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

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freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Tulul posted:

We should really keep a running total of how many hands/arms Ax chops off. It's got to be at least once per book.

I sort of started listening to an Animorphs rewatch podcast (my podcast listening has gone way down in corona lockdown) that was doing this and even by the time I'd stopped listening it was a lot. Southern California must be full of amputees by the end of this series. Imagine the annual protests outside the Andalite consulate every year

# ? Aug 7, 2020 06:43

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# ? May 23, 2024 10:26

Starsnostars: Jan 17, 2009; The Master of Magnetism

Ax having time for a smug comeback made me smile.

Also, even if the Yeerks have complete disregard for humans you would think that they still wouldn't want to just leave skeletons all over the place. It's just untidy.

# ? Aug 7, 2020 09:02

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

Starsnostars posted:

Ax having time for a smug comeback made me smile.

Also, even if the Yeerks have complete disregard for humans you would think that they still wouldn't want to just leave skeletons all over the place. It's just untidy.

Well they're invertebrates, so perhaps they have no instinctive reaction to skellies? On par with fallen leaves maybe

# ? Aug 7, 2020 09:08

fauna: Dec 6, 2018; Caught between two worlds...

yay i've caught up to the part where aximili appears, he was like my edward cullen

PetraCore posted:

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.

wow, i spent a lot of time thinking over dark implications of these books, but infestation-as-eugenics never occurred to me

this thread is actually really inspiring. there's so much in these books that was valuable for kids to learn, and imo now would be a good time for those themes to appear in children's literature again. they're not too dark. thinking back to when i was a kid, this was just about the only series that actually rang true, both in the way characters behaved and in the general level of carnage

# ? Aug 7, 2020 09:31

fauna: Dec 6, 2018; Caught between two worlds...

honestly, i get kind of annoyed at the "can you believe this is a kids' book? all this dark stuff in a kids' book? for kids????" stuff. modern children's literature isn't dark enough. the theory that everything has to be simple and bloodless and fun and candy-coloured has nothing to do with what children can handle. it's a very new development, it was made up by marketers, and it has everything to do with selling books - not to kids, because kids have no money, but to their parents. most adults don't remember what it's like to be younger, so they believe what publishers tell them about children's cognition, and it suits publishers to tell them that what kids want is sanitised simplistic entertainment that contains no difficult themes or disturbing material. because difficult themes and disturbing material is what leads to moral panic and legal trouble, and modern publishers would rather not take that risk.

literature has always had a major role to play in teaching kids about the world. nowadays that education has huge chunks missing out of it, and corporates are invested in telling parents that kids don't need to learn about that stuff and are better off not knowing it - but that's not necessarily true.

# ? Aug 7, 2020 10:26

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

fauna posted:

modern children's literature isn't dark enough. the theory that everything has to be simple and bloodless and fun and candy-coloured has nothing to do with what children can handle. it's a very new development, it was made up by marketers, and it has everything to do with selling books - not to kids, because kids have no money, but to their parents.

There is a whole tangent to go off on here about the existence of "YA" as a genre, which was invented by the publishing industry in the 2000s. I'm always really grateful that I grew up reading books from a public library and a public school library, where I would just pluck fantasy and sci-fi poo poo off the shelves and didn't care if it was "contemporary" or "Australian" or whatever else the publishing-educational complex was trying to encourage us to read at the time (I did have one English primary school teacher who'd been poisoned by his country and took me to task for not reading "the classics" when checking out library books, as though a 10-year-old kid in Perth is going to be able to parse Dickens.) It's not that those libraries didn't make an effort to stock contemporary kids' literature - I'm glad they did, otherwise I never would have read quite a few good 21st century series - but that if I'd been from a wealthier family and was only reading what bookstores had available in their constantly updated kids' fiction section, I think I would have been the poorer for it.

edit - and come to think of it there's probably a lot of work that goes into that at a library. There was probably someone in the '80s who was saying, "all right, chuck this stuff out, but let's hang on to the John Wyndham and John Christopher even though it's been here since the '60s." Either that or they just went by the most recent check out date, in which I guess there's an organic preservation mechanism created by readers browsing through the shelves and checking books out on their merits. Or at least the merits of their blurbs and covers.

freebooter fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Aug 7, 2020

# ? Aug 7, 2020 15:22

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

fauna posted:

honestly, i get kind of annoyed at the "can you believe this is a kids' book? all this dark stuff in a kids' book? for kids????" stuff. modern children's literature isn't dark enough. the theory that everything has to be simple and bloodless and fun and candy-coloured has nothing to do with what children can handle. it's a very new development, it was made up by marketers, and it has everything to do with selling books - not to kids, because kids have no money, but to their parents. most adults don't remember what it's like to be younger, so they believe what publishers tell them about children's cognition, and it suits publishers to tell them that what kids want is sanitised simplistic entertainment that contains no difficult themes or disturbing material. because difficult themes and disturbing material is what leads to moral panic and legal trouble, and modern publishers would rather not take that risk.

literature has always had a major role to play in teaching kids about the world. nowadays that education has huge chunks missing out of it, and corporates are invested in telling parents that kids don't need to learn about that stuff and are better off not knowing it - but that's not necessarily true.

