Seriously Though, Why Didn't the Animorphs Just...

[donut]

That's a good point.


I got one:  Why didn't the animorphs ever try to bring more yeerk technology to zone 9?  They had thought it a good idea at least in principle at one point when they tried to steal a bug fighter and bring it to the government.  Even if they couldn't reverse engineer it, it would have given them a little more preperation when open war did break out.  It's not like it would be too hard.  "Hey, there's a dracon beam.  Rachel, why don't you fly that over and drop it on their doorstep for them to find?"

[Chad32]

I think at one point it was decided the Humans couldn't defeat the Yeerks in an open war after all. I think at first it was believed the Yeerks went in secret because they could be beaten back in open conflict, but either that was never true, or things improved for the Yeerks to the point that it wasn't true anymore.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     First (because I'm very picky) it's Zone 91, not 9. But maybe your fingers slipped.

     Second: The quiet invasion route was insisted upon by Visser One (Edriss) while Visser Three was all for the open invasion. In Megamorphs 4: Back to Before, the Visser saw the Sharing's way of infestation as tiresome. I think it was said somewhere that Visser One only moved for quiet invasion out of fear for Darwin and Madra's lives (her "kids"). The Animorphs didn't want that to change; they knew they'd stand no chance at an all out war. They refused to killed Visser Three for that very reason--they feared that there would be a much bigger threat. Better the enemy you know, and all that.

     

[NateSean]

Questions about the Yeerks.

Why did it take until the last ten books for the Yeerks to catch on that the Animorphs were not Andalite bandits? We know there was speculation in the beginning but that people were afraid to say anything because Visser Three has a tenancy to get twitchy. Why did they think he would be any more open to the idea as Visser One?

Why was Visser One so eager to hand out morphing technology once he got ahold of the cube? He had his elite Hork-Bajir, why not only give morphing power to his closest lieutenants?

For that matter, the Yeerks themselves aren't getting the morphing power, it's their hosts. Are we sure that every single host that was given the morphing power was a voluntary controller and what are the implications if they weren't voluntary?

[TobiasMasonPark]

     To the first: Maybe as Visser One he was more...confident? Maybe he was too worried that some of his superiors (particularly Visser One) would accuse him of incompetence (which I think was what Edriss argued in Visser anyway), or laugh at him and not invite them to their next barbecue. With Edriss out of the way, there would be no need for him to worry, and he'd have a better chance of convincing the council that open warfare would be more efficient.

     The second is actually rather odd for Visser Three's character. I mean, I'm pretty sure that he was milking that only Yeerk to have an Andalite host thing for as long as possible, and wouldn't want others to come close to taking away what made him special. So, maybe Esplin got more progressive in the last ten books? Also, it was probably a plot thing: the morphing power is what helped end the war.

     To the third: It would let the Yeerks stay Yeerks and have the satisfaction they get from controlling others; and they wouldn't have to worry about being so defenseless once they demorphed.

     All good questions, though. Kudos.

[Chad32]

I thought it was out of character for V1 to give out the morphing power so freely, though I also thought it was out of character for him to just give up at the end, and claim his failure was because he was too trusting.

It bothered me, wondering if any of those morphed controllers still had involuntary hosts with no way to keeping themselves from being trapped forever with their Yeerk master. Like that one guy that Ax spared. Not that he had time to really check on that, but to just take it at face value isn't a good idea.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Maybe Tom's Yeerk convinced Visser One that it would be a good idea?

[MoppingBear]

I think at one point it was decided the Humans couldn't defeat the Yeerks in an open war after all. I think at first it was believed the Yeerks went in secret because they could be beaten back in open conflict, but either that was never true, or things improved for the Yeerks to the point that it wasn't true anymore.

it wasnt that the yeerks thought they would lose (though they considered it a possibility) it was that winning via open war would require decimating the human population, which would kind of defeat the purpose of conquering us.

Questions about the Yeerks.

Why did it take until the last ten books for the Yeerks to catch on that the Animorphs were not Andalite bandits? We know there was speculation in the beginning but that people were afraid to say anything because Visser Three has a tenancy to get twitchy. Why did they think he would be any more open to the idea as Visser One?

