moonkent

[moonkent]

Ax: Hi, everyone, would you like to try my garbage pizza?

Marco: Ax, you know that's supposed to refer to a pizza with all the toppings, not something pulled from the dumpster with even MORE garbage piled on top it, right

[moonkent]

Holy shit, mind BLOWN, this is some epic theorizing and I LOVE it!!

"That was like some kind of miracle," David said.

Marco slid off the table and wiped away his tears with the heel of his hand. Ax sent me one of those hard-to-define Andalite smiles, something they do with their eyes alone. <I do not believe in miracles. I always said Cassie has a talent for morphing. And yet . . . this is something I have not seen before.>

Wild speculation and spoilers for MM4 below the cut.

She looked right at Marco. She placed her hands on his sides, ignoring the sting of his bristles as they poked into her skin.

When Cassie walks Marco through demorphing, she's actually physically touching Marco. She calms him with voice and touch.

This is also after her own experience becoming a nothlit as a caterpillar and demorphing to human after becoming a butterfly, which Ax explains-ish but it's still sort of a weird thing.

In a much later book we learn that Cassie is a time anomaly who can ground reality to the true timeline. What is reversing nothlitization except grounding someone in reality after a time limit has passed separating their Z-space body from the real world? Those aren't exactly the same thing, but they do sort of work on the same component parts.

What if it was too late and Cassie can just fix it and no one ever actually learns this?

I mean, it's not like she ever tries to unnothlit Tobias - it's far past two hours by the time she learns of it so why would she?

(I also love that Cassie is chosen because she's already an anomaly by chance rather than getting special powers from the Ellimist. It's random-ass luck that makes her different, the gods just use that fact.)

Idk, just the fact that Ax sees this as something special sort of has me wondering. And something about having and actually straight-up using a Get out of Jail Free card and never knowing it is hilariously up the Animorphs' alley.

(Also also the side note of David being relieved that Marco made it when Marco is the one he gets along with the least is interesting.)

[moonkent]

The Exposed (Animorphs #27)

Dialogue reformatted but otherwise unedited because this bit gave me such ‘dumb shit teenagers say on discord’ vibes

[moonkent]

Still in #13 and I would have finished it today except that I got to Tobias’ first conversation with the Ellimist and it sank between my ribs like a knife. Tobias is “a beginning, a point on which an entire timeline could turn.”

It’s made so clear that as far as Tobias is concerned, he’s a reject, forgotten, unwanted. But without Tobias there would be no animorphs. Not just because of Elfangor caring about him and giving him a chance to fight, but because he was the one it was Real for in that first week. And his being a nothlit made it Real for everyone else. They all practically swear by him.

He’s the Ellimist’s ace, tucked up his sleeve long before the game even started, the first card played - for so many firsts. The Ellimists ‘non-interference’ let a pocket universe exist for 5 years just so he could be conceived, tricked Elfangor away from him while threading them together and linking him with Ax so that he could have some connection with his heritage, and his best friend. He let Tobias himself weave his younger self into the war. Jake says in The Invasion “weird stuff doesn’t freak Tobias out. It’s the normal stuff he can’t stand.” Tobias wasn’t just born into the war, he was born for it, scarred in ways that the other animorphs weren’t, cut off from anything that might hold him back. His timeline is intrinsically linked with the yeerks coming to Earth, and he is the best humanity can give, even if he was given by being thrown out into the cold for his father to find.

Toby isn’t actually born in this book but she’s a critical mirror for Tobias. They have so much in common - with the critical difference of the Ellimist having given Toby two parents who were safe enough from the war to raise her to play her part rather than ripping them away for her development. (For the record, Tobias (and therefore Toby) means “God is good” let’s just… sit in a tree and yell while the taxxons approach, huh?)

Tobias and Toby have similar family trees - an Andalite nothlit, having lost faith in the Andalite military and fallen in love with a member of another species. And the first of their species to interact with aliens, both Andalite and yeerk. They both inherited something from these family members that sets them apart - Toby with her intelligence, Tobias with some apparent telepathic/low level psychic abilities. They will both stand for their own values against people who think they know better (the ellimist, the arn (I’m not spelling his name from memory or looking that up right now), Jake). Toby is different. And she’s named after Tobias, not just as a beautiful way of acknowledging the world’s most important reject, but because Tobias is the human seer, born to guide in a time of need.

Tobias’ struggle with connection is particularly painful. He can’t see what he means (which is why the Hork-Bajir are great for him. They’re always around, he’s their saviour, and they both respect and care for him. He doesn’t stop there though. Of the Ellimist’s stacked deck, he’s the one who brings in the wild cards, humanity’s contributions. Ax wasn’t with them as the start, and neither Cassie nor Marco wanted to fight at the beginning. But he believed in Jake, saw his connection, knew that battles would hinge on Jake being plugged in to them. They needed a leader, and it had to be Jake. And Jake needs the Red Baron, his pearl handled pistols. Rachel may have been willing to fight for any cause, but the cause she chooses, over and over, is Tobias. They’ve been hanging out for 3 or 4 days as far as we can tell, and when he says nobody cares about him, she’s serious when she says she does. For better or for worse, Tobias brings the Berensons. And let’s face it, it’s definitely for better. Without him, Jake is a dumb jock who isn’t even good at sports. Without him, nobody would tell Rachel to “be Rachel” and not mean the persona she built as the team tank, but the girl under that who loves deeply enough to be that person for her friends.

This timeline was built around Tobias. He sees it and steers it in ways nobody else can. When the choice comes to opt out, he doesn’t think “maybe I could just take the long way home” he’s a steering column, a control cable, the Ellimist’s favourite chess piece. If Toomin hadn’t needed him by making him a homeless, orphaned bird, who knows what he could do.

[moonkent]

I'm pretty certain at this point that the yeerk death fugue and their acceptance of death/defeat are actually reproductive adaptations.

If all three parent yeerks die in the creation of more grubs then yeerks that accept death are more likely to procreate.

