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

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effervescible: Jun 29, 2012; i will eat your soul

Welcome back.

# ? Mar 13, 2023 02:57

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 23, 2024 09:25

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

I'm glad your Gathering meeting went well. Was Volleyball fun?

# ? Mar 13, 2023 04:03

Malpais Legate: Oct 1, 2014

Welcome home! Get hype, we're on our way to the end.

# ? Mar 13, 2023 04:11

Ravenfood: Nov 4, 2011

Epicurius posted:

i just wanted to let people know that I'm home, and we continue reading tomorrow.

Glad you got home and hope you are feeling better!

# ? Mar 13, 2023 11:59

theCalamity: Oct 23, 2010; Cry Havoc and let slip the Hogs of War

Welcome back!

# ? Mar 13, 2023 15:56

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

Kill all Yeerks!

# ? Mar 13, 2023 20:04

Strategic Tea: Sep 1, 2012

Welcome back to the resistance - I'm from I Can't Say Where I Live and I say kill em all!

# ? Mar 13, 2023 21:08

dungeon cousin: Nov 26, 2012; woop woop
loop loop

Welcome back!

# ? Mar 13, 2023 22:05

Level Seven: Feb 14, 2013; Wubba dubba dubba
that blew.; Megamarm

Welcome back from your long trip to the pool. Want a Happy Meal with extra happy?

# ? Mar 13, 2023 23:21

Kazzah: Jul 15, 2011; Formerly known as
Krazyface; Hair Elf

HOW many Taxxons, Arbron?

# ? Mar 13, 2023 23:39

Soonmot: Dec 19, 2002; Entrapta fucking loves robots; Grimey Drawer

this thread is my first read through the series and I wasn't going to go forward without y'all. Happy you're feeling up to it again,Epi!

# ? Mar 13, 2023 23:57

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

I'm very happy that this thread is back, especially since we're so close to the end now too. Here's looking forward to the rest of the series, and then on to Everworld!

# ? Mar 14, 2023 00:00

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 10

quote:

They had given me up for dead back at the valley of the free Hork-Bajir, so when I came flying in at first light there was a certain amount of amazement.

Not that Marco was going to make a big thing of it. �Oh, there you are,� he said. �So I guess I can�t have your CD collection after all.�

I landed on the ground and demorphed as Cassie came running up, her tear-streaked face bright.

She stopped herself from hugging me, and then turned away.

�Cassie. Stay. Please,� I said. �Marco: Did we lose anyone last night?�

�Yeah. Three of Toby�s people. One of James�s people, the guy named Ray. And you, or so we thought.�

I had demorphed fully. I sat down hard. Ray was a kid born with severe birth defects. He�d acquired a leopard as his main morph. He loved the physical grace of the animal, a grace he�d never experienced in his human body.

�How are they taking it, James�s people?�

�About like we were taking your death, Jake: not well. At least it was quick: Dracon beam. He never knew what hit him.�

�We took out a lot of Taxxons,� Rachel said, arriving on the scene impeccably dressed, looking like she�d just stepped out of an exclusive day spa despite the fact that it was not yet six in the morning and she, like all of them, had spent the night in one of the hasty, shabby log shacks we�d built.

�Was it worth it?� Cassie wondered, then looked as if she wished she�d kept her mouth shut.

I got up and went to her. I took her hands and said, �This time, yes. I think it was. Rachel? Round everyone up: Toby, the parents, the whole war council.�

�Yeah?� she asked with an inquisitive look.

�They�ve got fifteen minutes to dress, pee, and drink a cup of roots n� twigs coffee.� I laughed. I was feeling incredible. Feeling, despite the lack of sleep, despite the aftermath of two terrible battles in one day, wild and alive.

It took them twenty minutes, but that was okay. Okay aside from the fact that Marco tortured me for the secret the whole time.

At last the frowsy, discontented bunch was assembled.

�You�re alive,� Rachel�s mom said, not seeming too happy about it.

�He�s hard to kill,� Marco said, shaking his head as though commiserating with her. �I�ve been tempted repeatedly during the last twenty minutes or so.�

 Ax said. He�s cranky till he gets a few good hoofs full of dewy grass.

I didn�t know where to begin. I thought about dragging it out and making a production out of it, but this was a dangerously tired, discontented crowd and I was too full of the news to keep it bottled up.

�Well,� I said, trying to sound laconic, �the Taxxons want to defect. They want to change sides.�

Everyone just stared.

�Come again?� Cassie�s dad said.

�The Taxxons. They want to join us. They�re ready to turn against the Yeerks.�

The parents for the most part didn�t get it. Toby did. And Eva, the former Visser One. My fellow Animorphs just stared in dumb, openmouthed, it-can�t-be, no-way shock.

All but Cassie, who sighed as if she�d been holding her breath for weeks.

I went to her and said, �You knew, didn�t you?�

She shook her head. �I hoped, that was all. I hoped.�

�Pretty good hope, Cassie,� I whispered.

�Oh my God,� Marco said, getting it now. �It�s the morphing. That�s it, isn�t it? The Yeerks got a taste of morphing. The Taxxons have figured out they could do it, too.�

I nodded. �Yeah. The Taxxons grabbed me to talk to me. They�re led by an Andalite nothlit, trapped in Taxxon morph. He said his name is Arbron. He said he was a former companion of Elfangor�s.�

Ax jerked visibly. <Arbron? It is a name from a very long time ago. But yes, an aristh named Arbron was a friend of my brother�s.>

I recounted the details of the meeting, playing to a very, very attentive audience.

<You believed him?> Tobias asked.

I shrugged. �It doesn�t make any sense as a trap. They had me dead. If they wanted to trap us, if it was all a setup, they�d have demanded I return with all of you. They didn�t. They told me to come back alone. Arbron wants me to speak to his people. He wants me to tell them what I told him. He wants my personal promise.�

�Your promise of what?� Toby asked.

