Who is Crayak to the Yeerks?

[NateSean]

Lets avoid citing KASU in this. Most of us are aware that Crayak makes his first appearance in The Capture, but doesn't actually get referred to as such until The Attack. It's fair to say that it wasn't well thought out when she first introduced the Big Red Eye. We're aware of that, so we don't need to beat it into the ground.

So, that being said, two very interesting things happened in the genesis of Crayak.

First, he is seen at the very end of the life of a Yeerk through Jake's eyes. Then, later on in The Return when Crayak brings the newly promoted Visser One in to fight Rachel, Visser One recognizes and fears Crayak.

It's easy to make the God/Devil comparrison to the Ellimist and Crayak, because the Andalites know enough about the Ellimist that Ax recognized what he was in their first meeting. But we know the Andalites are far from the "good guys" and the Yeerks aren't strictly "Teh Evil". But is it more likely that Crayak had a hand in the Yeerks evolution, just as Ellimist interfered with the Andalites?

[RAFrukh]

Hm...that's a viable assumption. I mean Crayak's game is to bring a strong race to destroy the weak race, then a stronger race to destroy them. So he brought the Yeerks to be his champions this turn. I think you're right.

[MoppingBear]

maybe visser 3's reaction was based on memories from alloran?  i mean, if andalites know about the ellimist, its a fair bet they know about crayak too.

[esplin]

Crayak would despise the yeerks.  Well maybe not despise but it is a fun word.

Think of what Crayak created: the Howlers.  Most bad ass killing machine ever thought of, thanks Animorphs writing team.  He values power and precision and pissing off the Ellimist.

A yeerk is a slug that has a very strong mind but a very weak body.  This is a creature that would spark the interest of the Ellimist, he would pity their lack of sense, and maybe send his other creation to free them...  Yeerks take time destroy things.  Howlers are cooler, easier, and faster.

[Snakie]

Well, we also know that Crayak wanted the Iskroots destroyed so that there was never a possibility of the yeerks finding a way around the need to forcefully infest other sentient species.

So its a fair bet he had an interest in the yeerks as a force for evil and it seems likely he had a hand in their development or evolution.  I doubt he created them like he did the howlers, though.

[NateSean]

Think of what Crayak created: the Howlers.  Most bad ass killing machine ever thought of, thanks Animorphs writing team.  He values power and precision and pissing off the Ellimist.

Right, but he also has rules to play by. It's why the Howlers couldn't kill the Iskroot while they were engaged in battle with the Animorphs + Ax and Erik. The Howlers balanced out the Pemalites, so it makes sense that the Yeerks would balance out the Andalites.

And also remember, whatever Crayak's origins really are, he knows about the game that Ellemist played when he was Toomin. In the a game, the object was to make the most minute change possible to set off the evolution of a species.

So Ellimist changes the Andalites. Then maybe Crayak makes one small change in the Yeerks, namely giving an otherwise helpless slug the desire and ability to leave their pool and in turn their homeworld.

[esplin]

Yeerks don't balance out Andalites.  One of the major simplistic themes from the series is that the good guys are not all good and the bad guys are not all bad.  Most Yeerks just want to be free from the prison of their own biology.  They just don't feel very Crayaky to me.

He would of course use them as an easy resource to piss off the Ellimist but I don't think that is enough to say he influenced them in that way. 

Crayak follows the rules of the game because he doesn't want to universe to explode on the terms of someone else. He doesn't play the same game as Ellimist though.

[Darth Revan]

He may not play the same strategies, but it's a game between Crayak and the Ellimist. Crayak is attempting to infest the universe with the Yeerks, helping however he can. The Ellimist is trying to stop that. It's the same game. It's like a giant chess board, Crayak has Howlers, Yeerks, and The Drode as his pieces, and the Ellimist has the Andalites and the Andalite bandits as his.

[MoppingBear]

He may not play the same strategies, but it's a game between Crayak and the Ellimist. Crayak is attempting to infest the universe with the Yeerks, helping however he can. The Ellimist is trying to stop that. It's the same game. It's like a giant chess board, Crayak has Howlers, Yeerks, and The Drode as his pieces, and the Ellimist has the Andalites and the Andalite bandits as his.

its probably more like a Go board, with the animorphs story being a 4x4 square of their game.

[Darth Revan]

Sure... 'kay. Well, either way. It's a strategy game where there are two controllers of pieces and they each can manipulate their own pieces, and not the others'.

[Gafrash]

I find it easier to attribute intervention in Yeerk evolution to the Ellimist, more so than to Cryak, if we are to go down that path.
I agree with the possibility that Cryak would be disinterested in the Yeerks. Remember, The Yeerks main objective is to proliferate through enslaving species. Yeerks may destroy global systems in their process, but they don't set out to obliterate the whole thing (unless there's nothing there for the Empire, but that's not the point!!!). Enslave ? Killing.
Unless Cryak was to use them as an opportunity to distract the Ellimist from another goal, the Yeerks just don't seem THAT lethal to me.
 
But in Visser Three himself, now THERE he would have seen SOME sort of potential.

The hypothesis of V3 knowing something of Cryak could well be an individual experience of his OR Alloran's memories, as russianspy1234 pointed out. The line we get in The Return isn't really enough to allude to anything more than V3 has 'heard' of The Cryak.
Have there been any hypothesis/fanfics addressing this?!

[Darth Revan]

That's the point. The lethality is more than likely one of the rules of the games. Besides, what would be worse, dying, or be made into a slave, forced to make slaves of your family and other members of your race?

[MoppingBear]

Sure... 'kay. Well, either way. It's a strategy game where there are two controllers of pieces and they each can manipulate their own pieces, and not the others'.

it was a question of scale though i may have taken your chess analogy too literally.  a full sized Go board is 19x19 lines, and where in chess the purpose of each move is fairly obvious and direct (between two equal skilled players anyway) in Go, its just a matter of plonking down a piece.  a major loss in one quadrant can still leave you with enough pieces to win the game over all, and you can always recover your pieces (the animorphs try to rescue ax)

[Darth Revan]

Right, yeah... you got it. I've never even heard of a Go board, so I've still no idea what you just expressed. I know GIYF, but I really don't care enough. I was just making a vague illustration keeping it simple as I could. I'm sure your analogy was wonderful as well. Good on you.


Either way, the entire reason The Crayak was even after the Iskoort, was so that they wouldn't interfere with his players, The Yeerks, with their parasitic, imperialistic, infectious, spreading.

If the Yeerks weren't a part of his plan, what would be the point of killing off the Iskoort?

[MoppingBear]

Right, yeah... you got it. I've never even heard of a Go board, so I've still no idea what you just expressed. I know GIYF, but I really don't care enough. I was just making a vague illustration keeping it simple as I could. I'm sure your analogy was wonderful as well. Good on you.


Either way, the entire reason The Crayak was even after the Iskoort, was so that they wouldn't interfere with his players, The Yeerks, with their parasitic, imperialistic, infectious, spreading.

If the Yeerks weren't a part of his plan, what would be the point of killing off the Iskoort?

the same point as 90% of what the crayak does.  pissing off the elimmist.