I've read quite a few stories about the Animorphs (Fanfiction stories, that is), but I haven't read the canon books in YEARS! So I can't quote the books line for line like most of you. But I do remember a lot of things. Besides, I check the Wikipedia pages for the characters every once in a while...so, yea.
I'm the millionth person to say this: Jake and Rachel's last name IS Berenson; based on the evidence given above. I think the most OBVIOUS bit of proof is from book 31, the Conspiracy. Where Rachel says POINT BLANK that she and Jake are related through their fathers. Unless, of course, Rachel and her sisters (who weren't given very large roles in the series, unfortunately) took their mother's maiden name.
As for the other characters, I find that a lot of Fanfiction authors choose ridiculous surnames for the canon characters. Most obvious of all is Marco's last name, which is often mistaken to be spanish again, the only exception would be if he took his mother's maiden name (though, I think he would only do that out of respect for his mother...but I don't think he did).
As for the Tobias argument, I would like to agree with Capnnerefir's theory, stating that Tobias' name (which turns out to be Santorelli in the famous Neomorphs series) and state that, while Tobias would have respected Elfangor as a father figure, he wouldn't have "ditched" his step-father's last name. So, it's unlikely to be Fangor (given the above points). I think his name would have been taken from the man he believed to be his father, and adopted the Fangor surname after book 23, the pretender.
Post Merged: December 01, 2010, 04:31:07 PM
A continuation of the above post, since I went off on something of a tangent...
Like I said, I find that a lot of FF authors choose blatantly ridiculous surnames for the characters (no disrespect intended). I noticed a few references to Augustine Quill's choices for the last names, and while I enjoy and respect his work, I have to disagree. To me, the choices for the character's surnames are just unrealistic. But that's just ONE person's POV, please, don't take it to heart. Just stating my opinion...
I just think that certain characters should have surnames that fit with their ancestry. Given that the characters live in Amercia, we can assume that a lot of their surnames will be taken from early settlers from England, Ireland, etc (though, I'm probably wrong, given my lack of knowledge on Amercian history). And we also have to be careful about stereotyping; example: giving Marco a spannish last name because his mother was a latin American immigrant, or giving Cassie the name Washington, or Johnston because she's an African American...
Here's a few that I've thought of for ALL of the Animorphs; yea, that includes David and James (deny all you want, but they WERE Animorphs, and I think we forget that from time to time):
Tobias Daniels (Step-father's last name)
Cassandra/Cassie MacIntyre
Marco Bryant
James Flint
David Shepherd