Post-War Earth (and Beyond)

[Terenia]

I'm sure there has been a thread for this somewhere, but I can't find it. If I do I'll go ahead and merge, but for now...


In #54 we are given a very brief look into what happens to Earth after the war. Here is what we know for sure:

1) The Taxxons become nothlitized as anacondas and life out their days in the Amazon rainforest; a move which not only frees the Taxxons from their hunger but also preserves the rainforests.

2) The Hork-Bajir colony is relocated to Yellowstone, where they become a bit of a tourist attraction and spent most of their time living amongst the trees.

3) Yeerks have been told that they must become nothits, a move that frees them from the limitations of parasitism.

4) Humans must negotiate politically with the Andalites, who have become frequent tourists to Earth thanks to the food industry.

If I missed anything feel free to add it; its been awhile since I read the last book.

What I'm interested in hearing about are your theories about how, specifically, post-war Earth would have looked. What forms would the Yeerks take, and how would they deal with what is essentially the genocide of their species? Or would some Yeerks be permitted to maintain their original form to carry on the species? How well will humans and Andalites negotiate? Or different Earth countries, for that matter. What sort of societal upheaval might the existence of aliens cause? How will we handle the sudden influx of technology?

I'm just throwing these questions out there as starting points. I have an idea in my mind of what post-war Earth looks like (esp. for the Yeerks), but I don't have time to post it now. I'll do that when I get home tonight. In the meantime....


What is Earth like after the Animorphs win the war?

[MoppingBear]

ive been working on a fanfic the explores this actually... i really should get back to it.  i always assumed most yeerks became human.

[yunyun]

i always assumed most yeerks became human.

they could also morphed Andalite, or someother animal.

 But probably the majority of them morphed human, considering they had human hosts and knows what it's like

[Terenia]

Phew, home.

Well, first of all, I don't think there's a chance in Hades that any Andalite would allow a Yeerk to become an Andalite nothlit.

Secondly, I think that most of the fan community assumes that Yeerks became human nothlits. But, as it is never directly stated that this is what happened (to my recollection) I think that it is possible this is not the case.

Think about it. These are your enemies. Their empire tried to enslave your entire race. As a politician, are you going to give them human bodies and just let them become a part of society? I think one of two scenarios are likely to have occurred:

1) They were forced to become non-human nothlits, a situation which would effectively eliminate not only the physical species but their legacy as well, since their offspring would simply be normal dogs/cats/monkeys/whatevers.

2) They were allowed to morph human, and become human nothlits, but life got far from easy for the Yeerks. I think that this is the most likely scenario. Here's what I personally think happened:

• The Yeerks were allowed to morph into a human. Likely they are given a specific human to morph to. How convenient if all Yeerks look the same?
• The Yeerks are kept track of via a registration/census process, and likely required to carry some sort of identification that marks them as a former enemy of the planet.
• Socially, Yeerks will be regarded as outcasts; shunned as enemies who once tried to defeat the human race.
• Any Yeerks refusing nothlitism would either be killed or, more likely, sent to a prison where they would be kept in isolated Yeerk Pools that are under constant surveillance to avoid another invasion.

Essentially you end up with a situation where the Yeerks are separated from the humans by the nature of what they are...or were. This has extremely scary implications echoing that of the Civil Rights Movement or even the Holocaust. I imagine a number of humans and former Yeerks would protest, fighting for Yeerk Rights and many other Yeerks would just want to integrate themselves into human society (which would be difficult if you were easily identifiable as a Yeerk).

Scary place. Not a good world to be a Yeerk.

[yunyun]

well there are a few people who would defiantly forgive the yeerks for what they did, considering that the yeerks are parasites by nature, and maybe 1 or 2 andalites (maybe),  and yeerks rebelling or committing crimes because of the nothlit thing might end up with those ones in prison, just like with humans so i really don't get what's wrong with yeerks morphing human. They are just practically any other human then.

[Terenia]

The problem is prejudice.

Humans discriminate against other humans based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, clothing style, etc.

Throw a completely different species into the mix? You have an instant scapegoat.

Besides that, even though the Yeerks we saw in the books were glad for the ability to become nothlits, who is to say that most Yeerks want to give up their bodies? Maybe the Yeerks don't want to be "just like any human". They aren't human. They're Yeerks. They have a history and a culture all their own and forcing humanity down their proverbial throats is forcing an entire species to die out just because it is easier than finding a solution that will allow them to be true to who and what they are.

[yunyun]

Maybe the yeerks either took a nothlit form or maybe they created hosts like in 26, like the yoorks. Or maybe they could have marched some arctic animal and started their own country in Antarctica  or where ever.

