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Gun Jam posted:A bit late, but: When they meet the Ellimist for the second time they go to a future earth where the yeerks have won. In the future, they see the Pool and so figure out where the Kandrona is stored, so when they return to the present, they're able to find and destroy it. I can't remember which book that is, but I'm 99% sure Tobias was there.
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# ? Dec 19, 2020 14:48 |
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# ? May 24, 2024 12:35 |
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Epicurius posted:
As a kid, things like this would happen and I would occasionally wonder, "hey, did they say that to themselves? Or did this Taxxon just hear a Hork-Bajir use thought-speak?"
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# ? Dec 19, 2020 16:03 |
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disaster pastor posted:As a kid, things like this would happen and I would occasionally wonder, "hey, did they say that to themselves? Or did this Taxxon just hear a Hork-Bajir use thought-speak?" Hork-Bajir Tobias: <You’re lucky I’m in a hurry, or you’d be worm hash,> Taxxon, to himself: "Did he just use thought speak? Is this an Andalite? I have to tell Visser Three! This will change everything!" [Taxxon starts to go to Visser Three, scratches self on a branch, smells his own blood and eats himself]
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# ? Dec 19, 2020 16:53 |
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Epicurius posted:"Did he just use thought speak? Is this an Andalite? I have to tell Visser Three! A prudent Yeerk would probably just keep it to himself
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# ? Dec 19, 2020 23:23 |
freebooter posted:A prudent Yeerk would probably just keep it to himself <You knew this and did nothing? Then you will feed your brothers.>
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# ? Dec 19, 2020 23:33 |
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freebooter posted:A prudent Yeerk would probably just keep it to himself Knowing Visser 3, the best case scenario would be their claim getting dismissed out of hand, with the worst (And most likely) case being a swift execution for letting them get away.
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# ? Dec 19, 2020 23:55 |
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Animorphs Book 13: The Change-Chapter 25quote:We waited till Visser Three and the rest of the Yeerks - human, Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons - left. Poor Tobias. But he's got his meadow. Chapter 26 quote:The next day was Sunday. Not that it mattered to me. Ellimists, man. What you going to do? Chapter 27 quote:The next day was Monday. The day when Rachel was to receive the Packard Foundation Outstanding Student award. So, it's raining right now, a very localized rainstorm, right over my face, which is why my face is so wet. It's not that I'm crying or anything. I mean, I liked this book, but that ending just nailed it, I think. Like, if I've relatively quiet recently in my comments, it's because I really don't know what to say. This entire book just holds together really solidly, and it's got Tobias's internal conflict, because Tobias is just....I mean, reading these books as an adult, you just want to hug these kids and tell them it'll be ok. And that's the difference between reading it when you're like 11 vs when you're in your 30s or 40s. When you're 11, 13 year olds are these cool older kids, and you're reading it and they're going on adventures and kicking Yeerk butt and it's all very exciting and sometimes you're worried about them, but they're tough and old and will pull it out at the end. I'm reading this at 45, and all I can think of is, my God, these are all babies who are trying so hard to be grown up and they've got to deal with an alien invasion on top of it all. And really, there's that hint of tragedy there that never goes away, and of course, Applegate and Grant wrote it like that on purpose, because they were in their 40s at the time when they wrote them. Man, these books. So the next book is Book 14, the Unknown. It's a Cassie book, and it's....an unconventional one, just like Cassie.
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 05:15 |
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Epicurius posted:So the next book is Book 14, the Unknown. It's a Cassie book, and it's....an unconventional one, just like Cassie. Oh man I didn't realize my overall favorite book in the series and my favorite dumb book in the series came back to back.
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 05:29 |
I quite genuinely can't remember what the plot of the next book is, but since it's Cassie, I'm going to assume that she has a nervous breakdown and suffers extreme PTSD after killing a jellyfish
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 05:38 |
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Ah, the Area 51 book. Cassie gets some weird filler books. I wonder if Tobias's human morph ages, or if he's thirteen forever. I don't think the books ever address it, but he must look pretty young next to the other Animorphs by the end of the series when he's in human morph. Ax, too.
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 05:59 |
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The Elmist is one real motherfucker. Gives Tobias what he wants (The ability to fight alongside his friends and become human), but in a way that ensures he'll never actually become human or stop fighting.
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 06:10 |
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That's the plot to at least 80 different fantastic four storylines for The Thing
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 06:29 |
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Shwoo posted:Ah, the Area 51 book. Cassie gets some weird filler books. If morphing heals their injuries, it must de-age them equally too
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 06:34 |
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That was really great, definitely one of my favorites. I remember the plot of 14 being really dumb, so hopefully we get some good Cassie ruminating and philosophizing to make up for it.
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 07:24 |
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Epicurius posted:
I don't have much to say that you didn't say already (like everyone else, it's also one of my favorite books in the series), but this little bit is perfect. One particular characteristic of Tobias's narration is how freely he admits to feeling useless, unwanted, cowardly, all sorts of things people (especially kids) try to hide from themselves. But even so, even in his own thoughts, even after admitting that the Ellimist kept his promise, here Tobias can't admit that what he got was, in his heart, what he wanted.
