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

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Ednamamame: Dec 12, 2019

nine-gear crow posted:

It�ll probably follow the same flow and format at the Power Rangers movie from a few years back.

I actually enjoyed that movie, but a movie of character based set up with animal morphing left to an action packed third acted only to not get a sequel due to lack of box office would suck.

'In development' though, so God knows what'll happen with it.

# ? Jun 18, 2020 20:24

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# ? May 23, 2024 09:52

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

Not gonna lie, Ax was one of my favorite characters in these books as a kid.

PetraCore posted:

Note what he fixates on when explaining things to the team, though! He's not completely unskilled or useless by any means, but I love how his age and grasp of the situation matches the others.

It's also so refreshing to see a sci-fi military cadet turn up in a book series, and... he is in fact a young, inexperienced guy with only a bit of training who is not a prodigy of any kind.

# ? Jun 18, 2020 21:35

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

Animorphs seems perfect for an animated movie or show. A live action one is going to be crazy expensive if they want it to look decent.

# ? Jun 18, 2020 22:00

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Message-Chapter 19

quote:

<This is a derrishoul tree,> Ax said. He pointed to one of the asparagus-like spears that grew straight and tall. He was showing us around while we recuperated from the morphing.

<And that we call enos ermarf.>

"What?" I didn't see what he was pointing at.

<That. The way the lake curves forward into the grass, framed by derrishoul trees.>

"You have a word for something like that?" I asked.

<There are names for all the many ways the water and sky and field interact,> he explained. <And for the way the suns and the moons hang in the sky of our planet, and cast their lights in one way or another on the different aspects of the world.>

Rachel caught my eye and silently mouthed the words, "He's cute." Then she winked.

I wasn't sure I agreed. Andalites are halfway between looking cute and looking scary. You can get past the weird stalk eyes and the fact that they don't have mouths (at least not that you can see), but that scorpion-like tail is far from cute. It reminded me of the sharks.

Eh, I don't know. Some people find mouthless purple centaurs with four eyes and deadly tails cute, I guess.

quote:

"You all live here?" Marco wondered. "I mean, just out in the open? Out on the grass?"

<Where else would we live? Here we have space to run. There must always be space to run.>

"This is like actually being on another planet," Jake marveled. "This is all like part of the Andalite world."

<Yes. We take our home with us into space. It angers the Yeerks,> he added grimly.

"Why do they care what you take into space?" Marco asked.

<lt is a part of everything they hate and would destroy if they could. The Yeerks would take our world and make it as barren as their own. As they will to your planet unless they are stopped.>

I grabbed Ax's arm. "What . . . what are you saying? What do you mean about making the planet barren?"

He turned his big eyes on me. <The usual Yeerk pattern. Once a planet is under their control, they alter it to suit their own desires. They will leave enough plant and animal species to keep the host bodies fed - humans in the case of Earth - and the rest they eliminate.>

He said it like it was obvious. Like it was just something I should know.

He started to move on, but I held his arm tightly. "Wait, wait. I don't think I understand you. What do you mean, they eliminate species?"

<They eliminate them. They will make Earth as much like the Yeerk home world as possible. They will destroy most of the plants and all of the animal species except those they eat.>

I let go of his arm. I rocked back and grabbed at the air for balance. I felt like I'd been hit by a car. "No," I whispered. "That can't be. You're just saying that because you don't like Yeerks."

The others were staring. No one was moving.

Ax looked around at us. His eyes narrowed. <Don't you know? Don't you know whom you're fighting?>

"We know they take over people's minds," Rachel said weakly.

<Yes. And that is one of their great crimes. But the Yeerks are more than that. Yeerks are killers of worlds. Murderers of all life. Hated and feared throughout the galaxy. They are a plague that spreads from world to world, leaving nothing but desolation and slavery and misery in their wake.>

I felt cold. Small and weak and cold and afraid. I looked around, but even the inviting, lush Andalite landscape did nothing to warm me. Up in the "sky" and all around us, I felt the im mense pressure of the ocean, waiting to rush in.

<There are only three races left in all the known galaxy that still fight the Yeerks,> Ax said proudly. <And only the Andalites can stop them.>

"How long until your people return to Earth?" I asked.

He hesitated. <One of your years. Maybe two.>

"Two years!" Jake looked stricken. I went to his side and slipped my arm through his. "Five kids against an enemy that has destroyed half the galaxy? Five of us?"

