Hork-Bajir Homeworld Post-Series

[NothingFromSomething]

Yeah, pretty much.

The Animorphs (sans-Cassie) all die in the final book, too, sorry optimistic people.   

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Why assume the Animorphs died? Elfangor and his crew survived ramming the bladeship.

[NothingFromSomething]

Totally different dealio with the Andalite Chronicles thing.

[RYTX]

Because at some point Marco pointed out "We give in now ,they own us."

The Animorphs, humans, won the war, and in the process made a number of discovers that the Andalite military would have keep secret. And during those neogiations, the Animorphs proved you can't just tell the humans to keep these secrets and expect it to happen. Earth may not be complete equals, but they were going to allies to the Andalite people, not the military alone, and the soldiers are going to have to slow down their dealings less the people and their allies turn on them.

The other is the promise that it's much more possible to take the HB planet than Earth.  The Yeerks invested too much into Earth, and the Andalites finally, seemed, to get their sh&t together and stop fighting on all fronts. They lost HB world in the 60's and probably never tried to take it again, but now that they have the Yeerks on the rope it's reasonable to reinvest there. The council probably isn't there directly, and forces not equipped to handle a full Andalite onslaught, and, hopefully, someone is insisting that the Yeerks there get the same offer as the Yeerks on Earth, the nothlit route.

It's political suicide to do it knowing it would be disapproved of, suspected, found out, and logisitically there are alternative now that they didn't have/see before

[NothingFromSomething]

Agreed on the fact that the Andalites are a democracy, and once the Yeerk fleet's been gutted the Andalite civilians are going to have more of a say in things in terms of voting, the War Council (or whatever it was called in the books) holding less sway in times of peace.

Still though, I think you're overestimating exactly the the Andalites should give a monkey **** what we think, or demand.  Despite the Marco quote, the point still stands that the humans have way more interest and necessity in a working relationship and peace with the Andalites than vice versa.  The blue guys are going to hold power dominance no matter what, when it all comes down to it.  Not to say that the kids shouldn't do what they can to minimize the diplomatic imbalance at first, but even when they did the Andalites still pretty much held the cards.  It's not like if the Andalites wanted access to major downed Yeerk ships for intelligence/forensic purposes and the humans decided to not let them, the Andalites couldn't just take it if it was that big a deal, that important.

[RYTX]

I don't think it's that they care what we think, it's that the military cares what the Andalite people think, and the Andalite people are going to be finding out about things from the people of Earth in addition to their military. The Q-virus, the betrayal on Leera, the attempted assassination attempt and Q-virus on Earth, the whole scorch earth, was all kept secret because the electorate saw themselves as willing to fight but honorably, (and without genocide). The negotiations showed Earth as an ally in the Electorate's objectives, though maybe not an equal, but the Andalite people should listen when Earth says, "by the way, your forces might try blowing up an occupied planet, maybe you should stop them."

And I  think just knowing that that's out there is enough to keep the military from saying "we won earth, now lets go scorch the HB planet real quick". They hold the power, but they showed a real willingness to looking to lay down their arms and talk about how to proceed with their new allies and probably their own people once the major conflict was over. Not because they had to, but because fundamentally they aren't interested in warring forever, and crushing the Yeerks major potential conquest while gaining a set of allies that gives you more options gives the chance to reevaluate the approach and creates a new dynamic within the Andalite system more than just adding humans to it.
 

[NothingFromSomething]

But the thing is, you can actually make a pretty decent military argument for their plan to just scorch Earth, at that point it pretty much did look like it was in the Council Of Thirteen's hands and had reached that critical mass point where the humans weren't going to be able to hold it.  I don't think the Andalite electorate would have some major problem with that basic reality, not sure it's much of a bargaining chip for humans to "out" what the War Council was planning here.

The secrets of the Hork-Bajir war would probably cause some major outrage, but I can't even remember if the kids knew about that in any detail?  Vaguely recalling them finding out in general terms about what Alloran pulled a few decades earlier there, but did they even have any concrete info to leak?

But yeah - with earth, last-ditch hail mary plot by a half-dozen kids that miraculously happened to work aside, the Andalites could probably make a pretty convincing argument that the Earth was totally lost by that last book in the series, not sure it makes them look all that bad in their blunt "raze and burn" assessment at that point.

[Adam]

The Andalites wanted to "scorch" the Hork Planet and Earth at certain times: When it looked like a lost cause and that the Yeerks could build their empire by such a magnitude. I don't think that, post-war, the Yeerks have immediate opportunity to build.
What I'm saying is that the scorch method is seemingly only used as a last resort. As mentioned earlier, they could simply surround the Hork planet and blockade it until the Yeerks lose Kandrona resources, etc... There's no need for a last resort once the Empire had been so crippled.
I guess it could depend on "space politics". Maybe there's a NATO or UN thing going on in outer space that the Andalites are part of. If so, they'd probably want a good reputation and I don't see how destroying habited planets post-war would do thm any favours with allies.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Well, even if the Andalites and Animorphs decide not to bother, what do you make of the genetically built Hork-Bajir rebellion?

[NothingFromSomething]

"Genetically-built"?  What, you mean just the Toby seer stuff kicking in to organize them more than they normally could?  Ehh, probably wouldn't amount to much alone, all of that only worked in conjunction with the Animorphs and such.

[RYTX]

I think he means the new colony made on the home-world by the Arn from the samples collected in book 34.
And I think it's fair to assume the Animorphs knew about the Q-virus what with the telling of HBC and the encounter with Aldrea, which I think the public was still in the dark on.

And while scorch earth might make sense militarily, I think there's more reason to think the electorate would not be okay with it.  They make a big deal in 54 about making sure the public would have access to their conversation, an cutting off the commander before he could say what he was going to do, which would have got him in a load of ****. If it had happened, yeah you can't undo it, but then you have to explain that their was no other options, and you potentially have more involvement by the public to make sure it doesn't happen again. In HBC there may not have been other options. Minutes before the fleet showed up to Earth there may not have been. But post Earth, blowing up the HB planet would be like blowing up Brazil to keep Zika from getting worse. It's not good, it's not 100% contained/containable, but there are better ways to handle it.

[TobiasMasonPark]

I think he means the new colony made on the home-world by the Arn from the samples collected in book 34.

     Sorry, that's what I meant. I didn't think there would be confusion.

[NothingFromSomething]

Yeah, RYTX, I just figure the Hork-Bajir world by this stage is probably way more of a military stronghold than the Earth was at the end of the series, y'know?  Like even though the Yeerks over-deployed to Earth, and the Empire had its back broken, if the Andalites could just go in there with a reasonable chance of taking back the Hork-Bajir world by force they probably already would have years ago.  The electorate itself probably even considers it a lost cause, whereas public sentiment probably leans more toward Earth being able to be saved.

Along with their whole supremacy stuff about ranking species on a freakin' scale, the humans "ranking" higher than the Horks, distressing as it is I figure the Andalite public would probably be on board with the razing.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     I'm just wondering how long the Yeerks can exploit the planet. First off, it's habitable only in the valleys, of which there are about 14, according to the Hork-Bajir chronicles. In the and book, we hear that the Yeerks are cutting down trees and mining for metals to build ships and weapons. I would assume that this is how the Yeerks were providing weapons for the next thirty-forty years. The problem: the already limited resources of the planet and the fact that the Yeerks probably aren't tending to the trees providing breathable air makes me question how long they could last there.

[NothingFromSomething]

Well, they'd probably have a good deal of Horks left back on the planet to maintain all of that stuff, plus like forced host breeding and all.  Not a nice situation.