Animorphs

Visser 3 probably feeds up on the Blade-Ship for just that reason.

I did have a question - can they use dna from one of the others while morphed. As in, one of them morphs an animal, and they all acquire the DNA from the other while they're morphed. Sure, they turn into clones, but it's easier than some of th

And, also, it would allow them access to some of the alien morphs Ax might have - one of the reasons they can't capture Visser 3 is that they simply don't have any animals that compare to the sheer power of some of his more terrifying morphs, at least not without having a dangerous battle that would require all of them to match him.

No, you can't acquire someone who's morphed.

edited 27th Aug '12 3:38:31 PM by BioSafety

^^^^ They don't rescue Tom or anyone else because Visser Three is a psycho who would just murder all the escaped host bodies at first opportunity. That was what ended up happening when they destroyed the Kandrona; they thought they would be freeing a bunch of people, but instead the Yeerks just had everyone killed to keep the invasion a secret.

It's also easy to forget that the Animorphs' whole plan was to try and delay the Yeerks until the Andalites show up to save them. For the longest time, the kids weren't interested in trying to create a resistance or openly start a conflict against the Yeerks, which is what going around freeing host bodies would require. They believe, and I think Ax confirms, that the Yeerks have enough firepower to basically destroy the planet if it really came down to it, and Visser Three is the kinda guy who would be willing to write off almost all of humanity as a loss and reduce the world to cinders if it looked like he was going to lose.

It's only near the end of the series that the kids start fighting openly, and that is only because circumstances forced their hand. With the Yeerks abandoning secrecy in favor of all out war and the Andalite fleets on their way to purge the planet, the Animorphs get desperate enough to start changing how they do things.

They don't rescue Tom or anyone else because Visser Three is a psycho who would just murder all the escaped host bodies at first opportunity.

So don't have them resume their normal lives; hide them with the free Hork-Bajir or somewhere else. Even rescuing say, half a dozen people including Tom would be enough to disguise that it was Tom specifically they were after, so it wouldn't lead the Yeerks to Jake. Even freeing a few people is a gain, and it could get them some new information about the Yeerks to boot.

It's also easy to forget that the Animorphs' whole plan was to try and delay the Yeerks until the Andalites show up to save them. For the longest time, the kids weren't interested in trying to create a resistance or openly start a conflict against the Yeerks, which is what going around freeing host bodies would require. They believe, and I think Ax confirms, that the Yeerks have enough firepower to basically destroy the planet if it really came down to it, and Visser Three is the kinda guy who would be willing to write off almost all of humanity as a loss and reduce the world to cinders if it looked like he was going to lose.

Rescuing a few people wouldn't start a more significant conflict than all the other thing the Animorphs are doing. And wiping out humanity makes no sense in regard to the Yeerk's goals - they're not after Earth's natural resources, they're after humans as hosts. It would be like invading the Middle East for oil and deliberately destroying the entire oil supply if things started getting difficult.

... The Yeerks do find this suspicious... It's why they started testing blood samples...

Um, yes. Yes, freeing Tom would lead the Yeerks to Jake. Freeing Tom would force them to put him in hiding, which would force them to put Jake's family in hiding(since the Yeerks would come for them when Tom disappears. The Yeerks would move faster if Jake's parents don't actively look for Tom, but they'd come regardless). And if Jake's family(including Jake) disappears after Tom is rescued, things escalate, with regards to everyone else that needs to disappear, incredibly quickly...

The biggest problem with rescuing anyone from the Yeerk Pool is rather simple: The people themselves probably won't want to be held in a second prison. Which is essentially what's awaiting them after they're rescued, as they can't be allowed to return to their lives until the Yeerks are gone, because they'll just be reinfested... This is especially true if they've seen that the Animorphs are human...

You can say "hide them with the Hork-Bajir", and that's a valid option... But only if the people want to never leave that valley for however long it takes for the war to end... That was hard enough to enforce with regards to their parents when everyone was living in the valley together... It would be even harder if those who were freed were just dropped off and left to fend for themselves while the Animorphs left and did other things...

edited 27th Aug '12 8:45:22 PM by Swish

You'd think that people who were freed would want to avoid being re-infested, and understand that if they just tried to go back to their normal lives the Yeerks would get them again.

And if you rescue a significant number of people, it doesn't tell them that Jake (or any human) is connected to anything, just that the "Andalite bandits" have started freeing humans. Why would the Yeerks go after the family members of rescued hosts (other than spite)? Outside of high-level politicians, one human host is much like another.

edited 27th Aug '12 9:03:32 PM by WarriorEowyn

The yeerks probably don't need all 6 billion humans as hosts. They started with... half a million? in the 60s, so if they could force-infest enough people they literally can kill everyone else and not lack for hosts.

