Animorphs was Darker than You Remember

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[@alwaysrecycles365]

That rat boy incident: at one point another kid at their school gets the same power to morph and they try to integrate him in to their team, but the new kid wants to use his powers to make money instead of fighting aliens. Their solution is to lure the kid (in rat form) to a garbage island, they get him inside a tiny box and trap him in there. Thats why he cannot return to human form bc the space is too small for his human body to fit. If they are ever in their animal form for over 2 hours they are stuck in that form permanently. All the kids communicate telepathically and they can hear the rat boy begging for help as they abandon him on the island. So he is stuck as a rat, living among actual rats, and he can't ask a human for help bc the telepathy only works among people with the morphing powers. The implication is dark, he doesnt know how to live as a rat but he has no choice but to embrace his new existence. Its established that they feel the urges and instincts of the animal, so he would feel drawn towards eating garbage, burrowing in filth, etc. And eventually he'd just give in and his humanity would be gone 😬 Edit: comments are right, he did worse things than try to make money. I guess I forgot he actually killed a hawk thinking it was Tobias (the kid who got stuck in hawk form permanently).

[@keithfilibeck2390]

actually you can telepathically broadcast to anyone, but there isn't any humans around, so he's sunk.

[@keithfilibeck2390]

and that kid actually straight up dies later.

[@fishsmell3939]

Should have just killed him.

[@AstroBimpson]

They trapped him in his rat body just for trying to make some cash? What was he getting into human trafficking or something because that's the only thing that seems fitting of the punishment lol

[@TheMucky88]

​@@AstroBimpsonDavid attacks them and tries to turn them in and kill the team. He had to go. I loved those books.

[@snaptrap5558]

0:40 "on a mission she was doing..." Her 'mission' was to retrieve an earring that she accidentally dropped in a tide pool

[@kyle360123]

The ant boy screaming until he dies is a hilarious image in my head lmfao Like the ultimate bad acid trip

[@rollastudent]

Why can’t you just be normal? Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[@MarisuSedai]

I was bummed ant boy didn’t survive and join the squad. ☹️

[@ItsAsparageese]

I'm glad to see any video bringing attention to how underestimated and underrated this series is, but honestly it's way, way, WAY darker than this video even begins to scratch the surface of lol. In that book with the starfish cover that people like to joke about, Rachel (the girl on the cover) _beats a dude to death with her own severed arm._ Animorphs covers themes of war crimes, abuse of technology, genocide, PTSD, having to kill family, having to sacrifice one's own life, body horror, cosmic horror, the unreliability of supposed hero figures, the legitimate motivations of villains, the corruption of authority figures that appear to be godlike, the inherent hypocrisy/struggle-with-hypocrisy of trying to be pacifist/nonpartisan in a war, and so, so, so much more. Yeah it had wacky moments but it's legitimately one of the heaviest and most violent sagas ever told. It was written specifically to teach a generation about the horrors of war and make us think about the morality of our decisions, and as part of staying true to that, it most definitely does not have a happy ending.

[@rskFL537]

main plots about a race of aliens that are basically slugs that take control of your brain, whole worlds full of people infected, but the humans don't know, another alien comes in with shape shifting abilities, crash lands on earth and the kids see it and he gives them powers. shits pretty interesting honestly, there's stand-alone books about other races, I'd give it a read of you don't have anything else to do for sure

[@a15thcenturysuitofgothicarmor]

Yea i never read them, cuz i thought they looked dumb.

[@teddy2guns404]

Same

[@davidm2031]

Same. It's where I learned to judge books by their cover.

[@jacksonsinclair2615]

Well guess I am weirdo because I loved them. I read the books and had the game boy game which was a kinda pokemon knockoff but with animals and was actually really hard.

[@zekedelsken9963]

Kinda sucks because its basically scholastic book clubs evangelion

[@rskFL537]

shit was fire, they had spin off books that were good too

[@baller84milw]

That was one of those books where I bought them for the cool cover but never read them.

