Animorphs Re-Read: #5 The Predator (Chapters 1-4)

 Chapter 1

This book is narrated by Marco.

This book begins, yet again, with the usual recap. Marco jokes about his last name being McCain. I'm not sure what McCain was up to back when this book was published, but the name choice makes me giggle nonetheless.

Marco ends the recap by saying he likes to mind his own business. We are then reminded that he has responsibilities for both his dad and himself. This is because his mother died.

We are also reminded that Marco isn't rich which sort of explains why he keeps bringing up fame and fortune a lot.

Marco notices an old man about to get beaten by three punks. This shows that even though Marco likes to keep to himself, he does truly care. Which can explain part of the reason why he decided to fight the Yeerks with the rest of the Animorphs.

This part also brings up what I hate about censoring for 'virgin ears'. This series is dark, and if you think it's dark now you're in for a treat later, and yet cussing is too much to write. I mean...holy shit! What is it with sex and cussing that makes it worse than violence?

Marco calls himself cute, charming, witty, and modest. I'll say you can have your opinion on all but Marco being modest. Because he's one of the least modest people of the group.

Marco goes into the alley so no one can see him morph into a gorilla. He describes the morphing process as creepy as Hell but painless. He also says that the gorilla morph is one of the least creepy morphs he has.

Marco remarks on how strong a gorilla is compared to a human. I love the moments in these books when the Animorphs get all excited about animals.

His first action is to throw a dumpster at the punks. If these were smart people they would've run as a gorilla is after their asses. However, they aren't smart and decide to attack Marco.

Marco takes care of the three punks easily.

Then one of them recovers and starts to shoot at him. That one is, of course, extremely easy for Marco to deal with.

Marco, at the end of this all, is rewarded by being attacked by the old man that he was trying to rescue. He then rushes away from the old man and says that this is an example of why not to get involved in others' problems.


Chapter 2

Marco begins the chapter with telling the others his heroic actions of the previous night. Of course Rachel, being Rachel, puts him down. She sort of had a point as he was comparing himself to people like Batman.

Marco is good. Just not Batman good.

Marco complains about the old man trying to attack him and Jake says that it's not good to morph in public.

Now here comes something that's great for newcomers of the series but a little annoying for veterans of the series (and, back in the day, veteran would have been those who had read books #1-#4 already). The lovely recap!

He goes on about each one of the Animorphs.

After the recap Jake reprimands Marco for morphing in public while Rachel agrees. I love the dynamic between Marco and Rachel. Once Rachel agrees Marco knows he has to be wrong. Besides, the whole point of his story was to show the others how helping others can backfire.

Wouldn't it be awesome if Marco made the whole story up to convince the other Animorphs and the audience that his point of view is right? I don't know if I'm adding that as a headcanon or not.

As Cassie says something that no one argues with and therefore ends the argument, Marco notices something. He realizes that nice things like walking in the outdoors doesn't happen without a reason.

It turns out the gang is going to meet Ax, the Andalite Aristh from the previous book, who wants to go home. The group knows that the Andalite home world is around eighty-two light years away which is a really long way away.

When Marco points out how far away that is, Jake replies with saying the plan is to steal a Yeerk ship.

Now why would Ax want to run home instead of fighting the Yeerks here and getting revenge for his brother? Just imagine being a kid and being surrounded by people not like you. I doubt you'd want to stay there for any amount of time either.

When they see Ax, Marco has to remark on the tail-blade being the part of the Andalite body that shows the alien race isn't to be messed with lightly.

I am squealing since when Ax greets Jake he says "Prince Jake"! Ah, I can be pleased with such simple things.

Ax asked how each of them are doing and Marco says he was doing fine until he heard about the plan to steal a Yeerk ship. Ax asks if Marco thinks that is a dangerous thing to do.

Er...Marco basically replies that it is beyond dangerous and he doesn't have time for this shit.

