Tobias the quiet loner of the Animorphs and a red-tailed hawknothlit (person trapped in morph). Although he regained the ability to morph and thus was no longer trapped in a morph, his true form became that of the hawk's.
General Information[]
Full Name: Tobias Fangor
Nick Name(s): Bird-Boy
Gender: Male
Age: 13 - 16 (Series Time Span)
Personality: Quiet. Mysterious.
Battle Morph: Hawk (Nothlit form/himself)
Best Friend: Ax (shorm)
Girlfriend: Rachel
Pronunciation: TOE-BYE-US
Biography[]
Tobias is the quiet and thoughtful loner of these Animorphs. He was a nothlit, trapped in a body of a red-tailed hawk after he passed the 2-hour time limit while in morph.
Before the war, Tobias was a shy dreamer somewhat detached from the world. He was kind and gentle, and very unpopular at school and a bully magnet. He lived with his uncle, who was not very fond of him and he often got thrown between him and his uncaring aunt on the other coast. The only time he felt happy was when he was with his friend and mother-figure Professor Powers. Not very happy with his life, Tobias found meaning in the war. For the first time he felt like he had something worth fighting for, and he was particularly motivated by Elfangor's death. Tobias also found freedom in the power to morph. He became enraptured with the hawk morph, where he could just fly away from his human problems.The other Animorphs recognized Tobias' attachment to the hawk morph, and Jake warned him of the time limit. However, at the end of The Invasion Tobias is forced to remain in morph for over two hours during a mission. The other Animorphs sometimes speculate if Tobias trapped himself on purpose, as an excuse to escape his terrible 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. A common issue that arises is his need to hunt and kill to survive. The ruthless nature of the hawk contrasts with the more caring nature of human Tobias. Tobias sometimes wonders if he is losing his humanity because of this.
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.
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 in the series.
Before he became a nothlit, Tobias lived at times with an uncle in the other Animorphs' home town and at times 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. Elfangor was on Earth as a human nothlit hiding under the name Alan Fangor, which was shortened to Al Fangor. 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. Loren and Tobias were reunited towards the end of the series, though Loren never quite remembered her son or Elfangor, due to 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.
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 it. 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, while Jake respects Tobias's own strength; he once even nominated Tobias as the one to make a judgment call when he, Marco and Ax were out on an independent survey mission. However, Tobias was 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 didn't really know each other. Tobias has an implied crush on Rachel right from the beginning, and their romance develops into a strong relationship over the course of the series. This is because of the fact that Tobias' being a predator shares a common nature with Rachel's blood-thirstiness, while Tobias's ability to hold on to his compassion despite his need to kill to feed helps Rachel do the same. Rachel's death drives Tobias into depression and seclusion.
- Cassie: Tobias and Cassie are similar in their kind natures and understanding of animals. Although they don't interact often, they are friends.
- 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 midway through the series.
Morphs[]
Battle Morphs: Himself (Red Tailed Hawk), Andalite, and Hork-Bajir
Raptor Morphs: Himself
| Morph | Book Acquired |
|---|---|
| Dude (House Cat) (unusable) | The Invasion |
| Red-Tailed Hawk (trapped; nothlit) | |
| Parrot (Unusable, Sario Rip morph) | The First Journey |
| Chameleon (Unusable, Sario Rip morph) | |
| Raccoon | The Change |
| Hork-Bajir (Ket Halpak) | |
| Human (himself; acquired via time-traveling) | |
| Racehorse | The Unknown |
| Dolphin | The Escape |
| Hammerhead Shark | |
| Fly | The Warning |
| Mole | The Underground |
| Bat | |
| Mosquito | The Decision |
| Deinonychus (Unusable, Sario Rip morph) | In the Time of Dinosaurs |
| Seagull | The Threat |
| African Elephant | The Solution |
| Flea | The Pretender |
| Rabbit | |
| Anteater | The Suspicion |
| Baby Seal | The Extreme |
| Polar Bear | |
| Sperm Whale | The Exposed |
| Giant Squid | |
| Chimpanzee | The Experiment |
| Eel | The Sickness |
| Cockroach | The Reunion |
| Mountain Goat | |
| Andalite (Ax) | The Illusion |
| Squirrel | The Proposal |
| Cockatiel | |
| Orca Whale | The Mutation |
| Male Nartec Warrior | |
| Cheetah | The Weakness |
| Honey Bee | The Other |
| Human (Taylor) | The Test |
| Taxxon | |
| Male Navy Sailor | The Deception |
| Beaver | The Resistance |
| German Shepherd (Champ) | The Diversion |
| Mallard Duck | The Absolute |
He has 36 usable morphs. He has 39 morphs in total. This doesn't count for the noncanon morphs (the morphs he acquires in The First Journey.)
