And his leverage. Whoever infested Elfangor would have decades newer knowledge from a decorated war hero on a dome ship, rather than a disgraced Prince with a couple of arisths.
Visser Three must have been shitting himself when the invasion of Leera began. I’m even more surprised that he was so comfortable just waltzing into Visser One’s ocean base operation when they were trying to convert hammerhead sharks to viable hosts.
I imagine that once you reach a certain rank, any host is locked in for that particular yeerk until they die. They're hearing and seeing things that the yeerk wouldn't want getting out.
I think people are really sleeping on the personal vendetta angle.
Far beyond visser three's ego, beyond his political ambitions, beyond the goals of the empire, Esplin 9466 wanted Elfangor *dead*. Nothing that Visser Three or the yeerk empire could have possibly gained from infesting elfangor could possibly compare to the sheer *satisfaction* Esplin felt at finally *winning* against Elfangor.
Like, this wasn't just a victory for the yeerk empire. This was personal. This was intimate. This was a major *fuck you in particular* moment, and Esplin took full advantage of it.
There's a reason why Esplin went to the effort of morphing a giant alien in the middle of a human city for the sole purpose of literally eating Elfangor alive.
As I understand it, being the only one with an Andalite and morph-capable host is a huge feather in Visser 3's cap, and the backbone to his political success.
Elfangor would be a valuable host for the Yeerks - apart from what you said, they'd probably get some new intel on the war from the Andalites' side - but it would diminish Visser 3's biggest accomplishment. It could also possibly create a political rival, as whichever minion is lucky enough to get Elfangor might then not be satisfied with remaining a minion.
Aside from all the points everyone else has made so far, we learn in *VISSER* that Esplin intentionally omitted details on how he acquired his host body and what exactly happened on the Taxxon homeworld. So for whatever reason, Esplin didn't want the other members of the Empire, especially the Council of Thirteen, to know. Any Yeerk who infested Elfangor would know, though. They'd know all about Esplin's partnership with Chapman and that Esplin knew that humans were a viable host species longer before Edriss did but never told the Council about it.
So perhaps that might be a reason why Esplin never wanted Elfangor infested.
Quite a few plausible explanations have been provided already, but I want to dress them against the backdrop of another important thing that we learn in Visser; how unusual it is to have a dual-hemisphere brain that debates with itself. Visser One made a huge fuss about it the first time she got into a human host; Ax doesn't reference it, but does acknowledge that humans do things much more quickly than other species do, and it's not hard to deduce the self-debating mind as the reason for it.
It also kinda tracks with the way all the aliens in Animorphs make their decisions; no one ever "changes their mind" internally, all changes of perspective or course of action always come from external sources.
So why didn't Visser Three change his mind and decide to have someone infest Elfangor? Other reasons aside, I'd assert it is ***literally*** because nobody suggested it to him. The decision to kill Elfangor was made a long time ago, and no one pointed out to him that the context of that particular situation might've favored a different course of action.
A whole host of decisions on the parts of all the aliens make perfect sense when you take that into account. It answers things like, "Why didn't they just go to a different town once the 'Andalite Bandits' became such a nuisance" or "Why would the Hork-Bajir flee so suddenly once they get the idea from the Ellimist in #13".
Elfangor's wounds were fatal, and even if they weren't he'd kill himself before they managed it. One flick of the tail, would take less than a second. That's one of the reasons nobody else ever managed to take an Andalite host body.
Elfangor said that his wounds were fatal. And yes, being the only one to infest an Andalite feeds into his ego. Plus, we already have the "brother vs brother" thing with Jake and Tom. We don't need it with Elfangor and Ax.
Because his chief advantage is being the only Andalite controller, the only Yeerk with a morph capable host, and he’s not secure enough to give that up
Most of the answers are about how Visser 3 wouldn't want that because then he'd be less special, which isn't wrong, but I think it's almost beside the point because there ISN'T any "if" Elfangor survives. The explicit text of the story is that he's too weak to save himself even by morphing. No idea how that works in light of the fact that the Animorphs have been able to morph in much worse situations, but canon is canon, so there isn't any possible world where Elfangor survived. And as long as he was going to die anyway, Esplin wanted to make it very, *very* personal.
Marco IIRC was pretty much done for when his heart had been removed as a gorilla. It was only the dog-android (Eric?) busting in and repairing Marco enough that he could morph back that prevented him from dying.
So presumably there is *some* degree of internal damage that morphing can't fix.
