History Fanfic / ThomasAbridged

* DarkFic: Far,''far‘’ darker then the books and the original Tv series. Pretty much ''every'' character is hit with AdaptationalJerkass, more adult themes are featured, and there are many genuinely evil villains (Arry and Bert [[spoiler: murder Boco]], something that their Tv series counterparts would ''never'' do.]] If that’s not enough, it’s not afraid to kill off characters.

* DarkFic

* NeverLiveItDown: InUniverse, Nobody lets James forget the time that he mispronounced "rubbish" as "Rabbish!"

** The Fat Director's Other Railway is described as having a "double arrow" logo. And [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail this]] is British Rail, for comparison. Sound familiar?

** The Fat Director's Other Railway is described as having a "double arrow" logo. [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/BR-logo.svg this]] is the logo of British Rail, for comparison.

->This is the Island of Sodor as you've never seen it before.
-->--Synopsis, ''Thomas Abridged''
->Thomas is many things. A prat. A lover of many (or so he tells himself every night to try and make himself feel better), but he's also a tank engine, who lives at the Big Station on the Island of Sodor.
->Now, many of you might be asking two things. One, what the hell is an engine doing living in a station? And two, what the hell's a sodor?
-->-- Narrator, "Thomas and Gordon"

As the page quote says, this Island of Sodor is quite different to the one we're used to on screen; the engines are decidedly more cynical and arrogant, and in some cases more alcoholic, than their TV conterparts. The Fat Controller also has it worse off, having to deal with his unruly engines, his matriarchial and irritable wife, and avoiding an aneurysm.

* BadassCrew: The Steam Team, along with Duck, Donald and Douglas, and occasionally Oliver, are ''definitely'' this by the end of "The Magic Railroad".
** The Iron Circle, a secret society of famous engines and assorted badasses, who are largely tasked with being Sodor's first line of defence. [[spoiler: {{Downplayed}} by the fact that one of their leaders is a two-faced backstabber, and that the Sodor lot more or less do their job for them.]]
* BadassGrandpa: Edward is one of the oldest engines in the 'fic, and can certainly pull his weight in doing work and controlling Bill and Ben. [[spoiler: Not at all surprising considering his experiences in the Second World War.]]

* BattleInTheCentreOfTheMind: [[spoiler: The Steam Team do this with the Malevolence in the finale of "The Magic Railroad", but the trope is inverted, i.e. the engines battle it in it's mind instead of the other way round. The Malevolence responds by presenting each engine with their worst fears or sworn enemies.]]

** Case in point, one would be forgiven for believing Davidson to be a completely fictitious character of [=ToonGuy's=] creation, but he's actually based off a locomotive mentioned in ''The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways'' a reference book written by Reverend Awdry himself. The basis is described as a "black, beetle-like" electric locomotive that handles munitions trains brought in on the Skarloey Railway, which reflects Davidson's loathing for his "Beetle" moniker.

* AlternateUniverse: Played with in Season 5 in some of the Carlin and Benn subplots, but in Part 5 of "Thomas and the Magic Railroad", Mr. Conductor states that the titular railroad is a passageway throughout the Thomas Abridged multiverse. We get glimpses of the other universes as Edward travels through with Lily and the Conductors in tow, which are (assuming that the TV series is the ''current'' universe) Literature/TheRailwaySeries, a [[GenderFlip genderbent version of the TV universe]], a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic reality where the diesels win]], a [[AnthropomorphicPersonification human version of the TV universe]], WebVideo/Shed17, and [[Franchise/MyLittlePony something with horses]]. Consecutive trips through the Railroad by Thomas reveals even more. Namely, WesternAnimation/TheAdventureBegins, one where the engines are [[HumongousMecha huge robots]] (this one is explained further in an episode of "Tales from the Abridgement"), one where they encounter [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} strange Japanese creatures]], a disturbing Literature/NineteenEightyFour-esque universe where the engines rule over the humans, and an even more disturbing one with James and Edward [[{{Yaoi}} tongue]] [[CargoShip kissing]]. The return trip reveals ''Now Playing, So Don't Go'', a Franchise/PowerRangers-style universe (lampshaded by Lily), one where the engines are aliens, one where Thomas is a zombie and the official [=YouTube=] channel videos. But Burnett sees a final, seemingly unrelated universe, with [[NothingIsScarier nothing in it]]... except for a pair of [[ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes pinprick glowing dots.]]

