Hello my baby, glad that I caught you
Staring at the idiot box.
Your love life is in the rot.
You're sittin' there on your... nice sofa.
Love can be 'ell, I know all too well I'm
wanted by every lass.
Trust me when I say it's a pain in the...
~Michigan J. Frog - 1994 WB Television Ad
Okay but in all seriousness let's get to the discussion.
Love is quite a complex emotion, isn't it? Basically it's feeling a strong affection for some one or some people, and yet people have the hardest time knowing what to do about it. Love has been portrayed in the Thomas & Friends TV show on occasion, the biggest example being that between Thomas and Ashima the Indian Engine, and while the chemistry build-up could have been done better the pair really show a strong affection for one another, and it's rather sweet.
Despite this, there's been in uproar of angry protesters concerning one of the latest episodes: Rosie is Red. For those of you not in the know Rosie is Red is a Season 22 episode that focuses on Rosie and Thomas. On Valentine's Day Rosie is bullied at the docks by Diesel. Thomas comes to her defense but it gives the little demon bees, Bill and Ben, an opportunity to harass him, exaggerating his affection for her into something more romantic. You know the drill: the Sittin' Neath the Tree routine and all that. For the remainder of the day Thomas and Rosie come up with excuses to avoid each other until at the every end when they face each other and their discomfort to own up and resolve the issue by agreeing that they are "just friends". Also we finally get to see Lady Hatt again as Sir Topham Hatt gives her a kitten as a Valentine's Day gift.
Now why would such a simple story line as this cause a riot amongst fans? Well the most common complaint is that "trains can't love". Well, real trains with no faces, maybe, but anthropomorphic trains? Even after all the examples given, are fans still adamant that Thomas and his friends can't express love? If you missed the title of this blog post LOVE is a natural emotion, any character can feel it. Many of the engines have expressed sorrow, anger, envy, frustration, sympathy, cheekiness, and spite, so why can't engines express love? People put up a fight by saying that it's something that Rev. Awdry would never approve of? Well, who's to say what the Reverend would say concerning your own personal opinion? Wilbert Awdry would probably not give a twopence about it since he did acknowledge that engines feel affection for their coaches, as shown above in his story Thomas and the Guard. He states that, and I quote: "Thomas loves them very much".
Someone once tried to object to this by saying that Thomas's love for Annie and Clarabel is more akin to that of someone's love for a hairbrush, which a rather pathetic attempt for an excuse to dissuade the clear and obvious fact, if you'll permit me to say so. I write an example of a description of someone loving their hair brush:
"I love my hairbrush" Jojo said, "It really makes my hair all smooth and straight."
Now here is Awdry's example of Thomas loving Annie and Clarabel.
As they run backwards and forwards along the line, Thomas sings them little songs, and Annie and Clarabel sing too.
If one were to liken an affection for two characters to that for an object that would totally change the context. Thomas would probably only like them for something that concerns their function, such as their comfort for passengers, or running very smoothly. Now of course these qualities would be essential given that they are passenger stock but we're addressing Annie and Clarabel as characters, we're NOT analyzing their purpose! Annie and Clarabel keep Thomas company, they sing songs with him, they give him support, and chastise him when he's being too cocky. Thomas even races across the entire island to rescue them when Charlie idiotically put them onto Caitlin's express train. If that's not true devotion for your friends, I don't know what is.
If you were to walk up to a close female companion (whether it be your girlfriend or wife or someone) and you said to them "I only like you because you're good at [insert cooking, cleaning, drawing, clothing, etc.]" or "I really like you, you're like a [insert household object] to me" the only things you're going to receive from them are a smack in the face, the cold shoulder, a turn on the heel, and the back of them as they leave you without so much as a glance back at you. Why? Because they'd feel insulted, used and unappreciated. They don't wan't to be treated like a servant or an object, let alone being objectified. Complimenting looks alone won't get you a good relationship either. A man has to acknowledge how their companion treats them, get in on the playful teasing, appreciate their support when feeling down, stand up for each other when being confronted, be there for each other when they really need it. Sure they'd feel thankful if you compliment them for a tasty meal and for how splendid they look on the night of a party, after all the hard work and effort they put into preparation but one has to acknowledge their companion for who they are and how they act in certain situations. I'm pretty sure Annie and Clarabel wouldn't appreciate it if Thomas were to compare them to a hairbrush when he says how much he loves them: HE DOESN'T EVEN USE A HAIRBRUSH!!!!
In fact what affection would any train vehicle have for any hand-held object? A person can like an item but it's usually based on preference only. You have an affection for a person but it's due to behavior, interests, talents, skills, and treatment. An engine has no use for any hand-held object so why should it care about such a thing? Now an engine may like a particular water-tower but, again, it's based on preference: maybe the water tastes better from that water-tower in question. If you can't identify the difference between an affection towards an item and the affection for a fellow companion you've obviously been deprived of common knowledge and outside experience. I can assure you that having spent as much time as I've had around my female classmates I know what I'm talking about and I'm man enough to admit it.
The other complaint concerning this episode is that it's a generic storyline. True it is a story we've all heard before: boy likes girl, gets teased about it, said pair tries to avoid each other, but eventually they cross paths again and resolve their problems in the end. It's something that happens in real life as well, I know I've had such an experience. But here's the thing: this is the first time this sort of issue is addressed in Thomas & Friends at all. It's been done before in other TV franchises and I'm sure many of you will have seen those particular episodes before but you need to take other people into consideration. For some children Thomas & Friends is the first TV series they'll have seen, for a few Thomas & Friends may be the only TV series they can watch, and because of that this episode tackling said issue may be the first time they'll learn about said issue and what to do about it. How else are they supposed to learn about it, Dora the Explorer? Yeah right! You have to remember that the series aren't being catered to you as an individual, it's being catered to a WORLD-WIDE audience. WORLD-WIDE!!! Think about that!
And at the very least they resolved the issue at the end of the episode in a unique way: they just clarify that they're just friends and nothing more than that. In a way it works: Rosie's the younger tank engine who idolizes Thomas and wishes to be like him; Thomas finds it an annoyance but he agrees that Rosie can be a big help at times. They're more like the younger sister who looks up to her big brother who doesn't want anything to do with her but eventually realizes the value in having her around. Some people call this episode a copy of fan-fiction but usually fan-fiction would pair the two together romantically in the end. It's not a fan-service and it's not meant to be, it's an aid for children to know what to do when conflicted with certain feelings and friends. Besides other stories would go the full generic way and call for the two leads admitting their love for each other and pucker up. Me: I didn't get the girl in the end. Heck I never even got an embrace, let alone a kiss, my crush left before High School.
That brings up an interesting point: what if people are lashing out at this episode because they've been through this situation before and don't want to relive it through a cartoon episode because it reminds them of how difficult the experience was? Or maybe it approaches a more romantic aspect of the show and that people just don't want to see that because they've been deprived of romance, either by being turned down by their crushes or their parents never showing them any affection whatsoever. Or perhaps it's influence: they've watched too many violent films and played too many shooter games that instilled in them a hatred for the enemy or the other person and they project that out in real life. What ever the case may be it still presents the obvious: the heart and mind have not been developed properly. There's a very fine balance between emotion and intellect and if one wants to have a good relationship they have to learn how to develop the two equally and properly. If one were to develop their heart more, they might not become smart, but if one were to develop their mind more, they become callous. There needs to be a balance and I find that their are very few people who are capable and knowledgeable of how to do so. So I encourage everyone to get off of your screens and go out into the world and find love, because at this time, we're going to need a lot of it in order to survive.
