Thomas the Tank Engine is a Slave[]
The Gist of it[]
The Fat Controller - also known as Sir Topham Hatt- is a cruel dictator, and the trains he "employs" are little more than slaves brainwashed to fear and love him, despite his demonstrated willingness to dispose of them when they are either no longer able or willing to serve him.
Discussion[]
Give this some thought--what would happen if one of the engines in Thomas the Tank Engine decided he no longer
wanted to work for the Fat Controller? In the case of Henry, who in one episode didn't want to go out in the rain, the controller orders him to be bricked into a tunnel and essentially buried alive). You can't really argue that the trains are the property of the controller. If they are sentient beings capable of independent thoughts, emotions, and relationships, then forcing them to work there amounts to slavery.
Are you stupid? What the frick is this rubbish. Whoever wrote this must have never read a book, watched an episode, or anything or that he's just an idiotic little piece of crap who lives in his dad's basement where all he does is just watch NSFW and all the other rubbish, this guy is just annoying!
- Ferrari Fan 488, 11/3/21
This isn't a "fan" theory at all, it misses the point of the show that fans love. This is more of a hater theory than a fan theory, because any actual fan of the show will see this is bullshit.
- Ssdofjasdiofji, 11/4/21
I agree with Ssdofjasdiofji.
- Ferrari Fan 488, 11/7/21
So do I. This crappy theory is so bullcrap it make MostAmazingTop10's Top 10 Scariest Thomas The Tank Engine Theories video look awesome in comparrsion.
- IslandOfSodorFilms, 11/12/2021
Edward, Henry, and Gordon is invalid to this c**t.
- Ferrari Fan 488, 1/7/22
The Two Henrys Theory[]
Henry's Flying Kipper Crash.
Henry, Who is a One-off Design That Was Built From Stolen Plans From Sir Nigel Gresley, Had Many Steaming Problems When He First Came To The North Western Railway, and Sir Topham Hatt Tried His Best To Fix These Problems. He Finally Landed on Welsh Coal Being The Best Option, and it Did Proved To Be an Success.
That Was Until One Snowy Night in 1935, When Henry Was Pulling a Fish Train Known as "The Flying Kipper. That Was Distance From The Mainland, He Was Diverted into Another Siding and Crashed into The Back of Goods Train. Henry Was Severely Damaged, and Was Sent To Crewe, Where He Came Back Looking More Like a Stannier Black Five, Rather Then a Gresley or Alantic Design.
This Theory Could Suggests That Henry 1 Wasn't Actually Rebuilt, But Instead, Henry 2 or Black Five Henry is a Completely New Engine.
Which Could Basically Imply That Topham Replaced Henry.
The Evidence of This Theory is The Fact That He's in Two Parts of The Book "The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways".
In The IOS Book, Theres a Part in The Book That Literally Said "Since 1922 There Have Been Two Henrys - Henry 1 and Henry 2."
Why The Engines Have Faces...[]
Theory #1: Satanic Worshiping Connection:
Awdry mentioned that Satanic worshiping occurred in ancient-times on Sodor near Killdane (hence the standing stones seen here). Although he stated that "it is probably just local legend, and there's no evidence to prove it occurred". Nonetheless... if it did occur it could somehow relate to the engines having faces. Awdry stated that "the engines only have faces when they are on Sodor. Not when they're elsewhere". This alone suggests some sort of paranormal thing going on that is unique to the island. At the same time however, the rule about them only having faces on Sodor is almost always broken within the books themselves (Only like once is it really followed). Seeing as the RWS is set in a realistic-world like our own, and the illustrations are just representations in-universe, this could be written off as another example of "illustrative errors". Now if this theory is true... the sentient-faceless engines would also play a part in this... They were likely always sentient, since the very first locomotive 220 years ago. Nobody knew this however as they communicated telepathically in their own language (For example Captain Baxter and others in Stepney the Bluebell Engine were described as speaking and having emotions even though they were faceless). They wouldn't have been designed with the intent to be alive... but it's kinda like what Awdry said about how locomotives seem to communicate in their own ways. Well maybe that really was true here... and because of something dark in Sodor's Past, engines could gain faces when on this island. Additionally, it would've happened long before the government's would have had a means to suppress these strange happenings, hence why everyone knows about it. Additionally, a piece of text within the books seems to fit in with Awdry's supposed rule of the engines only having faces on Sodor. In the story "The Fat Controller's Engines" in the book "The Eight Famous Engines", Sir Topham Hatt tells the engines they are taking a trip to England to show the people that his engines are real, for "They have read about us in the books, but they do not think we are real".
Theory #2: They were somehow just built that way:
Through some means or another, the faces are manufactured on some engines, but not others (you can choose if you want it to have a face or not i guess). Hence explaining why the CFR engines have two faces, they were just built that way.... it wasn't a bizarre coincidence that this just 'happened'. Now how they figured out the technology to create sentient biological beings and shove just a living face on an engine..... i have no clue. But the engines have to be somewhat biological as they have eyes, tongue, teeth, the grey part may even be skin. Also they are not completely immune to dying by natural-causes, Awdry confirmed they can die from exhaustion from being overworked...
