#massive Animorphs spoilers

[morphseagull]

me crying on the floor watching elfangor’s usual jaded cadence emerge from his child narration after (massive animorphs 12.5 the andalite chronicles spoilers) causing his war prince to become the first andalite controller through his entirely preventable actions. that’s it. there’s our boy. I’ll never be the same again

[tunashei]

Nooooo tumblr recommended me animorphs stuff and I just read a massive spoiler :(

Should have blocked the tag earlier. Sadje

[fanonical]

animorphs: where a main character's surname is a massive finale spoiler

[rjalker]

oh god okay so i just remembered another reason to say "fuck you" to KA Applegate. The ending to Animorphs was bleak AF, because "realism" and "war is hell so I'm not going to coddle the readers and in fact end with killing off the surviving main cast.". THAT was her response to fans unhappy with the ending.

THERAPY EXISTS. HELP EXISTS. Like yeah there's the argument that therapy is just a bandaid on a gaping wound or just a tool by the government to get us back into Working Order and there's also the cost to factor in but like- you have OPTIONS!!

Yep, especially because up until the very ending, she didn't give a shit about realism, all she cared about was stretching the series out as long as possible so she could make more money. She didn't care about telling a good or a realistic story. The status quo ruled as god - right up until the series was over, so there was no money for her to lose. Then she decides to just fucking be misogynistic and ableist as shit.

If she wanted to make the Animorphs a "realistic war story" then she would have had actual consequences within the series itself, but no, she didn't. If she wanted a "realistic war story" then poor fucking Karen should have been immediately reinfested and her father also infested and then all the fucking Animorphs murdered because they just let that kid who knew their faces and names and addresses go back to her home like the yeerks literally havent' already targeted her and are just gonna go "oh she's not a host anymore? K".

KA Applegate wasn't interested in telling a realistic war story with the Animorphs. The only thing she cared about was making as much money as possible with as little effort as possible, which is why the story is dragged out across over 60+ books despite nothing ever changing throughout the story in any meaningful way until the very end.

[other-peoples-coats]

📚👀👀?

(for the daydream plot meme)

ANIMORPHS AU MY BELOVED

Ok, quick precis for those who are not familiar with animorphs: there are brain controlling alien slugs that are taking over the earth, and the only people who know about them is a bunch of kids who get the power to turn into animals (For A Time Limited Time) from a different alien (who is immediately eaten alive in front of them). It's baby's first exposure to horrific war crimes and ethical nightmares, y'know, a normal topic for preteens to read about. The books are all avalible online for free with the author's blessing, and the letter the author wrote to fans about the ending of the series (massive spoilers, obvs) is a brutally raw thing of beauty.

Ok? with me?

So. This is the one where Obi-wan (~16) is being fostered alongside anakin (~11) and ahsoka (~6) by Qui-gon, who is…honestly not, like, the greatest parent in the world, but he's trying, mostly. Obi-wan's got enough fucked up history in the system that having someone who is trying and, ok, failing sometimes, but not like, Actively Physically Abusing Him Or Worse is 100% the best option and he's going to make it work, even if that means sometimes lying to the foster agency about how much qui-gon is supervising them and how often anakin and ahsoka eat meals that obi-wan cooks because Qui-gon stayed late at work, again.

It's fine. It's fine. Obi-wan is going to get a scholarship, he's going to make something of himself, and if he kind of wishes that qui-gon would adopt him — less, admittedly, because qui-gon specifically, and more because it would be someone wanting him, would be a kind of stability he's never had, growing up in the system as he did, a guarantee that he wouldn't be unmoored again — well, like every foster kid wants to be adopted, he's not special.

One night, while cutting through the construction lot between school and home, he runs into some kids from school - quinlan vos, maybe, neild and cerasi, perhaps, whoever — and then they all watch as a fucking alien space ship lands and then, y'know, get the morphing powers, watch alien!jango fett get eaten alive, etc etc, don't tell anyone because the yeerks are everywhere.

Including, it turns out, in Obi-wan's own house. In qui-gon, who is being controlled by…well, visser maul is funny, isn't it.

Probably there is at least one horrible scene of obi-wan watching the yeerk leave qui-gon to feed and qui-gon being Incredibly Obvious about how much he is Not Willing, which is it's own horror, because obi-wan will have to kill him if it comes down to it, even though, y'know, qui-gon is innocent, because the yeerk inside him is not.

yada yada, horrific ethical nightmares and war crimes, anakin finds out about the yeerks and demands to be part of the animorphs, at some point "qui-gon" offers to adopt obi-wan (like he'd always wanted) and obi-wan has to say yes to keep his cover and hates it because 1)it's not qui-gon offering, it's literally his adoption like he'd dreamed about and it's not about obi-wan being wanted at all 2)he's just shackled himself to a yeerk.

also, eventually, anakin starts using his morphing powers For Selfish Reasons, which is it's own nightmare, because somehow obi-wan has become the boss of their little guerilla cell — including the local alien they picked up, one Cody fett, who is (??????) related to the alien who gave them morphing powers and who obi-wan definitely doesn't have feelings for because that would be one more crisis to handle right now so he's not thinking about it— and has to work out… on the one hand, anakin is his brother! on the other hand. they made those rules for a reason, and anakin is putting them all in danger.

[theoriginalnikegirl]

Some More Thoughts on the Invasion, chapters 5-10

THIS POST ON THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ANIMORPHS SERIES CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS.

Thought 1: I’d never noticed it before, but I think there’s a parallel between Elfangor and Rachel “sharing their strength”:

...the Andalite’s voice was in my head again. <Courage, my friends.> ... I could feel the strength flowing from the doomed Andalite. He was letting us borrow some of his courage, even though he must have been afraid himself –33

“Don’t look,” Rachel said to her. She put her arm around Cassie’s shoulder and held her close. Then she reached for Tobias and took his hand. I guess you never really know someone until you see them scared. And even scared to death, Rachel had strength to spare. –39 

Like, maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I don’t think so. It’s the same chapter and Jake is using the same language of Elfangor letting them “borrow some courage even though he must’ve been afraid” and Rachel “having strength to spare even scared to death.” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I think Rachel’s death was written in this moment where she lent her strength for Cassie and Tobias at her own expense, and paralleling it to the doomed Andalite letting them borrow courage like I don’t know what else to say, that’s just the text. 

Thought 2: When exactly was Tom infested? I’ve like always been under the impression that it couldn’t have been much more than a month before the kids walked through the construction site, but with these quotes, I don’t know:

Tom looked down at me. There was a strange smell about him. My dog brain couldn’t quite identify it. It was an unsettling, dangerous smell. And somehow, in my own mind, I heard the echo of a laugh. A very human laugh I had heard the night before as Visser Three swallowed the Andalite whole. –66

We were always close. At least, until the last year or so. Somehow we weren’t spending as much time together. Partly it was because he was involved in this club called The Sharing. They did all this stuff together, so he was busy a lot of the time. –69

So, the first quote lets us know that Tom was at the construction site, which, yeah, we already knew. But... all the Yeerks arrived on either one of the two Bug Fighters, or the Blade Ship. So, if my headcanon is correct and Tom’s been a controller for ~month, that means a teenage Controller of ~month was on either a Bug Fighter or the Blade Ship on a weeknight, like a) when was his curfew and what was his excuse gonna be and b) what exactly was a teenage Controller doing on a Bug Fighter or Blade Ship? If it was one of the Bug Fighters, was he learning to pilot it? Was that gonna be his job after HS, I mean, no shade, but that seems like more of a Taxxon job? Was he on the Blade Ship, and if so, what was he doing there? I mean, we know from 6 that Temrash has hustle and I respect that but whew.

