#rws character analysis

[anonymousboxcar]

Spamcan/D199 Headcanons & Analysis

While writing this fic and replying to folks’ lovely comments, I thought a lot about Spamcan and what makes him distinct to me. I feel like he’s different from the other rude diesel antagonists.

In my opinion, what sets him apart is that he has a companion. Bowler and Old Stuck Up arrive alone while Spamcan shares his trial with Bear. He also says “we” and “our controller” to Bear. There’s familiarity between them; he thinks of themselves as a package deal.

Bear validates this: “Shush! It’s their railway.” He doesn’t agree with Spamcan’s bigotry, but he still calls the NWR “their” railway. He’s aligning himself along lines of “us and them,” suggesting he and Spamcan are on the same “side” to some degree. He also considers themselves a package deal, even if he’s frustrated with it.

So how did these two become acquainted?

Well, Bear is a diesel-hydraulic engine — a type BR declares non-standard. Spamcan is a diesel-electric, safe for now from the cutter’s torch, but Bear’s position is much more fragile.

Considering what we see of Spamcan, he doesn’t seem like he’d befriend Bear for altruistic reasons. Yet he still refers to himself and Bear as a “we.” He even worries about what Bear thinks of him after he breaks down with his oil tankers.

And that’s what I think is at the root of this. Spamcan doesn’t care about Bear, but about what Bear thinks of him. He cares about maintaining a self-image that convinces Bear to stay with him, to keep following him.

Spamcan wants Bear to be dependent upon him.

I imagine their dynamic on BR was Spamcan demanding Bear’s loyalty in exchange for protection. And by protection, I mean dumping his work on Bear with the excuse of keeping him “out of sight, out of mind” from their controller. Bear didn’t have any better options, so he went along with it. Now he’s at the end of his rope.

But my pre-canon musings aside, do you see what I’m getting at? Spamcan’s one manipulative son of a gun!

He utilizes Bear’s threatened status to keep him close, to have someone who backs up what he says. His use of chummy plural pronouns is a strategy to wear down Bear’s sense of individuality. He tries to create camaraderie while also diminishing him, reducing him to a satellite in his orbit.

Spamcan is arrogant and boastful, but he has a degree of subtlety, too. That’s something that Bowler and Old Stuck Up never managed. The fact they came alone on their trials suggests they don’t have any followers or “friends” of their own, any of Spamcan’s finesse.

But you know who does manage some of that finesse? Diesel.

I like to think that Spamcan hears the story of Diesel’s trial. To him, it’s clear that Diesel worked the best when he flattered other engines and made himself indispensable to them. Messing with the trucks backfired in the end, but Spamcan would never do such a foolish thing. He can do one better than Diesel.

It’s not Spamcan’s plan to go to Sodor — he would rather stay on a “modernized” railway — but he figures it’s his duty to spread modernization. Like a “good diesel,” he volunteers himself with Bear for the trial. The Sodor engines will be on guard now, so who better to go with him than the fellow diesel to which he made himself invaluable? It’ll ensure someone has his back in hostile territory.

Spamcan’s miscalculation is in assuming that Bear will be grateful for recommending him to go on trial, winning him more points with him. But on BR, Bear was vulnerable. Now that he’s on Sodor, he has a chance of getting to safety. He doesn’t need Spamcan’s protection.

And every time Spamcan tries to appeal to him, he’s showing himself at his nastiest. Bear’s personal morals aside, if Spamcan hates “outdated” steam engines, how long will it be before he turns on “non-standard” diesels? How long will it be before Bear stops being useful to BR and to Spamcan?

When Bear tells Spamcan to shut up, he loses his only support right as he makes enemies out of every steam engine on this island. He’s alone and it’s all his own fault, all because he assumed he could manipulate his way out of any situation.

In that way, Spamcan isn’t too different from the other rude diesel antagonists. He fails because he’s arrogant and discriminatory. He fails because our protagonists resist swollen egos and prejudice where they see it.

But I like to think I’ve made a decent case for the ways he is different. I think he’s a bit subtler, a bit more manipulative than the others, even if he’s no more successful. What do you guys think? :)

[tenten-shi]

"Moon is a good sister" is a common sentiment in the rain world community. To be honest, i have never seen a single post that talks about her in a critical way. That made me decide to share my observations and thoughts on why i think she is not a good big sister.

I'll start off saying that i like Moon with all her issues and quirks. If you are a fan of Moon, and consider any post that criticizes her "an attack" on your favorite character, please do not interact with this post. Discussions and additions are welcomed.

The main topic that needs to be addressed is her behavior in the situation with Pebbles (all the way from Spearmaster to Saint). Was Moon a good sister or was it just a facade?

The reason why she calls herself that way

It is stated in the Light Blue Industrial Complex broadcast that Moon chose the name Big Sister Moon because of her seniority status above Five Pebbles.

Evidently, Moon openly presents herself as his older sister both inside the local group, as well as outside of it.

Her attitude towards Five Pebbles

Moon doesn't know a whole lot about Pebbles, aside from his mental state that she learns about through the received neuronflies. The gifts from Pebbles' structure are not something she minds at all, on the contrary this behavior is encouraged.

In Rivulet's campaign, she reassures the slugcat to not make his situation worse by bringing her new neurons.

Still, she continues to accept them without any protest.

For the first time after their long separation Moon sees Pebbles only after the end of Rivulet's campaign. If the player visits him again after finishing the main story, they can see new projections showing the two playing some board game.

It is unknown whether they have talked to each other or not. But If i had to guess, their conversation must've ended shortly, turning into a silent game.

During Saint's campaign Moon doesn't express any interest in Pebbles nor does she try to see his state for herself. Her overseers do not spawn in Silent Construct and his collapsed chamber. The only way for her to discover that he's alive is by bringing his Music Pearl.

Her reaction indicates that she hasn't checked on him for a long time for unspecified reasons.

Was Moon a good big sister for him?

The situation between them can seem complex and confusing. It's hard to tell who's truly right or wrong.

I'll pose an analogy:

Imagine Pebbles getting a hold of a grenade. Moon is standing in close proximity. She doesn't make any attempts to see what he's got in his hands or what his plans are. He pulls the pin out, still holding the safety lever. He keeps slowly loosening his grip on it, putting Moon's life in danger, as well as his own. Moon tries to talk to Pebbles, disrupting his focus. When Pebbles almost lets go off of the lever and tries to throw the explosive away, Moon stops him. The grenade goes off, Pebbles gets heavily injured and Moon ends up in a coma.

Would a responsible older sister beat around the bush for so long in a situation that is threatening to not just her but also her younger brother? Obviously, no.

Moon is not a good sister, she's only trying to present herself as one. She's created a semblance of a great big sis, when in reality she's unsuccessful at that.

She wasn't

Did Moon have her chance to stop him before everything has gotten out of control? Yes. Suns brings up exactly that in one of the broadcasts, pointing out her seniority privilege.

Moon did not care about Pebbles' endeavors or interests. She's noticed the problem only when it had put at risk her own life.

Even after she has acknowledged the deadly danger, she kept on stalling. She wanted to talk to Pebbles and "shake him out of it".

As if what Pebbles is doing does not pose any danger at all. As if Pebbles is some disobedient, naughty puppy, whom, once scolded, is going to settle down. It feels like she looks down on him. She cannot imagine Pebbles doing something serious and important, therefore it must be easy to make him stop whatever it is that he's doing. If Moon legitimately was a good sister, she would've immediately stopped him and only then tried to talk.

