I wish KA had gone into more detail on what Elfangor did to Tobias in book 1. You know where he put his hand on his head and gave Tobias an information burst which told him about the Yeerk Pool? It would've be cool to see Ax do that, or at least mention it. It's never mentioned after book one.
Yeah! I've wondered about this once, too.
They must have used technological devices to augment their telepathic abilities. The Andalite military has their
internal clock/compass gizmo and what was the deal with the
Mirrowave call again?
Wish these things were more elaborated.
The Andalites definately have a deep understanding of telepathic communication.
They've obviously learnt to incorporate this form of communication onto their technologies. Their computer systems function in thought-speak language and the
Escafil device can transfer this telepathic ability along with the power to morph.
This is why Ax and Alloran are capable of communicating normally without the use of the human mouth and its also why I don't think the Anirmophs should have been retained the ability to thought-speak when in their proper physical bodies. It wouldnt make sense.
I've wodered how the Andalites live back home. I picture them evolved from herds, so a lot of grazing would still be a part of their routines, except this would involve a lot of running activities.
Evolution did not give them a mouth, thus killing the whole dairy thing associated with grazers. But they developed telepathy through thought-speech communication. And considering technologies they've designed, such as the 'thought-speech-interfaced' computers and
mirrorwave calls, (heck, even some of their flora has a limited level of telepathy), I would say telepathy is a BIG CHARACTERISTIC of their lifestyle.
This ability seems to match their like for open spaces. It would enable them to communicate normally over fair distances. I can imagine members of their respective families in the distances of their
Garibba trees, living together, yet, here and there; not needing to be right next to each other in order to be a 'living together'.
It brings the question of how big their
scoops are. I only pictured them using the scoops for sleeping and such. ALSO, I cannot imagine the Andalites NOT DESIGNING some sort of roofing for rain cover and warmth at night. Unless humidity is not a problem in the air over there. A scoop that is a mere hole on the ground seems a bit peculiar to me.
I believe the Leerans have the deepest level of telepathy, by far. Sadly, it wasn't explored much in the series, for it would be unethical to go around morphing a Leeran in this war they were fighting (what, there are so much better ways to identify a Controller, taking turns watching them 24hrs for 3 days, not withstanding at all
). But I think the Yeerks in a way use telepathic communication within a host's brain. And on a level par with the Leerans, by being in sync with the host's brain, they have access to everything that host has had. So, they are correct when they say that the host becomes an extension of themselves.
PS: It is also my opinion that thought-speak communication was a little overused in the series. Too many aliens were using it and it's kind of an easy way out to the early established fact that
Gallard was meant to be most common of the outerspace languages. In fact, I think only the Yeerks used the language in the series, go figure.
Say one thing for the Yeerks, they are mostly evil-helpless-party-poop-spreading-eclectic-scavengers, but they sure are versatile slugs.