#not even the yeerk can't control that even knowing what's happening

[awkward-teabag]

The body horror and violence also works in large part because it doesn't forget it's a kid's series. It's there but it's not voyeuristic and doesn't dwell on it except when the intention is to be horrifying. It's not disturbing because it exists in the first place but at the implications of it in that moment and what it means to the characters.

It doesn't pretend things are fine but it doesn't relish the bad parts, either.

"This is the reality of war".

It doesn't sugarcoat things but also doesn't fixate on the bad and isn't written where it's clear the author is intentionally trying to shock the reader.

And when you finish the series or learn the finale was explicitly to show that war has no winners and doesn't tie things up in a neat little bow, that people involved still have to live with what they went through and did, it puts a different perspective on things.

A lot of it went over kids' heads, mine included, because fuck yeah turning into animals, aliens, and waging a secret war, but as an adult? The implications are disturbing.

Which makes me appreciate and applaud Applegate and the ghostwriters for walking a line that a lot of writers fail at, especially with that many books over multiple years.

people ask me "how the hell is [scene from animorphs] in a kid's series" and i cannot emphasize to them enough that animorphs does not forget for a single moment that it is a kid's series

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

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.

[ellimisms]

Concept: D&D homebrew oneshot based off Animorphs where you each play as one of the main characters of the Animorphs series.

The morphing system would be a modified Wild Shape mechanic, altered to two ends: first, to better fit the book's lore, and second, to make class factor into it more so each character is more unique. Probably each character would be able to use some of their class actions (just for an example, Action Surge for fighters or Rage for barbarians) while in morph, and morphing would restore hit points to 100%.

There would be a skill check associated with morphing--it'd be a Wisdom-based skill that you could gain proficiency in. Roll at advantage when using a familiar morph or becoming another human, disadvantage for things you're scared of or morphing while badly injured. Do a morphing check whenever you're in a new morph for the first time to see if you can get control of it; the actual number to beat is up to the GM based on what the animal is.

Also there would have to be some sort of mechanic to prevent TPKs--the main crew has a LOT of plot armor in the books because they can't die (until the end), so there'd need to be something to keep the PCs alive. Maybe if you "die" you don't actually perish, but instead something very bad happens to the party (you get infested, maybe?)

Infestation would be another new mechanic, though a pretty simple one; if a PC gets infested, the GM just starts controlling that character as the yeerk. The player can try to interrupt what the yeerk's doing, but has to roll a nat 20 with disadvantage (no bonuses from skill proficiencies)--it's supposed to be nearly impossible in the books so that's fairly lore-consistent.

In terms of the actual characters you can play:

Jake: Fighter, probably Battle Master subclass as that's more strategically focused. Not much else to say to be honest--I think he'd be proficient in persuasion, since he's supposed to be a good leader.

Marco: Rogue, maybe? Frankly his strengths don't match up with a specific class--maybe multiclass rogue/bard or fighter/bard because I know for a FACT he can and does cast vicious mockery.

Rachel: Barbarian for SURE, probably the Berserker subclass though I find the idea of her being a Wildheart pretty funny and thematically accurate.

Cassie: Probably a Druid or Beast Master ranger--I'm not sure where I stand on allowing caster classes since that doesn't exist in the real world but neither does morphing. Which one she is just depends on that.

Tobias: Who even KNOWS with this guy. Since he's stuck in morph it matters less, but I'd actually go with warlock--his patron is the Ellimist, since he's the one who seems to be able to argue with the Ellimist the most. It's either that or sorcerer, but he doesn't really gain any powers from his andalite bloodline so that seems less accurate.

Ax: Fighter, but it'd be different because he is an andalite. Just off the top of my head I'd make him be able to deal slashing damage on an unarmed attack (maybe just make his unarmed attack count as a sword attack) and increase his movement speed.

A group could also choose to discard these characters and play as a bunch of original characters if they so chose.

Anyways I'm probably the only person in the world that cares enough about both Animorphs and D&D to create this but oh well have fun.

[ziekaramaik]

The Invasion, page 97

I was living a nightmare. No, it was worse than a nightmare. In a nightmare, you eventually wake up. But I was already awake. There was nowhere else to go.

Temrash 114 had complete control over my body every second of the day. I couldn't even close my eyes when I wanted. I was forced to watch the horror my life had become. All because I joined The Sharing.

And now they were trying to do the same thing to my little brother.

Since the thing at the construction site last night, Temrash 114 was more interested than ever in having Jake infested. The Yeerk used my body and voice to invite Jake to a meeting of The Sharing. Jake didn't seem interested at first. But a little later, he came to me and said he would come after all.

I wanted to say, No, Jake! What are you doing? Say no, don't come! But the words couldn't reach my mouth.

It was my worst fear: That my little brother would become trapped in the same Hell I was.

Jake was the very last person on Earth I wanted the Yeerks to infest. Even more than my parents - They were adults, I could trust them to look after themselves. But Jake was just a little kid. He needed me to protect him. I was his big brother. It was my job to protect him. But I couldn't do anything!

Worse than that. I was the tool being used to put him in danger.

Jake came to the bonfire at the beach. He ate the barbeque. He played volleyball with my impostor. He seemed to be having fun. He had no idea it was all a trap. And I couldn't warn him. I could only watch. I was being forced to watch.

"Now you see why I enjoy this?" my mouth said. I tried to keep my mouth closed, but I had no control over it. I couldn't stop the Yeerk from operating me like a machine.

"It's cool," Jake said. "I didn't realize it was so much fun."

The Yeerks couldn't have him. They could have anyone else - literally, anyone else - but not him!

"Well, that's not all it is," the Yeerk said through me. "I mean, it's more than just fun. The Sharing can do all kinds of things for you. Once you're a full member."

"How do you get to be a full member?" Jake asked.

No, please no. He was actually interested. If there was ever a time I needed to get control of body back, it needed to be now. Right now! I had to warn him. I had to say, Don't join! Don't join!!

Instead, the Yeerk used my mouth to say, "Oh, that will come later. First, you become an associate member. Later the leaders will decide whether to ask you to become a full member."

I used all my willpower. I fought so hard to regain control. To send Jake some of warning. To just say some words, shake my head, make a frown, ANYTHING!

You can't have him!! Not Jake!! LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!!

My mouth smiled. "Once you become a full member . . . the whole world changes."

With every last bit of strength I had, and strength I didn't even know I had, I tried to shake my head and scream, "DON'T JOIN THE SHARING!!"

And something actually happened.

My head twitched. Just a little. Just a spasm. Just a tug of my mouth to the side and a crease of my eyebrows.

But it wasn't the Yeerk. It was me.

I did that.

For the very first time, I moved my body against Temrash 114's will.

