Animorphology

Episode Notes https://inchwormpodcast.com/ Before reading anything, Jenny and Ted discuss Worm generally and introduce the podcast. NOTE: We had some technical issues with the audio in this one that should be resolved before the next episode. Episode Notes: What is Worm ? Wait, Worm is HOW long? Ted’s pitch for why you should read Worm A quick introduction to Wildbow Character-driven superpowers J...

In this episode, Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss Vegemorphs (part 2).

In this episode, Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #10: Understand the Unknown. Why Everworld 10 is like Kingdom Hearts 2 Whether David is qualified to be the Mayor of Atlantis Why these books aren’t interesting We casually reference a sario rip at least three times because listeners know Ted drops spoilers for book 3 of A Song of Ice and Fire and season 5 of Lost How Brigid is the three...

In this episode, Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss the 1998 Animorphs parody book, Vegemorphs .

Content warning: mention of rape and false rape accusations in a fictional context In this episode: Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #9: Inside the Illusion. Senna's actually a pretty good narrator But also she’s trying to take over Everworld Buuuuut also every parental figure in her life completely sucked?? Ted thinks Senna's a cartoon, but he's wrong Cool theories about the watcher in...

Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #8: Brave the Betrayal

In this episode: Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #7: Gateway to the Gods A wild plot appears! Theological discussions We hope you aren’t still playing the “Animorphology Drinking Game” because Gray says the word “interesting” like 10 times in one minute. Comparisons to Animorphs Thoughts on how Everworld is constructed (poorly) April’s assessment of the other characters - and ours Appl...

In this episode: Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #6: Fear the Fantastic The “very special episode” about homophobia Impatiently acknowledging that Christopher has “an arc” Hetwan sexual dimorphism and other cool alien stuff What was Ganymede like as gay representation in 2000? Christopher vs the Nazis vs responsible YA themes Is Christopher on an arc to be a good person or just a “real...

Content warning: sexual abuse of a child, attempted sexual assault of an adult In this episode: Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #5: Discover the Destroyer Gray spills some more tea about leprechauns Fairies are normally cool. What happened here? In a thousand years, these magic people haven't come up with anything better than the telegraph Wow, David is truly terrible. He also has some...

In this episode: Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #4: Realm of the Reaper We get TWO quality mythology rants from Gray! Ted learns where 8-legged horse babies come from Jalil proves himself to be our most competent narrator yet

In this episode: Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #3: Enter the Enchanted The glimmer of a larger plot What should the teens do about Senna? RENT is surprisingly useful April is funny and empathetic Tattoos and the 90s (Bonus: Gray reveals her most embarrassing tattoo to justify her judginess) Gray rants about religion. And then about dragons. Sexism. So much sexism. Humanity is the bat...

In this episode: Jenny, Ted, Gray, and Meg discuss Everworld #2: Land of Loss What we think of Christopher and his book Christopher’s “humor” and “difficult personality” i.e. his racism and sexism Exposition we didn’t know from book 1 Opposite girls Aimless plotting We meet the Coo-Hatch The totally unsurprising yet painfully lazy portrayal of the Aztecs Snakes Merlin Christopher watches too much...

In this episode: *Jenny, Ted, Gray, and new host Meg(!!) discuss Everworld #1: Search for Senna *This is classic Applegrant in so many ways *Where does this book fall on the Swear Scale? *The pants-wetting plothole *The (only) two characters we all liked *All cultures are sexist in the same way *Does this world have an Ellimist, and is it Merlin? *Theories on: -Senna’s whammy powers -Will the kids...

In this episode: *Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss The Invasion: The Graphic Novel *We got the band back together! *Spoiler-free discussion (no hints about the way Grine adapted it) during the first 12ish minutes *Chris Grine feels the same way about morphing as Gray does, but with more glee *Overall thoughts: We really like it! *Some spoilers on: **Thought speak **Chris Grine does his own Inking and...

