What Do You Think Of Tobias?

[Honeyichigo]

I'm just here to present what seems to be a minority opinion, but first I am tired of people claiming that Tobias was not a character and only a plot device. Tobias most certainly was a character, maybe not a very relatable character but claiming he is only a plot device is akin to claiming that when you watch a show you watch that show for the plot. If you did you might realize that there are only so many plots tat can be used effectively, hence why every plot will always be reused. The real reason why you watch a show is for the characters.

Now with the short amount of time Tobias had I can see why people can't relate to him and therefore don't like him. In terms of plot however one does not need to know any of his back story in order to understand the episode or the character. Tobias' character is that of an extremely powerful and skilled trainer who is very confident in his abilities. The goal of the character is to win the Sinnoh League. He keeps an air of mystery about himself.

I can see why people want back story but when I watched that rant posted a few pages back I got incredibly angry. You don't need any back story to understand the character or the story. Providing a flashback would be useless. If you want reference as to how useless then look at the Reshiram/Zekrom movies where the main villain quotes his mother and then flashes back to his mother saying the same exact quote. Its not needed and it wasted fifteen seconds that could have been used in a more important part of the film.

Its also three in the morning so I'm sorry if these thoughts seem disjointed.

This, basically. Tobias was intended to be a mysterious, powerful character- filling out his backstory would have defeated the point.

And how exactly is him having legendaries a "huge gaping plot hole"? We've seen people who've befriended legendaries to use in battle before- Tobias just happens to keep them in Pokeballs. We can assume that he battled and caught them, or that he bonded with them and they decided to go battle with him... whatever you like. The way he obtained them does not affect the plot of the Sinnoh league at all. If it's not part of the plot, its disinclusion can't be a plot hole by definition, right?

 

[matt0044]

And how exactly is him having legendaries a "huge gaping plot hole"? We've seen people who've befriended legendaries to use in battle before- Tobias just happens to keep them in Pokeballs. We can assume that he battled and caught them, or that he bonded with them and they decided to go battle with him... whatever you like. The way he obtained them does not affect the plot of the Sinnoh league at all. If it's not part of the plot, its disinclusion can't be a plot hole by definition, right?

BECAUSE THEY ARE LEGENDARIES! They aren't like a Ratatta or even a Dragonite. They are Pokemon who humans question the existence of (hence the moniker of "legendary") and they're beyond rare. And you'd think that a Trainer with two or more legendaries would garner more attention and practically be talked about across Sinnoh because of how he has two (or more) Pokemon that every single Trainer in the damn Pokemon world can only DREAM of obtaining. Everyone of them would try to figure out where he got them from, how, and so on. And while you may have a point about him being mysterious, what annoys me is how said mystery is never solved. Because when a guy like him shows up with two legendaries and no explanation as to how, you want to know. And that's what bugs me about Tobias.

And said people who have befriended legendaries on the show aren't exactly shown every episode. More like once in a while or for a special occasion. So you can't use that as a defense when they're a practically featured on the show once in a blue moon.