thejakeformerlyknownasprince - Tumblr blog

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Animorphs really has a way to turn every scifi trope on its head. "Why do alien invasions always start in America?" Actually the body snatchers first landed in a Middle Eastern farming community where they kidnapped the first guy they saw, read his mind, and concluded that, since he was terrified of the US soldiers who had brutally destroyed everything he knew and loved, the US would be the ideal place to center their invasion. This is revealed in the spin-off "Visser" which is an excellent stand-alone book that can be read without any prior knowledge of Animorphs. And you can read it for free and with the author's blessing right here:

https://files.animorphsfanforum.com/ebooks/pdf/Visser.pdf

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Would you be willing to justify all those? I think I can see your point about some, but don't know for sure.

In what books would you say the status quo changes?

I'd say the single biggest one is #45. That's the first time we see an Animorph deliberately reveal their identity to a civilian, and the first time we see a semi-permanent shift in one Animorph's living situation. Marco becomes a full-time fugitive with Tobias and Ax. Visser One dies, and Visser Three gets promoted.

That said, every book from #45 - #54 shifts the status quo a little bit more. #46 is the first time we see yeerks directly try to wage war against human forces, and the first time the Animorphs mass-recruit civilians. #47 is the first (and kind of only) pitched open battle between Empire and Resistance. #48 has more going on in the background, but Ax mentions that the yeerks have become an open secret in huge swathes of the internet and are being discussed as a plausible rumor on radio/TV. #49 is when the Animorphs reveal their identities to their families, and all become full-time fugitives. #50 is when the team expands to include Auximorphs, and controllers get the ability to morph. #51 is the first time the Animorphs ally with human authorities, and announce their identities on TV. #52 is the first direct all-out attack on the Yeerk Pool. #53 is when Jake first uses a plan to not just delay the yeerks but defeat them, and #54 is all about the consequences of that plan.

Compared to the earlier slow creep of the yeerks' progress, and the kids' efforts to hamper it, those last 9 books are blindingly fast. But #45 is really what gets the ball rolling. The references to endgame start immediately after that book, and as a direct result of its events.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

In what books would you say the status quo changes?

I'd say the single biggest one is #45. That's the first time we see an Animorph deliberately reveal their identity to a civilian, and the first time we see a semi-permanent shift in one Animorph's living situation. Marco becomes a full-time fugitive with Tobias and Ax. Visser One dies, and Visser Three gets promoted.

That said, every book from #45 - #54 shifts the status quo a little bit more. #46 is the first time we see yeerks directly try to wage war against human forces, and the first time the Animorphs mass-recruit civilians. #47 is the first (and kind of only) pitched open battle between Empire and Resistance. #48 has more going on in the background, but Ax mentions that the yeerks have become an open secret in huge swathes of the internet and are being discussed as a plausible rumor on radio/TV. #49 is when the Animorphs reveal their identities to their families, and all become full-time fugitives. #50 is when the team expands to include Auximorphs, and controllers get the ability to morph. #51 is the first time the Animorphs ally with human authorities, and announce their identities on TV. #52 is the first direct all-out attack on the Yeerk Pool. #53 is when Jake first uses a plan to not just delay the yeerks but defeat them, and #54 is all about the consequences of that plan.

Compared to the earlier slow creep of the yeerks' progress, and the kids' efforts to hamper it, those last 9 books are blindingly fast. But #45 is really what gets the ball rolling. The references to endgame start immediately after that book, and as a direct result of its events.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

It's true and you should say it

I do love the little morphing outfits. We can have teens commit war crimes but God forbid they're naked after their magical girl transformation sequence

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Some andalite/general alien sketches!

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

LION VS TIGER FIGHT TO THE DEATH WHOS WINNING!!!!!

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Apparently Scholastic is selling reprints of Animorphs books 1-6 with their original covers! https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-ecommerce/books/animorphs-retro-tin-set-9781338678833.html

Unfortunately, it's only available in the US.

