Huh, that's a
really good point about Menderash. I'd never thought about that before. But, yeah, he must have some hella loyalty to Ax to trap himself as a human at the drop of a hat like that.
Actually, though, I'd always seen him as, sorry, but a bit of an idiot. They're presented with this totally enigmatic race, the Kelbrid, who all we know about them is they don't like Andalites, but we have no idea why. So, what, you're just going to assume that, if you're an Andalite but you're in the
body of another race, they're going to look more favorably on that, when you don't even know why they don't like Andalites in the first place? We don't know what Kelbrid look like; why would you even assume
they know what
Andalites look like? Or, heck, why would you think that you'll even be in a situation where it's going to come up? Hey, space is big, so there's a
very good chance it might not even matter, so why would you be so hasty to jump to that conclusion? Chances are that all they're ever going to see of you is the ship, anyway. *sigh* Sorry, Menderash, I don't even care if Ax single-handedly saved you and your entire family, you're really just being a derp.
Oh, but you know who I really wanted to see get more development as a character beyond "Oh she is good and wonderful herp-derp" (nope not Cassie) is Toby Hamee. They really missed a heckuva opportunity, just by not acknowledging the issues that her character clearly had. We're talking about a supposed 'leader' who sent her people to die, on at least two different occasions, for high-sounding concepts she knew they did not understand. This is not good leadership material, and yet, any time she is in the books she is made out to be this good and wonderful leader who is trying to do right by her people. No, she isn't. She is a TERRIBLE leader. But, when you look at who she is, well, she has every right to be a terrible leader! She was basically shoved into a leadership position as soon as she could talk, she was born into the midst of a terrible war where she had to watch the remnants of her species struggle to survive and they all looked to her to guide them through it, she passed her parents' intellectual capability by the time she was a few months old (can you even imagine that, to not even be on the same intellectual playing field as your own parents?), and the only people she could even relate to as role models were either a ragtag bunch of alien children who didn't really know what they were doing either or a race of ruthless parasitic overlords who had enslaved her people for as long as she'd been alive. It should surprise nobody, then, when in #47 she mentions how she talks to trees and thinks they talk back. What I think was the missed opportunity, though, is that absolutely NONE of this ever sent up any alarm bells, or ever made anyone question whether or not she ought to be in that leadership position.
Lastly, because nobody's mentioned them yet, I've gotta give a shoutout to the Auxiliaries. Major missed character opportunities (there were some really interesting starts to some good characterization, but none of it really made it past #50), and then they were all, just, gone. At the very least, their sacrifice should have been acknowledged a lot more than it ever was. A funeral, a few words about how twenty-something Animorphs gave their lives for the cause. Something. But, no.