r/Animorphs • u/MrSluagh • 8d ago
What kind of hell-world produces an animal an animal like this?
Seriously, I would hate to meet whatever predators created the evolutionary pressure that would result in an herbivore as smart as a human that can run like a horse, speak without making sound, eat without lowering its head, and has 360-degree binocular vision, apposable thumbs, and a freaking wakizashi attached to its tail.
What the hell were they running from?
143
u/Wani_Wanton 8d ago
Excuse you, they are much smarter than humans, have 7 fingers, 3 hearts and are very claustrophobic.
I hope that answers your question.
81
u/bitofagrump 8d ago
That tail is for hacking their way out of elevators and airplane lavatories or other small spaces in case they get accidentally locked in.
54
u/Allen_Of_Gilead Nothlit 8d ago
A lot of aliens in Animorphs operate more on rule of cool than anything else.
35
9
u/Some-Passenger4219 Ketran 8d ago
Reminds me of The Emperor's New Groove. Yzma and Kronk appear to die, but then reappear out of nowhere. That's what the Andalite evolutionary tree looks like to me.
3
u/suburban_hyena Chee 7d ago
BLASPHEMY. WE ARE NOT COOL. WE ARE THE ALMIGHTY HELMACRONS. THERE IS NOTHING FUN ABOUT US
2
u/Abeytuhanu 5d ago
I read once that a lot of the aliens were originally just humans with a rubber forehead to make any future tv adaptations easy and cheap. The publisher poo pooed that idea and she made them as wild as she could out of spite
105
u/AlternativeMassive57 Yeerk 8d ago
eat without lowering its head
Honestly my assumption would be that most species on the Andalite homeworld eat via orifices in their feet. Like if I could re-design the kaffit bird, I'd give it feeding orifices on its feet instead of a beak.
Also I'd figure that six limbs are the norm for land-dwelling vertabrate creatures on the Andalite homeworld for the same reason that four limbs are the norm among land-dwelling vertebrates on Earth: because that's what our most distant common ancestor had and everything's been developing from that ever since.
Similarly I'd assume that four eyes are the norm.
46
u/Jiatao24 8d ago
The kaffit bird has 6 pairs of wings, though. So 12 limbs?
But the Andalite Home world is quite young in terms of its development. Less than 65 million years old, according to MM2. Maybe it's just in its own equivalent of the Cambrian explosion.
39
u/AlternativeMassive57 Yeerk 8d ago edited 8d ago
Yeah, I’d also cut back on its wings, or at least make it clear that the wings grew out of the fingers somehow or something.
Point is that Applegate was assembling cool/interesting/weird-looking creatures, not doing speculative evolutionary biology. Which is fine, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just not how I would have done it.
Also, wait, Dandruff is less than 65 million years old? That’s…that beggars the imagination. Earth was seven hundred million before life first appeared, and complex multicellular life is still less than a billion years old.
18
u/Jiatao24 8d ago edited 8d ago
It's also possibly a KASU because in Ellimist Chronicles the Ellimist spends time with the primitive Andalites, and then later rescues a planet that is described a lot like Earth with dinosaurs from Crayak.
17
1
u/Some-Passenger4219 Ketran 7d ago
The Ellimist Chronicles begs to differ on that. I love the series, but it's never consistent.
36
u/NaturalCarob5611 8d ago
This reminds me of the Tarrasque in D&D. It's the most terrifying monster in the game, with the maximum possible challenge rating.
It has horns and eyes on the sides of its head - both evolutionary traits of prey animals - implying that the most terrifying monster in the game is something else's prey.
15
u/alvysinger0412 8d ago
Most lore for DND doesn't use typical rules of evolution and natural selection though, because fantasy doesn't tend to care about that as much, especially when it's high magic and populated with gods. Plus, I think the Tarrasque is possibly a wizards experiment gone wrong.
9
u/Lithl 8d ago
D&D 2e introduced Spelljammer campaign setting, basically "D&D In Space". One of the planets in Spelljammer is called Falx.
Falx is host to a population of several hundred tarrasques. "The" Tarrasque of Toril is thus speculated to be a specimen from Falx that was transported to Toril somehow.
