Some of these I posted on Reddit years ago, some were my Analysis. If you already follow me and my work, you probably know or have read all of these already.

**Deleted and re-uploaded with updated formatting

Alloran’s Ship - Headcanon.

Within the first few chapters of The Hork-bajir Chronicles, we learn that the yeerks have revolted against the andalites and have killed nearly twenty-four andalite warriors stationed there.

This is what I call: The Massacre.

Alloran stepped closer to my father. <Listen to me, my prince.> The word "prince" was said with a sneer. <Approximately four hundred Gedds attacked our ground base last night. They overwhelmed the two dozen Andalite warriors on duty there. The two dozen Andalite warriors who had been specifically ordered not to fire on Gedds.>

A dozen is twelve, two dozen is twenty-four. There are twenty-four andalites stationed here.

Shortly thereafter Alloran shows Prince Seerow a recording of four andalites guarding an andalite ship:

In the distance, beyond the Gedds, were four Andalite warriors. They were joking, relaxing a bit, killing time. Soldiers doing dull, uninteresting duty and making the best of it.

One Andalite spotted the advancing Gedds.
<Hold fast,> he called.

The Gedds kept moving. The Gedd with the shredder held it concealed behind his back.
<Hold fast, Yeerks. You are not allowed closer to the ships.>

I peered into the flickering hologram. Yes, I could see a parked Andalite fighter. The other ships and warriors were not visible.

<I said, hold fast!> the Andalite warrior said.
<Orders are to avoid incidents,> another Andalite said. <Don't you know these parasites are our brothers?> This was said with a sneer.
The Gedds moved closer.

<Orders or not, these filthy slugs are not touching my ship.>

In this footage, the andalite says, “I’m not letting these yeerks touch my ship,” implying some level of ownership.

Using the footage as a reference, we could then assume that the andalites are split into groups of four, with one leader. The leader presumably owns the ship.

Alloran will also imply a level of ownership when talking about a smaller group of warriors that were killed, but did not imply the same level of ownership when speaking of all twenty-four andalites:

<Butchered, Prince Seerow,> Alloran said. <Shall I show you the holos of the aftermath? These were the gentlest pictures. I have others. Would you like to see what they did to the bodies of my warriors?>

When you split twenty-four andalites into groups of four, you receive six groups. And this is a fantastic number because the yeerks are going around killing all of the “ground based” andalites and stealing ships:

<These four hundred Gedds overwhelmed my warriors,> Alloran said, building back to anger again. <And then they seized the four attack fighters and two transports that were on the ground at the time.>

They steal six ships.

The numbers are lining up.

Is each group of andalites separated into groups of four, with the leader of this andalite group owning a ship?

If so, you have this unnamed andalite in the recording saying the ship is his own possession; he is likely the leader of this four-manned group. Then Alloran implying he had some leadership or possession over an andalite group as well.

Does Alloran have his own ship here? Or even just one he was assigned to? And did that ship get stolen?

Let’s fast forward in time to The Hork-bajir Chronicles and look what Esplin has to say:

The ship we were in was one we had taken from the Andalites some years earlier. We were using it to travel the galaxy in search of suitable hosts.

Esplin was born on one of these six stolen ships.

Now let’s head over to The Andalite Chronicles and talk about The Jahar! Alloran’s crown jewel.

The one good thing was the Jahar. It was as beautiful inside as out. There were small but luxurious quarters. And there was good green and blue grass under our feet, not hard steel.

Some interesting information about The Jahar, according to Elfangor: The Jahar is three times the size of any normal andalite fighter and it has a green-blue grass mixture (not turquoise. This grass is blue and green mixed together) under-hoof. Yes. The grass is important here. Because Elfangor implies that hard steel is the normal thing for andalites to have on their ship. In fact, when racing across the Dome Ship, the floor is hard enough to “click” against hooves and described as “rough”.

All the while we were running. Running past the closed doors of various private quarters and storerooms and plasma conduits. Our hooves clicked on the hard, rough-textured floor. A prince stepped out of his quarters and I practically ran him down.
<Sorry!> I yelled. <We've been called to the battle bridge!>

We can now confidently confirm that having grass throughout the entirety of a ship, like in the hallways and the ‘battle bridge’, is not a common practice. It’s far more common to have a feeding room, or a dome, hence Elfangor being awed by Alloran’s ship having grass everywhere throughout the ship.

