History NightmareFuel / Animorphs

** And to make it worse, in #53 The Answer [[spoiler: Arbron indicates that he was one of those Taxxons. Watching the body of Alloran turn into a monster and eat the only person other person who knew that he was a Taxxon ''nothlit'', and that to maintain his cover Arbron eat some of those chunks of his friend.]]

* ''{{Animorphs}}'' gave us the nightmarish puppetmaster Yeerks, the Taxxons, insane-with-hunger giant centipedes (who are also cannibals and will eat themselves if they are injured/hungry enough (And they're always hungry)), and the Hork-Bajir, benign but enslaved bladed lizard men (who started out as mooks but turned out to be really sympathetic), as well as [[PainfulTransformation morphing]] in general and the terror at getting stuck in animal form -- or, worse, between forms -- in particular.
** In one book, we get to see how a Taxxon thinks- which is basically a never-ending, overwhelming sense of fear of starvation. Oh, and Tobias attempts to ''eat'' his friends while in this morph. Not fun.

[[WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld Wake up, go to school, save the world...]] [[{{Animorphs}} by morphing into different animals]] and fighting a violent maniac, [[EliteMooks walking salad shooters]], and [[HorrorHunger giant cannibalistic centipedes.]] WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids?

* Rachel imagining sticking a fork in [[spoiler: David's]] ear was incredibly disturbing.
** "I fought back a nauseating urge to twist the fork, to make him squeal in pain." Rachel, ladies and gentlemen.

* The Yeerks themselves. An alien slug forces its way through your ear canal and wraps itself around your brain - then takes over controlling your body while you are trapped helplessly in your own head. More than anything else, that element of the series kept me awake for ''very'' long stretches of time.
** Seconded.
** Aside from the basic creep factor .. There was a nice moment when This Troper (later in life, reminiscing about the books fondly) realized ''all'' the implications of the Yeerk going about your life for you. Have a husband or boyfriend? Do a lot of casual hooking up? Anything in between? Well, your Yeerk is going to go on with it. Which means you don't get to decide when you have sex anymore, or how, or who with.

* Rachel transforms into a shrew, and is very nearly overwhelmed by the instincts. Particularly notable is the bit where she's being held by the rest of team, and ''doesn't actually react to them''. My memory may be faulty, but it was still creepy.

** Oh, and from the same book, Ax takes down a Taxxon while the others are in fly morph. They can't see well, but they can sure as hell ''smell'' something...

* I can simply not believe that there has been no mention of the time that Marco got swallowed by a bird whilst in wolf spider morph. I still can't think of that moment without shuddering. Also, how about in ''The Message'' where he gets ''bitten in half by a shark'' whilst in dolphin morph.
* The crown jewel wasn't the transformations but the school's principal: Stock children's-fiction villain, and host to the mind-controlling parasite aliens' leader, being given back 'the helm' inside his own head, and allowed to beg for his family's life before the BIGGER BOSS. He falls over and slurs and drools because he hadn't had willed control of his body for longer than it takes the Yeerk to feed in YEARS.
* Don't even get me started on the Yeerks. This troper hasn't read the books in years but still needs a blanket over her ears at night so said mind-controlling parasite aliens can't crawl into her brain while she sleeps (shudders).

* In ''The Andalite Chronicles'', during the Time Matrix sequence, Elfangor and Loren walk into a [[ItMakesSenseInContext Mickey D's]] and see someone who's face is practically ''made of acne!'' That scene gives this troper nightmares to this day.

* Rachel. Just Rachel. At first, Marco's description of her as "Xena Warrior Princess" is kind of funny. The more the series goes on, the more you realize that she is, for all sakes and purposes, a violent psychopath. A very frightening one, I might add.
** [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Do you only realize it as the series goes on, or does she actively become more violent and unstable as the series goes on?]] Neither interpretation is particularly pleasant, since all of the kids are changing in similar ways.

* For some reason, Rachel imagining sticking a fork in [[spoiler: David's]] ear was incredibly disturbing. I don't think there's an Ear Scream trope, but....imagining that isn't pleasant.

