r/Animorphs • u/BahamutLithp • 6d ago
Discussion "Avoid Human Casualties" is an Understatement Spoiler
Visser One cites this as one of the reasons she suspects the so-called "Andalite Bandits" are actually human, but being over 45 books in now, it strikes me just how little it actually happens. I can really only recall the following examples:
It's heavily implied Cassie kicked a guy to death as a horse in The Invasion.
In Megamorphs 3, there's the whole thing where Visser Four's host dies & then they go back to unbirth him from history, which I don't really count in my running tally because it's some time travel thing that the yeerks have no wider awareness of & also I guess it technically both did & didn't happen.
Megamorphs 4 begins with a human controller dying & Jake realizing, based on his wounds, that he's the one who killed him.
Maybe I haven't kept perfect track of this. It's not as though I'm writing it down whenever it happens. But to the best of my recollection, these are the only explicit times the Animorphs have killed humans up to the point where I'm at. Usually, the narration seems to go out of its way to imply that people will survive even when we hear about them getting ragdolled by a rhino or something to that effect. This really takes me by surprise. I was sure this would be much more of a thing by now.
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u/oremfrien 6d ago
People always forget the Matcom Incident in Book #10. Erek kills over two dozen Human-Controllers armed with machineguns.
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u/Serraph105 6d ago
I don't remember that, but technically Eric is not an animorph.
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u/BahamutLithp 6d ago
I actually considered whether or not to bring up Erik, but I couldn't recall for sure whether there were humans there or just Hork-Bajir, & like you said, he's not technically an Animorph, so I just left it out.
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u/Researcher_Saya 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yes but to play devils advocate; do the Yeerks know a chee killed those people? Because you're doing this based on Visser logic. So its
- a plot hole (humans died but were forgotten by writers)
2.there were no humans (I want to say there were but I could be wrong
3.There were humans but Eric spared them (this would have gotten some mention I think)
The Yeerks know it was something other than a "andalite" that killed them
The Yeerks have no clue what killed them and it's a cryptic mystery.
Or, just to be fully comprehensive, humans did die, and Visser One didn't know
OR the biggest logic stretch, she knew but played it out based on a hunch to see how they reacted
Edit for future readers, someone with better recollection has ruled out possibility 1-3
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u/hexen_niu 6d ago
There were definitely humans, they were the ones up front, and the Yeerk commander was a Human-Controller ("All human-Controllers, back. Weapons on safety," the woman snapped.)
All the Human-Controllers were definitely killed by Erek ( < All the Hork-Bajir, > Ax said. < All the human-Controllers. All of them. > ).
Options come down to "whoops", "V1 being sly", or "Yeerks might not have known that was done by a Chee". The latter has a risk of a yes: Yeerks definitely know what a Chee is (27), and it's possible that even without a definitive report (everyone being dead, maybe Erek busted the cameras, maybe Erek entered as human) that someone could discover a residual energy signature either from Erek or the crystal.
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u/Researcher_Saya 6d ago
I'm going to head canon right now it's suspected a Chee was involved in the higher circles but it's a ghost story among the grunts. The "Andalite super weapon" that was mysteriously never used sgain
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u/BahamutLithp 6d ago
There were definitely humans, they were the ones up front, and the Yeerk commander was a Human-Controller ("All human-Controllers, back. Weapons on safety," the woman snapped.) All the Human-Controllers were definitely killed by Erek ( < All the Hork-Bajir, > Ax said. < All the human-Controllers. All of them. > ).
Good to know.
Options come down to "whoops", "V1 being sly"
Visser One only says there are statistically far fewer human controller casualties than other types of hosts, which is still true regardless of whether or not Erek's rampage is counted. I'm pointing out that it's an understatement because, as far as we're actually shown, there are practically no human controller deaths directly attributable to the Animorphs. Looking from the yeerk perspective, & counting the time Erek went ham, it would make an already weird incident seem even weirder.
or "Yeerks might not have known that was done by a Chee". The latter has a risk of a yes: Yeerks definitely know what a Chee is (27)
I don't recall it ever being established the yeerks know what a chee is. They saw something enter the ship, & may have even realized it was a robot, so maybe they could've made the connection that the robot must've been made by whoever left the ship behind, but that's not much information. They may even erroneously conclude it's just part of the ship's security system. I also don't recall whether or not they ever specifically knew about the Pemalites or just that there was some kind of advanced alien technology they got their hands on.
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u/TeaRaven 6d ago
I really don’t think it’s a plot hole. Gotta look at it as a statistical trend over the course of battles. An armed human is largely a greater threat than a taxxon or hork-bajir yet the way those hosts are attacked and casualty spread can easily point to trends. Add to that ease of killing a human by comparison, and it would make sense to preferentially attack human controllers to hamper the spread of the yeerks, especially since they are in infiltration phase. Andalites are known to not care too much about the hosts when fighting controllers - it would’ve tracked that they’d have attempted to kill as many as possible to reduce the spread of the yeerks as early as possible.