Now rewinding back to The Hork-bajir Chronicles and see what Esplin says about the ship he was born in:

It was built for Andalites, of course, so most of the floor had once been growing, green, red, and blue grass.

And:

But the grass on this transport had long since died. We had no use for grass. And we have no fear of confinement.
Here and there were yellowed patches that had managed somehow to struggle on, but for the most part the underlying steel mesh was visible.

Headcanon: Esplin 9466 Primary was born on Alloran’s old ship that was stolen from him during The Massacre.

Possibility: Highly unlikely.

Alloran’s Speech - Observation.

Alloran has a habit of repeating himself.

An anaphora is when a person uses a word or phrase repeatedly in the beginning of each sentence. Here is an example where Alloran repeats the phrase “how long” at the beginning of each sentence:

<How long before they learn to build their own ships? How long before they become a plague? How long till they find some race more useful than the Gedds?>

An epistrophe is similar to an anaphora, except instead of repeating the beginning of the sentence, it is the end that is being repeated. Here is an example where Alloran repeats the phrase “tough little war” at the end of each sentence:

<This is going to be a tough little war,> Alloran said grimly, <A very tough little war.>

A symploce is merely a combination of both anaphora and epistrophe; where one word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of the sentence and another is repeated at the end. Here is an example where Alloran uses the words “you” and “them” in such a fashion:

<You coddled them. You trained them. You showed them the universe. You showed them all the things they could not have, living here on this planet of theirs. You even built them portable Kandronas and thus freed them.>

An anadiplosis is when you start one sentence with the ending of the previous sentence. Here is an example where Alloran uses the phrase “because of fools like you” at the beginning and ending of consecutive sentences:

<We lost the Hork-Bajir war because of weak, moralizing fools like you! Because of fools like you, I am disgraced...>

Mesarchia is the repeating of a word or phrase in the middle and beginning of consecutive sentences. Here is an example where Alloran uses the phrase “two dozen andalites” in such a fashion:

Alloran stepped closer to my father, <Listen to me, my prince.> The word "prince" was said with a sneer. <Approximately four hundred Gedds attacked our ground base last night. They overwhelmed the two dozen Andalite warriors on duty there. The two dozen Andalite warriors who had been specifically ordered not to fire on Gedds.>

And that isn’t even all of them! Here’s some further examples:

<Busy,> Alloran muttered. <Awfully busy.>

And:

<Stupidity.> Alloran said harshly, <The stupidity of kindness.>

And:

<I was there. My name is Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. War-Prince Alloran.>

And:

<The most important thing in war is to destroy your enemies, Aristh Elfangor. Nothing is more important than destroying your enemies.>

And:

<Do you know who did that? You know who moved my tail? I did. I did. I did it.>

And that still isn’t all of them!

Alloran’s Age - Headcanon.

1). The time between The Andalite Chronicles and Book One || The Invasion is twenty-one years.

Twenty-one years before . . .

2). Ax is going to be born in a “few” years according to the beginning of The Andalite Chronicles. And we know the parents are pregnant because they’ve already determined the gender (unless eugenics?):

In my quarters I have holograms of my father and mother, of course. Plus, a wish-flower representing the little brother I'll be getting in a few years.

We have additional information at the end of this book saying that Elfangor lived on earth for three years.

Three Years Later . . .

And within that timespan Ax had been born. So, Ax will be born within three years from now.

“I have a brother? He was born? I knew my family was preparing -"
- Elfangor

“In this broken time line, no. But you should.”
- Ellimist

3). In twenty-one years, Ax is an aristh, but he is younger than Alloran when Alloran was an aristh (evident by Visser Three calling Ax too young to be in the military all the time)

4). In The Andalite Chronicles, the war has been going on for five years. That is five years separating the beginning of The Hork-bajir Chronicles and The Andalite Chronicles:

For five years our princes had fought the vissers of the Yeerk Empire.

5). The timespan between Book One || The Invasion and Book Fifty-Three || The Answer is three years. (According to random online sources, because I’m not going to figure that out myself).

