Controllers - Acceptable Targets?

[Darth Zakryn]

Ok, was anyone else pissed off by the Animorphs' attitude? They write off Controllers as acceptable targets because the host's not in control anymore, and attack them ruthlessly. Did this bother anyone else? What really annoyed me was Jake remarking in #21 that to his mind they weren't human anymore, but pure Yeerk. Hey! You idiot, their MINDS are still AWARE. They still see everything going on.

Opinions?

[Chad32]

Dehumanizing the enemy is very important in a soldier's ability to do what he or she does. I've heard that people do better in situations like firing at enemies from great distance because they don't have to see the person's face. they can imagine the people in the distance are just little ants or something. It's a kind of conditioning.

[NateSean]

Since the controllers were most likely pointing Dracon beams his way, yeah, I'd say Jake was justified there.

[RYTX]

And really, I disagree with the original argument: Standard protocol was to decommission, not kill an enemy, at least a human- e.g. how V1 noticed the lack of human causalities in major battle reports.
Harder to do with a Hork-Bajir: A gorilla can subdue a human without tearing it apart, but you can't do that to a walking salad shooter if you want to live too

[sublime88stang]

RYTX i agree, like Visser 1 noticed in book 30, they mostly didn't kill human controllers if they could avoid it. Cassie was one of the most torn up when they ever did have to kill a human-controller due to the fact that the human was held hostage by the enemy,with no way to separate them. When it comes down to kill or be killed though, which it was most of the time, the choice was clear.

[zazuban]

I think the situation really determines what happens to the human controllers. I mean when there are a few of them engaged in combat it's easy enough to knock them out or disarm them. It's when there are mobs of them blocking escape routes and firing draco beams, that things get heated up and death/serious injury results. For the most part Jake does what is right and keeps from doing too much harm to the human controllers caught in the crossfire. Unfortuantly I cannot say the same for Hork-Bajir that tend to always come in slicing and dicing the air; asking to get torn to peices.

[Phoenix004]

Obviously they didn't kill where they could avoid it, but it's typically quite difficult to incapacitate a Hork-Bajir or Taxxon without causing serious harm. Plus human Controllers aren't really a threat if they're unarmed.

When it comes down to it, it's kill or be killed. Even if you know a person is being mind-controlled, you're still going to defend yourself if they try and kill you (or one of your friends). Also we know that many hosts would prefer death over continued enslavement.

Besides, is it really much more moral to fry a pool full of defenceless Yeerks? Elfangor himself knew that was wrong, and Jake never forgave himself.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     I always wondered what would have happened if Elfangor did fry the Yeerks. Imagine how many of those were soldiers who fought the Animorphs.