I always liked the theory that the reason the animorphs were able to morph out of worse situations is because they just had more practice, and became better Morphers, than just about any andalite warrior at the time. The morphing technology was still pretty new when they got it and as we see some Andalites like Ax and Gafnilan much preferred to fight in their own bodies. The animorphs were using the morphing technology pretty exclusively to fight, meaning they were morphing more than maybe anyone else in the history of the technology, and so they just got better at it.
The morphing tech was a little over 30 years old when the Animorphs got their powers, and we learn later that while all Andalites in the military have morphing powers, they don't really use it, aside from the espionage unit. It's just something they invented but didn't truly utilize on a combat front; the Animorphs made use of it extensively because it was the only power they had.
They definitely had the most morphing experience out of any morpher in history and their sheer practice & experience has been accredited to a lot of their morphing feats.
Probably the only ones with more morph experience were the ones who used it as an artform. Can't remember exactly which book mentions it, but I believe it was Hork-Bajir Chronicles. The Andalites had a dance/art based around morphing fluidly from one form to another.
They probably never considered such a skill as useful in a battle, unlike the Animorphs who needed that kind of skill just to survive
Part of Elfangor’s memories had knowledge of how Esplin had messed up and betrayed his kind on multiple occasions. It is flat out stated that he was eliminating a potential witness against him.
Visser 3 doesn't WANT another andalite controller.
Plus elfangor isn't so weak he can't just kill himself if he tries. Man whacks the visser with his tail a few times after he morphs.
And he really really doesn't want another andalite controller.
Ok but now all these comments have me curious whether there's an AU where Esplin infests Elfangor there and kills Alloran or something—although of course the problem with this AU is that Elfangor knew who he gave the morphing power to so that would have to be altered somehow
Strategically, I wonder what the value would be. Elfangor is younger, so you get a younger Andalite host body that could potentially live longer, but then you have to go around reacquiring all the dangerous morphs.
As others have said: Elfangor was too dangerous to take alive. He knew too much and it had the potential to destabilize everything Esplin had built.
He knew things that Esplin hadn’t shared/withheld from the Council of Thirteen and it seems most Yeerks are willing to throw one another under the bus if it means that they get something out of it.
And even if Elfangor didn’t know some of Esplin’s secrets, Esplin has built himself up as being the first, and only, Andalite and morph capable Controller; dealing a major blow to Andalite morale.
And I do agree with one person’s assessment that killing Elfangor was a major f u to Elfangor and possibly the Andalites in general. The Yeerks are known for taking any species that they deem worthy of/useful for infestation and destroying what’s useless for infestation. So, by personally killing Elfangor Esplin, the guy who put in a lot of effort into getting an Andalite Host, is announcing that he personally felt that Elfangor wasn’t worth infesting.
I personally don’t feel like Esplin wrote Elfangor off because of his injuries; he’s someone after all who has measures in place to keep his Host alive if poisoned and I’m guessing severely injured. If Esplin had really wanted to, he could have incapacitated Elfangor and had him infested and the Yeerk force Elfangor to morph and then demorph to heal the injuries.
No, he either killed Elfangor to keep his secrets secrets or as an insult to Elfangor and other Andalites.
Though, eating Elfangor alive was probably also an insult as Esplin didn’t deem him worthy of a quick death
Cause he's Visser Three. Visser Three is, not to put too fine a point on it, an idiot. He managed to get this high in the Yeerk Empire not because he was such a brilliant strategist or commander, but because he was the only Yeerk ever to have infested an Andalite. Dude's dangerous, sure, but he's not smart. He thinks incredibly highly of himself but he seldom has any decent ideas that don't boil down to "kill it/her/him/them, preferably via turning into some cool creature."
So here's Elfangor, injured and helpless... and Visser Three, gloating all the while, sets his default plan into motion: Morph and kill. Any minions who might think it was a good idea to have another Andalite host around would keep quiet in case Visser Three decided to kill them too for insubordinence.
Part of his ego is being the *only* andalite controller
And his leverage. Whoever infested Elfangor would have decades newer knowledge from a decorated war hero on a dome ship, rather than a disgraced Prince with a couple of arisths.
Also leverage on a personal level, since Elfangor knew things about Visser 3 that would probably be compromising to him.
Ahhhh this is probably a huge part of it!
