I think it's super interesting that, when they're pretending to be at each other's throats, Marco provokes her by slapping her, and Rachel physically attacks him in response. They make contact/touch each other multiple times. It's a pretty funny moment with the knowledge that it's faked.

But in The Familiar, when they're actually pissed at each other and fighting, they very much make a point to not lay hands on each other. They take their frustration out on the environment instead, kicking, hitting, and throwing nearby objects.

It's a compelling contrast. It's like they know if they start a physical fight, it'll go too far. None of the core six Animorphs ever actually trade blows, at least as far as I can remember. But I noticed this parallel with Rachel and Marco specifically both because these books are close together, and because they're the two most stubborn, argumentative, opinionated, ruthless members of the group. I love picking apart how they interact as a duo.

I'm in the middle of yet another reviewing of the series

And I'm nearing end of david. Some random thoughts that popped into my head

Cassie is partially to blame for David 😤

The kids had a cut and dry Heroic origin story with a majestic alien passing the power on and then getting eaten in sacrifice infront of them. Each of them first morphed into prey animals first to just survive, and outside Tobias all of them kept a relatively safe home life (besides Tom being in same home obv) a place after every mission they could drop the mask, remind who they are fighting for, what they are fighting for. They had that emotional battery and reason to fight. People they had to maintain their humanity around. Normalcy to maintain.

David didn't. He was a new kid, in a new town. And his introduction to this all was a war in his bedroom. The "good guys" breaking into his room. Insulting him and fighting the visser. Then losing his home and his parents without any fight. He was alone, an outsider. Tobias killing and stealing what they need is fine. David was treated as cruel for not being homeless as a human who is hunted. At any point they could turn on him, they had no loyalty to him but demanded it in return. Cassie has gone rogue and even sided with a yeerk in 19 and was treated better than David on a good day. Not once did they try to console David. Marco even just mocked him.

We get to his first morph. Should have been a merlin, instead Cassie brought a golden hawk, a powerful apex predator as his first morph. The first morph a scared, broken kid gets is one that fills him with Strength and recklessness. Rather than something that solidifies how vulnerable they are. All his other morphs he chose followed that mentality. An insecure kid was given power without any temperance. Had she not given the eagle morph, he may have not even felt like he could go that route. Even when he did awful shit like killing Tobias, he still tried to minimize and moralize it as "just animals not people" he didn't kill Marco. Didn't tryTo kill Jordan, he was trying to maintain his own form ofwarped humanity and rules

At the end, he had to be dealt with, obv, and it was performative virtue queen Cassie's plan all the emotional, psychological and other manipulation from her down to the letter to trap him. And selfishly because despite mowin down controllers left and right, killing hundreds of taxxon and hork they like to pretend they have a batman no kill rule they put him in a fate WORSE than death. Just to keep their hands clean by technicality. They left him "alive" a broken and scared child, human intelligence in an awful morph. They should have just killed him, or let Tobias do it. Erik could have also helped work a better solution, but this dude was just living out the ending of rhe movie tusk.

And I know blaming Cassie is a reach for this, but i don't care for her. She is always a hypocrite with their own rules, morphing people, sentient creatures (she was first with whale and hork ect) she will brow beat others for don't what's needed while always being allowed to keep get hands clean because she gets the "ick". She will berate others and expects infinite patience and forgiveness. When she quit both times and was a risk, she faced no consequence with everything just magically working in her favor despite the fact it shouldn't with any consistency. I know alot of people claim she's the group moral compass... but she isn't, she is fine with everyone else doing horrible things as long as she gets to sit on the moral high horse. Tobias is much better in that role, he legitimately is compassionate in words and action, though pragmatic and not reckless with idealism. He's not even a human. So he doesn't have the inherent double standards and biases Cassie does. She is the epitome of "rules for thee, but not for me" even when she's just as bad and enjoyed tearing into that hotk AFTER Jake had said stop. The rest were honest about the necessity and the darkness inside them, she was now concerned with how to convince others

She was better than that. She risked everyone's lives and everyone they cared about by letting the yeerk infect her workout their consent based on vibes.

