Why don't Yeerks steal each others' hosts?

[DinosaurNothlit]

Remember the part in book 29, where Cassie is a Yeerk in the Yeerk pool, and she needs to get out, so she just butts her way in front of another Yeerk and takes that guy's host?

Something occurred to me about that scene.  Why the heck do they not have safeguards against that very thing?  Not just 'Andalite bandits' stealing hosts (since the Yeerks would never guess that they'd ever dare to morph a Yeerk), but other Yeerks doing so.  We know that there's pretty fierce competition for hosts, since nearly all Yeerks want one, but there aren't enough to go around.  So, what's to stop a Yeerk who wants a host, from just butting in front of another Yeerk trying to get to their host?  They obviously don't have a good way of stopping that from happening, since Cassie was able to do it with no problem.

Was she honestly just the first person to think of it?  That seems unlikely.  Is there a social taboo among Yeerks against taking a host that isn't 'yours'?  Also seems unlikely, since Yeerks are instinctually selfish creatures who tend to have the view that if you can take something, you have every right to.  Maybe there's a completely separate pool for 'unhosted' Yeerks?  Maybe the Yeerks we see in the main Yeerk pool all have a host to call their own, and anybody without a host is kept somewhere else (such as aboard the Pool Ship)?  That would at least cut down on incentive to steal a host, but it wouldn't eliminate it entirely, since some hosts are considered more important or valuable than others.

Thoughts?  How do Yeerks ever manage to stick with the same hosts long-term, when it's so easy to just pick one you like better and take it instead?

[guitarhero01234]

This is something I've thought about for a while. I assume there's some sort of law against it or something, but I'm fairly sure it's never explained.

[Cloak]

Honestly, I just assumed that it was taboo. I never gave really all that much thought, but it is an intriguing question. . . .

They might be selfish, but perhaps they see taking a host from another Yeerk as bad, but don't consider it the same for other species because they're "subYeerk"? I mean, think about this way, humans don't think any about taking land from an animal, because they're seen, by some anyway, as just a stupid animal, inhuman. But if you took land already owned by humans? You would be doing wrong, at least, amongst your peers. . . .

Okay, it's not the best analogy, but I hoped I got my thought across.

[DinosaurNothlit]

You make a fair point, Cloak.  However, throughout the series, we see Yeerks being ruthless even to other Yeerks.  Remember in #17 when the Animorphs are dumping oatmeal into the Yeerk pool, and Visser Three could not possibly care less (until he is forced to care by being put in harm's way himself)?  There's loads of other examples.  Granted, of course, most of those examples are also Visser Three.  But the fact that he is a Visser goes to show that Yeerk society rewards, or at least doesn't punish, this kind of behavior.

[Cloak]

Well, another analogy could be to think of the Yeerk's hosts as cars. Consider what Cassie did to be akin to a carjacking before the driver even enters the car. Not something that happens very frequently, if at all and, in all honesty, it could be considered something like Grand Theft Auto in the Yeerk society, something that's taboo and against convention.

I mean, there are some people who are sadistic monsters like Visser Three, but they aren't necessarily carjackers, right? I mean, couldn't that be what this is essentially? A carjacking?

As for not punishing the behavior, one could point to real-world corruption as a factor in that. And I always assumed the Yeerks had a corrupt government, though that may be a bit of a stereotype, I suppose -- the big, bad guys coming from a corrupted government and all. Eh. *shrug*

[RYTX]

Maybe the Yeerks we see in the main Yeerk pool all have a host to call their own, and anybody without a host is kept somewhere else (such as aboard the Pool Ship)?

I figure this is a part of it, along with a social stigma, but I also think it matters that the Yeerks we see have positions. They are soldiers, spies, scientists, that aren't just using their host's skills, but have knowledge of their own that needs to be applied. It's possible you can learn from your host enough to do well, but if you grab the wrong host and find out you're in Visser Three's inner circle, and learn some stuff you shouldn't have, well, that's a quick way to get your self killed.

That and at best you have three days before it's a show down with the original Yeerk. Really I'd assume that the Yeerk would jump into the next available host and say "that one's mine" and have a third partly work out the true identities of everyone.

[TheWolfEmperor]

In The Hork-Bajir Chronicles, the Yeerks had some kind of communication system set up within the pool that Esplin was born in. He was called specifically to take his first host. He also had the ability to access information from the computer while still in the pool, which is why he was specifically called to test out the Hork-Bajir host. I imagine there is a similar system in the Yeerk pool on Earth. What happened with Cassie was the radical thing, and someone did wind up calling foul when she took the wrong host.

