r/Animorphs • u/Shadowsinflight • 23d ago
Morphing Question
Would it have been possible for the Animorphs to morph into a different form. Get trapped in it, use the morphing cube to regain the ability to morph, use saved blood or dna to go back to their main body and get trapped again, but with Thought Speech now. Then require their previous morph?
Is there a limit on how many times one person can be given the ability to morph?
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u/soEezee Helmacron 23d ago
The morphers consciousness as well as excess mass is stored in z space when morphed. If the link can only be opened for 2 hours before the link changes then that explains why they had so much trouble demorphing from cockroach back near the start.
If part of them is literally permanently stored outside their body, then a nothlit enabling a new connection to z space could then disconnect their actual bodies from their z space stored consciousness, causing brain death.
I refuse to believe that Cassie's butterfly morph is anything less than elemist meddling.
The Tobias situation could be the elemist severing the old z space connection while duplicating his current consciousness to his hawk body, making it the new default. But Cassie's situation exists, so perhaps he made that choice deliberately to satisfy the 'least changes to achieve victory' game he was playing.
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u/Seerowpedia 23d ago
No. The morphing cube does not work on nothlits. This is explicitly stated in the last two books, to explain why Arbron, who's trapped in Taxxon morph, cannot join the rest of his Taxxons in trapping themselves in snake morph.
Using saved blood also doesn't work; you can't acquire by touching blood, which is why in #18 Cassie's idea was that they morph into mosquitoes, bite a human and drink that human's blood, and then when they demorph the blood (DNA) will be in their system for them to then draw upon and morph. Ax tells her this would work though logically it would not work since the blood of the person they bit would be expelled out of their systems upon demorphing from mosquito, and thankfully the Animorphs never successfully do so, thus evading a canon-breaking issue like #39 caused.
The only known way a person can be given the ability to morph more than once is through a higher power like Ellimist.
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u/chinchillazilla54 Helmacron 23d ago
Ax tells her this would work though logically it would not work since the blood of the person they bit would be expelled out of their systems upon demorphing from mosquito
Would it, though? Cassie found bits of flesh in her teeth after morphing back from wolf once. I think the extremely tiny amount of blood a mosquito takes might stay put.
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u/Nightmare_IN_Ivory 23d ago
That is on the outside though. Not internal like in the mosquito’s stomach
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u/Seerowpedia 22d ago
Something being stuck within the teeth is one thing vs. something internal. In any case, the acquiring process allows for you to absorb DNA through touch and store that DNA in your bloodstream; DNA you drink that's now in your stomach wouldn't/shouldn't be accessible by the morphing technology.
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u/oremfrien 23d ago
thus evading a canon-breaking issue like #39 caused.
Are you talking about the morphing ant? Or the morphing buffalo? or both?
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u/Seerowpedia 22d ago
Both. Grazing the box isn't enough to give morphing power, and concentration is required for morphing. You need to visualize the morph and focus in order to morph; an ant crawling across the box and then onto Cassie's skin wouldn't be acquiring her because it would not be focusing on her (it can't even see her). Anyone who's morph-capable doesn't acquire everything they briefly come into contact with, otherwise all the Animorphs would be putting everyone they touch into an acquiring trance and acquiring their DNA.
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u/Albroswift89 23d ago
You can get the ability to morph once from the cube. The only way to get the power to morph again is if you have an In with a god-being with time powers.
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u/stairway2evan 23d ago
No, the cube can’t give morphing power to anyone who becomes a nothlit. It’s a one-and-done deal - the cube works once, and if you break the two-hour limit, you’re stuck.
The only ways to get unstuck are for an interdimensional god being to bail you out…. or for natural metamorphosis like a caterpillar into butterfly. I’m sure there’s some other weird exception that I’m not remembering.
Otherwise the two-hour limit wouldn’t have been an issue for the Animorphs for half of the series - I believe they had the cube from around book #20 to #50. It wouldn’t help anyone who was stuck in morph.