But it was only for an instant. After that split-second, the Yeerk slammed down control and returned my face to normal. I felt his anger. He was furious at me for showing such defiance.

But on the outside, he simply used my mouth to say, "I have to go for a while now. The full members have a separate meeting. You guys stay here and have fun. Have some more of that barbeque. It's great, isn't it?"

I could see Jake looking at me, wide-eyed and innocent. Then my body turned and walked away.

I was exhausted. It was such a strain to fight against the Yeerk. Even if Temrash 114 gave up and allowed me to use my body now, I wasn't sure I'd have any energy left to move around or speak clearly.

And I was more than exhausted. I was miserable. All that effort, all the mental anguish I put into it, and I only regained control for a fraction of a second. Even at my very best, all I managed was a tiny twitch in my face.

Jake probably didn't even notice . . .

[jodjuya]

More bitching about Animorphs #38.

But also I'm somewhat mollified because the writing does pick up a bit from chapter 11 onwards...

Cassie channels her inner Luke Skywalker. Unfortunately for her, Marco has also seen Star Wars, and he's not on board with this nonsense.

Cassie, what the fuck are you even talking about?? Assassinating one's nemesis is the cowardly, easy way out??

Cassie Animorphs! You! are! a! guerrilla! terrorist! Now is not the time to be channeling the Marquess of bloody Queensberry!

No, just because you, Cassie—unwilling child soldier and aspiring pacifist—don't perceive assassination to be a valid tactic of asymmetric warfare, doesn't mean that it is therefore "murder".

At least Marco knows which genre of story he's in... :/

Following this outburst, Jake is all like "I'm just too fucking tired to even breathe, let alone figure out what to do about these dropkick Andalite Irregulars and their big talk... "

And then a whole bunch of stuff happens very quickly:

Rachel is all like "no really, wtf is our plan?!"

So Marco (lightly) SLAPS RACHEL ACROSS BOTH CHEEKS in a 'snap out of it' gesture, ordering her to "wise up" and accept that they've lost the war.

Rachel, naturally, flips the fuck out and starts beating up Marco. Marco cowers on the ground and receives his beating until Jake physically steps in to pull Rachel off of him.

Tobias is like "okay, yeah, fuck this; I'm done. goodbye forever" and he peaces outta there

Then Rachel fucking GOES OFF! She's all like "I don't remember ever seeing MY signature at the bottom of the Geneva convention! And I am SO DONE with this pathetic baby shit! So fuck all you fucking losers, I'm going solo! Time to show these fucking Yeerks what REAL fucking terrorism looks like!!!" and she leaves too.

Then Cassie is like "I'm out too; if this is unwinnable then how can we justify continuing to kill Hork-Bajir Controllers when they're basically just innocent victim prisoners of war??"

(so I guess this is genuinely some character growth? she's so sickened by war she can't bring herself to continue. It's not just lazy flanderization)

Then Marco bails too

And Ax is the last man standing. He reaffirms his oath of loyalty to Jake, but Jake is like, "nah man, we're done here. No more Animorphs. Go hook up with the Andalite Ginyu Squad to get yourself home."

Next chapter: Ax hooks up with the Andalite Irregulars, and notices that they give him sus vibes... 🤔

[judgeitbyitscover]

Animorphs (1996-2001) by K. A. Applegate

Cover art by David B. Mattingly

Scholastic, June 1996-May 2001

#1 The Invasion (1996)

Sometimes weird things happen to people. Ask Jake. He may tell you about the night he and his friends saw the strange light in the sky. He may even tell you about what happened when they realized the "light" was only a plane -- from another planet. Here's where Jake's story gets a little weird. It's where they're told that the human race is under attack -- and given the chance to fight back.

Now Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, and Marco have the power to morph into any animal they choose. And they must use that power to outsmart an evil that is greater than anything the world has ever seen...

#3 The Encounter (1996)

When Tobias, Jake, Rachel, Marco, and Cassie were given the ability to morph, they were also given one very important warning: Never stay in a morph for more than two hours. It seemed a small price to pay, since the kids know that humans everywhere are being forced to let slimy, spineless creatures creep into their brains. And the only way the kids can fight back is not to be human.

But Tobias stayed in his morph too long. And now he's a hawk -- with a boy's mind -- forever. Tobias knows they can't give up. That they all made a promise. So now it's four kids and a hawk against a force that's determined to destroy them. Or die trying...

#4 The Message (1996)

Unable to ignore the strange dreams that she and her friends have experienced since they developed morphing powers, Cassie wonders if a dream that draws her to the sea is a cry for help or a trap. Original.

#11 The Forgotten (1997)

There's been an accident. Someone crash-landed a Yeerk Bug fighter. And the Yeerks have been trying to cover it up—quickly. But not before Tobias spots it. So the Animorphs and Ax decide to steal the ship to show the world that Earth has been invaded.

That's when things go terribly wrong. Before they know it, Jake, the other Animorphs, and Ax find themselves in another place. Another time. And there's no way home...

#19 The Departure (1998)

Cassie's had it. After the last mission, she realizes she's getting tired of missions. Tired of battles. Tired of being an Animorph. She decides that she just can't do it anymore. So she quits.

But that's not the worst that's happened. It seems a human-Controller named Karen followed Cassie after the last run-in with the Yeerks. And she knows Cassie is an Andalite . . . or human. Either way, if she exposes Cassie, it's all over. No more Cassie. No more Animorphs. No more planet Earth. . .

#23 The Pretender

Someone's looking for Tobias. Someone who says she's his long-lost cousin. Tobias isn't sure the person is telling the truth. But she's really nice, and knows a lot about him. And what she tells Tobias definitely gets his attention.

It seems a lawyer has discovered Tobias's father's last will and testament. So, Tobias needs to attend the reading. His "cousin" even offers to go along. But something just doesn't feel quite right. That's when Tobias, the other Animorphs, and Ax decide to do a little checking on this "cousin". And what they discover will change the rest of Tobias's life...

#27 The Exposed (1999)

The Animorphs and Ax have one true ally in their battle against the Yeerks: the Chee. So, when they discover that the Chee⁠—including their friend, Erek⁠—are in trouble, they have no choice but to help.

But the Chee's problem is much deeper than anything the kids could have imagined. It's hidden in the ocean. So far down that no human has ever traveled there—and survived. And the Animorphs realize what will happen if Visser Three discovers the valuable secrets of the Chee. One of which is the Animorphs. . .

#32 The Separation (1999)

Rachel is falling apart. Literally. Her newest morph has the ability to regenerate its limbs, but when Rachel demorphs there's a lot more Rachel than when she started out. One more Rachel, to be exact. Rachel is an okay person to have around. But two could be considered overkill. Especially two Rachels with completely opposite personalities: one is pathetically weak; one is super strong and super nasty.