Besides, Moon has demonstrated an odd demeanor towards Pebbles in the final Rivulet broadcast. At first her words sounded like something a genuinely good sister could say. But that shifts after Moon, almost jokingly, says how protective she is as his Big Sis. When in reality everything points at her carelessness.

Of course people could say that she's just excessively kind. But even if she was acting out of goodness of her heart, she's made a mistake. Instead of understanding and accepting Pebbles' personhood, she treated him only as her little brother and nothing more.

In conclusion, Moon's attempt to keep the face of a wonderful sister has led to a catastrophe, proving that she has failed as a Big Sister.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

In Wilbert's books, how would personally separate Henry and Gordon as characters?

I already wrote a Henry and Gordon post, but that was as much headcanon as analysis so I'll tackle this one too. Besides, I really like how this question acknowledges from the outset that RWS Gordon and Henry are basically the same character :D 

Okay, not really, but they're awfully damn similar. (So are Thomas and Percy tbh.) I have read so much guff (mostly in my dreary dark bird site days) about how BoCo is basically a diesel Edward and it pisses me off. If you can distinguish between two of these pairs, then you can distinguish between all three, dammit. 

Anyway, RWS Gordon and Henry are both pompous, self-important, classist (?), totally up their own arses tenders, sometimes breathtakingly ungrateful – but fundamentally good-hearted. They're sometimes complete assholes, but it's not like they actually try to be assholes… they just sometimes don't try all that hard not to be. But they have strong notions of fair play and loyalty and solidarity, and they try to live up to them (except on the days they don't). 

And I will say from the outset that I much prefer their RWS "omggg… there's two of themmm 😐😩💀" dynamic than the weird TVS "manly man and sensitive guy… who also don't even seem that close" thing. That being said, even if you don't basically flanderize Henry into a funhouse-mirror version of his RWS self, yes I think we can describe their differences in the books: 

1) Social roles. Gordon is the leader-y one of the two. This is probably because he's more conventional (see next point). But it is also possible that a lot of this is down to how their working schedules have shaped their dynamic with the rest of the fleet: Henry's Flying Kipper timetable means his working hours would overlap less with the daytime fleet and that he'd be either away or not in steam during moments where Gordon takes on a role helping other engines (Percy Runs Away, Leaves, Down the Mine). Of course we do see that when Henry is available, he acts in the same way (Super Rescue), but it is probably no coincidence that we see Gordon in this role first, and much more often. 

Gordon's leadership also extends to him having Ideas, like his (half-baked) plan to run all the way to London, or his plans to force the Fat Controller's hand with a tender engine strike (not wholly successful, but still way more successful than one might have thought), or his plan for them to pay out first Edward and then Duck for respective 'betrayals'. Of course sometimes Gordon and Henry are in total lockstep without even needing to consult, with an absolutely adorable shared brain thing – like when they initially reject Diesel's idea that Duck is gossiping about them, or when they strong-arm Percy into being the deputation ("Rubbish, Percy. It's easy." "That's settled, then.") This shows how similar they are in outlook and feeling, but Henry is the more passive of the two, we have never seen him initiate… anything, I think? Gordon is the one who makes things happen, and the one that Henry and James look to for leadership within their group. I don't actually think the whole of the fleet looks to Gordon as reliably as James and Henry do to take charge of things, at least we don't have any textual evidence for that (and even James and Henry do it less and less as the series goes on). But I do suspect that he's definitely the one the rest of the fleet would look to first in a choice between him and Henry. 

2) Self-esteem. I'm going to come in with a flaming hot take and say that Henry is the one of the two more confident and comfortable with himself. Henry of course does a lot of moaning, and he moped a lot in his early days, when he was physically struggling. But even in those early days he was still proud as punch, willing to flat-out reject orders from his crew and the Fat Controller; it's also striking to me that he switched from blue to green paint (conformity to individuality) before he got his Welsh coal. Henry actually has quite a strong sense of self-esteem. Gordon is arrogant, but he has every reason in the world to be. Henry could swagger around even when he didn't. Gordon has to emphasize his background and his tender engine status because he requires external markers of worth; Henry doesn't explicitly reject that stuff, but he's certainly NOT hung up on it enough to actually expound theories about it to captive tank engines ("You don't understand, little Thomas; we tender engines have a position to keep up…"). And Henry seems to have been the first to drift out of the big three engines' hive mind. He was the last to join the strike, the first to support Duck when challenged, the first to think that Bear wasn't so bad, and the least inclined to trash-talk smaller engines. Henry's an individualist, and if he doesn't try to make things happen as much as Gordon it's at least in part because he doesn't feel the need to. Of course he adores recognition and importance and respect from the others (they all do, really) but he can function without it. He's proven it. And if he's not as active as Gordon in some respects, he's also not quite so reactive. For example: although he's not the brightest bulb, I don't think he'd have ever been so thoroughly convinced that Bill and Ben were about to kill him, either. 

3) Emotionality. This is strongly related to point 2 actually, but my other flaming hot take is that Gordon is a more emotional machine than Henry. Henry gets the bad rap for moaning and pissing, but I'm actually amazed, again and again, by how quickly Henry bounces back from hurts and setbacks – witness the absolute lack of drama after the horrible Flying Kipper wreck. 

Gordon, in contrast, gets into his feels more quickly, and requires more external support to get on his rails again. We've never needed an entire book to describe Henry's depression after being in Disgrace.

"That's all right, Thomas. You made me laugh. I like that. I'm in disgrace," Gordon went on pathetically, "I feel very low." 

I'm sorry, why did Henry get flanderized as the sopping wet cat out of the two? ;) 

Henry and Gordon are contrasted again with the news of the end of steam. Henry is totally oblivious, preoccupied with some bullshit status symbols. Gordon's going through a whole-ass existential crisis.

Which, fair. That's a reasonable thing to have an existential crisis about. But we also know that Gordon is capable of catastrophizing like a mofo. He perceives lots of things as threats, and dwells on them. We're back here to "No, no, I AM Gordon! Stop, stop!" We're back to him enjoying Thomas teasing him because it's the only normal thing in his life when he's being punished for his ditch nonsense. We're back to him spending most of Gordon the High-Speed Engine moping over various slights. 

This also ties back into point 1, about Gordon being perceived as a leader. I think part of that tendency is because Gordon is able to bond with other engines when they are down – when they're down, he can let down his own guard. There's empathy there ("No one understands our feelings," Gordon says to Sir Handel, winning over the smaller engine's entire heart). Henry is capable of treating other engines well too, we've seen it, but we haven't seen that evidence of empathetic feeling. Mind you, this is not a bad thing or a criticism; ethics aren't dependent on empathy. It's just an observation in their approach. Henry's connections with other engines seem to be built on a more cerebral approach, a we-stand-together-because-it's-pleasant-and-mutually-beneficial mindset. Now obviously, Mr Shall-We-Form-An-Alliance is familiar with the idea, but honestly when Gordon makes connections, it seems to be with his heart (which may be why he's far more inconsistent about it lol, and why he tends to blow hot or cold! Henry seems to be on generally good terms with everyone, after his first few books, whereas Gordon has conflicts as well as friendships that spring up very suddenly). 

In addition to his "low," "pathetic" moments, "high spirits" are also more strongly marked in Gordon than in Henry. This is another facet where we see that Gordon is just more emotionally driven than Henry, although – again! – I don't think the two are very far apart. We're talking about differences in degrees, not polar opposites by any means. 

