Just curious, but what are your thoughts on the ghoms and what their place on the train is? Considering Amelia seemed to only be able to scavenge orbs and not necessarily modify them, as well as the ghoms' placement out in the Wasteland apparently projected by the Tape Car, that points towards them being a regular creation of the train and that Amelia had simply found one such orb.
For me, I kind of feel like they are sort of a 'motivation' tool to keep passengers inside the train cars where they could (hypothetically) learn lessons and grow as a person, rather than loitering outside in between cars or trying to get off the train to the Wasteland, but I'm curious to hear your perspective of them
When I first saw them I assumed they were a natural part of the pocket dimension, as if the train had just been added to their world. The train had to start at some point, and maybe the gohms were displaced by it.
When we see that Amelia has an orb for them, implying they're a creation of the train, well, that fell through pretty quick.
The train is built for people who are running away from their problems. People who won't/can't make the right decisions. We already know that One was pretty brutal, and the train can often be deadly.
But people who get off the train, trying to go to the waste land, are just... Still running. They've been given everything they need to get better and they're still rejecting it. If you're going to live the rest of your life in denial, then it'll be a short life to live.
Denizens are also attached to the train- I think that's connected in some way. Passengers shouldn't be going where there's no one to help them, and if denizens could wander the wasteland as much as they wanted then there would be no way to ensure they'd actually meet and help passengers.
Also, having an incentive to keep passengers on the train is kind of important! It gives them a "goal" of sorts. They tend to push forward, to look for the engine, or some end. If a passenger were to stay in one place for a long time- the odds of them learning something new dwindle. So even if denizens were out in the wasteland, without much drive to go anywhere/do anything the passengers still wouldn't be learning.
And while One could have easily made the world a bit more like Coraline, where it circles right back to the train- he doesn't seem that kind. The train itself is already a second chance, if you choose to keep running then there's nothing left for you.
God that was the wordiest way to say "I agree", but I think they're less of a motivation and more of a repercussion for those who refuse to face themselves!
Recently I've been coming around to the theory that Amelia is somehow responsible for ghoms. One of my big problems with the theory was that I couldn't see how that fit into Amelia's arc. Ghoms would have been useless to Amelia in her conflict against One, because we saw One-One and the steward seem to be immune to ghoms in Book One. And the way she was acting in The Castle Car, I don't see her doing anything so destructive without a good reason. So if she made ghoms, it would have had to have been unintentional. That fits the way she talks in The Hey Ho Whoa Car about making things that never should have existed. But I couldn't think of an "Amelia makes ghoms by accident" scenario I found convincing until recently.
Trorb (Train Orb) Recap
As a brief reminder, glowing teal orbs are visible in the innards of train cars that are broken/incomplete or have been opened up by a steward. Each of these orbs seem to contribute fundamental elements of a car.
Amelia caused terrible destruction by sending the steward to harvest orbs as parts to create her own cars. She almost destroyed Corginia and forced its four hundred residents to become refugees. Atticus and Tulip, and young Grace, were almost killed by the steward overreacting to their presence. Over the course of three decades, surely many denizens have had their homes destroyed by Amelia's selfish actions, and many denizens and some passengers have been slain by the steward or accidentally killed by the disruptions to the train.
Ransacking cars for orbs is the only thing we know Amelia did as conductor that hurt other people until she started freaking out about Tulip trying to get to the engine with One in tow. Obviously her Alrick Two goal was inherently terrible, but she would have been sitting miserably but harmlessly in a box for thirty-plus years leaving the train be, if she didn't need those orbs.
It's implied that this behavior is new to Amelia as conductor, by the framing of Amelia's actions, and One-One's attitude towards his cars, and also just logic (how could the train be infinite if One had to cannibalize parts of it to make new cars?). Ergo, One must have been able to create or summon or manifest the orbs he needed, and Amelia could not.
Possible Ghom Scenario
Amelia went from an ordinary passenger, to shadowing One as his apprentice/ethical consultant/bestie/???, to seizing power over all reality to recreate her dead lover from scratch, in the span of couple hours of screentime and maybe a few months of in-universe time. Towards the end of what Book Five would have covered, she declares she won't help other passengers, but is still haltingly trying to explain herself to them and offering a final gesture of help and sympathy. And then in Grace's pumpkin car flashback, Amelia doesn't notice or simply doesn't care that she's only a few yards away from a terrified child who could have been killed by the steward. There was so much ground to cover in Book Five, and even further for Amelia to sink in the aftermath.
I think one way to move her along really quickly would be escalation of commitment. She gets an idea, and she already has her heart set on it - she's already living in that reality and wishing and hoping - and when she realizes it's so much more awful than she had planned, she isn't willing to stop.
So how about this. Amelia cooks up her terrible Alrick Two plan. It makes sense to her, and One has probably basically confirmed the idea would work (you know, setting aside the existential horror) or at least she's convinced herself that he has. She'll make the cars she wants, just like One made the cars he wants.
