#the only andalite controller

[saxophone-siphonophore]

I've been getting into the Animorphs series and every book is like this.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Hi, here's an easy question for you that I can't find online for some reason. How exactly was Alloran enslaved? Every wiki article seems to gloss over this and it's been far too long since I've read the books to remember.

Also, what's your take on it? I remember always feeling vaguely disappointed because I couldn't figure how a yeerk would overpower an andalite, but do you think it works within the narrative, or is it just kind of a plot device to create The Abomination?

Compared to how things go down with Alloran, I think Aldrea's dramatic capture in Hork-Bajir Chronicles is way cooler. Esplin 9466 being ecstatic about finally being inside an andalite mind, only to have his abandoned host body attack him and rescue Aldrea, is one of my favorite scenes in the series.

But yeah, how it happens with Alloran (Andalite Chronicles p. 174 - 180) is deliberately obscured. Elfangor brings Esplin 9466 onboard the Jahar as a hostage, inside a hork-bajir. He gets distracted driving the ship, but returns to that hork-bajir to toss him out the door. Alloran tells Elfangor to flush the Pool ship, killing 1000s of defenseless yeerks. Elfangor refuses. They argue. They're interrupted "Chapman" punching Alloran and knocking him over/out. Elfangor thanks Chapman and starts to fly the Jahar back to get the Time Matrix, only to be shot at by "Loren."

At that point Elfangor realizes Chapman, Loren, and Alloran are all controllers — Chapman put yeerks in his own and Loren's heads as part of his bargain, and Esplin 9644 escaped his hork-bajir host, into the body that "Chapman" conveniently placed ear-down on the ground for him. Elfangor realizes he can't win against three controllers. He dumps Alloran/Esplin on the planet and flies off with the two humans locked in a back room to starve out their yeerks.

[cluelessrebel1988]

If I Ran The Zoo (or how I would plot out an Animorphs TV/streaming series if I had the time/ability/resources)

So this is something I've been kicking around in my head on-again, off-again for a couple years now, and I thought I'd put it out there, just for the lols (do people still say that?)

My thought process is for a 5 season arc, with each season being somewhere in the neighborhood of 13-15 episodes long, give or take. There would be a few changes with the order of things, and a few minor characters would play a bigger role. I'm not going to go episode by episode, but just sort of outline the big arcs for each season. I'm not in any way suggesting that this is the best way to do it, just that this is how I would do it.

Season 1

This season obviously would start the events of The Invasion and would primarily incorporate events/plot points from the first 10 books, including finding Ax in his crashed ship (though I would move that to either take place in the first episode, or in the second half of the two-part premiere), Tobais getting stuck in his hawk form (and getting an episode or two dedicated to him coming to terms with that), and introducing Erik and the Chee (Erik would be introduced as a friend of Marco's early in the season, with his identity as a Chee being revealed in the second half of the season).

The only major plot point from that run of the series I wouldn't put into play just yet is the reveal of Marco's mother as Visser One (although I would be very much establishing her through flashbacks, dreams, etc., so people will recognize her when Visser One does show up).

The main arc of the season would involve the Kandrona Ray and the events of The Stranger, with the team meeting the Ellimist and learning about the ray and its significance and plotting to take it down to try to end/expose the invasion. Erik and Ax tagteam providing info about the ray and its use, but it's the vision from the Ellimist that gives Rachel the final clue, again, as in the book, with that occuring at the end of the penultimate episode. The season finale is solely focused on devising and executing the plan to destroy the ray. The plan would succeed, which would prompt Visser One's return, revealing her host to be Marco's mother as the cliffhanger for the season.

Obviously, we would be exploring the kid's home lives more, with the relationship with their families and friends and the whole 'work-life balance' thing that comes with fighting a guerilla war against an alien invasion. Not to the point where they're having to fake illnesses to skip school every episode, but enough to show that it's putting a strain on their relationships. I would also explore Rachel's relationship with Melissa Chapman more and have Melissa be a bigger supporting character in the show. We'd also introduce Karen and Aftran in this season, revealing her to be a controller early on, but something that Cassie doesn't find out until the end of the season

Season 2

Season 2 would pick up a few weeks after season 1, as The Alien did with The Stranger. The kids learn that their hope that the invasion would reveal itself with the Kandrona ray destroyed were in vain and that Ax knew that. The premiere would largely follow the plot of that book, with the Animorphs attempting to integrate Ax into society and attempting to take the fight to Visser Three with the help of a Yeerk traitor, and Ax telling the others about the Law of Seerow's Kindness. Ax would get a lot of development this season, with the events of The Deception coming into play.

