#sooo isk

[magefelixir]

gonna ask my vocal coach if i can sing franklin shepard inc at the recital 🙏

[c13v3rgr186]

predicament

i bought this new pen(the pen with ALL of the colors in one. the rlly fat ones ykwim) and i wanna use it sooo BAD but im soo tired so isk if i should risk feeling incredibly tired for the pleasure of touching my fat colorful pen against the crisp empty paper of my multi-media sketchbook

[residentmara]

umm isk which one i wanna draw since ive never seen these vocaloids sooo! u guys decide pls :3....

[evansbby]

With Drew Starkey 😏🥵

HES SOOO HOT I DNSXKSJWK LIKEE I KEEP GETTING EDITS OF HIM ON TIKTOK ISK HOW TO ACT

[chososcamgirl]

HEY SIGMA IYA!! DAILY CHECK INNNN HRUUUU???? I HOPE UR SKIBIDI (on the behalf of me) SINDE MY DAY WAS VERY NOT SKIBIDI *growls* SO BASICALLY MY ENGLISH TEACHER IS TARGETING ME.. I CAN JUST FEEL ITTTTTT LIKE SHE IS SO RUDE TO ME AND LITERALLY GETS MAD AT ME FOR THINGS MY ORHER CLASSMATES DO. 👿👿👿🔥🔥‼️🙂‍↕️😭 I TRIED BEING SOOO NICE TO HER BUT IG IM JUST TOO SKIBIDI FOR HER TO HANDEL.. heh… RAHHHH SHE LIKE TELLS ME HOW TETRIBLE MY WRITING IS BUT REFUSES TO HELP ME IMPOROVE LIKE WHATTTTT 👿 IM LIT SO NICE TO HER N IVE NECER EXPRESSED HATRED TORWARDS HER.. BUT SHES AN OP NOW 😡🤬🤧 AND I KEEP BLANKING OUT IN CLASS N STUFF SO I HAD TO MEET WITH THE COUNCIL TO TRY AND SEE IF I HAD ANYTHING GOING ON.. ISK TODAY WAS JUST RLLY SCARY BUT AS THE ALPHA SIGMA I MUST TEMAIN NONCHALANT…. ALSOOO ANOTHER RANDOM BIG FEAR OF MINE IS THAT THESE PERSONAL DAILY YAP SESSIONS OF MINE REVEAL WHO I AM TO AN IRL OR OTHER ONLINE FRIEND… CUS LIKEEE I LOCE TO YAP TO WVERYONE ABT MY LIFE IN DETAIL SO IFFF SOMEONE FINDS THESE IM SOO COOKED BRO 👿 Anywayyyy HOW WAS WORKKK?? ANYTHING FUN HAPPEN??? I LOVE HEWRING U YAP SIGMA POOPOO AND ALSOO IM SOO EXCITED FOR NEW CHAPTERRR IM CUTRENTLY WAITING FOR IT BEFORE I GO TO BED… LOVE YOU POOPOO!!!

- 🐺

HI ALPHA!!! 🐺🐺

IM GOOD!! though im not feeling quite skibidi due to this migraine 💔💔 DUDE im telling u ur english teacher is after u… certified opp i used to have a teacher like that in 4th grade (this teacher was OUT for me like i was such a good student but she HATED me for some reason😭) aw i hope ur okay alpha😓😓 don’t worry that teacher is NOT skibidi at all and in fact a beta trying to get to ur alpha level.. she’s trying to claim ur alpha title so DONT let her do that and remain skibidi and strong…. u r the mysterious nonchalant alpha leader🫵 LMFAOO that’s actually so cute don’t worry i don’t think any of them will find my blog (unless u directly told them otherwise HELP) work was actually so fun and i enjoy it so much actually😭 like it’s really me ?? idk how to explain it but yeah i LOVE everything abt it. ALWAYS LOVE HEARING U YAP UR HEART AWAY ALPHA <333 omg i hope u weren’t waiting up too long bc it got delayed 😣😣 anyways REST WELL!! i look forward to ur daily check in tmr😈

[katasstrophy]