[wrathevil]

Pebs and Arti,,,,, my favourites ever... i love them

Do you think Pebbles would call Arti "mom" at least ONCE on complete accident??

See, ok. I drew out a little doodle of this, but then actually thought about it too hard. Would he????

Because (as far as we know) Pebbles has never had a motherly figure in his life. So would he know to assign that title to Artificer? Or would he have complicated feelings he has no idea what to do with because he has no name for it. OR would he have another word to assign to those feelings?

The ancients would be the closest things to parents to him probably, but “creator” seems way too formal and also.. Just kinda weird.

The next title I can think of is “Senior”, like Moon’s senior status in the local group. WHICH brings up the absolutely hilarious scenario of Moon getting all emotional because “Oh… Pebbles sees me in such high regard that he would assign that title to someone he clearly trusts…”

ANYWAYS for the sake of funnies I think he would

[jobey-wan-kenobi]

The Engines as Mentors

Okay but I'm eternally salty that TVS in particular—though it was RIGHT to expand the NWR fleet—failed to use the dynamic of the OG characters from the books all functioning as Mentors and Elder Statesmen to the newer and more obscure and younger engines.

It would have been THE way to effectively integrate the newbies (looking especially hard at you, HIT era). Like, some of the best use of the new characters already are when they fall into a mentee dynamic with one of the established characters. But the TVS writers really only ever let this happen with, like, Thomas? To a degree? And Edward? A bit? And then the best and most beloved BWBA episodes (BWBA!) are when Gordon and, again, Edward get more of this sort of material. And then again, in fuckin' AEG, the most popular thing so far seems to be Gordon's whole Grumpy Dad shtick.

But I think canon and fan writers should have done this with all the classic characters. After decades as The Famous Eight—erm, Ten—(but not Eleven—to me Oliver is in that category of newbie that needs looking after. which is what the rest of the Little Western spends most of his one book doing!) they are all  kinda old af and well-qualified and honestly just should be mentoring the diesels and younger steam engines and whatever wide-eyed newcomers are brought to the Island Where Fever Dreams Come True and Culture Shock Is Probably One Hell of a Bitch.

LIKE. Percy. Yes, absolutely Percy! He's inconsistent about standing up for himself or making good decisions in his own working life but honestly his instincts when it comes to others have always been completely on-point. And he never has any hesitation about acting on his instincts so there is a recipe here for big-brother success. He must be so wonderful with uncertain new engines. I think he would have been much better for taking Molly under his wing than Thomas, and he must be a god among many of the newer tank engines. Like the dynamic I tried to paint in my headcanon post about Harvey—Percy gives whiplash as your mentor because he will always support you 100% but sometimes he will suddenly make the most baffling decisions and if you are not, yourself, a natural chaos gremlin, you are just along for the ride and possibly dying of secondhand embarrassment. But again, you also get over it because no one will ever show up for you more consistently than Percy the Caterpillar Engine.

The BWBA era thing where Gordon winds up mentoring Rebecca is... like, fine, I guess. I don't have any complaints about it, but—as I tried to show in my ficlet with him and Derek—I think Gordon's most typical mentorships have two unmistakable characteristics:

it is insanely arbitrary as to whether or not he decides to take you on. if you wind up in his circle of trust you probably weren't trying or even remotely expecting. it is also hard for anyone else to understand why Gordon looked at a new engine and said to himself "Yes. That one." Because the way Gordon makes emotional decisions is utterly impenetrable—this is RWS canon. Why did Gordon one day go from being Pure Unadulterated Jackass Whose Only Thought So Far In His Life Has Been "Me! Me! Meeeee!" to the engine who (evidently? without?? snark???) suggested the Fat Controller let Henry out of the tunnel to take a turn on his train? Honestly we don't know but it remains Gordon's signature style. Why did Gordon do an about-face after James took the express and graciously decide James was his new buddy? Well, to save face of course, but Gordon is also not above a good grudge so it feels like a coin toss. Why did Gordon decide to be super gracious when he rescued Percy and Thomas from their RWS scrapes? No one knows but somehow these moments are so quintessentially him (even though showing up moaning and scolding would have also been quintessentially him). And—most relevantly of all—there is what I regard as his archetypal moment with BoCo. 'My dear engine! You SAVED MY LIFE.' 'I mean, you're welcome for getting rid of them but they were never actually going to kill you.' 'YES THEY WERE. THEY HAD MURDER IN THEIR HEARTS. YOU ARE A GOD AMONG DIESELS, STANDING STRONG AGAINST THE FORCES OF DARKNESS.' '... Sure.' Gordon logic is not the same as earth logic and his reasons for rejecting or accepting others seldom make much sense.

If he does take you on, you may not even notice. Gordon is very stuffy and kind of... emotionally remote. His mentorship style consists of long rambling bouts of relating/boasting about his own experiences and/or advising you, without you able to get much of a word in edgewise—but then, he does this with everyone who is ever stuck with him—and doing extraordinarily nice things for you such as pulling strings to get you the best assignments or upgrades but he'll do it all behind your back, so it might take a while before you realize. (But you'd better, because even though he deliberately decides to do these things in secret, he will also privately feel hurt and hard-done-by if you don't figure it out and thank him. Or at least exclaim happily in his presence and sing the praises of your unknown fairy godfather.)

So yes, mentor!Gordon is a lot like friend!Gordon and worker!Gordon. He is pretty damn high-maintenance but he is also genuinely quite worth it. What his relationships lack in... comprehensibility they make up for in loyalty and generosity. ALTHOUGH. It's worth laughing because I think most of the engines he takes on are decent, polite engines who perhaps have some self-confidence issues. Basically it's like any engine he meets afterwards who is in the Edward mould he is actually magnificent to, which is hysterical considering that one of the keynotes in early canon was Gordon bullying the shit out of Edward. (I still think that wasn't malicious though, and more Gordon did not yet have the remotest understanding of Himself, Theory of Mind, or How to Be a Friend.)

If you have self-confidence issues but you do not win Gordon's capricious favor, never fear! You have James. Who is even more capricious, but that's not to say he's never been the most faaaaaabulous mentor in the world, c'est ne pas? Look. I want to see James as the catalyst for shy newcomers having a glow up. In appearance and attitude. I don't think he does he often but it has definitely happened around twice. I somehow have never actually watched "Rosie is Red" or "The Fastest Red Engine on Sodor" while paying attention but I've been assuming that's exactly how Rosie's Confident Girl Arc went down. Maybe he could be a similar idol for Neville or Flora. Another thing that has happened twice is James just flat-out corrupting a couple of the Good, Buttoned-Down Boys and Girls. I still want to see James take, like, Porter or Arthur and teach 'em anger. Introduce them to the world of (tiny) rebellions. By the time James is done with them, they are starting to Display Behaviors, and Act In Certain Ways.