Tobias would help free the Hork-Bajir as in The Change and get his human form back as a morph, and the reveal that he is Elfangor's son would be included in this season as well (Obviously we're tapping into the Andalite Chronicles for flashbacks in at least one episode this season to help set that up).

Marco's main character arc would revolve around learning that his mother is Visser One, keeping it a secret, only to have the others find out later, thus incorporating The Predator and The Escape. Also Visser One is the big bad for the season, delving more into her conflict with Visser Three. The season would end with her supposed death following the Animorphs' thwarting of her plans

For Cassie, we cover the utilize adapted versions of The Departure and set up for The Sickness, with Karen/Aftran and Cassie perhaps getting trapped somewhere and forced to work together to get out of it, laying the groundwork for Aftran to be captured by Visser Three. The season finale would also center around the efforts to rescue Aftran.

Jake and Rachel will have arcs and roles to play in each of these stories as they each start to fall into their respective roles as leader and fighter, respectively. If they get their own arc, it would be around trying to save Tom specifically.

Additionally, Melissa is still around in her expanded role, but with a new friend: David, who would be introduced fairly early in the season in a recurring role (Melissa is also recurring at this point). She and David will have a B-plot where they become friends and are together when David finds the morphing cube, the discovery of which also occurs in the finale.

Season 3

Obviously, the primary source for the main arc of season 3 is the David Trilogy, with The Discovery in particular serving as the source for the season premiere. It plays out mostly the same, with the Animorphs learning that David and Melissa have the cube and plans to sell it online. They try to retrieve the cube before the two of them can attract the attention of the Yeerks, but ultimately fail, leading to the battle at David's house. They manage to get Melissa and David out of the house before they can be captured, and are forced to reveal themselves and tell them what's happening, essentially recruiting them into the Animorphs.

The events of the rest of the trilogy, with the threat to the UN summit or some similar event involving world leaders as a target that they have to keep the Yeerks from taking advantage of -- as well as with David and Melissa's reactions to being Animorphs -- would take up the majority of the plot this season. Obviously Melissa becoming an Animorph opens up some new potential for her arc, especially around her relationship with her dad and trying to come to terms with him being a controller (and the fact that Rachel has been keeping this a secret all along). She and David would have similar arcs around their parents being controllers, but while David ultimately turns against the Animorphs, Melissa does not (although David tries to convince her to). The season ends with the gang trapping David in a rat morph, as the books do.

One of Melissa's major character traits is her interest in technology, something she used to bond with her father over (working together to take things apart and then put them back together before be became a Controller to try to keep her safe) and I imagine her and Ax developing something of an awkward friendship as she tries to ask him about the morphing technology and other Andalite technology, with him being reluctant to share due to the Law of Seerow's Kindness. But, as he's grown closer with the Animorphs, he would eventually acquiesce and they would begin to bond. The two big relationships (Rachel and Tobias, and Cassie and Jake) also take major steps this season

The other major arc for the season involves other Andalites, incorporating The Arrival and The Other, with the reveal that other Andalites are on earth and some are there to help...or are they? The season would also end with Tobias getting captured by the Yeerks to begin the laying of the groundwork for the discovery that the Animorphs are not, in fact, Andalite bandits.

Season 4

The events of The Illusion and The Test would be adapted for the season premiere, including the introduction of the Yeerk resistance (led in this series by Karen/Aftran) and Tobias's capture and torture, with the main difference being that it is Tom (who has largely been a secondary or tertiary villain thus far) being the one who conducts the torture. During the interrogation, Tobias lets something slip that most of the controllers in the room don't pick up on, but Tom does, leading him to investigate and setting up for the finale, which would be largely and adaptation of The Diversion, with the race against time to save their families taking up the majority of the episode. Melissa is able to save her parents, her father proving to be an asset in the final season with his knowledge of how Yeerk technology works.