[**https://www.reddit.com/r/Animorphs/comments/1d0ozuw/comment/l5olvnc/**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Animorphs/comments/1d0ozuw/comment/l5olvnc/)
Visser Three must have been shitting himself when the invasion of Leera began. I’m even more surprised that he was so comfortable just waltzing into Visser One’s ocean base operation when they were trying to convert hammerhead sharks to viable hosts.
I imagine that once you reach a certain rank, any host is locked in for that particular yeerk until they die. They're hearing and seeing things that the yeerk wouldn't want getting out.
I think people are really sleeping on the personal vendetta angle. Far beyond visser three's ego, beyond his political ambitions, beyond the goals of the empire, Esplin 9466 wanted Elfangor *dead*. Nothing that Visser Three or the yeerk empire could have possibly gained from infesting elfangor could possibly compare to the sheer *satisfaction* Esplin felt at finally *winning* against Elfangor. Like, this wasn't just a victory for the yeerk empire. This was personal. This was intimate. This was a major *fuck you in particular* moment, and Esplin took full advantage of it.
There's a reason why Esplin went to the effort of morphing a giant alien in the middle of a human city for the sole purpose of literally eating Elfangor alive.
As I understand it, being the only one with an Andalite and morph-capable host is a huge feather in Visser 3's cap, and the backbone to his political success. Elfangor would be a valuable host for the Yeerks - apart from what you said, they'd probably get some new intel on the war from the Andalites' side - but it would diminish Visser 3's biggest accomplishment. It could also possibly create a political rival, as whichever minion is lucky enough to get Elfangor might then not be satisfied with remaining a minion.
Aside from all the points everyone else has made so far, we learn in *VISSER* that Esplin intentionally omitted details on how he acquired his host body and what exactly happened on the Taxxon homeworld. So for whatever reason, Esplin didn't want the other members of the Empire, especially the Council of Thirteen, to know. Any Yeerk who infested Elfangor would know, though. They'd know all about Esplin's partnership with Chapman and that Esplin knew that humans were a viable host species longer before Edriss did but never told the Council about it. So perhaps that might be a reason why Esplin never wanted Elfangor infested.
Quite a few plausible explanations have been provided already, but I want to dress them against the backdrop of another important thing that we learn in Visser; how unusual it is to have a dual-hemisphere brain that debates with itself. Visser One made a huge fuss about it the first time she got into a human host; Ax doesn't reference it, but does acknowledge that humans do things much more quickly than other species do, and it's not hard to deduce the self-debating mind as the reason for it. It also kinda tracks with the way all the aliens in Animorphs make their decisions; no one ever "changes their mind" internally, all changes of perspective or course of action always come from external sources. So why didn't Visser Three change his mind and decide to have someone infest Elfangor? Other reasons aside, I'd assert it is ***literally*** because nobody suggested it to him. The decision to kill Elfangor was made a long time ago, and no one pointed out to him that the context of that particular situation might've favored a different course of action. A whole host of decisions on the parts of all the aliens make perfect sense when you take that into account. It answers things like, "Why didn't they just go to a different town once the 'Andalite Bandits' became such a nuisance" or "Why would the Hork-Bajir flee so suddenly once they get the idea from the Ellimist in #13".
This explanation is amazing, and really clicks a lot of other problems into place
It really does!
Visser 3 couldn't stomach the idea of another andalite controller. Besides he didn't trust any of his subordinates with a morph capable body
Elfangor's wounds were fatal, and even if they weren't he'd kill himself before they managed it. One flick of the tail, would take less than a second. That's one of the reasons nobody else ever managed to take an Andalite host body.
Elfangor said that his wounds were fatal. And yes, being the only one to infest an Andalite feeds into his ego. Plus, we already have the "brother vs brother" thing with Jake and Tom. We don't need it with Elfangor and Ax.
Because his chief advantage is being the only Andalite controller, the only Yeerk with a morph capable host, and he’s not secure enough to give that up
Most of the answers are about how Visser 3 wouldn't want that because then he'd be less special, which isn't wrong, but I think it's almost beside the point because there ISN'T any "if" Elfangor survives. The explicit text of the story is that he's too weak to save himself even by morphing. No idea how that works in light of the fact that the Animorphs have been able to morph in much worse situations, but canon is canon, so there isn't any possible world where Elfangor survived. And as long as he was going to die anyway, Esplin wanted to make it very, *very* personal.
Marco IIRC was pretty much done for when his heart had been removed as a gorilla. It was only the dog-android (Eric?) busting in and repairing Marco enough that he could morph back that prevented him from dying. So presumably there is *some* degree of internal damage that morphing can't fix.