Henry, I firmly believe (sticking out my tongue at most of the TVS and magazine writing for him), is actually regarded very intimidating. Like Gordon and James are intimidating too, but they are also known jackasses and the universe is known to have slapped them around reliably when they get too far up their own tenders. Also Gordon usually puts on an air of affability—in RWS it's Henry who is the Grumpy One (and meanwhile James, though he has a foul temper, is just too ADHD to be properly intimidating). I suspect Henry's actually always had the reputation for being extremely snobbish. Which is silly because he's only mildly to moderately snobbish, but there you are. He also doesn't put himself out there socially, but of course if you put yourself out there to him he's perfectly friendly. Anyway newcomers and young engines wouldn't know this right away. I think Henry's specialty is mentees in the mold of Bear and my OC Laura and even Rebecca—extroverted, expressive engines who show him respect. In those cases you see his best side, all kindliness and unstinting support. And Henry's support is really valuable, for the usual reasons that all the OGs have a lot of pull on the railway but also because Henry is surprisingly sage and sensible. He doesn't have the reputation for it the way Edward does, due to some of his notoriously poor decision-making in his earlier years and the way he can still sometimes be a bit literal or naive. But even if he's had to learn most things the hard way, he hasn't lied to himself about it and therefore he's developed a very clear-eyed view on things. Refreshingly simple and sound. We see this already in the RWS Super Rescue—he's got Bear and Spamcan pretty well-pegged long before the story ends. He also values engine solidarity in a really consistent, utterly unpretentious way that shows you he doesn't even think about it, it's just become a part of who he is. I love it. And, of course, he's bold as brass. He once hissed steam at his boss and essentially told him to fuck off for no better reason than it was raining and he just wasn't feelin' it. He had the most horrid wreck in the series and after being rebuilt he just got right back on that horse, pulling Flying Kippers again for the next century without the slightest sign of trauma. So if you need him for something, he won't hesitate to move earth and heaven for a friend. He may be a bit of a hypochondriac and likes to predict doom and gloom but he is fundamentally pretty fearless when it comes time for action. (Cut him a break with the elephant thing—he's allowed to have tunnel-related trauma, okay?)

Of course there was one extroverted engine inclined to hero-worship that Henry rejected in canon as a mentee, and that was Philip. Which brings us to Edward, and I fully agree with the fandom consensus that he is the mentor ever, capable of and inclined to look out for, like, everyone. All I'm saying is that I think the others can also step up in this way... Anyway, Edward's specialty of course is engines who are in the mould of Thomas, engines who are excited and eager to work but who talk a lot and might have a streak of mischief and who are definitely considered Too Much by everyone else. Edward likes energetic gremlins. They've always kept him young at heart. And, more importantly, they trust him so completely. Probably because they can tell he's one of the few who genuinely doesn't mind them at what everyone else considers their Most Annoying. He never tells them to hold still or quiet down or make themselves smaller in any way, so they are incredibly receptive to whatever he does tell them.

But what if you're Too Much and you are not eager? If you are not susceptible to admiring Edward's stellar work ethic? I think this is where Thomas shines. Like I think HIT abbreviated and simplified the conflicts with Dennis and Billy too much but it was such a gold mine. Because Thomas, see. You get these little sneaky rotters who don't want to listen to anyone—and at first Thomas seems like the most out-of-touch engine on the rails. Coz Thomas is a tryhard. He also has that whole "corporate positivity" thing going on. Like, the way I resolve the way TVS massacring my boy is by supposing that, after all, Thomas might have really tried to adopt that persona, especially in the '80s when he was inducted into the National Collection and the, well, television series got underway and Thomas becomes damn near the most famous locomotive in the world, certainly he knows he is an icon for children, and he might have figured that, well, this means I have to be a Good Role Model and Teach Children Valuable Lessons. And so he really did try to do this whole pep-talk, moralizing, sugary sweet encouragement thing (and he has a Word of the Day calendar, lol).

And the Dennises and Billies of the world look at that and—understandably, I think—retch a little. But then they double down. And the thing is, when they push Thomas too far, Thomas forgets to be sweetness and light, and just becomes himself. First of all, a foul-mouthed little drill-sergeant wannabe ("Cinders and ashes!!!!" "Who's been late every afternoon this week?!" "You're too fat—you need exercise!" "IF YOU DIE? IF YOU DIE, MOTHERFUCKER? SO WHAT?! I WOULDN'T GIVE A SHIT COZ I'D BE TOO BUSY FINALLY RUNNING MY GODDAMN TRAIN TO TIME." - all direct quotes from Thomas the Tank Engine, ladies and gents) Secondly, an extremely experienced engine who really has done a bit of everything by this point (he even hitched a ride on the Wild Nor'wester that one time, lol) and who is pretty skeptical so he's hard to fool (Percy was the last engine to really ever get one over on him, during the Ghost Train incident, and that's ancient history by this point). If you try to get away with doing a shitty job he's bound to notice and he will be quite acid-tongued if you've pierced his PR Persona. Third, although he can be kinda self-involved and the last to "get" what's going on with newcomers, he is surrounded by his old friends, who are all pretty good about either clocking an engine's whole Deal, getting all the tea like the gossips they are, or both. So while he was still in his amiable-idiot stage of your acquaintance, you, poor rebellious fool, thought you had the run of things but all the while he was getting up to speed on your whole deal. Which means you won't be prepared, should you really commit to ongoing antisocial behavior, for Thomas the Beacon of Children Everywhere to abruptly cast up your entire life story to you and to read it for filth, telling you the merciless truth about yourself in a way that the other engines pieced together but with which they probably never hit you deadass between the eyes.

Of course, this doesn't mean the would-be punks and malcontents who get onto Sodor are instantly cured, lol (though it has gone down that way a few times—my alternate version of Billy's intro story would feature an end where he's just gobsmacked into submission). Sometimes it just means you are going to decide Thomas is your Hated Enemy for Life, but you know what? You will have to step up your game in order to compete with him or even to gain enough clout to try and sabotage him so you're still playing into his hand (if we accept TVS's idea that 'Devious Diesel' did become a part of the Sodor family, I think this is how he was successfully integrated. At some point Thomas unexpectedly read him the riot act and Diesel was like 'who the FUCK are you?? like i know i already had beef with all the main line engines but where the hell did YOU come from???' but then after decades of competition they are essentially frenemies). But mostly the thing is, you are shell-shocked for just long enough, and you'd probably shift to being a bigger asshole than before... but, during that period where you're still burned, you are also looking at all of Sodor and every engine on it with fresh eyes (because if Thomas the Merchandise Engine could ream you out like that, perhaps you underestimated everything about this place). And you are noticing something else. Once Thomas has scalded you with his bitchery, he's also your friend. It's almost his version of sharing his lunch with you on the playground. (Something something salt and vinegar.) For all he rode Henry so hard from some of the earliest days of canon, I bet you he also beat down any 'outsiders' who took shots at him. For all he and Percy squabble, they are the closest of friends (and they weren't! for decades! but the more they squabbled, the closer they got). Getting into a knock-down fistfight is alarmingly close to Thomas's love language, and by the time he's savaged you verbally he is also invested in you. Once he's told you what he really thinks of you, he's also going to start showing up for you genuinely.

And that's when the little shits see the final side of Thomas. The genuine good humor. Obviously it doesn't win over everyone but there is a real groundedness and humility that I am sure Thomas can show (I tried to show this in the fic I made with @shinygoku based off their artwork of Thomas and Daisy) that is hard to resist. He's also fucked up along the way in every way imaginable so even when he side-eyes you, he's not looking down at you. I can just see him showing screw-ups a lot of grace so long as they let down their guard even somewhat because he's been there. Hoo boy, has he been there. That's why kids actually love him (it's not your vocabulary lessons and beaming smile, Thom, though the effort is appreciated), and it's why young engines can wind up loving him too. He doesn't hold what you've done in the past against you; he genuinely believes in second chances (and third, and...). Plus he knows every engine needs some excitement and responsibility in their lives. He has never forgotten the insanity-inducing frustration of being tethered to Vicarstown station.

