#Thayle rants about animorphs while sick what else is new 🙄

[thaylepo]

They do have it after book 20 tho. It's never said whether they try it, but it IS said, explicitly, box or not, that there's no way to reverse nothlitization. Elfangor knows this. Arbron knows this, and has them leave him behind on the taxxon world because of it. Elfangor tells the kids right off, don't do it, there's no going back if you get stuck. They hope anyway, in absence of any other information, that the Andalites can help Tobias. Ax confirms they cannot. At the time of the events of Animorphs, there is no known way to reverse a nothlit. They don't need to attempt using the box in-text in the books, just like Ax and Tobias never have their conversation about Elfangor being Tobias' father in-text. We're told that they did. We're told there's no cure for being trapped in morph. It's shown the box will not even give Tobias the morphing ability back, by the fact that it takes a literal interference from god to do so. If it were as simple as giving them the box back, the Ellimist would not have needed to do so directly. We know the box survived and was in the construction site all along. The series has plot holes, yes, but this is not one of them. The box will not work on a nothlit, just as acquiring someone in morph doesn't work. Deviations to some of anthe rules only happen in ghost written books, but even then, it's a confirmed status quo that nothlit = permanent. No cure.

If a cure is found in-universe by 2022, that's a different story. But it's made explicitly clear in canon that the Andalites do not, and never did, have any way to fix being trapped in morph during the series. It's a core tenet of the books.

Writing otherwise isn't bad or wrong!!! Veriation and different takes literally make fandom what it is!! It's just not canon, that's all. The difference is just is/is not. No weight of judgement either way, it's just important to know the differtence, cuz everyone can look to canon as a consistent point in any fandom.

I always wondered if someone is trapped in a morph, why not use the blue box on them again? I always thought it would be so ironic if after all this do I stay as a bird or a boy stuff with Tobias that only to realize they could do this at the end of things and it was never suggested because it’s maybe just not attempted or something.

My guess is that the andalites have tried it at some point and Ax knows it won't work. Because — even though Tobias himself is ambivalent on the subject — Rachel and Jake are both DETERMINED to de-nothlit him no matter what. So between the Berensons' desperation to Fix The Thing and Ax's closeness with Tobias, I can't imagine that no one ever brought up the idea of trying to use the blue box on Tobias a second time. My guess would therefore be that it's widely known there is no cure for nothlitization, with or without the box.

Ax mentions early on in #8 that he's "afraid Tobias will ask" about how to get un-trapped, because he knows there's "no way to fix" a nothlit, but that Tobias hasn't asked him at any point in their first several weeks as roommates. So that suggests to me both that Ax knows there's no cure, blue box or no blue box, and that Tobias is happy enough as a bird not to bring it up.