Recap / Animorphs: The Beginning

Narrator: All six Animorphs

The Animorphs defeat the Yeerks on Earth, leading to the collapse of the Yeerk Empire.

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Tropes:

The Surrender

• Bury Your Disabled: It's confirmed that every last one of the Auxiliary Animorphs was killed by Visser One.
• Duels Decide Everything: Andalites can challenge their superior officers to a duel if they believe the superior is acting against what they stand for, and if they have the support of a Prince. Ax challenges Captian-Prince Asculan to one such duel with the support of Alloran to get him to comply with the promise to give the Yeerks and the Taxxons the ability to morph into a chosen Earth species. The duel doesn't happen because the Andalite Electorate made the decision for Asculan and gives four morphing cubes to the Animorphs for this purpose.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Rachel's last words in the physical plane are one for Tobias.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Tom and his Yeerk are killed when Rachel bites his cobra morph in half with her grizzly bear morph. He remains in her mouth until after she demorphs.
• Killed Offscreen: Jara Hamee, the founder of the free Hork-Bajir, is killed during the battle on the Pool ship without any Animorph there to witness it.
• Legacy Vessel Naming: The Andalite Dome ship that arrives to Earth is called the Elfangor. Ax is awed, calling it the highest honor a warrior could recieve.
• Mercy Kill: Jake concludes he has no real way to save Tom, not while the Yeerk in him has the ambition to betray the empire and escape into the depths of space. To prevent Tom from living the rest of his natural lifespan as a slave far away from Earth, Jake sends Rachel to kill him instead, dooming them both.
• Rank Up: Ax is promoted from aristh to Prince by the Andalite Electorate.
• Scaled Up: The Yeerk in Tom morphs to a cobra in an attempt to kill Rachel. He doesn't succeed, as the cobra's venom kills too slowly to stop an angry grizzly bear in its tracks.
• Screw You, Elves!: Jake gives a thinly-veiled speech to the Andalite High Council telling them to stop with the posturing and accept that humans managed to do what they could not.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Jake joined the war to free his brother from the Yeerks. He ends the war by sacrificing Rachel to kill Tom, because it was the only way to free Tom that he had left.
• Suicide Mission: Rachel was sent by Jake into the Blade ship to kill Tom first, and disable the Blade ship second. He had no exit plan for her, and told her as such. Facing five Controllers in morph is too much for her, so while she successfully kills Tom, she's killed shortly afterwards by a Controller in polar bear morph.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: The Yeerks in the Blade ship throw Rachel's body out into space, where the Andalite fleet recovers it and brings it back to Earth.
• Time Stands Still: The Ellimist makes his appearance to Rachel this way, as always.
• Tonight, Someone Dies: The tag line on the cover of this book gives away that an Animorph will die.
  It began with six.
  It will end with five...
• Villains Want Mercy: Like any Yeerk would, the Yeerk in Tom begs Jake to call off Rachel before she kills him.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Erek calls out Cassie for trying to justify Jake's murder of over 17,000 Yeerks, before breaking ties with the Animorphs for good.

