This is the character sheet for the Animorphs series.
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Animorphs
My name is...
Jake
Jake is one of those people who are natural leaders. If you were ever trapped in a burning building, you would turn to Jake and ask "What do we do?" And he would have an answer, too.
"Big Jake, Fearless Leader" of the Animorphs; not because he wanted to be, but because his friends look to him for guidance. While saving the world is nice, what he really wants most is to save his brother Tom, a Controller. Known as an open and friendly guy at the beginning of the series, the constant pressures of having to act as leader and manipulate his friends for strategic ends gradually cause him to become more ruthless.
Achilles in His Tent: For a short time in The Ultimateafter failing to keep his parents from getting infested.
Alternate Self: In the third Megamorphs book, an alternate Jake is seen having grown up in a totalitarian society. He's a junior Nazi and wannabe dictator.
Big Friendly Dog: Jake's first morph is his pet golden retriever, Homer. Homer later appears as Jake's cover morph in The Threat.
Cain and Abel: Played with. Jake and his older brother Tom are enemies, but it's not Tom's fault.
The Call Knows Where You Live: Jake didn't get really determined to fight the Yeerks until he found out about his brother being a Controller.
Cannot Tell a Joke: Jake can snark with the best of them, but when it comes to telling outright jokes, he inevitably summons the crickets. Even Ax, at one point, gets a big laugh just by repeating a joke that Jake had told earlier. Nobody laughed the first time.
The Chessmaster: As the series reaches it's climax, Jake resorts to increasingly more amoral actions to win the war.
Comes Great Responsibility: "Power enough to win? No. Power enough to fight? Ah, yes. Just enough, little Jake, here is just enough power to imprison you in a cage of duty, to make you fight."
Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Magnificently played out in The Attack. He manipulates the collective memory of the Howlers to force Crayak into eliminating them.
Fighting From The Inside: In The Capture Jake becomes a Controller. He never stops fighting the Yeerk in his head.
First Name Basis: For fifty-two books. His full name is finally revealed in The Answer as Jake Berenson.
Fly Crazy: This is his cover morph in The Capture. In The Warning he almost dies after being swatted as one.
Fragile Speedster: His flight morph, a peregrine falcon. It's not a Big Badass Bird of Prey, but it's by far the fastest bird any of them have. It's his cover morph in The Conspiracy.
Future Badass: In the Bad Future of The Familiar, Jake is a huge good guy who looks like he's worked out since adolescence.
Good Is Not Nice: Not after three years of leading a guerilla army, anyway.
Got Volunteered: This is how he became the leader of the Animorphs.
The Hero: Jake is the only character with preexisting ties to each of the other Animorphs and since he is one of those people who are natural leaders it only made since.
Manipulative Bastard: Not at first, but as the series goes on Jake slowly evolves into one.
Military Brat: Neither of Jake's parents are military, but his great-grandfather fought in World War II and he has a relative who fought in the Civil War.
Panthera Awesome: Siberian tiger, his favorite morph. He also has a jaguar as his cover morph in The Forgotten.
Reunion Kiss: After twenty-six books, Jake's first kiss with Cassie ends up being this.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: One of Jake's first morphs was a green anole lizard. The experience he had with it seems to have scared him off reptile morphs in general. The only other reptiles he ever morphs are the Tyrannosaurus Rex in Megamorphs #02 and an anaconda in The Answer
Rhino Rampage: His secondary battle morph is a rhinoceros.
Rodents of Unusual Size: Jake, along with the rest of the team, morphs a beaver in The Resistance. It's his cover morph for that book.
Scaled Up: His final book, The Answer, sees him morphing an anaconda on the cover. He uses it to convince the Taxxons to turn on their Yeerk overlord and go nothlit.
I should have never suggested to Rachel that she's weak or helpless. Rachel may look like Little Miss Teen Model or whatever, but she thinks she's Storm from the X-men.
The beautiful and bold cousin of Jake. She looks like a teen fashion model, but is no ditz. Don't make the mistake of calling her one, either. She would love an excuse to send you flying through a wall. Unlike the others, Rachel loves the thrill and adrenaline surge of combat, and she becomes more and more unstable as the series progresses. Not helping is the fact that her friends, particularly Jake, implicitly encourage this by using her for her "unique talents".
Informed Judaism: Rachel, like Jake, is Jewish, but it doesn't play into her story much either.
Jumped at the Call: It's often said that she is the only one in the group that actually enjoys fighting the Yeerks. However, in rare moments even Rachel has expressed her desire to be a just a regular girl rather than the warrior her friends see her as.
The Lancer: The challenger part of Rachel. At times she's almost closer to the Evil Counterpart of this trope. For much of the series, and especially near the end, she's effectively The Dragon to Jake, while Marco and Tobias fullfill the more traditional Lancer roles.
Never Smile at a Crocodile: Rachel morphs one in The Reaction. Half the team ends up having to fight the thing at the end.
One of the Boys: Her father tells her mother in The Stranger that Rachel is as good as a son because she's a tough as a boy. They go hiking, watch ball games and go to gymnastic events together. Double subverted, though, since Rachel is also characterized as The Fashionista who insists on hiding outfits (not clothes, outfits) in Cassie's barn just because she wants to look immaculate at all times.
War Elephant: Her first morph is an elephant and it sees regular use in battle until she swaps it in favor of the grizzly bear.
You Dirty Rat: A heroic example. She and Cassie morph rats in The Secret and it's her cover morph in The Solution.
Tobias
He was a sweet, poetic kind of guy. The kind bullies love to pick on. He used to have messy, out-of-control hair and dreamy eyes that always seemed to be looking at something no one else could see. Used to... Now he has fierce, angry eyes that look through you like laser beams.
The quiet and thoughtful loner. Neglected at home and bullied at school, the morphing ability provided him with an escape. Finding freedom as a red-tailed hawk, he soon broke the two hour limit and trapped himself in the bird body for keeps (he later regains his morphing ability, but with the hawk as his normal form). As you'd expect, flying aside, living as a hawk is not always fun, and the harsh realities of living as a part of nature (such as starving when hunting is bad and having to fight for territory) are piled on top of Tobias' increasing inability to function as a human and the fact that he's a major component of Earth's defense.
Airborne Aircraft Carrier: Interestingly, he serves as a living version of this on more than one occasion, carrying the rest of the team to and from missions when they're in bug morph.
Future Badass: In The Familiar, Tobias has trapped himself in Ax's morph permanently and is ten years older, giving him the appearance of the second coming of Elfangor. He is also the hidden mastermind behind the EF.
I Did What I Had to Do: He hauls this one out in the second Megamorphs book after arranging the extinction of the dinosaurs.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Complicated by the fact that there is much evidence that Tobias prefers being a hawk. This doesn't stop the angst though. In The Change, after spending an extended time trapped as a hawk, he finds himself wishing to be human again. Yet when he gets his morphing ability back, he chooses to remain a hawk rather than to become human and lose the ability to morph.
