Seriously Though, Why Didn't the Animorphs Just...

[DinosaurNothlit]

Kidnapping and freeing human-controllers might work for a little while, but it wouldn't take long for the Yeerks to catch on to what was happening.  Or at least to the fact that SOMETHING was wrong.  Even if the Animorphs started faking their deaths, the Yeerks would wonder why a disproportionate number of controllers were suddenly 'dying.'  They would then beef up security around the remaining controllers, maybe start having all of them carry Dracons with them wherever they went, as a precaution against whatever-was-happening.

Dracon > Hork-bajir. 

[Nar Klawip]

After Cassie trapped herself as a caterpillar, why did the Anis not take better care of her? Even if they didn't know undergoing a metamorphosis would reset her morph clock, did they seriously just leave her out in the open like that as a cocoon? Why didn't they put her in a jar or something to keep her safe?

[DinosaurNothlit]

Oh, man, I just thought of one.

In #22, when they're trying to trick David into morphing rat to go underground to look for the blue box . . . why didn't he just morph rattlesnake instead?  A rattlesnake could go pretty much anywhere a rat could go.  I know he thought he had the other Animorphs as hostages, but, still, it never hurts to go for the extra ace in the hole.

The Animorphs' whole plan for him could've completely fallen apart, just like that.  He'd probably have been able to get out of the cage they'd set up for him, and even if not, he could have bitten Rachel as soon as he'd sensed something wrong.

[Tim Bruening]

Kidnapping and freeing human-controllers might work for a little while, but it wouldn't take long for the Yeerks to catch on to what was happening.  Or at least to the fact that SOMETHING was wrong.  Even if the Animorphs started faking their deaths, the Yeerks would wonder why a disproportionate number of controllers were suddenly 'dying.'  They would then beef up security around the remaining controllers, maybe start having all of them carry Dracons with them wherever they went, as a precaution against whatever-was-happening.

Dracon > Hork-bajir. 

My hope is that the Animorphs/free Hork-Bajir/Chee would be able to keep up the kidnappings long enough to free Tom and any other of their relatives and friends who have been Yeerked.  My proposed kidnapping spree would just be a smoke screen to camoplage the rescue of Tom.

[Nar Klawip]

Oh, man, I just thought of one.

In #22, when they're trying to trick David into morphing rat to go underground to look for the blue box . . . why didn't he just morph rattlesnake instead?  A rattlesnake could go pretty much anywhere a rat could go.  I know he thought he had the other Animorphs as hostages, but, still, it never hurts to go for the extra ace in the hole.

The Animorphs' whole plan for him could've completely fallen apart, just like that.  He'd probably have been able to get out of the cage they'd set up for him, and even if not, he could have bitten Rachel as soon as he'd sensed something wrong.

I'm not so sure a rattlesnake can go everywhere a rat can. Aren't adult rattlesnakes several feet long? With big heads? Also even if most aren't, i'm sure David (being David) acquired the largest one he could. His rattler morph probably couldn't fit through all the narrow pipes. And even if it was small enough, he still had to carry out the pieces of the cube which would be really hard as a snake.

And even if that all would have worked, David was supremely arrogant and ****y. He didn't think he needed any extra insurance, and the gang pretty cleverly manipulated him into thinking so.

[Dylan]

I'm suprised they never used Lions, Giraffes, Zebras, Bald Eagle, Ospreys, Whales, and Hyenas on the covers.  Also, that they used starfish and anteater before using Elephant on the covers. I know this isn't about the story, but still these are animals I thought would be easy ones to put the covers.

Infact, I'm surprised they never used Lions (except for David), Giraffes, Zebras, Pandas, Hyenas, and Panthers in the series at all. They also seem like easy animals to use.

[Snakie]

Infact, I'm surprised they never used Lions (except for David), Giraffes, Zebras, Pandas, Hyenas, and Panthers in the series at all. They also seem like easy animals to use.

James, the main auxillary Animorph, used a lion morph as his battle morph.  I remember Jake not liking that due to the David memories.  Why the Lion wasn't a morph for one of the main animorphs is anyone's guess.

Generally speaking I think the main group of animorphs all got well acclimated to their specific battle morphs and rarely deviated from them.  Even when they acquired other powerful morphs like rhinos and polar bears, everyone seemed to stick with their morph of choice in virtually every combat situation (Jake with his Tiger, Cassie with her wolf, etc.).

I guess for the characters they reached a comfort level with their morphs and didn't really deviate from them for that reason.  For K.A. I think she was really in love with the idea of everyone having a "signature" morph.  Why lion wasn't chosen for that role in the first place I have no idea.  Cassie in particular could have used some better firepower.