This season as a whole would focus on escalating the war between the Animorphs and the Yeerks. The stakes become higher, as are tensions following David's betrayal. Visser One returns, learning that Marco is one of the Animorphs and we incorporate the events of Visser, seeing the Animorphs rescue her.

Following Tobias's capture and torture, Rachel becomes more angry and vengeful, setting up for her arc over the final season (we've seen hints of her violent streak over the series up to this point, but it gets more intense this season).

Season 5

With their secret out, the Animorphs regroup in the Hork-Bajir valley and try to figure out their next move. The final arc of the series would play out largely how it does over the course of the final books, with the team recruiting more Animorphs to help them with their mission, and even trying to recruit government and military officials to aid in the fight. Tom gets the morphing cube, adding controllers with the ability to morph (other than the newly appointed Visser One) to the threat against the Animorphs. The final battle would be a multi-pronged attack, with the bombing of the Yeerk Pool being part of the final assault and not a separate battle.

Rachel gets aboard the blade ship and kills Tom before being killed herself. In an effort to make up for the harm he caused, Hedrick Chapman sacrifices himself to both ensure the Yeerk Pool bomb goes off and to save Melissa one final time (the pair of them were in charge of building/detonating it, along with Ax), and Jake orders the flushing of the Yeerk Pool on the the Pool ship, alienating Erek and the rest of the Chee going forward. All of this is in the penultimate episode.

The series finale follows the aftermath of the war in The Beginning, and, as the books did, the series would end with Jake, Tobias, and Marco (and probably Melissa) being recruited to help save Ax from an as-yet unknown threat.

And there you have it, my outline for how an Animorphs series could/should play out. As I said at the start, this is just my idea and others might have different thoughts about what order the arcs should go in and what significant changes (if any) would be made. Please be kind with any criticisms, and if you'd like to share your thoughts with me, my inbox is open. I also did a fancast for the series a few years ago if anyone's curious about who would play who

[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.

[auntphibian]

I'm reading The Animorphs and it's SUCH a sad book series.

Spoilers below.

In The Departure, one of the animorphs is done fighting the war. She's gone numb and wants out. Well as she decides this she get's followed by a human girl (pictured above) that is being controlled by a Yeerk. Through some occurances they end up lost in the woods together. The girl controlled by the Yeerk is injured and the yeerk outside her host would just be a normal slug looking creature. The animorph girl helps get them back to civilization dispite the fact this yeerk living would mean the animorph's identities are revealed. The animorph girl tries to befriend the yeerk and kinda succeeds. We learn yeerks just want to experience the good things in life, like nature and bright colors. But to do that they must take a host. The yeerk compares this to humans eating domesticated animals but according to the yeerk their hosts atleast get to live. The yeerk describes earth as paradise so why wouldn't they want to experience it. However taking a host enslaves the host so both the animorphs and the Andalites (aliens that made the animorphs the animorphs) arevtrying to stop the yeerks. At this point the yeerks can only keep expanding or return to a mud pit home to live their exsistance as sightless lowly slugs. The Andalites won't let them have a middle ground since the Andalites gave them the ability to get off their mud planet.

The book ends with the yeerk telling the animorph she'll forever live her life as a sightless lowly slug if the animorph girl does the same, handing her a catapillar. She morphs into the bug and stays there long enough that she could never return to human. When the other animorphs find them the yeerk girl is holding the bug on a leaf crying, saying she told her last minute to morph back but she didn't listen. The yeerk promises to forever live in the mud puddle yeerks come from, never taking a host again.

Ultinately the animorph turns into a butterfly which allows her to morph back, but the book messed me up man. I just spent the last 19 books hating these things now I feel bad for them.

[halogenwarrior]

I posted this as a reply to someone else's post but I want to make it its own post because the original didn't get any likes or reflags, maybe because it didn't show up in the tags.

My take on the hate for Cassie Animorphs that you see a lot is that the perception is that Cassie makes decisions that are questionable or flawed but always turns out to be right in the end because of author fiat/favoritism, which I don't think is accurate when you analyze things deeply though I can see why people say so.

