Anonymous asked: y;know i was intrigued and kinda interested in reading them but then i was like 'yeah but it's 50+ books you're gonna have to go to the library to pick up and you got shit to do buddy" but then. but then you added that link. and now. here i am. about to descend into this madness
im doing this and getting them right now :)
Good, welcome to the Animorphs Club, bring tissues and maybe a comfort item.
Anonymous asked: ok so..... i always ignored the animorphs books as a kid (i think i picked one up and it wasn't the first book and i was confused and annoyed and the covers were ???? tacky??) but you're making me want to get into them as a 21 year old.... i mean. i guess i'm asking: what should i expect. how much of a commitment am i getting myself into.
Right, so, the first thing you should know here is that I know plenty of people who started reading these books as adults and therefore: no judgement. The covers, also, are terrible, so furthermore no judgement on that front.
THAT BEING SAID.
Animorphs is a best-beloved series and it’s not their fault they lost the cover art lottery, this was such a formative series in my life. Like, Robin McKinley taught me what you could do with words and stories, but Animorphs taught me what you should do to characters. RIP all my characters who are still paying for that particular lesson.
So, Animorphs is a middle grade series, yes, it can be cheesy and tropey and absurd (and DATED good lord the 90′s seem like a long time ago). But also…like, it’s a 54 book series literally RIDDLED with grim moral quandries, grisly murder, gory battles, war crimes, and general trauma, so forgive them their occasional descent into middle grade nonsense. If you’ve ever looked a kid’s series that you loved to bits and pieces and thought to yourself “Jesus, these kids should be an absolute train wreck, I can’t believe Harry Potter/Percy Jackson/whoever sleeps at all ever,” Animorphs is the answer to that thought. The first named character–my beloved weird alien prince Elfangor, the Wise Mentor Character™–dies horribly forty pages into the first book, and it pretty much goes downhill from there. I affectionately call the kids the PTSD Squad and lordy. LORDY. Are they fucking ever. Ongoing Fandomn Discourse includes the eternal question of “What is the first onscreen instance of really serious PTSD” and I generally argue for the suicide attempt in Book 3, but I could also see my way to granting the nightmare in Book 2. The people who think it takes until Book 5 are just wrong, I love you all, but no.
But so, in terms of what you’re committing to…that. That is what you’d be committing to. In addition to the main series, there are 4 Megamorphs (of WILDLY variable quality, to be sure, and largely optional, but good brain candy most of the time) and 4 Chronicles. The Chronicles are Andalite (PHENOMENAL BOOK, COULD BE READ INDEPENDENTLY, ABOUT MY GOOD WEIRD BOY ELFANGOR, DEF A FAVORITE), Hork-Bajir (really interesting characters, good concept, a little shaky on the dismount, so to speak), Visser (I don’t remember a ton of this one but GODDAMN I love Eva), and Ellimist (didn’t read this because honestly I didn’t care about the Ellimist that much as a kid except in terms of his ongoing torment of the Squad and I still don’t).
I feel it’s also my duty to warn you that events conspired against KA Applegate and much of the second half of the series is written by an assortment of ghostwriters, who are ALSO of wildly variable quality. Example: Book 33, affectionately called The Torture Book by much of the fandom, could probably be used to raise me from the dead so that I could enjoy it one more time. Books 37 or 39, on the other hand, which I pretend don’t exist, could be used to raise me from the dead so that I could bitch at length about how much I Fucking Hate Them.
To that end, I recommend letting yourself skim and/or skip books if you reach one you really can’t handle the writing in after, say, the early 30′s.
ANYWAY.
ANIMORPHS.
GREAT SERIES.
KEEP ME POSTED IF YOU CHOOSE TO READ THEM.
Anonymous asked: They gave me feelings about a vice-principal... That's not faaaaaaaaaaaaair
“I was used to being alone” rip me
This???? Is the single greatest thing that Tumblr has ever done for me???? I mean, besides resurrecting my bone-deep adoration for this series upon the discovery of the fandom (did you know it’s actually possible to implode from enthusiasm, because I did that), but like, this is the greatest thing I’ve ever experienced on this blue hellsite.
But anyway, in order: YEAH MAN LISTEN MY EMOTIONS ABOUT CHAPMAN ARE COMPLICATED™ BUT LIKE HE JUST WANTS TO TAKE CARE OF HIS DAUGHTER? I’M? VERY EMOTIONAL ABOUT THAT SCENE WHERE HE REQUESTS CONTROL OF HIS BODY? ALSO HERE’S AN UNSOLICITED PLUG FOR MY OWN FIC, THIS ONE’S ABOUT MELISSA BEING IN LOVE WITH RACHEL.
AND YEAH, NO, LISTEN, TOBIAS WAS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER AS A KID AND HE’S MY FAVORITE CHARACTER NOW (to be fair, dead tied with Rachel) AND HONESTLY READING ANY OF HIS BOOKS MAKES ME KIND OF NEED TO SCREAM A LOT FOREVER AND ALWAYS.
Vodka Tia Moran