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 07:45 |
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Ok so I've been waiting to discuss this since I found this thread and have been waiting to post this until we finished this book. I remember going onto Animorph's fan sites are online in '97 and '98 to discuss this (Book 13 came out in Nov 1997). I think I stopped reading the books around #30 so maybe it already been answered. Do the morphs one acquires age? 10 years from now will Tobias still look like a middle schooler when be morphs into his human self? Can you make your morphs age? Can you make them de-age? If you're a twin, can you acquire the DNA of your twin? Will that morph stay stuck at that age? Could you see what you would look like as an adult? If Cassie can change her hair length when morphing, what else can change? I had braces on when reading these books. What would happen to braces? Could you morph to have perfect teeth. What are the chances of 5 middle schoolers not having braces? What about piercings? Did Cassie and Rachel's ear piercings go away the first time they morphed? Could they morph to include pierced ears? If you can change you hair length, can you change the size and length of other body parts as well? I don't think Applegate ever wanted to take the discussion or thought this far, but I can tell you that there were a lot of people who has these questions 20+ years ago...
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 08:41 |
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Shwoo posted:Ah, the Area 51 book. Cassie gets some weird filler books. Sorry that my post overrode yours but these are the same questions I've had for 20 years
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 08:43 |
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disaster pastor posted:I don't have much to say that you didn't say already (like everyone else, it's also one of my favorite books in the series), but this little bit is perfect. One particular characteristic of Tobias's narration is how freely he admits to feeling useless, unwanted, cowardly, all sorts of things people (especially kids) try to hide from themselves. But even so, even in his own thoughts, even after admitting that the Ellimist kept his promise, here Tobias can't admit that what he got was, in his heart, what he wanted. I think this is true (which is why he never mentions this to the others) though on the other hand I also think it's fair to say he just still doesn't know the answer to the question. He'll never know. I also admire this subtle bit: quote:But I didn’t want pity. Not even Rachel’s pity. I was dealing with things. But I was barely dealing. And I felt like if someone was nice to me I’d totally fall apart. "I don't want your pity" is a tired trope for a gritty square-jawed American action hero, but for Tobias it particularly rings true because he was a loser and a nerd, and he feels (correctly) that he's better than that now. He's not better than that because he became a hawk, but he understandably associates that with why. Also, sometimes the CGI-ish inside covers were boring and sometimes they were cool; this one is an illustration of that pivotal final scene which in retrospect looks like a spoiler but if you looked at it before starting the book you'd probably think it was a metaphor or something. I think it's one of the better inside covers. It displays a moment which really encapsulates what the book is about.
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 10:21 |
I didn't think it was a metaphor at all, I thought he went to see Jake or something.
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 10:41 |
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Didn't the little cutaway reveal he was morphing into whoever the kid is? I just remember thinking that they'd decided the covers had to show a morph, so they could show him morphing into a bird, then morphing back into a human for 13, and if they'd stayed with him as a nothlit there would have been a whiteboard in the graphic designer's office with "Book 23 = ???"
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 11:12 |
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Logically morphs don't age, if only because they'd have to pick up new fly morphs every month or so otherwise.
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 15:18 |
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IIRC, the writers said post-series that "we didn't think about it, but if we did, we would have said that Tobias human form do ages because Ellimist"
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 15:35 |
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This book absolutely rules. I mean basically every Tobias book does but this one especially.
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 18:15 |
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Rachel mentions trying to picture herself with different hair coming out of a morph once, but also specifically says it doesn't work. Supposedly the morphing technology re-forms a morphed animal's body each time it's used, right? I'm not sure if they specifically say it works in reverse when going back to their human bodies; those rules seem inconsistent. Morphing to an animal and back heals injuries, but doesn't mess with haircuts and fingernails, piercings, etc. And also brings back some clothes. Megamorphs 2 spoilers: I seem to recall that when they return to the present from dinosaur times, they try to use dino-morphs again but can't. Either through speculation or by having Ax say something about it, it's explained that their morphs would have aged and died long ago so they're no longer accessible. Though this makes no sense with them using the same fly morphs without needing to reacquire new ones every few days. For me it's just one of those things you have to accept in science fiction where the rules make sense for the most part but if you try to think through EVERY implication it would fall apart a little bit. Morphing is explained just enough to set up rules but vaguely enough that we can imagine some Andalite morphing scientists working around whatever problems and saying "thank the Ellimist we invented the, you know, Jub Jub device or whatever"
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 19:00 |
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feetnotes posted:
It's not even that. Jake tells Cassie, "You know, since we got back, I can't morph into a T-Rex", and Cassie answers, "Hmm, weird. Ax would probably know why. You could ask him." Jakes' answer is, "Eh, even if he knew how, I probably wouldn't understand his explanation anyway." And that's pretty much the entire exchange about that. More generally about morphing and these types of questions, I console myself with the last line of the MSK3000 theme. "If you wonder how he eats and breathes, and other science facts, repeat to yourself, 'It's just a show, I should really just relax'".