And we saw ax mix the dna for the human form. It would have been cool to see them. David or visser merge and meld dna to make converts chimera. David literally had an eagle and a lion, would have been crazy to see him make a griffin, maybe they had to be the same species, but that's just speculation, I would imagine you would be in pain for most of rhe duration as it's soo unnatural. But would have been interesting

This may not be all coherent. I'm ramble-posting while at work

I've always had complex feelings about the Chee, both when I first read these books as a kid and even now as an adult looking back on the series. I was wondering about people's thoughts on a few things I've been considering with relation to them.

1) Ax explicitly states in narration (I forget which book) that he does not believe that the Chee have the right to their own pacifism, that they should feel a responsibility in the fight the good fight alongside the Animorphs. Marco in 10 The Android expresses a similar view when a Chee pushes him on this issue when they are trying to obtain the device to allow them to reprogram themselves. Do you view the Chee's desire to rettain their passive programing as respectable or selfish? I go back and fourth on it a lot.

2) Their programming does NOT consistently prevent harm from being caused. In Book 27 The Attack Erek refuses to give the Animorphs any tactical advice on fighting the Howlers beyond defending themselves- he will not say or do anything that even remotely causes the Howlers harm. In the SAME book, however, he deliberately withholds the information that the Howlers are children who think killing is a game because it might make the Animorphs LESS inclined to do violence against the species that killed his creators. Is this an inconstancy in the programming or is there more wiggle room in the choices the Chee make for themselves than they'd like the Animorphs to believe?

3) How do folks feel about how the Chee were manipulated at the end of the series, where Jake manipulates them into helping with the plan to take the pool ship? How did people feel about Erek powering down the pool ship weapons, which allowed the Blade ship to escape? I remember being extremely frustrated by the Chee on first read, but now I'm more inclined to believe Jake could have come up with a better plan.

I dunno- just some thoughts that have been swimming around in my head. What do others think about the Chee?

I pinky promise, I am not Crayak.

A sequel to Rachel, on Tom from his POV on the blade ship. Inspired by @bamurien's comment!

-

Rachel. He'd sent Rachel.

Smart kid, my brother was. Rachel was the only one that would understand what had to happen. She'd understand what she needed to do. She'd always been the most blunt and practical one at the kid's table, after all. 'Tough' was the only kind of love she knew.

I was proud of both of them, in a way. My only regret is that I never got to thank them, never got to ruffle their hair and call them names for the last time. (I couldn't regret my helplessness. If I did, I'd have driven myself mad a long time ago.)

Iniss 335 never paid much mind to Rachel at family gatherings, so she looked older than I remembered. The weight of the world was visible on her shoulders, and she carried it like pauldrons. I didn't want to think about how she got that way.

I had been keeping all my strength in reserve, concealing my intentions from my captor, saving it for a moment when it really mattered. And this mattered. I'd help my cousin in the only way I could.

Rachel lunged, her jaws snapping an inch from cobra muscle. The long, cylindrical body twisted to dodge her. The sensation was distant and strange. Iniss was piloting a body I'd never known, and all I could do was watch. And feel.

The battle surged. She defended herself with unsettling ease. I waited with practiced patience. Then -- a chance! She was close, and he was about to dodge again, but--

Now!

I used all my willpower to try and wrest control of the body. I couldn't do it, of course. Iniss was experienced with unruly hosts, and I didn't know how to work this thing, anyway.

But it was a distraction. A moment's lapse in his total, utter control of me.

Just enough.

Grizzly fangs pierced our skin, nearly cleaving us in two. The pain was blinding. The injury was fatal.

In my final moments, I heard the Yeerk wail in silent rage and agony. Then, I exhaled.

........we might have some problems

https://archiveofourown.org/works/88994236/chapters/236215521

This is a continuation of my previous stories (The Return - The Reboot, The Burden, and The Mercy). Although this story references those at times, it is not necessary to have read any of those in order to understand this. This is the 4th installment in what will be a five part series.

Unlike with my previous stories, where there are multiple timelines in play, this story only takes place in a single timeline. In this timeline, Melissa was an Animorph from the start. When David later finds the blue box, Melissa starts a relationship with him. David doesn't betray the group like he does in the original canon, but no one other than Melissa trusts him. Following the tragic failure to rescue her parents, Melissa becomes disillusioned with Jake's leadership, and the Animorphs overall. She is more susceptible to David's manipulation than she has ever been.