Since all parent yeerks die and they're no longer around to raise the grubs/pass along culture then it would be a good thing that when yeerks die they do a data dump on the nearest nervous system, which in a group of parents would be their offspring. What if hosts only get the detailed life story because there's only one yeerk in their head dying and the host brain is the only nervous system to transfer to. Whereas an explosion of baby slugs would all get a mishmash of all three parents' lives giving them some knowledge and ability when they're first born.

[moonkent]

MoonKent Muses - Animorphs #18 The Decision

I'm a bit late with this one, but I didn't want to miss putting my thoughts out there!

This book reminds me a lot of book #6, in which there's a really long and elaborate set-up just to get to the part that's the actual story. I get that AppleGrant was trying to justify the characters being in the smallest new morph possible, and I don't mind the setup too much, but the conclusion of it DID feel rushed and unsatisfying. The Yeerks put a LOT of trouble into trying to infest Aldershot III, do we really believe that he's safe just because he woke from his coma unexpectedly? (Especially since that's what Visser Three was demanding anyway.) He probably got infested off-page later, whoops. But at least the Animorphs saved Leera!

Another thing that I never thought about at all until this last reread was how perfectly customized the Leeran rescue was to the Animorphs' capabilities. The Andalites just happen to have a secret device hidden in a cave that they can't reach, but that just happens to match a variety of morphs that our characters already have. On the one hand, it's EPIC to see our characters really getting to use their morph collection, shuffling through morphs like a deck of cards, picking the ones that they need. One the other hand, it felt a bit contrived. (Though admittedly, not at all contrived when I read it as a kid, or in the intervening years since - previous reads I was just absorbed in the epic! So this may be me just being an adult applying too much critical thinking to a Middle Grade book.)

I did love that we got to see Ax's loyalties really tested. We got a hint of that back in book #8, but it was really expanded on here. (I grow less fond of this plot as it's repeated in the future, but I still like its use here.)

Now for my personal theories about this book!

Theory 1: The Mosquito Acquisition would not actually have worked.

It's not explicitly stated until the next book, but I think still hinted before (maybe back in #3?) that the Animorphs cannot acquire dead animals. If blood drawn from a subject can still be acquirable, why not a very newly-dead creature right in front of you (Megamorphs 2)? Its blood could still flow! A suggestion that I first encountered on thejakeformerlyknownasprince's Tumblr that I really like is that morphing requires a living subject because it records not just the DNA pattern, but a snapshot of the neural network, which is how the Animorphs are able to get the current instincts along with the creature. A dead animal does not have an active enough neural network to give that snapshot, which is why that can't acquire it. So I think that even if the Animorphs had successfully managed to draw Aldershot's blood AND get it out of their mosquito bodies uncontaminated (doubtful on multiple levels), they would have found that they couldn't acquire him anyway.

Theory 2: The Animorphs snap back to Earth in order of smallest mass to greatest.

This is my favorite theory for this book! And I think it makes a lot of sense if you look at the order they disappear: Tobias, Rachel, Marco, Cassie, Jake, Ax. Tobias is very definitely the smallest, no argument there. There's some wiggle room with Rachel and Marco and Cassie, but given Rachel's consistently referenced model-like appearance, it would make sense that she could be very skinny despite her height and would weigh less than a shorter Marco. Cassie is often described as solid, and she probably has a lot more muscle than either Rachel or Marco and would weigh more. Jake is always described as the biggest of the group, there's no way he's not also the heaviest. Ax, being an Andalite (even if a young-ish one), certainly has the greatest surface area of the six; we don't know for sure that this would correspond to his weight being heavier than Jake, but since I really like this theory, that's the story I'm going with!

Anyway, if this is correct, then a smaller mass would have less to anchor it on the other side of Z-space, so it would let go sooner.

What do you guys think? Plausible, or am I putting way too much thought into the fictional physics of fantasy

[moonkent]

Crayak's shitty cat lapdog — Drode the wild card.

I was trying to make him look like something you'd want to throw a slipper at. My sister said she'd rather take a brick lol.

Well I guess having facial muscles and expressions would pass as "humanlike head" lol.

Btw can someone please enlighten me? Because I feel like the answer is somewhere in the books, but I've accidentally missed it. So my question is: what exactly is Drode's origins? Did Crayak created him (like Howlers) or did Drode one day just decided "Yeah, to serve malevolent red eyeball sounds cool, I'm in"; or something else?..

Don't ask me what all those gestures mean (i was going for the feeling).

[moonkent]

Excellent analysis. I never verbalized that before, but you're so right.

Oh, that conversation between Jake and his mom was doomed from the start.

And then I went out in the backyard and sat on my rusted-out old swing set from when I was four and stared at the sky as it turned dark. The stars came out and man, I hated them. They weren't beautiful, they were deadly. It was from the stars that all my problems had come. p. 140

Jake let's the reader know that he isn't fond of the stars. The stars, represent space. And space is where the aliens are from that have flipped his life upside down.

She locked her arms over her chest and looked up at the sky like I was doing. "It's a beautiful night. Look at the stars." p. 141

Jake's mom, having no clue what is the issue is looks at the night sky and says just how beautiful the sky is because of the stars. The thing that he hates.

It tells the reader that as much as his mom is going to try to connect with her son that they are approaching the conversation from two extremely different angles.

She thinks she's trying to get Jake to open up about normal teenager things and reassure him that teenager feelings are just as valid as adult feelings; while Jake knows that the issues he's dealing with are things that he can't talk to his mother about, aren't normal teenager things. He can't tell her about the war or the burden of being a leader.

And their different outlook of the stars fills that in before Jake ever gets a chance to flat out state that to the reader.

[moonkent]

So you're saying they would be... Spy Kids?

The constant stream of AU's pouring from this blog keeps making me think of a spy au

I don't read/watch much spy fiction, so I probably can't write this one. Does anyone else have thoughts?

[moonkent]

Oh, dang, I LOVE this idea!! It's definitely going in my box of "really cool headcanons"

I wonder... did Tobias actually choose the form the Ellimist's reward would take here?

