#animorphs lb

[lakesbian]

if left alone in sufficiently dire circumstances children will immediately and spontaneously elect one of their number as the leader, generally without that child's desire, capability, or consent

[shakertwelve]

“Yeah,” he said.  “Now me passing out drunk might mean I screw up the time window for passing back control, however many alarms I set, and I can’t do that to Byron.”

the two-hour thing isn't an inherent part of their power, right? it's just something they've agreed on? of course they both never feel like they get to do what they want, that's no time at all. it might not fix everything but you could almost definitely improve this situation by setting a better front schedule

[torsamors]

the more i watch tng / star trek the more im like oh the animorphs authors mustve been star trek fans

[knightlyss]

“you’re surrounded... but you called”

[snowdroprd]

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[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

question: for a story im writing, i was wondering if you had any idea how someone could get into the yeerk pool other than the front door. They sealed up the edges, i assume, and you cant burrow in through bedrock. I need to get in at least one animorph carrying a ~1 lb object, so it cant be an insect, and walking in the front door is so risky (plus they have to, yknow, escape afterwards). Thanks if you answer!

So a few ideas, based on Animorphs books:

Tunnel in from above as moles and fly in as bats (#17)

Go in through the pipes as eels (#29)

Walk in as humans, joining the line of hosts there to feed yeerks (#1)

Tunnel in as taxxons, then blend in with the taxxon-controllers (#43)

Steal a Bug fighter and fly it into the repair dock (#45)

Smash an entire airplane (#37) or spaceship (#38) through a known entrance

[xenosaurus]

I am crying laughing at this alien child, holy SHIT

[rorykillmore]

have i mentioned that i hate david but i legitimately adore his arc because the tense build up of the kids’ slow realization that they’ve taken someone onto their team who they absolutely cannot control is so well-executed and terrifying

[digital-dragoon]

ohh marco...... 

[humandisastersquad]

ICONIC

[moronji]

heyy i finished book one and. this is good... but im rly glad i didnt read this when i was young fkdjsf

[lakesbian]

i genuinely love that the way k.a applegate resolves the issue of needing the alien on the team to be able to drop plot crumbs without totally solving everything for the human kids is by making aximili-esgarrouth-isthill a jock who only tangentially paid attention to when his teachers were explaining, like, the andalite equivalent of how to find the cosine of a triangle, and now he's in an astronomically rare circumstance where the fate of an entire species depends on him remembering how to do that. and he's cold sweating trying to recall the answers to homework problems he didn't do. and also he's always lying.

[ariyadaivaris]

AAAA THE SLUGOFF AND JACK USING THE MOMENTUM FROM ONE OF HIS PUNCHES TO SEND HIS OTHER ARM INTO A GUT PUNCH WHILE GABLE WASNT GUARDING!!! USING THE ADVANTAGE TO GET EVEN FURTHER AHEAD THAT WAS SO SMART AAAI LOVE U!!

[nikosheba]

So, Why Don’t Andalites Morph More?

Doing a scattered and out-of-order reread after uhhhh 15-20 yers or so, and have been talking to some people about Animorphs for the first time ever (hi new friends! Hi older friends who are coming with me!). And one of the things I wanted to talk about is that question: If they invented the morphing technology and hold it up as their greatest technological achievement, why don’t Andalites use the Escafil device more often? If all Andalite warriors are morph-capable, why not make use of that?

At first, it seems like almost a plothole. But like is often the case, if you hold the question in your mind while you flit through the series, you come to some conclusions. At least, I do. These aren’t all going to lead to each other, but I think they’re all rather important points.

