I plan to ask a similar question for each book, namely was there a particular scene in this book that made you think or hit you really hard?
With book 1, however, I would argue that which scene stands out is fairly straightforward:
Title
Elfangor gets eaten after we, the readers have been hanging out with the preteen gang while they’re goofing around for a few pages, and with his death it becomes instantly clear that this will not be a fun romp. Whatever happens from the point of Elfangor being devoured alive forward must reckon with this first horrific scene.
You?
That’s a fair point . I think it is weird that Tom chooses to martyr himself and I also think it makes sense in the grand realist scheme of how organically the writers introduce not just the discrete and symbiotic personalities of the characters but the motivations and the larger themes of what will be a series, war and terror and desperation and sacrifice and especially being completely out of their depth. All those humans being led to Yeerk pools to become Controllers are POWs in a war they hadn’t known they were fighting, and just like you’ll have someone jump on a grenade or throw themselves at overwhelming odds to try to buy their friends or the strangers around them a few seconds of time, I think the writers are hammering home that these are desperate children at the end of their rope. The story is set up to lull you into a more juvenile adventure; their friend is almost turned but is saved, guards fight them but are completely overpowered by their new Animorph power, they bolster themselves with goofy confidence and jokes.
And then everything has to come crashing down to let you know that this story will destroy these children because war does not end well no matter what side you’re on. Visser Three morphs and shows them that their animals are pathetic compared to his power, humans and aliens are engulfed in flames, Tom is helpless, Tobias is trapped as a hawk, the Animorphs switch from conquering to fleeing, surrounded by death and their own defeat and shame by instead of rescuing hostages, getting a countless number of them killed, many burned alive. The Animorphs know that they’ve already lost, everyone does. And then someone is desperate, or brave or weary enough to jump on a grenade. People don’t jump on grenades when things are going well, but when there is nothing left. Maybe it’s bravery, maybe defiance, maybe they are just tired and want to get everything over with.
Tom is showing readers that the only thing these children have left to give in order to fight forces they know they cannot win are their lives, and Visser three knocks Tom aside casually, illustrating that giving even their lives might not make a difference. The war will destroy them, no matter what they do.