The thing is, how it usually works when the Animorphs are having an argument about morality is that the "failure mode" (the consequences of the action if it doesn't work out) of Cassie's suggestion or decision is that the war is completely lost and all of humanity is enslaved or killed by the Andalites, while the "success mode" is that a small amount of beings are saved and/or there will be a long-term ripple effect that leads to benefits for a lot of beings, both in terms of making the war more winnable and benefits that extent outside the war entirely. For example, letting Tom have the blue box would have led to the loss of the war if the gamble didn't pay off, and does have negative consequences for the war that could have easily led to them losing, but its positive impact is in both Yeerk and Taxxon defectors helping the Animorphs in the war and in, from a "humanitarian" perspective, Yeerks and Taxxons being offered a better choice besides war and conquest or the personal consequences of having to live in their standard bodies.

Meanwhile the "failure mode" of following the plan of someone like Marco can also sometimes be that the Animorphs will just lose the war, or sometimes that they will be back where they started (which is still a difficult and hopeless position with the Yeerks' greater numbers and more advanced technology), while the "success mode" is that they get that much closer to winning the war, such that if they continually forego opportunities like this they will have no chances of winning at all.

And for this reason, it is true that generally, when the others decide to go with Cassie's decision despite those risks, or Cassie acts on her beliefs anyway without the permission of the others, she turns out to be right and they don't all get killed or become Controllers. The plot armor and narrative conventions that they can't have the main characters just lose there, which is usually what will happen if they listen to Cassie and she is wrong. BUT the narrative shows the balance between Cassie's perspective and someone like Marco's both having their places in a different way; by showing the situations where the others don't go through with Cassie's plan, and Cassie is unable or unwilling to do her own thing or sabotage them. Such as blowing up the Yeerk pool in #52, which she explicitly opposes morally. But the others don't agree with Cassie and do it anyway, and it works, and it's clear they would have just lost the war there if they had sided with Cassie. Due to the restraints of the narrative, Cassie being wrong is usually indicated not by the others listening to Cassie or failing to stop her from taking action and her failing, but of them doing the opposite of what Cassie wants and succeeding. It's not as flashy and obvious, the other Animorphs don't sit there and say "wow we are so glad we didn't listen to Cassie or we would all be dead and humanity would be enslaved, isn't she dumb", but it's clear from the consequences of the narrative that she was wrong in that case.

The only exception where they were able to illustrate Cassie being wrong in the opposite way, where they take her side and do what Cassie wants and it's wrong, is with regards to throwing away the device to reprogram the Chee (initially what Cassie wanted and the others did not). This leads to consequences in the last book where it forces Jake to get the Chee's participation by threats and force instead, leading directly to Rachel and Tom's death and the escape of Tom's ship. And this comes down to the consequences happening in the last book of the series, meaning that while it doesn't lose them the war the narrative isn't as restricted to keeping all the main characters alive that it can't demonstrate permanent consequences to following Cassie's idea. But in other cases, Cassie isn't always right but her being wrong is demonstrated by the implications of what would have happened if they listened to her rather than what did happen when they did.

Overall I think her character is treated in a pretty balanced way between her perspective being right and wrong, although the narrative framing (out of necessity due to having to write within the constraints of not having the main characters lose and be killed/enslaved) drawing more attention to the times when she is right makes it look otherwise!

[tunashei]

First impressions of Animorphs!

I'm listening to the Animorphs series while I work, through Animorphs Aloud - a fan made reading of the series. Here are my first impressions/random thoughts about them! Spoilers below if you haven't read them.

Book 5: The Predator

Alright we've got Marco POV. I was dreading this one cause I find him a bit whiny and annoying, but I'm actually quite into it! I think seeing his internal thoughts and worries really helps deepen the character.

My suspension of belief is being tested by the idea of punks dumb enough to try and fight a gorilla.

Ok so if you get hurt and then morph, you lose the damage. But what if you have something stuck in you? Like a bullet.

<I am well. And each of you?> Idk why but I love this line. Polite boy. <3

Ax u fucking numpty where the hell are you going. I was not expecting him to be this...air-headed. And of all the foods for him to try first he got COFFEE?! Not gonna end well. Though is an interesting thought, if you could introduce food to someone who'd never eaten before, what would you pick?

---------

“Must I carry this?” he asked, indicating his empty coffee cup.

“No, you can just throw it away.”

Bad choice of words. Ax threw the coffee cup. He threw it hard.

