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CountSpatula Possible Stomatopod from Oh, some lunar colony Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Possible Stomatopod
#251: Sep 30th 2011 at 2:19:07 PM

I also came to the same basic conclusion. Also, I got the implication that most of the time it is the human (and andalite and hork-bajur and etc) characters who refer to yeerks using gendered pronouns, and they are generally associating the yeerks with their host bodies. And when the yeerks themselves refer to each other by gender, that is largely a consequence of Translation Convention.

Also, would anyone happen to know if they could find an image anywhere of the new cover for the rereleased edition Book 7? (The one with Rachel turning into a bear.) It's becoming increasingly more difficult to find images of the new covers, since they aren't released just yet.

I draws things. And I seem to be some sort of marine entity.
zerky Since: Jan, 2001
#252: Sep 30th 2011 at 3:34:08 PM

[up] It might just be that the cover's not even made yet. Perhaps you could do it without the new cover, and once it becomes available, just edit it in.

edited 30th Sep '11 3:34:19 PM by zerky

CountSpatula Possible Stomatopod from Oh, some lunar colony Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Possible Stomatopod
#253: Sep 30th 2011 at 4:03:09 PM

Most likely I will end up doing just that.

I draws things. And I seem to be some sort of marine entity.
KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#254: Oct 1st 2011 at 2:45:44 AM

One word. Helmacrons.

Just vaguely thinking of them brings backs lots of extremely hilarious memories.

CountSpatula Possible Stomatopod from Oh, some lunar colony Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Possible Stomatopod
#255: Oct 1st 2011 at 9:47:47 AM

Oh man, I love the Helmacrons. They just seemed so hilariously out of place. As I recall, Applegate did specify in an interview that technically speaking, Cassie and Visser 3 still did have gigantic anteater morphs.

Oh, and here is the Book 7: The Stranger review. I recall that earlier on someone was particularly looking forward to this book: [1]

I draws things. And I seem to be some sort of marine entity.
Nndaia Since: Jan, 2001
#256: Oct 1st 2011 at 10:18:26 AM

WOO REVIEW!

I am not an addict. But I did steal that picture of ax for my facebook profile. I apologise.

I wanted to see somebody at least try the anteater morph... I bet the visser is so stupid they could've tricked him into it...

CountSpatula Possible Stomatopod from Oh, some lunar colony Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Possible Stomatopod
#257: Oct 1st 2011 at 11:21:40 AM

Yay, glad you liked it. If it's okay though, would you mind just crediting us where you put up the Ax picture? I did draw that myself, y'see.

Anywho, I figure the problem with morphing kaiju anteaters is that they would immediately be crushed under their own weight. Picture a beached whale, but times ten. Square-Cube Law, and all that.

I draws things. And I seem to be some sort of marine entity.
TheEvilDrBolty Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
#258: Oct 1st 2011 at 8:48:35 PM

I was the one anxiously awaiting 7! It was my first Animorphs book...and in fact, it may have been my first real exposure to full-blown AAAANNNNNNNGGGGST, as well as being much Bloodier and Gorier than I expected. It kinda broke me for a few days. evil grin But, alien-fighting teenagers who turned into animals, plus cool aliens, was just too awesome for me to not read more.

...and since this was my first book, the Ellimist didn't throw me for a loop. For me, he was ingrained as part of the setting from the get-go. Looking back, I recognize that he was a really bizarre element of the setting - a convenient Deus ex Machina on occasion, and just plain weird on other levels.

Loved the review - especially all the talk about the sex-changing that comes naturally with morphing. It was definitely something I thought about when I read the books, especially when Cassie morphed Rachel - all I could think about was that if I could get my hands on the morphing technology, my first priority would be morphing a lady just to try it.

Oh man, now I'm wondering about how the morphing technology affected transgender politics in the world seen in the finale. Would there be transsexuals who deliberately became nothlits, and some who still opted for the surgery to keep their original DNA? What kind of academic arguments would spring forth from this? How would it affect transphobic rhetoric? OK, this is officially way too interesting to me.

Nndaia Since: Jan, 2001
#259: Oct 1st 2011 at 9:53:13 PM

'Course, Stroma. I know anteater wouldn't work but I think it'd be easy to trick Visser 3 into trying, because he's an idiot. (but then, none of the size-related stuff made any scientific sense whatsoever, so maybe it would work in that universe.)

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#260: Oct 2nd 2011 at 7:21:40 PM

Oh man, I love the Helmacrons. They just seemed so hilariously out of place.

My favorite moment has to be the first time they unveiled the captain, and Cassie and Marco's reactions. I remember laughing so much I had to stop reading.

Nndaia Since: Jan, 2001
#261: Oct 2nd 2011 at 9:03:10 PM

I liked Marco's grovelling scene. As if you need to pick a specific scene of Helmacron hilarity.

And when they attack Visser Three and his entire reaction is basically, "Are you serious?"

CountSpatula Possible Stomatopod from Oh, some lunar colony Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Possible Stomatopod
#262: Oct 2nd 2011 at 11:12:57 PM

Not to mention all of their journal entries at the start of the chapters, which is a feature that I had been missing horribly since Ax's first book.

I draws things. And I seem to be some sort of marine entity.
DomaDoma Three-Puppet Saluter Since: Jan, 2001
Three-Puppet Saluter
#263: Oct 3rd 2011 at 7:23:30 AM

Wait, so I'm the only one here who finds the Helmacrons terminally and inexcusably annoying?

Hail Martin Septim!
Nndaia Since: Jan, 2001
#264: Oct 3rd 2011 at 9:03:41 AM

Yes. you are. Helmacrons are hilarious. They make the perfect breather villain right after something horrible and depressing has just wrapped up.

