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count me in too!

do people care about carykhs algicosathlon?? you know, the algodoo marble race series from about 15 years ago???

what kind of question is that, of course you do!!!

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TTTE Achillean Ships Poll Tournament

First Round- Poll 12

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I have no idea how to begin this post. I’m shocked no one else on Tumblr has made it before me, since this news came out February.

But…

Starting “later this year” (no explicit date), Google will begin using AI to detect “minors lying about their age” (accounts that claim to be 18+ but aren’t.)

This is based on what you search, and the videos you watch on YouTube.

If you are an adult who watches things aimed at teenagers on YouTube- your account will be incorrectly flagged as “lying” and you will be, immediately and automatically, locked down. Restricted Mode on YouTube with no way to deactivate it, SafeSearch always on full force, privileges suspended.

It gets worse. If Google thinks you are under 13- the minimum age to have an account- it will, after a brief delay, DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT.

If you are a fan of a children’s show- say Thomas the Tank Engine, Super Wings, or Handy Manny- or even one aimed at “older” kids like Big City Greens- YOU ARE IN DANGER.

So… what can you do?

As far as anyone knows, the tracking is account-based, so if you browse or watch children’s content while signed out you should be safe.

WRITE TO GOOGLE. Tell them how displeased you are. Do not use “nice” words- they do not deserve them.

Search for alternatives to Google Chrome, Google Search, and every function an account can provide. Type these queries into the search engine a few more times than usual, to give them a little heart attack. They deserve it.

SPREAD THIS NEWS. Not just on Tumblr- spread it on every platform you have. And real life is a platform, too.

If you speak more languages than just English, translate this warning- this is coming to the US first, but that doesn’t mean it won’t eventually spread to the rest of the world.

And finally, WARN YOUR FRIENDS WHO MIGHT BE VULNERABLE TO THIS. To that extent, I’ll be tagging:

@ll-the-biohazards-ll @kylievershion @smashedatoms @roxyteal @hexamoron @nintendonut1 @agathazinha2009 @octoariadneeeeexoxo @dischiantoaster @rocket-powered-socket @tiffanyelectricity @castorfell @kittyundercover1 @joezworld @mean-scarlet-deceiver @funky-boat-zone @bogleech @great-green-hunslet @choc-ice-on-wheels @thosesillytrains @just-another-miserable-prick @bruhstation @6lovelytenders @kidlit-queen-competition @projectanimations @ladymiraclewings @stormvanari @object-obsession @vroomizing @missd476 @masterj @spaceboid @number1spongebobfan @ohmystarrynight @rouxipanda @thomasthetankengine-1 @ask-the-tool-gang @colorfullaudino @darkcrafter @solarbeingash

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HELP A FAMILY IN 🍉🍉 - VETTED FUNDRAISER!!

HELLO EVERYONE!! I would like to share with you a campaign for a family in need. @hanangaza needs donations and has reached out to me, asking for help. I would like to ask you all to visit the account and interact with it. Help get the message out. Please message people, reblog, share, post.... use your account to help get this out there!!

The people in Gaza has not stopped suffering, even after the ceasefire. They are still displaced, suffering with lack or essentials and aid. The cost of living has become very expensive and they have no income. Please imagine yourself in their situation, you wouldn't like to live like that, so why should they?? Here you can help a fellow human being out. The most effective way to support a campaign is by donating!! So if you are able to donate please show your kindness here;

Your donations mean alot more than you think, even 5 dollars will count. Fundraisers are a group effort, so please do your part. Any contributions make a difference, what you may spend on something totally unnecessary will help a family keep warm and safe. Please help feed a family in need, be a glimmer of hope.

Thank you.

[friendly-emerald-emily]

if you were to group the main 12 engines (Thomas through Emily) into 3 clique groups of 4, how would you best sort them?

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i think this is objectively the funniest emily merchandise. perhaps even the funniest image of anything thomas & friends. because...

