#I really gotta develop her character beyond ‘kinda grumpy but likes to read’

[cadaver-moss]

Woop woop first drawing of 2024 🥳

Happy New Year everyone :D

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Report on the Christopher Awdry Books

i am very sorry because i have asks in the inbox that at this point i could literally answer with a copy-paste and a few minutes' of editing each.

but i'm not gonna do that. because right now my fingers are ready to type about this topic instead and they won't do anything else.

sending me asks is not for the faint of heart. as you probably all know by now—

When I last read any Chris Awdry books in full, it was ten years ago—I was borrowing them out-of-order from the library—and finding only about half—and also I wasn't obsessed with TTTE yet. Since then I've been skating by on my memory and on Wiki summaries.

So it's been very interesting, now I'm immersed in The 'Verse, to read them all in order.

If anyone else wants to do the same, drop me your email in a DM or via the inbox (I won't respond publicly if you choose door #2!) and if I know you I'll send you The Drive.

But here are the juicy bits from RWS: The '80s And Beyond:

🚂 Awdry Jr.'s plots are definitely not as exciting as his dad's? (For a lot of reasons—he had some constraints that his old man didn't have to deal with.) But his character banter is gold. Gotta love it.

🚂 Everyone is so in their original character but like not in a rigid way they're so naturally them with fussy!Thomas excitable!Edward crabby!Henry etc. etc. and so on down the line it's so effortless so refreshing I'm so happy.

🚂 He also really lovvvvvvvves dropping backstory on our old faves.

🚂 Like, apparently, back in his L.N.E.R. days, Toby once got turned away from a seaside festival for being Too Goddamn Fly.

Seriously. This is now a thing that has canonically happened.

They couldn't handle teh sexy.

🚂 There really isn't a "big three" dynamic anymore. Instead, it's just Gordon off being grumpy (and kinda lonely awwww) and then Henry and James: vitriolic backstabbing ride-or-die snarky competitive best frenemies.

If you're wondering how they are at this dynamic? The answer is:

~* ~ * ~ F A N T A S T I Q U E ~ * ~ * ~

🚂 But don't worry too much about Gordon. Maybe he's just quietly getting too mature for that shit.

Oh. It's you. So, what bullshit are you on today?

Besides, he and BoCo have remained bros. 💙💚 BoCo seems to be the only one who gives a crap when Gordon is stroppy and struggling, actually...

🚂 To the extent that occasionally the big three do go all auld-lang-syne and reunite, they wish to make a PSA:

out: giving Edward crap about being old

in: giving THOMAS crap about being old

It's ssssooo hilarious when it's Thomas though??!

🚂 Speaking of Thomas, one of Awdry Junior's constraints is the publishers' pressure to produce tons of Thomas content. He handled this with admirable creativity, finding multiple ways to satisfy this demand but without making every book seem the same. He would find plausible reasons to get Thomas off his branch line.

Even better: This would give him room to write about how everyone else did on the Ffaquhar line without Thomas.

(And honestly life seems a lot more peaceful then LOL—)

🚂 Daisy is living her best life and is also... developing an interest in animals? Sweet!

🚂 Peter Sam remains a ladies' engine lmfao.

🚂 Sir Handel returns from his visit to the Tallylyn and tells the rest a very boring story... (tbh one of the narrow-gauge books is, like... direly BAD)... but the redeeming feature is Duke, low-key smiling as he listens. It's so subtle but he's also so clearly thinking "omg wow it's like he's a productive functional member of society these days! i am so proud my life is complete <3."

🚂 You know who's not boring? The Arlesdale Railway. If you only acquire one Chris Awdry book, you should probably make it Jock the New Engine. The gang expands... but remains Utterly Cute and Charming.

🚂 Ohhhh and then there's this (which honestly makes for some boring reading):

FC3: Hmm, a special anniversary is coming up? Huh, guess I’ll just have to do my best to knock together an appropriate little ceremony in my spare time. Nothing too big. Keep your expectations low. I’m a busy man.

also FC3: May I present His Royal Highness Charles Prince of Wales.

I’m not joking. He pulls this bullshit twice.

🚂 Rusty is snarky! Rusty knows how to grumble! And Rusty is snarky!

🚂 Sadly, CA appears to forget that the Little Western exists, except as “the line one runs on in order to get to—drumroll please!—the Small Railway.” Duck and the Caledonians do appear a good deal despite this, but poor Oliver just I don’t think ever even gets a line in all these books?

🚂 Not that I think this was all Awdry's fault. Apparently he drafted an entire book but the publishers nixed it because it Wasn't Thomas? (*cue me swearing like a sailor*) But it was evidently supposed to be about a new engine and mostly set on Duck's line!!!!

Well. Screw us, that's what.

🚂 It used to be that, after an accident or mishap, you had to deal with your fellow engines razzing you—and that hasn’t gone away!

But a recurring trope in the CA books seems to be for the humans to have some “good-natured fun” after each of these things, too.

Most of the time it wasn't even the engine's fault. (I've mentioned before, the CA stories are a bit more tame. Rather fewer instances of Sodor Karma Bites You In the Bunker.) But this doesn't stop the humans from cutting up and pretending they're witty.

And, since the engines don’t appear to be able to just tell their humans “shut UP, ya doink!” they seem to mostly be stuck looking chagrinned, resigned, or tired at the humans’ incredibly lame jokes.

Seriously, humans are so annoying, tho.