After a confrontation with Rachel turns violent, Melissa and David escape to Idaho just as the Yeerks get the morphing cube. They hope that their new home will be remote enough that they can ignore the end stage of the war. It works for a while, but then their food starts dwindling, and David's actions create new dangers. Ultimately, Melissa and David have to decide whether they want to return to the fight, whether they remain together, and whether redemption is possible for either of them.

Content/Trigger Warning - As I mentioned, food becomes increasingly hard to come by for Melissa and David. The depictions of their starvartion are detailed. There is nothing glamorous about it of course; it's quite grim. But for anyone struggling with or recovering from an eating disorder, it may be hard to read, so I want to warn you in advance.

I also created a "cover morph" for this. I spent waaayyy too long on that moose adding layer after layer of fur. It's obviously not great art, and the middle stages of the morph are super awkward (I have tremendous respect for David Mattingly after this). But it is at least an improvement from the last time I tried to illustrate a morph.

Lastly, I'm not from Idaho, nor have I ever been there. I tried to do plenty of research before writing this, but if anyone from Idaho happens to read this, feel free to let me know what I got right, but also what I got wrong. I'd love to hear from you.

So today I went to my local Chevron again to get a Monster and fill my tank. Outside the Chevron there is one of those little outdoor library thingies (I can never remember what they're called, I have issues with word recall even when I know what word I'm looking for), and it had #32 The Separation. I wanted to snag it on my way back out and get a pic, but it was already gone in the 5-10 minutes it took me to get done inside. Kinda bummed.

My first thought is maybe the concept of colonization? But interest in hearing everyone's thoughts!

Loooove their friendship. This book is underrated IMO. Then again, I'm willing to defend just about any Animorphs book, even the "bad" ones.

I'm just curious on people's opinion on what they consider core Rachel material.

Book 2 The visitor

Book 22 The solution

Book 32 - The Separation

Book 54 - obviously

Really looks like something plucked right from the covers.

And the books are the reason I know they can see through the surface of the water!

...make a series about what happens after the war.

For the purpose of presenting my idea, I'm going to ignore the fact that K.A. left the series on an intentional cliffhanger. The idea is for the first episode or two to adapt the final book, which will be a huge draw for fans while also preserving that cliffhanger intention by not immediately showing what happens to them. This will keep the viewer hooked as we explore this post-war world: what the Andalites are getting up to, the rights and sovereignty of the Yeerk race, and humanity's place in all of it. Imagine the Yeerk Peace Movement playing a prominent role, and the potential that can offer. There's a lot of social commentary that can be explored through a Yeerk and human host that remain together, or a Human-morphed Yeerk trying to assimilate.

There would also be more room to explore post-war PTSD, which they attempted to do in The Beginning but I mean look there's only so many pages.

Readers of the books will get a continuation of the story, while people starting without prior knowledge will get the benefit of intrigue.

Also this way the characters can all be adults, which would solve multiple production and storytelling issues.

So I read some of the books when I was 13 (1998), and watched the show. But the technology, and ways the entire process works from obtaining the transformation process, to how dna is stored, I don’t understand. I have searched though several threads. Seems like Ben 10 (which I’m a fan of too), Where DNA is stored/streamed elsewhere, then sent to the user when needed. If there’s a place I can read up into the morphing lore I’d love to find it. Thanks.

i don't see a spoilers flair, so ending spoilers ahead!

hey everyone, so i only read the first three books and i do hope i'll have the time to read the entire series soon, but i had a question just now: i saw that most of the group dies, but how did their parents react? were the bodies even brought to them?

Did KA ever say if they put research into animal behavior? Or was it just, dogs are happy and loyal so I'm writing dogs happy and loyal? I'm sure a mixture of both but I didn't know if vets or someone were consulted. Maybe in later books?

I've added a piece to my collection that I've been wanting for a very long time. Modeled by my elderly boy Aurelius.

Would it have been possible for the Animorphs to morph into a different form. Get trapped in it, use the morphing cube to regain the ability to morph, use saved blood or dna to go back to their main body and get trapped again, but with Thought Speech now. Then require their previous morph?

Is there a limit on how many times one person can be given the ability to morph?