Animorphology: Recent Episodes
Jenny, Ted, and Gray
Episode Notes
https://inchwormpodcast.com/
Before reading anything, Jenny and Ted discuss Worm generally and introduce the podcast. NOTE: We had some technical issues with the audio in this one that should be resolved before the next episode.
Episode Notes:
What is Worm?
Wait, Worm is HOW long?
Ted’s pitch for why you should read Worm
A quick introduction to Wildbow
Character-driven superpowers
Jenny introduces us to Taylor
“Capes”
Jenny imagines where the story will go
The 2011 superhero zeitgeist
Creator Chose Not To Use Content Warnings
Worm fic is like Avengers fic
Should this story have been called Bug?
Insect Aside vs. the Bug Bear
Ted names a favorite cape and Jenny guesses her power
How you can (optionally) read along
There are 2+ fan audiobooks of Worm
Links:
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/
https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow
In this episode, Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #10: Understand the Unknown.
Why Everworld 10 is like Kingdom Hearts 2
Whether David is qualified to be the Mayor of Atlantis
Why these books aren’t interesting
We casually reference a sario rip at least three times because listeners know
Ted drops spoilers for book 3 of A Song of Ice and Fire and season 5 of Lost
How Brigid is the threefold goddess of ageism, misogyny, and never appearing in these books again
How far up the faun does the fur go?
Ted proposes a Remnants podcast
Remembering to breath
Body English
A very special musical performance
In this episode, Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss the 1998 Animorphs parody book, Vegemorphs.
Content warning: mention of rape and false rape accusations in a fictional context
In this episode:
Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #9: Inside the Illusion.
Senna's actually a pretty good narrator
But also she’s trying to take over Everworld
Buuuuut also every parental figure in her life completely sucked??
Ted thinks Senna's a cartoon, but he's wrong
Cool theories about the watcher in the void
We are very optimistic about how much will ever be explained in this world
What if Everworld is just a game played by the Ellimist?
The real four genders
Applegrant: still bad at mental health issues
Turns out these books don't do a great job of portraying Egypt. Shocking
Bonerwatch update
Why are there aliens in this?
In this episode:
Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #7: Gateway to the Gods
A wild plot appears!
Theological discussions
We hope you aren’t still playing the “Animorphology Drinking Game” because Gray says the word “interesting” like 10 times in one minute.
Comparisons to Animorphs
Thoughts on how Everworld is constructed (poorly)
April’s assessment of the other characters - and ours
Applegrant’s authorial racism
April and the Disney Problem
Real world consequences of Everworld problems
Cassandra and the Very Stupid Prophecy
Hints of bisexuality, quickly ignored
Pegasus, Pegasi
Aughties and Naughties
A TV-tangent (and Jenny’s next podcasting venture?)
Predictions
In this episode:
Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #6: Fear the Fantastic
The “very special episode” about homophobia
Impatiently acknowledging that Christopher has “an arc”
Hetwan sexual dimorphism and other cool alien stuff
What was Ganymede like as gay representation in 2000?
Christopher vs the Nazis vs responsible YA themes
Is Christopher on an arc to be a good person or just a “real man”?
We catch up on the lack of plot in the series so far and how it contrasts with Animorphs as a series
The nature of Ka Anor
Previewing the Greeks
Clarista Flockhart and Dylan McDermott, among others
Content warning: sexual abuse of a child, attempted sexual assault of an adult
In this episode:
Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #5: Discover the Destroyer
Gray spills some more tea about leprechauns
Fairies are normally cool. What happened here?
In a thousand years, these magic people haven't come up with anything better than the telegraph
Wow, David is truly terrible. He also has some major trauma. These things are questionably related.
The kids are missing their chance to become palantirs
This portrayal of nymphs is sexist! We are shocked
Gray explores 50 shades of YA
The Ka Anor pun run
In this episode:
Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #4: Realm of the Reaper
We get TWO quality mythology rants from Gray!
Ted learns where 8-legged horse babies come from
Jalil proves himself to be our most competent narrator yet
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
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
Alternamorphs #2: The Next Passage
In this episode:
Jenny, Ted, and Gray livestream the second Alternamorphs book
You becomes Youvid
The book makes LOTS of choices we would have liked to make for ourselves
We discover Visser Three’s current form
We want to punch the Ellimist
Gray makes the best choice
The Tri-Rex provides crucial sound effects
The Animorphs cross some major lines
No really, we are all horrified
A surreal ticker-tape parade
The ghostwriters fill some word count
We learn why there was no Alternamorphs 3
#42: The Journey
In this episode:
-Our first long-distance episode, please forgive the questionable audio quality
-Guest host Emily Ellet, the voice of Rachel in the Animorphs audiobooks, shares her Animorphs Journey
-Gray is the Queen of Predictions
-Not enough Rachel and Tobias content
-Did we learn anything from this book?
