#ani 10

Oh Erek is so cool actually what. Why did i dislike this book? Marco being marco? the ending of it? probly some of both i guess but it's not bad.

Oh that's why. Such 'intelligent' beings but they haven't yet figured out their definition of violence. I mean sure Erek isn't hurting the Yeerk in his head but he is stealing its memories and keeping it from living the life it intended to live, or any life at all. Like....that's a form of hurting/violence babe. I could think of a million ways the chee could help win this war without the fancy crystal, the first of which being running full defense. Go to a battle and just straight up be an animorph shield. no violence necessary beyond the enabling of it. Or be spies. Erek is already doing that and could be huge intelligence help for the animorphs. Could also probably set up communication with andalites or maybe other aliens to get allies in on this. like. come on. I know this needed to be a one off but like....seriously?

Animorphs Book 10: The Android, of the Pemalites.

And through it all, the massacre of Graffen's Children, the slaughter of the Mashtimee, the Ron, the Nostnavay, and yes, the Pemalites, the Howlers felt no anger, no rage. But why should they? <It's a game,> I said. <What is?> Cassie asked. She had morphed to wolf. <The Howlers. The killing. It's a game to them. They're having fun. They're enjoying it. Like when dolphin leap into the air just for the fun of it and play follow the leader, it's a game.> <They're destroying entire races for fun?> <Yes. They don't know what they're doing. Cassie . . . they aren't adults. The Howlers are all children.>

Animorphs Book 26: The Attack, of the Howlers.

To me they're frustrating in that I feel like they're almost missing something that would tilt them into being a better element of the story, but it's not quite there.

I really want to know how the Pemalites defined violence in their programming (it would give us insight into the Pemalites themselves, too).

Or the limits of their AI in general. If they work like real "AI" they'd probably have some limits to how creatively they can think about getting around their problems. I know Erek says the Pemalites created them to be their equals rather than as robot workers, but he also says the Pemalites were the real creative force and doesn't say but sort of implies that the Chee don't make more of themselves. The only Chee around are the few hundred that the Howlers didn't wipe out. They are machines. In the end they are limited in the ways they can problem solve and I can't help but wish we'd gotten a better idea of what these limits were.

Maybe a better look into the limits of how Chee think could make them less frustrating an element? Barring that, maybe we could have gotten more of a look into the nonviolent sabotage they managed (taking longer to fix a downed communications system than needed, nudging people away from going deeper into the Sharing when possible)?

Heck, I wish it explored how the Chee feel about dogs being carnivores! Wolves hunt. Dogs hunt. They preserved the Pemalites through the Earth animal that looked most like them but that animal was a predator. Rotating the Chee programming to figure out what's going on in there.

Erek's reaction to the violence he could do was good. I can see why he wouldn't want to do more. He also knows that the human and Hork-Bajir hosts died just as violently as their yeerks. He knows he's killed innocents in his ten seconds of reprogramming. He knows he could do that again. I'd have loved to have had that scene address Erek wondering if he could trust his judgement on when and how to kill.

This is actually smart. Marco is already compromised so of course he is going to the meeting. Ax is needed as their alien/tech expert. Jake is the leader so he probably wants to be there to make any calls if needed. Cassie is good at reading people. Rachel is the firepower so her hanging back in case they need a rescue makes sense. Tobias is a hawk so he might as well stay back and not get caught.