Babbling about the final fate of the Yeerks in the final book- Spoilers for books 26 and 54

[penandpaper71]

I'm new here, so I apologize in advance if I make any mistakes. If I do then please just let me know and I will fix anything that requires it. Thank you in advance. ^_^

Spoilers for books 26 and 54 follow.

Comments

[dgcatanisiri]

Welcome! Just FYI, you might want to tag this with a spoiler warning, what with the reprint

Spoilers for book 26 and end of the series

[penandpaper71]

Ah, I thought that mentioning the spoilers in the LJ cut would be enough. I read the rules, but obviously not closely enough. -_- My apologies. Is this better now

Re: Spoilers for book 26 and end of the series

[dgcatanisiri]

When the options are parasitic invasion or possibly getting the Yeerks up to symbiosis, a process that would take some time to set up and develop and get them out of the 'must do this to experience anything' mindset... Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if in the course of things, at first, the Iskoort issue was forgotten, and then later, some lingering trace of resentment kept them from bringing it up. We only get snippets of their lives post-war, after all, and in the overall scheme, bringing up the issue of the Iskoort or any guilt over not mentioning it wouldn't fit in the story being told. And, like mentioned below, the Yeerks at the top of the food chain were not ready for a peaceful alternative. Surrender and defeat they could accept. But the idea that the things that they did in the name of the future of their species was all in vain and there was a better way... THAT would stick in their craw

[blue_rampion]

Welcome to the comm! Hopefully you will have much fun here, and not be too scared off by comm shenanigans XD (Also, you're doing pretty good so far! It probably would help to have the spoiler warning in the text itself as well as in the lj-cut text - since you can't see it when you get directly linked - and I think dgcatanisiri is suggesting that you add the !spoiler zone tag so that people don't have to worry about spoilers in the comments. I've already gone and added it on for you though, since it's pretty impossible to not talk about spoilers in a discussion of book 54 :P)

ANYWAYS. Let us move onto DISCUSSION TIME, cause that's way more fun! Personally, I don't think that all of the Yeerks were made to morph permanently - just the ones on Earth, because Jake only made the deal to give them the morphing power with the Yeerks on Earth. This was the bulk of the Yeerk forces, yes, but not all of it - and, one of the books did mention that there were still Yeerks on their homeworld, that other Yeerks couldn't contact because the Andalites had it

[penandpaper71]

Ah, thank you for adding the tag. I... don't know how I missed that one. Clearly, I'm not thinking tonight. -_- I added a spoiler warning to the text too. The last thing I want to do is risk spoiling anyone. I'm sorry

[blue_rampion]

Well, the !spoiler zone tag doesn't actually need to be added to any post with spoilers - just ones were you don't want people to have to worry about marking spoilers in the comments. There's more detail about it on the profile.

It doesn't seem like there was any development in the post-war period we saw - which was actually just three years. But there is actually some possible motivations for the Andalites to try and facilitate such a process - while they know the Yeerks are defeated for now, as long as they exist in the state the do there exists the potential that one day, down the line, they might find a way to become a threat again. If you engineer them like the Iskoort, with not only their own bodies but a genetic modification that doesn't allow them to live without the genetically engineered hosts, then you'd know that there's no chance of them every trying to infest another race again (and they wouldn't even have to give up their precious morphing technology that they're so protective of!). So, it's certainly possible. But yes

[lit_wolf]

First off, welcome to the community! You joined us just in time for the relaunch :D

[rattyjol]

As well as what others said, I doubt the Andalites would agree to give the Yeerks any kind of new body, since that's sort of what got them in trouble in the first place.

[penandpaper71]

Definitely a possibility. I do imagine that the Andalites might be hesitant to share any technology with Yeerks given the history between the two races.

[lit_wolf]

If we're going to discuss the Yeerks giving up their true selves, I think we should bring the Taxxons into the discussion as well.

At the end of the series, Arbon's Taxxons were allowed the ability to morph into giant snakes so that they could escape their never-ending hunger. This is yet another species that is going around their natural evolution through the ability to morph. While natural selection and evolution aren't perfect, these species were perfectly happy in their natural forms before the idea of morphing came to them.

Now I'm no longer sure if we should look down on the Yeerks and the Taxxons for wanting to escape their natural forms and urges or if we should applaud them for choosing the option of escaping their less than perfect races.

(Sorry if this rambled and didn't make much sense; it's been a very rambly and non-sensical day for me)

[penandpaper71]

The Taxxons are definitely part of this too because they do end up in a similar situation

[lit_wolf]

That's true. The Iskroot were shown to the Animorphs to show that there was a chance for the Yeerks to become something other than just enslaving parasites. There was nothing shown as an alternative for the Taxxons.

[dgcatanisiri]

I don't think the Taxxons WERE happy with their natural forms. They were slaves to their instincts, and worse, were thinking beings, unable to override that instinct. That's supposed to be the thing that separates sapient beings from the animals, the ability to go against what our instincts tell us, and yet they are biologically compelled to EAT. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there occasions where the Taxxons go into a feeding frenzy if one of them stumbles? That was part of what made them volunteer for becoming Controllers, hoping that the Yeerks could control their hunger, and even the Yeerks couldn't do much to stop it.

To the Taxxons, taking the advantage offered by the morphing technology and escaping their hunger, even if it also meant escaping their species, was a trade off most if not all seemed more than willing to take.

[mattiris]

All the Yeerks/Taxxons becoming nothlits never really sat comfortably with me. Yes, it's a thematically perfect ending for the series and makes a lot of sense... but on the other hand, it's effectively genocide.

[lit_wolf]

Thank you for summing up what I was trying to say last night; my brain wasn't working right in the late hours :D

[anijen21]

yeah, exactly. And there's sort of this uncomfortable underlying message of like, "so you naturally are not totally perfect or flawless, so just change who you are to better fit into the natural order of things!"

it's a tough issue that introduced some very awesome moral ambiguities throughout the series but ended on a really depressing resolution