Riverrr bby I'm so sorry if I bother u w yet another ask. I'm not sure if the prev one goes tru cause it says there was an error butttt I'm here to proclaim my love for you and all your precious works!!! What masterpieces!! I love them all, binged and screaming in the tags, also irl <333 I got those Himalayan salts tablets to clear my throat. ALSKSKJ BUT BABE!!! I really enjoy all your works I don't know how else to tell you that. But I'm kinda afraid for going all out fic after fic I'm scared it messes up and cause sumtg bad. isk how it works. PLEASE I hope not w the amount of time I rb back to back and went on an emotional rollercoaster ride! Anyways don't forget your fluids, stay sexc and get some beauty rest!!! 🦢💋

omg swan bbie you could absolutely never bother me ever!!! 🥺 this is the only ask of yours i have (besides the tokyorev one, which i will get to very very soon 👀) so you’re all good babes<3

AND OH MY GOODNESS!!!! SWAN!!! YOU ABSOLUTE GEM!!!! 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 I’M KISSING YOU SOOO HARD I’M HANDING YOU THE ENTIRE WORLD IN MY HANDS IT’S YOURS <33333 MY HEART????? ALSO YOURS SNIFFLE 🥹🥹🥹 i probably reread all your lovely amazing tags like 30 bajillion times now you are just. WAAAAHHH a dream i am so honored and incredibly happy that you liked all my fics!!!! like genuinely i’m so touched i was losing my mind right along side you. and pls never worry about the reblogs!!! as far as i know tumblr won’t hound you for it lol so GO CRAZY GO STUPID WHENEVER!!!

i’m sooooo glad you enjoyed the roller coaster ride my love!!!! 🥺🫶🫶🫶 you’re welcome back anytime mwah <333 i’m staying hydrated and sexy just as you wished (you even inspired me to fix my sleep schedule LOL) i love you so so much and i’m wishing you the best vibes ever 🤍🤍

[koqabear]

ahem.....i loved pretty privilege SO!! MYCH!!! 🗣️⁉️👹

i esp love the tropes used,,,,, fr cannot get enough of jealous possesive tyun 😵‍💫 and....idk if this is an unpopular opinion or hot take,, although i do love when people write an mc to be someone who is flawed, especially since i'm someone with alot, like a shit ton of emotional baggage myself... but sometimes i do enjoy dabbling in putting mc on a pedestal,,,,almost unrealistically.

ik some people hate it and i 1000% get why they do, it's not realistic and can get really annoying esp as a reader if mc is sooo perfect at everything. no room for relatability, conflict, plot... but a small part of me loves it- when its implemented correctly, and in reasonable amounts ! i mean yeaaaaa it does take me up to the next level of delulu,,, but sometimes it def just adds on to the fictional self indulgent part of fanficiton 🫠

IDK IM SORRY IM SO SO SO BAD AT PUTTING STUFF INTO WORDS ISK HOW TO EXPLAIN PROPERLY DISHDK just know i really really enjoyed reading it but also appreciate how well written it is! i love the little side banter / cameo appearances from jay n yeonjun hehe <333

THANK YOU RAHHHHH

and no. UR SO RIGHT LIKE. I looove when mcs are complex and have their faults and actually add tension and establish good dynamics with other characters— like, it just makes them more realistic and relatable !

HOWEVER. sometimes I just wanna log into this silly little app and read some stupid and lighthearted shit! Like of course it’s unrealistic to have an mc that has everyone in the beach drooling over her, but we’re just here to have fun! No thoughts, just a reason to make Taehyun jealous!

I totally understand why a person wouldn’t like an mc like that (as in, it’s done with a wholehearted belief that making the mc perfect is reasonable and realistic) but if anyone were to take pretty privilege seriously…. I’d be a little concerned. like my page is just here to indulge in the wildest fantasies known to man!! If you’re not here to have fun, get out! It’s good to be delusional sometimes, trust !

[multiplayingorg]

What? You're Still Here?

| Repost: Originally posted by Rer on June 29, 2012

Its true, really! Click past the jump for more info on what's going on lately.

Sooo, yea, its been quite awhile since I last posted here, and while I believe I will be co-hosting tonight’s episode of Multiplaying (spoilers! that exists too!), I feel it is time to get back to blogging!

