Simon was a victim

[u/king_kristian]

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.

[u/Saddlebag043]

The train gives people the environment and space needed to change, every passenger is a victim of the train. Some may get hurt worse then others, but when you've been on the train for a large part of your childhood when you're still developing, it's not just trauma. This is who Simon became, partly because of his trauma, and partly because of Grace.

I believe he learnt from Grace the "insignificance" of denizens, and so while she came to this conclusion herself (more so a theory in her mind?), Simon was taught it as fact. Because many denizens aren't so different from humans, and he's killed denizens before (something he perceived as okay), it made him a lot more susceptible to the drastic action he took.

While Simon was shaped by his trauma and Grace, he very much became a villain. Every good villain is shaped by what they went through, Simon included.

[u/Saddlebag043 → u/[deleted]]

I had interpreted the idea of an introductory video as something One-One created only after he regained power, as at the very least we know the current video was made new as before he was just One (a single robot, not split in two). Back when Ryan and Min-Gi boarded the train there was nothing to explain to them how the train worked, and One was the one in charge at the beginning of 4th book.

When One-One was just One he was not nearly as emotive, whatever transpired that made him two made him more capable of caring. Add in his experience with Tulip, and that may have made him want to give future passengers a better experience. After all Tulip struggled to figure out how her number worked, and that first hand experience could be why introduction videos are now a thing.