#animorphs negativity

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Animorphs #23: The Pretender thoughts (pt. 5):

Controversial opinion incoming: I don't like the end of this book.

Like, this post really sums it up:

Animorphs is not that bad. Cassie's not related to anyone important, at least, and Jake's tie to Tom is mostly just inconvenient. HOWEVER. It's still canon that the Ellimist "stacked the deck" by recruiting Animorphs who are relatives of people like Eva and Elfangor and Tom, and the implication about ~*~superior genes~*~ is still in there.

To me, the reveal about Tobias being related to Elfangor:

Cheapens the message about these being ordinary kids — dumb jocks, bully magnets, screw-ups — who are literally in the wrong place at the wrong time when superheroism gets thrust upon them. Jake is my favorite because he cuts against type for SF heroes: he's not an outsider nerd, he's not talented; he's just some dumb jock who is also kind and brave and optimistic. Giving Tobias the classic SF backstory makes him less relatable, in my book.

Undercuts Tobias's friendship with Ax. Along with the backlash to "they're such good friends they must be in love", I'd like to start a backlash against "they're such good friends they must be related." Because it's still implying that some types of love are more valid than others. The shorms are family before they find out they share genes; do we really need that added element?

Undercuts Tobias's own call to action in the first book. Tobias makes this instant connection with a stranger from another species, in a way that Jake notes only Tobias could ever do, and it ends up pulling all five human kids into the war. There's heartbreaking power to the idea that Tobias is this overflowing with empathy and also naïveté. But whoops, nope, turns out it was a genetic connection all along!

Straight up doesn't make sense? It's a rare case where Animorphs' otherwise pretty good continuity slips up big time — Loren's three husbands, Chapman's contagious amnesia, both Tobias's parents going from "dead" to "missing", Ax's childhood suddenly being illogical. There are so many ret-con gymnastics going on that this twist doesn't feel worth it.

Loses the realism. Animorphs has my love forever for details like Marco not being able to afford admission to the Gardens and Ax fighting tears at the thought of disappointing his dad and Rachel having to be the second parent to her sisters. Tobias having a dogshit home life, just because, and using morphing as a desperate escape hatch — that's realism. That feels perfectly in line with the themes of the series. It feels like things I saw as a kid that no adult, and no other kids' book series, would talk about. Tobias having a dogshit home life because his dad's an alien prince who got time-warped off to fight a cosmic war while his mom was attacked by his dad's ancient enemies and given fantasy!amnesia because of her former role as the first human ever to be mind-controlled... Fuck off. If I wanted fantasy escapism, I'd read a different book.

Animorphs books can be read here | Book Club schedule is here

[capribornio]

You know, once I posted a small rant about why I'm not a big Marco fan, and why I prefer his earliest incarnation, i.e. book 5. And now it just hit me another reason why.

You see, Marco is usually know as the "do what it takes" character. This is fine, and I quite love it. But THE moment people remember as the biggest example of this is him trying to kill Eva in 30. Aaaand while I kinda get that, you know, character changes and stuff (in fact, one could easily see it as a character arc of his, people who like Marco get on that), one of THE reasons why I loved him in the firsts books was because he saw the war, he was p much the only one who got how terrible things were going to get, how awful it was already, how much people were suffering, and said "sucks to be them but i have my own problems to deal with".

Like, if he didn't get it, if he didn't really understand other's suffering, then it would lose its impact, you know? But he did get it. He knew how much the yeerks were destroying Earth. He saw that, and chose to prioritize himself and his family over the entire Earth. And like, can you blame him? ...Can you? There's no easy answer. And I loved that. And I loved that how they got him to actually fight the war was to make his mom part of it. Because now, if he wanted to save his family, he actually had to fight.

