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The thing with Marco is that I buy him turning on the performance when it’s a stressful situation, or for the benefit of the team when they’re in a bad place. But I think you’re right, he’s been a bit too performative when there’s little or no stakes. Basically, he’s performing for the audience and he doesn’t really have a reason to.
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# ? Jul 21, 2021 11:02 |
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# ? May 27, 2024 21:34 |
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Well that was hosed up.
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# ? Jul 21, 2021 13:10 |
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Cythereal posted:Well that was hosed up. This is Animorphs. When you say something like that, you really have to be more specific.
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# ? Jul 21, 2021 14:03 |
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Welcome to nature, enjoy your stay. This version of Marco seems a little flanderized when they're out in the civilian world where he's a little too quippy. However it does fit with the stressful situation they're in at the Arctic where he would turn it up to cope.
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# ? Jul 21, 2021 14:06 |
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Chapter 19quote:The bear eventually dropped the seal carcass, stood up on all fours, and lumbered away. When he was out of sight we walked to the bloodstained spot. Four wolves and two fleas. Rachel is just being pragmatic, I guess. But it makes sense it would hit Marco hard. Chapter 20 quote:Jake came up with the plan. Cassie and I volunteered. Honestly, this is emotionally a pretty tough book, and I'm not even entirely sure why. The seal death didn't help, but a lot of it is that they're alone and being hunted in the arctic tundra, barely alive. The Animorphs are routinely freezing, and only constant morphing is keeping them alive. Now they're in a body that fits their environment, but they're also helpless. They're baby seals. Like mentioned they're prey, and not just to the Venber, but to any other animal that comes across them.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 04:25 |
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This is a really good one. Is Cassie actually a vegetarian? She seems the type but I'm not sure if that's ever been explicitly said.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 05:01 |
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freebooter posted:This is a really good one. I don't think it's said. As far as I know, so far, the only time she's explicitly eaten meat as a person was in the Megamorphs book where they eat the dead T-Rex. I'm assuming being trapped in the Cretaceous counts as special circumstances. The only other times we see her eat, it's either explicitly vegetarian stuff, like salad, or stuff that may or may not have meat in it, like Taco Bell or her father's chili. So there's no reason to think she's not, but we don't specifically know that she is. She doesn't seem to have a problem in general with other people eating meat, though
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 05:35 |
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Epicurius posted:Chapter 19 This whole problem/solution sequence isn't right. It's already been established that eating while morphed doesn't sate your actual body. But considering they've hardly spent any time unmorphed since they've been here, they also shouldn't really be hungry, let alone starving. If anything, they should have fried up some seal to eat in human form and... uh I guess Ax would go hungry for a while But instead, they're eating in morph. I assume the ghostwriters didn't have a chance to read many past books before they had to start writing.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 06:59 |
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I'm not going to speak as to the eating in morph question, but they've been in the arctic overnight having been chased much of the day by alien hunters. If they were sitting in their houses all day, then sure, they could probably go without food, but between the exhaustion from running all day and the extra energy it takes to survive in the cold, their caloric requirements must be enormous. For comparison, average recommebdeddaily caloric requirements for Americans are 2000 to 2500 calories per day. Recommended caloric intake for polar explorers is 5000-6500 per day.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 16:20 |
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There's a specific word, which I forget, for someone who generally lives vegan/vegetarian, but will eat animal products if they've already been paid for and will otherwise go to waste which describes Cassie pretty well, to me. also Marco wants to chill on a beach w/ Tom Cruise.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 22:11 |
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Mazerunner posted:also Marco wants to chill on a beach w/ Tom Cruise. I mean, who doesn't?
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 23:12 |
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Epicurius posted:I mean, who doesn't? In the 90s, maybe, but Modern 2020s Tom Cruise? Uhhh
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 23:47 |
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Also we haven't gotten to it yet, but isn't a certain character in Visser straight up based on Tom Cruise's Scientology faceman persona?