I looked right at Ax. �They want to be made morph-capable. They have contact with Yeerks who�ve morphed, and they are bitterly ticked that Visser One has refused to enable any of his Taxxon so-called allies. They realize we don�t have the morphing cube anymore. And Arbron is smart enough to know that even if we win we may not get the cube from Visser One. He could escape with it or even destroy it. But they�ve realized that the Yeerks will never, ever allow them to gain morphing capabilities because it would be the end of Taxxon dependence on the Yeerks.�

�So they want us to promise Andalite cooperation?� Marco said thoughtfully. �They want us to guarantee that the Andalites will pay off on our debt?�

I nodded. �Exactly. They want us to commit the Andalite high command to make every Taxxon morph-capable. In exchange, each Taxxon will choose a form and turn nothlit.�

<My people will never agree,> Ax said bluntly. <The morphing technology is the crown jewel of Andalite science. They are already furious that it has spread as far as the five of you and Visser One. They do not know that Tobias�s mother is morph-capable. They do not know about the auxiliary Animorphs. They do not know that the Yeerks have a cube. They will absolutely refuse.>

�Even if it means stopping a war, saving a planet, and disarming their greatest enemy?� Cassie asked. �Are they that stubborn? That stupid?�

Ax�s main eyes flashed. <What they will say is that it is a trick: that the Yeerks are using the Taxxons to acquire more morphing power and become even more formidable foes.>

�They�ve said they�ll go nothlit under our supervision,� I said. �Permanent morph.�

�The Andalite high command is not going to trust us that far,� Marco said.

�The Andalite high command can drop dead,� Rachel said. �What good have they ever been to us? Where are they, huh? We�ve always been their last priority. They�ve done squat for us. They�re sitting off at a safe distance waiting to see whether we win or lose. If we win they�ll pat us on the
head and say, �Good inferior species, good girl, here�s a doggie treat.� And if we lose what are they going to do?�

No one had an answer to that. Then Cassie said, �Ax, you need to tell them.�

Ax looked startled. His stalk eyes jerked toward Cassie.

�It�s time to choose, Ax,� Cassie said very quietly. �Once and for all. We all know what Alloran did to the Hork-Bajir world, trying to keep them from falling into Yeerk hands. The Andalites won�t allow Earth to fall to the Yeerks, will they?�

What i think is interesting here is that while the books were written to make us sympathetic to the Hork-Bajir, it did the opposite to the Taxxons. They were hideous, they were evil, they were voluntary allies. Now, though, we see them as potential allies, and more sympathetic.

Chapter 11

quote:

All attention was on Ax.

It was a long time before he spoke. It�s hard to read Andalite emotions - they lack mouths, and that makes them less expressive than humans. But it was easy enough to guess at the conflicts going on inside that wonderfully quick, agile brain.

 Ax said slowly.

�I�ll kill you myself!� Rachel erupted.

�Rachel,� I said as evenly as I could.

<There is a possibility that the Andalite high command might resort to � extreme measures.>

�Now can I kill him?� Rachel demanded. I wasn�t far from letting her. I was furious. Betrayed! Ax had used our limited communicator to chat with his people? Behind our backs?

Cassie said, �Ax has already defied them. They ordered him to stop our attack on the Yeerk pool. He disobeyed.�

<You spied on me?> Ax asked her.

�I�m an Animorph, Ax,� Cassie answered. �A flea on your back when you would sneak out of camp.�

�Why on God�s green Earth would these Andalites order him to stop us from killing their enemies?� Rachel�s mother asked, and for once it was a good question.

Eva had the answer. �I can guess: They didn�t want anything to stop the Yeerks from concentrating their forces here. They wanted the Yeerks to pour into Earth.� She laughed mirthlessly. �The Yeerks are evil, destructive, dangerous creatures, I know that better than anyone. But the Andalites are no saints themselves. They want the Yeerks to concentrate here because the Andalites have written us off, decided we can�t win, and they wanted to blast the entire planet out of existence and take out the bulk of the Yeerk race along with the human race.�

�Is that true, Ax?�

Another long hesitation. Then, <Yes, Prince Jake. It is true.>

In a few moment�s time I�d gone from the heights of hope and optimism to the depths of rage and despair. The Andalite fleet wasn�t coming to rescue us. They were coming to destroy us in order to destroy the Yeerks.

In a heartbeat we�d lost one enemy, the Taxxons, and gained another, far more deadly: our erstwhile friends, our long-awaited saviors, the Andalites.

<How do we stop them, Ax-man?> Tobias asked. He and Ax are best friends.

�You�re asking him?� Rachel raged, stabbing an accusing finger at the Andalite.

Ax held his head high and for a moment I thought he might refuse to answer Tobias�s question. Then, <You must understand that the Andalite high command is not the entire Andalite electorate. This long war has made them a greater part of our civilization than they should rightly be. The Andalite
electorate, the people, do not know what is planned.>
�
So, how do we tell them?� Marco said. � Any time we dial up that communicator my dad invented it just reaches the Andalite fleet.�

<We take the Yeerk Pool ship,> Ax said. <We use its power to contact the nonmilitary communications net. We tell the Andalite people what has happened, what we�ve done, and what we have promised the Taxxons.>

<Will the Andalite people back us?> Tobias asked.

Ax looked grim. <Will your people? Will they allow Taxxons to morph and live in peace on this planet? Will your people choose trust over hatred and revenge?>

That put it back in my court. I didn�t have an answer.

�Arbron wants me to speak to the Taxxons tonight,� I said. �He�s suggested I appear in morph - to demonstrate the possibilities. He doesn�t know much about Earth animals. But he thinks theTaxxons would prefer something not too different from their current forms. Something strong but
something not afflicted by the Taxxon hunger. Cassie?�

She looked blank. �Something similar to their present forms? Centipedes? Caterpillars? No, they�d want a longer lifespan at least. And you said strong � ah. I have an idea. I don�t know. Maybe� I don�t know. I�d be guessing.�

I said, �Cassie, you guessed that letting Tom take the morphing cube might weaken rather than strengthen the Yeerks. You guessed that Ax was �� I stifled the most bitter word that came to mind. � � conflicted. I�ll back your guess any day of the week.�

�I think he means he�s sorry he doubted you and treated you like crap,� Rachel said archly.

�Yeah. That�s exactly what I mean. Come on, Cassie, show me where to go next.�

Meanwhile, the Andalites who started the series as the unambiguous good guys, but now they're more ambiguous. While other people have said it, this book is good at avoiding "Star Trek syndrome", where all aliens of one race are the same. These aliens have politics, factions, and differ in beliefs. They're people, in other words.

# ? Mar 14, 2023 01:41

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...

When I was getting caught up on this thread and the post count stopped going up, I assumed the series had finished and I had missed out getting to read the endgame with the rest of the thread. I�m glad that I will actually get to finish it out with y�all and I am very glad you�re doing better.

Epicurius posted:

Meanwhile, the Andalites who started the series as the unambiguous good guys, but now they're more ambiguous. While other people have said it, this book is good at avoiding "Star Trek syndrome", where all aliens of one race are the same. These aliens have politics, factions, and differ in beliefs. They're people, in other words.

This definitely makes sense when the framing positions the Andalites as an analogy for :911:

, in a series written by :911:

author(s).

