How do you feel about Esplin Lesser and Joe Bob Fenestre?
It’s one of the first cases we’ve seen of a Yeerk liking their host but not letting them go.
Of course Joe was probably not ok with the murder and cannabalisk thing
One angle on those two that I don't know I've ever thought much about is Joe Bob Finestre as this obvious stand-in for Bill Gates, and all the implied social commentary in there. (For those who missed it: he's an internet mogul whose name means "Windows," infamous for trying to own the entire world.)
Because, as of 1998, Microsoft owned an estimated 95% of market share of the entirety of all software. They invented the techniques that Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook are using to annihilate the planet right now — capture-and-kill of competitors, vertical monopolies, software that only works on one kind of device, planned obsolescence, user surveillance, etc. And even Apple, Planet-Killing Bastion of Evil, is not as much of a monopoly today as Microsoft was in 1998.
So like: Bill Gates as cannibal. Bill Gates as guy who passes himself off as brilliant by finding other people whose skulls he can crack open to eat their brains with a spoon, and then pass off their work as his own. Bill Gates as the scumbag who doesn't care if he catches six-year-olds like Gump in his net of internet spyware, just as long as he has enough people to devour to keep his endless gluttony assuaged. Bill Gates as the cute girl you thought you were flirting with online, Bill Gates asking you to whisper secrets about your father into his machine so that he can use those to find and eat you.
Oh, and then he goes on to save an estimated 200,000 lives and prolong an estimated 3 billion others by fighting malaria and AIDS.
So: was he a good guy, or a bad guy? You tell me, Cassie.
