this one was absolutely BONKERS i laughed out loud in confusion so many times, the aliens in this series are so creative and strange. also the end with homer's doggie wisdom was so silly i loved it. and the gang realizing their heist was a bit of a flop because the bat morphs don't have hands? BRILLIANT i was dying of laughter. i really loved this one for this strangeness but also the discussion about the morality of violence was really interesting. ALSO THE AMOUNT OF GORE IN THIS im sorry but marco looking down at himself in gorilla form and seeing a gaping hole?? HORRIFYING !!! this book was equal parts hilarious, gruesome and thought-provoking.

In Animorphs #10 The Android, the Animorphs have one of many discussions about fighting vs pacifism. Humanity and many other life forms in the universe have been threatened and taken over by an alien race called the Yeerks which are essentially brain worms.The Yeerks are unrelenting and will stop at nothing to take over the entire universe. Would pacifism even work against a threat such as the one faced by humanity? Do we lose some of our humanity when we fight? Is there a "right" decision in these situations?

The Animorphs are compared to the Chee which is a peaceful race of androids who have been living on Earth since ancient Egypt. The Chee are nonviolent and are willing to even be slaves to humans while presenting as humans using holograms. When the Animorphs learn about the nonviolent ways of the Chee and reflect on reflect on the subsequent extinction of their creators the Pemalites; Rachel, Marco, and Tobias have a conversation:
"Fight or die," I agreed. "And you want proof? Look at the Pemalites. They didn't fight, they died. All gone. No more. Scratch a whole species. Now their 'essence," whatever that means, is stuck inside dogs, and their robots feed them
extra kibble. Yippee. That worked out real well for them. And even that's better off than we'll be if we lose to the Yeerks."
"Law of the jungle," Rachel said.
"You eat or you get eaten."
Tobias said,
speaking up for the first time.
"How can you take that attitude?" | demanded.
"You're a predator. You know how it is."
Don't you wish we could say the same? Don't you wish Homo sapiens could face the universe and honestly say, "We do not kill? We don't enslave. We don't make war"?>
"I don't make the rules," I said. "I didn't start this war.”

The way of non-violence seems to be a road to extinction, at least that’s what Rachel and Marco think. I have to applaud K.A. Applegate on her uncompromising honesty in her discussion of the ethics of war. War makes you an animal, it dehumanizes you. And every fight it seems to make more and more of an impression on the children’s psyches. (Marco literally dies in this book, he is in a gorilla morph and is disemboweled and stabbed in the heart. He is later revived and has nightmares that night)

War and battle is not the only thing that Marco has to deal with. He also has to deal with the fact that his mother who he previously thought was dead is actually alive but is being controlled by a high ranking Yeerk. This is discussed in stomach churning detail; the most emotional part of the book for me was when Marco has dinner with his father and his father explains that the best memories of his “late” wife were actually when she wasn’t even fully his wife, she was actually being controlled by a war hungry interstellar space slug inside her head. This makes Marco cry at the dinner table. Marco also reflects throughout this book about which moments with his mother were real and which were not his real mother but her being controlled. It’s heart breaking.

This is the first book I don't remember (also the first with a meaningful title). I wonder if/when I stopped reading, or if I just skipped this one because of the spider morph? Regardless: The dog aliens are pretty ridiculous, but that's balanced by the significant expansion to the worldbuilding and the combo attack of Z-space's role in morphing + the consequences of the spider morph + the incredibly violent ending. It's a lot for a kids's book and sincerely horrific, in engaging and awful ways. The investigation of pacifism/trauma/obligation is less robust than I'd like, especially after the nuance of Cassie's ethical debate in the previous book, but it dovetails nicely with the content so I appreciate its presence.

3.5*
Love the idea of the Chee and the Pemilites, but I do think that the discussion of if they should get involved deserved more time.
Marco being Spiderman... what a cutie.

"Have you ever watched those old war movies where the Americans would be heading for some enemy beach? You know, they'd be in a little boat, riding through the surf, getting ready to jump out on a beach that was going to be chewed up by machine-gun bullets and mortars?
That's what this felt like. Like we were pretty calm now, but in a few seconds it was going to be life and death. Things would happen very fast. And none of it was going to be good.”

