Animorphs as Adults

[DinosaurNothlit]

So, I was bored today (always a dangerous situation), and got to thinking . . . well, we all know that part of the charm of the series was how young the Animorphs were when they started dealing with an interstellar war.  But, what if the Animorphs hadn't been kids when Elfangor had found them?  Like, say, the war had started about ten or fifteen years after it did, and all events were likewise shifted?

I definitely wasn't going down this train of thought because I was mentally casting the Animorphs movie and realized that Emma Watson is now too old to play Rachel.  Nope.  Definitely not that reason at all.

Anyway, it would be easy to see them all working at the Gardens, I think.  Is that realistic?  Maybe not, but it makes it easier for plot purposes if they're all working in the same place.

Cassie would be a vet (duh, no explanation needed there), Rachel would be one of the dolphin trainers or some other kind of live performer who gets to show off her grace and general awesomeness (I like the idea of her as a dolphin trainer because that would make her and Cassie the only two who work directly with the animals, which would give them a reason to be friends before the rest of them meet), Marco might be working in the call center (I'm sure a zoo/theme park would need a few people answering phones and fielding questions, from people calling in to plan group outings or whatever), Jake would be some kind of low-level office executive of sorts (he isn't really ambitious enough to be running the whole show, but his natural leadership abilities would have been spotted and he would have been promoted at least once or twice, plus, with he and Marco both working in the offices, they'd get a chance to bond just like Cassie and Rachel do), and Tobias would be the night-shift janitor stuck cleaning up after everybody else (you know, that guy who hates his job and everything about his life but doesn't have the strength of will to change his own situation).

Anyway, there could be an employee appreciation event one evening, at the convention center adjacent to the mall.  Just a random thing put on by the Gardens to boost employee morale.  The five of them gravitate together for some reason (*cough* Ellimist *cough*), and don't really notice how late it's getting, until the party breaks up and they realize it's time to go home.  They all want to get home quickly at that point, so they take a little shortcut . . .

So, how would that affect the rest of the series, do you think?  On the one hand, they'd have a lot less to worry about in terms of parents finding out their true identities, but on the other hand, they'd probably end up with less free time, on account of all their adult responsibilities.  They'd have more money to throw around, but maybe not as much as you'd think because they're paying bills now.  And, with the five of them having varying levels of free time depending on their individual jobs, how do you think they'd be able to orchestrate missions?

. . . Or is this entire idea just sheer blasphemy and not worth considering?

[RYTX]

I need to go back to the eye doctor or something, because I never understood why you people ever thought Watson would be a fit for Rachel.
She's pretty, but so is Zoe Saldana, neither would make for a good Rachel. Emma's too dark of features, doens't have the height, even with make up and editing she won't have the length that figure to make it good, and I'm not so convinced she has the chops for the persona but....oh the adult thing.

Depends: and 10 years is fresh out of college, 15 is probably settling down into a career and such. It's the difference between Cassie in vet school and Cassie the Vet, and while a moments thought got me to like Rachel as a trainer, I can't see her keeping that long.
And were there any pre-existing relations? I think Jake and Rachel still being cousins could work
Can't envision Marco working at the Gardens, really not Jake either, though Tobias the night janitor is grossly appropriate.

I'm still in school, may always be in school so I'm not sure, but an 8 hour a day with nothing to take home sounds more accepting of saving the world than 7 hrs of school, plus homework, plus extra cirriculars, plus no car. I don't see that being a hold up.
No sure where money would help.

And of course, in this scenario, is Ax an adult. That changes everything


Overall I like your set up more than I thought I would, (expect *cough* Ellimist *cough*-I always hate that)
But all good ideas need tweaking. Something to play with. More later

[DinosaurNothlit]

It isn't so much her looks (okay, okay, I admit I find her sexy and all, which of course has nothing to do with anything *shifty eyes*), as the attitude.  Did you see her in "This is the End"?  Go watch that movie, and then tell me if you still think she wouldn't make a good Rachel.