-Bugs in your nose
-What are the potential themes of this fluffy book?
-Marco x Rachel: Banter Buddies
-Cassie’s method for storing the Escafil device
-The Chee are useless
-A few funny moments
-Rabies: not good, actually
-The more we talk about it, the less sense it makes
-We learn the correct pronunciation of “flaccid” (and hate it)
#41 The Familiar
In this episode:
The two things Ted finds unforgivable
How dreamy is dreamy enough?
Jake’s undefined decision
Spike logic
Is there a Star Trek episode like book 41?
“Middlegrade” violence and horror
Using disability as tragedy
Gray drops knowledge about moonlessness
Jake argues with his subconscious
Taxxons are awesome, horrible, and almost cute
The space goddess Kandrona
The free/dead binary
90s moments
Megamorphs 4: Back to Before
In this episode:
We read the first two chapters in their entirety
With great power comes great responsibility, especially for Jake
The series will eventually end
Cassie’s magic nonsense
Tobias makes sensible decisions and is the best
We are not here to tell you to join a cult
Ax’s sense of humor
Rachel and Marco
How old are the Animorphs here?
Rachel is a BAMF
Cassie and Jake
Lots of 90s references
Gray updates her endgame prediction
Mailbag #3
In this episode:
-Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss questions and comments from listeners
-Visser Three’s potential menagerie
-The limits of Chee nonviolence
-What kind of cyborgs can morph?
-Genocide vs. xenocide
-How would a Taxxon wear a skirt?
-How do Andalites talk at parties?
-The Animorphs’ different styles of manipulation
-Who would the Animorphs play in a musical?
-The definitive Animorphs Villain Ranking
-New theories on why the Yeerks are parasites
-The Council votes in favor of shipping
-How did the Council of Animorphology originally meet?
-How would the Council pair off in a plot-necessitated fake-dating scenario?
-What would Gray's name be if she were Crayak?
-Jenny and Gray imitate the Drode
-Our impression of the ghostwritten books so far
-The Animorphology drinking game
-Gray’s Bingo card
-Our updated book rankings
-Call for listeners to record fake ads for animorphology
Book 40: The Other
In this episode:
-
Guest host John!
-
Marco brings his best self to a Very Special Episode of the Animorphs
-
Bury Your Gay Andantes
-
We are desperate to identify shippy Ax/Marco moments
-
Subtweeting in real life
-
What if Ax met Alan Fangor?
-
Jake stands up to Andalites again
-
Eating cookies with your hooves
-
Spoilers for Jane Eyre
-
Marco and Rachel break Gray’s morphing rules together
-
The special ops team has bad plans
-
Marco’s canonical math ability
-
Aughties References
-
Can birds watch TV?
-
Post-Visser Marco and his cowboy fantasies
-
Marco’s canonical understanding of communism
-
Bees and their capabili-bees
-
The gender bee-nary
-
An important BSA
-
Gray changes her prediction for the endgame
Book 39: The Hidden
In this episode:
The council is divided on the existence of the buffa-human
Seagull ex machina
How good was this plan to drop an anvil on the helicopter? (Spoiler: it was not even a little bit good)
The rules for giving someone the morphing power
Do simpler minds morph via alternate mechanisms?
Buffa-human did nothing wrong
How much technological empowerment do you have to give a buffalo before it has the rights of a human?
Buffa-human as a Turing test
The wonder of the buffa-andalite
The Animorphs' strategy in this book is so bad. It's just SO bad.
They must be running out of Hork-Bajir by now
Why doesn't Erek just eat the escafil device
Don't worry, Gray, there are still good books left
Book 38: The Arrival
In this episode:
-An Animorphs spy novel
-The Animorphs break-up?
-Jake as a leader
-The real megamorph
-Learning about Andalite society
-Science corner
-Moral quandaries
-Ax has pants feelings
-The Animorphs are really cool
-Misogyny is universal, apparently
-Visser 3 makes a good plan?
