Group Re-Read: Week 13, #12 The Reaction

[Terenia]

Summary
Rachel's got some pretty strange stuff happening. She can't control her morphing. One minute, she's doing homework. The next, she's morphing a full-grown crocodile, and - without returning to human form - she becomes an elephant. That's when the floor gives way and Rachel finds herself looking up at what used to be the kitchen ceiling.

What's going on? No one's sure, but Rachel and the other Animorphs have to figure it out - quickly. Because if someone sees Rachel's out-of-control morphing, the other Animorphs and Ax are in some serious trouble...

Questions
1) In this book Rachel obtains an allergy to the crocodile morph. The erratic morphing is caused by intense emotion and Rachel lies several times in regards to her problem. How do you think this allergy would have been handled differently if it had happened to one of the other Animorphs? Why did KA choose to use Rachel?

2) The Yeerks are attempting to gain sponsorship for The Sharing through celebrity. Specifically, they are using Jeremy Jason McCole (*cough* Jonathon Taylor Thomas). This is actually a pretty smart plan....why do you think the Yeerks never return to it after this one plan is foiled? Especially considering The Sharing has roots in LA (ty Edriss).

3) For the tech nerds: How do you think the 'morphing allergy' and subsequent hereth illint works?

4) Any opinions on the final climactic scene? (I personally thought it was hilarious, with Rachel wagging her butt like a crocodile and biting llama-Marco on the neck).


5) What do you think about this quote:

Was it beginning to ocur to the vain, ambitious jerk that he had been tricket? Had he realized yet that there is no such thing as partnership with a Yeerk?
The Yeerk is master. The human host is a slave. Period. And when the infestation is voluntary, the human slave is even weaker. Even less able to resist.

*NOTE: Sign of the times, guys. Rachel mentions that "Jeremy Jason McCole is so popular, he has like twenty webpages about him".

Next week we will be reading The Andalite Chronicles.

[Phoenix004]

1) In this book Rachel obtains an allergy to the crocodile morph. The erratic morphing is caused by intense emotion and Rachel lies several times in regards to her problem. How do you think this allergy would have been handled differently if it had happened to one of the other Animorphs? Why did KA choose to use Rachel?

KA chose Rachel because she is the one least able to control her emotions, especially ones like anger. Also, the other Animorphs would have been more likely to tell the others about the problem earlier, where as Rachel is a very independent person who dislikes talking about her problems.

2) The Yeerks are attempting to gain sponsorship for The Sharing through celebrity. Specifically, they are using Jeremy Jason McCole (*cough* Jonathon Taylor Thomas). This is actually a pretty smart plan....why do you think the Yeerks never return to it after this one plan is foiled? Especially considering The Sharing has roots in LA (ty Edriss).

Maybe the Yeerks figured that if that plan had failed once, it would probably fail again? We know from #6 that Yeerks are more likely to surrender than humans are, so it sort of makes sense that they'd give up on the plan. Not to mention the fact that KA wasn't going to write another book with a near identical plot line.

3) For the tech nerds: How do you think the 'morphing allergy' and subsequent hereth illint works?

I'm no tech nerd, but I'll give it a shot. At first I thought it sounded impossible because there is no mass for the Crocodile DNA to use to emerge from Rachel's body. However, from what we know about the morphing technology, excess mass seems to be drawn from Zero Space when they morph a creature bigger than themselves. It's easily possible that the same thing happened in this case. The Crocodile DNA in her blood needed to be expelled, so mass from Zero Space was used to expel the unwanted DNA and created a Crocodile in the process. It's even possible that this process is actually a kind of safety measure that the Andalite scientists included in the morphing cube, in order to get rid of DNA the user was allergic to.

4) Any opinions on the final climactic scene? (I personally thought it was hilarious, with Rachel wagging her butt like a crocodile and biting llama-Marco on the neck).

Oh yes that was hilarious to read! If I ever reach that point in my fanfic, it's going to be a hard act to beat!

[RYTX]

1) Marco got something very similar later. And handled it in a similar way. So weird those to never got along well.
I can see Cassie and Tobias saying I'll back out till I'm better, maybe Ax would too, but I think Jake would do the same as Rachel, try and say I'm alright and tough through it, just to keep face. Don't know if he'd out and out lie about it though.
and skipping to
5) That quote bugs me: how does being voluntary make you weaker. If it's implying that the person who willingly submits lacks will power, okay, but the action itself really shouldn't have an effect should it?
Idk, just bugs me

[Phoenix004]

5) That quote bugs me: how does being voluntary make you weaker. If it's implying that the person who willingly submits lacks will power, okay, but the action itself really shouldn't have an effect should it?
Idk, just bugs me

We don't exactly know enough about the process, but it is possible that being a willing host to begin with (even if you change your mind later) weakens the resistance your own mind can put up against the Yeerk. Maybe the Yeerk slug can sink in better or something if you aren't resisting from the start.

[TheSoulEater]

5) That quote bugs me: how does being voluntary make you weaker. If it's implying that the person who willingly submits lacks will power, okay, but the action itself really shouldn't have an effect should it?

