Author Topic: Things That Bug  (Read 5791 times)

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Offline char486

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #15 on: September 06, 2010, 11:01:44 PM »
Something that always bugged the hell out of me, was the characterization of Rachel slowly becoming all crazy psycho warrior girl. When in the last book of the David trilogy, there is a passage near the very end that specifically states how Rachel herself sort of lost the exciting thrill she always had for the war and "grew up a little bit" after the trauma of the whole David situation. I don't know, I guess I thought it was a nice touch for her as a character that was just thrown out the window, and now Rachel is regarded as this dark warrior who loved the war just a little too much.

Offline Chad32

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #16 on: September 06, 2010, 11:14:11 PM »
I really hate that portrayal too. she acted quite dark in the David trilogy, and two of the last things she did was say no to ultimate power and think about shopping just before the polar bear morpher killed her.

Yes she was the darkest Ani, but she never really lost herself. On TV Tropes someone called her a Blood Knight as soon as she took the grizzly bear morph, and that's just ridiculous.


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Offline Coal Kropotkin

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #17 on: September 07, 2010, 02:32:11 AM »
Ugh. The duck/goose thing bugged the CRAP outta me. :dull:


I hated the drama about morphing during movies and crap, too. But the thing that bugged me most of all was the fact that they would go to The Gardens, get ONE MORPH, and then leave. If I were them, I'd take a Saturday that there was nothing going on, go to The Gardens, and collect every animal I saw. :P (Not sure if they did this in later books, as I haven't read past Kangaroo Cassie, but, even so, it should've happened sooner... A LOT sooner)

It also bugged me that they never acquired a ton of different people, and did that morph mix thing that Ax did with their DNA. I mean, I know they don't feel like it's okay to use the DNA of sapient races, but, you're not morphing THEM, just using a little bit of this or that...

Also, it disappointed they never tried to carry coconuts as swallows. :(

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Offline Dameg

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #18 on: September 07, 2010, 05:20:24 AM »
Maybe I have answers. I don't say they weren't stupid but they didn't know how many morphs they could have. So they were afraid, if they took too many morphs and didn't really need them, not to be able to take other morphs who could help. I think it's why they didn't take all the morphs they can.

And for Ax's DNA and DNA of people, they had this stupid rule, you know: not to take the DNA of sapiences. And Ax probably didn't want that anybody (except Tobias who is his family) take his DNA. That's his right, even if that's stupid. I mean, this was a war and they kept rules who limited them >_< They really didn't need that.
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Offline LisaCharly

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #19 on: September 07, 2010, 06:33:51 AM »
The fact that nothing ever came of Erek's magical untraceable phone number at the end of #10. Would've been cool if they'd Chekov's Gunned it and brought it back when they couldn't find the Chee in the final arc, instead of being like "Marco tried, he didn't find them, so I was was like "try harder!" and he did". Even aside from that it just seems like it would have been handy.

I can excuse them not using human DNA because yeah, they did follow that sapience rule, and while it's a wallbanger reading it as adults it does make sense that kids would try to draw arbitrary distinctions between themselves and their enemies to feel more certain of their righteousness. It's a very young-person thing to do, so it doesn't bother me all that much, because they are just kids. And also because Marco and Tobias both obviously don't give a darn about that rule and break it when it suits them. Also, only Ax knows the frolis maneuver. Maybe he doesn't know how to teach it to others.

Personally, any time KA or the ghostwriters used one of these, I died inside: "the feathers spread like tattoos that then became three-dimensional", "running as a ****roach is like being strapped facedown to the bottom of a car" and "my face bulged out". Probably the most overused phrases in morphing. And every single time someone's like "Rachel's impervious to dirt!". It's like, we get the irony of untouchable Rachel being sullied by the war. Really. Now stop saying she's a magical supermodel being that shoots cleanliness out of her pores. EVERYONE always says it and it just bugs me.

Offline Nara

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #20 on: September 07, 2010, 08:07:54 AM »
One thing that annoyed me was the lack of using dog morphs. And when they did use them it was pretty much fu n and games, whereas wolf form was used in battles often. Seriously, there are plenty of breeds that are superior in strenght to wolves and even leopards. And using a dog morph would have been quite practical in spying situations in public places, you just look like a stray dog, though a very muscular one.

Breeds that are able to kill a wolf and a human if controlled by an Animorph, go Google 'em up, see what I mean: German Shepherd (very common, easy to find, doesnt attract attention, possibly weakest of the breeds I mention), Bernese Mountain Dog (common as well, very strong but not naturally aggressive), Greater Swiss Mountain Dog (great strenght, a rare breed), American Bulldog (common in USA, rare elsewhere), Mastiff (common and a true gladiator breed), Bullmastiff (a bit smaller than Mastiff, common), Caucasian Ovtcharka (common in Europe and Russia. Very aggressive and powerful, used to guard sheep from wolves and bears, also used to guard the Berlin Wall), Central Asian Ovtcharka (a bit rare, closely related to Caucasian Ovtcharka), Kangal/Anatolian Shepherd (very savage, large but agile, these dogs eat wolves for breakfast), Great Dane (common), Rottweiler (very common) and the list goes on and on and on.
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Offline Coal Kropotkin

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #21 on: September 07, 2010, 12:59:53 PM »
First off: WELCOME TO RAF, NARA!

Second:
That bugged me, too! Dogs would have been GREAT morphs! Ugh.

Also, Dameg, before Ax joined the group they didn't know, but if there were a limit, Ax would've told them.  dunno, just bugged the crap outta me.