And when the andalites were living with the humans it was just fine, other than a slight bit of terrisom and some government might protect them. But they could also live back on their homework i guess, like for some of them.

[Darth Revan]

Yeah, the forced nothlitism was only for those on Earth. Remember there were still millions of Yeerks not on Earth. The Andalites had a blockade around the Yeerk homeworld, which suggests that they were still allowed to remain in their natural form. It also suggests that they were allowed to use Gedds as hosts, since that was their state of development when the Andalites first came upon them.

The most likely of scenarios is that they rounded up all the Yeerks they could find, put them back in their homeworld pools, removed all advances that the Andalites gave them, and allowed them to play out the rest of their natural evolution. Of course while making sure no rouge Yeerks returned with advanced tech, and kept the Yeerks grounded themselves.



As for the Yeerks on Earth, I think that they were given three choices: nothlit, deportation, or death. Yes there will always be extremists that would rather stay Yeerks, but I think they would be treated as POWs and contained as Esplin 9466 was.

I highly doubt they would be given the choice of becoming Human. Although perhaps those in the Yeerk Peace Movement may have been given the chance to use the DNA mixing trick to become their own person as Ax had done.

I think if some Yeerks would be given the chance to become Human, then there would be sooo many Human rights organizations and suits that would prevent registration and/or tracking. If the newly Human nothlit caused trouble, then they would simply be thrown in jail and that would be that.


Your question about the influx of technology was actually answered by Marco in the book:

Ax worked out technology-transfer deals with
some of the big corporations. They have to keep
it slow because if you just dump a hundred years
of technological advances overnight the stock
market goes nuts. It worked out okay, though.
The Andalites can definitely teach us a lot about
computer architecture. But it was Microsoft and
Sony and Adobe and Nintendo that came up with
the killer apps. I mean, the new Palm Pilots will
be actual pilots.
The Andalites flatly refused to let us share
their weapons technology. But NASA has had a
definite revival: The first human Zero-space vehicle
will be built jointly by Boeing and Lockheed
and be ready for launch in three years. H. sapiens
was going to the stars. Look out, universe,
we're coming to build a Starbucks near you.

It wasn't too specific, but it's evident that the Andalites allowed a sharing of tech in slow reasonable amounts. So much so that it wouldn't completely revolutionize our lives, though I'm sure it still did.


As far as governmental cooperation, it was mentioned that the Andalites were given a chair in the UN. How well they're listened to, that's the question. How many times their opinion is ignored because, "It's a Human issue" wouldn't surprise me.



What I find interesting is that you dismiss the Taxxon nothlitism as being "cool", even though that too is like a genocide. Taxxons are sentient after all. They lose the hunger, and the continued survival of the rainforest; it is a win-win. But you feel differently about the Yeerks' nothlitism. You feel that they are being "killed off" as a species. They're given all five senses, not to mention the ability to move about outside a liquid environment. The thing that they wanted most was to be able to experience life with sight and sound. And the up side is that they no longer enslave other species to experience those senses. They don't have to compete for control over their body. They don't have to torture the mind of another sentient being. They don't have to act as though they are someone else.

Who's to say that some didn't become domesticated animals and joined families now with the ability to converse via telepathy? How cool would it be to have your cat or dog have a conversation with you; or to let you know exactly what they want, rather than playing 20 questions with them?

[NateSean]

What I find interesting is that you dismiss the Taxxon nothlitism as being "cool", even though that too is like a genocide. Taxxons are sentient after all. They lose the hunger, and the continued survival of the rainforest; it is a win-win. But you feel differently about the Yeerks' nothlitism. You feel that they are being "killed off" as a species.

Very good point.

I think as far as nothlitism goes, it will always be a matter of choice.

The Taxxons were victims of the Yeerks as well and it's likely that the ones still connected to the hive won't be as hungry as the ones who have been separated for so long. They'll likely be left alone and given back their homeworld as the Hork-Bajir were no doubt given back theirs.

On the subject of the Yeerks who remain themselves, there's no shortage of human beings who want someone else to take over. Remember, there were voluntary controllers. Some of them were probably people who were a step away from suicide and if I remember correctly, that's what Cassie's teacher was like before he joined the Sharing. How the general public would view a human who doesn't want to be in control of his own body is another matter entirely.

[Terenia]

Yeah, in regards to the Taxxon nothlitism....that was wholly voluntary. Insofar as we know no Taxxon was forced to take on anaconda form. The Yeerks, it is my understanding, were forced into a nothlit form. That, I think, is the big difference.