Theory #3 The Faces are meant to be on their fronts:
The Engine's faces are meant to be on their fronts, any engine with a visible grill or smokebox door Will have a grey face, while engines without a grill/smokebox door in the direction they constantly travel in (aka their front) will have an embedded face! This also explains why Mallard has an embedded face.
Further more! The directional comment explains why engines such as Boco, Toby, or the CFR engines have 2 faces. As they all go multiple directions constantly, an engine such as Mavis or Flora would also have 2 faces as they as well go backwards and forwards constantly.
Smudger's Fate...[]
The television series, nor any other form of thomas media, ever tells us what happened to Smudger, his ultimate fate is left a complete and utter mystery, entirely up to viewer interpretation. Here are the theories I have come up with for what happened to Smudger.
- After the Mid-Sodor Railway closed due to lack of funds, becoming bankrupt, Smudger, or what was left of him after becoming a generator, was sold to some unknown person (Possible, but i don't particularly get the feeling that many people would want to buy an old fashioned generator converted from a Narrow-Gauge Steam Engine, especially one that's as snotty as Smudger, but perhaps he reformed and became nicer after he was left to the fate of becoming a generator; sounds like a very boring and agonizing life, really, not being able to go anywhere).
- Like his counterpart Stanley from the Railway Series, Smudger was relocated to the mines at Cas-ny-Hawin. If this theory were to be true, and he followed the same path as his counterpart, it can be presumed he also probably broke-down eventually, causing the mines to flood in December 1946, which spelled the end of the Mid-Sodor-Railway, the following month. Smudger would then either have been simply abandoned in the mine, or sold for scrap in a desperate attempt to keep the railway open (ultimately failing). Again, i highly doubt anyone would purchase him after this, apart from the intent of selling him as scrap metal, considering he was an aging piece of equipment that would have been becoming rusty, and you know, breaking down in the mine.
- Apart from Smudger being sold off to some far-away place, abandoned in the mines, or scrapped, my final theory is that he possibly returned to service again as a functioning narrow-gauge engine (But was still prone to frequent derailing). He was ultimately purchased by the Skarloey Railway, but one night, when returning to the sheds, he lost control on the Old Iron Bridge, and plummeted to his death in the swamps below, never being found. This theory suggests that the ghost engine in Rusty's story from "Duncan Gets Spooked" really did exist, and was actually Smudger. The engine shown falling off the bridge uses Skarloey's model, so this would seem to disprove the theory, but that flashback depiction of what the engine looked like may not have been accurate. Further evidence to this theory, would be that Duncan witnessed a glowing form on the bridge that resembled an engine sharing the same basis as Rheneas. The narration tells us that in-reality these were only fireflies, but perhaps that wasn't really true after all...
Why Does The Boulder Appear To Be Alive?[]
- Other things (vehicles), that aren't sentient in real life, are in the television series, so why not a boulder too? This theory simply cannot explain the disappearing face though, making it largely invalid.
- A group of local hooligan's that had an extreme appreciation, and perhaps slightly addictive fascination with Gordon, decided to carve his face into a boulder, and subsequently used Dark Magic to cast a spell, making the Boulder alive only during certain periods of time, perhaps only for a portion of the day (Explaining the disappearing face thing).
- A wandering spirit of a deceased individual or scrapped locomotive inhabits the Boulder, using it as if it were a body, sometimes leaving to travel elsewhere, explaining the disappearing and reappearing face.
Theory About The STS Canon & Connected Alternate Universes...[]
Theory #1: Connected Alternate-Universe Earth, and why it is so different.
The model-engines universe, or whatever you wanna call it is in a alternate-earth in an alternate universe, that's pretty easy to figure out. The question is why is it populated by static little wooden figures and random talking engines, as opposed to having the same basic principles as the other earth? Well, I think, that although this alternate earth may-be naturally occurring, that it's inhabitants are not. Basically I think this alternate-earth was probably completely devoid of any life, at-least anything bigger than the microscopic level. Then, one day one of the Mr. Conductor's with their magic abilities found this alternate-earth and decided to make it into something, a populated world filled with model people, animals, trains, etc. (Like the largest model-train set ever), and then brought the engines, people, and animals to life with gold-dust (This is one of its abilities, so it could be true). This leaves the question of where do the Mr. Conductors originate from? Well maybe they came from this world after-all, as they are tiny and they fit in here with the height difference. They definitely didn't come from the live-action STS world, cause they are too tiny there.
Theory #2: No Alternate World Present... Only Time Travel...
in the far past or the far future..... For example the live-action STS world was wiped out through a cataclysm or mass-extinction event of some sort in the distant future... and new similar life began to rise...... the tiny conductor's, which preceded to do what i explained in the last theory. Or it could be Model-Railway civilization first - STS civilization after. This does not explain where the whole magical abilities thing came from however. Their is one piece of credence to this theory, that suggests it could be true, Mr. Conductor brought his time-travelling hour-glass with him in TATMR. Why'd he do that? Is it cause he doesn't want it to be stolen, or did he use it and that's why he is there?