Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: MoonStarRaven on July 05, 2009, 03:03:08 PM
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Was it ever mentioned anywhere if there was a limit to the number of animals a person could acquire? It always struck me as odd that the Animorphs only ever acquired one animal at a time as they were needed. (and sometimes never used them again)
If it were me I'd go on an acquiring spree and try to get as many different types of animal that I could. I mean you would never really know when an animal might come in handy, I'd want as wide a range to choose from as possible wouldn't you? Instead of having to go out to the Gardens every few weeks why not just pick a night, start at one end of the zoo and acquire your way to the other? what we suddenly find ourselves in the jungle or frozen tundra hey I already have a morph that I can use. lol
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Y'know, that's something I always wondered myself.
I imagine it was just a KASU, or filler in the series, honestly. Haha.
I don't believe a limit was ever mentioned, but I'm not the the best person to ask. I never actually finished the series.
However, I would imagine that in the series there was not a limit. I think if the morphing tech. was real, there would be, but not in the series. Haha.
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The Animorphs actually display a frightening lack of forward thinking a lot of the time. That's one example.
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oh god, this. so much. The only one I can recall acquiring something when there was no real need was Ax, and that was when the rattlesnake was going to attack him and he was like "Oh, this seems like a thing that might be helpful in the future." If it were me, I would acquire everything I could get my hands on. Every time I petted a friend's dog or cat or even SHOOK A HAND AND I WOULD JUST TELL CASSIE TO STFU AND STFD
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No limit that I can tell. One of them asked another if they thought there might be a limit. The other said they'd probably find out at the worst possible time.
As for me, I would spend much of my free time acquiring different animals. If there's no limit, then there's no reason to not do it. If there was a limit, it might work like Hereth Illint. Expelling the oldest, or least used, DNA.
Edit: Aquiring people might not be a good idea. I say this only because a controller might know what it feels like when an Andalite acquires something. Especially if they work for an Andalite controller. It's a slim chance, but I would still worry about it.
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No limit that I can tell. One of them asked another if they thought there might be a limit. The other said they'd probably find out at the worst possible time.
You are correct, that's pretty much word for word what was said during a conversation in book 2. As far as I can recall, the topic is never brought up again, although in book 45 Marco estimates that he has the DNA of around 20 animals in his blood.
As intriguing as the question is, it's one with no real answer. We can speculate and we can try to work it out based on what we know about the series, but we honestly don't know for sure. If I had to guess, I'd say there wasn't a limit, since we know the technology works with Z-space and Z-space is limitless.
However, it is stated on more than one occasion that the Andalites don't tend to rely on the morphing technology anywhere near as much as the Animorphs do. The Andalites fight most of their battles in space ships and their normal bodies are much more formidable than most opponents. The Andalites mostly used the morphing ability for espionage missions, so it's highly unlikely that any Andalite acquired as many animals as the Animorphs. Therefore, if there was a limit, the Andalites themselves may not have known about it.
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In fact, maybe there is a limit, but the Animorphs use more the morphing ability than the Andalites. So maybe they just didn't find out where it is. Maybe it was 50 DNA... Who knows?
But you gave me the idea to add that in my RPG: lvl 1 will be able to acquire something like 2 or 3 DNA only, but the last lvl (10 for the Estreens) will be able to acquire much more, something like 50 DNA. I don't know if a lot of players will be lvl 10, though ^^'
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If it were me I'd go on an acquiring spree and try to get as many different types of animal that I could. I mean you would never really know when an animal might come in handy, I'd want as wide a range to choose from as possible wouldn't you? Instead of having to go out to the Gardens every few weeks why not just pick a night, start at one end of the zoo and acquire your way to the other? what we suddenly find ourselves in the jungle or frozen tundra hey I already have a morph that I can use. lol
when i was reading the series i would go on the web and look up animals they could use.
honestly, i think they should have acquired as many animals as possible.
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Truthfully, I would collect as many morphs as I possibly could (which would stem from my desire to study the animal more intimately then is possible without the morphing ability) if it were me. Alas, it is not.
Then again, who knows what night security at the Gardens is like? It could be rather difficult to go from one end of the zoo to the other without being caught -- either by security guards or, say, a grizzly with insomnia. . . .
