Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: wolfev on June 28, 2008, 12:49:26 AM
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Okay, I figured this stuff out by strange references in order to create a timeline. If one of theses exist though please post the link.
*You can't always get what you want was recorded in 1969
*Okay, Loren Claims that Star Trek is no longer on. The last new episode of Star Trek aired on June 3rd, 1969. However, it was on reruns so we can assume it would probably be off by 1970.
*Elfangor is getting his master's degree when he meets Paul Allen and Bill Gates. Microsoft was founded in 1975 and Apple in 1976. Assuming he didn't finish college, presumably Cal Tech., early as not to be noticed this puts him meeting them approximately in 1974-1975.
*Since Tobias was born 1980s and the series starts when Tobias is 12-13 in 1996 this places his birth approximately in 1983 or 1982.
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Nice stuff. I always figured the war had been going on for around thirty years before the series begins.
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The Hork-Bajir Chronicles begins in the 1960s, and I believe that Elfangor mentions later on in the Andalite Chronicles that it was the 80s on Earth, but this was after he'd already been there for several years.
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i love doing animorphs time lines :]
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Yeah, I liked how in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, they told what year it was.
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yeah it was a nice touch to see how the diffrent races measured time, espically the contrast between the two advanced races and the simple hork bajir
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It's true... a KAZU again...
I'd like to do the time-line equality (? is it the good word?) between Earth-time-line, Andalite-time-line, Hork-Bajir-kind-of-time-line and Yeerk-time-line... I tried to follow a little when I made my fanfiction...
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KAZU?
that stands for K.A. what?
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Nice stuff. I always figured the war had been going on for around thirty years before the series begins.
Unfortunately in Visser Edriss makes it clear that the yeerks didn't arrive on Earth till Operation Desert Storm.
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OKAY I'VE ACTUALLY DONE A LOT OF WORK WITH THIS AND I THINK I'VE FIGURED IT OUT.
Here's what I posted a while ago, edited with new info:
First we need to find out when the war actually started. This happened in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. Okay. Alloran reamed Seerow out for giving the Yeerks technology in 1966. Was that the beginning of the war? Or did the war technically start with the battle for Hork-Bajir, which didn't begin until sometime in the midst of the Hork-Bajir Chronicles? Aldrea and her family went to the Hork-Bajir homeworld in 1968. For the benefit of this whole charade, let's find the latest possible start date for the war. I'm going to try to find out how long they spent there until the Yeerks attacked.
Okay, here's one bit: "I notice that you are not making regular data entries. You did for the first three months. Then you stopped." (THBC, p. 33) 1968 and three months, give or take, I don't know, a month for him to confront her about it.
This seems important: "I was there. Do you understand what this moment was? I was there when Akdor announced the birth of the Yeerk Empire." (THBC, p. 53) This is an Esplin chapter and is no longer related to the other storyline, but we can assume it's sometime around at least 3 months into 1968.
"It was seven weeks since Aldrea had become a chadoo for the first time." (THBC, p. 55) So Aldrea's been on THB homeworld for four months and three weeks. They see Gedds later in the chapter. The Yeerks have begun the infestation of the Hork-Bajir people.
This doesn't matter. I think it's fair to say the beginning of the war is when the Andalites arrive on THB homeworld. Let's see when that is.
"At the very best, the fleet would take about two months to arrive." (THBC, p. 109)
It took two days for them to learn how to control the monsters from the Arn...I don't know if this is relevant but I'll write it down anyway.
Aldrea contacts the Andalites at the end of that battle...
HERE WE GO
"Seven months passed, and the fleet did not come. Not the two months I had expected." (THBC, p. 148)
"Space battle...There's a space battle going on in orbit!" (THBC, p. 153)
Four months, three weeks, two days, and seven more moths. That's almost exactly a year from Aldrea landing on the Hork-Bajir Homeworld with her parents in 1968 until the Andalite forces landed on the planet to fight the Yeerks. So unless the Andalites have some heavily-censored media and are orchestrating an Earth Kingdom-level conspiracy about keeping the war from the civilian public (which would be fair to argue, based on how the Andalite military is characterized, but we'd need to find textual evidence to support it), I think it's fair to say the Andalite-Yeerk War started in 1969. Which, unrelatedly, would be an appropriate year since that's when we landed on the moon.
