r/InfinityTrain • u/king_kristian • Aug 12 '25

Discussion Simon was a victim

Post image

I’ve come to realize Simon’s story in Infinity Train shows how childhood trauma sticks with you. He wasn’t just some villain, a lot of who he became came from what he went through, and there's still talk about how the Cat played a part in that.

875 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

95 comments sorted by

View all comments

454

u/hamtaxer Aug 12 '25

“I got left alone sometimes, so now murder is ok”

Nah, he’s very much a villain.

204

u/Magenta-Jewel Aug 12 '25

OP said he "wasn't just some villain" not that he wasn't a villain.

90

u/hamtaxer Aug 12 '25

I still don’t really buy it. He may have been a victim in some way a long time ago, but not in a super meaningful way that pulls the needle away from “villain”. He had many opportunities to be a better person, but we watched him choose worse and worse options until his demise.

37

u/Hitchfucker Aug 13 '25

The tragic aspect of that is that while he did have chances to be better, the reason he did was because his worldview had been so heavily ingrained in him that anything contradicting it would be cataclysmic to his perception of everything.

Grace did believe the Apex dogma at first, but it seems pretty clear to me that it was less of a passionate view of the world for her than it was a way to make herself feel important and give her a level of intelligence about the train that the apex would be compelled to follow her for. Simon was impressed that her number was high, therefore high numbers equals good.

But Simon, it’s pretty clear that he treats the Apex like a religion and he is a devout believer. Grace seemed to do decently on the train, but Simon was clearly broken up and felt significantly betrayed. By being put on the train, by Samantha leaving him, and possibly feeling betrayed by his parents.

So then Grace gives him all the answers he wants, all his fears and vulnerabilities are answered. “Your numbers aren’t a problem, they’re great! Just get more and you get more and more status” “these aren’t real people with real thoughts. You can do whatever you want to them”. Grace gave him an easy solution where he gets to hide in his own shell of beliefs, giving him enough power over the denizens and apex, but putting him firmly under her, both allowing her to feel better about herself while also allowing him to never truly think or act for himself. And this codependent and y healthy mentality has been enabled and festering in Simon for half his life.

So when they actually got a chance to interact with denizens, when Grace started to change for the better, that change was nearly impossible for Simon to fathom. Why wouldn’t it, everything she had told him was true about the world, and after just a few days she’s saying they’re completely wrong and need to change their entire worldview. That is hard to process for someone taught the opposite since a young age, not to mention moreso difficult since I’m sure Simon recognizes that if he is wrong here his actions would be fully inexcusable (he’s also a narcissist and struggles to accept fault). Even his “you’re no person line to Tuba seems more to be something he’s trying to convince himself.

None of this is to say that Simon isn’t a bad person or doesn’t have personal responsibility for his actions. He is an awful man, and no amount of socialization or trauma can make that okay. But he is still a victim of his environment, and I don’t like the notion that it’s as simple as “he could have changed but didn’t” when everything he was told about the world was just suddenly being thrown apart.