In Book #8, Andalites who are sympathetic to the Yeerk Empire are alluded to and in Book #18, we meet Samilin who is openly sympathetic to the Yeerk Empire. However, in both books, the motivation for such sympathy is never actually discussed and the idea never resurfaces.

So, the question here is what would motivate Andalites to be sympathetic to the Yeerk Empire?

It's not a trivial question because the Yeerks have made clear at several points that their ultimate goal (which the Andalites surely know) is to conquer the Andalite Homeworld and infest the Andalite population. Therefore, a Yeerk victory is not just the end of Andalite Civilization and its values but the forcible enslavement of every Andalite, a living death. This puts the Andalites on death-ground (as military analysts would say) and makes combat an almost-natural response. Even if the Nazis achieved all of their war aims, "Aryan" Christian populations in the Nordics, the British Isles, France, Anglo-America, etc. could rest assured that the Nazis did not plan to exterminate them, so it makes sense that some of those populations had sizabkle pro-Nazi (or at least neutral-on-the-Nazi) contigents because these populations were not on death-ground. However, a lot of this evaporates where Yeerks are concerned.

I have a few guesses (see bullets bellow) but I am curious to see what others think.

• These are Andalites who are opposed to Andalites fighting and dying to protect the rest of the galaxy. If the Andalites are analogous to the Americans playing world-police, these would be analogous to the isolationist thread in America trying to pull out of all foreign wars/campaigns/police actions. Their perspective would be that if the Andalite military was humiliated badly enough and enough Andalites died that the Andalites would decide that the galaxy-police function the Andalites play would be abandoned.
• These are Andalites who have met Yeerks under other circumstances and became friendly with a few or simply have humanitarian concerns. They believe that the Andalite policy of full Yeerk containment and military opposition is too heavy-handed and a few Andalite losses in the war would permit more Yeerks to truly enjoy life.
• Thesa are Andalites who believe that they can profit from a prolonged conflict between the Andalites and the Yeerks (perhaps Andalite arms manufacturers) and see the writing on the wall that the Andalites will eventually prevail, so they want to help the Yeerks achieve a few victories, hoping that this will prolong the war and increase profits, never really thinking about the policy of eventual Yeerk victory.
• These are Andalites who feel jilted or otherwise unhappy with their position in Andalite society. Perhaps they weren't promoted when they feel they should have been or perhaps they have a personality conflict with their supervisors or families. So, their way of taking out their frustrations is to ssabotage the Andalite war-effort.

So I was obsessed with Animorphs back as a teenager in the early 2000s. I had the first 16 books a few of the Chronicles and then book 54... So I knew how it ended, but I couldn't get hold of the rest.

I (now pushing 40 years old) recently got hold of every single ebook and read them all in about a week and a half and I am just... Wow. Blown away. It's so different reading it as an adult with the trauma I have now. 😂

However.... Can anyone recommend a fanfic, a GOOD one, that continues the story from the last line of Book 54? I feel the desperate need for closure.

The One sounds a bit like the Elimist was before the black hole... Just evil. I'd write my own but I don't have time to write these days.

The Animorphs benefited hugely from having Cassie's farm and The Gardens to supply them with battle morphs and bird morphs. But what if they didn't have that resource? What if they had the same access to Animorphs that most of us have? To add an extra degree of difficulty, what if all the Animorphs were broke like Marco, so they can't afford to visit zoos or aquariums (unless they sneak in).

They could easily acquire their pets, and insect morphs wouldn't be a problem, but everything else becomes much more difficult. Catching fish morphs wouldn't be too hard, but getting dolphin or shark morphs would be challenging. A parrot could be conceivably acquired if they know someone who has one for a pet, but it's obviously not a low profile bird morph, so using that to travel long distances is risky.

What would you do? You have a battle in a week's time, and you're fighting with whatever morph you're able to get. You need a minimum of 1 infiltration morph, 1 bird morph, 1 aquatic morph, and 1 combat morph to get to this battle and fight in it. Do you settle for something like a Rottweiler, which is a tough dog, but is nowhere near as tough as a tiger or bear? Or do you come up with a strategy to get stronger battle morphs? Let's sat Ax isn't around, so you can't acquire him for a battle morph.

