Totally Random Animorphs Thoughts

[DinosaurNothlit]

NFS, are we arguing about whether Tobias was an introvert, or on the autism spectrum?  You know that neither I nor XF thinks Tobias was remotely autistic, right?  I feel like you posted something about how Tobias wasn't even an introvert, and then as soon as we started refuting that, you assumed we were arguing for Tobias being autistic.  Which we're not.  At all.  Just wanted to clear that up, since I think there was some confusion there.

Gah, if I knew how to quote posts from locked threads, I'd quote Jess's post that quite decidedly puts the whole misguided 'Tobias had autism' thing firmly to rest. 

Anyway, as far as 'verts go, I'm fairly positive Tobias was not only an introvert, but probably the most introverted of the Animorphs, for reasons that have already been discussed.  Now, whether this was a result of his upbringing, or a tendency that he already possessed, is up for some debate.  But I really don't think there's much of a case to be made that he was a 'people-person.'  I'd be curious to see if you could come up with some examples, though.

As for Ax and Myers-Briggs, I think all andalites are more extroverted by default against human standards.  They're evolved from herd animals, and it figures into their psychology very heavily.  That's the theory I like, anyway.

That's a really good point, but keep in mind that humans are a pretty heavily extroverted species, too.  We may not have a 'herd' mentality, but we have a 'tribe' mentality, where rejection from a tribe was, for most of our evolutionary history, a death sentence.  So I think we're actually pretty similar to Andalites in that regard.

P.S. I've read your post about all the reasons Andalites being herd animals causes them to act the way they do, and it's a pretty amazing idea.

[NickDaGriff]

It just occurred to me that we may be working off slightly different definitions of the phrase, "people-person."  I meant it more in terms of empathy, sympathizing, and knowing how to read people than a need to be social all the time.

As for Ax and Myers-Briggs, I think all andalites are more extroverted by default against human standards.  They're evolved from herd animals, and it figures into their psychology very heavily.  That's the theory I like, anyway.

That's a really good point, but keep in mind that humans are a pretty heavily extroverted species, too.  We may not have a 'herd' mentality, but we have a 'tribe' mentality, where rejection from a tribe was, for most of our evolutionary history, a death sentence.  So I think we're actually pretty similar to Andalites in that regard.

True enough.  Primary difference, however, is that humans typically don't desperately try to join in on a mass suicide in progress.  Maybe it's kind of a difference in how the extroversion is approached.  The difference, I guess, boils down to us being sympathetic to one another, where andalites are more empathetic.  Just look at the justifications for the whole vecol thing.  Maybe they can actually kind of feel each others' emotion thanks to their natural language being thoughtspeak.

Come to think of it, it probably affects them more than we even realize.  You think maybe having a large number of telepaths all in the same area causes a sort of subconscious collective undercurrent to form?  Just look at that evil aura of evil Visser 3 projects all the time.  With everyone talking to each other in thoughtspeak, there could be a sort of buildup of background emotions being passed on to one another spreading like a viral chain from andalite to andalite.  That could perhaps provide another explanation as to why they exile vecols.  The vecol can sense on some level how others feel looking at them, which makes them feel sad, which then is projected to the others and generally brings everyone else down.  Missing limbs are like, a total buzzkill man, y'know?

I dunno, I'm really tired right now.  Caffeinated speculation isn't the safest practice.

[DinosaurNothlit]

It just occurred to me that we may be working off slightly different definitions of the phrase, "people-person."  I meant it more in terms of empathy, sympathizing, and knowing how to read people than a need to be social all the time.

Oh, semantics, thou derailer of arguments. 

True enough.  Primary difference, however, is that humans typically don't desperately try to join in on a mass suicide in progress.  Maybe it's kind of a difference in how the extroversion is approached.  The difference, I guess, boils down to us being sympathetic to one another, where andalites are more empathetic.  Just look at the justifications for the whole vecol thing.  Maybe they can actually kind of feel each others' emotion thanks to their natural language being thoughtspeak.

Yep, I think you're right.  Humans and Andalites probably have about the same average levels of extroversion, but they have different psychological motivations for the same trait.  Humans being more selfish, Andalites being more selfless.  Humans are like "I want to hang out with you, so I won't be lonely" where Andalites are like "I want to hang out with you, so you won't be lonely."