Books Narrated By Tobias[]
- #3 The Encounter
- Megamorphs #1 The Andalite's Gift
- #13 The Change
- Megamorphs #2 In the Time of Dinosaurs
- #23 The Pretender
- The Hork-Bajir Chronicles
- Megamorphs #3 Elfangor's Secret
- #33 The Illusion
- Megamorphs #4 Back to Before
- #43 The Test
- #49 The Diversion
- #54 The Beginning
Trivia[]
- 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 part of a Taco Bell children's meal promotion and was a smaller, 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.
- 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 would stop him from being bullied, one of his main reasons for doing so was the fact that he saw Jake attending a meeting atTom 's insistence and figured that if they both got involved in The Sharing, then he could become a "winner" like Jake.
- In The Familiar, a bizarre possible future experienced by Jake includes a version of Tobias who morphed into Ax and became stuck in Andalite form, maturing until he resembled his father Elfangor.
- Tobias and Ax get the least amount of books in the series. The reason for this came from Scholastic, rather than K.A. They didn't think that kids would be able to relate as well to an alien character, or to a kid trapped as a hawk. As a result, they both got their books in rotations of every 10 books, rather than the 5 like everyone else. Tobias got all the 3's in the series (#3, 13, 23, etc.), while Ax got all the 8's (#8, 18, 28, etc.). However, as it turned out, the books for Tobias and Ax were some of the fan's favourites, so both Ax and Tobias were brought into the equal rotation with the rest of the Animorphs near the end of the series.
- The Test featured a new Tobias cover model (as an inaccurate brunnette cover model has been used the covers of 3 , 13 , 23 , Megamorphs 1 , Megamorphs 3 , and 33 ), a boy who was introduced on the cover ofMegamorphs #4. Ursula Albano, the art director for Animorphs shared this story on the Anibase about the discovery of the new Tobias:
"We couldn't find a kid in time for the shoot, so the photographer asked the agency to send over any old kid to stand in. Our artist, David Mattingly, would alter him digitally to fit the character. Well, a boy shows up kind of out of nowhere, skateboard in hand (he lives in the neighborhood) and a knit hat pulled down practically to his eyes. When he pulled his hat off, we knew we found the perfect Tobias. Tonya (the editor for Animorphs) and I just loved him. He was blonder than the first Tobias, but was perfect. He was Tobias. A happy accident from a desperate situation."
- Tobias and Marco are the only two of the Animorphs to morph into a human of the opposite gender. Tobias morphed Taylor in The Test and Marco morphed The Governor in The Absolute.
- Tobias is the first of the Animrophs to acquire and morph.
- Tobias has the distinction of any member to have a cover showing him morphing into another member of the team, as he morphed into Ax in Book 33 The Illusion's cover.
- Despite Tobias being trapped in morph, his cat Dude's DNA still existed within him. Even when he regained his morphing ability, the cat's DNA theoretically would still remain within him, along with his original human DNA. However, seeing as Tobias had to acquire his past self in order to morph into himself, rather than call upon his original human DNA within him, his house cat morph is therefore unusable.
- The reaction to Tobias being Elfangor 's son is sadly also not openly discussed by the other Animorphs at any time in the series, but they are seemingly aware of it as it is briefly referred to from time to time. An example of this is in #33when Ax proudly relishes the moment when Tobias practices morphing his Andalite form, by acknowledging that they are related. Also, in #33 again, Ax refers to an ancient legend, which he believes Elfangor used to pass along his memories to his DNA, which Tobias was able to see and feel by being his son.
- Tobias was the first Animorph to become a nothlit. Jake, Cassie, Rachel and Marco nearly became nothlits in wolf form (Tobias even mentioning that two hours had passed) but they managed to demorph. Cassie became a caterpillar nothlit in The Departure, although she later metamorphoses into a butterfly, the natural morphing allowing her to demorph back to human. In The Threat, Marco nearly becomes trapped as a giant flea, although Cassie manages to jump start his morphing limit and cause him to demorph (Ax calling it a miracle).
- Tobias was very into dinosaurs when he was young.
- Tobias's birthday is September 25.
- K.A. on why she chose a red-tailed hawk morph for Tobias to be trapped in:
"Tobias' form was chosen because red-tails are among the most common hawks in the U.S. I liked thinking that kids driving with their folks across Kansas or wherever would daydream that they were seeing Tobias. Probably should have made him a turkey buzzard, they're so ubiquitous. I knew right from the start I would trap Tobias in morph, by the way, never a doubt. Had to be. I knew it would drive some readers crazy, but I also knew they'd want to know more."
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