And then the second quote establishes that Jake and Tom haven’t been close for “a year or so”. Now, this could be that Jake is a child and has an *imperfect* sense of time, especially in long stretches, and maybe Jake and Tom were drifting apart naturally before he became a Controller? but I don’t know. I’m just out here questioning my headcanon.

I don’t know, maybe @thejakeformerlyknownasprince has thoughts on this and could help me out? Either way I’ll be noodling for a minute

[tfw-no-tennis]

beast warhrerhbjgdsf

ok so at the end of the beast wars opening when they go ‘BEAST WARS’ the end sounds all garbled so its like ‘BEAST WARGHISHUDFBJKSFNS’ its really funny

so we’ve watched more beast wars!! woohoo

we've watched thru ep 21 now wrow

I continue to really like this show despite the cgi continuing to be painful

I like the characters and plots a lot...it feels pretty episodic rn but there's a throughline of character development and dynamic establishment that keeps things fresh

plus, new characters!! blackarachnia returned offscreen right after she left I guess, so she's here now...I like how she like immediately has her own agenda and isn't loyal to megatron (or tarantulas, who had a hand in her creation) 

and tigatron!! what a cool dude I love him. he’s so chill, and I like that he’s into nature and stuff, that's awesome. he is super epic and I feel like he’s saved the maximals sooo many times lmao. for some reason I feel like he’s eventually gonna be like ‘no I'm gonna go be one with nature sorry guys bye’ and leave the cast - specifically if we move the setting to space/cybtertron later in the show I feel like he’d stay on earth. that's just my hunch tho idk 

and airazor!!! she is super cool, I like her design a lot. cool bord lady...the maximals definitely needed someone who could fly other than optimus (which, why can he fly, he’s a GORILLA). and airazor is dope, I hope she sticks around

also the pods are a great way to introduce new characters and create conflict - all the eps w/the pods have had great tension, and I like that the good guys don't always win (like when the predacons got a pod to make blackarachnia, and later inferno)

ah yes inferno, that was a fun one - I liked how he was more ant-like and that translated into him trying to protect the pod, calling it ‘the colony.’ he’s so massive for some reason which is kinda funny. also ruth and I both hate that he flies around with his spinning ant ass. cursed 

also ruth implored me to include the fact that we’ve been calling scorponok a beta cuck bc he’s just such a loser hbvjakhdsfnaks

on that note its sooo funny to me that literally all of the predacons aren't really loyal to megatron, w/the exception of scorponok, who isn't very useful anyways. like, we start the show off with dinobot defecting like IMMEDIATELY and all the other predacons are trying to take over or undermine megatrons authority constantly. he doesn't seem to care that much tho which is funny. I feel like they spread out the megatron-starscream dynamic from g1 throughout like all the predacons lmao 

also megatron is so funnyyyyyy I love him lmao. he’s so dramatic, he’s like a theater kid but more advanced - like a classically Shakespearian play actor. 

and I find it funny that megatron like, barely ever leaves the base?? he just kinda chills out there and sends his underlings to do stuff, which they’re almost never successful at accomplishing. I feel like megatron has participated in like 3 fights this whole time and almost never actively participates in the plot, unless the plot is taking place at the predacon base. I wonder if he’s busy plotting or something...

also ruth and I both noticed that the characterizations kinda changed around a little from the beginning, like rattrap being less mutinous, optimus being more understanding, etc; which tbh seems to be a bigger Thing in 90s/2000s cartoons (that is, the whole ‘not having the main cast’s characterizations nailed down at the beginning of the show’ thing)

ok what else has happened...I find it super funny that there's been TWO episodes where megatron tries to reprogram a maximal in some way to give the predacons an advantage, and both times it backfired spectacularly. like, didn't he learn from the first time!? 

the starscreams ghost ep was WILD omg. also I saw that that ep was up next and I was like ‘oh we should watch the g1 s3 ep where starscream is a ghost bc there might be important context we’ll need’ and ruth was like ok fine and then we watched it AND IT WAS SO BAD. MY GOD

like, we watched a fair amount of g1 before starting beast wars, and I’ve watched a couple s3 eps (which, I know s3 isn't as well regarded as the pre-movie stuff, but I guess I must have watched some of the better eps bc they weren't like THIS), so i knew this ep probably wouldn't be very good...but we were NOT prepared for the level of badness we were presented with vbahdjkfhbahsjkdf

I mean maybe we were missing in-show context, but also we just had no idea what was going on the entire time basically. the entire episode was so wack. the only takeaway I had is that octane and sandstorm are dating

anyways enough about g1. the beast wars starscreams ghost ep was actually good, I missed g1 starscream, that iconic bitch...none of the predacons are quite on his level in terms of sheer legendary bastard energies

I liked that blackarachnia was like starscreams protégé, complete with her betraying him at the end lmao 

also idk if this is something we’re supposed to know from the beginning, but ruth didn't realize that beast wars megatron and op aren't g1 megatron and op and she was like :0 when that was kinda revealed this ep - idk if that's a spoiler or not but I already knew that going in lol 

oh and the part where op said ‘LETS MAKE THIS A DOUBLE DATE’ and busted dinobot out of the cr chamber? Gay™

oh my god and that ep where the maximals were stuck in beast form and like, reverted to their animal instincts was...sure something vbhajdkfsnbskjf that was a lot 

it was like a much more goofy version of the stuff in animorphs about the characters being influenced by their animal morph’s instincts (which was almost always presented in an absolutely horrifying manner)

but yeah we have 6 eps left in the season (!!!) which we’re looking to finish soon, I’ll probably make another post for those eps and s1 in general woohoo

[hermitknut]

The Animorphs Ending

Alright, so I guess I’m finally writing this out.

DISCLAIMER: I fully support K. A. Applegate’s right to write her story however she likes; this is about my feelings on the ending and not any kind of should/shouldn’t bullshit. Also, while I am up for discussing this with anyone who’s around - I would love to hear your thoughts! - I am not interested in anything that starts “but you’re wrong because”. I am not wrong, because I am not talking about objective facts, I am talking about my very subjective feelings, and I know what those are.

Phew. Okay. So the short version:

I don’t like the ending. I felt let down and jarred out of the story, and upset in both the right way (fine) and the wrong way (less fine). 

Long version with MAJOR SPOILERS (skip now or forever hold your peace):

I’ve read a few things defending the ending of the series (including Applegate’s response to fans), and while I see where they’re coming from, I feel like there’s something missing. The argument is always framed like this:

“The ending had to be this way because it respects the reality of war in the same way as the rest of the series, and any tied-up-in-a-bow ending would cheapen it.”

vs

“But I wanted them to be happy! Why can’t everything be okay?”

I kind of agree and disagree with both of these points, if I’m honest, and this is how it breaks down:

1. Sure, I want the characters to be okay. I’m deeply fond of fluff, I like happy endings, and I will always be sad when I don’t get them. 

2. I also love animorphs BECAUSE it doesn’t flinch away from the reality of war, it doesn’t cheapen things by giving easy answers, and that’s incredible.

3. Depicting that reality is extremely important, but hope is part of that reality too, and it was very hard to see in the ending. 