[@TomSmith-ll2lp]

Morphing in Animorphs had three rules: 1. To acquire the DNA of the animal you wish to morph you must touch the animal and focus on said animal while touching it. 2. Once acquired you could morph the animal infinitely but the morphing process takes concentration and several minutes to complete. Also very few people can control what changes occur and in what order they occur. 3. If you stay in morph for more than 2 hours, you stay in that body forever and you lose the morphing power.

[@keithfilibeck2390]

the kids cannot be permemantly harmed in their human forms either, as "morphing" only factors your DNA and age, so when they would morph back to human they'd be at 100% physical health, which became a problem later, essentially it heals you if only in the fact it puts your body together the way its genetically supposed to.

[@marvelprince]

What’s funny is these little descriptions do little to showcase the absolute insanity of this series

[@johnbono2384]

yeah, like the shrinking incident is literally one of the comedy episodes of the series. that's how dark it was.

[@lancecorporalveteran0621]

I remember those books never had money to buy them only had one book I remember there was a TV show never watched it.

[@FumblsTheSniper]

The person who wrote these also wrote a series called “everworld” which is fucking badass. I think in the second book the teenagers see the Aztecs sacrifice thousands of Vikings to a god that shows up in person.

[@ghagzor]

Yeah I read those they were awesome. Maybe they will be my new bedtime audiobooks

[@FumblsTheSniper]

@@ghagzor it’s not too long and has a mostly satisfying ending. I have a set of the paperbacks and the longest of the 9-ish books it’s 200 small pages.

[@Tojoblindeye]

Also remnants, a series about an asteroid hitting the planet, so they build a old space shuttle into a haphazardly built ark for 500 people to just kinda wander in space until the auto system on the ship find somewhere suitable to bring them and then wake them up. So 500 year passes, they wake up and a bunch of people are dead from micrometers and like the hibernation tech malfunctioning. They are on a crazy place that is basically space Australia where everything wants to kill them, and some of them get some crazy ass powers. Like a baby that was incredibly smart and telepathic and made the mom do crazy shit. It's fucking nuts. The KA applegate and ghost writers of their series are fucking crazy

[@snaptrap5558]

My parents actually took away my Animorph books and forbade me from reading it because they thought it was having a detrimental effect on my mental health

[@xenn4985]

After reading that reddit post, i think they made the right call.

[@johnathan651]

I've loved this series since I was about 6 or 7. Literally one of the first chapter books I remember reading.

[@overtherenowaitthere]

Never really read them, but I remember watching the show a lot with Iceman from Xmen

[@hordelord4759]

I always saw them around growing up loved the covers never read the books

[@Timeisaflat_O]

There were a couple of prequels to the Animorphs that were really good. They were like, straight sci-fi. I think they were called "The Andolite Chronicles" and "The Hork-Bajir Chronicles" or something like that. I actually re-read them as an adult and they held up.

[@Dpad69]

Read The Ellimist Chronicles, it's the best of that bunch, and I don't say that lightly.

[@Tojoblindeye]

​@@Dpad69dude! Hell yeah that one is great!

[@TomSmith-ll2lp]

"My full name is Azure Level, Seven Spar, Extension Two, Down-Messenger, Forty-one. My chosen name is Toomin. I like the sound of the word, which is all the reason you need for a chosen name. My "game" name is Ellimist. Like Toomin, it doesn't mean anything in particular. I just thought it sounded breezy. Never occurred to me when I chose the name that it would follow me for so long, and so far." - Katherine Applegate & Michael Grant - The Ellimist Chronicles

[@CEOofWasrael]

I read all the animorphs as a kid. Good book series.

[@matt61387]

Audible is almost done making them all into audio books with a different narrator for each character. The final few books release this summer.

[@Tojoblindeye]

I have the whole series on my bookshelf, they aren't way to read as an adult, but holy fuck there was some legit violence in these.

[@adrianescobar3335]

They actually had a tv series

[@keithfilibeck2390]

TV series was on Nick, and they quickly realized they couldn't actually put everything that happens in the books to TV, as its kids commiting war crimes in a guerilla war for years on end, easily one of the darkest kids books of all time, especially with how it all culminates.

[@thomasritter3391]

The show ruined the books for me because i assumed the books were the same. Had i given the books a chance i wouldve probably loved them in jr high.

