Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Darth Zakryn on February 20, 2011, 01:49:28 AM
-
Well? We all know they've done some fairly stupid things in their secret lives as Animorphs. What incident can YOU recall right off hand that would qualify as a Stupid Moment? I can name a few, right off the bat.
-Cassie morphing a squirrel for the first time in the barn, with no backup.
-Jake doing the same thing with a ****roach morph in his own house.
-Tobias freeing a bird when he has no idea how that bird is being treated, because "all birds should fly free."
-Rachel stomping up the used car lot.
-Rachel morphing elephant to scare Josep Something, while justified, was still a real security risk. What if he had been a Controller? She would have then been forced to kill him.
-Ax morphing human and going to cruise the mall alone, when he KNOWS how out of control he gets in human morph.
I can probably name a few more, but I'm interested in seeing what all of you consider to be the Animorphs' most stupidest moment?
-
Marco had a pretty firm grasp of the Idiot Ball in #20. About the time he set off the house alarm, I was just cringing for him.
Jake in #31 was dumb as a sack of bricks.
-
Ok. Some examples, please?
-
Well, this didn't technically happen in one of the books, but in #21 Jake is yelling at David for morphing to lion in public, and Cassie reminds him of when he morphed to tiger and went jumping around on people's rooftops, and Jake's like "Oh, yeah." That sounds like a pretty dumb thing for Jake to have done. ::)
Then, of course, there was the time in #14 (although, really, that entire book was pretty rife with examples) when they decided to demorph in the middle of area 51 and then just hang out for a bit because, hey, it wasn't like they were invading a top-secret government base or anything, right? Not to mention, that was the same book where Marco, Rachel, and Cassie used Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, and Cindy Crawford as aliases. :facepalm:
-
Ok. Some examples, please?
Well, in #20, Marco
-smacks Tobias with a window after trying to show off
-forgets how to unplug a computer
-forgets which house David lives in
-sets off the house alarm
-and eats Ax while in cobra morph
Within like, a day.
And in #31 Jake just does not seem to click that the Yeerks assuming Tom will die is an opportunity for them rather than just a losing battle.
-
I'll agree that Marco was pretty stupid in 20. Plot induced stupidity.
Cassie morphing the squirrel was pretty dumb. Why a squirrel? Why not an owl?
-
And why was a squirrel nessecary to determine who was stealing patients from the clinic when she could have used her wolf morph to sniff for clues?
I'd say for me, the biggest stupid move was Ax going up against Visser Three alone in book 8. I get that he had to fullfill his obligation to avenge his brother, but man, knowing full well that he was likely to die could he have at least brought along the one Animorph he clearly trusted to play lookout?
Oh, followed by Rachel having Visser Three literally by the throat and not doing anything to follow up on that. I think that was book 15? Don't give me any crap about honor either. She was willing to kill Visser One in a helpless human morph, from what I could tell she had Visser Three by whatever that snake morph's equivalent of dangly bits is. Two Vissers for the price of one.
-
For Ax I think you have to remember the andalites are all about honor. I think earlier in the book the superior officer had him say he had broken Andalite law instead of his brother, or whatever, so it was better for him to die avenging Elfangor. Andalites are like samuri that way.
I don't remember the scene in 15, but I think the battle ended when the complex started flooding. Rachel and the others had to book it.
Not that none of the other characters have never had the chance to kill V3, but they keep him alive because he's more or less incompetent.
-
Except nothing stops a samurai from comitting honorable seppuku. :P
I get the idea and it makes sense. I just still call it a stupid move.
-
Marco only shooting one of the oatmeal barrels when he had the chance to blow all 5 up.
I dont really have a good example besides the spoiler below. I'm sure as I read through them i'll come up with more..
[spoiler]Cassie letting Tom get away with the cube?[/spoiler]
-
I'd say for me, the biggest stupid move was Ax going up against Visser Three alone in book 8. I get that he had to fullfill his obligation to avenge his brother, but man, knowing full well that he was likely to die could he have at least brought along the one Animorph he clearly trusted to play lookout?
Failing to perform the coup de grace on Alloran when he had the chance, eliminating the Abomination, was even stupider.
-
Elfangor not flushing the Yeerks in the Andalite Chronicles.
-
Elfangor not flushing the Yeerks in the Andalite Chronicles.
Actually, I thought that was a pretty honorable thing for him to refuse to do.
-
That's what TV Tropes calls a pet the dog moment. It's meant to make Elfangor more sympathetic. Though he obviously shouldn't have left the ship without restraining Chapman. On the other hand since he didn't suspect them of being controllers, Loren's Yeerk would have just untied him.
