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Animorphs Book 21-The Threat, Chapter 21quote:Someone was up on the podium doing an introduction. You know: “Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a great man, a man of the people, but also a man of history …” Like Cassie pointed out in the last book, Erek said that the Chee had discovered one head of state was definitely a controller, but he didn't say he knew that only one head of state was a controller. quote:The Russian premier walked past. And on up to the platform. He began talking, pausing every few seconds for the translator to translate his speech into English. Visser Three doesn't normally get this sort of win, but this time, he was on the ball. This is a bit of tactical cleverness from him, arranging this trap. Also, research failure here for the Animorphs, because were there no newspapers covering this meeting's schedule? Chapter 22 quote:Trapped! Rachel is not subtle in her explanations. quote:<Hah! Andalites fighting among themselves,> Visser Three crowed. <But as entertaining as it is, I order you to stop!> Webs within webs within webs. And it looks like David's main problem here is a failure of nerve. He panics under pressure, which, given the amount of pressure these kids are under, isn't good. Epicurius fucked around with this message at 05:02 on May 2, 2021 |
# ? May 2, 2021 04:40 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 15:17 |
Well played, Visser Three. Well played indeed. His only slight mistake is not to have any surveillance inside the first hologram, but then, since he's certain that they're Andalites and not humans, he wouldn't bother. But bra-loving-vo. Absolutely A+ execution of a flawless ambush.
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# ? May 2, 2021 06:37 |
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Visser Three posted:<By the way. The real banquet is tomorrow night.> Earlier, Jake posted:“Well, I assume this banquet is tonight.” How did Visser Three know the Animorphs were there, though? The Yeerks don't know for sure that the Animorphs got in earlier. Were the Controllers they killed supposed to check in or something? Or was Visser Three just monologuing to a potentially empty room and hoping his enemies were there to hear it?
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# ? May 2, 2021 10:31 |
I'm assuming he
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# ? May 2, 2021 10:36 |
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I mean Visser 3 would absolutely be the type to assume that his trap succeeded and start monologuing regardless of whether or not there's any evidence of it.
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# ? May 2, 2021 10:41 |
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Maybe he just starts monologueing at random intervals and this time, it just happened to work out.
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# ? May 2, 2021 11:43 |
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He did the exact same routine the past few nights.
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# ? May 2, 2021 13:01 |
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lol. Visser 3 just shouting "fools! I have you now!" at random intervals, just to be on the safe side. Easily my favourite thing about this series is the fact its main villain is a bizarre alien, inhabiting the body of a second bizarre alien, and they are nonetheless instantly recognisable as Every Painful Mid-Level Manager Ever. V3 was my second boss, I'm sure of it.
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# ? May 2, 2021 14:12 |
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Animorphs Book 21-The Threat, Chapter 23quote:<I’m slithering,> Marco said. I mean, I guess in the end, David did attack Visser Three when it counted. That's something, right? Chapter 24 quote:We flew home through darkness. I knew the moods of my friends. I knew who would explode and when. I contacted them, one by one, in private thought-speak. Oh, David....
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# ? May 3, 2021 03:55 |
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How far into morph do they have to go before they can use thought-speak?
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# ? May 3, 2021 05:27 |
Roughly as far as the plot needs them to.
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# ? May 3, 2021 05:33 |
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Fuschia tude posted:How far into morph do they have to go before they can use thought-speak? It seems like it's whenever they lose the ability to make normal human language so it depends. Cassie can probably force it to happen pretty quickly but for the others it's basically random.
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# ? May 3, 2021 05:34 |
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For some reason I really remember that scene of Jake pulling night-time stakeout duty. I would have first read this series alongside John Marsden's Tomorrow series (Red Dawn in Australia but a bit more serious) and both books have a lot of night-time stuff contrasted against the day in an otherwise normal everyday environment; just this sense that it's such a weird, crazy time for otherwise ordinary teenagers to be going out and risking their lives in the dead of the night.quote:<Never go to one of your human entertainments.> <Such as the Chinese Lantern Festival, or Foxy Boxing!>
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# ? May 3, 2021 08:43 |
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I love the alien trait of speaking perfect English but just talking like a weirdo. It's dumb but also very good. "How dare you propel stones at me" from Andalite Chronicles was a good one.
