#cult of the conductor

[lynvaren]

As leader she gets first dibs at scavenging the abandoned macy's

#infinity train #grace monroe #infinity train book 3 #cult of the conductor #my art #she is the legend she is the moment

[kindaorangey]

the thing about simon laurent is that the story is not scared of him until AFTER he kills tuba. for the first five episodes he is the victim of quite a bit of slapstick comedy and made the butt of the joke and what's more he's the ONLY character this is happening to so despite his fucked up cult mindset the audience is being sent signals that he is ultimately harmless, HOWEVER these jokes are RED HERRINGS and they cease almost completely after tuba's murder and only make a reappearance in the final episode, when grace stumbles upon simon's shitty shitty fantasy novel and cringes, and it's a haunting reminder of how nonthreatening he used to seem right before he makes his grand entrance and we see just how much of a monster he has become.

#simon laurent #grace monroe #infinity train #cult of the conductor #thunder rambles

[charlesoberonn]

#infinity train #infinity train book 3 #infinity train hazel #grace monroe #simon laurent #cult of the conductor

[inbarfink]

#Infinity Train #The Perennial Child #Cracked Reflection #Cult of the Conductor #Infinity Train season 1 #Infinity Train season 2 #Infinity Train season 3 #Infinity Train season 4 #Duet #tulip olsen #tulip infinity train #one one #one-one #Atticus infinity train #lake infinity train #mirror tulip #Jesse Cosay #jesse infinity train #alan dracula #Infinity Train book one #Infinity Train book two #Infinity Train book three #Infinity Train book four #Infinity Train book 1 #infinity train book 2 #Infinity Train book 3 #Infinity Train book 4 #Grace Monroe #grace infinity train #Simon Laurent

[feypact]

king 👑 grace monroe (youtube)

#grace monroe #simon laurent #infinity train #cult of the conductor #florence and the machine #mine #my videos #grimon #a lil bit innit

[ultraericthered]

A tale of two "tragic downfall" villains.

Really think about this - the villain is someone who has suffered greatly in his life to the point of being a traumatized, fragile wreck of a person but is a close friend of the story's main protagonist and works alongside them for years until certain events make his hatred, pride, and need for power, control, and the loyalty of others grow and put him on a worse path, on which he betrays the protagonist and leaves them for dead, taking over his friend's group and making all of them follow him now, and when the protagonist returns to face him and get him to relinquish his control of the group, they have a fight to the finish where the villain proves once and for all that he is too far gone to see reason and beyond hope of redemption, so he ends up meeting a terrible, painful demise. Which one did I just describe?

And I don't want to tear either one of them down, since they're both phenomenally written villains who star in their own dark, tragic tales that were both very well executed. ....BUT, I have to go here: I believe there is one thing that one of them got down a lot better than the other one. And it ain't the damn dirty ape.

I am referring to the quality of pathos, which is derived from, for lack of a better word, humanizing the character. Matt Reeves has expressed very clearly that we are intended to feel pathos for Koba, and for his limited screentime in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and in the first act of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, we do. The poor bonobo was terribly abused, tortured, traumatized, and damaged by callous human scientists and has the physical scars to show it. Even after joining with Caesar and being allowed by him to personally kill his abuser, the deep hatred of humans and fear of what might happen to him and other apes should humans find some way of striking back at them remains with Koba for years; the one thing he ever learned from humans was hatred and nothing else, as Caesar puts it. But the deeper into Dawn we go and the worse Koba gets, the issue arises. Caesar and all these apes were family to Koba for a good many years, years lived in peace and relative happiness, with Caesar even likened to a brother to Koba. However, after a heated dispute with Caesar over his willingness to work with humans turns violent, Koba is beaten down and sees none of the other apes are on his side, he turns his thinking around to view any "weak" ape who'd side with or have leniency on humans to be no better than humans, and that he needs to secure the loyalty of the stronger apes (including Caesar's own son) by taking Caesar's life and framing the humans for it. So he goes for it. And keeps going. And going. And going. And in all this time he's being a villain, the whole second half of the movie, there's not a single moment where Koba ever feels conflicted over what he's doing, no visible traces of remorse nor any sign that he's internally pushing back against remorse because second-guessing himself and surrendering to feelings of shame would reflect weakness. After he's shot his "brother" and left him for dead, Koba is stuck playing the one note of being an evil, wrathful, deranged, murderous monster. There is no metaphorical dog he won't kick, no one he won't mow down in order to assert his dominance and satisfy his rage, and no limit to his blatant hypocrisy. And yes, it was the narrative intent to have Koba slide so far down the slippery slope that he becomes this twisted caricature of his former self who must be put down. But at the time he's condemned and dropped to his painful demise by the ape who was once his brother, there should be a tiny twinge of pity and sadness that it had to come to this....but I think most audiences just cheered when it happened, as there was nothing in Koba left to feel any pity towards.

For Simon, being the equilvalent to what Koba was in the second half of the film occurs only in Book Three's final episode, "The New Apex". In the episodes prior to it, throughout the course of Book Three, Simon is one of the main protagonists and has a wide range of facets and emotions to his characterization; we see moments of him and Grace having the sort of camraderie with each other that could only come from years spent together as friends that makes them both a bit easier to like despite their apalling actions, we get funny bits from him that endear him to us, we see him get sad, get frightened, get confused and unsure of the direction Grace is taking things in, hear about his personal interests, learn about his past trauma, see him vulnerable and interally torn up by conflict. When he works together with Tuba in the Color Clock Car, even sharing a laugh with her, figuring out she's colorblind, and learning more about the sad past with her deceased daughter that also shows him how much Hazel means to her, we can tell that all his views about "Nulls" and about the train are being challenged and he's starting to second-guess himself, to think that this "Null" might be so much more than he'd written her off as from the start, which would lead to guilt and shame over all the "Nulls" he'd mistreated and killed in the past...and so naturally, there's the internal pushback from Simon, because he not only cannot admit to being wrong, he cannot let himself be wrong: he has to be right all the time so that all the years on the train and in the Apex can mean and amount to something beneficial to him rather than having all been a sad waste that'd render him a pitiful, insignificant failure. So with all doubts dispelled from his mind and clear from his consicence, he deliberately and cold-bloodedly sends Tuba to her death, and feels proud to have done so. Things only spiral downward into further darkness and madness from there.