With this information, I think I can guess Alloran’s age, maybe not down to the year, but within a five-year radius.

In three or so years from the beginning of The Andalite Chronicles, Ax will be born. His exact age is never disclosed, but we know for a fact that he is no older than twenty-one in Book One || The Invasion. At the oldest, he’d be twenty; at the youngest he’d be eighteen.

Ax is an aristh in Book One || The Invasion. This is important, because Alloran was once an aristh, too. We never see that part of his life, but it happened!

Unfortunately, it is not as simple as saying Ax was an aristh at [age], so Alloran was an aristh at [age]. Visser Three makes it very clear that Ax is a child who should not be old enough to legally join the military. If Alloran considers Ax too young to be in the military, then that means Alloran must’ve joined the military later in life, but just how much later?

Here’s a question for you: what are the chances Visser Three is able to tell the difference between a twenty-year-old andalite and a twenty-one-year-old andalite? Not likely, right? One year doesn’t change your appearance that much. Meaning Ax is noticeably underage. This isn’t just a year; this is a noticeable age gap. So, now I have a follow up question for you: how many years does it take for an andalite to be noticeably older?

In The Hork-bajir Chronicles, Aldrea calls Alloran ‘young’, yet in The Andalite Chronicles, he is described as ‘old’.

I knew that the young(!), powerfully built Andalite warrior who had burst in upon the prince was angry. More than angry. Furious. His name was Alloran-Semitur-Corrass.

As you see here, in the beginning of The Hork-bajir Chronicles Aldrea claims that Alloran is young. And then here in The Andalite Chronicles we see Alloran being described as “old”:

The visser laughed. <You blame me for all your own failings? I'm not the one who left his friend back on the Taxxon world, trapped in that vile worm's body. I'm not the one who disobeyed his prince's orders and let ten thousand Yeerks escape. A bit of disobedience that helped cause poor old(!) Alloran's downfall.>

So that means that five years is enough time for Alloran to go from being young to being old… we can use that.

Ax can only be eighteen, nineteen, or twenty in Book One || The Invasion. Whatever age you feel Ax was in Book One || The Invasion, add five years, and you should get a fairly close estimate of Alloran’s age when he joined the military. If you want to be somewhat “equal”, you can say Ax was nineteen; this would mean that Alloran joined the military at the age of twenty-four, and then was subsequently infested for twenty-four years. I’m going to go with that option just because of the “equal” nature of it and how easy it is to remember.

Let’s say that Alloran was twenty-four when he enlisted into the army. Our second problem is: how long did it take Alloran to go from aristh to officer?

Thankfully, we do have some information. Alloran was promoted from Officer to War-Prince between 1966 and 1969. That is a three year gap.

I would argue that the jump from officer to prince is fairly similar to that of aristh to officer. I think it’s reasonable to say that Alloran was around twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight (three year range) during the massacre that occurred at the beginning of The Hork-bajir Chronicles.

If that’s the case, the rest is easy to figure out. The war has been going on for five years as of The Andalite Chronicles according to Elfangor. If Alloran was twenty-six during the massacre, that means in The Andalite Chronicles Alloran is roughly thirty-one or thirty-two years old - I’ll go with thirty-one. Alloran is infested that same year, so he was infested at the age of thirty-one. Twenty-one years later, so around the age of fifty-two, Alloran is forced to eat Elfangor, and roughly three after that, Alloran is freed at the age of fifty-five, give or take.

Not a terrible estimate, I’d say. It’s all speculation though. Don’t worry if you don’t understand the math or logic behind this, I barely do!

Headcanon: Alloran was freed at 55 years old.

Possibility: Rough estimate. Alloran is likely a bit older. Maybe in his late 60s.

Alloran’s Name - Headcanon

Alloran’s full name has meaning: Alloran-Semitur-Corrass means Gandalf, Sword and Armor.

Alloran comes from Olórin, a second name for Gandalf.
Semitur comes from the ancient sword called a scimitar.
Corrass comes from the ancient armor chest-plate called a Cuirass.

Headcanon: Alloran’s name implies: Wisdom, Strength, and Resilience.