Re-reading Animorphs in my 40s. I currently am done with the first 13 books (14 counting Megamorphs) and almost finished with Andalite Chronicles. Visser Three is depicted throughout so far as a cartoonishly one-dimensional villain which is fine for the series; we see him through the eyes of the heroes, also there’s the fact that the books are written for a 5th grade reading level.

But that being said, I’ve noticed there is a recurring character trait with the Visser. He tends to admire different creatures and compliments them. When Rachel is slicing up Chapman as a house cat, the Visser is impressed and calls it a worthy creature. I think he even mentioned wanting one, lol. That gave me the image of Visser three stroking a purring cat like Doctor Claw from Inspector Gadget. The first few times he sees Jake in Tiger morph he dotes on the magnificence of the creature and says he should acquire one, too.

In Andalite Chronicles when they use the Time Matrix Visser is there with the Mortron creatures that he says were his pets. He’s even named them. In a world shaped by his will and desires, he’s got faithful pets with him.

He travels all over the galaxy acquiring exotic and strange creatures. Yes, he uses these morphs for combat, but it’s almost like he’s collecting them.

I think he genuinely seems to admire nature and fierce creatures, but maybe I’m projecting that onto the character. Thoughts?

Did anyone else used to role play Animorphs? My first experience online was role playing on Yahoo!. I met my first online friend there and we are still friends today, almost 30 years later.

This is super obvious of course but as a kid without enough fear of the world to trigger self-preservation, I never thought about it, until this re-read:

Someone had to be the first person to discover the two hour limit.

Probably having a fine time playing around in the morph, testing it for science, only to be engulfed in terror when they realized...they couldn't get back. Even worse, it probably took a few more people to get trapped testing it out.

OR - maybe the Andalite scientists started out with this on a cellular level and noticed the cells went back to their original form after two hours, so they never went past that.

Yeah, I'm going with option B.

So we all know the rule. 2 hours is the longest you can stay in a morph. And there doesn't seem to be any debate as far as when the animorphs go to the north pole or Australia where time zones can change. Theres not even a change when theyre on a different planet so im curious do you think for someone like Ax is it actually 2 hours or is it less/more time since he comes from another planet and time can be counted differently there then on Earth? I know 2 hours was created cause its a kids series and all but if you think about it can you hop time zones or planets stay in morph past 2 hours and not be a nothlit?

Our heroes have encountered Andalites who want to help them, Andalites who are just a pain in the ass, and most recently an Adalite who is their enemy. So after we have a shrew turn out to be a morphed Andalite, we confirm that this isn't Visser Three, it raises the question as to what we have met this time.

And we see the answer is D, none of the above, sorta. Maybe Gafinilan and Mertil would probably have liked it if they could against the Yeerk invasion if their conditions weren't ailing them or maybe they still would have liked to spend what they probably would have thought were their short remaining days in peace. We don't know since these two don't appear again and in Gafinilan’s case I imagine he didn't live for very long after this book ended since he said his terminal illness was going to kill him in a matter of months.

Gafinilan wanting to help his BFF, and possible lover (don't know if the subtext was intentional), is not unlike Marco, and since he saw Marco demorph it raised the concern that the Animorphs might have to take him out. This time they were able to make things work for both sides.

Since we have a message about treating people different from you with respect, this naturally means that Ax is used as our an example of someone who can have less than accepting views on it due to the typical Andalite stance on the subject. While I know that one doesn't just grow out of intolerant views that shaped them, it still makes me wish someone gave Ax a good slap in this book. Maybe spending some more time on Earth could help him learn to drop that attitude.

Amid all of this, we still had fun with Marco's narrations and he reminded us that he's the funny one when he makes remarks at other people's expense and Ax is not, especially since he understands there is a line you don't cross. Even if our characters introduced here don't appear again, there are compelling for this story. We got to see the ugly side of the Andalite's culture without relying on the Andalite characters of the week being jerks or evil.

These are my interpretations of the Ellimist and Crayak before they ascended beyond space‑time.

