It amazes me how much the Animorphs improved over the series.

[Fwahm]

I'm talking about their battle abilities.  For example, in book 7, the Animorphs had an extremely close call, barely defeating 7 Hork-Bajir.

However, in book 41, the Animorphs all have 2-5 Hork-Bajir against them each, and they managed to survive, and Jake takes down four of them alone later in the book.

There are probably dozens more examples, but these were the books I reread recently.
Anyone else notice this?

[DinosaurNothlit]

To some degree, I think that was part of the point of the series.  It shows their transition from innocent, scared kids, to soldiers.  Their first few missions were nearly always complete failures, not because they weren't good ideas or anything, but simply because they didn't know what they were doing.  They just didn't have the experience to invade the Yeerk pool, spy on Chapman without getting caught, or steal a tank ship.

Their aptitude in battle is a part of that.  At first, Hork-Bajir were these terrifyingly formidable enemies, but as the Animorphs got more and more experienced, they became better and more efficient at killing them.

Early in the series, they were just kids who were trying to play at war.  Later in the series, they become warriors who have to pretend to still be kids.

[anijen21]

From a more cynical standpoint, you also just have to keep raising the stakes to keep things interesting, you know? After you see a Hork-Bajir x number of times, it's just not scary anymore. So have the kids fight THREE Hork-Bajir. When that's not scary, oh, well, now there's this ELITE team of Hork-Bajir called the BLUE BANDERS and they're even SCARIER.

But them just getting better at fighting is a fine enough explanation for me.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Yeah . . . I always thought the Blue Bands were a bit ridiculous.  They're supposed to be all elite and undefeatable, yet they seem to go down just as easily as the standard run-of-the-mill Hork-Bajir.  I think it was just an intimidation device.  "We're really scary and badass because we say so!  And we have these special colored bands to prove it!  Quiver in fear!"  And the Animorphs are just like, "Bull," and kill them anyway.

I laugh out loud every time I read that part in book #45 where the leader of the Blue Bands introduces himself in the middle of battle, trying to be all dramatic and stuff, and then dies within a few pages.

But, I agree, that they did it in part to keep it interesting for the reader, after Hork-Bajir started getting boring.  If you ask me, though, they should have either just kept increasing the numbers, or had some genetically-altered super-Horks or something.  Not those lame armbands, I mean come on.

[anijen21]

lol ikrite, oh dear God not a blue band, brb running in panic

[RYTX]

aw, you guys. I loved the bb's, I always wished they'd been built on more.
What I'm going to go on about is how in 3 years the Yeerks fighting never improved.
Hundreds of times the fire fire dracons and guns, not on critical hit.
Least improved for sharp shooting goes to the Yeerk empire

[ThinkAgain]

This was actually one of the things I hated about the series.

Yes. I understand we can't kill off the Animorphs early in the series. Yes, I also understand they improve with time. I also understand new controllers will not be skilled in battle.

What gets me is that how a wolf will take down multiple eight foot tall bladed reptiles that can easily recover from most impalement-type wounds (when we see Jara Hamee cut into his head to prove he is not a controller).

I don't care how skilled you are, or if the controllers are drunk on top of being new. Some earth animals are not taking down eight foot tall bladed lizards armed with particle weapons by the dozen. It just doesn't happen. I don't care HOW amazing you are, how organized you are, or how lucky you are. It just won't happen. You can see amazing last stands throughout history where small numbers did amazing things, defeating countless enemies, only to be defeated by the sheer number of enemies. Look at the Battle of Thermopylae.

I feel Hork-Bajir controllers suffered just as much decay as Visser Three. They go from incredibly terrifying where equal numbers are almost death, to killing them endlessly with ease. Even Jake's Tiger and Rachel's Bear, the strongest morphs, still have significantly less natural weaponry, not to mention they are two creatures, fighting a multitude - it doesn't help that grizzlies aren't exactly the fastest animals on earth. Marco's gorilla... Yes, gorillas are strong and heavy, but no more than a Hork Bajir. Not to mention gorillas have no natural weapons and yet Marco easily kills many of them, even when being shot at. A wolf is about 80 pounds and has teeth, and Cassie had a female wolf, which is about 20% smaller than the males and have narrower shoulders.

It was just irritating how giant reptile-like creatures covered in blades who probably weigh a few hundred pounds and are strong enough and fast enough to rapidly swing through trees can be taken down in such mass... by earth creatures who are smaller, weaker and have far less natural weapons.

Skill can make up for that, if they were evenly matched. Not when it's 30 to 6. That should be a massacre, and not the way it happens in the books.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Yeah, that bugs me too.  I don't know about their other morphs, but I always thought that the strength of the gorilla was grossly exaggerated to make it seem equal to the others.  They've done everything from having a 'light tap' knock someone out, to throwing around furniture that weighs more than the gorilla itself.  Come on, are gorillas really THAT strong?

To be quite honest, the only one of their battle morphs I can even see as having a fair fight with a SINGLE Hork-Bajir would be the grizzly bear, at least without loads of experience to even the playing field.  Because its size gives it an advantage when it comes to taking injuries and dishing them out, even though it has fewer natural weapons.  Even in the fight between a Hork-Bajir and a tiger, I can't hardly help but picture the Hork-Bajir winning most of the time.

