Well, I mostly agree with you but you seem to excited at the thought of discussion.
First off, Elfangor was more than physically exhausted. Returning to Earth with the knowladge that Loren and his then-known son must have been hard on him. Then seeing the Dome carring his brother crash away toward Earth. Plus having lived through not only the battle that took place that night, but also who-knows-how-many before and all of the Ellimist's meddling. What I'm pretty much getting at is that someone who has a lot of weight on their mind can be brought down by relativly less physical pain and returning to Earth would have dredged up a lot of ghosts for Elfangor. Maybe it's not that he couldn't have morphed, but more that he just couldn't pull up the will to do it. And, yes, he did bravely fight Visser Three there at the end of his life, but it takes a great deal less courage to act brave when death is imminent than it does to live and face all the various kinds of pain in life.
the great mythical elfangor Also, this phrase made me stop and think. Elfangor is a hero is his people's eyes, but we really don't know much about what made him one. Was it suddenly showing up after a long absense there at the end of TAC? Or was it something else he did in the nether-years that we never saw? I'm not saying Elfangor isn't a bad-ass, but my impression from TAC was that he average joe put into above-average situation and muddled through till he came out alive at the end. (It has been years since I read that book.) Then he runs away to live with Loren and returns only when the Ellimist all but forces him to. His sudden appearence would have given him noteriety and from there it's very easy to make a hero out of a slightly-better-than average soldier; nearly all of them commonly do things that can seem hero-like and gossip does the rest. I'm edging away from the angry Elfangor-lovers now...slowly...Really, I don't know; he could be Jesus, Moses, and the Easter Bunny re-incarnated, but we don't really know. Maybe he wasn't 'great mythical,' he was just a tired, injured soldier who wanted to go home.
And besides, different people cope and react differently to different situations so saying 'Well, the Animorphs could have morphed!' is a bit of a cop-out. Elfangor isn't an Animorph.
About the self-destruct...crashes and explostions look very different. If Elfangor had self-destructed his ship it would have been very evident, and then it would have been equally obvious that he'd survived. Elfangor didn't really have any Earth morphs (if he even could have kept them), and aliens would stick out. Even if one of his own people didn't catch the bird, some poor kid walking home the long way from the mall could see a eight (six?)-winged bird and freak out, thus leading the chase back to Elfangor. With Earth morphs, you only have to hide from the Yeerks. With alien morphs you have to hide from everyone.
Yeah, I'd forgotten that they did chase the kids, too. Then again, no matter how much Visser Three wanted to catch them he wasn't exactly chasing them. His people were. And the Controllers thought they'd caught and killed the only guy who knew what was going on. So what if some drunk, homeless guy or dumb kid took the wrong way home? No one would believe them if they even believed what they saw themselves and it's cold and dark and I haven't had dinner yet. Shine your flashlight around a bit so we can go and eat.
Interesting point about the Andalite customs thing. Tho you're right about Elfangor not being one to follow rules blindly, there is a bit of a difference between law and culture. After all, you're raised in your culture and someone who can easily see the fulitily of a certain law might not be able to shake deep-seated and abstract ideas like honor and bravery. So many stupid acts are commited by intelligent people in the name of 'courage.'
And, once again, yeah...KASU. The whole of the Animorphs books would have been different if Elfangor had survived.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-07-24 11:30 pm (UTC)First off, Elfangor was more than physically exhausted. Returning to Earth with the knowladge that Loren and his then-known son must have been hard on him. Then seeing the Dome carring his brother crash away toward Earth. Plus having lived through not only the battle that took place that night, but also who-knows-how-many before and all of the Ellimist's meddling. What I'm pretty much getting at is that someone who has a lot of weight on their mind can be brought down by relativly less physical pain and returning to Earth would have dredged up a lot of ghosts for Elfangor. Maybe it's not that he couldn't have morphed, but more that he just couldn't pull up the will to do it. And, yes, he did bravely fight Visser Three there at the end of his life, but it takes a great deal less courage to act brave when death is imminent than it does to live and face all the various kinds of pain in life.
the great mythical elfangor
Also, this phrase made me stop and think. Elfangor is a hero is his people's eyes, but we really don't know much about what made him one. Was it suddenly showing up after a long absense there at the end of TAC? Or was it something else he did in the nether-years that we never saw? I'm not saying Elfangor isn't a bad-ass, but my impression from TAC was that he average joe put into above-average situation and muddled through till he came out alive at the end. (It has been years since I read that book.) Then he runs away to live with Loren and returns only when the Ellimist all but forces him to. His sudden appearence would have given him noteriety and from there it's very easy to make a hero out of a slightly-better-than average soldier; nearly all of them commonly do things that can seem hero-like and gossip does the rest. I'm edging away from the angry Elfangor-lovers now...slowly...Really, I don't know; he could be Jesus, Moses, and the Easter Bunny re-incarnated, but we don't really know. Maybe he wasn't 'great mythical,' he was just a tired, injured soldier who wanted to go home.
And besides, different people cope and react differently to different situations so saying 'Well, the Animorphs could have morphed!' is a bit of a cop-out. Elfangor isn't an Animorph.
About the self-destruct...crashes and explostions look very different. If Elfangor had self-destructed his ship it would have been very evident, and then it would have been equally obvious that he'd survived. Elfangor didn't really have any Earth morphs (if he even could have kept them), and aliens would stick out. Even if one of his own people didn't catch the bird, some poor kid walking home the long way from the mall could see a eight (six?)-winged bird and freak out, thus leading the chase back to Elfangor. With Earth morphs, you only have to hide from the Yeerks. With alien morphs you have to hide from everyone.
Yeah, I'd forgotten that they did chase the kids, too. Then again, no matter how much Visser Three wanted to catch them he wasn't exactly chasing them. His people were. And the Controllers thought they'd caught and killed the only guy who knew what was going on. So what if some drunk, homeless guy or dumb kid took the wrong way home? No one would believe them if they even believed what they saw themselves and it's cold and dark and I haven't had dinner yet. Shine your flashlight around a bit so we can go and eat.
Interesting point about the Andalite customs thing. Tho you're right about Elfangor not being one to follow rules blindly, there is a bit of a difference between law and culture. After all, you're raised in your culture and someone who can easily see the fulitily of a certain law might not be able to shake deep-seated and abstract ideas like honor and bravery. So many stupid acts are commited by intelligent people in the name of 'courage.'
And, once again, yeah...KASU. The whole of the Animorphs books would have been different if Elfangor had survived.