Anyway, let's relate this back to The Andalite Chronicles.
"This is not my first visit to Earth. I spent many years on Earth...and yet, no time at all." (TAC, prologue, viii)
Vague, but a good place to start.
"For five years our princes had fought the vissers of the Yeerk Empire. They said the war could go on for another fifty years...another hundred years."
So, if the war started in 1969 like we've said, then Elfangor's story starts in 1974.
How long does the Andalite Chronicles take? I'm skipping the meat now: Taxxon homeworld and Sub-Visser whatever infesting Alloran and living asteroids and Mortrons blah blah blah.
"That was like, what, a week ago? Did all this happen in just a week?" (TAC, p. 298)
Elfangor's adventure happens in 1974. It takes a week. Then he decides to run away with her to Earth. How long does he spend on Earth?
The first three words in chapter 45 are Three years later (TAC, p. 300) Then we get a recap of what Elfangor did during this time--become human, attend college + grad school, get a job ("I had a job writing software for primitive human computers. It was the 1980s on Earth and humans were just beginning to understand computers." [TAC, p. 301])
According to Elfangor's testimony, the war has been five years long, he spent three years on Earth with Loren, and it's the 1980s.
Except, no. 1969+5 years: 1974+3 years: 1977. The Ellimist comes and whisks him back to his home, according to all the textual evidence we have found, in 1977.
If all of this were correct, Tobias would have been conceived in 1977, which would make him 18 or 19 years old when Elfangor's fighter crashes.
Of course all of this can be handwaved, because we're not explicitly told how the Ellimist changed stuff. In fact, the only way to make this coherent is to factor in the fact that Elfangor and Loren both aged while they were in the made-up Time Matrix universe vortex thingie. Let's say, for argument's sake, they each aged five years. So Loren started out about 13 years old and ended up about 18, which would at least make her having a baby three years after that...somewhat appropriate. But sort of, not really, but that's a post for another time.
For the longest time, I assumed that when Loren went home to Earth, she just *imagined* that everyone thought she was 18 years old. This is how it's explained in the book:
"There's one more problem. This me has aged. I'm older. I must be almost 18 now [ooh this proves my theory even more], judging from the way I've grown. People would notice."
<Yes. But imagine that they don't. Imagine that you are eighteen and that everyone has ever known you expects you to be eighteen." 299
So, contextually, they don't really explain what she did. But rather than doing what Elfangor said, and being an awkward 18 year old with a bunch of 13 year old friends, what if she just pushed everyone up 5 years? What if she just took Elfangor and jumped 5 years into the future, so the lucky **** got to skip high school? In that case, it's 1974 plus the 5 years they jump, so 1979, and about 1982 when Tobias is conceived, meaning he was born in 1983, which would make him 13 in 1996 when the first book is published.
BOOM.
I also think this is the way it was intended to be read, because the first chapter starts "Twenty-One Years Before," which would mean: Adventure, +5 years in Time Matrix, +3 Years on Earth, +9 months prenatal development, +13 years Tobias growing up=21 years, give or take.
I admit that someone else on the LJ community figured that out, but it actually is a logical, cohesive timeline.
This is the other textual evidence we get as far as how much time Elfangor has been gone: "The lost aristh who had returned mysteriously, years after disappearing, and had flown his fighter in a bold suicide mission." (TAC, 320)
HOW MANY YEARS APPLEGATE, HOW MANY YEARS?
The only other indication of time we get is here: "It was many years before I saw Earth again. I had fought in more battles than I could count. I had won, and I had lost." (TAC, p. 323)
So...there you have it. Let me try to recap: Andalite-Yeerk war starts in 1969 when the Andalites arrive on the Hork-Bajir homeworld. Could be later, depending on when the government decided to actually inform the public there was a high-stakes intra-galactic war going on. Elfangor's adventure takes place in 1974, according to THBC timeline. He jumps five years, making it 1979, spends three years on earth, making it 1982 when he leaves, when we know Loren is pregnant with Tobias.