-Andalite “humor”
-9th Grade Jenny’s review of 38
Book “37”: The Weakness
In this episode:
What head canon if any can make this book better?
The Animorphs aren’t themselves
“Ew” and “?????”
Complex feelings about hubris, Oedipus and Hamlet
Jenny thinks Tobias and Rachel need to break up
Ted teaches everyone how to do “The Rachel”
Things Jenny almost likes
Animorphology’s three word mantra
The inspector
90s moments
Is this book better than Christine Baranski? (No)
14 year old Jenny reviews Book 37
The council votes on a change to the Animorphs canon
Book 37: The Weakness
In this episode:
Gray, Ted, and Jenny read what is definitely, without a doubt Animorphs book 37. At least, as far as Gray knows.
The Iskoort come back!
The Animorphs meet their fiercest opponent ever
Fun with agency and consent
Would you want to let someone else inside your mind?
Killing in cold blood
The closest we’re going to get to a megamorph
The return of Chee Jenny
The secret hairstyle Jake’s been hiding from us
Mogul invents Space Netflix
RACHEL AND TOBIAS. That is all.
Book 36: The Mutation
In this episode:
This book is bad, so this episode is short
Visser 3 is very bad at plans
Many unmotivated actions and stupid decisions
The Animorphs meet the Atlanteans
Revenge as a motivation
The ghostwriter knew some things and wanted to tell us about them
Sad makeout time and buddy breathing
Are orcas an exception to the morphing rule?
Gray gets irrationally angry about the orca morph
Tobias saves the day
Some cool descriptions but mostly not
Jenny and Ted make Gray choose what happens in Alternamorphs #1: The First Journey. Watch with live chat replay on YouTube!
Visser (Part 2 of 2)
In this episode:
The Council of Animorphology passes judgment on Vissers 1 and 3
Yeerk torture methods
Yeerk fascism
Yeerk relationships, emotions, familial bonds, and allo/aromanticism
The logistics of Eva’s marriage
Yeerk-host emotional bleed
What if Vissers 1 and 3 infested…each other
Who ends up on the Council of Thirteen?
How to tell Jenny and Gray apart in an emergency
Yeerk death
Are the Ellimist and Crayak each other’s exes?
Humans are the Yeerks' social media addiction
Bonus: Ted and Jenny give Gray an unexpected gift, with help from Joys
Join Jenny, Ted, and Gray live on YouTube this Saturday 1/11/2020 12pm eastern for an interactive reading of Alternamorphs #1: The First Journey.
Visser (Part 1 of 2)
In this episode:
Guest host Joys!
Visser 1 is a magnificent bastard
Are Visser 3’s worst jokes Alloran’s fault?
Marco is great, and has grown so much
V3 continues to be incompetent
Fighting the Animorphs is terrifying
Humanity's strengths and weaknesses
Marco’s mom finally says his name Is this a middle grade book??
The timeline once again makes no sense
The Chronicles books are about interspecies love and kids
The Americans plus brain slavery
The Council of Thirteen
Gray predicts the time matrix
Book 35: The Proposal
In this episode:
We can’t suspend our disbelief about the timeline in this one
The cliffhanger ending is so exciting we have to talk about it right away
What kind of answering machine does Marco’s dad have?
What if the Animorphs was less episodic?
WWWRTD?
Mighty Cassie stages an intervention
Marco takes orders from Jake
How Marco is like Gen Z
“What is a Hanson?”
Why we’re glad this ghostwriter doesn’t come back
Ax is a treasure
The Animorphs as a hockey team
Book 34: The Prophecy
In this episode:
We consider that there might be some plot holes in this one
For example, why was Toby not really a character?
The Arn’s secret evil plan
How has Jake and Marco’s friendship evolved?
Marco is a great lieutenant in this one
Aldrea’s growth or lack of same since HBC
Does Cassie have a moral obligation to let Aldrea stay in her head?
This is super real science, you guys
What if it’s really…an OT4??
The ethics of species choice and species essentialism
Have the morphing rules changed?
Do the Andalites have an empire?
Erek is totally trolling the Animorphs
Book 33: The Illusion
In this episode:
Guest host Lauren returns!
Can there ever be enough Rachel and Tobias?
We’re all a little mad at Rachel
Tobias continues to struggle with where he belongs
Almost most of a good plan
Flashes of Tobias’s life and Elfangor’s memories
Jake’s manipulation
So. Much. Torture.
