Author Topic: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...  (Read 4047 times)

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Offline Estelore

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Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« on: December 18, 2008, 09:27:52 PM »
Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought, "Jeeze. They planned this SOOO badly! I could've TOTALLY done better!!", and then you mentally sketched out how it SHOULD have gone?

Seriously. Am I the only one who played mind-tactics midway through the books?

My favourite plan-to-pick-apart is when they were all fleas riding a dragonfly.
If they wanted it to go better, they could've gone with TWO dragonflies, dividing the team and improving their chances of survival. OR they could've been three sets of houseflies+fleas, much more common and less conspicuous, and even better chances of survival for the team if one pair got squished. Putting all the morphs in one basket, so to speak, was kinda' dumb. *shrug*
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Offline wolfev

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2008, 09:55:20 PM »
Yea, they do have some stupid plans. I always wondered why they didn't just try and trap David in the morph body of Jake and Rachel's cousin. They probably would have worked out better. Plus they could have come up with a way to easily trap him. They could have morphed a doctor at the hospital and had him confined to his bed, or sedated while in morph.
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Offline Chad32

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2008, 12:42:22 AM »
He still might have endangered the group. They wanted to get rid of him without killing him. Cassie came up with the plan, since of all the members, she was least able to kill him. She didn't have the guts.

I can't think of anything, other than the final battle. But we shouldn't get into that.

Probably the one revolving around saving the parents, or recruiting handicaps.


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Offline Slushie Man

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2008, 03:08:56 AM »
You have to keep in mind that they ARE like, 14 years old or around there. I'd say 99% of their plans were thought up better then anything I could have thought up at that age. Now that I'm older, of course its easy to pick apart the plans and think of better ones, but keep in mind they were just barely out of their pre-teens.

Offline Xan

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2008, 03:18:21 AM »
David was a liability to the group and should have been killed. The thing with the animorphs was that they were kids with emotional attachments. In a total war, in my opinion, it was necessary to apply total war to the Yeerks.

Several things:
Identify and kill key Yeerk leaders. Take down the organization and particularly go after soft targets (unlike Visser 3 who is a hard target). Chapman would be a perfect example.

Collateral damage WILL occur. Steps can be taken to minimize it, but the mission takes priority. In the Yeerk pool the voluntary hosts should have been killed to again through the Yeerks into disarray and keep them hostless.

Lure hard targets into the open where they can be eliminated. Much like when Visser 3 had to abandon Alloran in the meadow.

Conclusion: the ideal people for this situation would have been SAS, Delta, or Spesnatz soldiers. They are trained ideally for this kind of warfare.

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2008, 03:47:41 AM »
David was a liability to the group and should have been killed. The thing with the animorphs was that they were kids with emotional attachments. In a total war, in my opinion, it was necessary to apply total war to the Yeerks.

Several things:
Identify and kill key Yeerk leaders. Take down the organization and particularly go after soft targets (unlike Visser 3 who is a hard target). Chapman would be a perfect example.

Collateral damage WILL occur. Steps can be taken to minimize it, but the mission takes priority. In the Yeerk pool the voluntary hosts should have been killed to again through the Yeerks into disarray and keep them hostless.

Lure hard targets into the open where they can be eliminated. Much like when Visser 3 had to abandon Alloran in the meadow.

Conclusion: the ideal people for this situation would have been SAS, Delta, or Spesnatz soldiers. They are trained ideally for this kind of warfare.

i see yout point, but killing innocent un-infested hosts? thats just wrong man, just.... gah


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Offline morfowt

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2008, 05:16:49 AM »
better, not really. I can't change it to my preference or so that I can insert an OC, but better, I can't really think of. Mostly, I thought their plans were brilliant, and others just obvious, and others still, stupid but morally right.

Offline Dameg

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2008, 08:41:29 AM »
You have to keep in mind that they ARE like, 14 years old or around there. I'd say 99% of their plans were thought up better then anything I could have thought up at that age. Now that I'm older, of course its easy to pick apart the plans and think of better ones, but keep in mind they were just barely out of their pre-teens.