Jumped at the Call: Even more so than Rachel. He was the first of the Animorphs to try morphing, and pretty much dragooned Jake into admitting it was real.
Karma Houdini: He never really faces any consequences or guilt as a result of his decision to genocide the Mercora, and the whole sordid affair is forgotten about for the rest of the series.
Predators Are Mean: Subverted - Tobias regularly kills and eats small animals to survive, but he's actually one of the kinder, gentler members of the team.
Red Pill, Blue Pill: In The Change, the Ellimist gives Tobias the chance to turn back into a human, but only if he gives up his morphing power and abandons the fight against the Yeerks.
Shapeshifter Default Form: The red-tailed hawk became his natural form after he regained the morphing ability.
The Smart Guy: Jake's "go-to" guy, as his "personal Air Force," who acts as the team scout before they go out on a mission will know what they can expect.
The Stoic: Not really, but in his human form he comes across as such. He's been a hawk so long he forgets to make facial expressions, you see.
Yank the Dog's Chain: In The Pretender, the woman who was going to be Tobias's new family turns out to be Visser Three in a morph.
Cassie
If you want to picture Cassie, think of a short, cute girl with very short black hair, wearing overalls and big muddy boots and looking totally capable of giving a tetanus shot to an angry bear.
The kind and compassionate member of the group, a young animal lover who helps her parents at their Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. She often serves as the group's "moral compass". Initially a moral absolutist, the things she's forced to do cause her to re-evaluate her ethics.
Action Girl: Not to the degree Rachel is, but she's still a more than competent fighter.
Bad Liar: It isn't that Cassie gives herself away when she tries to lie or fast talk, it's more that she just can't think of anything to say. (For example, when asked to give her phone number, she said it was 12345678.) This is usually played for laughs by stacking her up against Marco.
Beautiful All Along: Invoked in one of her books. Rachel gets her to dress up in designer clothes and suddenly guys everywhere are noticing her.
Big Badass Wolf: Her main battle morph. It's her cover morph in The Secret.
Body Horror: Notably averted - Cassie is an estreen, meaning that she can control the way she morphs. The only other character seen with this ability is the Andalite prodigy Estrid.
Bourgeois Bohemian: She's very idealistic and comes from a decidedly upper middle class background.
Can't Stay Normal: She is a temporal anomaly - see the main page for a better description.
Color Me Black: Inverted in Megamorphs #03 - confronted with a racist in 1934's Princeton University, Cassie opts to turn herself white. Namely, into a polar bear.
The Heart: The "moral compass" of the group. Deconstructed in later books — her natural empathy may torture her, but her insight into the feelings and motivations of others allows her to become the most successfully manipulative Animorph.
In Harmony With Nature: Subverted in The Secret but played depressingly straight in The Message.
Living Weapon: Cassie's plan to get rid of the Helmacrons in The Suspicion is to acquire and morph anteaters, the one animal in the world specially designed to see, attack, and destroy creatures like them. It works.
Manipulative Bitch: She's the most compassionate, but she also gets people very well, which means that she can manipulate people if she feels like she has to—and given the circumstances she's put in, this naturally comes up.
Nutty Squirrel: Cassie's the first Animorph to acquire a squirrel, as seen in The Message. Eventually the rest of the team follow in The Proposal.
The Owl Knowing One: Her last cover morph, seen in The Ultimate, is a great horned owl. Ironically, she acquires this morph pretty early in the series.
Pretty Butterflies: Brutally subverted in The Departure. It's her cover morph for that book.
Puppeteer Parasite: In The Sickness Cassie becomes the only Animorph to ever morph a Yeerk.
Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: In the fourth Megamorphs book, Cassie is explicitly stated to be a temporal anomaly who has this ability by default. She remembers the original timeline within the It's a Wonderful Plot alternate universe.
The Smart Guy: Her parents are both vets, so she knows a lot about animals.
Sapient Cetaceans: She morphs one, a humpback whale, in Megamorphs #01. It sees fairly regular use in later books.
Sapient Steed: Her first morph is a horse. In The Unknown, she becomes a literal sapient steed for a jockey thinking he's riding a famous racehorse.
Superpower Lottery: As if being an estreen wasn't enough, Megamorphs #04 comes along and suddenly Cassie's a temporal anomaly whose very presence undoes the meddling of The Drode.
Marco thinks the whole world is just a setup for a joke. Marco will tell a joke while he's bleeding and terrified and in pain. But there are times when his eyes lose their skeptical expression and grow glittery and dangerous.
Jake's best bud since infancy, the comedian of the group, as well as most cynical, ruthless and practical. He was against fighting the Yeerks at the beginning, but soon changed his resolve when it became personal. Described as a "paranoid nutcase" with a "Hamlet complex", Marco's knack for strategic and critical thinking was instrumental when it came to missions and the security for the group, but his tendency to hold efficiency and pragmatism above all else would cause him to have personal conflicts.
Commander Contrarian: For good reason. Marco deliberately points out flaws in plans so that they can be eliminated or at least acknowledged before they go into action, making the plan as good as is reasonably possible.
Dark and Troubled Past: Had an idyllic childhood until the sudden disappearance of his mother caused his family to break down, making him much more cynical and scornful of idealistic beliefs, regarding expedience and pragmatism as of prime importance.
Everything's Worse With Bees: It's his cover morph and hinted at in The Other. Surprisingly enough, it's averted.
Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Marco feels this way, but it's justified - one almost bit him in half in The Message. Ironically, he ends up with a hammerhead shark as his cover morph in The Escape.
The Lancer: Jake's other go-to guy and best friend, for his strategic abilities. He's probably the closest to being a traditional Lancer: The Hero's best friend, has a contrasting personality, second-guesses all orders (albeit for good reason),etc, etc. Also plays this role consistently, automatically assuming the role of Commander Contrarian and second-in-command to whoever's giving orders, whether it's Jake, Rachel, or even Tobias.
Manipulative Bastard: Of the aggravating variety, as opposed to Cassie's more empathic one. She predicts emotional reactions; Marco screws with you to get the one he wants.
Mister Muffykins: His dad's new beau, Nora, has a poodle named Euclid. He morphs it to harass the Yeerk self-help guru William Roger Tennant and it's his cover morph in The Proposal.
Morally Ambiguous Ducktorate: His last book, The Absolute, sees him morphing a mallard duck alongside Tobias and Ax.
Polar Bear: He, along with the rest of the team, gets a polar bear morph in The Extreme. It's his cover morph for that book.
Promoted To Parent: In the early books, he was basically the responsible one compared to his father, who fell apart after Eva's disappearance. Fortunately, he eventually gets over this.
Refusal of The Call: He was the one most against fighting the Yeerks in the beginning.
Running Gag: His inability to drive, "Are you INSANE?!"
Sad Clown: He had psychological/emotional issues even before the series started, due to the disappearance of his mother. He often jokes to hide his fears and insecurities.
Scaled Up: A rare heroic example. In The Discovery he morphs David's pet cobra Spawn. It's even lampshaded by Rachel.
