Ranking Animorphs 8: The Alien

[@TTRTIM]

You really don't need to worry about the background noise, I never noticed it and your audio is still perfectly audible

[@marcellom]

Thank you! I also was surprised at how little of it wound up coming through, it seemed very loud while I was recording. Props to Blue I guess 🙂

[@Brilchan]

Agreed sorry that you and your family had health problems Marcello :(

[@loganbigmo]

The first 7 books had a white background around the logo, but after book 8, the reprints for book 1-7 (not the 2010s reprints, but the usual reprints books got in the 90s) had this newer metallic one.

[@Lowkey-NoPressure]

I feel like another yeerk trying to steal Alloran would basically be like a soldier trying to steal the Colonel’s personal car while he was in the hospital or something. Just because he’s not using it doesn’t make it not his. In fact I bet the yeerk empire considers all hosts essentially materiel to be distributed according to some doctrine. Then again if that was the case, you would figure some higher up yeerk would have commandeered Alloran out from under visser three. So maybe there is a sort of “finders keepers” thing, but perhaps with guardrails where you can’t just jack another yeerk’s host, but any new host you infest is yours for the taking. Weird to think about!

[@AmataRayne2492]

Marcello, I found your channel a bit ago, and I've been on this crazy Animorphs ride since day 1. I'm not getting off anytime soon, dude. I love your channel, I love your documentaries, and I always grin from ear to ear when you post. No rush on anything; do this because you want to, and if it's more than last year, great. If it's not (because your hands are full!) That's great too! We all know that you're busy doing something worthwhile. And CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Babies are amazing tiny humans, and I can tell that you're an amazing dad! Congrats to your wife as well! I have one suggestion: steal your time as best as you can. Even if it's only 5-10 minutes a night- break your script up so you can shoot segments within 5-10 minutes a night. If you do that, and give yourself a day or so to edit it all together, you'll have a whole episode. It's like reading a book- sometimes, you can't do it all in one sitting. Get to a stopping point, put the script down, and try again the next day. Eventually, you'll complete your goal. Also, this reminds me of something... I need to look in my Etsy shop favorites, but I believe Chris Grine, the illustrator of the Animorphs graphic novels, his wife makes crochet Andalites. Let me see...

[@marcellom]

What a lovely and encouraging comment. I am very appreciative. Do not fret, I do not feel remotely rushed, I like this little project and want to see it continue to grow. And I also hate how much time I waste, so my desire to increase my productivity is also about spending less time staring at my phone. I agree that babies are the best. I am a huge fan now that I'm a dad lol

[@AmataRayne2492]

@@marcellom 😁 the good ones always feel that way! I really enjoy what little time you can give to get these episodes going. I made sure to go back and like all the Animorphs ones. Maybe that will get some traction with the KZbin algorithm. And, I can't wait to watch new content! I'm also neck deep in KA love; I'm rereading the Everworld series now, 1 book a month, and I'm enjoying my time going back through it. I'm buddy reading it with a friend who has never read them before. You catch so much going backwards.

[@ucnguyen6375]

32:21 In the Hork Bajir Chronicle, Seerow assumed that Yeerk and Gedd are symbiotic, and he was on good term with the council of thirteen on their home world too, so the problem here is he was kinda naive. And probably because outside of Seerow, other Andalites was really racist to Yeerk, making some groups resented Andalites and wanted to escape into outer space

[@marcellom]

Thank you for the insight, I really need to reread the HB chronicles. The true Animorphs scholar is always in the comments

[@Grace-ix6oc]

Congratulations on your new baby and wish you luck for this year!

[@marcellom]

Thanks 😊

[@SarahJo]

Honestly getting any random group of five 12-year-olds together and finding none of them are down with murder is the most unrealistic thing I've come across in these books so far

[@KillTheBoxScore]

Congratulations on the 2nd child and keep up the A+ work.

[@KateIvyFriesen]

God love listening to this in the background. Very nice hearing animorph infodumps!

[@MasterWGS]

Ax was my favorite character in the story so it's no surprise this is one of my favorite books in the series and I've been really looking forward to your breakdown! Also for the record I don't think the background noise has ever been distracting, so if it isn't too difficult or distracting for you to record during I'd say go for it! I needs my Animorphs fix! Love the Visser Three replacement theory too. And yeah, the tv version of this episode was an enormous disappointment for me when it aired, especially THAT fight.

[@marcellom]

Thank you, I noticed when editing that it really wasn't that bad. I've told my wife to stop worrying about making noise while I'm recording, so I'm glad it hasn't impacted the quality. I think the TV adaptation of the show is the first and last time I was ever excited for an adaptation. I always have a lot of trepidation when any adaptation is announced, and it all stems from this. I was SO excited as a kid when I heard about the show, and it was just not what I'd hoped for. In hindsight I love watching it, but that's largely due to the 90s production sensibilities tickling my millennial fancy.