WHAT HAPPENED HERE?! IM PISSING MYSELF LAUGHING

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which engines do y’all think would like opera?

(besides gordon)

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i'm on bluesky!

hiii sooo...yeah sorry i'm not all that active on here?? idk being on the internet for me right now just kinda. sucks. because everywhere i turn i get reminded of what human rights i'm losing as a trans person in the usa :( so i've been kinda. avoiding being on the interwebs. but! i made the jump to bluesky AND i'm posting on there because i managed to make my algorithm only trains and animals <3 i analyzed "emily's rubbish" on there and i'm pretty proud of what i had to say :3 (though a bigger discussion on what it means to be a big engine will be coming along soon) yall dont have to follow me over there or anything!! ill probably still be using tumblr too, but i thought id just let yall know :3

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do yall ever think about that, technically speaking, shakespeare's missing plays or some of the oldest literature in the world from mesopotamia that was lost to time could be counted as lost media?

i desperately need to see videos like "the search for anatolia's oldest literary work" and its just some frazzled archeologist rambling at us while they frantically dig around in the dirt for two hours

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happy 10/10 everyone. i would have liked to make a longer douglas post but. uh. hurricane milton killed my internet so. have a douglas in the dark instead

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GUYS

i am so smart. since everybody hates the old bridge (that one season 7 ep where skarloey is afraid of a bridge) i thought about re-writing it. because...i do think it could work with skarloey as a main character since anybody can get scared BUT. I AM TOSSING THAT OUT.

THIS SHOULD BE A NEVILLE EPISODE!

his literal first day, he dangles off the end of a bridge since no one liked him enough to warn him. definitely one of the worst starts any engine has had, but it makes PERFECT sense why neville would be afraid of of high bridges like the one in that episode. plus, this opens the door to pair neville up with a character that's willing to give him the time of day (first two that come to mind are edward and molly) and just. omg. i should write this. like actually.

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donal

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ramble (read: disarrayed amalgamation of thoughts) incoming!

the brenner era was not as good as everyone remembers it as, at least in regards to certain characters. yeah edward and toby got their personalities back...but at the cost of:

emily's personality beings extremely watered down and her *high* self esteem being flipped to nonexistent. guess she had to fill in for edward's role as the pathetic old engine. also not a fan of gordon being a sourpuss all the time

henry somehow got worse by making him a fraidycat in addition to all the problems the nitrogen era brought in. flatbeds of fear being EXTREMELY noticeable in this regard

SO MANY returnees being underwhelming and untrue to their roots. donald and douglas in particular got this, going from two independent practical engines to some weird toxic 'they bicker and fight when together but are also codependent' dynamic. oh, and oliver didn't even do anything.

and in general, a lot of the new characters felt so...bleh. like yeah stephen and millie are cool but like...gosh im even struggling to remember! stafford was boring af and conner too. at least the HiT newbies everyone rags on had striking designs!

this probably sounds harsher than im intending it to be but im airing my grievances here!!

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sooo my writer's club is holding a kahoot based around everyone's fictional characters they think are hot and it's a smash or pass sort of deal. the person making it is my club best friend and it was all fun and games until he showed me one of the submissions was fucking HENRY???? it was a MASSIVE slap in the face that was like. it was like i was a sleeper agent. now i need to figure out which one of these people is also a thomas fanatic. I Know What You Are 🫵

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I must inquire about your feelings on douglas and oliver 👀

(Tags by @mean-scarlet-deceiver)

Absolutely! These tags are fantastic, and I think this is a great time to talk about a phenomenon I've noticed in certain fandoms. I don't have a word for it yet, but something that can happen, especially in cases like this where a ship is sort of a foregone conclusion (either for lack of options for the characters or - in this case - because there's one really compelling point of shared development), is that it can often feel like we are *supposed* to ship something, and that there aren't any other options.