Now the Animorphs have to figure out a way to put Rachel back together again. Because if it's up to the "twins," Rachel the weak will surrender to Visser Three. Rachel the super bold will try to single-handedly take him down. And twice the trouble may be twice as much as the other Animorphs and Ax can handle. . .

[ksfoxwald]

Animorphs #49: The Diversion

Well, on the off chance that anyone actually wants to watch me experience the Animorphs finale for the first time, twenty years later.

I just finished #49.

Reactions (contains twenty year old spoilers):

Slightly surprised the Yeerks haven't tried tracking the kids with DNA before; like, sure, they thought they were Andalites, but no one thought to check the DNA of their very plentiful involuntary blood samples just to be sure? Because they've floated the idea of them being humans since pretty much the beginning. Visser Three/One's arrogance, I suppose.

"At least they haven't had a chance to get any of our blood" (gets stabbed) "wait no they actually have gotten a lot of our blood."

They tell! Their parents! About the morphing! I think there's been more of a trend in kidlit of letting the parents be involved in the Adventure, but in the 90s it was one of the Rules that Grown Ups Can't Know About The Magic. I think probably people are starting to realize that narratives of kids keeping secrets from adults encourages abusive behavior.

Cassie: "My parents are scientists, so we need to present them with logic and facts. Hi mom, hi dad, I'm fighting an alien invasion and I can turn into a wolf."

Cassie's parents, who once joked that she was too responsible to punish: "Okay, we trust you, let's go." I love them so much.

Rachel: "My mom's a lawyer so she'll just argue with us, we just need to grab my family and run."

Rachel's mom: ~attacks a grizzly bear with a spice rack because what else would you expect from RACHEL'S mom?~

no I'm not getting emotional over the way Applegate repeatedly stresses that parents will do anything to keep their children safe from harm and how she has a trans daughter and shows up in public wearing "Protect Trans Kids" shirts (yes I am getting emotional)

Ax: "Rachel, your sisters are convinced that I am a 'pokey man' and that they need to 'train' me"

Honestly Ax watches enough TV I'm surprised he doesn't know what a Pokemon is. Probably too focused on These Messages.

You thought we were going to get a catharsis with the Jake and Tom situation? I have been waiting twenty years for Jake to speak to his brother without the Yeerk in his head. But NO, the Yeerks take Jake's parents, because if there's one thing Applegate knows how to do well (and there are many things she knows how to do well) it's how to ESCALATE the stakes with PAIN

Jake's mom, who knows her son is going through a lot even though she has no idea how much, but still validates his feelings by admitting that kids go through all the same emotional problems adults do - now waving a Dracon beam and shouting "Die human filth!" = Top 10 heartbreaking moments of the series.

I haven't even mentioned Loren yet!!! She's like the main point of the book! Tobias finally finds his mom! We finally find out what happened to her after the Andalite Chronicles when she basically got the fridge treatment! Except Applegate respects her female characters too much to do that!

So it turns out that in addition to Ellimist-induced amnesia she also has brain injury amnesia? That's so much amnesia. Unless the Ellimist arranged the car accident in order to cover up his amnesia? I'm not too clear on that. In any case: amnesia.

She is also blind; Marco and Ax pose as juvenile delinquents to briefly kidnap the dog so Tobias can morph it.

Ax: "I am a juvenile delinquent. I am very threatening." ~rearranges shelves~

Giving Loren the ability to morph (and in the episode right after The Return of David) and her first morph being a red-tailed hawk, being, in fact, Tobias the red-tailed hawk? That's pure narrative gold.

Followed by an utterly slapstick fight in an abandoned toy store including Controllers slipping on Hot Wheels cars and a gorilla on a scooter, because this is still, after all, a kids book. Though honestly most adult books could do with a bit more silliness.

Also I feel like we don't get enough of Rachel's mom. Gets roped into drafting the Hork-Bajir constitution, then when it's ready to sign realizes none of them know how to read, so now high-powered girlboss corporate lawyer is teacher seven-foot tall spiky aliens the ABC song. Only on Animorphs.

Anyway. Loren's blindness being cured by morphing is a bit "magical cure," but also consistent with the established worldbuilding, so it would actually make less sense for her to stay blind. Also she doesn't get her memories back, and I know Applegate has some really good moments with disabled characters in later books, so I'm not going to be too hard on this one.

So, uh. That was an emotional rollercoaster. Which Tobias books usually are. Sooo satisfying though. Lots of closure. I... might almost be ready for this to be over.

Final five countdown has begun.

[tomberensonsghost]

The Animorphs are transported to the Phineas and Ferb universe by a Sario Rip

It is late afternoon when they arrive, and they see a rollercoaster the size of the entire city being carried away by a regular sized helicopter.

Marco is like "what the frick, are we cartoons?"

Visser Three and various Yeerks and Controllers are also transported to the Pherbiverse.

Animorphs decide to seek shelter for the night.

The next morning, Phineas and Ferb wake up and can't come up with any ideas for what they are going to do that day. They decide to go to The Mall for inspiration, and since Candace is going there anyway to look at Jeremy, their mom says that they have to go together.

As they arrive at The Mall, Jeremy is leaving, because the Sharing is throwing a big party and they wanted Wiener Schnitzel or wherever he works to cater it. Candace decides that she has to go along, because she thinks Jeremy is going there to meet a girl. The boys have their shopping to do. They run into Ax at the food court, and start telling him about some of their inventions.

Meanwhile, at the Sharing, Candace sneaks into the back room because she thinks she saw Jeremy go in there, and she ends up getting Yeerked. It's pretty canon that Candace and Tom are exactly the same person.

Back at the food court, Ax is trying to not be one-upped by some weird triangle-headed kid and mentions morphing technology. Phineas and Ferb Know What They're Going To Do Today.

The Animorphs overheard Mr. Visser making a large order from Wiener Schnitzel and after wrangling Ax from the Cinna-Mon (Jamaican themed cinnamon roll stand), they also head toward the Sharing event.

Enter Perry.

OWCA has also heard about strange happenings, and thinking that it has something to do with Doofenschmirtz, sends Perry to investigate.

Candace returns home. Unfortunately, the Yeerk was not able to enter her ear because the many hours that she spends yelling "MOM!!!" at a high volume have caused her ear canals to fuse shut to protect the delicate bones of her inner ear. Therefore, the Yeerk is perched on top of her head, Ratatouille style. The Yeerk looks around the house to find something to cover itself with, and sees Perry's hat.

Perry, his hat nowhere to be found, is forced to wear his old hat that Linda shrunk in the wash. It is so tiny.