Firstly I have a lot of low-key resentment, I guess, based on the overriding preoccupation at the moment with “misery as realism” - I don’t think Applegate is particularly guilty of this, honestly, but because so many other things are at the moment I’m kind of fed up with it and it means my tolerance for anything similar to it is lower. I appreciate that Cassie kind of got out okay, but we don’t see much of her in the ending, so it was tricky to lean on that. We’re mostly with Marco (who is clearly not okay but kind of in denial about it) and then Jake and Tobias who are definitely not okay. I would have liked to see a more even view of the four of them, if I was stuck with the events as they are.

So I wasn’t in a good place to enjoy that ending as it was, which was unfortunate.

Secondly, the time jump. We spent fifty-odd books going incredibly slowly through this really carefully-done character development - when you reread, particularly, you can see how everyone falls apart in their own way and adapts to handle what they’re going through. Then suddenly, the war has ended, we’ve jumped three years (and after that, another two), and all of these characters have jumped three years in character development - and it honestly jarred me almost completely out of the story. I knew who the characters were but I wasn’t attached to them anymore. Partly this is the limitation of the form - the short-read format doesn’t really allow for the kind of character development that I needed in anything less than, say, ten more books lol. I do understand that. But it is what it is. “Show Don’t Tell” is a pretty dubious rule, honestly, and I don’t stand by it generally, but in this case it didn’t work for me to be told how things and people had changed. It didn’t feel real. Which was frustrating, because we’ve had a time jump before that was done really well - #41: The Familiar, where Jake gets thrown forward in time to The Dystopian Nightmare.

What this all meant was that when we got told “Tobias is still living out in the woods alone” and “Ax has gone missing” and “maybe they’re all dead except Cassie now” instead of being upset as in “oh no that’s so sad!” I was upset as in “well I wanted to care but I don’t???” because I’d become disconnected from the narrative.

[Sidenote: I think that fandoms in general don’t talk about that distinction very often (or at least, I haven’t seen it): that difference between “I’m sad and upset because sad or upsetting things happened to my characters” and “I’m sad and upset because the author has (unintentionally, usually) lost my trust and I feel let down”.]

I guess what I wanted from the ending was the same closeness we’ve had all the way through the series. I wanted to see Marco, Tobias, Cassie, and Jake get back to earth from the poolship, I want to see what happens in the days after the war, I want to know what it was like for them to deal with that, and ultimately I am way more interested in that however it turns out than I am in things that happened a few years later. 

Another part of the ending that I want to talk about is Rachel’s death, because here we go: 

Rachel’s death, along with all the other Actual Canon Events of the ending? I’m fine with them. I think they were perfectly reasonable choices. 

My problem with the post-three-year-jump stuff is as discussed above - it’s to do with how the story is told, not events themselves. 

My problem with Rachel’s death is trickier, because on the one hand I think it’s appropriate that a major character died given the seriousness of the situation, and on the other Rachel was the one character I was really interested in seeing post war.

Rachel is the girl who is too angry, too aggressive, too violent, too scary. And she knows it - the others make sure she does. She gets told in one way or another, over and over, “you’re not going to be able to cope with life outside of war because you love this too much”. And I wanted so badly to see Rachel live out the end of the war, and have to face this. Is she too violent? Is she really any more violent than any of the others, or is she just less likely to pretend it away? Having been forced to face her own inner darkness in a more direct way than the others (who all in one way or another euphamise or dodge around when they deal with it), what does that mean for her recovery post-war? 

So in a personal way, I’m sad that we never get to see that, as it was something I was hoping for; I still do understand the choice of killing her off, though. 

This has been massively rambly but hopefully makes a degree of sense. In summation:

Yes wrapping everything up in a neat bow and giving us a happy ending would have been a terrible idea. No that doesn’t mean I feel like the ending as is did everything it was trying to do.

(And yes, I’m writing an extended fix-it fic. Because that’s what I do.)

[aabaker1]

Just got done watching the first six eps of the new Costume Quest series.

I’ll split this into spoiler and non-spoiler Sections. First a few non-spoiler notes. 

I thought I was gonna be irritated by them turning turning Wren into into a brusque tomboy and Reynold into a scaredy-cat, but I really wasn’t. The four kids personalities seem to really fit them.

I like Norm, he’s a really good character. He basically takes the role of Dorian from the games.

The changes they made to the game’s plot took a bit of getting used to, but it actually kinda works.

Okay, now for spoilers below the break.

Okay, let me just get this out of the way. They changed the story from the games. To the point where this can basically be considered an alternate universe. But, you know, I really don’t mind. I like the story they’ve told so far. And if the story is going where it seems to be going, this could get very interesting.

The costumes look great.  Nice to seem some favorites from the game, but it’s great that they’re also throwing in a bunch of new ones. Also the ones from the opening credits are a total fake out. They basically lose those by the end of the second episode. Also each kid seems to have a set of costumes and I think they really fit their personalities. I just hope this doesn’t become a trend. I know they only have so much money in the budget. But I’d love to see the kids actually trading up costumes at some point. 

Let’s take a look at each of the kids styles.

Reynold:

As I said they turned Reynold into a bit of a scaredy cat. But, they also kinda made him the smart kid and his costumes reflect that. With the exception of the superhero his costumes focus more on agility and support over muscle and melee and it kinda fits.

Wren:

Wren’s costumes are a little odd. They’re playing up her tomboy side, so almost all of her costumes have her either turning into traditionally boyish things, dinosaurs, movie monsters, or into actual guys, Abraham Lincoln as an action hero Sherlock Holmes and the headless horseman. This is very interesting and I’ll talk more about it later.

Everette: 

Everette’s costumes fit him perfectly. Either he’s trying to play the hero, knight karate, robot, or he’s trying to impress people, like Partystein and the Daredevil. That just seems to fit him, somehow.

Lucy:

All but one of Lucy’s costumes are animals and this makes total sense. Lucy is big into science so it makes perfect sense for her to pick costumes from the animal kingdom. The only exception? A sci-fi space hero. But, there’s more to Lucy than that. Note, I’m not counting the birthday episode costume as an official costume. Though that is a great episode for Lucy. She’s really starting to show an independent attitude and it culminates with her not only taking down a Repugian by herself, but also standing up to her own mom, which, in a lot of ways, can be even harder.

Now we get to what I think is really the weakest part of the show so far, the monsters. Well kind of. There’s a good part to this and a bad part.

First the bad part, the Repugians are really getting the shaft, here. The different types from the games are gone. Now they’re just generic monsters. And it’s really confusing too. Apparently Grubbins are little gremlin things who need to eat nougat to turn into big monsters. So are Repugians the name of the big monster forms? Are Grubbings baby forms? It’s just a total mess. Also, no Dorsilla, instead so far the main baddie is a Repugian who got a promotion and is acting like a privileged jerk. Slightly off topic and  no offense, but the writers really don’t understand what nougat is. It’s honeyed almond paste, not a mineral for god’s sake.

Now we get to the good part of this, the human suits. Oh my good, they’re pulling a full on Animorphs, here. The repugians are disguised as humans and living and working along side other people. The first episode reveals that people the kids recognize from their neighborhood are monsters in disguise. 

This is actually great, not only does it force the kids to have to be very careful who they tell, but they can never be certain they’re safe. That lends a whole atmosphere of tension. Everette has a big brother in this version and one of his teenage friends, who he’s presumably been hanging out with for at least a year, turned out to be a monster. Which leads me into.

The story set up:

Okay, yeah I guess they couldn’t just go with kids fighting monsters using the power of Halloween. That might be fine for video games, but it just isn’t enough for an animated series. But, I legitimately like the way they solved the problem. It adds so much depth to the story.

