This explains so much. Still, it acknowledges the existence of Duke, Boco, Derek, Class 40 and other forgotten Classic Series characters, I'll give it that.
BIBLE WRITER: Skarloey is an engine who won't take undue risks and has great regard for the perils in his working environment. He's a team player. EPISODE WRITER: "Skarloey is childish and takes risks to prove he's superior to everyone", got it. BIBLE WRITER: N-No, that's not what I- *"WHEEEEEEE!" chuffed Skarloey as he raced down the mountain.*
I think the Unlucky Tug said it best in his season 9 retrospective video. Hit likely brought the narrow-gauge engines back just so they could market them as baby trains. even though Skarloey the Brave was written by Paul Larson, who had been with the show since season 6, before Hit had bought Gullane.
I have a hunch that dang "sharing candy" metaphor mentioned in the Bible messed them up, since no other narrow-gague engine other than Skarloey, Rheneas, and Rusty acted childishly out of character.
this "bible" puts the same effort into character research as parents in the 90s trying to understand what Pokemon is, and consistently calling every Pokemon "Pikachu" while calling Pikachu "that yellow one"
I have a very strong suspicion that Sir Handel's description as an older engine came entirely from his name. The production bible bio mentions he was named after "the former owner of the railway", and since the current owner in the TV series is Sir Topham Hatt, the writers must have misinterpreted this to suggest that Sir Handel was around on this railway before Sir Topham Hatt became its current owner. Plus, there's that "Sir" part of his name, which evokes a sense of prestige and superiority, as if it meant that he was the senior member of the narrow-gauge engines. It even makes him sound like someone on par with Sir Topham Hatt, with both holding the title of "Sir". The bio even claims that his blue color is specifically "royal" blue, further adding to this supposed "majesty" of his that the bio had plucked from the ether after reading too deep into details that it shouldn't have read into so deeply.
If they read the RWS, they should know that he was named after the original owner posthumously. The owner during the series is actually sir handle the second in the RWS. What is also funny, and I didn’t notice at first, is that sir handle the second is actually Topham’s brother-in-law, not related to the topic, but a fun fact.
@@selinapersaud7629 They obviously didn't read the RWS when writing this production bible. Much of the early HiT Model Era feels more like they barely researched anything.
I'm not gonna lie, I was expecting a satirical theological discussion about the "ungodliness of Thomas". But the actual video does make a lot of sense to the tropes of the post-Alcroft era of the show, along with the inconsistencies to series 1-5 that my child brain did notice. This was really nice to watch/listen to :).
I hope The Unlucky Tug finds out about this series bible. It answers so many things he's been scratching his head over for years, and it would be good material for a rant/debunk video of his own. (Especially after how passionately he trashed the BWBA era, and how well that video did for him)
@@LegendaryCaptain Sure, Edward's bio was what caused his character degradation during Seasons 10-12, but I think Oliver threw me off with annoyance because (despite appearing in none of S8-11 and S13-16) he had it worse out of all the character bios in this writer's bible while they somehow got Toad right, but not the latter.
It seems like the idea of Sir Handel being "one of the oldest narrow gauge engines" came from someone confusing this thing from his Ertl bio card where it talks about him being "brought up under instruction from Duke, the oldest of the engines." with the old engine part referring to Duke but thought it was referring to Sir Handel explaining why in his 2002 Trading Card bio it described him as being "one of the oldest engines on the Narrow Gauge Railway." and thus the confusion and idea on Sir Handel being one of the oldest engines began. As for him suddenly being described as super kind and hardworking (despite how we've seen him being rude and lazy) since pretty much all the old character types like Edward have been portrayed as wise kind and responsible they must’ve thought it would be fitting to make Sir Handel the same. Skarloey and Rheneas suddenly being portrayed like little kids likely came from someone thinking most of the narrow gauge engines should act younger due to being small. Edit: Maybe Peter Sam occasionally acting rude and prideful in the HIT era could do with how it says here he’s slightly *impatient* (key word here) with weather conditions so assumed he’s more of an irritable type but thankfully didn’t completely screw him over and we did see him still acting like his normal self for the most part. In the cases of Rusty and Duncan, they weren’t screwed over really completely and still felt right but Rusty occasionally acting stupid and impatient were probably just guesses on flaws he could have while with Duncan he really wasn’t done that dirty and him being more high spirited which was nice was also something they figured they could do to make him not completely seem like a 100% bad type though they still could tell he was meant to be snarky and irritable. It’s definitely clear for the most part the people of the show were just guessing how the characters should be and didn’t know them fully.
The original writer was Phil Ferhle, the same person who worked on S6-7 as producer. But was later reworked by Abi Grant. The aging allegory was weird, have I not forgotten?
this does provide a great insight into the direction of the series post series 7, not only with the characters but also the dialogue and story idea's, it show's that the series was now solely directed towards children rather than being entertaining to children and tolerable to adults as Awdry had intended. Definitely worth reading in full if your interested in the show's production history.
I’m fascinated by this. I am not only witnessing a secrad tome that explains the central ethos of my childhood show as viewed by people who didn’t write the original books, but also the devilish rune that led to it’s downfall. Also absolutely amazing that they predicted the “Dirty Percy” meme. Wonder if the real bible has any samplings of meme culture within it?
This really felt more like a symptom than the cause, the smoking gun rather than the hand that pulled the trigger. The real issue with the hit era is that they saw the IP as a profitable children's franchise rather than as an interesting setting they wanted to do things with. Alcroft, for all her faults, at least was passionate and wanted to do things, even if some of those things fell flat (cough magic railroad cough cough). I do actually really like enby Rusty, though. Part of me is a purist who wants to maintain full RWS cannon, but I at least think it really worked, and it's so cool that she decided to include that over 20 years ago. But anyways, though, the hit era seems to have really flattened characters out into their portrayals from just a few episodes, because that's easier to write and market for. For Sir Handel, my guess for how he ended up the old wise one is that they only looked at his dynamic with Peter Sam, where peter Sam is the young chipper one and he's the old pompous one, and they just mistook his confidence for competence and didn't bother looking at the fact that, when paired with the little old twins, he's just a pompous ass of similar age.
This really was the death blow to the franchise. An in-paper surgical murdering of a series that one man spent his entire creative life putting together.
@@bibblyboing I honestly think this is worse. TMR was a nuclear blow, but this was the layout for the entire series to come. The bad writing just babied the show so hard into a lifetime of a reputation of trash. The sheer writing quality of S1-5 and 8 and beyond is literally incomprehensible. If you show an adult S4 they'd be like yeah ok I can get that, but if you show them S9 or 10 they'd think you're an idiot for liking it
I’m honestly glad Edward stopped being a main character. He’s too good to be mistreated further and he kinda works better as a recurring character for the most part.
The engines are like children in a playground with Sir Topham Hatt as the adult? Ehhhhh sort of. The engines are more like students or classmates at school because they’re hardworking and really useful for the economy. And Sodor’s railways were like different classrooms for students to be part of the roster. While Sir Topham Hatt was the teacher of the class, who assigns them tasks or jobs to the engines.
@@thecaledoniansleeper2648 I mean, if they're kids at school, then when they play some game/race, their role becomes kids on the school playground for recess.
@@erical6338 Look, when I say that they’re like students at school. I mean like students at school in general working. Let’s just say in the Classic series they’re more like middle school/high school/college students, not little kids. They would occasionally have banters during break times.
My guess for sir Handel is since his name has “sir” in it and he was always grumpy, they assumed he was some wise grumpy old man archetype alike duke. Maybe something to do with how we did see him with duke in a slightly less mature form in the show.
The only reason why they portray Sir Handle as an older "man" is because "Sir" is in his name. If he was still named Falcon, he wouldn't be treated like that.
@@joshuaW5621 If *everyone* also grew up. I don't think people would mind it as much, but its the fact they went the route of, "hehe look they small trains, they're like baby trains" and just dumped their IQ off the old iron bridge is what really ticks people off.