Rachel: Kinda the perfect morph for Marco, when you thought about it.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In The Predator. He changes his mind after learning his mother is still alive as Visser One's host.
Spiders Are Scary: In The Android, Marco has to morph a wolf spider. He really, really doesn't want to.
The Smart Guy: Strategy. "Sees the line" from point A to point B.
Amusing in that his grades are alluded to be the worst before the series begins, but he's far, far smarter than he lets on.
Smug Snake: Can approach being an antiheroic version of this, and it's certainly how Rachel and later David see him. He's very good at manipulating people, but his paranoia and arrogance can, and sometimes do, get in the way. And then there's the sarcastic personality, and the tendency towards smirking, and advocating the Shooting of Dogs. Still a good guy, and high-functioning enough to be very useful.
You are now the eldest child. Do you, Aximili, take on the burden of avenging your brother's death?
Elfangor's younger brother, Aximili joined the group when he was rescued by the kids from the wreckage of Elfangor's Dome ship, which fell into the Pacific Ocean. Initially considering himself an outsider, Aximili, or "Ax" as he came to be known, retained many of the traits and values of his people (which ranged from loyalty and discipline to outright ruthlessness and xenophobia), and the distinctions led to both comedic and insightful critiques on Earth customs. As the series progressed, it became apparent that he and the kids were more alike than different, and as he adapted to life on Earth Ax was forced, like his Earth counterparts, to question the principles that he had hitherto taken for granted.
Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Has a great appreciation for many human inventions. He even wonders why humans use computers when they have books. He considers the cinnamon bun to be our greatest achievement, however.
Awesome Moment of Crowning: He was an "aristh" (cadet) at the time he was marooned on Earth, and promoted directly past "Warrior" to "Prince" within hours of the Andalite fleet arriving three years later. Even Elfangor hadn't accomplished that.
Big Badass Bird of Prey: Not as big or as badass as the others, but Ax has a northern harrier morph. It's his cover morph in The Arrival.
Big Eater / Extreme Omnivore: Because Andalites don't have mouths, they eat through their hooves. When he becomes human, he experiences taste for the first time. Hilarity Ensues, especially since he can't tell the difference between things that are edible and things like cigarette butts.
Bug Buzz: He, along with the rest of the team, morphs a mosquito in The Decision. It's his cover morph for that book.
Cloudcuckoolander: Comes across as one when he's in human morph, between his imperfect grasp of human customs, his bizarre eating habits, and his Verbal Tic of playing with the sounds of spoken English at every possible opportunity. On at least one occasion the other Animorphs passed him off as a Funny Foreigner.
Everything's Better With Cows: Decidedly not the case in The Experiment. Not only is it Ax's worst-written book, but in the context of the narrative he and Tobias morph cows to infiltrate a slaughterhouse.
Humans Are Bastards: He becomes disgusted with humans during the third Megamorhs book, when he sees the nature of human wars. He claims that though the Andalites had their own wars, they were never as pointless or sadistic as human wars were. He also claims that Andalites never deliberately killed children or committed genocide to other Andalites. He gets over it afterwards, though.
My Friends... and Zoidberg: All of the blurbs on the back cover described the adventures of "X (the main character of that particular installment), the Animorphs, and Ax," with the subtle implication that, being an alien, Ax doesn't count as a true Animorph.
No Nudity Taboo: Since his species never wears clothes, he frequently wonders aloud why humans even bother with them. He also feels no embarrassment when the other team members morph nude in front of him.
Running Gag: Aside from his food obsession and bluntness, there's the way he always calls Jake "Prince Jake", only for Jake to say "Don't call me Prince", and repeats himself when in human morph. Morph. Mor-phhh... As the series progresses, it evolves from a Verbal Tic into playful team banter.
It's eventually noted that if Jake doesn't say "Don't call me prince", it's a sign of how serious the situation is.
Rascally Raccoon: His last book, The Sacrifice, sees him morph a raccoon to sneak off and report to the Andalite military.
Ax: (correcting himself) Seventeen of your Earth minutes.
Verbal Tic: As an Andalite, he has no mouth and communicates with thought-speak. Whenever he holds a conversation while morphed into a human, he can never go very long without repeating individual parts of words, often but not always drawing out their component sounds. SOU-nds. Sauw-nnnn-dss.
Smirking, pouting, easily offended David. David, who half the time seemed to be reckless, but other times had been cowardly and quickly panicked. David, the new Animorph.
After finding the Morphing Cube and subsequently revealing its location, David became target number one for Yeerk forces who were searching to gain the morphing power. After a battle that destroyed his house, David's parents were taken by Yeerk forces. Frightened, alone and unable to trust anyone, David was given the morphing power by the others as part of an attempt to recruit him, but his growing resentment for them strained relationships within the group. Feeling that his life was threatened not only by the enemies that took his parents but also by the new strangers that now surrounded him, he revealed a sociopathic side and turned against the Animorphs attempting to eliminate them one by one.
Ambition Is Evil: David's self-serving nature is played in stark contrast to his heroic and selfless teammates. He progresses from wanting to use his powers to become a millionaire to plotting to create a new group of Animorphs.
Choose Your Own Adventure: In Alternamorphs #02, the reader is cast as a thinly veiled Expy of David, to the point of paragraphs in the first three chapters being lifted verbatim from The Discovery. It's the closest thing David gets to a narrated book.
Cowardly Lion: Both figuratively in #20 and literally in #21. He largely gets over this after his Face Heel Turn.
Create Your Own Villain: Arguably pushed over the edge into villainy by Jake's threat on his life and being forced to sleep in a barn, unable to go out in public as himself. He even justifies his actions with an Ironic Echo of Tobias's own words.
Deal with the Devil: He makes one with Crayak to get off the hellish island the Animorphs left him on.
Dead Person Impersonation: Disposes of Jake and Rachel's mortally wounded cousin and takes his place.
Death Seeker: By the end, he's given up on revenge and begs Rachel to kill him, preferring death to going on trapped as a rat.
Divide and Conquer: His midnight plan to kill the Animorphs one by one. It almost works.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all his faults, David seems to have genuinely loved his parents, going so far as planning to ransom the blue box in exchange for their safe return. He only abandons this plan when Cassie makes it clear it won't work.
Even Evil Has Standards: Despite bluffing the Animorphs with the threat of it, David never attempts to go over to the Yeerks, and by all accounts hates them as much as the Anis do.
Flaw Exploitation: He rivals Marco in how good he is at this. When he turns on the Animorphs, he exploits Ax's ignorance of alarm clocks and Rachel's preconceptions about him to split them up and attack Rachel. He get a taste of his own medicine when the Animorphs subsequently exploit his ego and need to psychologically dominate Rachel to bring him down.
Grail In The Garbage: He was about to sell the morphing cube online before the Animorphs caught wind of it. Worse, he was about to unwittingly sell it to Visser Three.
Hallucinations: Blink and you'll miss it: Jake hallucinates a terrified rat-David in the Bad Future of The Familiar.
Kick the Dog: Killing a random bird the instant he gets his golden eagle morph. He tries to pass it off as being taken over by the morph. Some of the Animorphs buy it, Marco does not.
