My favorite part of doctor who ever is when the doctor does their whole “I refuse to kill this villain/monster because of merciful moral reasons” bit and then immediately follows it with “so instead I will trap them alone in a barren hell dimension for all eternity”. It’s like that’s worse, though. do you get why that’s worse.
This post has huge Animorphs energy. The real ones will know what I mean
I really love your blog! I was wondering, if you’re familiar with Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series, if you wouldn’t mind doing an AU of that? Thanks for reading this ask!
I do love that series, but it's been a minute (read: a few decades) since I read them. Does anyone else have thoughts on this combination?
So this is one of those cases where the themes and tones just don't really align, despite some surface similarity (honestly, YW is just very hard to cross with a lot of other properties because of how different its values and mechanics are from the mainstream). Just to pick one, a major element in Animorphs is the lack of any sort of external support structure, while the presence of an external support structure is a critical aspect of Young Wizards. Also, from a strictly mechanical standpoint, the power levels don't work: Wizardry invalidates the Yeerks on every level.
With crossovers out of the picture, what about dropping the Animorphs into the world of YW?
I don't think Jake is a Wizard. He doesn't have the drive or the curiosity at that age outside of some major external factor providing motivation for him, and Wizardry doesn't really work that way: the Call may know where you live, but if you aren't going to jump at it, it's probably going to leave you alone. If Jake finds out he's friends with a Wizard, I think he probably supports them how he can, but otherwise just lives his life, Harry Callahan-style. If he does somehow become a Wizard, I could see him maybe focusing on integrating Wizards in collective workings, maybe eventually becoming an Advisory to coordinate his local team.
Unfortunately, no matter how much I love him, I'm not sure canon!Marco would ever be offered Wizardry either, despite the fact that mechanically he'd probably be very good at it. "Wizardry does not live in the unwilling heart," and Marco was always ready to cut out; it also requires some level of compassion on a large scale, and if you're not in Marco's close circle, he isn't going to piss on you if you're on fire. Assuming he's exposed to Wizardry from another source, I see him going the route of Carmela: studying technical details of the Speech, forming business/technological partnerships with aliens, and supporting his Wizard friends where he can. Alternately, if Eva never "died" and Peter never collapsed, I could see Marco growing up with more empathy and openness and becoming a Wizard; in that case I see him specializing in technology integration and/or spell design.
Rachel I could see being a Wizard, possibly following a route similar to Dairine: she finds out her best friend's a Wizard and thinks that sounds so awesome she needs to get in on it too. I think she can still tend towards aggression, but the different mechanics and added support structure help keep her from going as far down that road as she does in canon. She's also naturally inclined towards communication and interpersonal skills, both of which have solid applications in Wizardry. She does have personal beef with the Lone Power, but her interactions with Crayak suggest her risk of overshadowing is not as high as it might otherwise seem.
Ax is a Wizard from a family of Wizards and he's not fully comfortable with that. It takes him a while to come into his own while dealing with cultural pressures and comparisons to his brother (who may or may not have died On Errantry). Eventually he finds his place, maybe specializing in time-based Wizardry, possibly after an exchange trip with an odd backwater planet it's natives call "Earth."
Cassie and Tobias are absolutely Wizards. As soon as they get offered the chance they jump at it. They're basically platonic Nita and Kit. Cassie's connection with the animal world is top tier and she also has an uncanny touch with transformative and chronal workings, while Tobias has a knack for clairvoyance and interspecies/interplanetary relations.
As a bonus, James is also absolutely a Wizard. He uses his Wizardry to accommodate his own paralysis and to help the kids in his ward where possible. He focuses on medical Wizardry and also acts as an advocate for disabled kids.
This is so very perfect, and I am so very tempted to tag @ dianeduane’s tumblr.
In your (excellent) postwar AU where Jake dies on the Blade ship instead of Rachel, and Tobias has to become a human 27yo, it's hard enough for them. But unless the Ellimist preserved the specialness of his human form somehow, wouldn't he have become physically a teenager? We don't know how morphs age really, but considering that none of the animorphs' short-lived morphs becomes geriatric during the series, it seems safe to assume that morphs most likely don't age at all, or possibly only age while in active use.