I agree that Yeerks refusing nothlitism would likely be treated as POWs. I don't necessarily think they would be killed, but that may depend on what country they are in. I do think they would be contained in a high security prison of sorts, though.

And honestly, for some reason I have a hard time picturing the Yeerks becoming nothlits as anything but human. Maybe it's just my preconceptualized view of the situation, but I feel like if I were a Yeerk anything less than one of my previous host species would be unacceptable. Then again, they weren't really given a choice. But that brings up an interesting discussion. If not human, then what?


As far as voluntary Controllers...I doubt the government would allow for such an event unless it were closely monitored. Almost like a drug - they could be used as medical/psychological treatments. Like how Aftran helped during Ax's surgery. And sometimes it is nice to have someone else in control. Maybe as a way to control criminals and stuff like that. But the access to Kandrona would be closely monitored and humans taking on Yeerks would have to have something akin to a prescription, allowing them to do so.

[SkyMorpher]

I can't get rid of this visual of the police employing them to ferret out the truth, since they can access the host memories and all that. But getting them back out might be another matter. *shrug*

I'd find it uncomfortable with the YPM Yeerks, I think.  I have often tried to get into the head of my YPM controller character from Aftermath, and I have a hunch she might not like Arlin, her partner, not being there anymore. Tidwell is the best canon example. I wonder if the prescription and control thing could allow the YPMs to stay in some cases.

[Darth Revan]

They could always take a host and down some Instant oatmeal. That way they'd be stuck in the host for good. Although they'd be insane. But hey, you win some you lose some. At least they'd be in a human body.

[Terenia]

Eh, it wouldn't be too hard to get them out. Just keep them away from Kandrona long enough and they would leave.

I do like the idea of using them for interrogation purposes. That's actually what the Andalites used my OC for when she became a Yeerk nothlit. They would capture POWs, starve out the original Yeerks, and then have her infest them to gather any useful information.

[Darth Zakryn]

Terenia: There were also reports of rising terrorism on Earth against the aliens. Remember Jake? He was given the job of training morph-capable recruits to go fight the terrorists. I think it's safe to say any human-morphed Yeerk would be an immediate target. Or any former Controller who hates Yeerks or suffered deeply at their hands would probably have no hesitation in cornering them, beating them up, even killing them, etc, probably while the police and government look the other way. And the sad thing is I can even sympathize with them. But I'll get to that further down.

yunyun: I think more people would be inclined to hate them. High up in that list are those whose bodies were forced to kill, which essentially made THEM murderers. Another type of enraged former Controller might be the husband-boyfriend/wife-girlfriend whose body was used to have "relations" with their partner mainly to keep up their cover, turning it into rape. You can see the list goes on and on. In fact, I'm surprised the humans who were instantly freed from Yeerk control in Book #54 didn't instantly grab the Yeerk and go nuts, after all that they've done, stomping them and squishing them, etc. K.A. dropped the ball on that one; she wrote from Cassie's POV that the freed hosts were keeping the ships flying and were all working together like one big happy family, with not a single one of them disagreeing, but humans are NOT that cooperative, especially after enduring a horrible trauma. But then again, I tend to think more negatively of humans than optimistically, so I could be wrong.

Darth Revan: Sorry, but humans are NOT that understanding, especially those in the government. The nothlit Yeerks were a former threat to their planet, morphed or not, so tracking them would be a logical and, as they would say, necessary precaution for them to take. Sure, there would be civil rights groups who would probably protest that treatment and lobby for Yeerk rights, but would the majority of people really be that inclined to stand up for them, especially if they were former Controllers? And hey, the government can do anything it ****ing wants in the name of national security. National security is everything to the government as well as the military. Look at all the millions of lives they destroyed in the communist hunts of the fifties, turning thousands into outcasts, many of which were innocent of the accusations that were so harshly brought upon them. When has the government shown even the slightest inkling that it can make the right choice? There can be good people in the government, yeah, but as a whole, the entire entity is malicious and corrupt, in my opinion. Anyway, please don't be offended. I'm not critizing you personally.

And in any case, aren't we supposed to be talking about post-war Earth?

I agree with Terenia; I think the Yeerks would be more inclined towards choosing to morph permanently into human form more than any other creature, despite the difficulties they knew it would create, because humans can move around and manipulate their environment and walk and talk without thought-speak and share the most similarities to the sentient species they wanted to conquer. Here are some more things said about what happened on post-Yeerk Earth:

1) The U.S. built a spaceship that would be ready to launch "three years from now" in 2000, a year after the Animorphs left to look for Ax. I'll get to the ramifications of that down below.

2) The Andalite fleet disbanded into smaller numbers.

