Hey, since I don't have the Iron Lung in my hand atm, can you go over Simon's mom? I want to know more about that Line that Elie said 'bout his mom.
I have everything about Simon's mom on standby because I just got finished ranting about how much I hate her, LOL Yeah I got you buddy one second . . .
^ These are the only lines we have that ever mention his mother from the movie. Simon is saying "please keep this safe" as he is tying his knife holster around a life jacket containing the black box.
In context, his mother is convincing Simon to go to Eden Station. Simon has a bad feeling about it.
We know that the holster belonged to his mother, and is a family heirloom, by the scene where she gifts the knife and holster to him in a memory flashback Simon has:
We know that Simon was a young child when he began killing with this knife, so he was implied to be younger than this boy when he started taking lives for Eden:
I'm also sort of becoming suspicious that they were having him partake in ritual sacrifice for the tree before they started deploying him in their war, but that is my own insight, not canon or explained directly aside from the above scene.
Since you were asking specifically about this dialogue scene, I can offer some of my personal insights, but I cannot be totally sure as it's just simply not directly explained:
Simon had met, and was possibly claimed by, the Red-Eyed God at the time of this dialogue. When this happened, Simon and the Ocean's Hivemind became aware of each other's nature (and memories). This is why the Ocean suddenly knows all about Simon, and about his mother.
Simon also seems to be personally attacking this creature, like he knows about its self-hatred of what it had become. In a way, this scene is them acknowledging that they are connected now.
"How many more bodies will you climb over to save yourself?" <- This is where I get my egotistical pre-movie "Butcher" opinion from.
"You're just a piece of shit that doesn't even know it's dead." <- This is why I believe the Eel wasn't all that malicious. It's just a human scared of what it has become, and where it will be left if Simon takes that black box. The C.O.I. will stop looking for them if they get what they want.
Aside from the monster and moving onto Simon's mom, and his values:
"Always thinking of a life you'll never get back." <- This is where my "Simon's vice is nostalgia" take comes from. Simon once had a pretty good life with his mom, possibly on Mars as a small child (though, in my opinion, I still think he may have been born on Eden Station before it became a cult. For all we know, they could've been talking about going to Mars). He's bitter over that loss.
"Thinking of a mother who wouldn't even recognize the killer she spawned. Or maybe she'd be proud." <- It's obvious with the "proud" line, she was a part of the cult and was offering up the burden of murder to her son, I don't think anyone expected the levels of atrocity Simon rose to, especially not his mother.
"Is death the only thing she taught you?!" <- She taught him death. Directly. Simon's mom was not a good person. Possibly the first "Butcher".
"Half-measured. Half-committed. Never enough!" <- This is referencing either Simon's inability to step up to the role of Butcher after he hit his breaking point at Filament Station (half-committed to his brotherhood), seeing as the Hivemind is also composed of all the Eden Brothers that were sent down there, OR it's talking about how he never felt like he was enough to his mother. Like he didn't step up to the burden enough to make her proud.
Hope this helps and gives you some better understanding of the context!
