- Narrator: Edriss 562
Edriss 562, AKA Visser One, recounts the events that began the Yeerk invasion of Earth.
Tropes:
- Aliens Made Them Do It: Hildy and Allison Kim are forced to have children together by Essam and Edriss.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Despite all of Edriss's posturing, she's left terrified after Marco nearly writes her and Eva off as lost causes, and pleads with him with everything she has.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Edriss never sees Erek, but she does notice that the hologram hiding her and the Animorphs is more advanced than what the Andalites are capable of.
- Becoming the Mask: Edriss and Essam fall into the lives of their human hosts, becoming attached to their human lives and emotions. Edriss eventually closes herself off, but Essam does not.
- Beg the Dog: Faced with an incoming conviction, Visser One resorts to calling Marco and getting him to crash the trial and make her superiors think keeping her alive is necessary. She figures she can use her host body, AKA, Marco's mother, to manipulate him into compliance. To her horror, Marco doesn't take the bait and nearly writes his mother off as a lost cause, only agreeing to help her because her death would leave Visser Three in charge. Visser One tries to express outrage in her narration, but Marco's mother laughs and points out how afraid she is in their shared thoughts.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Allison Kim nearly causes a car accident to kill Edriss along with herself. Edriss is shocked that humans would rather die against impossible odds than surrender like a Yeerk would.
- Bunker Woman: As Edriss and Essam are the only two Yeerks on Earth, any long-time host that they're not currently using is mentioned to be locked up in their hideout.
- Child by Rape: Darwin and Madra, the two kids that Edriss and Essam conceived through their enslaved host bodies, Allison and Hildy.
- Crazy Homeless Person: Hildy becomes this after the brain damage he got from Essam dying in his head. It didn't help that no one on Earth believed him about the impending Yeerk invasion.
- Drugs Are Bad: Edriss is unable to control Jenny Lines's cocaine addiction, even though she finds it distasteful. Jenny herself is so horribly addled by her addiction that she can't even fight Edriss, instead viewing her situation like a TV show she's criticizing.
- Enemy Mine:
- Eva agrees to help Edriss through her trial because her loss means Marco's potential death. Together, they become more competent than Visser One usually is.
- Marco agrees to create a real Andalite bandit attack on the Yeerk pool to discredit Visser Three, because the other option is letting Eva get eaten by Taxxons along with Edriss.
- Entitled Bastard: Edriss expects loyalty for her subordinates, even those whose death she's planning.
- False Flag Operation: Visser Three stages a fight where he sics a starving tiger and bear along with two Hork-Bajir Controllers on himself to make it look like he just defeated the Andalite bandits to the Council of Thirteen. Visser One sees through it and calls Marco to crash the trial and discredit Visser Three.
- Humanity Is Infectious: It doesn't take much for the Council of Thirteen to realize that Edriss and Essam enjoyed pretending to be humans a little too much. Essam enjoyed it to the point of refusing to return to the war. Too bad Edriss feels differently.
- Humans Are Special: Humans are numerous, adaptable, have a varied diet, reproduce quickly, have the intelligence needed to comprehend stolen Andalite technology, and don't have the means to defend themselves from a technologically superior foe. These are the reasons why Edriss believes humans are the most superior host a Yeerk could have.
- If I Can't Have You…: Edriss may deny it, but a good part of her rage towards Essam's betrayal stems from the years they spent masquerading as husband and wife.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Visser Three brings Darwin into the trial to force Edriss to kill him to see if she's loyal to the Yeerk Empire, or not, which would brand her a traitor. The choice becomes moot when the Animorphs crash the party.
- In Love with Love:
- Edriss accuses Essam of this. As Yeerks don't feel love, Essam's only experience with it is what Hildy feels for Allison Kim and the two children they were forced to have. It's still enough for him to betray Edriss for it.
- Edriss herself stole Eva's body to find out what an actual loving human family is like, which speaks volumes about her.
- Lima Syndrome:
- Essam gets too into his role as a human father, knowing full well that Hildy and Allison have no say in their situation. He refuses to rejoin the Yeerk Empire, choosing to die and release Hildy so Allison and the children they had could be safe.
- Edriss gets this to a lesser extent. It's not enough to stop the invasion of Earth, but the real reason for a lack of open war on her orders is because the two children she had with Allision and Hildy/Essam could be caught in the crossfire.
- Mama Bear: Explored in the cases of Edriss, Eva, and Allison.
- Edriss's love for her children is as selfish as she is, ultimately showing that she's a Yeerk warlord operating on stolen biological impulses.
- Eva loves Marco, but can't do anything to help him in her current state. She instead trusts that he'll survive and throw a wrench into the Yeerk's plans.
- Allison is able to fight off Edriss to protect her children, but Edriss eventually uses them as bait to lure Allison to her death.
- More than Mind Control: Edriss theorizes that she can get humans flocking to be infested by Yeerks in droves, which is why she creates The Sharing. Essam is skeptical, until they actually get a recruit who is so into their cult that he willingly allows them to infest him.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Edriss exploits this when she kills off "Lore David Altman", the founder of The Sharing, because she knows humans respect the dead far more than the living.
- No Sympathy: Eva begs Edriss to let her say goodbye to Marco. Edriss is half annoyed, half coldly amused, and just leaves without seeing Marco at all.
- Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: Despite being the Greater Scope Villains that have all the Vissers terrified, the Council of Thirteen argues frequently, and to the point of violence. In fact, they lose two members while coming to a conclusion on what to do about Vissers One and Three.
- Not So Similar: Eva feels a slight kinship with Edriss for some time, as they're both mothers trying to protect their children. Then she realizes that motherhood has not made Edriss less of a monster; if anything, it's made her worse.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Edriss tries emotionally manipulating Marco by telling him his mother loves him. It doesn't work.Marco: I know my mother loves me, Visser. And let me make one thing clear: There’s no deal between us, you and me, Yeerk. I’ll kill you for what you’ve done to her and to my dad. Count on that.
- Unreliable Narrator: The book opens with what appears to be Eva's point of view, seeing and appreciating a domestic home with Peter and Marco. Then the narration mentions a crying voice in her head, revealing that Visser One is the one in charge here.
- Unwanted Rescue: As much as Eva would like to be free, Visser One's death or demotion means Visser Three has free reign over Earth, which would mean an open war the Animorphs can't win. She has to convince Marco to leave her as a Controller so Earth stays intact.
- Villain Protagonist: The narrator of this book is Edriss 562, AKA Visser One.
- Villainous Glutton: Two of the Council of Thirteen have Taxxon hosts, which are obese by Taxxon standards and are constantly being fed fresh meat by Gedd-Controllers. Sometimes, they eat the Gedd-Controllers along with their meals.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Deconstructed. Jake learned through Temrash's memories that Yeerks can't feel love, only friendship and camaraderie. They can only feel love secondhand through hosts like humans, Hork-Bajir, and Andalites. Edriss became obsessed with the feeling, particularly maternal love, and does what she can to preserve it for herself. If her loved ones refuse to love her, she'll just infest them with a Yeerk willing to fill the part.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
- Visser Three kills the two Hork-Bajir Controllers that staged an Andalite bandit attack for him, much to their shock.
- Edriss does this to every host she no longer needs, from her previous Hork-Bajir host, to the soldier, to Jenny Lines, to Allison Kim, and finally to Lawrence Alter. Eventually, she plans to do this to Eva as well.