Snake Venom - Headcanon

When Ax morphed snake and bit Alloran, I always wondered why the venom was so fast to spread to Alloran's whole body. Visser Three was paralyzed within minutes, it usually takes an hour or even several hours before the venom starts locking up your body.

Do you think it's because Alloran was specifically bit in the leg?

An andalite's leg is like a human's esophagus. An andalite would drink water from its hooves and that water would be sucked up from his hoof into his leg, and since andalites don't "eat", they just absorb nutrients, andalites probably don't have a stomach, that nutrients and water is probably just spread around their body as soon as it enters them.

So when Ax bit Alloran's leg, that venom was injected into a body part, the leg, that is made to spread nutrition and water throughout the body as quickly as possible. It'd almost be as bad as injecting the venom right into Alloran's heart.

Maybe that's why it took such a large toll on Alloran so quickly.

It'd be like pumping your stomach full of deadly poison! Obviously that would end your life very quickly!

Headcanon: Andalite legs act like a human esophagus.

Alloran’s PTSD - Observation

Alloran shows signs of PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, possessing many of the common symptoms.

Including:

Isolation:

Alloran brooded alone at the helm, or else went to his quarters.

Difficulty Focusing:

I had seen War-prince Alloran around the Dome ship at times. He'd always seemed to be deep in thought. Like he was off somewhere in his imagination or memory.

Flashbacks:

For a while Alloran said nothing. He just stared blankly, not at anyone. Or at least not at anyone in that room.

Forgetfulness:

Listen . . . my name is . . . what is my name? It's been so long. And the poison . . . yes, that's it. My name is Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. I was once a war-prince.

Reckless behavior:

Virus Q-One-Eighteen is a Quantum virus. It is designed to attack a specific type of living creature at the subatomic level, bypassing all possible countermeasures. It is designed to cause death within minutes.

Changes in Behavior:

Alloran was my friend. When we were young arisths together he was a gentle, decent youngster. And funny! He loved to joke and play tricks.

Irritability and Anger:

Neither Arbron nor I had moved. Alloran glared at me, furious that I was ignoring his order….

Sudden emotional outbursts:

They are the enemy. Hypocrites! You're all hypocrites! We lost the Hork-Bajir war because of weak, moralizing fools like you! Because of fools like you, I am disgraced and shunned and sent off on trivial errands with nothing but arisths under my command.

Survivor’s Guilt:

Now it was something other than anger in Alloran's tone. I could feel the pain in his hearts. And the guilt. The guilt of having survived while his friends died.

Look at how amazingly wholesome and beautiful Alloran can be:

Alloran’s friend says that Alloran was once kind, and funny, and gentle. That he joked around and played tricks on people:

<Alloran was my friend. When we were young arisths together he was a gentle, decent youngster. And funny! He loved to joke and play tricks.>

Alloran loved his wife so much that he named his ship after her:

<I designed her myself. I call her the Jahar. It's my wife's name.>

Alloran that was enslaved for so long that he forgot his own name, but he remembered he has a wife and he has two children. And that he loves them:

<Listen, my name is. What is my name? It's been so long. And the poison. Yes, that's it. My name is Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. I was once a war-prince. Someday. Someday, if you survive . . . I have a wife. I have two children. Someday, tell them I still hope. Tell them I still have love for them . . .>

He loves them enough to lie to them. To give them hope that he doesn’t have. Strength he didn’t have in that moment, and yet freely gave away to them so they wouldn’t hurt the way he is hurting.

He doesn’t have hope, he admits it after being freed:

Alloran turned his main eyes to me. He gave me a strange look. <I never hoped to be free again.>

He just didn’t want his wife and children to inherit his despair.

You have an Alloran that watched other andalites die and was so affected by their deaths, that he felt guilty for living:

Now it was something other than anger in Alloran's tone. I could feel the pain in his hearts. And the guilt. The guilt of having survived, while his friends died.

You have an Alloran that cares so much about others, that he became traumatized due to their deaths. He has nearly all the symptoms of PTSD you can list. Trauma and grief aren’t mortal failings, they’re a sign of compassion and empathy for those injured or lost.