I think 10x11 is absolutely one of those ships, and I can totally understand why it might not work for some the same way it does for others. It's easy to fall into the trap of complacency or to feel like there's not actually anything there and the rest of the fandom is just shipping cardboard cutouts. And because everyone treats the ship as default, there's no one out here really up on their soapbox for it or making any groundbreaking content. It runs the risk of feeling stale.

Luckily, I'm here, and I do this shit for free. In point of fact, you couldn't pay me to stop. So let me make the case. Hopefully by the end of this we'll all come away with a better understanding of the characters, their relationship, and ourselves. (I like to aim high.)

So there are a few major pitfalls that this ship can succumb to right out of the gate that I think can frequently make this a harder sell as a romance specifically:

First, the rescue. The foundational text. Everyone loves Escape!, and for good reason. It's an extremely rich vein to mine for drama and feelings and having these characters bond in a way that feels complex and authentic and real... And it also can make a relationship founded on romantic love between them feel compulsory on the part of Oliver. This is not at all cool or fun or sexy or even really in-character, and I expect it's one of the reasons this ship can be hard to work with at times. To put them in a romantic context without any kind of examination of what is desired vs. what is owed feels rushed and disingenuous to me. If your only reason for shipping Oliver and Douglas is that one of them saved the others' life - full stop, no further examination required - this ship is going to be quite boring and a little iffy besides. This is a fantastic foundation, but it can't be the only thing holding them together, or else you've just reinvented the booktok romance novel.

The second pitfall is one that isn't the fandom's fault but is definitely worsened by years of fandom dilution: Oliver lacks a lot of direct and explicit characterization as a result of showing up late to the RWS party. He has this great origin story, fucks up once, gets a few funny scenes, and then about drops off the page. This leave shippers in a bit of a predicament, because really compelling character romance needs really compelling characters in the first place. Oliver has such a great backstory and that immediate bond we talked about with another well-developed character who also has a great backstory. It feels like it should be very easy to make this work, but it just... doesn't. Because Oliver in-canon is often a role-fill character. He's great, but no one (least of all the later season TVS writers) can seem to agree what his personality actually is, so he ends up being written to slot wherever he's needed or to achieve a specific narrative beat. The resultant 10x11 content which is informed by this feels flat and boring because if the only goal is for them to end up together, you simply have to write that happening and it occurs. Fandom Oliver often has no desires or wants outside of getting together with Douglas, his knight in shining paintwork, and it makes for dry reading.

So how do we reconcile this? What can we do with this information to make it work in favor of our desired outcome instead of as a hindrance to it? How do we use the facts to enhance our fiction?

The first key is remembering that Oliver is actually a little badass who, for 95% of his time on the run, did not actually need any help. The only reason he got to the point at which Douglas could come rescue him was because he fled under his own power from the southern part of the country all the way up to Barrow. His journey only ended there because they ran out of coal, which probably wouldn't have happened if Oliver hadn't also elected to take a coach and an unrelated break van along with him. Because, again, he's a badass. When the big engines say that Oliver has "resource and sagacity", they're absolutely correct. There's material to work with here, we just need to spin it out.

So let's start there. Let's give Oliver that plucky spark back, and have him be a wee bit peppery as a treat. A guy doesn't outrun packs of rabid diesels only to come out the other side a meek and obedient little bore. Let's really lean into his loyalty and bravery too, since an engine willing to risk his own life to save the lives of some lowly rolling stock must be both. And finally, let's also have him really appreciate that second chance he's been given! My favorite Oliver characterization is one that swings at every wild pitch just for the joy of feeling and moving and being alive.

What Douglas has given him isn't a debt, it is a gift, and paying him back doesn't mean feeling like he owes him anything, it means hitting the rails every day with as much enthusiasm and excitement and verve as a little engine possibly can. I like an Oliver that works hard and plays hard and - crucially to the relationship in question - I think Douglas likes this too. Here's a pair of guys who are both brave, loyal, adventurous, quick-thinking, generous, and god damned happy to be alive. Their experiences in Escape! shouldn't make them rescuer/rescuee, it should make them some of the only guys on the railway who know what it's like to look death in the face and laugh. They're equals, and more importantly, friends.