---------

^ This made me laugh out loud at work

Ok so I guess staying undercover is just straight out of the equation now. How are you going to cover up Ax morphing from human to Andalite when he did it in a crowded mall? And then this poor lady watching her lobsters turn into humans/ an alien.

Confirmed can't morph from one animal to another. I thought Jake had done it in book 2 from flea to tiger but turns out I misheard and he did go back to human in between..

The ants lacking the idea of self leading to the group forgetting themselves is legitimately creepy. Imagine if they hadn't regained control, and Tobias watches his friends turn into ants and walk off and they're gone forever...

Put being ripped apart by ants on my list of ways I do not wanna die

Being that this is book 5/54 somehow I doubt this will be Marco's last mission, but considering how against it he's been and the recent traumatising I'm curious what will pull him back. Hoping it will be something that puts the 'should we/shouldn't we' plot point to bed.

You know I really want to know HOW Visser Three got the Andalite body, hope we get to learn that backstory sometime.

AAAAAAAAAAAA Visser One reveal holy shiiit. I KNEW Marco's mom would come back up, but I didn't put the pieces together with Visser One. Haha. Brilliant. I guess this is how we'll be keeping Marco on board.

Oh man the thoughtspeak between Marco and Jake, the only other one to realise. It makes Marcos comments on Tom being a controller in the first books so much juicer. Now you guys have this in common.

Not really sure why Visser Three didn't just kill them then and there

They're in a hurry so can't really blame em but man it would have been good if they could have acquired a Hork-Bajir from the unconscious ones

One thing I appreciate in animorphs is how so far, most of their missions have been failures. This book is probably the biggest failure, they potentially blew their cover with Ax in the mall, got almost killed twice, failed to capture a spaceship and got saved by a Yeerk. I really enjoyed it though, I like Marco a lot more now, I think the big reveal is gonna be great for his character.

[sarifel-corrisafid-ilxhel]

Terrible Animorphs Movie Ideas

The Animorphs 'fight' Hork-Bajir by just knocking them over and then the blades on the Hork-Bajir mean they get stuck to the floor.

Almost nobody dies in the movie. The only blood is from mostly from dramatic superficial cuts, and no gore. Tobias doesn't go for the eyes, he just drops bricks on people's heads.

Morphing is super duper quick and barely follows any of its own rules from the books. Everybody just wears their normal street clothes.

The Taxxons are funny, round, yellow, and we only see them a few times. They always run away when there's a fight.

Visser Three is the obligatory twist villain, which is weird because you'd think he was the villain anyways, but no it turns out Alloran was never a Controller, Esplin is just his Yeerk Empire codename, but even that's not the twist because the real twist is he's about to attempt another genocide as soon as he finds the Time Matrix and can erase the Yeerk homeworld from ever existing. He has been chasing the stupid white ball of destiny like Ahab with a whale and using the Yeerks to row his boat. He is insane. Unhinged. He has a scar over one eye and a beard. Later he dies by falling off a ledge, but we never actually see him hit the ground.

Tom actually dies near the end. At the funeral, Jake's internal monologue and murderous glare at Chapman suggest he wants to erase the Yeerks from existence just like Alloran wanted to. This is played off as good and heroic, like he has found his reason to fight, even though he didn't not have a reason previously.

The pacing is all off. There are multiple school dances mentioned. Has the movie covered three days or five months? They never make it clear.

Tobias does get trapped as a bird early on, but is surprisingly chill and non-angsty about it. He mostly helps Marco crack jokes. He ends up being less of a character and more of a team mascot, filling the usual Funny Talking Animal role. There is an ET reference where Jake bicycles off a hill with Tobias sitting in the basket on the front of his bicycle for some reason.

The merch is terrible and gets Jake's hair color wrong frequently. Does he have black hair? Blond hair? Brown hair? Is Ginger Jake real and can he hurt you? We don't know.

Rachel's outfits are a mishmash of "Punk Rock Barbie" and "The Eighties".

Marco gets zero merchandise. Tobias merch is everywhere, which is odd since the movie was mostly from Jake's persepctive. Cassie's merch all features an outfit she never wore in the movie.

The ending tries to set up a Visser One sequel hook, but does such a terrible job of explaining who or what or why anyone should care that it just leaves audiences confused.

