Let's Think Rationally, People

[TobiasMasonPark]

     This is a place to talk about all of the moments in the book series [and maybe even the television series, if you want a few chuckles] that make you think, "Let's just be reasonable, people".

     For example; the construction site--or, should I say ABANDONED construction site. Let's think rationally, people, would a small town like that actually keep an ABANDONED and potentially harmful place like that in their city? A place with rusted and used equipement that teenagers are frequently playing around, and a place that draws some bad elements? I mean, don't the Animorphs mention a few times that plenty of parents warn their kids about staying clear away from the place, and are FREQUENTLY complaining about it? Has anyone ACTUALLY heard about places that keep a construction site, despite the fact that construction has ceased, for whatever reason? I'm curious. I doubt it, though. The only logical--ha, logical and Animorphs, good one-- reason I can come up with is that the Ellimist had plans for the kids.

     Feel free to explain, answer, and list your own, "Lets think rationally, people" moments.

[LisaCharly]

Yep. There was an abandoned construction site down the road from my house for years when I was younger. It wasn't really abandoned, but years passed without work being done on it because the construction company and the city were caught in a legal mess about cement or something. We played in it all the time. I don't think it's hugely uncommon for construction to be paused for long periods of time and then be mistaken for abandoned.

And yes, we did play Animorphs in there all the flipping time.

Also, the Anis can't live in that small a town if they have a theme park and megamall.

Great idea for a thread, though!

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Thanks. I had like two other ones this morning, but I can't remember what they were...Something to do with their school, I think...

[BennyBoy]

One thing I was thinking about the other day... If you can't acquire a morph (ie. Acquiring a person/Andalite in morph) why doesn't Visser 3 simply try and acquire a suspected Andalite bandit. Like in Book 2 when Rachel is captured it would be fairly easy for the Visser to try and acquire Rachel in morph and therefore know she was a morph. Thoughts?

[Chad32]

Too subtle for V3.

[Liz]

But it's already apparent that they are in morph.  V3 knows that they aren't really cats or whatever, but trying to acquire them wouldn't reveal whether their natural forms are human or Andalite.  Or maybe I'm misunderstanding you?

Anyway, like Chad said, not his style.

[BennyBoy]

Yeah I know what you mean about the Visser's subtlety and have to agree.

Just to clarify though, what I meant was in the cases where the Visser has captured an animal but didn't know whether it was a morph he could try acquiring it. I don't even recall if/how many times this happens... but since the Animorphs don't speak to the Visser while morphed if he captures a suspected Andalite a simple test would be to acquire it.

Anyway... moving on.

Since I've just reread this one, I don't like the fact that the Animorphs survival in Book 4# depends on psychic whales. I know there's the whole dolphin, sea connection thing but it just felt silly to me.

[NekojinCat]

I always thought it was a little stupid of the Animorphs to go into battle with animal morphs and ONE unmorphed Andalite. Wouldn't this be suspicious, especially as Ax is clearly identifiable as a YOUNG Andalite? Presumably, Visser Three's access to Alloran's brain would also make him more than capable of telling Andalites apart. So he'd know he'd only ever seen the one youngster.

Just something that I always thought about.

In addition, something BennyBoy and I were discussing the other day - if you can use thoughtspeak in any morph, why must Ax revert to verbal communication when morphed to human? The Visser too. That makes about as much sense as the Animorphs being forced to communicate in birdsong! But that's perhaps more of an inconsistency than a rationality error. 

[anijen21]

I think Ax just likes it. Visser Three, idk, it'd be weird if he was in public and had a bunch of underlings doing his bidding without hearing a single word.

To be fair, in book 33, Ax delivers the whole play-by-play of Tom's celebration dinner to the team in thought-speech while in human morph. When I first read it I was sure it was a mistake since it had already been established (in book 8, I think) that Ax can't use thought speech in human morph, even though, like you said, that makes no sense. I'm still not totally convinced it wasn't a mistake that just ended up totally serendipitous and more logical than the original rule, idk.

[Liz]

Just to clarify though, what I meant was in the cases where the Visser has captured an animal but didn't know whether it was a morph he could try acquiring it. I don't even recall if/how many times this happens... but since the Animorphs don't speak to the Visser while morphed if he captures a suspected Andalite a simple test would be to acquire it.

Ohh yeah, I forgot in that book he wasn't sure if she was really a cat.  My bad.

Maybe V3 overlooked the only-one-Andalite thing because he was so sure they couldn't be humans?  Like maybe it's one of those things where you don't pay attention at the time, but later you look back and think "oh, how could I have missed that."  V3 never noticed what V1 did in #30 either, that there were never any human deaths.
Anyway, I thought it was more stupid of Tobias to use his hawk form in battle most of the time.  I think that's been discussed before though.

[BennyBoy]

He does question it at a few points. I remember him saying stuff to Ax about him being the only one not in morph. I'm sure there is something early in the series, possibly MM1, when he's thinking about it/talking to one of the Animorphs but something distracts him. So he does pick up on the strangeness of it but never puts two and two together. As you pointed out about V1, I think it's meant to demonstrate that V3 is fairly arrogant and unable to notice something. That being said, as others have pointed out, you'd think Alloran would have some thoughts on the matter.

Yeah, Tobias as a battle hawk didn't make a lot of sense. I don't know how many times he saves someone by raking the eyes of a Hork-Bajir. That's pretty much all he can do... not to mention the fact that his hawk body is so much frailer than any of the other battle morphs. Jake and the others can be hit by Dracon beams, slashed by Hork-Bajir and go on fighting. One hit and Tobias would be dead.

[RYTX]

Okay I was just thinking: how is it that A hand held dracon beam can rip through a truck ship, sizzle a deer into nothing in midair, but can only singe fur or at most remove the limb of a person in morph?

[Chad32]

Kind of a weapon version of badass decay. It was changed over time to make the blasts weaker so the Anis could afford to actually get hit by one and not be totally disentegrated.

[AniDragon]

I think they also had different settings. In a large battle, they probably didn't want to risk injuring a nearby controller if they missed, so better to have it on the "seriously injure" setting rather than the "dissintigrate" setting.

[BennyBoy]

Yeah I think it's mentioned in the series. At least I seem to remember it being a multiple settings thing.

In conjunction with the above, another thought I had was that dracon beams might deteriorate over distances - the further away you are the less damage it does.