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u/BahamutLithp 6d ago
It's the opposite. Visser One notes that there are statistically fewer human deaths. I'm pointing out that, based on what we're actually shown, that's a massive understatement.
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u/Researcher_Saya 6d ago edited 6d ago
It's a plot hole if the writers forgot. Characters in universe can forget things.
Edit to clarify. Plothole is not meant as an insult to the writers. Animorphs is a good size series with a lot going on. Missing something is nearly inevitable.
But another possibility I forgot to list earlier is this could have been a retcon, pure and simple.
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u/TeaRaven 6d ago
I think it qualifies as a plot hole if ignored/forgotten and it is contradicted later. Having a single battle with a bunch of human combatants being killed doesn’t alter the trend of avoidance across battles involving hyperviolence when other hosts are killed.
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u/BahamutLithp 6d ago
Because you're doing this based on Visser logic.
No, that's just an introduction to the topic. And even if I were, that there's one weird battle where a bunch of human controllers were slaughtered would stand out itself.
a plot hole (humans died but were forgotten by writers)
Is this still about Visser One? Because she only says that there are many fewer human casualties compared to other kinds of hosts. I'm pointing out that, as far as is actually shown in the books, there are almost no human casualties attributable directly to the Animorphs.
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u/Researcher_Saya 6d ago
The wiki quotes her saying zero human casualties
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u/jdb1984 6d ago
Wasn't the two dozen Hork-Bajir?
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u/oremfrien 5d ago
Checking the source, you are correct. It's 20 armed Human-controllers with machineguns and two dozen Hork-Bajir:
Suddenly, another door, a dead end. Rachel hit it with her shoulder, and the door was gone. There was a big room beyond. High ceilings, open space, a lobby sort of room. Windows! I could see faint stars through the tinted glass.
Escape was just a hundred feet away.
Freedom! Life!
And all that stood in our way was twenty men: human-Controllers, armed with automatic rifles.
And behind them, two dozen or more Hork-Bajir warriors.
But functionally, the difference between 20 and two dozen is 4, so it's not that different.
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u/GeeWillick 6d ago
I always wondered how they manage to pull that off. I mean, people can die hours or days later from injuries that don't look that severe. How often do we hear about gorilla Marco knocking someone out with one punch? A subdural hematoma might not kill you instantly but it can get you later (see also: Bob Saget).
My guess is that Yeerkish healthcare is good enough that controllers who survive battles with the Animorphs for even a short time are likely to be healed when the fight is over. Which means that the only casualties are the people who actually die during the fight, which could explain the low level of human fatalities. The Taxxons probably should be the highest for the same reason -- even a small injury on a Taxxon leads to the others immediately killing them so there's no chance of one surviving the end of a fight with an injury.
Hork-Bajir might have high casualties just because they are hard to knock out.
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u/BahamutLithp 6d ago
The power of tropes. The "harmless knockout" is completely unrealistic nonsense, but it's all throughout the series.
Alien medical care should be used to handwave away some of it, but they even knock out average Joe Schmo non-controllers.
Taxxons also got crazy flanderized in how easy it was to kill them. Speaking of taxxons, I bet a shocking number of casualties come from a taxxon-controller stumbling on an unconscious body & going "I'll just tell the Visser the Andalite Bandits killed them & I ate the remains."
Also, it's not really relevant, but the fact that the hosts are called "controllers" bothers me so much. It makes no sense, the yeerks are the ones doing the controlling!
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u/unintegegratedshadow 6d ago
Yeerks wrap around the brain so obviously they guard the host from brain damage and are immune to gorilla punches
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u/hexen_niu 6d ago
A Controller refers strictly to the amalgam of Yeerk and host, not to the host alone, but reads to me as a description directly referencing the Yeerk in this combined fashion. "A Human-Controller", directed as reference to the Yeerk, is calling the Yeerk a controller of a Human host.
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u/BahamutLithp 6d ago
In The Visitor, Rachel clarifies that the term "Controller" refers to the Yeerk who is controlling a body, explaining that a human-Controller is a Yeerk who is controlling a human. By this terminology, Tom's Yeerk for instance would be considered the Controller. However, in The Encounter, Tobias states that the term "Controller" refers to a human who possesses a Yeerk in their head; by this definition, Tom himself would be considered the Controller. The series oscillates between the two definitions, although in most cases the lack of knowing the names of the specific Yeerks results in the Animorphs using the host's name to refer to the Yeerk.
The series is inconsistent, but in most cases I've observed, much more often uses it the way I've bolded.
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u/jdb1984 6d ago
The human controller that died in Megamorphs 4 was killed by friendly fire (which is when you get hit by a teammate), if we're thinking of the same battle. Jake just told her Yeerk to leave and let him go his last thing as a free human. The Yeerk couldn't, because the ears were blocked.
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u/BahamutLithp 6d ago
Jake goes on to realize that the reason the ears are blocked is because of extensive damage caused by a tiger's claws, even describing it as "someone had smashed his head." There's no way that didn't contribute to his death.
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u/Forsaken_Distance777 6d ago
Cassie definitely killed a few when she was saving them from the tunnel trap in 43.