Animorphs Re-Read: #3 The Encounter (Chapters 1-4)

Chapter 1
And right then I had the strangest feeling. Like I should go with her. Like I should be with her.

So the first line of the book is Tobias saying that he's a freak of nature. Well, I'm sure glad I picked a happy character to be my first fictional crush.

And Tobias gives the usual 'I can't tell you anything' talk. Then he goes on talking about how he used to be picked on. The fact that he's a nothlit (aka someone trapped in morph) is brought up by him wondering what color his eyes used to be. He then worries that he's forgotten something like that when he hasn't been trapped in his red-tailed hawk morph for very long. Tobias says it doesn't matter, anyways, since he's a hawk now.

Tobias is flying by this one car lot. I just got finished with Under the Dome, I don't need another evil car salesman.

Tobias dives down at something. It turns out to be a cage that holds a red-tailed hawk. Tobias rants about Dealin' Dan Hawke who is keeping the hawk prisoner. I'd say this is insane but you have to look at it from Tobias' point of view.

From what I remember of this book it's about Tobias coming to terms/peace with himself. Not fully, but learning to handle not being a human boy anymore. At the start of the book he's not at peace and to think a young teenager wouldn't think this is giving them too much credit. Teens can be smart. But one who has been bullied, trapped in a body not his own, and fighting a secret war against aliens can't always think clearly.

Tobias decides not to wait for a moment when the commercial won't be filmed. Dan goes to feed his pet hawk and Tobias continues to dive. He continues to not rethink his plan as the cameras get ready to roll to film the commercial live. Tobias says that Marco would call the plan insane, but he doesn't care.

Tobias finally reaches the cage and starts to undo the lock. People are basically going 'WTF' and all attention is on bird-boy. Dan tries to make a joke out of it and tells some people to shoo Tobias away. Tobias seems to take that as a challenge. Tobias sees someone coming after him but continues to try and free the hawk.

Tobias is still getting the hawk free, but he realizes that this might be harder than he thinks. There are a lot of people coming after him. He cries out that Rachel appearing now would be a good thing. She says sorry but she missed the bus. An elephant cry is heard and that's Rachel!

People wonder what is going on, but Tobias knows. It's also sort of sweet how he makes sure to say that Rachel is impressive right now even if she's not pretty. Not pretty since she's currently in elephant morph.

Dan forgets about Tobias and shows much greater concern for the elephant that is stomping his convertibles. Tobias said he'd be smiling if he had a mouth at the moment.

Tobias finishes freeing the female hawk and he remarks on their differences. The female red-tailed hawk he freed is a TRUE hawk and not one with the mind of a teenager. As the hawk flies to freedom he has a feeling that he should be going with her. That's the hawk part of him talking.

Rachel asks to leave and Tobias knows it's time for them to go. He looks longingly at the female red-tailed hawk flying away.


Chapter 2
But I was glad to fight the Yeerks. Maybe I just had less to lose than the others. Or maybe something about the lonely, defeated, yet courageous Andalite prince touched me so deeply that I could never regret fighting to settle the score.

Tobias says he hears sirens. Rachel replies sarcastically since she is in elephant morph and can hear them clearly. Rachel says that she's demorphing as quickly as she can. Tobias then says that he hopes the cops are humans and not Controllers.

Tobias and Rachel escape into the woods behind the car dealership. Tobias says that the morphing process is incredibly weird. Especially when  you watch someone morph. Tobias talks about how Rachel looks as an elephant. The best part of this is when he says they haven't tried to weigh her in elephant morph. I'm just stuck here with an image of an elephant on a scale.

He talks about how dangerous Rachel can be. How she can throw a Hork-Bajir, a deadly opponent, like it was nothing.

Rachel starts to talk about how stupid Tobias had been earlier. How he should've waited until the commercial was done being filmed since Controllers could've seen the advertisement. I think this shows that Rachel does love Tobias. She was willing to do something risky and possibly blow the Animorphs' cover just for Tobias. No one sane would have followed Tobias on his insane 'mission', but someone who loved him would. Rachel isn't the sanest person, but this mission didn't involve bloodshed.

Tobias recounts what we already know about Controllers.

Tobias asks if they're going to be in trouble and Rachel says they are. Tobias says that he should take the blame since the idea was his. Rachel tells him to stop being so noble as she had fun on his insane little venture. Aw! You two are so adorable!

Tobias remarks that he finds Rachel attractive, but she isn't as attractive now as she's still demorphing. Once she finishes demorphing she says it's time to get away. And fast. Tobias says to go to the convenience store and Rachel hopes there are flip-flops there. Yes, Applegate never gave the Animorphs a type of shoe that they could morph with. Even though aqua shoes (?) were suggested to her at least once by fans.

Tobias beings to recount how he became involved with the war with the Yeerks.

Tobias ends his recount by saying that he is trapped in morph and that's why he didn't morph alongside Rachel.

As Tobias flies he thinks of what the female red-tailed hawk is doing. He talks about what red-tailed hawks like and confuses himself for a hawk at one point. It's sad to see Tobias trying to figure out what he is because the hawk part of him is permanent. Even when he gets his morphing abilities back, and gets to acquire his human self, the hawk part seems to carry over.

And another mention of the word 'thermal'!

When Tobias flies by a building he sees a businessman look up at him. After Tobias passes the building he talks about sensing something above him. Something huge, but when he looks up nothing is there. Tobias focuses more intently on what he knows is there and finally sees a ripple. It is so faint that he starts to doubt that he saw anything at all. He follows where he believes the ripple is going.