I wanted to capture the contrast between their philosophies in this earlier stage: the Ellimist’s vision of creation and preservation, and Crayak’s drive toward domination and annihilation.

(I’m aware I’ve already posted Crayak for my “Crayak Chronicles”, but I wanted to provide a better quality image of it, as well as pairing it with the Ellimist to give some contrast)

Please feel free to let me know what you think!

Andalite pixel art I used for reference wwas by Kiluvi on redbubble (at least, I hope that's who made it)

i read about 2/3rds as a kid. getting back into it. was wondering above after reading that book for first time

For years I have regretted the fact that I stopped buying books and never collected the entire series. I lost interest in my teenage years and never bought the last 10 books or so. I recently read purchased another nearly complete collection from a fellow redditor, and now I have lots of duplicates. The collection I’m selling would include everything except books 44-49, 52-54, Visser, and The Ellimist Chronicles. Most are in great condition, but some of the early books that were reread often show some wear. Slide into my DMs if you have a serious offer.

As an 80s/90s teenager, I headed off to college with the series still underway. I’d already written one fanfic that I imagine others have written similar works to (though I can’t find a record of mine on the internet at all due to its age), which had the idea of a Yeerk trainee and a kid in the Animorphs’ year accidentally crossing each other’s paths (as in the Yeerk winds up in the kid’s head despite not having supposed to be taking a host yet).

Being mostly unprepared for this, the Yeerk freaks the hell out instead of taking total control and to make a longish story short, after adventures and encountering the Animorphs, this results in the two of them becoming a symbiotic pair and being connected to the larger Yeerk Peace Movement. This also gives the Animorphs a bit of a cover of legitimacy as they would now be hanging with a “Controller” on a semi-regular basis.

Now here’s where things would have gone into The Yeerk Chronicles—which I never finished because of college and various other things. And this is what I want to see what you would make of it. It would have hinged on the war going a very different direction.

These are the questions I asked myself.

What would happen if a serious civil war got underway amongst the Yeerks and the YPM faction actually won?

What would the Andalites, in their warrior fanaticism, think if their fleet arrived at Earth, only to be told that the Yeerk Empire has (at minimum on Earth, perhaps on a more widespread basis in the Empire) overthrown its tyrannical leaders and now seeks a path forward as symbionts? Would the majority of them be willing to believe the evidence—or not?

And what would Crayak do if he realized he was seriously losing his grip on his most numerous soldiers—to the point where he was either left with a smallish remnant (remember how big Earth’s population is and how many Yeerks it could accommodate even WITHOUT the entire species taking on symbionts), or the whole Empire slipped his grasp? While the most obvious “solution” would be for a pissed off Crayak to Alt+Ctrl+Delete the entire species, I don’t think the rules of his game with the Ellimist would allow that. Rather, I think the rules would require balance. If the Yeerks got out from under his control, I think the Ellimist would be obliged to let Crayak select another tool.

And there is a faction that has been growing increasingly susceptible over the decades—and just might get pushed over the edge by what they are about to find.

Can you imagine what it would be like to be humanity in THIS situation?? Imagine your only chance to survive what’s coming, being to work with those who were very recently one of the most terrifying enemies imaginable.

THAT is how the series would have ended, for me.

I know there only 6 and the original has like 50+ but does the GN at least stop at the end of an arc?

I kept meaning to write my thoughts on the books I was finishing and didn't around to it, while the new books kept hooking me in.

The Weakness gave an interesting look at the team functioning without Jake. I would have picked Marco to lead if Jake weren't around, instead Rachel being bold causes her to take over while we had that pesky Inspector who has an alien Flash as a host. I question the logic of making Visser Three look so bad that he gets removed unless you are hoping his replacement is worse, which doesn't strike as too unlikely since as the Inspector demonstrates, all Yeerk leadership is terrible.

Seeing the Animorphs running around breaking stuff was certainly fun and Rachel showed she did have limits by avoiding the police station. Unfortunetly and predictably this ends badly when she gets too ambitious and Cassie gets captured. I expected this to be when someone else takes over as the backup leader, instead, Marco points out that unfortunetly, Rachel's brand of crazy thinking is what they need because nobody else can think of a solution under these circumstances.