...And then, 15 was like "oh he'll have to kill his mom" and I was ?????????? ....Yeah. Mostly, I just loved a character who had very selfish motivations to fight. And in my little fanfics before I read 15, his long term conflict was "hey we saved your mom! you're still gonna fight, right?. ...right?" I dunno. There's not really much point to this, I just wanted to have my thoughts written down somewhere I guess.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Pitch for the Tobias' dad situation because I agree big time:

I love the reveal in Andalite Chronicles for what it does for Elfangor, but I don't like what it does for Tobias. Honestly I think the best move here is to reframe a little bit. It shouldn't be that Tobias is particularly connected with Elfangor because of a familial connection he can't identify, which is what's kind of implied sometimes, it should be that Tobias has that extra connection because he's an alienated and empathetic kid. The significance of it is that *Elfangor* is more strongly connected to Tobias than the others from *his* end. I want Tobias to be kind of confused that the others regard his connection as noticeably stronger because in his mind it's impossible to not empathize so intensely when you get that amount of hope and sorrow and *grief* radiating off a person. He doesn't realize that Elfangor was a bit more open with him specifically.

Here's my big swing for this pitch: Tobias doesn't learn about his dad. Or, he doesn't learn about it until much much later, until Loren shows up. I, personally, would have it so that it's implied that after the war Loren remembers *something* about Elfangor, but it's unclear how much and with how much detail. There's a little kernel of hope that maybe the both of them can find out someday, but it's bittersweet.

My thing with the way it's actually executed is that it's a fucking MASSIVE bomb to drop and literally no one reacts after 23 is over. My first thought after I finished reading Andalite Chronicles was "Holy shit I can't wait to see how everyone reacts to this information" and then they just. Didn't??? Not even Ax??? It was weird and if they were gonna do such a massive thing they should've followed through on the fall-out of everyone learning it.

Yes — I do think the point about it being more important for Elfangor's story than Tobias's is key, and really the way that that reveal functions in-story. I still think you could have Elfangor feel connected to Earth (or, heck, have a vision of the future that this Tobias kid is Aximili's shorm) without that, though.

That said, Tobias's discovery not going anywhere is part of why I find the reveal so annoying. Like, to make the obvious comparison: Luke Skywalker. Finding out that Vader is his father drives Luke's entire character arc. He has to reconcile the knowledge that his childhood hero grew up to be a genocidal maniac. He's confronted with an object lesson in how the Force is a tool that can be used for evil as well as good. He must set aside his mentors Yoda and Obi-Wan because it turns out they lied to him and catastrophically failed his dad. He can't be okay with his dad, because that's the path to the Dark Side, but he also can't be blindingly angry with his dad, because that's the path to the Dark Side. Leia's certainty that their dad is a tar pit who deserves to die in a fire and Luke's desperate hope that their dad is capable of loving them can (and should) coexist. Obi-Wan's rejection of Vader is probably too far; so is Luke's embrace of Vader. The whole plot of Episode VI is "No, Luke, I am your father — Now what?"

The most Tobias does with the knowledge of his connection to Elfangor in #23 is... turn into a rabbit. And at some point (off-page) update Ax. Like, the vision in #33 is there, but that's not central to the plot — the big damn character growth in #33 is Tobias's refusal to explain himself to Taylor; Elfangor's cameo is incidental. I love the moment in #41 when Jake confronts (who he thinks is) Elfangor, only to find out it's Tobias in morph. But that being Tobias and not Ax (or it is Ax? I hate how #41 is literally a fever dream.) doesn't become important. Like, if that scene carried an implication that Jake and Tobias's mutual hostility is because Jake resents Elfangor and that bleeds over into his kid, while Tobias longs to know Elfangor and that bleeds over into hating how Jake took up Elfangor's legacy, then I'd be all about it. But I really do not get the sense that that's the source of their animosity or even something that either of them ever thinks about.

So instead it comes off less like Luke discovering his connection to Vader, more like Rey's connection to Palpatine: random, incoherent, and incidental. Feeling less character-driven than driven by the sense that the protagonist's talents need to be explained by way of special bloodlines in lieu of hard work or compassion.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

You might’ve answered already but opinion on loren?

To sum up other posts (that I can't find), she's not my favorite. There's nothing wrong with her, but she's never appealed to me.

As a kid, Loren comes off as... spunky. Like she's the support to the andalites having the real adventure, but without Chapman's intriguing dickishness. I get that some of it is Elfangor being condescending toward aliens until he unlearns his imperialism, but I don't love the implied condescension in many descriptions of her. Everyone going "whooaa, she did a thing!" when she throws a rock at Visser Three being Exhibit A, but other examples abound.