-
I think the number one stupidest thing the animorphs did in the entire series was walk through that bloody construction site I mean seriously, they could have easily gotten tetnus, or gotten mugged, or raped. THEY WERE 13 FREAKING YEARS OLD CUTTING THROUGH AN ABANDONED CONSTRUCTION SITE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! GAH
-
I did that all the time as a kid. *shrug*
-
I'd say rachael morphing to starfish in the middle of a crowded beach during a class feild trip just to get an Earing back was the absolute dumbest thing that any of them did.
-
What about the dumb things they never did?
Think how many hand-held dracon weapons they've had at their disposal to just take and use. Marco and Ax can even use them while in standard battle morphs.
Think how many times they could have morphed Hork-Bajir, marked each other somehow for mutual identification, and then gone into battle with those forms as concealment as well as muscle? Yeah, other Hork-Bajir might recognize them... but they might not.
Think how many times they could have learned the Frolis maneuver and used it for concealment, too. Demorph, morph somebody else partially = nobody can ID you as the same human.
Also, killing V3 and V1 simultaneously would make a power vacuum. Ugly for us down here on Earth, since V3 was what was preventing open war.
-
Jake waiting--or "sleeping on"-- the idea of moving the parents out.
-
Jake waiting--or "sleeping on"-- the idea of moving the parents out.
I think that has to be the top dumbest thing Jake has ever done. I know why it was done. Plot convenience. The author wanted it to happen, so it happened. That still makes it very stupid for Jake to do.
The starfish thing was also very stupid of Rachel, and she knew it. She did it anyway.
-
I also agree with the starfish and the moving the 'rents out.
For the record, when I was younger the top dumbest thing I ever did: A kid dared me to walk home in the middle of school, so I did. It was only like three blocks, but still...
-
Getting into a battle every time with 5 animals and 1 Andalite. When the Yeerks are expecting 6 Andalites.
-
I did that all the time as a kid. *shrug*
Same here. I just wish I had learned my lesson the twelfth time an alien landed to give me something. For the record it wasn't the morphing power.
-
Getting into a battle every time with 5 animals and 1 Andalite. When the Yeerks are expecting 6 Andalites.
Because going into battle as six identical Andalites would be less suspicious to you?
-
I know, I know. 6 Andalite twins isn't a good solution either. But I always thought the Yeerks and Visser 3 were pretty stupid not to think it's weird that 5 out of 6 Andalites would prefer to fight as earth animals.
Visser 1 was suspicious of it even when she didn't meet the Animorphs as often as Visser 3 did.
I think a better strategy is to go as 3 Andalites and 3 animals. With the 3 animals morphers randomly chosen or whatever battle morph would be needed.
-
It was mostly Visser Three scoffing at the idea of Humans being threatening to them. Especially with Andalite law being what it is. His smarter underlings, that were suspicious way back in book 4, were too afraid of decapitation to try to set him straight.
-
Rachel was a complete %%%^$* idiot when she jumped into the crocodile enclosure.
-
Well she's not like Marco. She's impulsive. It was a bad move, even if it did keep the kid from dying.
-
Rachel walking home from the mall without telling her mother. But she had every right to STOP A MAN FROM RAPING HER, as poparena says.
-
Rachel was a complete %%%^$* idiot when she jumped into the crocodile enclosure.
Sure this seems slightly dangerous, but what was she supposed to do, allow an innocent child to be eaten when she could save him? That is just cruel and heartless. To allow someone to die and inflict an agonizing pain on those that loved that person would be criminal. If rachel had chosen not to save that kid, she would have ceased being human. I say this because true human beings feel compassion, love, and responsiblity towards others, they strive to make the world better and be as nice to others as circumstance would allow. Plus I think it would have haunted her if she had not done SOMETHING. Rachel would have lost her soul if that kid had died.
I understand that it was war and sometimes you have to make sacrafices, but this was just not of those times.
-
I didn't think it was stupid at all.
Post Merged: February 23, 2011, 02:07:46 PM
I didn't think it was stupid at all.
-
Giving david the morphing power was pretty dumb, although the alternative was to kill him, so... yeah.
Listening to Marco and going out to that nuclear submarine in Megamorphs 2.
-
I'd say the way they handled things after giving David the morphing power was stupider than actually giving it to him. Or Tobias waiting to tell Jake instead of just taking the cube when he could.
