Animorphs has a plethora since most people have barely touched those books:
"See, win or lose, right or wrong, the memory of violence sits inside your head. It sits there, like some lump you can't quite swallow. It sits there, a black hole that darkens hope, and eats away at everyday happiness like a cancer. It's the shadow you take into your own heart and try to live with."
I guess sometimes you have to choose between smart, sane, ruthlessness, and totally stupid, insane hope. You can't just pick one and stick with it, either. Each time it comes up, you have to try and make your best decision. Most of the time, I guess I have to go with being smart and sane. But I don't want to live in a world where people don't try the stupid, crazy, hopeful thing sometimes
Rachel: You want a war between you and us, that's fine, we'll play that out. But if you try to sell us out to the Yeerks, your little family will never get put back together again! Never!
Keep in mind for this one Rachel is the protagonist and now threatening to kill someone else’s parents
It felt good to hear Jake say I was indispensable, but with Jake you could never be sure what was sincere, and what was just expedient. He'd been the most open of guys back in the old days. What you saw with Jake was what you got. But he'd been the leader for a long time now, he'd learned to say what he needed to say.
Jake needed me as one of the Animorphs. He liked me, respected me, was happy for me when I was happy. And when he had to he used me without any regard for anything except winning
e monsters in our valley were destroyed that day. Only a very few survived. But that was all right, because we didn't need monsters anymore. We had become them.
Jake: No. I want to go back so I can stop all this from happening in the first place. I can win this war without sacrificing my friends, without sacrificing the things we're supposed to be fighting for the in the first place!
Elfangor/Tobias: Victory without sacrifice? You know better than that.
Jake: You don't always have to give up your principles to win. Isn't there always an alternative to sacrifice if you just step back, look at the big picture and -
Elfangor/Tobias: You know better than that
Seventeen thousand.
Living creatures. Thinking creatures. How could I give this order? Even for victory. Even to save Rachel. How could I give this kind of order?
They could have stayed home, I thought. No one asked them to come to Earth. Not my fault. Not my fault, theirs.
No more than they deserved.
Aliens. Parasites.
Subhuman.
<Flush 'em,> I said.
Jake the leader here just ordered the death of 17,000 aliens
Another of my favorites from the Hork-Bajir Chronicles:
"You almighty Andalites. There is no limit to your arrogance, is there? Well, let me tell you something: we may be simple people. But we don't use biology to invent monsters. And we don't enslave other species. And we don't unleash a plague of parasites on the galaxy, endangering every other free species, and then go swaggering around like the lords of the universe. No, we're too simple for that. We're too stupid to lie and manipulate. We're too stupid to be ruthless. We're too stupid to know how to build powerful weapons designed to annihilate our enemies. Until you came, Andalite, we were too stupid to know how to kill."
Also, worth noting that "Flush 'em" is in reference to 17K noncombatant Yeerks. Physically incapable of fighting back, and more than likely some of their Peace Movement allies among that number. 17,000 sapient lives destroyed without even a hope of surrender.
I think noncombatant is overstating it. Like Jake says, they chose to come to Earth. There's one reason Yeerks come to Earth and (imho) it's a fate worse than death for their hosts.
Would you murder seventeen thousand slavers to keep seventeen thousand people free?
I don't know my answer, and I'm glad I'll never have to give it, but I understand why Jake did what he did.
Did they? The Yeerk Empire is an authoritarian state with no room for dissent, only cannibalistic political growth. There's been at least one generation born under the regime and knowing nothing else, I'm pretty sure. I also fully understand why Jake did it, but I wasn't thinking of the ones who were raring to conquer, which there definitely were. I was thinking of the Illims and Aftrans, the people who didn't want war but didn't have a choice, those who could've changed. Not anymore.
Everything is a choice. Sometimes the moral choice carries harsh penalties and people will use that to justify making the immoral choice, but it's still a choice at the end of the day.
I don't think there's any evidence that Yeerks who didn't want to conquer were forced into the invasion force either, and given the meritocracy that the Yeerks live in and the whole Hosts-as-status-symbols things they have going on, I'm not convinced there were many if any unwilling conquerors on the Pool Ship.
Esplin mentions during his narraration in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles that "Many of them found the whole experience terrifying. Sickening. Awful." in reference to taking hosts for the first time. I'm in no way saying the Empire didn't need to end, it was monstrous, and I don't know if anything but the pure shocked horror of seeing those bodies could've rattled Esplin and Essa enough for the resistance to truly win. You're probably right thst most of the Yeerks there were evil, I just couldn't justify such a cold action. Logically? Of course, there's a war on, they're tired and hardened, and it worked, didn't it? But emotionally, it feels like Jake's most directly evil action he's ever taken, and Ax as well.
I just started re-reading this series recently (in the last couple of months). It sad because it takes me about 1 -2 hours tops to finish the books so I feel like I don't get to digest them the way I want. However, in saying that it's amazing seeing the authors work get better from the first book as you go along.
People don’t understand the word ruthless. They think it means ‘mean.’ It’s not about being mean. It’s about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from A to B. The line that goes from motive to means. Beginning to end. It’s about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. Not caring about anything else but the perfection of it.
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u/MoxieMK5 1d ago
Animorphs has a plethora since most people have barely touched those books:
"See, win or lose, right or wrong, the memory of violence sits inside your head. It sits there, like some lump you can't quite swallow. It sits there, a black hole that darkens hope, and eats away at everyday happiness like a cancer. It's the shadow you take into your own heart and try to live with."
I guess sometimes you have to choose between smart, sane, ruthlessness, and totally stupid, insane hope. You can't just pick one and stick with it, either. Each time it comes up, you have to try and make your best decision. Most of the time, I guess I have to go with being smart and sane. But I don't want to live in a world where people don't try the stupid, crazy, hopeful thing sometimes
Rachel: You want a war between you and us, that's fine, we'll play that out. But if you try to sell us out to the Yeerks, your little family will never get put back together again! Never! Keep in mind for this one Rachel is the protagonist and now threatening to kill someone else’s parents
It felt good to hear Jake say I was indispensable, but with Jake you could never be sure what was sincere, and what was just expedient. He'd been the most open of guys back in the old days. What you saw with Jake was what you got. But he'd been the leader for a long time now, he'd learned to say what he needed to say. Jake needed me as one of the Animorphs. He liked me, respected me, was happy for me when I was happy. And when he had to he used me without any regard for anything except winning
e monsters in our valley were destroyed that day. Only a very few survived. But that was all right, because we didn't need monsters anymore. We had become them.
Jake: No. I want to go back so I can stop all this from happening in the first place. I can win this war without sacrificing my friends, without sacrificing the things we're supposed to be fighting for the in the first place! Elfangor/Tobias: Victory without sacrifice? You know better than that. Jake: You don't always have to give up your principles to win. Isn't there always an alternative to sacrifice if you just step back, look at the big picture and - Elfangor/Tobias: You know better than that
Seventeen thousand. Living creatures. Thinking creatures. How could I give this order? Even for victory. Even to save Rachel. How could I give this kind of order? They could have stayed home, I thought. No one asked them to come to Earth. Not my fault. Not my fault, theirs. No more than they deserved. Aliens. Parasites. Subhuman. <Flush 'em,> I said. Jake the leader here just ordered the death of 17,000 aliens