King of Beasts: His lion morph. He defeats Jake's tiger in a one-on-one battle at the climax of The Threat.
Lightning Bruiser: Definitely favors these. His battle morphs for land, sea, and air - lion, orca and golden eagle respectively - all count.
Military Brat: His father was an NSA agent and he had to move around frequently throughout his life.
Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: One gets the feeling that if the Animorphs had just sent David to live with the Chee instead of making him sleep in Cassie's barn that things might have worked out. Leaving him out of the biggest mission they've ever done up to this point and not, you know, threatening to kill him also would have helped.
Nobody Calls Me Coward: One of his main character flaws. He does stupid things to show off and look good, and totally loses his cool when Rachel calls him a coward.
Rule of Pool: His house has a pool and Marco is envious of his good fortune. The pool comes into play again a book later, when Ax tricks a trio of Hork-Bajir into throwing themselves into it.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When he sees Jake morph a dragonfly in The Threat he says this, though he doesn't go anywhere.
Scaled Up: He morphs a rattlesnake in The Solution.
Spot The Impostor: David morphs Jake's cousin, who is badly injured after being hit by a car and expected to die in surgery, and takes his place. Jake figures it out almost instantly, when "Saddler's" injuries are miraculously healed. Everyone else not in on The Masquerade fails miserably.
Surrounded by Idiots: In The Return. He manages to recruit two henchmen, but they're both bumbling idiots who ultimately end up turning on him.
Take a Third Option: Caught between the Animorphs and the Yeerks, neither of whom he trusts. He eventually turns on them both.
Ungrateful Bastard: He's not too thankful to the Animorphs for saving his life. Whether this is just straight-out ingratitude or bitterness that they left his parents behind is never made clear.
The Unchosen One: Both literally and figuratively. He eventually decides to fight on his own terms, declaring both the Animorphs and the Yeerks his enemies. In The Return he is literally the unchosen one, as Crayak sets him up to be his weapon only to reveal he's just a tool being used to persuade Rachel to join him.
Verbal Tic: David has a tendency to say the name of the person he's talking to several times in a single conversation, usually when he's trying to be threatening. In one occasion in The Solution, he says Rachel's name six times in one page.
Xanatos Speed Chess: David plays a pretty mean game of it until he starts carrying the Villain Ball, unless it's an Indy Ploy - we never know for sure if he's had it all planned out or just making it up as he goes along.
When the Animorphs are finally uncovered and forced to go on the run, they decide to recruit some fresh blood in case they are killed. Rationalizing that the Yeerks would have no use for handicapped hosts, they do their recruiting at a children's hospital. Enter the Auxiliary Animorphs.
Disability Superpower: They master morphing a lot faster than the kids originally did. Cassie theorizes this is because, while their bodies are weaker, their minds are stronger.
Opt Out - Right before the final battle, a lot of the Auxiliary Animorphs decide that they want to sit it out, due to the fact that their friend Ray was recently killed. Jake doesn't really care and makes them go anyway. ("We didn't give them morphing power so they could have fun flying around. This is when we need them. All of them. You're their leader, James, so lead.") They then all get killed.
Suicide Mission: Jake sends them on one to buy the Animorphs time to take over the Pool ship.
Supporting Leader: James, the leader of the Auxiliary Animorphs, is this to Jake.
Throwing Off The Disability: James was injured in an accident, so he is healed by the morphing power. Most of the other auxiliaries aren't so lucky.
Yeerk Empire
Visser Three (Esplin 9466 the primary), later, Visser One
He looked so much like Ax. So much like Prince Elfangor. And yet, so totally different. The difference wasn't something you saw. It was something you felt. A shadow on your soul. A darkness that blotted out the light of the sun. Evil. Destruction. His body was an Andalite. He was the only Andalite-Controller in existence. The only Yeerk ever to infest an Andalite body. The only Yeerk with the Andalite power to morph. Visser Three.
The only Yeerk to ever infest an Andalite, Esplin 9466 Primary, in his time as Visser Three, was put in charge of operations on Earth. Though he carried out the orders of his superiors and employed the strategy of infiltration and subversion suggested by his rival Visser One, his violent and impulsive personality lent itself more brutal tactics. A long-time proponent of a strategy of open war, his efforts to be promoted to Visser One were stymied by his inability to capture or kill what he believed to be "Andalite bandits", and his growing obsession with the Animorphs paved the way for his descent into insanity and paranoia.
Bad Boss: He could well be the Trope Namer. Not only does he sarcastically mock his subordinates, but he kills them for little-to-no reason. Didn't kill the Animorphs? Decapitated. Made a mistake? Decapitated. Interrupted the Visser? Decapitated. Closed a door too slowly? De-fucking-capitated. You can't win with this guy, to the point where Yeerks pass over promotions because it means having to work with Visser Three, and therefore probably being decapi-SLASH- *thud*. Lampshaded: Jake points out that Visser Three's tendencies to kill his subordinates make them hate and fear him, making him (and them) less effective. He also says that that gives the Animorphs an advantage over him.
Big Bad: Played with in that, while he is the primary antagonist of the series and is quite high up in the Yeerk hierarchy, there are still two Vissers and the Council of Thirteen above him. However, he is ultimately promoted to Visser One. And in one Bad Future, he works his way up to Emperor.
Bigger Is Better: A philosophy he subscribes to wholeheartedly. Subverted in The Arrival, when he finally realizes bigger is not always better and morphs a small creature to avoid being assassinated.
Blob Monster: One of his morphs in The Return. Rachel aptly describes it as 'Killer Jell-O'.
Breath Weapon: His most powerful and only recurring morph, the eight-everythinged creature seen in The Invasion and The Resistance, breathes fireballs from each of its eight heads.
The Brute: He only knows one tactic — Hit the enemy with everything you've got until it's dead.
Card-Carrying Villain: He got this way when handled by the ghostwriters. See The Extreme and The Illusion for good examples.
Combat Tentacles: More than a few of his morphs feature them, most notably the Lerdethak from The Forgotten and the unnamed monster he morphs in The Ultimate.
Cruel Mercy: After he's finally beaten, he's robbed of his prized Andalite body and forced to live out the rest of his natural life in his natural Yeerk state, blind and helpless. For Visser Three, who was in love with the sense of sight, this is very fitting.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Most of his fights with the Animorphs end up like this.
Cyclops: In The Sickness he morphs a creature that's basically a giant, tentacled eyeball.
Dishing Out Dirt: In The Visitor he morphs a three-legged, twenty-foot tall creature that's strong enough to rip up chunks of cement from the ground and throw them.
Enemy Mine: Teams up with the Animorphs to escape The Nartec in The Mutation.
Don't forget when he (however briefly) teams up with the Animorphs against the Aliens With Big Egos. I am, of course, referring to the Helmacrons.
Dragon-in-Chief: Sort of; he is subserviant to the Council of Thirteen, but is much more "hands-on" and thus threatening. He's also in charge of the invasion of Earth, so he is the main enemy.
