Author Topic: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?  (Read 1896 times)

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Offline Jadedkoi

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Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« on: August 02, 2009, 12:22:35 PM »
This is crossposted from my elljay.

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So I have a theory that Yeerks are not as resilient as they think to the cries of a host and/or the emotions and adrenal system of a higher-functioning species. Visser Three (Or Esplin 9466, The Prime) is the only andalite-controller, and even though a dedicated and well-read Animorphs fan knows he's a brilliant strategist and planner, he's also evidently quite stupid in times of action and genuinely insane all of the time.

I think that KAA planted enough hints in Visser that this is a valid interpretation. Edriss muses on the fact that she became so addicted to the emotions of humanity that it affected her perception and judgement. Enough so that she was hauled before the Council and charged with Treason.

In book 26 when the Anis are transported to the Iskoort planet, Ax is the most heavily affected of any of them by the howler's roar. It is explained that this is because of Andalite's higher cognative abilities. I wonder, if just being in a Human is enough to drive Yeerks loopy, what would having an Andalite host do? Amplify the Yeerk's own arrogance, perhaps? Make him stew in his own bitterness, rage, and anger because he cannot separate himself from his host?

These are guesses, but I think that sub-visser Taylor gives readers a much-needed bridge that completes this theory. The Yeerk who took Taylor quickly began to lose it, wrapped up in Taylor's teenage angstfest of pain and rage from going from rich and worshipped at school to scarred and mangled in a house fire. It was unable to separate itself from her personality, warped and distorted as it was with narcissism and black, tarrish anger.

In book 6, Jake is taken as a host. The Anis have to hold him for three days to starve out the yeerk. During this time the readers and Jake both learn that Yeerks imprint a part of the Host's personality onto themselves and carry it with them forever after, like a living sponge.

THIS IS VERY ****ING IMPORTANT INFORMATION. It tells us that the yeerks as a species have no choice but to absorb traits of their hosts as they sift through memories and thoughts. This also means that just as memories and emotions are retained as an imprint and used as part of the yeerk's own mind, so are the host's own logical inconsistencies and personality defects.

If the host is a paranoid schizophrenic with Grand Mal delusions, I wonder: how would the Yeerk react to auditory or visual stimuli with no grounding in reality, i.e, hallucinations? How would it deal with the constant dread of They're watching me, always watching when for the yeerk this is a real threat in the chain of command? I think the mental deterioration of both host and yeerk would be slow, but genuine. And
permanent.

I also wonder: What is the effect on the mental health of the Yeerk once the Host has been broken and no longer believes rescue is possible? That is definite mental and psychological trauma, and it's probably not present in taxxons (because they are allies and mostly driven by hunger) and gedds (because they're barely sentient) and only minorly there in Hork-bajir (who are not very bright crayons in a box of neon colors). If the host believes he/she is truly always doomed to be a captive you're either going to get a stockholm syndrome effect (one reason I have for voluntary controllers is that after seeing how hopeless it is, the host eventually turns voluntary just to get some control back once their yeerk is feeding) or they'll start developing signs of cabin fever that further exacerbates into true mental instability. Day after day, hour after hour, being able to not cry out to a loved one only a few feet away? To not be able to move your eyes? To hear the malicious laughter and threats and horrors your captor heaps upon you to keep you downtrodden? A normal, healthy person would start to lose their grip within weeks.

Thoughts?
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Offline Chad32

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2009, 12:58:56 PM »
I agree that hosts have an influence on Yeerks. They adopt traits and such from their hosts.


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Offline Phoenix004

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2009, 05:01:29 PM »
I agree that hosts have an influence on Yeerks. They adopt traits and such from their hosts.

That's definitely true, but no more so than a child would learn from their parents. Sometimes this has a profound effect on the child, and sometimes it doesn't. In the end, it's still all about personal choice and free will.