@@joshuaW5621 In an interview (can't remember which one), one of the HiT writers was asked about why the narrow gauge engines were portrayed differently and they said that they weren't aware of any character changes. It wasn't intentional character development, it was just a complete mischaracterisation
Toby was Built in 1914 Thomas was built in 1915. Percy was built in 1897 Edward was built in 1896 Henry was built in 1919(Rebuilt 1935) Gordon was built in 1921 James was Built in 1917 Duck was built in 1927 Donald and Douglas were built in 1899 Oliver was Built in 1932 Emily was Built in 1895 Diesel was built in 1935 as a prototype for The Paxman V-1 BoCo was built in 1958(Nearly Scrapped in 1965)
The Thomas Bible I have is The RWS book that has all of Wilbert's stories that our man of ironwill has created before Britt Alcroft and David Mitton came to make most of them adapted for TV in S1 to 4. 😊👍📙😇 I just got it 2 days ago from Ebay in the mail which it was ment to arrive on my birthday along with a Tomy Red Rosie. I only got stuff from Tootally Thomas Town on my birthday instead. I didn't mind. Congrats on 5000 subscribers! 😁 Dirty Percy memes are my trauma treatments for how 1 S6 episode scarred me for life as a kid and also maybe be the cause of my fear of ghost women in fanmade Thomas ghost stories... 😭
Well done on 5K subscribers! You deserve it! Your video essays are always unique and you always bring something new to the table. I am hoping more writers' bibles of Thomas get released one day. It's always interesting to learn new things about Thomas.
Interestingly, Diesel’s nickname “Devious Diesel” most likely stems from the title “Diesel’s Devious Deed” in the U.S, I also remember he was referred to as that in the Railway Adventures game. And to an extent, Diesel 10 and Class 40 have been referred to as just “diesel” from time to time, so this would’ve helped a little to differentiate the, by name.
I don’t know about you, but the description felt more like Miller Era Henry then anything. Hit Era Henry actually does feel more in line with his predecessor. Even in his worst appearances, he hasn’t done the whole worrier thing. He more of a natural lover, having multiple episodes about his relationship with the forest and trees. He also has feelings with inadequacy, when Gordon starts to belittle him for being weak (for example in the episode “Big Strong Henry”) Henry tries to prove himself and show off his strength to Gordon. Also wanting to pull the express in the episode, “Henry in the Wishing tree.” The special coal still sucks, but at least the episode “It’s Good to be Gordon” actually made a pretty good plot out of it. I don’t mind the superstition all THAT much, it’s not use that often. The only episode it was really bad in is “Henry’s lucky Trucks” which is just your average terrible Hit Era episode. I still say his character wasn’t assigned yet. More he was just dumbed down like 30 points (much like everyone else.)
The people who wrote this ' Bible ' never really watched the show or read the books, it seems. Edward may not be as physically strong as the other newer and bigger engines but mentally, he is the strongest of them all.
Great review! I always appreciate having large documents like this laid out and broken down. It really helps me process it all easier. Also - and I don't mean this in a negative way at all - I think you may have a form of dyslexia. I noticed several moments where you took away something different than what the text said. One example was in the Toby section where the text said "He's even more vulnerable than sickly Henry" and you read it as "He's even more vulnerable *and* sickly than Henry", which obviously gives it a pretty different meaning. Like I said, I don't think it's a bad thing, or mean it as criticism. It's just something I noticed. Keep up the good work!
26:03 "Sir you own a nothing rural Railway company on an outdated looking Northern English Island, stop acting like you're the Facist Dictator of Spain"
The engines' ages aren't meant to be how many years ago their basis was built but simply how mature they are. Maturity isn't necessarily the same as age, just look at Sir Handel in the RWS and Classic series, he was built in 1904 and yet he's far from wise and mature
Honestly, while this bible is fun to laugh at and has plenty of blatant inaccuracies, a part of it genuinely upsets me. To think that after HIT bought the franchise, they barged in like they owned the place, watched like one episode for each character, completley disregarding the character's journeys up until that point, and even MADE STUFF UP, put it all in a bible, meaning it was to an untouchable status, and called it canon, just feels really, really cheap. Sadly, this seems to be a common thing for franchises where after they are bought out by a misunderstanding company, the writers are really lazy and do minimal research for the franchise which has been around for a long time, and then assume they know everything and make up what they don't know. This at its core is the root of all problems for Thomas. It was bound to be bought out by a company who didn't see how unique or one of a kind it was, and TATMR was just the catalyst for that, which is why I don't hate it all that much. I just see it as one of the many forms that was taken for the series to spiral downward. But this? This has every piece of the puzzle in it and you can't deny this is what killed Thomas. It gives the reason as to why so many characters were out of character in the HIT era. It provides boring descriptions for the engines who weren't seen, such as Duck and Oliver. It puts every railway term in layman's terms proving that the people who were writing for the show had no idea about what a railway is. And it compares the engines who have been so well developed who can be compared to co-workers in a real-life scenario, to goddamn children. It's funny to see the writers make up stuff about the characters, e.g. Harvey loving the waterworks despite there never being a waterworks on Sodor, assuming Rusty's gender, Mavis working at the Pfarquhar (how did they mess that up??) IRON WORKS, but when you see them saying that the engines are kids on a playground, and you realise they also made that up, it just feels offensive to the obviously large fanbase and children and parents who had a respect for the show. You know, I didn't hate the HIT era all that much because I had come to terms with the fact of what it means for the series: The writers kinda didn't know what they were doing. But now that I know that that stems from the people in charge who KNEW that they didn't know what they were doing, and tried to pretend like they did anyway, makes it hurt even more. To quote the Troublesome Trucks: "He's got no right to poke his funnel where it doesn't belong!"
@@sodorfan9213 the only engines that act like kids are Percy,Bill and Ben. The vast majority act like teens and adults,and the whole point of the show is to teach children basic lessons and also give them a glimpse on how railways work
18:55 Mavis was originally from the Ffarquhar (pronounced “Farker”) Ironworks? Why do her skirts say “Ffarquhar Quarry Company Limited”? As far as I’m aware, Ffarquhar only had a stone quarry, a coal mine in Marston Heights, the abandoned lead mines near Hackenbeck, and the terminal station for Thomas’ branch line.
Why, is there always this trend with writers not doing research with the lore of the series. Now yes, this bible did do more research than BWBA, but its so jarring that they focused on one or two episodes with a certain character, and then went from there and said that was their main character trait. Why can't they just have a whole marathon of watching episodes from seasons 1-7, and then figuring out the traits from there. Actually, it is possible that the people who wrote this bible are writers at HiT Entertainment. Think about it, many of HiT's characters kind of have this fixed personality. So when making this bible for Thomas, they approached it the same way they would for other HiT shows. Interesting.
HIT Entertainment is just so cynical. Profits come first, with characters being a stone dead last thing on their mind. I am reminded of a quote from a video game which perfectly describes Hit's mindset. ' "Sustainable development"? Don't make me laugh! This is a profit-oriented enterprise.'
Something to note about series bibles is that they're usually only taken that seriously in the early days of a show's production. The show bibles for Batman The Animated Series and the original Transformers are online, after reading them I was surprised how little they actually stuck to; tons of backstories and character traits that were never touched upon in the actual shows, episode ideas that were never used, early ideas, etc...
Production Bibles largely exists as guideline for the production group and the writers. Whatever lore and tidbit was put down existed purely as ideas for inspiration to the writers whenever they’re writing up the scripts if they wanted to use them. Considering how scripts and treatments are written up but never make the cut, we’re lucky to even know about a few of them. Who knows how many unmade episode scripts exists for The Transformers other than the one S3 script we’re aware in the near forty years that’s passed since the series got greenlit. We’re lucky to know more about Batman TAS’ scrapped episodes because of the internet and magazines journalists actually asking the questions fans wanted to ask the people behind the show.
i love how they describe most of the other engines as vulnerable like they fail to understand a character completely its like as if marvel didnt source from the comics EDIT: any way imagine iron man being more childish from the original animated media XD
The amount of times my mind was blown by this, just remembering little quirks or changes in those seasons that I noticed and most of them being explained here is savage. Unbelievable work
The more character descriptions you read, the more I buried my face in my fists, going "HRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!", at how many things they got wrong XD I think it'd be great to see somebody writing a fanfic episode about Boco and Mavis's 'mentor-to-student' dynamic mentioned in this bible.
