| “ | Jazz. One of the only things brothas got right. | „ |
| ~ Tobias to his sister Tori |
| “ | I adhere to the law of the jungle. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. Either you're dining or you're dinner. | „ |
| ~ Tobias excusing his actions as a natural order |
Tobias Whale is the main antagonist of Black Lightning.
He was the leader of the criminal organization The 100, who have been terrorizing the city of Freeland for years. After seemingly having killed Black Lightning, he is forced to take action again after the superhero returns a decade later. In addition, Whale seeks a way to prove himself in order to advance into the cartel of the mysterious Lady Eve. He is the arch-rival of Lala Johnson and the archenemy of Black Lightning and his family, especially Jennifer Pierce.
He is portrayed by Marvin "Krond" Jones III.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
- He is Jefferson's most personal threat, being the reason Gambi had to take care of him. Tobias killing Alvin Pierce is what started their rivalry and hatred.
- His methods are often brutal, such as beating people up when they fail him. He also cruelly killed Alvin Pierce by shoving newspapers down his throat and bashing his head.
- He used racist remarks around Lala and insults him in a variety of ways.
- When Lala got imprisoned he came into his cell and strangled him.
- When Joey Toledo didn't kill Black Lightning when his suit malfunctioned, Tobias lifted him up by the neck and might have beat Joey if he hadn't given him the news about the tipping.
- He sold Green Light and planned on breaking up the city with his business.
- He killed a man for holding him away from Tori when she got shot.
- He manipulated Khalil into being his weapon. Khalil would later shoot darts into students at his school. This is worse considering that Tobias is responsible for Khalil's injury, but spun it to be Black Lightning's fault.
- He worked with Martin Proctor to take down Black Lightning.
- He tried to kill Proctor by weaponizing a revived Lala to explode on him.
- Tobias escapes while Proctor is unceremoniously executed by Gambi.
- Tobias is abusive to Khalil while they are partnered and wishes he was more like Syonide.
- He shoots a small harpoon into Kara Fowdy and Kara later dies from her infected wounds.
- He killed an elderly and retired former member of The 100 after learning he remembered they killed Alvin Pierce, so that he couldn't be a snitch.
- He killed Detective Summers by shooting her.
- When he finds Khalil again, after Khalil ran away with Jennifer aiding him, he rips out the cybernetic spine he gave him. Khalil was left to die as he crawls away.
- When Lala returns to kill him, he activates a command that was installed on him on revival and Lala is put through excruciating pain and perishes.
- He insults an assassin woman that worked with him and told her he didn't need her.
- He tries to kill Jennifer when she attacked him.
- When in Blackgate he creepily flirts with Lynn in an attempt to manipulate her.
- When she does help him escape he attacks her when he thinks she isn't useful anymore.
- When Percy Odell and Gravedigger are defeated he gets away again.
- He decides to keep tabs on the Pierce family and watches them whenever he can.
- He takes over the city for a short while by beating up Jefferson and burying him in a coffin alive.
- When confronted by Black Lightning in their final fight, Tobias is at first confident that he can take him, and gets increasingly more angry as the fight goes on. He tries to throw Jefferson out the window but is electrocuted and falls out the window instead, landing on a spike.
- He is taken completely seriously and the only remotely comedic aspects about him is his Laughably Evil moments.
Why Doesn't He Stand Out?[]
- He crossed over into the main universe within the Arrowverse, Earth-Prime. In the Earth-Prime continuity he has to contend with Zoom and Reverse-Flash, who endangered countless worlds and timelines, and in Reverse-Flash's case he has an even more personal relationship with The Flash. While it may be a bit unfair to Tobias to compare him to speedsters, he does fail the Heinous Standards to other criminals like Slade Wilson and Malcolm Merlyn, who both had personal villainy with Oliver Queen and attempted to kill thousands of people; Merlyn even succeeded in causing an earthquake which killed more people than Tobias does onscreen. He also fails to Martin Proctor, because although Martin has more resources he does have a lot more severe and heinous acts in his roster which Tobias never commits although he's a criminal lord.
- Doesn't matter how psychotic, sadistic he become, Tobias loves his sister, Tori and was extremely upset when she dies, and when he gets healed he kills the goon that held him back from getting to her. He also appears upset when Tori told him that Joey Toledo was killed. He is also furious at Kara Fowdy for killing Syonide. He at least cares about Tori and Syonide, and seemed to respect Joey enough to take his death as insult.
- He is genuinely tragic, though he isn't given sympathy in later seasons he still was shown to have been affected by his father Eldridge abusing him and Tori. He is also given slight sympathy when Tori dies. He can arguably be considered a scapegoat since he loses all the people he loves, is insulted by several characters for being albino, and is imprisoned and tortured by Percy Odell. Percy using intense lights on Tobias, which burns Tobias' albino skin, is also played for horror rather than karma. Though this prevention is still rather minor as he is also abusive to several people.
- He has some honor. He doesn't kill mothers and although he attacked Lynn Stewart he may have just been attempting to knock her out.
- He seemed to respect the old man who remembered they killed Alvin Pierce, and sincerely saw it as a shame that he remembered. Tobias showed no malice and only killed him out of pragmatism, even making sure the death was painless.
External Links[]
- Tobias Whale on the Villains Wiki
- Tobias Whale on the Arrowverse Wiki
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 Villainous Benchmarks
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Arrow The Flash Supergirl Black Lightning Crossovers | ||