And maybe I buried the lede a little bit there, but I think this really is the crux of it. To me, this relationship is one that starts as a very long, very close friendship with that little bit of extra complexity always simmering below the surface and the little bit of weirdness of falling in love with the guy who saved your life isn't something that should be swept under the rug, it should be an active part of the core relationship conflict.

Oliver looks at Douglas and thinks: He's my best friend. I love him. He saved my life. I don't know whether that last thing is influencing the other two and I'm worried that trying to find out will ruin everything.

and Douglas looks at Oliver and thinks: He's my best friend. I love him. I saved his life. But I don't want him to think he owes me anything just because I did.

So Douglas is waiting on Oliver, and Oliver is waiting on his complicated feelings to resolve themselves. In the meantime, in Ray world, I like to imagine them carrying on a very raucous and boisterous friendship/working relationship involving a lot of pranks and good-natured ribbing, because I think the Little Western being the most efficient branch line while also being the one comprised nearly entirely of chucklefucks is hilarious.

I also like the idea that during all of this, Oliver is constantly going through romantic partners because, again, just happy to be alive here! But also because maybe if he finds the right engine those sticky feelings he has towards his bestie will go away. And all the while Douglas looks on and smiles and plays his cards very close to the chest.

Maybe even gets himself a girlfriend in the meantime.

I have this whole arc plotted out for a story I will never write where Douglas and Emily become an item and everyone else loses their minds because oohh it's just so cute and they look so great together.

Very suddenly Douglas has a girlfriend and also very suddenly Oliver does not have a best friend anymore. And (much to Oliver’s surprise) he’s kinda upset about it!

At first he thinks it has to be jealousy, because like... On one hand, he’s over the moon for Douglas. Douglas seems happier now, quicker to laugh and more easygoing (not that he wasn’t always). But on the other hand, they’re not hanging out as often anymore and it’s not really fair that Douglas lands the perfect partner on what is ostensibly his first attempt when Oliver’s been trying and failing at it for so long. He writes it off as him being jealous of Douglas and tries to put it out of his mind.

Except he sees them together, and he sees how happy Douglas is in-person and how Emily is nice enough but all wrong for him. For one thing, she’s the *safety* engine, which– ha! Douglas? Not the most risk-averse engine to ever grace Sir Topham Hatt’s Railway. For another thing, she’s not willing to go on any of Douglas’s more adventurous errands. Too, her more staid nature doesn’t seem to be rubbing off on Douglas at all, so it’s a source of friction in their relationship. Oliver delights a little bit at that, and goes out of his way to tell Douglas he’d be happy to see how fast they can get the goods train to the harbor, speed limits be damned, just because Emily won't like it.

When Oliver explains this to Mavis later (the third time they’ve rehashed this subject this week) she pauses to fix Ollie with a Look.

“Are you sure you’re not jealous of *Emily*?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Oliver scoffs, dismissing it before the words have really sunk in. “If I were jealous of… of her, I’d– I’d be–”

And then the other shoe drops.

“Oh.” “Mhmm.” “Oh no.” “MmHMM.”

Oliver has fucked another of his relationships, the only one that actually mattered in his estimation. And now he’s stuck, because this is the happiest Oliver’s ever seen his best friend. And a real best friend wouldn’t try to sabotage that just because he was too stupid to see what was plainly obvious to everyone. No, he has to be cool about this, and it’s going to nearly kill him.

But hey, look who else in the yard is single and pining over a Caledonian engine. You wanna have a Great Western Time about it?