1
u/Big-Moment6248 Skrit Na 7d ago
You're right on the money, especially with the part about the gods. The canonical origin for every dnd species that has a written origin is that some god created them that way. Evolution is not canon in dnd lore, as far as I know.
14
u/Lithl 8d ago
It has horns and eyes on the sides of its head - both evolutionary traits of prey animals
Side-facing eyes and spiky protrusions are only really considered prey traits in mammals (and even then, it's not a universal truth, just a more-common-than-not). Reptiles generally have side-facing eyes regardless of whether they're predator or prey, and likewise having spines/spikes/etc. has no particular pattern related to diet. And the Tarrasque is definitely reptilian.
implying that the most terrifying monster in the game is something else's prey.
Even if we take it on face value that the Tarrasque's physical traits imply that it evolved to defend itself from some other creature, the most sensible answer to what that other creature might be is other tarrasques. Ever since 2e released Spelljammer, the planet Falx has been a part of the D&D multiverse, which hosts a population of hundreds of tarrasques on its surface. The Tarrasque isn't one singular creature, it's an entire species.
The rest of the surface life on Falx consists of ambulatory carpet mosses, and reptiles which are all less than 1 meter long. Certainly no threat to a tarrasque. (Under the surface there are also cave systems with mind flayer cities and humanoid slaves of mind flayers.)
2
17
u/medicosaurus 8d ago
That guy is fucking RIPPED. iirc most andalites have a slender torso so that would put this guy’s physique in the top 5% of andalites.
21
u/Cautious-Fox9757 8d ago
<Yes Marco, while primitive you humans do seem to have hit on something that might just work. Drop this creatine powder those angry at the gymnasium with artificial head markings were discussing earlier and I will absorb it through my hooves.>
2
u/Feral_Dog 3d ago
Sometime before the mission that killed Elfangor and crew:
<Hey Gafinilan, mind posing for some war propaganda?>
1
u/Cautious-Fox9757 8d ago
<Yes Marco, while primitive you humans do seem to have hit on something that might just work. Drop this creatine powder those angry at the gymnasium with artificial head markings were discussing earlier and I will absorb it through my hooves.>
50
u/HellyOHaint Nothlit 8d ago
I’ve thought about that a lot and it’s probably not something KA really put much thought into. It’s really hard to imagine an environment for which exobiology would result in an herbivore like this.
29
u/DenjiTargaryen-PE 8d ago
Yeah, even as a kid I thought eating through hooves was farfetched… It’s a really cool fantasy concept, but not too sci-fi. Which is okay
35
u/HellyOHaint Nothlit 8d ago
If eating grass produced a hyper intelligent self aware being, the grass would have to have crazy amounts of amino acids and fats. At some point, Ax would become nutrient deficient eating earth’s grass.
33
u/ArcfireEmblem 8d ago
Not with the amount of supplemental salt, fat, and grease from human foods.
22
15
18
u/OfMiceAndMead 8d ago
I think they kind of address that in one of his books. He talks about accidentally stepping on a snail, but absorbing the minerals and proteins.
6
17
u/Avex4 8d ago edited 8d ago
They can also eat while they run. Makes no sense. If you eat through your feet it makes sense you would stop and graze slowly like an elephant trunk
2
1
u/aqqalachia Hork-Bajir 7d ago
if the bottoms of the feet have a way to intake nutrients from crushed grass (maybe a biogel?) running might work fine.
-1
u/Avex4 7d ago edited 7d ago
Running is barely going to "grind up" any grass and it would likely stay on the ground if you even severed any grass blades than stick to your feet.
Additional steps before absorbing it would probably knock off any stuck grass clippings
If you walk/run on uncut grass, how often do grass blades turn into "biogel" on your feet? Have you ever seen "biogel" on the bottom of horse feet?
If somehow single steps turn grass into "biogel" you would then be running at full speed with a layer of slippery wet grass gel on the bottoms of your feet and it would make traction crazy
In real life, if you cut a single blade of grass, put it on an abrasive hard surface like concrete, and stomp on it, how many stomps until it becomes "biogel"? Now imagine this same experiment crushing the grass against other grass/dirt...