3) The Americans are probably pissing themselves because a woman became President. Look at all the problems and racist issues we had when a simple BLACK MAN, a MAN, got elected into office. Imagine all the **** a female President would face, especially in radically changing times such as these.

4) The Kelbrid are planning to attack the Andalites.

And here are some questions I'd like to raise.

1) Did 9/11 still happen in post-war Earth?

2) Who is President? We know it wasn't Bush that was elected after the war, because K.A. wrote "her" at some point. Is it one of the female congressmen or senators? Or former governor? Can you think of any female politician we know that would fit the bill?

3) What happened to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein?

4) Perhaps the most unsettling question of all, what's going to happen when different countries on Earth build their own spaceships, go into space, and form their colonies, separate from other countries on Earth? What happens if one of them gets embroiled in a war with another country? How can two countries controlling colonies on other planets possibly wage war while living on the same planet? This is really scary, at least in my opinion, because it can easily and probably WILL very quickly escalate to the point where it will get out of control and lead to the deaths of millions. The Andalites should have taken the hint and just bombed Earth. **** the Animorphs.

5) Why did the government give the Hork-Bajir Yellowstone? It's an active SUPERVOLCANO. And it IS set to go off sometime, maybe not now or even for another 100 or 1,000 years, but it WILL happen. Is this just the government's way of giving a giant middle finger to the Hork-Bajir? Maybe Toby should address that in Congress. The implications of this are really quite disturbing, when you think about it. That said, what WILL happen to post-war spacefaring Earth once Yellowstone does give up the ghost and erupt?

6) If the Animorphs told the Andalites about the Yeerks possibly becoming symbiotes (unless they're complete idiots), then I foresee one of several things happening. The Andalites could offer the Yeerks the chance of becoming symbiotes with all of their technology to help them, and they accept. Or they refuse. Or the Andalites don't tell them and plan to keep the Yeerks around to use in case of a future crisis, sort of like the biological weapon in Outbreak. It seems like the sort of thing corrupt government and military officials might do. Imagine the Andalites using the Yeerks in the Kelbrid Wars? Or even worse, putting mind-control implants on them to do their bidding in the Kelbrid Wars?

Well, that's my two cents. Feel free to verbally eviscerate me.

P.S.: BTW, what does insanity level mean? I've got a 3.4 insanty level.

[NateSean]

Darth Revan: Sorry, but humans are NOT that understanding, especially those in the government. \

Also interesting to point out that there were plenty of government officials, security personnel and members of the military who were under control of the Yeerks. There's also the military personel who were killed in direct conflict with the Yeerks. There are going to be some grudges.

I agree with Terenia; I think the Yeerks would be more inclined towards choosing to morph permanently into human form more than any other creature, despite the difficulties they knew it would create, because humans can move around and manipulate their environment and walk and talk without thought-speak and share the most similarities to the sentient species they wanted to conquer.

Some of them, probably. Other Yeerks might be happier with a Hork-Bajir morph, since the Hork-Bajir are physically stronger and more agile and only need tree bark to eat. And more would probably take the form of animals like hawks (since we know a few were willing to trap themselves and their hosts just to escape the war) and whales. (Aftran)

But the ones who morphed a sentient being for whatever reason would have issues.

1) Did 9/11 still happen in post-war Earth?

I'm going to weigh in and say that an attempt may have occurred. But airport security would have been ramped up by this time and I doubt it would have been successful. I also doubt that airplanes as we know them would exist in the Animorphs version of the 21st century.

2) Who is President? We know it wasn't Bush that was elected after the war, because K.A. wrote "her" at some point. Is it one of the female congressmen or senators? Or former governor? Can you think of any female politician we know that would fit the bill?

My guess is the governer whom Marco, Tobias and Ax went to see.

5) Why did the government give the Hork-Bajir Yellowstone? It's an active SUPERVOLCANO.

And California might sink into the sea with the right Earthquake. Was Elfangor giving Earth a big finger (or however many fingers an Andalite might give for it to be considered obscene) by giving the morphing power to five kids from California? No. The Time Matrix was buried there, his son happened to be with those kids and he knew he'd have to meet them eventually anyway.

As for the supervolcano bit, how many people really knew that ten years ago? A handful of university scientists don't count. I mean how many people the world over knew about the Yellowstone Superguyser? Most average people don't know Yellowstone from Jellystone so I'm pretty sure the vast majority, politicians included, weren't aware of the concept of Yellowstone's geological history. Heck, most people who saw 2012 probably think it was made up and wouldn't listen to anything you told them otherwise.

In terms of why the Hork-Bajir were placed there? It has trees and mountains. That about covers it.