Group Re-Read: #33 The Illusion

[JFalcon]

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 think she did indeed, which surprises me. You would think she'd be pleased to have him by her side in a fight, then again she's looking for normalcy, being able to say she has a boyfriend who is human twenty four seven and not at all a hawk would qualify as that.
Also if Tobias' human morph wasn't aging the age difference might have been starting to catch up to them 

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)?

A necessary plan I guess, I can't imagine a better way to foil the plan but it seems like an unnecessary risk, and the odds of it not paying off were major, the odds of losing Tobias were major, it sucks to be both Jake and Tobias in this, neither had an easy decision.

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?

We're led to believe that they're very successful but I don't understand how. I mean the Sharing clearly has funding, it's clearly still recruiting voluntary hosts and taking in involuntary hosts, it gets media attention and so on, rankly if the front organization isn't suffering at all the war can't be won, as long as the enemy continues to get a steady flow of reinforcements the Animorphs can be outlasted since they themselves didn't get reinforcements for the majority of the series whereas the Sharing was constantly pulling in new hosts.

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?

It was very interesting to see a Yeerk who was so in love with their host's world that they would shut themselves off in it, even around other Yeerks. It kind of reminds me of Visser actually and Visser One gradually falling for being a human. I like Taylor to a degree because she's the second best kind of villain, a cruel evil psycho villain who actually looks sweet and pleasant.
But where Visser One had to hide her human obsession Taylor kind of flaunts it . . .

5. What do you think about Tobias' torture sessions? What about the image of Elfangor at the end?

I have relatively mixed feelings about the torture session, I mean it helps you hate the Yeerks, or at least Taylor, and it's interesting that Tobias didn't just stand there saying "thank you sir, may I have another?" like pretty much every other hero who gets tortured, still not really a great scene to reread.

[Adrian Malacoda]

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?

It's possible but unlikely. Even if so, I don't think it would be due to selfishness. She's naturally worried about him. Overall, though, I'd hope that she could wait until after the war to try to enjoy a "normal" life (#54 notwithstanding, I don't think she expected to die at the end)

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)?

They are growing to understand war. At first they might have hoped to get through the war without any real sacrifices. However, I think they are starting to realize that, in war, one life is meaningless compared to the many lives that could be saved by defeating the enemy. Even though Jake knows Tobias could die in this mission, he is somewhat comfortable with sending him off. I also liked Tobias "getting in touch" with his Andalite heritage, through his training with Ax and the Elfangor vision at the end.

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?

They've had numerous small victories, but the empire still stands, stronger than ever. I think, for five kids and an alien waging war against a galactic power, that's the most they could have hoped for by this time.

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?

She's an interesting villain, that's for sure. I think Taylor illustrates one of the more disturbing facts about this war: on some levels, Yeerks and humans are not so different. Taylor the human had the same general mindset as the sub-visser in her head - she enjoyed the power she held in her school's student body and was truly distraught when she lost that power. They are so alike that they easily bond with each other.

5. What do you think about Tobias' torture sessions? What about the image of Elfangor at the end?

I liked the torture, myself. I liked the fact that the torture was in fact effective but that the sub-visser was too deranged to even notice - quite a twist. The vision of Elfangor was reassuring, as even though Tobias might have no traditional "family" he carries his Andalite heritage.

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.

If I recall correctly the comparison was only skin-deep. Something like "She's pretty, Rachel's pretty, but aside from that they aren't alike at all."

Edit: One other thing I noticed. In this book, human-Controllers are referred to with their human names. Taylor refers to herself and Chapman as such and later, when Visser Three calls in the scientists, he refers to them with their human names as well. I suppose Taylor's doing it is justified, but it seemed out of character for the Visser.