Basically, once you cut past Thomas's earnest (and bullshit) attempt to be Perfect Kids' Role Model, he's actually always been great at keeping it real. And that's where a genuine respect can often grow.

[failed-inspection]

Seven Red Suns my beloved

[lanternmice]

you clearly love them a lot and i am So curious what ur thoughts on seven red suns as a character are. theyre.. kinda mean from what uve seen, but you probably have some great insights!! if this means gushing about your f/o instead of serious analysis i am also in 100% support of that gbjhf

WUAGHHHHH I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN I LIKE THEM SOOOO MUCH i really really want to talk about General interpretations but it's hard because of how obviously biased i am. but. Augh. this is so nothing but it got long and i'm embarrassed so woe read more be upon ye

i gotta start by mentioning that faelings original design & concept for suns (and spearmaster by extension) is sooo important to me and a lot of my personal interp comes from that, comics like this (link to the official discord btw) that they made for example! and though it has arguably less to do with suns, the 1.5 drought mod also has a special place in my heart but if i get too into that i'll start screaming and crying about it. just know that wanderer is so special to me and suns has two kitty cats that they love so much ok?🫶

anyways. i think because of the fact they aren't fleshed out much in canon aside from the spearmaster broadcasts there's a lot left up for the player to decide, which honestly is really fun to me and i genuinely love seeing other peoples interpretations!! but personally because you mentioned it and because i feel kinda strongly about this in particular, i wanna say that i don't think suns is mean, i think they definitely have the potential to be overprotective and intimidating, but it'd almost always be out of love. one thing the broadcasts ARE good at showing is just how much they care about basically everybody around them, even if they're a little.. dense about some things. they way they talk in the chat logs with nsh, about their guilt over pebbles' situation and trying to make up for it even though pebbles clearly doesn't want their help, about dooming not only pebbles but moon as well (who as far as canon text goes, they don't seem to have ever personally talked to moon at all imo). and when nsh stops messaging them, or becomes increasingly worried about moon, they get visibly concerned about his wellbeing as well and does their best to console him. my favourite broadcasts are the ones about their gradual realization that maaaaybe they care about spearmaster a little more than they originally intended to. they raised spearmaster, going as far as to teach it a personally modified sign language rather than a quick and easy one-way mark of communication like most iterators would do. the chat logs after spearmaster encounters pebbles and how worried suns was for it, about how they regret ever sending them to pebbles in the first place, and that they just wished it'd return home to them safely. there's also the fact that they kept an eye on spearmaster with their overseer basically 24/7, to the point that even pebbles knew that suns was watching. overseers can act on their own, we know that from what we see in canon, but pebbles knew that suns was actively watching when spearmaster entered his can. which. god this wasn't supposed to be about pebbles but pebbles not killing spearmaster is something that's so important to me because he so easily could have killed them and there was no reason for him not to. but despite how hurt he was and how wronged he felt, he knew that it would have ruined suns so he held himself back and it's so AAUUGHHHHHH!!!!!!! i love them all so much. this is barely even about suns anymore sorry i didn't mean to type so much about spearmaster i just love their campaign so much. don't even get me started on the thought of ascending as spearmaster that shit will make me start killing people i actually was going to talk about headcanon stuff too (mostly stuff from before the global ascension/after riv) but. i started thinking too hard about suns and pebbles and spearmaster and wanderer and and and. Well sorry but i fear that if i think about rain world any more today i may end up on national television. so maybe another day

[www-islandofsodor]

Good night/morning everyone. Admin here with a RWS hot take. I enjoy the story Domeless Engines as much as the next person, however, it does feel like it’s missing something. I’m not going to rewrite the entire story. So here are a few notes that would change it up a bit.

Include character interactions between Duck, Percy, and Edward at the beginning.

Have the other engines goad Duck into talking to City of Truro so he can come see them at Tidmouth Sheds

Duck reluctantly agrees and the rest of the scene unfolds as normal

At sundown, Duck asks Truro if he wouldn’t mind coming over to Tidmouth Sheds with him so he can meet the other engines.

Truro responds by saying, “if there as much fun to chat with as you’ve been Duck, I’d be delighted to.” “Oh tops!” Duck exclaims.

That night, Duck watches on with pride as Truro regales the engines with tales about his adventures till long after the stars came out.

Have Percy and Duck be the ones who chat with Gordon.

Duck crossly bumps the cars after getting into a rao with Gordon; secretly setting up their revenge plot with Diesel later on.

[shiraishi-kanade]

Okay this is gonna be a messy addition from me, and ik I have An Shiraishi syndrome (instead of brain there's An Shiraishi), but I feel like VBS never surpassing RW is a very possible thing and I also have there's another red herring pointing to it:

Like, the entire "Kohane is just like Nagi" arc.

Because narratively it doesn't make sense. Kohane is literally a newcomer who has been on Vivid Street for around a year, and only for about half the time was she trying to build a genuine connection with them; she only really managed to Get It the day before the event. This is a very sharp contrast to Nagi herself, who was brought up in Vivid Street, who took literally her entire life to reach that point.

The one closest to Nagi as far as the entire connection thing goes, considering the circumstances created on purpose by Nagi herself, is An - but they repeatedly, over and over again, hammered down that she is Not like her, than she'll never have that role in the group. WLE even points and tells us that her obsession of becoming the next Nagi-san (figuratively) is actually one of her flaws that holds her back.

If VBS was going full "we are the new Radder" thing, logically, they HAVE to fall into An = Nagi, (because Kohane is a newcomer and it would feel [and still kinda does imo] weird to have her have a deeper connection than An) otherwise the story won't make much sense, considering we already have other parallels, but no matter who you choose, one member will always be left short of a counterpart. So what's the deal?

Now this could be just a standard shounen anime thing with overpowered protagonist, but I sure hope it's not. Because the moment you realise that being able to build a deep and genuine connection with the place and people you perform for in a short period of time is exactly the type of skill and/or mindset that would make you very, very good at touring and performing internationally, which should be VBS' next goal. A skill that Kohane has.

So maybe Kick it Up a notch wasn't a really big reach to give Kohane and An an insecurity arc but actually hinting unto something bigger. At least that's what I hope is going on because otherwise :/

Why Ken Shiraishi is Still Written OK (aka why Vivid BAD SQUAD will never surpass RAD WEEKEND, and why that's a good thing)

An essay I wrote in someone's Twitter DMs as we discussed their belief that Ken's writing has been becoming out of character ever since On Your Feet, and my attempt to present a counter-argument that turned into an analysis of VBS stories up to this point.

1,089 words, warnings for swearing, spoilers, and the fact that this is barely formatted like an essay at all but was just a ramble I thought I gave some good points in and wanted to share.

So bro is openly going against the things that made rw what it was ("ok Toya make all the songs" <- that is not what happened with radder)" and I doubt bro would be full on ignoring it (nor clpl full on ignoring it seeing as they have all of the group's full stories planned from the beginning) and I personally theorize that it's to emphasize the four's strengths as well as to make them come face to face with their weaknesses to grow stronger (I think concerto is the most obvious case of this). Nagi's goal with rw wasn't to make something to be surpassed, it was to pass radder's dream to the next generation to reach the heights they couldn't (i.e. worldwide popularity) and I very much feel like the vbs story has enough backing them going in that direction (Toya's wl chapter, what I've seen of radder flashbacks, even Ken's whole reason for opening weekend garage).