# ? Mar 14, 2023 02:32

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

"Alloran" is a four letter word among the Andalite military high command these days, but they're more than happy to keep using the tactics he perfected decades ago :ssh:

# ? Mar 14, 2023 02:33

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

ALLORAN
DID
NOTHING
WRONG

# ? Mar 14, 2023 02:55

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

That was a drat meaty scene and almost worth the blood loss it seems to have taken to get it here. In one fell swoop we see every character except arguably Tobias doing what they're best at and progressing some loooooooong simmering interpersonal conflict arcs.

It all feels so believable-- Jake's optimism giving way to temperance and the complexities of the actual situation, the way one can't ignore the individual emotions and strengths/weaknesses of the players in the conversation. It all works quite well. I especially love Cassie revealing that yeah, she may be the team mom but she's not a fool and was spying on Ax long enough to know he was doing what he was doing.

# ? Mar 14, 2023 03:24

theCalamity: Oct 23, 2010; Cry Havoc and let slip the Hogs of War

I love that the best way to have ended this entire conflict from the get-go was to allow the Yeerks to morph. So much death and anguish could have been avoided if the Andalites just let the Yeerks morph. Anyway, what Cassie did was a huge gambit, but it paid off.

I like the slow realization of the Andalites turning out to not be quite so good over the course of the series. They start off as the good guys, but then you get the Andalite Chronicles and see tiny hints at their pride and ego. And then Hork Bajir Chronicles puts it on full display. And now we got this where they are basically doing what Alloran did to the Hork-Bajir

# ? Mar 14, 2023 03:53

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 12

quote:

�Is it a python?� I guessed.

�Anaconda,� Cassie said.
The Gardens had survived the destruction of the town since it was outside the radius of annihilation. But it was closed. A handful of dedicated people worked to keep the animals from starving, but the place was a mess: The breeze blew trash around the usually pristine sidewalks; the whole place reeked of uncleaned cages and habitats; water pressure had been cut off so the picturesque moats and ponds were scummed over.

The snake house looked about like it always did, though some of the display areas were dark. I guess snakes are low maintenance.

The snake I was staring at looked about a foot thick and so long I couldn�t begin to guess at its total size. It had a clearly delineated head and a sort of rough-edged diamond pattern to its scales.

It was either asleep or dead. Or very relaxed.

�The anaconda is part of the python family,� Cassie said. �One of if not the biggest snake species on Earth. It hunts live prey, but snakes are far from the kind of hunger a Taxxon knows. They have very slow metabolisms. They can go a long time between meals.�

I peered at the informational plaque. �Native to the Amazon jungle?� I laughed. �You�re thinking ahead.�

Cassie looked embarrassed, like I�d caught her doing something dishonest. �If we agree to give the Taxxons a place to live in freedom here on Earth, why not the rain forest? The agreement would stop destruction of the rain forest dead in its tracks.�

I nodded. �Yes, it would. But is this �� I jerked my head toward the snake. �Is this the morph that would appeal to a Taxxon?�

Cassie shrugged. �I guess I don�t figure Taxxons are big on imagination. I think they�d want something fairly close, as you said, to what they are now. But not some helpless worm or bug: They�re used to a certain relative size.�

�Uh-huh. You sure that snake isn�t dead? I haven�t seen it move yet.�

�Well, you see what I mean: It would be different from the relentless demands of life for a Taxxon. There�s a lot of sitting in the sun involved.�

�Florida retirement for Taxxons.�

�Yeah.�

�Well, let�s get this over with,� I said reluctantly.

�It�s perfectly safe,� Cassie said condescendingly.

�It�s a snake. It�s a snake the size of palm tree.�

�Come on.� She put her arm through mine and drew me away toward the access corridor behind the cages.

We both went in and I knelt and touched the dry scales. Not slimy at all, but still creepy. I acquired the snake. Its DNA joined the DNA of how many species floating around in my blood? I couldn�t even remember them all.

�When you do this morph your biggest problem will be staying awake,� Cassie said.

I stood up, and for a moment tried to figure out how to say what I wanted to say.

�Cassie, you ever wonder what happens if we win? You ever think about that?�

�All the time.�

�Nothing will ever be the same. People will know the galaxy is full of life, full of intelligent species. We�ll have this huge rush of technological change. There�ll be nothing to stop us from being a space-traveling species. Humans on the moon, on Mars, maybe colonizing planets all around the
galaxy. And there�s the morphing technology. Can you imagine what that�s going to mean?�

Cassie nodded. �I guess I don�t think about that stuff so much. I guess I think more about us. You and me. And all of us.�

I took her in my arms. The anaconda�s habitat was probably not the most romantic place on Earth, but it felt safe. �You know I love you.�

�I love you, too, Jake,� she said, and put her head on my shoulder.

�I guess if we win, if we survive, maybe we should, you know, get married and all. I mean, eventually. I know we�re young, but man, we�ve been through enough that it should count for a few extra years, shouldn�t it?�

I don�t know what I expected her answer to be, but I didn�t expect her to start crying. And not tears of joy, either.

�I would like that � eventually,� she said. �

But. But what?�

She sighed. �But, Jake, what are you going to be? What are you going to do?�

�Guess I thought I�d go to college,� I said.

�And study what, Jake? Me, I�ll go to college, I�ll become a doctor. never forget what�s happened, I�ll never even try, but I�ll be able to slip back into a normal life. But you, Jake?�

I shrugged and released her and stood away a bit. �I�m not Rachel, you know. I didn�t fall in love with the fight. I don�t need it like she does. I do it, I try and do it well, but it�s just a job, a duty.� I tried to make a joke of it. �I mean, what do you think? The Pentagon is going to call me up and make
me Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? I�m not even old enough to enlist as a private.�

She didn�t laugh. She just looked at me.

�Look, Cassie, when this is over I�ll be done with it forever. I�ll go back to school, get an education, go to basketball games, get a driver�s license, go to college, figure out what it is I really want to do. And be with you. You and me.�

She forced a smile. �A year after it ends, if it ends, if we win, a year afterward if you want to be with me, we�ll talk about that again, okay?�

�I have to wait a year? Kind of harsh, isn�t it?�

�Hey, if we get married, Marco isn�t going to live with us, is he?� Cassie said, trying her best to jolly us both out of our dark moods.

It didn�t work.

For the first time I could taste the faint possibility of actual victory, despite the probable Andalite betrayal. The Taxxons might be joining us! For so long I�d fought with no hope at all. I should be excited.

I should be happy.

Jake is realizing it's one thing to fight a war, and another to deal with his life once it's over.

Chapter 13

quote:

Arbron had given me the place: a spot more than a mile away from the site of the new Yeerk pool. He had not told me positively, absolutely, to come alone. So, I brought backup, though not in any visible form.

