I have been in such a mood to talk about my original son all evening, but since BasilGrey is the only person who I know for sure who knows him, you're all about to be educated about the origins of how I lowkey started developing a son type

Ladies and gentlemen

May I introduce to you

Tobey McCallister III

• Tobey was one of the villain characters on a PBS show that I grew up watching called Wordgirl, which I honestly still totally recommend.

• Tobey...

• Tobey was a total brat

• He built giant robots to terrorize the city

• (why do so many of my sons build giant robots to terrorize people)

• Sometimes he just wanted to cause chaos

• Sometimes he got super petty over something and either wanted to use his robots to prove himself or just to get revenge

• And sometimes he just wanted to go out for ice cream with Wordgirl

• Tobey had a big fat crush on Wordgirl

• However, Wordgirl's secret identity, Becky, was his academic rival

• (who he honestly also had a lowkey crush on, to be honest)

• ((man, this was some Miraculous Ladybug level mess going on))

• Anyways

• He really liked to argue with people

• Especially when he won the argument

• He also really really liked winning

• A lOT

• Have I mentioned that he really liked ice cream too? Because man did this little boy like ice cream

• His mother was an A+ mom

• Tobey's dad never appeared and was never mentioned, so we don't know anything about his role in his son's life

• But Claire McCallister was a quality woman and I'm proud of her

• Like her son, she's extremely intelligent (the woman invented a device specifically to override and stop Tobey's inventions), although she didn't flaunt it like Tobey does

• She did not let Tobey get away with his villainous antics. Ever.

• Tobey's schemes usually ended with Claire dragging him away by the ear

• How iconic

• Speaking of iconic, Tobey had a rather sophisticated British accent for a fifth grader

• But the British accent is not the iconic part

• Oh no

• The iconic part is that his British accent was faked

• There were a handful of instances (mostly when Tobey was being dragged off by his mother and he was yelling something) where Tobey would lose his accent while panicked or distressed

• I'm pretty sure I once saw a compilation video of all of the times he spoke without the accent?? Hold up

• Okay I couldn't find it but here's a short clip of one time when it happened

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

• (Claire dropped out of that tree like a boss)

• Getting back on track, there were a few occasions where Tobey fought on the side of good

• HE HAD IT IN HIM TO BE GOOD

• But in the end, he always ended back up on the wrong side

• Something I wish could have happened before the series ended is Tobey getting a full redemption arc

• That would have been very nice

• But it never officially happened, so I'm just over here, eternally headcanoning that he officially switched sides when he got older

• There was another villain, Dr. Two-Brains, who Tobey teamed up with once, and although their partnership didn't end well, I firmly believe that Dr. Two-Brains has the potential to be the father Tobey deserves

• #redeemallofthevillainsbyhavingtheolderonesadopttheyoungerones

• Other fun Tobey stuff:

• After a misunderstanding caused by a villain played by Kristen Schaal, Tobey decided that he would "defend Wordgirl's honor" by challenging one of Becky's friends, Scoops, to a duel after Scoops "accused her of stealing".

• I mean

• His heart was in the right place?? But jeez, challenging a poor fifth grader to a duel against your robots wasn't the big idea 😬

• In addition to ice cream, he also enjoys tea

• Specifically, lapsang souchong tea

• Tobey can actually be quite charming, but the whole vain, villainous inventor gig kind of throws that off

• In conclusion, Tobey was a quality character and an entertaining villain and I love him very much so here's some GIFs and fanart of him