#ani 33

[imperfectskeleton]

<Out of a respect for life, you have to endure.>

- Animorphs #33, The Illusion

[emeraldmew]

Jake made a face I see too often. It's a look of disgust. Disgust with himself. He hadn't wanted to single me out, to make me on on what might be a suicidal mission. He'd waited till I could volunteer.

No one did Jake any favors by making him leader, indeed. But he's leader and that means using the pieces on his side.

I love his painfully delicious character arc but oof. And also Tobias recognizing that he's just another weapon in Jake's arsenal, another tool to use.

We see Jake and Tobias worry about each other's safety and we see Tobias grieve and desire vengeance when Jake dies in MM3. But they're also leader and subordinate in a war. Jake's willing to sacrifice Tobias but not until Tobias volunteers - but he also knows he will because it's the best plan and he has to hold off on accepting other lambs to the slaughter until the right one realizes whose turn it is.

Tobias and Rachel see this side of Jake more than Cassie or Marco are willing to admit to. And Ax? Well, he's a trained warrior cadet who knows to listen to the leader.

I love 90s children's books.

[moonkent]

MoonKent Muses - Animorphs books #33 and #2

So, obviously I'm backtracking here, as the Animorphs Book Club is on book #39 this week, but I decided to revisit some of the early books because I thought of some fun counts I want to keep a tally of (more on them in a future post).

But given how far ahead the reread is, it actually works out because now I can post thoughts without spoilers!

So, in book #33, one of the interesting things about Jake is how well he knows how to use his team like tools by now. He KNOWS that the person who has to volunteer for the anti-morphing ray mission is Tobias, but because it will be dangerous, he doesn't want to out and out order Tobias to go; instead he just manipulates the conversation until Tobias volunteers on his own. It shows something of how callous Jake has had to become as the leader.

Thing is, there are actually hints of that all the way back in book #2, which I didn't realize until this last reread! When the team is deciding what to do next for spying on the Yeerks, Jake has already done the math and decided it makes the most sense to use Melissa. She's Chapman's daughter AND she already has connections with Rachel, which makes it easier to get close to her. He already knows how to use people strategically right back at the start! True, he's much more apologetic and uncomfortable with this skill at the time, but it's impressive to see how much of the groundwork for later character development is already present here.

[halfeatenmoon]

So animorphs #33. That opening. I know people have been talking for twenty years about Tobias as a trans allegory, but his fear at the start of this book that maybe Rachel WANTS him to be trapped in human morph is the most I've ever related to it. As a fear of detransition, and the fear that a partner doesn't really want your transitioned self.

[emeraldmew]

oh. the book club is already to Tobias's Terrible No Good Very Bad mission.

[emeraldmew]

Pacing as Tone Control

The more of this reread I'm through the more I feel like the primary factor in Animorphs being a kids' series is the use of pacing to control the tone.

Animorphs gets very dark and often doesn't hold back on the implications... except for when the pacing doesn't allow the reader to linger on them. It's probably most obvious in the wrap up chapter of 33: Tobias has been through hell but we're seeing the aftermath through the point of view of a Tobias who very much is focused on not focusing on it right now in favor of being with the others and safe again. We see in his actions and reactions in later books that being tortured by Taylor had long-term effects on him but in the book itself the pacing prevents the reader from dwelling on the long term by shifting the focus to the cooldown at the beach.

The fast pace lets Animorphs get away with a quick flash of a five-year-old Controller in 29 because the missions to save both Aftran and Ax are more pressing at the moment. Kids reading allow the fast pace to take them from beat to beat without long-term focus on the horrors that older readers are more ready to pick up on.

Sort of neat how the speed of moving from one plot beat to the next affects the overall tone just by itself.

[emeraldmew]

decompressing from the mission at the beach is sort of a duty now more than a whim. It's about trying to force a sense of normalcy back into their existence.

But what I want to talk about is the Utzum. As Ax describes it, it's memories passed through DNA to give strength to a dying andalite. Superstition or not, Tobias experienced it without ever being told of it first.

And it doesn't actually seem to come from DNA. Or at least not specifically andalite DNA. Elfangor was a nothlit as a human when Tobias was conceived. Genetically Tobias was born as a human. Whatever andalite spiritual or psychic stuff got passed to him, it wasn't through his DNA.

(keeps in mind for something in the final part of the series involving taxxons)

[emeraldmew]

"What?" "It's just all these other people. The noise. This body …" I looked around, worried that someone might overhear. But no, not with human ears, not with this much noise. "You mean your body. The body you're in now is your body, Tobias. It's who you truly are. Normally, naturally." We'd been through this before. I didn't know how to answer. And I didn't know why she was pushing it.

On rereading Animorphs it really kind of amazes me that Tobias was written like this without intentional trans-coding in mind.

I also love that these two are written so messily. They love each other but they can never be quite on the same page about who Tobias is and what Tobias wants for himself and they also can't seem to actually talk about it without talking past each other.