I flew with fleas nestled deep in my feathers. Only Tobias remained in his true form, flying �cover.�

I found the spot easily enough: a used car lot just outside the blast area. It was abandoned, of course. About half the cars had been stolen by looters, and of those that remained maybe a third were damaged in some way. But there, just as Arbron had told me, waited a yellow VW Beetle.

I landed and demorphed. It was a chilly night, especially for someone in nothing but morphing clothes. I was glad to climb into the VW. I sat behind the steering wheel and looked around, not knowing what to expect. The little bud vase was empty.

<What are we doing?> Marco asked from his location somewhere on my body.

�We�re sitting here looking like a suspicious car thief,� I answered. �Where are you guys, anyway? Where on my body did you end up after I demorphed?�

Rachel answered, <Gotta tell you, cousin, I don�t know where we are exactly, and I don�t really want to know.>

�Mmmm. Good point.�

<Marco just bit you,> Ax reported. <If I understand the physiology of flea bites correctly, you will experience an itching sensation later, and then will know precisely where we were.>

�There�s a pleasant thought,� I said.

<Hey, there�s a key in the ignition. See if the radio works,> Marco suggested.

I punched the power switch. It was set to a news channel. The announcer sounded tired. � � are saying at this hour that the looting has diminished in intensity. Numerous fires are still burning, but fire departments from as far as a hundred miles away are sending trucks and crews to -� I pushed
preset buttons and tried for some music.

There was a rumbling. I turned off the radio. �Um � you guys feel that?�

<We�re fleas, we feel everything,> Cassie said.

Tobias called down from high above. <l guess you guys know the ground is opening up, right?>

�Buckle your seat belts.�

The ground vibrated beneath the car and I followed my own advice, drew the shoulder belt across, and clipped it just as the ground opened up and the car began to roll forward, down a sloping tunnel into the ground.

It was elegantly done: The tunnel had an almost flat floor, the walls close enough to make steering unnecessary. The car rolled free, scuffing the dirt walls from time to time. How far down, I couldn�t be sure. Then I glanced in the rearview mirror: The tunnel was being collapsed behind me.

If it was a trap after all, it was a very good trap.

All at once I emerged into a huge open space. A cavern, tall and arched, and lit by dim artificial lights high overhead.

The car rolled to a halt. I closed my eyes to adjust to the gloom. I opened them again and had an impression of restless movement all around. I closed my eyes and opened them once more and this time I saw the Taxxons, everywhere, all around the car, pressing close, red jelly eyes staring.

�We�re here,� I muttered.

<Good. I need to pee,> Marco said.

�I�m going to get out,� I whispered.

I opened the door slowly. I stood up.

They were everywhere, a wall of Taxxons. More Taxxons than I could have imagined in my worst nightmare. Not dozens, hundreds.

Arbron - at least I hoped it was him - danced forward on his needle legs. He raised his upper third and loomed high above me.

I knew, or at least hoped, it was a friendly gathering. But these were Taxxons, after all. Taxxons, not even Taxxon-Controllers. In their natural state they were insane with hunger, and I was food.

<Please climb to the podium,> Arbron invited me and I noticed for the first time a sort of rock and- dirt mound maybe ten feet high. I scrambled up, trying not to look scared, and moving very, very carefully so as not to scrape a knee or cut a finger.

Arbron rose part of the way behind me. Then he spread his upper rows of Taxxon arms wide and began addressing the crowd in the Taxxon speech.

I didn�t understand a word of it, but the Taxxon multitude did. They hissed and slithered and made a trilling sound that could either be approval or rage.

From atop the mound, and with my eyes adjusted to the near-darkness, I could see them all. A sea of Taxxons. A huge underground cavern reeking of ammonia and seething with oversized, murderous centipedes.

Then Arbron began to speak to them in thought-speak, presumably for my benefit.

<Taxxons! Here is the human who leads the fight against the Yeerks. He and his warriors have killed many of our people.>

I must have gone several shades more pale at that. It seemed a strange way to introduce me.

<He and his warriors have defied the power of Visser One, the former Visser Three, for years. It was he and his warriors who destroyed the Yeerk pool and killed many Yeerks.>

The crowd liked that. They murmured in true Taxxon form, hissing and spitting and writhing. Impossible not to feel that I was sitting on some gigantic piece of rotting meat surrounded by huge maggots. Impossible to shake that image.

<He and his warriors are friends to the Andalites who possess the transforming power. This human> - he pointed at me with three of his arms - <can morph!>

Now the crowd grew quieter, more attentive, less excited, but very, very focused.



I recognized my cue. I was about to start speaking, but it occurred to me that a visual aid would be helpful. So I spread my arms wide and reached deep inside myself for the DNA that would form the tiger.

I morphed slowly, slowly so they could all see. They watched the claws grow from my fingers, saw the orange-and-black fur rush across my body, muttered as I dropped forward onto all fours.

<You might want to warn us,> Rachel complained. <It�s like an earthquake down here.>

Then, I began to demorph more quickly. And once I was human again I focused my thoughts on the dragonfly. I shrank, fell toward the ground like a man diving off a skyscraper. The dirt and rock rose to me, gravel becoming boulders. Gossamer wings sprouted from my back. Articulated insect legs erupted from my chest. Massive eyes swelled like balloons, popping out of my eye sockets, overwhelming my face. I could actually see the fleas clinging to my body.

<Everyone hang on, we�re going airborne,> I notified my friendly fleas.

I fired my wings and zoomed just over the heads of the Taxxons. Then back, to land atop my podium. I demorphed. And now, if Cassie was right, the pi�ce de r�sistance.

I formed a picture of the anaconda in my mind. The changes began. I saw my skin harden, dry out, crack into thousands of interlocked scales.

My eyes moved around my head but remained forward-focused. My face bulged out, stretched, out and out. My arms were shriveling at a shocking pace. I was a weird creature, half snake, half human, standing erect but armless. Then my legs went weak and I dropped flat on my belly before I could fall. My legs melted into the tail that was stretching out and out and out from my elongating spine.

I was ten feet long and still growing. Longer and longer, and without thinking I shortened the muscles on one side of my body and brought my length up to form a loose coil.

The anaconda�s senses replaced my own. Vision faded, color dimmed, but awareness of motion intensified. It was like when you set your computer cursor to show trails: everything, anything that moved was infinitely more interesting than color or shape.

My tongue tasted the air and I received a download of data - temperature, humidity, the scent of Taxxon exhalations.

I let the Taxxons take a good, long look.

