Great book.
I get the sense that the title "The Pretender" might be a reference to Tobias as well as Aria. The book deals with a lot of Tobias hiding his weaknesses and pretending to be strong. It emphasizes his growing from this weak self-pitying bully magnet into a strong warrior and a worthy son of Elfangor.
The hawk moving in on his territory is connected to the bullies who used to threaten him during his human life. The awkward, hesitant way Tobias handles the situation offers insight into the way he behaved before becoming an Animorph.
<It's nothing. It's this hawk that's trying to move in on my meadow.>
I felt like an idiot the minute the words were out of my head. This was
like the "old" Tobias style: treating people to displays of stupidity
and weakness. No wonder I'd gotten beat up so often when I was human. It
was like I was begging people to sneer at me.
<Brilliant, Tobias,> I muttered to myself. <Rachel, of all people is
really going to appreciate some pathetic story of how you can't stand up
to a bird.>
<What, is he bigger than you?>
Why didn't I just keep my mouth shut? <Forget it. I just haven't
decided the right time to kick his butt.>
Here's part of an exchange between Tobias and Ax, which takes on added significance given the Elfangor revelation at the end of the book:
<I have no species,> I said. <I'm a one-of-a-kind freak.>
Ax didn't have an answer for that. I don't think Andalites approve of self-pity or other pointless emotions like that.
Early in the book Tobias awkwardly hesitates a lot instead of doing what needs to be done. But as he's flying with Rachel, he pulls of an incredibly crazy stunt, grabbing on to a helicopter, for no real reason aside from showing off.
At one point Tobias describes himself as this:
I was a freak of nature. No, that wasn't right, either. Nature at its
most perverse could not create me. I was a freak of technology. Of alien
technology.
And then we come to Bek, the lost Hork-Bajir child trapped in Frank's Safari Land.
The sign said All New! Deadly Midget Freak! The Living Razor!
Bek is in included in the story as a parallel to Tobias's character. A lost kid, a freak, in need of a loving family.
There, in a raised cage with two spotlights intersecting on him, was a
young Hork-Bajir.
...
His clawed hands were wrapped around the bars of his cage. He was
gazing with pathetic hope at Aria.
I stared with my weak human eyes as she stepped in and sat down. For a
moment the door remained open and I could see her as clearly as human
eyes would allow.
She was looking in our direction, but could not see us. She was in
sunlight and we were in dark shadow.
Aria gazed thoughtfully up at the Frank's Safari sign. There was a
flicker of a smile, but no more.
"Who are you?" I whispered.
The driver shut the door and she was gone.
Frank shook his head. "This guy comes driving up with this thing lashed
in the back of his pickup truck. Says he saw it out wandering around the
side of the highway. Asked me what I'd pay for it. I gave him fifty bucks."
"You made a good deal," Aria said. "I'm sure he's worth more than that."
"So what is it, that's what I'd like to know."
Aria shrugged. "I don't know. I've never seen anything like it. But you
know, you shouldn't call it a 'freak.'"
"Not politically correct, huh?" Frank said knowingly.
"It's not that," Aria said. "It's just that it's like nothing I've ever
seen. No animal I know."
The book deals a lot with the relationship between Tobias and Rachel. During the battle at Frank's Safari Land, KAA includes this line while describing Tobias morphing:
I grew and grew. Grew til I could almost look Rachel straight in the eye.
I could have a home. Like a human being. A home!
I would not kill my breakfast. I would not eat roadkill. I would sleep
in a bed. And Rachel would look at me without having to hide the pity in
her eyes.
"I don't care that you ate roadkill. Stop being an idiot! I care about
you. And when I see you doing that, I know things are going wrong for
you. But you're off in your own little hawk world and no one is allowed
to help you. You'd rather starve than ask for help. You can't ever admit
that your life may suck because then you'll feel weak."
<I'm a hawk,> I snapped. <A bird of prey. When we're weak, we die.
That's the law for us. I'm not a human being. Not anymore. No one helps
a hawk. A hawk lives by his eyes and wings and talons.>
"You're a hawk?" Rachel sneered. "You talk, Tobias. You read. You have
emotions. Those are human things, not hawk things."
<l know! I know! Don't you think I know? That's why I'm going hungry.
Because I'm not hawk enough. That's why I let Bek get away, because I
was human enough to care more about my pain and fear than I cared about
doing what I had to do.>
Toby delivers the basic message of the story:
"Do you think the Yeerks will respect you? They won't. They'll come
after you harder," Cassie pointed out.
Toby nodded. "That is true. But the Hork-Bajir will respect themselves.
A fool is strong so that others will see. A wise person is strong for
himself. The Hork-Bajir will be strong for the Hork-Bajir. That way,
when the Yeerks are all gone, we will still be strong."
That line gets Tobias thinking, and he goes on for a bit about how freaks are treated and how to deal with bullies.
I walked out and closed the door behind me. I heard DeGroot say,
"Shouldn't we take him? Just to be safe? Make him one of us?"
Aria snorted derisively. "He's street trash. A waste of a Yeerk.
Elfangor would be ashamed. His son should be a warrior. A worthy
adversary, not some young fool. A pity, really."
Visser Three's comment about Tobias relates back to Toby's line. Tobias is no longer showing off, he's doing what needs to be done. He's being strong for himself and for his friends, not for the sake of how others see him.
He had left me.
My mother never remembered him. He had never existed for her, so she did
not feel the pain of it. And I would not have known, but for the letter.
And now, I guess I could be angry at him. But that wasn't how I felt.
Elfangor had run away from his duty when he came to Earth. He'd had no
choice but to return to that duty. No choice at all, if he was to play
the part he had to play, and be the great prince he was.
I'd lost a father. Because of that fact, Elfangor had been where he had
to be, when he had to be there, to change the lives of five ordinary
kids forever. And maybe . . . maybe. . . save the human race.
I wondered why the Ellimist had allowed my father to leave that letter.
But I didn't wonder for long. The answer was too simple.
See, I had a duty, too. And who is there to remind
you that what you want for yourself is less important than
doing what is necessary and right?
<Message received, Father. Message received.>
