Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

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Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Epicurius posted:

Here's the thing, though. Dolphins are smart animals. Really smart, actually. Because they're so smart, they suffer from a problem that a lot of other animals don't have, which is boredom. A dolphin gets bored, it gets depressed, it goes kind of around the bend. One of the things that seems to amuse dolphins, though, is killing things. They seem to enjoy watching other animals suffer. (If you ever saw the documentary "Blackfish", about the killer whale Tilikum, who was responsible for the death of three people, that's likely what happened there. Killer whales are actually a large species of dolphin, and incidentally, are one of the few species of dolphins actually to prey on and eat sharks.) So, every once in a while, a pod of dolphins will go on a shark hunt, just for its own amusement. They'll kill sharks and then play with the bodies. Sorry if this ruins your Flipper rewatch. I'm not going to even talk to you about dolphin sexual behavior.

It's also possible - the research is disputed - that dolphins will torture puffer fish to get them to secrete toxins so the dolphins can get high.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 00:58

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# ? May 25, 2024 08:52

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Cythereal posted:

It's also possible - the research is disputed - that dolphins will torture puffer fish to get them to secrete toxins so the dolphins can get high.

Sounds like something they'd do.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 01:12

chitoryu12: Apr 24, 2014

Transforming into a dolphin should really just turn the kids into utter sociopaths.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 01:17

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

Well it was pretty clear they only gave a poo poo about having fun, so, yes?

# ? Jun 11, 2020 01:21

QuickbreathFinisher: Sep 28, 2008; by reading this post you have agreed to form a gay socialist micronation.
`

<Killing can be a game.>

# ? Jun 11, 2020 05:12

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

He can just morph human then back to dolpin to heal, right? They did that bit about how it's DNA so injuries like that won't carry over in the first book.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 12:26

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Avalerion posted:

He can just morph human then back to dolpin to heal, right? They did that bit about how it's DNA so injuries like that won't carry over in the first book.

They haven't dealt with an injury this serious yet, and they're panicking. What if Marco morphs back and he's missing his shins and feet because their mass was in the severed tail?

# ? Jun 11, 2020 13:27

Radio Free Kobold: Aug 11, 2012; "Federal regulations mandate that at least 30% of our content must promote Reptilian or Draconic culture. This is DJ Scratch N' Sniff with the latest mermaid screeching on KBLD..."

Well it was only a matter of time until one of them got seriously hurt. Funny how, of all the things to do it, it's not a horkbajir or a taxxon or visser three or a controller with a dracon beam... it's just a goddamn shark.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 14:24

President Ark: May 16, 2010

disaster pastor posted:

They haven't dealt with an injury this serious yet, and they're panicking. What if Marco morphs back and he's missing his shins and feet because their mass was in the severed tail?

also they're in the middle of the ocean, sharks are nearby, there's blood in the water, and they're incredibly vulnerable while morphing

# ? Jun 11, 2020 16:58

PetraCore: Jul 20, 2017; 👁️🔥👁️👁️👁️BE NOT👄AFRAID👁️👁️👁️🔥👁️

There's also the added stress of the fact that Marco's mother seemingly died in the ocean, which dolphin brain can not give a gently caress about but stressed, in pain, panicked human brain might find adds a layer of trauma to what happens next. Is it ever stated if Marco doesn't like the ocean/beach?

# ? Jun 11, 2020 17:33

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Message-Chapters 11-12

Note, I'm combining these two chapters.

quote:

<He's going to die if we don't do something,> Rachel cried.

<Cassie?> Jake asked. <What do we do?>

< I...I don't know!>

<Cassie, you're the closest thing we have to an animal expert,> Jake said urgently.

But I wasn't feeling at all like an expert. I was feeling like a fool. This was all my fault. It had been my decision to go ahead. I was the one.

<Aaaahhh,> Marco moaned. < Oh , man. That's a major ouchie. Ahh, ahh!>

<What's happening?> Tobias called down. <Marco sounds hurt.>

<He is,> Jake answered tersely.

< Oh , man, I don't want to die as some fish,> Marco cried. <l don't want to die out here. My mom drowned. I'm going to die just like she did. My dad . . .>

Other people in the thread have summed up Marco's problem...seriously, probably mortally wounded, in the middle of the ocean, mentally in a place where h'es reliving his mother's draowning.

quote:

<Morph!> I yelled. <l think I know what to do. Morph back to human.>

<lf he morphs to human, he'll just drown,> Rachel argued.

