#like it does not escape me that Marco and Rachel both open books using their morphs to attack people

[grandwretch]

one of the many reasons I love Rachel's POV is that she just does not get Marco. Not at all. Jake and Tobias know hes putting up a front more often than not, and Cassie especially sees right through him, but Rachel buys the mask. She even thinks, originally, that Marco might be against fighting just to annoy them. I'm not even sure that Rachel ever really understands how deep Marco goes down the rabbit hole.

Like, I don't think she's doing anything that Marco doesn't want her to-- She isn't being mean or anything. I don't think it's because she dislikes him, or because they're constantly fighting. Marco is doing this on purpose. He puts on a mask with everyone, but Rachel, especially, and she buys it hook, line, and sinker.

And it really makes you think, like-- How long did Marco and Rachel know each other before his mom died? Is she basing her assumptions off a boy that doesn't exist anymore? Is that why Marco keeps up the front with her, or is it because she's the most popular, the prettiest, and the strongest? Did Marco have a crush on Rachel before his entire world fell apart? Is that why he's desperate for her to never realize it did?

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

I was wondering if you had an opinion on Cassie letting Aftran infest her. I struggled with Cassie narratives sometimes, mostly due to the authors tendency to turn her into plot fu magic macguffin whenever she wanted a state change in the series, but I remember when I read that the first time I was like "I think I might hate you right now" and Aftran's change of heart felt like plot fu macguffin magic "realize the true power of FRIENDSHIP(TM)!" and it just...I struggle with it.

Anon, I totally agree that the moment could have been handled better.  I guess I disagree that it reflects a broader weakness in the series.

I really like Aftran as a character, and I really like the role she plays in the series.  That said, I agree that Cassie’s decision to let her in... could have been handled differently.  It fits with Cassie’s other characterization to have her make a decision on impulse that sacrifices the many (her friends, arguably the whole planet) to save the few (Aftran and Karen) without properly thinking through the consequences.  It fits with Marco’s characterization that he not only plans to kill Karen even before he knows she’s a controller but also out of a genuinely well-intentioned desire to spare Cassie from having to do the same.  It fits with Aftran’s characterization that she largely gets confronted with Cassie’s uniqueness as a person and that uniqueness overwhelms Aftran’s ability to keep morally disengaging enough to have an involuntary host.

But yeah, the text itself doesn’t necessarily take the time to discuss in detail the sheer level of risk that Cassie undertakes, or how poorly she fails to consider the negative outcomes for everyone else in her life if she gives their names and addresses to the Yeerk Empire.  These books are by necessity quite short, so I get why there isn’t really time to talk in detail about the sheer level of betrayal that Ax and Rachel especially must have felt after everything happened... But I do wish that there was more discussion of the consequences of Cassie’s decision.

By contrast, Animorphs’ narration doesn’t let Cassie get away without condemnation for risking her life to save a couple baby skunks (#9), for letting Tom’s yeerk escape with the morphing cube to avoid killing Tom (#50), or for condemning some of Rachel’s decisions while also offering no viable alternatives (#22, #48, #52).  Cassie makes mistakes — because every character in the series makes mistakes, because that’s part of what makes this characterization so good — but this moment with Aftran is definitely the biggest one where the fact that it didn’t end horribly ends up obscuring the fact that it definitely could have ended horribly.

However, anon, I also entirely disagree that “Aftran's change of heart felt like plot fu macguffin magic ‘realize the true power of FRIENDSHIP(TM)!'” because I actually think that the narration justifies the fact that Aftran is wavering throughout her interaction with Cassie, and doesn’t particularly like having an involuntary host well before she reaches the “fuck it” threshold and straight-up joins the Yeerk Peace Movement.

Pretty much from their first conversation, Aftran seems pissed off at Karen: she complains that she wanted a human host and now regrets having gotten one.  She claims that her objection mostly has to do with the limitations of having a small body and the fact that American children aren’t allowed to do friggin’ anything without adult supervision... but it’s also clear that that’s not really what makes her so uncomfortable about using Karen as a host.  When complaining about Karen, she actually uses the phrase “innocent little child.”  Which is hardly a damning insult.  Sounds more like she hates herself for enslaving said innocent child... which of course she does. She also tells Cassie about Karen crying and asking to be let go well before Cassie opens up in turn.  Plus. methinks she doth protest too much during her whole speech about how the yeerks have no choice whatsoever but to take involuntary hosts.