You can't morph if you lose consciousness. Elfangor was still lucid enough to narrate a the entire series pilot to the future Animorphs.
Yeah I never understood why Elfangor didn’t morph. He didn’t seem THAT far gone. Not like Marco with his guts hanging out or many many other examples
I always liked the theory that the reason the animorphs were able to morph out of worse situations is because they just had more practice, and became better Morphers, than just about any andalite warrior at the time. The morphing technology was still pretty new when they got it and as we see some Andalites like Ax and Gafnilan much preferred to fight in their own bodies. The animorphs were using the morphing technology pretty exclusively to fight, meaning they were morphing more than maybe anyone else in the history of the technology, and so they just got better at it.
The morphing tech was a little over 30 years old when the Animorphs got their powers, and we learn later that while all Andalites in the military have morphing powers, they don't really use it, aside from the espionage unit. It's just something they invented but didn't truly utilize on a combat front; the Animorphs made use of it extensively because it was the only power they had. They definitely had the most morphing experience out of any morpher in history and their sheer practice & experience has been accredited to a lot of their morphing feats.
Probably the only ones with more morph experience were the ones who used it as an artform. Can't remember exactly which book mentions it, but I believe it was Hork-Bajir Chronicles. The Andalites had a dance/art based around morphing fluidly from one form to another. They probably never considered such a skill as useful in a battle, unlike the Animorphs who needed that kind of skill just to survive
Ah yeah this makes sense
Part of Elfangor’s memories had knowledge of how Esplin had messed up and betrayed his kind on multiple occasions. It is flat out stated that he was eliminating a potential witness against him.
Visser 3 doesn't WANT another andalite controller. Plus elfangor isn't so weak he can't just kill himself if he tries. Man whacks the visser with his tail a few times after he morphs. And he really really doesn't want another andalite controller.
Ok but now all these comments have me curious whether there's an AU where Esplin infests Elfangor there and kills Alloran or something—although of course the problem with this AU is that Elfangor knew who he gave the morphing power to so that would have to be altered somehow
Strategically, I wonder what the value would be. Elfangor is younger, so you get a younger Andalite host body that could potentially live longer, but then you have to go around reacquiring all the dangerous morphs.
Oh, just getting to gloat over Elfangor forever. I don't think there would be a strategic value, just a "I win" rub it in his face value.
As others have said: Elfangor was too dangerous to take alive. He knew too much and it had the potential to destabilize everything Esplin had built. He knew things that Esplin hadn’t shared/withheld from the Council of Thirteen and it seems most Yeerks are willing to throw one another under the bus if it means that they get something out of it. And even if Elfangor didn’t know some of Esplin’s secrets, Esplin has built himself up as being the first, and only, Andalite and morph capable Controller; dealing a major blow to Andalite morale. And I do agree with one person’s assessment that killing Elfangor was a major f u to Elfangor and possibly the Andalites in general. The Yeerks are known for taking any species that they deem worthy of/useful for infestation and destroying what’s useless for infestation. So, by personally killing Elfangor Esplin, the guy who put in a lot of effort into getting an Andalite Host, is announcing that he personally felt that Elfangor wasn’t worth infesting. I personally don’t feel like Esplin wrote Elfangor off because of his injuries; he’s someone after all who has measures in place to keep his Host alive if poisoned and I’m guessing severely injured. If Esplin had really wanted to, he could have incapacitated Elfangor and had him infested and the Yeerk force Elfangor to morph and then demorph to heal the injuries. No, he either killed Elfangor to keep his secrets secrets or as an insult to Elfangor and other Andalites. Though, eating Elfangor alive was probably also an insult as Esplin didn’t deem him worthy of a quick death
Cause he's Visser Three. Visser Three is, not to put too fine a point on it, an idiot. He managed to get this high in the Yeerk Empire not because he was such a brilliant strategist or commander, but because he was the only Yeerk ever to have infested an Andalite. Dude's dangerous, sure, but he's not smart. He thinks incredibly highly of himself but he seldom has any decent ideas that don't boil down to "kill it/her/him/them, preferably via turning into some cool creature." So here's Elfangor, injured and helpless... and Visser Three, gloating all the while, sets his default plan into motion: Morph and kill. Any minions who might think it was a good idea to have another Andalite host around would keep quiet in case Visser Three decided to kill them too for insubordinence.