Rachel (Animorphs)

Rachel is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs. 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, if it was never changed or hyphenated. [In #21: The Threat, it's stated that Rachel is related to Jake's family through her father. In #31: The Conspiracy, Rachel says that Jake's family is related to her family through Jake's dad; making Steve and Dan (Jake and Rachel's fathers, respectively) brothers.]

Biography

Before the war, Rachel was very involved in gymnastics and had a lingering obsession with fashion. Her parents are divorced. Rachel's father is Dan, a news anchor on television; Rachel is Jewish on her father's side.cite book|last=Applegate|first=K.A.|authorlink=K. A. Applegate|coauthors=|title=Animorphs Megamorphs #03: Elfangor's Secret|publisher=Scholastic Paperbacks|date=1999|location=New York|pages=10, 171|month=May|id=ISBN0590036394] Her mother is Naomi, a lawyer. She has two sisters, Jordan and Sara, both younger than she is. 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). Jake and his brother Tom are her cousins.

Marco often sardonically calls her "" 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 Controller Chapman) is one of her best friends, but the relationship decays and Melissa is only mentioned a few times in the series.

Rachel's recklessness develops into disturbing, violent, 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 this dark part of her personality in "The Solution", "The Separation", and in "The Return". She is also shown to be reckless, claustrophobic and short-sighted.

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 feeling between them.

In the last book, Rachel is sent to kill Tom. After he morphs into snake form and bites her while she is in grizzly bear form, she succeeds by biting down on him, killing him. After Rachel demorphs from grizzly bear, she is killed with a single blow by another Yeerk in a polar bear morph. When Jake, Marco, and Tobias set off to go save Ax, they name the cruiser-class ship they board "The Rachel" in her honor. Before Rachel dies, the Ellimist recounts the story of his life as detailed in the The Ellimist Chronicles. She dies at the age of 16.

Relationships to the other Animorphs

*Jake: Despite being cousins, Jake and Rachel maintain one of the weakest relationships among the characters. Jake often wonders about Rachel's bloodthirsty nature, while the darker side of Rachel's mind wonders what would happen should she ever challenge Jake's leadership..
*Tobias: Before the start of the series Rachel and Tobias aren'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 dating. Following Rachel's death, Tobias becomes mired in depression and cuts off contact with the world.
*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.
*Marco: Rachel and Marco often argue, though their verbal sparring is good-natured. In "", an alternate-reality book, she agrees to date him.
*Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill: Rachel is initially distrustful of Ax and is general indifferent towards him. They rarely, if ever, interact one-on-one.

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.

Jake'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 Melissa Chapman's cat, Fluffer McKitty, to try to infiltrate the Chapman house. She also 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.

However, the following contains all her morphs:

*Anteater
*Seal
*Polar Bear (Nanook)
*Sperm Whale
*Chimpanzee
*Eel
*Squirrel
*Cockatiel
*Cheetah
*Honeybee
*Human (Female Fighter Pilot)
*Giant Squid
*Orca
*Beaver
*Starfish
*Mutated venus flytrap (presumably can't use)
*Super-Rachel (a gigantic, superhumanly strong version of herself with retractable Wolverine-like metallic claws) (presumably can't use)

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