I'm quickly finishing up the Animorphs series for the first time start to finish. Once the endgame books began, I had a hard time stopping. While Russell and I prepare for a book-clubbing reread of the series, I was thinking about the weird side effects or glitches in the morphing process--as if the morphing process weren't already creepy and weird. Despite the grand Andalite science that created the Escafil Device (aka morphing cube), I have to wonder how much the morphing technology was properly tested before it went widespread among the warrior race. To be fair, half of the morphing glitches happened to humans, who were never meant to receive the power.
Morphing Allergy
Probably one of the best known glitches in morphing was when Rachel acquired the crocodile in "The Reaction". She only acquired the reptile out of necessity (to save a child) but things quickly went crazy when Rachel started morphing uncontrollably. It was one of the few times someone was able to morph straight from animal to animal... now if only she could have controlled it. By the end of the book, Rachel "burped" the crocodile and the incident was over. Scary stuff. Maybe if she had been allergic to a puppy things would have been less dangerous.
Z-Space Slingshot Glitch
As a kid, I never read enough of the books to understand or retain anything about the Z-Space pseudoscience. Reading the full series, I should have seen it coming that a glitch would inevitably happen with the extra mass in Z-Space. All the same, it was a surprise when the six Animorphs suddenly appeared in Z-Space in "The Decision" and got roped into an Andalite incursion on Leera. And then just as suddenly the slingshot effect sent them back to Earth. Since it happened to Ax too, we know it wasn't some glitch with human physiology, but you'd probably be hard pressed to recreate the incident. Not sure why anyone would want to recreate it anyway...
Resetting the Clock
Cassie's butterfly morph in "The Departure" is a unique situation. In fact, I don't believe she ever returns to the butterfly form throughout the series (maybe she can't). After proving to Aftran that she'd stay a caterpillar forever, Cassie thought she would stay a bug forever. But the natural metamorphosis apparently reset the two-hour clock. My brother had a theory that it had something to do with Cassie's natural morphing talent or being the Ellimist's wildcard (as show in "Back to Before"), but nature's morphing seems like a simpler answer. Side note: Ax mentioned the clock resetting so casually and matter-of-fact that it made me wonder how common natural morphing is on the Andalite homeworld. Maybe that's where the research and development for the morphing cube began?
Yamphut
Though Ax was the only one dangerously sick, everyone except Cassie fell ill in "The Sickness". It's one time that these morphing glitches treated humans better than Andalites. And of course Ax had to started to feel the symptoms during a school dance. Since morphing requires concentration, maybe that flu-like brain fog is why the morphing ability gets so erratic. If you can't concentrate, any stray thought or feeling could throw you into another morph, even partially.
The Starfish Incident
How many animals in the galaxy could have possibly ended up like Rachel's starfish in "The Separation"? Of course when morphing a starfish someone had to chop her in half. And of course it was Rachel who happened to be in morph and grew a literal split personality. This would be another one of those morphing glitches that you'd have a hard time recreating for research... and it's probably better left alone. This is the book that really made the shift for Rachel's personality in my opinion... I don't feel like she ever completely recovered from being "Mean Rachel".
Anxiety-Induced Morphing
Nothing spikes the anxiety quite like your dad marrying your math teacher while your supposedly dead mom infested by an alien and MIA. Understandable that Marco's morphing started freaking out in "The Proposal". Like with yamphut, morphing requires concentration so it's easy to see why heightened stress levels could mess with his ability to stay in the proper morph. I found it interesting how similar the episode was to Rachel's allergy, even making both Animorphs transform straight from one morph to another. Yet the cause was completely unrelated. If only Marco had talked to a therapist about his dad, the anxiety morphs could have been avoided.
Buffa-Human
The last morphing glitch is infamous among fans and it didn't even happen directly to the Animorphs. Somehow an African Cape Buffalo managed to accidentally give itself the morphing ability by touching the Escafil Device in "The Hidden". Since it wasn't a sentient creature, none of us are quite sure how it gained the power and acquired Chapman and Visser Three. This triggered another one of Cassie's moral philosophizing--only person who overthinks moral questions more than Cassie is Chidi from The Good Place. Side note: no one thought to mention how Buffa-Human either morphed clothing or how it morphed a naked version of the vice principal (awkward). But at least Buffa-Human saved Cassie from Ant-Cassie (and we'll say no more of that morphing glitch).
In reality, the Escafil device was only a recent development (1960s on Earth) when the war against the Yeerks began. The technology was supposedly perfected, but the adventures of the Animorphs proves it wasn't perfect (probably rushed to be used in the war). Perhaps the Andalites started a bit more research and development for the technology after the war, especially after the exposure to non-human morphers. We can only hope at least. We all know how prideful Andalites are, but maybe someone thought they could improve upon Escafil's work. We can only hope.
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