So here's one. Not Animorphs vs HP or the Gaang, but Animorphs (books) vs Animorphs(TV)
That is completely horrifying, because book-Animorphs would ANNIHILATE the AniTV-Animorphs in, like, 30 seconds flat.
AniTV-Animorphs Advantages
Mindfuckery. AniTV-Jake’s greatest weapon is the Deeply Uncomfortable Stare. This is a boy unafraid to gaze directly at you for 30+ seconds, sometimes while also sensuously eating snails. Whether this would work on book-Animorphs is questionable, but it’s definitely something.
The Interwebs. Marco and Ax both pull off some impressive feats (hacking the yeerk mainframe, reprogramming a rental card into a skeleton key, taking control of NBC) just by typing really fast and/or rubbing a Blockbuster card on Ax’s nipples. The tech battle is theirs.
Lack of ethical boundaries. I know it’s surprising I’m rolling this up under super-silly AniTV, but the show’s light tone comes at the expense of the kids actually considering the consequences of their actions. AniTV-Animorphs dump oatmeal in the yeerk pool without thinking twice, morph humans at the drop of a hat, tell jokes while collapsing the yeerk pool and killing several dozen prisoners, and discuss morphing yeerks to forcibly control others’ bodies. Jake tries to kill Tom at least three times, and once he’s laughing while he does it. At one point they celebrate the discovery that the war is ongoing through having a group hug. These kids are the Howlers of their own universe, cheerfully “playing” the “game” of slaughtering their defenseless enemies.
AniTV-Animorphs Disadvantages
Number of morphs. The kids have only 3 - 4 morphs apiece, and many of those are of questionable utility (butterfly, iguana). The book team has 50+ morphs apiece by the end of the series.
Strength of morphs. The Gardens doesn’t appear to exist in this universe, which helps to explain why Jake’s tiger and Rachel’s lion are the only battle morphs we ever see. Cassie uses horse, Ax uses skunk, Marco uses dog, and Tobias doesn’t really morph. If they’re up against five mega-predators and an andalite, they don’t stand a chance.
Team dynamics. With few exceptions, the whole team never goes on missions together. They do things in groups of two or three, and rarely work together as a group of six.
Pointless romcom bullshit. There are several instances where the kids on this team just... don’t share crucial information for no reason. Cassie spends 80% of an episode lying about morph allergies. Jake’s willing to risk death to avoid admitting he likes Cassie. Ax builds and hides an entire working spaceship. Tobias conceals tons of intel (his group of ex-hosts, his morphing ability, Elfangor’s hirac dilest) from the team until forced to disclose it. None of these decisions is ever explained in context, outside of Plot Tension around when the kids will or won’t Find Out The Thing. Not a good sign for team coherence.
Book-Animorphs Advantages
Combat experience. They actually fight controllers on a fairly regular basis, whereas their TV counterparts mostly just growl from a distance.
Civilian identities. Thank goodness for book-Marco, who keeps the kids from being too obviously a team when they’re in civilian spaces. It means their secret identities can survive far closer calls.
Versatility and variety of morphs. They’ve got water, flying, ground, psychic, bug, fighting, ice, dark, grass, and poison morphs. All they need is ghost, dragon, and fairy. Almost regardless of the setting, they’re more likely to have a well-suited morph than the AniTV kids do.
Andalite dexterity and skill. Ax jumps 10 vertical feet and 30 horizontal feet, backward in heels, in #21. His tail is powerful enough and sharp enough to behead a human with a single strike in MM3. He is impossible to sneak up upon because of his constant all-directions-at-once vision. AniTV Ax is just a human with blue fur and blinky horns who at one point gets defeated by a human-controller with a lasso.
Level grinding. These kids go on more missions, harder missions, more varied missions, and missions against much scarier enemies than AniTV kids do. Along the way they rack up far more skills and greater morphing experience.
Allies. Toby and her hork-bajir exist in this universe, as does Afran and the Yeerk Peace Movement. Plus, book-Erek is a lot more ruthless and violent than show-Erek ever becomes.
Book-Animorphs Disadvantages
Mostly just the fact that they make an effort not to kill humans if they can help it. Which is more than their TV counterparts can say.
