The genocide of the Mercora - justified or not?

[Darth Zakryn]

Okay, as we all know, the poparena has been making big waves about Tobias letting the asteroid hit the planet and dooming the Mercora in Megamorphs #2. In the Time of the Dinosaurs. What I want to know is what YOU guys think of that action, and discuss the morality of it. Was it justified?

First, I'll give my two cents.

All the evidence points to the fact that it was what physicists call a predestination paradox: A time loop, where the future is writing its own present. In other words, they were MEANT to go into the past, murder the Mercora, and destroy the dinosaurs to give rise to the primates. It points to that evidence because as soon as they got back, nothing had changed, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that their actions led to the very future they were born in.

My problem is that they used a Sario rip, which is essentially a hole in space-time, to go back. You'll all remember in #11. The Forgotten that a hole in space-time is something that warps time and must be closed, an anomaly in the fabric of the universe. If they had used a different method, it would have made far more sense, because then you could argue that time travel is different for each method, something that could be scientifically based.

Poparena, if you want a way to try and forget what Tobias did, there are many ways to do that.

1) Tobias was so guilt racked that he asked the Ellimist to come and wipe out his memory.
2) Tobias asked the Ellimist to wipe out ALL their memories. Obviously, this takes place after the end scene in MM#2.
3) It was all just a dream.
4) Cassie just had a dream and Jake was humoring her at the end.

Well, that's my opinion, anyway.

[RYTX]

The memory erase/dream thing doesn't work: The experience comes up again in 18 and 25, and possibly others I don't remember.

The paradox thing is over my head: There could be a billion ways time travel could work: maybe time is immutable, maybe not. Don't know. Don't see how one presently impossible method of going back in time is more reasonable than any other.

The morality of it
Never disturbed me, what with being a product of it. For the point of the story it's necessary, and seeing as they knew they were at a critical time it was very reasonable to let it happen.
Mercora vs all the things the future did bear? No contest
Mercora and all that died with them, and what might have been vs what the future did bear? That's more questionable.
I'd still crush em though

[Jetstream]

Was it justified? Probably not.


Objectively however? Going with their information? I'd have done it.

[Darth Zakryn]

You're right, I totally forgot about it being mentioned in 25. And no, it was 19 where it was mentioned again, when Cassie was dreaming about her rampage as a T-Rex. 18 happened before MM#2. But there are ways you can spin that. Perhaps the Ellimist only kept the memory in Cassie, only vaguely, because it was important for her in the next book, where she met Aftran, etc. As for Marco, perhaps she confided in him, and this doesn't sound as farfetched as you might think. He IS perhaps the most ruthless of the Animorphs, so maybe she wanted his opinion and they never told anyone else. Or maybe Tobias just had HIS memory erased alone. The point is, I'm just trying to think up new ways for poparena to deal with the fact that genocide of the Mercora was never brought up again, at least from Tobias's POV. Then again, maybe he was subconsciously suppressing it because he was so horrified, which would be a shame, since that would have given us loads of insight into Tobias's psyche and lots and lots of character development.

As for whether it was justified or not, I still would have told the Mercora an asteroid was coming, and to get the hell out of here. And please never come back to this planet, because we're from the future of this planet. I mean, really, how hard is that? As for the dinosaurs being all killed, they're dinosaurs. Is killing them really the equivalent to killing all humans on the planet Earth? Or the few band of Mercora? Discuss.

[Blazing Angel]

Its justified to allow things to play out the same way. I honestly dont think that you can change history, because going back or forward makes you part of history. It was impossible for them to change it,So it's not their fault

[VisserZer0]

Ellimist

And again:

Ellimist

WhhyyydoestheEllimi sthavetoberesponibl eforeeeeverythingin thisseeeries? >.<

Ugh, sorry, but I think it is rather annoying when everyone just says "The Ellimist did it!" at one point or another for all the unexplained things in this series. But honestly, the Ellimist doesn't even appear in MM2 (at least I don't remember it happening and I've read the book a fair amount of times).

I don't think anyone's memory was tampered with at all.

As for whether it was justified or not, I still would have told the Mercora an asteroid was coming, and to get the hell out of here. And please never come back to this planet, because we're from the future of this planet. I mean, really, how hard is that? As for the dinosaurs being all killed, they're dinosaurs. Is killing them really the equivalent to killing all humans on the planet Earth? Or the few band of Mercora? Discuss.

Well, arguably, not letting the asteroid hit and kill the dinosaurs would have prevented (or at least delayed/altered) the eventual coming of primates, which obviously later leads to humanity. In stopping the asteroid, the Animorphs would have had a good chance of totally screwing everything over in their own time.

Though NewBlaze has a good point so maybe it wouldn't even have mattered at all. Shrug. I don't know. Just posting my thoughts (and mini-Ellimist-rant heh).