wizzardstaff posted:

Thanks to the series repeating this paragraph at least once per book, I've never forgotten what thermals are in my entire life.

wizzardstaff posted:

The little aside about "we have to fly apart from each other because bird-watchers would think it weird to see so many species together" is repeated in each book and gets kind of old, but there is a nice payoff in the final act of the series when they are able to identify morphed Controllers by their unnatural flocking behavior.

ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:

Because Tobias inherited some of Elfangor's knowledge through their special mindmeld (presumably facilitated by the father-son connection)

Epicurius posted:

If you really want to know. Long story short, when Elfangor is a cadet in the '70s, he saves a human woman from alien abduction and they fall in love. He becomes a human nothlit, marries her, and they have a son. Because he's important to the timeline, though, the Ellimist convinces him he's important in the fight against the Yeerks, and that timeline is wiped out, although his son, Tobias, continues to exist.

OctaviusBeaver posted:

I wonder if Tobias will have a normal hawk lifespan while morphed or if he lives as long as a human. I would guess the hawk one which is kind of a bummer.

chitoryu12 posted:

We need a book where the aliens give a unit of time that their universal translator has given them but is actually wildly off from the real time.

Epicurius posted:

To be fair, most adults don't fully grasp the sunk cost concept.

Krazyface posted:

I believe they have better depth perception but weaker colour distinction. I don't know why my brain holds onto this information, but there you go.

chitoryu12 posted:

Safety Biscuits posted:

Before anyone complains, yes, I know dolphins aren't fish, ok? This is the best I could do.

nine-gear crow posted:

I do appreciate that for as adept as Cassie is at the actual physical act of morphing, being able to control it to an almost artistic degree at times, she’s kind fo garbage at keeping the morph’s animal instincts in check. It’s a nice little balance.

chitoryu12 posted:

The Yeerk cops are freaking out and tasing passing birds. An Internal Affairs investigation (surprisingly, no Yeerks involved) has determined that they felt their lives were threatened.

SardonicTyrant posted:

There's something definitely off about him. No other Yeerk comes off as that crazy.

Agaragon posted:

Cetus Ex Machina.

PetraCore posted:

That makes a lot more sense, thanks.

Grammarchist posted:

I can't help but picture these punks as the thieves who bought Magilla Gorilla from Mr. Peebles pet shop to assist in robbing a bank. I guess where normal people see a terrifying force of nature these guys saw "free Great Ape."

Epicurius posted:

This is just a list of dead and dying mall stores now.

OctaviusBeaver posted:

Shame it's not lobsters, I like the image of 6 lobsters crawling into Chapman's front door in a line while he blithely ignores them.

SirSamVimes posted:

Glad to see the thread agrees with the Objectively Correct opinion that Marco and Ax are the best.

nine-gear crow posted:

Also now that Visser One has shown up alongside Visser Three this officially kicks off the series' long-running, unspoken, absence-induced gag of "Who/where is Visser Two?" to which I've personally come to assume that Visser Two is just a 1:1 analog to the drummer from Spinal Tap. There is a veritable assembly line of Visser Twos who last about a week before they're claimed by a hilarious improbable accident or happenstance, and the reason why Visser Three stays Visser Three is because Esplin knows that the rank of Visser Two is cursed so he wants to just jump right over it to Visser One.

nine-gear crow posted:

Visser Two, Eldash-214, Cause of death: Host instantly combusted upon arrival on Hork-Bajir Homeworld

Visser Two, Vindaar-378, Cause of death: Blade Ship emerged from Z-Space on the event horizon of a black hole

Visser Two, Kelsam-4377 (the Primary), Cause of death: Murdered and replaced by Kelsam-4377 the Secondary in a fit of jealous rage

Visser Two, Kelsam-4377 (the Seconary), Cause of death: Accidental poisoning related to "Taxxon bodily fluid", further investigation needed

Visser Two, Arndish-112, Cause of death: Dracon beam misfire

Visser Two, Gerthim-047, Cause of death: Carol

Visser Two, Ulnarf-656, Cause of death: [DATA ERROR - POSSIBLE TEMPORAL ANOMALY]

Visser Two, Zirkan-150, Cause of death: Stampede of giant bird-like creatures

Visser Two, Eldeth-247, Cause of death: Military parade mishap

Visser Two, Viirath-777, Cause of death: Fell into Earth Grand Canyon chasing wayward $20 currency notation

Visser Two, Orlan-912, Cause of death: Mild Treason

Visser Two, Tirmak-530, Cause of death: Experimental robot malfunction

Visser Two, Galaf-028, Cause of death: "Host's chest exploded, small unidentified lifeform emerged from the body"

Visser Two, Minaar-379, Cause of death: First contact with higher dimensional being

Visser Two, Rantash-002, Cause of death: Suicide, three dracon blasts to back of head

PetraCore posted:

Agree to disagree on the basis that the Chee are good. The rest I can mostly do without.

EDIT: What I like is that the Chee primarily care about dogs, and mostly care about humans as a sort of extension of their actual focus, which is dogs, because humans also care about dogs and take care of dogs. The dogs are the important thing, when Chee want to defy their pacifism to fight for earth it is entirely because of the dogs, and humanity is an afterthought. I thought that was really funny and endearing.