Gordon in the station scene at the beginning of “Edward’s Exploit” serves up some strong deja vu with his “Whistles and Sneezes” vibes assholery.
This time my analysis is slightly calmer (perhaps because Gordon’s victim du jour hasn’t just had a long and traumatic arc that makes me feel incredibly overprotective).
Gordon is an interesting one. Apart from these two instances, I wouldn’t call him cruel. Pompous, self-important twit, yes, and when he thinks he’s been pushed too far (he does have a long fuse) he pushes back hard (taking Thomas along on the express—but he was provoked often before deciding that it was time to put an end to things). And he doesn’t take anything he considers betrayal sitting down, for sure (Edward breaking the shunting strike, Duck supposedly telling tales to the trucks).
However, his retributions are measured and deliberate (never rushes to strike back in anger; he retreats and strategizes), and, once things are settled, he seems to regard these spats as truly buried, which is a fine quality.
And, in the main, on an average day, he’s full of bluff good sportsmanship, the occasional bout of thunderous good spirits, and a lazy benevolence.
But then, in these two episodes, we just get these absolutely crushing comments coming from apparent nowhere.
Well, he deploys these missiles of awfulness only at Henry and Edward, his two oldest companions (“The three engines are now great friends.”) There is a kind of messed-up compliment here. Pranks and ribbing all around—but he holds back his worst from the "little” engines. (Edward has notably been upgraded from “little” to “dear” well prior to the above lil heartwarming infuriating scene.)
Also, in both these instances, he’s been confronted, in one way or another, with thoughts of his friends’ mortality. Starting to seem to me like he just can’t handle that, so he comes up with “helpful” gems like the above.