The way the costumes work actually makes sense. It’s basically Repugian magic, or at least monster magic, powered by imagination. 

There’s a legacy, now. This has happened before and four other kids teamed up to save the town, then. I like that. Also, the show might just be hinting that one of those kids is still around, though not a kid anymore. 

But, the single thing I like the most is the fact that Repugians aren’t the only monsters. It flat out says other monsters have been coming to the human world for ages. And, unlike the Repugians, most of the others didn’t come here to cause trouble, most of them just wanted to live in peace. And by all accounts, at least some of them have been. And that opens all kinds of possibilities.

Now to finish of with a few final points. Bear in mind most of these are strictly speculation on my part.

They posted the first half of season one and also a teaser for the second half. It seems that the guy in charge of the Repugians is just a placeholder and the real big bad is coming. Please, let this be Big Bones, or at least Dorsilla, maybe?

The monsters living here for generations thing opens all kinds of possibilities. Wren basically guesses this in the first ep. True, she was just being paranoid at the time, but is it still paranoia if you turn out to be right?

Also there’s something I couldn’t help but notice. In the second half of the first ep the kids get lured to a meeting of monster survivors, which turns out to be a bunch of Repugians setting a trap. Now this may just be me, but one of the people at the meeting looked a lot like Lucy’s mom.

Most of the Repugians from that meeting showed up again, later. But, I’m not sure that woman did. And I’m positive the kids haven’t gone up against her. Could that be a relative of Lucy, like an aunt or something? Could it be possible that Lucy is actually part monster, or even part Repugian? That would be one hell of a twist. And it would be a massive thing that Lucy and the other kids would have to deal with.

And finally, this is totally just me. But I can’t help but notice that Wren has been given a very tomboyish attitude in the show. And all of her costumes have her becoming very traditionally boyish things, or out right becoming male. Now this may just be me reading way too much into this and it probably is. But, could they be going somewhere with this? Could Double Fine and Frederator actually be trying to make Wren, dare I say the word, gay? Would Double Fine and Frederator do something like that? Could they get away with it? Or am I just out of my mind?

[orpheus-type-beat]

Percy Jackson part 1

Confession time: I was a gigantic Percy Jackson and the Olympians fan as a kid, so this book is very nostalgic to me. I haven’t reread the series in a long time though, especially not the first book, so it’s very interesting to read this stuff again as an adult. I was struck with a couple of observations. First, It’s a pretty good book, which is a relief. I can defend my 11-14 year old self’s tastes, this is mostly a solid kids fantasy novel. 

More relevantly, it’s very different in tone and in execution than Rick Riordan’s later books, especially his sequel series Heroes of Olympus. Those books bounce between different perspectives, and the whole thing is written in a close third person. Moreover, they are so caught up in the lore and the universe and the Percy Jackson formula that they, I feel, lost touch with something the original series had that made it feel special to me. Rereading the first book in the series, I think I have a better understand why.

Perspective

I’m a sucker for first person narration in novels, I’m realizing. Another one of my childhood favorites, the Animorphs series (shoutout to anyone who read those), was also written in this same sort of first person. Each book began with a very post-modern, “if you’re reading this it’s too late,” exposition machine that explained the premise of the series, who the important characters were, and set up the events of the book. The meta, post-modern framing device is never fully explained (why were the characters of the Animorphs, or Percy Jackson himself, writing any of this down?), but are used as a framing device to enhance suspension of disbelief, and to enable humor (through snarky asides).

This close first person, a sort of refined stream of consciousness that feels like a combination between a movie shot entirely in one characters’ POV and a letter written to a friend, is missing in the later Percy Jackson series, I think to its detriment. Not only does the first person narration makes sense in a Greek setting — it emphasises orality, putting this book in conversation with orally transmitted greek myths — it also enhances the series’ humor. A lot of the humor comes from Percy’s wisecracking during fightscenes, which gives the series an action-comedy feel. The comedic portrayal of many of the gods and supernatural beings adds to that, but much of the comedy comes from Percy’s reaction to events, not from the events themself. This enables the events to be able to be taken seriously while simultaneously being mocked and used for humorous purposes.

The first person perspective also differentiates this series, tonally and technically, from Harry Potter (which is a much more obvious influence in this first book: he goes to boarding school, has an abusive home life, and lives in the legacy of a mysterious parental figure). In many ways, this book reads like post-modern Harry Potter — the sense of wonder and fairy tale magic is replaced with humor and a system of magic that feels more logical and rule based. Stuff like the Mist, as an explanation for how the magic in the world remains hidden, and the fact that monsters explode into dust makes this an urban fantasy, akin to sci-fi as much as fantasy. Harry Potter, in contrast, is firmly rooted in fantasy.

The second Percy Jackson series moves to a close third person narration style, and while there are benefits to this (for example, there isn’t the need for the dream sequence exposition hack, and the series can accommodate diverse perspectives more directly) I think something tonally and structurally is lost. It loses the sense of orality, the primacy to the action and humor lent by a first person narrator with a “unbelievable true story” framing device. That blending of the border between fact and fiction is what myth accomplished in Greek times, and what the original Percy Jackson series accomplished for a lot of people, and surrendering that means surrendering something special.

Disability

I had forgotten what a big deal disability is in these books. The thread of all demigods being troubled kids with mental disabilities, specifically learning disabilities, is I think really interesting and radical. We still live in a world where mental illness is taboo, but some mental illness are less taboo than others. In particular, when people say “mental illness” they usually aren’t referring to all mental illness. Usually, they are referring to a subset of mental illnesses, issues like depression, various types of anxiety, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, etc. — mood, personality, or anxiety disorders. 

Of course, those illness are all still massively stigmatized, but all of those disorders tend to leave cleverness, speech, and some behavior intact. It’s easier to “pass,” in a sense, with those disorders, than it is with other mental illness. We can understand the troubled genius better than we can understand someone who is intellectually disabled. 

That’s what makes the learning disability angle so interesting. In theory, these demigods aren’t troubled geniuses, they’re normal, unexceptional kids (discounting the water bending and sword fighting) who can’t read or write well, can’t focus, and don’t always succeed in the classroom. They aren’t brilliant, but fragile minds. They’re just C, D, and F students, with gifts that are incompatible with our school system’s expectations about the pace of learning and what achievement looks like.

These are the kind of kids we don’t tend to recognize as valuable, and worthy of being written about and made heroes. And if I remember Riordan’s impetus for writing this series was his son’s own struggles with learning disability: dyslexia and ADHD. But in the Heroes of Olympus series, this disability angle is really de-emphasized, and I think to its detriment. It loses the “it gets better” message and inclusivity to people who, even in narratives about mental illness, often get left out. 

Myth Making

This brings me to the interesting ways this book is in conversation with Greek myth, and myth in general.

First of all, having all the demigods have dyslexia and ADHD is a clever inversion of the typical Greek hero’s childhood. Usually, Greek heroes were preternaturally gifted, succeeding in and out of school, and are immediately recognized as different and special. In this book, the heroes are recognized as different, but not as special, but as lesser than. This transform the Greek hero’s sense of inevitable destiny into an underdog story — one that works for modern audiences, the way a gifted noble’s path to glory worked for ancient ones. This reflects modern conceptions of democracy, and the mobility of class, that didn’t exist in ancient times (reminder that Athenian democracy was for rich, landowning men).