IT IS DONE. <What's done? Nothing is done, you lunatic! I'm still a bird!> OF COURSE. <Help me!> The racoon was literally looking down at me like you might look at a steak. He was deciding where to bite first. THE ANDALITE GAVE YOU POWER. USE IT.

The power is obviously the power to morph, but at this point I think it could have taken two paths:

A) Tobias interprets this as having been given his power to demorph from hawk to human and becomes human. It's enough to scare the racoon away.

or

B) Tobias interprets this as he does in canon, deciding that the power has been restored to his hawk body, allowing him to acquire and morph the racoon to avoid becoming lunch.

The Ellimist's wording is vague enough that I think Tobias himself decided to make hawk his new base form by choosing to acquire the racoon as a hawk rather than trying to demorph because he didn't even think it was possible.

Once the form of the reward is chosen by Tobias that's the form it sticks to.

[moonkent]

How do you think the Animorphs would react to an episode of The Magic School Bus, particularly that episode about the ants?

I haven't seen the show! Can anyone who knows Magic School Bus weigh in?

[moonkent]

Random theory regarding name/number changes: given that the ranks of "Visser" and "Subvisser" are only a couple decades old and the fact that lower numbers mean higher ranks was literally just made up off the cuff by some Yeerks to distinguish heirarchy, I wonder if other Yeerks were trying to do the same thing with their regular name designations? Maybe Temrash was part of that group, but it never caught on like the "Visser" terminology did.

6. The Capture

Ah, yes, the first time we get a look at how terrifyingly effective the team can be. And the Horrors. Mustn't forget the Horrors.

Jake, honey, they most certainly are not EVERYWHERE. Imagine the logistics. The demand for Kandrona. They are in a few select places tops.

"I was trying to decide whether I would have to ever destroy him. Destroy my brother, who was not my brother." This is page one of book 6, Jake, no need to foreshadow the end of the series.

I don't know if you guys have done anything yet that would count as hurting them very badly. Give it a book. Well. Actually the war crimes start to pick up steam this book. So just give it some chapters?

Oof. Morphing roach the first time in front of a mirror. Forgot about that one. Hearing your bones dissolve is one hell of a description, thanks KAA.

I love that none of them ever considered Visser Three having a human morph.

A whole one person gets the seriousness of the situation, check.

Does Jake have the most near death incidents in bug morph? He has cockroach in this one then fly later, and they all nearly died in the ant morphs.

(Pretending I don't know where Tom ends up) You know the yeerks really ought to be more careful with the young hosts so they don't destroy their future prospects. I mean pro basketball would have given them some options, though I have to admit the travel requirements might have been rough.

Body horror bad enough to make Rachel throw up. Hard pass. I'll thank you to keep further descriptions to yourself.

No, Tobias probably does NOT want to hear he has fleas. Good call, Jake.

The amount of dense stupidity necessary for everyone to independently decide to watch The Fly the night before this particular caper.

Hate to say it, but I think @thejakeformerlyknownasprince is right to say that not harming humans does NOT work out in the gang's best interests.

I do wonder why it took so long for Temrash to have control. Jake was able to talk and move (badly) for a bit, and we were shown in other scenarios that it doesn't take nearly that long. Though in all fairness, most scenarios don't involve a concussed host and a half-fried yeerk.

I think the yeerk's number changing is a continuity flaw, right? Like their rank number changes, but not their name number. Right?

I mean, not that it's a great thing to let your racism get the better of you, but thank goodness Temrash slipped right then. I think they would have figured him out either way, but the faster the better for everyone's sake.

Saying "no offense" doesn't make it not offensive, Temrash. Don't be a dick to Tobias with Jake's mouth.

"Under-Visser". Yikes. Glad we didn't stick with that.

Typically when there's a ruthless plan, it's Marco's doing. Do we know who came up with their counter-Jake measures? Because while rarer, Cassie can come up with a doozy.

Jake realized this far back that yeerks will just quit if they don't see a win. Way to foreshadow(?) another part of the ending. Honestly I feel like a lot of this one is foreshadowing 53/54.

Jake called this the saddest thing he'd seen (presumably to this point) and it really is. Temrash was absolutely despicable, but reading of him dying by inches hurts, and this is why dehumanizing anyone to justify doing bad things is wrong. It's supposed to hurt.

[moonkent]

I would have liked an expansion on the Andalite Traitor plot.

Oooh, what if the Yeerk Peace Movement plot had ended up coinciding with the Andalite Traitors? And what were unequivocally the bad guys of #18 ended up being the ones to help the Peace Movement gain a footing in the last few books and helped prevent the Andalite military from consigning humanity to defeat? That could have continued the interesting exploration of what it means to be the "good" guy and the gray morality of the Animorphs universe

I imagine you've answered this or something very similar, but what's an aspect of the animorphs story/universe that you think should have been expanded on in canon?

Personally I'm a sucker for world building so I always wanted to see more internal andalite and yeerk culture built up, but I don't think it necessarily would have made the story better

Yes! Things I want more of (an incomplete list):

Yeerk Peace Movement. How big are they? How do they operate? How widely known are they among the invasion force? How many yeerks (like Aftran) are ambivalent about their cause?

Auxiliary Animorphs. What do they do in their down time? Is James pretending to still be paralyzed; what's that like? Exactly how many are there? Do any survive, and if so what happens to them?

Taxxons. How literal is "Living Hive"? To what extent was them all becoming voluntary a top-down leadership decision, and what percent of them are in rebellion? What's their culture like? How much of their precarity is artificial vs. evolved?

Ax and Tobias. Obviously.

Crazy Helen, Shoe Lady/Fran, Spacey Gervais, et al. There are so many hints that Temrash 114's calm assertion that "no human has ever escaped" cannot be true (#6). What are they up to? Do all escapees end up so far on the fringe of society? Has anyone tried to launch a Hamee-style mass escape effort among the humans?

What else am I missing?