Hmm, yeah, that's a good point about the difference between 10 years and 15.  Maybe somewhere in between?  12-ish?  Out of college for a couple years, but still figuring things out?

Cassie might be just intern-ing at the Gardens, since yeah, vet school would put her in school longer than the others.

As for Rachel, that's a good point about her not keeping a dolphin trainer job long.  Then again, can you really think of any job she would keep for long?  She's the sort of person I can't really see just settling into a stable career and being like, 'okay, this is my life now.'  No, she would eventually get bored of almost any routine, and she's a motivated enough person that the boredom would push her to find something new and different.  So she might be relatively new to the dolphin trainer position (maybe just an assistant to one of the more experienced trainers), just having applied because it sounded fun or something.

Okay, maybe, she might eventually settle into a job, but I can't see her doing that until she's in her thirties at the very least.  Until then, it's whatever strikes her as interesting.

Really?  You can't see Marco working at the Gardens?  Keep in mind that it is a theme park, as well as a zoo.  I can't much see Marco working at a zoo, either, but at a theme park?  Yeah, he would think that sounded like fun.  And maybe, since he and Jake could have been friends before, it was Marco who talked Jake into applying there too.

Come to think of it, maybe it could have been Cassie who pushed Rachel into trying out the dolphin trainer job, if we go the route of 'they knew each other before.'  Cassie/Rachel and Jake/Marco could have been college roommates, or something.

*shrugs* Yeah, I'm not sure how they would use the extra money, either.  I suppose there was never really anything in the series they wanted to buy, that they couldn't afford on their allowances.

Ax would also be older, yeah.  Although, since Andalites age slower than humans, we could conceivably make him relatively younger in comparison if we go the 'time is shifted twelve years forward' route.  Oy, I'd try to figure out how old in Andalite years that'd make him, but it's early and my head hurts just thinking about it.

Lol, sorry about the Ellimist reference.  Yeah, I never really liked that concept either.  Interesting idea, but poorly executed.

[AniDragon]

One thing to keep in mind is that the consequences of missing work are far worst than the consequences of missing school. If you miss a day of school without notice, the worst they can do is call your parents, and maybe you get accused of cutting class to goof off.

If you miss work without notice? Especially if it's a reoccurring issue? You aren't going to keep that job for long. You loose your job, you can't pay rent, or buy food, or make car payments.

[donut]

I could totally see Marco working a comedy routine at the Gardens' shows.  But I don't see Rachel as a dolphin trainer...  maybe working counterpart to Marco in a show...  Rachel would be hard to place at the Gardens.

Ax would also be older, yeah.  Although, since Andalites age slower than humans, we could conceivably make him relatively younger in comparison if we go the 'time is shifted twelve years forward' route.  Oy, I'd try to figure out how old in Andalite years that'd make him, but it's early and my head hurts just thinking about it.

I dunno, Ax's age would still work if he was a cadet really... he was portrayed as being younger than he really was.  He actually was a member of their military and was assigned to a warship.  Kinda a KASU, but an intentional one I think.  He had to be in the military to show up, but he had to fit the ages of the anis.  Plus any older and he'd have experience enough to want to take charge.  The only way I can really see Ax being more experienced and being ok with a human in charge would be if he was their version of special forces, and had experience training insurgents.

[RYTX]

I don't know if an older Ax would take Jake as prince. (I'm assuming he'd have made a little head way in ranking after some time in service)
Honestly, I bet a lot of aristh would have resisted a "lesser" species as a leader. Got lucky Ax wasn't the kind to self promote.
I figured he'd have to have is story twisted to either be a scientist who has to learn to fight, or, funny enough, a civilian. I've no idea how the latter would get to Earth, but then *cough*.... excuse me


I don't see Marco doing the Gardens because it's too small time. I don't think he'd have made it big without Animorphs, and I don't think he's the run to hollywood on a whim type, but based on his persona, I don't think he'd be content putting on kids shows-too many constraints to his style (gotta be  PC and G rated), and it's not a venue he'd carry. He could of course, but I don't think he'd seek it out as a place to stay

Really, Jake too. You're right, he wouldn't seek anything higher, but I see him the type of guy who stumbles into something bigger. (Which *** they all managed to do eh?)


