Tobin

"Lukas keeps talking about kings and politics, but that does little for me. I’m actually just in it for the gold. I have a family to feed, after all. Well, that and I’m not about to let you outshine me!"

- Tobin to Alm in Echoes.

Tobin (ロビン, Robin in the Japanese version) is a playable character from Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. He is 17 years old.

Profile
Tobin is a Villager from Ram Village and one of Alm's childhood friends. He joined the Deliverance in order to travel the continent and gain money to support his large family.

After the war, Tobin joined the knighthood of Valentia and sought Clair's hand in marriage, only to lose to his best friend, Gray. However, he continued to serve Alm regardless. Eventually, the king granted him a title and castle of his own as a reward for his loyalty and friendship.

Personality
While Tobin possesses a stubborn, serious, and direct personality, he is rather dense, being plagued with social obliviousness, and is poor at reading other people's emotions. Being the eldest of his family, Tobin maintains an air of brotherly warmth, playfulness, and kindness which inevitably transfers to his friends, those of whom he is extremely supportive of.

Tobin suffers greatly from an inferiority complex, as he is always competing with Alm and Gray to assert his superiority, the superiority of which he can never achieve. In his final base conversation, Tobin expresses his newfound understanding of his place in the world to serve a greater cause, and not to be in a position of relative ascendency. He further expresses that this understanding is not one he is content with, but rather, he is only accepting of it.

Heavily valuing familial ideals, Tobin joined the Deliverance to support his family in monetary means. As revealed in his level 40 conversation in Fire Emblem Heroes, Tobin constantly picks up souvenirs in his travels between battles for his many siblings back home.

Recruitment
In Chapter 1, talk to him in Ram Village.

Growth Rates

 * 30%
 * 10%
 * 40%
 * 15%
 * 30%
 * 10%
 * 0%
 * }

Overall
Of the three starting villagers in Alm's route, Tobin joins as the second strongest and must only gain one level in order to class change at a nearby shrine. Statistically, he has the worst overall long term performance of the three, as his primary growths rates are of his skill and luck, with all his other growths rates being below average. However, he also has the highest base speed of the villagers, which allows him to start off slightly better than the two other in classes such as archer, mage, cavalier, and soldier, all of which have lower base speed stats than his personal base speed. As such he functions best in one of those options. As a mercenary, he does not have this advantage and has a worse performance in this class compared to Gray and Kliff, but the classline's high base stats mean he will still function well regardless if the player so chooses to use it.

Base Stats
Prologue=


 * -|Chapter 1=

Personal Max Stats

 * 52
 * 39
 * 42
 * 39
 * 40
 * 40
 * 40
 * }

Growth Rates

 * 40%
 * 30%
 * 50%
 * 25%
 * 30%
 * 30%
 * 0%
 * }

Supports

 * Gray
 * Kliff

Passive Supports
 * Alm
 * Clair
 * Mycen
 * Celica

Overall
Tobin returns in Echoes still with a heavy emphasis on skill, but has average growths in strength and defense and a slightly below average growth in speed. Tobin will likely end up an average unit due to his average strength and speed, though his high skill is particularly useful in Echoes due to the strong presence of terrain awarding large bonuses to enemy avoid. He also has the highest base speed of all the villagers, which gives him an early advantage over the other villagers in classes such as mage, cavalier, soldier, and archer. As a mage especially, his base 3 attack speed as a mage using fire tomes is enough to double attack early game brigands, which are fast double attack the other two villages thanks to their base 1 attack speed as mages. As a mercenary however, his early speed advantage is not present due to the high base speed of the classline and his overall performance in the class is worse than that of Gray or Kliff, though due to classline's high base stats he can still function in it regardless.

Of note is Tobin's support bonuses, as his A rank support bonuses increase his allies' accuracy by 15%, including with magic. This bonus is significant enough that keeping Tobin around to support his friends isn't a bad idea even if his performance is less noteworthy than their own.

Gaiden
"Alm, I believe in you, man..."

- Tobin's death quote in Gaiden.

Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

 * Tobin/Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Quotes

Gaiden

 * "As one of the knights of the kingdom, he works towards the restoration of Valentia."

Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

 * (if Gray is alive)
 * As one of the most scrupulous knights in the One Kingdom's Brotherhood, Tobin spent his life serving his friend King Alm. The king, in turn, placed a great deal of trust in Tobin, eventually granting him both a title and his own castle.


 * (If Gray is dead)
 * Unable to move past Gray's death, Tobin abruptly vanished before reappearing just as suddenly several years later. At King Alm's suggestion, he joined the One Kingdom's Brotherhood of Knights. The talkative, playful Tobin of old, however, was gone forever.

Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher)
Tobin is illustrated in the trading card game Fire Emblem Cipher with the following cards:

Trivia

 * Tobin is among the few characters in Gaiden to have his hair color changed in Echoes, shifting from purple to brown.
 * Tobin's official English name was changed from Robin, presumably to differentiate it from the default English name of the Avatar in Fire Emblem Awakening.
 * In the Japanese prologue of Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Tobin uses "ore" as a personal pronoun (generally used to sound masculine) in front of a crying Kliff and Faye to sound more mature, but then switches back to "boku" after the battle. He then switches to "ore" again while in front of Gray, presumably to show off..
 * If Tobin dies, Gray has a son he names after his cherished friend.
 * In Tobin's and Gray's C support, Tobin is clearly upset about Gray. It's revealed in their B support that he's jealous that Clair and Gray are close. However, this is an oversight, as the C support can happen even before you recruit Clair.
 * Despite Tobin competing with Gray for Clair's affection, Tobin cannot actually support with Clair in Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
 * Tobin is one of the few characters who undergoes character development in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. He goes from wanting to outperform Alm and Gray in combat to realizing and accepting his role in Alm's life as part of his strength.