Species discussion: Venber

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

The ones we saw were actually Venber with human DNA, but originally, the Venber lived on a planet relatively close to the Andalite world. They had the problem of being useful for the way they turned into liquid if they got too warm-although, the temperature limit is one we'd consider freezing cold ourselves. The Five hunted them to extinction for lubricants. They had hammer heads and four arms, plus feet that were like skis.

I do like the ending of that book, how Marco, who's narrating, talks about how they have to make sure the world knew what the Yeerks were doing to innocent beings, and how he describes the Venber suicide run near the end of the book.

Comments

[cleo-eurydike.livejournal.com]

I LOVE SO MUCH ABOUT THIS BOOK
especially just, the way that Ax tells the story and K.A.'s masterful use of omission to build terror and disgust in the reader.

question: does Ax know what happened when the Andalites met the Five? I mean he knows the result, but does he know more? and is he concealing on purpose?

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

I got the impression it was like "we fucked them up bad but we're civilized enough now not to talk about it"

sort of like how some of the ickier parts of American colonization get mysteriously redacted from history books

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

this book contains one of my number of "I'm not okay with this you guys" reactions...it's been a while since I read it, but didn't the Animorphs basically stand there like assholes while the Venber controllers walked into the light and melted themselves? I mean I know we never went TOO DEEP into the "are we guilty of the murder of the hosts when we directly or indirectly kill controllers" whole controversy but there had to have been a better way to handle that

[starz4598.livejournal.com]

The Venber weren't controllers--the Yeerks would have frozen to death in their brains. I feel like it was implied that the Yeerk-created Venber weren't exactly sentient. I reread this book recently, and there is a moment when a human-Controller says that they need to "program the Venber." Also, the part at the end of the book where they continue coming after the Animorphs even after they have melted to only a couple of body parts...it just all sounded very robotic to me.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

ohhh that's why I had a problem with it.

IDK I GUESS I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM WITH LIKE AVATAR, HOW THESE REMOTE-CONTROL DRIVEN BODIES ARE NOT EVEN SUGGESTED TO HAVE SOULS OR CONSCIOUSNESSES OF THEIR OWN? I mean can you imagine someone making a human for the express purpose of being used as a body but then like no one stops and says "um, really?" Like not even Cassie threw a fit about using automatonic unwilled bodies into killing themselves.

and I am normally the last person to be on board with Cassie's irrelevant moralistic tangents, but something about the Venber just felt really icky to me.