Hey since apparently I’m sdkfldkjf in this fandom now or something have a non-exhaustive list of things I think a director/screenwriter would stick into an Animorphs netflix series that they absolutely shouldn’t but would for the drama™ of it all

1. Berenson Brawl

• Oh my god a Rachel vs Jake all out scrap. In the book it never happens except in Rachel’s fever dream. As much as she sometimes chafes against his leadership and the continual narrative suggestion that there’s a simmering desire to challenge him, having them actually fight to be in charge would be a huge disservice to both their characters as well as their relationship. Rachel and Jake have such a solid thing in which they know exactly their roles and how to work with one another, how to be each other’s anchor, leash-holder, or executioner if they get out of line. Having them brawl for leadership would be terrible, but oh my god it would 100% happen in a netflix adaptation. how could it not? there’d be so many on screen arguments, so many instances of Jake pulling Rachel back, that it would just have to culminate into a super-dramatic, brutal, tiger v.s grizzly bear beatdown that takes up like 20 minutes of the episode and has like 3 scene changes as they crash through buildings, trees, etc. 
  
• That said, holy fuck god i would be so into it. Like it’s terrible of me but the second the fight started I’d have to pause to go pop some popcorn and pour myself a glass of wine and get hyped and then settle in for the fucking show. 

2. Traitor Tobias 

• In Back to Before, Tobias gets Yeerked but mostly does not get his brain-controlled self up in anyone else’s business before having his head shot off. That absolutely would not fly in a netflix adaptation. There would 100% be a confrontation between Yeerk!Tobias and Rachel, and it would be tragic, and Yeerk!Tobias would probably be threatening her with a weapon to the temple, and then they’d look into each other’s eyes or some shit, and there’d be this moment of recognition…before someone, probably Ax or Marco, ices Tobias from behind. He collapses and Rachel catches him automatically, holds him in her arms and stares into his empty eyes, not understanding where this profound pain is coming from…
  
• I would be full out weeping. still drinking wine, but also weeping. 
  

3. Honeypot

• If you think we’re getting an adaptation involving spying, subterfuge, and teenagers, and not have one of them have to seduce a potential high ranking Yeerk controller who’s attending their school, you do not understand what old men in media think teenage audiences want to see. Someone’s going to a fancy restaurant with a potential enemy while everyone else hides in ridiculous outfits. 
  
• I would find this acceptable so long as the one on the date is Jake. 
  

3. High School

• Seriously, half the time in the books you forget they were somehow attending school. In a netflix series there would be recurring side characters, and ridiculous club responsibilities that people got sucked into, and the occasional episode climax that takes place at a school football game or pep rally for some reason. it’s the 90s. own the aesthetic.
  
• actually I’d legitimately really be into a slightly more expansive social world for the characters. like show Jake and Rachel and Marco shifting away from their friend groups, even though they’re trying to keep up appearances. have minor characters that notice that there’s something drastically different about their friends. 
  

4. Pair the Spares 

• It’s unavoidable that whenever Jake/Cassie and Rachel/Tobias get affectionate in the same scene, the camera’s going to pan to Marco and Ax standing awkwardly next to each other. Probably, they’d play it up for laughs. But I’m pretty down for out and undeniably bi Marco completely sincerely making passes at Ax whenever the rest of the team starts pairing up. And Ax just ???????? not understanding human courtship rituals. 
• It toes a precarious queerbaiting line but so long as it’s completely clear that Marco is actually bi I’m good with a recurring joke of anytime the established couples get mushy, Marco starts wiggling his eyebrows at Ax