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And through this post, I am brought into the thread. Thanks. I describe Animorphs to people as a series that starts out as a lighthearted teen romp and ends with grimdark child soldiers, but what gets lost in that elevator pitch is that it's graded on curve. The early books are more lighthearted...but as we see even in just the first two in this thread, it doesn't mean they're carefree. I really think this series would do well if it were rebooted as an animated Netflix show or something.
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May 1, 2020 09:01
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ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:I am 100% here for this thread though I'm curious how people are going to feel when we get to the mid-series quality dip. After the ghostwriters start the books become a LOT of filler material with some really stupid things: anything with the Helmacrons, the Atlantis human mutants, the one where a cow and an ant get the morphing power. Finding that author statement is what inspired me to go look the books up and reread them. It makes me think a lot about what effect 9/11 and Afghanistan/Iraq would have had on the books. The series ended in mid-2001. My personal low spot for stupid stuff was the book with a starfish on the cover, where Rachel regenerates two bodies with different personalities, ditzy and aggro. My  moment was the book with a polar bear (I think?) where they go to the arctic and spend a night in subzero temperatures, nearly dying of hypothermia every two hours before regenerating a fresh morph to reset.
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May 1, 2020 17:32
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Avalerion posted:Stuff like this makes it show it's age, googling suggests word processors are basically electronic typewriters. Would these have been common back then or is this showing Rachel is from an upscale household? The latter, I think. Rachel's mom is a lawyer and her dad is the kind of absent businessman who tries to make up for it with presents. At the time this was written I think it still would be unsurprising for a family not to have a personal computer in the home. Jake's family has one, as does Marco's dad. But I don't think it's ever mentioned in Cassie's or Tobias's home lives, what little we see of them.
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May 2, 2020 08:37
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Tobias posted:One afternoon, I was riding the thermals, the upswelling hot air. I rode them way up into the sky. The bottoms of low clouds, heavy with moisture, scudded just a few feet above me.
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May 5, 2020 03:10
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The books were coming out right as I was getting old enough to have my own card and visit the library by myself. I was the first person to check out the first book narrated by Axmili and I had a long internal debate about whether it was okay to detach the perforated bookmark since it wasn't my copy.
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May 6, 2020 20:22
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QuickbreathFinisher posted:Did you do it That's between me and God. I did it
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May 6, 2020 21:48
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I think the one I gained the most appreciation for after rereading as an adult was Rachel. Reading the series as a preteen boy I didn't really identify with or care about her "let's go shopping!" characterization. But she is the most committed to the cause and the one who seems to "get it" right away.
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May 9, 2020 18:49
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The little aside about "we have to fly apart from each other because bird-watchers would think it weird to see so many species together" is repeated in each book and gets kind of old, but there is a nice payoff in the final act of the series when they are able to identify morphed Controllers by their unnatural flocking behavior.
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May 9, 2020 23:37
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biracial bear for uncut posted:So what book does Rachel die in? I just read a book where They let the Yeerks capture Tobias to intentionally take a shot from their Anti-Morphing Ray, because if he's in hawk morph and takes the hit it'll "prove" their machine doesn't work, and I could've sworn she was going to die in that one. It's the second-to-last book, isn't it?
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May 12, 2020 17:40
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Epicurius posted:i think it's kind of interesting that Tobias is willing to sympathize with the Hork-Bajir, but isn't even interested in why the Taxxons do what they do. I really liked the glimpse of the Taxxons that we saw in The Andalite Chronicles. Shame they didn't get their own book.
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May 12, 2020 23:49
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Avalerion posted:Makes me wonder how the yeerks even did their stuff before they got the Hork-Bajir and Taxxons. None of this tech seems the right size for small slugs. On their home planet the Yeerks infested a pre-spaceflight species called Geds which were like clumsy amphibious monkeys. An Andalite named Seerow took pity on the slugs and gave them the technology to get offworld, which did not work out great for everyone else. The Andalite version of the Prime Directive is named after him. Geds are still in use as Controllers but any upwardly mobile Yeerk is eager to leave them behind for bigger and better hosts. That's all backstory, nothing that spoils the ongoing plot except that the revelation is a point of drama somewhere in the next several books.
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May 13, 2020 07:17
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An injured body loses its damage on morphing. In one book later in the series they survive a grim night in the Arctic by remorphing every two hours to reset the effects of hypothermia. In a less specific spoiler, there's a book where someone gets amnesia and voluntarily avoids using their battle morph because they're not sure if it will remain injured. I think this was something they deliberately demonstrated early on in the books while they were establishing the rules about morphing. I remember when this came out in the 90s DNA and genetic engineering were hot topics: Dolly the Sheep was just cloned, GATTACA was just released, etc. So these books really tapped into the "you are your genes, not your body" sentiment. That being said there are some handwaves which is only appropriate since this is not hard sci fi. The most obvious one is that you can morph with clothes. But on top of that, morphing remembers your hair length and style which isn't something stored in your DNA. (I also think I remember a scene with Cassie growing out her hair when morphing back to her body, just because she can.) In (I think?) another dozen books or so they tackle the question of "what happens to your extra mass when you morph something small" and I guarantee it's not what you expect.
