History YMMV / Railsea

** Two of Caldera's parents die & she faces nothing but problems for several weeks, & she is still very optimistic in general.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The scene where Naphi [[spoiler: tries to follow Mocker-Jack down a sinkhole]]. Many people see it as simply a sign of her insanity, believing she could kill a giant mole--that is currently on ''fire''--with a knife. However, if you think about it, it isn't entirely unlikely that the captain was knowingly [[spoiler: [[DrivenToSuicide trying to off herself]]]]; after all, she was pretty obviously de[[StealthPun railed]] by the [[spoiler: mutiny]] earlier, & now she's just watched her philosophy [[spoiler: get murdered by something that was not her]].
** & speaking of the [[spoiler: mutiny]], was [[spoiler: overthrowing Naphi]] really Mbenday's intention? It's equally possible that he only wanted her to [[spoiler: step down temporarily]], as she was very clearly mentally unstable and at risk of hurting or killing herself. If one looks closely, the [[spoiler: violent-ish mutiny]] was entirely done by Vurinam or by Vurinam's suggestion, & Mbenday didn't take part. In other words, he could have simply been trying to protect Naphi only to have his words twisted & used to [[spoiler: almost-violently overthrow her & [[DrivenToSuicide bring her to the point of tring to kill herself]]]]. Made even worse by the fact that there's no indication in the book that Mbenday disliked Naphi at all--but after the [[spoiler: mutiny]], she has no way of knowing if he didn't mean to start it. Basically, Vurinam could have just emotionally destroyed both commending officers of the ''Medes'' in one blow by [[spoiler: using one of them to overthrow the other & thus avoid blame himself]].
*** If the above were to be true, than the character of Vurinam becomes a ''lot'' darker.

*** If the above were to be true, than the character of Vurinam becomes a ''lot'' darker.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: Naphi's character arc. Subverted in that she doesn't die, though arguably her ultimate fate is [[FateWorseThanDeath even worse]].

* VagueAge: Most of the characters. It gets more confusing once you realize that average lifespan could be completely different thousands of years in the future, when Railsea takes place; some of the characters whose age isn't specified could very well be [[LongLived several]] [[Really700YearsOld centuries]] old.

* RuleOfSymbolism: [[spoiler: Naphi saving Sham's from drowning at the end of the book parallels the death of Captain Ahab & survival of Ishmael, but inverts the final outcome: Naphi, tied up around the waist by rope & sinking into the water ''rescues'' Sham from the great beast that is The Controller, & then gets dragged by the rope back to the surface, saving both of them, not unlike how The Racheal rescued Ishmael while searching for its missing son.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: At one point, Caldera talks about the "trainsfolk down south" that get regularly labelled as pirates, while all they want is to [[{{UsefulNotes/Somalia}} protect their coasts from waste-dumping corporate trains.]]

* DidYouThinkICantFeel: Impliedly, Sirocco near the end. Despite acting very "cool" throughout all of her screentime, after seeing how heartbroken Sham is over the fact that she had only come with him for the potential valuable salvage, she rigs a dead angel & goes after Sham & his group--though still continues to claim that it was not her idea.
** To a more obvious extent, the captain; depite doing a fairly great job of being [[TheStoic The Stoic]] throughout most of the book, in the first (failed) mutiny after the fight with the siller, she makes it very clear how hurtful the constant accusations of not having any sort of human feelings are.
--> "''I’ve heard of this place, as have you. & it is true that when Mr. Mbenday said the switches were misbehaving, a possibility occurred to me. So if you arraign me before your court accused of having halfheld notions, fleeting recollections, then I plead guilty. If, however, you claim I deliberately allowed my crew to steer themselves into danger, then sir how'' dare ''you?''"

** And speaking of the [[spoiler: mutiny]], was [[spoiler: overthrowing Naphi]] really Mbenday's intention? It's equally possible that he only wanted her to [[spoiler: step down temporarily]], as she was very clearly mentally unstable and at risk of hurting or killing herself. If one looks closely, the [[spoiler: violent-ish mutiny]] was entirely done by Vurinam or by Vurinam's suggestion, and Mbenday didn't take part. In other words, he could have simply been trying to protect Naphi only to have his words twisted and used to [[spoiler: almost-violently overthrow her and [[DrivenToSuicide bring her to the point of tring to kill herself]]]]. Made even worse by the fact that there's no indication in the book that Mbenday disliked Naphi at all--but after the [[spoiler: mutiny]], she has no way of knowing if he didn't mean to start it. Basically, Vurinam could have just emotionally destroyed both commending officers of the ''Medes'' in one blow by [[spoiler: using one of them to overthrow the other and thus avoid blame himself]].

* DidYouThinkICantFeel: Impliedly, Sirocco near the end. Despite acting very "cool" throughout all of her screentime, after seeing how heartbroken Sham is over the fact that she had only come with him for the potential valuable salvage, she rigs a dead angel and goes after Sham and his group--though still continues to claim that it was not her idea.

* RuleOfSymbolism: [[spoiler: Naphi saving Sham's from drowning at the end of the book parallels the death of Captain Ahab and survival of Ishmael, but inverts the final outcome: Naphi, tied up around the waist by rope and sinking into the water ''rescues'' Sham from the great beast that is The Controller, and then gets dragged by the rope back to the surface, saving both of them, not unlike how The Racheal rescued Ishmael while searching for its missing son.]]

* RuleOfSymbolism: [[spoiler: Naphi saving Sham's from drowning at the end of the book parallels the death of Captain Ahab and survival of Ishmael, but inverts the final outcome: Naphi, tied up around the waist by rope and sinking into the water ''rescues'' Sham from the great beast that is The Controller, and then gets dragged by the rope back to the surface, saving both of them, not unlike how The Racheal rescued Ishmael while searching for it's missing son.]]