They never show us an Andalite. Elfangor is only mentioned in the voiceover at the beginning, which is set over a scene of Jake bicycling to school in rainy weather. Ax isn't anywhere in the movie.

[lilliankillthisman]

I love that Visser Three is still being introduced as "the only Yeerk in all the universe to have taken control of an Andalite body", even after we were told in the last book that the Yeerks have infiltrated the Andalite home world. Like yeah we're just glossing over that tidbit for now. Keep a watch out in a few books' time for when it becomes plot-relevant and everyone is shocked.

[hapalopus]

Was reminded of the Hork-Bajir. The fact that they were exterminated from the home planet by the Andalites and now only exist in captivity in Yeerk colonies where they're subjected to torture of the worst kind. The fact that they're held in cages, only allowed out while mind-controlled, and that their race is kept alive by captive breeding programs. The Hork-Bajir experience more freedom in their cages than out.

[theothin]

The Predator, published in 1996 and written by K. A. Applegate, is the fifth book in the Animorphs series. It is narrated by Marco. Plot summary Two years before the events of the novel, Marco's mother vanished in a boating accident; her body was never found. Marco's father has fallen into deep depression and Marco is having second thoughts about fighting the Yeerks, parasitic aliens that are the main antagonists of the series, as he does not want his father to lose him too. Ax wishes to return to the Andalite home world, and to do so, he needs a ship. He intends to build a communicator to broadcast a Yeerk distress signal and lure in a Yeerk ship which he can then hijack. He, Jake, and Marco go to the mall to buy the equipment to build a communicator. Ax finds the food court and runs wild sampling food left over on tables, overwhelmed by the new sense of taste. He is chased by security guards and, frightened, demorphs in the middle of the mall in front of many people. Ax, Jake, and Marco run out of the mall and into a nearby grocery store where they are chased by Controllers. They morph into lobsters and hide in a tank. They later narrowly escape being boiled alive. Ax builds his device, but needs a zero-space transponder. Vice principal Hedrick Chapman regularly communicates with Visser Three from his basement, so the Animorphs morph into ants and retrieve the Z-space transponder that he uses. As they are returning from Chapman's house, they are almost killed when attacked by ants from another colony. They are able to demorph in time, but everyone is upset by the experience. Ax completes his device, and broadcasts the signal, but the Yeerks have changed their distress frequencies, and, sensing a trap, they set one of their own. The Animorphs are captured (in animal morph) and taken aboard the Yeerk mother ship in Earth orbit, where Visser One is visiting. Visser One confronts them and her host body is revealed to be Marco's mother, who is alive after all. The Animorphs are put in a cell, but they are freed by one of Visser One's Hork-Bajir; Visser One and Visser Three are rivals, and Visser One wanted to disgrace Visser Three. The Animorphs reach an escape pod and return to Earth. Marco asks Jake, the only one who had previously met Marco's mom, not to tell any of the others about Visser One. Marco resolves to continue fighting the Yeerks, as he now has a personal motivation to free his mother.

I forgot about the lobster thing!

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

what do you think the snl episode after the yeerks were defeated would be like?

Common flavors of SNL joke, immediately post-Animorphs:

A. Librarian reveals midway through a conversation with a customer that what appears to be one person is actually a yeerk and host swapping control back and forth. Lots of "So Linda—" "Not Linda, this is Ekkris 032" "Oh, okay, Ekkris—" "Actually this is Linda again."

The final punchline would be the customer going "Linda, or Ekkris" and the librarian going "Well now I'm Artrem-Illiack-Ferishth", causing everyone to realize the librarian never actually said they're a controller, and to wonder what the hell just happened.

B. Fake trailer for an alien invasion movie, evoking Independence Day and Contact, but it's shot in a Krispy Kreme and the alien invaders are hordes of andalite tourists.

C. Marco hosts, and in every sketch he plays a character who refuses to believe aliens exist. Sometimes it's meta-humor: he walks into a sketch about a hork-bajir arguing with an arborist long enough to pull the costume off the "hork-bajir" and reveal the human actor. Sometimes it's generational humor: he insists that a thought-speaking dog is just "one of those kids" wearing a "silly fad outfit."