I suppose to best way to start its to explain what’s going on with me gaming-wise.  I am of course, still ridiculously active as a gamer, logging in about as many hours as physically possible (taking into account working, sleeping, and eating of course).  Despite all of this glorious gaming however, my content updates have been nonexistent.  My YouTube channel has really become barren as of late, and my posting on the Multiplaying forums has been minimal. Time to fix that!  So, with this post I am announcing the following projects, thus locking me in a blood-blogging-bound seal of finishing them!

Uncharted Waters Online

EVE Online

Orion: Dino Beatdown

Sword and Sworcery (if not a full playthrough of this)

Civilization V: Gods and Kings

Nuclear Dawn

And Many More!

I feel like those, in addition to finishing Darksiders and Cave Story+, should be more than enough to keep me occupied for the rest of this summer.  I attribute most of my apathy towards creating content around a rather negative attitude towards the Telecommunications Industry that I had for awhile.  Looking back however, letting some rather unfortunate events get in the way of continuously updating and posting (never stop posting!) was rather silly.

On a more positive note, gaming has been wonderful as of late.  I’ve been spending numerous hours playing EVE, as I have moved to a new corporation (SniggWaffe), known for being a very active recruiter corporation for one of Pandemic Legion’s most well-known corporations (Sniggerdly).  I’m enjoying myself there, as it is much like Multiplaying in the sense that the folks in PL play many different games together (Starcraft II, Battlefield 3, DEFCON, DayZ, and LoL come to mind).  A massive war is also brewing in Delve (a region in EVE), consisting of well.. just watch this:

(video is no longer available)

(Damn I need to bribe this guy with ISK to teach me how to do this in After Effects)

In regards to League, yes, LoL Coldcasts will be picking back up as well.  Iaqton says he has some special surprise for me involving a pro-team or something, but he’s keeping the details a secret from me until he’s sure its going to happen.  So, stay tuned for that I guess?  Either way, we both agree that its high time we got back to casting.  Iaqton has been riding me about it for awhile, but as I mentioned earlier, I just wasn’t in a good state of mind to get back into it.  I’m not sure if we’ll continue doing Tournaments (organizing people is a huge pain in the rear, who knew?), but we will definitely be doing something.

Last but not least, I’m building a new rig!  I’m not sure if I’ll be donating my old computer to my younger brother or a good friend quite yet, but either way I know it will be going to a good owner who will use it to its fullest potential.  I, however, will have a completely new rig that is being constructed by my friend.  Without getting too much into the tech it consists of a ASUS Rampage Intel Motherboard, a Intel Core i7, a Solid Slate Drive and normal 2TB Hard Drive, and 2 HD Radeon 6850′s that will be Crossfired with one another.  Needless to say, I’m super freakin’ excited.

That’s about it I suppose.  I just wanted to start blogging again and lock myself in to creating more content.  Thanks for reading and.. oh, oh oh!  One more thing!  The Tenth EVE Alliance Tournament qualifiers are this weekend!  Even if you don’t play EVE, you can expect some hilarious commentating and many explosions to take place, so stop by!

[cloudcountry]

I DONT KNOW HOW TO FEEL ABOUT "YOUR DAZAINESS" CATCHING ON LMAO

HES SOOO PRETTY OMG KISS KKISKSISKIKISK KISS KISKSIS KISSKSI ISKS KISS KISKSIS MUAAHMUAHMUAHMAUAH OOOOOOWAAAASWAUAWUUAWUAWUAAU MAUAHSHHH DAJSGDJHJGDAHSJH WOWOWODOWHHWFOOHFOWOOWOAOWAHWAHOAWHOHWHOHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Drag Queen Azul 🐙✨

You can’t be twisted off Ursula and not be into Drag ;3 I got the idea from a few diff tweets and some other fanart and I just had to draw it!