[moonkent]

Yes, that's precisely how I feel! It's such an interesting contrast how she immediately picks up Jake's slack in this book and it's seamless, but it #37, she's like a dog snarling over its dog bone "mine! mine!" at the merest hint of someone else taking "her" spot. She spends more time questioning what the others think of her leadership than actually leading, and that change of insecurity is very fascinating. I wonder if it's because she's become so much less sure of herself as a person over the course of the books - contemplating whether this violent streak she has was always there and the war just brought it out, or if this was the "true" version of her all along and it was merely buried before. She knows her role on the team and it's the only thing she's supremely confident in (so she can throw herself in wholeheartedly), but where she belongs outside of that is something she increasingly struggles with, and those struggles become apparent in #37.

The Capture, AKA Everyone Takes a Level in Badass

While listening to the audiobook of The Capture and feeling like I got the story in a new way (something it seems like a lot of us are feeling, now that there are audiobooks), I was struck by how dang competent the kids are in that last third of the story.  I’ve rambled before about how it’s a shame #6 so long to get going because the finale has such good Jake content.

But let’s forget about Jake and Temrash 114 for a second, and talk about what everyone else is doing in that last part of the book.  AKA being competent af.

It starts the moment Jake gets concussed and near-drowned.  Rachel grabs the reins of the team almost the millisecond he drops them, directing Cassie and Ax to guard their flanks and Marco to carry Jake out with his face covered as she herself breaks their way through the wall.  She remains in charge with no discussion about it until she’s led everyone to safety.

Then we get Cassie and Ax’s skillful read of Jake vs. Temrash.  In spite of Temrash trying to pull from Jake’s playbook to fool them — squeezing Cassie’s hand to reassure her, sharing Jake’s actual thoughts on the sacrifices of war to Ax – they pick up on the discrepancies immediately.  Ax spots the micro-expression of disgust he gets out of the yeerk, but also gets Tobias’s and Marco’s confirmation that human faces don’t normally do that when greeting friends.  Cassie points out that non-yeerk-controlled Jake would be a heck of a lot more eager to help the team tie him up in the woods than whoever this guy is, because real-Jake would understand the need to be better safe than sorry.  These kids aren’t fooled, and they’re ready to face hard truths.

Then Tobias figures out how to stash Jake in the forest — crucially, an entire afternoon’s walk away from the nearest yeerks or humans.  Temrash is so stuck on what a pain it is to haul a barefoot human through the woods that he doesn’t realize until later he can’t get anywhere in one morph cycle.  He can run for it, but he can’t keep running until he gets to safety without demorphing somewhere along the way.

Then there’s Marco’s plan.  Marco’s beautiful, masterful plan.

First of all, they send Ax to Jake’s house.  Tobias might be more ideal, but Tobias can’t morph yet, and they don’t need an ideal copy.  They only need to keep Tom from connecting whatever’s going on with Temrash 114 to whatever’s going on with Jake, and Tom never makes the connection between those two events.  Maybe “Jake” eats too much pie, but “Jake” never hints that he knows about yeerks.  The plan succeeds.

Then they give controller-Jake a line about Marco and Cassie going with Ax to help teach him how to be Jake.  Seems reasonable – but it’s also a lie.  Marco and Cassie are headed to the Gardens to get owl morphs.

Owl is the one missing piece in the Animorphs’ repertoire when it comes to dealing with controller-Jake.  If he runs for it in the daytime, then Tobias can just follow him until he demorphs.  We know that Tobias can spot and follow a single housefly from earlier in the book, and lizard or ant should be no problem either.  Tobias might not be able to take on a tiger alone, but he can yell for Rachel to show up in elephant morph and do the job for him.  If controller-Jake goes big at night, then Cassie has cleverly accounted for his wolf morph and knows that a tiger cannot run far or hide well in California woods.  But if he goes small (lizard, roach, falcon, gull) at night, that’s when they’re going to need night hunters who can follow a single ant and out-fly a peregrine falcon.

Once they have owl morph, Temrash is in checkmate without even realizing it.

Temrash runs for it as a tiger.  Human-Rachel lets him go by, not bothering with a fight; Cassie and Marco and Tobias herd Temrash around in circles until eventually he’s face-to-face with elephant-Rachel.  Temrash runs for it as a wolf.  Cassie summons the real wolves from the area and forces him into a dominance fight.  Temrash runs for it as an ant.  The other Animorphs eat popcorn and patiently watch as that one goes to shit.  Temrash runs for it as a falcon.  Tobias gets a talon around Jake’s neck and calmly explains that he’ll start by putting Jake’s eyes out but will escalate to murder if he must.  Temrash could try flea or fly or lizard or gull, but he won’t get anywhere.

The plan is airtight.  So airtight that it’s successful against an enemy who knows all their tricks and has more morphs than anyone on the team but Cassie.

It’s just such a striking contrast to the kids barely making it out alive in #2, #3, and #5, and having to settle for half-measures in #1 and #4.  This is the first time they skillfully execute their plans — they save Jake, they get the controller-run hospital shut down — and the first time they feel like a real threat to the yeerks.  That level-up in badass continues in #7, when they strike maybe their biggest-ever blow against the yeerks by destroying the kandrona generator.  It carries them through some highly successful yeerk countermeasures in MM1, #9, and #10.  These kids are done wandering into yeerk traps and getting their butts kicked by ordinary housecats.  They’re truly starting to become an experienced and elite guerrilla force.

[moonkent]

I wonder if the initial plan for the thought speak was that it could work whenever there is someone with thought speech capabilities to establish a link and both parties could talk along it? Like how in some countries, if someone calls you, it only charges their phone account, not yours, even though you're both using the connection to talk?

Because along that line, it doesn't make sense that, in the construction site scene, the kids worry aloud whether Visser Three can hear them, and Elfangor assures them that he can't "as long as you don't direct your thoughts to him". Thing is though, how on earth did Elfangor hear their quiet conversation when NO ONE ELSE (not the Hork-Bajir with their good hearing, not the Taxxons, not the Human Controllers, not Visser Three) heard them whisper? Unless it was because he was actually hearing them along a telepathic link (because presumably they would think the same words they said - I know I do).

