K.A's favorite books

[Chad32]

If it achieves the goal you want to set out, and your motives never change, I'd say it's fine. See, the motive for doing something is the main difference between two sides. They may do similar things, but one may do it to save the planet while the other does it to destroy the planet.

This is actually mentioned in the TV Tropes page about this kind of thing. The hero never just states that there's a difference in motives.

But you are right. I've never been a soldier, so I can't say anything from experience.

[donut]

I don't think it was her innocence she was trying to hold on to.  She didn't really have a problem (realitivly speaking) with killing until she stopped feeling bad about it, until she felt nothing from it.  
I think it was that she was afraid she was lossing her compassion and even her sense of right and wrong (as it seemed to be set up in several books leading up to this one), effectively the very things that made her who she was, the things that she saw as seperating her from the yeerks and the very thing she was fighting for.

If you destroy what you're fighting to protect, then what's the point?

And to the people who consider her a coward for it,  I happen to think it was an incredibly couragous act.  Incredibly stupid, but couragous.  People talk all day about courage, but they only seem to think of physical courage, the courage that lets you charge a machine gun.  Almost noone pays attention to moral courage, the courage that lets you stand up for what you believe in, even if everyone else thinks you're nuts.
I would never consider cassie a coward for backing out for the reasons she did, an idiot maybe, but not a coward.

[Chad32]

She's an extremist, and I tend to look down on extremism. You mention destroying what you protect, but in book 19 she was basically giving the world the middle finger rather than change herself.

[alaois]

that small peace was probably a huge inspiration to a budding yeerk peace movement.  there is power in martyrdom.  and of course, her little resurrection from her martyrdom doesn't undo that.

cassie is the Yeerk messiah.  she basically allows herself to die for them, gets resurrected for them, and ultimately gives them salvation from their parasitic (if you follow the analogy, 'sinful') states w/ the morphing cube.

it might seem stupid to you.  but I suppose ghandi and christ and bobby sands are all stupid in some way too.  she took a stand and did something that she thought would have a much bigger impact than fighting and killing in a potentially futile war.  she saw more power in that small peace than in a hundred dead hork bajir controllers.

[Chad32]

I do not equate Cassie to Ghandi or Jesus. Not by a long shot.

[Terenia]

that small peace was probably a huge inspiration to a budding yeerk peace movement.  there is power in martyrdom.  and of course, her little resurrection from her martyrdom doesn't undo that.

cassie is the Yeerk messiah.  she basically allows herself to die for them, gets resurrected for them, and ultimately gives them salvation from their parasitic (if you follow the analogy, 'sinful') states w/ the morphing cube.

it might seem stupid to you.  but I suppose ghandi and christ and bobby sands are all stupid in some way too.  she took a stand and did something that she thought would have a much bigger impact than fighting and killing in a potentially futile war.  she saw more power in that small peace than in a hundred dead hork bajir controllers.

I think that's a really interesting parallel to draw. Cassie's idea truly was the only possible route to salvation and an end to the war. Hm, I never thought of it that way before.

+1

[Chad32]

While I do agree that letting Yeerks become nothlits is a good idea if they choose to do that, I really disapprove of the way she did it. And it's not like she even did it on purpose. Plus it wasn't the only way.

Obviously there are people willing to become voluntary, so if a system was put in place where yeerks could take voluntaries and only voluntaries, that would be a good alternative to nothlitism. Unfortunately voluntaries are looked down upon as scum in the series, so there's prejudice to deal with against their choice.

[Terenia]

And such a system would work well in our enlightened minds, but keep in mind there are the Andalites to contend with too. I don't think that they would ever agree to allowing Yeerks to run around in ANY host, voluntary or not. It was a stretch just getting them to agree to what essentially amounts to Yeerk genocide. Humans have a good deal of influence over the fate of the Yeerks after the war is won, but they aren't the only factor. The Andalites would argue that so long as a single Yeerk remains hosted (even in a voluntary host) there is the potential for the plague to spread again.

[Chad32]

Well that's the Andalite's issue to deal with, not the Yeerks. The Yeerks shouldn't be forced to become something else or die. They did the same thing the the Yeerks that the Yeerks did to other species. While some may see that as karmic justice, it just doesn't seem right. It's obvious there were Yeerks who were in the same bind as the hosts they existed with. They either did what the government told them to do, or they starved to death.

