#esplin 9466

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Why the hell was V3 such a bad politician and general in Animorphs?

Several things!

He gets put in charge of a planet he doesn't want, while forced to run his rival's playbook. Visser One is responsible for the covert infiltration, The Sharing, recruiting voluntary hosts, etc. Visser Three is a blunt instrument forced into a role that requires restraint and finesse. (Visser)

The reason he's in charge? He's more of a figurehead than a leader. The yeerks want their one and only andalite-controller highly visible, and so they give him an entire campaign — but he doesn't have a record of leadership, and he didn't put in the hard work to get good. (Andalite Chronicles)

Oh, and he's being sabotaged. V1 sends spies to observe and mess with his plans (MM4) because she's livid that he's "lost Earth, despite the fact that [she] handed it over in perfect shape" (#15). No wonder V3 has trust issues.

On top of that, Earth isn't the yeerks' priority. They view it as a slow frontier that will handle itself, where the bulk of their forces are on Leeran and Anati. Think of the U.S. sending its military against Canada in the War of 1812, while largely ignoring its war with the indigenous nations. Or focusing all power on Iraq because the invasion of Afghanistan was going so badly. For the yeerks, Earth is Oregon in 1812 or Afghanistan in 2003; their attention isn't there for 80% of the war because they figure it's a slow conflict of attrition and will sort itself out even without resources.

Almost every yeerk we see is in the worst sort of middle management: V3 gets inspectors (#37) but not a budget (#28), must finish others' projects (#25) but gets his expertise on Earth ignored (Visser). He's a public school teacher who can be punished for an infinite number of (arbitrary) infractions, but can excel all he wants without getting the tools to succeed.

So V3 is still the worst boss imaginable. And he doesn't exactly rise to the challenge of being an amateur general holding the line on a backwater frontier with severely limited resources and a debilitating need for secrecy (i.e. Jake). But he also has a ton of forces working against him, isn't allowed to play to his strengths, and doesn't have either the personal or the material resources to win the day.

[kooldewd123]

the whole "andalite bandit" thing is actually pretty laughable when you take step back and look at it. because when you compare the animorphs' actions to the way that andalites actually act - they don't really do that good a job of selling it. "if we never talk, we won't give them any hints we're human!" meanwhile every single andalite who comes face-to-face with visser three immediately starts cursing him out. "let's fight them with earth animals!" as if any self-respecting andalite warrior (ax included) wouldn't just use his tail blade given the opportunity. "we must never let them see us demorph!" the andalites have basically no reason to worry about hiding their identities - as far as they're concerned, there's no way the yeerks could ever hurt them in a way that matters, anyway.

and the biggest irony of it is that visser three is the single yeerk who should have the easiest time seeing through this, seeing as how he is the yeerk's foremost expert on andalite behavior even ignoring the fact that he is currently infesting one, but he's such an arrogant blowhard that once he gets the idea of "andalite bandits" into his head he absolutely refuses to entertain the notion that he's wrong.

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

Visser Three to Aftran in #29

[axolotlandalite]

Hi I'm here to give you the most niche crossover you've ever seen

I would love any advice from either side of the fandom, it's been a very long time since I've written. I credit my dear friend Rat for drawing this for me

So far there are three chapters of set up, but I plan on writing the juicy parts soon

[pixelsilver]

Welcome to reality, there's no way back

[cyber54prime]

Last Animorphs sketch for now is Visser three

[tsartistry]

did someone say Carnageized Visser Three???

(it was me, I said it)

[brightsuzaku]

My BFF and I have a recurring headcanon that if Visser 3 was a guy, he'd look like Varis zos Galvus Finalfantasy14.

Like, I know he's a Yeerk and is actually a lil gray-green slugboi, but Esplin 9466 has a Zenos personality and he'd have Varis looks, and I cannot purge it from my brain.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Out of all the characters (animorphs, yeerks, and literally everyone else) who would you say is the biggest drama queen? And out of the adults (aliens included) who is the biggest 'manbaby' (toddler in an adult body)

I mean, Visser Three is RIGHT THERE.

A few favorites:

He scanned the room like the Queen of Hearts, looking for someone to behead.

— #33

«Strange place to meet for our final battle, Andalites,» he said. «But battle we must.» That was pretty calm for him. I think maybe the fact that he was the size of a dandruff flake depressed him.