So maybe that was how it was meant to work, and once Tobias morphed, he could then establish the same the telepathic link with Jake and that's how Jake would be able to send Tobias a thought speak message even when not in morph.

It would have been a very handy skill! Too handy, in fact, which is likely why AppleGrant decided to scale it back.

Errors, “Errors,” and Animorphs

So in a different post I ranted about how a tiny non-distracting unfixable difference between two shirts is not an error in Jurassic Park.  IMHO, a continuity gap is only an error if:

It draws attention to itself and distracts the audience

It could’ve been fixed pretty easily in-story

It makes character, plot, or setting nonsensical

Animorphs has continuity gaps of its own.  And I have opinions about what we readers do and do not count as “error.”  First, an example that’s clearly an error:

I wondered if Tobias had heard my thought. I concentrated. Tobias, can     you hear me?

«Yeah,» he said, «I hear you.»

“Did you hear my thoughts before that?” I asked.

«No, I don’t think it works that way.  You have to think at me for me to     hear.»

—#1: The Invasion

Tobias briefly hearing Jake thought-speak in #1 breaks the rules of the setting; several other books (#2, #23, #31, #33, #46) clearly state that it’s impossible to thought-speak if one is human and not in morph.  It’s an easy fix; the re-releases and audiobooks delete this moment, and the graphic novel makes Tobias unable to hear Jake.  It distracts the audience; I’ve gotten 5 or 6 separate asks over the years of people going “I was rereading #1, and the weirdest thing…” It’s an error.  I can’t say what happened behind the scenes — K.A. Applegate toyed with a thread that was later dropped, or decided to introduce a limitation for plot fuel at a later time.  But it’s an error.

Second, an example that I don’t think counts as an error:

I returned to my life, feeling strange and out of place. That night Jake came over. We went outside.

“I tried morphing the Tyrannosaurus,” he said. “Nothing. Didn’t work.”

“You could ask Ax. He may know why.”

Jake laughed. “Yeah, but even if he explains it, I still won’t understand it.”

—MM2: In the Time of the Dinosaurs [Cassie’s narration]

The kids not being able to morph dinosaurs outside of the Cretaceous Era makes a lot of sense in context.  The whole book series would fundamentally change if they could use T. rex — that would become heavily a favored morph for many of them.  It kicks off all kinds of plot questions that demand answers: Where do the controllers think the “andalite bandits” got dino DNA? What anti-dinosaur measures would they be forced to adopt? Would the Animorphs’ whole strategy change around having those morphs? How would Rachel feel about everyone but Tobias suddenly having a much stronger morph than her? Would they even bother with contemporary animal morphs afterward?

If the kids are morphing dinosaurs all the time after ~#18, then the series loses a lot of its uniqueness.  Applegate has said that most of the inspiration for the series was about trying to help kids understand what it would really be like to be inside an animal mind, with as many animals as possible.  That’s part of why so many of the plots hinge on giving the Animorphs an excuse to learn a new morph (e.g. #4, #17, #27, #47, #52) so that we can experience the coolness right along with them.  That’s why the war is explicitly about fighting for Earth, nonhumans and all (#7, #23, #53).  If it’s not a menagerie of six different critters — including one immigrant from space — rolling up to battle, then it’s not Animorphs. No, it makes no dang sense that sario rip morphs stop working once the rip gets unripped.  But the series acknowledges it, and it allows us both to have a unique animal-based story (dinosaurs! Heckin dinosaurs!) without ruining its own premise.

Third, one that I find fascinating because it’s kind of right on the margin:

“What I don’t get is why I have to be a girl wolf,” Marco grumbled.

“We had one male and one female,” Cassie explained for the tenth time. “If two of us morphed into the male, we’d have two males. Two male wolves might decide they had to fight for dominance.”

“I could control it,” Marco said.

“Marco, you and Jake already fight for dominance, and you’re just ordinary guys,” Rachel pointed out.

—#3: The Encounter

Later, Tobias’s narration uses the word “alpha” to describe Jake’s morphed behavior — howling and peeing to mark territory, challenging another wolf pack to protect his own.

There is scientific consensus right now, as of the 2020s, that the term “alpha” is an inaccurate descriptor of pack-lead behavior, and that dominance fights between adult males are almost nonexistent.  That although wolves usually run in a phalanx-like shape with one middle-aged male and female at the point, this isn’t the result of dominance fights but rather an effort to have the physically strongest wolves absorb blows from rogue prey animals or rival predators.  That the dominance fights observed in captive wolves in the 1970s were the result of an ecology error, putting wolves from rival packs into single enclosures.  Fox (1972, 1973) gave a reasonably accurate description of how wolves behave if you put a bunch of adult strangers in a zoo together: the young adult males fight, the winner of that fight wins first access to food, and the mate of the winner gets the most resources for her puppies.

However, time rolls forward, and advances like hidden cameras (and the resurgence of wild wolf populations) allow us to watch wolves without needing to capture them first.  Mech (1999) follows some such wolves around, and quickly realizes that dominance and submission aren’t nearly as important among wolves who chose to make a pack.  Stahler et al. (2002) figure out a better way to introduce stranger wolves in captivity, and get full cooperation among young adult males.  Nowadays drones and radio collars get 1000s of times the wolf data Fox had to work with, and reveal intense cooperation with little more than play-fighting among puppies.

The Encounter comes out 1997.  Mech publishes the first big takedown of the alpha concept 1999.

Did an error occur anywhere in this process?

No, in that Applegate presumably doesn’t own a Time Matrix and published a book based on the scientific consensus at the time about how wolf social dynamics worked.

Yes, in that the error is pretty distracting — I get drawn up short by it every time I reread #3, and I know others have too.

No, in that the error was corrected in the graphic novel adaptation.

Yes, in that the error is still present in the audiobook, and Michael Crouch delivers the moment about Jake being backed into a dominance fight with all of Tobias’s exasperated humor.

No, in that the error allows for some character moments, both silly (Jake peeing on trees) and sweet (Jake being ready to take on an entire rival pack alone, over a rabbit he doesn’t want).