* TheresNoBInMovie: The engines watch a twenty-four-hour marathon of cheesy horror movies in "In Which Bodies Hit The Floor" which indirectly [[spoiler: gives James a nightmare where all of his friends are brutally killed by a stereotypical slasher villain.]]

*** [[spoiler:Smudger/Bertram gets killed by a lucky shot from his fireman.]]

-->'''[[spoiler: The Malevolence]]''':'''[[CardCarryingVillain I AM THE GREATEST EVIL THAT THIS UNIVERSE HAS EVER AND WILL EVER SEE. I LIE. A LOT.]]

-->'''[[spoiler: The Malevolence]]''':'''I AM THE GREATEST EVIL THAT THIS UNIVERSE HAS EVER AND WILL EVER SEE. I LIE. A LOT.

* SignsOfDisrepair: Apparently how Sodor got its name. [[spoiler: The original Iron Circle wanted to keep the island's magic a secret from the developing world, so they posted a large sign that simply said, '''SOD OFF''. Over time, however, the sign eventually wore down so that instead said '''SOD Or'''.]]

* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler: The Malevolence turns Willo the Wisp into Boulder during the fight at Burnett and Tasha's wedding. A heavily injured trio of the Small Railway engines entomb themselves into a mountain near the quarry, leaving a petrified Willo on the surface to guard them. When the rock around said mountain is quarried, Boulder starts moving to cause havoc and protect Rex, Mike and Bert.]]

** Sodor itself isn't far behind, though it is somewhat more comedic in nature: Largely unexplored with a large ''lead'' mine as one of its primary natural resources. The railway that connects it all is disorganized, underfunded, and run by a depressed, violently temperamental overweight man in the process of a drawn-out divorce proceeding, and its staffing consists of a group of dysfunctional locomotives who are just as surly and cynical as the railway workers that drive them. The infrastructure ''somehow'' keeps going despite of this, and despite of the fact that ''everyone on the island'' appears to be alcoholic, even the locomotives. ''Especially'' the locomotives.

** "A Close Shave" reveals that [[spoiler: Diesel was possessed by the angry and vengeful ghost of Marklin, who had been killed following a botched operation to change his identity and subsequently possessed a BR Class 08 shunter.]]

** "A Close Shave" reveals that [[spoiler: Diesel was possessed by the angry and vengeful ghost of Marklin.]]

** Sodor itself isn't far behind, though it is somewhat more comedic in nature: Largely unexplored with a large ''lead'' mine as one of its primary natural resources. The railway that connects it all is disorganized, underfunded, and run by a depressed, violently temperamental overweight man in the process of a drawn-out divorce proceeding, and its staffing consists of a group of dysfunctional locomotives who are just as surly and cynical as the humans that drive them. The infrastructure ''somehow'' keeps going despite of this, and despite of the fact that ''everyone on the island'' appears to be alcoholic, even the locomotives. ''Especially'' the locomotives.

--> [[spoiler:''[The Lorry's] mocking one-liner died quickly in his throat, as Terrance turned around. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck And then he realized just how damned he was,]] because he had the exact same reaction as any single person or vehicle who had known Terrance the Tractor in all the long years he had been on the Island, would have had. '''Because Terrance wasn't smiling.''''']]

--> [[spoiler:''[The Lorry's] mocking one-liner died quickly in his throat, as Terrance turned around. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck And then he realized just how damned he was,]] because he had the exact same reaction as any single person or vehicle who had known Terrance the Tractor in all the long years he had been on the Island, would have had. '''Because Terrance wasn't smiling.''']]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In "The Magic Railroad: Part 7", the [[spoiler: ever-cheerful Terrence gets a serious upgrade in badassery when facing down Lorry #2, all because he '''stops smiling'''.]]

-->'''The Narrator''':...And that we all we needed to see.