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

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Daikloktos: Jan 1, 2020; by Cyrano4747

ENEMIES EVERYWHERE posted:

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

Spoilers allIt's definitely not a strategically sound call by what they know and why they do it, but Alloran ends up being an important piece in saving humanity once the Andalites turn out to be less than allies

# ? Jun 13, 2020 03:39

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# ? May 20, 2024 19:10

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

They should have gotten themselves whale morphs while they had the chance. Would have made this next trip much easier.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 07:28

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

Avalerion posted:

They should have gotten themselves whale morphs while they had the chance. Would have made this next trip much easier.

My biggest frustration with these kids is that they are not constantly experimenting with new animals. Seems like every week there's a new mission and they're all, "oh no, we don't have any good morphs prepared, let's do our best with whatever Cassie's got in her barn and don't take time to practice!"

They should be constantly hanging out at the zoo, acquiring new forms and doubling up on useful morphs for god's sake. Forget math class. This is your homework now. You are an Animorph and you will FIND some ANIMALS to MORPH.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 07:50

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

They've made the point in the books they don't know if there's a limit to the number of morphs they can do. It's definitely a risk/reward thing but I think they are, not wholly intentionally, going with a strategy of getting an appropriate morph when they have a need to avoid a situation where they acquire 20 awesome land based predators and suddenly need to go to sea. Or have an amazing set of attack morphs and get a situation where they need to be able to get through a mall unobserved.

I actually am surprised and impressed with how well the authors have handled 'show, don't tell'. Even well regarded writing like Ender's Game is nowhere near this level. Although it has the downside that it's target audience likely misses a lot subtext and even experienced readers need to be bringing a lot of outside knowledge to flesh things out.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 08:50

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

wizzardstaff posted:

My biggest frustration with these kids is that they are not constantly experimenting with new animals. Seems like every week there's a new mission and they're all, "oh no, we don't have any good morphs prepared, let's do our best with whatever Cassie's got in her barn and don't take time to practice!"

They should be constantly hanging out at the zoo, acquiring new forms and doubling up on useful morphs for god's sake. Forget math class. This is your homework now. You are an Animorph and you will FIND some ANIMALS to MORPH.

The problem with giving up on school to do this is that it gets them in trouble which makes it harder for them to do this (and also Jake's brother is a Controller who might get suspicious if Jake starts acting too unusual). So the try to keep it as cool and low-down as possible, which means their time to do stuff is limited.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 10:40

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

It's a little hyperbolic, I admit. No one actually wants to read Animorphs: The Isekai where the characters just minmax their way through the resistance. It always just stood out to me is all.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 14:55

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Kchama posted:

The problem with giving up on school to do this is that it gets them in trouble which makes it harder for them to do this (and also Jake's brother is a Controller who might get suspicious if Jake starts acting too unusual).

And also their assistant principal is a high-ranking Controller who is definitely open to the idea that the Andalite bandits are humans.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 15:30

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

It's just the structure of the series that they usually get 1 new morph per book. Gets a little silly later on when they run out of cool animals and it has to justify why they suddenly need to become ducks or cows or whatever. They are really short and it usually takes a while to give you animal facts and a couple of body horror paragraphs when they transform so they don't have space to do a bunch of them anyway.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 15:59

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Message-Chapter 14

quote:

"Okay," Jake said. "Here's what we know. Or at least, what we think we know."

We were all at Rachel's house again. It was a few hours after I had gone to see Marco. Tobias was perched on the windowsill. He didn't feel all that comfortable being inside for long. He liked the feel of the wind and the open air.

"First, we believe that somehow a surviving Andalite, or maybe more than one Andalite, is trapped out in the ocean."

"Hopefully Andalites can hold their breath for a really long time," Marco joked.

"Second, Cassie believes she can find this Andalite, thanks to the information from the whale."

Everyone kept a straight face for about ten seconds. Then, all at once, everyone cracked up.

"Information from a whale," Marco repeated, giggling.

<Have our lives gotten really weird, or is it just me?> Tobias asked.

"Weird? Weird?" Marco crowed. "The talking bird wants to know if getting information on the location of an alien from a whale, that you've just saved from sharks, by turning into dolphins . . . You're suggesting that's weird?"

See? I'm not the only one bothered by Jesus whale!

quote:

Jake smiled. "Well, stay tuned. It just gets weirder. Cassie and I have been going over maps. She says the location we're looking for is pretty far out to sea. Too far for us to swim and still have any time left of our two-hour limit."

