It’s not the Animorphs’ fault they picked the wrong guy. It’s like when certain bachelors reach a certain age, they decide they want to get married so they marry the next girl they date whether the relationship would last or not. The Animorphs decided to save David so they were stuck with him.

I love the David trilogy and I think #22 The Solution is the best book of the series. Not particularly because of the somewhat rushed writing, but mostly for Rachel’s arc and Cassie genius plan. I recall upon first reading the book shortly after original release, I had no idea if the plan was going to work but I loved Cassie’s manipulation of David and her guilt at having to trap him, and I loved how Rachel was the one to deal with David because she was the biggest threat and also the key to manipulating him because of his enormous ego. I loved the ending.

Even though Rachel basically says at the time that they never heard from him again, I do believe it is really him in Rachel’s final book. I think the book overall is a bit weird but I genuinely love how up himself David is when he thinks he’s got the upper hand. I love how Rachel out-thought him because he’s not as smart as he thinks he is and I personally value intelligence very highly. I love how the end of the book was left up to the reader to decide how Rachel dealt with him.

In my personal headcanon she broke his itty bitty rat neck, even though it tore her apart, and she felt so bad about doing the right thing that she never spoke to anyone of it, not even Tobias or Cassie. They would both understand, and it’s Rahcel’s strength that gave her the ability to do that, but she couldn’t speak of it because to even think of him again would be beginning to accept that what happened was real and she really was the murderer of a helpless boy, even if he was a rat, and even if he tried to kill her and trap her and threatened her friends and tried to kill them too. Even if he did beg her.

I think David’s inclusion in the series was very important to show exactly why the Animorphs had to stay a small guerrilla force for so long. I love that it went wrong and I love how they dealt with it. It’s a very powerful part of the story and one that comes back to haunt me all these many years later.