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# ? May 3, 2021 13:26 |
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Food for thought: Shouldn’t the Yeerks feed more often? It seems like they die after almost exactly three days. Like, if your host is stuck in traffic and you’re an hour late to feed, you die. Also the last six hours or so seems extremely painful...I’d suggest they probably go every other day.
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# ? May 4, 2021 01:48 |
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Unfortunately, due to reasons outside my control (walked into a Yeerk ambush and now have to hunt down a rogue team member), no chapters tonight. New chapters are coming tomorrow. Sorry about that. Meanwhile, what do people think about this storyline so far?
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# ? May 4, 2021 05:21 |
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I detect a note of wistfulness in that "your human entertainments" line. I guess Yeerk entertainments consist of entering the Cruelty Dome and Andalites are into writing poems about looking at vases.
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# ? May 4, 2021 05:37 |
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Epicurius posted:Unfortunately, due to reasons outside my control (walked into a Yeerk ambush and now have to hunt down a rogue team member), no chapters tonight. New chapters are coming tomorrow. Sorry about that. Meanwhile, what do people think about this storyline so far? It's good. You can see the tragedy of it- many of David's reactions are understandable or even reasonable, and how he'd be able to contribute to the team, and how they could have integrated him under better circumstances. But you can also see how David's throwing up a bunch of red flags- to me the most notable one was killing that bird- even before outright trying to sell them out.
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# ? May 4, 2021 05:41 |
I've been trying to put my finger on what bothers me about that cobra, and it's the defanging. Guy clearly doesn't give a gently caress about animal abuse, which is generally considered a gigantic red flag.
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# ? May 4, 2021 05:43 |
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Tree Bucket posted:I detect a note of wistfulness in that "your human entertainments" line. I guess Yeerk entertainments consist of entering the Cruelty Dome and Andalites are into writing poems about looking at vases. Hey, if you're a voluntary controller you get to hang out in the break room underground and watch TV while your yeerk sunbathes. Comrade Blyatlov posted:I've been trying to put my finger on what bothers me about that cobra, and it's the defanging. Guy clearly doesn't give a gently caress about animal abuse, which is generally considered a gigantic red flag. Eh, I don't know that that necessarily is. If it's like cat declawing, that was considered totally normal and acceptable, even expected, in much of the US until pretty recently. Even now some states still require you to have a skunk's scent gland removed if you're keeping it as a pet.
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# ? May 4, 2021 06:22 |
Oh god have I become an animal crazy
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# ? May 4, 2021 06:27 |
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I can't really blame David that much for not being loyal to the Animorphs. They haven't exactly done the best job of integrating him into the group and I don't think he understands the ruthless brutality of Visser 3 and the Yeerks. The other kids had the "advantage" of seeing the murder of Elfangor and the Yeerk pool very early on so they knew that there could be no negotiating or surrender to Visser 3.
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# ? May 4, 2021 07:02 |
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WrightOfWay posted:I can't really blame David that much for not being loyal to the Animorphs. They haven't exactly done the best job of integrating him into the group and I don't think he understands the ruthless brutality of Visser 3 and the Yeerks. The other kids had the "advantage" of seeing the murder of Elfangor and the Yeerk pool very early on so they knew that there could be no negotiating or surrender to Visser 3. Yeah, his reactions do seem pretty reasonable to me. He thought that ambush situation was hopeless, he hardly has much more reason to trust the Animorphs over the Visser, and in one fell swoop he just lost his whole family and home life and was thrown into an anti-alien-invasion conspiracy guerrilla war. No one would be carefully reasoning in that situation, let alone a teenager.
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# ? May 4, 2021 07:27 |
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I thought this might be my favourite book of the series, but actually it's probably the next one. Though the cliffhanger climax to this one is certainly memorable. The storyline overall I think remains one of the best in the series. edit - thought this might be my favourite book of the trilogy, I mean, not the series overall. Though all three of them would easily be top 10.