In this episode: Jenny, Ted, and Gray host returning guests Liz, K.C., John, Lauren, Catie, Nicole, Jeremy, Emily, Claire, Rena, Meg, Joysweeper, and Kevin for a wide-ranging series retrospective How did we feel about the end of the series, either now or twenty years ago? What happened in the last chapter, and why did it only happen to the boys? Cassie: the good, the bad, and the ghostwritten Meg’...

In this episode: *Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss the ending of Animorphs and the series as a whole *The ten-second series recap *Did Animorphs cause us lasting trauma when we were kids? *Our desires for book characters can be very cruel *Jake needed to fall apart to teach us that war is bad *Applegrant's letter to readers after the ending *Does the ending sacrifice character to theme? *There really...

In this episode: CW: Major character death, crying noises We read together and discuss one section at a time. Chapters 1-4: *Trauma at the hands of a paperback *A warrior’s death Chapters 5-9: *More emotions, especially about Tobias *Living with ambiguity Chapters 10-13: *Jake needs therapy. So. Much. Therapy. *Dealing with the aftermath Chapters 14-19: *What comes next? *We’re worried about Jake...

Animorphs #53: The Answer In this episode: *Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss Animorphs #53, The Answer for, like, a really long time *The most important answer of all: how tall is Jake? *Actually it’s mostly discussion about the tragedy of Jake, but also: *We celebrate the triumphant return of Applegrant *Jenny explains Jake’s last name *Visser One’s bad management comes home to roost *The sudden appe...

Animorphs #52: The Sacrifice In this episode: Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss Animorphs #52, The Sacrifice *Gray thinks they might kill off Rachel, and she's real mad about it *Jenny revises her end-of-series feels *The REAL secret plans of the Andalites *Why are we doing this dance with Ax's loyalties again? *This ghostwriter was set up for bad characterization *Cassie, Rachel, and misogyny *Gray br...

Mailbag 4! In this episode: *Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss comments and questions from listeners *Middle grade authors on Twitter *Trans Tobias *Esplin’s Gender *Australia *Stuff Ted Laughed At *The Council rules against war crimes *Taxxonomy *Animal insights, starring antechinus *Science corner, starring a new jingle and helpless stupid giggling *Ted-slowly-driving-Gray-crazy corner *Andalite lang...

The Absolute In this episode: *Jenny, Ted, Gray, and guest host Nicole discuss Animorphs #51: The Absolute *The “twist” of a female governor *Why is the Yeerk invasion so small and slow? *Should the Animorphs have gone public sooner? *Stealing TANKS from a TRAIN *Happy Marco and Happy Tobias are Good Buddies *What Marco should really feel guilty about *No sign of Tom or the Auxiliaries, but instea...

The Ultimate In this episode: *Jenny, Ted, Gray, and returning guest host Claire discuss Animorphs #50: The Ultimate *There is some ableism here! But some good treatment of disability, too *The new Animorphs are delightful even if Jenny is mad about them *Oops, the Animorphs have probably been making the Yeerks kill lots of people *Everything in this book is actually from Yeats' The Second Coming...

The Diversion In this episode: *Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss Animorphs #49: The Diversion *Is this the worst Tobias book? *The first book Jenny has disliked more than either Gray or Ted! *Jake is a badass (who sometimes makes bad decisions) *What it means to be a family *The Yeerks make a good plan *Let's pretends 47 didn’t happen *Telling their parents *Tobias has mommy issues, Jenny has threefol...

The Return In this episode: *Jenny, Ted, and Gray discuss Animorphs #48: The Return *The Council weighs in on David’s ultimate fate *Rachel’s need to fight for the good guys *David’s moment-of-grace-ex-machina *Ted tries to defend this book by ignoring the writing and the plot *Jenny rants about how reality- and character-bending dream-logic sabotages the story *The series sells Rachel short in it...

The Ellimist Chronicles In this episode: *Jenny, Ted, Gray, and returning guest host Joys discuss The Ellimist Chronicles *Gray updates her endgame prediction *Toomin is basically Bella from Twilight *The Ketrans are cool and not a monoculture *Lift for all!! *Turns out the Ellimist invented dogs *Free will vs. the predictability of the universe *The true Y-space *The importance of a balanced oppo...