<This creature is called an anaconda,> I said. <It is the largest of snakes, powerful, dangerous when provoked. But as I feel its mind within my own, I know that it is calm, at peace, restful. It is unafraid. It longs for food, but it can resist, can control its hunger.>

The chamber was silent. The Taxxons stared, stared holes in me with their red jelly eyes.

<Very good,> Arbron said privately to me.

i don't usually show the covers of the books, but this is a good one. It's Jake talking to the Taxxons.

# ? Mar 15, 2023 04:12

Remalle: Feb 12, 2020

Great to have you back, glad you're doing well! And hey, is that our first official artwork of a taxxon?

# ? Mar 15, 2023 08:51

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

Remalle posted:

Great to have you back, glad you're doing well! And hey, is that our first official artwork of a taxxon?

Looks like an opabina/anomolocarens cross...
I always had a really distinct mental image of taxxons. Way more so than hork bajir or even andalites. Not sure why that is!

# ? Mar 15, 2023 09:06

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Happy to see you again, Epicurius!

Remalle posted:

And hey, is that our first official artwork of a taxxon?

Tobias has his Taxxon morph on the cover of 43, I'm not sure if there were others before that, though.

# ? Mar 15, 2023 12:31

Capfalcon: Apr 6, 2012; No Boots on the Ground,
Puny Mortals!

Tree Bucket posted:

Looks like an opabina/anomolocarens cross...
I always had a really distinct mental image of taxxons. Way more so than hork bajir or even andalites. Not sure why that is!

Murder worm with a circular, toothy mouth is a pretty vivid image.

# ? Mar 15, 2023 12:46

Traxus IV: Sep 11, 2001; it's our time now
let's get this shit started

Soonmot posted:

this thread is my first read through the series and I wasn't going to go forward without y'all. Happy you're feeling up to it again,Epi!

Same for me on both counts, after all this there's no way I'm gonna finish out the series without you guys and these last few chapters have been worth the wait. Very glad to have you back, Epicurius!

# ? Mar 15, 2023 14:45

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

welcome back Epicurius, very glad you're back and hope you're feeling better. It's been so awesome going back through these books with the thread and seeing how they hold up. can't thank you enough for all your hard work over the past few years.

# ? Mar 15, 2023 17:30

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...

quote:

�Look, Cassie, when this is over I�ll be done with it forever. I�ll go back to school, get an education, go to basketball games, get a driver�s license, go to college, figure out what it is I really want to do. And be with you. You and me.�

God...all that these kids have been though, and they're not even driving age yet. Someone said it back during the book where Jake nearly got popped in fly morph, but it really makes you want to just give these kids a hug.

# ? Mar 15, 2023 22:42

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

Absolutely loving the details during the Taxxon chapter:

"Hey guys, you're fleas but I don't know where you are"

"Marco bit you, when you itch you'll know where we were."

".... great."

and Jake being super careful not to get a cut or injury that could drive them into feeding frenzy was very nice.

# ? Mar 16, 2023 01:43

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

Oh and props to Cassie for playing chess and recognizing that if the Taxxons do become allies and hold up their end of nohilitism if they put themselves in the Amazon it's a really beneficial play for all Earth life long-term.

# ? Mar 16, 2023 01:51

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

Funny how Arbron has them sucked underground while sitting in a car, he did the exact same thing to Elfangor.

I never really pinned Jake as the type that wouldn't be able to come home from war. I can definitely see Rachel having problems. And Tobias has literally nobody else in his life except the Animorphs. But Jake always seemed like the type of guy who comes home in 1945, marries his sweetheart and starts a successful Buick dealership.

# ? Mar 16, 2023 03:24

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

Yeah, Jake has a really old vibe somehow.

# ? Mar 16, 2023 03:26

Vandar: Sep 14, 2007; Isn't That Right, Chairman?

OctaviusBeaver posted:

Funny how Arbron has them sucked underground while sitting in a car, he did the exact same thing to Elfangor.

It's like poetry...

# ? Mar 16, 2023 03:35

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

OctaviusBeaver posted:

Funny how Arbron has them sucked underground while sitting in a car, he did the exact same thing to Elfangor.

I never really pinned Jake as the type that wouldn't be able to come home from war. I can definitely see Rachel having problems. And Tobias has literally nobody else in his life except the Animorphs. But Jake always seemed like the type of guy who comes home in 1945, marries his sweetheart and starts a successful Buick dealership.

I think both Applegate and Grant have said independent of one another that they're of the belief that no one who survives a war ever truly "survives" it, and if they did, there probably wasn't something all together right with them in the first place. It's a thought that comes up again at the end of World War Z by Max Brooks. One of his narrator characters posits that since the Zombie War was a war on all of humanity that didn't leave a single soul untouched by the time it was finally "over", then literally no human being on Earth "survived" World War Z.

# ? Mar 16, 2023 03:43

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 14

quote:

Human once more, I addressed the Taxxon multitude.

�My name is Jake. I am the leader of the Animorphs. As Arbron told you, we have killed many Taxxons using the morphing power. But we are not the enemies of the Taxxons. We are the enemies of the Yeerks. And we have killed many Yeerks.�

They liked that okay.

�The Andalites are our friends.�

<Yeah, right,> Rachel said in private thought-speak.

�The Andalites are coming, and there may be a great battle. The Andalites may win. The Yeerks may win. If we and the Andalites win, you will be given the choice - to remain as you are, or to change, to find a new form, and live in peace and contentment here, in a special place. A homeland for the Taxxons � for Taxxons who are no longer haunted by the desperate hunger, no longer prey to the Yeerks.�

I was lying. At least in part. Arbron was an Andalite, or had been: He had to know that the Andalites would resist ever turning the morphing power over to the hated Taxxons.

I cringed a little as I spoke, waiting for him to interrupt, to call me a liar. But he let me go on.

And I painted the picture for the Taxxons: life without hunger, a life of safety and security, where they would live in peace among themselves, no more cannibalism.

And Arbron let me go on speaking.

�The question is: Can we and our Andalite friends defeat the Yeerks and bring on this new day?�

They waited for the answer. I gave it to them, feeling weirdly like a presidential candidate delivering a stump speech.

�We can defeat the Yeerks � if you join us. Animorph, Andalite, and Taxxon together, we can win.�

The Taxxons didn�t cheer, exactly, but they did send up a creepy whistling sound that reverberated around the chamber.

Arbron slithered up beside me and, to my surprise, dismissed them, told them all to get back to their work. Hundreds of Taxxons obediently turned away and began filing out of side tunnels like a football stadium crowd after the game.

I probably looked puzzled as I turned to Arbron. �Well?�

<Well, they have agreed. For now. They will follow my direction. For now.>

�Okay, then I guess we should get down to specifics,� I said. �You know the Pool ship is here on Earth, on the surface. It�s there to feed the Yeerks until they can finish -�

<Why don�t you ask your friends to demorph? I� m sure they would be more comfortable.>

That stopped me. But there was no point in trying to lie. �Yeah, I guess they would.�

Fleas leaped away from me, unseen by either of us, and moments later my friends began to appear, growing out of swollen, vile, armor-plated flea bodies.

<And now, my friend,> Arbron said.

I heard footsteps and peered into the darkness of an access tunnel.

�Well, good evening, everyone. It�s an awfully pretty night to spend it all in a filthy Taxxon tunnel.�

I knew the voice. I�d heard it every day of my life. My brother. Tom.

My brother, the human-Controller, head of Yeerk security.

�Oh, calm down, Rachel,� Tom said genially, giving her a �chill-out� wave. She had begun to morph to grizzly. �No need to go all hostile.�

�Keep morphing, Rachel,� I told her. �Ax?�

Ax moved quickly to Tom�s side. His tail blade was against Tom�s throat. Tom stood still. He made a mocking face, exaggerated fear.

�I�m alone, unarmed,� Tom said, holding his arms up in surrender. �Hey, I�m morph-capable now, you know. If I wanted trouble I�d use this really cool jaguar morph I have.�

�Let him go, Ax,� I said.

Ax removed his tail but stayed within striking distance. A word from me and Tom�s head would be rolling across the cave floor like a bowling ball.

�So, this is the whole team, huh?� Tom nodded. He shook his head ruefully. �Crazy cousin Rachel. I always knew you were too much for your own good.�

<Shut up, Yeerk,> she said. <You�re not my cousin. You�re a snail living inside my cousin�s head.>

�Snail? Oh, I�m wounded,� the Yeerk inside Tom answered. �And there�s Cassie. Marco. Your pet Andalite, of course. Hey, where�s the bird?�

�How about we cut the crap?� I said.

�Absolutely, Killer.� His eyes were cold, hostile. He was making no effort to pretend to actually be Tom. He knew that I knew what he was.

<Tom represents a faction of Yeerks who want some of what we want,> Arbron said.

�Some?�

�Yeah, some,� Tom agreed. �Sorry, but we�re not interested in hiding out in some out-of-the-way forest, some game preserve. That may be fine for the Taxxons. Me, I want something a little better than that. But then, I have even more to offer than Brother Arbron, here. You want the Pool ship? You want your mommy and daddy back, Big Jake the Yeerk Killer? You want this creature back?� He indicated his own body. �You want poor Tommy back? I can make all that happen.�

I had to rein in a powerful desire to go after him. It�s hard to conceive of the impotent rage you feel watching someone you love be reduced to a mindless puppet. �In exchange for what?�

�My people want it, too: the morphing power.�

�You said you�re already morph-capable.�

�I am. And not just this body, by the way, but me. I�ve subjected my own true Yeerk self to the cube. You want to know what�s funny? I can morph Tom. That�s right, I can morph into my own host body. Cool, huh? But there are all these other Yeerks who are never going to get the chance to be free.�

Marco snorted derisively. �Free? You don�t want to be free.�

Tom laughed. �Marco must be the one doing your thinking for you, Jake. You never were all that smart. You�re right, Marco, I want something else. I want Visser One dead. I want the Council of Thirteen off my back. I want to lose the whole Empire. They�re prisoners of their own tired old thinking. They can�t see the future. We�re a parasitic species, they can�t see past that. We have the huge vulnerability of reliance on Kandrona rays. But morphed, permanently morphed, we won�t need Kandrona rays, and we won�t be parasites anymore. We can achieve a greater destiny.�

He moved closer now. His fists were clenched at his side, his jaw, seemed to tighten so that the words could barely force their way past bared teeth. I�d seen Tom this way once, just once, when he�d been wrongly accused of cheating on a test. It was as angry as Tom got, short of punching someone.

�Visser One is only capable of piling brute force on top of brute force. He�s insane, you know. You can�t rely on him! You can�t hope for career advancement, to rise as you should. I should be a sub-visser by now, and in the small numbers. What I�ve done on this planet? I�ve been carrying him for the last three years. But as long as �� He stopped himself, forced a hard smile. �Office politics. You don�t want to hear about it.�

�What do you want?� Marco asked him. �Give it to us A, B, C. What do you want?�

<Don�t even listen to him,> Rachel growled. <We take him now, hold on to him for three days till the Yeerk starves to death. Then we have Tom back.>

Tom�s Yeerk dropped the wise-guy attitude. He ignored Rachel and Marco and even Ax who still hovered close, twitching with readiness. �You take the Pool ship, Jake. You can keep it. But I get the Blade ship, and a hundred of my people, all treated with the morphing cube. And we get a free pass out of this system.�

�And you take off to some far-off, unsuspecting planet, make victims of some other species?� Cassie cried.

�Hmm. Come to think of it, yes,� Tom said. He waited. Grinned. �But ��

�Yeah?� I asked.

�But the Yeerk Empire will be gutted. Finished. I�ve told Visser One that I have information that the Andalite fleet is massing close by, using Jupiter as a shield to hide behind. So he�s ordered most of our own fleet to stay in Zero-space, ready to emerge once the Andalites are committed. Not quite true. The Andalites are much closer than that.�

That interested me. Interested me greatly, but could I believe him?

<Surely we cannot allow this creature to seize the Blade ship,> Ax said. <The Blade ship is a very powerful offensive weapon. As a warship it is even more dangerous than a Pool ship since it is as heavily armed and far faster and more maneuverable. We Andalites would have little to fear, but few other space-faring races could stand against such a ship.>

Tom�s face smirked. �Little brother, you�ve got to know by now: Wars aren�t won with clean hands.�

�Don�t listen to him,� Cassie said, but it was almost a whisper.

�What do you have to offer?� I asked Tom.