Second of all, there is a distinctly non-Christian concept of cycles at play in this book, and in this series. Threat to Zeus’ rule by Titans is thematically compatible with ancient Greek succession myths. And the bit about monsters turning into dust and then reforming eventually creates an overarching them of balance: the war between good and evil is eternal and constantly shifting. The best anyone can do is try to shift the balance, temporarily, in a positive direction. This makes all of the fun bits, like locating the modern Mount Olympus in New York City, having the gods adopt modern trends, work thematically as well as humorously. There an almost Eastern theme of yin and yang, which in all honesty is reflective of Eastern influence on the Greeks and Romans.

Thirdly, Rick Riordan has one mode, it’s just the Odyssey, and that’s fine. The road-trip rompy with constantly shifting objectives leading up to some climax that reveals itself to have been behind the scenes all along is a classic narrative structure that is very ancient Greek, and so works in a story so deeply in conversation with ancient Greek myths.

Conclusion

Finally, by way of conclusion, the thing that makes this first Percy Jackson book/series work, and interesting in conversation with fantasy, myth, and stories about heroes, is one of its central themes: the deification of humanity. The gods in this universe are static, comic figures. Humans are the ones that are able to change things — that’s why the gods love them, and keep making demigods all the time — and humans are the ones, in the series, that are capable of real good and real evil. 

(Semi spoiler alert) In the last book, it is the human capacity for love, sacrifice, and good that saves the day, and produces positive change in the world. The gods are powerful and eternal, but the real source of beauty in the world is humanity, in its capacity for change, rebirth, and renewal. Gods get bored, get cynical, get complacent. They decay, eternal and unmoving. In contrast, humans die and new ones are born, and to them the cyclic war between good and evil remains fresh. Humanity can continually change without movement or exhaustion, constantly relearning the same lessons and experiencing the same joys and sorrows afresh. Gods, locked in a cycle, go around once and are bored and numbed forever, while the human experience stays continually vital and alive.

That’s why this series, despite being so rooted in Greek myth and fantasy, feels so modern and sci-fi influenced (as a huge sci-fi fan, that’s probably why I like it so much), and why this story — despite its post-modern trappings — reaches for sincerity. Gods, in the Percy Jackson universe, can’t survive on their own. They are immortal, but they can grow tired. They can be broken by endless living, and fade away. The gods rely on people to break up the monotony, to remember them and keep them alive: humans are the source of life in this universe. 

(real spoiler alert). The series ends with Percy being offered godhood, immortality, which he rejects. That’s the thematic conclusion to the entire series, and its significant. Besides true love or whatever, the reason Percy rejects immortality is that he realizes that to live and die, taking part in the cycle, is more meaningful than eternal life. Becoming a god would mean forfeiting that meaning. This is a series about gods and monsters and nymphs, but the real magic in this world is humanity. 

Our magic is thus: unlike the gods, as time streams past, we remain untouched by eternity. And I’d argue, like this series does, that that’s real immortality.

[yaldobob]

I read Animorphs 27 to 31! (Divided by book because it got hella long) 27 1. I don't know how many times I reread the scene with Erek at the mall, because holy shit, it's fucking fantastic. 2. Rachel... ;-; And Jake rejecting her fear because "she can't be afraid", I love him but gotdammit Jake. 3. I am very intrigued by the Drode. Who is he? I mean, the Crayak made his species, maybe? But he seems much more self-aware that the Howlers, so why does he works for him? And what exactly was that "job offer" to Rachel? Anyway, hmmm. 4. Also, I still love the Chee and Erek King. Their ship seems incredible. And... "Cheenet"? Seriously, Applegate? 28 1. The first book written by the ghost writers! ...Yeah. The less said about it, the better. Although the point about Ax starting to become disillusioned with humanity is fantastic, I just wish it was in like... a better book. 29 1. I LOVE CASSIE. And Aftran and Illim and Mr Tidwell and the entire Yeerk Peace Movement and Ax and Erek and everyone else. I just... what a good book I'm so proud of my daughter. 2. It is me or is there more references to past books than usual? Besides 19, I mean. In any case, I spent a good part of the book singing to myself "Let's see how far we've come". 3. Cassie morphing a yeerk is one of my favorite things ever but I can't help but question why the hell Cassie needed to be the one controlling Tidwell instead of just chilling in the bag until he reached the yeerk pool. To see where Aftran was, I guess? 4. THAT ENDING. And because I have all the ending spoilers (and fandom discourse), I got more chills than the book probably intended. MM3 1. MELISSA IS BACK. Yes that is the most minor thing but I'm so excited that they remembered her. And she's dating Tobias in this AU? ...Sans the totalitarianism, slavery, etc. I'm very curious. 2. Talking about the totalitarianism, slavery, etc., the book did a very good job of scaring the crap outta me at the beginning. 3. CASSIE AND MARCO. PROTECTING JAKE. OT3 FEELS FOREVER. 4. Visser Four! He's back! Will we ever meet Visser Two, I wonder? 5. This book is very good and I'm sure it's better if you know literally anything about the visited history. At my school, most of the studied history was Argentinian and Latin America centered. Like, I know who Einstein and Hitler were, but not much else. 6. Ax in this book though. It's like the good version of 28. I hurt for my alien son. 7. RACHEEEEL. Both her snapping at Ax to kill and wanting to kill Hitler, she's an amazing character and I love her. Also I thought that she was going to use her gymnastic skills to climb that rope and follow V4, not morph chimpanzee, lol. 5. CAAAASIEEE. Her moral sacrifice at the end... I'm so sad and I love her so much. 6. Also, I guess Jake got sort of payback for being the only one who remembers the doomed timeline of 11. 30 1. I have way less to say about this one that I would like to for Very Personal Reasons, and let's leave it at that. 2. I'm not sure I followed completely the plot? Visser One is both hunted by the entire Yeerk Empire but also has a personal army? I guess the first part was a lie? Did she actually got demoted or? 3. If she did, though, I can't help but wonder why in the name of all the cinnamon buns V1 and V4 got demoted for what happened in 15 and 18 respectively, but V3 happily continues to be in charge of the Earth invasion despite of, well, literally all that happened? Especially in 17 and 22, where the Animorphs fucked the yeerks up massively? At this point he's starting to look like he's wearing very thick plot armor and I'm not liking it. 31 1. I CRY FOR JAKE EVERYDAY HE'S MY FAVORITE ANIMORPH I LOVE HIM SO MUCH HELP. 2. And Marco is so fantastic taking the decision away for Jake following his conversation with Rachel at the end of the last book that was fantastic I love them. 3. I am so curious about Marco leading the Animorphs when Jake wasn't watching. 4. Heavy Jake/Tobias feels, too. 5. So much foreshadowing for Tom's death like whoa. Even if I wasn't spoiled, I could tell you that Tom was doomed to die based on this book alone. 6. Also, like MM3, this is one of the times when I feel very... alienated from the narrative. Like my country had a extremely different reaction to the veterans from our last war, and this is the point where I start getting distracted from the book and I start mentally writing an AU in where the invasion happened in Argentina, but that's another story. 7. Why the fuck I get interested in such weird characters. Like, the Ellimist is my favorite by far, I love Erek, and now I want to get to know Tom's yeerk more. Like his conversation with Jake was very interesting. Goddammit. 8. That ending... ;-;

[entergamingxp]

Making a Video Game Hero: Platformer Edition

May 6, 2020 2:30 PM EST

Step back into our video game creation lab as we build the best platform hero ever by combining the genre’s best in a Frankenstein creation.