The whole concept reminds me of the Series of Unfortunate Events making fun of the fictional The Littlest Elf series for being, well, candy-colored, bloodness, and sacharrine. I think there's a place for 'soft' literature for kids, just like adults can read just fluff when they want to, but the mistake is assuming that's all kids want or can handle. A lot of my favorite stuff I remember from childhood got dark. Animorphs, of course, and then Coraline is really good horror, and the Gregor the Overlander books got really dark. There's plenty of people writing age-appropriate dark and complicated stuff for children, and it's great. Even in cartoons these days, that's a trend. Steven Universe is soft and optimistic, but is also about psychological damage, abuse, and people you look up to and love being flawed. She-ra and the Princesses of Power is a war story about abuse. Gravity Falls touches on broken relationships, trusting the wrong people, and co-dependence, and is also just a really good weird mystery series on its own.

# ? Aug 7, 2020 16:03

Karma Comedian: Feb 2, 2012

I'm so stoked for this thread. The biggest standout memories I have of these books were the lobsters and Visser 3 describing eating Tobias with bbq sauce

# ? Aug 7, 2020 22:24

Daikloktos: Jan 1, 2020; by Cyrano4747

fauna posted:

i just had a sudden flashback to being ten years old and having a playground "battle" with my friend in which he was goku and i was a garatron. i refused to be hit by his energy beams because i was too fast; he argued that the blasts were so large i couldn't possibly outrun them. things got very heated. as an adult i am forced to admit he was probably right

It bothers me my first reaction was to consider the question so I knew whose side to take in your story (bad news there)

# ? Aug 7, 2020 22:41

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Stranger-Chapter 15

quote:

"That's where the City Arena should be," I said. "It's where we saw the circus."

"The Arena. That big department store. That building that used to have the tall antennae on top. They're all gone," Marco said. "Just. . . gone."

In their place was a Yeerk pool.

A pool of shocking size. It was a small lake, really. You could have ridden around on it in a motorboat and not looked out of place.

It was three times as wide as a football field is long. Maybe four times as wide. And all around it were cages, just like the underground Yeerk pool we knew too well. But there was a difference here. The humans and Hork-Bajir in these cages no longer called for help. They cried, they sobbed, or more often they just stared blankly into space. But they did not call for help. They knew there was no help coming. They knew that hope was dead.

We just stared, the six of us. Just stared emptily.

A human-Controller brushed past us, jostling me as she went.

"Excuse me," I said in a sarcastic voice. A mistake. I knew it was a mistake as soon as the

two little words were out of my mouth.

The woman stopped. She came back toward us.

"What did you say?" she demanded.

"Nothing," I said.

But she kept staring at me through narrowed eyes.

"What is your name?"

I knew that answering "Rachel" was not going to work. She wanted my Yeerk name. I tensed up, ready for a fight.

"Her name is not your concern," Tobias said.

The woman sneered. "Oh? And why is that? You are spies, that's what you are. Spies!"

"Her name is not your concern," Tobias repeated.

"His name is your concern." He jerked his thumb at Ax. "Because his name...is Visser Three."

Oh, this is going to work.

quote:

"Visser Three?" the woman repeated skeptically.

It took me a few seconds to track. What was Tobias talking about? Why was he saying Ax was Visser Three?

Fortunately, Ax caught on more quickly. He immediately began to demorph and return to Andalite form. And as soon as the Andalite stalk eyes appeared, the woman began to tremble.

"But...but...you said Visser Three. Only Visser One has an Andalite host body!"

Great. Visser Three had been promoted.

"Yeah," I said to the woman. "But he was Visser Three back in the old days. Back when we were all friends. Comrades in arms."

"I ... we ... no one told us you were visiting Earth, Visser," the woman babbled.

She was clearly terrified. Obviously Visser Three's reputation had not softened any over the years.

Ax had regained his full Andalite form. And the various Controllers on the street were staring in a mixture of fascination and fear.

"If I had known ..." the woman moaned. "I would never. ..."

Ax waved his hand dismissively. <Silence. You are right to remain vigilant. If you had not been vigilant I would have destroyed you for being a careless fool. Now get out of here.>

"Yes, my Visser! Yes!" The woman took off.

Fast.

Which left us standing around in the street, gaping at the Yeerk pool. And a lot of Controllers gaping at us.

"This isn't good," Marco said. "Word is going to travel very fast that Visser Three is here. And someone is going to realize the truth."

"So what now?"

Jake wondered. "How long does the Ellimist want to leave us here?"

"Until we are convinced he's right," Tobias said.

"There must be something more he wants us to see," Cassie said. I glanced at Cassie. She looked puzzled. I guess I expected her to look like, "See, I told you so, here's the future." But she seemed troubled. Like she couldn't make sense of something that was bothering her.

"What?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "Just a feeling. There's something deeper going on here. Something we don't get."

Hmm, It actually worked.

quote:

The Yeerk pool was a busy little place.

Controllers coming and going. The host bodies were shoved into cages, and dragged back out when it was time.

There was a steady procession along the six different piers, draining out and taking in Yeerks. Over it all loomed the EGS Tower, topped off by the glass dome.
'
"Why put a Yeerk pool here?" I wondered aloud. "I mean, there's all kinds of open areas. Why go to the trouble of removing the buildings that were here? It's not like this is exactly a scenic location."

"I wonder what year it is?" Marco said. "Is this next year? Ten years from now? Twenty?"

I heard a low roar coming from the sky. A Yeerk Bug fighter swooped down low, took a turn around the EGS Tower, and settled toward the near side of the Yeerk pool.

I don't know why, but I felt drawn to that Bug fighter. Maybe it was some strange psychic urging. Maybe it was the Ellimist, making me go closer to see what he wanted to show me.

Wherever the urge came from, I found myself walking toward the Bug fighter.

"Hey!" Jake said. "What are you doing?"

"You guys stay back," I said.

"It's okay," Marco said, jerking his thumb at Ax. "We're with Visser Three here. Excuse me, I mean Visser One. And congrats on the big promotion, by the way."

Ax stepped out quickly in front of me, swaggering and acting the role of the great and terrible Visser.

As we drew closer to the pool, there was a crowd of Controllers, humans, Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, and a few odd species I had never seen. The crowd parted very quickly. No one wanted to accidentally annoy Visser One in any way.

We swaggered up to the Bug fighter like the bosses of all the world. Then the door of the Bug fighter opened.

I stopped. Ax stopped as well. The others crowded behind us.

My skin was tingling. My hair felt like it was standing on end. I knew something was about to happen.

Something awesome and terrible.

And then, they stepped from the Bug fighter.

A human and an Andalite.

I knew the Andalite. We had met before. I could feel the dark dread that emanated from him. Visser Three. The real Visser Three.

Seeing Ax along with Visser Three, the crowd of Controllers immediately knew the difference. Visser Three has an Andalite body, but there is no mistaking him for anything other than a creature of pure evil.

<Well, well.> Visser Three said to the person with him. <Right on schedule. Just as you said it would be. >

I stared at the human. She was a pretty young woman, maybe twenty or twenty-two years old.

She had blond hair, cut short. She wore no makeup. Her clothes were plain. I had stopped breathing. My heart had stopped beating. I tried to swallow but couldn't.

"Hello, Rachel," the woman said to me.

"Hello, Rachel," I replied.

Well, that's....certainly not what you'd expect.

The Stranger-Chapter 16

quote:

It was me. Me, as I would be in the future.

"I knew you were coming," the future Rachel said. "After all, I was you. Once I stood right where you stand now, and looked just like you look now, and saw myself as I am today."

She sounded perfectly calm. But her eyes flickered quickly to Ax, then back to me. Visser Three shook his head in amusement.

<If only I had known from the start that you were humans. For so long I believed you were Andalites. Until, at last, we caught you.>

I felt strangely calm. I mean, considering what was happening. I was face-to-face with Visser Three - who was now Visser One. I was face-to-face with my own future.

"You're a Controller," I said to the older me.

"Of course," she said. She smiled. A cruel smile, not at all like me. "We won. You all led us on a nice chase, but in the end, we won. This planet is Yeerk territory. The human race has achieved its destiny as hosts for the Yeerk race."

"If you know so much, how did we come to be here? In the future?" Marco asked.

<An Ellimist has brought you here.> Visser Three said. <In your own time, you face a choice. The Ellimist has brought you six humans . . . you five humans and one Andalite . . . here to show you a future. To show you the future. Soon he will return you to your own time.>

"What choice did we make?" I asked.

The older Rachel smiled her cruel smile. "The right one, obviously. Everything has worked out perfectly."

"Yeah?" Jake said defiantly. "Maybe not. The Ellimist brought us here to help us make a choice. So what if we go back to our own time and decide to accept the Ellimist's offer? Then Rachel won't be around to be turned into a Controller. She'll be with the rest of us on
whatever planet the Ellimist takes us to."

I watched closely for any reaction by my older self. Nothing. Not a flicker. And yet, there was something. She was trying to hide something.

"You know what we decided. But still, here you are," I said. "So either you're here to change what I decided. Except... no, then it might change all of this. Or else you're here because your being here is what caused me to decide whatever I decided."

<Confusing, isn't it?> Visser Three sneered. 

"Let's leave," Cassie said suddenly. "I don't like this place, and I don't like these two . . .creatures."

"But Cassie, I'm your best friend," my older self said mockingly.

"No, you're not. Maybe Rachel is still alive in there somewhere. But what you are is a Yeerk.

" Cassie started to turn away. As she did, she tripped. She fell against me. Suddenly the older Rachel was there. She grabbed me and held my arm steady so I didn't fall.

But to Ax it must have looked like she was lunging at me. His tail whipped forward in the blink of an eye.

Ax's quivering blade was pressed against the older Rachel's throat.

Her eyes went wide with fear. She shot a glance at Visser Three. And to my amazement, Visser Three seemed frozen. He was confused.

His main eyes narrowed. He looked from Ax, to the older Rachel, to me.

Suddenly I knew. "This wasn't in the script, was it?" I asked him. "This wasn't supposed to happen. Something has changed! It's Ax, isn't it? You said 'six humans" before. That's what you expected to find. That's what Rachel told you would happen. But the future has changed, hasn't it? Something is different."

Visser Three glared at me, and now he dropped the pretense of politeness.

<Do you know what I did when I finally caught you and your little band of Animorphs? Do you know what I did? I gave each of you to a trusted lieutenant. And once you belonged to us, once you were MINE, I killed your bird friend here, and we roasted his body. >

Visser Three leaned close to me. <He was tough and stringy, but we added a sauce you humans have. Barbecue, I believe it's called. And then your friend Tobias was delicious. You had a leg, as I recall. You ate it and laughed. >

That's cold. That's just really cold. I just just assume how horrible that line would have been if I read it as a kid.

quote:

I really wanted to morph right then. I really wanted to become the grizzly and tear Visser Three a few new holes. But there were hundreds of Controllers around. And while I was morphing I would be vulnerable.

Ax still had his tail blade pressed against the older Rachel's throat. <He can't hurt us.> Ax said. <He can't do a thing to us. If he does, he would change history. He doesn't know how that would work out. >

"Good point, Ax," Jake said. He met my gaze. He had a dangerous, angry look in his eyes. "He can't hurt us. But the reverse . . . well . . . "

"Excellent point," I agreed. I focused my mind on the grizzly bear. "So, Visser Three. You killed my friend Tobias and roasted him over a fire."

I was beginning to change. So was Jake.

 Visser Three said.

"So call them," Marco said. "Maybe one of them will get careless with a Dracon beam and kill one of us. How do you suppose that will change the past? Hard to tell, isn't it?"

Claws had sprouted from my fingers. Coarse brown fur was covering my body. I could feel the surge of power as I became more bear than human.

"Visser," the older Rachel said tersely. "What do we do?"

<We?> Visser Three said. <We do nothing. I retreat. >

Visser Three began backing away. But I wasn't about to let him go. I had him. After all the pain he had caused, I had him. After all the damage he had done, he was now powerless.

That's Visser-Three for you. No, but really, this is interesting. This is pretty much a can't lose situation for them, so long as Visser Three is worried about screwing up the timeline. This is why I personally find time travel stories potentially interesting. For Rachel, especially, this is sort of a way to force the issue. The whole thing had been...I don't want to say not personal, because it had been personal, but more abstract, in both her dad's and the Elimist's questions? She was faced with the very concrete idea of being with her dad/keeping her family close to her, on the one hand, and on the other, the fate of humanity being conquered by the Yeerks. But now she's seeing the real effect of that, and she's seeing the Rachel-Controller. That aort of drives the stakes home in a way it didn't before.

# ? Aug 8, 2020 00:14

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Epicurius posted:

Hmm, It actually worked.

"People believe what they see." Still as true as last book. Quick thinking from Tobias to intuit that if an Andalite was on Yeerk-controlled Earth, the Controllers would assume "the Visser" and not "a free Andalite," and good acting from Ax to add just enough bite and swagger to sell it.

Epicurius posted:

That's cold. That's just really cold. I just just assume how horrible that line would have been if I read it as a kid.

As someone who read it as a kid: that line hosed me up. The thought of being forced to eat your friend by the thing controlling your body, aware with all your senses but unable to do anything about it... that was multiple nightmares' worth of hosed up.

Epicurius posted:

That's Visser-Three for you. No, but really, this is interesting. This is pretty much a can't lose situation for them, so long as Visser Three is worried about screwing up the timeline. This is why I personally find time travel stories potentially interesting. For Rachel, especially, this is sort of a way to force the issue. The whole thing had been...I don't want to say not personal, because it had been personal, but more abstract, in both her dad's and the Elimist's questions? She was faced with the very concrete idea of being with her dad/keeping her family close to her, on the one hand, and on the other, the fate of humanity being conquered by the Yeerks. But now she's seeing the real effect of that, and she's seeing the Rachel-Controller. That aort of drives the stakes home in a way it didn't before.

Yeah, I think this is one of the best individual chapters of the series so far; there's a lot of potential packed into it. Is Rachel-Controller stopping Rachel from falling out of genuine kind instinct somehow, or out of fear that Rachel's going to crack her head on a rock, die, and ruin the timeline, or just because it's time travel and she knew Rachel was going to fall because Rachel fell when she was her? Who was the sixth human the Yeerks were expecting? Now that Rachel is completely unrestrained, will she kill her future self in the name of "freedom or death?" And (minor spoilers for the rest of the book) is the whole point of them not being the Animorphs that the future-Yeerks expected the Ellimist trying to show them that the future isn't set in stone without actually telling them?

# ? Aug 8, 2020 01:23

HIJK: Nov 25, 2012; in the room where you sleep

I started Animorphs when it was like 15 books in so the threat never landed for me. They had a lot more books to get through so the edginess just washed off me.

�Y-y-yeah you totally ate your boyfriend in another life you�ll never experience!!� Source: dude trust me. Thanks Visser Three

# ? Aug 8, 2020 02:28

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

Look, if you can't trust Visser Three, who can you trust? Really?

# ? Aug 8, 2020 03:53

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

Him throwing his Rachel under the bus is such a dick move

I love you Visser Three never change please

# ? Aug 8, 2020 04:08

McTimmy: Feb 29, 2008

I remembered future-Animorph controllers but boy I didn't remember how hardcore the actual Animorphs got in response to it. This is great.

