The Five & The One

[weathervane]

From book #25, The Extreme:

<Every Andalite knows the story of the Venber,> Ax began. <In fact, the story of the Venber has much to do with the modern Andalite policies and methods of interstellar interaction.>

<Tell us the story, Ax,> Jake said. <Obviously, none of us can sleep. And we have to demorph soon, anyway. So what do you know about the Venber?>

<Just what everyone knows,> he said. <I mean, what any Andalite knows. They were a primitive species with highly unusual physiology. Unique, actually. They do not seem to have required the radiant energy of any kind. Obviously they are not carbon-based.>

<Obviously,> I mocked.

<They were discovered back toward the dawn of Andalite space travel. Not by us, by some other race. The Five.>

<The five what?> Cassie asked.

<No one knows. They just called themselves The Five. No doubt it meant something to them.>

<Maybe they lived between The Four and The Six,> I suggested.

<Anyway, The Five discovered the Venber and began to trap and export them.>

<Say what?>

<They basically harvested the Venber. It seems that a Venber melts, burns, in any case becomes liquid at temperatures above freezing. And the resulting liquid has many uses. Particularly in the creation of superconductors for the primitive computers of that era.>

<But... But these are sentient creatures, aren't they?> Cassie asked.

<Yes,> Ax said simply. <They were. The Five extinguished them. They annihilated a sentient species to speed their computers. The Venber disappeared.>

<That's sickening,> Cassie said. <That's just evil.>

<Yes,> Ax agreed. <But if it is any comfort, The Five are no longer in existence, either. Soon after we encountered them for the first time they... well, no one knows for certain what happened to The Five. But Andalites in that era are not the Andalites of today.>

All right, The Five and The One have to be related. Right?

[JFalcon]

Not technically, no. I mean sure they could be, maybe they are but they don't have to be, there's nothing that says every race that refers to itself by number is related, after all the Yeerks number themselves as well.

It's possible that remnants of the Five fled Andalite attack and would have made fine allies to fleeing Yeerks, would someday come back for revenge. It would have been interesting if the technologically powerful but numerically weak Andalites had needed the help of the humans to fight off their enemies, considering that the Yeerks had planned to use humanity to beat the Andalites for much the same reasons.

Would have been great if a last alliance of men and elves--um Andalites marched on Sauron--uh The One.

[BaronConall]

Would have been great if a last alliance of men and elves--um Andalites marched on Sauron--uh The One.

Oh that Katherine and her LotR influences Does that make our beloved writer a FanGirl?

Also, I'm glad you bought this up, weathervane. I've been thinking this over for a while now, but like JFalcon said, there are a few species that refer to themselves by number in the Animorphs Universe. The first that come to mind are the Generationals from the Ellimist Chronicles who constantly revise their species name with each succesive generation (Generation 256 becomes Generation 257, etc).

To add on to your question:
[spoiler]It is possible that The Five fled Andalite persicution into Kelbrid space, maybe assimilating in to one singular form (The One) believing the collective mind/form to be stronger than an independent one.

Who knows? As Ax said, <Andalites in that era are not the Andalites of today.>
Maybe the Kelbrid are nothing more than a faction of Andalites that sided with the philosophies of The Five the same way that the Yoort are a seperate evolutionary path of the Yeerks. In that sense, they may have even altered their original form and followed an entirely different scientific approach (never discovering morphing technology) and used the Kelbrid/Andalite treaty to do so away from prying Andalite eyes while preventing the Andalites from realising that they actually hail from the same gene pool...[/spoiler]

But it's like K.A. is always saying. If it isn't included in the chapters or left obscure, it's usually left to reader interpretation/imagination. So, until K.A. writes about it, it means whatever you think it means.

[Phoenix004]

Personally I doubt there's a connection, but we really don't have enough information to know anything for sure. Besides fanfics can be anything you want them to be.

[Unknown User]

As far as numbered races go, let us also call to mind the 333's from the elemist chronicles, perhaps they are in some way encorporated into The One? But then agian, perhaps not.

[RYTX]

Personally, I doubt there's ties, but I have done scenerio's were the five and the one are tied together.

And, now that you mention the 333's, that could work too. TEC was more than 60 million years ago. Plenty of time for them to count down 328....species?

[Galladerotom]

Okay to be honest I think you lot are relating several races that just have numbers in their names. It makes no sense.

Besides Applegate never came up with anything regarding the one other than the fact the yeerks worshiped it.

[VisserZer0]

They can't be related. The Great KAA says so herself.

Link of Ultimate Doom (read question #2 and answer #2)

Okay, so it's not the same book but the same principle would still apply.

[itw2009]

maybe.... in the future.... the five become the one.

haha. no way.

so, i had forgotten about that particular scene until now. thanks, animorphs junkies. xD you point out so many little details to me.

[Kitulean]

Assuming The 5 and The 1 are related because their names involve numbers is sort of like assuming the Nesk and Hork-Bajir are related because their names involve letters. 

[Chad32]

Not really. 99% of names involve letters, but how many names involve only numbers?

[Kitulean]

Assume there's 10,000,000 names in the universe. Conservative estimate. Assume that 2 percent of these names (another conservative estimate) involve numbers. That's 200,000 names. Try to figure the odds of 2 of these 200,000 being related just because they're in that subgroup. That's like the odds of taking 100 high schools of 2,000 students each, choosing 2 students at random, and getting two students who happen to  be siblings.

Now, it's a whole different story when you get into narrative convenience. If the author WANTED those two to be related because of the name, then it would make narrative convenience for them to be. But since we have nothing saying that they are, we're simply speaking hypothetically. And by the numbers, it's an incredible reach.

[Unknown User]

I still disagree, it's not like The one is called The One and The Five are called 3497658450/2 The fact that they include such relatively small numbers, both have The in there names and are only two words long seems to scream to me that they at least KNEW each other. Out of all the Alien races what are that chances that two separate and culturally different species choose such similar names?

[Kitulean]

So they should be related simply because their names begin with The? Do you know how common and cliche it is, even on Earth, for a group to start their name with 'The' something? Besides, I might note that 'The' was simply translated as such into English for the convenience and understanding of the reader and the Animorphs. The 'The' in 'The One' and the 'The' in 'The Five' could be two ENTIRELY separate words which are ROUGHLY translated to 'The'.


.... Do I get a prize for saying 'the' so many times?

[itw2009]

potentially.

but let's talk sentient species. how many are there... really... in the animorphs-world-for-ten-year-olds? where everyone conveniently speaks english as a first or second language? i would not be surprised to see some additional stretch of the unrealistic in their being obscurely and unnecessarily related.

i also wouldn't bet on it. but i think it's possible. welcome to the world of fiction for tweens!

well. i'm only thinking about this now for my gloriously cliched sci-fi, half-fanfic story.... in which i am trying to overcome all those common tropes they have listed on that website-thing. D: