Animorphs

Guess what? While I was writing that last post in March, Katherine Applegate was announcing on Twitter that Scholastic would be making a graphic novel adaptation! Not really recent news, but I just heard about it now.

I'm pretty sure we've had this conversation before, but since they're apparently working on a graphic novel- what parts would you adapt, and what would you cut? The problem is due to the pace Animorphs was written, a lot of it is ghost-written and/or filler. But the plus side is that everyone gets a book and a chance to narrate, so there are a lot of character moments seen from all angles- something you'd lose if you strip out the filler

My list of "definitely keep":

-Anything with Visser One/Marco's mom

-Anything where the Chee are part of the main plot

-Anything with the free Hork-Bajir

-Anything focusing on Yeerks, Andalites, and how their societies work (or don't).

-Anything with the Ellimist or Crayak.

-Anything with David

-Anything with Tom

I don't want to say "just cut the filler" because most of the early books tied into each other, even if their events weren't always important. In book 7 they smash the Kandrona ray, in book 8 they find out the Yeerks are starving to death, in book 9 Visser Three "coincidentally" starts leveling the forest to flush out the Andalite bandits.

The Ellimist is an awkward case because this messianic god-figure doesn't really fit in the otherwise sci-fi heavy franchise, but they story can't actually work without him. The Ellimist restoring Tobias's morphing ability is a vital part of the story, and it can't be done any other way without removing the morph timer tension entirely.

So even though the Ellimist is a really weird concept to have to work with, the story can't function without him.

edited 16th Sep '17 9:48:54 AM by TobiasDrake

With something like this it's less a matter of cutting and more a matter of streamlining. Go through a summary of each book (better to reread the whole series but That Time Sink Though, so summaries are fine) and write down everything you think it important. Not just to plot, but to characters. Everything that builds to the characters big choices in the finale should be included. Rachel getting more unstable and violent, Tobias becoming more distant, Jake losing empathy to pressure, Marco becoming more ruthless and pragmatic, etc.

edited 16th Sep '17 11:00:22 AM by odafangirl

Sci-Fi's full of godlike beings and mystical mumbo-jumbo. Star Trek has Q (whom I believe KA said was a direct inspiration for the Ellimist), Star Wars has Yoda and the Force, Babylon 5 has the Vorlons and Shadows and their war of ideals, Dune has the spice and future vision... It's not like the Ellimist and Crayak are unusual. Plus, they got their powers through black holes and hive minds and other sciencey things.

So in one of those cases of minor problems caused by ghost writing—I was rereading Book 25, where they wind up in the arctic. Initially they're all in battle morphs. They all freeze horribly, and have demorph and go wolf until they've had the chance to acquire seal and polar bear morphs.

There's just one little problem with this—Jake. Jake's a Siberian tiger◊. He's built for cold to almost the same extent that a polar bear is. Not only should he be fine, but morphing wolf (especially wolf-from-California) should actually be a downgrade. I'm guessing whoever ghost wrote that book didn't know where his tiger was from, and just assumed it was a Bengal tiger.

That is both a good point and a fair mistake to make. Eh, it's not like the series has never made mistakes regarding accurate animal biology before, see: In the Time of Dinosaurs.

Rachel has a grizzly bear morph that would probably be just as good as a wolf for cold weather, as well.

There's also that moment in Book 37 (the one where Rachel takes over as leader) where Rachel orders everyone to use polar bear for their next mission so as to hide how many of the 'Andalite Bandits' there are, only for all of them to start overheating from the very presence of Vissor 3's new disgusting giant stinking pile of flesh morph.

Problem is, polar bears are totally fine in slightly warmer climates, and we know the Vissor's morph isn't that hot because Rachel throws herself against it with no mention of her flesh burning off.

edited 5th Nov '17 3:11:36 PM by PushoverMediaCritic

You could argue that said bear was from California I suppose, but all the wolves are from there too, yet are apparently alright in the Arctic weather (or at least more alright then anything else they had prior to seal and/or polar bear). The book uses the excuse that grizzlies usually hibernate in the winter, but the reality is they don't do that because they can't handle the cold, but because with everything else in hibernation and the plants covered over, there's very little to eat. In Yellowstone Park the reintroduction of wolves, and an abundance of wolf-kills to scavenge in the winter actually led to the grizzlies being more active through the winter.

