The adventures of Jeremy, Carol, Michael, Renee, and Thomas.

[Chad32]

The Animorphs believed that controllers may be reading their books, so they never told us their last names. Forgetting all the other problems people know, regarding details of their lives, at the end of the series we find out they didn't even change their first names. I wonder how the fans would react if they found out we weren't really following the adventures of Jake, Cassie, Marco, Rachel, and Tobias. That their first names were different. Would that cause too much confusion, especially with the inclusion of a bunch of other side characters in the case of the Auxilaries? Or would the fans not mind?

[itw2009]

haha- i like it. code names.

wouldn't have been too surprising.


i, for one, haven't really made much of a character judgment call just because there's a name associated with a set of actions. mmm....like..... the internet! you guys are all anonymous to some extent. if i find out that you're actually "charlie", i won't be too upset. (granted, i was miffed when my best friend kept changing her name on me, haha. for a few years, it was name chaos and i just called her whatever i felt like calling her that day. so there's some grey area.)

as an anifan, i can say that i don't mind.

mostly, i'm of the opinion that changing the names late in the game could have caused unnecessary confusion.

[DinosaurNothlit]

It would have been confusing as heck if it had happened right when the Auxiliaries came about.  I had a tendency to think, "Hey, there's an unfamiliar name, it must be an Auxiliary," regarding them.  So, if the Animorphs suddenly had unfamiliar names, I'd have thought the whole book was about a bunch of Auxiliaries instead. 

. . . Not that I'd have minded a book told from their point of view.  We needed more character development for them anyhow.

But, anyway, getting back to the point, there actually was a character whose name got changed for a bit.  "Timmy" was originally supposed to be "Tuan" and I guess they forgot about the change during a brief scene in book 52.  That bothered me quite a bit, but I suppose that was mostly because it was a mistake.

If they'd hidden their names, though?  I think I would have applauded that as a smart move on their part.  Heck, not to have hidden their names was a bit of an oversight.  "Hello, my name is Jake.  I can't tell you my last name, but I can tell you the names of my brother, vice principal, and all of my closest friends.  While I'm at it, here's my address.  But not my last name!  It's too dangerous!"

Still would have been a heckuva brain-bender, though.  To suddenly go from one set of names to something completely different.

[itw2009]

It would have been confusing as heck if it had happened right when the Auxiliaries came about.  I had a tendency to think, "Hey, there's an unfamiliar name, it must be an Auxiliary,"

i thought the same thing at first when i read the OP.

. . . Not that I'd have minded a book told from their point of view.  We needed more character development for them anyhow.

totes agree.

If they'd hidden their names, though?  I think I would have applauded that as a smart move on their part.  Heck, not to have hidden their names was a bit of an oversight.  "Hello, my name is Jake.  I can't tell you my last name, but I can tell you the names of my brother, vice principal, and all of my closest friends.  While I'm at it, here's my address.  But not my last name!  It's too dangerous!"

*snort* hahaha. so true. and i often wondered about that... but then, in '95, it was much harder for me to imagine the sort of information-stalking that i can do now.

also, i didn't think that it was emphasized enough, but they were smart to have not associated with one another at school. that would have been the hardest bit for me- pretending not to have this close-knit circle of friends with whom i'd had dozens of near-death experiences and with whom i was busily saving the world.

[Chad32]

Yeah, staying separated like they did was one of their smart moves too. We can joke about how they should have been caught as soon as they mentioned the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic and combination zoo/amusement park that Cassie's mother ran, but they did do some intelligent things to hide themselves.

[itw2009]

xD i would totes have stood by the animorphs being on the east coast, though. we have similar wildlife, environment, and theme parks.

(otherwise known as how devastated i was when i learned that they were west coast, hahaha)

[TobiasMasonPark]

     I wouldn't have found it confusing, but I wouldn't like it

[NateSean]

haha- i like it. code names.
. if i find out that you're actually "charlie", i won't be too upset.

My name is actually Jenny. I couldn't tell you that at first because everyone knows my number. :p

[itw2009]

xD welp, now i definitely know. at least that wasn't "jessica" or a variant thereof, because i can't ever keep them all straight on RAF.

uhm. "knows your number"?



on the internet, i've gone by almost every name under the sun: alison, keisha, rachel, jenny, john, mike, jessica..... but seriously.

[Shenmue654]

Like some others, I think it would've made a lot more sense--- And made the villains look marginally smarter. Seriously Visser Three, getting hit by a skunk. And then not being able to figure out the remedy despite being surrounded by Human-Controllers! XDD

Makes us ashamed to admit that we had the most lovely joint childhood fantasies about him. v___v 

Although granted the Animorphs don't get enough credit for: (1). Being in the 1990's. (2). Being occasionally clever. (3). Being children with less than perfect planning skills. We were Not Very Bright at fourteen. XD