As an adult, Loren says repeatedly that she'd rather be dead than blind. Which. Okay. But it'd be a hell of a lot better if we got at least one character who isn't suicidal over being blind. (Elena is right there, btw, but she has zero lines of dialog.) As it is, there's an implied message about blindness making life meaningless that never gets explicitly contradicted in-text. Also, adult-Loren lets Tobias get neglected and abused because of her own self-worth issues. And half-assed parenting is one of my rage buttons. YMMV; I can forgive murder but draw the line at not being there for your kids.

Anyway, I do see why other people like her, but there are about 100 other Animorphs characters that I like better.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

I disagree with your take that Rachel is out of character in the last few books. I think her experiences in 48 show her just how much the team needs her to be that girl, and so as things get more serious she starts leaning into that more and more so they can ALL do what they need to do.

And yes, she really needed one more book

So, my frustration is with how Rachel's written in #52, and how she's not written in #49, #50, and #51.

Rachel can be violent, and even brutal. She often refuses to stop when Jake calls a retreat, which in #41 and #7 puts the whole team in danger. HOWEVER. She stops fighting as soon as she's neutralized her enemies in #17 and #24. She cares a lot about protecting the helpless — Melissa, Tobias, random hosts in #17, the kid in the crocodile pit — to the point where she looks for a way not to hurt unhosted yeerks in #6 and MM3. Taylor is a foil for Rachel because Taylor only hurts those who are weaker than her and runs from a fair fight; Rachel only hurts those who are stronger than her and doesn't back down when outnumbered. Rachel's devastated to have even an indirect role in a civilian death in #37: that guy couldn't have hurt her.

But in #52, Rachel tries to kill a group of civilians because they're in her way. And she only stops because "an order from Jake" is the thing that controls her. She kills a controller who had already surrendered. Ax describes her as "a monster." This could all be a bad day or her not coping with the loss of her dad, but #49 and #50 and #51 all feature mini-teams she's not on, so it's impossible to say. One book later, when she's expressing sympathy for Tom even as she's threatening to "crack open his skull" to get to her real enemy (#53) — that feels more like the Rachel we know.

Throw in Tobias's weird apathy toward Rachel (seriously, he barely mentions her #49 - #53) and Rachel's weird apathy toward Jake hurting Cassie, and she feels forgotten except as an object lesson. I think even #52 could work if we got a book from Rachel's POV that explains her going off the rails the way #53 does for Jake, but that's not what we have.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

AU idea 1/2: What if Loren were recruited to be an Ellimist figure like how Crayak tried to recruit Rachel? Longer pitch: it frustrates me that Loren is so clever and resourceful and badass but in #49 she's basically reduced to "nice middle aged lady who remembers nothing." So it would be a satisfying twist if she had superpowers and took Elfangor out of retirement and before he can decide what to say she's like "I know everything you know plus a whole bunch more. Here's what you need to do."

AU request part 2: I specifically have a joke in mind about "I'm a traditionalist- I believe women should engineer spacetime and men should take care of the kids." Here, "take care of the kids" means he either goes to help the boys out with whatever the hell The One is or helps them deal with the trauma from all they've been through. I imagine some kind of therapeutic/rehab vegetagble garden for them to work in, but your imagination is better than mine and I'm sure you could rock it. :)

So to be honest, Loren's not my favorite character for all the reasons you just mentioned. She's frustratingly passive in #49 - #53, and Ax's narration in #52 comments on her not putting in much effort to build a relationship with Tobias. She's also not my favorite as a kid, mostly because she comes off as, to be blunt... spunky.

Anywhoo, I'm tossing this one to fellow fandalites in the hope that someone is willing to weigh in with ideas.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

so... what the hell was up with that book where jake gets sent to (a simulation of??) a bad end future where the yeerks have successfully taken over new york city? and have inexplicably named it yeerk new york instead of the much more obvious new yeerk, lol. i ended that book hoping for an explanation but received none, and then it never gets mentioned again for the rest of the series. wtf???

So the within-universe explanation for "What just happened there?" is that the whole thing is a dream, and therefore never happens, and it may or may not have been a dream which was sent by a mysterious voice that Jake appears on waking up. (Personally I think it was Literally Just A Dream, and the voice was hypnagogic hallucination.)

