Character discussion: Erek

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

Late post is late. I somehow forgot last night :(

I'm still fascinated by the holographic stuff with the Chee, and how they can hologram the feel of skin.

I can see some debate over the whole nonviolence thing...I've heard some fans say that giving info still is fighting, or facilitating violence...IDK myself. What do you think?

Comments

[lisacharly.livejournal.com]

Erek is a conniving, sneaky, hypocritical little bastard and I love him. His stunt in #26 was a total "whoa, Erek, REALLY?" moment, and I think did a lot to humanize him. It does make his whole "WTF Jake" moment in #54 seem a bit off, too, since before his big character defining moments had led us to believe that he really was restrained by his programming and nature as an android rather than any moral compunctions against violence. In #10, he's one of the Chee most eager to rewrite their programming, and he can't handle the violence because he can't forget. He is not built to do horrible things because psychologically, he has no healing process. Restrained by his nature. In #26, he lies and manipulates the Anis into killing a race of children pretty much out of revenge. And shows no obvious remorse. So why is #54 Erek all "gee, Jake, I'm suddenly hardcore devoted to my pacifism instead of constantly working against it"?

However, if you want one example of Character Shafted by Ghostwriters, I think Erek might be the biggest example. In KA books, he shows up in #10, #15, #18, #20, #26, #32, Visser and the final arc. He gets character moments in almost half of those. In ghostwritten books, he shows up in #25, #27, #28, #29, #30, #45...and probably some others, but the point is that he serves as nothing but a tool in any of these books. Either he's delivering plot info or he's their generic hologram projector. No wonder the Anis got sick of him - his primary role was "hey guys, here's another dangerous mission, kbye".

[blue_rampion]

He is the "character most often used as a plot device", isn't he? It's a shame, because he's a fascinating character.

...but then really, he was meant to be a one off. So we're lucky we got as much out of him as we did :P

[tobiahawk.livejournal.com]

Interesting point re: 26 and 54... but OTOH, I think you could argue that in 26, pathos kind of overrode everything for him. Don't forget that Erek's inability to forget means he will forever remember the violent slaughter of the people who created him. I'm not saying this justifies Erek's actions, but I think maybe the situation we saw in 26 was all to close to home for Erek to react as he "normally"/ideally would. JMO. Also, perhaps knowing that the aux Animorphs, the general's soldiers, and others were killed drove home to Erek, again, the sheer pain of war/violence. By that point, too, all the Animorphs were pretty frayed by war.

I think KAA wrote him in a really compelling way... the ghostwriters? Not so much.