And when they were fighting legions of Hork-Bajir at once, it just seemed like the Horks must have been massively incompetent to not be able to take the Animorphs down.

On the other hand, it is true that the Hork-Bajir are naturally herbivorous creatures, so they don't have much in the way of fighting experience for the Yeerks to draw upon, but that's not really much of an excuse.

[RYTX]

I can't help but feel my entire Ani-world view has been rocked this week as it seems more and more threads are putting our favorite sci-fi series into with real world perspective
So considering that, yes she probably exaggerated some animal skills (I've searched and found nothing that suggest a wolf can do a high speed for a 10 hour day.  Plus all these morphs should probably exhausted if you're doing more than just a couple minutes of intensive do or die fighting)
But for whatever reason, now I must counter, could it be that in our heads the we, and probably her too, are exaggerating alien abilities as well? Hork-Bajir blades seem almost as likely to cut themselves as they are an opponent. Can they really move a few hundred pound body through the trees that quickly? Really the best tree climbers on earth don't max out near that, yet Horks are seen in trees in Yellowstone as if it's no big deal. Really, should they have been much quicker than gorillas?
Can't help but feel now that it's all a bit stretched out, to make it more interesting, to make it more thrilling by making all of it more inhuman- Animal strengths, alien abilities, all of which in our heads are so far above all our own, but which aren't truly as phenomenal as they are in the minds eye.
Don't get me wrong, they'd still be incredible, but maybe just not that incredible
Another not to strong alibi, but a possibility I believe

[goom]

From a more cynical standpoint, you also just have to keep raising the stakes to keep things interesting, you know? After you see a Hork-Bajir x number of times, it's just not scary anymore. So have the kids fight THREE Hork-Bajir. When that's not scary, oh, well, now there's this ELITE team of Hork-Bajir called the BLUE BANDERS and they're even SCARIER.

But them just getting better at fighting is a fine enough explanation for me.

yeah, i agree. fighting the same thing over and over again *cough* animorph PC game *cough* isn't very entertaining.
i do think that the animals seemed overpowered, though. jake taking down 4 horks seemed like a bit of an exaggeration.

while the subject is up, i've always been bugged about cassie and tobias's battle morphs.
i'm sure that cassie, being the animal expert, could have found a superior morph.
plus, it seemed like she was always doing the 'dirty fighting' (biting at throats) and getting injured more often than the others.
not saying she should have fought as a wolf differently, just that her character might have wanted to find a morph that packed more 'punch' than 'bite'.

tobias is a bit more understandable, since it's his natural form and he could scout, but there were plenty of better choices for him as well.
hork-bajir against bird? not exactly evenly matched.

[anijen21]

lol this thread is kind of reminding me that the premise itself is one of the lamer aspects of the series

"oh, animorphs, what's that about?"

"kids turn into animals to fight aliens."

"Animals?...oh"

"No wait, it's really good there's this time-shifting superdimensional being and it turns out the blond kid's dad is...where are you going I swear it's really good!!"

[goom]

yeah, it's funny how such a lame-sounding aspect can result in a great series.

[MoppingBear]

while the subject is up, i've always been bugged about cassie and tobias's battle morphs.
i'm sure that cassie, being the animal expert, could have found a superior morph.
plus, it seemed like she was always doing the 'dirty fighting' (biting at throats) and getting injured more often than the others.
not saying she should have fought as a wolf differently, just that her character might have wanted to find a morph that packed more 'punch' than 'bite'.

this is cassie though, i wouldnt be surprised if her battle morph was a horse like in the show.

[Shark Akhrrana]

well when you are a 15 year old kids with not very many friends those exaggerations don't mater .. I didn't care i still loved it. even though there was a voice in the back of my head telling me OMG this is to much exaggerating...BUT ITS SO AWESOME

[Aluminator (Kit)]

As per wolf.org, wolves can easily travel 50 miles a day at a trot of about 5 mph over rough terrain. Not "high speed" per se, but definitely amazing endurance. Jake's tiger should have probably been exhausted after about 30 seconds of an intense fight, but Cassie's wolf could probably keep up that breakneck pace for a good 10 minutes or more. I've no idea how grizzly or gorilla endurance compares, but with as fast as Hork-Bajir are described as being, none of the Animorphs would have stood a chance in any morph.

My theory? Hork-Bajir have absolutely terrible reaction times. Sure, they can see a branch coming and anticipate grabbing it when they're leaping through the trees, but there's time to react in that scenario. Not so when you're fighting an unpredictable animal. Tigers and wolves are predators who must have incredible reaction times to be able to catch zig-zagging, fleeing prey. A wolf is probably a better battle morph than a gorilla for that reason alone- the gorilla, like the Hork-Bajir, is an herbivore, but even the gorilla is an herbivore that grew up in a neighborhood of predators. Andalites aren't a shining example of being able to react either- how many times did Tobias fly right in front of Visser 3's tail blade and rake his stalk eyes without being chopped in half? (Maybe the Visser was just afraid of embedding his tail blade in his own skull?).

That totally covers the increase in what the Animorphs could handle. At first, Hork-Bajir seem fast and terrifying, but as time goes on, you begin to realize that if you feint to the left the Hork-Bajir will stumble in that direction every damn time because they're physiologically incapable of keeping up with your morph.