In the backyard, Phineas and Ferb have finished their morphing cube (but it's a a dodecahedron, so that the all of their friends and the entire Fireside Girls troop can use it at once). Ferb has made some improvements so that you can morph any animal you can think of, you don't have to touch it. It doesn't even have to be a real animal. Phineas morphs a shark with legs so he can walk around and look for shells at the beach. Ferb morphs a badger with a mohawk. Isabella morphs a sparkly rainbow unicorn that can fly and also shoot rainbow lasers out of its eyes. Buford morphs a slightly taller version of himself. Baljeet morphs Original Height Buford.

Doofenschmirtz is sulking in his tower because his ex-wife changed the password on their shared daily crossword puzzle account. Just as he is about to start work on his password-reverse-inator, he looks out the window and sees Perry in a tiny hat swinging by on a rope. He thinks this is odd, not only because he thinks that Perry has grown larger since he last saw him, but also because Perry is going towards a large party at the center of town that he, Doofenschmirtz, was not invited to. He decides to follow Perry and see what's up.

Candace has returned to the Sharing get-together with Stacy in tow. Candace walks right past Jeremy, who is talking to another girl, without so much as glancing his way. Stacy thinks that Candace is acting very weird.

The Animorphs have arrived at the gathering too, and are trying to blend in, but it is difficult because they are normal heights, and their heads are normal shapes. They do their best. They split up to look for Visser Three.

Jake sees Perry walking by in his tiny hat and assumes that it is Marco messing around. He grabs Perry by the arm. Perry flips Jake on his back and karate chops him before walking away. Jake looks up at the sky and sees a flying shark with legs, a flying badger, a unicorn, and two normal-looking boys, one slightly larger than the other. No one else around notices or comments on this. Jake wishes that he was back on the Isk-Oort planet.

Perry sneaks into the back room where Visser Three is hiding and eating hot dogs. Perry is like 'this is not Doofenschmirtz but it's definitely not supposed to be here so I guess I've got to do something about it.' I mean, he's like 'krrrrr' He attacks.

Visser Three, thinking that this is an Andalite Bandit in disguise, morphs some kind of horrible, giant eyeball-tenticle-goop creature, and bursts through the roof of the building. Phineas sees this and is like 'Aw, man, I didn't even think of that!' and immediately morphs that, except it can fly. Everyone else in the gang does the same, except for Baljeet, who turns into a slightly shorter version of Buford. Now there are like, twelve horrible creatures, and Perry is calling in reinforcements so there are also a bunch on animals in hats, and the Animorphs are morphing too, but they don't know who to fight, and also their morphs for some reason are not in cartoon form, so they stand out really bad, and Phineas and the gang are making a game out of throwing acid balls at each other, and it's total chaos.

And to top it all off, Candace is not even TRYING to get her mom to come look at what's happening.

Stacy is like "Candace, you're acting super weird, and you look so silly in that hat" and knocks the hat off her head.

This knocks the Yeerk off too, and it hits the ground, hat still on top of it.

Candace is like 'Thanks, Stacy, I owe you one' and runs off yelling MOOOOOM

Perry rushes past and spots his hat on the ground. He picks it up, and sees the Yeerk underneath. Assuming that this is a new recruit, Perry takes off his tiny hat, and puts it on the Yeerk. Now they both have hats that fit.

Pan to Doofenschmirtz sitting at a sidewalk cafe, watching the whole event while eating popcorn. He says "this is so much better than doing a crossword puzzle."

The Animorphs decide to pick one monster to attack, and they all go for it. It turns out to be Phineas, who immediately turns back into a boy and compliments them on the special effects of their costumes. He recognizes Ax from the mall (even though at the mall Ax was in his human morph, and now he is an Andalite), and is like 'Thanks for the tip! This morphing thing is the most fun we've had since we built that giant waterslide made out of trampolines last week. Do you mind if I copy your morph?" and then Phineas turns into an Andalite, and the rest of the gang follows, except for Baljeet, who turns into an even shorter version of Buford. But blue.

Visser Three decides that the odds are stacked against him, and demorphs and runs.

Jake is like 'wait, you guys built a morphing cube in one day?' and Phineas says 'A cube! That would have been way easier. If we'd only done a cube we probably could have shaved 20% off our development time, and then I wouldn't have burned the cookies we made for mom's birthday. That reminds me, I should go make another batch. Do you guys want to come?'

So everyone goes to Phineas and Ferb's house.

Isabella is gushing about all the things that Phineas has made, and Cassie's like '... do you think you could make a huge explosion?' and Ferb's like 'How huge are we talking?'

So they start work on that.

Just as they're finishing up, Candace finally gets home with their mom. She's dragging her into the house and trying to explain the mind controlling aliens and the turning into animals and everything else and get her mom into the backyard to see, but Linda just wants to go upstairs and change out of her mambo outfit first.

Phineas and Ferb set off the explosion, but Isabella wanted it to be pretty, so they added fireworks and streamers. Candace pulls their mom outside saying "Look! Look what they've done!" just as this happens. at the same time, a very short Buford comes outside with a plate of burnt cookies.

Phineas says "We're sorry, Mom," and Candace starts celebrating in the background, thinking that she's finally got them. "We wanted your birthday to be perfect, but the cookies just didn't come out right."

Linda assures them that it's okay, she loves her cookies a little crispy and she also loved the fireworks display. Candace's jaw hits the floor and Linda goes inside to get some ice cream for everybody.

Ferb is looking at a handheld computer screen, and he shows it to Phineas. Phineas says, "Oh, if they just wanted to go to another dimension, why didn't they ask to use our inter-dimensional bus pass?" and holds up a sparkly, galaxy print card. Ferb shrugs.

A post-credits scene shows Major Monogram welcoming the newest member of OWCA, Agent Y, to the team.

Uh oh I'm thinking of how funny an Animorphs/Phineas and Ferb crossover would be.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

What if: Cassie didn't get control of the squirrel brain quickly enough in The Message, and Tobias ate her as planned?

I think Cassie would just disappear, and no one would never know what happened to her. Like, from Tobias's point of view: he goes to Cassie's to get out of the rain, he sees a cornered squirrel in the barn, he eats the squirrel. At no point does he have reason to expect that the squirrel is a human in morph, because the squirrel is acting like a squirrel and makes no attempt to communicate with him.

But that raises an interesting question: what happens to Ax? The others only find him because Cassie and Tobias realize he's in both their dreams, so without Cassie there's no way Tobias would figure that out. We know that the yeerks show up not long after the Animorphs do, thanks to Ax accidentally including Alloran in his long-distance call, but we also see Ax escape on his own in MM4. So either Ax gets made a controller (which is bad) or he escapes on his own and never joins the Animorphs.