Yeah, I know a lot of people bring this up as a concern. But I'll always read Tobias's human morph as aging normally. Watsonian (in-universe), it seems to make more sense because Tobias's human morph isn't even supposed to exist. So if the Ellimist is already messing with the laws of reality to make that morph, why not give Tobias full access to his human self? There's some evidence for that in MM3 when human!Tobias passes as a college student, which is far easier to do as an apparent ~16-year-old than as an apparent ~13-year-old. He also gets described as "big" as a human in #29, which probably wouldn't be the case if he was still prepubescent.
Doylist (out-of-universe), having human!Tobias not age just doesn't interest me. Like, there are magic limitations that drive plot and character (two hours makes a morph permanent), and there are magic limitations that would just make everything more inconvenient (must reacquire flies as morphs die of old age). I put Tobias not aging in the "inconvenient" category; it'd be tons of extra hassle with little character potential. That, and the idea of Infinite Youth Hack feels wildly out of step with Animorphs' commitment to sci-fi realism.
Wait why would he be immortal? Wouldn't he age normally? Just starting at 13
What do you mean? I think we're talking about the same thing - Tobias gets a human!Tobias morph, which is 13 at the time but becomes a year older every year - but I'm not sure.
I have to find this, but I know someone asked Applegate this at a Q&A, and she asked the audience and when someone said "He ages normally," she went "That. That's the answer I would have written if we had thought that far ahead while writing the books."
hi, i hope you're having a good day! i was wondering if you've ever considered an au of a series of unfortunate events or all the wrong questions? i really like your aus!
Thank you! I have no idea how to write Lemony Snickett's style into Animorphs or vice versa, since they're two EXTREMELY different takes on postmodernism in children's series fiction. Does anyone else have thoughts?
no thoughts at the moment but i AM intrigued by this challenge. rbing so anybody who does have thoughts can loop me in hopefully
i have thoughts! 🙋🏼
the thing about being an animorph, a term which here means "an adolescent or young adult human who has had a distressing encounter with an alien prince (on a school night)", is that when examined, much like the terrible events surrounding the Baudelaire children (which have been well-documented elsewhere by yours truly), one particular theme begins to emerge from the experience. this theme is that adults are not nearly as helpful to young people as they think they are, and even adults who might wish to be a helper may find themselves instead being a hindrance, a word which here means, "someone who becomes possessed by Yeerks." a secondary theme could also be that Very Fiercely Determined and relatively clever children are probably all that stands between the rest of us and certain doom (either by way of aliens or by human men with eyeball tattoos). regardless, i believe we can all agree, as my dear Beatrice once scratched into a blank piece of sheet metal left in an abandoned alien spaceship, that the life of an animorph is nothing more than a sincerely unfortunate series of events.
Guys, guys, let’s get back into Animorphs!!!
They are all free to read with Applegate’s permission on the animorphs website!
Oh yeah babey
She has also written some absolutely amazing books recently.
These are just a few of them. I read The One and Only Ivan to my students every year (and there’s a sequel coming out in May!).
Every one of her books I’ve read has been beautifully written. Yes, they’re written for children, but you won’t regret reading a single one of them. Applegate is hands-down my favorite middle grades author.
Read. Her. Books.
Animorphs says trans rights
Once more, with feeling!
Guys, guys, let’s get back into Animorphs!!!
They are all free to read with Applegate’s permission on the animorphs website!
Oh yeah babey
She has also written some absolutely amazing books recently.
These are just a few of them. I read The One and Only Ivan to my students every year (and there’s a sequel coming out in May!).
Every one of her books I’ve read has been beautifully written. Yes, they’re written for children, but you won’t regret reading a single one of them. Applegate is hands-down my favorite middle grades author.
Read. Her. Books.