So yeah, Rachel's grizzly probably would have been pretty okay or at least as okay as the wolves. And Jake's tiger, being from Siberia, should once again, have been pretty damn fine. If they'd all gone wolf for the purpose of blending in (a wolf pack looks natural, a wolf pack accompanied by a grizzly bear and a Siberian tiger does not) that'd be one thing, but the book makes it explicit that it's for the purposes of fending off the cold. Marco even comments that he knew Jake had suffered in his tiger morph, but wouldn't morph to wolf until all the others had successfully done so, making the idea that the wolf morph is better suited to the cold explicit.

I'd also suggest that when they're trying to subdue the polar bear so they can acquire him, sending Jake and Rachel (Siberian tiger and grizzly bear) would probably have made more sense than Rachel and Marco. Sure Marco's gorilla has hands which come in handy in wrestling but it also absolutely cannot take the cold, whereas Jake could. I get that Marco's the narrator and therefore needs to be in on the action but still, there's some problems in that book.

Which is a pity because I like the premise, with the kids being dumped in a hostile environment without the morphs necessary to survive there. The problem is that they actually do have the morphs for it (or at least some of them do). Wonder if it might have been better to drop them in the desert; last I checked none of them really have anything suited for desert living.

How cold is the arctic compared to wherever the morphs are from, though? I just assumed there was a greater temperature difference when I read it.

Just checked several maps of the world's temperature zones. Siberian tiger range extends into the polar zone, making it approximately equivalent to Alaskan temperatures. Maps displaying annual mean temperatures back this up; both Alaska and the tiger range in Siberia fall into the same average temperature range of minus 10 to 14, plunging to similar lows and rising to similar highs. Maps showing world climate zones, same deal, with both Alaska and that part of Siberia falling into the "cold zone" or "boreal zone" depending on which map you look at.

I'll grant that over the course of the book the kids clearly move north and out onto the ice sheets of the tundra region, but even so, the temperature gap isn't what you'd expect. It's a drop in average temperature of a few degrees between those temperature zones, with the shift being more in terms of environment than temperature. A Siberian tiger might not like the landscape of the tundra, but he's not going to be experiencing significantly colder weather than he did in the boreal forest.

My original comment also has less to do with the idea that Jake's morph should perfectly protect him from the cold than it does with the idea that it should do a better job of protecting him from it then his wolf morph. Until they get the seal pups and later the polar bear, Jake staying in tiger morph while the others go wolf would probably have been the most sensible decision.

Wait, Jake's a Siberian? I always thought he was a Bengal.

The very first book describes his morph as, quote, "A male Siberian tiger, to be exact. Ten feet long. Seven hundred pounds of deadly speed and unbelievable power."

If you were in the Animorphs' situation (needing to fight an invasion of parasitic aliens) and you could only choose five morphs, which would you choose? I know they're not limited in number, but it's a fun thought experiment.

I'd go with:

- crow or squirrel, for outdoor survellance. Both very common and this unlikely to draw attention. Crow has the advantage of flying, but someone who was aware of morphing might notice a crow following them. No one notices squirrels.

- housefly, for indoor survellance. Fast enough to escape being swatted, common enough not to draw attention and, if you land somewhere out of the way without buzzing, unlikely to be noticed.

- rhino, for combat. Tough and able to do a lot of damage. Rachel's choice of grizzly bear is also good, but a I think a rhino's hide is even tougher, and "not dying" is a priority.

- a bird of prey, probably an eagle, for long-distance travel. Very useful, especially if you're in the Animophs' position of being a kid without a car.

- orca, for sea missions. Covers the bases in case you need to go into the oceans, and is the single most badass thing in the ocean. They're the size of great white sharks, and have been known to kill and eat great white sharks.

edited 11th Nov '17 5:22:36 AM by Galadriel

I think I would prefer crow, in case we have to move quickly. Rhinos are tough, but I'd be worried about the crappy vision.

Not to be uncooperative or anything, but five morphs just isn't enough. The whole advantage of morphing is that it gives you a virtually unlimited arsenal. Rachel makes that point explicit in Book #17 when she talks about how it's a bit like choosing pistols or swords before the duel—you get to pick the morph that is appropriate for a given situation and run with it.

