A hero is born...
Toby Alone is a children's book written by French author Timothee de Fombelle, and translated into English by Sarah Ardizzone.
In december 2023, a cartoon series has been released in France.
This work contains examples of the following tropes:
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Leo kidnapped Elisha to force her to marry him.
- Bad Boss: Joe Mitch and later Leo Blue. Joe ''encourages' bullying among his workers and later hires Leo to conduct slave raids against the Grass people.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Berenice "Bernie" Alzan, who love bashing the heads of inmates and study the bruises.
- Dreadful Musician: Mano Asseldor, leading to him being the Black Sheep of his family.
- Evil Former Friend: Leo to Toby, after he joined the side of Joe Mitch.
- Face–Heel Turn: Leo betrays Toby and becomes a cruel, racist dictator.
- Fantastic Racism: The Grass persons are often looked down to by the Tree people, many of whom who think they are evil (or cannibalistic). Leo Blue even made a plan to murder all of the Grass persons by setting fire to the Prairie.
- Give Geeks a Chance: Sim used to be a complete nerd who had no time to date. That is, until pretty Maya Alnorell appears at his door. They fall in love and soon marries each other.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Nils Amen when he pretends to be Toby to distract the searchers from finding Toby.
- Leo Blue when he joins the good side and later kills Joe Mitch.
- Incest-ant Admirer: Leo to Elisha, unaware of the fact that she's his half-sister. She does not return his feelings.
- Lilliputians: All of the Tree people and the Grass people are tiny humanoids no more than a few centimeters tall.
- Lost Lenore: Downplayed, as Norz Amen is not a prominent character. Norz's wife Lili Amen dies prior to the book events due to Death by Childbirth, leading to Norz mourning and neglecting his son Nils.
- No Blood for Phlebotinum: Joe Mitch and other people fighting for the Tree Stone and the Balina.
- Mouse World: All the characters are either tiny Tree people or equally tiny Grass people, capable of going their whole lives in the branches of a single oak or in a tiny patch of grass.
- Oblivious Adoption: Toby found out that Sim and Maya Lolness are not his biological parents.
- Stupid Evil: Joe Mitch is an extreme example of this, unable to even speak like a normal person or speak his own full name. Lampshaded by Sim.
- Surprise Incest: Downplayed as it is unrequited. Leo falls in love with Elisha, only to know that she is his half-sister later.
- Treetop World: Apart from the period where Toby lives alongside the Grass people, the entire story is set in a single oak tree home to a civilization of minuscule people. However, Sim, Toby's father, hypothesizes that other trees might exist.
- We Used to Be Friends: Toby to Leo, and also when he thinks Elisha left him.Elisha! Whose side are you on! You've deserted me! And so has Leo! Why don't friends last for life?
- Yandere: Ilaya. She decides to murder Toby, who she is in love with when Toby decides to leave the Prairie and leave her to rescue his family and Elisha.
- Granted, Toby unintentionally and indirectly causes the death of Ilaya's fiance Vidof.
- Also Leo to Elisha. He kidnaps her to the Nest and stalks her as "Shadow".