[thelastsirenssong]

When I tell you I had the most big fucking brain dream ohmygod my subconscious hasn't done me this good in years

[haikyooot]

I love how Iwa ends up playing mediator in like EVERY fic that deals with Oikawa! But ahhh yes yn & oikawa fall in love and get together on their own terms. Love that so much! For the historical au what are you thinking? Bc idk why I’m thinking of Mulan 2 with the emperor and the princesses. Iwa as the Shang type!!! AHHHH PLS (whoops forgot this was an Oiks centric fic)

LOOOOL mediator iwa is sooo overrused but like it's still so classic for a reason xD hmm historical au prolly some chinese historical fiction esque thing hehehehee. oooh yes mulan 2 had that arranged marriage/political alliance thing going on.

OMG Iwa as Shang o///o beefy buff strong men ooooh. Waaaait a minute. General Iwa, so swooon worthy and full of accolades. Yes Yes Yes.

[bisexualmaedhros]

like yes there are people who genuinely hold some downright bizarre opinions and post them online, so sometimes it can be hard to tell who's a troll and who's not, but like... idk just be careful when you come across someone like that online before you use them as an example to characterize any group?

[squuote]

Hihihi sorry for being gone I am back dhdjdjd ;w; how’re y’all doing today??

[urboymutual]

ok your 9-1-1 posting finally got me to sit down and watch the first episode and i have NEVER seen this dispatcher lady before, not in a single post or gif, how long is she here and also WHY is buck just unironically a sex addict???

LOL HELPPPP yeah um from my toe dipping into the fandom not many people like her 💀 shes okay to me . like i dont think shes a demon like most ppl make her out to be but honestly i dont think i paid attention for most of her scenes 😭 and she leaves after the first season LOL

but uh yeah 😭 the sex addict buck stuff is um . yeah... 😀 i dont really feel like its every addressed in later seasons characters usually refer to that . sex addiction time period as buck 1.0 supposed to show like . how immature he is ig ??? tbh i am still new to this fandom. was only drawn into this show via those short clips on tiktok where someones play subway surfers underneath it.

seasons 1 and 5 r def on par for like . worst seasons 😭 in my opinion but season 2 SLAY because my baby eddie is there <3

[imeverywoman420]

girl you need to go to the appalachian mountains in north carolina how have u not been

Idk 😭😭😭 ive been to pilot mtn tho and i gotta be honest. Its extremely mid. Like its inherently beautiful cause its nature. But its just so like. Dry. The green of the leaves is like. Eh. Whatever.

My actual favorite place in nc is pollocksville and that area where my uncle (not really my uncle just my moms ex husband who she was on good terms with so sometimes i would spend summers with him) lived. Omg one time when he took me hunting i spent like all day in this um isk what its called but its something hunters use like its just a tree house essentially IT WAS SOOO HOT and boring. There were mice crawling on the floor 😭

Near the beach but not on the beach, coastal plains, tobacco fields and dilapidated churches everywhere. They have bear statues everywhere too!!!

[tfw-no-tennis]

ani....morphs.....

ok so picking up after the david trilogy, which hit hard as FUCK, we have book 23, which basically was a semi truck that ran over my corpse, jesus christ, they really followed up the david trilogy w/all that....

23 was so so good and also painful. its the culmination of a lot of tobias’s characterization in the series thus far and also we finally get the reveal we’ve been waiting for about elfangor....ooooh man 

and there was a lot of painful stuff in this book but the worst imo was tobias wondering if it were possible that somebody wanted him and would take care of him, only to have it all come crashing down in the worst way when it turned out aria was visser three in morph, ouch. 

that was so brutal augh. and when he figured it out and just crash landed and kept thinking about how he wanted to die and how he was stupid to think he could have a home...bro get these kids some THERAPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

so yeah that book was absolutely brutal but also so good...and it further fleshed out the animorphs working as a near-flawless team, w/the whole setup of tobias meeting w/the lawyer being so airtight and well-planned 

also more free hork bajir!! its cool that there's stuff happening w/them offscreen, I like that 

I literally had to take a break from reading the books bc the david triology + 23 was like so much, and also bc the olympics were on and all my time got dedicated to watching those, but then I opened 24, not sure what to expect, and BAM it was the helmacrons lmaoooo