�The keys to the kingdom, kid. I can give you the access codes for every system on the Pool ship. If you can take it, Brother Jake, you and your free Hork-Bajir and your new Taxxon allies, if you can take it, I can tell you how to fly it. Not only that, I have a plan to help you get aboard the Pool ship. And by the way, your old friend Visser One has temporarily transferred his headquarters to the Pool ship. The Pool ship and Visser One - that�s game, set, and match.� He grinned at me and said, �They�ll carve your sanctimonious face up on Mount Rushmore, Jake-Boy. You�ll be the savior of the human race.�

�Thanks for the offer,� I said. �I don�t think so. Ax, take him. Rachel? Help Ax. Carefully!�

That rocked him for a second or two. Then he nodded. �I see: The Andalite�s told you he can break security.� He nodded. �He probably can, the Andalites are very good with computers. He�d have an hour before the codes shift. He would. Except that I�ve changed the code cycle to fifteen minutes.� He glared at Ax. �Can you beat fifteen minutes, Andalite? Can you do that?�

Tom's Yeerk's proposal is interesting, because on the one hand, he's come to the same understanding as Aftran 942...that the Yeerks are trapped by their parasitism, and most Yeerks are hidebound and won't consider another way. Unlike Aftran, of course, what he wants in exchange for his help is conquest of another world where he and his followers can exploit the natives and live in luxury, really another kind of parasitism. Of course, all this assumes he's telling the truth, which is maybe a bad assumption,

Chapter 15

quote:

The keys were in my hands.

I could win. We could win.

If General Doubleday would provide the diversion. If the Taxxons would rally to us. If Tom�s Yeerk provided us with the access codes. If Tom really could get us aboard the Pool ship and we could overpower the Yeerks still aboard. And if Ax could (and would) find a way to convince his people to ratify the promises we�d made to the Taxxons and Tom�s dissident Yeerk faction.

Five �ifs.� A lot. But at least now the number of �ifs� was a finite number.

A sixth �if�: If Tom�s Yeerk was telling the truth.

He had asked for no guarantees. Did he trust me to keep my word? Would he risk everything on my word? True, he knew me through my brother�s memories. And yet � and yet �

As we flew home, flew home impossibly free and alive after spending an hour with a few hundred Taxxons plus one of the highest ranking Yeerks, my mind was full of the details. Cassie left me alone for a while, but I knew she�d have something to say. I knew it. And I knew I had ignored her
in the past at my own peril. I knew I should listen to her, trust her.

But I also knew what she�d say, and I didn�t want to hear it. Just the same, after a while, as we flew in the dead night air above the wrecked town below, the waiting got to me.

<Cassie, just go ahead and say it,> I said finally.

<Say it? You�re expecting some moral lecture from me about turning Tom�s Yeerk and a hundred of his chosen people loose with a fantastically powerful warship to roam the galaxy? Never knowing what suffering he may inflict?>

<Something like that, yeah.>

<Because that�s me, right? The voice of whining morality.>

She sounded bitter. I wasn�t surprised. I was surprised by what came next.

 she said. <Because of that the Taxxons may become a force for peace. And Tom, the real Tom, and your parents, may be restored to us. And because of that, Tom�s Yeerk has seen a way to betray his own people and become some kind of warlord on his own.>

I took a moment to digest that. She was actually blaming herself. <Cassie, these things happen. You can�t always predict the results of the things you do. You try your best, take your best shot, and maybe it comes out right, and maybe it comes out � I don�t know, confused.>

<Brilliant, isn�t it? So I make the decisions, I make the big call, sanctimonious little me, I make the moral, optimistic decision, and where are we?>

<Better off than we were,> I said, but I was only half-listening now. An alarm bell was going off in my head. Why? What was the problem? What was it?

<And some species we don�t know about is maybe doomed when a Blade ship full of morphing Yeerks descends on them.>

<It�s never completely clean, Cassie. Doesn�t work that way. But you try your best to keep it clean. The fact that you know you�ll be dragged in the gutter doesn�t mean you don�t try like hell to stay out of it. You don�t get a lot of straight-up good or evil choices. You get shades of gray. I mean, we started this war thinking we�d hold on till the great and glorious Andalites came to rescue us. Now we�re making deals with Taxxons and Yeerks to gain a victory fast enough to keep the great and glorious Andalites from making their own shades-of-gray decision.>

<What are you going to do?> Cassie asked.

<I�m going to win,> I said. But I didn�t believe it. Why? It was all there. It was all possible at least.

Of course Tom�s Yeerk was lying in part. I was sure he was not interested in turning nothlit, that was a joke. The morphing cube was almost surely on board the Blade ship, and the Blade ship had its own small Yeerk pool facility. So of course he was lying about that.

But just as surely, he was telling the truth about wanting to seize the Blade ship and go into business for himself.

Tom. The Yeerk in his head. Had to believe him, after all, he�d known where we were, he obviously knew about Arbron, he could very easily have called in every Hork-Bajir-Controller on the planet and taken us down.

He�d had us right in the palm of his hand, and let us go. Had to trust that. Didn�t I?

Yeah. But why did he trust me? Why did he trust me?

Trust breeds trust, right? Tom�s Yeerk had shown he could be trusted, so he trusted us in return? Trusted me to get him all he wanted, all I�d agreed to?
No. No, that wasn�t it. Tom�s Yeerk wanted us to believe we could trust him. He didn�t ask for assurances or cross-examine me because he didn�t want me doing the same to him.

Then I saw it: Of course. I�d been looking at nothing but tactics; I�d overlooked emotion. The emotion of a vengeful Yeerk. He despised Visser One for being a failure, for being a brute, for refusing to promote him. �As long as �� Tom had started to say. Yes. Visser One was not the only person Tom�s Yeerk hated. Someone else was to blame for forcing this choice on an ambitious Yeerk.

Me. My friends. We were responsible for forcing this choice on Tom�s Yeerk. In frustrating Visser One we had doomed Tom�s Yeerk.

That was why Tom�s Yeerk didn�t ask for reassurances from us. He expected us to be dead. He would kill Visser One and us and sail off across the galaxy in the Blade ship with the morphing cube in his hands.

It came to me all at once that I could beat him. Use him and beat him.

One of those rare, perfect moments when a dozen nagging questions, an infinity of details, simply fall perfectly into place and form a single clear picture.

It took my breath away. The perfection of it. The pure, ruthless perfection of it.

All I had to do was send my friends to die. Cassie was still talking to me, but I didn�t hear her words. I had seen the vision. I could see the pure, straight line from point A to point Z.

I said, <Marco? Find the Chee. Find them. Bring Erek to me.>

<How am I going to do that?> Marco groused. <The Chee hideout is in the blast area. I tried, but it�s nothing but destruction, you can�t even tell where the streets used to be. And it�s crawling with Yeerks shooting anything that moves. It would be very easy to get myself killed going back there.>

<Yeah, I know. Do it anyway,> I said. I felt sick inside. High and low at once. Exalted. Twisted.

What chance was there that Marco would succeed? What chance that he would survive?

And worse in store for Rachel. I needed Tobias, and could not risk losing Ax. Cassie? No. It had to be Rachel. Only she would do it, could do it.
I had a few small changes to make to Tom�s plan. The orders came easily, automatically as I dispatched my friends, one after the other. Only Rachel remained.

