Animorphs

Probably worth noting that neither Ax nor the rest of the Animorphs are fully grown yet.

True, but if Ax stands at eye-level with other children of comparable maturity levels, it makes sense that adult Andalites would stand at eye-level with other adult humans. That also seems to gel with the image of Aldrea next to Dak, who should be the Hork-Bajir average height of 7 feet tall, and she comes up to his chest.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Nov 26th 2021 at 12:02:44 PM

Good point regarding 7 feet being tall and somewhat rare but not unheard of for humans. So if we're looking at 7 ft tall athletic humans, we have Yao Ming at 311 and Shaq at 324. A 7-ft tall Hork-Bajir, then, would be about Shaq height, but they would also be less bulky due to a bunch of that height being taken up by that snake-like neck and just their overall lanky build. I suppose some of that mass would be made up by the longer but more folded legs, as well as the tail and what I presume would also be proportionately longer arms, so...probably 300-350 lbs on average?

As for Taxxons, Burmese pythons can totally eat humans (they also go up to 400lb, I might have mixed up their kg number with their lb number earlier). I peg them as fairly light mainly because it seems like wild pythons at least are primarily muscle, while Taxxons seem like they'd burst if they tried constricting anything on, thus they're probably fairly lightweight due to being large but lacking in muscle or bone/exoskeletal mass.

Ax's height relative to the other Animorphs is likely due to his comparative age. If anything, Gafinilan (Soola's Disease, more like Swole-la's Disease, amirite?) definitely proves some amount of physical variation among Andalites.

Come to think of it, Gafinilan is the only Andalite whose physical appearance is described in detail. Visser Three radiates pure evil, and I think Cassie notices how young Ax looks in #4, but most of the distinguishing characteristics we get for Andalites are injuries.

Yao Ming is actually 7'6''.

The thought of Shaq and Yao dwarfing and taking out a crew of Hork-Bajir is making me lmao.

Edited by ElementX on Dec 5th 2021 at 6:29:50 AM

I wonder if they're any better at basketball then they are at writing constitutions.

A certain plot development in Dæmorphing made me picture Hork-Bajir playing basketball.

I imagine the elbow blades make them excellent blockers.

There's the risk of the ball getting punctured due to getting stuck on said blades of course.

That and the risk of other players getting punctured.

I imagine that the Arn gave the Hork-Bajir their Wolverine regeneration abilities* so they wouldn't constantly kill each other by accident.

\*Do those ever come up again after #13?

There's also a chapter of All Assorted Animorphs AUs which mentions Loren starting an interspecies baseball league in the Hork-Bajir valley. I want to see that and I'm not even into baseball.

Edited by NitroIndigo on Dec 6th 2021 at 1:54:16 PM

Wait Hork-Bajir can regenerate??

I haven't revisited the series in a while, but it was already a stretch to have these incredibly deadly foot soldiers serve as Mooks for the protagonists. I thought at least the team had the advantage of being able to heal from their wounds, but that's negated if the Hork-Bajir can do it too.

I'm assuming it's a slower process at least.

From what I remember, Jara Hamee slices open his own head so that Tobias and Ax could see his brain and confirm that there was no Yeerk in there. After scaring the bejeezus out of them he pushes the two sides of the open wound together and after a short while the it heals itself back up.

Perhaps they just heal from flesh wounds very quickly, but not from actual traumatic injuries that would kill anything immediately? Thus a clean cut with a blade that is then immediately pushed back together is no different than, say, a human undergoing brain surgery, but getting their throat torn out by a wolf or necks snapped from a grizzly paw swipe still kills them?

Cassie and Marco also tear into Jara and Ket pretty good as wolves, but just enough to make them look like they're dead from a far distance, and not enough to actually kill them.

That's how you know it's a good block!

Hi y'all! I read the graphic novel of the first book recently, and I loved it. I grew up around these books, as they were always in a classroom or library or friend's house, but I didn't read them until this past year. I'm so excited to join this fandom!

Nice to meet you! Quick question to determine if you are a REAL fan: How do you pronounce Crayak?

Uh, they may not be at that name's introduction yet.

And it's pronounced like kayak but with an r, obviously.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jan 5th 2022 at 12:58:43 PM

Found the fake fan.

When does Crayak actually get name dropped anyway? I remember he shows up in book 6, but they don't mention his name.

I think Crayak was first named in book 26, the Attack.

Also, how do YOU think it should be pronounced?

Kevin. Obviously.

I’ve also been rediscovering the books lately, via the new audiobooks as my library slowly adds them to its digital collection. I’m only on book six so far. Each viewpoint character has a different audiobook narrator; I think the did a good job with Jake (MacLeod Andrews) but Marco (Ramón de Ocampo) doesn’t match my internal voice at all. The others are in between.

My library is very inconsistent; they have audiobooks 1-7, 14-16, and 20-24. Once I listen to The Stranger I think I’ll wait for them to fill in the gaps.

I pronounce Crayak like "crazy" or "crayon".

Been recollecting the original book series from time to time. Used to be and still am a huge fan of the series.

Recently got book 2, and 13, already have books 3, 4, 12, 21, 24, 25, 28, 38.

I got a long way to go to get every book. And knowing Marco, he'll think I'm insane on trying to get every book.