Again, because I am a sucker for true romance, this sorts itself out in time. Douglas and Emily realize they're not actually that great a fit for one another, Oliver and Duck get as much out of their time together as they like before moving on, and Douglas and Oliver get to have a long overdue conversation about what they mean to each other - no jokes, no bullshit. I'm sure it would all be very cute and romantic, if I were the type to write that sort of thing.

In the meantime, I hope I've at least made a case for why this ship tickles me and where I think everyone can improve in their writing of it. Thanks for the ask, sorry it was so long!

[friendly-emerald-emily]

with my recent posts about molly, i'd like to make this one a space to share molly-specific head canons! i'll start with my own :3 - molly's desire to be seen as special and important could stem from the history of her class, the GER S46. they started out as the eastern's premier express passenger class, but were being phased out of those duties starting in 1911, being demoted to less important passenger services, to then goods trains until the final 4 of the class were withdrawn in 1960.

- adding on to the previous point, molly also wants to desperately prove her worth because she fears being withdrawn from service, but her shyness prevents her from asking for help when she needs it.

- molly doesn't necessarily mind doing goods work, in fact pulling long heavy goods trains is a better show of her sheer strength (which it's canon that she's very proud of), but her insecurities rear their ugly heads when other engines start making passing remarks about goods work being inherently lesser than passenger trains.

- molly's shy and sensitive nature does make her very emotionally intelligent, and is one of the better engines to turn to on emotional matters, her sensitivity gives her a nasty habit of holding grudges. she is willing to forgive though, if she believes whoever wronged her made up for it - i imagine molly would get along with neville pretty well. i'll try to keep this point as molly centric as i can, but in my personal headcanon molly and neville are the epitome of 'similar, yet different'. while both are large, introverted tender engines, they differ when you look deeper. molly's self esteem is usually good when she's on her own or feeling confident, but it starts to crumble when others tease or, or she feels she has to try harder than usual to prove herself. neville, on the other hand, typically struggles with self-esteem because of how often he experienced bullying based on his looks (his irl basis was nicknamed 'the ugly duckling' poor guy :() and his self-view is usually only raised when he gets a genuine compliment. molly can hold grudges, however neville doesn't; he'll gladly accept anyone who's shown him any kindness...which can lead to him being a fair bit more naive than molly. - molly is a good judge of character. no one can really explain it, but when the usually sunny molly starts getting cranky around someone, you best believe that engine is up to no good. - molly and emily are sort of frenemies. they have more in common than they realize, both are eager to please and are proud of what they're capable of...it's just emily tends be louder about it than molly is. (also, emily doesn't make that comment at the beginning of molly's special special in my world. it's out of character because emily doesn't usually tease anyone without being provoked first). emily and molly may not like each other very much because of their different personalities, however they both have a mutual respect towards one another for being the only large female engines that are willing to get their hands dirty and haul long heavy goods trains - molly is friends with murdoch, but she finds him hard to be around sometimes because of how much of a downer he can be -molly's favorite holiday is easter. she enjoys the warmth of early spring and fun, bright colored eggs. -conflict stresses molly out because on her old line, many of her steam colleagues had plenty of verbal sparring matches with her old controller begging them to be kept in favor of the newer, often diesel, engines. in general, heated arguments dig up ugly memories for her - despite her deep-seated insecurities, molly is actually an optomist and tries to make the best of negative situations. - when it comes to mixed-traffic engines, she's easily one of the most skills when it comes to expertise on both passenger and goods trains, owing to her extensive working past in both fields. she's very capable in both and is one of the engines on sodor that gets herself into the least amount of accidents.

-molly has a good relationship with trucks. her gentle and patient nature actually makes the trucks quite fond of her, the fact that she doesn't bash them around or lose her temper with them alone is more than enough to make them respect her. - molly secretly has a large penchant for gossip. she never partakes in it herself, but she is curious about the happenings of other engines. murdoch is a good source of gossip, because of his quietness he often becomes a fly on the wall, but the trucks are always telling her about frustrated engines blabbing about how much they dislike another. that's why when big news starts spreading, molly usually has very little reaction to it. she already knew.

