How did the Yeerks lose the war? Thoughts?

[donut]

Ah ok, which one was visser 2 then?   Wasn't the Garatron guy looking for a promotion to a high visser rank?  What was his rank in the book?

All the vissers being numbered makes me think of them like James Bond villians.   

[TobiasMasonPark]

      Animorphs 37: the Weakeness. The Garatron controller was the Inspector, charged with the task of reviewing Visser Three's progress on earth. He was being considered for a position on the Council of Thirteen.

      Visser 2 appeared in Animorphs 46: the Deception. He had a human host--a high ranking member if the US military.

[Snakie]

All of this of course assumes that there was no additional shuffling in Visser ranks unknown to us during the series.

Given Visser 2 is described as a big supporter of the new Visser 1 and the cutthroat nature of Yeerk politics, I think it somewhat unlikely that he was Visser 2 when Esplin 9466 was Visser 3.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     The blurb at the back of the Deception is "the Animorphs have never met Visser Two" or something like that.

     It doesn't say the Animorphs have never met A Visser Two. I'm pretty sure it's the same dude. I figure you only stop being a Visser because you were a) a failure, b) incredibly stupid, or c) dead.

[NateSean]

Given Visser 2 is described as a big supporter of the new Visser 1 and the cutthroat nature of Yeerk politics, I think it somewhat unlikely that he was Visser 2 when Esplin 9466 was Visser 3.

I propose one of two theories. Visser One had a hand in getting another random visser promoted to Two when he took the position of One.

Visser Two was formerly Visser Four. If we take it for granted that Cassie's decisions in Megamorphs Three meant that Visser Four was kept from ever coming to Earth after the loss at Leera, then it stands to reason that Visser Three kept in touch. Visser One gets promoted and uses his new influence to get the recently demoted Visser Four to Earth with a new promotion.

In other words, thanks a heap Cassie. But that's just speculation.

I can't add much to all that's been said about the losses, etc.

[donut]

In the simplest sense, for V3 to make 1 he either had to have jumped rank, or V2 would have to have been removed.  Both seem plausible to me.

At the point of V1's demotion and arrest, V3 was heading the most important yeerk operation.  The council basically said no one else was available to do it.  It would make some sense for the yeerk leading the main effort of the empire to fill the highest rank when it became open.  In that case V2 probably would have had resentment to V1 like Snakie suggests, but he could just be playing politics.

Or

Visser 2 was killed or also demoted at about the same time V1 was.  It makes sense since it seems like the yeerks lost ground very quickly in the war after the Anati defeat.  There'd be many ways they could have lost both.  For instance, V2 may have been a fleet commander who was tasked with supporting the Anati defense.  V2 would have either been KIA or summarily executed for the defeat like V1.  In which case the vissers would just cover down.

I'd think the second is more likely since, but it wouldn't bother me either way.

[Chad32]

I always just figured Visser 2 was such a die hard Council loyalist that he wouldn't even complain if someone else got promoted above him if that's what the council wanted. Though the idea that it's the former Visser Four is a nice thought too.

[MoppingBear]

it really wouldnt make sense for them to bump each visser up a rank each time one at the top died.  dont think of them like sequential ranks, it doesnt make sense to have that many ranks anyway. visser 1 seems to have more power than the rest, but im pretty sure the rest are just equivalent to generals over other yeerks and that having a better number is just something to joke about with your friend.  think of them more like regular positions to be filled when they become empty.  the one right bellow them would probably be the first one to consider, but they could just as well promote their favorite sub-visser to some high ranking visser position if they felt like it.