"Well, that's the ball game, isn't it?" Marco asked.

Jake nodded at Rachel. "I was talking to Rachel earlier and she has an idea."

Rachel stood up. She'd been lounging on the bed. "We hop a ride on a ship. First we morph into something like a seagull."

Marco groaned. "I hate plans that begin with the words 'first we morph.'"

"We morph into seagulls," I said, picking up the plan we'd worked out. "Then we fly out into the shipping channel. We land on a tanker or a container ship or something that's going the right direction. We morph back to human, rest up, let the ship get us closer, then jump over the side, morph to dolphin and go the rest of the way."

I know a lot of those container ships are mostly automated, but still, I hope there aren't any crew members noticing a bunch of kids on their ship.

quote:

"Oh, well, when you put it that way, it sounds so easy," Marco sneered. "How about if we just walk over to Chapman's house and tell him to call Visser Three to finish us off? It's so much easier, and the results will be the same."

Jake sighed. "It is dangerous and risky, and there are about a hundred things that could go wrong. Plus, as Marco has told us, we have reason to think that Controllers will be out there, searching for the same thing we're searching for."

"This idea just gets better and better," Marco said.

"Let's put it to a vote," Jake suggested.

"I'm in," Marco said instantly.

A split second behind him, Rachel said her usual "I'm in."

Everyone stared openmouthed at Marco.

"Just once I wanted to beat Rachel to it," he explained.

"Tobias?" Jake asked.

<l don't think I should vote. I have to sit this one out. I can't stay up that long with nowhere to set down. Sorry.>

"You had the dreams, just like Cassie," Jake pointed out. "Do you think we should do this or not?"

Tobias fixed his fierce glare on me. <Yes, Cassie and I both had the dreams. I think they're real.>

"Okay, looks like we go," Jake said briskly. "Tomorrow. First thing in the morning. We can't wait any longer. The longer we hold off, the greater the chance the Yeerks will beat us to it."

We left Rachel's house. Marco split off in one direction. Tobias flew off to some unknown destination. Jake and I walked together for a while, even though it was out of his way.

"I think Tobias is feeling kind of left out," I said. "You should talk to him later, remind him of how many times he's helped us out."

"That's a good idea," Jake agreed.

We walked a little farther in silence. It's one of the nice things about the relationship Jake and I have. We can be quiet together and feel okay about it.

"This is really dangerous, isn't it?" I asked him.

He nodded.

Suddenly I stopped walking. I don't know why, but I had this need to tell him something. I took his hand and held it between both of mine. "Jake?" I said.

"Yes?"
It was on the tip of my tongue, but then it seemed ridiculous to say it. So instead I said, "Look, don't ever get hurt, okay?"

He smiled that smile. "Me? I'm indestructible."

The way he said it, I almost believed him. But then, as he went his way and I headed toward home, I glanced up at the sky.

Against the blaze of sunset I saw a flash of russet tailfeathers. Tobias. Our friend, who had been trapped forever in a body not his own.

None of us was indestructible.

The best part of all this is that Jake and Cassie think they're keeping their relationship a secret.

# ? Jun 14, 2020 00:43

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..."

Couldn't they also swim out there as dolphins, morph back to human (one by one, supported by the others as dolphins), then re-morph? Ah well, same thing either way really.

e: Come to think of it, how are they going to get back?

# ? Jun 14, 2020 03:11

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

Radio Free Kobold posted:

Couldn't they also swim out there as dolphins, morph back to human (one by one, supported by the others as dolphins), then re-morph? Ah well, same thing either way really.

e: Come to think of it, how are they going to get back?

This guy has put more thought into their plan than any of them have

It's pretty much a recurring theme isn't it? Flying by the seat of their pants and half-assing everything?

# ? Jun 14, 2020 03:14

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Tobias is the only one with the watch.

# ? Jun 14, 2020 03:26

SardonicTyrant: Feb 26, 2016; BTICH IM A NEWT
熱くなれ夢みた明日を
必ずいつかつかまえる
走り出せ振り向くことなく
&

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

This guy has put more thought into their plan than any of them have

It's pretty much a recurring theme isn't it? Flying by the seat of their pants and half-assing everything?

They're thirteen

# ? Jun 14, 2020 16:57

feetnotes: Jan 29, 2008

Loving this thread! I haven't read some of these in easily 15-20 years. Some parts I remember almost verbatim, others (like Whale Jesus) my brain just deleted the information outright.