Ax gave that smile, the one he did with his eyes. <Six, my Prince,> he said.

"Six. Well then," Marco said with grim sarcasm, "with six it shouldn't be any problem."

"How did these Yeerks get this far?" Rachel demanded. "How did this happen? If you Andalites are so tough, why didn't you stop them a long time ago? How did a bunch of slugs who live in dirty ponds manage to become so powerful?"

Ax looked at her. <l am forbidden to tell certain things.>

Rachel's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're telling us all of planet Earth may be scheduled for destruction and we are the only thing standing in the way, and you are going to keep secrets? I don't think so."

The Andalite looked angry, but no angrier than Rachel.

"Look, um, I feel ready to morph again," I said, interrupting the tension. Rachel was angry because she was afraid. What Ax had told us had shaken her. It had shaken all of us. I guess we felt enough pressure already. We didn't really need to think that every living thing on the planet was depending on us.
It was kind of a lot to handle.

"Cassie's right," Jake said. "It's time. Let's get going before it's too late."

I followed him along with the others as we crossed alien land, heading for an environment just as alien - the ocean.

I wished I could forget what Ax told us. I wished I could stop seeing the pictures in my head of an Earth without birds and trees. An Earth where the ocean was empty and dead.

<Don't you know whom you're fighting?> the Andalite had asked.

Yes.

Now I knew.

See, nature is Cassie's thing. I had said before that this first group of books is each of the kids finding their own motivation to fight the Yeerk's....Jake and his brother, Rachel and the kids who's families are now controllers and don't love them anymore, Tobias and his desire to free the people who are trapped and no longer have control over their lives, and here's Cassie's....the fact that if the Yeerks take over, they're going to wipe out all life they don't consider useful to them.

# ? Jun 18, 2020 23:06

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..."

And so, here we are. Animorphs. Now, it has truly begun.

# ? Jun 18, 2020 23:14

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

You'd think the yeerks would want to get away from how shity their home world is instead of turning everything into it.

# ? Jun 19, 2020 07:04

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

I guess the idea is, the Yeerks' plans for Earth are not too dissimilar from those of us humans. I mean, we are doing a really good job of eliminating any species we don't farm.

# ? Jun 19, 2020 08:03

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Tree Bucket posted:

I guess the idea is, the Yeerks' plans for Earth are not too dissimilar from those of us humans. I mean, we are doing a really good job of eliminating any species we don't farm.

This is why I said the Yeerks would probably have had better success if they just rolled up to Earth as blatant as can be because they're basically already human in their capacity to rip through a habitat's natural resources like a buzz saw. A human-Yeerk mutual alliance would be legitimately horrifying.

# ? Jun 19, 2020 08:24

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Radio Free Kobold posted:

And so, here we are. Animorphs. Now, it has truly begun.

Actually, that kind of is a point. Why'd they put the band ~~back~~ together before they'd first written one POV book for every character? That makes Marco the odd one out.

# ? Jun 19, 2020 09:09

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

Fuschia tude posted:

Actually, that kind of is a point. Why'd they put the band ~~back~~ together before they'd first written one POV book for every character? That makes Marco the odd one out.

Because now you think hell yeah they can win, leading into the utterly crushing defeat they suffer next book. The only reason they even survive is because Visser One hates Visser Three more than them.

# ? Jun 19, 2020 09:37

Ednamamame: Dec 12, 2019

Epicurius posted:

The Message-Chapter 19
I had said before that this first group of books is each of the kids finding their own motivation to fight the Yeerk's....Jake and his brother, Rachel and the kids who's families are now controllers and don't love them anymore, Tobias and his desire to free the people who are trapped and no longer have control over their lives, and here's Cassie's....the fact that if the Yeerks take over, they're going to wipe out all life they don't consider useful to them.

Another point that goes with this is how these first books are great at setting up their motivations, but also what could hinder them in the fight. Here it's Cassie not wanting to be responsible for people getting hurt, Tobias it's his disconnect from humanity, Rachel her recklessness and not knowing when to quit. Jake has Tom as his motivation, but also the fear he could loose him, though book one has the whole premises to set up as well so can't focus entirely for that. That's what book six is for!

