Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: CounterInstinct on June 07, 2008, 07:49:02 PM
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@ topic: How did he know? What if he gave the morphing power to a Yeerk without knowing? How did he know these 5 kids weren't infested yet?
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well if a controller saw an andalite or an andalite ship, wouldn't he be a little angry, or at the very least say "andalite!" ? I don't really know how to explain it. But if a controller saw an andalite, you'd know he was a controller by the way he acts.
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I don't think theres a way he could have been 100% sure, but I'd say their reaction to him and his ship suggested they were human with no previous contact with aliens. It was fear, but fear of the unknown rather than fear of a threat
We've seen Yeerks are notoriously bad at concealing themselves when there's an Andalite in the room, but I suppose all it would have taken was one controller in the ranks and it would have been all over.
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Yeah, but they could easily have been pretending. The Yeerks are supposedly smarter than humans. If I were a Yeerk, I would have pretended to be an average human, and when Elfangor was down, headed into his ship to see if there was anything worth stealing in there. Like, an Escafil device.
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Yeah, but Yeerks are way too arrogant and angry when an Andalite is around. For one, if you were a Yeerk, you would not expect Elfangor to give you morphing power since they believe in Seerow's kindness.
Yeah, if the Yeerk was Visser One or someone of equal self control and slyness, the Animorphs would be pretty much blown. Otherwise, the Controller would hiss "Andalite", or not get scared or surprised.
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For one, if you were a Yeerk, you would not expect Elfangor to give you morphing power since they believe in Seerow's kindness.
Yes, but they wouldn't need Elfangor to help them. There's always Visser 3.
Yeah, but I see what you're saying. A Yeerk would probably lose control.
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Yeah... Visser Three can use the box.... hehehehe... but still, I think the guy is waaaay too greedy to share anything he has... ;D
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That's also true. He'd probably destroy the thing and get rid of it, then claim it had been stolen for an excuse to kill someone. :p
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yeah, that's cool. hahaha, that's more the Visser Three everyone loves. ;D
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cause hes baller. :]
elfangor took a huge chance, its part of the awesomness
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He saw their time-lines in TAC, he'd have know if there was a yeerk involved.
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hmmm... yeah, but still, he only saw that Tobias and the gang would intersect timelines, he didn't see what would happen. If he did, then he would have known that he would die at the construction site and give them morphing power in the first place.
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The yeerk would have had it's own timeline because it's a separate entity. It makes sense, trust me.
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well, Elfangor couldn't have seen all the people whose timelines that interacted with Tobias... that would be plenty much....
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I don't think he really "knew" past an instinct that they weren't controllers. He took a chance, and it turned out to be the right choice. It could have easily gone bad.
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Elfangor probably thought:
Earth is going to be doomed anyway without a protector, so I don't care if one of these deformed and ugly alien youth is Yeerk infested. But if i guessed right, i hope.... bla bla.... you get the point
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Almost all the Yeerks had a hard time controlling their anger whenever they saw an Andalite, especially an Andalite like Elfangor, who had quite a reputation in battle. Andalites seem to be pretty perceptive of Yeerk Controllers (Ax knew Jake was a controller before everyone else did in book 6), so Elfangor probably would have been able to tell if one of the kids was a controller when he first met them.
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See, I don't think Andalites can just "tell" when someone's infested with a Yeerk. Ax had a hunch because Jake sneered at him involuntarily, and he tested it further by pressing his hand to Jake's forehead and making Temrash scream like a banshee at Ax.
It was just dumb luck, really, because any of the kids could've been a smart Yeerk acting scared...or maybe Elfangor just sensed they were sincere in their obliviousness, but not in their Yeerklessness.
I always thought it was pretty stupid how so many Yeerks in the series just yelled "Andalite!" >.< Come on, of course it's an Andalite. Do ya need to give yourself away right on the spot?
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I don't think elfangor knew, but he had at least three good reasons for going for it/trusting the gang;
1. No one yelled Andalite and attempted to blast him with a dracon
2. He knew that earth needed some help
3. (and I think this is most important) he knew he had a son on earth somewhere and was willing to take his chances giving a controller or two the morphing power in order to save his kid. He was pretty much gambling, shooting from the hip in order to save a loved one.
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I think he basically figured "Earth is screwed anyway, so it's not like this will hurt anything." In addition, Elfangor seems to have been one to trust to luck on occasion:
<But my brother Elfangor once told me, "It's a leader's job to be lucky." Sometimes, success is just luck.> - Ax, from #11, The Forgotten
He may also have felt, on some inner level, his connection with Tobias. Tobias mentions several times that he couldn't bring himself to leave Elfangor until directly ordered to do so, and it's possible Elfangor sensed the relationship in a similar way.
