Author Topic: Questions about morphing.  (Read 3416 times)

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Offline DinosaurNothlit

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #15 on: February 15, 2009, 04:02:22 PM »
It's called the frolis maneuver. it only works with members of the same species (a few humans, for example)...

About frolis maneuvers:  I'm pretty sure you can, actually, blend different species if you wanted to, but remember book 35?  Where Marco kept doing nasty mixed morphs due to stress?  Generally, it's not a good idea.

Even in book 35 though, Marco never stayed in a mixed morph for long.  If he had, he would have learned the nasty downside to even some of the more tame mixed morphs that he performed.  Let me tell you, mixed morphs have all sorts of health problems if you don't do them exactly right.  You get a mismatched circulatory system and have a heart attack, or your lungs don't match up to your airway and you can't breathe.  I should know.  I'm a mixed morph nothlit, and let me tell you it took a long time to get all my parts matched up right.  Not that it wasn't worth it, but I still don't have depth perception, and my right foot will just randomly hurt sometimes for no reason at all.  :-\

Something I've always wondered about.  Was the 2 hour limit a technical limitation or a security measure?  In #8 Ax mentions that he keeps waiting for Tobias to aks about his knowledge about nothlits, which makes me think that there might some sort answer for the nothlit situation.  Also as much as everyone complains about the limit, it was useful too.

I always assumed that the two-hour limit was there because after that, the morph DNA would take over your body.  When you're in morph, the DNA is sort of "temporary" with your own, normal DNA hanging out somewhere in the background.  But DNA naturally wants to replicate, and DNA that isn't being actively maintained will eventually degrade . . . I dunno, though, it would seem like that would possibly take longer than two hours, though . . .

Offline goom

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #16 on: February 15, 2009, 04:05:06 PM »
i've always wondered why it was 'two hours'.
i mean, wouldn't the andalites use a different time measurement?

i think the limit was an estimate, because in a few books (like #3) they still in morph over the limit yet manage to morph out.

Offline fao13

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #17 on: February 15, 2009, 05:43:20 PM »
i've always wondered why it was 'two hours'.
i mean, wouldn't the andalites use a different time measurement?


Well Elfangor knew he was talking to humans right? so maybe he just converted it to human hours. but i guess that doesn't explain it for books like TAC and the HBC...

Offline goom

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #18 on: February 15, 2009, 05:47:16 PM »
yeah, even if he converted it to two hours, what's the chance that it would be exactly 2.0 hours?

Offline morfowt

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #19 on: February 16, 2009, 04:48:08 AM »
it wasn't exactly 2 hours though. very close to 2 hours (so close they wouldn't have made it), and they still managed to (barely) morph out. could be 2 earth hours equal 1 andalite...somethin g...

Offline JFalcon

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #20 on: February 16, 2009, 09:29:53 AM »
Maybe Andalite hours and Human hours are actually exactly the same and Ax was always just being a smart alec, they say he has a dry sense of humor after all  :P
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Offline SageKiller

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #21 on: February 16, 2009, 11:17:36 AM »
Maybe someone can clear this up for me:  How do haircuts work?  I know when Marco cut his hair it stayed short, but when Tobias would morph Ax, Ax always gave him a haircut.  Is hair length included in DNA?

Offline JFalcon

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #22 on: February 16, 2009, 03:35:11 PM »
In that book where Ax cuts Tobias' andalite fur/hair-whatever he had to give Tobias a second hair cut when he morphed to Andalite again. It's mentioned in passing, but it is mentioned.
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Offline Aquilai

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #23 on: February 16, 2009, 04:14:20 PM »
I'm no expert and I maybe barking up the wrong tree but I do vaguely remember something about telomeres determining the life cycle of cells. Telomeres being some part of the chromosomes in our DNA. So in theory if you could tell your body to morph a certain age then your hair cells could grow longer or shorter. (Or you would just grow less hair, more falling out, who knows!)

I think Ax doing Tobias as an Andalite haircut didn't specifically mention anything about how morphing affects hair growth. He just cut Tobias's fur so it wouldn't look like they were identical and how cutting off hair/fur was like a punishment and a temporary reminder for their misdeed/failure.