I really don't think a Giraffe morph would have been very usefull.

[Nar Klawip]

I think a giraffe would have just been a big target for dracon fire. Not to mention not very maneuverable. Like anywhere with regular ceilings would be a no go. Not to mention doors. And why would they have needed zebra morphs when they already had regular horse morphs? Would have just made them stand out, which would again would have made them cannon fodder. Same with pandas. No real use or point to acquiring them.

I always did want to see something they morphed all the time get put on the covers, like an osprey or bald eagle. Or a flea. Actually that would have been nasty.

[Dylan]

I think a giraffe would have just been a big target for dracon fire. Not to mention not very maneuverable. Like anywhere with regular ceilings would be a no go. Not to mention doors. And why would they have needed zebra morphs when they already had regular horse morphs? Would have just made them stand out, which would again would have made them cannon fodder. Same with pandas. No real use or point to acquiring them.

I always did want to see something they morphed all the time get put on the covers, like an osprey or bald eagle. Or a flea. Actually that would have been nasty.

Better Animals for the Covers:
Mountain Goat for The Reunion. I think that would have added more variety for Marco book covers.
Chimpanzee for The Experiment. Again, I think this would have gotten more variety in terms of the covers.
Osprey for The Revelation. Ant is used for about three seconds in the book. Osprey makes more since.
Hork Bajir for The Pretender. This morph is more relevant to the book.
Humpback Whale for The Prophecy. Cassie is always doing that falling out of the sky as a whale trick, and she did that in this book. (Going by me putting HB on the cover of 23)

[DinosaurNothlit]

Humpback Whale for The Prophecy. Cassie is always doing that falling out of the sky as a whale trick, and she did that in this book. (Going by me putting HB on the cover of 23)

Heh, yeah, and they could even put the human form at the top of the cover, with the morph-sequence moving visually downwards to the whale at the bottom of the cover, like Cassie is 'falling' as she's morphing.  That'd be brilliant.

[Dylan]

Humpback Whale for The Prophecy. Cassie is always doing that falling out of the sky as a whale trick, and she did that in this book. (Going by me putting HB on the cover of 23)

Heh, yeah, and they could even put the human form at the top of the cover, with the morph-sequence moving visually downwards to the whale at the bottom of the cover, like Cassie is 'falling' as she's morphing.  That'd be brilliant.

I'm sad that they never used that for a cover. Cassie did that enough times in the series, it seems like it should have it's own cover.

[Nar Klawip]

Right? That would have been a cool one. Man I want that as a poster now... (I wonder if Cassie ever read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)

Speaking of books where Cassie fell from the sky as a whale... When Ax was a flea on Marco when Marco jumped out of the blade ship in MM1, why did he demorph and then morph into a harrier. It was even stated that, as a flea, he would have been fine even if Marco became a gorilla pancake. I understood why Marco had to morph into a bird, but why Ax? He was nowhere near the morph time limit. I guess it made it more exciting?

[Dylan]

Right? That would have been a cool one. Man I want that as a poster now... (I wonder if Cassie ever read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)

Lol, I bet that is Cassie's favorite book 

[Tim Bruening]

Kidnapping and freeing human-controllers might work for a little while, but it wouldn't take long for the Yeerks to catch on to what was happening.  Or at least to the fact that SOMETHING was wrong.  Even if the Animorphs started faking their deaths, the Yeerks would wonder why a disproportionate number of controllers were suddenly 'dying.'  They would then beef up security around the remaining controllers, maybe start having all of them carry Dracons with them wherever they went, as a precaution against whatever-was-happening.

Dracon > Hork-bajir. 

Once the Yeerks finally discovered that the Animorphs were mostly human, I was figuring that the Animorphs and the Hork-Bajir could launch their kidnapping campaign, (with Tom being their first target) since they would no longer have to worry about the Yeerks discovering their true nature.

[Animorfer]

It is established that Chee programming allows them to prevent violence by holding someone down, like Erek's father did to Rachel's grizzly morph in book 10.

Erek should have held down a howler and allowed all the Animorphs to acquire him. If doing so would violate his programming because they would clearly use the howler morph to fight, they could've fed him some story about wanting to get into the howler's minds to see how they think (which is true, it's how they beat them at the end).

Since they didn't travel through time, they'd all have their howler morphs upon return to earth, and 6 howlers would basically be 100x better than their usual battle morphs.

The only problem I see with this is:

1. Perhaps the collective memory thing could come back to haunt them
2. It would tick off Crayak so much that he might seek revenge against them