Animorphology

In this episode:

Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #3: Enter the Enchanted

The glimmer of a larger plot

What should the teens do about Senna?

RENT is surprisingly useful

April is funny and empathetic

Tattoos and the 90s (Bonus: Gray reveals her most embarrassing tattoo to justify her judginess)

Gray rants about religion. And then about dragons.

Sexism. So much sexism.

Humanity is the battery for Everworld

Leadership

The plot keeps attacking us

Applegrant writes things Gray hates

Concerns about concussions

Cynicism is not inaccurate

Merlin SUCKS at poetry

90s Moments, Chicago Mentions, and Predictions for book 4

In this episode:

Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #2: Land of Loss

What we think of Christopher and his book

Christopher’s “humor” and “difficult personality” i.e. his racism and sexism

Exposition we didn’t know from book 1

Opposite girls

Aimless plotting

We meet the Coo-Hatch

The totally unsurprising yet painfully lazy portrayal of the Aztecs

Snakes

Merlin

Christopher watches too much TV

Predictions for book 3!

In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, Gray, and new host Meg(!!) discuss Everworld #1: Search for Senna

*This is classic Applegrant in so many ways

*Where does this book fall on the Swear Scale?

*The pants-wetting plothole

*The (only) two characters we all liked

*All cultures are sexist in the same way

*Does this world have an Ellimist, and is it Merlin?

*Theories on:

-Senna’s whammy powers

-Will the kids split up?

-The secret history between Christopher and April

-Applegrant’s diversity fatigue

*We try to pronounce Jörmungandr

*Thank goodness we finally have a theater kid

*In an apocalypse, we all want Gray's backpack

*Chicago references!

*A surprising number of descriptions of butts

*The truth behind hauling

*The inauguration of Boner Patrol

In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss The Invasion: The Graphic Novel

*We got the band back together!

*Spoiler-free discussion (no hints about the way Grine adapted it) during the first 12ish minutes

*Chris Grine feels the same way about morphing as Gray does, but with more glee

*Overall thoughts: We really like it!

*Some spoilers on:

**Thought speak

**Chris Grine does his own Inking and Lettering

**Some design and character choices

**The animals are really cool

*We request additional Chris Grine graphic novels, please

In this episode:

Jenny, Ted, and Gray host returning guests Liz, K.C., John, Lauren, Catie, Nicole, Jeremy, Emily, Claire, Rena, Meg, Joysweeper, and Kevin for a wide-ranging series retrospective

How did we feel about the end of the series, either now or twenty years ago?

What happened in the last chapter, and why did it only happen to the boys?

Cassie: the good, the bad, and the ghostwritten

Meg’s pitch for an animated Animorphs TV show

Emily’s update from Scholastic on the future of the audiobooks

Catie’s excited take on the art style of the graphic novel

Jake’s guilt and the Pool Ship decision

Yeerk robot bodies and other unexplored avenues

Taxxons and other nothlit endlings

Judging the series against its own potential

What is the instinct of the human animal?

What we would say to Applegrant

Our favorite moments from the series

In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss the ending of Animorphs and the series as a whole

*The ten-second series recap

*Did Animorphs cause us lasting trauma when we were kids?

*Our desires for book characters can be very cruel

*Jake needed to fall apart to teach us that war is bad

*Applegrant's letter to readers after the ending

*Does the ending sacrifice character to theme?

*There really aren't enough Scientologists out there to justify the Yeerks' strategy

*The Americentrism of the turn of the 21st century

*The series's fundamental optimism about humanity and the future of Earth

*Is Jake a bad person?

*What happened to Ax's revenge fantasy?

*Ted finally tells Ax he loves him

*Tobias should become a therapist

*Jenny accepts the bad parts of Rachel

*What if a thousand anacondas attacked the pool ship?

*Gender dynamics in the series's treatment of the Animorphs

*The future of the podcast!

In this episode:

CW: Major character death, crying noises

We read together and discuss one section at a time.

Chapters 1-4:

*Trauma at the hands of a paperback

*A warrior’s death

Chapters 5-9:

*More emotions, especially about Tobias

*Living with ambiguity

Chapters 10-13:

*Jake needs therapy. So. Much. Therapy.

*Dealing with the aftermath

Chapters 14-19:

*What comes next?

*We’re worried about Jake

Chapters 20-21:

*The start of the new adventures of Jake and his crew

Animorphs #53: The Answer

In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss Animorphs #53, The Answer for, like, a really long time

*The most important answer of all: how tall is Jake?

*Actually it’s mostly discussion about the tragedy of Jake, but also:

*We celebrate the triumphant return of Applegrant

*Jenny explains Jake’s last name

*Visser One’s bad management comes home to roost

*The sudden appearance of new factions and the retconning of old ones

*The proposal scene

*Rachel’s missing pieces

*Fridging

*The politics of being a Taxxon

*Seerow’s Kindness

*How Jake gets to the point where he does that thing that he does in this one

*The trolley problem

*Real soldiering and what it could do to you

*Aughties moments

*Gray predicts the final Animorphs book

*Where do trains come from, anyway?

Animorphs #52: The Sacrifice

In this episode:

Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss Animorphs #52, The Sacrifice

*Gray thinks they might kill off Rachel, and she's real mad about it

*Jenny revises her end-of-series feels

*The REAL secret plans of the Andalites

*Why are we doing this dance with Ax's loyalties again?

*This ghostwriter was set up for bad characterization

*Cassie, Rachel, and misogyny

*Gray brings down some behavioral psychology on Cassie

*Gray comes out against sapient pandas

*We're a little baffled by Jake and Cassie

*This book just fails at logistics, so hard

*The mysterious Tuan

*Jake continues to be great at standing up to authority

*Let's free the Hork-Bajir homeworld

*Ax is canonically an Animorph

*Visser One hides out in the pool in his spare time

*Where do trains come from, anyway?

Mailbag 4!

In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss comments and questions from listeners

*Middle grade authors on Twitter

*Trans Tobias

*Esplin’s Gender

*Australia

*Stuff Ted Laughed At

*The Council rules against war crimes

*Taxxonomy

*Animal insights, starring antechinus

*Science corner, starring a new jingle and helpless stupid giggling

*Ted-slowly-driving-Gray-crazy corner

*Andalite language

*Disability

*Reflections, including book recs and character arcs

*Ending feels

*Speculation/head canons, including the Helmacrons and related puns

*Cassie’s choice

*Pokemon trainers

*Book rankings