# ? Jun 19, 2020 13:33

Daikloktos: Jan 1, 2020; by Cyrano4747

quote:

<There are only three races left in all the known galaxy that still fight the Yeerks,> Ax said proudly. <And only the Andalites can stop them.>

Whoah, I forgot this quote. Wonder who that might have been penciled in in the notes by this point? I think the Leerans show up soon, and there's a couple ancilliary conflicts the Andalites are mentioned as involved with for flavor. Probably most races are just trying to run or are too far away to give a gently caress at this point

Avalerion posted:

You'd think the yeerks would want to get away from how shity their home world is instead of turning everything into it.

Resonates with the plotline in The Ellimist Chronicles where they won't give up the search for their impossibly precise home ecosystem and start their race's culture anew

# ? Jun 19, 2020 13:50

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

The feeling I always got from the Yeerks is that their aggression is born from desperate insecurity. Given that they were apparently a prey species - sentient, but even with the ability to infest Gedds far from the top of their world's ecosystem - it makes some amount of sense that the Yeerks have a burning psychological need to completely control their environment and remove any and every possible threat.

# ? Jun 19, 2020 14:34

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

Don't forget the whole part about the Andalites being ready to blast their world into slag at a moment's notice. The Yeerks are better villains than a lot I could think of.

# ? Jun 19, 2020 14:38

ANOTHER SCORCHER: Aug 12, 2018

Daikloktos posted:

Whoah, I forgot this quote. Wonder who that might have been penciled in in the notes by this point?

Other than the one species you mentioned, isn�t Visser One canonically about to attempt the conquest of the Anati? I doubt it was sketched out that far ahead but it works.

Cythereal posted:

The feeling I always got from the Yeerks is that their aggression is born from desperate insecurity. Given that they were apparently a prey species - sentient, but even with the ability to infest Gedds far from the top of their world's ecosystem - it makes some amount of sense that the Yeerks have a burning psychological need to completely control their environment and remove any and every possible threat.

It does make sense. Additionally, in Book 2 we saw the Vanarx or Yeerkbane which seems to be a creature specifically evolved for hunting Yeerks as a prey species. I�m surprised they would even still be around, though I suppose Visser Three could have acquired one from captivity.

ANOTHER SCORCHER fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Jun 19, 2020

# ? Jun 19, 2020 14:41

Fritzler: Sep 5, 2007

Daikloktos posted:

Whoah, I forgot this quote. Wonder who that might have been penciled in in the notes by this point? I think the Leerans show up soon, and there's a couple ancilliary conflicts the Andalites are mentioned as involved with for flavor. Probably most races are just trying to run or are too far away to give a gently caress at this point

Yeah, this was a wild comment that I didn't remember. It definitely makes the Andalites seem more sympathetic, in way they aren't always, if they're part of a group of species fighting against the yeerks as well. Although I think later it makes space seem so big, that yeerks aren't near taking over the universe that this makes it sound like. The eliminist books confirm this, first when Ax shows that on a star chart, that a planet they're on is so far that word of their human forms will never reach the yeerks. Also in centuries yeerks will meet another species and learn another way of a symbiotic relationship rather than parasitic..

# ? Jun 19, 2020 15:48

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

Cythereal posted:

Not gonna lie, Ax was one of my favorite characters in these books as a kid.

It's also so refreshing to see a sci-fi military cadet turn up in a book series, and... he is in fact a young, inexperienced guy with only a bit of training who is not a prodigy of any kind.

Yes, he's into engineering but my impression is his skills are only impressive from the baseline of human 90s technology and his skill level starts out at 'took a few classes, built a radio from a kit once' and not 'child prodigy'.

# ? Jun 19, 2020 23:05

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

nine-gear crow posted:

This is why I said the Yeerks would probably have had better success if they just rolled up to Earth as blatant as can be because they're basically already human in their capacity to rip through a habitat's natural resources like a buzz saw. A human-Yeerk mutual alliance would be legitimately horrifying.

Also, not to be too cynical, but there are absolutely people who would turn over 'undesirables' to yeerks as hosts in order to keep their own freedom and reap the technological benefits the yeerks could provide.

EDIT to avoid triple post: Yeerks are scary because the ways in which they can hurt people surpass human limits. Humans cannot puppet other human bodies. Humans cannot imprison you in your own mind. Yeerks are also scary because they are, ultimately, really quite human psychologically, trapped in bodies that cannot keep up with their ambition, their intelligence, their capacity for love or their capacity for hate. They don't want to wait for things to be better for them later, or accept their circumstances as they are, they want to push and push to make things better now, even if that involves steamrolling anything in their way, and that's an unfortunately extremely human trait.