It also strikes me how much Aftran seems compelled to give an account of herself (to use Cates’ favorite theory) even when Cassie is giving absolutely nothing in return.  Cassie spends most of their first day and a half together smiling and nodding and going “suuuuurre, there are aliens and I turn into a wolf, you poor small child who definitely hit her head while being chased by a leopard back there,” mostly out of a desire to gaslight Aftran into forgetting the whole thing so that no one will have to kill her or Karen... and yet Aftran nevertheless pours out most of her life story to Cassie.  And she does so in a way that’s very defensive.  Her whole speech about how “we have a right to expand. We have a right to advance. But you Andalites don't see it that way, do you? No, the whole galaxy has to belong to the mighty Andalites,” and her later discussion of “It’s what we are... we're parasites, you humans are predators. How many pigs and cows and chickens and sheep do you kill each year to survive? You think being a predator is morally superior to being a parasite? At least the host bodies we take remain alive. We don't kill them, cut them into pieces, and grill them over a charcoal fire in our backyards” both come off as incredibly defensive.  It reminds me of that whole sequence with Marco struggling to rationalize his decision to kill Eva in #30: in both cases the speaker’s only groping around for justifications so hard because they know that on some level their actions are indefensible. 

Anyway, the other interesting thing about Aftran’s rhetoric is how heavily it leans into the idea of “the real monsters are YOU PEOPLE, not us.”  Advantageous comparisons are a really handy way of justifying pretty much any action through portraying oneself or one’s side as at the very least better than THEM.  First Aftran claims that the andalites are the real colonizers and that the yeerks are just following in their footsteps, meaning that there’s hypocrisy in trying to stop their “expansion.”  Then, upon finding out Cassie is human, she switches to claiming that humans are the real monsters because they kill other animals whereas yeerks “only” enslave them.  She also claims that humans are no more than pigs to yeerks, and that both are somehow made to be prey to other speices.

Being inside Cassie’s mind takes away Aftran’s ability to use all of those justifications.  Cassie’s not a monster; she’s the kind of kid who saves one of her enemies from being eaten by a leopard.  She’s not a colonizer; she does her best to care for her own planet.  She’s not a pig; she’s a sentient being with dignity and a private inner world.  Aftran’s illusions are already built on sand — and Aftran knows it, even before meeting Cassie — but the mere exposure to Cassie’s mind sweeps those illusions away entirely.

The really important message that K.A. Applegate uses Aftran to convey is that there’s more than one way to win a battle: there’s destroying your enemy through combat, and then there’s destroying your enemy through destroying the enmity between yourself and the other party.

I just agree in wishing that this plot had chosen a different means to get Aftran inside Cassie’s mind in the first place.

[alanfromrochester]

Animorphs #15 The Escape gr8 Marco

I at least skimmed the exposition. Polo joke plus tactical analysis is perfect Marco. This book was a great look at his psyche generally.

He had a good point about Hork-Bajir-Controller as technically accurate but superfluous since it applies to the vast majority. While he doesn't say it, this also applies to Taxxons, and specifying the few free members seems more efficient. This also happens in real life language, for example one doesn't hear "adult bride".

When he said Rachel was secretly insecure, was that insight or teasing?

For the Amazon Cafe stunt, helping someone do something they'd do anyway (to make it safer) stuck out. It seemed like an allegory for sexual issues like content of health class or regulating prostitution, or a nondrug analogy to prohibition. That reminded me of the victim blaming discussion after Saddler's bike crash in the David trilogy.

Tobias being a loner even as a hawk was sad. Maybe that's one reason he accepted becoming trapped and didn't reassume human form. Of course Xena would defend Bird Boy for not wanting to get wet. The dolphin being chased and thinking it's a game reminds me of when a dog gets something it's not supposed to have.

I liked how the comment about human plastic turned out to be relevant rather than just Ax teasing. Dismissing the odd sights and damage as drunk guards was another unbelivably convenient excuse for the invasion not being revealed yet.

Testing out a morph isn't a bad idea in and of itself. Ironically, regular bullies are almost a novel threat now

I remembered Marco needing to fake his usual goofiness, but a lot of details of the facility attack were fresh.

Marco going into a frenzy at the scent of his own blood was another wonderfully disturbing Animorphs moment. The shark experiment assembly line reminds me of the slaughterhouse in #28 The Experiment.