<No. Morphing uses DNA, right? The basic pattern of the animal. Marco morphs back to human. I don't think the injury will affect him, because it doesn't affect his human DNA. Then, as soon as he can, he morphs back to dolphin. The dolphin body was injured, but the dolphin DNA should be the same. He should be a healthy, normal dolphin again.>

<What if you're wrong?> Rachel asked bluntly.

<There's no other choice,> Jake said. <Marco? You have to morph back to human. We'll keep you from drowning.>

<Jake . . . buddy . . . You know I can't swim.>

<l know, Marco. But we'll take care of you.>

< Okay . Yeah, okay. Might as well die in my own body. Ahh. Ahhhh! Maybe it won't hurt as much. Maybe . . .>

He was drifting off. <He's losing blood,> I said. <He may pass out. Marco. Morph. Now!>

We formed a circle around him, the three of us, with Tobias drifting overhead and the big humpback resting alongside.

Then Marco began to change. Arms sprouted from his flippers. His face flattened down, with his wide, grinning dolphin mouth shortening to form

Marco's own lips. His skin turned pink and his morphing suit appeared.

His shattered, injured tail split in two. Legs formed from the halves, toes appeared. Human toes. At the end of human legs.

<He did it!>

"Yeah, I did it. And now I'm drowning!"

<Here,> I said, swimming beside him. <Grab onto me.>

He wrapped his arms over my back, and I held him up to the air.

So, Marco is, at least physically, saved. Who knows what that's going to do to his psyche, though.

quote:

Then I noticed something strange. It was like the ocean floor was rising to meet me.

No. It was the humpback. He had dived beneath us, and was rising slowly, slowly to the sur face.

<Look out! The whale!> Rachel yelled.

But at that moment the most incredible part of an incredible day happened.

My mind, human, dolphin, both minds, opened up like a flower opening to the sun.

And a silent, but somehow huge, voice filled my head, it spoke no words. It simply filled every corner of my mind with a simple emotion.

Gratitude.

The whale was telling me that it was grateful. We had saved it. Now it would save our schoolmate.

<Back away,> I told Rachel and Jake. < It's okay.>

<Yeah,> Rachel agreed, sounding amazed. <l hear it, too. Or feel it. Or whatever.>

The humpback rose beneath a sputtering Marco. The broad leathery back lifted him up. And when I looked again, I saw Marco, sitting nervously on what could have been a small island, high and dry above the choppy waves.

Tobias fluttered down and rested beside him.

The whale called me to him.

Listen, little one, he commanded, in a silent voice that seemed to fill the universe.

I listened. I listened to his wordless voice in my head. I felt like it went on forever.

Tobias said later it was only ten minutes. But during that ten minutes, I was lost to the world. I was being shown a small part of the whale's thoughts.

He had lived eighty migrations. He had many mates, many mothers, who had died in their turn. His children traveled the oceans of the world.

He had survived many battles, traveled to the far southern ice and the far northern ice. He remembered the days when men hunted his kind from ships that belched smoke.

He remembered the songs of the many fathers who had gone before. As others would remember his song.

But in all he had seen and all he had known, he had never seen one of the little ones become a human.

Marco, I realized. He means Marco. And little ones? Is that what the whales call dolphins?

We are not truly. . . little ones.

No. You are something new in the sea. But not the only new thing.

I wasn't sure what he was telling me. He spoke only in feelings, in a sort of poetry of emotion, without words. Part of it was in song. Part of it I could only sense the same way I could sense echolocation.

Something new?

He showed me a picture, a memory. It was a broad, grassy plain, with trees and a small stream. All of it underwater. And across the grass ran an animal that was part deer, part scorpion, part almost human.

Where is it? I asked him in a language of squeaks and clicks and mind-to-mind feeling.

And he told me.

Suddenly I woke up. That's how it felt, any way. The whale released me. It was like coming out of a dream.

<Are you okay?> Jake asked. <You were starting to worry us, but we had this feeling maybe the whale didn't want us to interferes

< I'm fine,> I said. < I'm beyond fine.>

<Marco's ready to try remorphing,> Jake reported.

<Uh-huh,> I said, still lost in images from a mind larger and older and so utterly strange.

<Guys? You have about twenty-five minutes,> Tobias reported. <And it's a long way back to shore.>

I heard Marco say something, but he was speaking normally now, not in thought-speak, so it was hard to make it out with my ears under the water.

