Author Topic: Alloran  (Read 5085 times)

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Offline Tim Bruening

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Alloran
« on: June 08, 2015, 12:48:27 PM »
Spoilers for entire series:

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I predict that Alloran will write a bestselling BOOK about his life as host of Visser 3.

Offline Tim Bruening

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2015, 07:58:27 PM »
I find it quite amazing that Alloran is the ONLY Andalite ever to be taken over by a Yeerk!  I would have expected other occasional cases of Andalites being knocked out near Yeerks.

Offline NickDaGriff

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2015, 09:44:30 PM »
Most Andalite troops do have a neural chip implanted, which could potentially be loaded with a failsafe of some kind.  Maybe a micro Shredder beam to liquefy the brain if there's an intrusion in the skull.  Who knows?  There's a lot of potential for different measures there, and I'm sure the Andalites would have come up with something appropriately brutal.
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Offline Tim Bruening

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #3 on: June 09, 2015, 10:21:14 PM »
Most Andalite troops do have a neural chip implanted, which could potentially be loaded with a failsafe of some kind.  Maybe a micro Shredder beam to liquefy the brain if there's an intrusion in the skull.  Who knows?  There's a lot of potential for different measures there, and I'm sure the Andalites would have come up with something appropriately brutal.

I don't recall Ax ever mentioning that type of safeguard.  Since he was on an Andalite warship, wouldn't he know of any such safeguard?

Offline NickDaGriff

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2015, 10:22:33 PM »
Alloran was before the time of the neural chip implants...

Precisely.  Less likely that he'd have one with that kind of thing, especially since he was body-snatched way early in the war.  The Arn came up with a solution, and I'd imagine the Andalites would too.  Only question is what it would be.

As for why Ax was able to be infested in #29, maybe it's something that only goes to frontline soldiers, people who are actually going to be in contact with the Yeerks.  Elfangor was trying to keep Ax away from the action, so maybe there was a bit of nepotism going on to keep Ax from having a live incinerator stuck amidst his neurons.  I know I wouldn't trust something like that in my brother's head.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2015, 10:25:26 PM by XenoFrobe »
[spoiler=A writer at heart:]
My sequel fic, Animorphs #55: The Following
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Offline Tim Bruening

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2015, 10:28:38 PM »
Alloran was before the time of the neural chip implants...

Precisely.  Less likely that he'd have one with that kind of thing, especially since he was body-snatched way early in the war.  The Arn came up with a solution, and I'd imagine the Andalites would too.  Only question is what it would be.

As for why Ax was able to be infested in #29, maybe it's something that only goes to frontline soldiers, people who are actually going to be in contact with the Yeerks.  Elfangor was trying to keep Ax away from the action, so maybe there was a bit of nepotism going on to keep Ax from having a live incinerator stuck amidst his neurons.  I know I wouldn't trust something like that in my brother's head.

Book 18 establishes that there exist Andalites who SUPPORT the Yeerks!  Wouldn't such Andalites arrange for Andalites to become infested?

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2015, 10:38:16 PM »
Book 18 establishes that there exist Andalites who SUPPORT the Yeerks!  Wouldn't such Andalites arrange for Andalites to become infested?

Yeah, there's a lot about the war we don't get to see.  Like those quislings.  I would love to see what could possibly motivate them in that direction.  It's on my list of fic ideas.
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Offline Tim Bruening

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2015, 12:08:17 PM »
Alloran was before the time of the neural chip implants...

Precisely.  Less likely that he'd have one with that kind of thing, especially since he was body-snatched way early in the war.  The Arn came up with a solution, and I'd imagine the Andalites would too.  Only question is what it would be.

As for why Ax was able to be infested in #29, maybe it's something that only goes to frontline soldiers, people who are actually going to be in contact with the Yeerks.  Elfangor was trying to keep Ax away from the action, so maybe there was a bit of nepotism going on to keep Ax from having a live incinerator stuck amidst his neurons.  I know I wouldn't trust something like that in my brother's head.

So it would have been possible for the Yeerks to capture and infest behind the lines Andalites.  Or maybe Yeerk surgeons could remove the suicide implants so that infestation can take place.

Offline Chad32

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #8 on: September 13, 2015, 08:43:17 PM »
Andalites are trained to slit their own throats to avoid capture. Likely because of alloran's capture. I believe that's a big reason. Not to mention it can be hard to capture someone alive in the heat of battle, when every Andalite in the area will do their best to rpevent that.


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Offline Tim Bruening

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #9 on: September 13, 2015, 11:44:27 PM »
Andalites are trained to slit their own throats to avoid capture. Likely because of alloran's capture. I believe that's a big reason. Not to mention it can be hard to capture someone alive in the heat of battle, when every Andalite in the area will do their best to rpevent that.

The Yeerks could set their Dracon beamers on stun and knock out all the Andalites before they can slit their throats.

I find it hard to believe that the Andalites would be 100% successful at committing suicide.  I am certain that Andalites would be knocked out sometimes, and out of reach of anyone who could terminate them.

Offline Chad32

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #10 on: September 14, 2015, 08:23:54 AM »
The Andalites could do the same. Also the war hasn't been going on for very long, and a lot of battles are ship to ship. It is a little weird that there's only been a single captured andalite in a 30-40 year long war, but that's just how the story goes.

One other thing might be that other Andalite MIAs might have been tucked away somewhere. Maybe someone did infest an Andalite, but didn't become a Visser for it.


