Racial differences in aliens

[JFalcon]

JFalcon, where do you see this explanation about Andalite years?
I never saw that. I always thought Andalites live about 150 years, that Aximili was about 20~25 Human years old (few years after the beginning of war... so they grow up more slowly)...

In The Alien Ax states he could live to be two hundred, and in the Andalite chronicles Elfangor and Loren only spend three years together on earth before he was taken back, she was pregnant with Tobias then and to the best of Elfangor's knowledge at least, Ax hadn't been born before he got to earth so at best Ax would be about 3 years older than Tobias, who was roughly thirteen at the start of the Animorphs, so Ax would be between 16 and 13 in human years.

[ChimichangaChupacabra]

While I agree with your general assessment, that first part about Ax's quote regarding 'living to two-hundred' shouldn't be taken on face-value, unless there are other instances in the books (I can't quite remember, honestly, there may have been) to back it up.

He could just as easily be saying that as a colloquialism, along the lines of "I haven't seen you in AGES!" or "the train was moving a million miles an hour when it hit the car", or whatever else.  It doesn't necessarily mean Andalites live to approximately 200 years old, although they may do.  It's just not exactly hard evidence.

It would make sense, however, considering Alloran holding a reasonably high rank already in the 1960's.  He was already some type of field commander, which would make you assume he's been around for a while prior to the Seerow incident. 

But yeah, the Ax comment is kind of flimsy, if that's the only instance in the books it's mentioned.

[JFalcon]

I considered Ax might have been exadurating but he might also have been understating, we relly have no way of knowing just how long an Andalite lives so I just guessed based on the only information offered, I'm well willing to admit it's only a guess 

I don't think it's ever mentioned in any book what the Andalite life expectancy might be, however, the Alien--which I'd read recently, I'm going down the list right now--is the one spot I can think of.

There is Alloran who was fully grown during the Hork-Bajir war and isn't slowing down by the end of the Earth war, Alloran may have been in his middle age by the end of the Earth war but I don't think he was elderly.

Just like with the yeerks, or even Hork-Bajir and Taxxons there's a lot about these alien species we don't know, kind of makes me wish K.A. had made or authorized a source book or something 

[ChimichangaChupacabra]

It definitely would make sense and seem accurate for Andalites to have a long life expectancy, but I guess all I'm saying is there really isn't any hard data, so throwing out specific numbers would seem a little unwise.

Even with Alloran in a position of military power in the 1960's, earth time, he still wouldn't really have to be anywhere near 200 years old for that to be the case.  He could have been the equivalent of 40 or 50 back then, making him 75 or 85 by the time of the human conflict.  It'd seem a little strange for Alloran to have been in excess of a century old by the time of the Hork-Bajir war.

That being said, I'd agree they probably do live longer than humans, on average.  There's just no canon data to support or clarify that.

[JFalcon]

I know, the numbers weren't meant to seem like hard facts, just guestimations in the spirit of trying to figure things out. As you say we have no hard facts so it's impossible to know for sure, the one thing we can firmly reason out is that the andalites have long lifespans but again the actual number is all nothing but guess work.

It's probably not important either, but sometimes I have too much fun with numbers, I think on some level I like to see everything numerically.

[DinosaurNothlit]

I definitely agree that Andalites probably live longer than humans.  Like others have said, Alloran was a full-grown Andalite in HBC, yet he sure didn't seem to be in his 70s or 80s by the end of the series.

I don't think we can trust book #8 for an exact statistic, though.  After all, wasn't that also the book where Ax said that the Hork-Bajir have a biological clock that set them warring every however many years?  And yet, in HBC, Dak has no idea that he can use his blades to hurt people. 

Actually I got to thinking about this at work (don't ask why, it just popped in there) and I realized the Andalites live for a very long time but reach maturity very quickly. If an Andalite year is like 6 earth years and Ax expects to live 200 andalite yers (when he says that he could live to be 200 years old he doesnt say "earth years" so I figure he means Andalite years) simple math says that's about 1200 years. Now given that Ax is born not so long before Tobias, who was 13 at the start of the series Ax would be about 2 or 3 Andalite years old, yet is already an adolescent.

If Andalites reached sexual maturity at, heck lets say 5 years the've got 195 more years to keep on reproducing and reproducing, their birthrate might be slow and their term long but didn't the Ellimist have 3 surviving Andalite children, and others who didn't? That was the prehistoric andalites, they would have technology by now that would better keep most infants from dying at birth or later from illnesses, and while this might explain why present-day Andalites had restrictions on how many children were allowed to be born outside of war (As stated in the Andalite chronicles) in the thousands of years before they reached that point in time with their natural predators wiped out they'd overrun their grazing areas and have to live in the harsher areas or die of stavation.

So in short, Andalites might have a small controlled population now, but you'd think at some point sheer numbers would have forced their ancestors to explore more of their world . . . then again, maybe they fought a lot of wars, they have a proud warrior tradition after all. Even so I think they'd have to have migrated to various parts of their planet early on, so they should have evolved at least some differences . . .

