Marco/Rachel Theory

[AniX]

Tobias and Rachel are typically considered a canon couple. However, upon reading the books, it has struck me that Rachel has never loved Tobias persay but rather loved the idea of Tobias, a wimpy sad sack who is easily controlled. Rachel allows him to "date" in order to satisfy her domineering and controlling personality and his "hawk" permanent form makes him a completely deviant sexual partner to satisfy her adrenaline junkie ways. Megamorphs #4 shows that when Tobias is merely a slight loser and not full-on depressed and does not offer anything Rachel can't get elsewhere, she has no interest in him and prefers Marco, even going so far as to go on a date with him. Regular #32 shows that once you remove her dominant and thrill-seeking half of her personality, she has no special interest in Tobias and would date Marco if he asked her. Rachel desires to dominate and gain excitement by any means, and Tobias provides a convenient plaything to express those desires on.

[Chad32]

I agree that the part of Rachel that love thrills likes Tobias mostly becaue he's different. While the nicer side of rachel would prefer Marco. It's part of the theme of conflictions with her. Not that i don't think tobias and Rachel could have had a heathy relationship. They were the stronger of the two Ani relationships.

[dolphin4077]

I disagree that in #32 that Nice Rachel had no interest in Tobias.  There was a couple times when Nice Rachel was worried about hurting his feelings.  Also during the Marco & Nice Rachel scene in the cafeteria, Nice Rachel was like why wouldn't Tobias be interested in me. 

[Loligo]

I'm not so sure that Rachel wants to dominate or control Tobias, per se, but I do agree that if he hadn't been the "wimpy sad sack" type, she wouldn't have been interested. I've always attributed it to her "saviour-complex", where she feels like she has to protect those that are weaker from anyone trying to take advantage. She starts doing it for Tobias in the first book when Marco starts teasing him, and she does it for Melissa in the third book, which ultimately turns out to be her motive for fighting the war.

As for her relationship with Marco, I could see that part of her getting in the way. They are both very strong and independent individuals, which doesn't allow Rachel's saviour-complex to be satisfied. Which is sad, really, because I always felt that their chemistry was better than R/T. However, you see that whenever Marco is feeling vulnerable, like at the end of #30, or after they blow up the underwater complex in #15, it's Rachel that comforts him. True love, eh? 

[Ghost Tiger]

Jeezers Christ...

[rebelxluck]

Those are some pretty bold statements you got there, and you're ignoring a lot of other key aspects of their relationship.

I agree with Loligo that Rachel is more protective than straight-out domineering--she's always frustrated that Tobias doesn't become permanently human which would effectively put him out of the fight, but if she wanted to actually control him she'd push for it more. She could have made him stay in his human morph for over 2 hours in #33, but she helped him escape in the end. And this follows #32 which makes it clear that Rachel isn't just a berserk, dominant ****, and the end of that book is the one thing I absolutely love about it, when they go off together. "The two of you and the two of me." There's more to Rachel than the bloodthirsty warrior, and there's also more to Tobias than the emo wimp.

I do think she finds his predator side attractive on a certain level, but more than that, she acknowledges his strength. Just the fact that he can live as a hawk at all makes him kind of impressive. Plus, he pushes aside his own fears just so he can look after her. He offers to go on the dangerous AMR mission. He doesn't back out of the fight. Rachel may want to protect him, but she also admires him. She trusts him. He's the one she confides in and vice-versa. Even if there are other things at work, I don't think you can simply write off the fact that they do actually care for each other.

On the Marco/Rachel side of things, I do agree that they're compatible and I love their scenes, whether they're bickering or Rachel is talking to him after an episode with his mom (the best part is that Rachel doesn't try to be nice to him like Cassie does, and Marco responds to Rachel better because of it). I like that they date in MM4, but I disagree that their dating and Tobias not being a hawk means Rachel/Tobias would never work. They didn't really know each other in MM4 so you can't hold that against them.