PetraCore fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Jun 19, 2020

# ? Jun 19, 2020 23:14

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Message-Chapter 20

quote:

"Hey, I have a stupid question," Marco said.

"What?" Jake asked.

Marco jerked his thumb toward the Andalite, Ax. "How do we get him out of here?"

Jake looked blank. "Um , Ax, I don't suppose you can swim? Swim really well, I mean. We're a long, long way from land."

<I would not swim in this body. I would morph a sea creature.>

"Like what?" Marco asked bluntly. "We have to travel far and fast."

<I have acquired a creature from this ocean. It was a large creature who swam close one day. I stunned him and acquired him. I thought he would be useful if I was to escape.>

"What kind of animal? What did he - " I stopped suddenly. I'd felt something. A shadow. I looked up. Through the air of the dome. Through the clear dome itself and up through the water.

It was on the surface. A cigar-shaped shadow riding the surface of the sea.

"That's a ship," I said. "Up there. I think it's stopped."

"Let's get out of here. Now," Jake snapped.

We ran for the hatch.

PING-NG-NG! PING-NG-NG!

The sound echoed through the dome.

"Sonar!" Marco hissed.

"How do you know?" Rachel asked.

"Didn't you ever see The Hunt for Red October? Great movie. Now let's leave. They've found us!"

The Hunt for Red October would have had been out for about six years when this book came out. The rerelease of the book changes Marco's characteristic of it from "great movie" to "great old movie".

quote:

PING-NG-NG! PING-NG-NG!

We crammed inside the small hatch enclosure, the four of us and Ax.

"Morph!" Jake yelled.

I had already started. I could feel the dolphin features emerging. My friends were beginning to mutate. Water rushed into the chamber, swirling up around our legs.

Ax was changing, too. It almost broke my concentration, watching him. In their normal forms Andalites are strange enough. When they morph it is totally bizarre. Instead of two legs shriveling and disappearing, it was four. And then there were the stalk eyes. And the tail, which lost its scythe blade but split into a new kind of tail, with a long, raked, vertical blade and a shorter lower blade.

The water swept up to my neck, but by that point I was more dolphin than human.

BA-BOOOOM!

The explosion shuddered through the dome. It rattled my teeth. I felt like my eardrums would explode.

<Yeerks,> Ax said. He said the word in our heads the way his brother had. With hatred and rage so deep it was impossible to comprehend it.
BA-BOOOOM!

A second explosion! Suddenly the exterior door opened and we swam out in a rush. Four dolphins and one . . .

Shark!

I'd been distracted by the explosions.

Ax had morphed a shark.

< Oh , good choice, Ax,> Marco said. <You morphed a shark? >

<Is it wrong?> the Andalite wondered.

<Your species and ours are mortal enemies,> I explained.

< Oh . I have a lot to learn about Earth.>

He does, but honestly, a shark is a good choice here.

quote:

<Here's the first lesson - let's get OUT OF HERE!> Marco screamed.

I soared up through the water, angling toward the distant surface. But as I rose I looked behind me. There were two jagged holes in the dome. Water was gushing in like Niagara Falls. As I watched, a third dark cylinder was falling slowly from the surface. Even I had seen enough sub marine movies to know it was a depth charge.

<What hosts have these Yeerks used?> Ax de manded urgently.

<Um . . . Hosts? You mean bodies? Controllers? They use Hork-Bajir and humans,> I answered.

<Hork-Bajir do not swim,> Ax said. <We may be safe. The Yeerks know little of deep waters. They have no oceans on their world, only shallow pools.>

<Good,> Jake said. <All they've had here are Hork-Bajir. And Taxxons, of course.>

<Taxxons?>

<Yes, is that a problem?>

We were near the surface now, just a dozen feet from the bright barrier of sea and sky.

Just then a larger, darker shadow swept over us. A shadow that was dark inside of dark. A shadow that touched your soul. It skimmed just above the surface of the water.

It was shaped like a long battle-ax. Twin semi circular blades at the back, a long, diamondheaded point at the front.

The Blade ship of Visser Three.

Something was falling from it as it passed over us. There were a dozen splashes. I rolled over to get a better look.

