Out of all the characters that have been seen throughout Thomas' 69 year history, the only one I truly hate is Lady. The new team are starting to win me over with Charlie, and while Flora's just there to make Toby look less special, she's been forgotten about since her introduction. Heck, I don't really hate the Logging Locos! That doesn't mean that I like them per se, but I only really dislike them (even if I've said I hated them in the past).
So why don't I hate them, yet I do hate Lady? Well I shall now explain!
Lady was introduced in Thomas and the Magic Railroad, a movie that has no right to be called a Thomas and Friends film. It had nothing to do with Thomas' roots to the point where the character that started it all - Edward - was completely absent! And, of course, the American influences throughout. But as well as that, Lady's role was pointless! She was, in anthropomorphic character terms, unconscious for 90% of the film, yet things ran as normal, and the engines could still talk. The only thing that had withered was a railway in an alternate dimension! And the portal for said railway made no sense either! Seriously, if Lady was in such a poor condition, surely it wouldn't work in the first place! And that's not even mentioning how stupid the magic buffers idea was! Say what you want about Misty Island, but at least the producers connected it to Sodor in ways that could make sense realistically!
And then, there's her design... What is she even meant to be based on? Yes, Thomas and Friends is fictional, but every character before and since has been based on a real life locomotive, either loosely or a practical carbon copy. Heck, Stanley's a hybrid of two locomotives, and even he has the essence of what the Awdrys were aiming for with character design. And he was created in the Sam Barlow era! The same could be said for Bash, Dash and Ferdinand! Yes, they're American designs, but at least they're actually based on real locomotives! Do you see what I'm getting at here? Lady is far too fictional to fit in! At least, that's what I think.
I would talk about her persona next, but... does she even have one? The only thing she talks about is magic, and she added nothing to the story except the obligatory Hollywood style chase scene! Yeah, it was fun to watch, but in the long term it was absolutely pointless since Diesel 10 was seen in future projects! Even Rosie has more of a personality, and she's basically a female stereotype! That said, other characters between series 9-12 had no personality either, but they were more forgettable than anything. As for the Logging Locos? They were annoying and moronic, but that was part of their personalities! Fair enough, they're not the best traits to have, but it's still more than Lady had..! I could see where the production team were coming from with the Logging Loco; it seemed like they wanted to copy Edward, Bill and Ben's dynamic, but they weren't too sure what made said dynamic work in the first place. With Lady? I can see nothing, apart from a token female lead to keep the politically correct world we live in happy...
So in conclusion, yes. I hate Lady. She is the worst female character on the show (and with a female stereotype like Rosie around, that's an accomplishment) and the worst character overall. She was just a pointless cash-in to try and give some semblance of logic to Britt Allcroft's Shining Time Station send off. She had absolutely no potential - to be honest, I believe that HiT only included her in Calling All Engines! because they thought it would be good fan service - and she looks too fake to be a Thomas and Friends character. If you like her, leave your thoughts below as to why you feel that's the case (and before you say it, being the first female steam engine means nothing when you have the personality of a scrubbing sponge).
