1. In the opening chapters of this book Rachel and Tobias are at a dance and Tobias almost passes the two hour threshold, getting stuck as a human. He wonders later if Rachel intentionally tried to keep him at the dance longer than necessary. What do you think?
I thought he was being paranoid tbh. Poor Rachel just wanted a nice, normal date with her boyfriend who spent the whole night freaking out about how much time he had left in morph. I was kind of on her side during this.
3. The Yeerks are opening a massive community center, complete with Olympic sized swimming pool, playground and Yeerk Pool entrance. The center itself is huge. What do you think that this says about the success that the Animorphs have had so far in their fight against the Yeerks? In the large scale picture, how successful do you think the Ani's have been overall?
I think it's honest. I mean, the Animorphs have dealt their fair share of successful blows against the Yeerks, but they're just six kids without ships, weapons, or resources. In all honesty, they're a fun distraction against the Yeerks, with Pool Ships and Blade Ships and enough resources to try stupid frivolous villain-plans like sentient sharks and free-will poison or w/e. And besides, it keeps that hopeless flavor of the tone which I really ate up.
4. Taylor/Sub-Visser is obviously a rather demented character (and one of my personal favorites!). What do you think about her portrayal, her history and her inability to distinguish clearly between Yeerk and host?
I love a well-written psycho, but Taylor just seemed implausible to me. She's 2nd in command in what I think is still considered one of the most important planets on the Yeerk's menu, and she can't even distinguish herself from her host anymore? I thought this was a really interesting Yeerk-dilemma, but why doesn't it happen to anyone else? I mean V3 is a psycho, and maybe that's the only reason he keeps her around, I guess insanity loves company, but if the Yeerk Empire were efficiently run at all, I mean, all this multiple-personality fusion or w/e you want to call it would cast some serious doubt on her as a leader.
And her speaking in thought-speech right at the climax of the book totally threw me out of the narrative.
5. What do you think about Tobias' torture sessions? What about the image of Elfangor at the end?
ngl, affectively, it worked wonders. Elfangor-character development is just my favorite in the entire series, and I was so glad we got to see a little more, and even MORE glad that Tobias got to see a little bit of it. I think the first time I read this book, when I was like 13 or w/e, I was still too turned off by the torture (and Tobias "fouling" himself...for some reason that phrase stuck with me throughout the entire book) to really let this part work, but THIS TIME I LOVED IT. I might have even shed a little tear :')
PLOT-WISE...IT DOESN'T REALLY WORK AT ALL. Ax explains the narrative Andalite voodoo-magic (lol) later and says that it's some Andalite birthright passed down from the Father's DNA to the son's. TOBIAS HAS NO ANDALITE DNA, besides Ax's because he acquired the morph, yeah yeah yeah, but in that case, shouldn't Ax's father have visited him instead of Elfangor?
But it's one of those things, I guess, push hard enough to find a pulse, but don't push hard enough to stop circulation. If that makes any sense. My suspension of disbelief has really come a lot closer to earth, the older I get.
6. Anything else?
At least there weren't any Helmacrons