# ? Aug 8, 2020 09:28

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

I don't remember the events of this book at all, except for the existence of the Ellimist obviously, and Rachel going into battle-fog for the first time. Now that we're out of the first cycle, it's interesting that these books don't stand out quite as much as the very first ones did to me, even though apparently the ghostwriting didn't start for a couple dozen books more; obviously I remembered Jake's infestation, but none of the other details of the last book. I think the only other one I really remember clearly was a later Jake book, notable for also featuring a time-travel plot, only there the resolution felt somehow even more deus-ex-machina than the Ellimist popping in to save the day. So I can read these later books with basically fresh eyes at this point.

# ? Aug 8, 2020 11:18

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

Yea I kind of feel this is starting to get way too convoluted. Just dropping time travel into a fairly simple story like this will create issues I'm sure. :allears:

# ? Aug 8, 2020 18:51

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

The massive Yeerk Pool is a neat touch since when the series reaches the final arc that�s exactly what they start doing to the ruins of the city.

Also this future (if you can say it ever existed what with Ellimist weirdness) is clearly one where Ax died on impact and they teamed up with David who immediately got them all captured because he�s a loving idiot rear end in a top hat

# ? Aug 8, 2020 21:46

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Stranger-Chapter 17

quote:

I did not wait until the last of my human features was submerged. I was bear enough. I charged.

Bears are very large and look sort of clumsy. But they can be very fast.

<Now, you filth, let's see who eats who. >

I barreled toward him. He turned to run. But he had turned too late. I hit him. Eight hundred pounds of fast-moving bear hit Visser Three in the flank and brought him down hard. I drew back one huge claw and swung with all my might.

My hand slapped the trunk of a tree. My human hand.

"Owww!"

I was human again. I was in the woods behind Cassie's farm. The others were all there as well. Tobias, once again a hawk, perched in a branch overhead.

"No! I'm sick of this!" I yelled. I slammed the tree again in sheer frustration. "I'm sick of this!

Cassie came over and put her arm around my shoulders. "It doesn't matter. That's a Visser Three who doesn't exist yet."

"I'm so sick of this," I said again, a little more softly. "What's the point? What's the point in anything? We know the future now. We know what happens if we decide to stay and fight."

I felt lost. The last ounce of energy just seeped away from me. It was too much. Too many things to deal with. And what was the point? What did it even matter what I did?

I flopped down onto the grass and pine needle-covered ground, and rested my head in my hands. I was done. Done trying to make sense of a world where I could be jerked back and forth like a puppet.

The six of us just lay there on the floor of pine needles for a while. Staring. Thinking. Letting it all sink in.

It was over.

The war was done. And we had lost.

<It could all still be an Ellimist trick.> Ax said halfheartedly.

"No," I said flatly. "You know it's not a trick, Ax. At least not the way you mean. If the Ellimist wanted to force us to do something, he has more than enough power."

"We need to think this through," Jake said wearily.

I shrugged. "You think it through. I'm tired of thinking: I was just about to vote when the Ellimist dragged us off for his little show-and-tell. I was about to be good old Rachel and vote no. I was going to be tough, one more time. But I'm changing my vote. I'm not going to end up as a Controller. That's not going to happen. Not to me. If that means I'm running away, too bad. I change my vote."

You know what? At that moment of surrender, I felt good. I wish I could say I didn't. But I felt a wave of relief wash over me. No more hard decisions. No more danger. No more having to be brave.

"That makes it Cassie, Rachel, and me, in favor," Marco said. "Three to two, unless Ax is voting."

 Ax said.

<Maybe . . . > Tobias began. <Maybe if some of the human race survives on some other planet. . . . Maybe it will be like when they brought wolves back to live in the National Forest. I mean, maybe someday we can return and take Earth back. >

Didn't somebody in this thread suggest that, actually?

quote:

"Are you changing your vote, Tobias?" Jake asked him.

<Jake, you know I would never run from a fight. . . . >

We all just sat there, staring at nothing.

We were going to do it. We were going to abandon the fight. We all knew it.

Jake hung his head. "Ellimist?" he said softly to the air, "We have decided. The answer is yes."

The Ellimist had said we would be transported immediately, once we decided. I expected my next breath to be drawn on some distant planet.

But nothing happened.

Nothing at all.

I can't tell you how weird it was, going to school the next day. Sitting in class, trying to pay attention while my teacher, Ms. Paloma, talked about what led up to the Second World War.

"Maybe if the United States had been ready to fight earlier," she said, "the war would have ended earlier and fewer people would have been killed. But our country wanted peace."

I just kept looking at her and wondering, Was that your skeleton draped across the desk?

What was the point of going to school? What was the point in anything? I had seen the future. I knew how it all turned out. The human race was done for. Finished. That was where all our long history led - to a Yeerk pool.

"Because we were so devoted to peace, we may have actually made the war worse," Ms. Paloma droned on. "We'll never know for sure, of course. You can't really second-guess history." You can if you're an Ellimist, I thought. If you're an Ellimist, you can look ahead and see it all.

"Why not?"

It was Cassie's voice. I glanced across the room at her. She had that same look of confusion I'd seen the day before. The frustrated look, like she sensed something she couldn't quite grasp yet.

