ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Forever and Ever
August 05, 2023
The fandom-wait I mean Gordon’s still annoyed that Nia is taking Edward’s spot in Tidmouth Sheds, and that’s only made worse when Henry announces he’s moving out. Sir Topham Hatt grounds Gordon in his shed, and it’s up to Nia to try and help him accept this change.
I’ll start by being fair and say I like the moral here: that despite the changes in life, your friends are still not too far away. It’s a decent message and I like that it’s Nia relaying it - since she’s made a bigger move than Henry and Edward combined, it would make sense that she would miss her friends in Africa. However, the way it’s presented in the episode is a little clunky, so it doesn’t feel like “your friends are still your friends despite the changes”, more like “your friends moved away, so y’know what? Cope.”
Other than that, I don’t think I have that much praise here. To begin, Gordon is astronomically out of character here. Instead of being pompous and grand but still carrying a heart of gold, here he’s whiny and fussy about the changes made to the railway, even throwing a tantrum at the mere idea of Henry moving out. And it’s so obvious that he’s meant a self-insert for the fandom and the response that the changes to the Steam Team garnered, which only comes off as more obnoxious than entertaining, because as many other critics have pointed out, portraying your fanbase as childish as possible is not a good response to criticism.
But now the real meat and potatoes - how they handled Henry’s departure. We know how Edward moved out, he had a whole episode about it, and yeah, that episode sucked but it was still something - what about Henry? Did he get a fitting send off? Well, the answer is, he got…nothing. He just comes up to the station and says “oh hey guys I’m moving to Vicarstown. No big deal. Bye.” And that’s it, no more Henry. He doesn’t even get a big role here, in fact, I think he only has, like, two lines in the whole episode. As a result, he feels more like a cameo in what’s supposed to be his big send off.
Every day, I regret listing this as an honorable mention in my "Best of BWBA" list more and more. While not "A Shed for Edward" bad, "Forever and Ever" is still a pretty lame episode. Sure, the moral's nice, but with a terrible portrayal of Gordon and a horrible way of writing off Henry, it ends up being a weak start to this new Steam Team. If you want my recommendation, I'd say the same as "A Shed for Edward" and only use it as a learning tool on how not to write someone out, and as such it gets a 2/5.
Final Score: 2/5
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