Richard's Animorphs Forum

Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Dylan on June 13, 2015, 11:46:25 AM

Title: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 13, 2015, 11:46:25 AM
Hey guys, You should vote on this pole! If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be? You have two votes! (One for primary battle morph, the other for your secondary battle morph).
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 13, 2015, 12:17:23 PM
I like the idea of a gorilla, and a crocodile, and a buffalo. Different morphs for different situations. Gorilla might be my standard morph, with some others according to the situation. If someone needs a fighting retreat, I use a living battering ram. If something's happening in or around water, I use a crocodile, though a crocodile can be pretty dangerous even out of water. A gorilla can handle objects better, is similar to humans, and doesn't need to maim something if it doesn't have to. Though there is something to be said about the power and agility of a large cat. Especially if you're trying to be stealthy, and it's dark. I may go for a leapord, instead of a tiger, personally.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 13, 2015, 01:37:48 PM
I'd probably prefer a shark for an aquatic battle morph. I don't want to be cornered and drowned. Giant squid would be great if i could get one. Elephants have a lot of destructive power, but if you need to retreat it's probably going to be hard. Plus they don't have much natural armor.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 13, 2015, 01:41:00 PM
I went ahead and voted for gorilla.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 13, 2015, 04:27:22 PM
Hey guys, You should vote on this pole! If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be? You have two votes! (One for primary battle morph, the other for your secondary battle morph).

Am I voting on the North Pole, or the South Pole, or a maypole, or a telephone pole, or a barbershop's pole?
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 13, 2015, 04:29:23 PM
Why can't I have more than two battle morphs?  Isn't it a good idea to have lots of options?
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 13, 2015, 04:37:03 PM
One or two seems to be the standard. There was once an excuse that they didn't know if there was a limit to how many morphs you could have, and Rachel may be the only one who grabbed a morph just to have an alternative battle morph. Unless you count Tobias, but a hawk isn't really much of a battle morph. Great scout, but not battle.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 13, 2015, 07:31:50 PM
One or two seems to be the standard. There was once an excuse that they didn't know if there was a limit to how many morphs you could have, and Rachel may be the only one who grabbed a morph just to have an alternative battle morph. Unless you count Tobias, but a hawk isn't really much of a battle morph. Great scout, but not battle.

If there were a limit on the number of Yeerks one could have, wouldn't Ax have been told in Morphing 101?
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 13, 2015, 07:45:59 PM
This may have been made before they met Ax, but I'm not sure. Also Ax's morhing 101 class may have been shared with the same totes adorbs girl that was in his xenobiology class.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 13, 2015, 10:09:31 PM
One or two seems to be the standard. There was once an excuse that they didn't know if there was a limit to how many morphs you could have, and Rachel may be the only one who grabbed a morph just to have an alternative battle morph. Unless you count Tobias, but a hawk isn't really much of a battle morph. Great scout, but not battle.

If there were a limit on the number of Yeerks one could have, wouldn't Ax have been told in Morphing 101?

I meant "Morphs".  I wonder what would happen if one had more than one Yeerk in his/her head.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 13, 2015, 10:19:16 PM
One or two seems to be the standard. There was once an excuse that they didn't know if there was a limit to how many morphs you could have, and Rachel may be the only one who grabbed a morph just to have an alternative battle morph. Unless you count Tobias, but a hawk isn't really much of a battle morph. Great scout, but not battle.

If there were a limit on the number of Yeerks one could have, wouldn't Ax have been told in Morphing 101?

I meant "Morphs".  I wonder what would happen if one had more than one Yeerk in his/her head.
That would be really weird.... The yeerks would proably fight for controll of the host...
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 14, 2015, 11:47:59 AM
Visser 3 has lots of morphs!  I would expect that the Animorphs, noticing Visser 3's incredible supply of morphs, would conclude that there is no limit to the number of animals once can acquire, and therefore decide to load themselves up on battle morphs.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: DinosaurNothlit on June 14, 2015, 07:10:59 PM
I agree that one or two is a good standard.  While you might be able to acquire near-infinite numbers of dangerous morphs, that does not make it wise to actually try to use them all.  As Rachel said, "He had a bear morph; I WAS my bear morph.  Experience helps."  (Plus, if the poll was set up that way, everyone would just go "I'mma vote ALL OF THEM lolz").

BTW, how come there are no alien species on the poll?  I would want my secondary battle morph to be Hork-bajir.  Yes, I've given this exact question a lot of thought over the years.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: DinosaurNothlit on June 14, 2015, 07:55:41 PM
That would be sweet if you could add them, thanks.  And just those two should be fine; the other aliens in the series tend to be too overpowered, so it wouldn't be fair to put them on the poll.

Yeah, I already voted, but I just voted for one (rhinoceros) since I didn't think any of the other animals would suit me as a battle morph.  If you add Hork-bajir I'd need to re-vote.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 14, 2015, 07:55:43 PM
Experience is important when using a morph. It's hard to pick just one, but two or possibly three should be fine depending on the situation. Tigers are more stealthy and powerful than gorillas, but if you're in an urban situation you probably want to go with something that has hands.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: DinosaurNothlit on June 14, 2015, 08:00:44 PM
LOL I just noticed you put walrus on there.  :XD:
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 14, 2015, 08:43:44 PM
I forgot that an auxilary chose Walrus. I guess he just looked at those tusks, and thought they were epic. I'm not impressed by the walrus.

I think another one chose bobcat. I can see the appeal of a cat as a battle morph, but a bobcat isn't much bigger than a house cat. As a standard for battle morph you should be asking "How well does it stand up against a Hork-Bajir?".

That could be a downside to choosing a Hork. Because that Yeerk who has been fighting a war for years as a Hork-Bajir has more experience than you do. Unless my theory about the Empire giving crap soldiers to visser Three is correct. because if you're known for beheading your soldiers after failure, anyone who has any pull in the empire is going to make sure they aren't stationed on the same planet as you.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: DinosaurNothlit on June 14, 2015, 09:03:44 PM
I changed your vote to hork bajir

Er, I was hoping to still have one vote towards rhinoceros (as my primary battle morph) and one towards Hork-bajir (as my secondary).  I thought we got two votes, right?

Ah, well, I suppose it doesn't really matter how I vote since I'm posting here about what my votes would be, anyway.

I think another one chose bobcat. I can see the appeal of a cat as a battle morph, but a bobcat isn't much bigger than a house cat. As a standard for battle morph you should be asking "How well does it stand up against a Hork-Bajir?".

Keep in mind, though, that the smaller morphs tend to be faster, and present a smaller target.  In a contest of brute force, yeah, a bobcat would probably lose to a Hork-bajir.  But if the Hork can't even hit the bobcat?  As a side note about bobcats, I once camped at a nature center that had a bobcat kitten that they'd adopted.  Those things are stronger than they ought to be.  I watched that kitten, which was a TINY thing, tackle a housecat that was at least four times its size, and sent the bigger cat tumbling down the stairs.  Do not underestimate the power of pure unadulterated wildness.

That could be a downside to choosing a Hork. Because that Yeerk who has been fighting a war for years as a Hork-Bajir has more experience than you do. Unless my theory about the Empire giving crap soldiers to visser Three is correct. because if you're known for beheading your soldiers after failure, anyone who has any pull in the empire is going to make sure they aren't stationed on the same planet as you.

That makes a lot of sense.  I'd actually always wondered how the Animorphs could consistently beat Hork-bajir in combat.  If you showed me a Hork-bajir, and asked me who would win in a fight between that and a tiger/bear/gorilla/wolf, I would put all my money on the Hork-bajir, every time.  I generally tended to think it was because the Hork-bajir had been herbivores with no natural predators, and thus would have no natural instinct for fighting; the Yeerks that controlled them therefore wouldn't have the benefit of that instinctual knowledge, either.

Either way, though, Hork-bajir still makes sense as a battle morph.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 14, 2015, 09:19:45 PM
I'm sure some of it was badass decay. hell eventually they brought in Blue Bands, and even they didn't pose much of a threat for long.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 14, 2015, 10:02:19 PM
It's a little odd reading about how an Andalite can take on two or three Horks at once, and there aren't really that many Horks to start with, yet the Andalites are still losing the war due to being spread out too much.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 14, 2015, 10:41:03 PM
It's a little odd reading about how an Andalite can take on two or three Horks at once, and there aren't really that many Horks to start with, yet the Andalites are still losing the war due to being spread out too much.
That's kinda dumb. Probley,some of the Andalites have moral quairies for killing Hork Bajir.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 15, 2015, 11:02:48 AM
Some people would surely have problems with killing the hosts of their enemies, and yet we're supposed to be against a new kind of virus that only targets Yeerks, just because there's an extremely small chance that it will effect humans too. Although admittedly that virus would have killed the YPM as well as the real enemy.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 15, 2015, 11:32:48 AM
The plot of The Arrival... I like that book.
I think that for that situation, we hag already seen this quatum virus play out in the HB cronicles. The virus was a horrible mistake as seen in that book, and using the virus in 38 is no better
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 15, 2015, 12:18:48 PM
In HBC, the virus was aimed at the Hork-Bajir. Not the actual enemy. I took that as the reason for it being so awful. Not the idea of mass murdering people in a way that doesn't also endanger their slaves. YMMV, I suppose. You can't fight Yeerks conventionally, without endangering their victims.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 15, 2015, 12:37:36 PM
Even the safest means of doing something still have a small chance of failure. there's always goign to be that 1%. If you're going to give up on something because of a miniscule chance of failure, how do you do anything in life?
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 15, 2015, 12:45:53 PM
Would it be all of humanity? I thought the little percent mean that some fraction of society might die, as opposed to a more likely chance of Humanity being enslaved.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 15, 2015, 02:56:13 PM
I urge that Visser 3's many battle morphs be added as options.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 15, 2015, 02:58:36 PM
There wouldn't be much point to any land based battle morph if I had access to that eight headed/legged fire breathing alien.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 15, 2015, 02:59:15 PM
Where would you go to get Visser's morphs? You'ld have to go planet hopping, the animorphs didn't do that.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 15, 2015, 03:04:21 PM
Where would you go to get Visser's morphs? You'ld have to go planet hopping, the animorphs didn't do that.

Some of them come from the deep valleys of Hork-Bajir.  At least one comes from the Andalite homeworld!
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 15, 2015, 03:53:05 PM
Actually, yes they did. They even started a resistance movement there, that wasn't mentioned at the end of the series.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 15, 2015, 03:58:45 PM
If the resistance came back, then The Prophecy wouldn't be a total filler book.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 15, 2015, 04:10:34 PM
I would have settled for Toby taking the Free Horks of Earth to the Homeworld to help with the resistance effort in 54. Then at least we'd get some closure with her story.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 15, 2015, 04:14:29 PM
Toby didn't have much story to begin with.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 15, 2015, 04:15:48 PM
How can a single Brazilian Wandering Spider or a single Africanized Honey Bee bring down a Hork-Bajir or an Andalite?

Why aren't alligators in the poll?
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 15, 2015, 04:18:29 PM
The Animorphs never to the hork bajir homeworld.

In one book, they DID go to the Hork-Bajir Homeworld to help the free Hork-Bajir recover some weapons and kick some Yeerk ass.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 15, 2015, 04:22:40 PM
I admit, I put African bee as joke....

Crocidile is there, and that's close enough to alligator

But what about Brazilian Wandering Spiders?  How can they serve as a battle morph?
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 15, 2015, 04:24:38 PM
Can I nominate cobras and rattle snakes for the poll?

Are Brazilian Wandering Spiders very poisonous?  If that's what qualifies them for the battle morph poll, can I nominate black widow spiders?
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 15, 2015, 04:27:09 PM
Can I nominate cobras and rattle snakes for the poll?
I already have two deadlier snakes here. Black Mamba and Anaconda.

Are Brazilian Wandering Spiders very poisonous?  If that's what qualifies them for the battle morph poll, can I nominate black widow spiders?
Black Widows are tiny. You don't realize how big Brazilian Wandering Spiders are.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 15, 2015, 04:28:30 PM
Something like a black mamba racing around tagging enemies would cause some chaos, to be sure. Pretty risky, though.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 15, 2015, 04:30:45 PM
Something like a black mamba racing around tagging enemies would cause some chaos, to be sure. Pretty risky, though.
Black Mamba seems like a pretty ballsy battle morph. I think you could use it as a battlemorph, though the person using it would have to be careful.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 15, 2015, 04:32:18 PM
Something like a black mamba racing around tagging enemies would cause some chaos, to be sure. Pretty risky, though.

Why would tagging Yeerk infested personnel wreck havoc?
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 15, 2015, 04:43:48 PM
Brazilian wandering spiders, although large for spiders and poisonous, don't impress me as a viable battle morph. 

From the WikiPedia article: "The spiders in the genus can grow to have a leg span of 13 to 15 cm (5.1 to 5.9 in).  Their body length ranges from 17 to 48 mm (0.67 to 1.89 in)."  This doesn't seem large enough to fight Hork Bajir.

Their bite can be poisonous, but they aren't well adapted to envenom large animals such as humans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_wandering_spider
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 15, 2015, 04:48:26 PM
Brazilian wandering spiders, although large for spiders and poisonous, don't impress me as a viable battle morph. 

From the WikiPedia article: "The spiders in the genus can grow to have a leg span of 13 to 15 cm (5.1 to 5.9 in).  Their body length ranges from 17 to 48 mm (0.67 to 1.89 in)."  This doesn't seem large enough to fight Hork Bajir.

Their bite can be poisonous, but they aren't well adapted to envenom large animals such as humans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_wandering_spider
Oh well, I'm not taking it off
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 15, 2015, 05:07:47 PM
Brazilian wandering spiders, although large for spiders and poisonous, don't impress me as a viable battle morph. 

From the WikiPedia article: "The spiders in the genus can grow to have a leg span of 13 to 15 cm (5.1 to 5.9 in).  Their body length ranges from 17 to 48 mm (0.67 to 1.89 in)."  This doesn't seem large enough to fight Hork Bajir.