For context, the preceding conversation was about how Ken has been going against a lot of his initial things (Running weekend garage to help the next generation, helping them not work as hard, etc), how he knew Taiga was gonna tell vbs the truth of RAD WEEKEND and that he should first but he didn't, and then how he's been overworking the kids and going against the team effort rw was by radder

Again, clpl kinda suck at writing vbs sometimes but dammit they ain't bad at foreshadowing, they teased Nagi stuff for a year or two before lutf and stuff after all. Plus they've never had a sudden decline with a character, it took two years for Mafuyu's mom to fully be revealed as bad, and even with Taiga that was a solid year. (Now what they do do a lot of are sudden "redemption arcs", sure the Otori brothers' was decent but all the times they've tired to have Shinodad or Toya's dad grow as people has been so bad like bro some people are just shit).

Plus vbs' story has been slower than most of the other units until this current arc (hell they took the longest to end their first arc), slow building blocks to surpassing RAD WEEKEND. So for this current arc to have them saying "our next event will surpass them" so suddenly just doesn't add up. It has to be a red herring. And again, Taiga's been this game's only true betrayal arc, others have been characters going from neutral to bad (Mafumom, one-off characters) or ones meant to be bad that eventually become allies to their respective groups (Arata, Iori, Otori brothers). Taiga going from an explicit ally to an enemy is an outlier, and I've noticed that they usually won't repeat plots and stuff in this game (well outside of Smile of a Dreamer and Our Happy Ending but I think that was on purpose).

I highly doubt that vbs' ending will involve them surpassing RAD WEEKEND, they're probably the only group who's initial goal hadn't changed over time (L/n "I wanna be with my friends again" -> "We wanna be pros that touch others with music". WxS "Let's save this stage" -> "let's travel the world to make our dreams come true" n25 "i need to save mafuyu" -> "she's seemingly saved but shits still tucked"). Even MMJ's which has seemed to always be "Let's be idols and give hope to others" has had steps to go through, it wasn't instantly "Let's perform in the dome" it was "Let's be idols" -> "let's do a live show" -> "let's do a solo show" -> "let's perform in the dome". VBS hasn't been like that, it's always been "let's surpass RAD WEEKEND" and never been anything but that, so their progression has just been them saying "this'll get us closer to surpassing RAD WEEKEND" with little to actually show for it.

It's a lofty, impossible task, and I think Ken and Taiga know that, but they view it in different ways. Taiga sees it as "you'll never live up to it give up stop trying" while Ken's is "you'll never live up to it but that doesn't change that you're still talented performers". Even though how characters always compare each other to radder (An and Taiga seeing Nagi in Kohane, Taiga seeing Ken in Akito) , they're not radder, they'll never be them, and I feel like that's what the story wants to have them and the audience eventually realize. That's what Nagi wanted, right? To have the next generation do what she and the rest of radder couldn't, to keep singing and to be known around the world. They've already contrasted how both Taiga and Ken have attempted to keep Nagi's wishes alive before (i.e. the whole "Don't tell An until she's ready" thing), and Ken handled this better than Taiga but both weren't the best at it, and vbs had to find the strength themselves to keep going. Taiga did it in a brutal and dream-crushing way, while Ken's was gentler and more honest but came too late, and I feel that they wouldn't get rid of that contrast with Nagi's other dream. Taiga ran off and became famous overseas, but never fully processed his grief. Ken is encouraging the next generation, but still isn't doing it perfectly.

So I feel that Ken's plan is to show vbs *their* strengths. The ones only they have. Not in the context of reaching radder's level, but in reaching their own, and truly fulfilling Nagi's wish. He's not doing it perfectly, he's overworking them severely, but I highly doubt that this is purposeful. Again, I just don't think they'd make the dilf have a villain arc.

But nothing anyone has done in response to vbs's dream has been perfect. Even from the main story with akitoya and Kotarou sabotaging Kohane, to Arata in sbd, to Taiga to Arata in bfby, and then lutf is obvious. It's a messy tale of unprocessed grief and unfiltered dreams, things that can lead to both triumph and tragedy. But I truly can't see any malice in Ken's actions, or even Taiga's to an extent. While there obviously was some there, to him I assume it was to protect the legacy of his sister and to not tarnish her swansong.

I don't fully know where I was going with this but all in all I think Ken has good intentions albeit with unintentional extreme expectations, VBS was never meant to surpass RAD WEEKEND, and the vbs story's messy pacing lately is purposeful

[frostbite-the-bat]

society if literally 80% of rw fandom and especially rw analysis youtubers (who are great, EXCEPT) stopped calling gourmand heckin' chonker chubby diabetic ginormous whatever and paid more mind to their whole character and not just the fact that they're fat

[bruhstation]

sending my obligatory congrats on your 3x4 piece blowing up, its so funny seeing ppl discover the amount of talent this fandom has over and over again. glad you're getting the recognition it deserves <3

that piece is some SERIOUS gas btw, i first saw it on my tl from a reblog and even I was surprised lol

lollll thank you!!! can't believe tragic train yaoi is what made my blog explode XD the ttte fandom is filled to the brim with extremely creative and skilled folks!!! fanfic writers and oc makers get heavy into railway history and expanded the story of ttte/rws, people make character/basis/history analysis like tying duck's story to his great western origins, gordon's story to his lner roots, etc. there's also many fan videos and parodies all animated and written by fans out there!!! we're dedicated!!!!! that's what's so good about this fandom!!!! there's so many smart people here. I like it

[anonymousboxcar]

Hello! For character bingo, what would you say about the Scottish Twins?

I love these two so much. They barrel their way onto Sodor, they have the audacity/desperation to lie to the Fat Controller’s face, and they stick together through thick and thin.

They’re both “beasts” in my opinion, but not in the dudebro way, if that makes any sense? They get in over their smokeboxes sometimes, but it’s all from a place of love and support, a vulnerable center.

Speaking of them in individual terms, I love Donald because he’s so witty, charismatic, and self-confident. He doesn’t feel the need to prove himself. As long as you accept him for who he is, he’ll do the same for you… with the occasional bout of friendly banter/pranking, of course. He’s a good sport.

And I love Douglas because he’s not as confident in himself, but still determined to pay things forward and be brave. He knows how it feels to fear for your safety, and he won’t let anyone else go through it. He can be brash and on edge, but no less capable and committed to doing the “right thing.”

Their pasts and their coming to Sodor is also so juicy. So much potential for angst and stories about overcoming cruel systems! I’m not above the idea of them being squeezed for all they’re worth, lol.

As for headcanons…

-I think I alluded to this before, but I love the idea of Donald training Dilly to do some tricks. At his command (and with frozen peas from his crew), she’ll quack, spin in a circle, and play dead.

-Donald’s still working on the “play dead” trick. Dilly flops to the ground fine, but she keeps waggling her tail feathers in excitement. Donald breaks down laughing too hard to speak every time.

-Douglas, in keeping with his love of antiques, keeps a small collection of knickknacks in the back of his shed. His crew dusts and polishes them at his request. The objects themselves aren’t “valuable,” but there’s a lot of sentiment behind each one.

-He has one of the last tires he got in Scotland, a toy model of himself he received from Oliver one Christmas, and a magnetic pin from his old driver (now retired but still a frequent visitor).

-The two of them are so efficient at plowing snow that they earned a Guinness World Record for it. It was during a time when the NWR wanted to drum up good PR, and they brought some officiants from Guinness to Sodor to find some new records.