Looking for voluntary hosts is what should have happened in the beginning when Seerow gave them portable Kandrona machines. Yes it would need to be regulated, and any Yeerk who enslaved involuntaries would be treated like any other criminal of any species that took part in slave trafficking or whatever.

[Terenia]

Well that's the Andalite's issue to deal with, not the Yeerks. The Yeerks shouldn't be forced to become something else or die. They did the same thing the the Yeerks that the Yeerks did to other species. While some may see that as karmic justice, it just doesn't seem right. It's obvious there were Yeerks who were in the same bind as the hosts they existed with. They either did what the government told them to do, or they starved to death.

I'm not arguing that the Andalites are right in any way by wanting to restrict/destroy the Yeerks. I guess the basic issue here is: who gets to decide the Yeerks fate? There are three main parties involved here: Yeerks, humans and Andalites.

1) Yeerks: Well, they already decided their own fate, in a way, by forming the Yeerk Empire to begin with. But, post war, I would argue that if afforded the choice a great majority of the Yeerks would probably agree with you that their best option is to take voluntaries or maybe become nothlits by their own will....but by no means have nothlitism forced upon them. Of course then there will be other Yeerks, former Imperialists, who think that the Empire was right all along, which could majorly ruin things for the rest of the Yeerks. It doesn't really matter, though, because the Yeerks are the losers in this war, so they don't get to choose their fate anyways. The two real players are the Andalites and the humans.

2) Humans: The humans are new on the galactic scene, and need to tread carefully. They need to appear strong without offending anyone (read: the Andalites). At this point the humans also have limited technology....VERY limited technology compared to their space-faring friends. While I am sure some humans would agree that Yeerks remaining in voluntary humans is acceptable, those humans in power would recognize that the important political move at this point is NOT to make the Yeerks and some humans happy, but to form a firm alliance with the Andalites. This means taking care of the Yeerks on their own terms (aka not frying them all), but still terms that are acceptable to the Andalites (hence forced nothlitism).

3) Andalites: I am convinced that after all of the propaganda that's been spread by the end of the war the majority of the Andalites peoples would be entirely satisfied to see the Yeerk race obliterated. Not through rehabilitation or slow genocide by way of nothlitism, but by flushing/frying as many Yeerk pools as possible and/or forcing them back to their homeworld and setting up an Andalite guard that will never allow them to leave it. For the Andalites there is no other option. However, the newest player on the field, the humans, make their way impossible. They too need to form an alliance with the humans, however shaky, or risk bringing a new threat to the galaxy.


So....yeah....not that I disagree with you on what would be best for the Yeerks, Chad. It's that from a political mindset, from a post-war mindset, it's just impossible for that to actually happen.

And now I've yanked us entirely off topic. Oh dear.

[alaois]

I do not equate Cassie to Ghandi or Jesus. Not by a long shot.

neither do I.  i don't even equate ghandi w/ Jesus, and definately don't equate bobby sands with either.  those were just random examples of real life people who succeeded by doing something similar to what cassie did in #19.  to understand cassie in #19 you gotta realize that not only did she hate the killing, the killing seemed futile.  more futile than the Jews against the Romans, more futile than the Indians against the British, more futile than the Irish against the British.  that's why I think what she did in 19 was awesome.  rather than fight and kill possibly pointlessly, she makes 1 connection, 1 small peace.  by martyring hersefl.  a small peace that actually ends up growing into a larger peace movement inside the ranks of the enemy itself.

and as much as I really don't believe it (because if it was a well thought out strategy it was a stupid one that could've been done better.  seemed like they played with the idea of having Cassie make a really dumb move but then changed their mind because they wanted to keep portraying her idealism as ultimately insightful and good), it was insinuated that Cassie actually knew what she was doing when she let them get the blue box.

I really like and respect what cassie did in 19.  always been one of my favorites.  what she did at the end of the series was much more stupid, but I do like how they turned it around.  if they had thought it through, they could've had her actually give the box to a contact in the yeerk peace movement.  maybe still have the tension by having her do it against jake's wishes.