So there's actually a book to describe what's to come in the Hit era? Wow. Yeah, everything was so much better before Hit stepped in. Then it got good again, but Mattel had to ruin it once again. And yes, I know everyone talks about Thomas and the Magic Railroad, but it still had passion.
It just makes so much more sense on why the 4 era’s of the apocalypse turned out the way they are… However, I don’t necessarily consider this bible to be canon to the entire show. If they were to do the show correctly they would’ve used Awdry’s bible: The Island of Sodor: it’s people history and railways. Still, this gives a good representation on what on earth the writers went off of when making the Hit era
Ep 1 but in bible format: Thomas is a cheeky friendly and reliable engine who lives on the island of sodor he is the central character of this series and is a tank engine bcus he holds extra water he carries coal in his small hopper and works at knap Ford where the big engines boss him around.
As a defender of the HiT Era (it's nowhere near as bad as AEG or even the BWBA era), having seen this video, I can say that while the series bible is not without its flaws (the description for Oliver was laughably bad), it had some untapped potential based on descriptions for certain characters (namely the ones who got little to no screentime). Likely the reason this potential went untapped was because at this time, HiT was more concerned about the merchandising potential of its intellectual properties rather than the overall quality of their series. Well, they certainly succeeded in the merchandising potential for Thomas, as it had high-quality merchandise lines like Wooden Railway, Take-Along and Trackmaster that children and collectors couldn't get enough of despite being everywhere at the time. Heck, it was because of Thomas' merchandise sales that HiT shelved Barney the Dinosaur to focus more on their really useful engine in 2009. Today, Mattel seems to be doing the exact opposite of that; decreasing both the quality and quantity of Thomas' merchandise lines while bringing Barney back from extinction.
It's no wonder the Hit Era and later the CGI era (Nitrogen, Brenner Era, and Bwba), have the characters so out of character! I bet if R.Wilbert Awdry was alive, he would've been pissed if he found out what the big corporations did to his franchise. People clearly need to stop ruining crap that doesn't need to be fixed. Mattel completely fucked the franchise up and look at it now, they had to reboot the franchise because the soft reboot BWBA failed miserably. BWBA as a series wasn't bad, but the silly writing, lack of creativity with the International Episodes, and in general no research on railways outside the UK, was what made the series not very good. That series had potential but it was butchered. I would say the Brenner era is the best Era after the Classic Series and the books. But yeah....
I’m so sad they never thought to write an episode where Mavis is struggling with work at the quarry, so Bill, Ben and BoCo (and I guess Thomas since this is the HIT era after all) are sent to help while Derek stays at the clay works. Like they could have made Thomas to the Rescue about Bill and Ben screwing up the fuel by being mischievous or something. They also could have thrown in that mentor thing with BoCo and Mavis there too. Such a shame.
Elements of this bible are actually really cool and the traits listed could've been used to make the characters more developed. However, that would include building off of the original depictions.
25:21 There's actually a theory that Duke isn't real. In the Mid Sodor Days, Bertram was actually with the pair. However, as time progressed; the story got twisted into his name being Duke. Thomas made up the story that he was saved for a happy ending; which is why he had the engines wait
I think Emily could’ve been perfect if her separate personalities were merged into one. Like, imagine if Emily was written so she’s kind, caring, and innocent, but she also seems bossy because she cares. I don’t see Emily as a motherly figure, but that merge of personalities could’ve been nice
I think the reason HiT made Sir Handel the wise old one is because they probably just took one look at the 'Sir' part of his name and assumed he was old and wise.
4:16 to be fair that line does originate from the railway series, though to be fair wasn’t used nearly as much and nearly as corny as it was in the hit ara
I find Henry’s situation amusing. He is depicted, very, VERY WRONG in the HIT series and forwards, but I think a good chunk of the fandom gets him wrong too. I’ve seen so many fan stories adapted, that portray him as this just and fair engine, when he is actually more like Gordon and James, more vein and all
This is going to be the longest comment I am ever going to make on TH-cam, but here goes nothing! The character descriptions for Elizabeth, Diesel, Diesel 10 (because you figured it out), Spencer, Fergus, Harry ('Arry) and Bert, Salty, Duncan, Duke, Peter Sam, James, Gordon, and Percy, they were quite good with them. Though, knowing that James being a narcissist has made sense since he thinks highly of himself and his red paintwork all the time and is never really afraid of showing it, but I cannot imagine him being that type of narcissist to the point he is Eric Cartman levels of narcissistic. Thomas' was okay, though I don't like how he was degraded later on in Seasons 12-16 compared to Seasons 8, 9, and 11 (and Season 10 to an extent). Henry's was also okay, but when Season 12 came, they just made him stupid (i.e. "Henry's Magic Box" and "Ho Ho Snowman"). And I'm sorry, but I got enjoyment out of "Henry Spots Trouble" (and I will go into why I stand in defense of that episode), so I'd rather have that episode over "Panicky Percy". Though, I have a feeling the events of "Edward the Great" do take place after "Hero of the Rails" despite not using CGI animation at the time. BoCo, I will get to later. I wish they were consistent with Skarloey's character description because Skarloey was never written as childish, arrogant, cowardly, and incompetent at everything. Sure, in the Railway Series, Skarloey was arrogant and childish. But that was a very different portrayal of Skarloey compared to what came before. Here with S9-12 Skarloey, in most of the episodes he's in, he's a completely different character, and only for the worse. Bill and Ben's character descriptions were also okay, apart from their so-called "prejudice" towards diesel engines other than Mavis, BoCo, and even Salty. Harvey's was... interesting because of that "Sodor Water Works" thing they never showed onscreen and the fact he can't fit inside Tidmouth Sheds unless if his crane arm is taken apart (hopefully not by damaging it very badly). Mavis, I don't know what to say other than I am not really expecting that she would work at an ironworks before coming to the quarry that's the main tail end of Thomas' branch line. So, I guess that gets a pass, too. Though, I too don't believe that Mavis would be older than Bill and Ben given the fact she was built a decade after Bill and Ben. I would expect Lady Hatt's character description to come from Ruth (a character we see only in the final ever Thomas season produced to date), but guess that makes some sense. Daisy's was also something, ngl. Looks like they revealed what gender Rusty is after four seasons of the Classic Series (4-7) of being gender neutral. Though, that's in the case of the TV show since the Railway Series already confirmed that the little diesel is male in the Railway Series. I believe Classic Series Rusty is given the TF2 Pyro Effect by Britt Allcroft back in the mid 90's when all the Skarloey and narrow gauge engines were being introduced to Thomas for the first time ever. I didn't really mind Bulgy's character description given my experience with "Bulgy Rides Again", so enough said. Shame we never saw BoCo and Mavis get a character dynamic in the show, because the only time we even do see that was when BoCo and Mavis are telling Thomas, Percy and Toby about an important announcement meeting with Sir Topham Hatt in "Thomas and the Special Letter". It would be interesting to see BoCo and Thomas interact with each other. I'd say that Thomas would see BoCo as an equal just like how he and Edward see each other as equals. Class 40 was already sent packing, so it's character description is already redundant. While it is quite inaccurate how Sir Handel would be older than Skarloey and Rheneas combined since Skarloey and Rheneas are much older than him, I do stand by my defense why his character changed in Season 10, and rather for the better. Though, I don't understand why he would even have problems climbing up hills. Donald and Douglas' character descriptions made are the stereotypical twin brothers that fight over everything type of character description that just gets thrown onto other people's minds like if "Twin Trouble" was the only episode they have watched and that was it. And don't worry, the character descriptions for the Drivers and Firemen are far worse, let alone disconnect away from what made Thomas work. The character descriptions for Emily, Toby, Edward (no wonder why he was butchered this badly during Seasons 10-12, and I still blame that on inconsistency), Duck, Oliver, and Stepney are just awful. Edward was okay during Seasons 8-9, but when Season 10 came out, they gave up and ran out of ideas on how to keep him in character, let alone no one even understood who Edward is. So yeah, compared to the Nitrogen era (to an extent) and the BWBA era (where I am glad they never wrote an OOC Edward episode), the tenth to twelfth seasons were not very kind to Edward. And now I am glad they only used Duck and Oliver in Season 12 as supporting roles (Oliver in S12 at least cuz he never appeared in the four seasons that came before), only used Duck in the music video for the song, "Navigation". Sir Topham Hatt's character description... no wonder why The Guardian and the New Yorker started this mindset of displaying Sir Topham Hatt as a cruel, evil, fascist dictator who enslaves his engines and tells them to do what he says or else he will lock them up in tunnels and let them starve to death. The one thing I can say the 2003 bible was ahead of its time on that one. But Jesus Christ, his character description sounds really fucked up. I am really glad that when "Blue Mountain Mystery" came out, Annie and Clarabel did get to be the voice of reason coaches again instead of being portrayed as the coaches that do fuck all, even when they see Thomas is doing something wrong or not. And another thing, Thumper I believe was meant to be a one off character unless they can do something with him past Season 5. Old Slow Coach and Bulstrode's character descriptions, I really like and I am quite sad they weren't given the comeback treatment like what they did with the other older characters during the Brenner and BWBA eras. S12-16, to an extent did this too with Butch of all characters. While I see a handful of good character descriptions like Skarloey, Rheneas, Gordon, James, Percy, Diesel, Elizabeth, and so on. But I don't think it is the worst series bible I have ever seen. It's certainly not as bad as some may make it out to be. While it is jarring that it was contributed to Thomas' noticeable decline in quality from S8-11 and the eventual seasonal rot from Seasons 12-16, there are some things about it I actually like. So this series bible had its bad moments, but it wasn't all bad. Though most of it deserves a good rewrite. And I did like the two story choices they confirmed in the series bible of 2003 like the original plot for "Percy's Big Mistake" and "James Gets a New Coat". I also like that it got me into researching ideas onto series bibles of other shows like Adventure Time, SpongeBob and Ed, Edd, n Eddy. They are superior series bibles than the 2003 Thomas Series Bible that is used for Season 8.
@@selinapersaud7629 That's why I said why his childish portrayal was different in the ninth to twelfth seasons compared to the Railway Series. In the Railway Series, Skarloey hated pulling trucks and got sheeted up. He constantly argued with Rheneas, whom at the time, the latter was more sensible than the former. Then, when he got a new cab, he gloated to Rheneas about his cab and got mud sprayed on as his comeuppance for getting a big head about it. But despite how childish he was in his origin stories set in the 1860's, he and his brother learned sense from their experiences. Here in S9-12, Skarloey aged completely in reverse. He is scared of the Wharf and it's never really explained. He is petrified of rain and it's obvious he never had a phobia of rain in the Classic Series because he wasn't. He bumped trucks so hard that he broke one of them, unintentionally I may add. He does a dangerous stunt on the incline to prove how "brave" he is. And finally, he plays tug of war with Rheneas with a puppet show train... Had HiT stuck to consistency on how Skarloey is characterized through that series bible, then the episodes that I indirectly mentioned would not have existed back then and even in today. But no, they did fuck all on keeping him the same way he was written in the RWS and the fourth to seventh seasons (S7 was an extent, to be fair). He wasn't all bad during those seasons, but it showed how much Skarloey was hit with character assassination.
Calling All Engines also gets called “that time Thomas started a race war” and the bible really isn’t helping matters 😬 Like holy shit, we all joke that the Diesels are an unflattering racist allegory but seriously??
12:55-13:]5 Girls mature earlier than boys biologically bit not so much in behavior. They just put on airs of sophistication. Notice that when older women are described, theyre not give the same praise as their younger counterparts.
![เปิดใจ พี่ญา คนรุม หลังทัวร์ลง หนักสุดในชีวิต!! l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2-OJZRtclro/mqdefault.jpg)
Summary of the bible:
Edward is *vulnerable*
Henry is *vulnerable*
Toby is *vulnerable*
The end
Lol
+Toby YT Lai And that’s why they got the boot from the Steam Team in S22. XD
Everyone is vulnerable! I am vulrnable! YOU ARE VULNERA-
Theory: The Thomas Bible was written by Gordon, Percy and James
And Henry-
@@bee7263 And Sir Handel
Percy would not have written himself to be so childish and dumb.
Oh, and not to mention he's a STEAM ENGINE.
@@QJ89 Jesus Christ take a joke
No one write it because they dont have hand
This explains so much.
Still, it acknowledges the existence of Duke, Boco, Derek, Class 40 and other forgotten Classic Series characters, I'll give it that.
BIBLE WRITER: Skarloey is an engine who won't take undue risks and has great regard for the perils in his working environment. He's a team player.
EPISODE WRITER: "Skarloey is childish and takes risks to prove he's superior to everyone", got it.
BIBLE WRITER: N-No, that's not what I-
*"WHEEEEEEE!" chuffed Skarloey as he raced down the mountain.*
I think the Unlucky Tug said it best in his season 9 retrospective video. Hit likely brought the narrow-gauge engines back just so they could market them as baby trains. even though Skarloey the Brave was written by Paul Larson, who had been with the show since season 6, before Hit had bought Gullane.
I have a hunch that dang "sharing candy" metaphor mentioned in the Bible messed them up, since no other narrow-gague engine other than Skarloey, Rheneas, and Rusty acted childishly out of character.
@@PsychoticWonders0725 good point. Can't believe I kind of forgot about that.
this "bible" puts the same effort into character research as parents in the 90s trying to understand what Pokemon is, and consistently calling every Pokemon "Pikachu" while calling Pikachu "that yellow one"
I'm guessing this Thomas bible has the 4 engines of the apocalypse.
Donald, Douglas, Bill, And Ben
The Hit era, the Nitrogen era, BWBA and AEG are the four eras of the franchise of the apocalypse.
Dash,Bash,Ferdinand and Billy. Truly the apocalypse of all time
Billy - Famine
Stanley - Death
Charlie - War
Scruff - Pestilence
Billy isn’t death, he’s stupid
I have a very strong suspicion that Sir Handel's description as an older engine came entirely from his name. The production bible bio mentions he was named after "the former owner of the railway", and since the current owner in the TV series is Sir Topham Hatt, the writers must have misinterpreted this to suggest that Sir Handel was around on this railway before Sir Topham Hatt became its current owner. Plus, there's that "Sir" part of his name, which evokes a sense of prestige and superiority, as if it meant that he was the senior member of the narrow-gauge engines. It even makes him sound like someone on par with Sir Topham Hatt, with both holding the title of "Sir". The bio even claims that his blue color is specifically "royal" blue, further adding to this supposed "majesty" of his that the bio had plucked from the ether after reading too deep into details that it shouldn't have read into so deeply.
If they read the RWS, they should know that he was named after the original owner posthumously. The owner during the series is actually sir handle the second in the RWS. What is also funny, and I didn’t notice at first, is that sir handle the second is actually Topham’s brother-in-law, not related to the topic, but a fun fact.
@@selinapersaud7629 They obviously didn't read the RWS when writing this production bible. Much of the early HiT Model Era feels more like they barely researched anything.
@@milestinker2178 I agree.
I agree. I have been thinking that for the longest time.
It adds to the irony of Falcon being renamed to someone so honored and that he didn’t deserve it
I'm not gonna lie, I was expecting a satirical theological discussion about the "ungodliness of Thomas". But the actual video does make a lot of sense to the tropes of the post-Alcroft era of the show, along with the inconsistencies to series 1-5 that my child brain did notice. This was really nice to watch/listen to :).
I hope The Unlucky Tug finds out about this series bible. It answers so many things he's been scratching his head over for years, and it would be good material for a rant/debunk video of his own. (Especially after how passionately he trashed the BWBA era, and how well that video did for him)
He did find out about and to put it bluntly, he did not take it very well. Though, to be fair. I would have complained, too.
@@BriceInkling138 the Edward bio in particular was what really threw him over the edge
@@LegendaryCaptain Sure, Edward's bio was what caused his character degradation during Seasons 10-12, but I think Oliver threw me off with annoyance because (despite appearing in none of S8-11 and S13-16) he had it worse out of all the character bios in this writer's bible while they somehow got Toad right, but not the latter.
especially sodors finest
@@BriceInkling138oh dear
"If mommy has another baby, she won't want me anymore!"
Favorite part XD
Also, I'm very happy to be one of your 5,000 Subscribers! Great video!
There’s so much going on in this document…very fun to watch you read through the highlights!
It seems like the idea of Sir Handel being "one of the oldest narrow gauge engines" came from someone confusing this thing from his Ertl bio card where it talks about him being "brought up under instruction from Duke, the oldest of the engines." with the old engine part referring to Duke but thought it was referring to Sir Handel explaining why in his 2002 Trading Card bio it described him as being "one of the oldest engines on the Narrow Gauge Railway." and thus the confusion and idea on Sir Handel being one of the oldest engines began. As for him suddenly being described as super kind and hardworking (despite how we've seen him being rude and lazy) since pretty much all the old character types like Edward have been portrayed as wise kind and responsible they must’ve thought it would be fitting to make Sir Handel the same. Skarloey and Rheneas suddenly being portrayed like little kids likely came from someone thinking most of the narrow gauge engines should act younger due to being small.
Edit: Maybe Peter Sam occasionally acting rude and prideful in the HIT era could do with how it says here he’s slightly *impatient* (key word here) with weather conditions so assumed he’s more of an irritable type but thankfully didn’t completely screw him over and we did see him still acting like his normal self for the most part. In the cases of Rusty and Duncan, they weren’t screwed over really completely and still felt right but Rusty occasionally acting stupid and impatient were probably just guesses on flaws he could have while with Duncan he really wasn’t done that dirty and him being more high spirited which was nice was also something they figured they could do to make him not completely seem like a 100% bad type though they still could tell he was meant to be snarky and irritable. It’s definitely clear for the most part the people of the show were just guessing how the characters should be and didn’t know them fully.
The way the bible describes certain things is the best part. Whoever wrote this had such a bizarre yet fascinating sense of humour.
The original writer was Phil Ferhle, the same person who worked on S6-7 as producer. But was later reworked by Abi Grant. The aging allegory was weird, have I not forgotten?
this does provide a great insight into the direction of the series post series 7, not only with the characters but also the dialogue and story idea's, it show's that the series was now solely directed towards children rather than being entertaining to children and tolerable to adults as Awdry had intended. Definitely worth reading in full if your interested in the show's production history.
I’m fascinated by this. I am not only witnessing a secrad tome that explains the central ethos of my childhood show as viewed by people who didn’t write the original books, but also the devilish rune that led to it’s downfall.
Also absolutely amazing that they predicted the “Dirty Percy” meme. Wonder if the real bible has any samplings of meme culture within it?
Western civilization is probably the biggest meme that originated from the Bible.
This really felt more like a symptom than the cause, the smoking gun rather than the hand that pulled the trigger. The real issue with the hit era is that they saw the IP as a profitable children's franchise rather than as an interesting setting they wanted to do things with. Alcroft, for all her faults, at least was passionate and wanted to do things, even if some of those things fell flat (cough magic railroad cough cough). I do actually really like enby Rusty, though. Part of me is a purist who wants to maintain full RWS cannon, but I at least think it really worked, and it's so cool that she decided to include that over 20 years ago. But anyways, though, the hit era seems to have really flattened characters out into their portrayals from just a few episodes, because that's easier to write and market for.
For Sir Handel, my guess for how he ended up the old wise one is that they only looked at his dynamic with Peter Sam, where peter Sam is the young chipper one and he's the old pompous one, and they just mistook his confidence for competence and didn't bother looking at the fact that, when paired with the little old twins, he's just a pompous ass of similar age.
I used to think during season 8 the writers still knew what they were doing with the writing. After i read this bible, everything shattered....
This really was the death blow to the franchise. An in-paper surgical murdering of a series that one man spent his entire creative life putting together.
Magic Railroad killed Thomas faster.
@@bibblyboing I honestly think this is worse. TMR was a nuclear blow, but this was the layout for the entire series to come. The bad writing just babied the show so hard into a lifetime of a reputation of trash. The sheer writing quality of S1-5 and 8 and beyond is literally incomprehensible. If you show an adult S4 they'd be like yeah ok I can get that, but if you show them S9 or 10 they'd think you're an idiot for liking it
What is with the crew mistreating Edward and Henry? It's still going on after 20 years!
I’m honestly glad Edward stopped being a main character. He’s too good to be mistreated further and he kinda works better as a recurring character for the most part.
It’s finally over now.. they are free from the show
At least they said that they should be given a line in Tidmoth Sheds (unlike BWBA)
The engines are like children in a playground with Sir Topham Hatt as the adult? Ehhhhh sort of.
The engines are more like students or classmates at school because they’re hardworking and really useful for the economy. And Sodor’s railways were like different classrooms for students to be part of the roster. While Sir Topham Hatt was the teacher of the class, who assigns them tasks or jobs to the engines.
So when they play Hide and Peep, Splish Splash Splosh or something would be like recess?
@@erical6338 Yeah, somewhat. Or when Thomas wants to race with Bertie.
@@thecaledoniansleeper2648 I mean, if they're kids at school, then when they play some game/race, their role becomes kids on the school playground for recess.
@@erical6338 Look, when I say that they’re like students at school. I mean like students at school in general working. Let’s just say in the Classic series they’re more like middle school/high school/college students, not little kids. They would occasionally have banters during break times.
@@thecaledoniansleeper2648 Just trying to cross the 2 ideas. When they work, they're kids in class and when they play, they're kids having recess.
My guess for sir Handel is since his name has “sir” in it and he was always grumpy, they assumed he was some wise grumpy old man archetype alike duke. Maybe something to do with how we did see him with duke in a slightly less mature form in the show.
It's our fault really, we should have had the Thomas Wikia up and running in 2003
Jokes aside, very nice video!
When was the wiki created? My photo app said that a Henry and the wishing tree picture was made in 2004
@@tudorbrancuturcu5996 Around 2008/2009
The only reason why they portray Sir Handle as an older "man" is because "Sir" is in his name. If he was still named Falcon, he wouldn't be treated like that.
I appreciate the writers trying to show that Sir Handel has grown up somewhat (which is rare in this era), but they took it a bit far.
@@joshuaW5621 If *everyone* also grew up. I don't think people would mind it as much, but its the fact they went the route of, "hehe look they small trains, they're like baby trains" and just dumped their IQ off the old iron bridge is what really ticks people off.
@@joshuaW5621 In an interview (can't remember which one), one of the HiT writers was asked about why the narrow gauge engines were portrayed differently and they said that they weren't aware of any character changes. It wasn't intentional character development, it was just a complete mischaracterisation
@@Kukaak well either way, I guess it’s nice to see Sir Handel has grown up.
Toby was Built in 1914
Thomas was built in 1915.
Percy was built in 1897
Edward was built in 1896
Henry was built in 1919(Rebuilt 1935)
Gordon was built in 1921
James was Built in 1917
Duck was built in 1927
Donald and Douglas were built in 1899
Oliver was Built in 1932
Emily was Built in 1895
Diesel was built in 1935 as a prototype for The Paxman V-1
BoCo was built in 1958(Nearly Scrapped in 1965)
The Thomas Bible I have is The RWS book that has all of Wilbert's stories that our man of ironwill has created before Britt Alcroft and David Mitton came to make most of them adapted for TV in S1 to 4. 😊👍📙😇
I just got it 2 days ago from Ebay in the mail which it was ment to arrive on my birthday along with a Tomy Red Rosie.
I only got stuff from Tootally Thomas Town on my birthday instead. I didn't mind.
Congrats on 5000 subscribers! 😁
Dirty Percy memes are my trauma treatments for how 1 S6 episode scarred me for life as a kid and also maybe be the cause of my fear of ghost women in fanmade Thomas ghost stories... 😭
whats it called
@@thatoneguy609 Thomas, Percy and the Squeak
3:14 Now we Jinty supporters can prove that Thomas is a Jinty, can we?
I can make some good story’s about this
1st 14:22 too big Harvey
2nd 16:55 suspicious furgus
3rd 28:53 back in the sea
Well done on 5K subscribers! You deserve it! Your video essays are always unique and you always bring something new to the table. I am hoping more writers' bibles of Thomas get released one day. It's always interesting to learn new things about Thomas.
Interestingly, Diesel’s nickname “Devious Diesel” most likely stems from the title “Diesel’s Devious Deed” in the U.S, I also remember he was referred to as that in the Railway Adventures game. And to an extent, Diesel 10 and Class 40 have been referred to as just “diesel” from time to time, so this would’ve helped a little to differentiate the, by name.
I don’t know about you, but the description felt more like Miller Era Henry then anything.
Hit Era Henry actually does feel more in line with his predecessor. Even in his worst appearances, he hasn’t done the whole worrier thing.
He more of a natural lover, having multiple episodes about his relationship with the forest and trees.
He also has feelings with inadequacy, when Gordon starts to belittle him for being weak (for example in the episode “Big Strong Henry”) Henry tries to prove himself and show off his strength to Gordon. Also wanting to pull the express in the episode, “Henry in the Wishing tree.”
The special coal still sucks, but at least the episode “It’s Good to be Gordon” actually made a pretty good plot out of it.
I don’t mind the superstition all THAT much, it’s not use that often. The only episode it was really bad in is “Henry’s lucky Trucks” which is just your average terrible Hit Era episode.
I still say his character wasn’t assigned yet. More he was just dumbed down like 30 points (much like everyone else.)
The people who wrote this ' Bible ' never really watched the show or read the books, it seems. Edward may not be as physically strong as the other newer and bigger engines but mentally, he is the strongest of them all.
Gotta love how Scottish is a personality trait
Great review! I always appreciate having large documents like this laid out and broken down. It really helps me process it all easier.
Also - and I don't mean this in a negative way at all - I think you may have a form of dyslexia. I noticed several moments where you took away something different than what the text said.
One example was in the Toby section where the text said "He's even more vulnerable than sickly Henry" and you read it as "He's even more vulnerable *and* sickly than Henry", which obviously gives it a pretty different meaning.
Like I said, I don't think it's a bad thing, or mean it as criticism. It's just something I noticed.
Keep up the good work!
I DO have dyslexia! And 90% of my comments are "you spelled this wrong", LMAO. I'm glad SOMEONE actually understands!
Ay look at that. Wholesome communication. I support it.
Love this 🤭
26:03
"Sir you own a nothing rural Railway company on an outdated looking Northern English Island, stop acting like you're the Facist Dictator of Spain"
This actually makes Sodor's Finest and the Trampy Movie series a cathartic experience in retrospect.
The engines' ages aren't meant to be how many years ago their basis was built but simply how mature they are. Maturity isn't necessarily the same as age, just look at Sir Handel in the RWS and Classic series, he was built in 1904 and yet he's far from wise and mature
Honestly, while this bible is fun to laugh at and has plenty of blatant inaccuracies, a part of it genuinely upsets me. To think that after HIT bought the franchise, they barged in like they owned the place, watched like one episode for each character, completley disregarding the character's journeys up until that point, and even MADE STUFF UP, put it all in a bible, meaning it was to an untouchable status, and called it canon, just feels really, really cheap. Sadly, this seems to be a common thing for franchises where after they are bought out by a misunderstanding company, the writers are really lazy and do minimal research for the franchise which has been around for a long time, and then assume they know everything and make up what they don't know. This at its core is the root of all problems for Thomas. It was bound to be bought out by a company who didn't see how unique or one of a kind it was, and TATMR was just the catalyst for that, which is why I don't hate it all that much. I just see it as one of the many forms that was taken for the series to spiral downward. But this? This has every piece of the puzzle in it and you can't deny this is what killed Thomas. It gives the reason as to why so many characters were out of character in the HIT era. It provides boring descriptions for the engines who weren't seen, such as Duck and Oliver. It puts every railway term in layman's terms proving that the people who were writing for the show had no idea about what a railway is. And it compares the engines who have been so well developed who can be compared to co-workers in a real-life scenario, to goddamn children. It's funny to see the writers make up stuff about the characters, e.g. Harvey loving the waterworks despite there never being a waterworks on Sodor, assuming Rusty's gender, Mavis working at the Pfarquhar (how did they mess that up??) IRON WORKS, but when you see them saying that the engines are kids on a playground, and you realise they also made that up, it just feels offensive to the obviously large fanbase and children and parents who had a respect for the show. You know, I didn't hate the HIT era all that much because I had come to terms with the fact of what it means for the series: The writers kinda didn't know what they were doing. But now that I know that that stems from the people in charge who KNEW that they didn't know what they were doing, and tried to pretend like they did anyway, makes it hurt even more. To quote the Troublesome Trucks:
"He's got no right to poke his funnel where it doesn't belong!"
But the engines ARE like children that's the whole point of the show
@@sodorfan9213 the only engines that act like kids are Percy,Bill and Ben. The vast majority act like teens and adults,and the whole point of the show is to teach children basic lessons and also give them a glimpse on how railways work
@@davidantoniocamposbarros7528 There are younger children and older children, the engines always acted like children regardless, like teens at most.
@@davidantoniocamposbarros7528 Thomas is kind of a kid/teen hybrid. He's cheeky and rebellious.
The line "really usefull engine" acctually began in the classic series
Sir Handel being Greg Heffley is the funniest thing I've ever heard
18:55 Mavis was originally from the Ffarquhar (pronounced “Farker”) Ironworks? Why do her skirts say “Ffarquhar Quarry Company Limited”? As far as I’m aware, Ffarquhar only had a stone quarry, a coal mine in Marston Heights, the abandoned lead mines near Hackenbeck, and the terminal station for Thomas’ branch line.
Why, is there always this trend with writers not doing research with the lore of the series. Now yes, this bible did do more research than BWBA, but its so jarring that they focused on one or two episodes with a certain character, and then went from there and said that was their main character trait. Why can't they just have a whole marathon of watching episodes from seasons 1-7, and then figuring out the traits from there. Actually, it is possible that the people who wrote this bible are writers at HiT Entertainment. Think about it, many of HiT's characters kind of have this fixed personality. So when making this bible for Thomas, they approached it the same way they would for other HiT shows. Interesting.
HIT Entertainment is just so cynical. Profits come first, with characters being a stone dead last thing on their mind.
I am reminded of a quote from a video game which perfectly describes Hit's mindset.
' "Sustainable development"? Don't make me laugh! This is a profit-oriented enterprise.'
Something to note about series bibles is that they're usually only taken that seriously in the early days of a show's production. The show bibles for Batman The Animated Series and the original Transformers are online, after reading them I was surprised how little they actually stuck to; tons of backstories and character traits that were never touched upon in the actual shows, episode ideas that were never used, early ideas, etc...
Production Bibles largely exists as guideline for the production group and the writers. Whatever lore and tidbit was put down existed purely as ideas for inspiration to the writers whenever they’re writing up the scripts if they wanted to use them.
Considering how scripts and treatments are written up but never make the cut, we’re lucky to even know about a few of them. Who knows how many unmade episode scripts exists for The Transformers other than the one S3 script we’re aware in the near forty years that’s passed since the series got greenlit. We’re lucky to know more about Batman TAS’ scrapped episodes because of the internet and magazines journalists actually asking the questions fans wanted to ask the people behind the show.
i love how they describe most of the other engines as vulnerable like they fail to understand a character completely
its like as if marvel didnt source from the comics
EDIT: any way imagine iron man being more childish from the original animated media XD
The amount of times my mind was blown by this, just remembering little quirks or changes in those seasons that I noticed and most of them being explained here is savage. Unbelievable work
3:48 Thomas being six I can picture, but big pompous Gordon being six and a half? No way.
I hope we get access to the Arc Bible as well
As well as some more leaked CGI assets
The more character descriptions you read, the more I buried my face in my fists, going "HRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!", at how many things they got wrong XD
I think it'd be great to see somebody writing a fanfic episode about Boco and Mavis's 'mentor-to-student' dynamic mentioned in this bible.
LOL this is the equivalent of a kid skimming through his literature textbook and writing vague descriptions of each character from memory.
Our Bible is the railway series
Nothing tops it
I think magic railroad publicly destroyed thomas
but this bible definitely destroyed thomas corporately
17:15 Hmm, I wonder if maybe Fergus was supposed to be the lead of that episode, but something came up, making them switch.
So there's actually a book to describe what's to come in the Hit era? Wow. Yeah, everything was so much better before Hit stepped in. Then it got good again, but Mattel had to ruin it once again. And yes, I know everyone talks about Thomas and the Magic Railroad, but it still had passion.
It just makes so much more sense on why the 4 era’s of the apocalypse turned out the way they are…
However, I don’t necessarily consider this bible to be canon to the entire show. If they were to do the show correctly they would’ve used Awdry’s bible: The Island of Sodor: it’s people history and railways.
Still, this gives a good representation on what on earth the writers went off of when making the Hit era
7:33
Dunno if u noticed after the video but the line was referring to henry as sickly, not toby
Either way the page is wrong lmao but still
Ep 1 but in bible format: Thomas is a cheeky friendly and reliable engine who lives on the island of sodor he is the central character of this series and is a tank engine bcus he holds extra water he carries coal in his small hopper and works at knap Ford where the big engines boss him around.
this video came up in my reccomended, had no idea that Thomas the Tank Engine lore went this deep wtf
As a defender of the HiT Era (it's nowhere near as bad as AEG or even the BWBA era), having seen this video, I can say that while the series bible is not without its flaws (the description for Oliver was laughably bad), it had some untapped potential based on descriptions for certain characters (namely the ones who got little to no screentime). Likely the reason this potential went untapped was because at this time, HiT was more concerned about the merchandising potential of its intellectual properties rather than the overall quality of their series. Well, they certainly succeeded in the merchandising potential for Thomas, as it had high-quality merchandise lines like Wooden Railway, Take-Along and Trackmaster that children and collectors couldn't get enough of despite being everywhere at the time. Heck, it was because of Thomas' merchandise sales that HiT shelved Barney the Dinosaur to focus more on their really useful engine in 2009. Today, Mattel seems to be doing the exact opposite of that; decreasing both the quality and quantity of Thomas' merchandise lines while bringing Barney back from extinction.
well, now we have answers to our questions, thanks again mr theorist and congrats for 5k subs!.
It's no wonder the Hit Era and later the CGI era (Nitrogen, Brenner Era, and Bwba), have the characters so out of character! I bet if R.Wilbert Awdry was alive, he would've been pissed if he found out what the big corporations did to his franchise.
People clearly need to stop ruining crap that doesn't need to be fixed. Mattel completely fucked the franchise up and look at it now, they had to reboot the franchise because the soft reboot BWBA failed miserably. BWBA as a series wasn't bad, but the silly writing, lack of creativity with the International Episodes, and in general no research on railways outside the UK, was what made the series not very good. That series had potential but it was butchered. I would say the Brenner era is the best Era after the Classic Series and the books. But yeah....
This is why I’m kinda glad Edward stopped being a main character.
Pissed is an understatement 😑
I’m so sad they never thought to write an episode where Mavis is struggling with work at the quarry, so Bill, Ben and BoCo (and I guess Thomas since this is the HIT era after all) are sent to help while Derek stays at the clay works. Like they could have made Thomas to the Rescue about Bill and Ben screwing up the fuel by being mischievous or something. They also could have thrown in that mentor thing with BoCo and Mavis there too. Such a shame.
This has answered a lot of questions......
Smudger being dead is absolutely terrible, this is absolutely heartbreaking
They 100% watched every episode they just wanted to change the characters for more, story opportunities
I liked how you included the Greg Heffley memes, such a shame we never saw Boco and Class 40 and Duke in the hit era.
This is random I know but I'm so used to seeing 10:29 in sodor fallout that I had to pause and check
i don’t know how to feel about this bible suggestinh that bulgy would have been the hit era equivalent of smudger
Despite how much I dislike the hit era it definitely would've been cool to see characters like boco make a comeback
The bit with Stepney and the sheds means he doesn't sleep at Tidmouth Sheds, not any other shed.
Elements of this bible are actually really cool and the traits listed could've been used to make the characters more developed. However, that would include building off of the original depictions.
I love the analogy of Sir Handel and Greg Heffley
In regards to the new technologies part, the IOS book says that the Sudrian Population is not very kind to new tech. So, technically it is canon.
I love the comparison of Greg Hefley and Sir Handle.
25:21 There's actually a theory that Duke isn't real. In the Mid Sodor Days, Bertram was actually with the pair. However, as time progressed; the story got twisted into his name being Duke. Thomas made up the story that he was saved for a happy ending; which is why he had the engines wait
I think Emily could’ve been perfect if her separate personalities were merged into one. Like, imagine if Emily was written so she’s kind, caring, and innocent, but she also seems bossy because she cares. I don’t see Emily as a motherly figure, but that merge of personalities could’ve been nice
Holy shit this... THIS ALL MAKES SENSE! THIS SOLVES EVERYTHING!!
I think the reason HiT made Sir Handel the wise old one is because they probably just took one look at the 'Sir' part of his name and assumed he was old and wise.
Didn't even realize I wasn't subbed yet, but now I definitely made sure I am!
8:26 I thought you said "Warrior" 😆
You know what that means, We’re going back in time to 2003 to get that Thomas bible off the menu!
Congratulations on reaching 5,000 subscribers! 👏 I hadn't subscribed, but I guess I should now, since your videos are good. 🙂
This was a great video I loved it very much. I was always a fan of the hit era and seeing this bible is interesting as it does answer some questions
I was hoping for someone to make a video on the bible. For real the bible was made on the same year I was introduced to Thomas in 2003.
4:10 What about being an Enterprising Engine?
4:16 to be fair that line does originate from the railway series, though to be fair wasn’t used nearly as much and nearly as corny as it was in the hit ara
16:22 thank god oliver did not get a spotlight episode image how much they would’ve slaughtered him!
The build date for Alfred and Judy is wrong. Judy was built first in 1937 and Alfred was built in 1953.
Train puberty was not something I expected to hear about today
Maybe the reason they called sir handle old is cause he worked on the mid sodor railway with duke and peter sam
Old Slow Coach was seen twice in season 5
TBF abou the description of Thomas, he wasn't ALWAYS a jerk in the classic era. He developed as it went on, becoming a multi-dimensional character.
Well Emily was bossy in other episodes.
Love it and it's so funny
I find Henry’s situation amusing. He is depicted, very, VERY WRONG in the HIT series and forwards, but I think a good chunk of the fandom gets him wrong too. I’ve seen so many fan stories adapted, that portray him as this just and fair engine, when he is actually more like Gordon and James, more vein and all
29:48 WHO IS THAT?!
This is going to be the longest comment I am ever going to make on TH-cam, but here goes nothing!