One thing I'm noticing: the narration has already started to describe Rachel as a true-warrior, reborn Amazon type, but I don't know that her actions have really borne that out yet. She's quick to agree to action, but she doesn't seem to be any more of a ruthless, skilled fighter/killer than the others at this point. The most it's shown up so far is when she's in cat morph and tapping into the predator instincts.

I know we'll start to see the shift in her persona pretty soon, about the time when she switches from using an elephant to a grizzly as her battle morph. The references from other characters to her love of battle have already shown up, as I've said, so this was clearly always an intention in the authors' mind -- I wonder if her battle morph shift was always planned as a piece of character development, or if it was a later switch to characterize her more strongly?

# ? Jun 14, 2020 19:02

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 15

quote:

<Hey! Half a sandwich! It's salami!>

<Look over there. Is that a Jujubee?>

<Pizza! Pizza! Part of the crust and it's one of those stuffed crusts!>

Fortunately, one thing we always have plenty of in the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (also known as my barn) is seagulls.

We acquired the seagull DNA. Then the four of us, with Tobias watching from the high rafters, morphed into the new bodies.

I have been a bird before. An osprey, to be ex act, one of the types of hawk.

But gulls are different in some ways. For one thing, they are scavengers, not predators. So as we took wing and flew in a rush of white from the open hayloft, I noticed different things, felt different things. My seagull mind was not searching for mice or scurrying animals. It was much more openminded. My seagull intelligence looked for anything - anything - that could even possibly be food.

Fortunately, the gull brains were close enough to the other bird brains we'd all experienced that it was fairly easy to control them. We didn't waste a lot of time getting started.

Although, once we did get started, everyone was constantly pointing out food.

<Hey! Look! French fries on the ground.>

<Whoa! That's half a 3 Musketeers bar by that car!>

<O ooh, ooh! Look at the Dumpster behind that McDonald's!>

Sometimes you just have to accept the animal's basic mindset and go with it.

<There's the beach,> Jake said as we flapped and soared and flapped some more.

It's easier being an osprey in some ways. Much less flapping.

Once we were out over the water, we could at least stop scanning for food. Mostly.

<Hey! Is that a bag of potato chips floating down there?>

We flew low, just a few dozen feet above the water. Not like hawks, who can ride the thermals up to the bellies of the clouds.

But Tobias wasn't much higher than we were now. There are no thermals over water and he was having to flap a lot to stay aloft.

We flew on, skimming the choppy surface of the water.

<Hey, look,> Rachel said. <Over to the left.>

Sleek gray shapes sliced through the water, up, down, up, down, breaking the silvery barrier between sky and sea. It was a school of dolphins.

<You know, sometimes this is just so wonderful> Rachel said. <l mean, we're flying. We're flying! And later, we'll be like them, at home in the water.>

<Yeah, just us and the sharks,> Marco said darkly.

<Still, it is cool,> Rachel said.

<There's a ship up ahead,> Jake announced.

<You just now noticed it?> Tobias laughed. <Wow. Seagull eyes aren't exactly great, are they? It's a container ship called Newmar. It's from Monrovia. You want to know what color the captain's hair is?>

Monrovia is the capital of Liberia, and named after US president James Monroe. It was set up in 1822 as a settlement for freed slaves from the US and got its independence in 1847

quote:

<Show-off,> Jake grumbled.

Hawk eyes are totally amazing. As long as it's sunny out, Tobias can read a book from like three blocks away.

It was hard, flying to catch up to the ship. It was moving fairly fast, and by the time we were close I was exhausted.

The ship was gigantic, painted a rusty blue, with a deck longer than a football field. The superstructure was all crammed toward the back. That's where the crew would be, so we flew forward, hoping to find someplace private.

The deck was stacked with containers, big steel boxes like trailers. Row after row of them lined the deck, and we could see hundreds more down in the hold.

We settled in the narrow space between two rows of containers, far forward. It was like having walls all around us. Corrugated metal walls that went high over our heads.

<Tobias? How much time?> Jake asked.

Tobias twisted his head down to see the tiny watch strapped to his talon. < It's been about an hour and a half.>

We decided to resume our human shapes. The space between the rows of containers was even narrower when we were fully human again.

"Brrr. It's chilly out here," I said. The steel deck was cold beneath my bare feet. And even though the sun was high in the sky, we were in shadow.