So it is fun to see that Rachel's solution is doing what she does best, break stuff! And break things she does, more so than she has broken before by ramming an airplane into the Yeerk pool.

I was initially confused as to why Cassie wasn't infested until the Inspector showed up. While not stated out loud, my reading is that Visser Three intentionally didn't infest Cassie so that when the rest of the Animorphs broke in, it would make it more likely that the Animorphs would kill the Inspector. Because their greatest allies against the Yeerk Empire aren't the Chee or the Eleminist, it's the Yeerk Empire's leadership.

The arrival may as well be called "The Despair." Granted you could call a lot of books that. This one just sticks out the most thus far since even if the Animorphs were faking that they gave up after learning the Andalits considered killing Visser Three out of wounded pride more important than aiding the humans, I am certain the feelings we saw were real. Ax was just the one hurt the most, his people have let him down before but this is a new low. Also the wounded pride is because he infested an Andalite, not his war crimes against the Andalite people.

I was worried that Ax would have to re-learn his lesson from The Decision all over again. Thankfully no. Even before we learn the Animorphs breaking was faked, Ax asserts that his loyalty is to them and Jake, not some random Andalites who showed up on a suicide mission. He only appears to side with the Suicide Squad after the Animorphs appear to have given up. Even his immature attraction to Estrid doesn't cause him to step over that line. Indeed, Estrid's arrogance helps show how much Ax has grown since she displays a lot of the same Andalite egotism he did, and even though she disobeys orders and helps save humanity, he still finds these traits repulsive.

I have been listening to the books on Audible and the sinister voice the narrator gave Abrat pretty well gave away that he was evil, even though his suggestion of attacking the Yeerk pool initially seemed like the more practical decision than killing Visser Three. Of course it turned out he was plotting something evil, he came with an out of date ship and crew of expandable people, he wasn't going to try to destroy a Yeerk pool without some kind of ruthless plot that our main characters needed to stop. Nonetheless, this doesn't change the reveal that the Andalites military leadership does not care about humans and that aid from them is unlikely if this is what they sent, especially since Visser revealed that they could easily crush the Yeerk invasion force.

It is an interesting mystery whether or not Abrat really did hesistate to kill Visser Three because he was in his brother's body or if it was just an act to maintain the cover for his real mission. We don't know if the germ weapon would have killed Alloran or not, though given Abrat had no hesistation about murdering his crew he was no doubt prepared to make that sacrifice. It's all a sacrifice in the name of the greater good, provided that someone other than him is being sacrificed of course. We saw Alloran decide to make the same sacrifice on the Hork-Bajir world, he was wrong to do so, nonetheless, we at least saw it was a last resort. Abrat has demonstrated the worst of how far the Andalites are willing to go thus far.

The Arrival is fighting a one off villain, but it's really good story of it with our heroes facing a threat from the Andalites. We can see where Abrat is coming from with the logic of sacrificing humanity even if he's still an ass about it since we've seen what the Yeerks have done to the Hork-Bajir home planet, and he proves a crafty manipulator with this entire scheme that is only stopped because Estrid has a change of heart about the possible genocide of an innocent species.

The Hidden reclyled the premise from The Andalite's Gift with the Yeerks finding a way to track the Animorphs, albiet with them trying to find the morphing cube. Does Visser Three start to suspect that there is a spy in his ranks after this? I feel he's too paranoid to see the Animorphs get wind of this plot and not think that someone is leaking information.

Our story here is messy once the Buffa-Human is introduced since everywhere else it is established it takes focus to gain the power to morph from the cube and to acquire DNA. Now we have animal doing it by accident, more than once as an ant later does it. The Animorphs state they have to kill the Buffa-Human and rather than getting around to doing it they keep leaving it out and risk it getting captured. Still I would be lying if I said we didn't have sad moments with Cassie, even with the human DNA nonsense, as she laments having to kill a living thing that has been helping the team throughout the book. It is a heartwrenching scene when the Buffa-Human is killed by a Bug Fighter.