But beyond jobs you have to ask what else is different? Missing school is different than missing work, but maybe this time they'd be smarter about using the chee. (Are they smarter in general, or in any way that's useful?)
And then, most people can call in sick days/ or vacation. Can't do it too much, or it'd be traceable, but school rarely lets you pick days off

The Animorphs iterate that kids will suspend believe early than adults, how flexible are these guys to change?

Is Eva is still V1? How the hell is Marco to handle that if she's been dead a decade? Death always sucks, but how you handle it changes depending how you grow, and someone's relative time of death. Even if it's still just been a couple years, it removes that, "Marco had to grow up early to take care of his dad" part of his persona

While I do buy the night janitor thing, I can also see Tobias going to college and having found himself, and not be semi-emo victimized thing that the routine of middle-high school enables. Maybe even not needing to cling to Rachel

And in fact, I don't think Rachel will have made it to adulthood with a bit of dating in a world where they aren't essentially an item since 13. Is that to be suspended immediately, how's a romantic relationship developing in and out of the group


Lot of things to consider

[Aluminator (Kit)]

I honestly don't know that I can see Ax as a member of Special Forces anything. He just doesn't seem the type, honestly... though the training might change that. And you're totally right, donut, he'd be more... like, Andalite-arrogant if he was much older, and want to take charge. He's quite difficult to place if they're adults.

I do like the direction this is taking, where they wouldn't all be there for too terribly long, but they all happen to work there at the time the series begins.

See, I have a hard time taking who the Animorphs were before Elfangor and extrapolating that out twelve years. If we're sticking to having them meet at The Gardens, here's what I see: Cassie's the easiest- her love of animals and her parents would make her pretty obviously go for something animals-- a shoe-in for a vet tech or whatever at The Gardens. Tobias the drifter/night janitor is also undeniably something I could see (and in the interest of keeping the characters somewhat the same, I think we'd want to make it so that he hadn't 'found himself' by the time the series started). Rachel, at the beginning of the series, was very smart, and seemingly pretty ambitious, but she had basically no trace of the aggression we see as the series progresses-- I could envision some of that coming out anyway, and could absolutely see her following in her mother's footsteps as a lawyer. If she's at school for law, though, it does make her harder to place at The Gardens... maybe, by this point, an intern in their, like, legal area? Would The Gardens even have anyone on their payroll permanently for legal stuff? Maybe she's interning with a lawyer for whom The Gardens is a client? Marco's sharp, and a 'logical' thinker with the ability to see the clear, straight line from A to B (or however they word that a thousand times), which implies a propensity for planning and forethought-- I could see him getting into something along the lines of engineering or programming. However, he's also a very outgoing and mischievous, which could well place him in some kind of public spotlight-- if we're going with The Gardens, I'd see him as the most likely to be a dolphin trainer or whatever. The planning and execution of the shows with the spotlight. I'm having trouble picturing the events that would lead to him actually getting there, though. Jake's tough too-- smart, good-hearted guy with natural leadership abilities who only, I think, took on the leadership role because it was forced on him. Without the war, I could see him sort of unambitiously floundering his way into like a groundskeeper position or something at The Gardens-- at the age we're talking about, I don't know that I can see him having found his way to much more (which then does give us the whole 'the war brings out his potential' dynamic from the series originally, which I like).

You'd have Jake and Rachel staying in touch as cousins, of course.  Jake and Marco are friends, as are Rachel and Cassie. You'd need Jake having stood up for Tobias at some point. Same dynamics there as during the series, we just don't have them get to know each other until 12 years later.

And then, yes, there's the rest of their lives. They're all going to have other friendships, other relationships, family concerns, at that age there's a good chance that at least one of them would be married (that could be twisted either way, of course)... Even if we do tweak it so that these are adults who can suspend their disbelief as well as the Animorphs did as teenagers, the background for the story is going to feel a lot different...

