Animorphs - The Entire Series

I sort of started listening to an Animorphs rewatch podcast (my podcast listening has gone way down in corona lockdown) that was doing this and even by the time I'd stopped listening it was a lot. Southern California must be full of amputees by the end of this series. Imagine the annual protests outside the Andalite consulate every year

Ax having time for a smug comeback made me smile.

Also, even if the Yeerks have complete disregard for humans you would think that they still wouldn't want to just leave skeletons all over the place. It's just untidy.

Well they're invertebrates, so perhaps they have no instinctive reaction to skellies? On par with fallen leaves maybe

yay i've caught up to the part where aximili appears, he was like my edward cullen
wow, i spent a lot of time thinking over dark implications of these books, but infestation-as-eugenics never occurred to me

this thread is actually really inspiring. there's so much in these books that was valuable for kids to learn, and imo now would be a good time for those themes to appear in children's literature again. they're not too dark. thinking back to when i was a kid, this was just about the only series that actually rang true, both in the way characters behaved and in the general level of carnage

honestly, i get kind of annoyed at the "can you believe this is a kids' book? all this dark stuff in a kids' book? for kids????" stuff. modern children's literature isn't dark enough. the theory that everything has to be simple and bloodless and fun and candy-coloured has nothing to do with what children can handle. it's a very new development, it was made up by marketers, and it has everything to do with selling books - not to kids, because kids have no money, but to their parents. most adults don't remember what it's like to be younger, so they believe what publishers tell them about children's cognition, and it suits publishers to tell them that what kids want is sanitised simplistic entertainment that contains no difficult themes or disturbing material. because difficult themes and disturbing material is what leads to moral panic and legal trouble, and modern publishers would rather not take that risk.

literature has always had a major role to play in teaching kids about the world. nowadays that education has huge chunks missing out of it, and corporates are invested in telling parents that kids don't need to learn about that stuff and are better off not knowing it - but that's not necessarily true.

There is a whole tangent to go off on here about the existence of "YA" as a genre, which was invented by the publishing industry in the 2000s. I'm always really grateful that I grew up reading books from a public library and a public school library, where I would just pluck fantasy and sci-fi shit off the shelves and didn't care if it was "contemporary" or "Australian" or whatever else the publishing-educational complex was trying to encourage us to read at the time (I did have one English primary school teacher who'd been poisoned by his country and took me to task for not reading "the classics" when checking out library books, as though a 10-year-old kid in Perth is going to be able to parse Dickens.) It's not that those libraries didn't make an effort to stock contemporary kids' literature - I'm glad they did, otherwise I never would have read quite a few good 21st century series - but that if I'd been from a wealthier family and was only reading what bookstores had available in their constantly updated kids' fiction section, I think I would have been the poorer for it.

edit - and come to think of it there's probably a lot of work that goes into that at a library. There was probably someone in the '80s who was saying, "all right, chuck this stuff out, but let's hang on to the John Wyndham and John Christopher even though it's been here since the '60s." Either that or they just went by the most recent check out date, in which I guess there's an organic preservation mechanism created by readers browsing through the shelves and checking books out on their merits. Or at least the merits of their blurbs and covers.

The whole concept reminds me of the Series of Unfortunate Events making fun of the fictional The Littlest Elf series for being, well, candy-colored, bloodness, and sacharrine. I think there's a place for 'soft' literature for kids, just like adults can read just fluff when they want to, but the mistake is assuming that's all kids want or can handle. A lot of my favorite stuff I remember from childhood got dark. Animorphs, of course, and then Coraline is really good horror, and the Gregor the Overlander books got really dark. There's plenty of people writing age-appropriate dark and complicated stuff for children, and it's great. Even in cartoons these days, that's a trend. Steven Universe is soft and optimistic, but is also about psychological damage, abuse, and people you look up to and love being flawed. She-ra and the Princesses of Power is a war story about abuse. Gravity Falls touches on broken relationships, trusting the wrong people, and co-dependence, and is also just a really good weird mystery series on its own.

I'm so stoked for this thread. The biggest standout memories I have of these books were the lobsters and Visser 3 describing eating Tobias with bbq sauce

It bothers me my first reaction was to consider the question so I knew whose side to take in your story (bad news there)

The Stranger-Chapter 15


Oh, this is going to work.


Hmm, It actually worked.


Well, that's....certainly not what you'd expect.

The Stranger-Chapter 16


That's cold. That's just really cold. I just just assume how horrible that line would have been if I read it as a kid.


