Animorphs

Just checked. Yes Visser 2 infested a US admiral and was going to start WWIII to soften up human defenses before the Yeerks went all out.

He's never mentioned on Earth before so if I had to guess, he's only in charge of the operation instead of Visser 3 because it was his idea.

Or maybe since Visser 3 was getting promoted to Visser 1, they brought in 2 to be the new planetary commander while Esplin oversaw all operation in the war.

You know, I think that 2 was given an opportunity to expedite the infestation of Earth to see which of the two should be promoted, but because he failed so spectacularly, Esplin got promoted instead...

So after reading this weeks review I can only thing of one thing, now picturing Jake running around California screaming "CASSIE" at the top of his lungs just in a horrible parody of Batman from the Nolan films.

You will never love a women as much as George Lucas hates his fans.

I really hated how Visser One got all sappy and whiny when it came to hir kids. You have the fate of your species in your hands, @#^$%, cowboy up and make the necessary sacrifice.

If you want any of my avatars, just Pm me I'd truly appreciate any avatar of a reptile sleeping in a Nice Hat Read Elmer Kelton books

Well Visser 1 only popped in occasionally (she was probably the equivalent of the Admiral of the Fleet or something), it was Visser 3 who was in charge of the invasion proper. It wouldn't have seemed that bad if it was say Visser twenty-two, if there's only about a dozen worlds then anyone below the top dozen is going to be performing more minor functions that planetary oversight.

Wasn't that a do it or die choice though? it's not quite a promotion if you're going to die if you fail is it?

Visser 2 appears in book 46, which I will get to in just a few weeks. What is strange is that he comes off as fanatically supportive of Esplin, which makes little sense considering that until only just recently, he outranked him..

In the meanwhile, here's Book 44: The Unexpected. It's the Australia book, just to clarify. [1]

I draws things. And I seem to be some sort of marine entity.

Maybe it's a new Visser 2. Perhaps the old one died or was demoted and Visser three replaced him with one of his cronies?

Ah yes. The Australia book. It had to be kangaroos, didn't it? Koalas don't exactly leap to mind when you think 'combat morph', or I bet it would have been them instead.

Be not afraid...

Well, the Australia book takes place in the middle of the outback, and koalas aren't exactly common there.

I draws things. And I seem to be some sort of marine entity.

Still makes no sense, back when Visser 3 was first promoted to Visser (from sub-Visser) there were at least 32 Vissers, and there had been at one point at least 409 Sub-Vissers, so putting two of the top five officers in a single invasion seems like a waste, unless Visser 2 was acting as almost an independent officer (similar to Patton under Eisenhower), but even then, Visser 2 seems a bit of a high ranking, Visser 12 (if there is one) would surely be a more realistic option.

edited 21st Aug '12 2:58:42 PM by MattII

I think it makes more sense when you consider how important the humans are, as apparently the most numerous known class 5 species, and the only one in possession of Cinnamon Buns. The bigger mystery is how Visser 3 managed to stay in power despite his blatant incompetence and repeated failures.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

Are any of the other Vissers really any better?

Not to the point of assigning most of your top officers to it while leaving the rest of your empire in the hands of beta officers.

^^ Visser One seems to be, if I recall correctly.

Could be they don't demote him because they're afraid of he might do. That guy seems like a "going postal" hazard if I've ever seen one.

Seriously though, it's likely because 1) as the only Yeerk with an Andalite morph he's too important a tool not to appease and use, and 2) he's too arrogant and ambitious to be placated with a lower post. So they give him an important position and assign him important missions, then hope for the best and/or assign other Vissers to keep and eye on him.

Then the campaign on Earth went all pear shaped and they had no choice but to promote him to the top spot. I'm sure everyone in the Council shouted the Yeerk equivalent to the F-bomb and did the Yeerk equivalent of a facepalm when they realized this.

I'm also sure he had a good success rate before Earth, just one that involves lots of wasted resources and more destruction than is strictly necessary or wanted.

edited 21st Aug '12 5:29:18 PM by KnownUnknown

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Visser 3 is a victim of the Peter Principle of being promoted beyond his competence. He appears responsible and performs apparently well in the chronicles, as far as assigned duties and all go, and was able to get an Andalite host through his own efforts. Then he gets himself promoted to where he cannot perform, and as is pointed out just above, between his personality and typical Yeerk politics, there is probably no easy way to get him reassigned somewhere else other than hoping he gets himself shot or something.

I was going to say it was the Dilbert principle, but then I remember the important distinction in the Dilbert principle is that promoting people is for getting them out of the way so competent people can do their jobs. Visser 3 actively involves himself in the affairs of competent people, to their dismay, although at least the Taxxons get something out of it most of the time.

