#infinitytrain

Looking at the crew art of these two Mace and Sieve from Infinity Train made me go feral jdjdjdj i knew they were more than just co worker wink wink 🌝👏 Ahhh i wish Infinity Train didnt get cancelled or it would have run until today too 😭 5 more seasons and a Christmas special

A tabletop roleplaying series set in The Backwoods. A place where the impossible is probable, the fantastical is oh-so natural…

And THE FIEND lurks in every shadow.

Here, our story begins.

Back its Kickstarter now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/drakoniques/beyond-the-brook-over-the-garden-wall-inspired-actual-play

There's an old black train a-coming Scrapin' 'long the iron You don't need no ticket, boys It'll take you when it's time

...

It's been five years since the animated series Infinity Train debuted, and it's been three since it was canceled. Not only has the studio, HBO Max, not renewed it for a fifth season on the flimsy basis that the series' stories and themes were too dark and unappealing to children, but has also removed Infinity Train from its streaming service and digital purchase platforms.

Despite the unjust treatment this show has been saddled with, we can still celebrate Infinity Train and all it accomplished. For people reading this that haven't seen it yet, each season (or "book") follows a different protagonist navigating a seemingly endless, magical train, where each car is its own unique world, challenging passengers with puzzles and personal revelations. This setup allows the show to explore complex themes like identity, trauma, guilt, and forgiveness. The series excels in character development and often presents morally complex figures who grow in surprising ways. It's considered a rare gem in animation and highly regarded for its mature portrayal of emotional hardship. The series' vibe is similar to Over the Garden Wall, Gravity Falls, Adventure Time, and The Mitchells vs. the Machines. For fans of this, I highly recommend this show.

If you would like to legally support Infinity Train and its creator, Owen Dennis, Book 1 & Book 2 are separately available on DVD. If you would like to see all four books, they can be purchased individually on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, iTunes, Sky TV Apple TV, Vudu, Now TV, and Google Play. Please always consider these options before piracy. There's a better chance of this series coming back in some shape or form if we focus on boosting official views.

If you can't afford to purchase Infinity Train officially, or if you live in an area where the show isn't available to you, there's a Google Drive of the entire series available. There's also another Google Drive available for all of the archived bonus features of the show, like the official pilot and videos of Owen Dennis' commentary.

we've all probably understood by now that the numbers that the train gives are a sort of measure of a character's progress in solving a problem and/or growth and improvement that is needed for the character to develop, whether on or off the train.

what is interesting to me is, despite the many ties to moral issues, the numbers are not necessarily an indication of how GOOD of a person someone is. as well as this, the logic behind the scale of the numbers and how much is given to each passenger is also not really touched upon (to my knowledge at least). that being said, long preamble aside, i think its important to note that grace was chosen leader of the apex because she had the highest number of anyone there - higher even than simon laurent himself.

objectively, i think its fairly reasonable of me to say that grace is a better person than simon is - not saying that she isn't incredibly manipulative or doesn't have major flaws - but that she seems to be far more capable of growth and is able to both recognise and utilise empathy and kindness (even if its for her own personal gain). in my opinion, the lesson that the train was trying to give grace was how to be more empathetic as well as acceptance in that things are not always going to work out and that a new path must be paved forward instead of reconstructing and distorting the truth to a pale imitation that serves your ego. it was about letting go of grudges and prejudices and instead focus on what awaits in the future, whether it be good or bad.

simon, on the other hand, has problems with a lot less clarity. the general consensus (from what i've seen anyways) online is that simon is dealing with some sort of grief - which can be implied by his 'casseroles at funerals' comment - as well as obvious abandonment issues. while i think his character is really intriguing as a parallel to grace, with one redeemed and the other irredeemable, i think its important to touch on the fact that the train was trying to teach a very different lesson to simon. when grace showed empathy to denizens, her number went down. when simon "bonded" with tuba, his number stayed exactly where it is - was this because he had never let go of that ulterior motive? or was it because his number was affected by different factors than grace? after all, ryan and min-gi were the only passengers whose numbers were confirmed to be linked - and while this took place many years after the event of book 4, the fact that simon and grace got on the train at different times implies that their numbers are independent of each other.

all of this has made me wonder: what is the train's lesson for simon? after simon "killed" grace, his number increased significantly - being the first passenger that we've seen that has numbers covering his face. but what exactly about that action triggered the numbers to do so? he had obviously strayed far off the path the train was trying to lead him, but what was that path to begin with?

a working theory of mine (less a theory and more a headcanon tbh) is that simon was on the train because of a death that he caused by betraying someone else. this fits in with the grief and funeral aspects but is also related to the influx in his number after betraying grace. by betraying grace and leaving her for dead - in this hypothetical scenario - simon had come full circle. the train would probably have tried to fix him in the sense that it would instill a sense of loyalty, of love, of realising the impacts that other people have in your life and how important it is to protect that. while simon had the opportunity to do this both with grace and the other apex, he basically rejected this at every turn. so in the end, when it mattered most, simon did not change. the train had failed its purpose to simon, so simon had no purpose to the train. simon's proof that he would not change would probably just give validation to the train that now it is justifiable to exterminate simon because there is nothing (that the train would deem important) that he can learn.