books of little importance

[yunyun]

i know, 14 was really pointless, i'm not even sure if the horse morph was used after that

[goom]

i'll admit the book was rather pointless, but the horse morph was used outside of that book.

the word 'horse' is mentioned 272 times in 34 books (a lot of the time to describe andalites). cassie had the morph way before #14 and used it quite a few times (if i'm not mistaken, it was her first one).
it was her 'battle morph' in #1 (she didn't have wolf yet) and also carried jake in book #6 right after he became a controller.
'you' actually morph horse in alternamorphs #2, but i'm sure most of you blocked that one out of your mind.

[Snakie]

I thought the whole group specifically acquired the horses that were inhabiting that area for that book, so I believe Cassie has two separate horse morphs, one of which was used once and never again in book 14.

Could be wrong, mind you.  Its been years.

[RYTX]

None of the horses from book 14 were ever used again, and Cassie never used either of her horse morphs after that. (Maybe she went out and ran for fun, but nothing relevant to the story).
Though Jake uses a war horse he picks up in the middle ages in MM3

Interesting yunyun. You don't consider 5 important? Nor 46?
Most interesting

[yunyun]

I jist did that in about a minute, since i barly had any time with that, i didnt think too much about the details, but i still dont find those too important to the whole series. Ok, maybe 46 sorta was bit i dont find 5 too important

[Timtim243]

Surprised nobody has talked about 14 yet.

I don't mind books with limited connection to the story arch as long as the story within them is interesting.  Lots of these books deal with isolated and somewhat isolated missions that don't advance the overall picture much.

But book 14 was a 100 and some page long farce that built up to an alien toilet joke....

yeah I was gonna say, book 14 instantly comes to mind.

[esplin]

Book 5 is massively important.  It introduces Visser 1,  it gives Marco a reason to fight in the war, and its the first mission with Ax.

[Snakie]

I know its not generally considered very good, but how is book 30 not considered important?

Visser One realizes the bandits are human and her host's son is among them.

Book 48 seemed like just an excuse to use popular characters (David, Crayak, Ellimist) but it does essentially nothing at all to advance the story.

[yunyun]

Book 5 is massively important.  It introduces Visser 1,  it gives Marco a reason to fight in the war, and its the first mission with Ax.

I forgot about that. 

[esplin]

I know its not generally considered very good, but how is book 30 not considered important?

Visser One realizes the bandits are human and her host's son is among them.

Book 48 seemed like just an excuse to use popular characters (David, Crayak, Ellimist) but it does essentially nothing at all to advance the story.

48 isn't 'essential' but it does provide some awesome characterization for all of the characters you mentioned but most importantly Rachel.

41 is a book most consider a waste but it is actually my favorite.  It shows a lot of important stuff about Jake and its a cool book about him.

[Ginkasa]

Surprised nobody has talked about 14 yet.

I don't mind books with limited connection to the story arch as long as the story within them is interesting.  Lots of these books deal with isolated and somewhat isolated missions that don't advance the overall picture much.

But book 14 was a 100 and some page long farce that built up to an alien toilet joke....

Whenever I re-read the series as a kid I always sped through #14.  It was the only one I did that to.  Not interesting at all.  When I re-read the series earlier this year I was reminded why.

Personally, though, I don't understand this need for various fandoms recently to trash "filler" like some piece of diseased meat.  I also think the word "filler" is overused and misunderstood, especially with a series like Animorphs.

Animorphs is and always was a series of commercial children's books.  Each book was designed to do nothing more than appeal to children and sell well.  There was not some grand overarching plot intricately planned from the very beginning that the series played out (until the end, anyway).  There may have been some ideas, but nothing laid out as concrete groundwork.  As such, each book was just meant to be a fun adventure involving animals and aliens and kids.  Some books were better than others.  Some were referenced more often later on.  However, I think its ignorant to dismiss everything else as nothing more than "filler" just because it didn't advance some un-existant grand scheme.

[RYTX]

You make a reasonable point.
But I stick with the notion that the grand scheme was they were at war.
The overarching plot was to win the war.
And then there was the rather large subplots of how each character handles the war.

So I still think it's fair to say books that don't do anything to advance character development or affect the war effort can be called filler.
I agree, filler doesn't make them inherently bad (personally love 24, like 36 etc etc) but there is some larger context to animorphs that they don't contribute to.

Side note: last time I read through, I was surprised to see how often someone says in the first few books they'll blow up the pool someday. Then 45 books later they do? WTH!? Awesome