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# ? May 4, 2021 09:07 |
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This entire book so far and the previous one have happened over the space of four school days. No wonder everyone's stressed and confused. Look at all this stuff. Day One -While at school, Marco learns that the blue box survived, and was found by a new kid to his school, David. -The Animorphs meet in Cassie's barn, and decide they need to steal the box as soon as possible. -While they're preparing at a Burger King, Eric arrives and tells them about a secret summit taking place in town. Six world leaders are involved, and the Yeerks want to use the opportunity to infest them. -The Animorphs completely fail to steal the blue box from David's house. Day Two -During lunch at school, David tells Marco about what happened the night before, and says he's got a buyer lined up for the box. He's set his email to send the buyer his address just before he comes home from school. -After spending some time finding the others to tell them what's happening, Marco leaves school a couple of hours early and finds Ax and Tobias. They go to David's house to stop the email from going out. -David's computer clock was off, and the email sends before the Animorphs can stop it. There's a big battle, and the Animorphs are able to recover the box and save David, but not his parents. -The Animorphs bring an unconscious David to an alley, and discuss what to do with him. They decide it would be best to bring him into their group. -They relocate to Cassie's barn and give David the exposition dump. -David stays at Marco's house, until he tries to call his parents. Marco makes him do it from a pay phone, and David sees that his parents are controllers. -David is moved, to Jake's house for some reason. Day Three -Either before or after school, the Animorphs and David go into the woods. David gets the morphing power, and acquires a golden eagle. -At some point, David acquires a cockroach and a lion. -David morphs the eagle back at Cassie's barn. -The Animorphs fly to the resort the summit is being held at, and notice a cloaked Yeerk ship. They go aboard the ship and witness Visser Three acquiring someone who eventually turns out to be the White House Chief of Protocol. -Back on the beach, Tobias and David acquire seagull morphs, and they continue their reconnaissance. Security is extremely tight, and there's a Controller scaring away the birds with laser sunglasses or something. -Jake returns home and learns about his cousin Saddler's accident. -Jake does some research online about the leaders at the summit, until about 10pm, when Cassie calls to tell Jake that David is missing. -Jake tracks David to a hotel, and they have a confrontation. Day Four -The Animorphs skip school and meet in Cassie's barn. The ones who don't yet have a flea morph acquire it, and Jake acquires a dragonfly. -They infiltrate the resort, but getting there took so much time that they're forced to demorph inside the ballroom. They learn that a banquet will take place soon, and that the Yeerks will probably make their move then. They also find a way to get in that won't eat up all their morphing time. -The Animorphs return to the barn and have another meeting. Jake tells Rachel about Saddler. -They return to the resort, -The banquet turns out to be a hologram, and the Animorphs are ambushed by Visser Three, who reveals that the real banquet is the following night. They manage to escape, but not before Visser Three offers David a deal in return for his surrender. -Jake returns home, has dinner, and leaves to stake out Cassie's barn with Tobias and Ax, in case David takes Visser Three up on his offer. Day Five -David leaves the barn in the early hours of the morning. Jake hasn't had a proper night's sleep for days.
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# ? May 4, 2021 11:11 |
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"The following takes place between 8:00pm and 9:00pm on the day of the 1997 G8 summit in California."
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# ? May 4, 2021 11:24 |
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freebooter posted:"The following takes place between 8:00pm and 9:00pm on the day of the 1997 G8 summit in California." We’ve got a few dozen books left to go before the protagonists start outright torturing people Jack Bauer style.
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# ? May 4, 2021 11:45 |
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I'm just still amazed they got owned partially by Visser Three's plan. That's got to be incredibly embarrassing. But yeah, I definitely feel a lot more "wow, absolutely nobody in the original Animorphs is doing a good job with the David situation" than I remember being as a child.
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# ? May 4, 2021 16:32 |
Comrade Blyatlov posted:I've been trying to put my finger on what bothers me about that cobra, and it's the defanging. Guy clearly doesn't give a gently caress about animal abuse, which is generally considered a gigantic red flag. defanging was fairly common practice at the time and, again, this is a child; his dad defanged the cobra, not David.
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# ? May 4, 2021 16:41 |
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I just realized how incredibly stupid it is to have David anywhere near Jake's house, and by extension, Tom.
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# ? May 4, 2021 16:59 |
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Jazerus posted:defanging was fairly common practice at the time and, again, this is a child; his dad defanged the cobra, not David. So what do people do now? Just have cobras with intact venom sacs?
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# ? May 4, 2021 18:02 |
QuickbreathFinisher posted:I just realized how incredibly stupid it is to have David anywhere near Jake's house, and by extension, Tom. the solution to this whole problem was to get over their misplaced unwillingness to ever steal anything, pull off some kind of modest heist (maybe on criminals??), and put david up in a sketchy apartment by having him morph an adult part-time. this would give him the freedom he wants while tying him financially to them, at least temporarily. hopefully enough time to get david on board for real. i totally understand their unwillingness to do crimes but at a certain point saving the world takes priority; hell, the yeerks have to have some financial support lines that they could raid.
