Edward is one of the most loved characters in TTTE. He has some of the best episodes, a good personality, a nice design, and was the first character to be created. In the late CGI series, he was taken out of the main cast, much to fans' dismay.
Henry is also one of the most loved characters. He again has some great episodes (The Flying Kipper, Henry's Forest, Haunted Henry). His design is amazing, and his personality (arrogant in the RWS, and a bit of a softy in the TVS) is more interesting than Edwards, in my opinion. He was also taken out of the main cast in S22.
But if I had to choose a better character it would be...
Henry!
I think most fans would argue with me, but I'll explain why.
Henry, like I said first earlier, has a more interesting personality. Edward's personality? Old and wise. Very common. Arrogant, rude, but soft and a bit of a worrier. Not as common. You'd think Henry would be grand, and proud like Gordon, considering his size.
Edward doesn't have that much of an interesting backstory. He lived on the Furness Railway, but he came to Sodor to help with the building of the NWR. After the work was finished, The Furness Railway didn't want Edward back, they said he wasn't reliable. But the NWR changed that, and they kept him.
I guess it was sort of interesting, but not as interesting as Henry's.
This is what Henry's biography is according to the TTTE wikia.
"Henry's exact origins are unknown. The story goes that he was built from drawings stolen from Sir Nigel Gresley at Doncaster in 1919 by an anonymous locomotive builder who held a grudge against him. The spy, however, blundered and took the wrong drawings. Instead of the new A1 "Pacific" locomotives that Gresley was designing at the time, the thief ended up with plans that had been rejected early on. The mistake was realised too late and Henry was built with many resulting flaws, and only a superficial likeness to Gresley's Pacifics.
The thief was delighted to unload his "White Elephant" on to the first desperate customer who came along - The Fat Controller. He had intended to buy a Robinson "Atlantic" of the Great Central Railway, but was tricked into purchasing Henry instead. Henry arrived in 1922, and due to the railway being desperate for locomotives the Fat Controller had no choice but to keep him."
"The poor engine and his system - which was already finicky at best due to design flaws - never really recovered from his stay in the tunnel. Henry developed steaming problems, which he complained about constantly, though he found little sympathy from the engines, especially when it caused him to run late.
A period came when the Main Line engines were supplied with a poor delivery of coal and Henry had a very difficult time of it indeed. He had strength to pull trains only sporadically, in spite of numerous parts replacements. At last, the Fat Controller looked into it personally and asked for the opinion of Henry's fireman, who told him about the poor coal and Henry's firebox being too small to burn it efficiently. The fireman also suggested purchasing the high-grade Welsh coal used on the Great Western Railway. Sir Topham Hatt agreed to purchasing some in order to give Henry "a fair chance".
When the Welsh coal came, Henry's performance vastly improved, such that he was comparable to Gordon. He continued to use the coal until he had a collision with a goods train at Killdane Field while pulling the Flying Kipper and was sent to Crewe to be rebuilt in 1935. Henry was rebuilt into a Stanier 5MT. The Fat Controller had connections with Sir William Stanier, so this is likely the reason he managed to get Henry rebuilt so quickly. Besides being given a new shape, Henry also received a larger firebox, allowing him to use regular coal again."
Quite heart-warming if you ask me.
And now episodes.
Sure, Edward's Exploit was a great episode, and there is no reason not to love it. But how about The Flying Kipper? Henry's Forest? Haunted Henry? 3 OF THE BEST EPISODES imo.
Anyway, Goodbye for now
:)
Also I'm not hating on Edward. I like him too
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