"Man, I swear, this is the worst thing about morphing," Marco said. "Can someone please figure out how to morph shoes, and maybe a sweater? Come on, Cassie. You're the morphing genius. I'm sick of these morphing outfits."

"But you look so cute in Spandex," Rachel teased him.

"Plus, they aren't exactly fashionable. All I'm saying is - uniforms. Something cool-looking. And warm. Warm would be nice. When winter comes, we are going to be some sad little Animorphs."

"I have a more important question," Rachel said. "How do we know when we're there? You know, our destination."

Jake made a "who knows?" face. "I figure this ship is going like, what, twenty miles per hour? Figure an hour, and that puts us twenty miles out, right?"

Rachel pointed a finger at her forehead and said, "Jake's a total mathematical genius. One hour at twenty miles per hour. Right away he figures out that's twenty miles."

Jake laughed. "That's about all the math I can do."

<Actually, we're moving about eighteen miles per hour,> Tobias said.

We all just stared at him.

<I fly along the roads sometimes and watch the car speedometers. So I have a pretty good idea how fast I'm flying. When we were flying alongside the ship, I clocked it.>

"Okay, eighteen miles an hour, more or less, straight south," Marco considered. "That would put us within a couple of miles of where Cassie thinks we should go."

I winced. Every time anyone said something about me deciding where to go or what to do, it made me nervous.

<I'd better head back,> Tobias said regret fully. <l don't want to try and fly eighteen miles back without a rest. And if I stay on this ship I'll end up in Singapore.>

"Singapore?" Rachel asked.

<Yeah. I read the captain's log as we were flying alongside. That's where they're heading.>

Tobias flew off, leaving us the little watch.

It was extremely dull waiting for an hour, with nothing to do but try and guess what was in the big containers all around us. On the other hand, we knew what we had to do next would definitely not be boring.

So basically, we were happy to just be bored for a while, huddling together to stay warm in the whipping ocean breeze.

Not too much to say about this chapter, except that Tobias has figured out how to estimate speeds! And seaguls are obnoxious.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 00:04

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

Liberia is also a common port of call for ships to avoid taxes. A lot of cruise liners are based there.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 00:40

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

Soup du Jour posted:

Liberia is also a common port of call for ships to avoid taxes. A lot of cruise liners are based there.

Ships in general, not just cruise

# ? Jun 15, 2020 01:37

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

Hang on, any ship that spends more than three days away from port can be guaranteed Yeerk-free, right?
Does that make the world's submariners and sardine fishermen the first line of defence against invasion from the stars?

# ? Jun 15, 2020 02:26

Daikloktos: Jan 1, 2020; by Cyrano4747

Tree Bucket posted:

Hang on, any ship that spends more than three days away from port can be guaranteed Yeerk-free, right?
Does that make the world's submariners and sardine fishermen the first line of defence against invasion from the stars?

Eventually they do get the Kandrona technology down to jacuzzi size

# ? Jun 15, 2020 03:37

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Daikloktos posted:

Eventually they do get the Kandrona technology down to jacuzzi size

Smaller than that even. There's one that's about the size of a basketball for singular use.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 03:51

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

nine-gear crow posted:

Smaller than that even. There's one that's about the size of a basketball for singular use.

Is that the Chee invention?

# ? Jun 15, 2020 04:08

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

Epicurius posted:

Is that the Chee invention?

I think they're referring to the one Visser Three uses when he's pretending to be Tobias's relative. I remember it being small enough to use in a hotel bathroom.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 04:16

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

I wish people would at least mention what books they're referencing in their spoiler tags (outside the hag) so I would know if I would know whether I can safely check them :mad:

# ? Jun 15, 2020 06:11

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Fuschia tude posted:

I wish people would at least mention what books they're referencing in their spoiler tags (outside the hag) so I would know if I would know whether I can safely check them

For what it's worth, I might also be misremembering the scattered glimpses of the TV show and its interpretation of the Kandrona light, which I seem to recall was about the size of a small countertop vanity mirror, for production practicality reasons.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 06:19

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

Fuschia tude posted:

I wish people would at least mention what books they're referencing in their spoiler tags (outside the hag) so I would know if I would know whether I can safely check them

Sorry

First spoilered post is very minor and comes to light probably in the next couple books I think, the next three spoilers are for events much later in the series and are in increasing level of specificity, from nine-gear crow's general "a thing happens" to my "here's a very explicit plot development including the twist".