What I saw made my flesh crawl.

Taxxons. In the water. Coming toward us.

<Those nasty worms can swim?> Marco yelled.

But the answer was obvious. The Taxxons, ten-foot-long centipedes bristling with dozens of pairs of sharp needle legs, were racing after us. And they were very fast in the water.

Very fast .

From this angle we couldn't see the several red-jelly eyes. But we could see the circular mouth at the top of each vile body.

I had seen Taxxons straining to catch bits of Prince Elfangor as Visser Three devoured him.

I had seen Taxxons, on orders from Visser Three, devour one of their own.

<Tell me,> Ax said. <l have the feeling that this body I am in might be able to fight. Is this true?>

I grinned inwardly. <Yes, Ax. Sharks can fight.>

<Then, Prince Jake, shall we deal with these Taxxon scum?>

<Don't call me 'prince,'> Jake said. <And the answer is yes. Let's go kick some Taxxon butt.>

Taxons can swim.

In response to the above post, Yeerks are psychologically, at least superficially similar to humans, but as we'll learn later in the book, not identical. I think some other reasons Yeerks are scary is because they're parasites, and parasites creep people out. They're slug like, and slugs creep people out. They're also scary because they're pretty much implacably hostile. Yeerks can only survive (or at least thrive) by preying on intelligent species. If humans and Yeerks came to an accommodation, it would very much be like Churchill's description of the nations that stayed neutral in WWII..."Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last." I think you could have a human-Yeerk alliance, but it wouldn't be a mutual alliance. It would be the type of alliance the Yeerks have with the Taxxons, or the kind that voluntary controllers have with the Yeerks....servitude in the hope that they'll be favored subjects.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 00:15

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

Epicurius posted:

In response to the above post, Yeerks are psychologically, at least superficially similar to humans, but as we'll learn later in the book, not identical. I think some other reasons Yeerks are scary is because they're parasites, and parasites creep people out. They're slug like, and slugs creep people out. They're also scary because they're pretty much implacably hostile. Yeerks can only survive (or at least thrive) by preying on intelligent species. If humans and Yeerks came to an accommodation, it would very much be like Churchill's description of the nations that stayed neutral in WWII..."Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last." I think you could have a human-Yeerk alliance, but it wouldn't be a mutual alliance. It would be the type of alliance the Yeerks have with the Taxxons, or the kind that voluntary controllers have with the Yeerks....servitude in the hope that they'll be favored subjects.

Oh, yes, I was referring more to the fact that their level of cognition, emotion, and intelligence is clearly around human-level, even if it expresses differently because they are fundamentally a different species with different psychological needs. They're similar enough on a mental level that you could drop your guard until one of the ways they're different rears up - I think one of the differences is probably in empathy, because I feel like psychologically humans are designed to empathize unless you tune that out or are able to justify a person as 'not a person', whereas yeerks seem to develop empathy for their hosts mostly as a result of being wrapped around their brains and very literally living in their shoes, and even that's not something a non-yeerk can rely on.

This is all from decade-out-of-touch memories of the series, though, so we'll see how the books address this as they go on!

EDIT: Of course, it's already been pointed out that the human protagonists empathize much more with human controllers than taxxons or whatever, and that's deliberate, but they're also in a situation where 'tuning out' and 'justifying not a person' is going on. My point is that the social dynamics involved are p different between humans and yeerks when it comes to the psychological purpose of empathy.

PetraCore fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Jun 20, 2020

# ? Jun 20, 2020 01:02

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

True enough, and to that point (spoilers about Yeerk psychology that will be explored further in later books)

Yeerks lack a lot of the biological processes that lead to people having empathy....they don't form pair bonds, they don't raise children (Yeerks reproduce by three Yeerks merging into one, at which point, it dissolves into a bunch of baby Yeerks, which, being autotrophs who can swim from birth, don't actually need parenting. Yeerks seem to form friendships and sibling bonds, and even mentorships with other Yeerks, but, with the possible exception of the Yeerk peace movement and maybe Visser One and Essam 293, don't really consider other species, even other intelligent species people, but just tools. Really, and not to get all "humans are special", I think the whole invasion of Earth is changing the Yeerks, because human minds seem to have an attractiveness to Yeerks that their other slave species don't. I think that's what led to the changes in Visser One and Essam 293 in Visser, and the Yeerk peace movement forming, and maybe part of that is that humans are the first species that that Yeerks really can engage with, the Hork-Bajr not being intellectually close to the level of Yeerks, and the Taxxons, while they're intelligent, are so focused on their appetites that I assume they really don't make great hosts.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 01:22

