Questions
1. In the opening chapters of this book Rachel and Tobias are at a dance and Tobias almost passes the two hour threshold, getting stuck as a human. He wonders later if Rachel intentionally tried to keep him at the dance longer than necessary. What do you think?
I reckon it was unintentional. As much as part of Rachel could wish for Tobias to be properly human again, she is no longer naïve enough at this stage of the series to jeopardize the war.
2. What do you think about the Animorphs plan to find, disprove and destroy the AMR? What does this plan say about the development of the characters throughout the series thus far (especially Tobias and Jake)?
The AMR was a technology to risky to let it be perfected. It
had to be stopped. Period.
The Animorphs’ plan was sound. No more risky than the previous ones.
But I think, in this book in particular, we get multiple sense of; Jake’s leadership (from the moment he and Erek related the AMR news, he had already formulated a plan); Ax and Tobias’ bond (sharing Ax’s Andalite DNA and rituals) (that training scene in which they get tangled up really works!), Rachel’s protective caring (from the moment of the party
3. The Yeerks are opening a massive community center, complete with Olympic sized swimming pool, playground and Yeerk Pool entrance. The center itself is huge. What do you think that this says about the success that the Animorphs have had so far in their fight against the Yeerks? In the large scale picture, how successful do you think the Ani's have been overall?
Giving the Anis all the credit they deserve, I think the opening of this somewhat extravagant Yeerk front was quite realistic for this stage of the series. The Animorphs have done so much and not succumbed to evil ways in the process, but the Yeerks are by no means stopped.
4. Taylor/Sub-Visser is obviously a rather demented character (and one of my personal favorites!). What do you think about her portrayal, her history and her inability to distinguish clearly between Yeerk and host?
Obviously an extreme example of Yeerk-human-bonding.
Taylor willingly sold her humanity for a superficial value. Most people get remorse with time to pay for that. She got a Yeerk sub-Visser in her head. Truly sad.
The Yeerks fixed her up (artificial arm that can be used as a weapon and metallic cranium?!?!?!?! WTH???!!!). But she would have limited life control there on out.
...I love a well-written psycho, but Taylor just seemed implausible to me. She's 2nd in command in what I think is still considered one of the most important planets on the Yeerk's menu, and she can't even distinguish herself from her host anymore? I thought this was a really interesting Yeerk-dilemma, but why doesn't it happen to anyone else? I mean V3 is a psycho, and maybe that's the only reason he keeps her around, I guess insanity loves company, but if the Yeerk Empire were efficiently run at all, I mean, all this multiple-personality fusion or w/e you want to call it would cast some serious doubt on her as a leader...
Imagine what that says about their race! It's safe to say that a majority of the Yeerks are downright ruthless and evil, yes. But the Taylor-Controller was simply put plain crazy. HOW can a messed up Yeerk reach the Sub-visser rank?! Even important-high-ranking Controllers such as Chapman feared her?!?!?!?!
...Is it me or should the after-effects of the torture been dealt with better in future books? I don't think it was brought up enough myself.
I agree with this, too.
It kind of grinds me how Tobias made comparisons between Rachel and Taylor. AGAIN, the writer was trying to evoke that sense of Rachel being this psychopath, emphasizing physical resemblances to Tobias’ torturer.
This is a bad move, in my opinion. One thing is to paint the ‘Rachel’ character as a warrior-who-enjoys-the-fight, it’s a whole other meaning if you compare her to a sick-twisted-psychopath. Didn’t like it at all.
5. What do you think about Tobias' torture sessions?
Quite possibly one of the most traumatic sequences in the whole series for me.
I am not big on torture either, but I this made the whole war concept thing in the series more realistic for me. Fact is these things happen in war, and if a war story didn't have an individual who underwent that kind of ordeal, it just wouldn't be realistic to me.
Having said that, it was pretty true to Animorphs philosophy. KA used the alien technology (the cube chamber activated by the blue, red and black buttons) instead of what we expected in terms of metallic sharp or stretching devices, those would have been a lot more visually unsuitable to the series.
I liked the concept of the boy hiding behind the hawk, in order to deal with the situation of pain. It’s very much what Tobias has been doing all throughout the series.
The rescue battle at the end was SUCH a breathtaking relief.
Memmorable quote is Marco saying <Sorry man, but there’s a time for delicacy and this isn’t it!>. Simply GOLD!
...What about the image of Elfangor at the end?
The ‘dream’ referential to Elfangor, was a good uplifting tone to the story. Tobias was broken, beyond pain, it was comforting to have his father figure give him that message in strength at the end.
6. Anything else?
I, too, think not enough was explored about giving us a human perspective on morphing an Andalite. But the 'optimism' nature in the untamed Andalite was an interesting revelation.
I try to imagine what kind of speeches Visser Three would make. I always pictured him as a Hitler-type-tyrant, impossible to see him doing the whole let’s-be-a-part-of-something-bigger-Sharing speech. Nevertheless, he seemed to be an important celebrity at this Community center event.
I liked the playground-entrance idea. It was ingenius. It’s a lot more feasible for all the kid-Controllers to disappear in a playground than, say, a car wash.
How exactly Tobias got encased in that box from the entrance itself? I recall that scene being a bit fragmented to me.
I remember when Cassie was in fly morph, and she landed on Jake's head. Visser Three wanted to swat her, and Jake grabbed his arm with a look that said "No way in Hell!"
Dude, in this scene I was like, WTH?!?!?! It was pushing it a bit far having Jake exchange valiant looks with the Visser, while grabbing his wrist in front of family, Tom and everyone alike. What was that scene about?! SURELY this was a dead give away to the Yeerk inside Tom’s head…