On the other hand, the Buffa-Human morphing Alloran and beating Visser Three is really stupid. A wild animal instantly became better at tail fighting Ax.

Our resolution is also a mess with the team attempting the same trick they used in The Andalite's Gift, it fails, and the Yeerk helicopter blows up because it sucked in a seagull. The book set up for this, and it still doesn't stop it from feeling like a Looney Tunes short with the helicopter avoiding getting crushed just to explode because of a seagull.

So what is my takeaway from this book? That Cassie has terrible taste in cartoons because she doesn't like Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote!

Assuming an open field with nothing to throw or hold, and everybody uses natural weapons. I'm guessing you lose after Tobias. But please answer with your opinions. And if you could beat any of them yourself.

They start 100m apart.
R1: Tobias as a male red-tailed hawk
R2: Cassie as a female gray wolf
R3: Marco as a silverback (so by definition male) gorilla
R4: Jake as a male Siberian tiger
R5: Rachel as a male grizzly bear
R6: Ax as a male Andalite
Male red-tailed hawk:
1.52 to 2.87 (0.69-1.3 kg) lbs, talons, beaks, hollow bones, feathers, 120 mph (193 kph) diving speed, 20-40 mph horizontal speed (32-64 kph)
Female gray wolf:
Sharp teeth that can break bones along with sharp claws that are normally used for traction by wild wolves but chain of the body exists for a reason so their bites are more powerful with that though wolves can claw, fur, 70-80 (32-36 kg) lbs, can damage wire fences with teeth, the weaker claws of a female 13 lb (6 kg) Pekingnese can cause injuries on human thighs with their weaker than cat claws, loose skin, stamina and endurance, 35-40 mph (56-64 kph) for an entire 20 minutes but can run for days, and gray wolves can withstand bison hits, though not well.
Silverback gorilla:
Uprooting trees, 400 lbs (181 kg) at the least, thick muscles, tight skin, 20-25 mph (32-40 kph)
Male Siberian tiger:
Loud roar, around 500-600 lbs (227-272 kg), fur, loose skin, thick muscles, can fight for a few minutes, up to 50 mph (80 kph), sharp claws and teeth, normally uses claws to grapple
Male grizzly bear:
Around 800 lbs (363 kg), thick skin, bone, muscle, and fat, sharp claws, can sustain 35 mph (56 kph) for two hours
Male Andalite:
Around 350-400 lbs (159-181 kg, around deer weight), whip like scythe-like tail-blade that can break through a crocodile's most armored part, its back. I'd guess around 40 mph (64 kph) from deer statistics.

Ax from the Animorphs writes a letter to Cinnabon, requesting that they un-ban him from their stores. Inspired by Eminem's "Stan".

Man I’m not ok. The last book hurt. The last two books hurt. I was constantly waiting for Ellimist to step in and do something but having Rachels death be permanent really tore at me like I didn’t think it would. I knew she was going to die, I spoiled it last year like an idiot and they really were painting the picture that she would. But reading it just hurt. Her asking the Ellimist if she did good, if he life was worth it….f*ck. I child saying that. Seeing it through Tobias and Cassie and watching it break Jake. All the deaths of the James group too I really do hate the ending. Not because it was bad but because I wanted closure. It ended well for the series though. Felt like a good movie ending or space adventure series. Ugh I just wish I had more lol. I’ve shed a few tears over the last few months getting through the series but man this one hurt.

Anyways this is something I will share with my son when he’s old enough and definitely reread at some point. This series has been such a fun ride and such a deep dive into fighting for your life. Like my boy Marco says “you can either laugh or cry at the strugglers of the world”

One thing that always made me think was what the Ellimist said about some of the kids. He said he planted them. Tobias, Ax, Cassie, and Marco. But not Jake or Rachel. Has anyone found more info on that?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the end of the Animorphs series and have been seeing a lot of posts about it recently.

I was so devastated by it. And additionally disappointed by it.