So...ta-da.
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Geeking out like this is like eating junk food. It couldn't possinbly be good for you, but it TASTES SO WONDERFUL!
Great timeline, anijen21!
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+1 for you, anijen. :) Awesome timeline.
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wow. that was really really good.
for some reason I had always thought the Yeerk Empire to have been around for quite a while.
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As I recall, the timeline for The Andalite Chronicles would be stored in a Klein bottle.
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AniJen21, I applaud you! That was awesome! ;D
The Animorphs timeline is riddled with KASUs, but you've make logical sense of it, and wonderfully so!
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<_< I always added the 5 years.
I think i mentioned it before ages ago before i vanished but meh.
That time line was awesome!
+1
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Brilliant deduction, Watson.
+1
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heloo Marco can't drive!
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Does that mean that the 3 years+ 1996 mean that the series started in 1999? Cos that royally screws up my own fanfiction.
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what three years?
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The 3 years that the animorphs fought.
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I'm sort of just assuming that the series started the month and year that the first book was published. Like Harry Potter, or the fact that Oceanic 815 crashed the day that the pilot episode of LOST aired. In that case, Elfangor dies some time in 1996 (June? I'm too lazy to go find the copyright date of the first book), book 53 takes place sometime in 1999, and the One nabs them all in like what, 2002?
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Does that mean that the 3 years+ 1996 mean that the series started in 1999? Cos that royally screws up my own fanfiction.
i think you mean ends not starts 1996 + 3 years = 1999 and The last book has more thanm one year in it i think . canlt remember right now. but i agree with Ani it should end at about 2002 more or less
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One year later for most of the book, then it ends after they've been out in space for at least half a year, so the last bit is sometime in 2000 or early 2001.
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I always counted back from 2001 as the year the yeerks became known on earth. In my defence Darwin and Madra are 8-9 in Visser (frame story trial) and were born after operation desert storm.
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#54's timeline is really weird. It was "one year later" at one point but then it kept snowballing. I just remember that someone, I can't even remember who, was 19 by the end of it all, and since they were sixteen in #54, well you know.
And I honestly can't remember if Madra's or Darwin's ages were ever discussed. That seems about right, but a kid of any age should be able to handle the muzzle of a gun and that's pretty much all they ever did.
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Marco still can't drive!
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Edriss says Darwin's age.
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fair enough
I think it still works, though...2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991 are the dates Wikipedia gives for the Persian Gulf War. So as long as Essam and Edriss got busy pretty much within months of landing on Earth (I do not have the Visser timeline anywhere near as figured out as TAC/THBC, what with all of the narrative jackknifing), then they'd have conceived in late 1990 and their kids would be 8-9 anywhere between 1998 and 2000. Which seems...fair, at least on the earlier end, as long as the bulk of the series took place in the first half of books, as far as time goes.
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Lets say that since the Iraqi soldier was in the process of retreating/running (ie towards the end of the gulf war- when the iraq army was retreating and burning oil fields). this places Edriss's arrival at the end of the first Gulf War which is 1991.
How ever many months with Jenny Lines and Lowenstein
However months falling in love with Essam, Hildy and Allison
9 months pregnancy
child is 9 in 2000.
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Okay, I figured this stuff out by strange references in order to create a timeline. If one of theses exist though please post the link.
*You can't always get what you want was recorded in 1969
*Okay, Loren Claims that Star Trek is no longer on. The last new episode of Star Trek aired on June 3rd, 1969. However, it was on reruns so we can assume it would probably be off by 1970.
*Elfangor is getting his master's degree when he meets Paul Allen and Bill Gates. Microsoft was founded in 1975 and Apple in 1976. Assuming he didn't finish college, presumably Cal Tech., early as not to be noticed this puts him meeting them approximately in 1974-1975.
I gather that Elfangor provided technological ideas to those two. Wouldn't that violate the law of Seerow's Kindness?
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Elfangor didn't care that he broke seerow's kindness.
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Elfangor didn't care that he broke seerow's kindness.
I had thought that the morphing cube incident was an isolated one!