[@Tojoblindeye]

​@@keithfilibeck2390bro imagine if they did the story justice, lol that scene where Elfangor gets eaten by visser three would have made so many kids scarred for life. Lol those books legit were some of the most violent shit I think I've ever read. Like kids are ripping people who are essentially trapped in their bodies as slaves to the yeerks and also getting brutally attacked themselves.

[@keithfilibeck2390]

@@Tojoblindeye it was good shit, though the author is sadistic as fuck for not giving Rachel and Tobias happy endings, considering they are the most complex, interesting, and already fucked up characters.

[@CodeeXD]

That shit creeped me out. They had a game for the Gameboy that I played and I hated it cause I had no idea how to play

[@AlwaysCheckmateNeverStalemate]

I remember reading a few of these books, but over time they became even more morbid than the last.

[@cruizlee214]

Did they ever get so morbid that a B-team of crippled animorphs gets microwaved to death one at a time by a space weapon? Yes. Yes they do.

[@mommasbigboy8656]

I was literally just thinking of the exact same scene from the Boxcar Children Kyle was talking about. Milk will never live up to the description that the book had.😢

[@Calm_Plier]

0:33 "*HUEHUAHEAHEAHEAHEAHA* thank you for this"

[@metalmugen]

Animorphs makes Evangelion look like Baby's Day Out no joke

[@johnbono2384]

I remember those books. KA Applegate was trying to traumatize the shit out of us

[@snaptrap5558]

1:53 "So she's not JUST a starfish" What a worthless superpower that would be XD

[@Paddyman8869]

I think they had to touch em maybe it was just the tv show

[@noelienoelie8425]

I mean it makes sense, the reason rats are so smart is because they're cursed children who knew too much.

[@breakwoodhopper6739]

I like the cover where a kid animorphs into a adult 😅

[@adrenochromejunkie1223]

i never read the books but i think Nickelodeon made them into a show for a season or two

[@ThatOneGuy-q5i]

HUMAN ANIMAL HYBRIDS!!!!!!!!

[@shaftsburry1773]

Ender's Game ain't got shit on Animorphs

[@JR-zi9vj]

Eh enders game is just a dystopia scifi teen novel though. I never once pictured them as kids since i alwaya forget theyre like 6 at the beginning

[@shaftsburry1773]

@@JR-zi9vj Ender's game kind of helps you forget how young the characters are by having them be, for plot reasons, a handpicked army of geniuses and such. Animorphs is about kids and for kids, so they are more childlike when things start.

[@JR-zi9vj]

@Shaftsburry yeah my meaning is that enders game is definitely more like teen, young adult battle star galactica yknow epseically the sequels and spinoffs are very politicie

[@Gunnumn]

I remember the animorphs transformer figures. It was weird and cool at the same time.

[@garner2267]

A whole series based on skinwalkers lol

[@chrishince8947]

And I thought killing Piggy in Lord of the Flies was rough!

[@sushiandpentagrams]

I think Kyle has been watching PCPUniversity 🤣

[@ghagzor]

What is that

[@navypukevomit]

@@ghagzor Hours long comedic lectures of random media properties/internet things shot in a "classroom" setting with a bunch of friends/KZbinrs. The group disbanded, but one of the guys has since released a 9 hour solo video on Mega man.

[@markvickroy6725]

Kyle: A tiny island.....IN THE OCEAN! I Appreciate his sociopathy, and general knowledge. But damn. Dummy. Adding extra salt to everything Kyle says with confidence.

[@cruizlee214]

Come for the silly covers and animal hijinks. Stay for the paranoia, body horror, violent action, moral dilemmas, space epics, and war crimes. Remember kids, help isnt coming.

[@elli0tbriggs]

Woody you got to talk more bro.

[@camdenritter7652]

41.8°? Milk is supposed to be stored below 40°. My mini fridge always would spoil gallons because they were too big for it to handle. I'd always buy 2 half gallons, and they'd last 3 or 4 days after expiration. 42° milk, while a small difference, I'm pretty sure is enough to turn your 2-4 week expectancy down to 1-2

[@noelienoelie8425]

Somebody read these as a child and went on to direct A Human Centipede.

[@R33fth3b33f]

(Me animorphing into a horse to get free ketamine)