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Probably because they didn't yell Andalite or jump in joy when he gave them the cube. :P
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Also, didn't the Elimist have something to do with the five of them coming together? I think that Crayak yelled at him for 'rigging' the game.
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hmmm... yeah, but still, he only saw that Tobias and the gang would intersect timelines, he didn't see what would happen. If he did, then he would have known that he would die at the construction site and give them morphing power in the first place.
he didnt just see the intersection, i forget the visuals used, but it was clear that the intersection was a good thing.
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Also, didn't the Elimist have something to do with the five of them coming together? I think that Crayak yelled at him for 'rigging' the game.
Yeah, the Elimist did have something to do with it, but I don't think that Elfangor really knew that, it didn't prove to him conclusively that these five humans were all yeerk free.
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Also, didn't the Elimist have something to do with the five of them coming together? I think that Crayak yelled at him for 'rigging' the game.
Yeah, the Elimist did have something to do with it, but I don't think that Elfangor really knew that, it didn't prove to him conclusively that these five humans were all yeerk free.
I think you're right, I don't recall Elfangor ever learning that the five humans were the ones whose timelines he saw. He knew there was something important about the people whose timelines he saw (I believe the words used to describe the place where the timelines joined were "bright" and "shining") but I don't believe he knew where the timelines joined or that his timeline joined theirs at one critical point, in a construction site one "normal" evening.
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Frankly, I think Elfangor pulled it out of his furry blue butt. :P He was dying, and he knew Visser Three was going to be there any second now anyway. Seeing five humans, he had to take the chance. At that point it didn't matter if they were Controllers or not.
If there was a 50/50 chance that they were real kids, he couldn't miss it. Somebody on Earth had to know, although I doubt he expected them to fight a guerilla war for three or four years. Probably expected them to morph so they could get into the office of someone powerful. Hence "Warn your people!"
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I always wondered why they didn't go to the governor in the first few books...
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I always wondered why they didn't go to the governor in the first few books...
Probably because they couldn't trust anyone. Between learning about Tom being a Controller and learning about police being Controllers, the message of "Don't trust anyone" was made painfully clear. They only went to the governor as a last, desperate measure.
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That doesn't explain why they didn't go to the President for help. They even knew he wasn't infested, so that would have made tons more sense.
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i think it would be because if he didn't risk them being a controller there wouldn't even be an animorph sereis. at least not as we know it, it wouldn't even have the same name.
any way.... why would the ellemist get 5 kids who were contollers to save earth? the ellimis would have known. although on that note racheal could have been a controller... but a yeerk in a xena: warrior princess probably wouldn't have been able to contain her reage and then zap him with a dracon beam.
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Their reaction to an Andalite landing in front of them kind of proved they weren't Controllers, but also the fact that he saw 5 lines join his brother's when the Ellimist moved him through time/space. Obviously these 5 humans were those lines, so he knew he could trust them.
Besides that, it was simply a calculated risk. If he did nothing, Earth would've been screwed, so what did he have to lose by giving them the morphing technology?
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so what did he have to lose by giving them the morphing technology?
the war. And yeah, it would have been a really short series (or single book ::)) if he didn't.
Another point to bring up: Remember that when they met Elfangor they all were just filled with trust, but with Visser Three they could just feel he was evil. Maybe he could kinda do the same thing. It doesn't really make sense, but then again... Also, Tobias had that special connection with him. Maybe Elfangor felt something too.
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hmmm... yeah, but still, he only saw that Tobias and the gang would intersect timelines, he didn't see what would happen. If he did, then he would have known that he would die at the construction site and give them morphing power in the first place.
Didn't Elfangor know he was dying at the consturction site? He could sense his life was going to end and suddenly, these five humans show up. I would think that if Elfangor knew he was dying and 5 human kids show up, he would know that these were the 5 timelines intersecting that the Ellimist showed him. Especially if he felt the connection with Tobias that Tobias felt with him.
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Back in the day, when the official website had the "Ask K.A. Applegate" feature, I actually asked this question and they chose it for her to answer!! Her answer was basically exactly what you guys are saying: that a real Controller would not have been able to hide his disgust and tried to Dracon Elfangor. She did admit though that what I said was a very good point, which getting a compliment from her made my 10-year-old self's day, haha.