I don't even remember the helmacrons but ig a lot of people hate them? lmao so that whole reputation preceded the book and I was like oh wow time for a change in tone

which wasn't wrong but also I liked that book?? I was never bored, even tho the whole thing was patently ridiculous and also had very little bearing on the overarching story

but I think it would be a standout if it were a TV episode w/a good budget - the visuals were amazing even in text, and I can imagine all the cool shrinking/growing/cellular stuff would be WICKED cool visually (ideally 2d animation but an ant man-esque live action adaptation wouldn't be terrible if they had the budget for it)

whatever let me dream. so yeah I didn't hate the helmacron book even tho the helmacrons themselves were...sure something. lmao I think they come back? that should be interesting

next book is the arctic one, we have yet another alien of the week style adventure - I liked this one too, it felt like more plot-y stuff happened since they destroyed the base, and marco’s POV is always fun 

I do find it funny/interesting how sometimes when the animorphs do something - like in this book, destroying that base in the arctic - it doesn't really seem to impact the yeerks much/it doesn't get brought up much after that. and then other things like them destroying the ground-based kandrona get mentioned a lot (that example is understandable tho bc that WAS a big deal). its just hilarious to me how blowing up entire building complexes has become so routine that it isn’t even worth mentioning at this point

Also I adore when they meet other random people/kids and are chill w/them, like w/that kid they met in the rain forest earlier on w/the time travel 

the descriptions of the brutally cold weather were great. I hate the cold so I was like oof this is a nightmare lmao

also ig that was the first ghostwritten book and I did kinda notice it was slightly different than usual? maybe? I could be imagining it tho 

okay but book 26 tho...BOOK 26. bruh 

that was SO good and I really didn’t know what to expect - but when we finally revisited Jake’s dream w/crayak I knew it was gonna be good (but I didn’t expect it to be a chess game war epic..!)

basically I loved it. SUCH a good Jake book - I really appreciate his character now as opposed to when I was 10 and often overlooked him (sorry jake).

similarly, when I was a kid and read these I sympathized a lot w/the chee and felt bad for them towards the end of the series when they had to get more involved in the war (genuinely don’t remember what they even do but ik I felt bad) 

but now I've basically 180′d and I'm like damn those chee sure are hypocrites huh. 

like they could solve So many of the animorphs problems but their stringent adherence to nonviolence leads to them actively getting in the animorphs way sometimes? and obviously pacifism is a complicated topic, but in this case it also intersect w/the whole ‘child soldier’ thing, and as beings who are insanely old and wise, the chee probably shouldn't just leave all the dirty work to a bunch of literal middle schoolers

aaaaanyways. there’s so much I love about this book. the iskoort! they were sure something. and the ‘plot twist’ that they are actually 2 beings, the Isk and the Yoort - and the Yoort are essentially Yeerks - that slapped. the symbiosis of it all! 

I loved the part where they all realize what this means, that this is why Crayak wants the iskoort destoryed - because someday the yeerks might come across them and realize parasitism is not the only way. I love it! 

alas I don’t recall the iskoort returning in the story (but also my memory is terrible so who knows?) but still that would be cool

basically I feel like this is the book where Jake Truly comes into his own as a leader, in every sense. he outmaneuvers Crayak, and even the ellimist, who’s yanking them around in his own way

the scene where jake shoves the howler off the cliff and jumps off and morphs and acquires the howler...that was fantastic and tense. 

also the murder is definitely becoming more overt. I mean, it has been for a while, but it isn’t really pointed out as much anymore. oof

more on the chee - as Jake points out in this book, and other characters point out in other books - the chee could have saved the pemalites, but instead just stood by while their creators were slaughtered. on the other hand, jake says, what do the chee do AFTER they’ve killed the howlers - where to point them next? when is the end of their violence? 

buuuuut also standing by while atrocities occur is pretty damning, as is frequently mentioned in this series - from the very beginning, when marco initially doesn’t want to get involved in the war at all, and the other animorphs basically tell him that turning his back on the war and acting like he doesn’t even know it’s happening would be immoral and cowardly (which imo this reaction helps to push marco in the direction he ends up going, but I digress) - this topic comes up again in 19 when cassie quits the team and rachel is upset bc she sees it as cassie elevating her own feelings above the greater good (as in, as long as cassie feels good about how she acts, it doesn’t matter how much preventable evil the yeerks are committing while she turns away). etc etc. but that’s essentially what’s happening w/the chee - even tho they help w/intel, the lack of any sort of Action on their part means that they’re essentially allowing awful things to happen when they could prevent them. this is rambly but basically...animorphs deals so much in grey areas, and the chee are noticeably black and white in their actions, despite falling, in a meta sense, in an extremely grey area. its such good, thought provoking writing!

