HOW did Aftran DO it?

[Darth Zakryn]

HOW did Aftran smuggle Karen out of the Yeerk pool when she left her, as a blind and helpless parasite? Did she owe another Controller a favor, and THAT Controller assisted in getting Karen out. Maybe that was the basis for the Yeerks who joined the Peace Movement. Because otherwise there's the Gleet BioFilters which DESTROY non-Controllers, Hork-Bajir guards, and an ENTIRE chamber full of witnesses. And that STILL doesn't explain how she got past the filters, even IF she was receiving help from a fellow Controller. Sorry if I sound like I'm ranting, this was just REALLY confusing to me.

Ideas?

[Terenia]

I think it's more likely that Aftran snuck in than Karen snuck out, what with the Biofilters and all. Likely there was a Yeerk that Aftran trusted enough to transport her body to the pool after leaving Karen permanently.

[Chad32]

The end of 19 regarding Karen is a pretty big plot hole, glossed over to make the ending happier. Aftran just happened to get into the pool safely, and the Yeerks just happened to overlook one of their slaves being free and not asking any questions. I'm not even sure if the Yeerk Peace Movement was already operating at that time, or if it was aftran that started it after she got back to the pool.

[RYTX]

And on that note I ask: is it firmly established that Aftran started YPM? I mean obviously it endures after her, but she always seems to get credit for it starting. I'm sure she was a big part of it, but it always seems to me like she joined and energized an already existing...thing, that already was doing something, however minor the observed effect

[Phoenix004]

Perhaps Aftran found someone willing to take her back to the pool (A YPM member with a voluntary host) and left Karen before allowing said Controller to carry her back to the pool.

Although never referred to directly before #29 Aftran does mention in #19 that some Yeerks are unwilling to enslave a host. Despite becoming a prominent member of the Yeerk Peace Movement, it seems likely that it did already exist before Cassie turned Aftran.

[Darth Zakryn]

Yeah, most likely Aftran just brought together like-minded Yeerks and the whole thing just kind of snowballed. Though I wonder how they recruit new members, since if a Yeerk is thought to be disloyal they will be executed by Visser Three.

A question: Is it REALLY the YEERKS as a species that view YPM as disloyal, i.e. the Council of Thirteen, or just Visser Three, who is after all a mindless brute. I mean, it's just a movement. WHY do they want to terminate the movement if they consider it to be wrong?

[Morilore]

I theorize that Aftran approached Erek or one of the other Chee and got them to help her.  Aftran was in Cassie's brain and all, learning all her secrets, and she was at that Sharing meeting so we know she could probably get in touch with one of them.  This has the added bonus of suggesting how Karen might have remained uninfested - she could just have gotten a Chee to playact as "Aftran."

[TobiasMasonPark]

I theorize that Aftran approached Erek or one of the other Chee and got them to help her.  Aftran was in Cassie's brain and all, learning all her secrets, and she was at that Sharing meeting so we know she could probably get in touch with one of them.  This has the added bonus of suggesting how Karen might have remained uninfested - she could just have gotten a Chee to playact as "Aftran."

     Assuming the Chee's programming allowed them to do so.

     Maybe the Ellimist pulled a few strings like he did with the Hork-Bajir in the Change.

[Chad32]

The Chee may have helped. I didn't think about that.

I'm really unsure if Aftran started the movement, or if there was already something going on that aftran decided to join. I would have loved to have more background on them. Instead all the YPM amount to is a plot device. Much like Loren. We needed more stuff on these side groups and characters.

[Unknown User]

My big question is how/why was Aftran aloud to live?! I highly doubt that the yeerk governmental system would just say, "oh, that Aftran, yeah, she decided she didn't want to fight in the war anymore. She is just going to kind of sit it out on the sidelines. That's fine isn't it?"  Before anyone says that maybe the government didn't know, considering the logistics of required in maintaining an ordely flow when it comes to infesting hosts, I am willing to bet that the  yeerk government knew exactly where each and every yeerk is/ is supposed to be. They'd have to, considering how many there are and how orderly the whole yeerk/host system has to be in order for it not to break down.

[Dogman15]

I thought I brought this up somewhere else earlier, but I'll say it again:

Aftran went down to the Yeerk Pool with Karen, giving Karen instructions along the way. Aftran went to the unloading dock like normal, but she paused first to tell a Hork-Bajir guard that Karen was a voluntary host, and to let her go to the cafeteria or whatever. The guard agreed and Aftran left Karen and dropped into the pool, where she probably spread her message of peace via the ultrasonic squeaks Yeerks make in the pool.

Karen followed Aftran's instructions by first going into the cafeteria (and no one is caring to watch her at all at this point). After one or two minutes, Karen leaves the cafeteria and walks out of the Yeerk Pool complex as if she's a normal human-Controller.

I don't know why someone else thought of that extremely simple scenario.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Because Hork-Bajir are stupid, but their Yeerks are not...
     And you don't just WALK out of the Yeerk Pool. This isn't the Animorphs TV Series, where Marco could pretend to be a Janitor and get away with it...

[Dogman15]

     Because Hork-Bajir are stupid, but their Yeerks are not...
     And you don't just WALK out of the Yeerk Pool. This isn't the Animorphs TV Series, where Marco could pretend to be a Janitor and get away with it...

Okay, when I said "Hork-Bajir guard", I meant a Hork-Bajir-controller assigned pier guard duty. So Aftran talked to a Yeerk guard that was controlling a Hork-Bajir. I thought that was a given.
Secondly, it would be automatically assumed that any human body walking around/loitering in/using the cafeteria is under the control of a Yeerk, so if no one was watching her constantly (very likely), then Karen would have been able to follow Aftran's instructions of leaving the Yeerk Pool nonchalantly.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Because Hork-Bajir are stupid, but their Yeerks are not...
     And you don't just WALK out of the Yeerk Pool. This isn't the Animorphs TV Series, where Marco could pretend to be a Janitor and get away with it...

Okay, when I said "Hork-Bajir guard", I meant a Hork-Bajir-controller assigned pier guard duty. So Aftran talked to a Yeerk guard that was controlling a Hork-Bajir. I thought that was a given.
Secondly, it would be automatically assumed that any human body walking around/loitering in/using the cafeteria is under the control of a Yeerk, so if no one was watching her constantly (very likely), then Karen would have been able to follow Aftran's instructions of leaving the Yeerk Pool nonchalantly.

     I can read. I noticed you said guard. I said Yeerks controlling Hork-Bajir aren't stupid. Wouldn;t the guards of all people--the ones who take hosts to and from the piers every three days-- know who was and wasn't a voluntary?

[Darth Zakryn]

Helll-OOOOOO! There's Gleet-Freaking-BIOFILTERS that eliminate any life-form whose DNA isn't entered into it. Karen is minus a Yeerk. Thus, she can't leave without SOME form of help.