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when i was reading the series i would go on the web and look up animals they could use.
honestly, i think they should have acquired as many animals as possible.
Me too, I remember printing off loads of info about different animals and my Mum getting mad at me for wasting all the printer ink! ::)
If I were an Animorph, I would definitely try to acquire as many morphs as possible, anything that might end up being useful. Since I work at a small zoo (and like to visit others), I'd have access to a bunch of cool morphs.
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If you acquired a couple of hundred morphs, you'd forget what you had though. Sure, you could catalog them all for thorough reference, but in the heat of battle it's much easier with their 20-30 or whatever. Besides, functionally, you only need two or three birds, two or three insects, fighting morphs, water morphs, etc. Practicality, yo peeps.
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True, but I didn't mean hundreds of morphs, just anything that might be useful. Like I wouldn't need to acquire every bird I saw, just a hawk/falcon/eagle, a seagull/pigeon and an owl.
I wouldn't acquire everything because I have a tendency to take a long time to make a decision of there are too many options available. In the middle of a fight, I can't exactly take a time out to figure out what battle morph to use.
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That reminds me about a story of the fox and the cat. The fox has a lot of tricks to help it escape from dogs, while a cat has one. So with the dogs upon them, the cat races up a tree. The fox stands there and thinks over which of its dozens of ways it can elude the dogs. Then it gets eaten.
Though that may be a broken aesop, because in reality the fox would be running away while thinking. Not just standing there.
Recently I made a list of animals that I would try to go out and acquire, that had a few species of flying, battle, and sea morphs. Plus one or two extras that would just be cool to have, like a bloodhound. Anything beyond that I would likely just wait until a situation arises. Like if a mission recuired the morph of a certain pet, I would go acquire that pet as the need arises. As oppose to hunting around for every single pet in the entire city just in case I might need it.
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Actually the fact that they took SOOOO long to acquire long distance flyers (ducks) after going on and on about how their bird of prey morphs can't do long distance flying made me want to slap each and every one of them.
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I agree with the general consensus here, but I also see four reasons they might rationally not have gone on aquiring sprees (though one of them isn't even rational until midway through the series).
a) They don't know if they'll find a limit... which would mean they're screwed when they can't get a suitable morph.
b) The only-rational-later one: they don't know if they have morph allergies like Rachel had... which would suck, because the last thing you need is an allergy to a morph that you're unsure of, after having aquired a butt-load of animals in a row. You won't know if you should expect to be burping up a squid or a beaver, and the difference could get somebody killed.
c) Night security at the Gardens is probably pretty effing solid, and most of the animals they'd be aquiring? Nocturnal. The team isn't terribly fond of group near-death experiences, and they'd have several within the same night.
d) If they screwed up a spree, they've given away where they get all their animal DNA... and lost that very valuable resource. Hit-and-run in that case is low risk and high return, in comparison.
*shrug*
I'd love to acquire a tonne of animals, sure, but anything that demands going to a zoo requires much more careful planning.
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Actually the fact that they took SOOOO long to acquire long distance flyers (ducks) after going on and on about how their bird of prey morphs can't do long distance flying made me want to slap each and every one of them.
I know, right? I'm like, so go acquire some ducks or geese, already! And Tobias, if you're having problems seeing in the dark, go morph and Owl. I know you people are young, but my willing suspension of disbelief only goes so far.
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well the bird of prey thing was necessary to keep the potential for action. Like if they had been ducks in book 2 when they got shot at by those idiots, they'd be dead. So practically yea they should have gotten the morphs, but storywise it would limit the potential for using their much more manueverable and formidable bird of prey morphs in all the exciting ways they did.
Good point with the allergy estelore forgot about that one
and Cassie did frequently acquire morphs she didnt need just in case
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Just throwing this out there, I don't necessarily believe there was a limit either, but in #1 it's implied that there were numerous problems/limitations of the morphing tech, the two-hour timeframe being the only one he had time to impart knowledge of. That one obviously being a necessity.
But it's kind of hinted that ol' Al Fangor was like "feck it, this is all I can tell you for now, go figure it out on your own, lazy whippersnappers". Only in cool serious grim Andalite "I'm awesome and have four eyes and a tail" fashion.
