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Post by Chris on May 2, 2022 8:37:46 GMT
Gabriela 4 Gustavo 4 Ester 4 Brenda 6 Darcy 1 (-1) Duchess 13 Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 11 Kenji 8 Baz and Bernie 5 (+1)
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Post by Nicholas on May 2, 2022 10:36:24 GMT
Gabriela 4 Gustavo 4 Ester 4 Brenda 6 Darcy 1 Duchess 14 (+1) Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 11 Kenji 7 (-1) Baz and Bernie 5 I'm not fully sold on Sonny, and find him a little forgettable. He has an interesting character arc, but it isn't well-executed enough and the character just doesn't feel very Awdry-esque somehow. Marvellous Machinery also portrays him as a stolen taxi on rails for the crooks. Was the Fat Controller and railway staff under the guise Sonny was a private engine with free reign about the railway during his owner's visits? The way Sonny is allowed to sneak about the North Western Railway is just bizarre and logistically inexplicable. If any engine on the list is guilty of feeling like a caricature, it'd be of the opinion it's him, but I will say he is an interesting character. and there are aspects of how the character came together that I like. He pangs of the Artful Dodger in his mannerisms and is Cockney to the core. He's someone with a past of being a thief of sorts but is well-meaning and trying to change his way. I will say I absolutely love Sonny's basis, Bellerophon, which, particularly in its dark brown livery is a gorgeous, antiquated, lordly-looking locomotive that offers a grand presence. I appreciate that Sonny wasn't given too garish a livery which spoils the engine's impression too much; the navy and black with white and brass still kind of works. The selected basis is quite clever in this sense. Again, channeling the Artful Dodger (a child who dresses in oversized adult clothing), it gives the air of a Victorian/Dickension era engine with an appearance that seems to suggest a stately standing in a way that could be employed to mislead by Baz and Bernie. Also, I don't hold it against him too much, but I'm just not stuck on the name Sonny for a Thomas character. Something like Archie or Reggie or Ronnie (i.e. a name that's a shorter cheeky-chappy slant on a longer more regal-sounding name like Archibald or Reginald or Ronald) might have worked quite well for the character's informal-in-the-guise-of-formal manner. ...You know what? I'm gonna change my mind. Originally this paragraph was to explain why I was down-voting him, but I've talked myself out of it of my own accord. There are problems but there's also potential in him. Duchess is a refreshing change from an engine like Spencer who has an aristocratic responsibility but who isn't up herself. She's rather nervous and feels the responsibility of her role deeply but, despite her nervousness, is graceful and attempts to maintain an air of composure and decorum. I'd love to have seen more of her, not just in her role in Thomas and the Royal Engine but in some standard episodes, perhaps, too. She acts how you'd expect an anthropomorphised royal engine to act, she's got an authentic name and an authentic basis. She is realised in a very Awdry-esque way and just... very much wins me over.
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Post by OJ on May 2, 2022 14:50:06 GMT
Gabriela 4 Gustavo 4 Ester 4 Brenda 6 Darcy 0 (-) Duchess 14 Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 11 Kenji 8 (+) Baz and Bernie 5
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Post by The Thomas Cynic on May 2, 2022 18:16:32 GMT
Gabriela 4 Gustavo 4 Ester 4 Brenda 6 Duchess 15 (+1) Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 12 Kenji 7 (-1) Baz and Bernie 5
For the first time in the history of these games (which admittedly I've not been playing nearly half as long as most people here), someone else has completely won me over. I'd never really thought about Duchess that way before, in terms of her differences from engines like Spencer. Now that you mention it, Nicholas, that really is a unique point of her character. I wouldn't go as far as to call her "Awdry-esque" since I think a large part of that title is depth, which she has very little of. But for a shallow character we barely saw, she's a pretty good one.
I also agree with the points about Sonny, particularly the name. I still feel he's one of the most interesting ones on the list, but I'd be happy for a deserved second in that regard. What makes him better than the others for me isn't so much what they did with his character, but the slightly deeper layer to him that was there in their approach. The premise of his character is a thumping good one, and straight away that's better going than pretty much everyone on this list (with the exception of perhaps Duchess, see above). He's interesting from a writing standpoint as a whole, a masterclass in how to write a character with great potential and fulfil about 50% of it in a lukewarm way. Had Sonny, or an engine with a similar premise, been introduced pre-S22 with stronger realisation, they would likely be in my top 10 characters, and I don't think that's an overstatement. But as it stands, Sonny is a character which was set out as something great and interesting on the drawing board, but the overall direction of the brand, the unrealism, and the lukewarm writing around him were all real roadblocks which stopped him becoming meaningful and lasting.
