Idiot Teens with a Death Wish

I do think that there’s an interesting implication there, because (as I’ve mentioned) most of the morphs in Animorphs are characterization.  Not so much the obvious metaphors (fox = clever, rabbit = fast, etc.) but rather the specific qualities of the animals that the text chooses to focus on.  For example, Ax using snake morph in #8 is about it being this weird but surprisingly powerful Earth animal, because in context it’s all about Ax coming to appreciate Earth.  Marco using snake morph in #20 is about how cold and calculating snake minds are, because in context Marco’s the first one to recognize how callous David is... because they’re so like-minded.

Anyway, osprey.

A lot of the in-text descriptions focus on its versatility.  Ospreys can operate in and around water better than red-tailed hawks, but not as well as seagulls (MM2).  Ospreys are smaller and faster than eagles (#14) but not as small or fast as peregrine falcons (#31).  Ospreys do better over long distances than either eagles or falcons, but not nearly as well as geese or ducks (#51).  Osprey blends in better than red-tailed hawk once controllers start recognizing Tobias (#27), but osprey still does not blend in nearly as well as pigeon or seagull (#21).  Ospreys have better vision in non-optimal conditions like glare or low lighting than red-tails or harriers, but cannot match the low-light vision of owls (#50).

So what’s that say about Cassie and Marco, “the only two real survivors” (#54) of the team?  Partially, them using the same morph — not just as raptors, but also how often Marco uses wolf — is about foreshadowing that reality.  Ospreys adapt, and wolves endure.  Those two compromise a hell of a lot, and then they figure out how to live with themselves after those compromises.  However, I also think that it’s a comment on their role on the team.

If you’ll forgive a metaphor that Animorphs trashes: let’s talk about chess. 

The obvious connection is Jake and Rachel as the king and the queen, respectively.  The king (Jake) is pretty unimpressive on his own (#21, #31) and incredibly powerful as part of a team (#26, #34, etc.).  Most importantly, the team cannot function without the king, even if it can get by without any other single piece, to the point where outsized effort gets devoted to defending him (MM3, #37).  The queen (Rachel) is easily the most powerful offensive piece on the board (#1, #7, etc.) to the point where she leads the charge much of the time and often goes daringly far into enemy territory (#17, #25).  The check on her power then becomes her very boldness — because opponents will often be gunning for her first (#54).

So what I think the osprey points to is Marco and Cassie’s role as the team’s bishops.  The bishops are best known for their opposite-but-equal roles.  One can only use the black squares; one can only use the white.  Both are easier to hem in than knights or rooks, meaning that they go undervalued by amateur players.  Both are capable of zooming clear from one corner of the board to the other, if the pawns get out of the way and give them that bright clear line for the kind of devastating distance attacks that amateur players often don’t see coming.  Bishops are harder to track at first blush than rooks, because while they’re still moving only in straight lines they move along lines that are harder for the eye to trace than the neat rows or columns that rooks use. 

Cassie and Marco are diametrically opposed in many regards.  Marco thinks about the big picture first, last, and always, to the point where he tends to neglect the little guy.  Cassie thinks about the little guy so much that she tends to neglect the big picture.  But they’re both needed to keep the team in check, not in the least because they can be counted on to follow their own nature.  Jake can send either one of them to act as lieutenant for a partial team, because he knows exactly what they’ll do.  Cassie will stick by her ethics, and Marco will stick by his.  Neither one of them will make impulsive decisions like Rachel, or decide mid-mission that they’ll go off book like Tobias or Ax.

Marco and Cassie think things through.  They’re usually the ones to come up with plans — Jake’s role is far more about making snap decisions mid-battle — and the ones to kick around others’ plans in search of the flaws.  Cassie and Marco arguing with each other is how 80% of the decisions on the team get made.  (There’s too many examples to list, but some of my favorite arguments between them are in #9, #19, MM3, #30, #43, and #46.)

Marco and Cassie move along straight lines, but their straight lines are not everyone else’s straight lines.  Even some of their most shocking-in-context decisions are still aligned with their individual priorities.  Marco tries to kill Eva because it’s expedient, to use Marco’s own word, in that it advances the Animorphs’ goals at all costs (#30).  Cassie stops Jake from killing Tom because it follows her dedication to minimizing unnecessary harm, especially when Jake’s alleged long-term ends that justify his current means are nebulous at best (#50).  It’s notable that Jake is not just angry but flabbergasted when Marco risks everyone’s life by morphing with a noseful of teammates in #42 — it’s wildly uncharacteristic for Marco.  Rachel or even Ax might morph on impulse in a moment of strong emotion, and Tobias might decide to do his own thing at any given moment.  But Marco (or Cassie) would never take that kind of risk without thinking things through... unless, of course, Marco had rabies.

Okay, this is fabulous and incredibly spot-on, but I need you to know that I feel punched in the face by everything between "morphing with a noseful of teammates" and "Marco had rabies."  What the fuck happened in book 42.  Did I black out and miss it entirely.  Animorphs what the FUCK.   (Man I love these books.)

(ok this ended up LONG, throwing a cut in here goodness- )

There's a fic someone wrote that's title is this exact ask, and I think it's a pretty good example of how to make the yeerks good

Oh wow, I hadn't heard of it — I must check it out!

There's a fic someone wrote that's title is this exact ask, and I think it's a pretty good example of how to make the yeerks good

Oh wow, I hadn't heard of it — I must check it out!

Barely Coping Berensons sounds like an emo band from the early 2000s. Jake is the lead singer with a gruff smoker’s voice (regardless of whether or not he actually smokes.) Tom is the guitarist who pours his anger into his riffs and the one who tells Jake to take a goddamn break when he decides Jake needs it. Rachel is the drummer who isn’t always good at aligning with the rest of the band but whose solos make the audience scream with excitement. Jordan is the bassist who keeps them on a more-or-less even keel. Sarah is the makeup artist in charge of applying the black liquid eyeliner and making sure Jake’s bangs cover at least half his face. 

The Invasion is such an excellent one-two-three punch of an opening that I've never seen it topped in series fiction. Animorphs tells you EXACTLY what you're getting into with the first book.

We get about 3 pages of our heroes having wonder and joy at aliens being real before #1 hits us with the graphic onscreen death-by-cannibalism of this kind, caring stranger. And if Jake being chased by 7-foot blade monsters wasn't scary enough, he only escapes because a human bystander dies in his place.

So Jake goes home. To his nuclear suburban family, and his piddly sports problems, and his nice morph-training sequence with his friends. And just kidding there's a yeerk living inside your home already and it knows where you sleep. But that's fine, we'll just tell an adul — oh shit the cops are controllers the reporters are controllers the camp counselors are controllers the vice principal's a controller Elfangor really fucking undersold this problem.

So it's up to them, they guess. And Marco might be scared of dying, and Cassie might be reluctant to fight, but Tobias seems 100% confident they can save the world! So they go. And they don't save Tom, and they get people killed, and they do nothing to hurt Visser Three. And they don't even all make it home at the end of the day. Because it turns out Animorphs is not only a series where supporting characters die; it's a series where the main characters get permanently injured and will never be the same again.

Like [SPOILERS FOR VARIOUS HORROR MOVIES] Kane in Alien, Johnny in Night of the Living Dead, Dan in Frozen, Jonathan in Dracula, Hutch in The Ritual, Jason in Cloverfield, Mathias in The Ruins, Mary in Sinners, or Frank in 28 Days Later. [END SPOILERS]

Those characters all exist to be not just supporting cast members but people we know, people we like... who then encounter terrible fates that make the stakes of the rest of the story all too real. Each of them gets a moment that shifts the story from being adventurous (Alien, Cloverfield), family-oriented (Sinners, Night of the Living Dead), or "scary but we're handling it" (The Ritual, Dracula) to HOLY HELL WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE at the moment the eldritch forces eat them alive. They make clear this is a space where damage is permanent, where death is real and Captain America's not gonna popping back up 6 issues later good as new, and where anyone can die.

