#bonus delusion: 'thomas bill & ben! my sons! you'll all be bffs <3'< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Oh, so there is one other “totally underappreciated aspect of Edward that I love (and omitted from my favorites post)”: 

Contrary to, like... every episode from a non-RWS-based season that I’ve yet seen... book!Edward is really, really, perfectly, 100% confident. 

I mean, he struggles with others doubting him (especially, you know, Railway Official types, because they have the power to make those decisions, so all he can do is sigh and mope, when they sideline him). 

But he believes in his own abilities sometimes to the point of delusion and it’s another thing that is major 💙 eyes so far as I’m concerned. 

100% believing that he could bank Gordon’s goods train was one thing. (He is actually no better designed for banking duties that Gordon is for slow freight but ap-par-ent-ly that only stops one of them.) 

But also? In the ‘tunnel’ wrap-up he totally thought he was gonna move that express rake on his own? And I love him for it. While at the same time I’m on Gordon’s side there. That level of self-delusion deserved a call-out! 

“We’ll catch him! We’ll catch him!” Ohhhh... will you, now? Okay, so he was right, but, excuse me. Eddie. Goddamn. That was insanity. And when I do back-of-the-envelope calculations on exactly how fast you had to move to catch up with James by Kellsthorpe Road, I sort of... black out. That was some bullshit. ‘The sensible one,’ my arse. ‘Insecure’ - pfffffttt. He didn’t say “Okay, going to do my best!” He promised to catch him, and did, and I Just Can’t Even with this level of confidence. 

Between Gordon, Edward, and Oliver, I’ve decided all engines built for high-speed passenger work are low-key insane by design and that this trait never quite goes away. 

Bonus: The one time I’ve heard RWS Edward express qualifications and doubts about what he’s about to do is the “Exploit.” Which is an extra ratcheting-up of the suspense and ‘battered’-ness. Will you get these people home? is not met by that characteristic eager and determined exclamation point. All Edward has left in him is ... I’ll try, sir. Which, once I’d absorbed what normal Edward is like (‘of course!! let’s do this!!!’) is just... that little extra bit of heartbreak. He never really acted ‘old’ until that moment.