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

I just wonder how much the infestation process changes yeerks themselves, since we know they basically form a thin cellular layer over the brain folds and presumably send in specialized organs to link up with the neuron network. It makes sense to me that they're so vulnerable, because that method of infestation probably means a lot of their own tissues are neuron-dense and extremely sensitive as a result. But by hijacking another person's brain, they're not just stealing access to the neurons that control their bodily functions. I don't think we ever see them being able to forcibly change someone's internal thought processes, but it's not exactly for lack of trying in some cases, so I wonder if there's any subconscious backwash or if they're too focused on fine bodily control. Again, I'm getting ahead of myself, but this is the stuff I'm gonna be thinking about as we advance.

EDIT: Oh god, I just realized the method of yeerk infestation implies the geth were just shoving their heads in yeerk pools until yeerks evolved to hijack them. Do the geth eat yeerks? That would explain a lot.

PetraCore fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Jun 20, 2020

# ? Jun 20, 2020 01:38

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

Ax is such a badass.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 01:40

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

PetraCore posted:

I just wonder how much the infestation process changes yeerks themselves, since we know they basically form a thin cellular layer over the brain folds and presumably send in specialized organs to link up with the neuron network. It makes sense to me that they're so vulnerable, because that method of infestation probably means a lot of their own tissues are neuron-dense and extremely sensitive as a result. But by hijacking another person's brain, they're not just stealing access to the neurons that control their bodily functions. I don't think we ever see them being able to forcibly change someone's internal thought processes, but it's not exactly for lack of trying in some cases, so I wonder if there's any subconscious backwash or if they're too focused on fine bodily control. Again, I'm getting ahead of myself, but this is the stuff I'm gonna be thinking about as we advance.

It's discussed in Visser. Visser One talks about the first human infestation and going 'holy gently caress, their brains can come to way better decisions than ours because they can second-guess themselves.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 01:44

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

PetraCore posted:

EDIT: Oh god, I just realized the method of yeerk infestation implies the geth were just shoving their heads in yeerk pools until yeerks evolved to hijack them. Do the geth eat yeerks? That would explain a lot.

IIRC, gedds are naturally amphibious, so yeerk infestation would be a risk of their habitat. Like ringworm, but worse.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 02:09

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

Cythereal posted:

IIRC, gedds are naturally amphibious, so yeerk infestation would be a risk of their habitat. Like ringworm, but worse.

That makes a lot more sense, thanks.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 02:11

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

I've been wondering whether teaching yeerks to morph would basically have solved their need for wars and invasions, but the more we hear of them the more I think if you give them morphing they'd just go cool one more weapon to conquer the universe with. :eng99:

# ? Jun 20, 2020 07:10

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

PetraCore posted:

That makes a lot more sense, thanks.

...you know, I get the feeling a lot of the kids who grew up reading Animorphs eventually wound up on KSBD.
Weird species! Questions of identity! Shape-shifting! Horrifying moral dilemmas! Rad action sequences!

# ? Jun 20, 2020 11:51

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

Tree Bucket posted:

...you know, I get the feeling a lot of the kids who grew up reading Animorphs eventually wound up on KSBD.
Weird species! Questions of identity! Shape-shifting! Horrifying moral dilemmas! Rad action sequences!

If you should meet the Ellimist on the road, kill him.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 13:39

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

Avalerion posted:

I've been wondering whether teaching yeerks to morph would basically have solved their need for wars and invasions, but the more we hear of them the more I think if you give them morphing they'd just go cool one more weapon to conquer the universe with.

Yeah I think the problems go deeper than any dumping of tech and leaving can handle. Which isn't to say it's unsolvable, but you'd need some pretty careful handling and diplomacy and creative problem solving.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 13:48

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Message - Chapter 21

quote:

There were a dozen Taxxons in the water. Five of us. Swimming in a straight line, the Taxxons were faster. But, as we soon discovered, we were more maneuverable.

<Pick a target,> Jake said tersely.

I focused on one of the big worms. But I had to force myself into the fight. This was not a shark, and the dolphin's instinctive dislike of sharks was not there to prod me.