Tobias can't keep up with it and flies over to Rachel's house. The other Animorphs are waiting for them there. He calls out to Rachel in thought-speech but she can't reply as she's not in morph. He jokes with her and says that he bets the first words Marco will say are 'Are you insane?'.

It seems that the other Animorphs have seen the commercial and Marco does ask if Tobias and Rachel are insane. You should've bet money on that one, bird-boy.


Chapter 3
"You’re right," Marco said. "But since all of you guys think you have to save the world, and since you’re all my friends, more or less, I figure someone has to keep you from being total idiots."

Marco continues yelling at Rachel and Tobias for being idiots. Jake made them promise never to do anything so stupid again. And Cassie, the peacemaker of the group, makes sure everyone is friends at the end of the argument.

Marco brings up the point that the Animorphs are supposed to be fighting the Yeerks and not rescuing animals. I like that Tobias' stunt in the beginning of the book is being dealt with realistically. The fact that the Animorphs know it's stupid and aren't saying how cool it was. Making sure Tobias and Rachel know to never do it again and to be more careful.

Tobias challenges Marco by bringing up the point that Marco doesn't want to fight the Yeerks. Marco tries to make an angrier expression than Tobias' natural face and fails. Marco says that he doesn't want to save the world but he knows someone has to keep them all from making stupid mistakes. He says that person is him. I like that Marco is fighting for his friends, especially Jake, and not because he cares about saving the world. Shows some strength to make all that sacrifice for friendship.

Tobias brings up the fact that Marco is the most reluctant Animorph even though he was one of the original members. I think I heard someone mentioning the fact that Applegate said she would've written Tobias as something other than straight if she could. I think she said either gay or bi. And I think that sort of shows in the next paragraph.

How he describes Marco is almost like he's sad he can't be closer to him. He brings up Marco's sarcasm and confidence like those are qualities he admires. Like those are qualities he wished he could pull off easily like Marco. A big piece of evidence comes at the end of the paragraph. Tobias says he guesses 'girls' think Marco is cute due to the boy's long brown hair and dark eyes.

Does anyone else see that?

Jake and Rachel joke about them being in trouble if Marco is the sensible one. Everyone laughs. It ends up with Marco throwing a pillow at Jake. Tobias remarks that the two are opposites but have been best friends forever. Jake is the one that he'd turn to in times of crises, though.

Cassie says she has to get back to her barn to do work. Marco jokes about not using the word cage around Tobias so bird-boy won't have her house destroyed. The group laughs as both her parents are veterinarians and her barn functions as a rehabilitation clinic. Tobias says that Cassie is the animal expert of the group.

Jake asks if Tobias is coming home right away but Tobias says no. The others in the group feel sad for Tobias and he seems to resent that. Jake also seems to be feeding Tobias like a pet bird. Bird-boy tells Jake to be careful since Tom is a Controller and if he notices Jake feeding a bird there could be trouble.

The others leave making Rachel and Tobias the only ones in the room. Rachel says she doesn't like to think of Tobias living in an attic, but he says he's okay. He thinks of telling her about the ripple he saw earlier but decides against it. He doesn't know what it is and he doesn't want to worry Rachel.

After they say good-bye and he flies out he talks about how he hates being pitied. He hates how the group sees him as being trapped and not remembering he had a shitty life as a human anyways. He says that there are things he has now that he didn't have then. Like the sky.

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me.

 Sorry...I went off on a tangent there.



Chapter 4
As for me, Tobias, when I hadn’t been in school, I used to spend most of my free time watching TV, hanging out at the mall, doing homework, reading…all things it was difficult for me to do, now.

The following day Tobias goes back to where he had seen the ripple. He makes mention that he's still not sure if he actually saw it or not. He comments that red-tailed hawks aren't made for soaring like eagles or some buzzards are. He's like a fanboy of how well Turkey Buzzards can soar.

Tobias then mentions that the hawk mind would be just as happy perched on a branch waiting for prey as it would be soaring. This leads to him thinking of the downsides of being a hawk. He seems like he wants to hunt but is afraid of the backlash from Marco.

Tobias makes mention of when you're in morph that the animal mind can be hard to control. He brings up the point that Jake couldn't help himself eating a spider. Tobias thinks if he loses control once that he won't be able to stop himself. The conflict Tobias has within himself shows that he likes being a hawk but he's not fully at peace with his place in life.

Tobias realizes that maybe the ripple only comes at a certain time of the day. Therefore his entire day is free. This wouldn't be a problem if he was still human, but he's not. A red-tailed hawk spends most of its day hunting, but Tobias hasn't yet started to hunt. If he were human he'd do stuff like watch tv or read. But he can't do those things in a red-tailed hawk body.

It's strange that he says that he misses school since he used to get bullied there. But the alternative is his home life which is even worse. Oh my god! Tobias thinks his parents don't love him! Fuck you, Ellimist! Fuck you!

Seems that Tobias had Jake lie to his aunt and uncle. Made it so that the aunt thought Tobias was with the uncle and vice versa. Tobias thinks that they'll figure the truth out one day, but he also thinks that they won't care.

Tobias decides to go to Rachel's house and see if she's available. Just as he's about to head over there he sees the ripple again. How he words this part is almost like the ripple is calling out to him. The ripple then changes direction to head towards the mountains and Tobias sees a flock of geese. The geese are going straight for the ripple. All of a sudden the head goose's wings collapsed and it slid through the air.

Most of the geese don't seem to make it out alive.

When the geese hit the ripple Tobias could see metal. He suddenly knows what the ripple is. A Yeerk ship!
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