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 21:27 |
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Epicurius posted:It's not even that. Jake tells Cassie, "You know, since we got back, I can't morph into a T-Rex", and Cassie answers, "Hmm, weird. Ax would probably know why. You could ask him." Jakes' answer is, "Eh, even if he knew how, I probably wouldn't understand his explanation anyway." And that's pretty much the entire exchange about that. Love that Jake, the Big and not very Bright leader who balks at any use of morphing for any non-Yeerk purpose, tries to morph a T-rex as soon as he gets back from the Cretaceous or whatever. not that I wouldn't do the same, that would be an incredible battle morph. E: at least a 90s T-Rex would be. although defeat at the hands of a massively fluffy toothed passerine would be a huge moral drain on our Visser
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# ? Dec 20, 2020 21:41 |
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QuickbreathFinisher posted:E: at least a 90s T-Rex would be. although defeat at the hands of a massively fluffy toothed passerine would be a huge moral drain on our Visser Wait what's changed? I thought they just have feathers now or something?
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 00:29 |
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applegate and grant are cowards for not letting them keep the dino morphs, prove me wrong
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 00:48 |
No I agree They would have won the war immediately
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 00:52 |
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Animorphs Book 14: The Unknown-Chapter 1 quote:My name is Cassie. There's our standard summary of the series premise. quote:And I still don’t care about clothes. Which just drives Rachel nuts, even after all these years. This a stupid book. But, God, I respect the hell out of any author who ends their first chapter with, "And tht' how we ended up discovering the evil horses that threatened all of humanity. Chapter 2 quote:It was dark by the time we got away from the city, away from the far edge of forest and out into the area we usually called the Dry Lands. You end up with either dehydrated whales or wet chickens. quote:“She’s over there. Over there,” Crazy Helen yelled as soon as we piled out of the truck. “It’s a big roan mare. She’s acting all funny. Like maybe she’s been eating the loco weed.” Locoweed's a thing. Or actually, a bunch of things. A bunch of different plants, all of them legumes, make a chemical called swainsonine. It's poisonous, and livestock that graze on it, and eat too much of it, behave erratically, and eventually die. quote:“Hi, Helen,” my dad said calmly. “We’ll go take a look, see what we have. How have you been?” We're only on the second chapter, and already a Yeerk-infested horse has tried to make a phone call, and then was zapped by a Dracon beam. This book....
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 04:48 |
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I love this book, it's incredible, literally every part of it is goofy as hell and very good
Piell fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Dec 21, 2020 |
# ? Dec 21, 2020 04:52 |
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Book 13 was one of my favorites as a book. It's very well written and Tobias is an amazing character. In this re-read, the Ellimist stuff stood out a bit more, probably because I've seen enough "inscrutable god-like aliens who claim not to interfere but actually do" in other media now, but not enough to bring the book down. This book was my favorite Cassie book. I never liked her other books and stopped reading around book 32 or so. This one is just delightfully fun.
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 05:12 |
Oh God now I remember! This book has one of my favourite jokes in the series
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 05:16 |
Also I'm going on record as saying evil horses are nowhere near as dumb as a chicken that is not a chicken
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 05:20 |
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I had forgotten this whole scene. It's kind of fun seeing which books I remember real well and which ones I don't. I remember virtually nothing of 15, even though (unlike this silly one) I recall it being actually pretty overall important.HisMajestyBOB posted:This book was my favorite Cassie book. I never liked her other books and stopped reading around book 32 or so. This one is just delightfully fun. She gets a lot of silly ones, plus she's the Morals and Ethics character which I got bored by as a kid (a lot of us probably did) but which is more interesting and compelling as an adult. 19 is probably the most important book for her personal character arc, but my favourite of hers I think is 29 - one which is also really important for her character arc (and the broader moral themes of the series) but which is also just a really good, tight, high stakes thriller.
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 07:20 |
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The best thing Cassie ever does is when some racists call her the n-word so she shows them how white she can be.
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 07:30 |
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I don't remember a single part of this book so I'm looking forward to how bananas it gets.
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 07:45 |
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Acebuckeye13 posted:I don't remember a single part of this book so I'm looking forward to how bananas it gets. On that note, is it possible to morph a plant?
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 08:04 |
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Plants have RNA not DNA Also I just went down an enjoyable rabbit hole for an hour or two on the Animorphs wiki, and if you think this book is bananas, I just read a plot synopsis which contains the phrase "upon spotting Hitler, Tobias..."
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 09:09 |
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# ? May 24, 2024 12:35 |
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freebooter posted:Plants have RNA not DNA Oh, that book I remember in explicit detail, and I cannot wait to revisit it.
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# ? Dec 21, 2020 09:11 |