every character in animorphs is actually fascinating and fucked up in their own, realistic way
Jake: a confident kid who is put into a leadership position. He constantly has to make choices that determine whether he and his friends live or die. So he matures faster and loses his childhood. Then he experiences a loss and just completely breaks down.
Marco: a kid who always used humor to deflect bad situations, slowly driving himself insane because those bad situations are now near constant. Worried he’s going to snap one day and he probably already has. Convincing himself hes “ruthless” to cover up that he’s so scared about what he’s doing.
Rachel: a fun fashionista who was always kinda competitive and anger-prone who now finds herself addicted to the war she’s been forced to fight in. Someone who’s worried, not because killing is too hard, but because it’s too easy. She knows what she brings to the group, she brings an ability to kill that the others take advantage of her for. It’s a two way relationship; they need her when they want someone to die but it not to weigh on their consciousness, and she needs them to assure her that she’s still human, still sane.
Cassie: a pacifist until she’s not. An animal activist who has to choose between her morals and her species near constantly. Who still tries to cling onto her moral code because if she lets go she might lose herself.
Tobias: an already messed up guy who never felt wanted, now trapped in a body that is not his. He’s slowly losing elements of his humanity. He constantly feels like he’s not enough and that he can’t turn to his friends for help bc he thinks they’ll leave him.
Ax: a kid in a strange land who just lost his brother and is honor-bound to avenge him. He has such high opinions of his species and has to continuously have that worldview shattered. All his friends turn to him for knowledge and he doesn’t know enough to satisfy them. He has to choose between his loyalty to his culture and his loyalty to his new friends.