Yes, in that the error takes away from one of the series’ most fundamental purposes, to educate kids about animals.

Anyway, books are great, science is imperfect, and I think the more we all engage with amateur criticism the more we’re all going to learn about what counts as an error in fiction writing with inspiration in scientific reality.

[moonkent]

We notably see him NOT doing it in 10, when Erek reattaches his arm surgically, rather than through any morph healing voodoo (though it's never mentioned later if he has a scar or any issues with using it, so it's possible he could have gotten some minor healing after the fact)

Do you think that Andalites in general didn't know that injuries to your base body could be healed by morphing and that's why Elfangor didn't morph at the beginning of #1? And the Animorphs are simply doing Achievements in Ignorance?

This would explain so much about the way andalites use morphing (and don't) throughout the series. Like, #8 and #54 mention andalites with scars, and #18 implies that the T.O. thinks losing his tail is permanent. I love the idea that you have to intend morphing to heal your base form, and that if you don't specifically intend it then it won't happen.

So Rachel's ear piercings don't heal over, because she doesn't want them to (#32). Tobias's wing doesn't heal with a demorph, because he doesn't know how to make it happen (MM2). Asculan's missing an eye, apparently permanently, because he has no idea morphing could change that (#54). Mertil and Gafinilan are disabled because they believe the only alternative is nothliting (#40). And yeah, Elfangor dies because he assumes that morphing while that seriously injured would only serve to delay the inevitable (#1).

I love this idea. I'm incorporating this into my reality. Headcanon accepted.

[moonkent]

Based on @thejakeformerlyknownasprince's theory that Tobias is the Ellimist. Couldn't stop thinking about it.

....

“Have you heard of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice?”

Marco groaned. “What is this, a pop quiz? I thought I was done with those when I graduated- well, not graduated. You know what I mean.”

“It’s a Greek tragedy. The story goes that-”

“You know what’s tragic? This conversation.” Marco faked a yawn. “I think I’ll go wake Jake up to take over my shift. What time is it anyway?”

“Just humor me, will you?”

Marco sighed dramatically. He couldn’t even remember what they were talking about that led to this conversation. “Fine, Birdboy, tell me the tragedy of Opeus and Eurywhateverthefuck.”

“Orpheus and Eurydice.”

“Whatever dude.”

“I won’t bore you with all the details-” Marco let out a snort “- but the tragedy goes like this: Orpheus and Eurydice are lovers. She dies. In his grief, Orpheus decides to go down to the Underworld to rescue her. It’s a whole epic, long journey. Long story short: he rescues her. Kind of. He makes a deal with Hades, king of the underworld, to let her go. Hades lets her escape. She can follow Orpheus all the way back out of the underworld. The only condition is that Orpheus can’t look back to make sure she’s following. But it’s a long, epic journey you see. And towards the end of the journey, he can’t hear her steps anymore. Just as they’re about to make it, Orpheus can’t help but look back. She’s then forced to stay in the underworld forever. Here’s the kicker: in certain versions of the tragedy, it’s alluded to that the story keeps repeating itself over and over again. The hope is that maybe the next time, Orpheus won’t make the same mistake. But he always looks back.”

Marco let out a low whistle. “Nice bedtime story. Is there a reason you’re telling me this?” Then he narrowed his eyes. “Is this about Rachel?” Maybe it was a dick move to ask straight out. But there was something off about this whole encounter. There was something off with Tobias. Maybe posture? The voice? His eyes?

Tobias shook his head. “No. Well, not entirely. It’s about all of you. And humanity really.”

Yes, it was definitely the eyes. They were stormy and dark and- were those stars? Were those actual literal stars in his eyes? Marco took a step back, unnerved, looked around and- Yes, he was still aboard the Rachel. Everything was in its place and yet it all felt wrong. And when he squinted, the walls were- Yes, they were almost translucent.

“What?” he said, dread beginning to take hold in the pit of his stomach. “What is this?”

Tobias smiled at him sadly. “I was hoping the illusion would hold a little longer. You always were too smart for your own good.”

“Illusion?” The dread spread to the rest of his body. “What are you-”

“You’re dead, Marco.”

His face turned white. He remembered now. Ram the blade ship. He swallowed hard. He quickly sat down on the floor.

“So this is what, some fucked up afterlife? You’re dead too?”

“This isn’t an afterlife. I guess the best way to put it is that you’re not technically dead just yet, only frozen right before.”

As he spoke, Marco noticed that it wasn’t just the ship that was translucent. Tobias was too. “Ellimist,” he whispered.

Not-Tobias smiled at him again. But he didn’t turn into the old man the Ellimist always presented himself as. He just said, “Yes.”

“Why are you here? Why are you cosplaying as Tobias? Is he dead? Are the others-”

“I’m just here to talk. Aximili and Menderash are dead. Jake, Jeanne, and Santorelli will be dead soon. Tobias will too, in a way.”

If he hadn’t already been on the floor, the grief he felt then would have knocked him over.They had failed.They had failed so badly that-

“You didn’t fail,” the Ellimist said, still using Tobias’s voice. “You destroyed the One’s plans. You saved thousands of lives that would have been taken over by that creature had you all not intervened.”

Like it mattered. They had never set out to save thousands of lives. This mission was only about saving one. “The others. How did they-”

“I think it would be simpler if I showed you.” 

The air shifted around him. He was still aboard the Rachel, though it was now in ruins. He saw Jake, Tobias, and Jeanne, all human, all crouching and crying around- Marco swallowed hard. Menderash, head bashed in. Ax, a gaping hole in his chest. Himself. Marco brought his hand to his side. It had been practically cut open by some machinery when the ships had crashed. There was so much blood pooled around him. He could physically feel the agony and grief in the room, mixing with his own. He turned to the Ellimist, opened his mouth to tell him he didn’t want to see this, and then, as if he read his mind, the scene in front of him changed.

They were no longer aboard the Rachel, but in a smaller ship. An escape pod. Jake was at the controls. Santorelli was sitting next to him. 