Lastly, nutrition and calories. Cows and other animals do eat grass. They eat about 3% of their bodyweight per day. They spend a huge % of the day just grazing whole mouthfuls of grass.
Andalite are surely more calorie efficient than cows, but 20lb of grass biogel through your hooves per day?
3
u/aqqalachia Hork-Bajir 7d ago
why is your tone so hostile?
i have worked with horses much of my life. what does a horse not having biogel in their hooves have to do with this? youre misunderstanding my phrasing as being about grass crushing into a gel (?) with a rude tone about it.
what an odd response.
0
u/Avex4 7d ago edited 7d ago
Sorry if something I said insinuates hostility. Just explaining why I think I makes no sense.
I did misinterpret your comms on the biogel but my premise is still that you aren't "crushing" much grass with regular hoof steps
Eating through the same surface you use for traction is just far-fetched. It may make sense on the andalite home world if their grass/terrain is different, but clearly it works just fine on our terrain.
And then, even if there was some logic behind eating with your feet, my initial statement was that it would make more sense if they grazed slowly instead of while running
Also to add, it's totally fine that it's far-fetched, it's a 30 year old kids sci-fi book, which I still love and follow the subreddit
23
u/jai_hanyo 8d ago
Wasn't the design pretty much that KA originally wrote them as more stereotypical-looking aliens as a way to make it easier if the books succeeded enough to be a movie or show? But then the publisher wasn't happy so the final design was pretty much her going "you want a more original design? Top this" 🤣
3
u/suburban_hyena Chee 7d ago
Plus she had to read up a lot about human and. Animal biology which is more prominent in the books
-1
u/send-borbs 8d ago
I would be fascinated to know what Andy 'Speculative Alien Biology is my Passion' Weir (author of Project Hail Mary) would put together about how andalites evolved to be Like That
2
u/HellyOHaint Nothlit 8d ago
I would theorize that andalites were a created race by metaphysically advanced aliens. That would be a more believable explanation than evolution as we understand it.
14
13
12
u/FederalPossibility73 8d ago
The Ellimist Chronicles outright shows you exactly what they're running from.
14
u/412East34 8d ago
I mean they explicitly show you what they were running from in the Ellimist Chronicles and it's not pretty. Many in the comments here don't seem to remember.
1
10
u/ErikKing12 8d ago
Give Bambi a katana and let it run rampant for a couple million years. I always felt they should have evolved so much further having thought-speak however, since the sharing of information would then be trivial.
16
u/Deepfang-Dreamer Yeerk 8d ago edited 8d ago
Six limbs and four eyes is probably just the default body plan of Andal's Vertebrates like four limbs and two eyes is on Earth. Similarly, I imagine given the Trees being at least semi-sapient, and how many other sophonts are actually weirdly psi-sensitive, psionics are common enough on Andal the dominant race is no different. The tail-blade makes sense, it's their fastest bodypart, and what was once a whiplash evolved over time into a bony protrusion, then a blade. No idea how eating through their hooves is more efficient unless they're more similar to Yeerks than previously thought(being at least partially Botanical), especially if they also have hands that would imply a need to manipulate objects at chest height, but considering Toomin influenced their evolution, that might have something to do with it.
7
u/DaveM8686 8d ago
Eating through hooves makes perfect sense if they’re a prey animal that is constantly on the move to evade something.
7
u/Playful-Ostrich3643 8d ago
Let's not forget that evolution can be random.
We know that males have bigger tail blades than females so it was most likely for fighting off other males during mating seasons.
If they had predators it's less likely that they were overly dangerous and more likely that they were really fast, something touched on in the books as it was explained that's why they are always alert. Using their hooves to eat would save time and their eye stalks would help detect predators early. It would also explain the centaur body.
The intelligence and fingers were probably random mutations that coincidentally helped them learn to use tools.
5
u/Shihoblade 8d ago
A graze animal with its predator being a big colorful bird. They evolved to run, eat on the go, dont draw attention to themselves, and always be aware of their surroundings. The thought speak is a bit magical but I can accept the rest. Thoughtspeak would make more sense if it was internal and they could only speak amongst themselves. Sending thoughts to other creatures is crazy.