Excellent news! Hopefully we see these spread to other countries, and maybe even get reprints of the whole series. Link is here as well. Everyone who has ever downloaded the series for free, please consider buying just one book to show Scholastic that the interest is still out there.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

"Maybe we’ll lose, maybe we’ll win. But if we win and someday it’s all over, you’d better hope there are still plenty of Cassies in the world. You’d better hope that not everyone has decided it’s okay to do whatever it takes to win."

some Cassie/Jake I've drawn over the years 💙💚

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Another funny scene from Animorphs 24: The Suspicion! 😂

When Cassie's dad meets Ax for the first time! (but Cassie was just miniaturized! 😟) Ax's response makes so much sense, I can't even fault him, haha. 😅

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Not really a question, because any answer would be the most personal things possible. I'll phrase it as saying that I am extremely impressed with your insight and empathy. I'm reading Eleutherophobia right now, and some things are just brilliant, and frankly not things most people would think of. If you have experienced similar trauma, then I'm impressed with your ability to put it into words. If not, then I'm double impressed with your ability empathize and work through its effects. Just marvelously brilliant, either way. Thank you for the catharsis.

Thank you so much. Much of Eleutherophobia is writing outside my own experience, so it means a lot to know that I'm getting some things right.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

whoa. whjos this

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Made this for my sci-fi class,

(The teacher is also a fan of animorphs so I couldn't not)

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

So there's this fallacy that's super-easy to fall into, of assuming that the end result of an ability existing means that there must have been evolutionary pressures for that specific ability in the past. Like, assuming that our five-fingered hands being perfect for typing on keyboards means that there must have been evolutionary pressure for keyboard-typing among our ancestors.

Maybe yeerks have the ability to talk to each other mind-to-mind because they're a social species, and then they discovered that that talking-through-fluids ability gives them the ability to override brains that exist in fluid. Maybe yeerks and gedds evolved simultaneously, but then split off from each other and left yeerks with most of the mental abilities while gedds kept most of the physical ones. Those are possibilities, given the end result.

I would say, your response to an ask saying Seerow "taught the Yeerks Andalite Imperialism" feels a BIT like putting too much blame on Seerow. From what we know, all he gave the Yeerks was the tech to go to other plants. Them deciding to conquer other species never seemed like something they got from him....though, now I DO wonder what got the Yeerks on their path to conquest? Like, I feel like there's a legit interesting story about how they went from Simply being able to go to other planets to mind controlling other races. Especially since they may not have even known they COULD brainwash other races. After all, the Geds were a species they had a symbiotic relationship with. How in the world did they figure out they could control other species too?

There was an excellent fic (which I must find but can't remember the title or author) that speculated that the yeerks were originally scavengers, until a living gedd fell into a pond and a yeerk discovered the ability to crawl into its ear and control it. From then on yeerks would sometimes ride around in gedds for a few hours or days at at time, then exit back to their pools when they got hungry, but there was no philosophy behind it. Their rationalization for this was as nonexistent as the tapeworm's rationalization for starving a human. It just happened on occasion, mostly by luck.

However, (as Aftran points out) humans went from hunters to factory-farmers, and invented elaborate justifications for that decision. And yeerks at some point went from using gedds as an occasional opportunity to hunt or joy-ride, to having a whole culture built around enslaving other species. My argument is that Seerow may have played a role in building that justification, however accidentally.

Sort of like how it'd be both false and racist to say that Europe taught Japan imperialism, but it is true (and part of the historical record) that Japan moved to conquer Korea and China because its government deduced that imperialism was the way to compete in this new global world. Japan's imperialism wouldn't exist without England's, even though neither country invented the idea of invading other countries to kill the locals and steal their resources. Yeerks' imperialism wouldn't exist without andalites', even though no one told yeerks to enslave their hosts.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

What animorphs fics would you recommend by yourself or others, for people who haven't read any of them yet?