I've learned of that promoting people beyond their capabilities principle as the Burnside Effect. From the Civil War general who totally botched his time as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Ulysses S Grant said Burnside should never have been promoted because he was simply incapable of handling anything larger then a division.

I always thought Visser 3 just let his previous successes go to his head so when he finally got his high rank he stopped actually applying any real brain power to his actions.

^ There's a "Yeerk"/"brain power" pun in there somewhere, but I'll control myself and refrain from making the rest of you groan.

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Maybe promotion works differently? They have different ranks for different jobs? A war general is not the same as a visser?

Read my stories!

On a slightly different subject, does anyone like the idea of the Yeerk expansion and war being vaguely like hordes emerging from the steppes of Asia? Bunch of guys sitting around in their ponds, riding around on their Gedds to trade and raid, and then suddenly they realize there's some nice stuff next star over near them thar Andalites, and hop on the newly technologified Gedds with their nice new spacestirrups, and conquer a bunch of stuff before more or less collapsing. Not an exact analogue to any specific horde going around attacking China and Europe and everything, but the same sort of seeming backwoods folks with the same sort of politics that hordes stereotypically can have.

Visser Khan.

Yeh, I have read up to what my local Library had... And it's only up to somewhere where the new guy/kid joined the original main characters.

I would like to point out that while Visser One at first seems like a more competent leader than Visser Three, she is perpetually getting too attached to her hosts, and is willing to commit treason at the drop of a hat.

Speaking of, here's Book 45: The Revelation. [1]

I draws things. And I seem to be some sort of marine entity.

Yeah, but she doesn't show up as much. Horde politics, though.

On the subject of the whole freezing people thing (now that it is mentioned in a second review), I am assuming there is some economic reason behind not using it all the time. Maybe it uses some rare resource or something, but economics is basically the only reason I can think of for not using it more often, other than plot contrivances or the characters being idiots.

Did you guys do the "Journey To The Center Of Marco" book yet? I can't remember which number that is.

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Yep, Book 42; The Journey.

I read a lot of these books (not in any kind of order) as a teenager, but I didn't seem to make it to any of the ones occurring later in the series (though I also missed some of the worse ones, like Extreme and Unexpected and Journey). Also didn't remember the one with the Animorphs stealing a plane and crashing it into a building - that was hilarious to read the reviewers' reactions to. It may top Fight Club in the category of "things that would never be made in the present day". I'm looking forward to the rest of the reviews.

It's interesting to see Marco's reaction here be completely opposite to his previous attitudes, where he was willing to kill his mother and spouting off a teenager-version of Unfettered ideology. And yet it makes sense - after losing his mother to the Yeerks, losing his father as well could easily just be the breaking point.

In the reviews/rereads, it doesn't make any sense why the Animorph's can't rescue Tom. They attack the Yeerk pool every other book - why can't they just launch a raid, rescue a bunch of people including Tom, and keep them restrained for three days while their Yeerks starve? Then Tom's free, so are other people, there's the potential for setting up some kind of human resistance movement (regular people can't morph, but that doesn't mean they can't do anything - start a movement denouncing the Sharing as a cult, the way Anonymous deals with the Scientologists, for a start; reveal if anyone they met while Controllers were politicians or prominent figures, so the Animorphs can try to rescue those people. And the Yeerks still wouldn't know that Jake had anything to do with any of it, because Tom would just be one among many. This also applies to the earlier murder-Marco's-mom plot - the Animorphs seem to devote far too little thought to the actual potential for getting people un-infested.

Marco's move in this book, though, however understandable, seems like something the Yeerks would have to be idiots not to find suspicious. How could "Andalite bandits" know about his research so fast, let alone knowing where he would be when the Yeerks tried to infest him?

And on another topic relating to freeing people from the Yeerks - what happens when Visser Three needs to feed? Alloran's got a crazy number of dangerous morphs now; it seems like the Yeerks shouldn't have anything that would have a chance of taking him out during the short period he'd be free, unless he's too broken to even try. And even if he'd get killed trying to escape, you'd think an Andalite would prefer forcing the Yeerks to kill him over continuing to be controlled by Visser Three. Is this ever explained? Do they just have a way of keeping him unconscious that whole time?

Really, rescuing Alloran should be priority #1 for the Animorphs - they get another Andalite, an adult one this time, with a huge number of useful morphs, who knows basically everything that's been going on among the top levels of the Yeerk command. And they also eliminate their most physically dangerous opponent.

edited 27th Aug '12 10:39:49 AM by WarriorEowyn