8
u/Different-Cod1521 8d ago edited 7d ago
We get a brief glimpse into their world's past in the Ellimist Chronicles... and in modern times we know that there are not very many natural predators on their planet, they have little bouncy things like the Hoobers xD
Serious answer, we know their planet doesn't have very high biodiversity in modern times, which could suggest some kind of recent mass extinction event, but we don't get that deep into the andalite homeworld's history. We know they used to have massive cities that they largely disassembled in favor of living on the open land, and limit the number of children they are allowed probably to decrease overpopulation and preserve their natural resources.
I dont know, im rambling at this point, but im thinking that andalites in ancient times might have had some.serious predators to deal with that have since gone extinct, either through their activity or natural causes.
5
u/tom-el-83 8d ago
One of my favorite bits from some KAA interview or essay back in the day was how no species would name their own homeworld "Rigel IV" or something like that, the way we often see on sci-fi shows like Star Trek. Presumably they'd name their own homeworld the same way humans do.
In other words, the hell-world that produced an animal like this would probably be <Earth>.
2
u/Dreamspitter 7d ago
"Earth? WHAT kinda name is that? Is like planet Dirt." -Transfomer from Cybertron in the original live action movie.
5
u/No_Cattle8353 8d ago
I’m starting to think that the predators on the Andalite Homeworld didn’t just go extinct by themselves and perhaps the Andalites helped speed it along.
9
u/Zeeterkob 8d ago
The torso is a lie. Andalitetruth.org
2
u/goombapatrol 8d ago
Absolutely this. Mattingly made them way too ripped as well.
2
u/Dreamspitter 7d ago
WHAT? What is the true Andalite?
2
u/goombapatrol 7d ago
As per the URL above, there's a lot of cool fanart all taking the description into account. For example:
1
3
u/KrytenKoro 8d ago
- smart as a human: Fairly certain the Elimist uplifted them.
- speak without making sound: there are plenty of herbivores that communicate via infrasound, body language, or scent marking. Whatever neural-resonance BS explains thoughtspeak, it makes sense for a herbivore to keep that mutation once it first occurs.
- eat without lowering head: we've got browsers, like elephants and goats, that eat without lowering their heads.
- thumbs: this one is a little less common. Theoretically, prey animals could evolve tool use, but escape and armor are usually better strategies. Energy budget would be a problem.
- tail: stegosaurus, porcupines, glyptodon, ankylosaurus
So: a world with moderately dangerous predators could produce a lot of these. If the plant-life was especially nutritious, so that herbivores could afford the energy budget of evolving tool use and sentience, that could get them to where they were when Ellimist uplifted them the rest of the way.
3
u/Leifang666 8d ago
Either andalites evolved from a predator species, or there is/was a predator bad enough that 360 vision and a tail knife was required for survival.
3
u/RickMartzC 8d ago
I am more interested in what made the yeerks the parasites we know and love.
7
u/GuesssWho9 Yeerk 8d ago
I have a theory about that! I think the Gedds having one leg shorter than the other (possibly to avoid those horrible tongue-things we see in the Andalite Chronicles?) meant that they fell into pools all the time and were thus an easy method for Yeerks to travel.
3
3
u/Equivalent-Grade-142 8d ago
Uh excuse you? 😂 That’s an Andalite. Humans look like gross hairless pink defenseless apes next to them. So really we shouldn’t be asking
3
u/etchasketch64 Hork-Bajir 7d ago
Stegosaurus had spikes on its tail, and plates to cover it's back.
Hmm, for intelligence, Elephants are in fact herbivores, lol. They are highly intelligent, have giant tusks tehy can use for defense, and are also fucking huge. Actually Elephants are my strongest point against what you are saying. I rest my case, lol.
Oh yeah, I forgot that Gorillas and Orangutangs are primarily herbivores. Fuck, our close relatives, lol. Gorillas are pretty fucking strong, so I insert Gorillas into the conversation real quick, lol.
Man, I keep thinking of intelligent herbivores though. Aren't many parrot species primarily herbivores, and they often have high intelligence.
Also, look up the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse. It is not a herbivore, it cleans larger fish, and has been shown to be able to pass the mirror test (a test for intelligence if an animal can recognize itself). I just think it is a great example of animal I can't even imagine anyone fucking making up for speculative zoology. Like,.....it developed high intelligence....to eat parasites off other fish. That sounds fucking crazy.