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Madness
Main Line Engine
Posts: 1,992
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Post by Madness on May 2, 2022 23:56:47 GMT
Gabriela 4 Gustavo 3 (-1) Ester 4 Brenda 6 Duchess 16 (+1) Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 12 Kenji 7 Baz and Bernie 5
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Post by OJ on May 3, 2022 16:10:26 GMT
Gabriela 4 Gustavo 2 (-) Ester 4 Brenda 6 Duchess 16 Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 12 Kenji 8 (+) Baz and Bernie 5
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Post by Nicholas on May 3, 2022 19:10:44 GMT
Gabriela 4 Gustavo 2 Ester 3 (-1) Brenda 6 Duchess 17 (+1) Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 12 Kenji 8 Baz and Bernie 5
I'd be curious to hear the thoughts of anyone who likes Kenji. I found him quite thin on the ground when it comes to character; if anything his introduction seemed to be to facilitate Hiro's almost-overdue departure (before his immediate return in AEG! I believe) and Ruth is again abused to explain away how he could even operate on Sodor. I remember even thinking as a child that it would be sort of fun to introduce a Shinkansen but also realised, even as a child, it would require quite a distortion of reality and railway operations that wouldn't suit T&F for it to happen. Of course, thanks to the slippery slope fallacy, those sorts of standards had rather much become eroded by S24.
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Madness
Main Line Engine
Posts: 1,992
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Post by Madness on May 3, 2022 23:54:04 GMT
Gabriela 4 Gustavo 1 (-1) Ester 3 Brenda 6 Duchess 18 (+1) Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 12 Kenji 8 Baz and Bernie 5
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Post by The Thomas Cynic on May 4, 2022 6:14:18 GMT
Gabriela 4 Gustavo 1 Ester 3 Brenda 6 Duchess 18 Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 13 (+1) Kenji 7 (-1) Baz and Bernie 5
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Post by OJ on May 4, 2022 15:35:13 GMT
Gabriela 4 Gustavo 1 Ester 3 Brenda 6 Duchess 18 Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 12 (-) Kenji 8 (+) Baz and Bernie 5
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Post by Nicholas on May 4, 2022 18:18:10 GMT
Gabriela 4 Gustavo 1 Ester 2 (-1) Brenda 7 (+1) Duchess 18 Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 12 Kenji 8 Baz and Bernie 5
If Madge feels, perhaps, interfering in a well-meaning grandmotherly way that means she steps in and acts on initiative when she shouldn't or thinks she can add something to a situation by adding her input, Brenda feels like an aunt, overseeing the youngsters (perhaps synonymous to her nieces and nephews if we're stretching the analogy) running around and wreaking havoc and rolling her eyes and letting things be... but only up to a point, because after that point she'll apply what her own experience has taught her, step in and put her foot down with her own way of doing things and her own manner of resolving a situation.
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Madness
Main Line Engine
Posts: 1,992
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Post by Madness on May 4, 2022 22:54:57 GMT
Gabriela 4 Gustavo 0 (-1) Ester 2 Brenda 7 Duchess 19 (+1) Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 12 Kenji 8 Baz and Bernie 5
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Post by The Thomas Cynic on May 5, 2022 6:13:07 GMT
Gabriela 4 Ester 1 (-1) Brenda 7 Duchess 19 Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 13 (+1) Kenji 8 Baz and Bernie 5
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Post by Nicholas on May 5, 2022 10:37:05 GMT
Gabriela 4
Ester 0 (-1) Brenda 8 (+1) Duchess 19 Marcia and Marcio 7 Sonny 13 Kenji 8 Baz and Bernie 5
And deducting 2
Gabriela 2 Brenda 6 Duchess 17 Marcia and Marcio 5 Sonny 11 Kenji 6 Baz and Bernie 3
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Post by OJ on May 5, 2022 13:17:00 GMT
Gabriela 2 Brenda 6 Duchess 17 Marcia and Marcio 5 Sonny 10 (-) Kenji 7 (+) Baz and Bernie 3
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Madness
Main Line Engine
Posts: 1,992
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Post by Madness on May 5, 2022 23:21:17 GMT
Gabriela 2 Brenda 6 Duchess 18 (+1) Marcia and Marcio 5 Sonny 10 Kenji 7 Baz and Bernie 2 (-1)
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Post by Nicholas on May 6, 2022 7:00:15 GMT
Gabriela 2 Brenda 6 Duchess 19 (+1) Marcia and Marcio 3 (-1) Sonny 10 Kenji 7 Baz and Bernie 2
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Post by OJ on May 6, 2022 11:44:54 GMT
Gabriela 2 Brenda 6 Duchess 19 Marcia and Marcio 3 Sonny 9 (-) Kenji 8 (+) Baz and Bernie 2
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Post by The Brendam Engine on May 6, 2022 16:56:01 GMT
Gabriela 2 Brenda 6 Duchess 20 (+) Marcia and Marcio 3 Sonny 9 Kenji 8 Baz and Bernie 1 (-)
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Madness
Main Line Engine
Posts: 1,992
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Post by Madness on May 6, 2022 23:41:00 GMT
Gabriela 2 Brenda 6 Duchess 21 (+1) Marcia and Marcio 3 Sonny 9 Kenji 8 Baz and Bernie 0 (-1)
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