anywayssss I keep talking about the chee lmao what else was there. oh YEAH jake and cassie kissed for the first time awww that was super cute 

and ofc immediately marco teases them as asks jake if he’s gonna kiss him next, and all I can say is...marco is a bicon 

also I love the background worldbuilding w/the iskoort, how they have all these groups and guilds and stuff - its not dwelled on much, which actually works really well to give the world/species a sense of lived-in realness 

okay oh man and the reveal at the end that the howlers were just like...children who thought the whole thing was a game...AUGHH man that’s sooo fucked 

like, when jake morphs the howler and has rachel ready to knock him down in grizzly morph if he gets out of control due to the howler’s murderous instincts, and he morphs to find that the howler is...playful, like a dolphin morph. SUCH a good fucked up sense of dawning horror there 

and the fact that as far as I can tell the chee KNEW this, but wanted revenge anyways, so they let the animorphs assume that the howlers were Evil On Purpose

also I love smaller moments, like jake seeing that ax is ashamed for briefly running away during one battle w/the howlers, and then entrusts him w/an important task bc he knows that ax will see that as redemption - and when everyone thought jake was dead and were so happy when he wasn't (they all love each other so much im gonna cry about these child soldiers augh)

basically that book was so good

man one thing I absolutely love is that the longer the series goes on the more obvious it is that andalites, despite inventing morphing technology, barely use it themselves 

like, most of the andalite characters we see barely morph. its kind of a last resort to them, as they’re already plenty dangerous in their regular forms 

meanwhile for the animorphs, that’s all they have to fight with. that’s their only weapons against the yeerks, and its so fun to see them use the power in so many varied ways, and so creatively, while the andalites have barely scratched the surface of their own technology

its also interesting to contrast against the yeerks who start out w/absolutely no technology, and the andalites share some but not all of their technology w/them...its too bad that morphing technology was just starting out cause that would’ve been interesting

like imo a lot of the conflict w/the yeerks could’ve been avoided if they could just nothlit into better forms - of course, there’d still be plenty of yeerks who want to go start wars or w/e, just like pretty much any species in the series, but a lot of yeerks would probably be like ‘yeah I'm good’ and just chill out as nothlits

also people online love to talk about how humans are alienfuckers and would definitely have sex w/sentient aliens and whatnot, and while I'm not saying that's untrue, its just funny bc in animorphs the truest alienfuckers are definitely the andalites

as of the hork-bajir chronicles, we now have a second instance of an andalite morphing another species to be in an inter-species alien romance (and eventually have kids) 

speaking of, I don’t think I’ve talked abt the hork bajir chronicles yet??? even tho I read it a while ago lmao 

HBC was great...I honestly haven’t really run into an animorphs book I’ve actually disliked at this point, I’m sure it’ll come w/all the ghostwriting and whatnot, but I’ve liked at least some aspects of every book

anyways HBC was great, and it’s funny bc I remember that I read this book as a kid, and yet rereading it now I didn’t remember a single bit of it lmaooo

I really liked the framing device of the free hork bajir telling this story to tobias. I also liked how we know from the beginning that this story wont have a happy ending - we know all the hork bajir end up enslaved by the yeerks, but it’s still somehow hopeful at the end? I think this is largely due to the framing device tbh. 

also I love toby, and I love that the First free hork bajir named their kid after tobias ;_; 

and oooh mannn I LOVED the different POVs from this book. all the characters were so interesting! aldrea was fascinating - I really like the increasingly negative view of the andalites that the readers are getting, all while maintaining the sense that they aren’t like, actively evil, just that they have their issues - like aldrea’s arrogance, and the general andalite arrogance which lead to the loss of the hork bajir. also, who knew andalites had their own brand of sexism? Ls