-There was intense jockeying among the engines to get their attention. Donald and Douglas were among those who stayed out of the fracas, chuckling to each other while focusing on their work. And they had a lot of it after a heavy snowstorm one night.

-They were so busy that they didn’t notice the Guinness officiants watching them with stopwatches and clipboards.

-All the show-offs fell silent when Donald and Douglas received their plaque.

-Donald and Douglas were taken aback, but happy to see their hard work recognized. To this day, they continue to defend their title and maintain friendly rivalries with their competitors around the globe.

[adragonsfriend]

Welcome!

I write about star wars meta, my own fic, other people's fics, whatever. Currently I'm looking back at some of my long posts and cringing, so bullet points I'm thinking about reworking or rewriting for whatever reason are marked (RW) for ReWork.

Table of Contents

Jedi & Sith Meta

Cultural Relationships to Pain: Sith, Jedi (also Amavikka)

"The Jedi are slaves to their doctrine..." (No they're absolutely not) & Jedi cultural context

"Do or do not, there is no try"--A contextual analysis (RW) (note: currently contains an inaccurate assessment of Yoda & Obi-Wan's opinion on Vader)

Why does Depa take 12 yr old Caleb as a Padawan?

Vaapad, Mace Windu, Emotional Control

Shatterpoint Mace Windu & Luke Skywalker: Comparison (RW) (note: currently contains an inaccurate assessment of Yoda & Obi-Wan's opinion on Vader)

"There is no emotion, there is peace…" An Analysis (RW)

"Fix Anakin with this one Easy Trick!! (Jedi don't want u 2 no)"

Force User Graphs

Canon Characters

Padme is not a Witness to Anakin's Violence

Congrats! It's a Boy (Anakin only has one kid)

Anakin & Ahsoka in the Ryloth & Malevolence Arcs

Killing Ahsoka in the Cad Bane Arc

Anakin's AotC dreams

Purple Lightsabers

Dooku: the Good, the Perfect and the Fascism

Chancellor Palpatine isn't Rude

Star Wars as Media

"Why you no therapist, Star Wars?"

"If Anakin could've been open about his marriage..."

A Statement about Good and Evil

Mace Windu & American Moor

Time Travel Fics: Themes & Breifly Considering Disability

SW Protagonists do not “Have More Feelings” than Other People

World building

Ryloth Worldbuilding

How to feed 2 million runaway clones (hint: you cant)

Zygerria & Cat Agriculture, (+ canabalism? & insects), (+ecological disaster)

Amavikka Meta & World building

Leia's Role in Amavikka Mythology

Cultural Relationships to Pain: Amavikka, (also Sith, Jedi)

Amavikka cultural context

On Writing Ekkreth Stories

Amatakka

Amatakka Learning Guide (intended for learners)

Amatakka Additions (the complete spreadsheet, intended for conlangers)

Poem for Singers/Surgeons + Amatakka Translation

Biting His Own Tale (My fic: ao3)

How Palpatine uses Stories

Dooku has Anxiety and no idea what is going on

Anakin's Ekkreth Mask Drawing, Painting

Ryloth Worldbuilding (& Syndulla Family)

Fungi

Casualties of Biting His own Tale (1), (2)

Lineage Trees

A list of shorter, randomer thoughts

[anonymousboxcar]

I am supremely late to the party here, but as someone who reads Dracula every October, I love this so much. Oh my god.

I think the novel’s idea of death is that it’s awful, tragic, and sometimes even unjust… but once it happens, it happens. It’s what makes us human. When it’s subverted, it’s wrong and monstrous. It needs to be put right again.

I can 100% see that resonating with late-Victorian era locomotives. This is a culture that asked engines to go to their end with dignity, to accept it when it’s their time.

But Dracula isn’t unemotional. The characters feel things and they aren’t quiet about it. They talk at length about their despair, their hope, their grief. They cry on each other’s shoulders, looking for and giving comfort.

Now, who does that sound like? How might that have impacted a young, wide-eyed Seagull listening to the cleaner reading it aloud?

Aside from his emotionality and sensitivity, maybe Edward got other bits of his Edward-ness from the novel. Dracula reinforces death as a necessity, but I think it also emphasizes the power of love.

The Count attacks Mina, turning her into a vampire as she still lives. It’s a terrifying, dangerous injustice. But the group refuses to give up on her, saying there’s time to stop it. She refuses to give up on them, despite what’s happening to her. She uses her transformation to help them find the Count as he flees England.

They love each other, even in the face of overwhelming odds. That’s why the hunter becomes the hunted. That’s why the Count crumbles underneath a wooden stake.

And what if that stuck with Edward? What if he remembers it when he sees Trevor, not broken or rusty, in the scrapyard?

He sees an injustice — an engine forced to become something else as he still lives. He thinks, There’s still time.

Edward refuses to give up. He cares for a relative stranger so much that he gets him out of the scrapyard and into a happy new beginning. He can be overwhelmed by his emotions, but he learns how to channel them into good causes, too. He’s full of love and he’s stronger for it.

That’s behind the smile he gives when people ask how he does it. That’s why he and his loved ones run on the same rails a century later. He isn’t invincible, but he’s happy in the sun, never alone.

It’s a better kind of immortality than that of any vampire.

i have just realized that Dracula was published in the UK exactly one year after Edward was built and my brain is absolutely frozen/quivering with the massive potential of this knowledge

[the-real-rain-world-confessions]

Ive made such amazing friends in rw servers and met such sweet people, even if they don’t actively participate in the fanbase we made really treasured memories and their ocs are fantastic.

Shoutout to @lynxmisnomer’s masterful comics and some of my absolute favorite slugcat art, @bonniesband with beautiful and evocative illustrations that looks at the game from many different angles, and the absolutely wonderful @sevenrs isn’t active anymore but he was the catalyst for so much of this. @16snails makes incredible art I want to just stare at and take in every detail (even if she doesn’t post it /lh) and is a blast to talk to. @gunpowder-arti is extremely thoughtful and outspoken and contributes so much creativity through his analysis and artwork. @csabyssallight is a darling and writes characters like absolutely nobody else, x is absolutely joyful to discuss with!

there’s more people i’d like to shoutout but that can wait. lots of love!

.

[traintrainingmontage]

Skarloey Appreciation Essay: Interpersonal Intelligence

I know that I still have several ficlet ideas to write, but instead, have an analysis. This one's about Skarloey, mostly because he's my absolute favorite, but also because there's a lot to say about him. This is primarily based off of the Railway Series and Model Series seasons 1-5, since they're what I'm most familiar with (although it's been a while since watching the show, so please pardon me if I miss anything from that perspective).

For this analysis, I want to briefly mention how the various sagely characters excel in different types of intelligence. Some know a lot about the world and are happy to share their knowledge (Edward), while others are highly experienced and have that experience to fall back on when trying to guide and help others (Toby). However, out of all of them, I would argue that it's Skarloey who has the best interpersonal intelligence, in that he's great at creating healthy relationships between himself and others, and by extension, maintaining a measure of relative peace on his railway.

(There's also an Edward Appreciation Essay for you all to enjoy!)

Interpersonal intelligence is defined as "the ability to understand and interact effectively with others. It involves effective verbal and nonverbal communication, the ability to note distinctions among others, sensitivity to the moods and temperaments of others, and the ability to entertain multiple perspectives" (University of Tennessee).

