Is there a Limit?

[MoonStarRaven]

Was it ever mentioned anywhere if there was a limit to the number of animals a person could acquire? It always struck me as odd that the Animorphs only ever acquired one animal at a time as they were needed. (and sometimes never used them again)

If it were me I'd go on an acquiring spree and try to get as many different types of animal that I could. I mean you would never really know when an animal might come in handy, I'd want as wide a range to choose from as possible wouldn't you? Instead of having to go out to the Gardens every few weeks why not just pick a night, start at one end of the zoo and acquire your way to the other? what we suddenly find ourselves in the jungle or frozen tundra hey I already have a morph that I can use. lol

[Coal Kropotkin]

Y'know, that's something I always wondered myself.

I imagine it was just a KASU, or filler in the series, honestly. Haha.

I don't believe a limit was ever mentioned, but I'm not the the best person to ask. I never actually finished the series.

However, I would imagine that in the series there was not a limit. I think if the morphing tech. was real, there would be, but not in the series. Haha.

[Kitulean]

The Animorphs actually display a frightening lack of forward thinking a lot of the time. That's one example.

[anijen21]

oh god, this. so much. The only one I can recall acquiring something when there was no real need was Ax, and that was when the rattlesnake was going to attack him and he was like "Oh, this seems like a thing that might be helpful in the future." If it were me, I would acquire everything I could get my hands on. Every time I petted a friend's dog or cat or even SHOOK A HAND AND I WOULD JUST TELL CASSIE TO STFU AND STFD

[Chad32]

No limit that I can tell. One of them asked another if they thought there might be a limit. The other said they'd probably find out at the worst possible time.

As for me, I would spend much of my free time acquiring different animals. If there's no limit, then there's no reason to not do it. If there was a limit, it might work like Hereth Illint. Expelling the oldest, or least used, DNA.

Edit: Aquiring people might not be a good idea. I say this only because a controller might know what it feels like when an Andalite acquires something. Especially if they work for an Andalite controller. It's a slim chance, but I would still worry about it.

[Phoenix004]

No limit that I can tell. One of them asked another if they thought there might be a limit. The other said they'd probably find out at the worst possible time.

You are correct, that's pretty much word for word what was said during a conversation in book 2. As far as I can recall, the topic is never brought up again, although in book 45 Marco estimates that he has the DNA of around 20 animals in his blood.

As intriguing as the question is, it's one with no real answer. We can speculate and we can try to work it out based on what we know about the series, but we honestly don't know for sure. If I had to guess, I'd say there wasn't a limit, since we know the technology works with Z-space and Z-space is limitless.

However, it is stated on more than one occasion that the Andalites don't tend to rely on the morphing technology anywhere near as much as the Animorphs do. The Andalites fight most of their battles in space ships and their normal bodies are much more formidable than most opponents. The Andalites mostly used the morphing ability for espionage missions, so it's highly unlikely that any Andalite acquired as many animals as the Animorphs. Therefore, if there was a limit, the Andalites themselves may not have known about it.

[Dameg]

In fact, maybe there is a limit, but the Animorphs use more the morphing ability than the Andalites. So maybe they just didn't find out where it is. Maybe it was 50 DNA... Who knows?
But you gave me the idea to add that in my RPG: lvl 1 will be able to acquire something like 2 or 3 DNA only, but the last lvl (10 for the Estreens) will be able to acquire much more, something like 50 DNA. I don't know if a lot of players will be lvl 10, though ^^'

[goom]

If it were me I'd go on an acquiring spree and try to get as many different types of animal that I could. I mean you would never really know when an animal might come in handy, I'd want as wide a range to choose from as possible wouldn't you? Instead of having to go out to the Gardens every few weeks why not just pick a night, start at one end of the zoo and acquire your way to the other? what we suddenly find ourselves in the jungle or frozen tundra hey I already have a morph that I can use. lol

when i was reading the series i would go on the web and look up animals they could use.
honestly, i think they should have acquired as many animals as possible.

[Cloak]

Truthfully, I would collect as many morphs as I possibly could (which would stem from my desire to study the animal more intimately then is possible without the morphing ability) if it were me.  Alas, it is not.

Then again, who knows what night security at the Gardens is like?  It could be rather difficult to go from one end of the zoo to the other without being caught -- either by security guards or, say, a grizzly with insomnia. . . .

[Phoenix004]

when i was reading the series i would go on the web and look up animals they could use.
honestly, i think they should have acquired as many animals as possible.

Me too, I remember printing off loads of info about different animals and my Mum getting mad at me for wasting all the printer ink! 

If I were an Animorph, I would definitely try to acquire as many morphs as possible, anything that might end up being useful. Since I work at a small zoo (and like to visit others), I'd have access to a bunch of cool morphs.

[AlothAssassin]

If you acquired a couple of hundred morphs, you'd forget what you had though.  Sure, you could catalog them all for thorough reference, but in the heat of battle it's much easier with their 20-30 or whatever.  Besides, functionally, you only need two or three birds, two or three insects, fighting morphs, water morphs, etc.  Practicality, yo peeps.

[Phoenix004]

True, but I didn't mean hundreds of morphs, just anything that might be useful. Like I wouldn't need to acquire every bird I saw, just a hawk/falcon/eagle, a seagull/pigeon and an owl.

I wouldn't acquire everything because I have a tendency to take a long time to make a decision of there are too many options available. In the middle of a fight, I can't exactly take a time out to figure out what battle morph to use.

[Chad32]

That reminds me about a story of the fox and the cat. The fox has a lot of tricks to help it escape from dogs, while a cat has one. So with the dogs upon them, the cat races up a tree. The fox stands there and thinks over which of its dozens of ways it can elude the dogs. Then it gets eaten.

Though that may be a broken aesop, because in reality the fox would be running away while thinking. Not just standing there.

Recently I made a list of animals that I would try to go out and acquire, that had a few species of flying, battle, and sea morphs. Plus one or two extras that would just be cool to have, like a bloodhound. Anything beyond that I would likely just wait until a situation arises. Like if a mission recuired the morph of a certain pet, I would go acquire that pet as the need arises. As oppose to hunting around for every single pet in the entire city just in case I might need it.

[Kitulean]

Actually the fact that they took SOOOO long to acquire long distance flyers (ducks) after going on and on about how their bird of prey morphs can't do long distance flying made me want to slap each and every one of them.

[Estelore]

I agree with the general consensus here, but I also see four reasons they might rationally not have gone on aquiring sprees (though one of them isn't even rational until midway through the series).

a) They don't know if they'll find a limit... which would mean they're screwed when they can't get a suitable morph.

b) The only-rational-later one: they don't know if they have morph allergies like Rachel had... which would suck, because the last thing you need is an allergy to a morph that you're unsure of, after having aquired a butt-load of animals in a row. You won't know if you should expect to be burping up a squid or a beaver, and the difference could get somebody killed.

c) Night security at the Gardens is probably pretty effing solid, and most of the animals they'd be aquiring? Nocturnal. The team isn't terribly fond of group near-death experiences, and they'd have several within the same night.

d) If they screwed up a spree, they've given away where they get all their animal DNA... and lost that very valuable resource. Hit-and-run in that case is low risk and high return, in comparison.


*shrug*
I'd love to acquire a tonne of animals, sure, but anything that demands going to a zoo requires much more careful planning.