Evil Gloating: He's a master of this. Read The Threat for the most triumphant example.
Evil Tastes Good: He has two morphs, the Anatarean Bogg and Vanarx, specifically devoted to this.
Fate Worse than Death: His fate is being contained in a custom made prison without a body for the rest of his life, helpless and without sight. For a power hungry monster like Visser Three who was in love with the sense of sight, this is most certainly one of these.
Foe Yay: In The Pretender he has some very uncharacteristic things to say about Elfangor.
Giant Enemy Crab: In The Reunion he morphs an alien chameleon crab.
Giant Flyer: He's got two known morphs that fall under this banner: the Bievilerd from The Revelation and an unnamed monster described as something like a giant winged porcupine pterodactyl in The Underground.
Giant Squid: The last morph he ever uses is one of these, seen in The Sacrifice. He may have used it before in The Mutation.
General Failure: When it comes to the "Andalite bandits", anyway. That said, don't attack him head on, as you will die a very painful and horrific death.
Graceful Loser: Very surprisingly done at the end. He surrenders to the Animorphs without a fight and leaves his host willingly.
Hollywood Acid: Two of his morphs have been known to use it: the Kaftid he morphs in The Pretender and an unnamed morph from The Return that's described as a giant alien alligator gorilla.
Kill It with Fire: He's fond of this. In the first book he morphs a monstrous, unnamed eight-headed creature and in The Mutation he morphs the Luminar, a blazing creature that can flash-fry its enemies by pointing a finger. Hasbro must have caught on to it, because the first Visser Three toy transformed into a form never seen in the books dubbed the Inferno Beast.
Large Ham / Chewing the Scenery / No Indoor Voice: Something of a Running Gag; every time it is explained that thought-speak can be sent to one person or a few, that's when the Visser ANNOUNCES HIS PRESENCE TO EVERY PERSON IN RANGE!
Muck Monster: He's got two known morphs like this, one seen in The Weakness and the other in The Hidden.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The unnamed creature he morphs in The Threat. All we know about it is that it is 'dark and large and has more arms than it should'.
No One Could Survive That: The actual Yeerk Esplin 9466 has made a shtick out of surviving against impossible odds. See The Andalite Chronicles, The Hork-Bajir Chronicles, and The Alien. He also survives the war, which is no mean feat when you consider how many people want him dead.
Sea Monster: In The Escape he morphs a bright yellow alien sea serpent. His Lebtin Javelin Fish from The Reaction and and Mardrut from The Message also count.
Spike Shooter: In The Reaction he morphs a Lebtin Javelin Fish, a kind of manta ray that fires spears from its mouth. His Dule Fansa also shoots spikes from its four arms.
Start of Darkness: The Hork-Bajir Chronicles probably counts, since aside from Dak and Alrea's story, about a third of the novel is spent exploring his own back story.
Stronger Sibling: Labeled as such at birth, hence his 'primary' designation.
Stupid Evil: It's only most of the way through the series when he even begins to suspect that the Animorphs are human.
Torture Technician: In The Extreme it's revealed that he collects torture devices from around the universe.
Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: In The Discovery he morphs a purple four-armed beast called a Dule Fansa, variously described as an 'evil Barney' and 'Hitmonchan with traffic-cone arms'.
Villain Decay: Suffers from it, due to being the main villain for the entire series. Even more extreme if you read the Hork-Bajir or Andalite Chronicles, in which we see his beginnings as a very capable Manipulative Bastard, and long before his degeneration into the General Failure he is now. Despite this, fighting him head-on is still not a good idea.
Villainous Breakdown: His repeated defeats and humiliations at the hands of the Animorphs take their toll.
Villainous Rescue: Without him those kids would have been screwed by the Nartec.
You Have Failed Me: A lot. Visser One notes that he's executed subordinates "by the poolful," which basically means thousands or more. He does this so reliably that Marco's able to bluff his way out of a situation where three flunkies were expected by saying, "I think Visser Three killed them for doing something wrong". He chastises himself for this, calling it the worse lie he's ever told, only for it to be believed.
I took a human host and learned about the planet and humans, and because of that I was able to begin the invasion that you have now endangered with your criminal incompetence! ...You want to be Visser One? You want to take my title? We shall see.
Cold and calculating, it was Edriss 562 who suggested the strategy of infiltration that defined the war for the majority of the series, after years of living amongst her enemies (under the guise of Marco's mother Eva). Though she punished failure harshly, she also rewarded well for success, and her calm and collected tactical abilities made her a star in the eyes of the Council.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Seen at the end of Visser. She muses about finding Madra and how she'll love her when she does - and if Madra doesn't, she'll just infest her with a Yeerk and then she'll have to love her. The monologue proves that, in spite of everything she's seen and learned, Edriss doesn't understand the concept of love any more than she did before she experienced humanity.
Going Native: Played with, but ultimately subverted.
Humanity Is Infectious: She and her assistant Essam were the first long-term Human-Controllers, and found the experience much more addicting than any other Yeerk host species.
Hidden Agenda Villain: We learn early on that she's the one pushing for the steady infiltration strategy of the invasion, but we never really learn why until Visser.
Reasonable Authority Figure: She presents herself as this to her underlings. She harshly punishes failure, but she also rewards well underlings who fulfill her expectations.
Secret Keeper: She eventually figures out the Animorphs are human but keeps the secret out of spite for Visser Three.
Sorry I skipped class, Mr. Chapman, but I've been in this lizard body, watching you because I know you're a Controller and part of a giant alien conspiracy to take over the earth.
Assistant principal at the school attended by the Animorphs and a prominent Human-Controller, he and his wife became Controllers to protect his daughter Melissa from infestation. One of the more frequently-recurring antagonists, he has a prominent role in The Andalite Chronicles as a villain, contradicting everything about him learned up to that point.
Asshole Victim: If you take The Andalite Chronicles as fact, it's really hard to feel sorry for Chapman in the main series.
Butt Monkey: His later appearances in the series tended to consist of this.
Fighting From The Inside: He and his wife in The Visitor. It's notable as the greatest act of resistance an infested human in the series ever puts up.
Hostage Situation: Twice the Animorphs make him victim of it, in The Conspiracy and The Answer.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: In The Andalite Chronicles Elfangor meets him on Earth and he remembers nothing of their encounters in space. This is revealed to be the Ellimist's doing.
No One Could Survive That: Midway through The Andalite Chronicles he falls into a frigging black hole. He shows up in the third arc none the worse for wear.
Starter Villain: For the first five books the Animorphs encountered him pretty regularly and then he faded into the background as more formidable threats began to make themselves known.
Joe Bob Fenestre (Esplin 9466 the lesser)
My brother, my twin, is the prime. To him go the best assignments, the best hosts, the rank, the power, the glory. And to me, only what I can take. Well, that wasn't good enough. I wanted more. And if I couldn't have it as a Yeerk, I'd have it as a human.
