Tobias is one of my favorite characters, not because of who he is, but because of his narrative arch. In the original trilogy, we start out by seeing him as this super serious instructor. Then, he opens up and shows his goofier side; he can’t talk to girls, has a sharp wit and a sarcastic streak. He’s also a great example of how even people with strong moral compasses can be lead to do things they would have originally disagreed with.

Veronica Roth said she had first tried to write the Divergent story from Tobias’ point of view, but ultimately made Tris the main character in order to best tell the story of the factions. After reading this collection of stories, I think that was a very good change to make; it would have been a completely different story, though probably not a bad one.

I’ve always been fascinated with Tobias’ ability to appear divergent without actually being divergent. I feel like it wasn’t addressed enough in the original novels, but it almost makes a return when we learn the story of Tobias’ faction test. He was a kid with a shown aptitude for Abnegation, but he chose Dauntless; I don’t think the element of choice was demonstrated enough in Tris’ selection ritual. It showed us not only more possibilities for Roth’s world, but also that you don’t have to have an aptitude for something in order to excel at it.

There was a moment in Insurgent where Tobias off-handedly mentions that he wanted to work in the control room so he would know how to get out of the Dauntless compound. That was the first time I realized how wired Tobias’ mind was for survival. Having grown up in Abnegation, I wondered what baked that response into him. This book not only delivered on that character development, but also gave readers a look into how he transformed from the meager boy who tried to hide himself away as a defense into the capable, confident leader he was in the main trilogy. It gave me hope for a lot of people.

Lastly, a minor thing that bugged me was how Roth didn’t make Amar gay enough. That may be a harsh way to put it. What I mean is that, when we were introduced to Amar in Allegiant, my gaydar was pinging him before he admitted it to Tris. We saw that he was interested in George, and he alluded to being equally attracted to Tobias. However, in Four, we don’t get anything like that. We only witness his faked death. I wanted to chalk it up to Tobias being oblivious to it, but that would actually be a super weak argument. We see in the original trilogy and in his interactions with Marcus in Four’s earlier stories that Tobias is very attuned to ulterior motives and micro-expression. The fact that we don’t even get a throw away line where Tobias is maybe even confused by Amar’s actions toward him, disappointed me.

While the stories in Four were entertaining to read, it felt inconsistent with the original trilogy. There isn’t one thing I can point to that makes them feel unrelated, but it’s the feeling I get as I walk away from the novella. The collection is an interesting development of the original story, but one that I don’t feel I gained anything from reading.