Idiot twenty-somethings with a death wish...

[donut]

I could see Cassie just getting back from a tour with the peace corps before coming to the Gardens, just to add some contrast with what she's doing and what she's about to have to do.  It might be a cheap literary trick, but what the heck.

I think Rachel had a lot of agression, she just didn't have the violence.  I think in the first book Jake described her something like, take 1 look you'd notice this, take a 2nd you'd notice that, take a 3rd and she'd be in your face asking what your problem was.  It's been a few years since I read it though.  Lawyer makes a lot of sense for her, and the Gardens should have at least several lawyers.  They have exotic animals, roller coasters, and sell food.  That's a lot of liability and money.  I can see her as an intern or paralegal at the Gardens while getting ready for lawschool.

I disagree about Jake though.  He wouldn't be at his potential like you said, but someone like that's going to end up in a middle management position.  He's got the ability and the intelligence.  I really think he has the quiet ambition to go for it too.  I wouldn't be suprised though if he tried following in his father's steps and tried to become a doctor, but that wouldn't work with the series.

I also wouldn't be suprised if Tobias had gotten into the Sharing, or the adult version of the Sharing if they have one, by the time the adult series started.  He's the right personality for the Sharing.  It's kinda hit or miss if the yeerks would turn him into a controller though.  He doesn't get them anything on Earth since he's a nobody, but he wouldn't be missed if they shipped him off to another planet.

Is Eva is still V1? How the hell is Marco to handle that if she's been dead a decade? Death always sucks, but how you handle it changes depending how you grow, and someone's relative time of death. Even if it's still just been a couple years, it removes that, "Marco had to grow up early to take care of his dad" part of his persona

Move Eva's death back by 10 years or so.  The invasion timeline has to be pretty much the same anyway, otherwise the yeerks already won.  Marco could have had to start taking care of his dad around when he was 15 or even 17.  It'd still give him that part of his past of having to take care of his dad, and now he'd had to have been going from after school job to job to support himself and his dad.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     So, by adults, I assume 20-25 age range? College/University age? I'll do this in the order the books are narrated, then.

     Jake:

     I sort of agree with the consensus that he wouldn't be as ambitious as an adult prior to the war. I can buy the middle-management thing. Or, hell, maybe even just a student--his dad's a pediatrician (which, I assume get paid almost as well as full Doctors) and his mom's a writer. Of course, Jake could have a work ethic to him--not wanting to just coast on his parents' money.  I read a fic once where Jake was in the military before encountering Elfangor--which would fit his family history, having a grandfather in WWII and a great-great uncle in the civil war. I think I could settle for either middle-management nobody, or active soldier on leave at the time this series begins. I can also see him dating Melissa Chapman in High School, and maybe afterward; likely as a second option, since he couldn't get the courage to ask Cassie out while they were in school--again, assuming we're going with them knowing each other previously.

     Rachel:

     Lawyer, totally--or studying to be one. She's a lot like her mom, and she admitted to being just okay at gymnastics, so that wouldn't be a career option. Or she could get into her dad's business-- she could totally pull of news anchor, I think--maybe even a field reporter investigating...the Sharing...Hang on, I think I've got an idea going here...* I've often wondered how Rachel would function if she were allowed to be "sexy." We couldn't see that in the series, since it was for 9 year olds. But I can see her using sex as a substitute for the violent nature she'd develop once they enter the invasion. She'd be dominating--but not a dominatrix-- and wouldn't keep a long-term relationship; instead using guys as a means to an end--scratching an itch, if you will.

     Tobias:

     Poor, poor Tobias. We just have so little faith in you I've played with the theory that he'd become a Sci-Fi author--but that was in a world where there were no Yeerks (but Tobias still existed...) and the Animorphs went to a high school reunion...That was a fic I never got around to starting. In this series, where they're older, I can see him as an intern, or low-ranking employee: maybe a mail room job, or, as you've all said, a janitor. Or maybe he could work as a camera man, or intern at a news station, where he follows around a curious, and attractive, local journalist and field reporter investigating the Sharing...