Some Yeerks are ambitious, this is true. But the ambitious ones are really few and far between, which is why the Vissers can remain in a command position for so long whereas other Yeerks have been demoted (those that weren't beheaded, that is). The main mentality of the Yeerks is that even if one of them dies, they're comfortable knowing that someone else will take care of the problem somewhere down the road, which you could argue is a result of the way they procreate.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Oh man, carjacking is a really good comparison.  I'd never have thought of it that way, but you're completely right.  And that probably explains how they don't have any good ways of preventing it (it's extremely hard to prevent someone from stealing a car/host that they've got their mind set on) yet it still isn't very widely done (the consequences for "grand theft . . . host?" probably work to deter most Yeerks, the same way as we humans don't go around stealing one anothers' cars).

And it's also a good point that a Yeerk in the wrong host wouldn't necessarily know everything they needed to.  Although I would argue that in the vast majority of cases there would be enough information about all the former Yeerk's interactions within the host's brain for the new Yeerk to get by on.  The only thing the host-jacker wouldn't know, would be the things the other Yeerk might have done/said in a different host, or in the Yeerk pool.  And even then, most  Yeerks talk to their hosts enough that some of that information might be there, too.

Had to re-read a bit of #29, because I didn't even remember Cassie getting 'called out' for having the wrong host.  And, yeah, it wasn't so much that they 'called her out' as much as she charged straight at Visser Three and that tends to be a giveaway that something isn't right.  So we can't really say for sure if she would have been caught otherwise, or not, but I should probably retract what I said about Cassie taking the wrong host 'with no problems' since that obviously was not the actual case.  My bad.  Been a while since my last re-read.

The main mentality of the Yeerks is that even if one of them dies, they're comfortable knowing that someone else will take care of the problem somewhere down the road, which you could argue is a result of the way they procreate.

This, though, is something I do not recall from any part of the series.  I always tended to think of the Yeerks as being protective of their own lives, at all costs.  Can you give an example of this?  You've got me curious.

[TheWolfEmperor]

This, though, is something I do not recall from any part of the series.  I always tended to think of the Yeerks as being protective of their own lives, at all costs.  Can you give an example of this?  You've got me curious.

Temrash 114 flat out tells Jake, "It's stupid to fight when you're losing."

As he's dying, Jake starts reading Temrash's memories and he realizes that towards the end of their lives Yeerks just give up because they know there are other Yeerks to carry on. He criticizes this and that is what Temrash says in response.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Huh.  That's almost exactly the opposite of how I'd interpreted that very same line.  I figured, the reason Yeerks give up the fight when they know they can't win, is because surrendering usually means you get to live (or at least stand a better chance at living).  Other Yeerks can carry on the fight since they might still have a shot at victory, but the Yeerk that 'gave up' gets to go home and live another day, even if they didn't end up getting what they were fighting for.  They consider their own lives to be more important than any cause.

It's funny, though, that you mentioned in your previous post that their mindset might be because of how they procreate.  Since I tend to think that the Yeerks' being raised without any kind of parental figures is actually a big part of why they'd be interested in self-preservation at all costs.  They know they have to focus on their own survival first and foremost, because they know that nobody else is there to look out for them if they don't.

Heh, one of us should probably start a separate topic for talking about why the Yeerks are the way they are, though, since we seem to have strayed off the original topic.  Although, we've pretty much answered the original question for this thread.

[Tim Bruening]

Remember the part in book 29, where Cassie is a Yeerk in the Yeerk pool, and she needs to get out, so she just butts her way in front of another Yeerk and takes that guy's host?

Something occurred to me about that scene.  Why the heck do they not have safeguards against that very thing?  Not just 'Andalite bandits' stealing hosts (since the Yeerks would never guess that they'd ever dare to morph a Yeerk), but other Yeerks doing so.  We know that there's pretty fierce competition for hosts, since nearly all Yeerks want one, but there aren't enough to go around.  So, what's to stop a Yeerk who wants a host, from just butting in front of another Yeerk trying to get to their host?  They obviously don't have a good way of stopping that from happening, since Cassie was able to do it with no problem.

I expect that Visser 3 would have strong safeguards against someone hijacking HIS host!

Plot bunny: Yeerk A somehow kills Yeerk B and steals that Yeerk's host.   Yeerk A then steals a portable Kandrona generator and heads for the hills.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     The question seems to have been answered. But this did get me thinking about whether the Animorphs wee considered just morphing Yeerks, infesting hosts, and liberating them that way. Fight covert invasion with covert tactics.

     True. The Yeerks would quickly find out what was happening. And the potential reclaiming of liberated hosts could be dangerous for the Animorphs if the hosts ever discovered their identity. But I wonder if they even entertained the thought off-screen.

[TheWolfEmperor]

I'm sure they did, but the risk-reward factor would have been too high, which is why they never went about it.

It's the same reason they never tried morphing into a powerful host to infiltrate.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Actually, they don't morph hosts because they think doing so is basically what the Yeerks do.

[TheWolfEmperor]

Early on, yes, if you don't count Ax morphing Jake and Cassie morphing Rachel. But later in the series they did it quite a few times, so I'm sure the subject of morphing into Tom or Chapman would have come up once or twice.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     They only morph humans if they "absolutely have to." This starts to losing meaning as the series goes on.