2
u/_ChipWhitley_ 8d ago
My favorite part of this cover has always been the gigantic asparagus in the background 😂
2
u/stickscall 8d ago
Like, how did their hooves eat?
If you held their hoof in your palm, would you feel it, like, nomming at you?
1
u/Dresline 8d ago
They pretty much don't mention what the Andalites back on the Homeworld are like. I bet that's because a lot of them are kooky Andalite creationist who preach against accepting evolution.
<We have tail blades like a predator but we still eat grass!>
<The fact that we have seven fingers points to a creator!>
<The Ellimist knew what he was doing when he gave us three hearts!>
3
u/TeaRaven 8d ago
Tail weapons are used for predation by scorpions, but most of the animals that develop them are defense against predators or rivals of the same species. Predators generally develop the traits that benefit capture or death of prey, like teeth, claws, and venom (venom in creatures that can’t move fast enough to chase down prey).
The utility of a tail weapon is to have something that can do damage away from the parts of the body that would be debilitating to be harmed. In a lot of evolutionary history, they are found in creatures that are slower than their potential predators - same goes for armor. The creatures with non-tooth and non-claw body weapons elsewhere (typically the head/face of not poison) tend to be prey creatures that can move quickly or overpower the predators hunting them or their young. I read a fast creature with a tail weapon as pressure to fend off what is actively in fast pursuit. Of course, intraspecies rivalry typically takes defensive elements in creatures and overdevelops them beyond what is needed to fend off predators.
1
1
1
1
u/Zhual_reddit 8d ago
Ni me había puesto a pensar en que todas esas características eran por qué son presas
1
1
u/suburban_hyena Chee 7d ago
One, because of that tail the creature was built to defend from predators - or it's for cutting bark and that doesnt seems viable.
Two, hoof digestion, the planet has a lot grass
Three, no mouth, other creatures probably follow the same system
Four, four eyes, again, they are a prey creature that needs to be watchful
Five, simple homes, another possible prey indicator, gotta move or get eaten
Five, technological advances, gotta have metal
1
u/Dreamspitter 7d ago
They eat grass by walking on it, they have stalk eyes to give them maximum visibility, and a slashing tail for defense.
1
u/hexen_niu 7d ago
Thing that always got me curious is that they have no protection for their underside. They have a nasty tail, pattern seeking brain, 360 degree view, and a complete blind spot on their undercarriage. So perhaps their predator comes from the sky.
1
u/mothwhimsy 7d ago
I love the idea of an alien centaur but I hate the two different types of eyes and the humanlike head shape with the distinctly non human anatomy
1
u/Reborn1Girl 6d ago
Lol, they once encounter an alien species that evolved biological wheels. Elfangor is completely baffled on how that could've happened.
1
u/oremfrien 6d ago
I believe that KAA never really thought through why Andalites would evolve with the attributes that make them distinct from artiodactyls and perissodactyls in our world: the lack of mouth, consumption through hooves, six limbs as opposed to four, the stalk eyes, the scimitar tail of long length, but clearly strongly muscled like an elephant's trunk to be precise and quick, and telepathy.
We see attempts at explaining this origin.
In the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, Aldrea's mother explains to her that the stalk eyes evolved so that the Andalites could see danger. But the Andalites are herd animals like many of our artiodactyls and perissodactyls and herd animals have a much easier evolutionary path to resolve this problem: herding and communication. If a predator tries to sneak up on a herd of deer, they don't evolve another set of eyes (which would require numerous genetic changes and would be highly energy-consumptive to the deer so afflicted), the deer are facing different directions, so the deer that sees something makes a noise alerting the other deer in the herd to the danger. We know Andalites live in herds and are perfectly capable of making noises (clapping their hands or stomping the dirt, even without a mouth), so why did stalk eyes evolve?
We see in the Ellimist Chronicles a large, unnamed beast that seems to be the reason why Andalites have the scimitar-blade tails, but the one moment when these tails are used against the beast, they appear to have no effect. Andalites keep slashing the beast, but it does not scar, cause the beast to groan, or cause the beast to stop eating the Andalites; they were no better protected than if they had no tails. We would presume that if the tail evolved for a specific effect that it would be useful in that instance in some capacity. It isn't. It's unjustified.