Finally we got to book 45. I always felt this period was the second best part of the series. For reference the best part was the 20-26 era.

edited 28th Aug '12 6:20:43 AM by Kostya

While the Yeerks are operating under secrecy rather than open warfare? They would do it to continue The Masquerade.

They can't allow the possibility of the escaped hosts contacting their family and friends. The Yeerks who controlled those people will be questioned. Those Yeerks will give up the information of all non-Controllers they have been in contact with, and those people would be picked up by controllers posing as authorities. And those picked up would be the next batch of unwilling controllers.

Again, it's not an issue of spite(Visser 3 would have every family member and friend of the escaped hosts killed out of spite...), it's an issue of keeping the breach contained, and the knowledge of the existence of the Yeerks away from the humans.

edited 28th Aug '12 6:32:47 AM by Swish

Y'know what might've been an interesting idea, if one that would've been risky? Kidnap a random Controller, someone unimportant. Somehow get to an important authority figure and show them the effects of Kandrona starvation. Then explain that Earth is getting invaded by aliens. It's risky but worth a shot, given that it really took too long for anyone important to learn that Earth is being invaded.

Funnily enough, the best way to make that insane and dangerous plan work would possibly be to convince the government that they were aliens. I'd say do something like get to a mayor, have him/her call in the National Guard, and so on or something. The plan would probably get discovered by the Yeerks once they started acting, but it's, again, a risk worth the effort, I think.

As noted a page or so back, the kids spent most of the series waiting for the Andalites. Once they realize that's off the table, things start to change. They contact the governor, recruit the Axillary Animorphs, make a treaty with the taxxons, and so on.

Anybody else wish this series had been shorter? I feel like if they compressed it to 27 books instead of 54 and increased the length and plot significance of each book it would have turned out a lot better.

I liked a lot of the filler books, even if their plots were somewhat sidetracking, so I'm going to have to disagree.

edited 28th Aug '12 8:26:33 PM by KnownUnknown

I see the new one is up, although not yet posted here. I fully agree that Ax does not use linux, but some custom thing that is able to interface with primitive earth computers and is 50% Andalite code, 35% him figuring out what amendments of earth code and Andalite code actually allow him to do what he wants. Apparantly a lot of modern coding simply doesn't work on various old computers, and vice versa, because the code takes the hardware design into account as appropriate. Not that I'm able to code, but so I hear.

Also, I always enjoy the books that involve some sort of Andalite ritual or honorific recitations, even when the Andalites in question are being too bound up in it.

edited 1st Sep '12 2:09:30 PM by Hatshepsut

I don't get why Adam and Ifi are confused about the little "comments" in books 45 and 46 (the "we know who they are...and we know who you are too" at the end of 45 and "everything is going as planned...soon you will all be ours" in 46). It's pretty clearly supposed to be statements from the Yeerks indicating that they now know who the Animorphs are, and foreshadowing for the start of open war in the next books.

It is not entirely clear the first time you see them. It Could have been the Ellimist or Crayak, they haven't shown up in a while. Or those whatevers from a few books ago.

edited 1st Sep '12 5:49:58 PM by Parable

Given that they're showing up in the books at a point where the Animorphs have just become a lot less covert, and given that their main enemies are the Yeerks, and given that ending a book with "we know who they are" counterpoints the starting of every single book with "We can never let them know who we are"... it's pretty obvious.

It's more that they show up completely out of nowhere, and don't really make any sort of immediate sense in the context of the text.

Anyways, here's Book 46: The Deception, More plot stuff happens, the Andalites are jerks, and US government finds out about the Yeerk invasion, and Ax threatens to blow stuff up. [1]

How long has it been since we've seen Chapman? I don't think he showed up at all for a long time before this book.

edited 1st Sep '12 6:35:15 PM by Kostya

This was my favorite book! I loved the part with the sailors and Marco.

Yeah, with the last couple of books you get the impression that the ghostwriter was a big military history buff and wanted to show off.

Book 47: The Resistance continues that pattern, with a nearly identical plot set during the American Civil War. [1]

Wow, glad I never read that one. Really weird choice - after over 40 books of relatively minor missions against the Yeerks interspersed with wacky misadventures, you get a whole book that's about a big battle between Controllers and Hork-Bajir. And then you waste a bunch of it with Civil War flashbacks and stuff about hikers? It's not like the concept of the battle itself isn't enough to fill an exciting book.

I believe this is one of the few books I never actually read. Based on this summary I'm thankful for that.

Well, this week we have a much better one, if it helps.

Here's the much-awaited Ellimist Chronicles: [1]