It culminates in a sketch where Marco is dressed as Agent Scully and Gillian Anderson is dressed as the Governor of California delivering her now-famous speech about the yeerk invasion. The governor presents Marco with increasingly obvious evidence, only to have Marco dismiss her, until finally Gillian Anderson goes, "Explain THIS!" and demorphs into Cassie. Marco just rolls his eyes, goes, "Everyone can do THAT" and also morphs Cassie before walking off the set.

and, of course...

D. Aliens Made Me Do It. Overused as a punchline to the point where it kind of, arguably, circles back around to being funny again.

[rozrae7030]

My wonderful gf @cairavende is finally rereading the Ellimist Chronicles, so here's a summary I wrote of that book from memory that makes me giggle every time

This boi a lizardbird gamer who got pussy juices spritzed in his face and was looking forward to/anxious about seeing her later before his home crystal (which stayed aloft above a volcanic planet due to the continuuous flapping of shifts of his species) was destroyed by aliens who thought the game VODs they broadcast were really actually this species monstrously playing god with lesser races, who escaped only to crash land on a water planet dominated by a single jellyfish creature (named Father) that assimilated its prey by jacking a tentacle into their brains and playing with them in a mindscape He controls, and Toomin endures that torture for millennia and grows and learns and eventually overpowers Father and uses the accumulated resources and knowledge of the millenia of crash lands and the original inhabitants to assimilate himself and the billions of minds in his head into a swarm of biotech spaceships and play god in the universe for a long time, eventually creating a Sim of himself to be a proto-andalite for a lifetime and then play personal god to them during their species infancy until his evil mirror Crayak, another Ascended Gamer, started destroying the universe. Their fights grew more destructive until his core fell into a black hole while part of the swarm was in realspace and part was in z-space, causing him to Ascend further into a truly omnipotent being outside of spce and time and fixed things until Crayak grokked the jig and pulled the same thing and now they play chess with teenage Californians and space slugs

[waffle-sorter]

One thing that always bugged me, even as a kid:

Several of the Animorphs books, particularly early on, go "My name is Jake. I can't tell you my last name, or where I live, or anything else about me, or else the Yeerks will find me."

And like. First, if you're dead-set on yeerks not knowing that, e.g., you're humans, you don't publish your in-depth accounts in a universe where they could possibly read them. (Seriously, the intel on intra-team dynamics alone would be of incalculable benefit to the invasion.)

But also... they know where you are. Visser Three knows the area where he keeps running into the "Andalite bandits". Even if we assume all names and details are scrambled, they can say "this description matches the attack on such-and-such a facility." And you can only bend things so far or they'd be nonsensical - there may or may not be a Controller actually named "Tom Berenson", but if you start looking for older juveniles with non-infested younger brothers, no additional siblings, and past membership in some sport team, that's going to narrow down the suspect list pretty quickly.

[hoodie-prince-kid]

Tobias is the son of Ax's brother Elfangor so you think he'd be half andalite alien somehow but when Elfangor was on earth first he became a human and met Tobias' mom I assume so Tobias was a full human (until that one day he became a nothilit trapped forever in the body of a red tailed hawk after he and the Animorphs were given the power of morphing. By Elfangor. Tobias was by his real father in his father's dying moments and didn't know until. I dunno. Probably a year later.) And he hasn't told anyone yet.

My brain is. Thrown for a loop. I thought the Pemalties being ancient aliens that were wiped out by the first evolving humans leaving only their very powerful technology robots The Chee and their spirits in dogs was weird. Or the time travel memories held by only Jake cause he was the only one who survived before the time travel went back and revived everyone who died. Or Marco's mom having been Visser One (supreme alien Yeerk who wants control over entire galaxy) for who knows how long before her death was faked and Visser One still uses her as a host.

I'm on book 24/54 and this is the weirdest think I've ever read and I love it.

Oooh wow

[tunashei]

First Impression of Animorphs!

I'm listening to the Animorphs series while I work, through Animorphs Aloud - a fan made reading of the series. Here are my first impressions/random thoughts about them! Spoilers below if you haven't read them.