I totally agree. We could do better, as older people... But they were only 14, the first persons who fight like that with morphing...
So I often thought "hey it's stupid, why don't you do that!?"... lol
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Offline wildweathel

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2008, 11:13:25 AM »
David was a liability to the group and should have been killed. The thing with the animorphs was that they were kids with emotional attachments. In a total war, in my opinion, it was necessary to apply total war to the Yeerks.
David != Yeerk.  He's a kid with a totally screwed-up ego who got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, was offered a chance to rise to the occasion, and instead set about trying to murder Earth's last, best hope for victory (bad! no B5!) only resistance.  The moral thing to do would is to contain him with as little injury as possible.  He has to become a nothlit because it's nearly impossible to imprison morphers (like we saw with Jake and the military at the end).  He has to be trapped in a non-dangerous morph and prevented from contacting the Yeerks.  Sure, they could of killed him, but at what personal cost?  The Animorphs did just enough to ensure their safety.

Plus, that particular scheme was very satisfying to read.  It was a good heist-plot.  Like in Ocean's 11, when we've been wondering for a good hour at least how they'll get the money out of the casino
[spoiler]they intercept the casino's 911 call and show up dressed as the SWAT team.[/spoiler]
the part of the plan where Tobias lets the others out of the bottle is brilliant.

Quote
Several things:
Identify and kill key Yeerk leaders. Take down the organization and particularly go after soft targets (unlike Visser 3 who is a hard target). Chapman would be a perfect example.

Or Tom, V3's chief-of-freakin'-security, who just happens to eat with Jake most nights.  The problem is that the one thing that is holding Jake together through it all is the hope he can save his family.  When he loses that hope... well, most fans were not happy with what Jake did then.

Quote
Collateral damage WILL occur. Steps can be taken to minimize it, but the mission takes priority. In the Yeerk pool the voluntary hosts should have been killed to again through the Yeerks into disarray and keep them hostless.

Voluntary hosts are combatants.  Involuntary hosts are hostages, which brings us to a very sticky point morally.  Usually, the answer is to avoid injury to hostages.  The problem is that this rewards the hostage takers, and therefore paradoxically puts non-combatants at risk.  It was a very grave strategic error to avoid killing human-controllers, especially when they had no qualms about killing (all involuntary) Hork-Bajir

Quote
Lure hard targets into the open where they can be eliminated. Much like when Visser 3 had to abandon Alloran in the meadow.

Conclusion: the ideal people for this situation would have been SAS, Delta, or Spesnatz soldiers. They are trained ideally for this kind of warfare.

Ah, yes, let's talk about strategy.  First, we'll look at the resources the Animorphs have at their disposal, by the end of The Attack:
  • First, they're human.  Average, yet well-rounded, physical abilities combined with instant adaptability.
  • They're surrounded by humans, potential allies, if they can just identify controllers.  They significantly outnumber the Yeerks, by over 10,000:1
  • Aximili may be a poor student, but even the scraps of Andalite tech are very useful.  He's established z-space communication single-handedly.  Imagine what a Manhattan Project could do with him!
  • They've made contact with the Chee (Coincidence, that the Chee ended up on Earth?  I think not...), with their incredible intelligence-gathering abilities.
  • They've met the Yeerk peace movement.  Cassie has a Yeerk morph, too.
    Correction: Cassie doesn't acquire a Yeerk until The Sickness.  But, they do have Leeran morphs.
  • Jake has a Howler morph for when it absolutely, positively must die. (Strange that he never uses it...)
  • Don't forget the Escafil device.
  • The Ellimist has given them the story of the Iskroot and, through Jara, the story of the Arn, Hork-Bajir, and Andalite.

The juxtaposition of those two stories screams "foreshadowing!" to me.  The Animorphs now have a way, a slim chance perhaps, but still a chance, to bring peace to the Yeerks.  They just need to find some bio-engineers, Arn, Andalite, or human, then convince the Yeerks to accept modification.  A combination of a military defeat with a propaganda campaign conducted through the Yeerk peace movement should do it, especially since (it has been hinted repeatedly) most of the Yeerk population does not sympathize with the imperialists.