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May 14, 2020 15:57
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Petition to change the thread title to match the cover of the current book.
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May 15, 2020 03:26
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May 16, 2020 00:00
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CidGregor posted:Should I know who that person is? Katherine Applegate's husband and co-creator.
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May 16, 2020 01:07
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Comrade Blyatlov posted:It's not really touched on now, but I think it's made clear later that if the Yeerks go loud, tipping their hand about what they're trying to do, the Andalites bring their whole fleet. The Andalites are also fighting the war on other fronts, including a very juicy target at Leera. So their resources are stretched and they can't commit when they aren't sure of an immediate threat. But mostly I just think they're super arrogant and bad at assessing Yeerk capabilities. edited for spoiler wizzardstaff fucked around with this message at 15:54 on May 17, 2020 |
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May 17, 2020 15:02
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I came across this in a "doesn't this make you feel old" compilation album:
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May 18, 2020 04:48
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OctaviusBeaver posted:Did they even consider what would happen if they got sucked up the tube and had nowhere to go after that? It's totally realistic for 13 year olds but it's still funny how they only plan for the best case scenario instead of the most likely one. I hope they get better later on. Getting more proficient at fighting their way out counts as better, right?
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May 27, 2020 23:25
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Avalerion posted:Really, what they should have been doing is begin picking off known controllers. Go tiger next time Tom and his buddies have one of those beach parties, jump mr and mrs Chapman on their way to work etc. I think they've discussed this plan already so it's not really a spoiler to talk about their reasons for not doing it: 1) They value the lives of the human hosts, who are essentially hostages. Jake doesn't want to kill his brother Tom but he also doesn't want to kill a random stranger who happens to have a Yeerk in his head. Unless that stranger is a Hork-Bajir or Taxxon. 2) If they managed to just take out the slug inside a Controller and spare the host, then the aliens will want to re-acquire their asset with a new Yeerk. The teens can't provide witness protection. 3) If they decide to save people in a public way that prevents the Yeerks from silently taking them back, then they switch from a cold war to a hot one which they are not prepared to fight. So they're stuck with sabotage and nonlethal interference. It would really help if they could recruit some experienced strategists or freedom fighters who could help them execute a guerrilla war. But they're in suburban California and don't know any insurgents, and on top of that they have no idea who to trust. Their best hope lies in teaming up with a stranded Andalite teen, a traitorous human edgelord, and a group of disabled kids who get used as pawns. And also an underground civilization of pacifist robot dogs.
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May 28, 2020 16:57
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On the subject of the value of Hork-Bajir life versus human, Andalite, etc:
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May 28, 2020 17:15
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I was pretty sure that they were under explicit instructions from Elfangor to lay low and sabotage Yeerk operations until the Andalite cavalry (haha) could arrive. But I just went back and checked page 1 of the thread and it’s the opposite—he tells them to warn as many people as they can. But as people have said...who can they trust? It’s a very teenager situation to have your body changing in unexpected ways and not knowing who to go to for guidance.
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May 31, 2020 07:03
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https://twitter.com/ernestwilkins/status/1269497692809572352
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Jun 7, 2020 19:06
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They frame the concerns about morphing people or intelligent animals as if it's enslaving them like a Yeerk does, but that doesn't seem accurate. It's more like the ethics of identity theft. Which makes me think of what sort of identity a dolphin has, and whether a human could even understand it well enough to steal it. Or if that matters.
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Jun 8, 2020 01:51
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I didn't mean for the takeaway from my post to be "it doesn't matter and it's a waste of time for them to think about it".
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Jun 8, 2020 02:40
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Funny, given that it's Cassie who morphs a skunk so that she can impersonate the dead mother of some orphaned kits.
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Jun 8, 2020 04:48
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Fuschia tude posted:On an unrelated note, I'm surprised how obvious the Cassie/Jake thing was from the start, because if I noticed it at the time I was reading these I don't remember it at all. I didn't finish the series, but I did read dozens of these things. It's not even subtle or subtext; it's outright text, from book one. I guess I was just oblivious. I feel like a mixed race couple was kind of edging on still a bit controversial, even in the 90s. Especially for a children's book. Am I wrong about that? It's funny what we completely overlook. I somehow missed all the body horror when I read this series as a kid. I just thought it was neat that they were transforming into animals, I didn't think there was supposed to be anything gross about it. There was one scene (I think it's in the next book?) where they morph ants and get into a fight with another colony and it's pretty disturbing, but that stood out to me as an outlier. Nope, on reread it's all body horror all the time right from the start. On a different topic but kind of the same theme of how kids engage with these books, at what point do you think that someone is too old for them? Obviously they're targeted at younger kids, and we're all getting a nostalgic kick out of reading them right now as adults and marveling at themes which are so mature for younger audiences, but there's a self-conscious period in the middle when someone gets too cool to read/watch stuff aimed at preteens. This is on my mind because I have a 13 year old relative who I've been sending SFF books to for a while, and I've been trying to give him thoughtful stuff. He also just came out as trans, which isn't something I can personally relate to but seems to have been big in other posters' relationship with this series. But he's the kind of precocious reader who might be turned off by "kid stuff" so I don't want to blow my cool uncle cred.