Anything by Poetry/@featherquillpen! I've read a bunch of their crossovers and enjoyed every one. They're masterful at capturing the goofy-yet-horrifying tone of Animorphs, and with unexpected crossovers. Though I haven't gotten around to reading Daemorphing, I've head good things and can recommend by proxy. That's my single biggest author rec. Fic recs:

Elfangor's Folly by Kim Hoppy is an excellent longfic series retelling. The premise is exactly what the name suggests — Elfangor survives the first book and stays on Earth. My favorite part of this one is the author's ability to capture the subtly-unreliable narration of Animorphs with Elfangor's voice.

Take Me Out by neinlives is a delightful piece about the Animorphs grown up and going to college, half crack half sweetness.

The Wheel by L. Emmist is the reason my date once asked me "Why do you have a picture of a yeerk in a condom on your window?" and that's all you need to know about it.

Animorphs: Facebook News Feed Edition by Ember Nickel is exactly what the title suggests; never have I laughed so hard about Tom's death.

Speaking of which, The Tocsin by tptigger is a brilliant speculative story about Tom becoming reluctant host to a member of the Yeerk Peace Movement, and thus an even more reluctant Auxiliary Animorph.

I know I'm forgetting a bunch — I'm terrible at remembering to bookmark — so other people please weigh in with recs!

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Real talk: should I factor in the fact that (I know) the Animorphs win the war in the end, thereby freeing all the controllers? Cause like, a scenario where he's a controller for <2 years and then gets to go home to his family would suck, but at least it's not permanent. But I only know that because I've read the books, where the Animorphs obviously haven't, so.

(i'm not factoring book 48 into this but you can if you want)

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Wow so apparently marine biologists are all unanimously hating dolphins for no reason other than “they’re intelligent enough to know that some of their behaviours are evil.”

Um.

No.

We have no idea how dolphins perceive the world. But we’re pretty sure they have no understanding of human created ethics and morals.

It seems like there’s a trend to hate dolphins - particularly bottlenose dolphins - and it’s so stupid and unfounded.

Also forced copulation, infanticide, killing other species for reasons other than predation… that’s not unique to dolphins.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

It's an interesting idea. That plot is one of the most disturbing and memorable in Animorphs. I'd worry it'd turn out like Season 6 of Buffy, where all the characters are behaving so badly that the audience starts to hate the whole cast, but it has tons of potential.

Ok love your thoughts on Animorphs tv series pacing. Hear me out: episode 1? Starts with *David’s* POV finding the cube, being attacked by Visser three and “rescued” by the animorphs, and given morphing power. Episode 2 starts with book 1 and progresses normally through the series from there

I think like “Machete order”, this really reframes the slow escalation of paranoia, and in episode one when these strangers show up and are like “Yes david you have to abandon your parents, they can’t be saved” you’re like “fuck these guys”

But by episode [redacted] of meeting david in animorphs pov, youre like “DAVID YOU MORON THEYRE LOST TO US GET IN THE FUCKING CAR”

And Jake goes from episode one “David, face reality, shit’s bad and your parents are a loss” to episode two Jake “of course i can save Tom”.

I love this, because it's a great way to throw the viewers right into the story. In the original series, it was necessary to give us some kind of origin for the Animorphs — it's a superhero story convention, it's important in a kids' series, it gives out exposition nice and slow, and it sets the tone of the books. However, there are a lot of things like "touching this box lets you turn into animals" and "the enemy are sea slugs who live in brains and eat in a cavern under the school" that you can simply show on TV without having to tell anyone. Concepts like "andalite navy" and "kandrona" can be conveyed with a few shots, so there's no need to have a scene where Elfangor explains them to Jake or brain-dumps them to Tobias.

This adaptation would probably lean more toward YA than middle grade, because it'd require trapping and/or killing the focal character, but I think YA would make sense for an Animorphs adaptation. YA series are more able to depict violence and body horror than children's shows, and Animorphs isn't Animorphs without realistic violence and body horror. There's also a lot of potential for making the conflict between David and Jake even more complex than it is in canon, if we don't see why Jake is the leader, only a bunch of his close friends insisting that it's for the best.