Animorphs says trans rights
I picked up my first Animorphs book in third grade. It must’ve been 1999. I don’t remember how I responded to Animorphs as I read it. But I do remember how I would live inside my head. I would daydream about morphing. I would run around the playground, not pretending to be just an animal galloping..no, I was pretending to be an Animorph. And I read and I read until The Beginning. I bought it in 2001, before the school library ever got it. I read it, and I enjoyed it. I was eleven, so I could not see it ending any other way than it did.
I didn’t get the complexities then, but there was no resentment for the ending. No, I loved Animorphs from start to finish.
I would go back and re-read them all through my life. I finished The Answer last night, and as I read it, I cried. I cried because I knew what was coming. I knew Rachel was going to die as she did in 2001. I knew Tobias would never be the same. I knew that, despite Cassie and Jake’s conversation on marriage..that it wasn’t going to happen. I knew how James and the Auxiliary Animorphs would sacrifice themselves.
But you know, that’s part of why I loved Animorphs so much. I didn’t appreciate it until I was older. No, it’s not that I didn’t appreciate it. I just didn’t think about it. But in reading the books I grew to love so dearly, I realized all that they were.
They reinforced the ideals of my youth - free will. Humanity. Morality. How the lines of right and wrong blurred and how complicated life could get. I guess I related best to Cassie. But it was really Tobias that I loved the most. Who am I kidding? I loved them all.
I learned that war is never glorious. That there really isn’t a winner. That once you’ve fought, once you’ve had to make those choices and do things that you never believed you were capable of - yeah, you can’t go back. Jake broke my heart that way. But there was so much reality there. More than I expected from a “childrens’ series”. We don’t get the happy ending in life. We just don’t. You don’t always get to marry your childhood sweetheart and things are not neat and easy after battle. After the war. It changes people.
So you taught me a lot.
You taught me about animals and you taught me to love them more than I ever did. I’ve never stopped thinking about flying. Or feeling the joy-filled freedom of a dolphin. The strength of a grizzly bear.
I’m a few weeks shy of being 21. It’s been ten years since Animorphs ended. But those books continue to thrive in my heart and in my memories as something beautiful and wonderful and heart-wrenching. I cried when Rachel died. I cried tears of pride when the Auxiliary Animorphs made their first stand and fought their first fight.
When Eva was rescued. When Tobias carried Rachel’s ashes. When the Yeerk in Peregrine Falcon morph begged Ax for freedom. And countless other times throughout the series.
So thank you, Animorphs. Thank you for nesting in my heart and in my mind - for teaching me. For making me laugh and cry and think and wonder. Thank you, Jake. Cassie. Marco. Rachel. Tobias. Ax.
And thank you, Mrs. Applegate.
Thank you.
Animorphs (Books 1-23) as Vines
spoiler alert: if it has a basketball, I’m slapping Jake’s name on it
honorable mentions for jokes that didn’t make it in the final cut:
@anne-of-morphs this is the best tag I’ve ever received on any of my posts
January
The Change (Animorphs #13) by K.A. Applegate
The Unknown (Animorphs #14) by K.A. Applegate
The Escape (Animorphs #15) by K.A. Applegate
Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by David L. Weaver-Zercher, Donald Kraybill, and Steven Nolt
Mississippi Jack: Being an Account of the Further Waterborne Adventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman, Fine Lady, and Lily of the West (Bloody Jack #5) by L.A. Meyer (reread)
February
The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf
King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
The Whole-Brain Child: Twelve Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. and Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D.
March
Trying Differently Rather Than Harder: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders by Diane Malbin, M.S.W.
Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance by Reggie L. Williams
Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer (reread)
April
Call Down the Hawk (The Dreamer Trilogy #1) by Maggie Stiefvater
The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2) by Maggie Stiefvater (reread)
May
Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf
The Warning (Animorphs #16) by K.A. Applegate
June
The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells
A Conspiracy of Kings (The Queen’s Thief #4) by Megan Whalen Turner (reread)
July
The Decision (Animorphs #18) by K.A. Applegate
The Departure (Animorphs #19) by K.A. Applegate
Out of My Heart (Out of My Mind #2) by Sharon M. Draper
The Wild Robot (The Wild Robot #1) by Peter Brown
Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot #1) by Becky Chambers
August
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Persepolis #1) by Marianne Satrapi
Mister Impossible (The Dreamer Trilogy #1) by Maggie Stiefvater
The Encounter (Animorphs #3) by K.A. Applegate (reread)
How to Train Your Dragon (How to Train Your Dragon #1) by Cressida Cowell (reread)
Animorphs (Books 1-23) as Vines
spoiler alert: if it has a basketball, I’m slapping Jake’s name on it
honorable mentions for jokes that didn’t make it in the final cut:
@anne-of-morphs this is the best tag I’ve ever received on any of my posts
What if Vin from Mistborn was part of the Animorphs?
Ooh, tricky. It'd have to be the version of Vin we get after Final Empire, since she'd otherwise never join up with a team even if her life literally depended on it. She needs the influence of her platonic polyparent polycule (Full House situationship?) to trust that much, but of course that raises the issue of everything else she's doing after the first book... Really runs into the fact that Brandon Sanderson is a plotter and worldbuilder first, a characterizer (characterer?) second.
Does anyone else have ideas for how to make this work?
Last time's setup doesn't work for these parameters, but that's fine. I can take a leaf out of a particular fic I've been enjoying.
"I love you," she whispered. She let the power go. She held the capacity to become a deity in her hands, and she gave it away, releasing it to the waiting void. She gave up Elend. Because she knew that was what he wanted. The cavern immediately began to shake. Vin cried out as the flaring power within her was ripped away, soaked up greedily by the void. She screamed, her glow fading, then fell into the now empty pool, head knocking against the rocks. The cavern continued to shake, dust and chips falling from the ceiling. And then, in a moment of surreal clarity, Vin heard a single, distinct sentence ringing in her mind.
Before I began this Everworld re-read I would have said that my main memory of it was “not as good as Animorphs,” but damn, rereading it now and I keep being like, “oh damn, that’s where that formative image or philosphical concept came from. Oh damn, reading that at nine years old deeply shaped me.”
Cassie is actually a furry and uses her morphing talent to turn into her fursona
Animorphs #19.5: The Yiffing
Tagline is “Now the Horse Girl becomes a Horse-Girl”
Picture is Cassie as an anthro horse wearing clothing
OP, one day the Ellemist may forgive your transgressions. As for me, though you repent yourself and turn from your transgressions as a child burned by a hot stove, in the depths of grief and remorse, that day will never come.
All I ever wished to do was share my intrusive thoughts with the rest of the fandom
Okay seriously? Even I know that the real furry-lovers are Rachel (who frankly wants Tobias to just half-morph), and Marco (who loves that blue, blue fur).
Coming back to the post to clarify something: Animorphs is not why I’m a furry. Animorphs is what help me figure out I’m a trans woman, but it’s the warrior cat series that helped me figure out tgaf/made me a furry.
Also, Katherine & Michael being such happily supportive parents of a trans woman definitely helped me feel much more comfortable talking to my parents about being trans!
Good Trans News!!
Whenever a celebrity turns out to be transphobic they get a million hours of media coverage and spotlight. It’s easy to feel like every famous person hates trans people, and that’s just not true! We have tons of high profile allies!
Here is a quick list of some (but definitely not all) supportive celebrities! Please feel free to add to this list.
AND DON'T FORGET MY BOY PEDRO BEING THE BEST BRO TO HIS TRANS SISTER.
Also we can not leave out Cher!
Cause she will absolutely cut a terfy bitch if she has to.
We also cannot neglect one of Canada’s finest, comedian Colin Mochrie.
And of course the renowned children’s book author, K.A. Applegate!
She and her husband Michael Grant frequently wear their “Protect Trans Kids” shirts and celebrate their trans daughter!
K.A. Applegate, author of the Animorphs, Remnants, and Everworld book series:
