Ax Isn't Stupid

[ThinkAgain]

I always wondered why Ax never 'caught on', so to speak.

I can understand the initial problems of human morph, as well as blending into human society, but still, after years of living among humans, don't you think he would have gotten over saying words over again such as things like, "buns..bun-zuh", etc.

He's an advanced, educated life form, aware early on of the existence of other intelligent species. Also is the threat of attack. After the first few times of flipping out over food, and being yelled at by the other Animorphs, don't you think he would quit it, for the sake of not getting controllers suspicious?

It can't that uncontrollable; Visser Three is completely fine in human morph, as were many of the other Andalites shown in the story at one point or another, such as Gafinilan. Granted, Ax is young and may have less self control, but after years of assimilation and far closer contact with humans than any of the other Andalites that have been on Earth, I'm pretty sure he should have been capable of passing as a normal human. I'm sure he wouldn't be versed in all of human culture, such as historical things like older TV shows or catchphrases, or understanding the more complex aspects of human humor, but things as late as the famous line from book #49 shouldn't have happened.

"Ah." Ax nodded. "She does not understand
how menacing we are." He tapped her on the
shoulder. "You do not know me," he said, "but I
am a juvenile delinquent. I do not trust authority
figures, I probably will not graduate from high
school, and statistics say my present rowdiness
and vandalism will likely lead to more serious
crimes. I am a dangerous fellow, and I am causing
mayhem in this store."
He reached behind her and pulled three jars
of baby food from the top shelf. Shoved them behind
a box of macaroni. Shuffled the Cheez Whiz
in front of the Marshmallow Fluff. Tossed a bag
of lady's shavers onto a bag of hamburger buns.
"There. I have now shamelessly destroyed the
symmetry of this shelf, undoing hours of labor by
underpaid store employees. If you could see me,
you would be frightened."

I mean, come on. That late in the series, he should have been fully aware the average human does not talk like that.

It just bothers me they treat Ax as a nerdy burden. Great in a fight and full of information, yet a bumbling idiot in society. I can't blame him early on; it's an alien civilization! But he is capable of complete understanding of the language, and lives in proximity to many humans who are trying to educate him. He should have made at least some significant progress by the end, beyond being able to tell when Marco is being sarcastic.

[Chad32]

It's just part of his thing. Part of why he's funny. If they took that away, and had him act completely normal, then he wouldn't be quite the same.

It's better than completely throwing out the other half, like they did with rachel and Marco. Rachel became a warmonger, and Marco seemed to lose his strategic capabilities.

[wildweathel]

It's quite possible that Ax understands human humor by the end but chooses to act naive for effect.  In short he's telling a very subtle, very dry joke. 

Which, come to think of it is consistent with Andalite humor as demonstrated by the other Andalite characters. 

Note that in #49, Ax does indeed have the desired effect: raising hell.  It's just that he raises hell as a disturbingly quiet crazy guy, not a full-blown violent one.

Sometimes I swear Morf is doing something similar.  But the beauty of such humor is you never can really tell the difference between real and feigned naivety. 

Or you can just chalk it up to the Rule of Cool.

[ThinkAgain]

Haha. Gotta love Morf's 'innocence'.

Still, even if the naive is an act for a stretched, dry joke, many of the things he still did are risks that simply should have been avoided, such as going insane over food or playing with words, which could have raised suspicion. 

[Shock]

i don't think he's stupid.

i do think that he just didn't care, he was having too much fun. 

[anijen21]

rule of funny

and he did get better by the end

well, a little better.

[ThinkAgain]

i don't think he's stupid.

i do think that he just didn't care, he was having too much fun. 

I think he cared. Hmmm... have some childish fun, and get caught and infested or killed... or blend.

[Estelore]

Here's another thing that might occur to you:
He's never been around HUMAN (non-Controller) humans trying to intimidate him with violence, and only television represents a real example of a 'menacing human' for him. Maybe he just hasn't enough practise playing a juvenile delinquent. He did a better job of it than I would, after all.
Do Andalites have punk-a$$ kids?
The ability to BE a bully is a carefully acquired and honed skill in real bullies. There's a whole way of BEING that you just don't get if you don't work on it with a will. Most punk-a$$ kids have a reason for being that way, in their own opinions. Ax doesn't.
*shrug*

Call it 'sheltered', I suppose.

[Shock]

insanity and person having a hard time pronouncing words doesn't really ring up as andalite in the yeerks train of thought.

otherwise they would go insane from yeerks infesting insane or handicaped people.

and that would take a toll on the yeerks mentality..

Ax could simply pass as a person with a speech impairment with a unhealthy obsession with food and the yeerks couldn't tell him apart from normal crazies that are on the street everyday.

[goom]

It's quite possible that Ax understands human humor by the end but chooses to act naive for effect.  In short he's telling a very subtle, very dry joke. 

Sometimes I swear Morf is doing something similar.  But the beauty of such humor is you never can really tell the difference between real and feigned naivety. 

spot on. i was just about to point out that similarity.

anyways, ax had fun talking like that.

[Shark Akhrrana]

he was not the only Andalite who went crazy over food
i believe Estrid went crazy at the Mall over M&Ms and Aximili helped her out.
that shows he made improvements  or else he would have just joined in with the chocolatey fun

[Mr. Guy36]

I'm currently browsing TVTropes, and was going to mention Rule of Cool/Funny. Thanks Weathel and anijen for beating me to it.

[Gaz]

I'm just going off on a random idea here. It's been a while since I read the books so I got nothing to really back this up. But if I remember correctly, Ax was always proud of who he was. Definitely had the Andalite pride thing going for him, I think.

What if (note the if) he was avoiding assimilating human mannerisms? Sort of like....what if he was afraid if he started acting too human he might start acting...less Andalite.

He was millions of light years away from home after all and for a while there seemed to be no hope of ever getting back to his own people. So it might make sense that he would be trying to cling to what he could.

*shrug* Just something I was thinking about.

[Phoenix004]

A large amount of what he "learned" about human society was from TV, and that's a bad way to learn about human culture. He didn't live among humans exactly, he just spent a lot of his time with 5 specific humans who weren't purposely trying to teach him how to act human.

Even so, he does get better later on. He tends to play with his words less and he doesn't make as big a scene with food as he did originally. The way he talks as a human in public (eg. the scene in #49) isn't anything to do with how smart he is or how much he knows about our society, it's just how he talks. It would take more than a couple of years of semi-regular contact with humans to learn exactly how to talk and act around them in public.

[fal_tagut]

If you've ever had a friend from a foreign country, you know that's just how they act sometimes.