If they decided differently...

[ThinkAgain]

This is sort of like the existing threads about what you would have done if you were in the Animorphs' position, except you just think of things they should have done, whether it be things they should have done sooner than they did, or obviously beneficial opportunities they failed to see. A well known example is getting a flock-type bird such as ducks far earlier, so they could travel closely unnoticed.

A wallbanger of mine has always been why Tobias had never acquired an owl. He's the best flier of them all for obvious reasons, yet constantly complains about being useless at night, when he could at any time take on a similar body that sees clearly in the dark.

[Chad32]

I too wondered why he never got an owl morph. that should have been one of the first things he did after getting his powers back. He's just not much of a morpher, though.

Off the top of my head, they should have tried to save tom in 31. Starve the yeerk out and have Tom fake a suicide. the Yeerks would understand why the guy commited suicide and wouldn't have been suspicious. Then Tom lives in Cassie's barn-I mean Erik's house. A little David humor there.

They should have had the Chee cover for them during missions starting sooner. They met the Chee in book 10, but didn't use them as cover until 25.

Pay closer attention to David. Don't stick him in the barn and then be all surprised when he uses his powers to sneak into a hotel room. I'd be doing the same thing if I was him. I realize the second plot that's always in books happens to be the most important mission ever, but you can't just stick david in a corner while you deal with the other missions.

[anijen21]

get everyone's families out RIGHT AWAY in #49 or whatever

[medomai]

Amen to Tobias getting an owl morph. That was constant.

They really could have had David perform a Frolis maneuver with them and David could have at least gone out in public. We saw in #23 that it's possible to live with a morph, ala Visser Three with Aria. David could have gotten an under-the-table job and booked a hotel room or something.

They definitely should have pulled rank with the power level of David's morphs from the beginning. They should have up front with the fact that they didn't trust him and explained why, because at least then the air would have been clear. The lines of authority were never clear, and it seemed like the Animorphs were too cautious of stepping on his toes.

And I deeply wanted to tell Rachel, "It's okay," when David revealed what she'd said.

[comet266]

What I also didn't get in general was why Tobias didn't use more high firepower morphs.  I know air coverage is really important, but a lot of times, they were just seriously outnumbered and a hawk really doesn't add much to those types of fights.

[Chad32]

He doesn't seem to me like a high firepower guy. He spent a year being air support, so unless he really needed to be something else he was content with that.

Also I agree with Anijen (as I do so many times) that Jake should have rescued the families first, starting with his own family.

[Aluminator (Kit)]

I totally think they should have made Aftran an Animorph in 29. She'd be as dangerous as anyone else in battle morph, she could crawl inside Cassie's head or whatever if they needed to escape a situation while demorphing, and the Chee are perfectly capable of generating Kandrona rays within their own bodies that could keep her healthy, so she could live with them.

On the other hand, that might have given the Animorphs a completely different perspective on the war. I imagine they'd have been a bit more hesitant to kill Yeerks if they had one on the team.

Which would also be a plus for like four books until they wore it out. The Yeerks-are-people-too drama.

[Kharina]

I totally think they should have made Aftran an Animorph in 29. She'd be as dangerous as anyone else in battle morph, she could crawl inside Cassie's head or whatever if they needed to escape a situation while demorphing, and the Chee are perfectly capable of generating Kandrona rays within their own bodies that could keep her healthy, so she could live with them.

On the other hand, that might have given the Animorphs a completely different perspective on the war. I imagine they'd have been a bit more hesitant to kill Yeerks if they had one on the team.

Which would also be a plus for like four books until they wore it out. The Yeerks-are-people-too drama.

Yeah, I would have loved that too   And I spent years thinking how great it would be- that said, on second thoughts I don't think Aftran is that much of a fighter: that's why she volunteered for Karen, to get out of direct war.  So she might have done better as a link between the peace movement and the Animorphs, bringing them information that the Chee couldn't.

You're right that they wouldn't have been able to make some of the decisions they did in later books though- things like blowing up the Yeerk pool etc. (this may well have been a good thing but would have changed the series substantially)  I think that's probably why they left her out. 

[powertrash]

Getting rid of Aftran was a big mistake, plot wise. It would have been so much better if they left her morph-capable and able to fight in the war, somehow. She had already proved her loyalty to them. What else did they want?

They definitely should NOT have "slept on it" with the parents issue. I often wonder how different the last few books would have been if Jake had managed to get his family out--or at least his parents.

Ax should have killed Alloran in book 8. Flat out.

[bizarrocarlos]

maybe they should have made the auxilary animorphs sooner, i mean they had the box for half the series didn't use it much. not thrown the pemalite crystal away,it probably could have helped in book 28.

[Gumby]

I wonder why they just didn't bust Tom. Like, they jsut sat on thier butts, while a powerful controller in plain sight went around making major contribs to the empire. I think they should have kept the cyrstal and allowed the chee to at least defend[i/] thmeselves for crying out loud.

[Shenmue654]

It's interesting hearing this discussion. When you really think about it, there's a lot of dumb early stuff that the Animorphs did because they were children at the time. Not that children can't be very capable people, but early on it was as if they didn't realize how serious this war actually was.

Jake avoided touching Tom because Tom was his brother. His older brother, a person who was supposed to be a semi-annoyance/role model. If you've ever been in a situation where you're older sibling has done something or ended up somewhere terrible, it's difficult to know where to draw the line.

I feel though that they took far too long to try and ramp up the situation. As fun as the early books were for this reason, the Yeerks gained some leads because the Animorphs only acted to prevent catastrophe. They didn't make attacks themselves, exactly. Unless of course there was a golden opportunity.

[medomai]

Oh, man, totally forgot about the possible death of Visser Three in #8 - yes, that would have saved some pain.

Also, remember in the last few books, when the Animorphs morph geese and collectively slap their heads because they realized how awesome they were as long-distance travel morphs? In my mind, that sort of highlights the main issue I had was that the Animorphs constantly limited themselves on what they morphed. They typically only find the morph that they need a couple days before the mission, sometimes the day of! What I didn't understand was why they didn't all grab every morph that they could and found good ways to implement them later.

It frustrated me whenever it was laid down: in Cassie's barn today, there was a deer, two hawks, a golden eagle, a few sparrows, a badger, a wolf, a fox, etc, etc and they never take the opportunity to morph them! Instead of complaining about how a hawk wasn't that great as a battle morph, why didn't they acquire the golden eagle from the beginning for possibilities like that? If you needed surveillance in suburban areas, why didn't anyone get proper low-key morphs like a sparrow? It really bugged me that they arbitrarily decided to not overlap any morphs because they 'belonged' to someone else. If I was there, I would have acquired as many animals as possible, there were so many possible uses for morphs they just didn't do.

[MoppingBear]

They stated fairly early on that they were affraid of hitting a limit to the number of animals they could aquire.  This gives them a free pass on pretty much everything except the geese.

[Unknown User]

They stated fairly early on that they were affraid of hitting a limit to the number of animals they could aquire.  This gives them a free pass on pretty much everything except the geese.

Then they should have asked Ax or one of the several other Andalites that they met along the way.

I think that they should have been more proactive, it didn't seem until the last four or five books that they realized that they didn't have to wait for the visser to be plotting something, they could take it into there own hands and attack. I forget the book number, but there is one where Jake goes away for a family thing and Rachael is in charge, while in charge she orders a bunch of attacks on the yeerks. I think that they should have fought the war more like that, they maybe not as rapidly or abruptly as Rachael had them do it.