“This took place- will take place- in about a week or so,” the Ellimist said. As he spoke, Santorelli stood up and walked towards the back of the ship, expression blank. He picked up a pole. “The rest of your friends thought the One had been defeated back at the blade ship.” Santorelli walked to the front of the ship, holding up the pole. His eyes flashed red. “We were wrong.”

“Jake, watch out!” Marco yelled, uselessly. Jake turned. Too late. Santorelli swung the pole, hard, and Jake fell like a sack of potatoes. Immediately, Santorelli was at the controls, typing away furiously, changing course. 

Jeanne was the first one out into the control room, weapon in hand. “What happened? What-” Santorelli turned to her, eyes still red. The smile he gave her was not human. Neither was the speed at which he ran at her. She fired the Shredder, missed. Santorelli was on her in half a second, bashing her head into the wall. Once. Twice. Marco knew the instant Jeanne died because he physically felt it in his stomach. Santorelli bashed her head once more. 

Then he was kicked across the room by a hork-bajir foot. <Jake! Jeanne! Wake up and morph!> Tobias yelled. Being kicked by a hork-bajir would normally kill a human, or at the very least severely injure them. Santorelli morphed. Breaking every rule Marco knew about morphing, he was a polar bear in less than two seconds flat.

<What the-> Santorelli was suddenly on top of him. Tobias kicked again, pushing Santorelli into the control panel. The ship rocked. Santorelli dove at Tobias again. The fight was over in a couple of minutes. Tobias fought hard. But a polar bear is the fiercest predator on all of earth. And The One was somehow supercharging it. Marco watched in horror as The One held a broken and battered Tobias up by the throat. But it didn’t kill Tobias. Instead, its eyes flashed red, the color growing in intensity. Tobias, who had been feebly struggling, went limp as he looked into the polar bear’s eyes.

“It’s starting to absorb him,” the Ellimist explained, once again reading Marco’s mind.

Suddenly, the polar bear roared and dropped Tobias. It fell to its knees as a tiger sank its teeth into the bear’s flank. <Tobias! Get to the panel! We can’t let this thing escape again!>

Tobias limped to the control panel as Jake continued his fight with The One. No matter how much he clawed and bit at the polar bear, it did not go down. Suddenly, the ship accelerated in the opposite direction as Tobias punched in new directions in the control panel. The passengers were slammed to the front of the ship.

The One got a hold of Jake. Made him look into its eyes. Tobias crawled across the small ship and grabbed Jeanne’s abandoned shredder. He switched it to the highest setting and fired at The One. The blast should have killed it. The polar bear roared, its fur burning. But it did not let go of Jake. Tobias switched gears, pointing the shredder instead to the front of the ship. At the window. He met Jake’s gaze, his eyes now glazed over and a horrible tint of red.

<Do it.> 

Tobias fired. The window cracked. The One turned to him then and charged at him. Too late. Tobias had already fired again. And again. The window shattered and there was nothing left to protect the ship’s passengers from the vacuum of space.

“Nooooo!” Marco screamed as Jake’s body fell off the ship, as he felt his best friend die. Jeanne’s body followed after him. The One had gotten a hold of Tobias as he held onto the console. It tried to reach over him at the panel. Tobias slammed his fist against the panel and the ship was spinning now, out of control.The One clutched at Tobias, trying not to fall. Tobias let go of the console. He and The One tumbled out of the ship.

Marco closed his eyes, expecting the physical pull of his friend’s death. But it didn’t come. Marco opened his eyes, and watched as the Ellimist essentially- Well, he zoomed out of the illusion. He watched Tobias and The One continue to fall. He saw them be sucked into a black hole. 

Still, Tobias didn’t die. Neither did The One. At least not yet. Time fast forwarded in front of him. Marco didn’t know how long. It could have been a few months, or a few centuries, but eventually he felt The One die. Saw the creature be killed by the Ellimist. Toomin. Tobias.

Marco turned to him, eyes narrowed. “It’s you. It’s been you this entire time.”

Tobias smiled at him, though his eyes were sad. “Your friend Tobias died in that black hole. Too much time has passed. I’ve experienced so many lives, some lived, others acquired through memories, that I could never claim to be just one person. But yes, I was once Tobias.”

Marco shook his head. The implications of what he was saying were- well, he couldn’t think about it right now. “I still don’t get it. Why am I here? Why are-” He thought then, of the story Tobias had told him. “You’re trying to change things.” Something like hope began to spread across his chest.

Tobias, not Tobias, shook his head. “It’s not what you think. I can’t change anything that has happened here.”

Marco’s heart sank. “Okay, so you can’t bring me back. But The One’s attack hasn’t  happened yet. We can still-”

“No,” Tobias was shaking his head again. “I can’t change anything here again. It would violate the rules of-”

“This isn’t a fucking game!” Marco exploded, throwing his hands in the air. “What the hell is wrong with you!? These are your friends, damnit! You have the power to change things. I know you do! So fucking do something! ”

Tobias stared at him for a moment, then said, “If I were to save any of you right now, Crayak would immediately retaliate by destroying humanity. He might send a deadly disease or a weapon like the Howlers to annihilate every creature on earth.” Marco swallowed. “He’s done it before.”

The story keeps repeating over and over again. The feeling of dread was back. I can’t change anything here again. “What is this, some twisted groundhog day?”

Tobias tilted his head, thoughtfully. “In a way. Time… time is a tool, a weapon, even, that Crayak can wield. That I can too. But not without its limits. Some things we can change. Maybe you save someone who later fathers a doctor who goes on to find the cure for polio or cancer or whatever. In the future, someone who would have died from said disease as a kid instead becomes a prolific campaign manager who helps elect a president that wouldn’t have been elected otherwise. Said president prevents what would have been a world ending war. Etcetera, etcetera. You remember the time matrix.” Marco nodded. “But other things… some things are unchangeable. They will happen regardless. I don’t know why, but they do. The yeerks will always invade earth. The outcome of that war may change, but not the fact that it exists. Tobias will always fall through that black hole. It might be when he’s 19 or 60 but it will always happen.”