Recently, we took a look at all of the video game heroes who make their living in hallowed halls of the action-adventure genre. After analyzing each of them (very scientifically, we might add) we put together an amalgamation of their body parts to build the greatest action-adventure hero. Like a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein, we built the ultimate hero for that genre, and now we’re back again with a new, fan-favorite genre. That’s right, it’s time to build a Mario.

Now, like action-adventure games, platformers have a ton of different sub-genres within their sphere. Not only do you have 2D and 3D platformers, but there are also games that mix shooting, mind powers, and even naughty swear words. That said, we’re looking to build a hero that can work their way through whatever situation developers can throw at them. So, give our beautiful monster a look below and let us know if you’d make any changes in the comments below.

Brain: Alucard (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) Runners’ Up: Razputin Aquato (Psychonauts) and Clank (Ratchet & Clank series)

To kick off the list, we have a trifecta of great options. On one hand, you have Raz from Psychonauts, a young boy with considerable psychic powers. Not only has he mastered many PSI skills while training to be a Psychonaut, but he also boasts nearly impenetrable psychic defenses. On the other hand, Clank is a robot with access to a gigantic database of information that he can call up in the blink of an eye.

However, on the third (?) hand, we have Alucard, the dhampir son of Dracula. Now, as a half-vampire, he lacks the immortality of his father’s species; however, he still has all the other powers. With his brain, we get access to a library of powerful magic and, presumably, the ability to shape-shift into a bat, wolf, or mist. So, while he might be a little less of a smartie than Clank, we’ll take the wolf morph every day.

Eyes: Six (Little Nightmares) Runners’ Up: Crash Bandicoot and Fez

Again, the platformer genre gives us a plethora of options for our monster’s eyeballs. We’re tempted to go with Crash and his gigantic, terrifying, lifeless eyes, but frankly, even we’re too scared by the thought of what those eyes have seen. Why are they always so wide open? What makes them spin? These are the questions that keep us up at night.

Instead, we’re going with someone a bit smaller. Fez was strongly considered due to his ability to see the world in multiple dimensions at once; however, we decided to go with someone who’s faced down horrible, sausage-wielding “chefs” and lived to tell the tale. Six from Little Nightmares might not be the strongest platforming character, but we can trust her to stay brave, regardless of what terrifying monster we find ourselves up against.

Mouth: Kirby Runners’ Up: Conker (Conker’s Bad Fur Day) and Earthworm Jim

Honestly, this might be the easiest choice on the list. A potty-mouthed squirrel and an earthworm full of bad puns are hardly a match for the power-stealing jaws of Kirby. I mean, sure, our hero can already morph into a wolf, but what if they could also morph into Bowser? Or Dr. Neo Cortex? Or even Professor von Kriplespac? The possibilities are truly endless, and it’s nearly impossible to imagine any other character’s mouth in Kirby’s place.

Torso: Meat Boy (Super Meat Boy) Runners’ Up: Banjo (Banjo-Kazooie) and Tim (Braid)

Here, things get interesting again. If we take Banjo’s body, do we also get Kazooie? If so, that means we can fly, but since we already have multiple morphing powers, that’s not really needed. Tim’s squat body might let us control the flow of time, which is going to come in handy when braving spikey pits.

That being said, we’re going with Meat Boy. After all, there aren’t many heroes who can say they’ve withstood more punishment than that slab of beef. And he just keeps coming back for more. That’s a trait our monster needs.

Left Arm: Mega Man Runners’ Up: Yarny (Unravel) and Rad Spencer (Bionic Commando)

The first thing we have to ask ourselves is “would we marry our robotic arm if we found out it was our previously thought-to-be-dead wife?” And, obviously, the answer is yes. However, if our creation is married to their arm, then they’ll live a life torn between us, their creator, and their arm-wife. That doesn’t work for us, so Rad Spencer is, unfortunately, out.

Yarny presents another interesting option; however, their power feels limited. There’s only so much you can do with yarn. Mega Man, on the other hand, has a smorgasbord of power-ups for our monster to take advantage of, making him the easy choice.

Right Arm: Donkey Kong Runners’ Up: Cuphead and Voodoo Vince

Cuphead’s arm would definitely be a fun addition, but that feels like a bit of overkill. Voodoo Vince combos well with Meat Boy’s body. Stabbing that slab of beef and inflicting damage on our enemies seems like an easy win. However, our platformer build is missing something. We need…power.

Enter Donkey Kong’s right arm. Did you know that gorillas can lift an estimated 1800 lbs? Imagine what that kind of strength could do to a man or Goomba. We’re talking complete and total destruction. Our monster needs that.

Legs: Madeline (Celeste) Runners’ Up: Sonic the Hedgehog, Sly Cooper, and Arthur (Ghosts ‘n Goblins)

Again, tons of great options. If you’re looking for pure, video game speed, Sonic is the obvious choice. Maybe you want world-class agility that would let you sneak your way into any heavily-guarded fortress. In that case, Sly Cooper is your guy. Heck, maybe you just want to look good in your undies, making Arthur the man for you.

For our creature, we’re taking Madeline’s legs. If you play Celeste on Assist Mode, you can turn on infinite stamina. That means Madeline can jump forever. And, even if we don’t turn on Assist Mode, her legs are some of the best leapers in the business. Her air control is top-tier, a fact our beast will take full advantage of.

Hat: Mario Runners’ Up: The Boy (Inside) and Shovel Knight

(Note: Spoilers for Inside below)

Okay, our last category continues to be something of a catch-all. At first, we thought we’d just slap The Boy from Inside’s ability to turn into a massive flesh blob in here, because what an awesome sequence. If our monster can just transform into that whenever they want, why wouldn’t we want that? However, it feels wrong to not have Mario involved in our video game creation in some way. So, we’ve decided to continue enhancing our beast’s ability to morph into other creatures by adding Mario’s hat. Oh, and Shovel Knight is cool, but only cool enough to make the list and not overtake Mario.

At this point, our platformer hero has basically become the newest Animorph, with the power to morph into whatever animal or object needed to get past any obstacle. Bowsers everywhere are surely crying into their pillow, as they dream sweet nightmares about our creation.

Thus ends our latest creation. Be sure to check back in the near future as we tackle the next video game genre. And stick with DualShockers for all your weird, imaginary video game science experiments.

May 6, 2020 2:30 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/making-a-video-game-hero-platformer-edition/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=making-a-video-game-hero-platformer-edition

[words-writ-in-starlight]

The Great Animorphs Reread, Part 10

Book 10: The Android

AKA “Dogs are literally too good for this world, the first main character dies for a bit, and we learn about the motherfucking Chee”

All right, let’s get the easy stuff out of the way so that I can dedicate this whole thing to an epic tirade about the Chee. Motherfuckers.  

Bats.  Spiders. Except for the roaches, it’s a superhero extravaganza.  The plan to get the Pemalite crystal is so beautiful and intricate…right up until that critical moment of “how the fuck do bats carry anything” at the end there. SPOILER ALERT KIDS, BATS DON’T CARRY THINGS.  These fuck-up children are too cute, I love them so much.  And then they murder a bunch of dudes and they’re still too cute. My dearest kids.

It’s hysterically funny to me that K. A. Applegate looked us all straight in the eye and announced that dogs are literally so great that the only explanation is that they are actually the merging of wolves with the souls of a race of aliens so highly evolved that they knew only joy and love and light.  Like. That’s literally her mission statement with this book.  “Appreciate dogs because they’re better than you.”  I know little to nothing about this woman, but I guarantee that she is a dog person.

I think this might be the first time they’re all a heartbeat away from being massacred in their battle morphs, but that kind of depends on how you want to split the hairs of ‘almost dead.’  Marco, as usual, gets the worst of it, and is all dead, so there’s nothing left to do but go through his pockets and look for loose change.  No, wait, wrong childhood obsession, nothing left to do but electrocute him back to life.

Marco has issues, Ax is a mess and someone should take his human morph away because the boy is a hazard, Rachel in her grizzly morph is everything I want to be, Tobias is my own predatory sweetie, Jake is great, Cassie has morals and stress, yadda yadda yadda, okay that’s all now time for the rant.

Radical statement: I don’t like the Chee.  At all.  Fuck the Chee.  And I’ll tell you why.

The Chee aren’t into violence: okay. Sure.  They’ve been around a long time and we should probably all be grateful that they aren’t into violence, because wow that would be alarming.  Forget the Yeerks—the Chee Empire, coming soon to galaxies near you.  I honestly don’t have a problem with the fact that the Chee aren’t into violence, they can live their lives—or rather exist their existences—and I’m not going to fuss with that.

Although as long as we’re on the subject of the Chee living their lives, it’s pretty fucking rich for a race whose code is total and complete pacifism to be keeping Yeerks prisoner in their craniums.  Like, far be it from me to make any defense of the Yeerks, but that.  That is pretty ice cold.  And it’s just pretty hypocritical to me for a race to preach utter pacifism while holding a living creature—Yeerk or otherwise—imprisoned within their own body. That is just pretty rich.

Here’s my ultimate hangup, the bitter dislike I’ve held on my tongue since I first read this twelve years ago.  The Chee watched their creators slaughtered by the Howlers, and they couldn’t lift a hand to protect them.  The Chee watched their creators waste away from a quantum virus, and they could only preserve some scrap of them.  They have doubtless watched crimes and cruelties that would make a human slip over the precarious edge of sanity thatfast.  And after all that, after all that life and with all that purported wisdom and perspective, they are choosing—choosing, because they have the crystal—to throw Earth to the Yeerks to preserve their own comfort.  

Look, I’m sorry, I know this is going to sound cold-blooded, but one single Chee who was willing to sacrifice their peace of mind and ease of living in order to stand beside the Animorphs and do battle could have turned the tide of the war.  They could have preserved countless lives, saved untold numbers of people from infestation, ended the war so much more quickly. One Chee.  I’m not even saying all of them have to take up arms, I’m saying one Chee could have taken it in the teeth and said, “Yes, this will be horrible and it will be bloody and I would have screaming, weeping nightmares for the rest of my life if I slept.  And I will do it anyway because it must be done, and if I can’t live with what must be done, that’s something I’ll handle down the line.”  And yeah, it would have been awful and traumatic and bitter to swallow. But ultimately the Chee are choosing their own peace of mind and ease of sleep (metaphorical sleep) over the lives of the entire human race, the entire planet. Over the lives of the six child soldiers who have to shoulder an entire war, completely and ruthlessly, because there is no one else.  

The Chee are at fault for that.  They bear some of the burden of the lives lost, both to death and to infestation.  They have blood on their hands because they had the power to do something and instead they chose to stand back and let the Animorphs carry that crushing weight.  They are not a bastion of morality, they are not the final redoubt of ethics.  They have a choice, the exact choice that the Animorphs are offered—and I don’t care to hear about how the Chee can’t forget. The Animorphs are six children who will have to carry the memory of murder and pain and blood for the rest of their lives, and I don’t see the Chee harping on that.  The Chee and the Animorphs face the same choice: fight to save the Earth by doing things that will make them scream and cry and throw up for years to come, or stand back and do nothing and watch the world fall while they sleep safe.  The Chee choose to stand idly by, and in my book there are few greater sins.

And the Animorphs offer Erek sympathy, and understanding, and they don’t shout at him that he swore that he would help them, that they are all alone fighting a war far too big for them, that they need help and there is no one else.  So I feel like at the end of this book, the Chee definitely do not come off with the moral high ground.  It’s the Animorphs, who habitually do all the things that ruin Erek so completely, who kill and bleed and do terrible things, who walk away as the example of how to not be shitty.

Even if they’re NOT willing to take violent steps, the Chee could do something, anything, they have MASSIVE amounts of information about the Yeerk invasion force at their disposal and presumably they’re the best hackers on the planet, in addition to being incredibly strong and durable and being able to project any hologram they want.  They could definitely do more than just. This.  Jesus.

TL;DR: Fuck the Chee very much, thank you, and I understand Jake’s move at the endgame.  Desperate times call for nuclear measures, and the Chee are definitely that.

[rjalker]

Me: Do you think KA Applegate has girl power?

Animorphs Fandom: Of course!

Me: Do you think she properly utilized girl power by saying that slavers should be sympathized with and have more right to their slaves bodies than their slaves do? 

Me: Do you think she properly utilized girl power by having six Animorphs and only making two of them girls and killing off and demonizing one of those girls and saying that it’s for her own good because she’s traumatized and therefore better off dead? 

Me: Do you think she properly utilized girl power by having Melissa replace Rachel on the team in the alternate universe where literally everyone except Rachel is a fucking racist fascist slave-owner INCLUDING CASSIE but then still had Tobias thinking about Melissa the exact same way he does Rachel, as though Rachel and Melissa are interchangeable because the author only sees them as girls and not fully developed human beings?

Me: Do you think she properly utilized girl power by portraying genocide as a good thing that only happens to bad, gross people who deserve it?

Me: Do you think she properly utilized girl power by coding one of the alien species as Black and then having literally every single character in the series call them stupid and dumb and useless and “toddler-like”, constantly disparaging them and their abilities?

Me: Do you think she properly utilized girl power by creating a Black female character literally just for the purpose of being the mouthpeice by which slavery and genocide are defended?

Me: Do you think she properly utilized girl power by portraying the yeerks as sympathetic misunderstood people who are only evil and genocidal slavers because they’re disabled?

Me: Do you think she properly utilized girl power by spending an entire book torturing a little girl, and ended with the moral that leaving a little girl to be violated in ways humans literally can’t even conceive of was the right choice, because slave owners have more right to their slaves bodies than they do?

Me: Do you think she properly utilized girl power by introducing disabled characters, having the main characters be ableist towards them for the entire duration of their existence, forgetting one of their names two books into their four books of existence, and then killing off every single one of them in the most horrible, unnecessary way possible?

Me: Do you think she properly utilized girl power by having three boys harass a blind and brain-damaged woman and her service dog, literally threatening to kill her dog and hurt her if she puts up a fight, without ever condemning their actions or having anyone be upset by their behavior?

Me: Do you think she properly utilized girl power by being racist, ableist, and misogynistic? 

Me: Do you think The Animorphs series shows proper utilization of girl power?

Animorphs fandom: Of course! :)

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

So I seriously sat there and typed Robin 4.0, then Robin 5.0, then Robin 4.1, then Robin 4.5... then went to the DC wiki to see which one is the most common notation to refer to Li’l D, and finally went with Robin 4.0.  Because Stephanie Brown does not get enough respect and it’s on me for perpetrating that.  But I also understand why she gets overlooked since she was Robin for, like, a week before being killed off and then retconned into Always A Spoiler.  Anywhoo, you are correct that the Steph Erasure should end, and that Damian really is Robin 5.0.

