Totally Random Animorphs Thoughts

[NothingFromSomething]

Pretty funky (uh, rad, groovy, bodacious?) article!

[redtailedsaffa]

That article. :')

[Chad32]

That article was worth reading, for sure. It's odd to see that kind of series in a young teen section, but it was a great series.

[NothingFromSomething]

It...was a young-teen series, though.   

[Chad32]

Yes that was the demographic, but I'm saying it's a bit hardcore for a teen book. The demographic for stuff like that is a little higher than what Animorphs was going for, right?

It's like sure, Land Before Time and Secret of NIMH were meant for kids, but they were still prety dark.

Those movies were by Don Bluth, and I think he said somewhere that you can show a kid things that are quite dark, and it's okay as long as it has a happy ending. Apparently it works. Animorphs didn't go with the don Bluth ideology, since it had a downer ending. Not that I think KAA was inspired by Donb Bluth movies.

[NothingFromSomething]

Animorphs was the exact same target audience as Goosebumps and Potter.  She just got away with more, for reasons unknown.

[Chad32]

I'm aware they had the same target audience. I'm just saying Animorphs is significantly darker than Goosebumps.

[NothingFromSomething]

Well, sure.  But what's that got to do with the demographic, or where book stores placed it on the shelves?  They're still YA books, the same target audience.  Harry Potter started out pretty innocent, moved dark by the end.  Goosebumps was mildly scary, but still the same audience as Nancy Drew or whatever.  Dark as Animorphs might have been comparatively, it's still pretty clearly in that 9-14 or so range though, wouldn't logically be anywhere else in a bookstore.

[Stephquiem]

So, I was driving home from work today and I glance over at the side of the road and oh hey, it's hawk I don't see many of those around here. And then...

"OH MY GOD IT'S A RED TAIL. OH MY GOD."

...That's it. Then I was past it and couldn't see it any more and then really distracted by the fact that it was probably carrying a small mammal considering what it had been doing when I saw it.

[NothingFromSomething]

Ooh, small mammals.  Tasty.

[NickDaGriff]

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/06/02/woman-knocked-out-cold-by-aggressive-hawk/

URL kinda says it all, really.  I'd been wondering about the actual real-life combat potential of a hawk, but it seems to me that if anything, KAA actually underestimated Tobias' capabilities.

Also, I realized that most of the times they see Visser 3 in the books, Tobias is almost always the first one to go straight for him.  And most of the time, he actually comes out on top.  That's kinda awesome.

[Chad32]

An Andalite's one blind spot is directly above, I think, which is why Tobias kind of has an edge there.

[Stephquiem]

Actually, an Andalite's blind spot is between its stalk eyes. Because they'd be able to look straight up. Also I feel like there's no way Tobias would be able to drop straight down on anything except from a very short distance. Anything else would require him to come down at an angle if he wants to steer?

[RYTX]

Yet, the best way to seek up on an Andalite is from beneath.
Even with 4 eyes, there's an unacceptable amount of area they can't see.

[Chad32]

Trying to come straight down from too far would mean he'd have to make a high speed 90 degree turn. Certainly not easy. Any battle you can fly away from was a good battle, though.