-
Jake sending Rachel alone to kill Tom. There was no real point to it. Tom died, everyone knew going in that Rachel would die and most of the yeerks would survive and escape, making it useless short of revenge against Tom's yeerk at the expense of Tom himself. Which opens a new can of worms in of itself by rendering moot the point of Cassie's blocking of him from taking the cube much earlier.
I feel that the only reason "giving" the yeerks the cube worked out in the end was because of plot convenience. It was too messy. I believe that they would've figured out they could help the taxxons and eventually peaceful yeerks the same way. I mean, they did it for Aftran much, much earlier.
Actually, the fact that they didn't think to turn YPM yeerks into nothlits right after helping Aftran seems pretty dumb come to think of it.
-
It was plot convenience. It should have turned out terribly, but it didn't because Cassie did it. If cassie does it, it will turn out for the better. ::)
-
Maybe Jake should have killed Tom...
-
One REALLY stupid thing Ax did was wait RIGHT UNTIL THE MISSION IS ABOUT TO BE PULLED OFF before asking what oatmeal was. Poparena said it best.
-
About that "running into battle with only one andalite" thing. In a book (i dont remember which) they were talking about how they assumed that was a kind of "banner" like in those really old war movies some poor sucker is carrying the nations flag. The andalite was assumed a pride thing and the rest were used for their own specific abilities that an andalite couldn't bring in.
-
I think that was something the Yeerks talked about, so it wouldn't be stupid on the part of the Animorphs. Unless you mean them not all going in as Andalites. Of course until late in the series the only way they could do that is if they morphed Ax and went in as several identical clones. That wouldn't have worked.
-
How about recruiting a bunch of disabled kids? I know they needed troops but what if they were hosts before they became crippled.
-
Then the Yeerks would have killed or abandoned them. They needed a lot of people, fast, and choosing people the Yeerks would deem defective was actually a good idea. Unfortunately most problems weren't fixed by morphing, so that was one flaw in the plan.
-
Actually, I agree that choosing disabled kids was a pretty dumb idea. Anyone remember Taylor? She was offered the chance to become a controller specifically BECAUSE she was disabled. Granted, the Yeerks fixed her disability, but that still goes to disprove the idea that Yeerks won't touch disabled people.
-
You have a point there. Seems they will take a disabled person and fix him/her if the host will be voluntary. I guess they have priorities. Voluntaries over defects.
But what would have been a better idea in a short time. Of course recruiting and screening people starting when they first got the box back would be a good idea, but there wouldn't be time for that in book 50.
-
There's a difference between being severely burnt and being disabled.
The Auxiliaries was, in my opinion, a great plan at the time. Obviously, the Yeerks were caught off guard when the warehouse was suddenly raided by, not six, but twenty or so Animorphs. But I think the reason things didn't work out was because the original Animorphs were pretty much using them as scape goats.
-
Say what you will about the Auxiliaries being a desperate measure that the Animorphs had to take, the risk of one of them being a controller really should have outweighed the benefit they gave, and the Animorphs were darned lucky that that wasn't the case.
Just imagine that for a second, if the Animorphs had been wrong and one of the Auxiliaries was a controller. An Auxiliary as a controller would have been able to pass completely undetected, because the Animorphs didn't know any of them well enough to be able to tell if one was acting funny, and the other Auxiliaries didn't know enough about the behavior of controllers to have been able to know what was wrong, either. And that one controller would be trusted enough by the other Auxiliaries to very easily be able to start making them into controllers without anybody catching on. Once they were all taken, with that many people who were that close to the Animorphs, it's entirely possible that they would have had the strength of numbers (and the element of surprise) needed to take on the Animorphs and win.
Game over.
There's a difference between being severely burnt and being disabled.
One of Taylor's arms was replaced, which leads me to assume that that arm was either lost in the fire or at least severely damaged. I'd call that being disabled.
-
The Yeerks are far too arrogant. The only Yeerk to take a physically challenged host would have been a member of the peace movement, or else a low ranking Yeerk.
-
Actually, I agree that choosing disabled kids was a pretty dumb idea. Anyone remember Taylor? She was offered the chance to become a controller specifically BECAUSE she was disabled. Granted, the Yeerks fixed her disability, but that still goes to disprove the idea that Yeerks won't touch disabled people.
As I recall, Taylor was specifically wanted as a way to get close to "my mother, the chief of police." So if it's convenient to infest a specific host the Yeerks would spend the effort to fix her up, but maybe they just don't think it's cost-effective to do that with people with disabilities in general.
