Andalite priorities

[RYTX]

Okay this jumped in to my head yesterday and I haven't been able to think of a reason for it yet

Why were the Andalites so keen to leave Earth out in the open for so long.
I know they were warring through out the galaxy, and numbers were spread thin but still
Does the fact that they lost an entire domeship (so they obviously weren't planning to nuke it from the get go) over Earth mean nothing?
That fact that had they taken Earth the Yeerks would have numbers to great to stop?
The fact that Visser Three, their most depised enemy was heading the attack?
The presence of a hero's brother, I mean jeez they responed to Seerows daughter, why not Ax?
I refuse to believe they expected a group of six morph capable kids to do really anything, in fact I'd figure that draw them out like hornets just cuz they could move.

What possible justification do they have for leaving such a key target defenseless for three whole years?!

[ThermalRider]

I think that there are several layers to it.

First, as mentioned several times throughout the series, Z-space can shift, and can make a journey take more or less time.

Another, and I personally think more likely is that the Andalites kind of don't care. They figure that they can do the same thing to Earth that they did to the Hork-Bajir planet, release a virus and wipe out the hosts.

As far as responding to Aldrea and not Ax, the incident with Aldrea on the Hork-Bajir planet was the first major attack by the Yeerks on a species, hence their response to prevent it. After the Yeerks conquered the Hork-Bajir, as you pointed out, they are warring across the galaxy against Yeerks who are now far reaching due to their Hork-Bajir and after that Taxxon hosts. As we know, there was quite an open war on Leera, and there were a lot of troops from both sides there. Perhaps the Andalites thought that since the invasion of Earth was being done slowly, in secret, they thought they had more time.

Those are my thoughts on it anyways.

[Terenia]

I agree with Thermal, and want to add a layer.

Part of it, I think, is that the Andalites don't want to admit that Earth is in as bad of a predicament as it is. They don't want to face the reality of the situation. I think Ax or someone actually says as much at some point. Which is pretty despicable if you ask me.

[Liz]

I think it's possible that after that initial loss they decided to leave Earth to the Yeerks, even though that plan wasn't mentioned until the final arc.  Like, maybe they thought that after losing the dome ship it wasn't worth it to try and save the planet.

[Phoenix004]

Andalite forces were spread much more thinly than they were at the time of the Hork-Bajir invasion, plus the Yeerks would have been trying to distract the Andalites from Earth as much as possible. There was the invasion of Leera which they had to stop or else the Yeerks would have psychic Controllers, and there was the planet that Visser One was sent to invade in order to convince the Andalites that they should send their forces there instead of Earth.

[Starsword]

Maybe they thought Visser 3 was such a bumbling idiot that he would screw up anyhow.

[Azguard]

 I think maybe they would let the Yeerks have Earth and then just wipe them out in one blow.

 I also think that maybe the Andalite population wasn't exactly the highest, like here on Earth. Perhaps the several defeats they suffered really did set them back a lot. Plus, the Anati situation that Phoenix pointed out. I forgot exactly why the Andalites would want to go protect that area, but i think it's in Visser.

 Also, there is still the debate about the blockade around the Yeerk Home world. My speculation is this. That there was a blockade around the Yeerk Homeworld and the Andalites were employing most of their forces there. I think the majority of the Yeerks were on the homeworld, and only like 25% were running around conquering the galaxy. So if that were true, that would mean the Yeerk threat, even if they conquered Earth, would still be a minor threat. And plus, if that were true, they wouldn't even have enough Yeerks to infest all of Earth.

 THEN, I think probably the blockade around the Yeerk homeworld was broken with a loss handed to the Andalites setting them back even further.

[RYTX]

That actually brings up a new point for me:




THEY WERE WILLING TO WIPE OUT A PLANET OF SIX BILLION VICTIMS, BUT NOT THE PLANET OF THEIR HELPLESS ENEMIES?!


There HAS to be something missing here, but for the life of me I don't know what

[Azguard]

 Maybe they prefer containment.

 And...it's probably a lot of politics. ^^

[Liz]

Well, it would be a lot easier to wipe out Earth than the Yeerk home planet.  For one, we don't have spaceships.

[Azguard]

 I think they're fine with containing the Yeerk Homeworld and not wiping them out yet...because keeping those Yeerks alive would give the Andalites some leverage. think about it, you can bait the other Yeerks, if you kill him you'll just get the other Yeerks riled up, and, the Yeerk Homeworld would always be a central point so you know the Yeerk Empire wouldn't go too far away.

[Shock]

i always thought it was funny that the yeerks found the potental value in humanity while the andalites constantly and consisently ingored the value and intrest that they had in humanity.

also, a little of off topic but i am intresting in how other races approced the war. god knows that the only thing saving the andalites was their tech (having one's ego being thrown around really makes other people back off) and most of the races that were being affected by the yeerks could in theroy blame the andalites.

"ya, we armed the guys that blew up your planet, now do as we say or you won't get any help"

not the best way to make friends

[Azguard]

 well, we have the example of the Leerans. And that brings up an interesting point. The Andalites don't like working with other species. They prefer to do things their own way. So the delay and lack of interest could be asserted to arrogance.

[Duff]

Well wasnt the attack on the HB not authorized, alloran was just crazy. And maybe the thought that if the yeerks mission stayed to free their planet, then they would stay centralized to this universe, where the andalites have the most presence. If they destroy their homeworld the yeerks might just be like well then theres no reason to stay around here and have to deal with the andalites, lets just find a new universe. Then its a plague on the whole galaxy

And I think that they just didn't have the man power, they were losing their other battles and had to keep sending men to those places, and they couldnt start a whole new campaign before they got the others under some kind of control

[Azguard]

 It was also probably a lot of pride. I mean, "puny humans" kind of thing ya know?

 And they might have other threats. Andalite insurrection, rebellion, minor natural disasters, lack of money or resources to tech up or upgrade, lack of will to strengthen military, and possibly, the Replicators could have made it a two front disadvantage.