#ani 29

It's just so instant. I really wonder about how scenes like these read to kids who picked up the books out of order. Like seeing the hyper-competent child soldiers move like this first and then reading one of the earlier books where they're still getting their feet under them must have been pretty whiplash-y.

Also struck by how there is absolutely no sugercoating about the stakes. No euphemisms like "destroyed" over just plain saying that the consequences will be death if they can't cure Ax or if Tidwell's setting a trap like the earlier books would have used.

Cassie knows what it is to see and hear. She’s been doing it essentially all her life. She was able to do it five minutes earlier. These are reactions that are intrinsic to yeerk biology, nature as opposed to nurture. They’re spawned with a craving for stimulation and sensation that their own bodies are unable to fulfill.

It’s not some kind of covetousness for another kind of living that leads yeerks to take hosts, they’re internally compelled to do so. At first I thought this was a weird, almost cruel evolutionary turn, but if using Gedd bodies was a strong advantage in allowing a yeerk to multiply, that makes sense as a selection pressure.

But there’s also the later line about Cassie feeling almost as elated by entering the yeerk pool. And the Hork-Bajir Chronicles talks about yeerks who had a rich culture in their own bodies and didn’t necessarily care to leave their pools, so it’s possible there’s a founder effect going on, too; if the yeerks that escaped their homeworld were the ones most motivated to be in a host (and they would’ve have to have been, even given their success, it was a small group and the actions they took were brutal and guaranteed reprisals by the Andalites, they must have been extremists to not let that stop them) then the Yeerk Empire would be made of generations of only the yeerks with the strongest desire to take another body.

Well at least she has three allies down there. Illium, Tidwell, Aftran. Take care of my girl please and thanks.

oooo fascinating. The joy and exploring is intrinsic in its DNA? very cool. No wonder they're so desperate for hosts. I mean I guess that makes sense for a parasite but still. Cassie's about to learn so much firsthand stuff about the Yeerks in general.

They're a package deal you guys they get too stressed if they're separated!! god it must be even more lonely (+in her own mind!) to do scary things when she's used to her friends encouraging and talking to her through thoughtspeak all the time. wild.

Rachel's truly aggressive wingwoman behaviour is so lovely. She's so done with this. And it's a total contrast to Cassie, absolutely giddy at getting to dance with Jake, trying to subtly hint that Rachel and Tobias should break off from the others to get some alone time. These two are a power friendship. There's a universe (possibly even the one where Rachel leads the animorphs instead of Jake) in which these two become the first female president and VP.

Tobias having unsettling vibes in human form is great. Nobody outside the animorphs knows he's funny. Also, if he had got a slow dance with Rachel this time, can you imagine the chaos among gossipers. Like she's just a bit mean when she's had a bad day to most people. Would TT wonder if he wasn't creepy enough for her?

Cassie makes Allison both hateable and literally just a normal teenage girl. I love that for her.

The desert island game is the most young tweenage thing ever. Also, 7 year old me didn't know who the spice girls or Oprah was and to this day Baby Spice just gives me a mental image of a bedazzled bottle of talcum powder. I would still pick Marco, obviously.

Just thinking of this in relation to Rachel immediately suggesting arson as a distraction in 16. Rachel goes for the most direct approach first and thinks of the consequences later.

Also? The idea that the protagonists of a children's book might have to kill someone they forced to save a friend's life to keep them quiet?!??!!!

The more of this reread I'm through the more I feel like the primary factor in Animorphs being a kids' series is the use of pacing to control the tone.

Animorphs gets very dark and often doesn't hold back on the implications... except for when the pacing doesn't allow the reader to linger on them. It's probably most obvious in the wrap up chapter of 33: Tobias has been through hell but we're seeing the aftermath through the point of view of a Tobias who very much is focused on not focusing on it right now in favor of being with the others and safe again. We see in his actions and reactions in later books that being tortured by Taylor had long-term effects on him but in the book itself the pacing prevents the reader from dwelling on the long term by shifting the focus to the cooldown at the beach.

The fast pace lets Animorphs get away with a quick flash of a five-year-old Controller in 29 because the missions to save both Aftran and Ax are more pressing at the moment. Kids reading allow the fast pace to take them from beat to beat without long-term focus on the horrors that older readers are more ready to pick up on.

This moment, man. Cassie having a chance to be normal. To be a little petty. To be smug. To want her friends to have some downtime.

All the while the life-and-death decisions are still on her mind.

Oh girl, that ship has long since sailed. Normal is not attainable anymore. I think that line was crossed like...Day ONE.

But I do hope they get to have a good time at the dance, they deserve it. Yayy more Cassie xJake <3

I love them your honor. u dont have to feel guilty about absolutely everything, Cassie. Just have fun!! they deserve it. and so do tobias and rachel let the kids have funnn!