Also I do appreciate that many crowbars, warehouses, Moms in Refrigerators, and Joker gases sacrificed their structural integrity in the heroic effort to rid the series of an unpopular Robin during Batman #429.  But I still stand by the point that Jason Todd got exploded and/or crowbarred before, he’s been exploded and/or crowbarred since, and he only kicked the bucket that one time because comic books are (for better and for worse) beholden to market demands rather than the laws of physics.  Animorphs lucking into a quadrillion-book contract (thanks to the success of Goosebumps) means that Animorphs never had to resort to a phone poll to decide whether or not to kill off Jake Berenson, and I think the series massively benefits as a result.

Do you think that Animorphs could have been improved if morphing and demorphing didn't heal your original body? Firstly, it doesn't make a ton of sense, as your original form is kept in z-space, so demorphing should just return you that form without any alterations. Secondly, it would allow a couple plot points such as Tobias's wing in MM2 and Ax's sickness in #29 to be much more feasible. I'm not super well versed in the lore though, so I may be missing something.

I’m inclined to say it would not improve the series.  Because without a healing factor, Animorphs would lose a lot of its realism.

Hear me out.

If the Animorphs don’t heal between battles, but the series is still about superheroes fighting aliens, then there are only so many ways the series can treat violence.  And none of them are particularly realistic.

The Animorphs could face exactly as much horrific injury and very real threat of harm (amputation, disembowelment, and all) as they do in the series.  But if they can’t heal, then it’s gonna be a really damn short war.  Off the top of my head: Marco dies in #4 from shark bite, Jake and Cassie die in #6 from poisoning, Rachel and Ax bleed out in #7, and Tobias gets eaten by a raccoon in #13.

The Animorphs could have strictly “harmless” tactics against an enemy that uses “harmless” tactics against them.  Think Kim Possible, Transformers, or My Little Pony.  If it’s “laser beams set to stun” vs. “the predators that don’t do anything,” then there would be a dramatic shift in tone.  Kim Possible is a great series, but it would never be classified as horror, and it never contains any real threat of characters coming to permanent harm.  Animorphs would be different (more like AniTV, frankly) if the violence was never allowed to inflict damage, and it’d lose a lot of what makes it unique along the way.

The Animorphs could have the superhero Thing where they take huge amounts of damage and then just... get better.  Think like Firefly, where characters get shot and stabbed realistically but then are inexplicably running around a week later like nothing happened.  They get realistic short-term damage onscreen, but unrealistic insta-recovery between episodes.  I personally HATE this trope because it’s low-key eugenicist in its emphasis on Macho Men Who Feel No Pain.  But yes, Animorphs could do this, again at the expense of realistic depictions of bodily harm.

The Animorphs could be immune to harm sometimes and not others, depending on the tone of a scene.  Again, tons of superhero series do this, and again it’s a pet peeve.  In Umbrella Academy, bullets are harmless and fun when the Handler’s firing them at Lila in an upbeat training montage... and they’re horrible and deadly when they rip through the Hargreeveses two episodes later.  In Batman, Robin 4.0 can be shot in the torso three times and keep right on swinging, but Robin 2.0 takes one crowbar to the head and straight-up dies.  This treatment of injury drives me UP THE WALL because it a) makes light of gun violence and b) makes it impossible to know how seriously to take any given scene.  So Animorphs could do that, but personally I’d hate it.

The Animorphs could inflict lots of harm, but not have any done to them.  This is close to how the series does it, but without a healing factor there’d have to be practically no threat to the Animorphs themselves while they went around slaughtering controllers.  Think Doctor Who and the tendency for their annihilating entire alien species to be played for laughs, while the Doctor themself remains untouchable and rarely even rumples their suit.  Either the protagonists become Heroes in Name Only, or they become the villains.  If the yeerks can’t hurt the kids at all, but the kids still harm the yeerks as much as they do, then we’d go from morally-grey protagonists to irredeemable-asshole protagonists really fast.

So I think the healing factor serves a very specific purpose within a series that nailed the “superheroes, but realistic” trope decades before it became a trend.  The healing factor allows K.A. Applegate et al. to get way into the utter nastiness of violence and trauma.  It prevents glossing over the reality of what it means to kill someone (see options 2 & 4) or be seriously injured (see option 3), while also avoiding a fight that’s entirely one-sided (see options 5 & 1).  It draws attention to the mental toll of trauma through divorcing that from the physical toll.  It’s what makes Animorphs so profoundly, disturbingly anti-war.

Ergo: no.  I don’t think the series would improve if the healing factor was gone.

[lifeattomsdiner]

Response Corner: The Ellimist Chronicles

In the interest of mixing up this blog’s content a bit, I’m going to establish a regular(ish) bit where I freewheel a bit with thoughts regarding books I’ve been reading recently.  This isn’t a “review”, per se--I might or might not be making judgments on the book’s quality--but a “response”, which really is just to say me writing down whatever happens in my brain in response to reading to book.

So let’s kick this off with a book I just finished re-reading this week: The Ellimist Chronicles from K.A. Applegate’s Animorphs series.  (Spoilers below, if you care.)

Animorphs was one of my favorite book series circa middle school.  Now, that’s not always something that’s going to follow you into adulthood (I cringe when I watch the 4kids dub of Yu-Gi-Oh!, for instance), but having begun to revisit it a bit lately I’ve found myself pleasantly surprised to see that the series holds up surprisingly well.  I could say a lot about the series in general, but let’s just stick to this one book for now.

For starters, this is a highly ambitious book in deceptively humble packaging.  The stereotype, of course, is that YA fiction is sort of dumbed-down compared to Proper Literature.  (Not at all fair, in my opinion, but that’s a topic for another time.)  Let’s just forget the YA label here and look at the facts: this is a book about a sentient being that, through a series of circumstances, expands its capabilities and consciousness to become something godlike.  In fact, this book actually reminds be a bit of Up The Walls Of The World by James Tiptree Jr., another book I read recently.  Ellimist Chronicles is of course much less dense, not just because it only clocks in at 200 pages, but because Applegate’s prose is simpler and snappier where Tiptree’s ventures into shades of purple.

One thing that shines particularly in this book is Applegate’s conception of alien species.  She’s always had a talent for creating aliens that are not only distinctly inhuman but philosophically interesting (see: the monstrous, imposing Hork-Bajir who are in fact highly docile and only use their natural blades to harvest bark; the antagonistic Yeerks who have to choose between enslaving sentient hosts or living their lives as sightless slugs).  In this book, she gets to run even more freely since she’s not bound by the timeline and setting of the rest of the series (the Ellimist being thousands if not millions of years old by the time of the main series).  Thus we get such delights as the Ketrans, whose entire society is based around constantly “docking” and flapping their wings to keep the huge airborne crystals that they call home aloft, or Father, a massive sea-sponge that through an accident of evolution linked itself with the central nervous systems of its prey and eventually developed a form of emergent sentience from the countless minds hooked up to it

Seriously, I would love to have a drink from whatever magic well Applegate gets her ideas from.

At any rate, what alchemizes out of all of this is an uplifting tale of persistence and hope, charting the Ellimist’s course from a hopelessly optimistic gamer playing with virtual alien civilizations in some kind of Spore-meets-Civilization video game to a hopelessly optimistic godlike being defending life as we know it from Social Darwinist Satan... er, Crayak.  I’d recommend giving this one if you can get your hands on a copy (unsurprisingly but sadly, it seems to be out of print); it’s an easy enough read, and well worth it for fans of speculative fiction