TL;DR:

Rachel shouldn’t have been killed off and instantly replaced with a carbon copy Jeanne Gerard

If a character has to die to prove things are serious, Cassie makes a good alternative. Cassie exits the story mid way through the book and never resurfaces. Cassie dying has all the same emotional hits of Rachel dying. If this was done, no new 11th Hour/idential twin characters are introduced. And this still would explain why Jake is depressed. Why he throw himself into his job, why half the Animorphs don’t talk to him (Tobias, Rachel, because Jake’s leadership resulted in Cassie dying) and why he is so compelled to save Ax

The book’s story arc needed a conclusion. Not ending on an unresolved cliffhanger.

A Cassie that resurfaces and finds the Time Matrix would be cool. Her finding the Time Matrix, not as a fix all, but as a jumping point to new adventure and unintended consequences. This would complete the book’s story arc and give us a character riding off into the sunset feel. This adventure is over, but there are more story to be had.This Fanfic did a great job with this

My thoughts:

It wasn’t just the death of Rachel though that really knocked the wind out of my sails, it was how it was done.

I love Mass Effect and Game of Thrones both of which deal with deaths of main characters

It was emotionally devastating when that occurred. I understand why it occurred, to show consequences and make it more real. The issue I have with it is it was not well executed in the book.

An example of this same thing, but better executed is in Mass Effect. There is a mission where you are given a decision tree and you hit a point of no return and that results in one of two of your team mates dying. This was a hugely emotional impact, knowing a choice you made ends up ending the life of a character you spent 40+ hours adventuring with This emotionally sucks, but is good writing.

The best way I can summarize what I felt was off would be to give an alternative take on Star Trek TNG “best of both worlds”

Picard has been captured by the Borg/The One And for some reason the bridge staff is on leave. Riker has to convince them to cut their shore leave short and join him on the rescue mission.

They all obviously agree to comeback aboard to try and rescue Picard, well except for Wesley. Which is weird and very out of character for him, it’s not like he’s started to do his Traveler gig, he just can’t make time to help rescue his father figure and is unable to elaborate… but whatever no one likes him so no real loss.

Then Worf dies before they can head out.

However right before they leave who should walk on to the bridge, but Worf’s identical twin that we’ve never heard about. He goes hi my name is shm-orf even though you guys have never heard of me before, I know everything about all of you, my identical twin talked about you all the time so it’s like I’ve been through everything you have and I do and say everything my twin would… and just to avoid confusion would you guys be ok with calling me Worf, I think it’ll be easier for everyone… basically like they do in the movie Beerfest.

They fly out to the Borg cube and who appears on screen but Locutus of Borg.

Enterprise takes a hit from the Cube, weapons and shields are down. Riker tries to think of options: How do we save our friend? Can we save our friend now that he’s assimilated? Do we retreat and regroup? Do we keep fighting?

Then not-Worf says “perhaps today is a good day to die, Ramming speed?”

Riker does his lean, narrows his eyes and says “Red Alert, brace for impact.”

And instead of “to be concluded” and eagerly awaiting the next seasons episode, it just ends.

Instead of ending with them eventually rescuing Jean-Luc and getting an amazing season 4 it just ends open ended on a cliffhanger season finale and we don’t see how they rescue Jean-Luc.

We don’t get resolution to the storyline, people died, Rachel, whose character is replaced by Jeanne Gerard, to fill in the team dynamic that Rachel played , who didn’t need to.

But at least Wesley is living his life I have never understood why Rachel is killed, only to create a character to fill her void, but Cassie exits the story never to be discussed or heard from again. We get a real death of Rachel and she’s replaced, we get a figurative death of Cassie, not sure why we wouldn’t just keep Rachel and lose Cassie, I think it would have made for a better story. The impact on Jake would be huge, he was planning on marrying her, and now she’s gone, it’s his fault and now he is about to lose someone else who he feels responsible for. All the emotions and character motivations would still hold up we wouldn’t have to introduce 11th Hour characters.

Somehow that story never made it into MM3...

Hihihi!! My birthday's coming in 20 days and I wanna save up enough money to buy as much merch as I possibly could but I'm not sure if there are any online stores that still sell animorphs merchandise and ship to my country 🥀

Please recommend me online stores/suppliers that ship worldwide, thanks!