Nia (Thomas & Friends)

Nia is a character that appeared in the Big World Big Adventures! movie, as well as seasons 22-24 of the original series and Thomas and Friends: All Engines Go!. She was created to replace Edward in the main cast. She wasn't well received by fans and critics of Thomas and Friends for her qualities.

Why She's Not-So-Helpful After All

 * 1) She serves absolutely no purpose in the show and is just there to replace Edward the Blue Engine on the steam team which makes her a filler character, quite similar to Rebecca, who was introduced to replace Henry.
 * 2) *Speaking of her replacing Edward, she feels like a rehash of him, minus the likability and charm of Edward.
 * 3) She can be seen as a Mary Sue, considering the fact that her personality is generic, bland, uninteresting, and boring.
 * 4) There is no explanation of why she lives at Tidmouth Sheds, as she just appears there in Tidmouth Sheds without any introduction to Nia joining the steam team.
 * 5) She was one of the main reasons why the original series went downhill, and eventually resulted in its cancellation.
 * 6) Her reason for replacing Edward on the steam team gets very confusing as some websites say that she was put in because of criticism from feminist and social justice groups, but the Thomas & Friends fandom says that she was put in to fix the gender imbalance at Tidmouth Sheds.
 * 7) Like with all of the characters in seasons 22-24, her fantasy sequences are distracting, uncanny, painful to look at, and just plain awful.
 * 8) She acted very annoying towards Thomas in the movie.
 * 9) She is also just shoved into the movie, basically does nothing in the whole movie and adds nothing to the plot
 * 10) She actually gets worse in AEG, since over here, in "Thomas Blasts Off", she tries pushing a rocket shell through a tunnel and in "Nia's Perfect Plan", she acts bratty and refuses to accept the fact that something is wrong with her plan. Plus, Her new voice is extremely annoying and high-pitched, due to the annoying voice performances from Sade Smith in the UK dub and Talia Evans in the US dub. While Talia does try to sound lively as Nia, the same cannot apply to Sade since it sounded like she was bored or just didn't want to voice Nia at all.

Helpful Qualities

 * 1) She is at least given a proper introduction, unlike Rebecca.
 * 2) Nia has a decent design in both Big World Big Adventures and All Engines Go!.
 * 3) Her voice acting in Big World Big Adventures! is very decent
 * 4) She's actually sympathetic.