Either way, now you've got a team of just Tobias, Rachel, Marco, and Jake fighting the Yeerk Empire. And at that point in the series Marco is looking for any excuse to quit, while Tobias can't morph. Yeah, that would go really badly for Team Humanity, even if they think Cassie ran away from home to escape the war.

[lorenfangor]

What if Tom was never a Controller?

anon I need you to know I love this with my whole soul.

here we go. my heartfelt thanks to @nikosheba for letting me scream about this, because I never could have done it otherwise.

things begin basically the same way they do in the leadup to book 1 except for one crucial point: Tom was home sick with a cold on the fateful evening when he was infested in canon. He doesn't see the girl he's dating go into the back, he doesn't assume she's cheating on him, and he's never caught and Yeerked.

Elfangor crashes, the kids get the morphing power, they escape, etc.

Tom invites Jake and the others to the beach party; they go, and Marco is very aggressively hit on by a cheerleader Controller

he's really smug about this while also being lowkey terrified of her extremely in-your-face methods, and Rachel teases him about it - "A cheerleader hit on you? Either this story is super fake or that girl is a space ali - oh shit."

Marco is indignant, and decides to go to the meeting of The Sharing that she invited him to just to prove that they're all wrong and this girl is not a Controller and he is very cute and masculine. The others follow him as backup after acquiring some stealth morphs and raptors from the clinic.

Marco is caught snooping around by the same girl who hit on him and dragged down to the Yeerk Pool - she suspects that he's one of the kids "setting off fireworks" who everyone's been looking for. The others morph and go after him, managing to free him. The girl dies when Marco shoves her down some stairs and she breaks her neck.

Their time in the Pool is so horrific and awful that they're all convinced to join the fight. Marco realizes that nothing he does will help him or his dad escape except for action, Jake and Rachel and Cassie are traumatized by the vast extent of the invasion and determined to save as much of the Earth as possible, and Tobias (who gets trapped in morph, as in canon) is fighting for freedom and for the memory of Elfangor.

the events of books 2-5 happen as in canon - Melissa, the ship and the trout and Tobias's existential crisis, Ax's rescue from the Dome, the trip to space and the revelation that Eva is the host for Visser One. there's not really a major change until Jake is shot in the hospital and becomes infested by Temrash. he was in the head of the girl who was trying to recruit Marco, and he's as arrogant as ever.

Ax still morphs Jake, but this time Tom's not a puppet for a slug, and he catches his 'brother' demorphing in the bathroom.

Ax knocks him out, and Tom wakes up in the empty house in his neighborhood (the same one amnesiac!Rachel crashes in during MM1), surrounded by his cousin, his brother's best friend, and a blue furry centaur alien.

"Don't freak out," Marco tells him, "but Jake's been infested with a space alien brain slug who we're trying to kill by starvation. Cassie's with him now. We can't stick around for long, but come with us and we'll prove it to you."

He goes. He's almost convinced by the Yeerk's acting. Almost. Jake was never that arrogant, or bitter, or brash. He listens to Marco and Rachel and Cassie, helps Ax survive the Berenson household, and sees Temrash crawl out of Jake's ear and die a day and a half later.

"You're not fighting this war all by yourselves," he tells his brother, and he means it. "I want in."

"So break up with your girlfriend," Jake says. "She's a real space alien." He does.

He runs interference with parents, drives the getaway car, fakes being a chaperone for mall trips or weekend missions disguised as camping, and does anything else that's needed. He's got a support role, but that's fine. He does have one request, though: bring back any Dracon beams they can.

Jean is often out of the house with friends, and Steve works long hours, so Tom has plenty of time to hide an armory of stolen guns all over the Berenson household. He visits Ax and Tobias in the forest and practices with alien weaponry - he might not be able to morph, but he can sure as shit be a sniper. He starts taking point on some missions, wearing all black and a ski mask, providing support from rooftops and fire escapes.

And then, one day, word gets to him that a kid at the middle school has the alien box that lets you morph.

His brother and the others make a real mess of the retrieval, ending with a destroyed house, a pair of infested adults, and an unconscious boy whose fate is essentially up to him. The team is split - Rachel, Tobias, and Cassie are for making this kid who had the box an Animorph, and Jake, Marco, and Ax are unsure.

"No," Tom says. They look at him, stunned. Cassie opens her mouth, ready to say something, but he shuts her down. "Where are we going to let him live? My room? Your room, midget? Marco sure as hell doesn't have the space, and no offense Rachel but I think he'd probably say your house is infested with cooties. And we're not making him sleep in a barn. Besides, we don't know him. He's a snotty little brat, that's it, and we can't trust that. No, this is a bad idea. It sucks for him that he's gonna get infested? But we can't risk the human race for one kid."

No one argues with him. They all know he's made the only reasonable call. They still feel guilty about it, though.

Tom's invited to the next planning meeting, where they're plotting how to fix the G8 Summit problem. He wasn't expecting the other six to offer to make him a real Animorph. He accepts.

The mission goes only slightly better than it does in canon, with the only real advantage being that this time there's not a traitor there to sell them out to the Yeerks. They all almost get stuck in morph, and only Tom's quick thinking gets them out a back entrance and in the clear. He's angry with Jake - from his perspective his kid brother is too young to lead. He challenges for leadership. Jake backs down and lets him take it, with only Ax and Marco telling him it's a bad idea.

Tom comes up with the idea to phone in a bomb threat to the hotel, canceling the summit. The others are impressed with his quick thinking.

Under him, the missions turn espionage-heavy - a lot of spying, a lot of intelligence gathering, a lot of cooperation with the Chee. They split the team when the call comes to go to the Arctic, with Marco, Rachel, and Ax going north with him and Jake, Cassie, and Tobias staying home to hold down the fort.

But Tom has a weakness: he's good at spying, he's good at divide-and-conquer when it's not combat, he's good at sniping and holding a line, but he's not good at tactics. He can't see how a battle works, he can't lead from the front. When the Ellimist comes calling and takes the team to the Iskoort homeworld, he freezes in the fights against the Howlers. He doesn't know what to do.

Jake, though? Jake shines. He comes to life as a tactician, directing and taking charge and keeping everyone alive. He finds a way to defeat their enemy, he takes the victory, and he gets to kiss the girl at the end. Tom can tell a born hero when he sees one, and he steps down from the leadership position.

"I'd rather be support anyway," he says, and when Erek gives him and Jake Chee-modified cell phones, he decides he's going to start really aiding the fight from the home front. He makes inroads with other Chee, and he's the first to notice them go down when there's an issue with the Pemalite ship. He goes to Sharing meetings and events, feigning interest in low-level membership. He gets good at sniping, he learns Yeerk and Andalite computer systems from Ax, and he's a source of cash for when somebody needs a Cinnabon run.