More about mental health language
We learn more about the Yeerks and the Andalites
What was the Illusion anyway?
Book 32: The Separation
In this episode:
Guest host Meg!
Gray’s live reactions to reading 32
Rachel’s inner turmoil becomes outer turmoil
Is mean Rachel “crazy”?
What would happen if the other Animorphs got split?
We swoon over Tobias and Rachel (no surprise there)
What would happen if the hosts of Animorphology got split? And what if you played board games with them?
Why we love mean Rachel
How the split Rachels each manifest internalized misogyny
Our separation-fueled megamorph and Helmacron theories
When was peak Mary Kate and Ashley
Book 31: The Conspiracy
In this episode:
The Animorphs finally face realistic logistical obstacles
The Yeerks are bad at things
No, but really, the Animorphs give the Yeerks way too much credit
Did Ax really torture Chapman?
Jake’s leadership crisis
The Jake-Marco dynamic
The no-confidence vote
How selfish is each of the Animorphs?
WWII-Animorphs parallels
Book 30: The Reunion
In this episode:
Marco’s “Clear Bright Line”
Lots of great relationship moments
From where does Marco get his strategic abilities?
Visser One is very cool
The humility of Andalites
Ghostwriter corner
Marco makes bad decisions
Gray makes a number of very specific predictions
In this episode:
What kind of time travel is this and is it the best kind
Wars and soldiers throughout history
Violence and weaponry (and Marvel)
An alien learns about the Holocaust
What counts as “important” history
Crayak’s successful mindgames
Why are the Animorphs so precious about killing people?
Lazy alternate history
Melissa Chapman and OT3s
Jake’s shoe and bicep size
Tokenization
Animorphs height corner
And our pitch for an Animorphs musical
In our second mailbag episode:
We respond to reader questions and comments!
We rerank the books to determine our favorites so far;
Which of the Animorphs has changed the most?
What if Animorphs were written for adults? Or without commercial considerations?
Does the Ellimist wear clothes?
The effect of stable family in the Animorphs' lives;
Where did Rachel and Tobias meet?
Tobias's real name;
If this is all a dream, whose dream is it?
Which Animorph is which Pokemon?
Which Kardashian is Marco?
We've all met David;
What morphs should the Animorphs be using more?
What scifi plots does Gray think the series will use in the future?
We are once again sponsored by some…unusual corporations
Book 29: The Sickness
In this episode:
Guest Host Emily used to play Animorphs in elementary school
Book 19: the Sequel
Gray is irrationally angry
Cassie is a BAMF
Who gets to be the leader if Jake is out of commission?
Yeerks are gross
A brief immunology lesson
Jake/Cassie/Marco OT3?
A Yeerk pyramid scheme
Andalites are the size of ponies or tiny deer
Nice is neat
Book 27: The Exposed
In this episode:
Thematic plot holes
Slaughterhouses are bad but they’re worse in real life
Grazers and hunter gatherers
Sentience, sapience, and free will
Cow corner
Ax gets a TV
The shipping gets out of control
Moses facts(?)
KA Applegate and the hosts reflect on vegetarianism IRL
Jenny crowns the new tallest Animorph
Book 27: The Exposed
In this episode:
We evaluate Rachel and Tobias’s banter;
Rachel’s issues with violence and normalcy;
How are the ghostwriters affecting character dynamics?
How are the Animorphs still alive??
The Drode’s true motivations;
Some more gross morphs (even Jenny thought so)
What was really going on with Pemalite nonviolence?
Some high-quality funny adventures;
How does the acquiring trance work?
Book 26: The Attack
In this episode:
The Animorphology council decides: Crayak rhymes with Kayak
Small things that matter
Created species and symbiotes
The Iskoort are v. annoying
How much are the Ellimist and Crayak interfering?
More about the Howlers
Jake <3 Cassie
Marco gets gutted
The Chee’s moral obligations
Jake’s leadership
In this episode:
Jenny, Ted, Gray, and guest Kevin discuss the first ghostwritten book in the Animorphs series
Minor character revelations such as Ax developing a true sense of humor and Marco acknowledging Rachel/Tobias
Effective coping strategies as the war escalates
How many damsels Rachel has
Chlorine-based life forms
Being really cold and being warm again
In this episode:
HBC through the lens of post-colonial theory
Why didn’t the Andalites build a quantum virus to infect the Yeerks?
