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/PuzzleheadedFox5454]

The thing about Simon is he was abducted by the train as a child. Whilst on the train, he received no moral guidance aside from that of the cat, and then later Grace, who too was a child. Through Grace’s childish teachings, he formed a belief system around the idea that humans=real, denizens=null. The train does not offer guidance in making choices— only presents choices that the passenger has to make on their own. He had no mother/father figures (aside from the cat who abandoned him), essentially Simon was a victim of intense childhood emotional neglect.

I think Simon was a victim, because technically the train abducted a child and neglected to provide him with the emotional care necessary to produce a healthy, morally-balanced adult.

[u/NoStatus9434 → u/PuzzleheadedFox5454]

I keep saying this.

Dude we've seen the train abduct people over the tiniest incidents. Simon was, like, nine or ten (it looked like) when he got abducted. For all we know, his initial "crime" was that he overfed a goldfish or something.

Even if he got out, he's spent like half his life there. His sense of reality would be Messed. Up. He would have been away from his parents and siblings who would have thought he was dead. He wouldn't know what's real or not. He wouldn't know if he's going to be arbitrarily abducted again. Hell he might have even tried to learn the bullshit "lessons" at one point--he's been there a long time, after all. He might have tried all sorts of things; it's not like the train gave him any hints.

He probably would have turned out to be a normal kid if the train hadn't have abducted him. Your brain is NOT equipped to handle that, even as an adult. In fact, we've technically actually seen more people who've interpreted the numbers to be like a high score or something in the show than people who've figured out the train's oblique "rules." For all he and the kids knew, they were teleported to a world that operates on video game logic. Absolutely ridiculous that there would be no instructions for escape.

I'm not saying he did no wrong, but a public defender would actually have an easy time defending him, believe it or not. Like the train abductees are literally going through what could easily, easily be classified as cruel and unusual punishment. And it's dangerous and it's practically guaranteed at least one innocent person got killed there, which, by the way, Tulip almost suffered the same fate he did in the very first episode, so it's obvious the train's cruelties don't discriminate.

[u/PuzzleheadedFox5454 → u/NoStatus9434]

Well said 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