Why do people keep trying to redeem Diesel 10?
I’m not against antagonists villains being redeemed. It makes sense for Diesel, Spencer, Bulgy, Splidge and even Arry & Bert to an extent to be redeemed but I think Diesel 10 should remain a villain. The personality he had in Magic Railroad was perfect and he was one of the few good things about the movie. He managed to be both comedic and intimidating at the same time. I really dislike how they tried to redeem him later in both Calling all engines and Day of the Diesels and in fan stories too.
Real life has bad people so what stops Thomas, a show that is generally more grounded than other kids shows from having bad irredeemable characters? Why the classic series (S1-5) and the railway series books by Awdry were so good are because they didn’t shy away from showing the crueler and darker sides of reality.
Redeeming Diesel 10 in my opinion takes away the thing that makes the character click. Even if you remove the claw and make him a more grounded character you can still have him remain evil and bitter, just look at a fan made character like Dudley.