To start, I'd like to give some examples of how Skarloey is good at this. Skarloey is a "do no harm, but take no shit" kind of character. When done well, this kind of character tends to be highly compelling. (In fact, Toby could also be classified in this way, albeit differently flavored.) Some Skarloey-specific examples include:

-Skarloey scolding the coaches after they sabotage Sir Handel (Old Faithful). Skarloey essentially scolds them for endangering the passengers, and when they try to blame Sir Handel, Skarloey's not having it. What's particularly notable is that he doesn't take sides here; he doesn't validate the coaches' feelings nor does he defend Sir Handel. Instead, he focuses on their professionalism, and the coaches really don't have anything to say in their defence.

-Building on the previous point, this whole event, especially with Skarloey pushing himself on the passengers' behalf, resonates with Sir Handel. It ends with Sir Handel thinking that "Skarloey is the best engine in the world," which is high praise coming from an engine that referred to Skarloey as "rubbish" in his debut (Sir Handel). It's almost a shame that Skarloey left for six years to be mended, as if he'd stayed, a number of Sir Handel's more overbearing qualities might have been ironed out sooner.

-Skarloey's own character growth is also on full display in terms of the way he treats others. The worst comeback he actually has in the RWS, toward anybody, is when he says to Sir Handel that all respectable engines want to work, and then immediately follows that up with advice for Peter Sam (Peter Sam and the Refreshment Lady). Every other time another engine says something rude or ridiculous, Skarloey says nothing and winks at some other engine, or keeps it to himself ("Rusty told Duncan about the bad bit of line, and warned him to be careful. 'Huh!' he grunted, 'I know my way about, thank you! I don't need smelly Diesels to tell me what to do.' Rusty looked hurt. 'Never mind,' said Skarloey, 'you've done your best.' He said no more, but he thought a great deal.") (Rock n' Roll). He's come a long way from the hot-tempered engine who threw petty insults at Rheneas (Stick-in-the-Mud).

-Skarloey delivers lessons in ways that aren't just "you shouldn't do this because I said so." This way of giving advice to headstrong engines often gets ignored, as seen when other sagely engines try it. Instead, he takes a more cunning approach, as seen by his tactic of goading Sir Handel into facing off against George (Steam-roller). There are other engines who are cunning, certainly (just look at Donald and Douglas, or some key Thomas moments), but they don't really try to pit other engines against each other. The only other one who does in a notable way is Diesel, and he's not really protagonist material for most of the series.

In this case, the other engines (let's be real, it's Peter Sam and Duncan) are fed up with Sir Handel's boasting, so they tease him. However, he just shrugs them off. By contrast, Skarloey recognizes that trying to be straightforward won't work, so he decides to appeal to Sir Handel's pride in the hopes that he and George might teach each other a lesson. It's a strategy that ends up working exceedingly well, and also doesn't undermine his standing with Sir Handel himself. Honestly, Skarloey can be a little bit devious and that's such a fun character trait (it shows up again when Skarloey just doesn't tell the others that Culdee's Godred story is made up (Bad Look-out), choosing to let them stew and perhaps be a little more mindful of their behavior, and those moments are some of my favorites).

-Skarloey earnestly compliments others when they do well. He's incredibly grateful to Rusty for fixing the track, and tells him so. He speaks earnestly about Rheneas, and compliments Culdee upon hearing about his railway. Not a lot of other characters do this unless under duress or when they feel bad for taking things too far! In fact, tying into this point is that Skarloey doesn't kick others when they're down (see above), and stops the other engines' teasing when it gets out of hand (Peter Sam and the Prickly Problem).

There are certainly other examples of Skarloey's excellent character (one of my favorite character traits of his is how he owns up to his mistakes and even talks about them as proof of how he's grown instead of trying to hide shameful moments from his past, making him more relatable), but I'll instead pivot to why he's my go-to for a shining star of interpersonal intelligence by comparing him to some of the fandom's other favorite sages.

-Edward is probably the most wholesome character in the whole series. He's kind, he's giving, he doesn't complain, and you just want the best for him. However, he's also been worn down by life to an extent. His coworkers are often rude to him for no reason, even while they begrudgingly respect him, and unlike Skarloey, who is undoubtedly the moodmaker on his railway, Edward simply isn't; Gordon is. While I feel bad that Edward is treated this way, I also can't help but wish that Edward would have stood up for himself and others more, particularly in the early days when the railway's culture was still being figured out, because everyone on the NWR always has something to prove. It's super fulfilling when Edward proves his worth and shows that not only is he still useful, but that he has an unmatched will. However, while letting his actions speak for themselves is great, all he's really done is prove that he too can still run with the young'uns. He's earned their respect in terms of his abilities, but not their respect for his authority as an experienced engine with good advice to give, or their respect as an equal, really. He's a coworker who's shown that he can handle his work, but his opinion doesn't hold as much weight as theirs.

Perhaps part of this is that Gordon is a physically larger engine with an ego to match (after all, size DOES matter in the inherent engine pecking order, and the Skarloey Railway engines are all the same size so that's much less of an issue). Perhaps it's that Edward simply isn't confrontational, and would rather just let a lot of this slide. Perhaps another part of it is that the NWR just has so many more engines now and without that groundwork, it's very unlikely that the railway's culture can be changed at this point without a lot of effort from multiple engines. However, everybody constantly picking at each other's old wounds and feeling defensive all the time does not lend itself to a kind railway. Edward just doesn't stop that nonsense in its tracks the way Skarloey does, and he doesn't really come to the defense of some of the smaller engines. He moreso manages the fallout and is a counselor for the others, reactive but not necessarily proactive. Edward is a kind, nice character, and I absolutely adore that about him, but he often comes across as just rolling with the punches or being a shoulder to cry on for the others instead of taking a proactive role in setting the other engines straight. (To be fair, what he needed most was James or Henry having a character arc that would let them get out of the shadows of their inferiority to Gordon or their own selves/circumstances and back Edward up more often so that people actually heeded and respected his advice, but that's hardly Edward's fault.)

-Toby, on the other hand, takes no shit from anybody and will bite you if you give him grief. That's also a great character trait, but it has the side-effect of making him difficult to get along with. He's filled with great advice, but the other, haughtier engines don't want to listen so Toby doesn't want to give it; he's happy to watch them fail abysmally and come crawling back. I absolutely love Toby as a character, but these kinds of people are rather difficult to get along with in real life. I find that Toby and Duck are particularly similar in this regard; they don't take shit from the other engines, but come off as more prickly for it. Everyone except their closest friends are coworkers at best, and so they also don't necessarily improve the vibes of the railway as a whole. Toby and Edward are two ends of the spectrum, two extremes in this regard.

Thus, to me at least, it's Skarloey who wins out in terms of being the most interpersonally intelligent sage character, who makes his railway a good place to be for everybody on it. He uses a couple of different strategies to help other engines see sense, whether it's being straightforward with them, using a story as an example, or cajoling them a little bit. He scolds others when necessary, but doesn't use their shame as ammunition and doesn't tear them down. People may not like the story "Pop" Special because it makes Duncan seem too nice, but I like it in the sense that it shows how decades of being around people who are good to you and treat you well can lead to an insular, angry person becoming kinder and more thoughtful. Who made that the culture on the railway and enforced it? Skarloey.

Like I said at the start, this analysis is limited to the Railway Series and Model Series seasons 1-5, so I'd love to hear others' opinions on what I've put forth here. I hope you enjoyed; ficlets to come soon(-ish)!