# ? Jun 15, 2020 06:37

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

If you think a spoiler is such that it could ruin your enjoyment of a book series, don't read the spoiler. The tags are there so people that have already read the series can discuss it without spoiling it for you.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 11:38

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

To be fair, this is a long book series, and the idea that people might have read some of the books and not others isn't entirely outrageous. So I don't think Fuschia tude's request is unreasonable. I don't know that it would work, because sometimes mentioning what book something is in can itself be a spoiler. But I guess I'd just remind people to be careful about spoilers, and also that we should probably be respectful of each other.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 14:14

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

Epicurius posted:

To be fair, this is a long book series, and the idea that people might have read some of the books and not others isn't entirely outrageous. So I don't think Fuschia tude's request is unreasonable. I don't know that it would work, because sometimes mentioning what book something is in can itself be a spoiler. But I guess I'd just remind people to be careful about spoilers, and also that we should probably be respectful of each other.

I guess if you're gonna talk about future books at all with spoiler blocks then just stick (Book Name) in front of it and it will be good.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 19:20

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

I don't want to spoiler anything for anyone but there are 55 books in this series and most of us read them ages ago, it's gonna be hard to remember what specific book something was in to label it. I think anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled should just not read the spoiler tags.

OctaviusBeaver fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Jun 15, 2020

# ? Jun 15, 2020 20:04

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Ok, so lets do this. Spoil spoilers. Don't read spoilers if you don't want to be spoiled. If you can and want to be more specific about where the spoilers come from to help other people, that would be great. And, most importantly, be charitable about things. People are going to screw up. That's ok.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 20:08

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Message-Chapter 16

quote:

After a long time, Jake checked the watch. "It's been about an hour. Cassie? What do you think?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I ... I guess I was hoping that when I was back in dolphin morph I would be able to make sense of more of the details the whale communicated to me. It was mostly images. And some of the images were about sounds and currents and water temperatures, and stuff you can't see from the surface."

Jake thought for a moment. "Oh, well, now is as good as any time, I guess. Let's head for the side."

We stood up, uncramping our cold, stiff legs and arms. We moved along the row of containers toward the left side of the ship. The port side, as they say.

We reached the side. There was a solid steel railing that ran all around, about waist high. Jake checked to see if we would be in view of the bridge, and we headed forward a little more to a blind spot where no one should see us.

The four of us leaned over the rail and looked down at the water. It looked like it was a million miles below.

Marco whistled. "Man. That is some high dive."

"No big deal for a seagull or a dolphin, but a mighty long way for a human," I agreed.

"We can't morph up here. We'd never get our dolphin bodies over the side," Rachel pointed out.

"Nope," Jake agreed. "We have to jump in with our human bodies. All except Marco. He can't swim. I thought he could morph up here, and then we could all shove him over the side. "

Rachel looked skeptical. "Jake? When Marco is in dolphin morph, he'll weigh like four hundred pounds."

Jake looked worried. "I kind of didn't think about this when I was planning."

Oops.

quote:

I had a sinking feeling. The plan was falling apart before it had even begun.

"I'll lean against the railing," Marco suggested. "I'll start morphing, then, before I lose my legs, you guys help shove me over. I'll finish morphing within a few seconds of hitting the water."

"Unless the water knocks you out and you just sink," I said flatly. "Forget it. Forget it. Let's just morph back to seagulls and fly back home. This is insane."

"Insane?" Marco echoed. "Hey, that's my word. Look, we came this far."

"I don't care!" I yelled, surprised at my own passion. "I'm not going to be responsible for any one dying! This isn't going to work. I don't know where I am. I don't know where we're going. I don't know what to do!"

Marco laughed. "Excellent pep talk, Cassie. Now I'm really looking forward to this."

I was going to yell at him, something like, "Look, Marco, this is not a joke." But when I looked at him, I saw that his face was bulging way out, forming a long, grinning beak.

He had already started to morph.

"I'm nock koink to ..." he started to say. But his mouth no longer worked.

He was growing larger, straining his weak human legs with his weight. His arms were flattening into flippers.

"Now!" Jake said. He grabbed Marco's flipper arm. Rachel and I jumped forward and seized his legs just as they began to shrivel.

"Heave!" Jake yelled.

Marco, half human, half dolphin, tumbled backward over the railing and fell into the sea.

"Let's go," Jake said.