The out-of-universe explanation for #41: The Familiar... pure speculation on my part, but it feels like the series needed a Jake book, and the writers were low on ideas for what to put into one. All the emotional notes of a future where the yeerks won were already hit (faster, and better) by #7. There are a few interesting character beats — Cassie joining the YPM, Tobias re-nothliting as an andalite, Jake responding to the line "you must be mentally ill" by thinking about it and going "I must be" — but the whole doesn't hang together that well. Where's Ax? Why is Rachel so passive? Why does Tobias claim to be unable to morph but also pop up as a hawk? Where's Ax? Is Marco a voluntary controller, and if so what the heck would've motivated that call? If Marco isn't voluntary, then why is Jake so disgusted with him? If Marco's any kind of controller, how come the yeerks don't know that humans can morph? Oh, and where's Ax?

The use of dream-logic to handwave continuity errors in this book makes it unable to build tension. If nothing matters — Visser Marco's rank keeps changing, Tobias is stuck in morph until he isn't, Jake died eight years ago but also everyone expects him to be a living controller — then nothing in this book matters. Who cares if Jake destroys Moon Moon's kandrona source, because it's never going to get built anyway. Who cares about Cassie dying (from a fall! since apparently she forgot how to morph!) if Cassie isn't even real?

Like, I love the opening sequence of #41, and I think it has a ton of potential as a character study, BUT. I also feel like the series hits a low ebb in #39 - #42, and I cynically suspect that the need to get through the narration cycle to some more interesting stuff (Tobias's #43, Marco's #45, Ax's #46) might have motivated this particular book more than some of the ones like #36 or #44 that are minimally plot-advancing but still banging good adventure stories.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

question: if you were to rewrite #40 to be more suitable for a contemporary audience whilst being as faithful to the original plot as possible, what would you change? how would you handle the disability narrative, specifically?

Interesting question.  I cannot claim to be an authority on disability narratives, but I think that a few wording tweaks would go a long way in #40.

First of all, name the ideas you’re talking about.  Have Gafinilan call Mertil his “husband” and have them both identify as “disabled” rather than playing coy with ideas like “shorms who are not quite platonic” and “vecol.”  If it’s a concept that already exists, don’t invent a new word for it.  And understand that Gafinilan also fits the definition of “disability”.

Second, let characters argue more.  When Cassie says “We [humans] don't judge or condemn people who seek health through legitimate paths,” let a different character point out that that’s a nice sentiment but factually incorrect.  Have Marco or Rachel go “Hey! That’s terrible!” in response to Ax saying that any andalite who morphs to help with disability is a coward.  It’s entirely possible to engage with those beliefs, but don’t present them without comment.

Third, bring Tobias in more.  His absence throughout the book — especially when Cassie and Ax are casually espousing the belief that all deliberate nothlits are cowards — is pretty glaring.  Tobias is the go-to mediator between human and alien cultures on the team, and he’s the guy who (normally) never stands for that kind of bullshit.  He’s technically present in the book, but he barely contributes.  If he gave Ax a gentle-but-firm verbal beatdown for the ableism, he’d be well within his right and Ax would be likely to listen.

Fourth... tweak Mertil.  I’m not sure how, but he’s so passive for so much of the book that he starts to seem like a Tiny Tim character who exists only to jerk around the nondisabled protagonists.  It doesn’t have to be anything huge, but give him a little more characterization — his favorite type of Earth grass, his hobbies while stuck inside, his opinion of his accidental TV debut — to make it clear he is an individual.

Fifth, engage ableism more directly.  Don’t have Marco build up to a big epiphany that *gasp* Gafinilan is a person.  Have the kids debate important issues such as access to medical marijuana or the fact that so many interior spaces are inaccessible for so many humans.  Heck, this could even take the form of Cassie or someone confidently saying “we don’t exclude disabled humans the way you andalites do”... only to realize that oh shit, that’s actually incorrect.  It doesn’t have to give a solution to prejudice, and frankly it doesn’t have to involve an epiphany at all.  It can just be characters realizing that the issue is more complicated than they first thought, sort of like we see the kids do time and again with strategy questions about ethics.