A Theory about The Unproduced Amelia Season
I think Ameliaās book would have served to reframe her takeover of the train as, at least initially, a good thing. On some level, I think it was a good thing.
When we first meet Amelia in Book 4, sheās in some form of Dialogue with One; heās walking her through the proceedings of the train, laying it all out for her. And frankly, heās framed a lotĀ like a supervillian here.
This isnāt the One-one that traveled with Tulip. Heās a united front, with a specific goal and ethos. His name drips with ego. Heās cold, calculating. Heās a robot hidden behind an uncanny face.Ā He knows the train kills people. Probably a lot of people. He doesnāt care. They fix their shit- with limited guidance and resources- or they die. For all intents and purposes, heās either PG Jigsaw or heās playing Metatron to one.
Then thereās Amelia. Amelia, about whom we can observe several things;
Sheās known to have a knack for subverting tyrannical, bureaucratic systems. She undercuts the phone company. She jokingly tries to talk Alric into ditching graduation. She does poorly in a classroom setting but sheās brilliant when she applies herself.
In an era when all passengers have specific uniforms-branded with Oneās face, no less,Ā Amelia is wearing the boots, (which physically canātĀ be removed)Ā but not the soulless; identity-erasing uniform.
Sheās penetrated veryĀ far into the infrastructure of the train. You donāt get this far on your first day, or without subverting a lot of systems to get Oneās personal, undivided attention.
She has no Denizen with her here. Thatās odd; with the exception of Grace, most passengers tend to accumulate denizens pretty quickly after they board the train. Kez demonstrates that, under One, this is what Denizens do- itās their duty to explain the set-up and assist the passengers, although she personally isnāt āconventionallyā good at it (she helps by being so incompetent they have to devise workarounds to the problems she creates.)Ā
So what weāre looking at here is coded like a Bond Villain Speech to a protagonist that youād get at the climax. This is after the plucky, headstrong, anti-authoritarian heroine has pushed through countless dangers on the train proper, to break into the inner sanctum of a sanctimonious demigod. This is after sheās asserted her individuality with clothes instead of a uniform.Ā
This is after any denizens she potentially encountered have left her company; maybe through second-act heroic sacrifice, or just by being left behind when One brought her into the main tour. (Itās possible she never encountered any,Ā but from a meta standpoint itās unlikely the whole book would have been her with One-One and no one else.)
In the construction of a typical horror thriller or heroic action adventure, weād be witnessing zero hour.
Now letās look at her influence on Ryan and Minās adventure. She exerts influence twice; once at the Party Car, and once at the castle.Ā
In the Party car, she gives them back their stuff. Ryanās Guitar, Min-Giās minisynth, their clothes. All flatly necessary to get through the car, to resolve their problems in general, and itās pretty clear that One wasnāt going to give them that stuff if Amelia hadnāt suggested it; sheās in some kind of dialogue with him that can be heard through the Steward.Ā
And someone pointed out that in the other seasons,Ā the stuff that the passengers bring on board with them is a reflection of themselves, their strengths and their pasts. Someone aside from me pointed out that under Oneās system, Tulip wouldnāt have had the pocket knife that she used to rescue Lake- and that was the only conceivable takeaway from that car, that you need to extend empathy even to people who are hurting you while pursuing their own needs. They pointed out that without his phone and the recording, Lake wouldnāt have been able to help Jesse through his issue with Nate and Troy. He could have kept dancing around that forever.Ā
So this is clearly Amelia at a point where sheās trying to introduce a Reform to a broken system. And itās a good one!
The second time she shows up, she takes the pairās magnoboots, proclaims that āwe are on our own,ā and (accidently)Ā self-destructs the stewards. Thatās a demonstration that sheās in control at this point, if not competent control.
Ā Itās telling that the most prominent thing Oneās regime provides to the Passengers are boots that can be used as restraining bolts if they start doing something he doesnāt like. Itās also telling that Ameliaās first act as Conductor was to removeĀ those restraining bolts from everyone on the train.
Her breakdown at the end of Book One is at least partially informed by her knowledge of how callously One-One ran things when she hadnāt rendered him a complete moron. Her brusque, no-nonsense attitude in Book 3 results from the fact that sheās not actually sorry about overthrowing One-One; she recognizes that there was a mechanical limit stopping her from bringing back Alrick, that she took One-Oneās little speech about the train being capable of anything too literally, and that her time in charge could have been spent far more productively. But that was purely a practical error, not necessarily a moral one; she isnāt shown to care about denizens any more than One One or the Apex do, and she doesnāt care about the train working beyond whatās necessary to burn off her sentence.
Considering all of this, I think that a book about Amelia would have been framed as a full-circle revolution; a story about Dorothy finding the man behind the curtain, finding him lacking, and usurping him. The tragedy isnāt that the real conductor was overthrown; the tragedy is that Amelia fails to improve meaningfully on his performance.Ā SheĀ failed to recognize her newfound capacity, and her moral responsibility,Ā to improve the system for everyone; Instead, she got lost for thirty years in the pipe dream of bringing back Alrick, with nothing to show for it but turtles.
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