Why was Visser One so eager to hand out morphing technology once he got ahold of the cube? He had his elite Hork-Bajir, why not only give morphing power to his closest lieutenants?

For that matter, the Yeerks themselves aren't getting the morphing power, it's their hosts. Are we sure that every single host that was given the morphing power was a voluntary controller and what are the implications if they weren't voluntary?

they had no reason to think it was a strong possibility, the animorphs were relatively careful about appearing to be andalites. visser 1 (original. seriously, the promotion is annoying because it makes it hard to distinguish sometimes... anyways) was particularly smart for a yeerk.

as to the second point, why wouldnt he? his andalite body was a "prize" not because of the morphing ability (at least not primarily) but because it was an ANDALITE, the mortal enemy of the yeerks.  with that in mind, handing out the morphing ability is little different from handing out dracon beams.

third, tom's yeerk at least did acquire the power himself, its reasonable to assume some of the others did as well.

[Chad32]

I can understand it wouldn't matter if there were six billion of us if they had to kill so many just to defeat us. I think perhaps the exact reason was ambiguous in the beginning, which is not bad storytelling.

I guess maybe once the new V1 got the box, it was open war, and victory was all but ensured, it was inevitable that soon the Andalite Homeworld would fall. so holding back would only slow the inevitable. I just would expect him to be more conservative about who he handed the power to. Morphing is more dangerous than dracons.

[donut]

The animorphs did believe open war would end in the yeerks defeat for most of the series.  Going by what the characters believed, open war was a favorable, if costly outcome.  It probably helped this mindset that Ax told them the seablade could be destroyed by the combined combat power of Earth's military.  Again, they did try once to take a bug fighter and give it to the government and expose the yeerk invasion.

BUT, whether it would be a good thing or bad thing, it still makes sense to be ready for it.  If the military could reverse engineer some of the tech, then it would have been huge.  If all they could do was understand the capabilities so they knew how to fight when the time came, that'd still be a great advantage.


Maybe they kept the morph capable hosts in special cells, or kept them unconscious while they didn't have a yeerk?

I'm betting it took so long for V3 to figure out they were human because he put andalites on a pedestal.  Only a highly trained group of andalites could be that damaging to his plans.  I think when they finally analyzed the DNA it kinda made it impossible to say otherwise.  I don't remember if it said they began analyzing the DNA before or after they thought the anis were human.  And there's always the possibility someone went ahead and did it on their own then told V3 about it.

They refused to killed Visser Three for that very reason--they feared that there would be a much bigger threat. Better the enemy you know, and all that.

Yeah, but they go back and forth on that so much.  They had at least 1 mission where the only intent was to kill V3.

[NateSean]

that there would be a much bigger threat. Better the enemy you know, and all that.

Yeah, but they go back and forth on that so much.  They had at least 1 mission where the only intent was to kill V3.
[/quote]

That was Rachel's plan when she was in charge of the group. The only other time was when Ax was attempting to kill Visser Three and that wasn't a full mission in any real sense.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     And we all know how Rachel did as a leader

     "Let's morph Polar bears in California." Genius.

[donut]

It does seem to show there wasn't a consensus on it, even enough conviction for the others to challenge the idea.  They also seemed to not have any problems trying to take an opportunity that showed up during the series.  Really the point being that the anis at least for a big part of the series didn't fear an open war.

I thought that book was really screwed up.  Rachel was fairly intelligent and knew how to do things earlier in the series.  Her character just kinda turned into a bad stereotype. 

[TobiasMasonPark]

     That's all her books were about, eventually.

     Gotta wonder whose fault it was--K.A's, the Ghostwriters, or both?

[NateSean]

Rachel was fairly intelligent and knew how to do things earlier in the series.

She had never been in a position to lead though. And this is the next Rachel book after what had to be one of her most traumatic experiences ever. And the book before that had Drode proposing to her on behalf of Crayak.

So at this point in the series Rachel has been through quite a bit. To quote Firefly, Rachel is at the mouth of the volcano in The Weakness and we finally see the woman.