I always love seeing people who highlight traces of nice sights in the Nitrogen era.
That said, I wish I could say this character growth was intentional, but sadly it's this and Thomas and James' friendship in this era, and the one before, that only came about because of the pressure of making preschool shows more candy coated.
Less of things like the engines saying 'shut up' or such bickering was pushed more at the time. In spite of even the bolder steps some kids shows took then, the more harmless ones got pushed in popularity.
Back to the Thomas/Gordon dynamic, if they had say... Andrew Brenner, Davey Moore and others were to write for the Nitrogen era more, I'm not saying the alliance wouldn't be explored more at all, just there'd be a little bit of disagreements or teasing here and there.
While we're at it, I might as well say seeing James and Thomas have friendly races sometimes was quite sweet in the Hit era.













