We're still our old selves, right? I mean, we haven't changed. Not really. No matter what, right? [...] Well, I'm me, no matter what...no matter how many morphs, no matter how many battles. No matter what. I'll always be me. Everyone better accept that
Marco’s quote up there has a lot with him wanting approval, verbalizing a reflection of himself and his position in the team inspite all this war. I think at this stage he has accepted being in this war, but he was only going to cope by being natural and true to himself. Yes, I do agree Marco was the one who most stuck to his ways, truth to self, out of all the Anis. BUT we do see indices of this crashing with his cold calculating self here, too. He didn't jeopardize the mission by revealing himself to his mum for Eva's sake.
2. The idea of modifying shark brains to make them 'smarter' and capable of holding a Yeerk in its brain is pretty smart. Why don't you think the Yeerks made use of more non-sentient creatures in this fashion? Both from Earth, and other worlds.
It’s one of the things I ponder about the Yeerks, too. If they can do sharks, horses and any other creature with enough ‘Yeerk space’ in their skulls, if they are sentient creatures themselves, why not forget the sentients and enslave non-sentient ones. A horse and a shark as hosts would be way more powerful (physically) than a human host.
It still wouldn’t be ok with me, but it would seem a lot more efficient a view on the Yeerk Campaign to spread through the universe.
3. What do you think about the dynamic between Visser's One and Three?
A very interesting one. It only highlights the individualities of the Yeerk slugs. I see them like politicians with radical powers, two rivals that are constantly trying to take down each others through dodgie schemes. Visser One initially coming off as ‘weak’, possibly bc of a superficial comparison against Visser Three's host and reputation. BUT we know Visser One didn't become Visser One by being weak and pathetic. She holds the rank that can undermine Visser Three in whatever he commands. And he wants that rank so badly.
4. What do you think about Visser One and Marco's face-to-face conversation?
I was at the edge of my seat the first time I read it, hehehe. Though I was expecting a little more expression from Marco’s mum herself, upon coming face to face with her son. Even being a Controller, I was expecting some sort of overpowering moment where the love she had for Marco would have broken through the Visser’s control, even if for just a second. Nevertheless, what we got was the depiction of the indifferent-super-cold-ruthless-calculating colloquist Yeerk Visser describing Eva’s intimate reactions.
Marco evaded it rather well, inspite circumstances.
Oh! And I thought it was a pretty obvious build up how him, Ax and Tobias wonder around the building and I just KNEW Marco was going to find himself in a room with his mum.
OK! This book was excellent because of its ‘edge-of-seat’ moments. I am referring to Marco facing his fear of going in the water as a shark AGAIN. He went to the extent of morphing in the school’s swimming pool!!!!! What was he thinking?!?!?
The moment where the Controller cop beams his light on Ax in front of the Water Center. And I believe after that is where your favorite quote comes in;
Favorite Quote
<Now this is an interesting human concept,> Ax said approvingly, <This hologram makes it almost appear that we are under the water.>
"Ax? It's not a hologram." Rachel said.
<Then...we are under water? Protected only by badly made human plastic?>
"Yeah."
<Why do humans do things like this?>
Heheheh! Trust Ax to always, whether unwittingly or not, state the obvious quirks in our cultures. Love the character.
AND I want also to mention the moment where Marco/gorilla finds himself before the eyes of the Leeran-Controller. I was completely frozen when the Yeerk was dobbing him in. And, to my surprise, Visser One, judging herself an expert on humans and Earth, brushing the suggestion off as an error on the controller who is alien’s part. A complete relief would have been achieved if I knew this Leeran-Controller somehow had met an end. But I think it was him who rescued the Visser at the end.
PS: I reckon it would have been after this point that Visser One would have deduced that there were human members to the ‘Andalite Bandits’. The Leeran would have survived and related something to her. She would have inquired about the presumed Yeerk whose host is meant to be her son’s. And from there on made her research to correctly deducing that the Andalites somehow got the human’s…