* DidYouThinkICantFeel: Impliedly, Sirocco near the end. Despite acting very "cool" throughout all of her screentime, after seeing how heartbroken Sham is over the fact that she had only come with him for the potential valuable salvage, she rigs a dead angel and goes after Sham and his group--though still continues to claim that it was not her idea. To a more obvious extent, the captain; depite doing a fairly great job of being [[TheStoic The Stoic]] throughout most of the book, in the first (failed) mutiny after the fight with the siller, she makes it very clear how hurtful the constant accusations of not having any sort of human feelings are.
** ''I’ve heard of this place, as have you. & it is true that when Mr. Mbenday said the switches were misbehaving, a possibility occurred to me. So if you arraign me before your court accused of having halfheld notions, fleeting recollections, then I plead guilty. If, however, you claim I deliberately allowed my crew to steer themselves into danger, then sir how'' dare ''you?''

* VagueAge: Most of the characters, but most confusingly, Captain Naphi. Initially her grey hair could be seen as an indicator of her age, however since other characters who are supposedly around the same age are described as having red or black hair, & some people are described as having unnatural hair & skin colors naturally, Naphi could very well be in her twenties or thirties. Since she's based on Captain Ahab of Moby-Dick (who was canonically fifty-eight), it seems safe to assume she's middle-aged--but there are several areas in which her character is vastly different from Ahab, so she could still be far older or younger; & we have no idea what the average lifespan is in this version of the future, so for all we know, Naphi could be [[LongLived several]] [[Really700YearsOld centuries]] old.
** CoolOldLady: If we assume she's fifty-eight or older, & if we're counting fifty-eight as 'old.'
* ShootTheShaggyDog: From Sham's perspective, the story is harsh & the ending is bittersweet. From the Shroakes' perspective, the story is harsh & the ending is [[EarnYourHappyEnding actually pretty upbeat]]. But from Captain Naphi's perspective, it's a massive [[TearJerker Tear Jerker]] with a heart-wrenching [[DownerEnding Downer Ending]]. Subverted in that she doesn't ''die'', but some might say her ultimate fate is [[FateWorseThanDeath actually worse]].

** ''I’ve heard of this place, as have you. & it is true that when Mr. Mbenday said the switches were misbehaving, a possibility occurred to me. So if you arraign me before your court accused of having halfheld notions, fleeting recollections, then I plead guilty. If, however, you claim I deliberately allowed my crew to steer themselves into danger, then sir how dare you?''

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The scene where Naphi [[spoiler: tries to follow Mocker-Jack down a sinkhole]]. Many people see it as simply a sign of her insanity, believing she could kill a giant mole--that is currently on ''fire''--with a knife. However, if you think about it, it isn't entirely unlikely that the captain was knowingly [[spoiler: trying to off herself]]; after all, she was pretty obviously de[[StealthPun railed]] by the [[spoiler: mutiny]] earlier, & now she's just watched her philosophy [[spoiler: get murdered by something that was not her]].

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The scene where Naphi [[spoiler: tries to follow Mocker-Jack down a sinkhole]]. Many people see it as simply a sign of her insanity, believing she could kill a giant mole--that is currently on ''fire''--with a knife. However, if you think about it, it isn't entirely unlikely that the captain was knowingly [[spoiler: trying to off herself]]; after all, she was pretty obviously de[[StealthPun railed]] by the [[spoiler: mutiny]] earlier, & now she's just watched her philosophy get murdered by something that was not her.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The scene where Naphi [[spoiler: tries to follow Mocker-Jack down a sinkhole]]. Many people see it as simply a sign of her insanity, believing she could kill a giant mole--that is currently on ''fire''--with a knife. However, if you think about it, it isn't entirely unlikely that the captain was knowingly [[spoiler: trying to off herself]]; after all, she was pretty obviously de[[StealthPun railed]] by the [[spoiler: mutiny]] earlier, and now she's just watched her philosophy get murdered by something that was not her.

* VagueAge: Most of the characters, but most confusingly, Captain Naphi. Initially her grey hair could be seen as an indicator of her age, however since other characters who are supposedly around the same age are described as having red or black hair, and some people are described as having unnatural hair and skin colors naturally, Naphi could very well be in her twenties or thirties. Since she's based on Captain Ahab of Moby-Dick (who was canonically fifty-eight), it seems safe to assume she's middle-aged--but there are several areas in which her character is vastly different from Ahab, so she could still be far older or younger; and we have no idea what the average lifespan is in this version of the future, so for all we know, Naphi could be [[LongLived several]] [[Really700YearsOld centuries]] old.
** CoolOldLady: If we assume she's fifty-eight or older, and if we're counting fifty-eight as 'old.'
* ShootTheShaggyDog: From Sham's perspective, the story is harsh and the ending is bittersweet. From the Shroakes' perspective, the story is harsh and the ending is [[EarnYourHappyEnding actually pretty upbeat]]. But from Captain Naphi's perspective, it's a massive [[TearJerker Tear Jerker]] with a heart-wrenching [[DownerEnding Downer Ending]]. Subverted in that she doesn't ''die'', but some might say her ultimate fate is [[FateWorseThanDeath actually worse]].

** CoolOldLady: If we assume she's fifty-eight or older, and if we're counting fifty-eight as 'old.'

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: At one point, Caldera talks about the "trainsfolk down south" that get regularly labelled as pirates, while all they want is to [[{{UsefulNotes/Somalia}} protect their coasts from waste-dumping corporate trains.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: At one point, Caldera talks about the "trainsfolk down south" that get regularly labelled as pirates, while all they want is to [[UsefulNotes/Somalia protect their coasts from waste-dumping corporate trains.]]