The Absolute

In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, Gray, and guest host Nicole discuss Animorphs #51: The Absolute

*The “twist” of a female governor

*Why is the Yeerk invasion so small and slow?

*Should the Animorphs have gone public sooner?

*Stealing TANKS from a TRAIN

*Happy Marco and Happy Tobias are Good Buddies

*What Marco should really feel guilty about

*No sign of Tom or the Auxiliaries, but instead: Collins!

*We check in with the Governor again and she’s still an absolute badass

*The fantasy of government heroes

*Coffee, musical theater, and being a beautiful duck

*Ax finishes his humor arc

*Marco crosses an ethical line

*The “finesse” team

*90s (map) moments

*Predictions and fears for the final three books

The Ultimate

In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, Gray, and returning guest host Claire discuss Animorphs #50: The Ultimate

*There is some ableism here! But some good treatment of disability, too

*The new Animorphs are delightful even if Jenny is mad about them

*Oops, the Animorphs have probably been making the Yeerks kill lots of people

*Everything in this book is actually from Yeats' The Second Coming

*The last of the Animorphs missions as we knew them has happened already

*Cassie has to face herself at the start of the series

*Leadership vs. paternalism

*Do we sympathize with Naomi?

*Jake definitely thinks he's about to die

*How many stores are in this town, anyway?

*Someone needs to make us fan art of the costumes from this book

*Heart-eyes for Marco

*Cassie uses her superpower of emotional manipulation

*We just want Jake to be able to cry

*Will the narrative vindicate Cassie's decision to give Tom the cube?

*Even if it does we are SO MAD about it (except maybe Ted)

*The book covers are different now but Gray still hates them

*The series is spiraling out

The Diversion

In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss Animorphs #49: The Diversion

*Is this the worst Tobias book?

*The first book Jenny has disliked more than either Gray or Ted!

*Jake is a badass (who sometimes makes bad decisions)

*What it means to be a family

*The Yeerks make a good plan

*Let's pretends 47 didn’t happen

*Telling their parents

*Tobias has mommy issues, Jenny has threefold objections.

*Various headcanons

*Ableism strikes again

*Our bodies reflect our interactions with the world

*Morphing gives you magical baby skin

*Breaking the morph rules AGAIN

*“Science” corner

*The Geocities website for blood banks

*The Toy Boys

*Jenny ships Marco with everyone

*The moral panic of the 90s

*Rachel + Tobias

The Return

In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss Animorphs #48: The Return

*The Council weighs in on David’s ultimate fate

*Rachel’s need to fight for the good guys

*David’s moment-of-grace-ex-machina

*Ted tries to defend this book by ignoring the writing and the plot

*Jenny rants about how reality- and character-bending dream-logic sabotages the story

*The series sells Rachel short in its second half, especially in her own POV

*Rachel as a leader and Rachel alone

*Rachel’s loyalty amidst a series of betrayals

*Rachel of the Poorly Edited Callback

*Gray reminds us just how effing awful David is

*The internet age has arrived

*How the Animorphs see each other

*Ted promises the worst is over

The Ellimist Chronicles

In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, Gray, and returning guest host Joys discuss The Ellimist Chronicles

*Gray updates her endgame prediction

*Toomin is basically Bella from Twilight

*The Ketrans are cool and not a monoculture

*Lift for all!!

*Turns out the Ellimist invented dogs

*Free will vs. the predictability of the universe

*The true Y-space

*The importance of a balanced opponent

*Gray has a new goal in life

*Crayak is evil but also super boring

*Applegrant and the value of military preparedness

*What is a game, anyway?

*Toomin and Menno were secretly in love

*Ketrans are part of American gamer culture, somehow

*Secret revealed: Chee can fly

*Trauma changes you and you can never go back again

*Misogyny continues to be universal

*Crayak is the ultimate emo kid

*We (mostly) like the Ellimist but we wouldn't if we knew him

Animorphs #47 (The Resistance)

In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss The Resistance

*Approximate Rant Tally: Jenny: 4, Ted: 5, Gray: 9

*This book was a wasted opportunity, especially as we get to the end of the series 

*The depiction of Trekkies 

*Jake is a true monster in this book 

*The nobility of war 

*Let's get into it: It's Civil War Rants Time (a.k.a. Gray does Wikipedia research) 

*The Hork-Bajir battle is a bad analogy for the Civil War

*90s lip-service to color blindness

*“Both sides” bull-shirt

*A few things we do like, including ominous omens

*The Smurfette problem

*An extremely plausible plan to flood the valley *

Marco x Ax is now canon

*Jake needs a nap

*The cover of the next book breaks Gray’s predictive abilities

Animorphs #46 (The Deception)
In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss The Deception

*A Visser Two character study

*We’re mad about MAD

*The need for narrative balance in fictional war

*The Animorphs cry over spilled ethics

*Ax plays the Hitman video game and has an identity crisis

*Andalite high command is the worst *Concussion discussion

*Why Jake tells the Animorphs it’s time to escalate their tactics

*Cassie and Jake agree to disagree

*Why Ax knocks out his Prince

*Would the Council blow up the Yeerk Pool?

*Only boys get to know about war toys

*Hack the NSA 101

*Marco vs. the end of history

Animorphs #45 (The Revelation)

In this episode:

*Jenny, Ted, Gray, and guest host K.C. discuss The Revelation

*We liked this more than we expected!

*Gray is so the queen of predictions

*Animorphs as an Avengers movie

*This would have been a great format for a series ending

*How does this mess with the premise?

*Weird that Marco's parents don't interfere more in his fighting

*That's gonna be an awkward valley

*Was Nora a Controller all along?

*Z-Space nonsense

*Support for the theory of universal symbols

*Ax continues to get funnier

*This is the "Marco's greatest hits" book

*How is Marco going to deal with being dead after the war's over?

*Is Marco really about the clear bright line?

*The Rachel-Marco team-up

*Hork-Bajir with extra hit points

*Marco's question-mark betrayal

*Jake-Marco tension (but not the good kind)

*Why not give Marco's dad morphing power?

*Living in a field of dogs >> any other kind of social distancing

*Maybe the Chee are just kind of dumb

*The logistics of kandrona ray starvation

*Eva's revenge

*The beginning of the end

Animorphs #44 (The Unexpected)

In this episode:

*Returning guest host Rena!

*Cassie’s greatest hits

*The green light freeze-tag ray

*Yeerk technology woes

*Cassie’s ethical standards

*What does it mean to be a risk-taker?

*Travel to distant locations, meet people who tell you what you need to hear

*The treatment of the Australian aboriginals

*Rena’s amazing Australian accent

*Eating bugs

*Cassie takes “boomerang lessons”

*Andalites are not marsupials

*A geography lesson

*The Chee are still useless

*Funny moments

*Cassie’s ending arc

*90s/00s moments

Animorphs #43: The Test

In this episode:

Animorphs: PTSD Edition

Tobias’ theory of radical freedom

Is Tobias strong or weak?

Don’t trust Taylor

Deciding to blow up the Yeerk pool

Yeerker lurkers

Rachel’s reaction to passive killing

Cassie tells Tobias it’s not okay

Tobias gets resolution that the other Animorphs don’t

Taylor is the best villain with the worst plan

Was Taylor actually working with Visser Three?

Democracy

Taylor and Rachel

Tomato soup from a mug

Tobias does morphing magic

notallsith and unschweet

What do Taxxons do when their Yeerks are feeding?

Is dirt on the Taxxon homeworld nutritious?

Does Ted want a Taxxon for a pet?

Tobias morphs Taylor

90s moments