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Well we find out some of the other problems as the series goes on.
Morphing allergies, mixing morphs under stress, etc.
Since the morphing technology IS technology, after all, the Andalites could have imposed a limit that has nothing to do with the biology behind morphing. I imagine it has the potential to be limitless (and it is in the case of V3 and the Ani's), but I also imagine that, if the Andalites so choose, it COULD be limited.
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If they thought that taking in too much DNA could be a health risk, or something like that, they might limit the technology. I mean, those strands of DNA have to take up some space. If there was limited space, then breaking that limit could be deadly.
But since no limit is evident, then taking in dozens and dozens of DNA strands might not be a risk.
Then again, it may just be an extremely unlikely risk that, even though it's possible, they don't do anything about. Like having your consciousness be catapulted to Z-Space when in a small morph. Like what happened with the mosquitos.
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How much space could a strand of DNA take up?
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I don't know. How much do 50 strands take up? Or 100? Or 1000? It's hard to say if there would be a problem or not, since it's fantasy tech afterall.
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I think a strand of DNA is a few centimeters in length, but it's coiled up on certain proteins so that it's packed in too only a few micrometers, I think
uh.
I was awake in genetics ::)
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How long is a micrometer? mrawakeingenetics :P
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One millinth (sp) of a meter
Takes one million micrometers to equal one meter. (Meters a little over three feet)
So pretty dang small
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So, you could potentially have thousands of morphs and be ok?
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Now that I do not know,
I think that would depend on how the DNA is contained.
Obviously it's not just floating in the blood other wise it would react with the body and either make you sick or be ejected, so I don't know.
Space wise it shouldn't be an issue big, but I've not the slightest how it's keep out of the way until it's called on.
Those method may but a limit on the number, but I'm not sure
Personally I see know reason for a limit, but who knows
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I remember reading about it but I cant quote it directly or remember the book : |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escafil_device
wiki says its unlimited :P
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I remember reading about it but I cant quote it directly or remember the book : |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escafil_device
wiki says its unlimited :P
apparently then a few people agree that it is.
*gets an idea*
RAF should totally add to animorph wiki pages.
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I think a strand of DNA is a few centimeters in length, but it's coiled up on certain proteins so that it's packed in too only a few micrometers, I think
uh.
I was awake in genetics ::)
I wasn't paying attention that day, there was this cute girl in front of me...
oh animorphs joke, whos got me up top?
yea we have millions of strands of dna i think a few hundred or thousand would be fine
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That was my best reason for a limit. I've got nothing else.
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If you acquired a couple of hundred morphs, you'd forget what you had though. Sure, you could catalog them all for thorough reference, but in the heat of battle it's much easier with their 20-30 or whatever. Besides, functionally, you only need two or three birds, two or three insects, fighting morphs, water morphs, etc. Practicality, yo peeps.
hehe... maybe you took soo many morphs that you forgot, so you thought, oh, centipede or rabbit or whatever, so you just have to hope that you have the morph. think about any animal, and if u start morphing, that means that u have that morph. if not, then u dont have it.
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In fact, maybe there is a limit, but the Animorphs use more the morphing ability than the Andalites. So maybe they just didn't find out where it is. Maybe it was 50 DNA... Who knows?
But you gave me the idea to add that in my RPG: lvl 1 will be able to acquire something like 2 or 3 DNA only, but the last lvl (10 for the Estreens) will be able to acquire much more, something like 50 DNA. I don't know if a lot of players will be lvl 10, though ^^'
Maybe the Andalites haven't find it yet and the shock is still to come >:D
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i don't think there is a limit but when you acquire a trillion DNA or so (not that anyone will) will there still be enough of your DNA to ba human? Maybe that can be considered a limit :huh:
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Truthfully, I would collect as many morphs as I possibly could (which would stem from my desire to study the animal more intimately then is possible without the morphing ability) if it were me. Alas, it is not.
Then again, who knows what night security at the Gardens is like? It could be rather difficult to go from one end of the zoo to the other without being caught -- either by security guards or, say, a grizzly with insomnia. . . .
The Animorphs have free reign at Cassie's barn, which is full of animals. Why don't they just acquire everything at the Barn?