I stuck my head up and saw him begin to resume his dolphin shape.

Halfway through, he slipped off the side of the whale and back into the water. His fins formed. His beak.

And his tail. Perfect and healthy and undamaged.

We headed for shore, tired but alive.

I felt strange, leaving the whale. But when we were a mile away, I heard his song - slow, mournful, haunting notes.

<Why didn't he sing more when we were with him?> Jake wondered.

I smiled inwardly. And of course, since I was a dolphin at the moment, I smiled outwardly, too.

<He doesn't sing for the little ones,> I explained. <He sings for the mothers.>

<What?> Marco asked.

<He sings for a mate.>

<Ahh. Cruising for chicks. Got it. I wonder if the big old guy even realizes that he helped save my life.>

<Marco, that big old guy realizes things you and I will never even be able to guess.>

So, this is it. The is the part of the series about a blue centaur alien who gives teenagers the power to change into animals so they can defend the world from parasitic mind controlling slugs and their dinosaur-men slaves where I lose my suspension of disbelief. A reviewer/rereader of the animorph books called this "whale Jesus", and I think it fits.

So why does this part bug me so much, given that this is a science fiction series and that the entire premise of the books is a pretty fantastic one? I've been thinking about it, and I think I came up with the answer. For all of the weirdness of the series, Applegate has gotten the animals right...or at least realistic. While I probably can never get into a lizard's mind, I could believe that when Jake turned into a lizard in the first book he'd think and act like that.Sure, she doesn't get everything right. We know that cats can see color better than she thought they could, but at the time she wrote the book, we didn't know that about cats. And she shies away from the fact that dolphins seem to be murderous rapists, but, you know, children's book. She's been good at researching animals and animal behavior....from Rachel's bravado as a cat to Cassie's constant state of panic as a squirrel to the fact that Tobias as a hawk killed and ate a rat just out of instinct.

So when we get to the idea that dolphins instinctively worship whales as gods and that whales are psychic fonts of oceanic wisdom, it just feels like this section isn't as well researched as the rest of the animal parts of the books. It's a kind of mystical spiritual woo that doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the series.

But maybe i'm being too harsh on it. What do you all think? Are you fans of whale Jesus? Will you accept the Cetacean Messiah into your hearts?

# ? Jun 12, 2020 00:20

Soup du Jour: Sep 8, 2011; I always knew I'd die with a headache.

I completely forgot about this. It�s very... Ecco-y?

# ? Jun 12, 2020 00:28

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

I certainly remember whales being very, very mysterious in the 90s when I grew up. I vaguely recall a lot of research being done into how they communicated and what they communicated and gently caress it y'all I'm all on board with whale buddy.
Save some human dolphins, save it up as a story to get laid. Why the hell not.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 00:49

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

The whale ruled and I'm glad it's here.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 01:20

Agaragon: Nov 16, 2018

I'm fine with Cetus Ex Machina.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 02:02

Radio Free Kobold: Aug 11, 2012; "Federal regulations mandate that at least 30% of our content must promote Reptilian or Draconic culture. This is DJ Scratch N' Sniff with the latest mermaid screeching on KBLD..."

It's stupid, but it's cool and I'm digging it. gently caress it, why not?
Save the whales, yo!

# ? Jun 12, 2020 02:18

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

Whale Jesus is extremely late-90s. I like that Applegate sort of grounds it with the looking-for-ladies aspect, at least!
I completely forgot this scene, but "I don't want to die as some fish" really stuck in junior me's head, for some reason.

On another note, is anyone else bugged by the fact that Marco's tail turns into his legs? He's not a seal. It's like the "knees reversing" thing a few books ago.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 02:51

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

People used to be really into whales and dolphins. This would have been a few years after Free Willy came out and kids were all about that. This isn't even close to the dumbest thing they find in the ocean though.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 02:53

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

OctaviusBeaver posted:

People used to be really into whales and dolphins. This would have been a few years after Free Willy came out and kids were all about that. This isn't even close to the dumbest thing they find in the ocean though.

That book is like the Rachel starfish one. It doesn't exist.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 03:09

Khizan: Jul 30, 2013

I'm okay with the whale because it makes me think of Ecco the Dolphin and that's okay with me.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 03:24

Gnoman: Feb 12, 2014; Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme

Dolphins and whales as super-intelligent creatures was pretty common in 90s media, from what I remember.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 03:27

wizzardstaff: Apr 6, 2018; Zorch! Splat! Pow!

