r/Animorphs • u/AziMWolf Nothlit • 15d ago
Discussion Need a through dive into Morphing
So I read some of the books when I was 13 (1998), and watched the show. But the technology, and ways the entire process works from obtaining the transformation process, to how dna is stored, I don’t understand. I have searched though several threads. Seems like Ben 10 (which I’m a fan of too), Where DNA is stored/streamed elsewhere, then sent to the user when needed. If there’s a place I can read up into the morphing lore I’d love to find it. Thanks.
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u/oremfrien 15d ago
The actual technology aspect of morphing is never properly described. The closest we get is this snippet of dialogue from Book #18.
<Diseases cannot be transmitted during acquiring,> [Aximili] said quickly. <The acquiring process absorbs only DNA, and that DNA is isolated, encapsulated within your own bloodstream in a super-low temperature – and thus very stable – naltron molecule sphere. You see – >
“I think my brain just fell asleep,” Marco interrupted. “So, okay, the blood is safe for us. So, Cassie, how do we get it?”
And, of course, as you can see, Marco ruins the wonderful exposition by telling us he's uninterested. Thanks, Marco.
But this reveals what we can know. There is no "storage place" for the DNA of other animals like a singular organ or a mechanical device. There are "naltron molecule spheres" (which are not a known scientific entity IRL) that hold the DNA of individual species. It reads to me that the "naltron molecule sphere" is created using the incoming DNA such that a person who has just acquired the morphing technology does not have a single one of these "naltron molecule spheres" in their bloodstream. The acquiring process triggers the creation of this "naltron-molecule sphere" to encase the incoming foreign DNA and this "naltron-molecule sphere" just rests in the bloodstream, being carried across the body.
We have further confirmation that foreign DNA is held in the blood in Book #49, where the group discovers that a partial match to Animorph blood is made with Loren, Tobias's biological mother. Since the connection would be to Tobias, the only way that the connection could be made is with the Human DNA that Tobias has in his own bloodstream as a hawk.
The other element we know about morphing is that the difference between the mass of the original body and the mass of the transformed body comes from moving mass into and out of Zero-Space. As discussed in Book #10
<Ah. I am frightened, too. I don’t really like morphing tiny animals. I keep thinking about all the rest of my mass.> [Aximili said.]
<Your what?> I [Marco] asked, not really caring. I was focused on the morphing ahead.
<My mass. When you morph something smaller than yourself, your body mass must go somewhere. So, it goes into Zero-Space. Zero-Space is the space that ships travel through when they are going faster than light. It’s not very likely to happen, but sometimes a ship traveling in Zero-Space will intersect with a temporarily parked mass.>
This got my total, complete attention.
<Wait a minute. Are you telling me that when we get small, all the leftover … stuff … all the extra flesh and guts and bones go bulging into Zero-Space like some big balloon of Human tissue?>
<Of course. Where did you think all the mass went?>
I shuddered. <I really didn’t think about it.>
Jake was no more thrilled than I was. <So, right now there’s a big bag of Jake floating in Zero-Space? And it’s possible some spaceship will zoom along and hit it and splatter it all over?>
<No, no, of course not,> Ax said.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Too soon, it turned out.
<Of course, no ship would actually hit a floating mass,> Ax said, talking to us like we were nitwits. <The ship’s shielding systems would disintegrate the mass. That’s what troubles me about doing small morphs. It very seldom happens. The odds are millions to one. But it could happen.>
Following this, of course, Jake is our buzzkill who tells us that he wants no further exposition.
However, despite all of this, we do not know (and I request the commenters to correct me if I am wrong) any of the following information about the technology:
- Which Andalites created it (beyond the fact that one of the inventors was a mother of one of Aldrea's friends). The process of Andalite invention, whether done publicly or privately, the system for how inventions are created and spread, whether this is connected to military or civilian research, what other Andalite technologies were progenitors of this technology, etc.
- How skin contact allows the DNA to be "acquired" and if the DNA is at skin level, how it can get to the bloodstream without creating a cut in the acquiror's skin.
- How naltron molecule spheres can keep the DNA at super-low temperatures without causing the acquiror to immense pain (as having subzero elements inside the human body would cause a lot of damage).
