#ani 6

And it keeps that facade intact for our young heroes for, oh, about five and a half books.

Then Jake, after boiling a hundred Yeerks in a Jacuzzi without a second thought, watches Temrash 114 die slowly and painfully while controlling his own body. Even knowing Temrash will doom Earth if he escapes, even knowing that Temrash has broken his own brother into a shadow of himself, Jake feels real sorrow.

Then Ax calls his people for help and is given the blame for his brother's crimes because the Andalites can't tarnish a hero's reputation in the middle of their long-running war.

Now here's Eslin Three-Five-Nine. Not an "ally" by any stretch, but he hates Visser Three more than he hates the Andalites. Because Visser Three lied to him. Because he lost Derane Three-Four-Four.

Animorphs Comic Redraw

Just a few messages

delivered indirectly

I think this set Animorphs apart for me as a child.

Here, and in the subsequent chapter, Jake ends up, to some degree, mourning the Yeerk. The same Yeerk who made his own brother give up hope for anything but death. The one who promised Jake and his friends the same fate.

Because he witnesses Temrash's agonizing death and the memories of his life. He admits he's sad seeing this arrogant would-be destroyer of Earth die powerless and afraid.

There's no sparing Temrash in a way that doesn't end in Earth losing. He's gotta die. He can't be reformed to see the people he wants to conquer as people. He never feels any remorse. But still, cruel and horrible as he is, he's a person. Later books will "humanize" the Yeerks further but Temrash's death is the first peak into that.

And the book doesn't treat this as a pure triumph. We linger on Temrash's failing hope and his fear and his pain. It's written slowly. Jake describes it as "the saddest" thing he's experienced since becoming an Animorph. He doesn't stomp on Temrash like in the TV adaptation. Rather we get this:

I rose slowly to my feet. I moved my own legs. I was in control of myself again. I looked down at the wooden floor of the shack. A gray slug, not six inches long, lay there . . . still. As we watched, it withered and shriveled and became nothing.

Jake never fights off Temrash's control. Not so much as a twitch of a finger. There's no heroic will-powering through a Yeerk. There's no just fighting harder than the other weaker minded hosts, so it cuts off the thought of blaming the hosts for just not fighting hard enough in the bud.