Flushing Yeerks

[XenomorphLV426]

Well, I mean when you think about it, a group of "Andalite Bandits" theoretically shouldn't have been able to seize the ship anyway.  If the kids were a small band of Andalite warriors working on their own, without the help of the Chee and all their other allies like Eva and Toby, the Yeerks would be right - the Pool Ship couldn't have been seized.

So the precautions they took with the changing of the access codes, and the multitude of Bug Fighters flying patrol, and the buttload of Hork-Bajir in trigger-happy mode, and the giant area of scorched earth they'd created around the landing zone, that all seems pretty reasonable and sufficient.

I agree with you that the Yeerks were portrayed as more than a little incompetent throughout the series, but the fact they landed the Pool Ship and didn't expect to be taken over isn't really a great example.  It's probably one of the only times in the books they ever did act with reasonable initiative and concern.

But I totally agree about the "big red button that happens to flush the entire pool into cold dead space" point.  That's just a limited point in that plot though.

[wotw2112]

I mean, really though, Visser Three throughout 99% of the series (excluding Hork-Bajir Chronicles and arguably Andalite Chronicles to an extent) was a bumbling mustache-twirling caricature.  If he were actually DANGEROUS, to the extent that he believably should be (with that rank, and all the crazy war experience he's had), Jake and the Scooby Gang would have been crushed by about book 3.

I mean, look at Esplin in H-B Chronicles.  He's a ruthless interesting ambitious winner.  By book #1 he's like that four-armed robot general guy in the last Star Wars movie.  "Ha-HAH!  I'll kill you alllll, lowly scum!  Bwahaha!"

All I'm saying is the Yeerk Pool flushing isn't really worth complaining about.  It's just the same as how a naive farm-kid in Star Wars can beat 5 elite military deathsquad guys in a shootout.  Dumb, but necessary for the plot.

I have to point out something that could change it. Complacency. THroughout time, the higher a person goes up the corporate ladder, or the more success they earn, they feel they deserve more, and when you finnaly are done climbing, your like... Ok I made it. Thats that... now I can relax.

Maybe Visser Three is just so confident in his abilities he forgets it takes work to go much higher.

Maybe but it didn't sound like Visser Three was done climbing to me...

[elelohesterling]

I mean, really though, Visser Three throughout 99% of the series (excluding Hork-Bajir Chronicles and arguably Andalite Chronicles to an extent) was a bumbling mustache-twirling caricature.  If he were actually DANGEROUS, to the extent that he believably should be (with that rank, and all the crazy war experience he's had), Jake and the Scooby Gang would have been crushed by about book 3.

I mean, look at Esplin in H-B Chronicles.  He's a ruthless interesting ambitious winner.  By book #1 he's like that four-armed robot general guy in the last Star Wars movie.  "Ha-HAH!  I'll kill you alllll, lowly scum!  Bwahaha!"

All I'm saying is the Yeerk Pool flushing isn't really worth complaining about.  It's just the same as how a naive farm-kid in Star Wars can beat 5 elite military deathsquad guys in a shootout.  Dumb, but necessary for the plot.

I have to point out something that could change it. Complacency. THroughout time, the higher a person goes up the corporate ladder, or the more success they earn, they feel they deserve more, and when you finnaly are done climbing, your like... Ok I made it. Thats that... now I can relax.

Maybe Visser Three is just so confident in his abilities he forgets it takes work to go much higher.

Maybe but it didn't sound like Visser Three was done climbing to me...

He didnt have to be, he only had to feel like he had made it most of the way, and the next step would be easy compared to all he had done before. THatwoul have made him apethic, arrogant, and fix his psyche

[wotw2112]

He didnt have to be, he only had to feel like he had made it most of the way, and the next step would be easy compared to all he had done before. THatwoul have made him apethic, arrogant, and fix his psyche

I'm not saying you're not making a good point.  I'm just saying that I personally am not buying it.  I don't really see Visser three as a "climb the ladder" guy.  I see him as a reckless "victory-at-all-costs" character.  He is very one-dimensional and evil.  It seems like he'd always been that way.

But at the same time, his arrogance and evilness didn't reflect on the entire Yeerk race (though some of the tendency towards incompetence seemed too).  My real concern is with the oversights of the rest of the Yeerks...they should have known better in many instances. 

You'd think someone (another VIsser, the council) would have decided that flushing yeerks was a bad idea...

[XenomorphLV426]

I see him as a reckless "victory-at-all-costs" character.  He is very one-dimensional and evil.  It seems like he'd always been that way.

Not in the Chronicles.

[wotw2112]

I see him as a reckless "victory-at-all-costs" character.  He is very one-dimensional and evil.  It seems like he'd always been that way.

Not in the Chronicles.

I know.  But I view that as more of an anomaly (sp?) than anything else.

[XenomorphLV426]

It makes sense for him to have that Andalite-obsessed advantage-craving personality, for him to rise to his position in the Yeerk hierarchy.

[wotw2112]

It makes sense for him to have that Andalite-obsessed advantage-craving personality, for him to rise to his position in the Yeerk hierarchy.

Haha.  No, I meant an anomaly that he had any depth at all.  I'm not saying it wasn't appropriate...

[Kharina]

Did it seem odd to anyone else that it was so easy for Jake to flush 100,000s of Yeerks out of the poolship?

Wouldn't you think the Yeerks would want to make doing something like that pretty damn hard (if not impossible)?  Like redundant security measures and passwords and stuff?

It seems unwise to have a big red button with a "Flush Yeerks Here!" sign above it...

Also, why would they even want something like that to be possible?  In case they suddenly felt like having a genocide? 

Any thoughts or explanations?

The system itself was installed in order to clean out the dirty pool water when there were no Yeerks in the Pool.  But I agree, you'd think they'd have made it a tiny bit more difficult to get to.  Or have some kind of safety device that scans for Yeerks in the water and won't start the cleaning cycle if they are present.  But then I guess Ax is very good at cracking Yeerk codes etc.  And I think the Yeerks never imagined an Andalite could gain access to the very centre of the Pool ship and have uninterrupted time to work on their computers.  The codes also changed every 15 minutes, so perhaps the Yeerks thought an Andalite would need more time than that to crack them.  And all that would have been the case without the help of the Chee and Tom.

[wotw2112]

All good points.

But couldn't you make a failsafe of some kind?  I like the scanning for Yeerks idea.  Make a scan mandatory before dumping.  If the scan doesn't come back clean or isn't run then all power to the dumping system is disabled needing a manual restart?

I'm sure they could have come up with something.  We're talking about their future after all...

[Chad32]

While we're on the flushing Yeerks thing, why would flushing Yeerk cause Visser One to want to run to the bridge, anyway?

[morfowt]

Because he thought the andalite bandits were there in the control room, so if the yeerks were flushed, visser one would know the andalite bandits weren't there, and run to where they were, the pool.

[wotw2112]

Because he thought the andalite bandits were there in the control room, so if the yeerks were flushed, visser one would know the andalite bandits weren't there, and run to where they were, the pool.

Yeah, he'd want to personally wipe them out no matter what else was going on...

[Arty]

According to the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, he's one of the smarter Yeerks!  :sign20:

Nah, He was just so obsessed with Andalites, that he would have done anything to get an Andalite host. ^^

He's just super arrogant, and a terrible leader.