The billionaire owner of Web Access America and mastermind behind a web site devoted to exposing Yeerks, the Animorphs seek him out to learn if he is friend or foe. It turns out he's a Controller, but no ordinary Controller - he is in fact the twin brother of Visser Three, a lowly Yeerk who amassed a personal empire by allying with his host.
Affably Evil: He takes a page out of Visser One's book. Surprising, considering who he's related to.
Big Fancy House: And it's virtually impregnable to boot! The keyword here is 'virtually'.
Cannibalism Superpower: He can live without the life-giving Kandrona rays Yeerks need to survive, but only by consuming another Yeerk once every three days.
Eccentric Millionaire: He's got extraordinary defenses around his mansion to keep any animal out and his guards see him as a paranoid eccentric in the vein of Howard Hughes. It turns out he's just making sure his brother doesn't come pay him a house call.
Evil Versus Evil: He's wiping out a hundred or so Yeerks a year, but he's doing it to survive, not out of any heroic leanings.
Fiction 500: He's identified as the second wealthiest man in the world. Net worth? 24.9 billion dollars.
Fictional Counterpart: Of Bill Gates. Interestingly, The Andalite Chronicles hints at the real Bill Gates being around in the Animorphs verse. He's also got shades of Hannibal Lecter to him.
You tell me what you think I should do. Andalites, humans, there's no difference: You're both smug, moralizing, superior races. You both live in beautiful worlds. You have hands and eyes and the freedom to move about wherever you like. And you hate us for wanting all those same things.
A low-ranking Yeerk assigned to the daughter of a billionaire banker. By chance she observes Cassie leaving a battle and begins to follow her, convinced she has some connection to the Andalite bandits. Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, they get stranded together in the woods and Aftran learns Cassie's secret, forcing Cassie to face the other side of the war head on.
Creepy Child: In her first few appearances, before Cassie figures out what she is.
Dead Little Brother: Her pool-brother, Estril-Seven-Three-One. He's killed by Cassie at the beginning of The Departure.
One doesn't want mere baboons blundering about with Time Matrices, does one? Who knows what damage a fool with such power may do?
The commander of the Yeerk invasion of Leera, Visser Four is demoted and assigned lowly actor John Berryman as punishment after the Animorphs thwart his plans in The Decision. While on Earth he finds the Time Matrix and attempts to use it to alter history in his favor. He's the main villain of Megamorphs #03: Elfangor's Secret.
Powder Trail: He uses this to blow a hole in HMS Victory.
Psychic Static: John Berryman Jr. thinks Henry V at Visser Four so much so that the very first thing he does when he finds the Time Matrix is try to change the result of the Battle of Agincourt so that Shakespeare would never be inspired to write it.
A sadistic Yeerk sub-visser responsible for capturing and torturing Tobias. Later gets the kids involved in a plot to murder Visser Three in revenge for her demotion. It turns out to be a trap meant to eliminate both the Animorphs and the Yeerk Peace Faction.
Arm Cannon: Not quite, but her prosthetic arm does fire darts and emit gasses that are capable of paralysing the target. And she may have an actual cannon or grenade launcher in there; it's unclear whether she used a handheld Dracon beam or an integral weapon to destroy the natural gas pipeline.
Artificial Limbs: One of Taylor's arms is a prosthetic, as is one of her legs.
Dark Action Girl: Taylor would rather manipulate than fight; she's nowhere near the Badass that Rachel can become, and maybe not even at Cassie'slevel. But the girl can still take and dish our far more damage than you would expect her to be able to, and seems to be one of the few Yeerks who didn't get her training at the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy. In Book 43 she's able to take out the entire team (minus Cassie and Tobias) when she catches them by surprise, and fights a Taxxon-morphed Tobias on a fairly even basis. Not bad for a (relatively) normal girl.
Deal with the Devil: Taylor the Girl made one with the Yeerks in order to be pretty again. It involved selling out herself and her mom. Taylor the Yeerk makes another one with Visser Three following her demotion from sub-visser, becoming part of his plot against the Animorphs and the Peace Faction in return for promotion. And the Animorphs make one with her in order to try and assassinate Visser Three.
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Can verge on this, when she's not using her situation to her advantage.
Tobias sees her as his. Like him, she's a damaged person from a lousy background, who became involved in the war due to alien intervention in her life. Like him, she has a lot of insecurites that prevent her from dealing with life, and Tobias frequently compares her decision to become a Controller to his own entrapment in hawk morph. Tobias, of course, is still a hero, whereas Taylor...well just look at the list of tropes she's associated with.
Also somewhat to Rachel, since both are blonde, immaculate-looking valley girl types capable of violence and associated with Tobias.
Foe Yay: Largely averted. It is possible to read her obsession with capturing and breaking Tobias (and some of the lines she says to him) as rather Foe Yay-y, but it requires you to ignore her personality. She's described as so cold, nasty, and downright insane that most of it comes off exactly the way it's supposed to: as the behaviour of an insecure, sadistic bullying bitch who doesn't like letting her victims get away. Yandere she ain't.
Heel Face Turn: Taylor the Yeerk fakes one in order to bring the kids in on her plot. Taylor the Human pulls one in Book 43, temporarily taking control of her body in order to warn Tobias out of trusting her master.
Humanity Is Infectious: Taylor's human and Yeerk personalities seem to be closer than in most Controllers, making Yeerk!Taylor somewhat unable to differentiate herself from her host. Whether this is the cause or effect of her insanity (or both) is hard to determine.
Magic Plastic Surgery: Yeerk cybernetics were used in reconstructing her arm and face.
Manipulative Bastard: Plays mindgames with Tobias, tricks the kids into helping her plot to attack the Yeerk pool, and generally manipulates everyone's emotions for kicks and profit. She's good at it too, to the point where Tobias cannot get her out of his head.
Not so Different: Claims she and Tobias aren't in order to screw with his mind. On some level, he seems to believe her.
Specifically Tobias thinks about this in her first appearance, when it becomes clear that her perception of the human-Yeerk relationship is similar to Tobias' Double Consciousness about being a hawk.
Psycho for Hire: Or whatever the "gainfully employed by a megalomaniacal alien empire" equivalent is.
Puppeteer Parasite - Sub-Visser Fifty-one, who's actual Yeerk name is never revealed.
Self-Made Orphan: Spiritually at least. Part of Taylor's deal with the Yeerks involved allowing not only her own infestation, but that of her mother as well.
Sociopathic Soldier: Even for a member of the Yeerk military she's a twisted bitch.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: In The Test, Tobias is obsessed with proving that he is stronger than she is, and refuses to allow anyone else to kill or restrain her.
The Revolution Will Not Be Civilised: Subverted. She pretends to be a member of a Yeerk resistance movement in order to gain the kids' assitance in Book 43.
That's where this thing belonged. In a cartoon. Where the impossible is possible.
A candidate member for The Council of Thirteen, sent to investigate Visser Three's progress on earth. Is hosted by a Garatron, one of the Yeerk's "Newest and most capable host species." A real problem in The Weakness.
