Author Topic: Why does everyone hate the helmacrons?  (Read 1130 times)

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Offline Bootlebat

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Why does everyone hate the helmacrons?
« on: September 22, 2014, 02:24:36 PM »
I'm guessing cause they are kind of a joke species? Also on some other thread someone said the helmacrons are mentioned in The Andalite Chronicles, I REALLY don't remember that.

Offline Chad32

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Re: Why does everyone hate the helmacrons?
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2014, 02:27:52 PM »
They may have been mentioned briefly in TAC, but I don't remember. They are kind of a joke species, and I don't think they really add much to the series. It's already odd enough that a two inch long slug can be sentient, but something as small as an ant? And somehow the Helmacrons think they're the supreme species of the galaxy.


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Offline DinosaurNothlit

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Re: Why does everyone hate the helmacrons?
« Reply #2 on: September 24, 2014, 02:13:10 AM »
I agree that, at least in-canon, the Helmacrons are passed off as a joke species.  They're played up for laughs, and nobody really takes them very seriously.

But I've come up with a few of my own personal theories on their existence which have really intrigued me, and which have me like them a heck of a lot better than I think even the authors ever intended them to be liked.  I may have gone into this in another thread, but I don't remember where that was, so I suppose I'll just repeat it.

Everything, every single thing, about the Helmacrons can be explained by the fact that they are a 'fungible' species (as Visser Three offhandedly points out, in what was almost a throwaway line); when a Helmacron dies, its consciousness is absorbed back into the rest of the species as a whole.

This means that, on an individual level, a Helmacron cannot die.  Think about the implications of this for a second.  Each and every Helmacron has been 'alive' for the entirety of the existence of their species.  I imagine that their 'consciousnesses' might intermingle with one another as each is reabsorbed into the rest of their species, but, on some level, all of Helmacron-kind would have been self-aware for all that time.

Which explains why the Helmacrons, as a race, simply do not process the idea of 'death' the way other races do.  And we know from the Yeerks' knowledge of them, that they've had interactions with other species.  Thus, they would probably be aware that they themselves are unique, as a race that cannot die.  They would have seen other species' cultural perspectives of death, generally as a terrible and tragic affair.  They might be confused by this, possibly seeking to emulate it, and that's why they hold it in such high regard on the one hand, while also being completely dismissive of it on the other.  You see that contradiction, in how they treat their dead, versus how quick they are to try to kill each other.

Is it really any wonder that they've become completely obsessed with death, while at the same time unable to even acknowledge its seriousness?  They solve their problems by 'killing' one another until all the survivors can agree on a course of action.  They use death as a kind of twisted reward for being promoted to a position of power, preferring to respect a dead figurehead than a living one.  They charge headlong at species that are thousands of times more powerful than themselves, seemingly unaware of the danger (they're aware of the danger, just not why dying is bad).  And they revere their dead rivals that they had despised while alive.

I could be over-thinking this, of course, and they could just be insane.  But, on the other hand, maybe that could have something to do with the fact that they've all been alive for millennia, as well.

To sum up: I, perhaps alone among Ani-fans, like the Helmacrons.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2014, 02:29:54 AM by DinosaurNothlit »

Offline Cloak

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Re: Why does everyone hate the helmacrons?
« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2014, 05:12:13 AM »
I personally neither like or hate the Helmacrons.

Nice theory, Dino. But there is one way that they all can die permanently. Granted, that would take the genocide of the entire Helmacron race, but still, it means they can die eventually, which only hastened by their actions. I wonder if their birth rate and mortality rates are on par with each other, because that'd be a lot of baby Helmacrons.


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Offline DinosaurNothlit

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Re: Why does everyone hate the helmacrons?
« Reply #4 on: September 24, 2014, 03:01:59 PM »
I don't think that they necessarily want to die, they just don't really understand how death works.  They're looking at it from an outsider's perspective, trying to understand it, and in their efforts to understand they've come up with this absurd macabre parody of how they think it is.  Like, I dunno, if an alien was trying to understand what television was all about, but somewhere along the line got the idea that the commercials were the important part.  ;)

I definitely don't think the Helmacrons are going to commit mass suicide any time soon.  As a race that has never even experienced death before, they've got to be even more terrified of the idea of nonexistence than anybody.

Also, yeah, one way or another their breeding abilities must be ridiculous.  Maybe a similar system to the Taxxons (which have similar mortality rates), like a Living Hive sort of thing, whose role it is to just keep making more of them?

Offline NickDaGriff

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Re: Why does everyone hate the helmacrons?
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2014, 06:07:07 PM »
I personally happen to like the take in Kitulean's Redux fanfics on this site.  Basically, the Helmacrons are miniaturized Howlers, functioning as scouts.  Being a part of a related memory network, they can actually remember slaughtering countless other species, even though they're not exactly capable of doing it themselves. 

I don't really like the Helmacrons.  They were kind of an unnecessary addition as they stood.  More than that, Applegrant wrote them to be obnoxious, and it was a resounding success.
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Offline NothingFromSomething

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Re: Why does everyone hate the helmacrons?
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2014, 03:52:01 AM »
How could you even feel strongly about the Helmacrons one way or another?   :-\  I kinda don't get that.  They were obviously just there as a goofy bit of levity to break up the main story arc with some one-off craziness about little-tiny-space-Ant-Hitlers.

Boo!  Fun!

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Offline Chad32

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Re: Why does everyone hate the helmacrons?
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2014, 07:23:29 AM »
Animorphs is Serious Business, yo!  8)


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Offline KingAlanI

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Re: Why does everyone hate the helmacrons?
« Reply #8 on: January 01, 2015, 10:40:37 PM »
The Helmacrons were annoying and pointless. It seemed like a distraction to introduce something not related to the main storyline. I figure it was a blunt attempt to use reverse sexism to make a point about real sexism. Was it a way to revive interest in the morph cube? Was it to illustrate that morphing energy could be detected? It doesn't seem like a whole book was necessary.

#24 The Suspicion was one of my least favorite books partially for this reason.