* The beginning of the first book, when we first realized this wasn't {{Goosebumps}}. The kids meet a dying alien that gives them the power to morph. In a gentler story, Elfangor would have become the quirky alien mentor or something. But since this is {{Animorphs}}, guess what? Visser Three turns into the first of his [[{{OneWingedAngel}} many horrendous morphs]] and ''eats him.''
** Don't forget when pieces of Elfangor fall out of the Visser's mouth and Taxxons, who were waiting at the Visser's feet, jump up and eat them.

** Even worse is his disturbing fondness for eating his victims. Now, yeerks are photosynthetic, and his andalite host body is an herbavore. ''So just where did this guy get the idea to eat people from?''
*** Well, he is in charge, and the Yeerks do have to know how to feed their host species...

** That was this troper's first book in the series. Realized then and there that this wasn't going to pull its punches.
* I file the ending of the last book as FanonDiscontinuity, not necessarily because I disagree with the decision to end it that way, but because the image of [[spoiler:the assimilated Ax]] was literally keeping me from sleeping.
** The part that sent this troper into a cold sweat was when [[spoiler: Ax [[BodyHorror '''smiles''']] at them.]]
* Crayak. He's an EldritchAbomination portrayed mainly as a disembodied eye that lives in the space between dimensions thanks to that incident with the black hole. And his sole purpose in life is to destroy as much life as the Ellimist will let him, [[ForTheEvulz all for kicks]]. Makes you wonder why K. A. Applegate didn't just stick with the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil and make ''him'' the actual BigBad.
** Because that makes him even more terrifying. If he was to actually interfere on a personal level, he'd destroy everything in a manner of seconds. I read an interview where Applegate talked about him, saying she wanted him to represent true evil, on an existential level, much like Sauron from Lord of the Rings. I however, end up imagining him as pure Lovecraftian horror; something beyond our capacity to understand, completely malevolent, and so powerfully destructive that he would kill everything he could possibly kill (everything) if he ever fully loosed his power. Then in the last book, there's The One, who is obviously Crayak, finally starting to make his move.
*** He's more [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgoth Morgoth]]
*** "Obviously Crayak"? I never got the impression that The One had anything to do with the Crayak. Just because it's powerful, mysterious and nightmarish doesn't mean it has to be the same EldritchAbomination they'd already met before. There are plenty of evils in the galaxy other than just the ones the Animorphs met during the war. [[ParanoiaFuel Keep that in mind, won't you?]]
*** To the first Troper who mentioned Crayak, he '''is''' the BigBad, pulling the strings behind the Yeerks and any other enemies the Animorphs met, with the Ellimist pulling the strings behind their allies.
*** When the Ellimist was talking about the origin of his battle with Crayak, he told the gang that Crayak was expelled from a far-distant galaxy hundreds of millions of years ago by an even more powerful entity. I always took The One to be that more-powerful entity, particularly considering that in the end, [[spoiler:the heroes are in a far-distant galaxy in an uncharted section of space.]]
*** I figured "The One" referred to the creature in the Bolivian Army ending.
**** Could be both.
*** I assumed The One was an entity similar to what Ellimist called Father.
** One final note on the above: K.A. explicitly jossed the theory that The One has any connection to Crayak in an interview.

** The Howlers [[spoiler: are literally children, and believe their constant mindless killing of other races is actually a game, ''and they enjoy it.'']]

** That was the first book I read in the series... That was years ago and I was fairly young, but I'm just realizing how scary the concept was!
*** You got a bad case of FridgeHorror there.

** After having read the series for a while, one begins to ponder why one ever thought animals to be sweet, cool, or indeed anything other than absolutely deadly.
*** Which is appropriate, seeing as the characters (especially Cassie) have the same realisation.

* Marco exhibits some slightly Machiavellian tendencies, especially in the later books. He often talks about "the straight line". It's a personal philosophy of his; there is a straight line from A to B, the simplest way to do it, ultimate efficiency. Sometimes following this line forces you to do some things that you'd rather not (like kill your family), and thus, you diverge from the line. But the line is still the line, and for that ultimate efficiency, it must be followed through (to the hilt, so to speak). This philosophy led him to [[spoiler:plan in detail - and execute to completion - a plan to throw his own mother off a cliff to kill the alien in her head]]... WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids?!

[[WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld Wake up, go to school, save the world...]] [[{{Animorphs}} by morphing into different animals]] [[CompleteMonster and fighting a violent maniac,]] [[EliteMooks walking salad shooters]], and [[HorrorHunger giant cannibalistic centipedes.]] WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids?