"maximum dolphin warp", and Marco saying the chair in the Yeerk submarine looks like Kirk's command chair, were two more direct Star Trek references.

Marco saying Rachel would morph both elephant and bear if she could was a great embellishment of her fighting spirit.

The Yeerk Empire is often harmed by infighting, including here - could that be avoided, or does it come with their selfish philosophy?

Marco pretending he was a Controller was the only option he had, and he had the sense to do so, as heartbreaking as it was. The rest of "his" team being killed by Viisser Three actually seemed like a very good lie, given Esplin's overall nature and his feud with Edriss in particular. Visser One's comment about ignoring host resistance was amazingly ruthless. While evil and with humans on the receiving end, it's understandable from the Yeerks' perspective. Perhaps it's an example of Yeerks being affected by personality of their host and Marco getting that trait from his mother.

-

review file had last been modified 9/13/14:

5/5

"The series is still on a roll"

I'm not that critical of noncombat morphing, but again, I see the idea of other Animorphs going along with it to cover for something that another Animorph insists on doing.

I was reminded that the Chee proving intel is a great way to support the cause while remaining pacifists. This seems to be commentary on conscientious objectors in real life. (Many CO's are open to noncombatant military work, though I've heard of that with medics instead of intel agents)

I wondered if Ax was wrong about Yeerks' ability to infest sharks. Was he wrong, was Visser One not getting it yet, or were the Yeerks indeed using some other method? That was resolved to my satisfaction.

Were the Yeerks specifically watching the shark at that aquarium or was it a coincidence?

The Leerans were great as an addition to Animorphs universe biology as well as a threat in this particular case.

I've noticed that Visser Three's arrogance comes back against him. This highlights that Visser One has similar flaws and they feed off of each other.

Yeah, it's obvious that killing Eva to stop Visser One is no good. I figured that secret was bound to come out eventually. It was a tragically interesting idea that rescuing her would make them too much of a target.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

What would u say are the best and worst book narrated by each character ?

I sat down to come up with my least favorite book by each narrator and had a pretty easy time of it — there’s an unfortunate dip in quality in the series around #39 - #43 that I can point to as definitely not my faves — and then ended up totally baffled by how to choose JUST ONE favorite book by each narrator, because such a task is almost impossible.  In conclusion, I really love Animorphs, as you probably never would have guessed from reading this blog.  So, with a little cheating, here goes:

Tobias

Least favorite: #43, The Test

The plot of this book pretty much requires that all of the characters, but most notably Rachel and Jake, act in ways that really don’t fit with their behavior for the rest of the series.  My cynical hypothesis about What Was The Ghost Even Thinking rhymes with schmender schtereotyping, but even if I more kindly assume that everyone was just acting strange to jerk Taylor around, I can’t really enjoy this book.

Favorite: #49, The Diversion

Tobias’s point of view works so well for this book, because its plot draws attention to his status as a partial outsider not only for human society as a whole but also for his team.  He’s literally trapped in a liminal space that here actually gives him a lot of perspective on his friends’ families — and the importance of sticking close to his own.  (And by that I mean 93% Ax, 7% Loren.)

Other favorite: #23, The Pretender

Speaking of Tobias being sort of stuck between roles, this book is so good because it shows the strength of his position as both able to access and able to escape being human.  He moves flexibly between a ton of different roles in this book — a leader to the hork-bajir, a supporter to Jake, a parent to himself, a son to Elfangor, a quasi-hawk, a quasi-human, a quasi-andalite — and does so with astounding grace and aplomb.  Resting bitchface has never seemed like a cooler accidental superpower.

Another favorite: #33, The Illusion

This book is the brutal shadow-self to #23, instead shutting Tobias out of a whole bunch of different roles over the course of the plot.  It does however contain one of the series’s best villains (Taylor is terrifyingly sympathetic) and some of its best moments of heartwarming body horror in the final battle.

Ax

Least favorite: #8, The Alien

Honestly, there’s nothing really wrong with this book, but there’s nothing amazingly right about it either.  It has a few great moments (Jake’s naïve optimism at the kandron’s destruction giving way to fear for Tom, Ax having dinner with Cassie’s family, Tobias definitely not tattling on Ax) but overall the plot is just kind of inane and doesn’t do much to move the series forward.