When the Yeerks come for Jean and Steve and Tom, they don't expect to be greeted with blazing gunfire. Tom's not sure where Marco and Rachel got the Dracon cannon from, but he hid it in the attic, and he uses it to blast the van of Controllers coming down their street. From there, it's easy enough to turn into a stork (what an embarrassing mission, all told) and back to human; this buys him enough time to explain what's happening. The Berensons evacuate, going on the run to the Hork-Bajir Valley, and Jake enters the final stages of the war with a little bit more of his soul intact.

[ziekaramaik]

The Invasion, page 97

I was living a nightmare. No, it was worse than a nightmare. In a nightmare, you have a chance of waking up. But I was already awake. There was nowhere else to go.

Temrash 114 had complete control over my body every second of the day. I couldn't even control what I looked at. He chose what my eyes were pointed at. All because I joined The Sharing.

And now they were trying to do the same thing to my little brother.

Since the thing at the construction site last night, Temrash 114 was more interested than ever in having Jake infested. The Yeerk used my body and voice to invite Jake to a meeting of The Sharing. Jake didn't seem interested at first. But a little later, he came to me and said he would come after all.

It was my worst fear: That my little brother would become trapped in the same Hell I was.

Jake was the very last person on Earth I wanted the Yeerks to infest. Even more than my parents - They were adults, they could look after themselves. But Jake was just a little kid. I needed to protect him. I was his big brother, it was my job to protect him but I couldn't!

Jake came to the bonfire at the beach. He ate the barbeque. He played volleyball with my impostor. He seemed to be having fun. He had no idea it was all a trap. And I couldn't warn him. I could only watch.

"Now you see why I enjoy this?" my mouth said. I tried to force my mouth closed, but I had no control over it. I couldn't stop the Yeerk from operating me like a machine.

"It's cool," Jake said. "I didn't realize it was so much fun."

The Yeerks couldn't have him. They could have anyone else - literally, anyone else - but not him!

"Well, that's not all it is," the Yeerk said through me. "I mean, it's more than just fun. The Sharing can do all kinds of things for you. Once you're a full member."

"How do you get to be a full member?" Jake asked. He was actually interested now.

No, please no. If there was ever a time I needed to get control of body back, it needed to be now. Right now! I had to warn him. I had to say, Don't join! Don't join!!

Instead, the Yeerk used my mouth to say, "Oh, that will come later. First, you become an associate member. Later the leaders will decide whether to ask you to become a full member."

I used all my willpower. I fought so hard to regain control. To send Jake some of warning. To just shake my head, a serious look, a frown, a blink, ANYTHING!

You can't have him!! Not Jake!! LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!!

My mouth smiled. "Once you become a full member . . . the whole world changes."

With every last bit of strength I had, and strength I didn't even know I had, I tried to shake my head and scream, "DON'T JOIN THE SHARING!!"

And something actually happened.

My head twitched. Just a little. Just a spasm. Just a tug of my mouth to the side and just a crease of my eyebrows.

But it wasn't the Yeerk. It was me. I did that. For the very first time, I moved my body against Temrash 114's will.

But it was only for an instant. After that split-second, the Yeerk slammed down control and returned my face to normal. I felt his anger. He was furious at me for showing such defiance.

But on the outside, he simply used my mouth to say, "I have to go for a while now. The full members have a separate meeting. You guys stay here and have fun. Have some more of that barbeque. It's great, isn't it?"

I could see Jake looking at me, wide-eyed and innocent. Then my body turned and walked away.

I was exhausted. It was such a strain to fight against the Yeerk. Even if Temrash 114 gave up and allowed me to use my body now, I wasn't sure I'd have any energy left to move around or speak clearly.

And I was more than exhausted. I was miserable. All that effort, all the mental anguish I put into it, and I only regained control for a fraction of a second. Even at my very best, all I managed was a tiny twitch in my face.

Jake probably didn't even notice . . .

[gher-bear]

Real talk, my guess is no. They don't seem to have the ability to remain unaffected when their host gets injured (so they either can't turn off pain receptors or easily get the host to continue acting as though uninjured), and while I think they might be able to sense an impending attack before the host could, I'm not sure they could do anything about it given how wide-reaching a migraine attack works. We don't even *really* understand what's happening. Like, we don't understand migraines to an abominable degree. We're only *just* starting to create medications that are for migraine specifically and aren't just lucky side effects of other medications.

So if a Yeerk *could* stop a migraine, I think they'd have to be able to stop the spreading cortical depression that happens across the brain at the start of the process. As far as I know, we don't even know why that happens, just that it seems to happen and it seems to be related to migraines. Possibly also they'd have to control the vascular systems in the head and also maybe do something like the CGRP-inhibitors do and make sure those proteins are taken out before they can cause trouble? Timing would also be important; migraines can run for days, from prodrome to postdrome. And then overlap, one starting while another is ending.

I suspect that if a Yeerk wanted to stop a migraine, that's probably where all their focus would have to be, potentially for days. So my bet is on "Maybe, if they really really tried, but it's such a complex neurological event, they're probably just along for the ride as much as the host is".

On the other hand, built-in anti-Yeerk defense system. Or sudden and enthusiastic funding for migraine and cluster headache research. Given the sheer amount of people with migraine on the planet, seems like fixing it would be of relevant interest to a parasitic species looking to take over.

I wonder if a yeerk could fix my migraines. like how much power do they have over brain chemicals?

[rays-animorphs]

Book 8 Part 9 (final): to seek new life and new raisinets

“Humans are special, because we’ll fight to the death rather than surrender our freedom” is really not my preferred sci-fi trope.

Have I mentioned this before?

How do you have an intelligent parasite of a non-intelligent host? Does that even make sense? What does the parasite do with that intelligence? How is it adaptive?

“You bring the spaceships. We’ll bring the Raisinets and cinnamon buns.” That’s…remarkably sweet. Heck yeah, humans and Andalites cruising the stars in peace and cooperation. I’ll toast to that vision.

Is this series ever going to explore what “freedom” means? Beyond, you know, not having your mind forcibly taken over by a brain slug?

Fighting for freedom. Because that totally makes sense. Because nothing makes people free like killing other people and joining extremely hierarchical organizations that have near-total control of your life. Freedom.


Nominally, bonding over shared values makes sense. I’m just not sure any of them know what freedom means. The only time so far anyone has talked about freedom in anything other than “literally not being enslaved by Yeerks” terms was when Tobias talked about being “trapped” in hawk form, and it’s not like that has any unfortunate implications.