Alloran even risked his own life to save the lives of Elfangor and Arbron:

And then a new Hork-Bajir stepped forward. <So, how are you enjoying the war, Aristh Elfangor?> he asked in Andalite thought-speak.
I was so stunned I almost missed the next blow. War-prince Alloran! In Hork-Bajir morph!

But then you have the other side of Alloran: the flaws. The “evil”. The Alloran that a lot of readers cannot unsee:

You have an Alloran that will kill, torture, and burn down everything else to save his people, his family, and his world. You have an Alloran that believes kindness is stupid. You have an Alloran that is controlling and angry. Yes: he’ll threaten to kill you and he’ll order your death. An Alloran that is egotistical and bitter. Hurt and angry. An Alloran that will do anything to avenge the andalites he saw die:

<Butchered, Prince Seerow,> Alloran said. <Shall I show you the holos of the aftermath? These were the gentlest pictures. I have others. Would you like to see what they did to the bodies of my warriors?>

Because that is what changed Alloran: the butchering of these andalites. The death of his friends. This is where he grew bitter and hurt and angry. It’s where his PTSD began.

Would evil Alloran exist without good Alloran? If Alloran didn’t love and care about others as much as he does, would he have ever grown bitter and traumatized over other people dying? I don’t think so. It’s a fascinating conundrum!

Sofor’s Scar - Headcanon.

We meet Sofor right in the beginning of The Andalite Chronicles. He is Elfangor’s teacher and he’s attempting to teach Elfangor how to tail-fight. When Elfangor messes up and gets cross with Sofor, Sofor says this:

<I got this scar from my own teacher. He wasn’t as sweet or understanding as I am. He didn’t like uppity arisths.> [Sofor] laughed at his own wit, turned away, and went galloping off across the grass…

Can we prove that Sofor’s teacher was Alloran? Sort of. Everything points to it being Alloran, and as Occam’s Razor says; “No more things should be presumed to exist than absolutely necessary” and “all things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best.”

If no more things should be presumed to exist than necessary, we shouldn’t assume that there was an andalite who taught Sofor who is not already known to us. The teacher is preferably an andalite in either The Hork-bajir or Andalite Chronicles since these are the books Sofor is in, the andalite has to be older than Sofor, and the teacher should be at least Prince rank. This narrows down the list of potential teachers drastically. If the simplest solution tends to be the best, then Alloran was Sofor’s teacher.

Firstly, Sofor is under the command of Alloran in The Hork-bajir Chronicles, so they already know each other. That connection is already made for us. Having a Prince train their own Arisths makes sense: it builds a bond, trust, respect, plus it may be helpful to teach compatible combat strategies.

Secondly, when Sofor describes his teacher to Elfangor, he gives a perfect description of Alloran. Alloran is an andalite who is not very understanding; he’s by no means kind - he abandoned kindness on the Yeerk Homeworld several years back. I don’t see why Alloran would hesitate to slash a disobedient soldier when he orders Aldrea’s death and threatens Elfangor’s life. Not to mention, Alloran’s PTSD. PTSD can, unfortunately, make someone more likely to lash out, and Sofor may have been on the receiving end of one of those outbursts.

Thirdly, “once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth”. In other words: process of elimination. When we narrow down the list of andalites that could’ve trained Sofor, Alloran is one of very few andalites left on the table. Alloran is old enough, he’s a Prince, he’s an andalite character who has already been introduced, he fits Sofor’s description, and, above all other candidates, Alloran is the only andalite with an established canon connection with Sofor.

Headcanon: Alloran gave Sofor that scar.

Please also check out and celebrate these amazing headcanons from other Animorph fans!

1). https://www.reddit.com/r/Animorphs/s/3WqniXfdfg

2). https://gem-salad.tumblr.com/post/167795691742/headcanon-when-in-human-morph-visser-3-avoids

3). https://thejakeformerlyknownasprince.tumblr.com/post/187981770989/v3-often-morphs-in-full-view-in-a-tense-or-even

4). https://www.reddit.com/r/Animorphs/s/xEn5kY8fNW

5). https://www.reddit.com/r/Animorphs/s/T1bWVIDZrf

I also posted a photo of K.A. Applegate explaining Visser Three’s feeding cycle