The character descriptions for Elizabeth, Diesel, Diesel 10 (because you figured it out), Spencer, Fergus, Harry ('Arry) and Bert, Salty, Duncan, Duke, Peter Sam, James, Gordon, and Percy, they were quite good with them. Though, knowing that James being a narcissist has made sense since he thinks highly of himself and his red paintwork all the time and is never really afraid of showing it, but I cannot imagine him being that type of narcissist to the point he is Eric Cartman levels of narcissistic. Thomas' was okay, though I don't like how he was degraded later on in Seasons 12-16 compared to Seasons 8, 9, and 11 (and Season 10 to an extent). Henry's was also okay, but when Season 12 came, they just made him stupid (i.e. "Henry's Magic Box" and "Ho Ho Snowman").
And I'm sorry, but I got enjoyment out of "Henry Spots Trouble" (and I will go into why I stand in defense of that episode), so I'd rather have that episode over "Panicky Percy". Though, I have a feeling the events of "Edward the Great" do take place after "Hero of the Rails" despite not using CGI animation at the time. BoCo, I will get to later. I wish they were consistent with Skarloey's character description because Skarloey was never written as childish, arrogant, cowardly, and incompetent at everything. Sure, in the Railway Series, Skarloey was arrogant and childish. But that was a very different portrayal of Skarloey compared to what came before. Here with S9-12 Skarloey, in most of the episodes he's in, he's a completely different character, and only for the worse.
Bill and Ben's character descriptions were also okay, apart from their so-called "prejudice" towards diesel engines other than Mavis, BoCo, and even Salty. Harvey's was... interesting because of that "Sodor Water Works" thing they never showed onscreen and the fact he can't fit inside Tidmouth Sheds unless if his crane arm is taken apart (hopefully not by damaging it very badly). Mavis, I don't know what to say other than I am not really expecting that she would work at an ironworks before coming to the quarry that's the main tail end of Thomas' branch line. So, I guess that gets a pass, too. Though, I too don't believe that Mavis would be older than Bill and Ben given the fact she was built a decade after Bill and Ben. I would expect Lady Hatt's character description to come from Ruth (a character we see only in the final ever Thomas season produced to date), but guess that makes some sense.
Daisy's was also something, ngl. Looks like they revealed what gender Rusty is after four seasons of the Classic Series (4-7) of being gender neutral. Though, that's in the case of the TV show since the Railway Series already confirmed that the little diesel is male in the Railway Series. I believe Classic Series Rusty is given the TF2 Pyro Effect by Britt Allcroft back in the mid 90's when all the Skarloey and narrow gauge engines were being introduced to Thomas for the first time ever. I didn't really mind Bulgy's character description given my experience with "Bulgy Rides Again", so enough said.
Shame we never saw BoCo and Mavis get a character dynamic in the show, because the only time we even do see that was when BoCo and Mavis are telling Thomas, Percy and Toby about an important announcement meeting with Sir Topham Hatt in "Thomas and the Special Letter". It would be interesting to see BoCo and Thomas interact with each other. I'd say that Thomas would see BoCo as an equal just like how he and Edward see each other as equals. Class 40 was already sent packing, so it's character description is already redundant. While it is quite inaccurate how Sir Handel would be older than Skarloey and Rheneas combined since Skarloey and Rheneas are much older than him, I do stand by my defense why his character changed in Season 10, and rather for the better. Though, I don't understand why he would even have problems climbing up hills.
Donald and Douglas' character descriptions made are the stereotypical twin brothers that fight over everything type of character description that just gets thrown onto other people's minds like if "Twin Trouble" was the only episode they have watched and that was it. And don't worry, the character descriptions for the Drivers and Firemen are far worse, let alone disconnect away from what made Thomas work. The character descriptions for Emily, Toby, Edward (no wonder why he was butchered this badly during Seasons 10-12, and I still blame that on inconsistency), Duck, Oliver, and Stepney are just awful. Edward was okay during Seasons 8-9, but when Season 10 came out, they gave up and ran out of ideas on how to keep him in character, let alone no one even understood who Edward is. So yeah, compared to the Nitrogen era (to an extent) and the BWBA era (where I am glad they never wrote an OOC Edward episode), the tenth to twelfth seasons were not very kind to Edward. And now I am glad they only used Duck and Oliver in Season 12 as supporting roles (Oliver in S12 at least cuz he never appeared in the four seasons that came before), only used Duck in the music video for the song, "Navigation".
Sir Topham Hatt's character description... no wonder why The Guardian and the New Yorker started this mindset of displaying Sir Topham Hatt as a cruel, evil, fascist dictator who enslaves his engines and tells them to do what he says or else he will lock them up in tunnels and let them starve to death. The one thing I can say the 2003 bible was ahead of its time on that one. But Jesus Christ, his character description sounds really fucked up. I am really glad that when "Blue Mountain Mystery" came out, Annie and Clarabel did get to be the voice of reason coaches again instead of being portrayed as the coaches that do fuck all, even when they see Thomas is doing something wrong or not.
And another thing, Thumper I believe was meant to be a one off character unless they can do something with him past Season 5. Old Slow Coach and Bulstrode's character descriptions, I really like and I am quite sad they weren't given the comeback treatment like what they did with the other older characters during the Brenner and BWBA eras. S12-16, to an extent did this too with Butch of all characters.
While I see a handful of good character descriptions like Skarloey, Rheneas, Gordon, James, Percy, Diesel, Elizabeth, and so on. But I don't think it is the worst series bible I have ever seen. It's certainly not as bad as some may make it out to be. While it is jarring that it was contributed to Thomas' noticeable decline in quality from S8-11 and the eventual seasonal rot from Seasons 12-16, there are some things about it I actually like. So this series bible had its bad moments, but it wasn't all bad. Though most of it deserves a good rewrite. And I did like the two story choices they confirmed in the series bible of 2003 like the original plot for "Percy's Big Mistake" and "James Gets a New Coat". I also like that it got me into researching ideas onto series bibles of other shows like Adventure Time, SpongeBob and Ed, Edd, n Eddy. They are superior series bibles than the 2003 Thomas Series Bible that is used for Season 8.
Correction, he was like that in the RWS in his younger three years i.e. 1865 to about 1868.
@@selinapersaud7629 That's why I said why his childish portrayal was different in the ninth to twelfth seasons compared to the Railway Series.
In the Railway Series, Skarloey hated pulling trucks and got sheeted up. He constantly argued with Rheneas, whom at the time, the latter was more sensible than the former. Then, when he got a new cab, he gloated to Rheneas about his cab and got mud sprayed on as his comeuppance for getting a big head about it.
But despite how childish he was in his origin stories set in the 1860's, he and his brother learned sense from their experiences.
Here in S9-12, Skarloey aged completely in reverse. He is scared of the Wharf and it's never really explained. He is petrified of rain and it's obvious he never had a phobia of rain in the Classic Series because he wasn't. He bumped trucks so hard that he broke one of them, unintentionally I may add. He does a dangerous stunt on the incline to prove how "brave" he is. And finally, he plays tug of war with Rheneas with a puppet show train...
Had HiT stuck to consistency on how Skarloey is characterized through that series bible, then the episodes that I indirectly mentioned would not have existed back then and even in today. But no, they did fuck all on keeping him the same way he was written in the RWS and the fourth to seventh seasons (S7 was an extent, to be fair). He wasn't all bad during those seasons, but it showed how much Skarloey was hit with character assassination.
@@BriceInkling138 he really was one of the most developed characters in the RWS.
@@selinapersaud7629 Along with Gordon, yes.
24:33 this probably intentional. Bro was exiled for *5* i think maybe *6* seasons. Its reasonable to assume he matured alot as a person since then.
I just found this out, there is two water works' on Sodor, the one mentioned to do with Harvey, and the one at Great Waterton
Awesome video
Calling All Engines also gets called “that time Thomas started a race war” and the bible really isn’t helping matters 😬
Like holy shit, we all joke that the Diesels are an unflattering racist allegory but seriously??
12:55-13:]5
Girls mature earlier than boys biologically bit not so much in behavior. They just put on airs of sophistication.
Notice that when older women are described, theyre not give the same praise as their younger counterparts.
2:57 XD im DYING