-
As long as we are temporarily off topping, could someone quickly remind me if it was said that all of the Auxiliaries were killed, or was that speculation on the part of the witnesses.
-
The Yeerks are far too arrogant. The only Yeerk to take a physically challenged host would have been a member of the peace movement, or else a low ranking Yeerk.
Actually, I don't think a peace movement Yeerk would take a disabled host. In general, it would be dangerous for them to take any host that most other Yeerks wouldn't take, as it would make them stand out too much.
A low-ranking Yeerk, though, maybe. Of course, rank wouldn't matter in the scenario that I described. And as soon as any Yeerk found a way to get close to the Animorphs, you can bet that their rank would rise dramatically.
As I recall, Taylor was specifically wanted as a way to get close to "my mother, the chief of police." So if it's convenient to infest a specific host the Yeerks would spend the effort to fix her up, but maybe they just don't think it's cost-effective to do that with people with disabilities in general.
That's a good point, I hadn't remembered that about Taylor. Of course, since most of the Auxiliaries were more-or-less forgotten by their families, even if they were related to somebody important, it still wouldn't have mattered to the Yeerks.
As long as we are temporarily off topping, could someone quickly remind me if it was said that all of the Auxiliaries were killed, or was that speculation on the part of the witnesses.
As far as I know, that was speculation. All of the obviously visible ones would have been killed, because V3 kept shooting until he didn't see any more. But if some of them had smaller battle morphs, maybe they might have survived? If any of them did, though, they were never heard from again, which makes it pretty unlikely.
Anyway, to get very slightly back on topic, I just realized something really really REALLY dumb that happened on the Yeerks' side of things. So, Tom and his parents get back from 'shopping,' right? Shortly after they're all made into controllers? So what do they do? Instead of playing dumb and pretending NOT to be controllers, they immediately start shooting at Jake and make it abundantly clear that they ARE. They totally had the chance to ambush all the Animorphs if they'd just played along and let Jake rescue them first. :facepalm:
-
Lol. Plot convienience?
-
I think the number one stupidest thing the animorphs did in the entire series was walk through that bloody construction site I mean seriously, they could have easily gotten tetnus, or gotten mugged, or raped. THEY WERE 13 FREAKING YEARS OLD CUTTING THROUGH AN ABANDONED CONSTRUCTION SITE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! GAH
LOL!!! Best one of all!
-
I have no idea why the Yeerks in Jake's parent's heads would shoot Jake on sight, even if they did know he was an Animorph. All they had to do was wait a few more minutes, and he wouldn't have been able to do anything. It's plot induced stupidity, just like how Jake decided to go ahead with the mission when he knew they'd be giving the Yeerks blood samples, then waiting to get his family out last even though he should have done that first.
And what a coincidence that Tom's Yeerk decided to have his host's parents infested on that day, without even knowing Jake was an Animorph beforehand.
-
Another thing that they never did. They could have robbed a bank (i know that they try not to do bad but some things they could have done for massive help require funding) and hire a troops of soldiers fresh from overseas and pay them to be real gueirilla fighters. The invasion is mainly in America so the chances of a soldier from who has been on duty for 6 months being a controller are pretty low. If they did that from the very beginning and gotten the auxillary animorphs then they'd be golden.
-
How are they supposed to get a soldierto do what they want? You know how Cassie goes berserk if Humans are killed. No, robbing a bank and trying to hire people would be stupid. Though going through some kind of training to make themselves better wouldn't be too bad an idea.
-
I would have assumed the military was right up there on the Yeerk's to-do list for infestation.
-
And what a coincidence that Tom's Yeerk decided to have his host's parents infested on that day, without even knowing Jake was an Animorph beforehand.
They did know. The book says that Jake's parents' car had an escort of unmarked vans when they came home. So the Yeerks were definitely expecting trouble.
As for hiring soldiers, consider that anyone who's willing to be a soldier for hire might not necessarily be completely loyal, given that the Yeerks could probably pay a lot better than anything the Animorphs could come up with. Plus, hiring mercenaries might be too dark a shade of gray for their tastes. It just strikes me as something they wouldn't do.
-
I'm pretty sure throwing the Pemalite Crystal into the sea was a dumb move.
Even if you didn't want to use it to enable violence and scar the Chee for life, it was still more powerful than every computer on the freakin' Earth. Ax could have found SOME use for it.
And if there was a chee that could allow themselves to go through the horror of war and lose their soul for victory.... Just ONE Chee. BOOM; invasion OVER.
