#Edriss and Esplin

[kooldewd123]

the whole "andalite bandit" thing is actually pretty laughable when you take step back and look at it. because when you compare the animorphs' actions to the way that andalites actually act - they don't really do that good a job of selling it. "if we never talk, we won't give them any hints we're human!" meanwhile every single andalite who comes face-to-face with visser three immediately starts cursing him out. "let's fight them with earth animals!" as if any self-respecting andalite warrior (ax included) wouldn't just use his tail blade given the opportunity. "we must never let them see us demorph!" the andalites have basically no reason to worry about hiding their identities - as far as they're concerned, there's no way the yeerks could ever hurt them in a way that matters, anyway.

and the biggest irony of it is that visser three is the single yeerk who should have the easiest time seeing through this, seeing as how he is the yeerk's foremost expert on andalite behavior even ignoring the fact that he is currently infesting one, but he's such an arrogant blowhard that once he gets the idea of "andalite bandits" into his head he absolutely refuses to entertain the notion that he's wrong.

[church-of-crayak]

I have a theory that Visser 3 would have failed an invasion of Earth because he didn't understand human politics, and human nature. On the Yeerk and Andalite home worlds they have a few spaceports but they don't have the infrastructure and confusing nations that would make it impossible to fall.

If you strike an Andalite spaceport (the closest thing they have to a city) you cripple the Andalite War effort.

If you wipe out a major human city like say New York, or Tokyo there's many others to fight back and entire governments and militaries to fight back with completely different structures.

It seems that most alien races in the animorphs have a pretty united government.

yeah, it also helps that all these different spots humans exist in are Packed Full of us. we're incredibly fucking plentiful, that's what makes us so attractive as a host species, but it's also what makes us the hardest to scoop up in one go.

i think there's also something to be said about the fact that visser three's ultimate goal is not to conquer the human race, but to conquer the andalites. he's an andalite nerd & admirer first, and that means that for the entire earth invasion, instead of taking visser one's strategy at face value and keeping the yeerk invasion quiet and slow, he's worried instead about what happens five, ten steps down the line. he's not really concerned with the way humans work.

like...Edriss was the original leader of the earth invasion for a reason, and she did this and accomplished all she did by actually doing research into humans, infiltrating them herself, and finding out what makes them tick. She also made a bunch of enormous fucking mistakes, obviously, and she's got a very similar (albeit... very slightly less all-consumingly violent?) obsession with humanity as esplin does with andalites, which hurts more than it helps.

i think that as far as visser three is concerned, the humans could and should have been infested in droves on day one. he can't imagine a species being anywhere close to as resilient and awesome as the andalites, and that's where he fails. he's infinitely more concerned with the "andalite bandits" coming for him than he is about any of the humans he's subjugating turning on him (cough. cough. also the andalite bandits).

it also helps that he's just plain stupid

[littlecrazyhelmacron]

Rivals

Edriss 562/Visser One, Iniss 226, Esplin 9466/Visser Three

Part of an illustration to go with a story idea that was stuck in my head. I wasn't sure about including the other two (Cassie and Esplin in a human host) in the picture because they aren't finished yet, but these three work together (lol) in a picture just fine. Pretty much the only way you're going to get them working together ever :P

[ao3feed-undertale1]

Animorphs: the skeleton.

read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/54189751 by Pirevma Sans investigates the machine in his workshop and ends up getting yanked out of his universe and shoved skull-first into an interplanetary war. He ends up helping Earth's only resistance, a band of child soldiers. But not everything goes as planned… In short, Sans Undertale in Animorphs. Takes place immediately after MM3. Words: 3566, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate, Undertale (Video Game) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/M Characters: Sans (Undertale), Papyrus (Undertale), Flowey (Undertale), Frisk (Undertale), Chara (Undertale), Jake Berenson, Rachel (Animorphs), Tobias (Animorphs), Cassie (Animorphs), Marco (Animorphs), Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, The Ellimist (Animorphs), Visser Three | Esplin 9466, Visser One | Edriss 562 Relationships: Jake Berenson/Cassie, Rachel/Tobias (Animorphs) Additional Tags: Crossover, Dimension Travel, Sans Knows About Resets But Doesn't Remember Them (Undertale), in fact he doesn't even get deja vu like everyone else does, Manipulative Flowey, Chara (Undertale) Isn't Evil, Sub-Temporally Grounded Cassie, takes place immediately after megamorphs #3, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Canon-Typical Violence read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/54189751

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

That is such a good point. Esplin 9466 would never willingly infest a small-bodied soccer mom whose advantages are:

Bilingualism

Excellent hair

End of list. At least from his point of view.