It was too much. This was all too much. “Why am I here?”

The Ellimist smiled at him. “Because you’ve always been great at finding the bright clear line. And right now I need that.”

Marco yelped as suddenly there were strings and lines and threads of all lengths and colors around him. He had the strangest feeling that if he moved, he’d be cut in pieces. Tobias snorted. “These aren’t lasers.” Marco glared at him. He really hated it when he did that. Tobias ignored him. “This is the fabric of time and space. A copy of it anyway.”

“Right, because that’s so much less terrifying,” Marco muttered. Still, he reached out a tentative finger and touched one of the strings.That section of the thread vibrated, and immediately, the threads around it began to vibrate as well.

“That’s a ripple,” The Ellimist explained. “Some changes have much bigger ripples than others. Watch.” Tobias reached out a finger and plucked one thread. The strings around it barely moved. He plucked at another and hundreds of threads around it began to vibrate. One of the threads, one that seemed to stretch for miles, shook violently, shaking other threads as it went. Marco followed the string with his eyes until he saw-

“What the hell is that?”

Tobias waved a hand in the air. “Jesus fucking christ,” Marco exclaimed as the strings all moved to the side, a new section of the threads now in front of him. Tobias waved his hand again. This new section of threads made way for new ones. The Ellimist was scrolling through the threads. He continued to do so until the section Marco had seen appeared before them. The rest of the thread had been taut and a bright, glowing white. This part was brittle, twisting and sagging, and a putrid greenish-black.

“I call it the rot,” Tobias explained. “This is one of those things that can’t be avoided.” The rot spread from one section of threads to the rest. Tobias scrolled through sections of the threads again. Soon, the only threads Marco could see were those that were rotting.

“What is it?” Marco said.

“It’s not good,” Tobias said plainly. “It’s like a poison. Maybe a virus. Every thread you see here represents thousands, millions of sentient beings destroyed by the rot. Not killed, but worse. If left unchecked, it will continue to spread to all threads around it. This is what I wanted your help with.”

“Don’t suppose I have much of a choice,” Marco said bitterly.

“Of course you have a choice, Marco.”

“Yeah? Stay here and talk to you or go back to bleeding out aboard the Rachel?”

Tobias winced. “Yeah, sorry. I can’t-”

“Can’t interfere. Yeah, yeah.” Marco rolled his eyes and sighed. It had been the right move, to come to him as Tobias. Marco was angry. So very mad and bitter and betrayed. But it would be so much easier to refuse to help the Ellimist he knew, an aggravating strange old man, than his old, trusted friend. Marco wondered for a second if maybe the Ellimist was making the whole thing up. But what difference did it make, really? He was still dead.

“I’ve run through hundreds and thousands of scenarios,” Not-Tobias said. He zoomed out of this section of threads. Zoomed into other sections of threads. He strung some threads. Cut others. Braided some with each other.  “I’ve even played out a couple,” he admitted, “when I thought I had figured out a way to contain it.” Every time he zoomed out, the rot was still there. Sometimes the spread of it was bigger. Other times it was contained to smaller sections of threads. “I can’t get rid of it. I can only hope to contain it. Try to delay it as much as I can.” Marco stepped back. There were hundreds, thousands, millions of possibilities. How could he possibly- 

“I found one possibility, one way to contain it as much as I can.” Tobias zoomed out one more time, carefully zoomed in until he found a specific set of threads. He cut them. He zoomed out again and again and scrolled and scrolled. Finally, towards what seemed to be the end of the threads, Marco saw the rot. It was contained to a few single strings. “If I play my cards right, I may even be able to contain the Crayak here.” Marco looked towards the end of the threads and saw only darkness.

“What’s-”

“That’s the inevitable heat death of the universe. Or this universe at least. Maybe another one eventually evolves again. I can’t say for certain.” Not-Tobias shrugged. Marco blinked at him. “Don’t worry about it. It won’t happen for another few million years.”

Marco shook his head, looked back towards what was left of the rot in this scenario. “It seems like you have your answer then. Why not set it into motion?”

The Ellimist zoomed back to where he had cut the strings. He pointed at them. “This is humanity.”

Marco gaped at him. “No. No! Are you insane? How is this even an option??”

“I’ve been looking for other options for centuries. I haven’t found any other way.”

“Then keep looking!” Marco yelled. “How could you even consider this? These are your people!!”

The Ellimist shook his head. “I haven’t been a human for a long time. And regardless, it isn’t just humanity I have to protect. There are millions of other species out there. Thousands-”

“You can’t just undo everything we fought for! Everything you fought for! What’s the matter-”

With a wave of the Ellimist’s hand, Marco was suddenly gone. Back at the Rachel. But not in pain. The Ellimist filled his mind with only his happiest memories. For Marco, this conversation never happened. He would meet death not with fear, but with a laugh.

It was what the Ellimist should have done in the first place. He never should have talked to him, revealed himself, upset him for now reason before his death. Besides, this conversation usually ended the same way. 

It had been a while since he’d appeared in front of his old friends, since he’d told them the truth of who he was.

Hi Jake.

How’s it going, Cassie?

Hey, Ax-man.

Maybe he should have gone to Cassie, instead. Technically she wouldn’t be dead for another sixty years. Not that it mattered. She might be able to understand.

But.

The Ellimist had not gone to Marco to help him find a solution. He knew the solution. This was the solution. This was what he needed to do.

He could not sacrifice billions upon billions of lives to save one planet, no matter how dear it was to him. He could not be selfish about this.

But.

He had talked to one of his old friends. Felt his anger. His betrayal. The Ellimist has been reminded of he’d been, once upon a time. He had looked back.

The Ellimist needed to make his next move. He needed to defeat Crayak or risk losing so much more than humanity. He needed to stop the rot.

But the Ellimist always looked back.

He sighed. You win, he thought. He would keep looking. Maybe he would find another solution. Maybe this time, the end would be different. 

Maybe if he started from the beginning one more time.

..

My name is Tobias. I can’t tell you my last name. Or where I live. It’s too dangerous.