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 23:49 |
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nine-gear crow posted:Also we haven't gotten to it yet, but isn't a certain character in Visser straight up based on Tom Cruise's Scientology faceman persona? Altman? Maybe, but he was probably based more on L. Ron Hubbard than Cruise, if Hubbard were more charismatic
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 00:10 |
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Epicurius posted:Altman? Maybe, but he was probably based more on L. Ron Hubbard than Cruise, if Hubbard were more charismatic Also between Animorphs and Dead Space, my mind is perpetually blown by both series have an insane alien-based This Is Literally Scientology cult founded on a pack of lies and centered around a dude named Altman. loving hell.
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 00:31 |
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Chapter 21quote:Awkward as our seal bodies were on land, they were perfect for the water. We couldn’t swim as fast as dolphins, and our tail flippers weren’t as efficient as a dolphin’s tail, but we cruised, using our front flippers as rudders. So much for "We can't let anyone know we're Animorphs." Let's hope they're not a Yeerk. And seals don't actually have echolocation, although really recent studies have suggested they do make ultrasonic vocalizations that might serve as something similar. Chapter 22 quote:I guess I expected him to run. But he didn’t. He just stared at me, then at the others, then back at me. Few things. First, touching polar bears probably won't go well for you. Second, Nanook is an Inuit word that means polar bear. There's also what I think is kind of an interesting history related to it. in 1922, an American filmmaker named Robert J. Flaherty created what's generally credited as the first documentary. "Nanook of the North". He went up to the Canadian Arctic among the Itivimuit Inuit and found an Inuk man, and with the help of the Inuit, he filmed him "living his life" under the name Nanook. (his real name was Allakariallak). I put living his life in quotation marks because it was very much staged. The woman who was credited as Nanook's wife was actual Flaherty's common-law wife/mistress. In the film, Nanook hunts a walrus with a harpoon. In real life, Allakariallak had a rifle. In the film, Nanook goes to a white trading post and they play a record for him, and he's amazed, when in real life, you know, he knew what a record was, and things like that. It was very much a romantic, "othering" view of the Inuit, but it was extremely popular, and to Flaherty's credit, pretty much all his crew was Inuit. Finally, the Inuit/Eskimo question. In the northern Arctic in the western hemisphere, you have two main groups of indigenous people. In Northern Canada, there are the Inuit. In Alaska, there are the Yupik. Both the Inuit and Yupik are related groups of people , and the Inuit and Yupik are related to each other, and Inuit and Yupik are related to each other. I'm not sure if that sentence made any sense, but you know what I mean. "Eskimo" isn't an Inuit or a Yupik word. It probably comes from a Cree word. The Cree are a group of First Nation peoples (the largest group of First Nation peoples) who live throughout Canada (and a really small group of Cree live in the US). The etymology of the word Eskimo is disputed. It either means "People who make snowshoes" or "People who eat raw meat" (The Cree and the Inuit haven't always gotten along all that well).The word has been used to refer to both Inuit and Yupik. In Canada, the word is generally considered offensive, and Inuit is preferred. In Alaska, that's not as true, although there will still be a bunch of people upset by the word.. My guess is that part of the reason that it's more commonly used in Alaska than in Canada is because in Canada, there's been a really big push to use the name Inuit instead, and while a bunch of Yupik don't like being called Eskimos, they really don't like being called Inuit. The rule that always works is call people what they want to be called, and if somebody doesn't like you using a term to describe them, don't use it.Anyway, that's just a little look at the politics behind names and name choices. Finally, it's pretty lucky they ran into Derek, because they were going to die out there (and also because Derek can outsnark Marco, which is nice).