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# ? May 4, 2021 18:12 |
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Jazerus posted:the solution to this whole problem was to get over their misplaced unwillingness to ever steal anything, pull off some kind of modest heist (maybe on criminals??), and put david up in a sketchy apartment by having him morph an adult part-time. this would give him the freedom he wants while tying him financially to them, at least temporarily. hopefully enough time to get david on board for real. The problem here is that David is going to escalate pretty quickly to "I'm gonna kill these kids and become a criminal mastermind" and even in a world where they do their utmost to accommodate him it seems likely that he's still going to get there but more slowly
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# ? May 4, 2021 18:19 |
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I think step one is to go information lockdown. Well step one is actually don't gently caress up getting the blue box back, but you know. Don't reveal their human identities, or even that they are human, in order to protect themselves if David's captured/turns. Use Ax as the group's face, because alien gives an air of legitimacy that a group of teenagers doesn't have. Don't give him the morphing power yet- either use the lie that Ax needs time to figure out how it works, or just be honest and say he needs to prove himself trustworthy. Keep him far away from Jake's house, but honestly all their parents are a risk- like, even if they don't get infested, there's gonna be a legitimate search for missing child David. Ideally ask the Chee if he can stay with them, at least for now. If that's not an option then yeah, they're gonna have to do some thieving. Preferably they could target criminals, or known controllers/controller organizations. Maybe get him an RV or cabin out in the woods or something.
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# ? May 4, 2021 20:45 |
Mazerunner posted:Ideally ask the Chee if he can stay with them, at least for now. If that's not an option then yeah, they're gonna have to do some thieving. Preferably they could target criminals, or known controllers/controller organizations. Maybe get him an RV or cabin out in the woods or something. ask erek to be "david", have him get "captured" and "yeerked", and then david can move freely while erek's yeerk gets a roommate. the kid is just not going to deal with being outside of civilization in any reasonable way, so give him a way to watch MTV. maybe erek won't agree to this long-term, but it buys them time to win david over. i'm not really a believer in the idea that david bugging out and deciding to become a criminal mastermind was inevitable, or that he's a fundamentally bad person or anything like that. his breakdown is decidedly the result of way too much stress over the course of a week, for a 13 year old. things might have been different if he'd had the chance to enter the war more slowly, and maybe in a support role instead of front line. david fleeing the war here is no different from tobias trying to commit suicide-by-skylight or marco vowing to quit just before he discovered that visser 1's host is his mom
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# ? May 4, 2021 21:38 |
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I think I agree with Ax, recruiting a total stranger is a dumb idea. Yeah if they leave him alone he gets Yeerked, but people are getting Yeerked every day, why is this any different just because they happen to know him? Marco's dad would probably be a good candidate though Marco might not want to risk him. Or freeing human controllers and setting up independent cells that you control with dead drops, so if one cell gets captured it's not game over.
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# ? May 4, 2021 21:55 |
OctaviusBeaver posted:I think I agree with Ax, recruiting a total stranger is a dumb idea. Yeah if they leave him alone he gets Yeerked, but people are getting Yeerked every day, why is this any different just because they happen to know him? yeah i mean all of my what-ifs are under the presumption that they already did all of the stuff leading up to david having a full utility belt of morphs. they shouldn't have recruited him at all, just put him on a bus back to the city he lived in before he moved to Somewhere, California with the idea that if he was going to stay off the radar anywhere it would be there freeing controllers is a good idea especially since they could provide intel on everything they've worked on and maybe even do a bit of spying before the yeerks catch on. chapman, leader of the resistance!
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# ? May 4, 2021 22:04 |
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At this point, there is a free Hork Bajir colony. Have him life there for a while.
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# ? May 4, 2021 22:05 |
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e X posted:At this point, there is a free Hork Bajir colony. Have him life there for a while. New Arrival Starves After All-Bark Diet Fails ”Humans are truly strange”, says local leader Jara Hamee
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# ? May 4, 2021 22:13 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 15:17 |
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I was getting ready to moan about how David is just an irredemable <<evil psychopath>> character but actually reading again as an adult he's quite well done. He just has a very believable, childlike selfishness that he hasn't grown out of yet. Now he's off to war! *rock music, helicopter montage*
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# ? May 4, 2021 22:34 |