Yeerks probably had more culture once
It turns out we have more to say about intelligence
The Hork-Bajir home world is really cool
How big is an Andalite, really?
A letter from a fifteen-year-old to his nine-year-old self
Book 24: The Suspicion
In this episode:
Another guest host: Rena
Helmacrons are very silly (as is this book)
What does Marco need in a partner?
Lots of description of items at a large scale, some of which make sense
Science corner!
Lots of different whales
Helmacron technology
Everyone go get a ruler and see how big 1/16 of an inch is
Math happens
Godzilla anteaters
Can Andalites grow mustaches?
Ted’s favorite prediction so far
In this episode:
-
Title talk
-
Visser Three’s method acting
-
Yeerk gender
-
What does Rachel’s confession mean for the Tobias/Rachel relationship?!?
-
Shorms
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Tobias realizes that humans are animals too
-
The Council of Animorphology votes on the pocket universe theory
-
What is a metaphor…
-
Rabbit vision
-
Jake is less ruthless than a four-month old
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As always, some 90s moments
The Hork-Bajir Chronicles (part 1)
In this episode:
We share our feelings on Dak & Aldrea’s romance
How important is intelligence, really?
The Andalite patriarchy is not our fave
Hork-Bajir children grow up suspiciously fast
Visser Three is perhaps a nerd
Can you ever go home again?
Gray uncovers all the Animorphs Easter eggs
We have a surprise two-parter!
Book 22: The Solution
In this episode:
What happened to Germany?
David continues to be the worst
The Animorphs find a solution
A fate worse than death?
Rachel and Jake’s relationship
A dramatic reading
Toxic masculinity strikes again
What Would Gray Do?
The importance of solidarity
In this episode:
-
The Animorphs face the consequences of a bad decision
-
More Animorphs news!
-
Now Jenny and Ted can be honest about David
-
Cartoon villainy and who counts as people
-
Jake’s new confidence and ability to own his flaws
-
Jenny boards a new ship
-
Racy observations
-
Lions
In this episode:
-The blue box is found
-A new Animorph is created
-Marco is truly terrible with people
-Jenny, Ted, and Gray disagree with everyone’s decisions
-We contemplate a world in which Voldemort sided with the Yeerks
-How would this have gone differently if David had been a girl?
-We finally settle the important question of which Animorph is which Clue character
-What's going to happen with the new guy??
In this episode:
-
Jenny, Ted, Gray, and guest host Claire closely read The Departure, discussing premise rejection and what we owe to each other
-
Why is this one so good, you guys??
-
The toll that war is taking on Cassie and the Animorphs
-
Cassie’s moral instincts and the imperative to change
-
Plot holes and earned happy endings
-
Yeerk empathy, society, and gender
-
Ableism in character, metaphor and worldbuilding
-
Parasite morality, predator morality, android morality, and humanism
In this episode:
Dinosaurs!
Gray has been confidently mispronouncing “deinonychus” for years
Is this the best Rachel book?
Revisiting the Band of Five roles
More time travel philosophy
Outer space provided broccoli and ants
K.A. Applegate keeps up with scientific theories
A song about Deinonychus
In this episode:
Which Animorph is which Disney princess?
Is Animorphs sci fi or magic?
How DOES Visser Three visit the Yeerk Pool?
The debate rages on about Andalite truth;
We rank our favorite (and least favorite) books;
Gray predicts the ending of the series
In this episode:
Another guest star; Ax struggles with his loyalties; Andalite job-hunting advice; Jake attempts to make a joke; and was that really the easiest way to get the group into Z-space?
Content warning this week: we discuss suicide and mental health, drug use and claustrophobia, including references to the highly inappropriate terms this book uses. Please use caution in listening if you need to, and see the episode notes for resources.
In this episode:
Rachel deals with fear
A surprising fact about instant maple-and-ginger oatmeal
Gray holds the Animorphs to a really high standard
A banana party
Visser 3 is uniquely incompetent
Gleet BioFilters
What IS a Planet Hollywood?
In this episode:
-
Some exciting announcements!
-
Discussions about bad decisions, the difference between being a killer and a warrior, whether the Animorphs can go back to being normal kids, and leadership
-
What is tiramisu?