I had to find the will to fight in my own, hu \man mind. It's not such an easy thing. I had fought the Yeerks to preserve human freedom. Now I fought to help the entire world. Still, fighting doesn't come naturally to me.

And yet, I knew what I had to do. The Yeerks would show no mercy. If the Taxxons won, we would be killed. Or worse.

I powered toward one of the Taxxons as he powered toward me. We were like two trains running on the same track. Head to head.

At the last possible second, with the gaping red mouth of the Taxxon just a foot away, I zoomed sideways, arched my back, and rammed the Taxxon's side.

I expected it to be like the shark - hard, tough, unyielding. It was not. It was like hitting a soggy paper bag with a sledgehammer. The Taxxon burst like a dropped watermelon.

I get that the Taxxons are supposed to be dangerous, but the way they're portrayed, they're such glass cannons, they don't seem threatening. They come across as dying if you breathe on them heavily.

quote:

<Aaaaarrrggghhh!> I wanted to throw up. I beat the water with my tail and recoiled from the horrible scene I had created.

All around me the battle raged. Dolphin against Taxxon. And Ax's shark against Taxxon.

Scientists believe that sharks are one of the oldest species of animals still in existence. Nature built them as perfect predators. Perfect killing machines. Nature hasn't had to revise or update them much. They were built right the first time.

Dolphins are very different. Scientists say that millions of years ago, dolphins were land animals. Sea mammals not very different from humans and other mammals. They evolved their way back into the ocean. Part of that evolution included learning to cope with predators - with killer whales and sharks.

I don't know what sea the Taxxon race evolved in. I don't know what natural predators they faced there. But they were not ready for this ocean. They were not ready to go one-on-one with the masters of Earth's deep seas. They were no match for dolphin or shark.

< Okay , let's get out of here,> Jake ordered. <They've had enough.>

<Not so tough, are they?> Rachel asked, trying to sound tough herself. But she seemed shaky to me.

I shot to the surface and filled my lungs with warm evening air. The sun was dropping toward the horizon. Two ships were close by and steaming in our direction.

But far worse was the Blade ship, which hovered now just a hundred yards up in the air.

<We can't waste any more time,> Marco said. <The plan was to head back for one of those little channel islands, unmorph, rest, and then take the rest of the distance. But even the island is almost two hours away at top speed. We have to make a run for it, or we'll have to choose between being trapped in morph or drowning. And that's not a great choice.>

<You're right, Marco,> Jake said. <Top speed for the nearest island.>

<How do you tell the time?> Ax asked.

<Sometimes we can carry a watch. Some times, like now, we just have to guess and hope for the best.>

< Oh . With your permission, I will keep track of the time.>

<You have a watch?>

<No, but I have the ability to keep track of time,> Ax said.

<Good enough,> Marco said. <How much time left?>

<We have been in morph for approximately thirty percent of the safe time.>

<Thirty percent?> I tried to think. Math was never my best subject. And it's hard to be mathematical when you've just come from a battle and are scared half to death. <That would be about thirty-six minutes. Which means we have an hour and twenty-four minutes left.>

BAH-LUMPH!

I heard a huge concussion behind me. Like someone had dropped a big truck in the water.

<What was that?> Marco wondered.

<Something hit the water,> I said. Some thing big.>

WHUMP, WHUMP, WHUMP.

< Okay , now what is that? > Rachel asked.

I rose to the surface to breathe and look around. The two surface ships were still closing in, but they were not very fast, and they were not gaining on us. The Blade ship had disappeared. I scanned the sky in all directions, but I couldn't see it.

<Does anyone see the Blade ship?> I asked.

<No. But that doesn't mean it isn't still nearby,> Jake said. <lt may have recloaked.>

WHUMP, WHUMP, WHUMP.

<What is that?>

<Whatever it is, it's getting closer,> I said.

Suddenly I remembered that I was not limited to the usual human senses. I fired off a rapid se ries of echolocating clicks.

The picture that came back was startling.

< It's something in the water. Big. Huge. The size of a whale, but not moving like a whale.>

Jake, Marco, and Rachel all echolocated.

< It's after us, whatever it is,> Rachel said.

< It's big, it's fast, and it's after us,> Marco agreed.

WHUMP, WHUMP, WHUMP.

