TobyandMavisforever [2017-11-06 03:46:46 +0000 UTC]
I gotta be honest, I never really liked Sir Handel as a kid. Mostly because he caused the accident with Peter Sam at the incline (my favourite NG engine along with Rusty at the time.) But, as I looked into the stories deeper, I realised how much grief and pain he and Peter Sam must have gone through.
Four Little Engines - Left the unknown Aluminium Plant, got repainted and renamed and boom, they have new identities. Peter Sam was trying to be optimistic, but Sir Handel was complaining about the sheds and I think seeing Skarloey was the final nail in the coffin. Skarloey was older than Duke, and he was next in line to go on overhaul. But, Duke was all alone in his shed and Sir Handel knew this. Then there's the thing with the coaches which I already explained on their page.
The Little Old Engine - Skarloey and Rheanes were on overhaul, and it's likely they couldn't overhaul a third engine at this point. Therefore, Sir Handel and Peter Sam held back, thinking that they wouldn't get a fifth engine. But, low and behold, there's Rusty. A diesel, the same type of engine that had made Duck's life a misery. Peter Sam, again, takes an optimistic approach, but Sir Handel's pain comes through again. He doesn't want to work with Rusty, so he fakes ill, only to work with him when Peter Sam is recovering from his accident he caused. Then, come the forth story, I think Sir Handel had stage fright. He usually loves attention, but he doesn't know much about this 'TV', and is told it will be shown to more people than just the passengers and railway crew. So he fakes ill once more.
Gallant Old Engine - By now, Peter Sam has mentally recovered from the accident, and Sir Handel is trying to have a fun with him like they did on the MSR. But the one time Sir Handel is trying to be cheerful, Peter Sam is cross about the drainpipe. Steamroller is kinda self-explanatory. Sir Handel was full of pride he got a modification, and it got out of buffer.
Mountain Engines - (Headcanon, beware) Sir Handel has gotten a grip on the old coaches by now, but they hear word from Cora that Sir Handel is 'upset about someone' on her run with him from yesterday. Agnes, Lucy, Ruth, Jemimia and Beatrice want an answer, but Sir Handel misinterprets this as them playing up the first time. And then the second time, the coaches start to chat amongst themselves, thinking that whoever it was Sir Handel was upset about, was a friend who was scrapped. You can imagine how well that went. Come Bad Look Out, Sir Handel's calmed down enough to not talk back to Duncan, but when Culdee tells the story of Godred, the coaches' words come back to him in full force. Couple this with the events of Bulldog and he would be traumatised for a while.
Very Old Engines - We don't see Sir Handel's reaction in Duck and Dukes to the possibility of his mentor being scrapped, but I think he would have either been too stunned to think, let alone speak properly, or spent at least half the night calming Peter Sam down. He doesn't say anything to back up Peter Sam's claim at the party either, so I guess it's the former.
Duke The Lost Engine - Everything that has happened up to now comes full force. Grief, tears, anger, old memories... Sir Handel and Peter Sam finally let things out. And finally, with Duke back by their side, they can move on with life. Sir Handel and Peter Sam are much happier and content with life.
(Skipping Great Little Engines because that book proved my theory correct.)
New Little Engine - (BIG Headcanon, beware) You'd think after everything, things would be more stable? Well... not everything. Freddie was the SkR's number 7 since 1965 (four years before Duke was found). He knew Sir Handel, Peter Sam and Duke very well from the MSR days. Unfortunately, not long after Fred became the SkR's Number 9... Freddie was knocked unconscious due to a gunpowder accident. (Long story short, Duncan agitated the slate trucks and they took their anger out on Freddie with gunpowder wagons in the mixed goods.). Sir Handel witnessed this and was overcome with grief once again. When Peter Sam returned home from the SkR when Ivo Hugh was under construction, Sir Handel didn't know how to tell his friend the story, so he knocked out his firebars in anger. After the firebars were fixed, Sir Handel confessed to Peter Sam what happened, and he was upset too. They managed to overcome this by the time of Ivo Hugh's naming ceremony, but that's a different story altogether.
So, with all this in my head, I realised how complex a character Sir Handel was, and I grew to like him. I just wished the Awdrys could have done this with him.
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