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Offline JFalcon

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #11 on: September 14, 2015, 10:48:42 AM »
Book 18 establishes that there exist Andalites who SUPPORT the Yeerks!  Wouldn't such Andalites arrange for Andalites to become infested?

I rather thought that was what he was attempting to do in that very book. Note he stuns his bridge crew, he doesn't kill them. He's not just delivering Andalite ground attack vehicles to the enemy, he's not just punching a hole in his own force's ground forces, he's supplying the enemy with something so valuable they'll give him . . . well, theoretically whatever he asked for.

However two things occur to me as simple reasons you never see other Andalite controllers. The first that occurs to me is that most of the Yeerks who would have an opportunity to infest an Andalite might not want to. Bear in mind that they hate Andalites as much as Andalites hate them. Visser 3 was the exception: he was obsessed with them, he wanted to infest one ever since he was young but there does seem to be at least a few of his fellow controllers (Iniss 226 comes to mind) who even seem to consider him half-Andalite, albeit when they're irritated at him. Many of the Yeerks probably don't want to be Andalites.

It just seems to me that this is a war where both sides neither ask nor grant quarter. Notice the Andalites are never shown to have freed Hork-Bajir colonies for those thousands of Hork-Bajir they captured and freed . . . because they didn't free them. Partially because they probably don't care but also because this is a war that has gotten to the point where both sides hate each other so much, they Hork-Bajir is just collateral damage and a small price to pay for killing the Yeerk that infests it. For the Yeerks surrender isn't an option, they'll be starved (rank and file Yeerks would think this even if Andalites might keep them alive as prisoners which I'm not convinced they would) for the Andalites surrender isn't an option, they'll be infested.

The second reason that occurs to me is that the best and only time to take an Andalite for yourself and ensure that you'll be the one who gets to infest them is probably in battle. Not a large scale pitched battle but probably a smaller skirmish, you want as few people on both sides as possible to limit the likelihood that you'll get friendly fire after you've secured your new host, right? Now this also means you have less support, might not even be telling others what you're planning . . . now two things: first there's your old host, as we see with Visser 3 in the Hork-Bajir chronicles his host did not just sit idle once he was out of his head. How many voluntary Hork-Bajir hosts do you suppose there are? Now assume you get into the Andalite's body you've now got one angry Hork-Bajir (because they're the type of Controller most likely to encounter and subdue an Andalite, Taxxons would likely just eat them, we never really hear of any other sorts being used on the front lines) to rip you to shreds in the five to ten minutes that it's established (in book 6) that it takes for a Yeerk to establish full control for the first time in a new host. That Hork-Bajir will simply kill you.

In short (I know, too late) for a Yeerk to infest an Andalite you need the desire (most won't have it) and the opportunity. Given Andalites' ability to self-terminate and the rarity of successfully subduing one to boot . . . tricky.

A rank and file Yeerk would never pull it off, they would need a small conspiracy: friends to support the attempt both to restrain the original host and help capture the Andalite himself, few Yeerks would trust one another enough to hatch such a plan and then actually make it work. Once your trusted buddy gets shredded your plan is ruined, you're fighting for your own life and the stun setting on your dracon beam suddenly doesn't seem as sensible as the kill setting.
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Offline NothingFromSomething

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #12 on: September 14, 2015, 01:15:12 PM »
Yeah, always seemed to me most Andalites probably go all "SEPPUKU!!!" rather than be taken, that'd probably be doubly true if they thought a fellow Andalite was about to turn them over to the Yeerks.

As for all the Yeerk's incompetence and not thinking of obvious stuff like that, I always just chalk that up to inexperience.  One of the things that was awesome about the books was that whole "tech V.S. innate ability" thing.  The Yeerks were more advanced in a technical sense, through piracy and reverse-engineering, but as a species they'd only been doing war for, what, 40 years tops, maybe even less, timeline's fuzzy on me.  The Andalites had war experience but they stem from a herbivore culture, it's sort of not "innate" to them, something they had to learn.  Whereas contrastingly, our favorite Animorphs kids were a couple of centuries behind in terms of tech, and they weren't even adults of their species, but already understood the basics of stealth & surprise & guerrilla warfare.  Humans just genetically being pretty much master predators, the Yeerks being lowly slugs.

Cool dynamics.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2015, 01:18:01 PM by NothingFromSomething »

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Offline Chad32

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #13 on: September 14, 2015, 02:19:10 PM »
We know the Yeerks aren't always that bright. Partly because they're largely influenced by the host's brain, and most hosts are Horks or Taxxons. We find out in book 31 that the Yeerks don't have a contingency plan in case a controller needs to travel. Tom's Yeerk had that problem. Plan A was beg to be left behind. Plan B was kill Tom's dad.


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Offline Tim Bruening

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Re: Alloran
« Reply #14 on: September 14, 2015, 06:31:36 PM »
We know the Yeerks aren't always that bright. Partly because they're largely influenced by the host's brain, and most hosts are Horks or Taxxons. We find out in book 31 that the Yeerks don't have a contingency plan in case a controller needs to travel. Tom's Yeerk had that problem. Plan A was beg to be left behind. Plan B was kill Tom's dad.

I bet that the problems in book 31 were part of what motivated Tom's Yeerk to betray Visser 3/1 at the end of the series!

I wonder if Tom's Yeerk suggested smuggling a portable Kandrona generator up to near the cabin.