History Headscratchers / Baccano

* Czes's long-term goal was to preemptively kill all the other immortals, believing that otherwise they'd eventually kill him. In his mind, ditching the train would just have delayed the confrontation. He was on a train with at least one other immortal, multiple factions of terrorists/criminals, and a bunch of explosives. The opportunity was too good to pass up, especially considering that he wouldn't recognize them on sight in the future.

Rather than come up with some elaborate plot to bribe the terrorists to kill everyone else on the train just to find out who's immortal and eat them first, wouldn't it have been easier for Czes to just jump off the side (immortality FTW) and walk to civilization? A bit inconvenient but it has a 0% chance of encountering anything that can permanently kill him and he couldn't get lost, and being on a train with Ladd wouldn't be that much better in the best of circumstances.

* There was a good deal of evidence that there was conflicting interests between Chane and the rest of the Lemures for a good time (Chane notes in her internal monologue that the Lemures always avoided her, and the other Lemures mention that Chane was the most [[IncrediblyLamePun vocal]] dissenter of the group and their means). Goose probably figured that her HighHeelFaceTurn was inevitable, but her established status as "Huey's most prized follower" made it difficult to do away with her and still keep his favor. The solution? MakeItLookLikeAnAccident during an upcoming risky hijacking operation -- which is what the two Lemures in episode 11 were about to initiate before Ladd eavesdropped and decided that they'd make excellent additions to Ladd's Dead Guy Puppet Theater.

* Maybe I just missed something, or maybe it's something that's covered in the novels, but what on Earth possessed Lua to go clambering up onto the roof of the carriage after Ladd at the vital moment of his conflict with Claire? Did she have any reason at all to be there?
In the novels, Lua has something like a sixth sense. She glimpses the Rail Tracer on the train, and realizes that Ladd won't be able to beat him--so she goes up to warn Ladd to get away.

* I don't know if this helps, but it's maybe AllThereInTheManual. When Szilard was creating Ennis in a culture dish of some type (NightmareFuel), he used his incomplete elixir instead of whatever you normally put in culture dishes. So maybe it's the equivalent of drinking the incomplete thing....

* It's never established one way or the other. Most likely she's too much of a softie to just leave them down there, but since the point is rendered moot by someone else getting there first, we'll probably never know.

* Probably for similar reasons to the decision to become human made by TheFiddlersGreen from Gaiman's TheSandman. One may '''know''' things, but may not have experienced them - s why not take the opportunity to explore more of the world, through a different perspective. Besides, the Corpus Hemeticum isn't automatically exempt from hyperbole.
** Hermeticism, and the broader Hellenistic esotericism it's a part of, explicitly says the distinction between ''noesis'' and ''dianoia'' (experience and knowledge in the sense you're using them) arises from the ignorance that Poemandres exists to dispel. He wouldn't himself be subject to it, anymore than a Bodhisattva can be greedy. But I think I just passed even ''my'' threshold for over-analyzing—it's probably just Art Major Theology (that should be a trope).

** Only things that cause cell damage trigger the healing factor, so, yes, it's possible to make non-injury related modifications. In the light novels, for an example, there's an immortal who became a drug addict and still hasn't recovered even decades after being admitted to the hospital; the changes in his brain must not have registered as damage.

* I don't know if this helps, but it's maybe {{All There in The Manual}}. When Szilard was creating Ennis in a culture dish of some type ({{nightmare fuel}}), he used his incomplete elixir instead of whatever you normally put in culture dishes. So maybe it's the equivalent of drinking the incomplete thing....

** The homunculi in 2001 are [[spoiler:made as a part of Szilard's many researches into creating a homunculus that can absorb all knowledge in the world. Aside from Ennis, two types of homunculi were created - a male type and a female type. Unlike Ennis, they both aren't immortal because they aren't made of Szilard's immortal cells. The male type grows old like a normal human, the female type - that is, Fil - does not grow old, but they have a much shorter lifespan in exchange. That's why she constantly keeps 5 bodies. When one of them is close to dying, she'll go to the research center and get herself 'recycled'. Huey also has homunculi - but they're merely the opposite of incomplete immortals and not truly immortal. Can't age, but will die.]] Ennis just seems to be the exception, not the rule.

* I don't think he's ever shown after (in-world timeline) being shoved in the river, at least not in the anime. Maybe the novels would have something about that, I don't know.

Who the fuck is driving the train?
* Just some train engineer who doesn't have any direct connection to the carriages behind him, and thus is either ignorant of the bloodbath, or invested in getting to New York as soon as possible to get to the authorities.

Why is a transcontinental train going from Chicago to New York City? Unless I'm just stupid and simply don't understand geography, aren't Chicago and New York City too close to warrant a transcontinental train? Also, didn't Isaac and Miria start their share of the story in California? Did they take a train to Chicago, rob the Russo's, then get on another train to go to New York City?
* [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/US_Pacific_Railroads_1887.jpg This map]] suggests that there is (or was. It's a pretty old map), in fact, a transcontinental railroad that connected California, Illinois and New York. As for Isaac and Miria: going by Isaac's misinterpretation of a train robbery in ep. 2 (ride train to someplace, commit robbery, ride train somewhere else), that's ''exactly'' what they did.

* Bingo. The storyline is heavily adapted from the novels, in which the {{MacGuffin}} is a parcel of drugs rather than Dallas, but in any case, it's made obvious by the ending that Don Bartolo wants Dallas for his immortality; the story he tells Gustavo is simply a lie to get Gustavo looking for Dallas without having to share the secret with him.

How on EARTH did [[spoiler: Fermet]] come [[BackFromTheDead back]] from [[DeaderThanDead being FREAKIN' EATEN]]!?

<<|ItJustBugsMe|>>

Maybe I just missed something, or maybe it's something that's covered in the novels, but what on Earth possessed Lua to go clambering up onto the roof of the carriage after Ladd at the vital moment of his conflict with Claire? Did she have any reason at all to be there?
* In the novels, Lua has something like a sixth sense. She glimpses the Rail Tracer on the train, and realizes that Ladd won't be able to beat him--so she goes up to warn Ladd to get away.
* I know there's probably an answer for these, but I've been confused and could use some clearing up:
** 1.) Why did the conductor with the mustache [[spoiler: hold Claire at gunpoint, and what was the meaning of that little speech he gave]]?
** 2.) How many innocent people did [[spoiler: Claire]] really kill? If he's an assassin, why kill any? And if he's just bloodthirsty, why was he so selective in who he killed?