     Cassie:

     Yea, we're all pretty much going the Gardens route. So, why beat a dead Andalite?

     Marco:

     I see him maybe working software, or at a video game store, or something. He doesn't seem like the undergraduate type--probably didn't go to school after high school. In the fic where Jake's in the military, Marco was an auto-mechanic or something like that--which I can buy. Maybe he'd be a programmer like his dad? The thing is: Marco's smart and all, but he's just as motivated as Jake--which is to say: not very motivated. I could see him working construction, too...Hey, don't the Animorphs have one of those in their town? Maybe Marco noticed some people snooping around there at times?

     Ax:

     Yea, aristh or slightly higher up than that. It would be interesting to see a power-struggle between Ax and Jake at first. I figured Ax would just let Jake run things since he new the territory, and the Animorphs were the last ones to see Elfangor alive, and he was...I don't know, the Andalite equivalent of touched...that they would fight for Elfangor's cause.

     David:

     ...Wait, he wouldn't appear here, would he...

     This brings up a good point: what happens to all the secondary characters? Tom, Melissa, David, Chapman, etc. How do characters that the Animorphs new in high school fit into this new world?

     * I can see Rachel as a reporter chasing a conspiracy, and that's how the s**t hits the fan in this series.

[Tim Bruening]

So, I was bored today (always a dangerous situation), and got to thinking . . . well, we all know that part of the charm of the series was how young the Animorphs were when they started dealing with an interstellar war.  But, what if the Animorphs hadn't been kids when Elfangor had found them?  Like, say, the war had started about ten or fifteen years after it did, and all events were likewise shifted?

Anyway, it would be easy to see them all working at the Gardens, I think.  Is that realistic?  Maybe not, but it makes it easier for plot purposes if they're all working in the same place.

Cassie would be a vet (duh, no explanation needed there), Rachel would be one of the dolphin trainers or some other kind of live performer who gets to show off her grace and general awesomeness (I like the idea of her as a dolphin trainer because that would make her and Cassie the only two who work directly with the animals, which would give them a reason to be friends before the rest of them meet), Marco might be working in the call center (I'm sure a zoo/theme park would need a few people answering phones and fielding questions, from people calling in to plan group outings or whatever), Jake would be some kind of low-level office executive of sorts (he isn't really ambitious enough to be running the whole show, but his natural leadership abilities would have been spotted and he would have been promoted at least once or twice, plus, with he and Marco both working in the offices, they'd get a chance to bond just like Cassie and Rachel do), and Tobias would be the night-shift janitor stuck cleaning up after everybody else (you know, that guy who hates his job and everything about his life but doesn't have the strength of will to change his own situation).

Anyway, there could be an employee appreciation event one evening, at the convention center adjacent to the mall.  Just a random thing put on by the Gardens to boost employee morale.  The five of them gravitate together for some reason (*cough* Ellimist *cough*), and don't really notice how late it's getting, until the party breaks up and they realize it's time to go home.  They all want to get home quickly at that point, so they take a little shortcut . . .

So, how would that affect the rest of the series, do you think?  On the one hand, they'd have a lot less to worry about in terms of parents finding out their true identities, but on the other hand, they'd probably end up with less free time, on account of all their adult responsibilities.  They'd have more money to throw around, but maybe not as much as you'd think because they're paying bills now.  And, with the five of them having varying levels of free time depending on their individual jobs, how do you think they'd be able to orchestrate missions?

. . . Or is this entire idea just sheer blasphemy and not worth considering?

I like the idea of Animorphs as adults.  They would likely be cleverer in their fight against the Yeerks and in their efforts to alert the rest of humanity.

Perhaps they could alert co-workers and local soldiers to the Yeerk threat by showing them their morphing abilities, after they first make certain that said co-workers and soldiers aren't Controllers.

On the other hand, the Controllers will notice if Jake et al take too many sick days in order to fight the Yeerks.  (The Controllers will probably have already infiltrated The Gardens!).

What position does Tom hold in this alternate Animorph universe?