Gnoman posted:

Dolphins and whales as super-intelligent creatures was pretty common in 90s media, from what I remember.

Hey, remember SeaQuest?

I actually liked the other underwater one that everyone's dancing around. It was the right shade of WTF.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 03:33

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

Agaragon posted:

Cetus Ex Machina.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 04:07

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

wizzardstaff posted:

Hey, remember SeaQuest?

I actually liked the other underwater one that everyone's dancing around. It was the right shade of WTF.

Star Trek: The Next Generation had a throwaway line about there being a �cetacean ops� lab on the Enterprise, with the implication being that the Universal Translator had managed to decode dolphin communication and it turns out they were fully sapient and could get into Starfleet.

When they later published a full book of blueprints for the Enterprise-D you could find the dolphin tanks on one deck plan as well as a dedicated dolphin escape pod.

Also yeah anything dolphin related in the 90s is by default reaping some big Ecco energy.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 04:39

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

nine-gear crow posted:

<Jake . . . buddy . . . You know I can't swim.>

Fantasy whale aside, and yea maybe it's to do with that mom trauma of his too, but this is what stands out to me the most, a teenager who can't swim is just kind of weird.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 06:31

Karanas: Jul 17, 2011; Euuuuuuuugh

Avalerion posted:

Fantasy whale aside, and yea maybe it's to do with that mom trauma of his too, but this is what stands out to me the most, a teenager who can't swim is just kind of weird.

Why? Plenty of people can't swim. Hell I've worked alongside fishermen who can't swim.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 10:39

Some Pinko Commie: Jun 9, 2009; CNC! Easy as 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣!

Don't forget there was literally a Star Trek movie that involved time travel and whales to save the Federation/Earth from destruction.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 11:38

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

Karanas posted:

Why? Plenty of people can't swim. Hell I've worked alongside fishermen who can't swim.

Huh. I wouldn't win any swimming competitions either but I kind of assumed most healthy people, if thrown into water would be able to at least thread water / dog paddle.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 11:57

Ravenfood: Nov 4, 2011

Avalerion posted:

Huh. I wouldn't win any swimming competitions either but I kind of assumed most healthy people, if thrown into water would be able to at least thread water / dog paddle.

Most people probably can but Marco's deal with water and his current panic probably aren't helping. And they are in the open ocean and not in a pool or whatever.

So yeah he probably would be able to, he just doesn't know that.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 12:50

Karanas: Jul 17, 2011; Euuuuuuuugh

I guess I get where you're coming from, but there's a world of difference between paddling in a pool and being stranded in the ocean. Not to mention that not everyone get to learn how to swim properly.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 12:51

MrNemo: Aug 26, 2010; "I just love beeting off"

Yeah, people do not just instinctually swim. Drowning is most definitely a thing that can happen as people not used to being in water panic. Forget open ocean, it's quiet possible for people to drown in even relatively small bodies of water or anything at all that has some kind of current.

It's also worth noting individual buoyancy can vary quite a bit. I was a day kid and remember being able to float quite happily. As an adult if lie flat with a lung full of air, I naturally end up vertical with the top of my head just poking out of the water.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 16:51

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Message-Chapter 13

quote:

The next day I went to see Marco at his home.

He and his dad live in a garden apartment complex. One of the older ones, on the far side of the big neighborhood where Jake and Rachel both live. I'd only been over there a couple of times. I think Marco is kind of embarrassed be cause he doesn't have much money.

For those who don't know, a garden apartment is a two or three story building, with one or more apartments on each level, and outside stairs or sometimes an elevator that that goes to each floor. You find them in the suburbs a lot, vs a city apartment building which is a bunch of floors with a bunch of apartments on each floor.

quote:

He used to live in a house just down the street from Jake. But that was when his mother was still alive, and before his father had a breakdown and quit his job.

I knocked on the door. From inside I heard Marco's voice. "Dad, there's someone at the door. Put on your bathrobe, okay?"

There was a delay, and then the door opened. Marco looked annoyed.

"Cassie. What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

"To me? What about?"

"About yesterday," I said.

He hesitated. "Look, I'm spending the day with my dad, okay? We're thinking maybe we'll . . . you know, do something together."