[@Shane-eg5kq]

I really need to sit down and read these again. Really enjoying this series.

[@marcellom]

They're so fun to reread in their entirety as an adult, and very quick and engaging.

[@LiirThropp2687]

Ax discovering taste (in book 5) and the chaos that follows every time he enters the mall had me laughing til my sides hurt. 😂😂 I still laughed when I reread the series. Brilliant comedy by Katherine Applegate. Bunz-uh!

[@braydenb1581]

My man. Cant wait to watch this tonight.

[@mishmash3927]

Glad to see another vid from you! I’ve been a fan of this channel from the beginning

[@marcellom]

The staff and I truly appreciate the support 🙇 this will be the year we break 1k! (I am the staff)

[@RosheenQuynh]

If you ever do the side books, I am excited to hear you talk about the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. Was the book that stood out to me the most when I was younger (and I had only read it and the first book lol). Gonna have to reread it first though heh

[@chaseredmoon407]

Knowing Rachel and Marco, they would have still pushed to destroy the Kandrona. Cassie would have pushed back and Tobias would have been uncomfortable about it. Jake would decide to still do it. That's my little head canon on that I love that this is the introduction to yeerks having relationships. Not a family or a child. Just someone who loved and loss. Yay new baby! I really like the concept of the second channel and having the little ones check it out. Any content is appreciated! Agatha Christie was one of my favorite writers growing up and I haven't seen many other people speak about them. I'm excited for anything you bless us with.

[@marcellom]

Your stalwart support is appreciated. And you are probably right about how that convo would have gone. I would say that it would have merited a full separate Jake book about whether or not to protect Tom, but we get that later in the series.

[@AnimorphsUniverse]

9:56 This book is full of stuff that never has consequences! Like Yeerks being on the Andalite homeworld. Top video, as usual! EDIT: Regarding the seemingly contradicting scale of the Earth invasion to the rest of the Yeerk Empire... It's made clear later on in the series that the Yeerks are battling enemy forces on multiple fronts. We can probably assume that the Yeerk forces are stretched so thin that, even though Earth is so important, defending against combative enemies takes priority over infesting a species that is carrying on in complete ignorance to the existence of Yeerks.

[@marcellom]

That is true, and also fits with the idea that the Yeerks are not as advanced as their technology would lead one to believe (thanks Seerow 😒). Their military strategy and desire to conquer obviously outpaces their prudence. Thanks for watching and commenting; it is greatly appreciated, especially from such an established part of the animorphs fandom like yourself 🙇

[@Malakili181]

I like the theory that some other Yeerk is posing as Visser Three after book 8. It goes well with the theory that the Esplin 9466 from the Hork-Bajir Chronicles isn't Visser Three either, but Carger(?) the Yeerk who was his much more imeptous rival during the invasion of the Hork-Bajir homeworld. Like Esplin 9466 isn't an individual Yeerk anymore, just a position that any enterprising, arrogant Yeerk can fill by being at the right place and the right time.

[@marcellom]

I love that type of villain too, though they're typically shrouded in mystery. But it also fits here because V3 is always pretty volatile and short-sighted, qualities that any Yeerk ambitious enough to pull off a coup on Alloran's body would have to possess.

[@brandonjamal]

Congratulations dude! I was always bothered by the Animorphs being mad at Ax for what they should already know, that the yeerks wouldnt just break their cover and leave witnesses.

[@marcellom]

Thank you 😁 and yeah idk what they thought would happen, given the Yeerks' MO up to this point. But then again, they're all kids.

[@Digimonisbetterthanpokemon]

Tell me why i just went through some random guy's entire video count on a book series i hadn't touched since the early 2000s? You got a new subscriber!

[@marcellom]

Thank you dude! It makes me very happy to provide content that people find enjoyable, and to continue to remind everyone of how great the Animorphs series is. New video out today at 9 eastern 🙂

[@mariannecrews4263]

Give your pregnant person hug for me I know it's tough. You seem to be trying hard for your wife and it is appreciated

[@marcellom]

Thank you 🙂 we are a good team

[@ThePurpleRants]

2 things. You drop your coffee to talk with your hands but they are mostly hidden behind the camera angle. I just found that funny, I mostly listen anyway. And two, you didn't set a high milestone to beat about being better at uploading videos this year. You can upload 4 or five and do better than last year. Just giving you a hard time. Like your vids and enjoying your perspective.

[@marcellom]

Thank you! I know I've set a low bar for myself. Irrespective of that my goal is two videos a month. Feel free to continue to give me a hard time at your leisure. And yeah the talking with the hands is more for me, though I did notice that while editing as well.

[@rakino4418]

The population of earth was absolutley not "around a billion" in the 90s. It was more like 5 - 6 billion.

[@marcellom]

You are correct. For some reason I have a vivid memory of reading some article in elementary school about how the population had just eclipsed a billion, but I must have imagined this.