Berenson (brother of Dan) worked as a pediatrician, and became a Controller late in the series.
• Aunt by marriage Jean Berenson worked as an author, and became a Controller late in the series.
• Cousin Jake Berenson is the leader of the Animorphs.
• Cousin Tom Berenson is a Controller from the beginning of the series.

Other family

• Cousin Saddler (by an unknown sibling of Dan and Steve, either his mother Ellen or his father George). Received life-threatening injuries in Book 21. David acquired and morphed the wounded Saddler, briefly masquerading as him and allowing his family to believe he'd miraculously recovered. The family would have suffered further grief when David became trapped in a rat morph as a nothlit, causing 'Saddler' to disappear without explanation. The real Saddler has never been seen again and is presumed dead.
• Cousins Justin, Brooke, and Forrest are siblings of Saddler.

Rachel's morphs

Like David, Rachel favored an aggressive style of fighting. Her battle morphs were the grizzly bear and African elephant, both massive and strong creatures.

Rachel's transportation morphs were slightly different from the others. Her preferred transportation morph was the bald eagle. Like the others, she also had the flea, housefly, seagull, and cockroach. However, she also acquired a great horned owl.

She underwent some morphing problems. The first was an allergy to the crocodile DNA, which caused her to morph uncontrollably and randomly when she experienced heightened emotions. This morph had to be ejected in a procedure known as hereth illint. She also acquired a starfish to retrieve an earring that she had dropped into a tide pool, and when a young kid sliced her starfish morph in half with a shovel, she was divided into the two opposite halves of her personality: "Mean Rachel" and "Nice Rachel". Ax and Erek managed to put her two halves back together by having the two Rachels acquire and morph each other simultaneously; this, along with a massive burst of electric energy supplied by Erek, caused them to re-combine.

In "The Return", Crayak grants Rachel two new morphs; a giant, carnivorous, self-regenerating venus flytrap and a monstrous version of herself (dubbed Super-Rachel) with retractable claws within the fingertips and superhuman strength, the former of which being a likely reference to the Howlers. It is presumed she lost these morphs after the events of this book.

Specific missions called for some single-purpose morphs. She acquired a sperm whale to find a squid to restore the Pemalite ship's programming. During the battle for the Hork-Bajir valley, she acquired a beaver to build a dam.

Including unusable and unused morphs, Rachel has 44 potential morphs.

The following table contains all of Rachel's morphs:

Books

Books narrated solely by Rachel include:

• The Visitor
• The Stranger
• The Reaction
• The Underground
• The Solution
• The Exposed
• The Separation
• The Weakness
• The Return

Rachel also takes part in the narration of:

• The Andalite's Gift
• In the Time of Dinosaurs
• Elfangor's Secret
• Back to Before
• The Journey
• The Beginning

Toys

In 1999, two different Transformers toys of Rachel were made. The larger one sold in stores turned into a (male) lion, and the smaller one (part of a Taco Bell children's meal promotion) turned into a fly.

Footnotes

External links

• Rachel's official page at Scholastic's website
• Rachel at the Internet Movie Database