That's Visser-Three for you. No, but really, this is interesting. This is pretty much a can't lose situation for them, so long as Visser Three is worried about screwing up the timeline. This is why I personally find time travel stories potentially interesting. For Rachel, especially, this is sort of a way to force the issue. The whole thing had been...I don't want to say not personal, because it had been personal, but more abstract, in both her dad's and the Elimist's questions? She was faced with the very concrete idea of being with her dad/keeping her family close to her, on the one hand, and on the other, the fate of humanity being conquered by the Yeerks. But now she's seeing the real effect of that, and she's seeing the Rachel-Controller. That aort of drives the stakes home in a way it didn't before.

"People believe what they see." Still as true as last book. Quick thinking from Tobias to intuit that if an Andalite was on Yeerk-controlled Earth, the Controllers would assume "the Visser" and not "a free Andalite," and good acting from Ax to add just enough bite and swagger to sell it.


As someone who read it as a kid: that line fucked me up. The thought of being forced to eat your friend by the thing controlling your body, aware with all your senses but unable to do anything about it... that was multiple nightmares' worth of fucked up.


Yeah, I think this is one of the best individual chapters of the series so far; there's a lot of potential packed into it. Is Rachel-Controller stopping Rachel from falling out of genuine kind instinct somehow, or out of fear that Rachel's going to crack her head on a rock, die, and ruin the timeline, or just because it's time travel and she knew Rachel was going to fall because Rachel fell when she was her? Who was the sixth human the Yeerks were expecting? Now that Rachel is completely unrestrained, will she kill her future self in the name of "freedom or death?" And (minor spoilers for the rest of the book) is the whole point of them not being the Animorphs that the future-Yeerks expected the Ellimist trying to show them that the future isn't set in stone without actually telling them?

I started Animorphs when it was like 15 books in so the threat never landed for me. They had a lot more books to get through so the edginess just washed off me.

"Y-y-yeah you totally ate your boyfriend in another life you'll never experience!!" Source: dude trust me. Thanks Visser Three

Look, if you can't trust Visser Three, who can you trust? Really?

Him throwing his Rachel under the bus is such a dick move

I love you Visser Three never change please

I remembered future-Animorph controllers but boy I didn't remember how hardcore the actual Animorphs got in response to it. This is great.

I don't remember the events of this book at all, except for the existence of the Ellimist obviously, and Rachel going into battle-fog for the first time. Now that we're out of the first cycle, it's interesting that these books don't stand out quite as much as the very first ones did to me, even though apparently the ghostwriting didn't start for a couple dozen books more; obviously I remembered Jake's infestation, but none of the other details of the last book. I think the only other one I really remember clearly was a later Jake book, notable for also featuring a time-travel plot, only there the resolution felt somehow even more deus-ex-machina than the Ellimist popping in to save the day. So I can read these later books with basically fresh eyes at this point.

Yea I kind of feel this is starting to get way too convoluted. Just dropping time travel into a fairly simple story like this will create issues I'm sure.

The massive Yeerk Pool is a neat touch since when the series reaches the final arc that's exactly what they start doing to the ruins of the city.

Also this future (if you can say it ever existed what with Ellimist weirdness) is clearly one where Ax died on impact and they teamed up with David who immediately got them all captured because he's a fucking idiot asshole

The Stranger-Chapter 17


Didn't somebody in this thread suggest that, actually?


You have any clue what the Elimist actually wants?

The Stranger-Chapter 18


Whether you figured it out or not after reading the last chapter, Rachel just did.


Grumpy woken up Tobias is the best.


She knows where it is. Do you? <points at the computer screen>

nope, not a clue. this is why you don't even interact with high-level wizards if you can help it, they're so hopped up on magic that you can't even tell what the hell angle they're playing. did elminster just get exactly what he wanted? who knows

This surprised me as a kid, and I'm pretty sure it holds up as a genuinely clever reveal now.

It's an earned reveal. The pieces are all there.

it was in Visser Three's pocket the whole time

Spoilers all I love the idea none of anything in the series really even fucking mattered to them, it was all about maneuvering Cassie into position to get a free hand where he actually needed it across the galaxy

If I'm remembering when I read this as a child correctly... at the time I figured out the Ellimist has a scheme going the moment he refused their 'yes'. But I didn't figure out the Kaldrona part until after Rachel spelled it out. I tended to skim scenery details as a kid.

I'm not sure what in particular you're talking about here, but I think the outcome of the war did matter an awful lot to the Ellimist.