When the subject of honor comes up, Jake's reply is very telling. He says that honor isn't the most important thing he's fighting for. And, indeed, as the series goes on the matter of honor becomes less important to him. He becomes willing to kill and use people if it means victory will be in sight.

While this may seem cruel it goes back to what Alloran said in The Andalite Chronicles: war is about winning and some people dirty their hands so that others may feel clean by the end.

Of course my love and feelings of how Alloran has been changed as a host will be touched on later on in the series when the topic comes up.

Ax says that they will send a distress beacon to call a Yeerk ship down and Marco is less than enthusiastic about the idea. He knows the chances of the plan to go wrong are very high.

One of the things Marco likes about Ax is his hatred of Visser Three and the Yeerks.

Ax says that Marco is a coward for being afraid and I am so glad that Marco talks down to him. The fact is that the other Animorphs have fought and know what battle is like. They know what it feels like to face death and what it's like to worry if your friends will come out alive.

And by the end of the series they'll know what it's like to lose a dear friend in battle.

Marco feels slightly guilty but I am glad he said what he did.

Tobias breaks the awkward silence and asks if Ax could get to the Andalite home world with the Yeerk ship. Ax says yes. Tobias also asks Ax if he could make them hurry up back to Earth.

Ax's reply is very naive.

Ax thinks that because he is the brother of Elfangor that the other Andalites will agree to hurry up to defend Earth from the Yeerks. Even if that wasn't the case they would come anyways.

This makes it seem that the Andalites really give a fuck about the outcome of the Yeerk invasion of Earth. It doesn't matter how important Ax being Elfangor's brother actually is, it's the fact that the Andalites don't consider Earth important enough to spend precious resources on. In one book later on in the series you will see how the Andalites, the majority, really don't care if humans survive at all.

So Ax's reply is naive unless he also doesn't care about the outcome of the invasion of Earth and so he isn't thinking about how his government really works.

Jake then puts the plan to a vote and Marco knows they'll end up doing it.


Chapter 3

The chapter starts off with the group figuring how Ax will get to and from the mall. Of course he'll morph human but they have to worry about the time limit.

If I were to create the Escafil Device I wouldn't have a time limit since some missions will go overtime. Plus stuff might happen which will make demorphing not an option. However, in a story, a time limit is always a good plot device.

I like that there is a reason for not all the Animorphs to go on this mission. In the show it's very random who will appear in a given episode, but here it's shown why someone won't be appearing. It's because sometimes a mission isn't important enough for all to go on and sometimes everyone going would appear suspicious.

It seems to have been Marco's idea to have not everyone go. Again: he's the reluctant Animorph that makes sure the others don't do something stupid.

A bus is on time? This must be fiction!

Marco reminds Ax to remember the morphing suit. This confuses me since if he morphed with it, it should still be on his body.

But this little reminder is a way to tell new readers (and refresh older ones' memory) about another rule of morphing. The thing is that they can't morph with clothing. This one makes sense why an Andalite wouldn't bother creating morphing technology that allows clothing. Andalites don't wear clothing and they didn't expect another species to get the morphing ability.

Luckily Ax has the clothing on  his human morph.

Marco comments on how weird it is to see an Andalite morph a human.

Ax, not having two legs and no tail like a human, has to be caught by PRINCE Jake as he nearly falls over.

Marco says that the weirdest thing about Ax's human morph was that it's a combination of all the Animorphs (minus Tobias). So he sees some of himself in Ax.

Ax questions there being more clothing he has to wear as Tobias checks on where the bus is. We also start to see how Ax really likes to play with sound. His own body doesn't have a mouth so speaking through a mouth is a new thing for him.

Marco gets annoyed by Ax using his mouth like a toy and tells him to stop. Which doesn't happen as Ax continues to play with sounds a few lines later.

As the group focuses on getting Ax to dress normally, Rachel says that the people in the mall are bound to notice how different Ax is. Controllers might even guess he's an Andalite in human morph. Marco says that people are odd at the time and day of the week that they're going so she has nothing to worry about.