But when she tries to make an orb for "jam" or "university buildings" or "turtles", it spits out a ghom instead. She can't keep spamming deadly monsters until she gets it right. She realizes she's going to have to steal from the train, and she kind of knows how bad that's going to get, but she convinces herself it'll just be enough to make one car (or maybe a handful? surely this won't take her too long), and it's not that big a deal, and she can't give up now.
Alternately… I generally lean towards thinking ghoms are just another kind of denizen, and when Amelia shot Atticus with her orb gun, she was overwriting his Corgi nature with ghom nature (the same way Tulip shooting with a Corgi orb as ammo was able to turn objects into Corgi versions of themselves). But I have seen people conceptualize it more like the orb gun takes away something from denizens, and the ghom is some kind of corruption or emptiness left behind. I think that could work well with the programming metaphors, like Grace and Simon's "null and void" slang. Think of the weird glitches that can happen in situations like trying to reference an object that's been deleted or turned into a vector of length 0 or whatever. Maybe Amelia thought she could use her orb gun to copy information from pre-existing denizens or cars onto another orb without hurting them, until she tried it, and… yikes.
MT just KILLED a dude on-screen. Like, brutally. We saw him slowly bleed out before literally getting ground into nothingness; Or not. Maybe he just completely dissolved into metal slime. It seems becoming a Flec makes a reflection unable to survive outside the Mirror World without a specialized skin. Either way he’s basically dead, and MT felt the deed on her hands. Sieve is NOT gonna be happy.
It’s a shame, because I was low-key hoping Mace and Sieve and all other reflections could learn to get freedom like MT, but apparently not.
So I was right about those pods and their function, and even their names. MT is going to hitch-hike on one and try to confront the conductor himself, One-One. I wonder if Amelia will help, since she has experience with hijacking the Infinity Train’s mechanisms and whatnot?
Speaking of Amelia... I can’t believe she (potentially by accident) started a cult-following in One-One’s 33-year absence; PLENTY of time for people like Grace, or Simon (whom we recognize) and any other kids to get on while Amelia had taken over. This begs the question- Did Amelia, in her Conductor-disguise, tell the Apex (or its founders) about what they were ‘supposed’ to do? I would assume so, since Grace sounds so certain in Amelia’s guidance.
Also, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Amelia’s numbers cover her entire body, since her misdirection is directly responsible for Simon, Grace, and others thinking they need to stay on the train. Like, all of them increasing their numbers is her fault, and so for screwing over other passengers she suffers the physical marks.
I have to ask though- Did Amelia intentionally start a cult following? Or was she just traveling from car to car, came across (probably) Grace, who asked her questions... And because Amelia was telling everyone she was the conductor, Grace listened? Why did Amelia lie to Grace- Did she not know what the numbers did at the time? Or did she know, but since she thought making her own car was the key to her happiness, then she decided to pass this ‘wisdom’ onto other passengers as well? Because if so, then that’s kind of messed-up Amelia. Amelia having a cult-following that she or may not have actually intended to start reminds me of how in Owen’s original sketches for Infinity Train, the original car would have a bunch of voices singing about how great the ‘Conductor’ was. I guess we got those voices now, although they aren’t automated and are now flesh-and-blood passengers.
Regardless, I think we may see Amelia at the end of this book, or the next one. The Apex started with her, so it makes sense that it’ll end with her clearing things up... Although at the same time, I can see Grace and the others not ‘recognizing’ Amelia because she lost her mech. I dunno, Amelia could potentially salvage her old one, or build a new one from scratch.
(Also, Grace talks a lot about letting passengers choose what they want, but then when Jesse makes a choice to hang out with his friends, Grace throws a hissy-fit about it. I get that you think MT is a bad influence to him because SOMEBODY told you differently, but still!)
I remembered how I suggested after Book 1′s ending that perhaps One-One may end up at odds with a protagonist, seeing as how he’s the one in charge of the train and thus would likely be blamed for not letting the person go. Something like that is happening- MT may be at odds with One-One because he could potentially not let her go. Perhaps the issue will be taken to the Infinity Train itself, One-One’s mother, or even to the Train’s creator, if it has one.
Also, Mace noting the thematic irony in MT being a ‘reflection’ to Jesse creepily reminded me of how I made a similar observation after the first two episodes. At first I thought it was neat considering the Mirror-motifs, but now it’s... oof. Really, that whole exchange between him and MT and him making her question her entire existence, down to the whole “You only got independence for the purpose of Tulip giving it you so SHE could lower her number from being a kind person” really messed me up.
Like, I suspected this penultimate batch of episodes would mess me up, because that’s what happened LAST book with Atticus’ ‘death’, but jeez... This got dark and FAST.
(Also, who else thought Alan Dracula legit died when that Ghom touched him?)
Whenever Tulip met a Ghom that tried to suck her life away, the process wasn't quick, and her life force's departure was slow enough you could see her struggle.
Simon, on the other hand, gets attacked by the Ghom and boom! Instant death! And it even explodes!
Guess the higher the number is, the quicker your death by Ghom attack is.
And, personal headcanon, the more rotten you are, the more is the same for your soul, becoming so unbearable for even a Ghom to handle.