Simon finding out that Grace learned the truth about Hazel before he did and withheld it from him as a secret between herself and the "Null" is the tipping point for him. He snaps, turns against Grace and leaves her for dead, and like Koba, now feels there is no one in his life that he can trust to be on his side unless he were to force their loyal devotion to him through fearmongering and shows of dominance. And yet even in "The New Apex", even with Simon at his most irredeemably loathsome and psychotic, the writing allows for some pathos. When Grace saves Simon from falling off the train, he asks her why she did it. Grace responds "I don't know." Looking at Simon's face in the brief silence that follows, we can tell that deep down in his heart of hearts, he was hoping for Grace to give him a different answer. Something like "because I love you" or "because you're my dearest friend", or "becuse I didn't want to lose you", or "to make amends to you for everything" or even "because you're not the one who deserves to die; you were right about me, about everything." But instead, he hears a vague, ambiguous "I don't know", as it was just basic human decency from Grace and nothing deeper than that. And thus goes away whatever was left of Simon's mind and heart, as he kicks Grace off the train to her apparent death in an act that rescinds years of love and friendship built up with her, raises Simon's number higher than even Amelia's, and sends him into a complete mental breakdown as we see a surge of conflicting moods all over him. So then even if his grisly end that follows elicts some cheering from viewers (I certainly wouldn't blame them!), that tiny twinge of pity and sadness that it had to come to this is very much there by the time Simon is dust on the ground that Grace is sobbing over.

Two exceptional villains in two exceptional works, but only with Simon do I get the sense of a victimized and vulnerable not-all-bad person who tragically descended into becoming a mega asshole. With Koba, I just see a mega asshole.

#Planet of the Apes #Koba #Infinity Train #Book Three #Cult of the Conductor #Simon Laurent #villains #comparison #tragedy #tragic villain #opinion #criticism #analysis

[muppet-on-a-spit]

Thinking about Amelia's turtle "handkerchief" and how she's been carrying it around like a comfort item all these years, taking it out to clean off her face when she cries, and how when Hazel turns into a turtle, it's when she's crying

#amelia hughes #hazel hughes #infinity train #cult of the conductor #gray speaks

[sammy-the-dead-dumpster]

If I was a better writer, I would write the most in-depth finale for Grace's character arc where she experiences grief and redemption and facing her past and Hazel and-

#grace monroe #simon laurent #infinity train #cult of the conductor #infinity train book 3 #hazel infinity train

[bogos-bint3d]

Grace doodle from class

#it isn't very good tbh #but i like it #i just love her so much #infinity train #grace monroe #infinity train grace #grace infinity train #cult of the conductor #infinity train book three #this is very much overtagged and i dont really care #bogos i binted

[msjollydraws]

Been playing Cult of the Lamb! Cute art style and everything!

#my art #art #artists on tumblr #sheep #character design #cult of the conductor #game #massive monster #cotl

[queenkinqs]

infinity train book 3: cult of the conductor soundtrack vinyl concept

#infinity train #infinity train book 3 #cult of the conductor #album concept #infinitytrainedits #art tag #shut up birdy #planning on doing all books hehehe :)

[plantsucc]

this fucked me up. this scene made me FEEL the physicality and nausea of something as abstract as memory film..... horrific stuff

#vomit cw #emeto cw #infinity train #memory tape #grace monroe #the train is fucked up #infinity train book 3 #cult of the conductor #like yeah typical science fantasy concept of memories being on a film roll #but the extraction and the side effects of being conscious while messing with it... eughghgh #blah #just slightly sickening #infinity train gets kinda graphic and I love that for them

[kindaorangey]

does ANYONE know what i mean

#infinity train #grace monroe #cult of the conductor #thunder rambles #undescribed #moving house saga

[moochitan]

✨ welcome to the cult ✨

#cult of the conductor #cult of the lamb art #digital art #artistsupport #digital artist

[rockgenrola]

Sorry I’ve been really busy with school and soccer! A new good drawing should be coming out soon lol

#a cult in time #a hat in time x cult of the lamb #ask a cult in time #cotl #cotl x ahit #cult of the lamb x a hat in time #my art #a hat in time #woopera #hat kid #bow kid #DJ grooves #the conductor #conductor #snatcher #queen vanessa #ahit prince #prince #ahit hat kid #ahit bow kid #ahit conductor #ahit the conductor #ahit DJ grooves #ahit snatcher #ahit queen vanessa #if anyone knows ELO msg me lol #cult of the lamb #a hat in time fan art #ahit fan art #hat in time fan art

[yahoo201027]

Day in Fandom History: August 27…

Finally freed from a memory tape after admitting her fear of being wrong and disappointed by the people she cared for, Grace enters back into the Mall Car and rejoins the Apex, now under new leadership. The Season 3 Finale, “The New Apex” premiered on this day, 3 Years Ago.

#Day in Fandom History #3 Years Ago #Infinity Train #Book 3 Cult of the Conductor #Season 3 #Episode 10 #The New Apex #Cartoon #Animation