Animorphs kill-count?

[anijen21]

Not to mention that the Yeerks in that tub were actively part of the invasion. They were all meant for important human hosts, so they must have been relatively high-ranking.

As opposed to the Yeerks Jake flushed at the end, who were probably just unfortunate souls at the wrong place at the wrong time.

so murder's okay as long as the people you kill are high-ranking?

TOTAL MONSTERS or not, the Yeerks are sentient. Saying "murder is murder" is definitely an oversimplification, but I mean...come on.

[Tiana]

Not to mention that the Yeerks in that tub were actively part of the invasion. They were all meant for important human hosts, so they must have been relatively high-ranking.

As opposed to the Yeerks Jake flushed at the end, who were probably just unfortunate souls at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I think the Yeerks Jake flushed may be just as involved in the invasion as those in the tub, since they were on the Pool ship. JMO

[goom]

so if they kill a Taxxon or Hork-Bajir Controller are we counting that as one kill or two?

two.

[DinosaurNothlit]

What about ambiguous kills, where it's never really made clear whether they were killed or not?

[spoiler]Such as Taylor and David?[/spoiler]

Or indirect kills?  Where the Animorphs are sort of responsible for the deaths, but not really?

[spoiler]Like the Venber following the Animorphs into the hangar and then dying, or when the Animorphs helping to reprogram Erek and then he killed a bunch of Hork-Bajir?[/spoiler]

I dunno, this sounds like a cool project, but then you get into grey areas of "well, did such-and-such really die?" or "was so-and-so really the Animorphs fault?" and I think these things become more or less impossible to categorize.

Even counting only the certain-and-direct kills, though, you can be certain that each of the Animorphs had a staggering kill count.

Jake had the most kills, hands down.  As others have said, not much could beat numbers like 17,000.  And don't forget all the Auxilaries, soldiers, and Hork-Bajir that he ordered to their deaths in the final battle, too.

Rachel probably comes in second.  Her bear morph has certainly taken down more than her fair share of Horks and Taxxons, I'd wager.

I'd be willing to bet that Ax is third.  His tail is awfully lethal, and he's probably one of the more ruthless Animorphs when it comes to killing Yeerks.

Cassie and Marco are probably about neck-and-neck for kills.  On the one hand, Cassie is the pacifist.  But on the other, her wolf morph is much more lethal than Marco's gorilla.  Marco has a tendency to knock his enemies out, rather than kill them.  Still, his ruthlessness probably accounts for enough somewhat-indirect kills to make up for that, whereas Cassie would try to spare her opponents if given the chance.  So I'd guess they'd probably come out even.

And I'll bet that Tobias comes in last (unless you count rodents as kills, lol).  He never seems to kill anything, except for the rare occasions where he's morphed Andalite or Hork-Bajir.  Otherwise, he goes for the eyes, which is painful, sure, and plenty inconvenient during a battle, but not lethal.  And since he normally fights as a hawk, he probably hasn't actually killed that many controllers.

Unless . . . oh, but here's another grey area.  If Tobias blinded a controller, and then another Animorph killed them where they would not have otherwise been able to, whose kill does that count towards? 

[Homiegee]

Otherwise, he goes for the eyes, which is painful, sure, and plenty inconvenient during a battle, but not lethal.

Actually, Tobias has probably been indirectly responsible for many controller deaths in this manner.

The Yeerks have no use for blind or otherwise disabled hosts, meaning that the host bodies would be eliminated. As would be the case for any other controller who was seriously disabled or injured by the Animorphs.

[goom]

maybe we could (for each book) make a list of how many definite kills, and then as a side note mention possible deaths
[spoiler]*cough* david.. [/spoiler]

it's worth a shot, anyways.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Otherwise, he goes for the eyes, which is painful, sure, and plenty inconvenient during a battle, but not lethal.

Actually, Tobias has probably been indirectly responsible for many controller deaths in this manner.

The Yeerks have no use for blind or otherwise disabled hosts, meaning that the host bodies would be eliminated. As would be the case for any other controller who was seriously disabled or injured by the Animorphs.

Wow, that's a good point.  I didn't even think about that.  Counting those deaths might put Tobias over Marco or Cassie for kills.

He'd still have only killed half as many for each controller he got, though, since, if you're right, they'd have gotten the Yeerk out and only killed the host.  Man, I wonder if that ever occurred to him!  He was basically killing the innocent Hork-Bajir/humans without killing the very creatures he was trying to kill in the first place!

[Tiana]

Otherwise, he goes for the eyes, which is painful, sure, and plenty inconvenient during a battle, but not lethal.

Actually, Tobias has probably been indirectly responsible for many controller deaths in this manner.

The Yeerks have no use for blind or otherwise disabled hosts, meaning that the host bodies would be eliminated. As would be the case for any other controller who was seriously disabled or injured by the Animorphs.

Does Tobias disable/blind that many Hork Bajirs? I remember reading in #23, where the HB he injured had a nasty scar so maybe not all of Tobias' victims ended up blind. I don't think this method would earn Tobias that many kills, because he has the strike and escape tactic, which doesn't injure as many Controllers as the other Anis during ground battles.

[goom]

 Man, I wonder if that ever occurred to him!  He was basically killing the innocent Hork-Bajir/humans without killing the very creatures he was trying to kill in the first place!

i'm sure he wouldn't have blinded so many had he thought about that.

i hadn't really thought of it either.

