Species discussion Anati

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

I don't think we really know a whole lot about them, only that Visser One was supposed to defend the Anati world from the Andalites, and failed, resulting in the death sentence in The Revelation. But there must be a bit more, because one of you wants to talk. So, have at it :)

Comments

[acts_of_tekla]

*shrugs* I got nuthin'. According to the wikipedia page, a Yeerk fleet disappeared around the Anati homeworld, which is why Visser One was sent there. Perhaps the Anati have a Bermuda Triangle superweapon?

[mattiris.livejournal.com]

Yep, that was me! I don't have a lot to say but I just wanted to reminisce and point out to you who weren't around in the online Anifandom circa 2000-2011 just how much speculation there was about the Anati. It wasn't just a "oh, I wonder if we'll ever see the Anati", there was a lot of very clever stuff being extrapolated about them.

Put it this way: Visser essentially laid the Yeerk Empire open to us - how they act, why they act the way they do, what guides their decisions, etc. We learn that humans being a Class Five species essentially means that if the Yeerks win us, they win the war - period. We learn that Visser One prefers an insidious invasion and that Visser Three wants an outright takeover. We also learn that the Yeerks know that the Andalites are preparing a massive force to come to either Earth or the Anati world, and the Yeerks would prefer to draw fire to the Anatis as they wouldn't survive that level of conflict over Earth (as we know the Andalites ultimately decided to destroy Earth).

However, in Visser we also learn that there's something strange going in the Anati system - ie. ships going missing, the Yeerks not being able to get a foothold there the same way that they'd managed to stake a claim on Earth. Visser One is sent to their system to try and win it over, but (as discussed in #43) fails so spectacularly that the entire Empire is discussing it, and is then publically starved to death for her failure.

The question that everyone was wondering about the Anati is what the fuck happened?

By the Council of Thirteen's admission, Visser One was the strongest military officer they had available. However, instead of utilizing her to successfully win over Earth, a planet with a species that is more suitable to a slow invasion and that, once captured, would effectively render the Yeerks unstoppable - they send her off to a system that's barely been mentioned to try and enslave a race we know nothing about (even the Yeerks don't even know if there's only one enslavable race there). What was so special about the Anati that not only prompted the Yeerks to send their best asset there to win them over, but also drew the attention of the Andalites so strongly that they were considering sending a force there instead of Earth - a move that would have undoubtedly lost them the war?

And how did Visser One screw up so badly - the Anati situation was a completely fresh slate for her to develop all the way from the ground-up, and this is a Yeerk who has done this a few times before - how could she had mishandled it so badly that she'd be executed for it?

Even the "casual" way the Anati are introduced is interesting:

They kept me waiting for almost an hour. I could only imagine what was happening among the Thirteen. Maybe they were dealing with some entirely unrelated matter. Perhaps the
strange disappearance of the task force that had been sent to investigate the Anati planet."

If that doesn't scream "seed to be developed later", I don't know what does - but nothing ever really comes of it.


I dunno - it's hardly a "lost opportunity", but the way it appeared to be being setup led all of us young excited thirteen-year olds to think there was going to be a lot more coming from the Anati than ever did eventuate.