Favorite: #38, The Arrival

Estrid et al. act as such a cool check-in for not only how much Ax has grown as a person through spending too much time around humans, but also how much the team as a whole has grown until they are actually more effective warriors than a group of battle-trained andalite assassins.  Every time I reread this book I end up making noises of triumph and fist-pumping the air, no matter how public my location is at the time.

Favorite favorite: #46, The Deception

This plot hinges on the stark contrast between Ax’s terrible and unavoidable awareness about the horror of open war and the Animorphs’ lack of standard of comparison beyond “hey, remember D-Day?”  MM3 and #28 both do important work to condemn humanity from the outside, but this book actually uses Ax’s perspective primarily for celebrating the whole human species from an outsider’s point of view.

Marco

Least favorite: #40, The Other

As I’ve mentioned here, at this book’s core is an interesting concept that very emphatically does not age well.  On top of the cringe-inducing attempt at an After School Special treatment of the idea that (*gasp*) queer men with AIDS are human too, it also has a largely nonsensical plot that strains both credulity and logic.

Favorite: #25, The Extreme

It’s a brilliant use of Marco’s perspective to comment on the constraints and terrifying outer reaches of Jake’s leadership, one that also contains a highly enjoyable mix of humor and horror.  Because Marco.  I could reread this one a thousand times and still find new aspects of the narration to delight in.

Also favorite: #15, The Escape

This book makes amazing use of Marco’s unreliable narration and lack of self-insight to contrast his willingness to imagine himself confronting sharks with his willingness to run from them upon a real encounter, along with his determination to kill his mom and his inability to stop himself from saving her.  Marco is at his most human in this book, and also his most lovable.

Also also favorite: #51, The Absolute

The governor of probably-California is one of my favorite minor characters in the series, and I absolutely love the dynamic between Marco-Tobias-Ax any time it occurs (this book, #46, #30, #49), meaning that this surprisingly fun aside acts as a much-needed breath of fresh air and comic relief in between the Animorphs losing the morphing cube (#50) and blowing up the Yeerk Pool (#52).  Plus, Marco + tank  = OTP.

Cassie

Least favorite: #39, The Hidden

I’ve said most of this before, but this book is just… nonsensical.  And it’s not delightfully nonsensical like parts of #26 or #14, it’s mostly cringe-inducingly nonsensical.

Favorite: #29, The Sickness

Arguably this is the best Animorphs book, both IMHO and by fan consensus.  It’s got a simple but devlishly difficult plot, a ton of great characterization moments for all six kids, a handful of brilliant devices and settings that meld beautifully to Cassie’s overall character arc, and a wide-reaching perspective on the importance of overcoming difference that is a huge part of what makes these books so good.  It’s also funny, horrifying, edge-of-your-seat engaging, and tear-inducingly beautiful at the very end.

Also my favorite: #4, The Message

Whereas #29 is probably just hands-down the best book ever written, #4 holds a special place in my heart because it’s the first Animorphs book I ever read and the one that convinced me to go find the rest of the series.  This one is sweet and mystical, bleak with the dawning realization that these poor defenseless cinnamon rolls are in this war alone but also hopeful with the realization that these precious cinnamon rolls are in this war together.

Jake

Least favorite: #47, The Resistance

Although I’m of the opinion that #41 is more poorly-plotted, this book manages to be both poorly plotted and glaringly racist.  Its plot doesn’t make sense on several different levels, not the least that Visser Three knows how to find the hork-bajir valley in this book and then apparently forgets how to get there for the entire rest of the series.  And don’t get me started on Jake’s reprehensible behavior from the moment he casually declares Tom “as good as dead,” through to him trying to boss Toby about what’s best for Toby herself, all the way on to him being a jerk to Rachel and Marco. Blah.

Favorite: #31, The Conspiracy

Unlike #47, this book actually makes really good use of Jake’s character flaws to drive the plot forward — he’s bad at being vulnerable, and that ends up being a huge problem for his team.  It also leans hard on the irony of Jake being the only one with a “textbook” family (i.e. upper-middle class, heteronormative and monogamous, European-American, traditionally gendered, outwardly happy) and also being the only one under constant threat for his life any time he’s at home, thereby accomplishing one of the series’s better comments on the fact that children’s lives aren’t as simple as we’d like to think.

Favoriter: #53, The Answer

There are definitely flaws with RL implications in this book, but the plot is so freaking brilliant that I can still regard it as a Problematic Fave.  The final battle is so well-engineered and the Moral Event Horizon is so terrifying as it swings by that I assign this book to myself for rereading any time I’m struggling to write action or battle.  It’s a scary, awful book, but also a very fitting capstone to the series.

