going into series #4 completely blind I know nothing about the Skarloey engines other than the one named Skarloey
I know there's a red one! And a red one... and a red one... and a... red one......
after mentioning that i think these two would be quite sweet on my pride month headcanon drawing, i realised that i needed to draw them and give a few of my thoughts! (especially as @togetherness23 seemed intrigued by the concept in their lovely tags (sorry about the @ i just thought you might like this hehe))
my hand hurts from drawing all the little details on both of them hehe, it was sooo hard to make them look nice but i'm p happy with how they turned out!
i've got a little analysis/ramble under the cut if anybody wants to read my thoughts :3
okay so.. emily x ashima.
first of all, i think it is just nice to give emily a load of girlies for her romances, she is such a fascinating character and i think that her almost.. stubborn?? nature? i'm not quite sure whether that is the word i mean, but she has strong feelings, strong opinions and a strong personality. she doesn't pull her punches and if she wants to do something she will find a way to do it.
i feel this makes her interactions with potential romantic partners veeery interesting. she falls hard and fast- there isn't any doubt once she likes someone, she knows it very quickly and decides whether to persue or not. i think this shows up in best engine ever, where she decides that caitlin is cool and funky almost instantly, talks about how wonderful she is to all her friends, and the next time she sees her makes a big declaration (well, a big rescue, but it plays the same).
there are a few parallels between emily meeting ashima and emily in her first interactions with caitlin in best engine ever, and this sort of overlap is what made me first consider this potential pairing. well, that and how funny i think it is that ashima and caitlin have very similar base deep and bright pink colours, and if you add new rosie and her dark pink (i think it is more of a dark pink than red oop) then one can have emily and her collection of pink-adjacent women and that is fun. now we just need to paint mavis pink to add to the collection...
anyway! back to the parallels.
i'm putting this one up first even though i think the second parallel is stronger. in the scene from the great race, emily is clearly being positive when she says 'you know, the painted one from India.' she clearly thinks highly of ashima's looks, and this comes up again when she is surprised that ashima wasn't in the best decorated engine competition. she clearly thinks she is pretty, and in the scene from best engine ever she also talks about how she thinks caitlin 'looks amazing'. emily clearly likes looking at these two hehehe.
and my personal favourite, emily and her instant praise for those that she likes. even though in the great race she is speaking about ashima and in best engine ever she is speaking to caitlin, both statements are so nice and show emily and her positivity towards those that she likes. i think that the instant desire to compliment everyone is part of emily's hard-fast romance routine.
another interesting thing is that in the great race, ashima has barely been on sodor for any time at all and emily has already spoken to her enough to remember her name, origin AND come up with enough of an opinion about her to think she is great. and that is just neat!
gay rep is like “kyaaaaaah!!! i like a boy but… i’m a boy >////<?!?!” meanwhile queerbait will be “the branchline won’t be the same without you! come back soon!”
AU where Emily doesn’t “replace” Duck in the main cast and instead leaves with him for the Little Western bc both of them are too good for those freaks at Tidmouth Sheds or whatever