Do...do some people literally see the world that way, like "as long as my culture is dominant where I live, I'm free and that's what matters?" Ax's being trained to sacrifice his life before he's an adult and always follow his prince's orders doesn't make him in any way less free? High schooler humans in basically the same position in JROTC are not any less free? High schoolers in school (can't leave the classroom without a hall pass, can't leave the school without permission, don't eat in class, don't cuss, your homework is your "responsibility") are not in any way less "free" even though they're again literally not allowed to physically leave without permission, the most basic and literal definition of "freedom"?

Are there actually people who believe that if they lived under a different government they would be 100% not free, but as long as they're living under "their" government they 100% are free? (and heck, wouldn't that be true for people in other places too, that they'd be more free under this government, or at least one approved of by this government?) How does that even work?

(Yes, of course I'm thinking about "Operation Iraqi Freedom", I'm always thinking about "Operation Iraqi Freedom".)

Aww, Tobias. <I know one Andalite who would have been proud of you.> awwww

That’s got to be an incredibly inefficient way to eat.

What…what happens if an Andalite steps in shit?

Ugh. But can you get Tobias back into human form you fucking Andalite? Gah.

Hmm. So, we have the main character-development arc of the story being Ax’s conflict between following the laws of his people vs being fully part of the team. And that alongside, at a more deeper level, the burden of whether he can live up to the expectations on him as the younger brother of a big damn hero. And the end neatly ties them together: Ax chooses honesty with the Animorphs over strict adherence to Andalite law, and, yeah, I think he and Zuko would have a lot to talk about on the “you make your own honor” front. There is more to honor than obedience, and ultimately you don’t get people’s respect by holding their positive regard as your highest value. (You might not get it anyways. But if you’ve actually recalibrated your goals, you don’t need it.) Good character writing.

This is the best book so far, because it was from Ax’s POV. And because we got more big-picture backstory. And because we get the vision of different species exploring space together with shared values tying them together.

[augurhound-a]

[[ gimmie your top three villains in your favorite media~ could be games/cartoons/movies/etc! ]]

vecna, the whispered one from D&D canon. my absolute favorite archetype ever is the scheming mastermind that has everything under control and is always fifteen steps ahead when it comes to their plans (tzeentch from warhammer springs to mind immediately). vecna was my first exposure to that; the lich god of secrets whose entire scheme is that his schemes cannot be understood. you make a plan in secret, guess what dipshit: he knows it. you're not smarter than him, you can't outwit him--he knows you, your thoughts, and every single thing you could possibly plan to do against him.

esplin 9466/visser three from animorphs. absolute fucking asshole. zero redeeming qualities. total sociopathic murderer that then whirls around and says "ahaha well YEERKS are victims of YOU GUYS you committed war crimes too CNN charge this fucker with war crimes" (actually happens in canon i am not joking) when jake flushes 50,000 yeerks (which is a war crime but guess what kids war is horrible and nobody is a winner in it not even if one side is "the bad guy"). he battled crayak for this spot but visser three is more prominent in the series and if evil hot, well, why sexy

shockwave from transformers. dnd animorphs and transformers. wow you got my entire personality. anyway i am out of things to say and have only this:

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

You’ve said before that ex-hosts in Eleutherophobia can have blunted affect such as their expressionless speech. Does that still happen when Tom uses thought-speak, which doesn’t require any physical muscle control?

So. My headcanon about thought-speak is that it doesn't have tone like voice-speak, but that it does convey emotions in its own way. For example, in MM3 Rachel notes that Cassie's thought-speak "was alarmed. She'd heard the guns. But she didn't know... about Jake." Later, when discussing the Holocaust, Ax notes Rachel "[thought-] spoke with no special emphasis. No anger."

If Rachel can tell that Cassie a) heard gunfire but b) doesn't know Jake is dead, then Rachel has a pretty good read of Cassie's mood just from the way Cassie shouted the word "What?". Definitely more information than Rachel would've gotten from Cassie texting her the word "What". Ax noting Rachel's lack of emotion in thought-speak also suggests she normally does have emotion coming through.

Based on what we see in #1 and #33, thought-speak can convey a lot of things voice-speak cannot: images, memories, a sense of someone else's emotions in your own body. But it doesn't necessarily convey tone. We don't see any instances of characters being "shrill" or "hoarse" in thought-speak, even though those are common in voice-speak. In #50, Timmy has trouble generating language, but can use thought-speak fluently. So it's not like talking on the phone.

I headcanon that is why no one can tell when Ax is joking: In andalite-to-andalite communication, intent is obvious by default, so you'd never need to lower and sharpen your voice to get verbal irony across. Galuit can't tell when Jake is being sarcastic (#18) for the same reasons Jake can't tell when Ax is being sarcastic; there are two different ways of conveying it. Ax is like "obviously I willed a certain ironic distance into my words; why is that so hard for humans to understand?" and the humans are all like "bro, when using mouth-sounds you gotta inflect irony."

As to what that all means for yeerk hosts, who sound "flat" (#45) and "slurred" (#2) when talking out loud... Hm. Gotta think about it more.

[trashcanmoose]

Continuing from last time, here's more of my commentary on my Animorphs re-read! We're on book one right now.

Of course, a SPOILER WARNING for anyone who hasn't read the series.

Let's get into it.

Book One: The Invasion (Chapters 6-14)

I don't know what came over me right then. I had been so afraid. So terrified. But it was like something just snapped in my head. I couldn't just hide and watch, I couldn't. "You filthy - " I jumped to my feet. I snatched up a piece of rusted iron pipe from the ground and started to climb over that wall. I guess I just went crazy or something. It had to be craziness, because there was no way that I, alone, armed with a piece of pipe, was going to accomplish anything. The Andalite's silent cry made me hesitate. I felt Marco's hands grabbing at my shirt and pulling me back. Tobias and Marco held me down. Rachel put her hand over my mouth. I was trying to scream, or curse, or something. "Shut up, you idiot!" Marco hissed. "You're just going to get us all killed." "Jake, don't." Cassie put her hand on my cheek. "He doesn't want you to die for him. Don't you realize? He's dying for us." I shoved Marco and Tobias away angrily. But I was in control of myself again.

Okay, so it's a long part to be highlighting but this whole section makes me actually feel like I can relate to Jake on something, which I feel like won’t happen super often in this series from what I can remember, but I could be wrong. The anger of seeing something terrible happening that you can't stop? That's exactly what's going on here.

Then we have this, which felt necessary to share:

At the very end, he cried out. His cry of despair was in our heads. His cry will always be in our heads.

Okay, when I said last time I wasn’t going to highlight anything specific from Elfangor’s death? This. This I’m highlighting because it’s a major starting point in the Animorphs’ PTSD development and it would actually be really terrifying in real life.

And just a little more of Elfangor’s death, as a treat.