“No one laughed with me. Erek had stopped sobbing. I thought, Why would a robot cry?
  Ax said.
I stood up. I could see the Matcom building. It was only a few hundred yards away. There was a big hole in the front glass. I had a very bad feeling about what was on the other side of that glass.
All I could think of to say was, "All of them?"
"It lasted about ten seconds," Rachel said.”

I can't believe dogs were created by aliens, and I love the thematic resonance here. Fighting really fucks people up, and even in a terrible war for survival, there's room for pacifism. What's the point of winning if everyone is so messed up by PTSD that they can't live?

Really heavy stuff.
I think it may be my favorite book of the series..

"You saved our lives, Erek," I said.
'How do you...how do you live with the memory?' he asked me.
I knew what he meant. See, win or lose, right or wrong, the memory or violence sits inside your head. It sits there, like some lump you can't quite swallow. It sits there, a black hole that darkens hope, and eats away at everyday happiness like a cancer. It's the shadow you take into your own heart and try to live with.
I shrugged. 'I guess I try not to think about it. I try and for get. And after a while, the nightmares don't happen as much,'
Erek put a finger to his head. 'Android,' he said. He made a bitter, ruined smile. 'I can't forget. See? I can never forget...anything.'"


Once again, Animorphs gets real, this time from Marco's perspective. Marco is a joker, and perhaps the least like me, and yet this story was perfect from his point of view. The main recurring theme of this one seems to be violence, from moments of Marco's anger at how his mom was taken by the Yeerks and is now far, far away as Viscer 1, to the fact that Marco pretty much dies not once, but twice in this installment. Then of course the introduction of the Chee, dog-like androids that were created by a long extinct completely peaceful race - peaceful to the point that when they were attacked, they were all slaughtered without any chance, as they did not know how to use violence. The Chee themselves are programmed that they also can never use violence, and the book explores the implications of that, and the cost of breaking it.

The morphs are delightfully terrifying as always (the way they describe morphing into a wolf spider might be the most dramatic yet).

Finally, the last detail I must note for my own memory from this book is the lore that dogs were created by Chee in memory of the peaceful dog-like race that created them as android equals, companions and friends, and that is why dogs are so purely happy, loyal companions to this day.

This was an interesting little tangent that introduced some characters who have a different view on the fight with the Yeerks.

The argument for pacifism is always an interesting one that I go back and forth on and I like that Applegate brings that up with young readers here. She pulls no punches, which I always love in her writing.

Speaking of the writing, the writing in this one is really great. We get Marco, who thinks everything is a joke, narrating a very heavy topic and it's done so well. The only thing holding me back from 5 stars here is some of the logic is a bit...lacking in this one, ha!

No amount of therapy will ever fix Erek King

Dogs, man. Dogs.

This is my first time reading the animorphs series, and I feel like it surprises me everywhere I turn.
This episode felt particularly gut wrenching. At this point in the series, each of the main characters are accepting violence, and it’s eating them alive.
Erek (and the Chee), are introduced as a foik to the animorphs, programmed for nonviolence. Erek wants to change their programming, but during the most horrifying fight of the series (dare i say- worse than the ants), he changes his programming and decimates a small army in seconds. This is the first time we really see someone finally snap and break down from the violence of war, as Erek has a meltdown and chooses nonviolence for him and his species.
Although this series is aimed at a younger audience, it treats violence as a complicated, traumatic, but ultimately necessary thing. Applegate doesn’t pull ANY punches with killing characters onscreen (controllers who the animorphs know are also innocent humans). The kids are accepting violence as a necessary part of resistance, and in this book, Marco uses violent fantasies as a way to vent his frustration towards the Yeerks.
I appreciate that these books treat war and rebellion as a nuanced thing. It’s incredibly traumatic for everyone and Applegate is not shy in showing how this messes up each character. However, the Chee are the most extreme representation of pacifism, and their lore explains why the idea of war itself is so repulsive.
This series also keeps adding more and more interesting alien lore constantly. I love how this universe continues to be fleshed out, and everytime I learn something new, I have twice as many question.

tldr: I liked the robots and i thought the dog ending was very sweet. I’m also curious to see where the animorphs eventually choose to draw the line when it comes to how far they will go to stop the Yeerks.

Love Marco's narration (as usual), and I love that this book brings in some things that are really important in the series. Erek King is a great character, and I really like the moral questions this book raises.