Favoritest: #26, The Attack

This setting is so cool.  This plot is so cosmic and yet so personal.  This use of the chee is so bitingly brilliant in its commentary on pacifism as a luxury not everyone can afford.  This story has so many moments that are either heartbreaking callbacks (the opening scene with Tom’s memories from #6) or bloodcurdling foreshadowing (Jake and Rachel’s casually absolute trust that each will be willing and able to kill the other if necessary).  This narration feels like a middle-aged and yet middle-school protagonist struggling to figure out who he wants to be — and defeating a cosmic power at its own game with the power of love.  I could gush forever.

Rachel

Least favorite: #48, The Return

Again, there’s nothing truly wrong with this book; it’s just a silly and inconsequential aside into the main character’s maybe-dreams at a time when the plot outside her head is heating up to the boiling point.  It makes this whole thing come off kind of like Bilbo sleeping through the Battle of Five Armies.

Favorite: #27, The Exposed

I’m not normally a big one for romance, but this book makes me ship Rachel and Tobias so hard that my tiny bitter walnut of a heart grows two sizes every time I read it.  Rachel has such great self-awareness that she doesn’t like any situation she cannot control or at least do violent battle against, and yet she dives into the bottom of the ocean with both eyes open and her chin up because that’s what she has to do to protect the rest of her team.  Crayak has no idea what he’s talking about when it comes to asking her to turn on her loved ones.

Additional favorite: #32, The Separation

As I’ve said, I didn’t really get this book until I realized that it’s not so much about Rachel herself as it is about how the rest of her team views her, and how she defies their simple categorizations, both well-meaning (Cassie) and not (Jake), through simply being herself.  Rachel is both masculine and feminine, both tough and vulnerable, and she makes no apologies for any of it.

And another favorite: #37, The Weakness

This book has an important role for the rest of the series in that it shows how the Animorphs’ guerilla tactics can easily be taken too far, and also how Jake’s discernment of his teammates’ strengths and weaknesses keeps them all alive.  Rachel makes a fair number of logical-seeming decisions in this book that prove short-sighted, and of course it all leads to her and Jake’s brutal Checkovian epiphany at the end.

Added additional also favorite: #22, The Solution

A brutal but powerful read, this book focuses on the ugliest parts of Rachel’s personality (her sadism toward David) but also the most powerful ones (her compassion for Saddler and protectiveness toward both Jake and Jordan).  It also shows that her reckless taste for violence and her boundless desire to protect her families both biological and found are actually two sides of the same part of her personality.

Okay I have a lot of favorite Rachel books: #17, The Underground

It’s oat-freaking-meal.  Only it’s not just oat-freaking-meal, and I’m not talking about the extra-tasty maple and ginger flavoring.  It’s a biological weapon.  It’s a way to harm the enemy, but only through harming prisoners of war.  It’s a social dilemma the like of which we rarely see in children’s books.  It’s a lesson in decision making under uncertainty.  It’s a moral imperative, but no one is quite sure what that imperative is saying.  It’s a deconstruction of the implied assumption that it’s possible to write adventure stories in which no one gets hurt.  It’s awesome.  It’s hilarious.  It’s disturbing as fuck.  Welcome to Animorphs.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

In your last ask you put an asterisk after Visser Seventeen (which, iirc, was Tom in your fics wasn't it?). Why?

Sorry, I should have clarified—the other half of that footnote was in the tags.  I do refer to the second yeerk who controls Tom as Visser Seventeen.  That’s just an educated guess as to his rank, since #53 specifies that he’s “security chief for all yeerk forces on Earth,” and since he can casually ask Visser Three to borrow the keys to the Blade ship in the middle of an emergency and Visser Three will hand them over without a second thought.  

It’s frustrating that we never learn the yeerk’s name or rank, given that K.A. Applegate does go through the trouble to make him a fleshed-out character.  We can see clear differences in Tom’s behavior before and after #6 when he starts being controlled by a new yeerk, and we get the sense that each yeerk has a clearly distinct personality.