* [[CompleteMonster Crayak]]. He's basically an EldritchAbomination portrayed mainly as a disembodied eye that lives in the space between dimensions thanks to that incident with the black hole. And his sole purpose in life is to destroy as much life as the Ellimist will let him, [[ForTheEvulz all for kicks]]. Makes you wonder why K. A. Applegate didn't just stick with the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil and make ''him'' the actual BigBad.

* In #31 Ax has a torture session with Chapman and Ax is Torturer. He still is adolescent like the Animorphs. To make it worse, throughout the night he can hear Melissa Chapman calling for her father. It is such a terrible experience that Ax tells Jake will will never do anything like it again, saying < I will gladly fight this Controller and even, in fair battle, kill him, but I am not a torturer.>

** The scariest thing about Crayak? His introduction. Jake experiences the Yeerk dying in his brain, and, just like that, is pushed face to face with something so awful, so utterly evil, that it nearly breaks him... with no explanation. None. Ellimist hasn't even shown up yet, and Jake won't know what it is for a very long time. He mentions having awful nightmares about it in ''The Attack''.

* The crown jewel wasn't the transformations but the school's principal: Stock children's-fiction villain, and host to the mind-controlling parasite aliens' leader, being given back 'the helm' inside his own head, and allowed to beg for his family's life before the BIGGER BOSS. He falls over and slurs and drools
because he hadn't had willed control of his body for longer than it takes the Yeerk to feed in YEARS.

* #39 ''The Hidden'', when Cassie sees an ant morphing into her. This is horrifying enough, but we then realise that the ant!Cassie is screaming because it's lost its HiveMind and become an individual. Also, the Buffa-human is just creepy.
* In ''The Experiment'', the Animorphs have to infiltrate a slaughterhouse using cow morphs. Ax, before he has a chance to demorph, is herded onto the killing floor, and sees the cows ahead of him in line die, one by one, as the butcher approaches...Even after he's rescued and demorphs, Ax "could not stop trembling...could not stop shaking."

** Not to mention that Rachel and Ax are forced [[spoiler: to wait the two hours with him to make sure he's stuck.]] As Rachel said, you can't block out thought-speak, and she notes that [[{{NightmareFuel}} she would hear his screams and pleads and threats everytime she fell asleep.]]

**** But pretty much everything above belongs in WildMassGuessing, not NightmareFuel

* For a series about aliens, Animorphs made some of Mother Earth's own children into pure NightmareFuel for many a child. In ''The Predator'' Marco describes Jake morphing into a lobster and his face "exploding" into valves. Imagine seeing a human being's face [[http://farm1.static.flickr.com/56/151929993_93b08a7c11.jpg turn into this.]] Or in ''The Suspicion'', Cassie describes a giant (from her perspective) [[http://en.wikivisual.com/images/2/2a/Wolf_spider_attack_position.jpg wolf spider]].
** For me, the very idea of turning into a spider is disturbing on various levels.
*** For this one? Pure, unadulterated, NightmareFuel.
** The loving detail that goes into describing the fighting capabilities of various animals also ran a few chills down my spine. After having read the series for a while, one begins to ponder why one ever thought animals to be sweet, cool, or indeed anything other than absolutely deadly.

* The crown jewel of {{Animorphs}} Nightmare Fuel wasn't the transformations but the school's principal: Stock children's-fiction villain, and host to the mind-controlling parasite aliens' leader, being given back 'the helm' inside his own head, and allowed to beg for his family's life before the BIGGER BOSS. He falls over and slurs and drools

* The description of the man's gangrenous leg that Cassie had to cut off in (which number? the one in Australia) Eurgh.
** The book was #44, The Unexpected I think
* Can it just be agreed that this book series is NightmareFuel in its entirety? At least for kids.
** ''And'' for adults.

** His environment and the eating habits he's forced to adopt in #48 ''The Return'' are disgusting.

* #39 The Hidden, when Cassie sees an ant morphing into her. This is horrifying enough, but we then realise that the ant!Cassie is screaming because it's lost its hivemind and become an individual. Also, the Buffa-human is just creepy.

* And the fate of [[spoiler:David, the sixth Animorph. He turns against the Animorphs, so the team decides to trap him in rat form and leave him on an island with dozens of other rats. People boating by years later could ''still'' hear him mind-screaming]].