The Aftermath

• Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Jake never bothers trying to reconnect with Cassie after the war. Three years later, she has a new boyfriend, a fellow activist named Ronnie.
• Aliens Love Human Food: Andalites capable of morph flock to Earth to try human foods with their human morphs. Humans are able to trade pastries in exchange for some advanced technology.
• And I Must Scream: Esplin 9466 is sentenced to be locked in a box with a miniature Kandrona generator for the rest of his natural lifespan, unable to even swim around.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Each of the Animorphs faces this after the war ends.
  • Jake saved Tom by killing him, burned almost every bridge with his allies, and sacrificed thousands to end the war. He's revered like his military heroes, and also a shell of a man who just wants his brother and cousin alive again.
  • Rachel never has to try to adjust to life without the war, as she's too dead to do so.
  • Tobias doesn't have to give up his hawk freedom because loses his last connection to his human life with Rachel's death.
  • Cassie's morals and sanity survive the war, but the ones of her friends don't.
  • Marco becomes a rich and famous wisecracking celebrity like he always wanted. He claims he's happy, but there's visible shallowness in his new life and a distinct lack of mention of his parents.
  • Ax is finally out from under Elfangor's shadow, but he doesn't feel like he's done anything to deserve it.
• Cliffhanger: Ax's final narrated chapter is him on the hunt for the missing Blade ship. He finds an empty spaceship of unknown origin, with a trace of Earth DNA inside. Despite the danger he senses, he goes to investigate...
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: As the last of the Taxxons, Arbron becomes a target for poachers. The poachers manage to kill him, and Marco suspects he let them, but they don't get away with it.
• The Fellowship Has Ended: The Animorphs go their separate ways with the war over. Jake sulks around in his parents's house until he gets a job as a morph instructor, Marco indulges in the celebrity life, Cassie becomes an alien and environmental activist, Tobias leaves society with Rachel's urn, and Ax returns to the Andalite homeworld as a war hero.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: As promised by the Animorphs, all the remaining Yeerks (except Esplin 9466) trap themselves in whale morph, and all the Taxxons (except Arbron) trap themselves in anaconda morph.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: All the Animorphs apply, but none more than Jake, who feels responsible for all the deaths that happened during the last battle. Not even the dolphin morph's playful optimism is able to snap him out of it.
  Jake's narration: That’s how I felt now, pretty much all the time. Dark. Dull. Slow and stupid. Distracted, but not by anything in particular. Just like there was something else I should be thinking about but I couldn’t recall what it was.
• Western Terrorists: Several anti-alien factions crop up on Earth, looking to make enemies of the Andalites and Hork-Bajir.
  Jake's narration: Many of the worst were religious cults convinced that the presence of alien species on Earth was delaying a hoped-for Armageddon. Some were antigovernment paranoids who had convinced themselves that the Andalites were taking over Earth. Others were sort of latter-day racists who simply needed someone to hate and focused on the Hork-Bajir. Then there were the ecology extremists who just hated anything new and technological.
• Wham Line: Ax's First Officer, an Andalite named Menderash, returns to Earth asking for Jake, saying that Ax is missing and presumed a prisoner of the Blade ship.