There's a reason why, even when it comes to their combat morphs, most of them have a back up. Rachel may love her grizzly bear, but she still morphs elephant a lot of the time, particularly when she thinks she might have to swallow some bullets. Jake, for all his attachment to the tiger, demonstrates a similar willingness to deploy his rhinoceros morph when the situation calls for it. Cassie, Marco, Ax, and Tobias aren't as willing to vary it up—only morphing elephant and rhino for the assault on the summit in Book #22—and it often costs them. The raid on the crack house in Book #27 would be a case in point—Cassie's wolf is immobilized, and Marco's gorilla partially disabled, while Rachel and Jake, in African elephant and white rhino morph, get out with far less damage.

At the same time though, there are battles where the elephant or rhino are simply inappropriate. On a number of occasions prior to Book #7, and her acquisition of the grizzly bear, we see Rachel become entrapped in closed spaces. Likewise, Jake uses his rhino to tear up Joe Bob Fenestre/Esplin the Lesser's home in Book #16, but has to revert to tiger to actually climb the stairs and reach Fenestre, since the rhino can't do it. I could pull out more examples, but the overall point is I think clear—the elephant and the rhino are nigh-indestructible, but there are spaces they just can't fit into.

On that note by the way—Book #39 was really stupid, but Cassie in cape buffalo morph was a badass. Am I the only one who wishes she'd acquired it earlier, and used it as her back up when the wolf couldn't do enough damage? Also, thinking of large, hard to kill animals, it is a damn shame none of the kids ever morphed hippo. Just think of all the fun that could have been had if Ax had been given the chance to say "hippopotamus".

Man, if Animorphs existed in modern times, Ax trying to pronounce "hippopotamus" and getting hung up on how much fun each syllable is to say would be on YouTube and musically remixed within the hour. And it would be amazing.

Complete with Visser Three on the other side of the computer screen, contemplating. "Hm... I wonder if that guy's an Andalite..."

Ax would probably be an amazing rapper, now that I think about it.

For enclosed combat I would advocate either a wolverine or honey badger. The former haave been known to fight off bears todefend their kills. The later has a memetic reputation that speaks for itself. I hear that one of the honey badger's adaptations to resist bee stings also makes them frickin hard to cut or slash badly in a fight. Can you just imagine Visser three's reaction if one got close to him in a fight before he could morph?

I think some kind of poisonous snake would be my go-to morph for enclosed spaces. Fast, small, and deadly.

The Visser would slice the badger into tiny little pieces. You're conflating meme with reality there. Animals like honey badgers and wolverines get by on the fact that most animals, including other predators, a) don't want to get hurt, and b) don't comprehend bluffing and/or madness. Sure, wolverines can run off bears, but only because the bear doesn't want to risk an injury and assumes that any animal that's stepping to it must be capable of inflicting injuries upon it. It's all bluff, even if the wolverine isn't necessarily sane enough to know it. Same principle applies to the honey badger's interactions with Africa's big cats.

This falls apart when you throw intelligent opponents into the mix. A Hork-Bajir isn't going to run away from a wolverine or a badger, it's going to cut it in half, potential loss of fingers be damned. Same applies to human-Controllers and Taxxons, only replace "cut it in half" with "shoot it" and "eat it" respectively. The Yeerks aren't another predator that needs to maintain optimum health in order to hunt effectively; they're an invading military made up of brain jacking slugs that can always transfer into a new body if their current one is injured.

To make a point about the difference between reputation and reality, there are numerous recorded cases of wolves, brown bears, and golden eagles preying on wolverines (as well as a case where a black bear defended it's kill against a wolverine and ultimately killed the weasel). Similarly, lions, leopards, martial eagles and crowned eagles are among the animals known to kill and prey upon honey badgers. Crazy will only carry you so far, and sooner or later, somebody calls your bluff and eats you.

Thank you for setting me straight on that.

Re: poisonous snake- correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most poisonous snakes have to wait a while after they bite something for their venom to replenish? If that's the case aren't they good for one or two bites, then you're basicly a really fast belt.

That's probably true- I think Marco's cobra-morph had that problem. He got one or two Controllers, ran out, then he got shot and had to hide under a desk.