Animorphs: The Conspiracy

[Tim Bruening]

In this book, Jake's great grandfather has died.  Jake's father therefore INSISTS that Jake and Tom go with him to the great grandfather's cabin to pay their respects...and be away for FOUR DAYS!!!!!!!!!  This totally freaks Tom out, since his Yeerk needs to feed at the Yeerk pool every THREE days!

Since Tom is a high ranking Controller,  why can't the mighty Yeerk Empire arrange to smuggle a portable Kandrona generator out to near the cabin?

[Zacharychaos]

Suppose I'm Visser Three's paranoid Lieutenant that got the job after the last three (no, lets say twelve) sub-vissers were hacked to pieces, eaten in a rage, or just transferred to accidentally wounded Taxxon bodies. Was Tom worth the security risk? You can't just run out a portable Yeerk pool every time a Controller's family goes on a vacation. All Yeerks, especially as one as *ahem* ambitious as Tom's need to be controlled by the higher-ups.

We can just as easily surmise that -I mean Tom's Yeerk so wily deceived Visser Three and stole the Escafil Device and Blade ship right under his nose months after this happened- Tom'sY had already been marked as difficult to control or excessively ambitious. That's how the Empire seemed to run. Maximum paranoid, minimal pragmatism.

[Tim Bruening]

Suppose I'm Visser Three's paranoid Lieutenant that got the job after the last three (no, lets say twelve) sub-vissers were hacked to pieces, eaten in a rage, or just transferred to accidentally wounded Taxxon bodies. Was Tom worth the security risk? You can't just run out a portable Yeerk pool every time a Controller's family goes on a vacation. All Yeerks, especially as one as *ahem* ambitious as Tom's need to be controlled by the higher-ups.

Tom was important enough to the Yeerks that on pages 70-74, Chapman and a gunman drive by in broad daylight to attempt a drive-by shooting or his Dad and possibly Jake so that Tom wouldn't be forced to go up to that cabin.  !  I therefore believe that he was important enough to risk smuggling a portable Yeerk pool out to near the cabin via a cloaked ship.

[NothingFromSomething]

Why *would* the Yeerks go to all that trouble, rather than just ordering Tom's Yeerk not to go, and to kill the parents if they tried to get in his way?  The way it is in the book makes all the sense in the world.

[Chad32]

This is what we call an idiot plot. The plot only works because everyone acts like idiots. How hard would it be to follow the family to the lake, get Tom away from everyone, and either hold the host while the Yeerk feeds, or switch hosts. Or maybe even lend him a portable kandrona machine so he can do it himself? This book infuriates me to no end because there is literally no reason for the conflict except that the Yeerk's superiors must be making it hard on him on purpose.

Apparently the Empire has NO plan in place in case a Yeerk needs to travel. Something so obvious should have been accounted for in the beginning.

[NothingFromSomething]

Why would the Yeerks bother with all of that, though?  Unnecessary from their perspective.

[Tim Bruening]

Why *would* the Yeerks go to all that trouble, rather than just ordering Tom's Yeerk not to go, and to kill the parents if they tried to get in his way?  The way it is in the book makes all the sense in the world.

But once that plan A failed, shouldn't the Yeerks have a Plan B to smuggle a portable Kandrona generator out to near that cabin?  If TomY is important enough for ChapmanY to risk blowing his cover by aiding and abetting a drive by shooting in broad daylight, then wouldn't he be important enough for a portable Yeerk pool smuggling operation?

[NothingFromSomething]

Well, sure, but it's unnecessary.  Visser Three, evil as he is, would sooner just kill Jake's whole family and move Tom's Yeerk to some other duty.

[Tim Bruening]

In the end, the Animorphs break Tom's leg, and the Chee take him to a hospital in his hometown so that his Yeerk will get fed on time.

I have an alternative plan for the Chee: Just fly Tom to the Hork-Bajir valley instead so that the Hork-Bajir can starve out his Yeerk!  Cassie could send along instructions on how to treat Tom's leg.  The Chee could then fake a medavac helicopter crash to allay Yeerk suspicions.

If the Chee object to starving the Yeerk to death on the grounds that it violates their non-violence programming, remind them that they have the means to keep Tom's Yeerk alive (see Book 10, during which Erek was keeping a Yeerk alive in his head)!