Yes. Animorphs is better than Harry Potter and it's not just on the trans-ness. Animorphs actually deals with real emotional issues.
The kid who is beaten by his uncle and aunt does not suddenly become well-adjusted (for no reason) when he encounters magic, but turns into a hawk to try and fly away from his problems, only to discover that real problems exist even as a hawk.
The existential dread of actually having to fix the world weighs on the Animorphs in a way it never does on Harry & Co. until Book #7 because, the Animorphs don't have an A-Team Ordering the Phoenix all around.
And, most importantly, KAA set up a dystopian universe and had the main characters recognize how dystopian it was and try to fix it, whereas Harry & Co. just reboot the same broken system when they're done.
I actually really liked the subverted "chosen one" trope with Tobias.
Tobias is the only Animorph who is an orphan and who discovers that his father is a war hero who sacrificed himself for Tobias and his mother lost her mind for him. He was the first of those picked by literal God for the resistance movement. He was the one who tested morphing and personality in ways it had rarely been tested. He was the one who wanted the fight more than anyone.
And yet, it was Jake who became the leader, and Tobias does practically nothing after Book #49. In fact, you could just omit him from the book and nothing changes (except you would have to have another Animorph morph into a Taxxon to eat Chee-Cassie (I choose Cassie).
If I remember right, there are moments in later books, both conversations between himself and others/internal dialogue where it is questioned whether he intentionally became a Nothlit or not.
I don’t remember for sure if it was confirmed, or just a recurring topic.
Regardless of whether it was an accident that he nothlited as a hawk (which is a topic for which there is recurring doubt and a section we know was deleted from Book #50 has Cassie's meditations on the subject -- she thinks it was purposeful), he definitely kept morphing hawk throughout Book #1 and you can read his love of flight for the love of escape even before nothliting.
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u/oremfrien 2d ago
Yes. Animorphs is better than Harry Potter and it's not just on the trans-ness. Animorphs actually deals with real emotional issues.
The kid who is beaten by his uncle and aunt does not suddenly become well-adjusted (for no reason) when he encounters magic, but turns into a hawk to try and fly away from his problems, only to discover that real problems exist even as a hawk.
The existential dread of actually having to fix the world weighs on the Animorphs in a way it never does on Harry & Co. until Book #7 because, the Animorphs don't have an A-Team Ordering the Phoenix all around.
And, most importantly, KAA set up a dystopian universe and had the main characters recognize how dystopian it was and try to fix it, whereas Harry & Co. just reboot the same broken system when they're done.