Tobias

Tobias is a fictional character from the sci-fi book series Animorphs written by K.A. Applegate. His surname is never mentioned, but had the Ellimist not altered time in order to take his father, Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, back to his old life, his full name would have been Tobias Fangor, the family name adopted by Elfangor when he assumed a human identity on Earth.

Biography

Tobias is one of the original five Animorphs. In the first book, Tobias is trapped in the Yeerk pool and becomes a red-tailed hawk nothlit (a morph-trapped creature) as a result of staying in morph for longer than the two-hour time limit in order to keep the Animorphs' identities as humans secret. Initially, the other Animorphs perceive Tobias' actions to be a selfless sacrifice. It is implied, and later suspected by the other Animorphs, that Tobias trapped himself as a hawk deliberately. (In the first book, he makes no effort to keep track of time while in morph and seemingly does not care about the two hour limit, only demorphing when pressured to by the other Animorphs.)

In the book The Change, the Ellimist restores his power to morph. However, as the Ellimist does not also restore Tobias' human form as his normal body, Tobias' normal form remains that of the hawk, from which he is able to morph to any other animal, including his original human form. The Ellimist makes the human morph possible by sending Tobias, still in his red-tailed hawk form, into an illusion in which he encountered his human form the day before the Animorphs gained their morphing ability. This occurs at the end of The Change. The Ellimist's intervention gives Tobias the chance to return to life as a human, but he chooses to continue living as a morph-capable hawk, explained by the others as a need to stay in the fight. However, as the series progresses, it becomes apparent that in many ways Tobias prefers his life as a hawk to his life as a human.

Because of Tobias' dual existence as both a hawk and a human, his friends sometimes call him "bird-boy". Tobias' narrations contain many thoughts on his internal conflict between his human and hawk sides. In the third book, Tobias begins to fear that he is losing his humanity when he begins to forget how he looked as a human and finds himself attracted to a female hawk. When morphing to human, Tobias does at times encounter problems; in The Pretender, for example, he briefly forgets how to make facial expressions.

Among the group, Tobias is closest to Rachel and Ax. After becoming a nothlit, he lives in the forest as a hawk along with Ax. He has a crush on Rachel during the early books and they become romantically involved later on in the series.

Before he became a nothlit, Tobias lived variously with an uncle in the other Animorphs' home town and with an aunt on the other coast. Neither ever really cared about the boy, often not paying attention to him or just using him as free labor, and they never tried to find him after his "disappearance". His parents were believed to be dead, but towards the end of the series it was revealed that Tobias's mother, Loren, was still alive and blind. Tobias's true father was Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, the Andalite who gave the Animorphs their powers. Because the Ellimist had wiped out all evidence of Elfangor's time on Earth, Tobias and the Animorphs were unaware of Tobias' lineage, until Visser Three got his hands on Elfangor's will in The Pretender. Loren and Tobias were reunited towards the end of the series, though Loren never quite remembered her son or Elfangor, due to a case of amnesia. Tobias' surname is often assumed by fans to be Fangor, but it's quite likely that he had his mother's maiden name instead, due to the Ellimist altering the timeline to remove Elfangor from Earth.

None of the Animorphs' birthdays are ever mentioned apart from Tobias' in The Pretender. Based on the dates mentioned, what the weather was like at the time in the book, cultural references and what day of the week it was, a reasonable guess can be made. From this information, Tobias' birthday is most likely 25th June, 1983. His 14th birthday was the birthday mentioned in The Pretender.

Before the war, Tobias was a loser without any friends, and often the target of bullies. He had some hero-worship towards Jake, because Jake once stopped some bullies from beating him up. He had a pet cat named Dude, which was his first morph and the first morph of the Animorphs.

In Megamorphs #4: Back to Before, an alternate reality scenario, Tobias' low self-esteem leads to him joining The Sharing and becoming a Controller. Besides the fact that The Sharing stops him from being bullied, one of his main reasons for doing so was the fact that he saw Jake attending a meeting at Tom's insistence and figured that if they both got involved in The Sharing, then he could become a "winner" like Jake.

