what if instead of that other thing, it had been Animorphs that captured the global attention. like I’m talking blockbuster films with graphic CGI morphing sequences, people lining up at midnight dressed as bears and gorillas, 20-something-year-olds with Andalite and Hork Bajir tattoos, people talking about what their fighting morph would be as a first date question, an Animorphs World with a life size yeerk pool, people chanting ‘Tobias!’ everytime a redtail hawk flies by, and K. A. Applegate’s pleasant and progressive voice getting boosted as it deserves to be
Grown ass adults think wizard school boy was “dark and mature” while almost every animorphs book confronted the horrors of things like war crimes, class genocide, torture, abuse and psychological trauma, bluntly and literally rather than allegorically, while every so often a major characters is, just as literally, eviscerated.