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Jun 8, 2020 17:12
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If the animals didn’t have to be alive then Cassie’s mom would work at a natural history museum and Tobias would be permanently trapped as a pterodactyl.
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Jun 9, 2020 05:54
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Gnoman posted:Dolphins and whales as super-intelligent creatures was pretty common in 90s media, from what I remember. Hey, remember SeaQuest? I actually liked the other underwater one that everyone's dancing around. It was the right shade of WTF.
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Jun 12, 2020 03:33
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Avalerion posted:They should have gotten themselves whale morphs while they had the chance. Would have made this next trip much easier. My biggest frustration with these kids is that they are not constantly experimenting with new animals. Seems like every week there's a new mission and they're all, "oh no, we don't have any good morphs prepared, let's do our best with whatever Cassie's got in her barn and don't take time to practice!" They should be constantly hanging out at the zoo, acquiring new forms and doubling up on useful morphs for god's sake. Forget math class. This is your homework now. You are an Animorph and you will FIND some ANIMALS to MORPH.
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Jun 13, 2020 07:50
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It's a little hyperbolic, I admit. No one actually wants to read Animorphs: The Isekai where the characters just minmax their way through the resistance. It always just stood out to me is all.
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Jun 13, 2020 14:55
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Epicurius posted:Is that the Chee invention? I think they're referring to the one Visser Three uses when he's pretending to be Tobias's relative. I remember it being small enough to use in a hotel bathroom.
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Jun 15, 2020 04:16
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Fuschia tude posted:I wish people would at least mention what books they're referencing in their spoiler tags (outside the hag) so I would know if I would know whether I can safely check them Sorry  First spoilered post is very minor and comes to light probably in the next couple books I think, the next three spoilers are for events much later in the series and are in increasing level of specificity, from nine-gear crow's general "a thing happens" to my "here's a very explicit plot development including the twist".
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Jun 15, 2020 06:37
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I don't think it's ever addressed in the fiction exactly how they are narrating the books and to whom, but the whole conceit is that they are telling their story so that you, the reader who just picked the book up at your Scholastic book fair, know what's going on.
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Jun 16, 2020 21:18
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Yeah, I don't see how this could be anything other than an introduction to the premise with a big TO BE CONTINUED to maybe tease a franchise. Maybe they get as far as introducing Ax to the team before a big climax, but no way they're fitting the entire series in 120 minutes. This really should be animated instead of live-action though.
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Jun 18, 2020 18:28
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Visser Three definitely seems like the kind of guy to go big game hunting and claim a morph as a trophy.
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Jun 23, 2020 16:45
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It really changes the context for why the reader hates and fears him.
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Jun 24, 2020 01:42
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I think release order is the correct way to read, since even the prequels are framed in the context of whatever's going on around them in the main timeline. But what about the Alternamorphs CYOA book???
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Jun 28, 2020 16:29
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Counterpoint: in Alternamorphs, Jake can address me directly and tell me how cool my skateboard tricks are. I didn't realize there was more than one.
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Jun 28, 2020 16:48
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Ytlaya posted:This segment is pretty much the only specific thing I remember from reading this as a kid. Same, this segment (and the severed ant head specifically) is the strongest memory of the books that I have from childhood. Also the climax from the next book when the Yeerk in Jake's brain is starving to death. Some real grim stuff. e: ^^^ that's also the premise of Harry Turtledove's alternate history series where aliens invade during WWII, but they were expecting much less resistance because their society advances moves extremely slowly and their last intel from Earth was centuries out of date. wizzardstaff fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Jul 6, 2020 |
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Jul 6, 2020 01:31
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quote:<You have an amazing variety of animals on your planet,> Ax said. <Some day, when the Yeerks are defeated, Andalites will come here simply to try out the many animal forms. It would be like a vacation.> quote:Visser Three seemed to be enjoying his big moment. <What a colorful assortment of morphs,> he said. <Earth has such wonderful animals, don't you agree? When we have enslaved the humans and made this planet over in our image, we will have to be sure and keep some of these forms alive. It would be entertaining to try some of these morphs myself.> Really appreciating the parallel between the Andalite and Yeerk perspectives here. One wants to subjugate the planet and one wants to preserve it, but both are coming at it as outsider tourists. Neither Andalites nor Yeerks are interested in Earth for humanity's sake.
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Jul 10, 2020 07:37
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