But Rachel counters by saying that Ax is too different from other humans to pass as one.

Marco and Rachel joke about how this mission will go down in flames.

As they walk into the mall Jake says 'so far so good'. It's brought up that the saying is bad luck for the series. So, of course, Ax has to repeat it while playing with sounds coming from his mouth.

If you're wondering: I still get nervous when people say 'so far so good'.

Chapter 4

Marco, Jake, and Ax arrive at a chaotic mall. I usually only go to a mall with friends and I have not experienced something like is mentioned in this chapter.

Marco and Jake discuss where Radio Shack is and they notice they have lost Ax in two minutes. While Ax can give good information and be a great Animorph, he also can be a little kid at times. I mean...what person wouldn't try and stick as close to possible to allies in a strange environment full of enemies who could be anyone?

They are finally able to spot him and wonder how he could've gotten all the way over there. I find I have this ability myself. You can turn away from me and a second later I'll be on the other side of the store. It's my useless super power unless I was getting chased by people wanting to kill me.

Marco has to warn Jake not to run after Ax in case of unwanted attention being given their way. So as they go as fast as they can with that in mind, they lose sight of Ax again. And Jake makes the stupid mistake of asking what's the worst that Ax could do if he doesn't demorph?

He has a mouth and isn't aware of taste. He will stick anything in his mouth. There is a lot of shit he could do.

They finally catch up with Ax as he's ordering from a Starbucks. Now I don't like that he wandered off but as a coffee addict: I approve his choice.

When Marco reprimands Ax for running off it appears Ax thinks that since he's in the same building that he isn't really going away from his two comrades. I won't go into a discussion of how that doesn't make sense, but leave it at how I hate how aliens in some sci-fi stories are made to appear infantile when confronted with human technology while they are so smart in other areas.

It's the part of the 'fish out of water' thing that I loathe.

Ax gets super excited about the coffee lid on the coffee. I can understand being amazed at technology that your people don't have a use for, but shouldn't Ax try for Andalite arrogance? But, of course, Ax is one of the more understanding of his race so that part of him might not break out at what he considers a miracle of human technology.

Marco, of course,  replies sarcastically to Ax getting so excited.

Marco goes to remind Ax how to drink coffee while Ax talks about what he wants to try out with his mouth.

When Ax drinks the coffee he gets excited and can hardly explain what he's experiencing. Jake finally realizes that he's experiencing taste which isn't something an Andalite would be familiar with.

Things like Ax getting excited over taste is something I can deal with due to it being something new. I doubt an Andalite Prince could keep himself calm over the sense of taste for the first time.

Marco compliments how well Ax understands technology even though the Aristh got a little crazy around the sense of taste.

Ax is doing well until he can't find a Z-Space Transponder. Upon Ax's explanation, Marco has to say that humans don't have faster than light travel. Isn't that something that would be given in the debriefing before arriving near Earth?

After Jake says that they'll worry about the Transponder later. Ax then talks about a possible connection between taste and smell. Then things take a bad turn when Ax misunderstands something Jake said and throws the empty coffee cup away. And not away like in a trashcan, but away into a cashier's head.

Jake is able to buy the things Ax picked out and then the duo has to rush after Ax again. The Andalite had run away even after Marco reprimanded him. Jake and Marco see Ax heading towards the food court and Marco knows something bad will go down.

Ax is causing a ruckus in the food court as he gets overwhelmed by the sense of taste. Goddammit, Ax!

And here we have an Animorphs first: AX EATS A CINNABUN FOR THE FIRST TIME!

As the mall cops come after Ax, Marco tells the Andalite to run.

So Ax does something extremely stupid and smart at the same time: he decides to demorph since he can't really run while in human morph.

And why the Hell can the other Animorphs move around in any morph they do without as much trouble as Ax is having while in human morph? Mind you that Ax would have had basic morphing training which none of the other Animorphs had.

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Animorphs Re-Read Table of Contents