-
A deep dive into Cassie/Jake
-
True neutral stances on murder and privacy
-
90s internet and airports
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Eventually, why Jake morphs a rhino
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Plus, another long-hidden truth about Andalite exo-biology
In this episode: Marco’s issues with vulnerability; Marco’s obvious crush on Jake; Visser One as a cool villain; Gray’s true identity; What animals will the Yeerks try to take over next?
In this episode:
Another guest host!
What does a robot horse sound like?
The Yeerks make bad plans
Mental health language
Identical twin animals
A comparison to Tamara Pierce’s Wild Magic series
In this episode:
- Overall thoughts on the Andalite Chronicles
- A solid thirty minutes about time travel
- Did Tobias lay the Time Matrix?
- Andalite communism
- Forgiving Elfangor
- Hoobers and Mortrons
- The importance of grass on Earth
- SOFTBALL!
- Up close and personal with Z-Space
- Ellimist update: Gray still hates him
- Gray predicts the Hork Bajir Chronicles
In this episode:
-We read the second part of The Andalite Chronicles!
-There are cool Star Wars-esque space battles
-How does Elfangor’s moral compass develop?
-We learn more about the Andalites - including the horrible truth about what they REALLY look like
-The Ellimist’s birthday cake
In this bonus episode, Jenny, Ted, and Gray pull out the mic for an emergency extra podcasting session to discuss which Harry Potter house each of the Animorphs would belong to. Plus:
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We realize we do not know anything about Sex and the City characters
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We realize we do know things about Friends characters, but the Animorphs are super not like them
-
What if the Animorphs were…sisters in a certain well-known Regency novel?
In this episode:
The most 90s thing that has happened since the 90s
Scapecrocs
Skepticism around the things teenage girls like
The sexual and longevity implications of morphing
Gray adds another morphing rule
Every balloon of mass has a story
Andalites don’t sneeze
We read the first part of The Andalite Chronicles!
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We learn about Andalite warrior culture, ethnocentrism, and inability to crouch
-
We’re introduced to this weird species called humans
-
Elfangor thinks about war crimes more than the Animorphs do
-
Gray speculates on time travel, vice principals, and Elfangor banging a human. Then she rolls her eyes so hard she gives herself a headache.
In this episode:
The jungle is HORRIFYING
Time travel is confusing
Animorphology leadership lessons
Ax becomes a hot-looking monkey
Gray figures out the name of her rock band
In this episode:
Another guest host!
The best thing humans ever invented
Is K.A. Applegate a cat person or a dog person
Memory and violence
Asimovian robot literature
Gray officially becomes skeptical of Z-Space
Food-based psychological warfare
Is Jenny an android
Spiders of the past and future
The Dumbledore of the Animorphs
In this episode:
Our first guest host!
Gray's rules for morphing
How good is Cassie and Jake's relationship, really?
Cassie's philosophical struggles
Could a skunk really defeat Visser Three?
In this episode:
The Animorphs grapple with death (not literally)
Ax discovers chocolate and other human oddities
Jake is the morph police
Warrior societies are almost universally real dumb
In this episode:
Marco is a bad driver
Visser 3 is a bad manager
What does the Veleek sound like?
The return of the whale
In this episode:
Rachel + Tobias 4ever
The importance of blinders
Applegate does not like circuses
Is the future pre-determined?
Internalized misogyny
In this episode:
What Jake’s family eats
How big is Jake, really?
Shipping that is not really justified by the book
Incredibly gross morphs
The Yeerk invasion plan
Jake commits war crimes
What it’s like to fight the Animorphs
In this episode:
Gray is grouchy about plot twists
What happens if your tragic backstory is an important part of your personality?
Ax struggles with human impulses
Marco expresses vulnerability
Class in The Animorphs
In this episode: We learn more about Andalites Teen friendships and teen romances Race in The Animorphs Are whales Andalites??
A few things we discuss in this episode:
Gray ships Rachel and Tobias
Tobias has to fight his hawk instincts and decide what it means to be human
A trans reading of Tobias’s character and coded characters in general
If you could morph only one animal, what would you choose?
A few things we discuss in this episode:
The font! (Gray didn’t like it.)
The Animorphs vs. classic novel structure
The humanity of the Yeerks
Magic vs. science
How much we love Rachel and Tobias
Outside references:
Disability and KidLit: disabilityinkidlit.com
We discuss the crazy aliens, the grossness of morphing, slash goggles, the concept of default identity in literature, the trope of the five-man band, and the way this book does not pull its punches.