"That's good," I said. Over Marco's shoulder I could see his father. He was wearing a bathrobe and sitting on the couch. He was staring at the TV. That was normal for any dad, I guess, on a weekend morning. But I had the feeling that Marco's dad was always sitting right there in front of the TV.

"Look, Marco, I just want to talk for a minute. Can I come in?"

"No, no," he said hastily. He stepped outside onto the concrete breezeway. Down below us was a swimming pool. It was drained and closed. Leaves covered the bottom.

So, that's the first time we've "met" Marco's dad, who had a mental breakdown after the death of his wife

quote:

"Marco, I wanted to talk to you about yesterday."

"What about it?"

"You could have been killed. It would have been my fault. This whole mission was my idea. Jake asked me if we should do it and I said yes."

Marco rolled his eyes. "That's it? Look, it wasn't your fault. It's this whole thing we're doing, this whole Animorph thing. I mean, it's been dangerous right from the start. It's insanely dangerous. What else is new?"

I shrugged. "What's new, I guess, is that the other times it was always someone else's idea."

"Oh, I get it. You don't like responsibility?"

I winced. Was that it? Was I afraid of taking responsibility? "I don't want to get my friends killed."

"And let me assure you your friends don't want to get killed, either," Marco said with a laugh. "I am completely opposed to getting killed." He grew serious, even sad. "But you know what? Sometimes bad things happen. That's the way it is."

I leaned against the rail, looking down at the dismal empty pool. "I see things die all the time, " I said. "Animals, I mean. Sometimes you can't save them. Sometimes we even have to put them down - end their suffering. But my dad makes those decisions. Not me. He's the vet. I'm just his assistant."

"Look, here I am, all alive," Marco said, tapping his chest. "Get over it. I didn't have to go. It was my choice."

"Were you scared?"

For a while he didn't answer. He just came over and leaned on the railing beside me. "I'm scared all the time now, Cassie," he said at last. "I'm scared to fight the Yeerks, and I'm scared of what will happen if I don't. I look at Tobias, and what happened to him scares me to death. What if I get stuck in morph someday? And most of all, I am scared of ... of him."

I get the feeling that this is the sort of thing Marco really doesn't want to admit, but Cassie is able to bring it out of him.

quote:

I didn't have to ask who Marco meant by him. Visser Three.

"That first time, in the construction site, when he killed . . . when he murdered the Andalite." Marco made a twisted smile. "I see that in my head every day. And the Yeerk pool." He shook his head. "That's something I would like to forget, too."

"Yes," I agreed. "There has been a lot of fear."

"So was I afraid yesterday? Bet on it. I was scared plenty. It was like, man, it's not bad enough we have to fight Hork-Bajir and Taxxons and Visser Three, we also have to fight sharks? Sharks?" He laughed, and hearing him brought the laughter out of me.

We both just stood there and giggled like idiots for a few minutes. It was that laughter you get after something really tense has happened. Relief laughter. "We're still alive" laughter.

"Urn, by the way, I was going to wait and tell everyone at the same time," Marco said, "but I think we have a problem."

"What problem?"

"It was in the newspaper this morning - two stories. One is about this guy who is going to be looking for some supposedly lost treasure ship off the coast. The other was this story about some big marine biologist guy who has a ship and is going to be doing some underwater exploration off our coast."

"Yes? So?"

"So, all of a sudden our nearby ocean seems to be very interesting to people. Treasure hunters and an underwater exploration? At the same time?"

"Controllers?"

He nodded. "I think so. I think it's all a cover story to explain why two ships will be out there with lots of divers in the water. I think it's them, all right. And
I think they're looking for the same thing you're looking for."

I felt weak. The image the whale had given me surfaced in my mind. And the faint cry in my dreams, the cry for help.

"I ... I can't ask anyone to go out there again," I whispered. "This time we might not be so lucky."

Marco looked uncomfortable. "Cassie, you know how I feel about all this. I think we have to take care of ourselves first. And our own families." He glanced back at his apartment door. "On the other hand ... I guess after what the Andalite did for us, I wouldn't feel like much of a human being if I didn't try to save whoever is out there."

"I don't know who's out there," I said. "I don't know if it's even real."

"But you think it's an Andalite."

"I think it is. But Marco, I don't know. If someone gets hurt. . . killed . . . just because I have these dreams - I can't make that kind of decision."

"Yes, but can you decide to do nothing? That's a decision, too."