I did like getting a female andalite tho, that was cool. and dak was really cool, he was such a good, compassionate character who was able to maintain his morals in an interesting way throughout the story

and VISSER THREE...or should I say esplin 9466, because he’s not visser 3 yet...getting his ‘origin story’ was excellent - I really like how we’re learning about visser 3 backwards - we start off the series w/him as the main villain, and he’s campy and menacing, and then we see him in the andalite chronicles as a power-hungry sub-visser trying to climb the ranks and eventually getting alloran as a host, and then back even further here, w/the start of his focus on the andalites and the beginning of his ambition. its been very cool and interesting to see

plus, the beginning of the yeerks as we know them! seerow! alloran! it’s a party and nobody is having a good time, except for some of the yeerks. 

I like how it’s pretty obvious that the andalites are well-meaning with their interactions w/the yeerks, but go about it the wrong way - they give them enough technology that the yeerks realize there’s a whole world out there to experience, and then they blockade the yeerks on their planet and tell them they can’t leave. nnnnot the best approach imo

again, as I said above, I’m interested in how things could’ve gone if the andalites had given the yeerks morphing technology early on - could a lot of the conflict have been avoided, or would it have been worse? the yeerks seem pretty evil in this book, immediately jumping to enslave anyone they can. otoh we hear from esplin that not all yeerks like having host bodies, and find it overwhelming, preferring to swim around in the yeerk pool as a slug - I assume as host bodies became more available this type of thinking was probably stamped out in yeerk society or w/e, but there are a lot of interesting what-ifs in the situation 

I loved the scene where esplin first experiences having a host, and immediately knows he can’t go back. there are a bunch of great sensory descriptions, and it’s a nice scene to pinpoint as a foundational moment for the visser three in the current story, who spent a lot of time and energy getting what he sees as the best possible host body, an andalite

I find it interesting how much visser three clearly respects the andalites, even while constantly deriding them. and you can see the origins of that here as he immediately focuses in on the andalites, working to become an expert on them in order to make himself useful enough to move thru the ranks

another thing I like is how esplin seems a lot more crafty and ambitious than the visser three from modern times - I would guess that reaching his goal (andalite host body) and being given all that power was detrimental, playing on his weaknesses instead of his strengths. basically, I don’t think it’s ooc or anything, I can see how HBC-esplin became animorphs-esplin, especially w/TAC in between

as for seerow...poor dude. you really do have to feel for him, because you get the sense he really did just want to be kind to the yeerks, but it was borne from a place of pity, and he (and the other andalites) consistently held too much power over the yeerks for the species relations to ever be truly equal and functional 

AUGH I have so many thoughts about alien space politics. omg. I need to talk about the actual story lmao

so yeah I also feel for aldrea, she had a rough time, watching her entire family die and being thrown into a hopeless war

and then the andalite council or w/e not listening to her bc she's a girl AND seerow’s daughter...oof

also, I really really liked the running theme of the andalites - specifically aldrea - looking down on the hork bajir as ‘simple’ and constantly underestimating them, especially dak

and I like how this is portrayed as a bad attitude for aldrea to have, and she still remains and interesting and sympathetic character even while having obvious flaws. it’s about being 3-dimensional baby!

and oh man I love that dak realizes that aldrea looks down on him, and his entire species, but he can see that that’s how the andalites are, and it all connects back to the beginning of the story w/the yeerks, bc the andalites looked down on the yeerks and treated them with pity and kept them pinned under their proverbial thumb ‘for their own good’ and look how that turned out 

but dak is wise and kind enough to not hate aldrea for this, even acknowledging when she’s using him, but not pushing her away because he recognizes good in her too - and she ends up changing, partially because of his faith in her

and I feel like it can all be compared to that scenario of like - a hypothetical creature that lives in a 2D world suddenly being thrust into a 3D world, and comprehending what its seeing, and understanding that there’s so much more out there outside of the flat lines of its world - and then its dropped back into 2D-land with the knowledge of all the stuff its missing out on, and no way to get back to it or explain it to anybody else

