Character
Visser Three is a cruel and unforgiving character. He has a short temper, and often shows extreme arrogance. At times, this works as an advantage to his enemies, as they can exploit this weakness in his character by predicting his actions.
Due to his dangerous temper and lack of tolerance for what he sees as insolence, Visser Three's subordinates constantly live in fear of his wrath and are careful to avoid questioning his orders or beliefs. Early on, some of his subordinates believed that the "Andalite bandits" (the Yeerks' term for the Animorphs) may in fact be humans, due to such clues as a pair of jeans floating in the sea after a confrontation by a beach. However, due to their fear of the Visser's intolerance and possible wrath, they choose not to question his beliefs (he believed that the Animorphs could only be Andalites given his belief that the Andalites would never pass on technology, especially the morphing capability, to other life-forms, especially after "Seerow's Kindness" that unleashed the Yeerk Empire), which possibly prolonged the time that the Animorphs were able to pass undetected in plain view as their human selves. Visser One once commented on Visser Three's reputation for killing subordinates, saying that he had killed them "by the poolful."
Visser Three is also a vastly ambitious character. From the very beginning as a Sub-Visser he dreamed of perhaps one day becoming Visser One, or even having a spot on the Council of Thirteen. He was the only Yeerk ever to have taken an Andalite host body, which resulted in his inevitable rise through the ranks as he became best known as Visser Three. His ability to manipulate his superiors and survive any situation gave him the power necessary to achieve his ambitions.
Visser Three can be very aggressive, blindly running into battles, while alternating at times by being passive and thoughtful. During the first part of his life, he studied the Andalites in meticulous detail. When the Yeerk squadron were flying over Seerow's house in the Hork-Bajir homeworld, the then Sub-Visser told them not to fire until the fourth Andalite (Aldrea) was within the vicinity, knowing from his studies that Andalites never stay inside structures unless they have to. The impatient Yeerks fire, however, leading to Aldrea's resistance that ultimately slows down the Yeerks' invasion of the planet. Esplin becomes obsessed with possessing the last Andalite; he'd fallen in love with her. He takes it upon himself to attain her, culminating in his downfall.
He has been known to work with his enemies when the situation calls for it, such as when he and the 'Andalite bandits' had been shrunk by the Helmacrons (#24) and when they were trapped in the underwater Nartek city and dependent upon a Yeerk submarine to escape when all of the Yeerk crew were dead (#36), although each side knew that they could not trust the other and ignored their temporary alliance once the situation turned one way or the other. However, Visser Three underestimates the humans, often favouring brutal force instead of a careful and studied approach, which ultimately leads to his downfall and the loss of the Earth invasion.
Visser Three is highly arrogant, believing in his own power and constantly using new morphs to somewhat "show them off" when he battles the Animorphs when he already has plenty of other useful morphs for combat. Despite this, he also has shown some respect for the Animorphs, complimenting Jake in particular on his tiger morph and enjoying the simultaneous beauty and lethality of the creature. When the Animorphs attack an Inspector reporting on Visser's Three invasion of Earth, Visser Three challenges the Inspector to kill them himself, and watches patiently as they kill the Inspector and makes no attempt to stop them as they escape.
At the end of the book series, Visser Three accepts his defeat with relative grace, deciding to let the Animorphs capture him ("any punishment you inflict would be nothing compared to what the Council of Thirteen would do"). He cooperates with their demands and does not deny their accusations, abandoning his host body and submitting to a trial by the United Nations and hostless incarceration in the United States.
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