Having said that, I had a theory a while back that perhaps the Yeerks have grown smarter so fast is because they can simply absorb the knowledge of several host's lifetimes. This could even be how they first achieved sentience as a race.
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Offline Yarin

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2009, 05:11:19 PM »
I was wondering if a host had multiple personality disorder would the yeerk dominate the splinter personalities or just the core personality?
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Offline Phoenix004

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2009, 05:19:49 PM »
I honestly don't know enough about how mental disorders work to know how they might affect a Yeerk or the Yeerk's control of the host. However, it seems to be kind of a moot considering that the Yeerks wouldn't bother to infest such a host. The Yeerks automatically ignored physically and mentally handicapped people as potential hosts.
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Offline ThinkAgain

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2009, 05:25:26 PM »
Just because someone is mentally handicapped in some way doesn't mean that they will lick doorknobs and streak through the mall. There's people out there who definitely have severe personality or mental disorders, but you wouldn't know by looking at them. Someone with say, acute paranoia can still live with society, they would just be more of a loner and have a hard time making friends or trusting people. That doesn't mean they can't have a good job.

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Offline Phoenix004

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2009, 05:32:11 PM »
Well in the unlikely event that the Yeerks infested someone who had a severe mental disorder, they may simply decide to eliminate the host.
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Offline Jadedkoi

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2009, 05:39:59 PM »
Well in the unlikely event that the Yeerks infested someone who had a severe mental disorder, they may simply decide to eliminate the host.

Okay, then explain Taylor.
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Offline Phoenix004

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #8 on: August 02, 2009, 05:46:37 PM »
Well in the unlikely event that the Yeerks infested someone who had a severe mental disorder, they may simply decide to eliminate the host.

Okay, then explain Taylor.

I think it's safe to say that the Yeerks have a different definition of mentally unbalanced. If Taylor was a threat to Yeerk security she'd have been removed, but being a sadistic psychopath just makes her ideal for interrogating prisoners, lol.
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Offline anijen21

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2009, 05:57:34 PM »
you know I'm kind of working this out in my latest fic.

my assumption is that the Yeerks not only inhabit and control the mind they infest, but they utilize it. Yeerks are blind in their natural state, for instance. They are unable to interpret color, shape, depth, or anything like that. They have no visual cortex. So when they infest something that CAN see, they would have to utilize the parts of the brain that interpret visual information in the eye. Why should this just be limited to sight, though? There are hundreds of uses of the human brain, some to cope with sight, hearing, taste, touch, but also pain. Also humiliation. Also rage and other intense emotions. So if a Yeerk inhabited a host that couldn't see very well, he'd still need to wear glasses. So why WOULDN'T a Yeerk who inhabits a host with OCD or ADD or any other defect not be vulnerable to it as well?
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Offline Yarin

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2009, 06:16:17 PM »
Good point
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Offline Terenia

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2009, 10:18:21 PM »
As for the multiple-personality question (technically it's called Dissociative Identity Disorder, btw), I think that the Yeerk would effectively control the most dominant persona. I think that the personalities themselves, since they are extensions of the hosts psyche would (depending on the severity of the disorder) manifest themselves in several ways.

1) The host would have delusions in which he/she thinks that the other personalities are taking over. The Yeerk is aware of this happening, but it does not really affect how it controls the host (a mild case of the disorder).
2) The Yeerk would retain control over the host, but also experience the delusions along with the host, quite probably driving the Yeerk mad as well (more severe case).

I think that regardless, the Yeerk maintains control, because there is only one physical brain present. Regardless of which persona is dominant, the brain doesn't change.

Also, keep in mind that DID presents itself in varying amounts of intensity. For example, you don't act the same around your parents as you do around your friends. That's not only personality control, but an extremely (read: extremely) diluted version of a multiple personality. Technically, rpgers have many personalities. Where it becomes a disorder is when the personalities become distinctly different from the main persona. Sometimes the afflicted person is aware, sometimes they are not.

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #12 on: August 03, 2009, 11:39:23 AM »
Wow, you know a lot about that stuff. :]

Offline Yarin

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #13 on: August 04, 2009, 10:24:24 PM »
i was thinking that the other personalities would gang up on the Yeerk and drive it out lol
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Offline visser101

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Re: Do highter-intelligence hosts drive yeerks insane?
« Reply #14 on: August 05, 2009, 06:49:09 AM »
I don't think they go insane but their personalities get intensified, more so if the yeerk and host have a common ground to work with.