And Edriss 562 would fight tooth and nail not to give up a human host once she had one, but — if forced — would at least choose a parent more invested than Alloran. (He mentions having two kids in #8, but his job seems to take him away from them for months at a time, as in the Chronicleses.)

I also can't see a reason that the Council of Thirteen would ever force the issue of a switch. I guess they might give Alloran as a prize to whichever visser they like best that month, and we know they target Eva because of Peter, but I don't see them assigning Eva to someone who's already a single-digit visser. Esplin 9466 does okay at pretending to be Aria in #13, so maybe we're underestimating his passing-as-human abilities, but it's still hard to figure out how he got there in the first place.

What if Visser One infested Alloran and Visser Three infested Eva instead?

Visser Three infesting Eva: likely to end in divorce from Peter, but probably okay outside of that.

Visser One infesting Alloran: I can't figure out how this doesn't end in a total party kill. Anyone else have thoughts?

[vegalocity]

Can you draw Tripitaka from your Animorph AU please

Gladly, Anon

Behold, the meanest Alien slug to have ever possessed a monk

[jennydyn]

is this incomprehensible enough for yall

[deepfang-dreamer]

One of my absolute favorite thing about Animorphs is the lack of any "Ontological Evil". I do greatly enjoy the Lower Planes residents of various DnD settings, I enjoy Frieren's Demons being unemotional predators, I enjoy Goblin Slayer's vile eponymous antagonists. Evil is fun to watch be destroyed, and it's always so much simpler when you can be 100% sure all your protagonists' kills are justified. But Animorphs doesn't have that. Animorphs has Evil people(Edriss, Esplin, David). It has flawed people, on every side of the conflict(Aftran, Rachel, Toomin). It has Evil organizations(The Empire, and the individual Sharing chapters). But there is no "this species is objectively good or bad". Humans, Taxxons, Andalites, Yeerks, all people, all trying to survive and indulge on varying scales of morality. Except the Hork-Bajir, they're angels.

She slipped her hand into my hand. I could feel it. So could the Yeerk. But he did not reject this small bit of comfort, even though it was intended for me and not him.

I think this set Animorphs apart for me as a child.

Here, and in the subsequent chapter, Jake ends up, to some degree, mourning the Yeerk. The same Yeerk who made his own brother give up hope for anything but death. The one who promised Jake and his friends the same fate.

Because he witnesses Temrash's agonizing death and the memories of his life. He admits he's sad seeing this arrogant would-be destroyer of Earth die powerless and afraid.

There's no sparing Temrash in a way that doesn't end in Earth losing. He's gotta die. He can't be reformed to see the people he wants to conquer as people. He never feels any remorse. But still, cruel and horrible as he is, he's a person. Later books will "humanize" the Yeerks further but Temrash's death is the first peak into that.

And the book doesn't treat this as a pure triumph. We linger on Temrash's failing hope and his fear and his pain. It's written slowly. Jake describes it as "the saddest" thing he's experienced since becoming an Animorph. He doesn't stomp on Temrash like in the TV adaptation. Rather we get this:

I rose slowly to my feet. I moved my own legs. I was in control of myself again. I looked down at the wooden floor of the shack. A gray slug, not six inches long, lay there . . . still. As we watched, it withered and shriveled and became nothing.

I don't think I got quite the same chills reading this as a kid as I do now, but I know it wasn't what I'd been expecting. And that's a good thing.

[krakendra]

Sometimes I feel the deepest empathy for Edriss. Can you fuckin' imagine? You find the PERFECT planet of the PERFECT hosts - they're fertile, there's billions with a b, they got the most useable digits, they don't believe in aliens.

And some idiot is in charge instead of you.

They got an FBI agent? Edriss could do SO MUCH with that!

instead she's sulkily piloting Eva's body and trying to capture Leeran-Controllers.

[grilledcheese-savage]

Why is visser one such a wine mom? I legit can’t/won’t stop talking about this. When Marco convinced her he was a yeerk technician in that one book and she’s just so casual about wanting to ruin visser three’s life I just feel like she’s lounging on a couch somewhere with a glass of wine shitting on other people in front of her kids (her kids being any yeerk under her)

[princeseerow]

seerow and aldrea are both valid homestuck troll names

[lilacnothlit]

I highly recommend everyone get on the wayback machine and read "Six Days The Animorphs Were Idiots." Rachel gets Jake wasted on Baileys right before a major Andalite negotiation. Esplin and Edriss have a bad date, and he responds by becoming a crazy cat lady and sticking his hooves in Ramen bowls. Jake lends Tobias clothes for a fancy date and then asks "Wait, when's the last time you showered?" "...It rained three days ago."