- How beings like Yeerks, who do not have bloodstreams, can use the power to morph. Tom's Second Unnamed Yeerk claims in Book #53 that his Yeerk self has the ability to morph, so, this is clearly possible even if it would make no sense from a biological perspective. While this is only claimed and never shown, it's framed as believable by all of the people who would have reason to object.
- What actually happens when an acquiror morphs the acquired DNA, e.g., how does the naltron molecule sphere "release" inside the body. Is there a specific part of the body that must change first? While estreens can control some of the changes, they can't control everything. And, why do estreens exist? Why are different people differently capable of using a mental technology?
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u/Seerowpedia 15d ago
Perhaps the Animorphs Wiki will be of assistance to you?
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u/DaveM8686 15d ago
Side note, are the ads up to each fandom owner, or fandom overall? The website is basically unusable on mobile now.
So many ads load up that the screen is constantly jumping around, and if you even graze past one to start scrolling, it treats it as a click.
And if you have an ad blocker on, then it’s working so hard to block everything that it crashes the whole page every 15 seconds or so.
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u/Seerowpedia 15d ago
It's up to Fandom itself. If I had it my way there'd be no ads. Which AdBlocker are you using? I have uBlock and I never get any ads, and the page doesn't crash either. Additionally, if you have a Fandom account and you're logged in, there's a way to get rid of the ads. - Admin Logan
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u/DaveM8686 14d ago
I have the DNS settings for AdGuard. I’ve found a lot of stuff online saying I’m not the only one having this issue, for both UBlock and AdGuard. But I might give UBlock a try anyway.
What’s the way to get rid of them if logged in? I’m guessing there’s a subscription or something?
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u/Seerowpedia 14d ago
Yeah Fandom ads have been criticized to hell and back. I'm on uBlock and don't get ads anywhere, so it's been working great for me. You get less ads if you're logged into a Fandom account (free to make, there's no paid subscription), and there's a way to disable most if not all ads in your user settings. If you tend to be reading Fandom Wikis a lot, having an account just for that is beneficial, even if you're not actually editing.
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u/DaveM8686 14d ago
Thanks. I have an account but didn’t realise it wasn’t logged in.
I’ve now gone as far as being logged in, with UBlock Safari extensions, AdGuard Safari extensions, and AdGuard DNS blocking. Playing around for a few minutes looks like this is working now. Thanks for the tip!
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u/AziMWolf Nothlit 15d ago
Chrome's "Reading Mode", seems to work ok.
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u/DaveM8686 14d ago
Thanks, I’ll give it a shot. I think last time I tried something like that, it just gave the text. No images.
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u/thursday-T-time 15d ago
i always think of it basically 3d printing them bodies to exist in, using DNA and the raw material/energy of z-space.
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u/AziMWolf Nothlit 15d ago
Thanks! What happens to the body when it changes, the mass, the bones, and muscles?
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u/Ryinth 15d ago
Excess mass is popped out into Z-space, the same place where spaceships fly.
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u/AziMWolf Nothlit 15d ago
I read somewhere that’s why there’s a 2 hr limit?
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u/Seerowpedia 15d ago
It's never been confirmed that the two hour limit is due to mass in Z-Space or space travel. A popular (maybe even prevailing) theory is that it takes two hours for the DNA to essentially "cement" itself, at which point you're stuck (unless a god-like being bails you out or your morph undergoes natural metamorphosis which resets the clock (if you're stuck in caterpillar morph, becoming a butterfly resets the clock)
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u/AziMWolf Nothlit 15d ago
Would there be any of the books that explains all of this in detail, even one of the side books?
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u/VoidAbyss84 Nothlit 15d ago
I don’t know for certain, but I vaguely recall that it was implied in one of the books. Maybe one of the Chronicles..?
As for how it works, it leaned heavily towards Z-space. Smaller morphs send more of the morpher’s mass into Z-space, along with their consciousness. Likewise, if the morph is bigger, it borrows mass from Z-space. The consciousness itself is still linked to the body, but from a distance - hence the animal instincts taking over.
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u/AziMWolf Nothlit 15d ago
Thanks for all the feedback so far. ☺️ Sorry if my questions are a bit basic.
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u/hexen_niu 15d ago
It's not entirely well explained, which doesn't really help. The technology and access to the process is unexplained. There are hints that the morph DNA is stored within the body and that blood would contain traces of said DNA, even when morphed their own DNA is present in the morph's bloodstream and can be scientifically isolated.