Okay not really a treat, more of a punishment I suppose:

The Taxxon-Controllers rushed forward and crowded around Visser Three. They seemed to be stretching up toward him, and then I saw why - a piece of the Andalite fell from the Visser's jaws and the nearest Taxxon greedily gobbled it up.

A second instance of Andalite-eating in the series already. That was fast.

Ready for something else that really gets my attention?

I heard a sound that was strange because it was so normal. It was laughter. Human laughter. The humans . . . the Human-Controllers - because that's what they were - were laughing, like they were at some kind of a show.

I know they’re human-controllers, so it’s the Yeerks making them laugh, but it still feels just as fucked up, and for some reason more fucked-up than the Hork-Bajir-controller laughter. There will be so many substantially more fucked-up things in this series though, and I think I’m ready.

Now for some slightly more random notes:

She slowed down just a little and began yelling and waving her arms. "Come on, come on, you - " And then she said some words I didn't realize Rachel even knew.

Rachel got that fancy swearing going on.

And on the topic of language:

Even in my panic it surprised me. They were talking some mix of their own alien language and ours. "Ghafrash fit nahar! I get! I kill!"

I want a Hork-Bajir-to-English dictionary, please. Can this be my next Duolingo language?

The two Hork-Bajir were coming after us, bounding like some devil kangaroos.

I just love this imagery. It’s hilarious to me for some reason.

Then we get back into some more serious stuff:

"Just save the head," the human told the Hork-Bajir. "Bring that to me and we can identify it."

This would be so damn petrifying to hear, especially when you know they’re talking about you.

Then we jump to later, after the construction site, at Jake's house. Jake and Tobias are there.

He was glowing. I swear, he was glowing. Not like he was radioactive or anything, I don't mean that. It's just that his eyes were shining bright, and his face was one big grin, and he seemed to be tingling with energy, bouncing like he couldn't standstill.

I love happy Tobias, and I hate how rare I know that becomes. 

He nodded his cat head up and down. Very weird to see, I can tell you - a cat nodding yes in a thoughtful, normal way.

The thought of seeing this is just really entertaining to me.

He just looked at me with those deep, troubled eyes - eyes I can now see only in my memory.

Ahhh! HOW did I never catch this foreshadowing before?

"Jake, listen to me," Tobias said. "It's just what happened to me when I morphed into a cat. The dog brain is part of your brain now. You have to deal with it."  <But . . . there's a dog in MY yard.> "That's Homer, Jake. You are Jake. You're just in a body copied from Homer's DNA. That's the real Homer out there. You put him out there. Focus. You are Jake. Jake."

A dog in MY yard. Early stages of learning to control the morphs are kind of hilarious.

"Bad dog," Tom said to me. "You keep quiet. Bad dog." And then he left. I was devastated. I wasn't a bad dog. Not really. I was just barking because some other dog was in MY yard. Bad dog? I was a bad dog? No, I wanted to be a good dog. I crept into the corner, utterly miserable. Tobias knelt down and patted my head. When he scratched me behind the ears, I felt a little better.

Jake’s reaction to being scolded as a dog is actually somewhat precious. Not sure why.

But as I was sitting there watching him munch toast, I just had this feeling. This feeling that said No, this has to be a secret. Even from Tom.

Why does this HURT??

A thing that was part horse and part Cassie smiled at us with big horse teeth and said, "Hey, kids."

Petrifying. Certainly nowhere near the worst of what I’ll read in this series, I know, but it would be petrifying to see.

"Let's take a vote," Rachel said. "I vote we try to live long enough to get driver's licenses," Marco said. "I vote we do what the Andalite said - fight," Tobias said. "You've never even been in a fight," Marco sneered. "You can't handle the punks at school. Suddenly now you want to kick butt on that Visser Three freakazoid?" Tobias said nothing, but a blush spread up his neck. "I vote with Tobias," Rachel said, giving Marco a dirty look.

This is the start of me being mad at Marco frequently, isn’t it?

Marco looked at me. "Jake. He's one of them."  "What?" "Tom. Tom is one of them. Your brother is a Controller." I swung my fist and caught Marco in the side of the head.  He jumped back and I swung again. But Marco was quick. He dodged my second swing, and I slipped and went down. Marco snatched the bedspread off my bed, threw it over me to tangle up my arms, and sat on me.  "Jake, quit acting like a stupid jerk," he said.  I was trying to grab him, but he had me pretty good. "Take that back!" I yelled.

Ahhhh! Not only can I 100% picture this scene; but this gives me all sorts of feelings. Marco’s intuition is on point but like, I’d probably be like Jake on this, which is to say, angry and in denial. It’d be a pretty hard hit to hear that someone you care about is the enemy.

"That was the coolest thing I've ever done in my life," Tobias said. His whole face was glowing. "I was riding the thermals." "What's a thermal?" I asked. "That's when there's warm air rising up from the ground. It forms this cushion under your wings. You can just float up there. Like a mile up! You just surf the thermals. You guys have got to do it! It is the best thing ever."

Oh, you asked Tobias about thermals? You’re about to LEARN.

Tobias's eyes darkened. "It's terrible when birds have to be locked up in cages. They should be free."  "Yeah, free the birds," Marco commented sarcastically. "I'll get the bumper stickers printed up."

If I had a car, I’d want this bumper sticker for Animorphs reasons.

"Suddenly the wimp is a hero," Marco sneered.

Marco is an asshole, plain and simple. I would’ve punched him by now.

This time Tobias didn't blush. "Maybe I just found something worth fighting for, Marco."

I want to give Tobias a hug.

"It's not exactly some video game, is it?" Marco said. "This is reality. You don't know anything about reality, Jake. Nothing bad has ever really happened to you. You have this perfect family. Like I used to have." His voice cracked a little. He never talked about his mom's death.

Okay yes, Marco is an asshole, but I still feel bad for him sometimes.

At that moment, something weird happened. I was looking at Tom, and he was smiling at me. But then his face kind of twitched. His head started to pull to one side, like he was trying to shake his head only he couldn't quite do it. For just a split second there was a look in his eyes - scared or . . . or something. He was looking right at me, and it was like some different person, some scared person, was looking out of those same eyes. Then he was back to normal. Or what looked like normal.

Ahhhh too many emotions! Tom has always been one of my favorite characters and I get all too many feelings reading this.

"It could have been anyone," Tom said. "But it might be the one who's my brother, Jake. I know he goes through the construction site sometimes. That's why I brought him here tonight. So we could either make him ours . . . or kill him."

Yikes. Okay, that's part two of book one! Sorry to take so long to write up the commentary. I'll try to be a little quicker with the next part! The next part should be chapters 15 through the end.

I plan to start a re-read of the Animorphs series for the first time in about 10 years. Since I’m sure there are plenty of things I won’t remember, I’ll be sharing my thoughts here. Wish me luck.