Bigger Bad: Represents one: The Council of Thirteen.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Any physical confrontation with the Inspector's ungodly fast host tends to end this way for the heroes.
The Dog Bites Back: He spends the whole issue mocking and humiliating Visser Three. When Marco poisons him, Visser Three lets him die, and lets them escape.
Evil Counterpart: His host species, the Garatron, looks suspiciously like an Andalite.
Eviler than Thou: With Visser Three, on a political, though not physical basis.
Foil: See Monster of the Aesop below. He's a nice foil for that particular aspect of Rachel's personality.
Large Ham: On par with the Visser. When the two of them are together, it's like a pork convention.
Monster of the Aesop: In a book about Rachel learning to deal with her own hubris, who should show up? A villain who's overconfidence enables his defeat.
Not Worth Killing: The Animorphs. At least, not when he'd rather see them humiliate Visser Three.
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.
The real Thomas Berenson was the eldest son of Jean and Steven Berenson, and Jake's brother. Although three years older, Tom is described as almost identical to Jake in looks, though different in temperament. Growing up, Jake and Tom were extremely close, but Tom became more distant due to his infestation (prior to Elfangor's crash). His status as a Controller caused Jake a great deal of emotional suffering, as the latter saw it as his duty to rescue him.Though he may have been infested by several Yeerks, the reader only meets two. The first was an overly-ambitious low-level grunt (Temrash 114) who was starved to death by the group after managing to infest Jake. The second was a much more dangerous and capable enemy who rose to minor success by becoming one of Visser Three's most capable lieutenants. After Visser Three refused to promote him past the rank of chief of security (a position he achieved despite a stunning failure to notice what might be the single biggest security breach in the war for months) Tom's Yeerk became sick of taking orders from superiors he percieved to be incompetent failures, and began scheming for ways to amass greater power for himself.
Tom The Dark Lord: Played with - Tom is hardly all-powerful, but he's more or less the final series antagonist and we never learn his Yeerk's name.
Andalites
Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul
An Andalite general, military genius and war hero, Elfangor was made a household name for his contributions to the Andalite-Yeerk war effort. Though this was not generally known amongst his own people, he spent a great deal of time on Earth permanently morphed as a human: a sort of self-imposed exile after a miscalculation led to the infestation of his superior officer, Alloran. His longstanding and well-known subsequent rivalry with Visser Three ended with his death at the hands of the latter after a battle in Earth's orbit, though not before he was able to give the morphing power to Jake and his friends.
Broken Pedestal: Elfangor's reputation precedes him, even after death, and it's initially believed by everyone that Elfangor was the perfect warrior and, from Jake's perspective, the perfect leader, someone to emulate. It becomes apparent, though, that his reputation is the result of misplaced idolization and Andalite propaganda, and that, like the kids, he made mistakes while doing the best he could. He was however an exceptional Badass and a War Hero, Visser One later states that no other singular Andalite hurt the Yeerks as much as he did. His name has practically become a curse word to the Yeerks.
Back for the Finale: First appears in The Andalite Chronicles (which is set before the series and was released early on in the series), then reappears in the second-to-last book, The Answer.
I will forever be Alloran, Butcher of the Hork-Bajir. Alloran, the only Andalite to ever be taken alive by Yeerks. But disgraced, even despised, for whatever I am worth, I am yours to command.
Visser Three's host, and formerly Elfangor's commanding officer. Perhaps the best example of the ruthless mentality of the Andalite military, Alloran was infamous even before becoming the only Andalite to ever be taken by a Yeerk. Disgraced and despised by even his own people, he becomes more humble and pacifistic during his time as Visser Three's slave.
The Atoner: After he's freed, the sheer melancholy as he flatly states that he'll have to live with what he's done and being forever known as the only Andalite ever taken as a Controller makes it very likely he'll become one of these.
Fate Worse than Death: He's a Controller. Even worse, he's got Visser Three controlling him, one of the most evil Yeerks of them all.
General Ripper: In The Hork-Bajir Chronicles. He tried to wipe out the Hork-Bajir once he realized they couldn't be saved from the Yeerks.
Heel Face Turn: When the Andalites threaten to destroy Earth in order to contain the Yeerks, and Ax is told he is too low-ranking to challenge the officer's decision, the recently freed Alloran takes up the challenge for him. The Andalite officers promptly reconsider, thus sparing earth. Not bad for an ex-General Ripper.
No, I won't help you to understand. But I will help you kill Yeerks. That, I will do. I will help you kill them. And kill them. And kill them! And kill them all!
The daughter of the infamous Prince Seerow and heroine of the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. She makes a guest reappearance in The Prophecy.
Acceptable Feminine Goals: Subverted - Andalite women are traditionally expected to be artists or scientists, but Aldrea wants to be a warrior. She gets her wish.
The people must be led by the few who are willing to make the very hard choices. The people are happy in their ignorance. But we in the Apex Level cannot allow ourselves to be sentimental.
An Apex Level Intelligence Advisor and the biological brother of Alloran-Semitur-Corass. Veteran of over twenty conflicts, Arbat is assigned to the Andalite task force Unit 0, ostensibly tasked with the assassination of Visser Three. The true mission of Unit 0, known only to Arbat himself, is to unleash a deadly new biological weapon against the Yeerks. He appears only in The Arrival.
Many children. Some live. For every race eradicated, I would plant two new ones.
The Ellimist is about as close as the series comes to God. A being so powerful he can directly manipulate the fabric of spacetime, he can rewrite history, travel through time, cross between dimensions and more. He ultimately wants the Animorphs to prevail and save Earth, but his "game" with Crayak limits him to helping them indirectly, or in a Deal with the Devil manner where there's consequences for their actions.
All-Powerful Bystander: Not technically all powerful, but so close as to make little difference from human perspectives.
Ascended Fanboy: In-universe, as a mortal he was of a race called Ketran, and enjoyed playing complex simulation games where he helped lesser races grow by indirect assistance. Now that he's powerful enough, he's doing the exact same thing for real.
Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: He became the Ellimist when his bio-mechanical body of a small fleet of spaceships was drawn into a black hole, thereby causing him to exist in multiple dimensions at once. However, even he isn't directly sure how it got from that to him being a nigh-omnipotent able to rewrite reality at a whim.
Loophole Abuse: He's forbidden to interfere directly except when he makes a deal with Crayak, but gets around it by sneakily arranging for them to realize things on their own that they wouldn't have without him. This is actually the defining trait of him in his first appearance, where he shows the Animorphs a vision of a Bad Future, and a background event clues them in to the location of the Yeerk Kandrona in the present.
Mysterious Backer: Okay, he tries to help the heroes, but he is either too roundabout in his methods to really gain their trust or too held up by Crayak to help at all.
The last Megamorphs heavily implies that the team basically exists because he arranged things from behind the scene, including the Contrived Coincidences of getting members who were already unknowingly connected to the conflict in some way.
I will cleanse this galaxy of all life. Then, when no sentient thing is left alive, I will kill you, Ellimist. That's my game. Shall we play?