So, what is their first priority?  Freedom of action.  The worst strategic mistake the Animorphs made from the beginning was to try to keep the pretense of normal lives.  Melt into the mountains.  Don't give the Yeerks anything to work from, even if they do realize that the resistance is human.

Second, find trustworthy human allies in positions of power.  There's no need to wait a full 72 hours to discover a controller.  Cassie has a Yeerk morph, right?  Three words: direct cranial examination.  Correction: nope, but they can morph psychic aliens. >:D

Third, begin building Earth's defenses.  Can you imagine if a task-force of, say, 10k known-clean humans got some better sensors, perhaps some sub-light fighters and shredder artillery?  Of course, this means breaking Seerow's Kindness wholesale, but a surprise attack from Earth could quite possibly force a Yeerk surrender even without Andalite assistance.

Anyway, thats what I expected to happen.  Now you can see why I find the ending so tragic.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2008, 08:25:09 PM by wildweathel »
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Offline Chad32

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #9 on: December 19, 2008, 11:26:15 AM »
I don't think forcing David into a fate worse than death just so they could sleep better at night justifies not killing him.

You know, if it wasn't a group of young teens, the war could have gone much differently. Wildweathel has some good points.


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Offline morfowt

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #10 on: December 22, 2008, 05:51:09 AM »
Second, find trustworthy human allies in positions of power.  There's no need to wait a full 72 hours to discover a controller.  Cassie has a Yeerk morph, right?  Three words: direct cranial examination.  Correction: nope, but they can morph psychic aliens. >:D
normally, I'd say something like not morphing sentient creatures unless absolutely necessary, but since you're talking about this from a strategic point, I'll let it slide.

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #11 on: December 22, 2008, 10:30:03 AM »
Second, find trustworthy human allies in positions of power.  There's no need to wait a full 72 hours to discover a controller.  Cassie has a Yeerk morph, right?  Three words: direct cranial examination.  Correction: nope, but they can morph psychic aliens. >:D

Third, begin building Earth's defenses.  Can you imagine if a task-force of, say, 10k known-clean humans got some better sensors, perhaps some sub-light fighters and shredder artillery?  Of course, this means breaking Seerow's Kindness wholesale, but a surprise attack from Earth could quite possibly force a Yeerk surrender even without Andalite assistance.

Anyway, thats what I expected to happen.  Now you can see why I find the ending so tragic.

The problem that I see here is that 10k humans is a lot for the 'morphers to keep track of. It would be very easy for the Yeerks to infiltrate them if the numbers are that large. You can't check everyone constantly. They may have been clean going in...but they may not stay clean. And you only need one Yeerk infiltrator to ruin everything.

Of course, an easy solution to that would be to force the allies to live/eat/sleep/work in the same facility which was protected by Gleet BioFilter's. But then...you still have the problem of free humans who may be Yeerk sympathizers (voluntaries).

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Offline zaprowsdower

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #12 on: December 22, 2008, 06:27:48 PM »
They were six teenagers who had normal lives to feint. The missions they got done as is are impressive.

Total War?
They're not Nazis ::)
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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #13 on: December 22, 2008, 06:37:22 PM »
Could they still morph Leerans? It's hard to say, since they were weird Z-space manifestations at the time.
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Offline Xan

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Re: Have you ever been reading Animorphs, and you thought...
« Reply #14 on: December 23, 2008, 12:36:20 AM »
Total War?
They're not Nazis ::)

The Nazi's did not practice total war. The main practitioners in the post 1850 era were the Union during the American Civil War (employed on the Southern resources) and the Bolsheviks during World War II (on the own areas before they were captured). You also lose the argument by invoking Godwin's law :D

Total war is simply denying resources to your enemies. It's quite ironic the only practitioner of total war is Alloran and he mostly succeeded in his objective.