I had to smile. "Marco, you know, for a guy who's always joking around and being annoying, you're awfully smart."

"Yeah, I know, but don't tell anyone. It would destroy my image."

It's something that'll get explored more later on in the series, but Marco is really smart. I think in some ways, he's the smartest of all of the Animorphs.

quote:

I started to walk away.

"You know what was strange about yesterday?" Marco said.

"What?"

"The sharks. They were so totally deadly. I mean, we worry about Hork-Bajir and Taxxons and Visser Three. You kind of forget that right here on little old planet Earth there are creatures just as tough and dangerous. It would be funny if it wasn't some alien that ended up getting us, but some normal Earth creature."

I didn't think it was funny at all.

Marco grinned at my stone face. "Okay, not funny ha-ha. More like funny weird."

He's right.

# ? Jun 12, 2020 23:59

Radio Free Kobold: Aug 11, 2012; "Federal regulations mandate that at least 30% of our content must promote Reptilian or Draconic culture. This is DJ Scratch N' Sniff with the latest mermaid screeching on KBLD..."

quote:

"The sharks. They were so totally deadly. I mean, we worry about Hork-Bajir and Taxxons and Visser Three. You kind of forget that right here on little old planet Earth there are creatures just as tough and dangerous. It would be funny if it wasn't some alien that ended up getting us, but some normal Earth creature."

i just made this post

# ? Jun 13, 2020 00:25

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Radio Free Kobold posted:

i just made this post

You and Marco are on the same wavelength.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 00:41

Radio Free Kobold: Aug 11, 2012; "Federal regulations mandate that at least 30% of our content must promote Reptilian or Draconic culture. This is DJ Scratch N' Sniff with the latest mermaid screeching on KBLD..."

Good thing I know how to swim.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 01:10

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Epicurius posted:

It's something that'll get explored more later on in the series, but Marco is really smart. I think in some ways, he's the smartest of all of the Animorphs.

I agree; Tobias is close, but Tobias is just a "good tactician" while Marco's secretly a master strategist. One of the best things about the series is that five teenagers are written with five different intelligences, and those come through in the text and in the characters' interactions. There are things others are "smarter" about than Marco (IMO: Jake and Cassie are more emotionally intelligent, Tobias is more perceptive, Rachel may be more perceptive and is actually the best strategist when under a time constraint of "we need something right now that probably won't get us killed"), but Marco is the only one who's nearly as good as everyone else in their strengths while he laps the field in his own, and the books manage to display that without making him an obnoxious know-it-all.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 01:10

Soup du Jour: Sep 8, 2011; I always knew I'd die with a headache.

Marco is incredibly intelligent, something that really comes through as the series goes on. Especially once his dad starts to recover and we get to spend some time with Eva it becomes really clear how much of his parents� child he is.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 01:12

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Soup du Jour posted:

Marco is incredibly intelligent, something that really comes through as the series goes on. Especially once his dad starts to recover and we get to spend some time with Eva it becomes really clear how much of his parents� child he is.

He's also the best at keeping up with Ax, and also with the Yeerks; while the other kids tend to get understandably hung up on how they don't know how alien technology works, Marco can see more or less what it's supposed to do and go from there.

Shame he's the worst driver.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 01:26

ENEMIES EVERYWHERE: Oct 27, 2006; ]; Pillbug

Reading these books for the first time as an adult, thanks to this thread. Everything everyone has said here is true. These kids are very good, and very thirteen, which means that they are also very bad, and I love them.

I just finished book 8 and boy howdy I understand they're just kids and it's hard to murder someone face-to-face, but NOT killing the Andalite that is Visser Three's host body when he was lying there begging them for death is simultaneously the single most cruel and strategically terrible thing they've ever done

# ? Jun 13, 2020 01:32

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# ? May 25, 2024 08:52

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

ENEMIES EVERYWHERE posted:

Reading these books for the first time as an adult, thanks to this thread. Everything everyone has said here is true. These kids are very good, and very thirteen, which means that they are also very bad, and I love them.

I just finished book 8 and boy howdy I understand they're just kids and it's hard to murder someone face-to-face, but NOT killing the Andalite that is Visser Three's host body when he was lying there begging them for death is simultaneously the single most cruel and strategically terrible thing they've ever done

<...Goddammit, Iniss.> :manning:

# ? Jun 13, 2020 02:14

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

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