#ani 33

No one did Jake any favors by making him leader, indeed. But he's leader and that means using the pieces on his side.

I love his painfully delicious character arc but oof. And also Tobias recognizing that he's just another weapon in Jake's arsenal, another tool to use.

We see Jake and Tobias worry about each other's safety and we see Tobias grieve and desire vengeance when Jake dies in MM3. But they're also leader and subordinate in a war. Jake's willing to sacrifice Tobias but not until Tobias volunteers - but he also knows he will because it's the best plan and he has to hold off on accepting other lambs to the slaughter until the right one realizes whose turn it is.

Tobias and Rachel see this side of Jake more than Cassie or Marco are willing to admit to. And Ax? Well, he's a trained warrior cadet who knows to listen to the leader.

So, obviously I'm backtracking here, as the Animorphs Book Club is on book #39 this week, but I decided to revisit some of the early books because I thought of some fun counts I want to keep a tally of (more on them in a future post).

But given how far ahead the reread is, it actually works out because now I can post thoughts without spoilers!

So, in book #33, one of the interesting things about Jake is how well he knows how to use his team like tools by now. He KNOWS that the person who has to volunteer for the anti-morphing ray mission is Tobias, but because it will be dangerous, he doesn't want to out and out order Tobias to go; instead he just manipulates the conversation until Tobias volunteers on his own. It shows something of how callous Jake has had to become as the leader.

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.

But what I want to talk about is the Utzum. As Ax describes it, it's memories passed through DNA to give strength to a dying andalite. Superstition or not, Tobias experienced it without ever being told of it first.

And it doesn't actually seem to come from DNA. Or at least not specifically andalite DNA. Elfangor was a nothlit as a human when Tobias was conceived. Genetically Tobias was born as a human. Whatever andalite spiritual or psychic stuff got passed to him, it wasn't through his DNA.

On rereading Animorphs it really kind of amazes me that Tobias was written like this without intentional trans-coding in mind.