"Yee-hah!" Rachel said with a wild grin. She jumped up on the railing, balanced for a moment like the gymnast she was, then launched herself off in a neat swan dive.

Jake and I exchanged a glance.

"Rachel," he said, and rolled his eyes.

"She's your cousin," I pointed out.

"On the count of three. One, two . . ."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I climbed over the rail ing and launched myself as far from the steel wall of the ship as I could.

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhh!"

I fell for what seemed like a very long time.

PAH-LOOOOSH!

I hit the water feet first and plowed beneath the surface in a pillar of bubbles.

The cold shocked me. The water was like ice. And just a few feet away was the intimidating steel wall of the tanker, sliding past at what felt like incredible speed.

I kicked my feet and began to rise to the sur face. I've been a swimmer since I was little, but it frightened me, being this far out in water this deep. This wasn't a pool or a pond. This was the ocean. Twenty miles from land.

This is true., A lot of people think that because they can swim in a pool or a lake, it translates to swimming in the ocean, but the ocean is a lot deeper and more treacherous than people think.

quote:

I broke the surface and gasped a lungful of air and a mouthful of saltwater. What had looked like a little choppiness from up in the ship felt like towering waves down here. I couldn't see any of the others. All I could see was the side of the ship.

Come on, Cassie, I told myself, morph. Do it. This is no place for a person.

There is just about nothing as helpless as a human being in the ocean. Without my ability to morph I would not have lasted an hour.

I felt the change begin as I focused on morphing. At first, I thought it would kill me. I soon had most of the weight of a dolphin, with nothing but my human feet paddling to keep my head above water. My arms had already become flippers.

A wave washed over me, leaving me sputtering from my mouth and my blowhole at the same time.

I realized I could no longer keep my head above water. I took a deep lungful and let myself sink.

As my eyes went from human to dolphin, my underwater vision improved. I could see other figures kicking and writhing in the water around me. Jake, half-changed. Rachel, almost complete. Marco, with a dolphin grin, looking amused.

Then, with a kick of my newly completed tail, I knew I was safe. I had made the change. I was a dolphin in a dolphin's world. The human clumsiness, the human cold, the human fear of an alien environment, all evaporated.

I was warm and in control and right where I should be.

<Everyone okay?>

One by one they answered. We had made it. Too bad this was just the easy part of the mission.

<Well, that was fun,> Marco said sardonically. <Let's never, ever do it again.>

<Cassie?> Jake prodded me.

I tried to relax, to let my human mind recede just a little. I needed to listen to the dolphin instincts. I needed to understand the whale's instructions. Something no human could ever do.

<Not far,> I said. <We're just a few . . . urn . . . Forget it, there's no word for it. Just believe me, we're close.>

<After you, Cassie,> Jake said.

It felt strange, taking the lead. But only I knew the way. We traveled near the surface for a while. This made it confusing for me, because whales go deeper, and the world the whale saw and knew was a deeper world than I, as a dolphin, experienced.

And yet, I knew I was going in the right direction. My echolocating clicks painted murky, half- understood pictures in my mind of underwater hills and valleys and rifts. I felt currents tugging at me. I sensed changes in water temperature.

In the end, I just knew.

< Okay , everyone, get a good lungful,> I said.

We surfaced, blew out the stale air, and filled our lungs with the good clean ocean air.

<Hey. What's that?> It was Rachel.

<What?> I asked her.

<Over there. It's a helicopter.>

We all watched as a helicopter flew low and very slowly over the water. It was just a few hundred yards away, and with our dolphin vision, we couldn't see it as well as we might have with our human eyes.

But as it flew closer, I could see that it was dragging a cable through the water.

<Some sort of sensor,> Jake speculated.

<They're looking for something in the water,> Marco agreed.

< It's them,> I said.

No one argued. We all knew it was true. Controllers were flying that helicopter.

The Yeerks were here.

Not really much of a surprise. They knew the Yeerks were coming.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 23:50

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Epicurius posted:

quote:
"I don't care!" I yelled, surprised at my own passion. "I'm not going to be responsible for any one dying! This isn't going to work. I don't know where I am. I don't know where we're going. I don't know what to do!"

I forgot about this.

There's an interpretation that kicks around the fandom from time to time that Cassie is, well, a tremendous hypocrite; that her priority isn't winning the war, it's keeping her hands clean, and all her moralizing and her passionate speeches are just her attempts to justify her actions to herself. There are parts in later books where one could argue that she's coercing Jake or Rachel into doing something she wants done but doesn't want to be responsible for doing.