"Why can't you second-guess history? I mean, if you could go back and change things so that the U.S. was ready to fight earlier. ..."

Ms. Paloma sat on the edge of her desk.

"Because events are intertwined in ways we cannot always see, Cassie. Sometimes small things can make huge differences. You know, they say that a single butterfly, beating its wings in China, may affect the way the wind blows here in our country. A single butterfly beating its wings may make a tiny change that becomes a bigger change that becomes a tornado. The world isn't like math. It isn't just one plus one equals two. It's more complicated
than that."

And then the oddest thing happened. Ms. Paloma looked right at me. Right into my eyes.

"Much more complicated than that," she said. "A single butterfly ... a single butterfly ... a single butterfly..."

The hair on the back of my neck was tingling.

Everyone was looking at her like she was crazy.

Suddenly, Ms. Paloma shook her head, like she was popping out of a trance. She smiled a confused smile. "Okay, well, anyway, you all have the reading assignments."

The bell rang and I practically jerked up out of my seat.

Cassie threaded her way through the kids who were rushing out of the room.

"Okay, tell me that wasn't weird," Cassie whispered.

"I thought maybe I was imagining it," I said. "Besides, who knows what's weird anymore?

I'm sitting there waiting for the ... you know who ... to suddenly zap us out of here."

Cassie nodded. "So why hasn't he?"

Out in the fast-moving crush of bodies in the hall, we made our way to our lockers. "I don't know," I said as I spun my combination lock. "We decided to say yes. We're giving him what he wants."

I popped my locker door open.

"Unless. ..." Cassie said.

"Unless maybe that wasn't the answer he wanted," I finished her thought.

"But it's nuts," Cassie said, frowning. "Every thing he did made it look like he wanted us to say yes. He appears the first time right as we're about to be swallowed by a. ..."

She looked around to make sure no one could overhear.

"Just as we were about to be swallowed. I mean, come on. Obviously he must have figured we'd want to bail."

"We might have," I said. "Except we saw that dropshaft. So we thought we could escape. Otherwise..."

I stopped talking. I stared at Cassie. She stared back.

"He showed us that dropshaft!" Cassie said.

"Why?" I wondered aloud. "Why? What is he doing with us? He appears when we're desperate. He says he doesn't interfere and gives us a choice. Then he lets us see a way out. What's that all about?"

"Then he gives us another chance. He shows us the future. He shows us ... you, basically. You in the future. So we know for sure that we must have decided to stay and fight. And we know we lost. And all of that means we have to say yes and let him take us away. So why have I been feeling like I was missing something?"

The warning bell for next period rang.

"This is insane, as Marco would say." Cassie laughed. "Yeah. I have gym next period. At any moment I might suddenly be swooped away to another planet, but in the meantime I have to go play volleyball."

I watched her walk away. Then I hurried to my next class.

A single butterfly, I thought.

But how is the butterfly supposed to know when to beat her wings?

You have any clue what the Elimist actually wants?

The Stranger-Chapter 18

quote:

I was back in the underground Yeerk pool. Trapped. Stuck to the Taxxon's tongue. But not a cockroach. I was myself, in my human body, only tiny. Stuck. About to die.

Ax was talking. <Yeerk pool. It's the center of their lives. Almost a religion. >

I squirmed and tried to get away. I tried to change into something else. The bear. I wanted to become the bear. But I was stuck. All I could do was beat my helpless butterfly wings.

He showed us the dropshaft, Cassie's voice murmured in the back of my head.

I swirled down dark corridors. I flew wildly on butterfly wings, always chasing a light that never drew closer and yet never disappeared.

The Kandrona, I thought in my dream.

The light is the Kandrona. "The center of their lives. Almost a religion."

<No, not the Yeerk pool, really. The Kandrona. That is the center for them. That is their light.>

"He showed us the dropshaft," Cassie said again, only now she was Ms. Paloma.

My eyes snapped open. I sat up in my bed. I was as awake as I'd ever been. I was electric!

"Hah HAH!" I yelled in the darkness of my room. "YES!"

Then I hesitated. Was I nuts? Was I just desperate? I ran through it all again.

"Got "em!" I whispered. "Oh, man, we got 'em! Got the disgusting worms!"

Whether you figured it out or not after reading the last chapter, Rachel just did.

quote:

I shucked off the T-shirt that I wear to bed, and quickly slipped into my morphing outfit.

I threw open the window. Then I paused. It would be Saturday morning in a few hours. No school. But if my mom found me gone, she might worry.

I quickly scribbled a note saying I had gone for an early-morning run. That I might go over to Cassie's afterward.

And then I glanced at the picture on my desk. The one of three-year-old me on the balance beam, being held up by my proud father.

I could not tell the others.

We had already decided. We were going to say yes to the Ellimist.

We would let him take us to a place where there would be no battles and no need to decide.

If I told my friends what I suspected. . . . I felt the weight come down on me again. The weight of uncertainty and guilt and fear.

I looked at the picture of my dad and smiled. "What would you think of me, Dad, if I walked away, when I still had a chance to win?"

And then I morphed. My arms shrank. My skin began to flow into patterns of soft feathers that could ride silently on the night breeze. In a few more minutes, I was ready. The moon was bright in the sky. Dawn was still hours away. A perfect night for an owl. But I paid no attention to the juicy prey below me as I flew at top speed toward the woods.

<Tobias! It's me! Don't panic, but wake up!>

<What the . . . to Didn't I tell you about zooming up in - >

<Come on!> I yelled.

<Come on, where?>

<Don't argue, just come on. I know you don't like to fly at night, but just come on, anyway!>

<Rachel, have you lost your mind? Where are we going?>

<We're going to be butterflies, Tobias. We're going to Cassie's barn, and then we're going to change history. >
He opened his wings and flew alongside me, just a few feet away.

<Whatever you say, Rachel.> Tobias said grumpily. <But what makes you think -- >

Grumpy woken up Tobias is the best.

quote:

I interrupted him.

<Where what is?>

<Tobias? I know the location of the Kandrona.>

She knows where it is. Do you? <points at the computer screen>

# ? Aug 8, 2020 23:58

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:

You have any clue what the Elimist actually wants?

nope, not a clue. this is why you don't even interact with high-level wizards if you can help it, they're so hopped up on magic that you can't even tell what the hell angle they're playing. did elminster just get exactly what he wanted? who knows

# ? Aug 9, 2020 00:22

Patrick Spens: Jul 21, 2006; "Every quarterback says they've got guts, But how many have actually seen 'em?"; Pillbug

This surprised me as a kid, and I'm pretty sure it holds up as a genuinely clever reveal now.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 00:50

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

It's an earned reveal. The pieces are all there.

it was in Visser Three's pocket the whole time

# ? Aug 9, 2020 01:29

Daikloktos: Jan 1, 2020; by Cyrano4747

Radio Free Kobold posted:

did elminster just get exactly what he wanted? who knows

Spoilers all I love the idea none of anything in the series really even loving mattered to them, it was all about maneuvering Cassie into position to get a free hand where he actually needed it across the galaxy

# ? Aug 9, 2020 03:41

Bobulus: Jan 28, 2007

If I'm remembering when I read this as a child correctly... at the time I figured out the Ellimist has a scheme going the moment he refused their 'yes'. But I didn't figure out the Kaldrona part until after Rachel spelled it out. I tended to skim scenery details as a kid.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 06:12

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Daikloktos posted:

Spoilers all I love the idea none of anything in the series really even loving mattered to them, it was all about maneuvering Cassie into position to get a free hand where he actually needed it across the galaxy

I'm not sure what in particular you're talking about here, but I think the outcome of the war did matter an awful lot to the Ellimist.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 06:27

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Epicurius posted:

I'm not sure what in particular you're talking about here, but I think the outcome of the war did matter an awful lot to the Ellimist.

Well, his whole game with Crayak is making a series of deals with him that have long-reaching unforeseen consequences with the goal of screwing him over by getting him to overlook seemingly minor things that then swing back around and bite him in the rear end. Like trading the survival of an entire planet on the other side of the galaxy for allowing Cassie to be in that construction site on the night Elfangor crashed to Earth. Crayak's busy laughing his rear end off while Tau Epsilon IV gets digested alive by the black goo and suddenly--oh poo poo, Earth beats the Yeerks because Cassie is a fixed point in space-time.

Or something.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 06:47

Daikloktos: Jan 1, 2020; by Cyrano4747

Epicurius posted:

I'm not sure what in particular you're talking about here, but I think the outcome of the war did matter an awful lot to the Ellimist.

Megamorphs #4. Cassie's left-field cosmic significance undoes Crayak's overt move, but as the Ellimist played within the rules Crayak was bound to allow him a free hand in some conflict somewhere else. The outcome of the war mattered an awful lot to the Ellimist because he started out as the kind of Animal Crossing player who feels legitimately bummed when his best animal friends are feuding but it's perfectly petit-Lovecraft to have the overt significance of this entire series only strategically matter in that one moment.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 06:50

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Daikloktos posted:

Megamorphs #4. Cassie's left-field cosmic significance undoes Crayak's overt move, but as the Ellimist played within the rules Crayak was bound to allow him a free hand in some conflict somewhere else. The outcome of the war mattered an awful lot to the Ellimist because he started out as the kind of Animal Crossing player who feels legitimately bummed when his best animal friends are feuding but it's perfectly petit-Lovecraft to have the overt significance of this entire series only strategically matter in that one moment.

I think it's more of a wheels within wheels sort of thing for him. In Megamorphs 4, we find out that the Ellimist manipulated events so that Cassie would be part of the Animorphs so as to make the deal with Crayak to gain the advantage without a loss, but he didn't manipulate the entire war for that purpose. He takes an active role in this war itself, from his actions in this book, to his actions in the Andalite Chronicles, to saving the Iskoort (and possibly being involved in creating the Iskoort) so that if the Yeerks run into them, they'll learn there's an alternative way for them to live than parasitism. I think it's just that the Ellimist is clever, and very good at games, so he manipulates events so he can accomplish multiple goals at the same time.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 07:09

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

The Ellimist is extraordinarily good at LOSING games. He might not win at the stated objective, but that's usually because he has plans of his own in motion.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 07:20

Terror Sweat: Mar 15, 2009

I'd say the howlers is a much bigger win for the ellimist

# ? Aug 9, 2020 07:24

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

How would the Animorphs even be a threat if they didn't have Cassie, and by extension her almost unlimited access to an entire zoo, plus whatever North American Animal Ex Machina was needed by the ghostwriters that month? I guess I just don't remember Megamorphs #4 because I have no recollection what all of this Cassie being a plant from the jump stuff is about.