<Rachel, I have a job for you.>

I explained what I wanted her to do.

<You�re sure, Jake?> she asked solemnly when I had finished. <Because if you tell me � Go!� I�ll follow your orders. You know what that means.>

<Yeah, Rachel, I know what it means.>

Still she hesitated. <It won�t be the Yeerk, Jake. It�ll be Tom. It�ll be him.>

 I said. <And I � if it happens, if it comes down that way, I don�t have a plan for getting you out. You�d be on your own.>

<That�s how I like it.>

<Okay, then. Get started. Make sure Cassie doesn�t know.>

<You still don�t trust her?> Rachel said angrily.

<She loves us both, Rachel,> I said. 

Rachel said, <Okay, Jake. You�re right. And you�re right to use me for this. Not exactlysomething I�m proud of, maybe, but later, you know, if - don�t be blaming yourself, okay?>

She angled her eagle�s wings to take the wind, and flew away.

The plan was a fragile thing in my mind, a construct of if-then possibilities, of hopes, optimism, and cynicism in equal measure.

I would use everyone, put everyone in harm�s way. And I knew knew beyond any doubt- that someone, and maybe more than someone, I loved was going to die.

This is Jake at his most cynical and ruthless here, using his friends like tools. The problem for him is, unlike a lot of people who do that, he's hating himself for it. if you didn't notice, Jake is echoing Marco's previous explanation of ruthlessness...seeing the line clearly that gets you from point A to point B, and willing to do what it takes to get there.

The thing is, for all that Marco talked about being ruthless, i think he was lying to himself and us. Marco cares too much for his friends and his family to sacrifice them, even if that's the easiest way. Marco affected an air of both cynicism and humor to prevent those people around him from realizing how upset he was at losing his mother, and how scared he was that something would happen to his father. At this point, though, I believe that Jake has reached that level of ruthlessness.

Epicurius fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Mar 16, 2023

# ? Mar 16, 2023 03:44

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

OctaviusBeaver posted:

Funny how Arbron has them sucked underground while sitting in a car, he did the exact same thing to Elfangor.

I never really pinned Jake as the type that wouldn't be able to come home from war. I can definitely see Rachel having problems. And Tobias has literally nobody else in his life except the Animorphs. But Jake always seemed like the type of guy who comes home in 1945, marries his sweetheart and starts a successful Buick dealership.

I guess I've always pictured him more as someone who can't switch off, ever, and once the war is over he will just find himself at a complete loose end and fall apart.

# ? Mar 16, 2023 03:49

Zore: Sep 21, 2010; willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d�etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things

This is the big point of no return for Jake and he absolutely knows it. Now we just have to watch where the chips end up falling.

# ? Mar 16, 2023 04:09

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

Epicurius posted:

The thing is, for all that Marco talked about being ruthless, i think he was lying to himself and us. Marco cares too much for his friends and his family to sacrifice them, even if that's the easiest way. Marco affected an air of both cynicism and humor to prevent those people around him from realizing how upset he was at losing his mother, and how scared he was that something would happen to his father. At this point, though, I believe that Jake has reached that level of ruthlessness.

Yeah this is spot-on about Marco and why Marco couldn't ever be a top leader despite being, like Tom's Yeerk said, smarter than Jake.

It's also well, Jake isn't wrong. Because Animorphs has such a heavy TNG flavor I'm reminded of the episode where Troi has to simulate sending holodeck Geordi to his guaranteed death to save the ship as part of her Officer Training and how she can barely do it, and that sentimentality is not necessarily a good thing in all cases.

I guess it doesn't help that Tom's Yeerk is so loving loathsome. Applegrant do a fantastic job selling a character you really loving hate in such a short space of time.

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

I guess I've always pictured him more as someone who can't switch off, ever, and once the war is over he will just find himself at a complete loose end and fall apart.

When you figure out you can do something meaningful, with a purpose, that helps your loved ones, and you're actually good at it... yeah you can't just switch it off and you do get the sense that if it got ripped away from you, as the ends of wars tend to do, you would be lost.

Jake and Rachel will easily have the hardest time adjusting after the war is done. I wonder if Tobias survives, if he'd ever go back to human? Can he re-up on the morphing cube? I forget if they ever went over that.

# ? Mar 16, 2023 04:30

Zore: Sep 21, 2010; willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d�etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things

When the Ellimist gives him the deal back in book 13 he tells him explicitly he can go back to being human, but it'll just make him a human nothlit. No third chance at the morphing apple :v:

# ? Mar 16, 2023 04:32

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

mind the walrus posted:

I guess it doesn't help that Tom's Yeerk is so loving loathsome. Applegrant do a fantastic job selling a character you really loving hate in such a short space of time.

It's a shame that it doesn't get the chance to go mask off sooner in the series because of the status quo because I think Tom's Yeerk would have been a pretty good recurring villain with just what a shitbag he is. Even moreso than Taylor, the perfect blend of a shitlord teenager and a Star Trek-tier local galactic menace ala someone like Gul Dukat, the guy who's doing the "How do you do, Fellow Kids?" act purely because he's so able to perfectly pull it off otherwise that he now has to make a smarmy show out of it just to go "Yeah, we both get it, it's pure bullshit, but now I get to have FUN with it :devil:

# ? Mar 16, 2023 04:40

Capfalcon: Apr 6, 2012; No Boots on the Ground,
Puny Mortals!

Epicurius posted:

This is Jake at his most cynical and ruthless here, using his friends like tools. The problem for him is, unlike a lot of people who do that, he's hating himself for it. if you didn't notice, Jake is echoing Marco's previous explanation of ruthlessness...seeing the line clearly that gets you from point A to point B, and willing to do what it takes to get there.

The thing is, for all that Marco talked about being ruthless, i think he was lying to himself and us. Marco cares too much for his friends and his family to sacrifice them, even if that's the easiest way. Marco affected an air of both cynicism and humor to prevent those people around him from realizing how upset he was at losing his mother, and how scared he was that something would happen to his father. At this point, though, I believe that Jake has reached that level of ruthlessness.

I think Marco is insightful enough to come up with something like this plan, but I agree that he's not actually ruthless enough to sacrifice his friends on the altar of victory. Even normal leadership involving close loved ones where you're not sending people on suicide missions had him freeze up.

# ? Mar 16, 2023 12:51

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# ? May 23, 2024 09:25

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

I will say, as justified as Jake's guilt is, it's worth mentioning he told Rachel exactly what he wanted, and the risks, and she knowingly agreed to the plan. She chose to do it, not him.

Spoilers for series finale, to be safe

# ? Mar 16, 2023 13:03

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

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