DomaDoma Three-Puppet Saluter Since: Jan, 2001
Three-Puppet Saluter
#265: Oct 3rd 2011 at 9:10:37 AM

I think they were in #24, right? Because #23 was revelatory and exciting, not horrible and depressing like the David arc. (But maybe it was #29. I just remember Cassie having the viewpoint, and I can't remember a thing about #28.)

Hail Martin Septim!
MasterGhandalf Since: Jul, 2009
#266: Oct 3rd 2011 at 9:16:57 AM

29 was Cassie morphing a Yeerk to rescue Aftran while everyone else was coming down with an alien illness. 28 was cow morphs and the Yeerks trying to create a serum that would eliminate free will. 24 was Helmacrons, though they showed up again in one of the later books (I want to say 37, but don't quote me on that).

DomaDoma Three-Puppet Saluter Since: Jan, 2001
Three-Puppet Saluter
#267: Oct 3rd 2011 at 9:32:11 AM

Oh god, the slaughterhouse. Okay, now I remember.

Hail Martin Septim!
Kino Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Californicating
#268: Oct 3rd 2011 at 11:53:54 AM

Looking back at the books now as an adult, I wonder how it wold of played out if they had been much older. Imagine giving some SF guys the morphing cube.

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#269: Oct 3rd 2011 at 4:18:44 PM

I think it was 24, yeah. It was a Cassie episode, and those are always 4 and 9's.

Nndaia Since: Jan, 2001
#270: Oct 3rd 2011 at 4:24:21 PM

They would have been more effective if they were older. Or they'd at least make different kind of mistakes. Might be able to survive for a while protected by more than just Visser 3's sheer stupidity. If it was set in 2000 or later and at least one of them was a biologist, alliance would have been their first choice followed by fighting.

Actually, if it was set any time after about 2000, captured biologists would've instigated a rebel movement with or without the animorphs. There would have to be at least one controller who knows some neurobiology and has either a yeerk with rebel tendencies or a chance to speak with other captives and spread the plan while their yeerks are feeding. (I want to read that story now.)

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#271: Oct 3rd 2011 at 10:52:00 PM

The Yeerks picked their hosts carefully in many of the more skilled controllers' cases. Neurobiologists would probably be on their list of "humans to put under special control."

Nndaia Since: Jan, 2001
#272: Oct 4th 2011 at 12:02:49 AM

Why? Neurobiologists and neurobiology students are everywhere. I know three neurobiologists as casual friends, and I know enough neurobiology to map a vague concept of a plan that's better than "infiltrate/take conscious hosts by force" even though I'm a microbiologist, which has nothing to do with neurobiology at all. Unless every host who's a neurobiologist or friends/family with one is isolated at all times when free and given to fanatically militaristic yeerks, there's going to be some basic neurobiology knowledge floating around the civillian yeerk population.

Hell, any civilian yeerk whose host reads New Scientist is going to see the obvious non-military solution to their parasitism/enslavement dilemma.

CountSpatula Possible Stomatopod from Oh, some lunar colony Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Possible Stomatopod
#273: Oct 4th 2011 at 12:09:05 AM

Considering that by near the end of the series, humans have independently discovered early Z-space communication, in 2000 years they'd likely have already developed FTL travel and would probably have surpassed the Yeerks, technology-wise.

I draws things. And I seem to be some sort of marine entity.
Nndaia Since: Jan, 2001
#274: Oct 4th 2011 at 10:44:55 AM

We'd surpass yeerk tech in a decade. I suspect much of our biotech already does. That's why we'd make better allies than slaves even if we discount the morality of involuntary infestation; eliminate human culture and you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Yeerks don't seem that great with science and technology. They crudely adapt what they steal, and not much else. Long-term, we're a far greater asset to them as we are. Publically offer z-space travel and hologram tech in exchange for artificial hosts and every developed nation in the world would enter a tech war. The snails-pace checks and balances used in modern biotech research would go out the window and funding would skyrocket. They'd have functioning artificial hosts (not great, but functioning) and established tech trade relationships with a species whose progress scares andalites within 5 years. (And the flexibility and usefulness of artificial hosts should be obvious. Anything from design-your-own-body services to hooking nerve tissue to a computer, adding a yeerk and having conscious, self-piloting ships. Or any other use for true AI that might appeal to a conscious entity, really. Yeerks with a taste for 'natural' hosts would probably have no trouble finding those willing to rent their bodies, with minimal disruption to our culture.)

Of course, if humans tried to implement this sort of alliance they'd have to push the morality angle very strongly and not just rely on practicality, because that's a relationship that really needs to begin with peace and cooperation. If we were drawn into tech trade while the yeerks continued their conquest of other planets and their war with the andalites, we'd be military researchers forever. Human technological development works most efficiently when we're aiming to kill or dominate somebody with it. Start on that foot and we just double the threat level of the yeerks for evey other conscious species within their reach.

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#275: Oct 4th 2011 at 12:16:10 PM

^^^ Because, as you say, neurobiologists are an asset to them at best and a danger to them at worst - as far as we can tell, the Yeerks never just wholesale controlled people with random Yeerks, but knew who it was they were taking over before they did so - either through organizations like The Sharing or by personally targetting areas (like hospitals).

They would ensure that hosts with valuable knowledge were controlled by those who would best use that knowledge - I doubt they would trust advantageous hosts like those with great knowledge in the human nervous system to civilian Yeerks, rather they would use, if not extremely important Yeerks, definitely those in positions that required being called upon often.


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