The Trap

• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Marco would really like to stay in his luxurious mansion with his seven cars, butler and maids, airheaded but beautiful girlfriend, and self-starring TV show. When Jake comes to him, he agrees to the mission with many complaints and the acknowledgement that he'd never forgive himself if he didn't try to rescue Ax.
• Eldritch Starship: Menderash describes the unknown alien vessel as mysteriously empty, but alive. No crew to speak of, but fully operational and able to fire on the Intrepid.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: The rescue mission is officially unsanctioned by the human and Andalite governments. As a result, the four male Animorphs simply go missing one day with no guarantee they'll ever return, while an experimental Yeerk ship is stolen by unidentified terrorists.
• Height Insult: Marco tries hitting on Jeanne, to no avail. She sardonically offers to redirect him to her cousin who apparently likes short men, in a way that suggests that Marco is particularly short.
• Legacy Vessel Naming: When they reach the Yeerk craft, Menderash mentions that Andalite custom requires they name it before anyone comes aboard. Jake notes that human custom calls every vessel a she, even if it's named after a male. Tobias then describes the ship as <beautiful and dangerous and exciting>. And thus, they name it the Rachel.
  Marco: She would love it. A scary, deadly, cool looking Yeerk ship on a doomed, suicidal, crazy mission that no one can ever know about? She would love it.
• Lured into a Trap: The Earth DNA detected aboard the alien vessel turns out to be a few strands of polar bear fur, with the only likely source being the human-Controller who killed Rachel. Ax realizes this is a trap meant for an Animorph only seconds before the ship comes alive.
• Mauve Shirt: Jeanne and Santorelli, the two of Jake's students who join the rescue mission. They have bit characterizations, and Jake chose them because they have no close family who would miss them if they never come back.
• Putting the Band Back Together: Played with. Jake recruits Marco and Tobias for the rescue mission, but purposely excludes Cassie, who has managed to rebuild her life after the war.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Menderash traps himself in human morph so he can pilot a Yeerk vessel into Kelbrid space, where Andalites aren't allowed.
• Space Cold War: The Andalites have one with an unknown race called the Kelbrid. Kelbrid space borders Andalite space, and both sides have a treaty that prevents either side from entering each other's territory. The Blade ship escapes into Kelbrid space with Ax, requiring the rescue team to all be humans in a Yeerk ship, else the Kelbrid will start a war.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Marco is found morphing to lobster to retrieve his keys from a shallow pool. His narration makes it clear that he wants an excuse to have fun with his morphs these days. Then Jake comes to him with news of Ax's capture, and all of Marco's shallow, celebrity life crashes down and he becomes a soldier again.
  Marco's narration: In a heartbeat it was as if everything around me turned translucent, like it was all fake, a set created with the help of trick lighting. Now, with the sudden change, it was like I could see right through the walls of my very nice house. Right past old Wetherbee and the silver tray with my Coke. The last three years were magically reduced to a daydream. An old reality emerged from beneath the illusion.
• Underestimating Badassery: Menderash is sure that six humans, five of which are morph-capable, won't be able to get past the two Andalites guarding the ship. He's disgruntled when Tobias uses his Andalite morph to distract them and Marco knocks them out with his gorilla morph.
• Unknown Character: The Kelbrid are so reclusive that no living Andalite knows what one looks like.
• Wham Line: Cassie's final line, after Jake asks her to tell him where Tobias is, forebodes the end of the book.
  Cassie's narration: I knew I had said good-bye to Jake forever.

The Ending

• The Assimilator: The One can only be described as some sort of Energy Being that assimilates those it deems worthy. It does this to Ax, then expresses the intent to do this to Jake as well.
• Body Horror: The One adds a mouth to Ax's face so it can smile mockingly at the Animorphs.
• Bolivian Army Ending: The rescue team finds themselves facing the Blade ship, now an Eldritch Starship possessed by The One and outgunning them several times over. Letting the Blade ship get away again is not an option, because the Yeerks promise to use their new god's power to reign over the universe. The last line in the book is Jake giving Menderash a simple command:
  Jake: Full emergency power to the engines. Ram the Blade ship.
• Dark Messiah: Efflit 1318 clearly sees himself as one, being the herald to a new god that will allow the Yeerks to rebuild their empire even better than before. Marco notes that the fanatical insanity is disturbing to see on the face of a Yeerk slave.
• Eldritch Abomination: The One is described by Marco as "every corruption, every evil, and such power that it seemed impossible it could be present in just the narrow confines of the onrushing Blade ship". It can assimilate organic and robotic beings, modify their bodies at a whim, hijack spaceships with its presence, read minds, and it becomes the Yeerks's new god.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: For a minute after encountering the Blade ship, it looks like a standard Animorph mission: Pretend to be Controllers and gain access to a secure location and take the Yeerks down from the inside. And then...
  Efflit 1318: You will place yourself under the command of The One?
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: Kelbrid space is startlingly devoid of any intelligent life. Even the Kelbrid themselves seem to be missing. The first contact the rescue team gets in months is when the Blade ship finds them.
• Left Hanging: The story ends with no resolution for the remaining Yeerks and The One, or if the heroes will even survive.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The rescue team spends six months searching Kelbrid space for any trace of the Blade ship. Marco notes that scouring a three-dimensional curved plane means dealing with a whole lot of nothing.
• Shout-Out: Santorelli, who is unrecognizable to any Yeerks, is to greet any alien ship they encounter as the Captain of the Enterprise.
• Sole Survivor: With Rachel, James, and the Auxiliaries dead, Ax assimilated, and the final fates of Jake, Marco, Tobias, and David unknown, Cassie is officially the last of the Animorphs.