I think it's likely that the Yeerk can "dig in deeper," so to speak, if the host was ready and willing to begin with.

More than that, though, I think it's really just saying that a voluntary host lacks the same willpower to fight back. I mean, if they gave in to begin with, then that's a sign that something's not right. They've got problems, and big ones. Things that haunt them, disturb them, weaken their minds. Things the Yeerk can play off of, like when Jake's made him relive his dreams.

And that might not be universally true, but keep in mind who this is coming from. Rachel, the fighter, Xena the Warrior Princess. She obviously wouldn't have much respect or much sympathy for someone willing to roll over and surrender.

[Terenia]

I think its interesting how it talks about there never being a partnership between Yeerk and human, which we learn is not true 7 books later with Aftran.

[Gafrash]

Most favorite parts were when Rachel did the elephant morph in her room, when she had to see Chapman in his office and the end where Cassie evades that Controller.

The Yeerks' plan was sound. They further attempt something similar in The Proposal, with the Roger Tenant geezer. Jeremy Jason McCole was shown as a real self-centered ignorant dumb jerk… Ready to sell out his own species. Even when not infested, he cheered on how cool the Visser was, having witnessed his first extra-terrestrial. What does that say about the human?

Also worth noting here, that in this book, the Visser had first acquired the Lebtin Javelin Morph. I am uncertain right now if this animal (or another of the Visser’s aquatic creatures) is the one that is meant to be from one of the Andalite Moons. But the implications of the Visser acquiring an animal during this stage of the war, would support the plot started on book 8: The Alien and further more the traitors found on 18: The Decision.

I think this kind of thing happened to Rachel, because reckless of the bunch. I am not sure how the other Animorphs would have reacted in her shoes. We know Jake and Marco wouldn't have been much different, Cassie would have certainly have used some sensibility, Tobias and Ax may well have pulled out for all I know.

I assume because everybody has some sort of an allergy to something, it was natural and fitting how a body can have an allergic reaction to such thing as a morph.
Beyond the allergy thing, though, I found there’s also another spin given to the morphing tech shown in this book. Where upon doing a Rachel-morph, Cassie states that her brain keeps wanting to do stupid things. Doesn't this suggest that the DNA of a sentient being carries their personalities and such?! Such a statement is debatable, and it would be believable in the Animorphs Universe, if it had been carried out throughout the series. As it is, we only get this comment on the topic here.


I agree with TheSoulEater quote comment above. A 'partnership' suggests a reciprocal benefit or exchange. In technical terms, the Yeerk has absolute control. Sure the host gets slips of the Yeerk's emotions, memories and experiences, but it's definitely not even.
A host is to a Yeerk like a car is to a driver. The car is susceptible to whatever the driver's motives, experience and forces. Whether the car is a more powerful thing than the driver on its own, one thing is undeniable, it's going where the driver wants it to go.
Such is the relationship within ANY TYPE OF CONTROLLER, in my view.

[morfowt]

Few corrections:
1. actually the mardrut in book 4 was the one from an andalite moon.
2. he just morphed it in this book, not necessarily acquire
3. the alien is book 8 (cuz it's an ax book)
4. I'm pretty sure you mean book 18 (another ax book)

[Gafrash]

Few corrections:
1. actually the mardrut in book 4 was the one from an andalite moon.
2. he just morphed it in this book, not necessarily acquire
3. the alien is book 8 (cuz it's an ax book)
4. I'm pretty sure you mean book 18 (another ax book)

Oops. At least, you got what I meant.
Corrections were made. Thank you, morfowt.

[Slushie Man]

In this book Rachel obtains an allergy to the crocodile morph. The erratic morphing is caused by intense emotion and Rachel lies several times in regards to her problem. How do you think this allergy would have been handled differently if it had happened to one of the other Animorphs? Why did KA choose to use Rachel?

Well I think Marco probably would have had a much harder time with it then Rachel, Jake probably would have been about the same, and Cassie may have been better at it. I assume KA chose Rachel just because she had to choose somebody for it, and Rachel was the next character up for a narration.

The Yeerks are attempting to gain sponsorship for The Sharing through celebrity. Specifically, they are using Jeremy Jason McCole (*cough* Jonathon Taylor Thomas). This is actually a pretty smart plan....why do you think the Yeerks never return to it after this one plan is foiled? Especially considering The Sharing has roots in LA

Visser 3 comes across to me as the kind of person (so to speak) that when a plan fails once, he moves on to a different plan, even if the previous plan was actually good and would more then likely work if they try it again.

For the tech nerds: How do you think the 'morphing allergy' and subsequent hereth illint works?

Much like the time travel stuff in the previous book. I just take it for what it is and how its presented and don't think about it too much less my head hurts.

Any opinions on the final climactic scene?

Loved it. Probably one of my favorite climatic fights, cause there was no fights with the Yeerks or alien species for once, and it was in front of a very large live-audience which raised the stakes ten-fold.