So far, I feel like if anything, thus far, book 6 revealed that Jake is the weak link of the team. Tobias helps the team plan a brutal and flawless series of traps for Temrash, completely without Jake's dithering "leadership." This is in book 6 so as far as I can tell, has nothing to do with the Ellimist stuff, more of just a logistical "why is this guy the leader" question. His knowledge coupled with the supposedly elite Yeerk piloting him were unable to even think of a plan of escape involving the eight or so diverse morphs he has...

Also, for added confusion sake, and since he's already gone ahead and acquired them, shouldn't they all acquire Ax just so they can feign an Andalite morph in times of dire emergency? Who cares if they're all the same teen centaur, better to condescendingly explain to visser three the totally new "Retratnil technique," which lets Andalites shift between morphs without returning to the original body, ( :cawg:

) you probably haven't heard of it, Alloran, you've been away from your homeland for so long; than to totally blow your cover the first time you run up on a time limit... Also they seem like legitimately strong battle morphs on their own.

Do we know if Ax acquired anything before the shark when he was in the ship? Like any Andalite homeworld poo poo.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 12:04

Piell: Sep 3, 2006; Grey Worm's Ken doll-like groin throbbed with the anticipatory pleasure that only a slightly warm and moist piece of lemoncake could offer; Young Orc

Jake is the one who keeps the group together - it's not that he's the perfect leader, but he's the only one the others are all willing to listen to. If Jake is gone, Marco, Rachel, and Cassie are too fundamentally different in ideals and personality to stick together.

As far as Ax's Andalite homeworld morphs go, he probably does, but he never uses any.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 12:20

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

Piell posted:

As far as Ax's Andalite homeworld morphs go, he probably does, but he never uses any.

Remember that the Andalites are noted as not using morphing for battle capabilities, they seem perfectly happy with the tail blades in their existing bodies and energy weapons. They regard morphing as a tool for spying and sabotage, not combat. Visser Three and the Animorphs use it for combat for different reasons of their own.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 12:58

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..."

because humans are bad at fighting, and Visser Three just enjoys turning into a giant kaiju.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 13:22

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

nine-gear crow posted:

Well, his whole game with Crayak is making a series of deals with him that have long-reaching unforeseen consequences with the goal of screwing him over by getting him to overlook seemingly minor things that then swing back around and bite him in the rear end. Like trading the survival of an entire planet on the other side of the galaxy for allowing Cassie to be in that construction site on the night Elfangor crashed to Earth. Crayak's busy laughing his rear end off while Tau Epsilon IV gets digested alive by the black goo and suddenly--oh poo poo, Earth beats the Yeerks because Cassie is a fixed point in space-time.

Or something.

For those of us who haven't looked at the series in a while, remind us of what the deal with this is? I don't remember any specific Ellimist/Cassie connection

# ? Aug 9, 2020 14:34

fauna: Dec 6, 2018; Caught between two worlds...

bunzuh

# ? Aug 9, 2020 15:04

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

freebooter posted:

For those of us who haven't looked at the series in a while, remind us of what the deal with this is? I don't remember any specific Ellimist/Cassie connection

Spoilers for the whole series.

The Ellimist's manipulations before the series started were to make sure the team had four specific people. Ax is there because he's Elfangor's brother, Tobias because he's Elfangor's son, Marco because he's Visser One's (host's) son. Meanwhile, Cassie is there because she's a weird anomaly that interferes with people's ability to change the timeline around her.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 15:04

Karma Comedian: Feb 2, 2012

Epicurius posted:

That's cold. That's just really cold. I just just assume how horrible that line would have been if I read it as a kid.

Like I said, it's one of the most vivid things that stuck with me. "He was tough and stringy" my whole life over and over.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 15:38

Terror Sweat: Mar 15, 2009

disaster pastor posted:

Spoilers for the whole series.

The Ellimist's manipulations before the series started were to make sure the team had four specific people. Ax is there because he's Elfangor's brother, Tobias because he's Elfangor's son, Marco because he's Visser One's (host's) son. Meanwhile, Cassie is there because she's a weird anomaly that interferes with people's ability to change the timeline around her.

Prophecy poo poo and chosen ones is always dumb

# ? Aug 9, 2020 17:10

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# ? May 23, 2024 10:26

pastor of muppets: Aug 21, 2007; We were somewhere around the Living Hive, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold...

No lie, as much as I loved these books when I was a kid and read the ones I had obsessively, it's wild what has stuck in my memory and what hasn't.. For example, I remember the Elimist showing up in this book, but none of the major plot beats in the aftermath, while at the same time, lines like this:

quote:

Ax confirmed.

<Humans don't smell.> I said, only half-joking.

<Oh, humans smell.> Ax argued. <It's not a bad smell. Sort of like an animal we have back on my planet called a flaar.>

....will bubble up through my lizard brain literally at least once a month.

# ? Aug 9, 2020 23:49

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

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