After the war, Tobias completely withdraws from the rest of the world, distraught by Rachel's death and unable to forgive Jake for his role in her death. He only rejoins the other Animorphs (minus Cassie) after finding out about Ax's capture by The One.

Relationships with the other Animorphs

• Jake: Tobias and Jake are casual acquaintances before the series began, after Jake saved Tobias from a group of bullies. Tobias has a deep respect for Jake and rarely challenges his decisions or leadership during the series. However, Tobias is never able to forgive Jake for sacrificing Rachel in the final battle.
• Rachel: It is implied that Rachel and Tobias were acquainted before the start of the series, although they don't really know each other. Tobias has a crush on Rachel right from the beginning, and their romance develops into a strong relationship over the course of the series. Rachel's death drives Tobias into depression and seclusion.
• Cassie: Tobias and Cassie rarely interact, and did not appear to be close.
• Marco: Initially Marco and Tobias seem largely indifferent or opposed to each other, with Marco making a few jibes at Tobias, but they develop a bond over the course of the series.
• Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill: Ax and Tobias share a close bond, though interestingly, this is emphasized more in Ax's narrations than Tobias'. Ax regards Tobias as his shorm (best friend), and Ax is revealed to be Tobias' uncle mid-way through the series.

Family

• Father Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, an Andalite who deliberately became a human nothlit to escape the war and live with Loren on Earth and his son Tobias. The Ellimist interfered with his timeline, leaving his memories intact but restoring his Andalite body and his position in the war effort. Loren and the young Tobias remained on Earth.
• Mother Loren Rescued from the Skrit Na by Elfangor, she later married him. A car crash somewhere in Tobias' early life left her blind and destroyed her long-term memories prior to that point. She chose not to continue caring for Tobias, believing she wasn't suitable to take care of him due to the amnesia, though she remained living a short distance from him. She performed volunteer work at a crisis hotline. Later on in the series, she is found by Tobias and given the morphing power, which restored her sight. She then went to live in the Hork-Bajir valley.
• Uncle Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, Elfangor's younger brother, who joined the Animorphs after a battle which claimed the lives of all the other Andalites on his ship. Ax once mentions that he is Tobias' uncle "by human standards," implying that in Andalite culture this relationship may not be important (though in The Andalite's Gift, Ax claims that his "uncles" will come for him when captured by the veleek, "uncle" possibly being the Andalite word for "god"). The two were very close friends (or shorms in Andalite culture) even before discovering their relationship, in part because both are, in a way, "outsiders" among the Animorphs.
• Unknown Aunt and Uncle: Became Tobias' legal guardians after Loren's incapacitation. Each had little affection for him and would frequently try to pass responsibility for him onto the other. Neither has looked for Tobias since his disappearance, apparently content with the assumption that the other is minding him. Loren mentions the aunt as her sister, though she doesn't really remember her; the uncle's relationship to the family is unknown.
• Grandparents Noorlin-Sirinial-Cooraf and Forlay-Esgarrouth-Maheen, Elfangor's parents, whom Tobias has never met.

Tobias's morphs

Including unusable and unused morphs, Tobias has 36 potential morphs.

Books

Books narrated solely by Tobias include:

• The Encounter
• The Change
• The Pretender
• The Illusion
• The Test
• The Diversion

Tobias also takes part in the narration of:

• The Andalite's Gift
• In the Time of Dinosaurs
• Elfangor's Secret
• Back to Before
• The Hork-Bajir Chronicles
• The Beginning

Toys

In 1999 three different Transformers toys of Tobias were made. Two of the larger ones that were sold in stores turned into a Hawk and a much larger "Mega Hawk", while the third was one was a smaller transformer was part of a Taco Bell children's meal promotion and was a clear white hawk with a yellow human "soul" trapped inside. KFC also ran a promotion in which a hawk-shaped glider and a watch clutched by a shape that was roughly half human hand, half hawk talon.^[1]

References