Come to think of it, it probably affects them more than we even realize.  You think maybe having a large number of telepaths all in the same area causes a sort of subconscious collective undercurrent to form?  Just look at that evil aura of evil Visser 3 projects all the time.  With everyone talking to each other in thoughtspeak, there could be a sort of buildup of background emotions being passed on to one another spreading like a viral chain from andalite to andalite

That's a very interesting point about Visser 3.  Do you suppose it's because he isn't quite in full control of Alloran's mind?  I've speculated before, that Esplin absorbed far more from Alloran's brain than he could handle; it explains why he went from an ambitious and cunning tactician to a nearly-incompetent cliche villain as soon as he got his palps on an Andalite host.  For that matter, what if the reason he always yells his thought-speak is the same as the reason for the aura of evil?  There's, I dunno, a sort of 'leak' between the Andalite brain and the Yeerk wrapped around it, that lets all that stuff through?  He can't control his thought-speak or his emotional projection, because he doesn't have access to that part of the brain; maybe the thought-speak 'volume knob' and emotional 'filter' are somewhere in the interior of the Andalite brain, where even a Yeerk can't reach.

And, it might not actually be a projection of 'evil' at all.  They often describe it as a feeling of 'wrongness' that surrounds him.  So what if it's actually all of Alloran's emotions, mashed up with all of Esplin's, just oozing uncontrollably out of his brain.  Fear and sadness and lack of control mixed with, okay, well, evil.  But the point is, it would feel dissonant and jarring and unnatural to anyone who was exposed to it, and the person feeling that could easily interpret it as 'pure evil.'  And Esplin doesn't know how to turn it off (or might not even be aware that it's happening).

Lol, it's great discussing these things in TRAT.  We've had at least three completely different debates in the last couple days, and haven't gone 'off-topic' once. 

[Dylan]

Here's a recent (Dec 7 2015 ) interview with the cover artist of animorphs  http://www.vice.com/read/meet-the-artist-behind-the-animorphs-covers-that-destroyed-your-mind-as-a-kid-1207 saw this on Reddit, made me happy

[YeerkSalad]

Tonight I'll read that!

[NothingFromSomething]

That interviewer's pretty horrible.    You'd think you'd do like 10 minutes of quick research before interviewing the guy, to figure out what he's done.  "I did Everworld too" - "Really?"  Haha.  I didn't remember he did Everworld either, but if you're interviewing the guy...

So from that interview, is he saying the final published covers for books 1-3 were another artist?  Or another artist did the covers, Scholastic changed their minds and hired Mattingly, and the final published ones were his?  Didn't quite get that.  I don't have the books handy to check, but from memory it looked like the same art style.

And, grr, Vice.  That news show of theirs is so irritating.  Let's cover serious issues with hipster douchebags reporting from the field.  Ehh.

[redtailedsaffa]

Well, the first two covers showed the morph only from the head, not the full body, so I suppose they were by a different guy.

[Dylan]

That interviewer's pretty horrible.    You'd think you'd do like 10 minutes of quick research before interviewing the guy, to figure out what he's done.  "I did Everworld too" - "Really?"  Haha.  I didn't remember he did Everworld either, but if you're interviewing the guy...

Wait. He did everworld? I like their covers better than the Animorphs covers.

[redtailedsaffa]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/maritsapatrinos/can-you-guess-the-animorphs-title-based-on-its-cover#.emqp7V1Kqa

10/10. Because for an RAF member, anything lower is shameful.

[DinosaurNothlit]

I got a 10/10, too.  And then the quiz tells me that I must be Elfangor . . . right next to a picture of Ax.

Also, THIS is one of the possible answers. 

[YeerkSalad]

That was surprisingly easy.

[Dylan]

The Starfish nis such a much better name for that book

[YeerkSalad]

much more high brow

[DinosaurNothlit]

Heck, ALL the books should be named by that method.

[spoiler=I have way too much free time right now apparently]The Lizard, The Cat, The Hawk, The Dolphin, The Gorilla, The Fly, The Bear, The . . . yeah okay that one can stay the same, The Wolf, The Spider, The Jaguar, The Crocodile, The Human, The Horse, The Shark, The Rhino, The Bat, The Mosquito, The Butterfly, The Cobra, The Dog, The Rat, The Rabbit, The Anteater, The Bear II, The Tiger, The Squid, The Cow, The Yeerk, The Roach, The Falcon, *we already covered this one*, The Andalite, The Hork-bajir, The Poodle, The Orca, The Cheetah, The Hawk II, The Buffalo, The Bee, The Grownup, The Elephant, The Taxxon, The Kangaroo, The Ant, The Human II, The Beaver, The Muscle-claws, The Dog II, The Owl, The Duck, The Raccoon, The Snake, The Shadows.  AND YES, I DID THAT ALL FROM MEMORY.[/spoiler]

[Quaf]

Impressive. I'm not that great with the last 10 or so.

Still, 10/10.