#iskoort

Some kind of Prime Directive shit?? Can't tell a species important information that they haven't already figured out for themselves??

[I also wonder why Jake doesn't use his Howler morph every single time there's a battle. Utterly unparalleled in combat, and it comes with the racial memory of a species that has "never" lost a fight; aka superhuman tactical experience.]

The Doylist explanation is straightforward enough: you don't get as much story out of your characters being OP as hell.

But what's the Watsonian explanation here?

Why can't they tell the anti-war Yeerks that what they want to achieve is a solved problem, that their cousins, the Yoorts, have figured out how to experience the wonders of the universe without having warmongering/slavery/genocide as prerequisites??

The Yoort created a species of slaves, with fucking castes even, who lack the ability to rebel. They had no say in their right to bodily and mental autonomy but it’s supposed to be ok b/c the yoort changed their own bodies so they could only keep one kind of slave. If it’s supposed to be an equal partnership, every single Isk would have the right *and* ability to say no to being a host without the threat of death or illness.

animorphs posting heeellllll yeah i love animorphs (ive not read all the way through no spoilers pleas even though ive read it all already a long time ago lol)

a lot of the stuff in this series went right over my head when i was young. cant believe i read about aliens committing war crimes at 10

My read has always been that Crayak is a Social Darwinist, and so he starts rooting for the yeerks because they appear to be winning already by the time he and Ellimist get to the scene.

We know that Ellimist is all about trying to encourage as many different species as possible to thrive, while Crayak is about trying to get them to fight to the death so that winner can take all. Ergo, my thinking is that Crayak's "might makes right" and "the ones with all the advantages must deserve those advantages" style of gameplay means that he arrives as the yeerks are poised to take over the universe so he decides that that means they should take over.

"Elevators! You have elevators?" Marco raged. "We're traipsing up and down stairs and you have elevators?"

<The elevators are much less scenic,> Guide said. <What value are memories of the inside of an elevator?>

Hmmmmm.  As much as I love the implications of the iskoort for the yeerks, I’m not sure that anything could necessarily change.  Because the iskoort’s whole M.O. is a truly symbiotic relationship between two organisms that work together to control a body while in conversation, and the yeerks can’t have that.

I’ve said before that I just don’t think that a true fully consenting relationship could ever occur between a yeerk and a host — even a voluntary one — given what we see in canon.  I’m struck by that moment in #29 when Cassie accidentally moves Mr. Tidwell’s body while she’s inside his brain.  It occurs a few seconds after Cassie finds out Mr. Tidwell’s entire life history while actively trying to avoid knowing too much about him because a) it’s rude and b) she’s awkward about this being her teacher.  That sequence says a lot about how the yeerk-host relationship works.  If Cassie of all people cannot help but invade her host’s privacy and move his body without his permission, then the most compassionate and considerate yeerk in the world probably can’t avoid that relationship being problematic.

So I think that there are probably a ton of yeerks who would love to have what the iskoort achieve, but I’m not sure it’s achievable with their current physiology and technology level.  Like, while the actions of the Yeerk Empire are indefensible, they’re also understandable.  The yeerks benefit from using hosts, and the easiest way to acquire those benefits is to acquire hosts as forcefully as necessary.  If there was a way simply to have hosts without having to kidnap or brainwash or enslave anyone, probably the overwhelming majority of ordinary-schmoe yeerks would take that option without hesitation.

A counter-offer: what if the andalites had met the iskoort?  It’d have to be andalite scientists who aren’t caught up in their military propaganda to make sure it’s someone actually willing to listen.  But if sympathetic andalites more concerned with ending the war than winning the war got word of the way the yoort developed the isk through basically growing a new species in a vat, then I could see someone with access to andalite technology trying to make non-sentient hosts that benefit from yeerk control to replace the yeerks’ current hosts.  It might be able to work if the andalite scientists in question also got their hands on some arn tech...