But, my father kept insisting, the Yeerks on their home world have been peaceful, these years since the attack that destroyed his honor. I didn't point out that the Yeerks on the home world had no choice: An Andalite fleet was parked in orbit above them, ready to shred anything that tried to come or go in the system. p. 34-35
How much does the Yeerk Homeworld know and support the space-faring Yeerks? How much of a split is there on the homeworld? We don't really know. Because their is an Andalite Fleet parked at their homeworld ready to blast everything.
So that also means that Yeerks like Esplin 9466 Prime that were born on the Yeerk spacecraft don't really have the option of just going home if they decide that they don't want to conquer other species. We know that some of the other Yeerks in his training program didn't like it but they really can't just leave.
The Yeerks that went willingly into space are one thing but the Yeerks born in space? They are born probably just to be more soldiers. Get the ones that don't want to fight to become parents because that process kills three Yeerks but get hundreds of new potential soldiers out of the deal. Sounds like a win-win for Yeerk high command. Pressure decenters out (tell them that they need to mate if they aren't going to fight) while getting more troops that you just have to feed the right propaganda to while young.
OK, but given how little yeerks know about anything beyond their world before the andalites came, and how low-tech they and the gedds are, how many yeerks even though that they are? And of those who do how many even know why?
There's a really interesting question about thrownness and settler-colonialism in there. Like, suppose you're a guy with French parents and French culture... and you were born in Algeria in 1904. And you've never seen France. And now it's 1943 and France is occupied by Germany, and they're also invading Algeria.
Like, what do you even do in that position? You could do your best to be nice to your Algerian neighbors, but that won't stop them killing you first chance they get because you're on their parents' land. You could try joining that rumored Anti-Colonial League, but that wouldn't necessarily help Algeria and might even accelerate the rate at which Germany takes over the entire planet. You can't go back to France — it's occupied, you've never been there — but staying in Algeria makes you part of the problem. You could join the military, because at least then you're protecting your own, and you're helping prevent Germany wiping out Algeria entirely... but likely as not you'll get sent to "quell unrest" in Algeria instead.
I dunno. I feel like a lot of the ordinary yeerks are caught in a system too big to do anything about, and probably do their best not to think about it while also telling themselves that at least they're nicer to their hosts than the people on the aquatic hork-bajir project.
And that's assuming that the Andalites didn't just set the planet on fire and refuse to admit it. That does seem to be their usual MO.
My theory on what's going on with the Yeerk homeworld is this:
Pre-contact Yeerks weren't as primitive as the limited description we get (from the notoriously biased Andalites) paints them. We know they used clubs to attack the Andalites, but that doesn't mean much - WE use clubs and we also have atomic bombs, and Andalites describe both weapons as primitive without making any distinction between them. The Yeerks already had their Council of Thirteen, their Vissers, and apparently an understanding of the idea of conquest. They're also very, very good at mixing technologies they acquire from others - see the Dracons, which are a mix of Shredder and Ongachic particle beam technology. See the fact the Yeerks start building their first Blade Ships within two Earth years of leaving their homeworld. The Yeerks were already very capable, they just didn't have any ability to travel the galaxy.
So I imagine the Homeworld is kinda built up. Their philosophies, even early on in their empire building, point to a civilization that is organized around centralized rule and the absolute power of individuals who lead and races having specific destinies. I don't think Seerow taught them that, I think they already had it. They had also already "tamed" their environment, mostly by killing predators and causing ecological collapse. That takes time. Their mindsets also most closely mindsets humans developed in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, e.g. absolute domination of the environment, jingoism, fascism, the right to build empires through strength and conquest, etc. I hate to say those ideas MUST accompany the technology from those time periods, but I really do like the idea of the Yeerks being a spaceborne British Empire, and the Homeworld basically being a wetter version of London. Kandrona is their tea.
Anyways, take all of this with a grain of salt, I am sleep deprived.
Edit: I want to add another thought I had while getting soup. We know the Andalites are a critique of the United States and neocolonialism. I think the Yeerks are a critique of the age of imperialism/original colonialism. That probably influences my thinking somewhat.