Honestly, it's one android soul for the chance to get the entire invasion cut short by about... 3 years.
That's of course, if the Chee killed everyone controller. Which was unnecessary; destroy the Yeerk Pool, that would have skipped straight to open war. Want a minimal loss of life? Have that chee search for the Kandrona at Super Speed. Erek literally got to the bottom of the ocean, ignoring the pressure in minutes after the Chee were fixed. He got there from the city.
Search for a Kandrona, destroy it. Force the Yeerks to invade? Nope. The Yeerks would either send a replacement, the result is unchanged. They go in for an open invasion, said chee disguises his way aboard, and then destroys the yeerks.
Too cruel? Want even more minimal lost of life?
Destroy both pools, offer morphing cube to all yeerks with permanent morph enabled. They have three days or less to make a decision. Even if the yeerks tried to morph back, they would die from the lack of Kandrona; congrats, all Yeerks surrendered, and all it took was destroying the Kandrona and the Pool Ship's own Kandrona(s). Subsequently offering a third solution (forced nothlits) would free them from the curse of being slugs. It would wreck havoc on the Earth's ecology, but at least those endangered species could replenish their numbers.
The cost would be one Chee's soul, which afterwards could be laid to rest by Dracon Beam. A funeral pyre for a war hero that sacrificed everything with minimal casualties.
-
Oh. I thought Tom's Yeerk wasn't aware when he first had them infested, and just found out after the fact.
-
Nost hoisting up elfangor on their sholuders and running.
-
I agree, throwing the Pemalite Crystal was pretty stupid. What if the Yeerks found it? And, the war would have quickly ended. The Chee could have quickly stopped it.
I think one of the stupidest things was Cassie letting Tom get away with the morphing cube. What if Tom had not led a revolt against Visser Three/One? What if he sided with Visser Three/One? The Yeerks would have become invincible. The main reason she stopped Jake from killing Tom was because she was wanted to prevent Jake from being scarred for life. So, for her own selfish reasons.
-
but jake did say he trusted cassie more than him(or something like that) and Cassie had a impulse(or something) to do that. But it did work out in the end.
-
Poparena's review of the David Trilogy really got me to thinking.
The Animorphs dropped the ball with David quite a few times, basically turning a potential ally into a loose end that they couldn't even properly dispose of.
-
Still David went nuts and they couldnt exactly turn him in
-
Well, it's easy to say that now given what's happened. But then try to imagine suddenly having your family ripped out from under you. Your house is destroyed and you're in a town that you didn't exactly grow up in.
Suddenly you have these strangers telling you you're a part of this war whether you want to be or not and now you can suck it or die.
I'm not saying that anything David did was justified. But everyone in the group has to have a slice of the blame cake for how things turned out.
-
They were aware of that they still felt guilt throughout the whole books after the David incident
-
The fact that in number...slips my mind DX... they morph wolves right in the middle of a forest after Tobias mentioning he can see a truck up the road, I mean, there's a difference between having super-good eyesight and something being to small to see, aka, it couldn't have been that far away. (This is the one where they nearly get trapped as half-wolves, yep, ik it was an emergency but..still...)
Then in that one when Cassie randomly decided to take care of the skunk babies-again the number slips my mind- (I think it was that one...) and they morph out from being a (****roach or ant??) right in the middle of a wall (or ground... :-\ :huh:) which the controls have surronded. BI That got to me... :P
P.S. I love how it stars out co ck ;D ;D
-
they were termites
-
Oh yeah... ;D
-
And I dont know about morphing skunk maybe another "Ellimist whisper"
-
Books 3 and 9, respectively--the Encounter and the Secret.
-
(Hope it's not too late to post here.)
Morphing the giant squid in 27 now strikes me as pretty stupid. Normally I don't approve of stealing at all, but
they really should have found a way to get a submarine or something instead, (leave an I.O.U, hahaha!).
I mean, it seemed like more trouble then it was worth, really.
-
Please remember that submarines take actual training to drive.
-
Not to mention that most submarines are heavily secured by the military and research facilities that own them and taking one would definitely draw some unwanted attention.
-
exactly
-
You think finding a deep sea morph, which would be right up their alley, is more stupid than trying to steal and pilot a submarine? That makes no sense.
-
lack of thought is a common affliction on the internet. I admit I've suffered from it.
-
All right guys, Squid: Good, Submarine: Bad. We've established that and we don't need to beat it into the ground.
-
Forgetting to ask Erek to use the Kandrona chamber in his head to keep alive dissident Yeerks such as Aftran (book 29).