I had to do a little bit of digging around but I think the relevant tropes are: "The Worf Effect" when a strong/known character is defeated to show an enemy's strength, and "Sacrifical Lion", an important character killed to show an enemy's strength or that shot just got Real.

#i think ‘go for the heart’ works a little better#since the character in question is typically the emotional center of the group#and thus typically ‘the heart’ as in the trope#though admittedly Cassie is more the heart of the Animorphs#we really don’y have too many examples lf the team operating without Cassie come to think of it#when she’s alone we’re normally in her POV#except the taxxon book. they go without her in that one and immediately fall into a trap#Animorphs

You're right that "heart" isn't quite Always Kill James, because while "heart" can mean center, it also implies warmth/caring. It's the motivating character you have to take out, the one who centers and grounds the others on the team. Like, Frozen is about heroic Dan, Dan's bro-ey abrasive friend, and Dan's girlfriend who doesn't even want to be there... so of course it kills Dan first. Cloverfield introduces us to cool-guy Jason, Jason's brother, Jason's friend, Jason's girlfriend, and Jason's hanger-on... and 15 minutes later, it kills Jason. The James is the guy who pushes the friend group forward and pulls them back, who reins in the wilder (Sirius) elements and draws out the quieter (Peter) ones. So the best way to sow chaos and force interesting character reckonings is Always Kill James.

Tobias only really plays that role before being nothlited. In #1, Tobias puts Jake in charge, Tobias talks Cassie and Rachel into joining the war effort, and Tobias gets all the others to try morphing. It's Tobias's idea to try fighting the war themselves instead of telling an adult (like Elfangor suggested), and it's Tobias who walks right up and starts talking to the scary alien while the others are half-planning to run away. But Tobias being trapped in morph knocks him out of that role, and forces a change in motivation for the rest of his team.

The Invasion is such an excellent one-two-three punch of an opening that I've never seen it topped in series fiction. Animorphs tells you EXACTLY what you're getting into with the first book.

We get about 3 pages of our heroes having wonder and joy at aliens being real before #1 hits us with the graphic onscreen death-by-cannibalism of this kind, caring stranger. And if Jake being chased by 7-foot blade monsters wasn't scary enough, he only escapes because a human bystander dies in his place.

So Jake goes home. To his nuclear suburban family, and his piddly sports problems, and his nice morph-training sequence with his friends. And just kidding there's a yeerk living inside your home already and it knows where you sleep. But that's fine, we'll just tell an adul — oh shit the cops are controllers the reporters are controllers the camp counselors are controllers the vice principal's a controller Elfangor really fucking undersold this problem.

So it's up to them, they guess. And Marco might be scared of dying, and Cassie might be reluctant to fight, but Tobias seems 100% confident they can save the world! So they go. And they don't save Tom, and they get people killed, and they do nothing to hurt Visser Three. And they don't even all make it home at the end of the day. Because it turns out Animorphs is not only a series where supporting characters die; it's a series where the main characters get permanently injured and will never be the same again.

Like [SPOILERS FOR VARIOUS HORROR MOVIES] Kane in Alien, Johnny in Night of the Living Dead, Dan in Frozen, Jonathan in Dracula, Hutch in The Ritual, Jason in Cloverfield, Mathias in The Ruins, Mary in Sinners, or Frank in 28 Days Later. [END SPOILERS]

Those characters all exist to be not just supporting cast members but people we know, people we like... who then encounter terrible fates that make the stakes of the rest of the story all too real. Each of them gets a moment that shifts the story from being adventurous (Alien, Cloverfield), family-oriented (Sinners, Night of the Living Dead), or "scary but we're handling it" (The Ritual, Dracula) to HOLY HELL WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE at the moment the eldritch forces eat them alive. They make clear this is a space where damage is permanent, where death is real and Captain America's not gonna popping back up 6 issues later good as new, and where anyone can die.

I had to do a little bit of digging around but I think the relevant tropes are: "The Worf Effect" when a strong/known character is defeated to show an enemy's strength, and "Sacrifical Lion", an important character killed to show an enemy's strength or that shot just got Real.