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idk how i missed this, but according to the ttte wiki a second model of molly was planned to be built around season 12. i recall HiT wanted to have a few more seasons of the weird model-cgi blend that season 12 had before making the full switch to cgi. maybe this means molly was considered to have a bigger role in the show a second time? the whole cgi transition could have been an excellent way to re-introduce her. she also is, notably, one of the few engines to not appear in season 12 at all. perhaps if seasons 13 and 14 were also this weird blend molly would have been a more important character, but that's wayyy more out there in the land of theories than anything in my last post was so take that as you will :P

molly is such a fascinating character to me. and surprisingly, not because of her content in the show. but her lack of content. molly really felt like to me she was supposed to be the break-out star of the HiT era. let me explain why.

in short, it's all down to marketing and merchandise. i'm a massive HiT era apologist, mostly because it's the era of ttte i grew up with, but as i was looking through my catalogue of merch, i noticed something...molly was popping up. a lot. weirdly so.

i have a good amount of those briarpatch ttte board games, and typically they were for 4 players, and as such 4 engines were provided to play as: thomas, percy, james, and...molly? at first it seems weird, but when you think about it, it makes sense. molly rounds out a quartet themed around red, green, blue, and yellow, and also adds in a female character. i think that last bit is important, but i'll get to it later.

so i went digging, and the 4 player briarpatch games pre-molly usually had mavis in her place, likely also to add female representation, just swapping yellow for black. there are a few exceptions, i recall seeing toby and harvey instead, but again, it was mostly mavis.

looking at more merchandise outside of board games in this era, molly got quite a bit of focus. she was part of a set of 4 bath squirters along with thomas, percy, and james, and what i find most shocking, she was one of VERY few engines to receive a trackmaster remote control engine. molly also was featured on a 2008 great discovery trading card, even though she only had one line in the entire movie.

after this, i went digging deeper into the world of the thomas microsites and online games, where molly also had a strong presence. the quartet of thomas, percy, james, and molly continued in the simon-says type memory game (i think it's called 'peep peep!'?) and molly also appeared in the emotions game, but this game featured 5 engines, and the fifth...was emily. remember my point theorizing that molly was focused on because she was a girl? here's where it's important.

this five engine ensemble of thomas, percy, james, molly, and emily is repeated again in the plug n' play game 'right on time', a game that i own and remember fondly. emily was chosen again to fill the fifth slot, and i think it's because HiT wanted to have a gender-equal ensemble a la bwba. and i think molly was chosen specifically not only because her yellow paint is unique and for her gender, but because she is probably the girl character at the time that had the most opposing personality to emily. as we all know during this time, emily was interesting and had flaws unlike SOME OTHER ERAS- portrayed as having a very strong and opinionated personality, which would easily contrast towards molly's more shy and sensitive personality. both have also been described as having sisterly attitudes towards other engines. i think HiT wanted to prove in this 5 engine ensemble that they had varied writing for their female characters.

for all of this, i think that molly WAS supposed to be a much more important character than she turned out to be, mostly because she was marketed so heavily and disproportionately than her screen time would lead you to believe. molly also appeared more often than the other HiT newbies (bar rosie), but that isn't really saying much with how little other characters like neville or billy appeared. i don't know why molly was dropped so suddenly when the set up for her seemed to be there? only thing i can think of is that emily had just been moved to tidmouth sheds right before series 9, and that they didn't want to repeat that process?? idk i'm just spitballing because i've been thinking about molly a lot recently. on a small related note, her basis is also very specific and her design is SUCH a standout compared to other new characters at this time, so clearly effort was put into her. i wonder how different the series would have been if molly was elevated to prominent secondary character status like salty or mavis, or even main character status!

tl;dr i think molly was originally going to be important but then she wasn't :(