I rose to breathe again and looked back. At just that moment I saw, far behind me, a huge, dark red, almost purple hump above the water. It seemed to be covered with hundreds of small fish tails, all beating frantically.

I went under. <Ax, there's something back there. I don't think it's from Earth.> I described it to him, at least what I had seen of it.

<Mardrut,> Ax said.

<Mardrut? What does that mean?>

<A mardrut is a beast that lives in the oceans of one of our own Andalite moons. To think of that filthy Yeerk scum on our own moon! Acquiring our animals!>

<Ax, look, what is a mardrut?> I asked him.

<lt is a very large creature that swims by shooting water out of three large chambers. It makes a sound - >

WHUMP, WHUMP, WHUMP.

<A sound like that?> Marco asked.

<Yes,> Ax said. <l guess so. I did not recognize it. I have only heard it once, and that was in school, and I wasn't paying attention.

It almost made me laugh, the image of an Andalite classroom where Andalite students zoned out on the lesson just like we did. But it really wasn't a good time for laughing.

I'm with Cassie. Ax's utter indifference to and contempt of school will never not be funny to me.

quote:

WHUMP, WHUMP, WHUMP.

<But this is no true mardrut,> Ax said.

<No,> Jake agreed.

<Then you know who and what is chasing us?> Ax seemed surprised. <You understand that this is Visser Three in morph?>

<We've met before,> Rachel said tersely.

<You have fought Visser Three? And you still live?> That definitely surprised the Andalite. <l honor you.>

<Yeah, swell, thanks,> Marco said dryly. <But I'd trade the honor for a good outboard engine so I could outrun that evil creep.>

WHUMP, WHUMP, WHUMP.

Whump.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 21:52

Fritzler: Sep 5, 2007

Epicurius posted:

I'm with Cassie. Ax's utter indifference to and contempt of school will never not be funny to me.

i didn�t think about it while reading, but Ax�s slacker attitude compared to the pedestal his brother is put on definitely makes him very endearing.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 23:29

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

It's been years, but the exploding Taxxons really stuck in my head. And I remember trying to draw the Mardrut, and thinking it was cool that Ax had some weird in-built time-tracking ability.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 23:42

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

I feel I remember this being something of a running gag, to the point where I specifically remember in a later book Ax mentioning something that he remembers hearing about in school, and someone, probably Marco, going "let me guess, you weren't paying attention."

Ax is so good. I'm slightly ahead in book 5 and I'm excited for the thread to get to the first in a series of mall capers that begins with the Radio Shack visit that he, Jake and Marco go on. He really is the best.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 23:45

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Fritzler posted:

i didn�t think about it while reading, but Ax�s slacker attitude compared to the pedestal his brother is put on definitely makes him very endearing.

Ax and Jake both have a lot of hero worship going on in regards to their more successful older brother.

# ? Jun 21, 2020 00:15

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

The ongoing Prince Jake joke kills me

# ? Jun 21, 2020 00:35

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

Epicurius posted:

Ax and Jake both have a lot of hero worship going on in regards to their more successful older brother.

And at least in Elfangor's case, he was definitely kind of a weird fuckup entirely in areas Ax wasn't able to see. You know, like a real person. P sure Tom's the same, although that's explored a lot less.

# ? Jun 21, 2020 00:38

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

PetraCore posted:

And at least in Elfangor's case, he was definitely kind of a weird fuckup entirely in areas Ax wasn't able to see. You know, like a real person. P sure Tom's the same, although that's explored a lot less.

Sure, I mean, that's everybody. We're all weird fuckups in one way or another. One of the big tragedies about Tom being a Yeerk-controller before the book starts is we don't get to see him before he became a Yeerk. We don't know what the real Tom was like.

# ? Jun 21, 2020 00:43

Daikloktos: Jan 1, 2020; by Cyrano4747

"I was tired that day in class. And there was a female..."

Wait I guess those should be angle brackets

# ? Jun 21, 2020 01:14

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# ? May 23, 2024 09:52

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

Epicurius posted:

Sure, I mean, that's everybody. We're all weird fuckups in one way or another. One of the big tragedies about Tom being a Yeerk-controller before the book starts is we don't get to see him before he became a Yeerk. We don't know what the real Tom was like.

Well, he ended up joining a cult so there were probably some weird decisions along the line there.

# ? Jun 21, 2020 01:58

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

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