If the Ellimist is the series's science fiction equivalent of God, Crayak is unquestionably Satan. A being with powers equal to the Ellimist but with a very different view on existence, his ultimate desire is to see all life eradicated.
For the Evulz: He massacres entire species and enjoys the suffering and torment of others...because hey, it's something to do. When he and the Ellimist first acquire their near-omnipotent powers, the Ellimist suggests that since they're incapable of killing each other now and can just undo any damage the other does to the galaxy, they could call a truce and just watch the advance of evolution. Crayak refuses because he finds the idea boring.
No Indoor Voice: Similar to Visser Three, he communicates with a form of thought-speech. Jake describes it as sounding like he's screaming at the top of his lungs.
The Social Darwinist: His goal is to pit race against race, the winner growing stronger with each engagement, until only one species is left, which will then revere him as a god.
Someone Has to Die: He agrees to help the Animorphs follow Visser Four through time in Megamorphs #03. In return, he demands that one of their number must die. Jake ends up biting the bullet, but it doesn't stick.
Yes, yes, oh yes. Mustn't upset the balance. Not directly, anyway. But! Create problems? Yes. Create opportunities? Yes. Play the wild card? Of course.
An alien being who resembles a humanoid dinosaur, he serves Crayak and acts as his representative. He has incredible powers, presumably a gift from his master.
The Trickster: His name means "wild card" to his species.
Wild Card: See above. His name literally means wild card.
The One
You have done well to come this far. You have come to find your friend. But the Andalite is part of me now. As you will soon be.
A Giant Space Flea from Nowhere that shows up in the epilogue of the final book. He gathers the remnants of the shattered Yeerk Empire under his aegis and plots to assimilate the Animorphs into his being. The book ends with the Animorphs ramming his ship and the outcome of the conflict is never revealed.
Villain of the Week: Appears only in The Beginning. Fans theorized he was the being behind Jake's trip to the future in The Familiar but this was jossed by Applegate in an interview.
Everyone Else
Erek King
This will be a meeting of allies, Marco. You see, we, too, fight the Yeerks.
Erek King was a member of the Chee, a race of ancient androids that had been living in secret on Earth for thousands of years. He revealed the existence of his people to Marco after it became apparent that they were both secretly fighting for the same cause. Though he was at heart a pacifist and found physical violence abhorrent, he and other Chee helped Animorphs in their missions by gathering information and providing alibis.
Ascended Extra: The Erek character was the result of a Contest Winner Cameo and was only going to appear once. He ended up being one of the most important secondary characters.
Actual Pacifist: Thanks to his programming; the one time he was reprogrammed, he was so sickened by what he was capable of that he immediately rewired the violence prohibition back in.
The Gump: Franklin Roosevelt got the name for the "New Deal" from Erek during a game of poker. Erek was Louis Pasteur's lab assistant and gave him the idea to try killing bacteria with heat.
Heavy Worlder: The Pemalite home world's gravity was four times stronger than Earth's, accounting for Erek's obscene strength.
Ignored Epiphany: He learns the truth about the Howlers in The Attack after uploading their memories. He doesn't care.
I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Inflicted on Erek by Jake in The Answer. He forces Erek to help the group by threatening Chapman's life - while Chapman is no friend of Erek's, his programming forces him to comply to save his life.
Just a Machine: In The Exposed, the Drode is able to justify setting the Chee to self-destruct by invoking this.
Mr. Exposition: Lampshaded - Applegate herself admitted she got too reliant on using Erek as an expository device.
The Mole: Pretends to be a Controller in order to get information to the main characters.
Moral Dissonance: He's forbidden to harm living creatures but keeps a Yeerk captive in his head, bound by wires and effectively as helpless as a Yeerk host would be.
Nigh Invulnerability: He and the other Chee can tank Dracon beam shots, though he admits a full power blast, sustained for long enough, would destroy him.
Renaissance Man: Five thousand years is a long time to pick up skills. He's been a politician, a hairdresser and a valet - and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
What the Hell, Hero?: "This is so low. This is so far beneath you, Jake ...I was offering my opinion on your morals and your ethics and your sense of decency. I chose an ancient Mesopotamian dialect well-known for its variety of curse words."
Loren
She's a million light-years from her home, Arbron. Confronting species she never knew existed. Suddenly thrust into the middle of an intergalactic war. I think she is very brave.
The heroine of The Andalite Chronicles and Elfangor's love interest. She's Tobias's mother.
Back for the Finale: First appears in The Andalite Chronicles (which is set before the series and was released early on in the series), then reappears in The Diversion, The Ultimate and The Sacrifice, three of the last six books in the series.
Disability Superpower: In The Diversion she is able to master morphing very quickly. The Auxiliary Animorphs later exhibit this same knack, and the Animorphs speculate it may be because they are physically disabled, forcing their minds to become stronger.
Foot Focus: In The Andalite Chronicles. Justified, since the Andalites are a hoofed species and have never seen bare feet before.
A fool is strong so that others will see. A wise person is strong for himself. The Hork-Bajir will be strong for the Hork-Bajir. That way, when the Yeerks are all gone, we will still be strong.
The daughter of the first two free Hork-Bajir in generations, Toby Hamee is a seer, a rare anomaly among Hork-Bajir born with genius-level intelligence. Her keen mind and charisma quickly elevate her to leader of the free Hork-Bajir.
Line In The Sand: Literally. After the Yeerks find out where the Hork-Bajir valley is located, they plan to storm it and kill everyone. Jake and his friends attempt to explain to Toby that going into battle is suicidal, and to demonstrate his point Jake draws a line in the sand and asks the Hork-Bajir to vote on which course of action is the smartest. Jake's point backfires when every Hork-Bajir votes to fight back.
I will discover the truth, Surface-Dwellers. Have no doubt of that. But I am also a magnanimous queen. Feel free to further explore the Nartec world. We will meet again later. Perhaps.
Queen of the Nartec, a villainous group of merpeople encountered in The Mutation. She plots to take her people into a war with the surface world, but hasn't reckoned on the Animorphs... or Visser Three.
Eviler than Thou: See above. They never directly encounter one another, but boy does he flash-fry a bunch of her troops.
God Save Us from the Queen!: Blood-thirsty ruler of a dying civilisation, she's enough of a problem to force an alliance between the Animorphs and the Visser.
See the stars on my shoulder there, son? I'm a major general, U.S. Army. You're a kid who can turn into a bug. I take my orders from the chain of command, and that ain't you.
A three star-general and the leader of ATF-1 (Alien Task Force One), the U.S. Army's answer to the Yeerk invasion. He doesn't take kindly to Jake and the kids at first, but agrees to help them after he's been brought up to speed.
Suicide Mission: Most of his forces are slaughtered to buy the Animorphs time to take over the Pool ship. The Animorphs manage to save some though, and he attends Rachel's funeral.
The War Room: He runs his campaign against the Yeerks out of one. Jake notes that it seems an awful like what you'd see in a movie; old guys chomping cigars, guys in suits and a big map (that has his hometown crossed out, presumably because it isn't there any more).
