Morphing Ax

[Slushie Man]

Keep in mind, I haven't yet read the entire series, but I'm re-reading book 9 now, and there's a scene where Ax suggests he draws the Controllers away from the compound by giving them an Andalite to chase, but Jake says no, they need him inside to work the technology, so Jake then morphs a wolf to distract them. Why couldn't he just morph Ax and thus still distract them with an Andalite?

And then that had me thinking - why don't they just morph Ax from time to time, to help throw the Yeerks off from thinking they were human? Seeing a group of Andalites running by would throw off all the Yeerks that had the theory that the Bandits may have been human.

[Chad32]

If there was more than one Andalite for them to take DNA from, it would be much easier. It would be inconvenient for Ax to have to give them haircuts everytime they wanted to morph him. Then they'd still look somewhat like him, since they'd have the same body shape. It wouldn't be practical in the long run.

Though I'm not sure why they don't try being Ax solo if Ax himself is needed elsewhere.

[RYTX]

I think the ethics of morphing each other may be involved there more than anything else, but yeah, it probably would have been smart to do once in a while. Too often and you get all the draw backs of no flexibility

[Slushie Man]

The only ethics involved would be asking permission, as the only reason Cassie felt uncomfortable morphing a dolphin is that they're intelligent creatures and she couldn't ask them for permission, and I'm sure Ax would have granted it.

[RYTX]

Still think it's weird.
I mean, if you could turn into your friend, and they gave you permission, don't you think it would still be weird. Especially if you make a habit of it?

[Chad32]

I don't know. Ask Tobias.

[RYTX]

But he didn't a habit of it. He only did that a handful of times.

And okay, Tobias isn't the best guy to ask about weird. No Animorph is but.....watever you get the idea

[Slushie Man]

Ax morphed Jake in book 6, and Ax in human morph is a bit of each of them (minus Tobias).

And we're not talking about making a habit of it. We're talking about occasionally, or like as Nohensen said, when Ax can't be present due to whatever other circumstances. That way its still making the Yeerks think they are Andalites instead of rumors floating around that they're actual humans.

[Azguard]

maybe the andalites can tell other andalites apart?

[Horsefan1023 (Seal)]

Maybe Jake Ax didn't want Jake to acquire his DNA.

[Slushie Man]

That would be pretty selfish of him, seeing as how he's morphed Jake and his human morph is a combo of all of them.

[morfowt]

they only morph sentient creatures if they have permission or if it's absolutely necessary, and even if they do have permission, they only use it when necessary or it makes the job easier. just morphing ax to throw the yeerks off doesn't seem necessary to me. just because there are rumors, doesn't visser three is gonna listen to them. and there weren't many cases where ax needed to be in two places at once...

[TheSoulEater]

I'm sure Visser Three would have noticed a six completely identical Andalites running around. Even normal humans and other controllers could tell different Andalites apart, if the Animorphs are any indications.

And the incident from #9 really never happened again. If they needed an Andalite, Ax was usually right there. And after #34, they had Tobias, anyway.

[Azguard]

my point exactly.  six identical andalites.

[Phoenix004]

I think it's a good idea for them to have done on occasion. Yes they would end up with six identical Andalites, but humans and Hork-Bajir wouldn't know that. Only Visser 3 is likely to notice that they look exactly the same.