Book 8: The Alien

OOOOOOH AX POV! Ax Pov! This is not a drill! I am so hype

Oh the mental imagery of Ax watching the space battle above him while sitting alone in this artificial dome is so...so emotional. The strange disconnect of watching helplessly in a veritable garden of eden as your brother and others fight above you in the cold vacuum of space. I'd like to draw it

And then the absolute terror of being ejected from your ship and falling into the ocean of the nearby planet. Stuck beneath miles of water pressing down on you. Chills

Also now I'm really curious what the surface of the sea looks like if you're looking up at from below many miles

Ooooh we got little diary entries! Very amusing! This book is starting off so strong

Loving the amount of planning for taking Ax to a movie, they've learnt from previous times!

One of the reasons I was so excited for Ax pov is stuff like learning all these Andalite words, and bits of biology, the different ways of observing things. Alien perspective is so interesting

Confession time, I listened to this book before Megamorphs 1 which is before this book in the timeline. So I had no idea was a Veleek was and was rather confused they'd beaten one

I love the regular forays into Ax's Adventures with Food. Please don't eat cigarettes baby

I was cracking up at work for this whole sequence. Got some funny looks.

Going to make a prediction. Seerow's Kindness is referring to Andalites helping out the Yeerks somehow. Also Seerow is Visser Three's Andalite Host.

My man eat with he feet

I'm so here for Ax and Tobias best buds friendship

Ax confirmed canonically hetero this is a sad day for us all :(

Ok why after the semi-disaster of the movies would you take Ax to school, that is one of the most stressful confusing environments for anyone. Also schools have registers they're not going to just let you bring in a new kid

Unless maybe the teacher won't care because they've got a bloody Yeerk dying in their head! The book has predicted this predicament!

However, very unrealistic that the kids fled the room instead of crowding around the freaking-out teacher. You'd spend 20 minutes chasing them out the room and they'd still crowd around the door peeping in.

Oh this is...a bad thing to have hidden Ax. Poor Jake. This whole conversation is very tense. Ax bringing up his brother as if to remind Jake he's already lost HIS brother to this war

Ax is always described as blue-and-tan, implying he's more blue than tan. I have a hard time believing people would think he's a deer from a distance considering his colours

Huh...wouldn't it be weird to never have moonless nights? The stars are always brightest on those days, great for stargazing. I wonder how bright the night would be if you had multiple moons. Or would it not be additive?

Fascinating evolutionary implications from a species having a biological clock that makes them war every 62 years. Some kind of mass population cull? Ensuring only the strongest breed?

Ok this is pretty funny but actually made me reconsider how we appreciate stuff?? Actually kind of mindblowing. We really don't appreciate food as an art form. After I'd listened to this bit at work, my boss gave us all a tin of chocolates. Ate them on the way home and took some time to really savour the flavour. My life is being enriched by these books.

'He was a male-as all human fathers are' Implication Andalites can have female fathers??? Maybe. Would be cool.

Ax totally winning at social interaction

Aw Ax, you are being very brave :(

Huh so this Yeerk controller loved another Yeerk? I could have sworn in a previous book it said they were incapable of love, I think the one where Jake gets infested

Poor Ax. You really feel his struggle in being compared to his brother, now having to take the blame

The yeerk just fuckin bailed out the andalite?! I was not expecting this. You beat Visser Three?!

Aight so the Visser's andalite was not Seerow. He's just...some guy. Ngl was hoping for a bit more info on that, I've been very curious how Visser Three got an andalite which no other Yeerk has acomplished

Although...they're on the home world? Maybe there are other andalite controllers. Ruh roh

You guys are absolutely going to regret not putting this andalite out of his misery. He's literally begging for death and you know the horrors of being infested, and will be an incredibly powerful enemy again if you leave him. I mean, you couldn't even try to lug him out of there? How many people are going to end up killed in the future because Visser Three remains an andalite?

Called it on Seerow's Gift being helping the Yeerks. I kind of get it though I'd feel sorry for any sapient species that had to life it's entire life as a slug in a pool

Winced when Ax confessed his fears of giving humans help that would lead them to be conquerors, and Marco brushing it off. Humans would absolutely become conquerors, it's in our history

Wow. This is definitely my favourite book so far. I expected it would be, I'm very into xenofiction (when a book is written from a non-human perspective) but I think the emotional journey was also great in this. The ending was a bit quick and weak. But overall great.