Well, his whole game with Crayak is making a series of deals with him that have long-reaching unforeseen consequences with the goal of screwing him over by getting him to overlook seemingly minor things that then swing back around and bite him in the ass. Like trading the survival of an entire planet on the other side of the galaxy for allowing Cassie to be in that construction site on the night Elfangor crashed to Earth. Crayak's busy laughing his ass off while Tau Epsilon IV gets digested alive by the black goo and suddenly--oh shit, Earth beats the Yeerks because Cassie is a fixed point in space-time.

Or something.

Megamorphs #4. Cassie's left-field cosmic significance undoes Crayak's overt move, but as the Ellimist played within the rules Crayak was bound to allow him a free hand in some conflict somewhere else. The outcome of the war mattered an awful lot to the Ellimist because he started out as the kind of Animal Crossing player who feels legitimately bummed when his best animal friends are feuding but it's perfectly petit-Lovecraft to have the overt significance of this entire series only strategically matter in that one moment.

I think it's more of a wheels within wheels sort of thing for him. In Megamorphs 4, we find out that the Ellimist manipulated events so that Cassie would be part of the Animorphs so as to make the deal with Crayak to gain the advantage without a loss, but he didn't manipulate the entire war for that purpose. He takes an active role in this war itself, from his actions in this book, to his actions in the Andalite Chronicles, to saving the Iskoort (and possibly being involved in creating the Iskoort) so that if the Yeerks run into them, they'll learn there's an alternative way for them to live than parasitism. I think it's just that the Ellimist is clever, and very good at games, so he manipulates events so he can accomplish multiple goals at the same time.

The Ellimist is extraordinarily good at LOSING games. He might not win at the stated objective, but that's usually because he has plans of his own in motion.

I'd say the howlers is a much bigger win for the ellimist

How would the Animorphs even be a threat if they didn't have Cassie, and by extension her almost unlimited access to an entire zoo, plus whatever North American Animal Ex Machina was needed by the ghostwriters that month? I guess I just don't remember Megamorphs #4 because I have no recollection what all of this Cassie being a plant from the jump stuff is about.

So far, I feel like if anything, thus far, book 6 revealed that Jake is the weak link of the team. Tobias helps the team plan a brutal and flawless series of traps for Temrash, completely without Jake's dithering "leadership." This is in book 6 so as far as I can tell, has nothing to do with the Ellimist stuff, more of just a logistical "why is this guy the leader" question. His knowledge coupled with the supposedly elite Yeerk piloting him were unable to even think of a plan of escape involving the eight or so diverse morphs he has...

Also, for added confusion sake, and since he's already gone ahead and acquired them, shouldn't they all acquire Ax just so they can feign an Andalite morph in times of dire emergency? Who cares if they're all the same teen centaur, better to condescendingly explain to visser three the totally new "Retratnil technique," which lets Andalites shift between morphs without returning to the original body, () you probably haven't heard of it, Alloran, you've been away from your homeland for so long; than to totally blow your cover the first time you run up on a time limit... Also they seem like legitimately strong battle morphs on their own.

Do we know if Ax acquired anything before the shark when he was in the ship? Like any Andalite homeworld shit.

Jake is the one who keeps the group together - it's not that he's the perfect leader, but he's the only one the others are all willing to listen to. If Jake is gone, Marco, Rachel, and Cassie are too fundamentally different in ideals and personality to stick together.

As far as Ax's Andalite homeworld morphs go, he probably does, but he never uses any.

Remember that the Andalites are noted as not using morphing for battle capabilities, they seem perfectly happy with the tail blades in their existing bodies and energy weapons. They regard morphing as a tool for spying and sabotage, not combat. Visser Three and the Animorphs use it for combat for different reasons of their own.

because humans are bad at fighting, and Visser Three just enjoys turning into a giant kaiju.

For those of us who haven't looked at the series in a while, remind us of what the deal with this is? I don't remember any specific Ellimist/Cassie connection

bunzuh

Spoilers for the whole series.

The Ellimist's manipulations before the series started were to make sure the team had four specific people. Ax is there because he's Elfangor's brother, Tobias because he's Elfangor's son, Marco because he's Visser One's (host's) son. Meanwhile, Cassie is there because she's a weird anomaly that interferes with people's ability to change the timeline around her.

Like I said, it's one of the most vivid things that stuck with me. "He was tough and stringy" my whole life over and over.

Prophecy shit and chosen ones is always dumb

No lie, as much as I loved these books when I was a kid and read the ones I had obsessively, it's wild what has stuck in my memory and what hasn't.. For example, I remember the Elimist showing up in this book, but none of the major plot beats in the aftermath, while at the same time, lines like this:


....will bubble up through my lizard brain literally at least once a month.