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 05:11 |
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Epicurius posted:I'm not going to speak as to the eating in morph question, but they've been in the arctic overnight having been chased much of the day by alien hunters. If they were sitting in their houses all day, then sure, they could probably go without food, but between the exhaustion from running all day and the extra energy it takes to survive in the cold, their caloric requirements must be enormous. Yeah but that's part of the established system, just like morphing from and back to an animal can completely heal any injury, even severed limbs. (I guess those just kinda... hang around?) And presumably for the same reason, too;
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 05:43 |
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I was assuming this was Alaska because it's an American book but the mention of hunters from New York and Detroit makes me think Canada. Which would mean they visit three foreign countries through the course of the series (or Cassie does anyway) which handily equals the number of alien planets they visit!
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 09:35 |
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Hanging out with polars bears and watching Star Trek, this guy knows what's up.
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 18:16 |
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Chapter 23quote:We didn’t have to go far to find Derek’s friend Nanook. So the polar bear will probably the best morph for them in these circumstances. Also, you can tell this ghostwriter understands the series, because he recognized the true tragedy of this place...a lack of thermals. Chapter 24 quote:We left Derek. He said there was a storm on the way. So we said good-bye and let him go to tell whatever stories he wanted to tell. If he told a Controller he’d seen humans morphing, it would be trouble. But it occurred to us that an Inuit village in the middle of absolute nowhere was probably not Regarding the Inuit village, I know I'm not Visser Three, but if I'm building a secret arctic base and there was a small human village nearby that might discover what I was doing, I would definitely take that place over.
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# ? Jul 24, 2021 05:19 |
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Epicurius posted:Regarding the Inuit village, I know I'm not Visser Three, but if I'm building a secret arctic base and there was a small human village nearby that might discover what I was doing, I would definitely take that place over. Well, he said it was days away. They could easily overlook it, or never even venture near it, if they're not out specifically combing the arctic for potential witnesses.
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# ? Jul 24, 2021 08:51 |
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Something that always bugged me was that they all have their personal battle morphs and stick to them even as they get supplanted by superior morphs. Polar bear is more formidable than gorilla but I don't think Marco ever uses it again. It's definitely more formidable than wolf, and Cassie should start using it forthwith, but I think she only ever does it again once (to make a point).
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# ? Jul 24, 2021 11:01 |
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^^^ I assume that a polar bear would overheat very quickly in SoCal.Epicurius posted:
I remember this line almost word-for-word! I thought I had learned this fact from NatGeo Kids, but turns out I learned a lot of natural science from Animorphs (including thermals).
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# ? Jul 24, 2021 14:51 |
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A thermal? What's that?
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# ? Jul 24, 2021 16:23 |
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freebooter posted:Something that always bugged me was that they all have their personal battle morphs and stick to them even as they get supplanted by superior morphs. Polar bear is more formidable than gorilla but I don't think Marco ever uses it again. It's definitely more formidable than wolf, and Cassie should start using it forthwith, but I think she only ever does it again once (to make a point). They (minus Jake) use it in a book a while from now but as Bibliotechno Music points out it overheats really quickly and things go poorly
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# ? Jul 24, 2021 16:25 |
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Terror Sweat posted:A thermal? What's that? Oh, I have such worlds to show you.....
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# ? Jul 24, 2021 17:50 |
Where we're going, we won't need wings to fly...
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# ? Jul 24, 2021 21:06 |
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Terror Sweat posted:A thermal? What's that? a miserable pillar of air
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# ? Jul 24, 2021 21:36 |
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freebooter posted:Something that always bugged me was that they all have their personal battle morphs and stick to them even as they get supplanted by superior morphs. Polar bear is more formidable than gorilla but I don't think Marco ever uses it again. It's definitely more formidable than wolf, and Cassie should start using it forthwith, but I think she only ever does it again once (to make a point). Or just using the same morphs. There is nothing stopping them from being two grizzlies, two tigers and gorilla.
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# ? Jul 24, 2021 22:33 |
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Soup du Jour posted:They (minus Jake) use it in a book a while from now but as Bibliotechno Music points out it overheats really quickly and things go poorly Huh, when is this, I don't remember it at all?
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# ? Jul 25, 2021 02:58 |
freebooter posted:Huh, when is this, I don't remember it at all? The book where Jake is out of town and Rachel is made temporary leader while someone from the yeerk government is around to judge Visser Three's competence.
