#ani 8

[emeraldmew]

The Animorphs books begin with a tale of Evil Yeerks invading Earth and the Andalites the distant heroes who can come save everyone if our young heroes last long enough for them to arrive.

And it keeps that facade intact for our young heroes for, oh, about five and a half books.

Then Jake, after boiling a hundred Yeerks in a Jacuzzi without a second thought, watches Temrash 114 die slowly and painfully while controlling his own body. Even knowing Temrash will doom Earth if he escapes, even knowing that Temrash has broken his own brother into a shadow of himself, Jake feels real sorrow.

Then Ax calls his people for help and is given the blame for his brother's crimes because the Andalites can't tarnish a hero's reputation in the middle of their long-running war.

Now here's Eslin Three-Five-Nine. Not an "ally" by any stretch, but he hates Visser Three more than he hates the Andalites. Because Visser Three lied to him. Because he lost Derane Three-Four-Four.

It's just the beginning. Just the cracks.

[bluefox4]

He was male -- as all human fathers are. p. 81

Ok, so that is not the norm in the galaxy. Or at least not universally the norm. Having to clarify that being male is part of what makes him a father means that that is not the always the norm. What is gender like for other species? Are male and female always a thing?

We know that Ax has a concept of male from The Message where says that he choose male because he is male, but I'm really curious what the gender norms are across the Animorphs' universe.

[emeraldmew]

Just a few messages

delivered indirectly

but all with the same purpose.

[emeraldmew]

"Prince … I mean, Jake. Are you sick?" He shook his head. "Pardue was a Controller. The Yeerk was starving. And why? Because we destroyed the Kandrona. Me and you and the others. We did this!" "It was necessary," I said. "We struck a powerful blow against the Yeerks by destroying the Kandrona." "Chapman killed him, didn't he?" Prince Jake said. "The little steel cylinder. Did you see that? Not just the Yeerk, but the real Pardue. He killed them both." There was no point in lying anymore. Prince Jake had seen the truth. And the idea of lying now, here, made me feel unwell inside. "If the Yeerk inside the teacher had died, the teacher would have survived and been free," I said. "He would have told other humans what happened. He would have warned them. The Yeerks can't allow witnesses." "They're going to kill every host whose Yeerk dies, aren't they?" Prince Jake asked bitterly. "Every human-Controller whose Yeerk dies is going to be eliminated. That's true, isn't it?" "Yes." Prince Jake's face showed an expression. I believed it was an expression of sickness. "We did this," Prince Jake said.

Once again, I love 90s children's books.

More specifically, I love that KAA respected a target audience of 8-12 year olds enough to write this for them. I think that's important, especially in today's environment of infantalizing audiences because advertisers aren't comfortable with anything controversial.

[emeraldmew]

Man, I still don't have the brain power to articulate my thoughts on the law of Seerow's Kindness but I can tell you that the revelation blew my mind as a kid. Like, I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it so much. But brain no worky right now. At least not on that topic.

On the other hand, I also have so many thoughts about the butterfly effect of destroying the Kandrona in 7. In 8 we see the obvious: the deaths of yeerks. But we also see that for every Derane 344 there's also an Eslin 359 - a Yeerk made disillusioned and resentful by Visser Three's "leadership" who makes choices now with the knowledge of how their empire makes decisions.

There's the Mr. Pardues who manage to make a scene before dying. Did any manage to have at least one bystander understand their message? Did some escape like the woman from MM1? How many were voluntary hosts before the empire abandoned their yeerks to starve? Did volunteers in a less expendable position start having second thoughts they shared with their own yeerks? On that note, how well did the real Chapman know Mr. Pardue?

And of course the effects of learning the empire will kill freed hosts has effects on how the Animorphs continue their own war efforts. Would they have tried some reckless plan to save Tom early on if they didn't have this new knowledge looming over his situation causing them to take more caution?

No wonder the Ellimist made this play.

[emeraldmew]

The only people who don't know Cassie and Jake are dating are Cassie and Jake.

[emeraldmew]

<I've been meaning to ask you, Ax,> Tobias said. <Not to diss you or anything, but why is it that Cassie is better at morphing than you are? I mean, you're an Andalite. But you look just as creepy as Jake or Rachel when you do it.> <Cassie has talent,> I said a little grumpily. <Morphing does not happen to be my talent.>

d'aw, this exchange is so adorable and I love that Tobias is not shy at all about asking Ax questions like this. Definitely adds to the idea @thejakeformerlyknownasprince pointed out about Ax projecting his own feelings when thinking about why Tobias hasn't asked him if there's a way to undo being a nothlit.

[emeraldmew]

"Erek," I said, "the Yeerks are after my dad. With a little Yeerk information, Dad here went and invented a Z-space transponder..."

I mean, I think there's actually a good chance your friend "No" might have helped him with a handful of calculations a few years back without meaning to.