I loooove that ‘trope’ or w/e you wanna call it, and it’s done beautifully here w/the yeerks - whos the say they wouldn't have been fine in their pool swimming around; as esplin said, a lot of the yeerks were terrified of having a host, it was only from the andalites’ perspective that their lives were sad and pitiful, and the andalites showed them what the world could be like, and then said ‘no, you can’t travel the stars like we do, you have to stay here on your planet and do what we say.’

and then again, w/the hork bajir - dak talks about how, even though he drinks up the knowledge that aldrea gives him, in the end it might have been better to just have lived peacefully, not knowing what was in the sky or the Deep - as aldrea says: “It was too late for Dak: he knew that the stars were not flowers.” 

plus the hork bajir having to go from a completely peaceful species who don’t even understand the concept of violence, to a bunch of soldiers fighting a war...oof 

basically everyone in this story uses the hork bajir. the yeerks use them as hosts, the andalites use their planet as a convenient place to dump seerow and then take their sweet time coming to help, and the arn created them as means to stabilize the planet, but block them off from their society and refuse to help when the yeerks come

like, the arn modifying themselves to be un-infestable by the yeerks and then being enslaved for physical labor instead? oof guys. if they had teamed up w/the hork bajir resistance things might have gone better, but probably not 

more on aldrea - throughout the story I was always thinking ‘how am I supposed to see her? as a good person, or as a bad person?’ 

as a POV character, especially a ‘good guy’ andalite, you just start off automatically thinking of her as a good person, but as the story goes on, she starts getting lost in revenge and begins using dak and the hork bajir, and you’re left wondering if this is a story about her slide into darkness, and then towards the end of the story her character development culminates in her making the decision to stay w/the hork bajir, and the be with dak, and that’s about when I went ‘ohhh right this is animorphs so every character is pretty much gonna be grey’

I feel like that moral grey-ness was on full display w/aldrea, and I really enjoyed that. I love so much when characters who are good do bad things, for good or bad reasons, especially in media like animorphs that’s aimed at kids. it’s so compelling. 

oof, and the ending when aldrea convinces dak to mobilize the hork bajir and teach them violence...and dak asks her if she’s ever killed another andalite, and she’s horrified, and says of course she hasn’t, and he says that that’s what she’s asking him, and all the hork bajir, to do - to kill their own people, even if they are being controlled by the yeerks. biiiig oof. I love that dak can keep up w/aldrea and her andalite supremacy attitude - it seems that the non-andalite characters who get along best w/the andalites are the ones who wont take their bs 

what else happened....oh my god how could I forget about alloran, and his quantum virus. oooof. I like how we find out about alloran in parallel to visser three, in the same backwards way - in animorphs he’s the tragic host of visser three, in TAC he’s the disgraced but still semi-respected war-prince who becomes the first ever andalite controller, and here he’s the guy who decides to commit some war crimes because, hey, we haven’t tried that yet 

but yeah that was fucked up, I love it. I’ve said it before I think but I like that alloran isn’t some perfect martyr tragically taken by the yeerks - it’s a lot more compelling that he’s a very flawed person who was taken as a controller partially due to his own bloodthirstiness. 

but yeah, the part where aldrea morphs alloran and ‘sneaks’ into that room was great. aldrea’s dedication to disposing of the virus is a great indicator of her character development - it really feels like the straw that broke the camels back w/re: to the andalites not being what she thought they were, w/their tardiness coming to help the hork bajir planet and the way her father was treated being the precursors to this realization. it all culminates nicely in aldrea saying ‘fuck this actually’ and nothlit-ing into a hork bajir.

and it’s really tragic but realistic that even though aldrea and dak end up seeing eye to eye at the end and getting together, the virus ends up being released anyways (and fails in its objective to stop the yeerks from using the hork bajir - the whole thing was p much a lose-lose situation oof), and aldrea and dak still die fighting a hopeless war 

but then we have the free hork bajir on earth, including toby, who, like tobias, has andalite ancestry, but no DNA to show for it - I like that they have that connection as well as tobias being her namesake

so yeah I enjoyed that one and its many-layered themes

WOW this got long uuuuuhhh ok I think i’ll leave this one off here. at the time I’m actually finishing the writing and editing, I’m on book 35 lol so I have some backlogging to do. never fear, I have a lot to say....