I has a question...

[Josh (J)]

If in the earlier books, Jake and the other Animorphs were so top-secret about their life, do you think they changed the names of the people? Because, if Principal Chapman was a top dude, and Tom was fairly high, assuming a Controller read the book (or however the Animorphs write it down), wouldn't they know? If everything was detailed, they'd be found out. And even if the names were changed, after seeing a lot about it...they'd be able to piece together the info and find out the Animorphs. Just a random thought I had...

[roguebluejay]

The whole thing I guess is a little weird. Its almost a stream of consciousness more than a book. I guess they could have changed names and details... The thing is, if they were 'releasing' them, the yeerks would have found them pretty fast.

The website had a thing about having a code that only non infested people could read. I thought that was pretty clever.

[Phoenix004]

Early books seem to hint that they are writing it down, but they seem to ignore that in later books. I think KA changed her mind about that or something.

Another thing they only mention in early books is the idea that their first names (or the names of other people) might not be their real names.

[LisaCharly]

Marco identifies himself as the son of V1's host body five books in. Whether or not they're changing the names of their enemies, that's a dead giveaway. I think it's safe to say that KA didn't really think through the secrecy thing well, and just wanted to tell a fun story, and the "we can't tell you our names" thing was just a way to add a fun suspenseful gimmick at the beginning.

[A ghost you know]

I think the general idea was that the books weren't released until after the war, and then it wouldn't matter if names were changed or not. Come to think of it, though, the Animorphs didn't have to be quite so secretive about their lives in the beginning books, since if a Controller found even one book the Anis were basically screwed regardless of whether they changed names or not. They said it at least a dozen times: "If the Yeerks even learn we're human, we're in deep trouble."

I think it's safe to say that KA didn't really think through the secrecy thing well, and just wanted to tell a fun story, and the "we can't tell you our names" thing was just a way to add a fun suspenseful gimmick at the beginning.

I agree.

[Aermin]

I completely agree with the security issues, if the books were supposed to be released in real-time.  Even if finding out that the Animorphs were human wasn't a big issue, there were so many clues left that would have been completely deadly.  How many places just like The Gardens can you name?  Find their head vet.  Do your host have a younger brother and a cousin, both uninfested?  If their description fits the bill at all, take them.  Oh, hey, does your mall have a Cinnibon?  I don't think you'd even have to spend full time at the foodcourt to figure something out.

Beyond talking about the Animorphs, themselves, what about their secrets?  The known entrances to the Yeerk Pool?  The battle between the Vissers?  The Yeerk peace movement?  The free Hork-Bajir?  For goodness' sake, the Chee.

So, yes, I agree that this had to have been a clever narrative hook.  I also completely admit that seeing "My name is Jake Berenson," for the first time was a real shocker.  He used his real name.  That was his real name.  I guess that little hook really worked.

[Cloudbreaker]

I completely agree with the security issues, if the books were supposed to be released in real-time.  Even if finding out that the Animorphs were human wasn't a big issue, there were so many clues left that would have been completely deadly.  How many places just like The Gardens can you name?  Find their head vet.  Do your host have a younger brother and a cousin, both uninfested?  If their description fits the bill at all, take them.  Oh, hey, does your mall have a Cinnibon?  I don't think you'd even have to spend full time at the foodcourt to figure something out.

Not to mention the yeerks could just look at all the cities they were currently invading, how many of those cities had a group called The Sharing, how many of those cities had their yeerk pool attacked by large earth animals. and how many of those cities had an andalite war prince crash land in an abandoned construction site.  I think the yeerks could narrow it down from there.  And all of those clues were just in the first book.

[Aermin]

Yes!  Exactly!  I always found that amusing. 

Even without the books being released in their world, I was a little frustrated when only the first few volumes tended to have some Controller say, "I'm not 100% sure they're actually Andalites, but I'm not gonna be the guy who says that to Visser Three!"  I mean, come on, what happened there?  Give the Yeerks a little more credit than that.  Maybe they wouldn't want to directly tell the Visser he's wrong, but you would think someone would check out their suspicions.  If Aftran could do it, as a little girl, why not someone in their intelligence department?

[warren_bearclaw]

Yeah, I was just thinking about that the other day.... "Duh, wouldn't they kinda know what town they kept getting attacked in, anyways?" I have to say though, it wouldn't have been such a good series if they got found out by book five. I really liked it when they finally found out they were human, and instead of shouting "Andalite!" they started saying "Animorph!". That was kinda neat!

[abcxyz1020]

That has always been one of my biggest "huh?"s in the series.
The best explanation I can come up with for it is that the whole confidentiality thing in the narrations isn't so much of a plot device as it is a hook to give the series an identity, and to draw the reader into the world of secret warfare, where you can't trust anyone and you can't tell your enemies from your friends.

To build on Santa Bear's point, it was kind of interesting that once the Yeerks knew for sure that they were humans, not Andalites, their respect for them on the battlefield wasn't diminished - if anything, the Animorphs were more feared after their secret was revealed.

[roguebluejay]

Yeah, I was just thinking about that the other day.... "Duh, wouldn't they kinda know what town they kept getting attacked in, anyways?" I have to say though, it wouldn't have been such a good series if they got found out by book five. I really liked it when they finally found out they were human, and instead of shouting "Andalite!" they started saying "Animorph!". That was kinda neat!

Yeah, that was a crowning moment of awesome. But I really enjoyed the whole 'normal' life aspects of the book and the hijinks around taking Ax to the movies and stuff. You can't have that if they were living out in the woods someday.

If you were going to do a gritty reboot of the series, that is what you would do though. Have them living in the hork bajir camp in the mud instead of there pretty suburban homes.

You wouldn't have to change tobias much as a character... Except show more of his homelife. Speaking of, was it ever official that he was physically abused by his drunk uncle? Or was that something I invented in my head.

This is why it is weird rereading the books. Somethings you have forgotten, somethings you just made up. That was what was strange about the writing style, it was so minimalistic you kind of created your own universe.