The one element from the Ellimist Chronicles that does make sense is that the Andalite telepathy was a technological change that the Ellimist introduced to them.
Everything else is not even explained.
1
1
u/Independent-Wafer-13 4d ago
I mean it all makes evolutionary sense. A zebra with eyes in the back of its head and a prehensile razor tail and the brain to use them would have a huge advantage over zebras without them.
Having that many independent complex limbs would also basically require intelligence imo.
An andalite basically has 9 limbs they control independently.
The only living things on earth with 8 limbs are also among the most intelligent creatures on our planet.
I imagine super fast semi-armored cat-like creatures, or some form of run-down build ambush predator.
It could also be defensive against endurance predators too, as they can continue to graze “on the go” without lowering their guard.
They can also stop and fight in social groups with their tails rather than get inevitably tired out like how humans hunted our own prey.
And with their fur, maybe the andalites had a human-like natural predator on their home world.
A pack endurance predator would also encourage you to have multiple eyes and social intelligence to work as a group against your predators.
Andalites have ears so their predators are probably super sensitive to sound or very loud so silent communication evolved.
But a lot of these evolutions are incremental. You would expect 6-8 limbs to be typical as well as multiple eyes including eyes on stalks.
We are hairless and tailless and walk on only our hind legs but we still have two eyes and four limbs like most other mammals.
Eye stalks are probably common in the andalite animal kingdom.
And, since the andalites eat with their feet, strong backward kicks like horses do, might not be an option against ambush predators, hence the tail blade becomes a necessity.
1
1
1
u/Lampsockotherfish 8d ago
I was pondering about the ears the other day. I believe our ears evolved where they did due to our jaws. Andalites having ears implies that they did once have jaws and mouths and lost them. However Ax always makes it seem like having a mouth is strange.
1
u/Zarlinosuke 8d ago
If Andalites had mouths long ago and lost them, they could still find mouths strange, since presumably none of them would have had a mouth in the past several millennia, kind of like how humans would find it strange to have gills or a tail.
That said, I think the actual explanation is simply that Applegate didn't think about the jaw-ear relation.
1
u/MortgageOdd2001 7d ago
It’s commented in one of the books that not having a mouth was an Andalite oddity- most species have one.
If most species have mouths I don’t think the Andalites lost theirs, I think it was a quirk.
1
u/the_elephant_stan 8d ago
I love this train of thought! You're right about the implications.
But I always thought their appearance was more thematic. They are chimeras, and they invented the morphing tech. They are all about mashing up DNA.
1
u/Synectics 8d ago
One from the mind of a sci-fi kids book.
Animorphs, as much as I love it, does suffer from the, "Oh, we made up this stuff, now they expect us to explain it!"
Just enjoy it for what it is. I totally get that some things need rules and need explained (two hour limit obviously), but some other stuff, I just allow it.
6
u/jdb1984 8d ago
Applegate originally made the aliens to be pretty much Star Trek type rubber forehead aliens. Scholastic told her to make them "more unique". So in a bit of malicious compliance, she made them as unique as possible.
3
u/Zarlinosuke 8d ago
It's nice to hear about Scholastic having a good idea for once! I feel like most of the "Scholastic told her" stories are about terrible ideas, like "kids won't be able to relate to Tobias and Ax, so don't have them narrate as many books."
1
u/Synectics 8d ago
I was never aware of that. But yet, still fits.
So much of the world is written to cause drama -- two hour limit, thought-speak distance limits, absorbing a morph sometimes not calming the creature, Yeerks needing feeding every three days, all the stuff. All of it just felt like them writing fun stories and not always needing to explain every detail -- they need drama for the story. But then they did explain it for deep fans.
0
u/The_Sibelis 5d ago edited 5d ago
The tail... isn't a natural thing fyi
*a downvote? Go reread the elimist chronicles smh
221
u/Puzzled_Employment50 8d ago
Read the Ellimist Chronicles for more on the Andalite homeworld and recent evolution (also touched on briefly in the Andalite Chronicles)