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# ? Jul 25, 2021 03:48 |
Level Seven posted:The book where Jake is out of town and Rachel is made temporary leader while someone from the yeerk government is around to judge Visser Three's competence. Am I remembering wrong, or does that book end with Visser Three wasting his assessor?
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# ? Jul 25, 2021 04:31 |
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Chapter 25quote:Night was falling. Gloom spread slowly over the lake, turning the ice a ghostly blue. At the base, the lights came on. The Venber didn’t need them, but the human-Controllers in their Michelin Man parkas did. I don't usually have a lot to say about combat scenes, but the idea of that dread you feel when you're walking into combat....when you know soon you'll be fighting for your life, it's portrayed well here. Chapter 26 quote:Silent, ghastly, he writhed. The lower half of his body was already a spreading pool of viscous liquid. A powerful smell hit us. Like chlorine or something. There's something I find very sad about this chapter, and I don't know exactly how to explain what it is. These are kids...teens or whatever, and when the series started, they hung out at the mall, and were worried about being grounded, and were amazed that they got this special power that turned them into animals. Now, they stole an enemy spaceship, strafed a base into oblivion, and then set it to self destruct and bailed out before they could be captured. I just find something sad about that.
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# ? Jul 25, 2021 04:48 |
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This is a plot hole we just sort of have to ignore, but... there's nothing to stop the Yeerks from just rebuilding that base and starting the Kandrona-every-body-of-water plan over again.
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# ? Jul 25, 2021 05:54 |
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freebooter posted:This is a plot hole we just sort of have to ignore, but... there's nothing to stop the Yeerks from just rebuilding that base and starting the Kandrona-every-body-of-water plan over again. A lot of the resolutions of these books just kind of force us to accept the Yeerks immediately abandoned their plan just as the Animorphs stopped worrying about it.
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# ? Jul 25, 2021 06:11 |
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The books do employ a certain Saturday morning cartoon logic, so any plan once thwarted isn’t going to be tried again.
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# ? Jul 25, 2021 11:13 |
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Fuschia tude posted:A lot of the resolutions of these books just kind of force us to accept the Yeerks immediately abandoned their plan just as the Animorphs stopped worrying about it. e X posted:The books do employ a certain Saturday morning cartoon logic, so any plan once thwarted isn’t going to be tried again. I mean, it's not the WORST logic on the part of the Yeerks. They can reasonably (and accurately!) assume the "Andalite bandits" have some sort of spy network deployed among their ranks compromising the integrity of their plans that makes the Yeerks wary of simply 're-trying' plans that are clearly infiltrated by and known to enemy spies. A little overestimation of/paranoia about the actual reach of the "Andalite bandits" can do the rest of the work and make them go "gently caress it, let's try something else." And in the case of the Venber specifically, that level of bio-engineering cannot possibly be cheap, or particularly quick. It would take months, at least, to re-clone/re-engineer more Venber from scratch. And after such a blatant and massive weakness being so easily and efficiently exploited, throwing months of work and who knows what kind of material/financial cost out the window on top of losing a couple of Bug Fighters, all in the course of about half an hour, the whole project might easily get axed as Not Worth It Anymore.
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# ? Jul 25, 2021 12:52 |
It's also worth noting that Visser Three is the kind of guy who would absolutely make examples of anyone and everyone involved in the project.
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# ? Jul 25, 2021 13:38 |
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This has gotta be one of their most unambiguously successful missions, maybe 3rd best after rescuing Ax and destroying the kandrona.
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# ? Jul 25, 2021 17:04 |
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# ? May 27, 2024 21:34 |
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It was also explained earlier as a quirk of Yeerk psychology that they give up rather than fight on when beaten. While this does not exactly track to temporary setbacks, maybe Yeerks are reluctant to try a plan again once they’ve suffered enough of a defeat.
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# ? Jul 26, 2021 00:11 |