Why didn't Ax acquire Alloran?

[NateSean]

Ever. I mean...okay, you don't want to kill Alloran while he's slowly dying from poison. I get that.

So acquire Alloran and have a morph you can use to really screw with the Yeerks.

That's not the only instance either. We learn in book 8 that Ax can acquire animals with his tail. He tail fights with Visser Three a couple of times following book 8. We know that animals don't always pass out when they acquire someone, so I wonder how many opportunities did Ax have to acquire Alloran.

And before you remind me about the "no sentients" rule, remember that was only the Animorphs qualm. A qualm they forgot a number of times through out the series when the situation was desperate.

And if not Ax, why couldn't Tobias find an opportunity to land on Visser Three's backside, the one are where he would be ostensibly unprotected as he duked it out with Ax. And no Yeerk would be desperate enough to kill an Andalite that they'd fire on Visser Three. (Unless it was an assasination attempt by another Yeerk, but lets assume for the moment that V3 is accompanied by trustworthy elite controllers) Tobias, post book 13, acquires Alloran, Visser Three may or may not trans out, thus giving the Animorphs ample opportunity to kill him.

Even if he doesn't trans out, now Visser Three has to live with the fear that somewhere on Earth is an Andalite with the morph of his host body, who can subvert commands and cause chaos among the Yeerks. Even controllers he maintains regular contact with can't inform every single Yeerk on the planet that an imposter may be on the loose, so that causes a bit of stirring.

Thoughts?

[Unknown User]

you mention no sentients being an Animorphs-only qualm, but the Andalites also had a huge taboo against morphing other andalites, it just wasn't done. I don't remember the exact book, but it was the one where they all morphed bees to get passed the force field that those other two andalites had put up to guard their house while they were secretly living on earth. I think it was a dishonor thing, and we all know how important honor is to Ax.

[AniDragon]

That was a different situation, though. That was morphing and becoming a nothlit to escape something. Escape a deadly illnesses, granted, but I think it was the "escape" part that Andalites didn't like.

[NateSean]

Right. And Aldrea acquired Alloran without issue.

And since morphing was meant as an infiltration method, Elfnagor, Arbron and Alloran aren't the only people with sentient animal morphs. I'm just saying it's an avenue that could have been explored. And again, if Ax had problems with it, well, he had no problem lending his DNA to Tobias so Tobias could have acquired V3 with no problems.

[Unknown User]

Ah, my mistake then. I guess there is only one thing we CAN do about this conundrum. Chalk it up to yet another KASU.

 Love you K.A.!

[TobiasMasonPark]

Right. And Aldrea acquired Alloran without issue.

And since morphing was meant as an infiltration method, Elfnagor, Arbron and Alloran aren't the only people with sentient animal morphs. I'm just saying it's an avenue that could have been explored. And again, if Ax had problems with it, well, he had no problem lending his DNA to Tobias so Tobias could have acquired V3 with no problems.

     I think Ax would have figured it was dishonarable to morph another Andalite--if such a thing even crossed his mind. But, ya, there were a lot of things the Animorphs could have done with the morphing power; i.e. morphing Visser Three to scare the enemy.

     As for the Ax/Tobias issue, I have three responses for that: 1) Tobias is his nephew, 2) It was necessary for the mission at hand, and 3) He probably would have done it if Jake asked him to.

[Gafrash]

Back in the early books, it could have simply been something attributed to the Andalite's disgust towards The Abomination. Why would one want to TURN INTO the form of his worst enemy.

However, towards the end, especially with Tobias/hawk being morph-capable, with the stakes going higher, it IS something the Anis should have tried. They certainly didn't lack opportunities, as you mentioned.
Infact, I think it's the type of daring/twist that KA should have included in the last major arc, to give it that much more of an edge...

[MoppingBear]

Back in the early books, it could have simply been something attributed to the Andalite's disgust towards The Abomination. Why would one want to TURN INTO the form of his worst enemy.

However, towards the end, especially with Tobias/hawk being morph-capable, with the stakes going higher, it IS something the Anis should have tried. They certainly didn't lack opportunities, as you mentioned.
Infact, I think it's the type of daring/twist that KA should have included in the last major arc, to give it that much more of an edge...

thought speak voices are distinct, so morphing him would not allow ax or tobias to copy his "voice".  it might work short term for escape and what not (like the time in... was it 7? where the elimmist shows them the future) but its not something that would let them strike major blows to the empire.

[NateSean]

thought speak voices are distinct,

And yet Aldrea convinced two of Alloran's men that she was him with his thoughtspeak voice.

[yunyun]

i think it's a good idea to acquire Alloren, they could make an exception with that since it will help defeat the yeerks and they could really use that morph and maybe some info from the Chee to see what the yeerks are planning and stuff

[MoppingBear]

thought speak voices are distinct,

And yet Aldrea convinced two of Alloran's men that she was him with his thoughtspeak voice.

some humans are good at mimicking other peoples voices too.