—#24

«You'll lose Leeran for us yet, you half-human fool!» "Like you've already lost Earth, despite the fact I handed it over to you in perfect shape?" It was bizarre. You have to understand that there was a huge, roaring battle going on between my friends and the Hork-Bajir. And I was standing there, having just punched out a Leeran. But all the two vissers seemed to care about was trashing each other.

—#15

[kooldewd123]

Honestly the Hork-Bajir Chronicles gives such an interesting spin on Visser Three's character. He comes off as a bit of an arrogant buffoon most of the time, but actually getting a look at where he started, it's easy to see why. He's surprisingly smart, but insanely ambitious, and the latter tends to overtake the former. He researches Andalites endlessly before getting a proper host body, and seems like the most tactically knowledgeable Yeerk among his crew. And the big thing is - he keeps getting proven right. He knows that destroying Seerow's scoop is foolhardy. He starts out with a silent invasion of the Hork-Bajir, but his pivot to a guns-blazing attack is a major factor in their eventual victory. He successfully predicts Aldrea's actions multiple times and would have infested her had his ambition not gotten the better of him. And later, in the Andalite Chronicles, he quickly analyzes Elfangor's weakness and is able to exploit them to misdirect him and finally infest an Andalite, which was his goal from the very beginning. But because he's been right so many times, his arrogance has become so overinflated that by the time the main series actually starts, he can't even begin to fathom the idea that he's wrong.

[brightsuzaku]

THIS THIS THIS THIS

Though to be fair, Esplin 9466 did stand trial at the Hague, and was convicted as a war criminal so even if he didn't attend the Geneva Convention, he's.... He's still a war criminal!

“that character is a war criminal” that character is from a fictional fantasy world and did not attend the geneva convention

[clitoris-maximus]

tobias and HIS MOM!! VISSER THREE IS HIS MOM.

basically just a like what if visser actually did adopt tobias in that one book

[princeseerow]

animorphs #2: the visitor: ch. 14 - 17

oh, yeerk names... i know applegate changed her mind at least once regarding what a yeerk's number means (looking at you, the capture), but if we ignore temrash and his promotion, i think calling iniss 174 "of the second century" can make sense if you assume two things: that a "century" is akin to a generation, and that iniss' number designation means that was the 174th yeerk hatched/whatever in his pool (with numbers 001 - 098 being the first century). also i like to imagine that iniss is just a particularly common name for yeerks. maybe mrs. chapman's yeerk is also an iniss. inisses, inisses, all around...

god, poor melissa. she thinks her own parents don't even love her anymore.

its honestly quite bothering me how much of a throughline in this book is "the other kids constantly question and undermine rachel's point of view", first with that adult man harassing her on the street and now to the point where they bug her (get it) because they dont trust her going into the chapmans' home alone. it sets up her future character development well but damn guys have a little faith her.

i went on a much longer rant about this originally until i remembered i'm terrible at articulating my thoughts. anyway, moral of the story is, tobias doesn't give a fuck about melissa either (/j)

also why is jake so surprised that visser three wants iniss to kill fluffer. the yeerk pool JUST got attacked by a bunch of wild animals so of course he would be extremely wary of animals. "guy who wants you dead says he wants you dead??" yeah dude no shit

also also im dying to know how jake's flea acquiring side quest went

ok wait visser three also using the term "controllers" is really messing with me. i mean i know elfangor did it first in book 1 but it's still weird.

[orodrethsgeek]

Inside you there are two wolves. One of them wants to see Alloran safe and cared for and given so much therapy oh my god someone get my man some therapy. The other one adores Esplin “Andalites are my passion” 9466 prime and thinks he deserves to have the body he wants, as a treat.

That’s how the quote goes, right?

[brightsuzaku]

I'M CRACKING UP BECAUSE MY BEST FRIEND AND I MAKE THIS SAME EXACT JOKE

V3 has the rank of like, a fleet admiral, but he really really does just act like, I dunno, Sub-Visser 69 or something

He REALLY IS just *like this*

“average yeerk murders 3 subordinates a year" factoid actually just statistical error, average yeerk murders 0 subordinates per year. Decapitations Esplin, who has an andalite host and kills over 10,000 each day, is an outlier and should not have been counted

[waffle-sorter]

Question is, is it just to try Esplin 9466 for war crimes?

Granted that he and/or his subordinates are clearly depicted doing every "grave breach" on the list. Certainly the yeerks would, at the least, be familiar with the concept by the time the series started. And by the end they certainly had access to specifics.

But the Yeerk Empire isn't a signatory to any relevant treaties with any Earth nation. Further, there was no declaration of war (in either direction) and little armed conflict until very late in the game.