Their bite can be poisonous, but they aren't well adapted to envenom large animals such as humans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_wandering_spider
Oh well, I'm not taking it off

Did anyone ever morph a Brazilian wandering spider during the series?
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Snakie on June 15, 2015, 05:55:36 PM
Jake's Tiger morph was probably my favorite morph of the series.

I also always liked the elephant, but it seems to impractical for the sort of close quarters combat the Animorphs typically got themselves into.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: DinosaurNothlit on June 15, 2015, 06:10:47 PM
Just wanted to note that, even though the Animorphs did visit the Hork-bajir homeworld, there wouldn't have been any Deep-monsters left for them to acquire one.  Most of the monsters were killed off during the events of HBC, and I'd be willing to bet that the Yeerks hunted down and killed the rest as soon as they won the war.  Maybe giving Visser Three a chance to acquire the ones he wanted (we know he at least acquired a Lerdethak), before driving them all to extinction.

Heck, they drove the Arn to extinction by #34, and the Arn would have been a lot harder to track down than the monsters would have been.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 15, 2015, 06:12:55 PM
Because you're poisoning everyone that gets close, and a fast moving snake is hard to avoid when you have other things to worry about too.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 15, 2015, 06:35:26 PM
Because you're poisoning everyone that gets close, and a fast moving snake is hard to avoid when you have other things to worry about too.

What question are you answering?
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 15, 2015, 07:13:25 PM
Jake's Tiger morph was probably my favorite morph of the series.

I also always liked the elephant, but it seems to impractical for the sort of close quarters combat the Animorphs typically got themselves into.
Yay! More people voted!
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 15, 2015, 08:21:07 PM
Because you're poisoning everyone that gets close, and a fast moving snake is hard to avoid when you have other things to worry about too.

What question are you answering?

The one about how a snake would cause chaos in battle, which I forgot to quote.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 15, 2015, 08:27:51 PM
I was thinking should I get rid of Shark and Dolphin? They aren't really battlemorphs...
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: guitarhero01234 on June 22, 2015, 01:14:42 AM
Why is owl not an option?
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Tim Bruening on June 22, 2015, 12:54:08 PM
Why is owl not an option?

I see owl as an option, and even a vote for owl!
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 22, 2015, 01:08:58 PM
He asked that before I put owl on the poll :P
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Chad32 on June 22, 2015, 02:01:27 PM
Because Owl is not a battle morph? There are much better options, given all the possibilities.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: guitarhero01234 on June 22, 2015, 03:14:04 PM
That is where you are wrong because owls are the best at everything.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: pallosalama on June 22, 2015, 10:19:03 PM
Because Owl is not a battle morph? There are much better options, given all the possibilities.

It is all about diversity. Having only big and powerful morphs isn't always good.

What if you have to fight in darkness?
Owl's great senses do help, you could use it as scout morph and also capable of causing some damage(they are silent predators, after all)
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: guitarhero01234 on June 23, 2015, 08:26:09 AM
^Dis guy knows what he's talking about :D
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: pallosalama on June 23, 2015, 12:19:49 PM
That makes a lot of sense.  I'd actually always wondered how the Animorphs could consistently beat Hork-bajir in combat.  If you showed me a Hork-bajir, and asked me who would win in a fight between that and a tiger/bear/gorilla/wolf, I would put all my money on the Hork-bajir, every time.  I generally tended to think it was because the Hork-bajir had been herbivores with no natural predators, and thus would have no natural instinct for fighting; the Yeerks that controlled them therefore wouldn't have the benefit of that instinctual knowledge, either.

Either way, though, Hork-bajir still makes sense as a battle morph.

Because hork-bajir controllers were never trained to fight Earth's wildlife. Let alone those working as a team, fitted with human brains.
When you think about it, hork-bajirs were used most of the time as guards at Yeerk Pools, or other specific spots. Because in every other occassion they had human controllers to use.
Even if h-b controllers met wildlife, they would always just blast it off from safe distance, if necessary.

Now on the other hand, as I said Animorphs were dedicated, they had advantage of beforeseeing, planning in advance and so on. Combine that with teamwork between all of them, reconnaissance information and element of surprise, and you will have pretty good odds.
Also it was hard for hork-bajir controllers to adapt to the strategies of Animorphs, because most of the time those who survived encounters would probably have been executed by V3. And those who didn't, well chances are pretty slim that they would meet them again, and even then Animorphs did swap between battle morphs every now and then.
Title: Re: If you were an Animorph, what would your battle morph be?
Post by: Dylan on June 27, 2015, 08:22:12 PM
Because Owl is not a battle morph? There are much better options, given all the possibilities.

It is all about diversity. Having only big and powerful morphs isn't always good.

What if you have to fight in darkness?
Owl's great senses do help, you could use it as scout morph and also capable of causing some damage(they are silent predators, after all)
While Tobias's hawk wasn't as big or powerful as the others. He was still damn good at stealth flying and clawing people's eyes out. Owl might work for that.