Interesting thought though if morphing back to their original self simply made them revert back to their original DNA then they'd never grow any older after using the morphing cube. Forever a young teen ARGH!!! Okay crisis over.
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Offline Damien

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #24 on: February 17, 2009, 12:53:53 PM »
I've always wondered abut that also. technically cutting your hair would be receiving damage, which heals when oyu morph. but maybe it is an exception for dead cells. Hair is actually dead skin cells, so dead cells can regenerate and/or duplicate since they are... dead, while living cells can. Remember their bodies are sent to z-space or whatever...

What I have a big question about is what if they morph something bigger than their original body is? Where do all those extra cells come from? Does that have something to do why morphing is exhausting?
« Last Edit: February 17, 2009, 12:55:30 PM by Damien »
That'sssss a very nice possssst you have there... It'd be a sssshame if something happened to it...

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Offline Aquilai

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #25 on: February 17, 2009, 03:16:51 PM »
I didn't know hair was dead cells. I considered nails as dead cells. I guess it makes sense.

I have problems from my understanding of physics as to where they create mass from nothing. As with the crocodile incident I mentioned somewhere when someone becomes allergic to a morph they have to expel the DNA (from the book) which means a literal brand spanking new animal is created from the DNA they acquired out of the morpher. (Sorry for spoiling if some people haven't read it)

It just seems wrong that matter is created from nothingness. If you consider vacuum energy (possibly linked with Z-space) conversion into mass as the source for the extra size (and extra crocodile) then it might be possible. But that begs the question why the Andalites haven't defeated the Yeerks completely. If you can draw on a virtual infinite source of energy from just one small cube you could make the ultimate beam weapon installed on any ship/handheld device but I think I have digressed massively this time.
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Offline Chad32

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #26 on: February 17, 2009, 09:08:08 PM »
I guess they just didn't think about it. Just like no one thought about using Arn technology to figuratively turn them into Iskoorts.


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Offline Aleron

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #27 on: February 18, 2009, 01:02:18 AM »
Quote
Interesting thought though if morphing back to their original self simply made them revert back to their original DNA then they'd never grow any older after using the morphing cube. Forever a young teen ARGH!!! Okay crisis over.
Doesn't your DNA change as you get older, and your cells don't duplicate as well as they used to?  And as far as I know, morphs aren't supposed to age because the individual/acquired strands of DNA are encased in special bubbles (inside of you) to prevent them from breaking down.  It's mentioned in one of the books, I just don't know which one.

Quote
What I have a big question about is what if they morph something bigger than their original body is? Where do all those extra cells come from? Does that have something to do why morphing is exhausting?
I think it does, yes.

Quote
I guess they just didn't think about it. Just like no one thought about using Arn technology to figuratively turn them into Iskoorts.
If anybody could use Arn technology, they just wouldn't be Arn.  They'd be living, breathing plot devices.

Offline Chad32

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #28 on: February 18, 2009, 11:17:07 AM »
What do you mean by living plot devices? I'm talking about the Arn making hosts that depend on Yeerks to live, then altering Yeerks to make them dependant on that one host body. That way if a Yeerk did infest an Andalite or Human, they would die. Or not be able to control it at all.


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Offline Tim Bruening

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Re: Questions about morphing.
« Reply #29 on: July 10, 2015, 12:27:45 AM »
One of the most interesting aspects of morphing (which was conveniently ignored and never talked about in a significant way again) was Ax's multi-human-morph. I've always wondered if someone who was truly a natural genius at morphing could partially morph different parts of animals for whatever reason.
For example:
  • Eavesdropping - dogs ears whilst wearing a hat to be discreet in a building
  • Athletics - partial (internal) ape muscles
  • Sniping - partial eagle eyes

The list goes on. Sure the 2hour limit applies but you could in theory create a super creature using morphs from many many animals.

Technically it wasn't a question but still an interesting thought for morphing tech. Any other ideas/thoughts?

Morph a centaur by combining human and horse DNA.