Temrash 114 is ambitious, driven, but also impulsive and far too impatient to tolerate frustration for long.  We know that this is a yeerk who wants an obedient, unobtrusive host—witness Tom offering to “never trouble you again” in exchange for Jake’s safety, and the number of times Temrash tells Jake to “shut up” while trying to escape the other Animorphs (#6).  Although Temrash 114 is ruthless, that ruthlessness is uncontrolled and lacks the long-term planning ability to be executed.  Not only does the yeerk dismiss basketball as “silly” (#1)—a strange enough thing for Tom to say that both his parents and Jake comment on it—but also spends his entire time controlling Jake so blinded by impulsive emotionality that he fails to plan an effective escape.  

Yeerk 2, whose name we never learn, and who I refer to as Visser Seventeen or Essa 412 in my fics, is a hell of a lot smarter than Temrash 114.  Not only is this a yeerk who plans out and executes a coup d’etat that does almost as much to take down Visser One as the Animorphs themselves, but also figures out the significance of having Jake’s family to use as human shields when stealing the morphing cube—after he already got one step ahead of the Animorphs by intercepting them at the children’s hospital (#50).  Whereas Temrash 114 is dismissive of humanity and mostly wants a host who will sit down and shut up, Yeerk 2 (Essa 412) is smart enough to use Tom’s brain as a natural resource.  Jake notices the differences between Temrash 114 and Tom well before he ever puts his finger on why they are different, but also comments more than once on Yeerk 2 doing pretty well at imitating Tom’s behavior:

“Who died?” Tom said, joking. Or to be more accurate, the Yeerk in hishead made the dumb joke because it was just the kind of dumb joke Tomwould make. (#21)

“The Yeerk inside Tom’s head searched Tom’s memory. The Yeerk opened his memory and read it like a book. He played the strings of Tom’s brain like a violinist squeezing perfect notes out of a violin. The Yeerk found the answer that Tom would have made. It aimed Tom’s eyes and made Tom’s face smile sardonically. It opened Tom’s mouth and made Tom say the words Tom would have said, if he’d been able. “Hey, Mom, no more tiramisu for Jake. The liqueur is making him mushy.” (#16)

Frankly, using one’s host’s knowledge rather than dismissing the host entirely is probably the better strategy.  Case in point, the opening of #41 involves a fairly subtle convergence of social factors that indicates Yeerk 2 has a nuanced grasp of human interaction.  The fact that Jake comes home late is not that strange, and the fact that Jake isn’t wearing outer clothes after a bike ride is not that strange… but in combination?  While also barefoot and bloody?  Even for a moody teenager that’s pretty weird, but also not such a blatant violation of social norms that a random person from another planet could pick up on it without a human’s perspective.  The other detail that leads me to believe that Yeerk 2 understands the value of a good host is when he says that, in addition to being able to transform his host into a jaguar and a golden eagle and a king cobra (quick shout-out to KAA for giving the traitor-yeerk morphs that are all cannibalistic), he can also “morph Tom… cool, huh?” (#53).  Yeerk 2 also shows pretty good planning ability in #31, switching between several different strategies to avoid going out of town for four days and only blowing his cover as an absolute last resort; contrast that with Temrash 114′s distractibility, erratic temper, and inability to think rationally when harried by a rebellious host.  

Anyway, the two yeerks have distinct personalities, but I believe they have the same job: recruitment.  Temrash 114 has an unrelenting push to get Jake into the Sharing, and spends a fair amount of the one meeting we see greeting potential voluntary hosts.  Yeerk 2 reaches out to everyone from Marco (#15) to Steve (#31) to Peter (#20) to Tobias (MM4) gushing about how much fun it is to be a “full member,” and in #33 even gets an award for “keeping our organization on course…” through “being a devoted member of the community,” which I always assumed meant recruiting more people to be hosts than any other yeerk.   It makes sense that although Yeerk 2 is “security chief” by #53 he would start in recruiting.  We know that Tom is young, athletic, popular at his high school, and apparently quite charismatic (#1).  Presumably he’s also good-looking, since he’s described as looking a lot like Jake and Jake gets described as some variety on “tall dark and handsome” by Marco, Rachel, and Cassie.  A teenager who has a lot of influence with his peers is exactly the kind of host the yeerks would want to use to pull in new members, especially because MM4 establishes that the yeerks deliberately use younger hosts whenever possible “because kids are never suspected. They can be used anywhere.”  Anyway, all of that cycles back around to my original complaint: this is a fully fleshed-out character who appears in almost every book, one of the scariest villains of the series, AND WE NEVER KNOW HIS NAME.  Le sigh.  Oh well.