[voodooqueen126]

I said this on another post but i transferred it here where it is more relevant:

Personally i think ripping someone to bits with your teeth would be far more brutal than shooting someone, but the author disallowed guns for the heroes as she thought that was wrong
Well on the ability to cope with interspecies warfare  with minimal truama could apply to all sentients especially predators like humans... think of the popularity of sci-fi where the enemy are giant bugs/very ugly aliens. Tv tropes even mentions one of the main reasons for rubber forehead aliens is that in order to empathise with something you have to see it's mouth and eyes and it has to look human like... also armies (according to Lt. Col Dave Grossman) are slightly more like to be killed when retreating/running away because if you can't see the persons face, actually Grossman in his book on killing, goes into great detail about how killing becomes more traumatic the closer you are to the enemy if you are close enough to strangle someone it causes lifelong guilt, snipers experience even less guilt, whilst the people who drop bombs on cities experience very little guilt (apparently???) also cases of cannibalism like in franklin espedition it is noted that people usually cut off the hands and head because those parts are the most human like and thus hardest to eat (psychollogically plus all the crazy bones in your hands)... So perhaps the reason the animorphs experience so little guilt (comparative to what they had to do) is the same reason a man working at a slaughterhouse or hunting deer experiences no guilt: we are simply not designed to experience guilt over the deaths of other species especially ugly ones like Hork-Bajir and Taxxons it is the predator instinct at work... the animals that humans do have empathy for exhibit a lot of neoteny and have human like faces the classic example being dogs (especially our similar body language), but other animals like Pandas and monkeys and even rats get more empathy then say spiders and lizards or the poor coelcanth. I guess this is why fighting aliens would be much more fun than fighting humans-just like hunting-only your intellectual equals so it's not like your preying on dumb rabbits who can't match you, they are as well so it all boils down to: no empathy required.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllAnimalsAreDogs
A further note of "dehumanisation" Alloran released the quantum virus on the dumb hork-bajir rather than the yeerks, probably because the Arn didn't understand yeerk biology very well but still very easy, perhaps Alloran saw this is the equivalent of infecting the enemy's horses (as happens in Wilbur Smiths' River God) to undermine the enemies resources, except it's really not: the hork-bajir are sentient if simple allies, why didn't he try a little bit harder to develop a virus against the yeerks rather than go for the Hork-Bajir? His brother did target the yeerks, and whilst this would've affected the humans due to lack of development time (i also suspect it would've been less deadly to humans than yeerks, not being targeted directly at us but being a side effect), it is far less reprehinsible than wiping the hork-bajir because you can't be bothered. Like bombing a slave labor factory because Dresden is too far away for your lazy pilots to reach... But perhaps because the Hork-Bajir were simple it was easy for a slightly eugenic species like the Andalites to dehumanise them and not seek or research further to develop an anti-yeerk virus?
And yeah the thing about Tobias attacking Hork-Bajir is important: instead of attacking unhosted yeerks in their pool they attacked them in their infested hosts causing more damage to the innocent host rather than the slave master.

[Chad32]

I think Tobias has enough to angst about without realising that he's probably indirectly killed more hosts than any other teammate, due to onlly be able to maim instead of kill.

[AniDragon]

Not to mention that the Yeerks in that tub were actively part of the invasion. They were all meant for important human hosts, so they must have been relatively high-ranking.

As opposed to the Yeerks Jake flushed at the end, who were probably just unfortunate souls at the wrong place at the wrong time.

so murder's okay as long as the people you kill are high-ranking?

TOTAL MONSTERS or not, the Yeerks are sentient. Saying "murder is murder" is definitely an oversimplification, but I mean...come on.

That's not quite what I meant... I was focusing more on the "active part of the invasion" bit.

It's like the difference between bombing an army bunker and bombing a city. When you bomb the army bunker, you're killing someone who is directly opposing you. While if you bomb a city, you're getting everyone, whether they support the war or not.

Neither are right, but it's the type of justification that the Animorphs may have made in that situation.

[dasada122]

And I don't think a count was always given.
Sometimes it just said "a lot".

[anijen21]

That's not quite what I meant... I was focusing more on the "active part of the invasion" bit.

It's like the difference between bombing an army bunker and bombing a city. When you bomb the army bunker, you're killing someone who is directly opposing you. While if you bomb a city, you're getting everyone, whether they support the war or not.

Neither are right, but it's the type of justification that the Animorphs may have made in that situation.

I definitely see where you're coming from, but that's assuming there are any "civilian" Yeerks at all.

Defining any race by one characteristic in sci-fi is tricky, and in my opinion, sort of shallow, but besides the Peace Movement, ALL YEERKS IN THE EMPIRE were all about invasion and infestation. I don't think the Yeerks in the Pool Ship were any less driven than the Yeerks on the planet, maybe just less talented and necessary. Actually, it's kind of weird that they were in the Pool Ship at all, considering the open infestation plan that Visser Three had prior to the Yeerk Pool blowing up...but then again maybe he actually had the sense not to put all his eggs in one basket. Regardless, I really doubt that those Yeerks' purpose was simply to take up space.

[Chad32]

I would like to think some Yeerks are just there because they're born there, or otherwise forced to be there. And the reason some Yeerks spend all their time in one pool or another is because there are more Yeerks than hosts.