1. Andalites spend most of their time in environments that an Andalite body is the most suited for. At least, this is true of the Andalites we’ve seen the most of; we don’t see Andalites in the Rakkam Garroo conflict, or a dozen other places, but most of the time when we see them, they’re either on their ships, or they’re in places where being a well-balanced 700-lb quadruped (ask me about my Andalite Weight Headcanons, I have proof!) with a deadly and accurate natural weapon, plus lots of nimble fingers, would be at least as suitable as the dominant species, barring conflict. One assumes that if they needed to go onto a planet with, say, vastly different gravity, or with terrible footing, they would plan accordingly with a suitable morph. Elfangor actually refers to it as “technology that enables us to pass unnoticed in many parts of the universe;” he doesn’t seem to think of it as something to use for battle, either!

2. The tech is still new. Andalite society is very ritualized, and so is the Andalite military. One assumes that while it makes sense to organize certain new divisions around a new technology (such as espionage, which is mentioned multiple times), it makes sense that they wouldn’t completely re-form all policies around something that’s been around less than 30 human years (and we have no idea how long an Andalite lifespan is, but can assume that it’s at least as long as a human lifespan, likely much longer (I...have headcanons about that too).

3. Older Andalites don’t seem to use it as medical tech. I’m just extrapolating here, but given that we see some Andalites (Alloran, the soldier on the bridge of the Ascalin) who are morph-capable carrying scars or even missing parts (in a society that shuns the disabled!) when they could morph and shuck all non-genetic injuries, there seems to be an acceptable prejudice against using the tech this way - or at least, no one is going to force them to use it that way.

4. There are drawbacks to morphing - that become more pronounced when you are already the most dangerous animal in most situations. Kinda speaks for itself; Andalites are used to being the most dangerous creature around. They’re also VERY proud of being Andalites. The threat of being controlled by another animal’s instincts, or being stuck as something other than an Andalite, must be terrifying.

5. This one only struck me today: how exactly would they get their hands on the animals? Andal doesn’t have a lot of animals. Certainly not the number and variety that Earth does. And Ax mentions in #28 that “we practiced morphing these creatures, but caging them, killing them, eating them, was unthinkable. We were creatures from the same world.” We can extrapolate from that that Andalites probably don’t keep pets, and certainly don’t have zoos. When’s the last time you managed to touch an animal that wasn’t a pet, and wasn’t in any sort of confinement? And Earth supposedly has WAY more animals than Andal!

6. Sure, it would be useful - but how many useful things to know do humans routinely practice, species-wide? It’s useful to know how to start a fire without matches, just in case you get stuck without them. But how many people really can, or expect to find themselves in that situation? It’s useful to know how to tell direction by the stars, or let’s say ride a horse. Most people could probably figure out how to ride a horse reasonably well, and lots have done it once or twice. But very few learn to ride very well, because it’s not an easy skill, and is only useful in certain situations, or recreationally, or for people in certain lines of work. (similarly, Andalites have Morph Dancers, and they have their spies, and most people can do it or have done it once or twice, but they don’t seem to be too bothered by it.)

7. Andalites have other medical tech. Elfangor mocks human doctors for being “unable to deal with something as simple as a tumor without cutting a person open,” so obviously, that sort of thing is pretty easy for Andalite doctors. So while it’s certainly helpful, it’s far from the only method of medicine they have.

8. The Andalites we see trained for morphing are very good at it. Gafinilan, who I assume is espionage-trained, acquired and used several morphs (at least horned owl, possum, and human) to great effect. Estrid is able to morph full sets of clothing. 

9. Most of the time we see Andalites that we think should be morphing and aren’t, they’re in the heat of battle, stressed for time, or may not be trained for it. Elfangor is mortally wounded (I have other headcanons for why he doesn’t morph in the first book but I’ll Save That For My AU), the crew of the Ascalin is both under great stress and a time constraint, Arbat is being surrounded by Taxxons. Morphing does take a couple minutes, even for a practiced estreen, and for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing? Doing something they practiced once in school? Understandable!

Anyway, this is getting long, but all this to say, after thinking about it, I don’t think it’s actually that strange.

[snowdroprd]

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[uniformbravo]

my animorphs liveblog posts r so fuckin good lately its a shame i literally never post them bc if yall could see the shit i wrote today heehoo