In the scheme of things I think he was just peeved at being given a security assignment, which is all earth was. He wanted to be out there fighting the real war, he was good at that, his desire to just fight his enemies rather than sit and brood was evident in
Visser when he practically begs to be allowed to start blowing stuff up.
I think he saw earth as a garrison job, sub-visser duty, boring work, uninteresting. He boasts to Elfangor but in the end I think he was just bored out of his mind, probably thought he must have done something wrong to get assigned to a backwater garrison world when the real fighting went on elsewhere.
On top of that he does show a certain level of contempt for humans, they're hardly the "worthy" adversariers the Andalites were.
My problem is he's so much more likeable in HBC it made it harder to dislike him in the main series, I mean maybe it's just the spark of youth but I had the slightest difficulty buying that Esplin was really Visser 3, I mean I knew he was but at points they feel like two different characters.
On to the questions.
Discussion Questions
Feel free to add your own questions
1) This book is interesting because we get to see characters such as Alloran and Visser Three pre-Animorphs era. Visser Three - Esplin 9466 - makes the comment that he does not approve of one of his colleagues because he is ruthless and violent. At what point do you think Esplin crosses the line and becomes just as ruthless and violent?
2) What do you think would have happened to Aldrea if the Yeerks had not destroyed her family?
3) The Arn are powerful biological engineers. They created the Hork-Bajir and all of the mutated monsters of Father Deep in an effort to save their planet after an asteroid hits. What do you think about this use of technology?
4) What do you think about Alloran's decision to use the Quantum Virus? Was it a necessary evil?
5) General opinions of the book overall?
1) Probably about the same time he got stuck guarding Taxxons for a living in TAC. I think he came to the point where having enough power to just end people's lives at his whim started doing things to his head, like I said, he lost that spark of youth.
2) They'd have gotten as irritated with her as I did and fed her to an Antarean Bogg.
3) It's better than when they decided to use it to make themselves even less useful to the Yeerks than Gedds.
4) I think Alloran might deserve more credit than he gets here. What exactly do the Animorphs keep spouting? Oh yeah, "Freedom or death" Alloran knew the Hork-Bajir couldn't have freedom, and he knew the only way to save them from slavery and save his people from having to fight them for years to come was to give them the second option. His method might have been cruel, but I think, if you're going to talk about "give me freedom or give me death" you shouldn't complain when someone out of options actually follows through on your request. I don't think it's something he came to lightly, or even very easily because he was fighting alongside the very people he was about to exterminate, I think he was just
that desperate. That said while I can understand why he did it and even sympathize with him, every slave still has a chance to regain their freedom, I think it was the wrong decision.
5) It's a good book but imo it suffers whenever Aldrea narrates, she grinds on my nerves pretty badly after a while. I didn't like her as a kid, I thought being older and rereading it I could understand her better but I find I like her less and less every time I read it. Other than that I find the Esplin and Dak narrations very worthwhile, and I love seeing the early days of the Yeerk empire, even if they do slightly contradict things said in previous books.