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Offline Shenmue654

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #22 on: September 07, 2010, 01:08:06 PM »
(1). The fact that Visser Three seemed to suffer from an almost fatal case of Villain Decay as the series went on. Not that he was exactly brilliant in the earlier books either, but there was something about him that was freaky. It was probably from sheer lack of experience and the lack of knowledge I had as a reader, but the situations the Animorphs got into "back then" seemed far more compromising than what occurred later. Though they did quite a few silly things too, and it did get more thematically complicated as it went along.

(2). What the hell that creature was at the end of Book # 41. And other such unexplored plotlines that K.A. didn't have time for. My suspension of disbelief can be pretty impressive, so the stuff like "Why didn't they morph geese more often" never even occurred to me. I was more bugged by the fact that plotlines were sometimes forgotten about or discarded. I mean it was an incredibly impressive, long series. But still...)=

Offline LisaCharly

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #23 on: September 07, 2010, 01:41:41 PM »
Personally, I'm totally fine if #41 is never mentioned again. Least favorite book in the series by FAR. Ugh.

Offline Dameg

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #24 on: September 07, 2010, 03:40:50 PM »
Yeah, I didn't like it either ^^'

@Broken: Actually I think they never asked! And that's what bugged me. They never asked everything to Ax. Ax kept "secrets". I know that I would have asked him enough things to know his planet by heart at the end of the series ^^'
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Offline A ghost you know

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #25 on: September 07, 2010, 04:04:55 PM »
I never really paid attention to the goose thing, either. I don't recall if the Anis mentioned what the goose senses were like, but I know their raptors were superb for seeing things a human would miss. It's possible they stayed with raptors because geese didn't have that sensory superiority.

The always-the-same descriptions of morphing bug me, too. They didn't when I first read the series, but now that I'm going back more slowly it drives me crazy. I mean, nothing quite screams "FILLER!" like the same phrases repeated 70 million times.

As for the Frolis maneuver, I doubt any of them knew how, and it's possible only an Andalite could do it (although I kinda doubt it, especially for Cassie since she was an estreen). Even if they had known how to do the maneuver, though, I don't think they would have done anything with it. The only really effective species to use the maneuver on would be humans, and they had that "Don't morph a sentient species" rule that stayed until the final battles. By that point, the war had escalated way, way beyond trying to be stealthy by creating a new human morph.

One specific thing that bugged me is in #8, when the first Controller is becoming free. Tobias calls down to the rest of the Animorphs in thought-speak, but Ax says something like "None of us could answer him because we were all in human form."
What the heck, Ax?!? You're in a morph, which comes with thought-speech. Use it!
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Offline Dameg

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #26 on: September 07, 2010, 04:37:05 PM »
One specific thing that bugged me is in #8, when the first Controller is becoming free. Tobias calls down to the rest of the Animorphs in thought-speak, but Ax says something like "None of us could answer him because we were all in human form."
What the heck, Ax?!? You're in a morph, which comes with thought-speech. Use it!
I think that was a KASU.

Something else who bugged me was the few Controllers they freed at the beginning. In #1, the girl who escape... What did it happen to her?
And in #19, the girl who was Aftran's host.
I mean, the Yeerks are known by other Yeerks, even if they don't make a list of the hosts, some people must have known this 2 hosts. And the Yeerks need a good organization in the Yeerk Pool, to give back the right host to the right Yeerk etc. so they must know who has which host. So even if somebody escape, the Yeerks can go back to their house and take them back. The only way to be really free is to run away, change your name, change your life, everything to be the farthest you can from your old life... I also don't see how Aftran could stay free in the Yeerk Pool during many volumes without anybody pay attention of the fact that her host left without him...
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Offline A ghost you know

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #27 on: September 07, 2010, 05:11:46 PM »
Quote from: Dameg
Quote from: Luke Skywalker (AGYK)
One specific thing that bugged me is in #8, when the first Controller is becoming free. Tobias calls down to the rest of the Animorphs in thought-speak, but Ax says something like "None of us could answer him because we were all in human form."
What the heck, Ax?!? You're in a morph, which comes with thought-speech. Use it!
I think that was a KASU.
I think so too. I certainly don't have a better explanation.

Quote from: Dameg
I mean, the Yeerks are known by other Yeerks, even if they don't make a list of the hosts, some people must have known this 2 hosts. And the Yeerks need a good organization in the Yeerk Pool, to give back the right host to the right Yeerk etc. so they must know who has which host. So even if somebody escape, the Yeerks can go back to their house and take them back. The only way to be really free is to run away, change your name, change your life, everything to be the farthest you can from your old life... I also don't see how Aftran could stay free in the Yeerk Pool during many volumes without anybody pay attention of the fact that her host left without him...
Perhaps Aftran altered the Yeerks' database of hosts so his didn't show up anymore? That would explain how Karen managed to stay free, as well as how Aftran got away with his host sympathy (a crime punishable by death, IIRC) for so long before being detected.
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Offline Chad32

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #28 on: September 07, 2010, 05:48:09 PM »
The fact that Karen (Aftran's host) wasn't killed or reinfested is a plot hole. The first Human could have actually been recaptured or killed, and we just didn't see it. Or it could be the crazy lady in MM 1. As for Karen, they needed her not to die or get recaptured to have more of a win for Cassie, even though it goes against Yeerk protocol established in book 8.


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Offline Aldrea Hammee

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Re: Things That Bug
« Reply #29 on: September 07, 2010, 07:47:08 PM »

The always-the-same descriptions of morphing bug me, too. They didn't when I first read the series, but now that I'm going back more slowly it drives me crazy. I mean, nothing quite screams "FILLER!" like the same phrases repeated 70 million times.



And every time they morphed something small, "the ground rushed up at me." WE KNOW.
Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?