Wait...WHY, exactly, can't nothlits acquire the power to morph?

[TobiasMasonPark]

     I mean, if we look at the rules for morphing and the way the process works, it doesn't make sense, does it? I mean, you're taking the DNA that you're focusing on, morph it, and your mass or DNA or whatever goes into z-space. So if one was, say, to morph a red-tailed hawk, over stay the two hour morphing limit, and get trapped, it's not a human anymore--save for the intelligence part. So, if we have a new creature, and we know from Animorphs 39: the Hidden that animals can morph, too, then according to the rules it should be able to morph, shouldn't it?

     From a plot stand point, it makes sense. I mean, there's not much at stake if Tobias got trapped and they just gave him his morphing powers back. It wouldn't give him his body back, but it would help him get over some of his wangst.

     Seriously, though, aside from plot, why can't nothlits touch the morphing cube and regain the power to morph?

[Chad32]

Maybe because the technology is still in their system, and touching it again can't overwrite what is already there. I wouldn't take 39 very seriously. It's not like it's physically possible for an ant to comprehend a Human, and focus on it to turn into one.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Then why don't the superior Andalites just use their technology to reverse the process? I mean, if the technology is, as you say, "still there."

[Chad32]

They just made the tech a few decades ago. Maybe they just haven't made that scientific breakthrough yet.

[Snakie]

We already know you can neither acquire nor morph into other creatures while morphing.

It seems that you must be in your "original form" in order to take advantage of the technology in those ways.  Maybe you need to be in your original for to take advantage of the technology in ANY way (including attaining it), unless, of course, you have a semi-omnipotent friend.

I don't think being a nothlit makes that particular morph your new "original form".  Its just a permanent state of being "in morph", and remained as such for Tobias until the Ellimist stepped in.

Seeing as we really don't understand much about morphing technology save a handful of rules and something about Z-space when you morph small creatures, I guess I just always accepted that as a limitation of the technology.

[Estelore]

Remember the book when the local authorities were doing blood tests on everybody? The acquired animals' DNA is encapsulated in the demorphed-form's blood, while morphed forms only have the demorphed-form's DNA encapsulated, making demorphing the only option, and not morphing directly to another creature.

[Aluminator (Kit)]

See, my guess here is that it does have to do with the mind. It's probably a failsafe.

Like you said, when Tobias became a nothlit, the only part of him that remained human was his intelligence. Since, when the Animorphs become, say, insects, they still manage to retain their human minds, and since the mind of a flea could not possibly encapsulate a human consciousness, we know that the morph must retain some kind of connection to the mind in Z-space (this also supports the idea I have that information is treated entirely differently than matter in a Z-space environment that leads to some exciting implications, but that's for another thread).

Anyway, I'd guess that the morphing tech simply won't allow itself to be given to a nothlit because there's some kind of danger of putting the mind through a double-link like that- maybe the difference in the way time passes between the real world and Z-space causes some sort of degredation or insanity. Or maybe the link from original mind in Z-space to nothlit body to that body's mind in Z-space and back to the new morph would cause the original link to break. So Tobias the human would effectively die, leaving his body as nothing more than a dolphin with the mind of a hawk or whatever.

For all we know, it may take a few iterations of nothlitization before any problems are really seen, but if the morphing technology can't tell how many links it is to the original body, it would be better to build in that failsafe.

I forgot how much fun it was to theorize about crazy stuff like this ^_^

[donut]

^

I'm thinking something like this as well.  Since the original body is stored in z space, including the mind, I would think that when someone gets the morphing ability, it sets that body to be the 'base'.  If someone were to regain the morphing ability, it might erase the original matter being stored, turning Tobias into a hawk in a dolphin's body like Lumy said.

[Kyle]

I thought I remembered reading  at some point in the series that the andalites could have easily allowed for it, it was an arbitrary rule the inventor imposed on it to keep everyone grounded. If they allowed everyone to morph as they please, for as long as they wanted, it would open up a can of worms. Chaos would ensue.

[Chad32]

That was probably a fanfic. Not canon. I don't remember reading that in the books.

[QIfry]

Well don't forget only exception to "nothlits getting the morphing power back"... Cassie trapping herself as a caterpillar who later turned into a butterfly. Morphing clock restarter. 

[SuperBlue]

So if one was, say, to morph a red-tailed hawk, over stay the two hour morphing limit, and get trapped, it's not a human anymore--save for the intelligence part.

I think the fact that he could still use thought speech and had human intelligence proves that going over the two hour limit didn't make him a hawk. He was still human just like how the other Animorphs are still human when they morph. He's just been cut off from Z-space. Think of Z-space as a friend who's borrowing something from you (in this case, your human body) but then moves to another city or state or even country and by the time you remember he still had that important item of yours, it's already too late to get it back. It's still technically yours, you just no longer have a way of getting it. Tobias' real mind and body are still floating around in Z-space. He's still in morph even though his hawk form became his default when he got his morphing powers back (Lol a morph within a morph. Is this Animorphs or Inception) But he waited too long to get it back and now it's out of his reach.

[Kyle]

That was probably a fanfic. Not canon. I don't remember reading that in the books.

I could be wrong, but I don't read fanfic so it couldn't be that.

[Chad32]

Hmm. I don't know. I think aldrea talked about it in the Hork-Bajir chronicles book. Maybe there?

[TobiasMasonPark]

Hmm. I don't know. I think aldrea talked about it in the Hork-Bajir chronicles book. Maybe there?

     Nope. It's not in there. I used ctrl g to search for nothlit in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles ebook.

     I don't think it was ever said that the Andalites could fix nothlitism.