"Visser, she says she has captured certain prisoners for you. She says, because she knew you would ask, yes, you can eat them."

What if Yeerks were actually plants?

A few months ago, I stumbled across this question on Reddit: What's your favourite obscure headcanon?

Among all the replies, there was this one:

Honestly, I think it was a revelation for me. It immediately made me think of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, that fungus that zombifies ants — if you’re not familiar with it, I strongly suggest NOT looking it up, especially if you’ve just eaten. Seriously.

And yeah, when you think about the Yeerks and how they work, it honestly makes way more sense to see them as plant-adjacent rather than animal-like.

What do you think?

[andalitean]

an animorphs ask game for all the fanimorphs and fandalites out there!

send some names/emojis to the person who reblogged this! (some of these are for fun and some are more serious, reblog at your own risk ;) happy animorphs phriday!)

🍎Applegate: What is your favorite book in the main series (1-54) and why?

🍏Grant: What is your favorite book not from the main series (anything not 1-54) and why?

🐯Jake: Favorite war crime committed in Animorphs?

🐺Cassie: What would your battle morph be?

🦍Marco: Favorite comedic moment in the books?

🐻Rachel: What do you think the Animorphs would be doing in the 21st century?

🦅Tobias (apologizing to him in advance for the eagle emoji): Is your favorite animal ever used as a morph in the books? If not, come up with a plot where someone might have to acquire it.

🦌Ax: Invent a new creature. How would you describe it to a 10 year old?

🐶Erek: What historical event would be the most fun for the Chee to be responsible for?

👑Edriss: ......Did edriss have girlpower when she wanted to spare humanity instead of launching an outright attack on earth just to save the human children she forced her host to bear?

🐌Esplin: Imagine Esplin has another identical brother (besides the cannibal twin). Make up that guy's backstory.

🚀Elfangor: If you could redo one part of your life, what would it be?

🦋Aftran: Have you ever experienced a paradigm shift? What was it?

☀️Tom: What would it take for you to be convinced to join the Sharing?

🐀David: Most jaw-dropping/horrifying moment in the books?

🏀Michael Jordan: Favorite 90s/early 2000s reference in the books?

✨Ellimist: What is alternate universe you doing right now?

🎮Crayak: Favorite running gag in the books?

❤️Ronnie: (Free space! Ask your own question here)

[featherquillpen]

Animorphs Universe Timeline

This is a timeline not about specific books, but about major events in the history of the Animorphs universe. Shoutout to the Animorphs timeline makers who have come before me (1, 2, 3) for giving me a basis for this one.

10,000 BC: An asteroid strike causes an ecological disaster. In response, the Arn create the Hork-Bajir to terraform their planet into a place where the Arn can live sustainably. (1)

2,000 BC: The Chee arrive on Earth after the genocide of their creators, the Pemalites. (2)

~1965: The morphing technology is invented by an Andalite named Escafil. (1)

1966: Seerow's Kindness. Prince Seerow provides advanced technology to the Yeerks, and the Yeerk Empire is born. (1)

1968: Aldrea and her family arrive on the Hork-Bajir homeworld; the war between the Yeerks and the Andalites over the fate of the Hork-Bajir begins. (1)

1970: Alloran unleashes the quantum virus on the Hork-Bajir; Aldrea becomes a Hork-Bajir nothlit. (1)

1981: Alloran is infested by Esplin 9466; Arbron becomes trapped in morph as a Taxxon; Elfangor becomes trapped in morph as a human. (3)

1984: All six of the Animorphs are born; Elfangor returns to the war. (3)

1985: Loren loses all her memories and becomes disabled in a car accident conveniently arranged by the Ellimist. (4)

1991: Edriss 562 and Essam 293 arrive on Earth. (5)

1992: Edriss 562 as Lore David Altman founds the Sharing. (5)

1994: Edriss 562 takes Eva as a host. (6)

December 1995: Edriss 562 fakes Eva's death. (6)

Fall 1997: Tom is taken as a host. (7)

Fall 1997: Elfangor is killed at the construction site; the human Animorphs get the morphing power. (7)

Fall 2000: The Yeerk War ends. (8)

I really wish I knew how many years Aldrea lived with Dak as a Hork-Bajir before her death, and when Seerow Hamee was born, but I couldn't find anything in book 34 that specified it.

(1) The Hork-Bajir Chronicles.

(2) Book 10: The Android.

(3) These dates are arrived at by a series of inferences. First of all, let us grant that the Animorphs are all the same age, as implied by Elfangor's vision of the Animorphs' timelines at the end of the Andalite Chronicles. Second, let us grant that they are all thirteen in book 1, as told to us by Jake in book 54. Third, let us grant that the events of book 1 take place in 1997, as argued here. Fourth, the Andalite Chronicles tell us that Elfangor is whisked back to the war three years after the main events of the book, and Loren is pregnant at the time.

(4) In book 49, we learn that Tobias was a baby when Loren had the car accident.

(5) Visser tells us that Edriss and Essam landed in the middle of Operation Desert Storm; Edriss's first human host was an Iraqi soldier in that conflict.

(6) In book 5, Marco says it's been two years since his mom's "death." If we assume that book 1 is in fall 1997 (as argued here) then it makes sense for book 5 to be in winter 1997, and for Edriss to have used the reason of Eva boating in December for some godforsaken reason to fake her death. Peter also says in book 10 that his relationship with Eva drastically changed a year before her death.

(7) I'm accepting this timeline, which helps align the events of the war with certain pop culture references made by Marco, but Fall 1996 is not a bad choice here either.

(8) Jake says in book 54 that he is 13 when the war starts and 16 when it ends, so the war has to end about three years later.

[forlay]

put edriss and esplin in the sims <3 they have two seperate houses on the same lot and edriss keeps walking her dirty dishes over to esplins house to leave them there

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

animorphs!

the first character i ever fell in love with:

Rachel "a lot of Yeerks and goyim stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them" Berenson, although I loved Eva "Genesis 3:15" Marcosmom by proxy even before I started reading because she was the first character the friend who pitched the books to me gushed about.

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not:

At first I thought Edriss 562/Visser One, the Yeerk whose host Eva is, was kind of iconic in a gaslight gatekeep girlboss sort of way, but after reading the side story from her POV, I've concluded that she's the fucking worst and deserved everything she got.

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not:

I haven't really lost interest in any Animorphs ships yet!

my ultimate favorite character™:

Again, Rachel.

prettiest character:

Rachel and Eva. Also Taylor, the slightly-older, evil, Yeerk-infested doppelganger of Rachel who tortures Tobias in book 33.

my most hated character:

Probably Edriss 562, although the Ellimist takes a strong second place for being the most malignly useless ostensibly-benevolent godlike being I've encountered in fiction since the useless dragon from Merlin.

my OTP:

Rachel/Tobias aka Queer and Different Heterosexual Relationship (For Real This Time) aka Canon-Typical Zoophilia, which I wasn't expecting to like at all but fell for incredibly hard and fast. It helps that I'm processing some of my own gender and ethnoreligious shit through Tobias's discomfort with his body and his human relationships, so I'm reading some of what my younger self went through psychologically and spiritually into the ship as well.

my NOTP:

I ran across someone claiming that the horrifying Edriss/Eva/Peter/Nora situation is the sort of thing that could be solved by polyamory and I'd rather eat glass than give any quarter at all to that incredibly fucked-up notion.

favorite episode:

N/a but my favorite book is probably 19, the first one with Aftran in it.

saddest death:

I mean. Rachel. There's not much competition here since most of the other deaths are of either much less important characters or villains. It's sad in a meta way, though, that Jake spends the entire series motivated by saving his brother, but ends up ordering Rachel to just kill him along with his Yeerk.

favorite season:

N/a.

least favorite season:

The books I hate most are The Ellimist Chronicles and the Civil War one, which have the exact same problem: both stitch together two plots that are individually fine in a way that has morally repellent implications.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate:

"Hate" is a very strong word but I think there's a reluctance to acknowledge some of the awful stuff Ax does and believes in favor of reducing him to the more-than-usually-literal cinnamon roll angle.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave:

I've spent half this post gushing about a character who's a risk-addicted sadist and has entire plotlines revolving around her attempts at coming to terms with this fact about herself. Guess.

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave:

I'm choosing violence by saying this, but Cassie.

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship:

Not a specific ship, but Esplin 9466/Visser Three has an Andalite fetish that I am convinced would be just as obvious as Gul Dukat from DS9's Bajoran fetish if these weren't children's books.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship:

This is where I'm at with both Jake/Cassie and Cassie/Aftran.

send me a fandom and i’ll tell you…