nothing says Thomas the tank engine like domestic terrorism.
| “ | Alfred: IF that's so, then how do they not suspect me of Henry's death hmm? They sound pretty ignorant to me. The weak engine with all the problems, I knew he was a failed experiment, and that they would never suspect fowl play. Gordan: You'll never touch them, not as along as I'm around. |
„ |
| ~ he then knocks Gordan off the tracks. |
Happy April Fools day everyone! I know plenty of people are making joke proposals today, but this is no joke. This proposal is dead serious, the only reason it's being posted today is due to it's... bizarre candidate. Now yes, this isn't the first Thomas fanon Pure Evil candidate, but he is the first that is an engine. And similarly to the other guy, he's a pretty obscure character within Thomas lore, appearing in the books that kicked-off the franchise, as a mere jerk. So yeah, he gets adaptational villainy to the tenth power here. But enough talking about the character, let's... talk about the character for several paragraphs (I didn't think this joke through).
What's The Work?[]
Sodor: The Dark Times is described by it's title card as a dark approach to Thomas, the books and TV shows, which in universe, were based on the true stories of these engines that this series shows the unfortunate demises of. Following a very unfortunate accident that left Henry dead and the events of WW2. The fat controller decided to avoid going bankrupt by trying to bring on a new engine called Alfred. Who quickly appears to be far more malicious than he lets on.
Who Is He? What Has He Done?[]
Alfred also known as 98462, is the main antagonist of the series. Following the death of Henry when the pipe in his smokebox burst, the fat controller was faced with bankruptcy. So he decided to make the risky move of investing in another engine, hoping it would bring profit back up. The next morning the fat controller calls all the engines to the station to meet the new engine, Alfred. Introduced by the fat controller has having been made in the old grey Eastern Railway in Stratford Britain. Cutting forward a few hours to night time, and Alfred leaves the shed at one point, which briefly woke up Gordan who quickly went back to sleep. That night, Gordan had a nightmare of Alfred planting gunpowder in Henry's smokebox, leading to his death. He tells Thomas about it and he reassures him it's just a nightmare, however, Gordan still feels the need to keep an eye on Alfred due to this. Gordan's paranoia due to this nightmare made him unable to sleep, to the point where he slept in Knapford's good Shed one night. He then saw Alfred and another indistinguishable engine in the station platform. Alfred asks if the gunpowder is arriving soon and the figure asks in a worried tone of voice if he's planning on doing it now. Alfred reassures him that the other engines still need a little more time to accept him as one of their own. This interaction also confirms Gordan's nightmare to have been true, with Alfred saying they never suspected fowl play, so why would they suspect him. Gordan decided not to talk about what he saw that next, and the next day, Gordan and Alfred would be delivering some train coaches to England. On the trip, Gordan would quest why Alfred is so quiet, to which Alfred would claim he's merely tired and wasn't able to get much sleep last night. After arriving at their destination, Alfred and Gordan would go off to a shed to rest.
Here, Gordan would realise that he used to know a B12 that came from Stratford, that had the build number 98462. The fat controller scrapped him though as he was incredibly rude and nearly caused a huge accident. Gordan then briefly mentions a fatal accident in relation to Henry, Alfred becomes angry at this and Gordan reveals he heard his conversation last night and knows his entire plan. Gordan claims his plan won't work as the other engines are too smart to fall for it, Alfred and him then argue until Alfred reveals that there's a chain of gunpowder wagons being propelled towards the sheds at that very moment. Gordan says he'll stop it which Alfred responds to by knocking him off the tracks while boasting about how he'll destroy Gordan's railway and then his class will takeover, with him telling Gordan to enjoy the guilt. The work men lift Gordan back onto the rails and he attempts to speed back to the station as fast as possible to stop the gunpowder. But before Gordan can arrive, the unidentified Engine from the previous night setting off the gunpowder, resulting in the deaths of Thomas, Percy, Edward, James and 15 station workers. The next day, the fat controller hosts a memorial for those who died in the incident, stating his belief that the culprit was Alfred, and announcing his resignation out of remorse for bringing him onto the island in the first place. We then see Alfred meet with fellow B12 engine Cecil who's angry at Alfred for killing innocent people, who states Alfred will be followed by now on and that anymore attempts at destroying people will be the end of him. Toby and Gordan would later on find Cecil's charred body, and it's obvious who the culprit is. Alfred then goes back to bombing places, with Gordan stating he's getting rid of all sources that tie back to him. Gordan attempts to stop him while Alfred attempts to blow up yet another station. Gordan arrives just in time to call to everyone to get out since there's a bomb in there. And after everyone gets out, he rams Alfred into the gunpowder, blowing him and Alfred up, killing them both for good.
Mitigating Factors[]
Despite this being a fan series based on the Thomas franchise, Alfred's actions are played dead seriously, with him not even counting as laughably evil in my opinion. The work is also very clearly not shock value, as outside of the presence of a genuine story, there's no blood or gore and the few times we do see the bodies of characters, they're only briefly shown.
Alfred isn't tragic either. It's established that even before the fat controller tried to scrap him, he was horrible to everyone and careless enough to nearly cause a huge accident. Plus, as stated by Cecil, he killed tons of innocent people that didn't even have anything to do with him being scrapped. And eventually he just started killing people so he could get away with his crimes.
He also refers to the unidentified engine he meets with as his brother, but this isn't preventing for two pretty big reasons. The first being that we're explicitly told by the series at one point about his attempts to "get rid" of all sources connected to him, meaning this engine is either on his hitlist or already dead by the end of the series. The other being that he refers to the engines in the station he was about to bomb as his "cousins", showing that despite using these terms, he doesn't actually care for these people, with him getting mad at Gordan for preventing him from blowing these two engines up, it's likely this is just his attempt at keeping up an affable facade. We're repeatedly shown he's willing to prioritise getting away with his crimes above everything else. Overall, I don't think this guy has anything.
Heinous Standard[]
With over 20 confirmed kills, two more attempted and likely dozens more considering the man on the radio stated there were several bombings. This guy more than passes the baseline. Nobody in the TV show is even close to his level of heinousness, with the character that comes closest to his level of heinousness, being one who's heinous actions were in a movie repeatedly confirmed to be non-canon from what I can find, and that's assuming the TV show is even canon to this series... which it isn't, it's confirmed by the opening monologue of the series that the TV show is just a TV show based on the good times on Sodor. So yeah, easily passes in my opinion.
Verdict[]
I'll give Alfred a strong yes, but what do you guys think?