So yeah, this is what came to me at work . . . you can tell how much I love my job when I start considering the lifespans and evolution of alien species -_-

First off, it was pointed out earlier that slow maturation would also slow down evolution.  Maybe they couldn't cope with the new environments quickly enough to make the switch.  Also, what you said about their technology (and the absence of predators) enabling them to spread to all corners of the world has a flaw . . . Because you know what else slows down, and maybe even stops, evolution?  Civilization.  In a world where it's no longer survival of the fittest, and just survival of everybody, how can you have evolution?  Sure, the outright vecols are eliminated from the gene pool, but everyone else lives happily ever after.  No, I'm talking about evolution that happened in prehistoric times, before civilization happened.

Anyway, next point.  We've said that slow-aging could slow down evolution, as would be the case with Andalites and Yeerks.  What about the Hork-Bajir, though?  They must age insanely quick, because Toby, who was born sometime after book 13, was just about grown up by the end of the series.  By the same logic that we're using for the Andalites that they shouldn't evolve as fast, the other side of the coin is that the Hork-Bajir should evolve at absolutely ludicrous speeds.

[Dameg]

JFalcon, where do you see this explanation about Andalite years?
I never saw that. I always thought Andalites live about 150 years, that Aximili was about 20~25 Human years old (few years after the beginning of war... so they grow up more slowly)...

In The Alien Ax states he could live to be two hundred, and in the Andalite chronicles Elfangor and Loren only spend three years together on earth before he was taken back, she was pregnant with Tobias then and to the best of Elfangor's knowledge at least, Ax hadn't been born before he got to earth so at best Ax would be about 3 years older than Tobias, who was roughly thirteen at the start of the Animorphs, so Ax would be between 16 and 13 in human years.

Only 3 years? I should re-read that... I thought it was more. And how much time when they traveled and was on the Taxxon planet? You should count from the moment he has no news about his parents... Maybe they didn't call him even months before he left the Dome ship with Arbron and Alloran...

PS: If you find how long each species live, how long they need to be adult, etc. it must help me for the role-playing game. So please tell me your conclusions ^^

[JFalcon]

It's grantable that Elfangor had no contact with his parents however you'd think he'd be mad if he was still doing the wish flower ceremony and his brother was already born 

PS: If you find how long each species live, how long they need to be adult, etc. it must help me for the role-playing game. So please tell me your conclusions ^^

That's why I think it'd be neat if K.A. approved or wrote a source book, just imagine Animorphs: D20 with miniatures and everything . . . man that'd be fun, I could get my friends to stop trying to force Dragon Lance down my throat 

[ChimichangaChupacabra]

I seem to remember she/Michael had one planned, toward the end of the publishing run.  They scrapped it for reasons unknown.  But yeah, 10 years ago that would have been an awesome thing to accompany the series finale.

[Dameg]

It's grantable that Elfangor had no contact with his parents however you'd think he'd be mad if he was still doing the wish flower ceremony and his brother was already born 

PS: If you find how long each species live, how long they need to be adult, etc. it must help me for the role-playing game. So please tell me your conclusions ^^

That's why I think it'd be neat if K.A. approved or wrote a source book, just imagine Animorphs: D20 with miniatures and everything . . . man that'd be fun, I could get my friends to stop trying to force Dragon Lance down my throat 

And I'd be glad if you try this Animorphs Role-Playing Game when it'll be almost finished and translated in English ^^ But we won't use D20, but D10. Sorry for the D&D lovers... It'll work more like Vampire The Mascarade...

[JFalcon]

And I'd be glad if you try this Animorphs Role-Playing Game when it'll be almost finished and translated in English ^^ But we won't use D20, but D10. Sorry for the D&D lovers... It'll work more like Vampire The Mascarade...

Hmm, I've never tried that game . . . but I've got lots of D10s. Dual wielding [handandhalf]swords and dwarven battleaxes for the win!

[agentAK]

I know that one Andalite year is 84 human months, but I'm not sure how long they live for.

Above this, somebody mentioned that Ax's comment about living 200 years could have been a colliquealism. I disagree. Not only is Ax generally confused when people use colliquealisms, I have never heard an Andalite use one. In fact, Ax makes a point of saying that he doesn't understand why some species use those kind of things and don't say what they really mean.

[ChimichangaChupacabra]

Elfangor and Arbron use a whole lot of human-like expressions/equivalents in TAC.  'Nuff said.

Just because most of the Andalites we encounter are stuffy formal military types, doesn't mean more casual demeanor doesn't exist among them.  Arbron was basically Marco with a tail.

[Aleron]

And I'd be glad if you try this Animorphs Role-Playing Game when it'll be almost finished and translated in English ^^ But we won't use D20, but D10. Sorry for the D&D lovers... It'll work more like Vampire The Mascarade...

I got to play vamp once.... it was interesting.