I can't believe at all that that's how we're intended to read her (for one, KAA admitted Cassie's her favorite). But the argument is certainly helped by the fact that in her very first book, when they're all but committed to seeing this mission through, she stops to say that she wants it off her conscience.

# ? Jun 16, 2020 01:36

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

Speaking as a nautical type guy, they have no idea just how loving dangerous this was. I'd expect a drop of somewhere between 10-15m from the freeboard deck of a container vessel to the water, which is enough to cause serious injury if you land wrong, or unconsciousness if you're really unlucky. Plus, as Cassie mentions, the ship is in motion. Water does all kinds of crazy poo poo with large bodies moving, so one direct result would be that as the ship pushes forward they would be dragged against the hull. Probably not enough to do any damage in and of itself, but if they aren't morphed and swimming away by the time they get to the stern, there is a very real chance of being mulched by the prop.

# ? Jun 16, 2020 01:41

feetnotes: Jan 29, 2008

You'd think they could go seagull, fly down, then back to human before morphing dolphin. I guess they get better at the logistics later!

Also, Cassie was fine getting her hands dirty when she went all pro ice on that Cop-Controller in the first book.

# ? Jun 16, 2020 02:45

QueenOfTheEvening: Jan 6, 2020; by Athanatos

Epicurius posted:

And do you think Tobias permanently turned into a hawk on purpose?

Absolutely. Given what we know about his life as a human it's not a stretch to think he was looking for a way out for a while, saw an opportunity, and took it. They never explicitly say that the reason he doesn't stick himself in human form permanently later is because he wants to fight, either, so him choosing to stay a hawk because he's happier with his little camp out in the woods with Ax maxes a lot of sense.

# ? Jun 16, 2020 05:00

ANOTHER SCORCHER: Aug 12, 2018

feetnotes posted:

You'd think they could go seagull, fly down, then back to human before morphing dolphin. I guess they get better at the logistics later!

Also, Cassie was fine getting her hands dirty when she went all pro ice on that Cop-Controller in the first book.

The books say morphing and demorphing is at least somewhat physically strenuous, so while that's probably a better plan it isn't necessarily easy in itself.

# ? Jun 16, 2020 05:15

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

feetnotes posted:

You'd think they could go seagull, fly down, then back to human before morphing dolphin. I guess they get better at the logistics later!

Also, Cassie was fine getting her hands dirty when she went all pro ice on that Cop-Controller in the first book.

ACAB, though. Also the books don't mention it much, but don't forget Cassie's background and that these books took place in the US.

# ? Jun 16, 2020 11:44

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

Well your avatar checks out

# ? Jun 16, 2020 11:54

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

feetnotes posted:

Also, Cassie was fine getting her hands dirty when she went all pro ice on that Cop-Controller in the first book.

This is one of the better counters to that argument, but its weak point is that the cop wasn't a known high-ranking Yeerk and was only indirectly a problem for the rest of the team; he was a threat to Cassie specifically. If someone believes Cassie is a preachy coward, her killing this Controller, in the heat of the fight at the Yeerk pool where nobody would know for sure that she did it or how, doesn't necessarily convince them otherwise.

# ? Jun 16, 2020 12:11

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# ? May 20, 2024 19:10

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

disaster pastor posted:

This is one of the better counters to that argument, but its weak point is that the cop wasn't a known high-ranking Yeerk and was only indirectly a problem for the rest of the team; he was a threat to Cassie specifically. If someone believes Cassie is a preachy coward, her killing this Controller, in the heat of the fight at the Yeerk pool where nobody would know for sure that she did it or how, doesn't necessarily convince them otherwise.

To me, I sort of take Cassie's hesitation in this book at face value; She's risking all their lives on a dream they had and a conversation with a whale, and she's scared she's going to get them killed for no reason, and she doesn't want the responsibility of choosing. She asks Jake earlier in the book to decide if they should go on the mission, and admits that the reason she's asking him is "And then if it's a disaster, it will all be on your head," I said. "You'll be the one who feels bad. You'll be the one to blame".

So I guess I don't know whether I agree with you or not? I think I maybe have a more charitable view of "she wants to keep her hands clean" than the people who have the theory a saying, "She doesn't want to be stuck with the responsibility or guilt when things go wrong", which is maybe more fear than hypocracy?

# ? Jun 16, 2020 12:41

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