YMMV / Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily

• Adorkable: Gladion usually presents himself as a chuunbiyou, but here he actually has a love of Alice in Wonderland and holds a fascination for the White Knight.
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • At the end of The 400 Rabbits Car, Kisaragi hands Tokio the White Rabbit Mask. Is it a good luck sign for the journey ahead, or is Kisaragi just giving Tokio a huge Kick the Dog moment?
  • Was Kisaragi's treatment on Tokio on equal terms even if Tokio stated that "agreed" to it? How much of it was Tokio's wish and how much of it was Kisaragi's manipulations?
  • Lillie's petty nature regarding what happened with Gladion. A case of Adaptational Jerkass, or her being stuck between the anger and denial phase stage of grief?
  • What prevented Lillie from even speaking to her mother? Dulse notes that if she had been suffering for so long, Lillie should've made this a priority to Lusamine instead of wallowing in her anger.
• Creepy Awesome:
  • The White Rabbit of the 400 Rabbits Car, the king of some adorable bunnies. He arrives on a chair that walks on spider legs, and his attire consists of a straitjacket and a bunny mask with a pocket watch and a ruby for an eye. He exudes an aura of creepiness with the way he talks and the fact that underneath that mask is a brainwashed Tokio Chisou.
  • Easter, Specter's Split Personality, continues the tradition of non-humanoids that share a resemblance to Specter by actually being a lightning bolt having fused with their host, immune to electrical torture and doing all he can to help Specter out along with glowing blue Tron Lines and a childish personality that leans onto Ambiguous Innocence.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • The brick dragon ripping apart the limbs of the Black Tyrant should be horrifying...and then it turns into side-splitting hilarious when said Tyrant refuses to do the famous "Flesh Wound" quote from Monty Python.
  • London making note on Specter being Too Kinky to Torture when it comes to Electric Torture (particularly for those who know his backstory) and asking if it's one of his fetishes.
  Specter: (absolutely horrified) There are children here [Gladion and Tokio], London!
• Genius Bonus: Margaret crushing a pearl to mix with the grape juice is based on a myth that Cleopatra did the same thing (albeit with a pearl earring) to Marc Anthony in a bet that she could devour the most expensive dish ever.
  • Sooty, the two-headed dog who guards the Charcoal Car, is an Orthos — an actual creature from Greek Mythology similar to the much more famous Cerberus.
  • The White Rabbit's joke about how 400 is shorthand for an infinite number is actually accurate. The Aztecs saw the number 400 as equivalent to infinity. Moreover, the 400 Rabbits are actually Aztec deities that are all about the numerous ways of getting drunk.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail, Ash calls in everybody he can to help search for Chloe after her disappearance. Here, it's revealed that Gladion also boarded the Train... but Ash was blissfully unaware of the situation.
  • Ash muses that he isn't going to be able to do much to help Gladion and Lillie resolve their personal matters, noting that it's not really his responsibility to fix it for them. Blossoming Trail, meanwhile, sees him developing a massive Guilt Complex over his failure to help Chloe and Goh with their personal problems.
  • Mallow being taken care of Tuba during her stay on the Train is safe...but remember that the story after this takes place during Book 3...
    • In Chapter 3, Mallow prays that Ash never has to experience the Train...wait till Ash emails about what's going on and she reveals her Trip on the Train.
  • Ash in general, since his cheerful naivety painfully contrasts the pain and angst he's going to feel in Blossoming Trail. Particularly how he wishes to not experience the Greendale Incident again...
  • Likewise, Lillie's increasing pettiness is hard to watch, since it'll lead to her being viciously called out by Mallow by the time Blossoming Trail happens.
  • Tokio not willing to explain more of his time on the Train to Goh in Blossoming Trail becomes this in hindsight, given that he didn't want to explain how he was brainwashed to ruling a car of rabbits.
  • After Grace's Kick the Dog moment, Tokio screams how Grace should end up Dying Alone without anyone loving her. The Comm-Switch Car in Voyage of Wisteria reveals that Goh's partner, Warbler, is Grace reincarnated.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Gladion learns that there's a radio broadcast on the Train. It's revealed in Book 4 of Infinity Train that the train doesn't get radio service (then again the Book did take place in the 80s so things could've changed in 30+ years)
  • Chloe dresses Lexi up in what she calls the "Specter of the Black Forest". Wait until she learns from Gladion of a passenger named Specter having entered the Train.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Gladion did a lot of things wrong, that's for sure, but you can't help but feel sorry about how his quest to become stronger was essentially All for Nothing.
  • Dark Easter's assault on Specter hinges on Cold-Blooded Torture but it's hard not to see them in this light after it's revealed that they were only attacked by an irate Specter and they only just wanted to help him. Dark Easter's rant comes across as a child or person wondering why they were bullied and assaulted under excuse of just "existing" and Specter comes to realize he made a grave mistake.
• Moral Event Horizon: Grace crossed it when she killed Utahoshi by stabbing him with her knife and proclaiming that it was all to "save" Tokio from the rabbits.
  • Shortly after, Kisaragi crossed it when he brainwashed Tokio into becoming the White Rabbit, a process that he continues by constantly injecting ideas into his head, to the point he's spent over a year because of it and Kisaragi shows no remorse for this.
• No Yay: It's easy to see most of Specter and London's antics with one another like how they bicker Like an Old Married Couple, the fact that Specter initially hates London for being pushy but later shows concerned for the older wrestler willing to die so that Specter leaves and by Wisteria, Specter's mostly contacting the wrestler while he's on the Train (it also helps that both of them are partnered with a half of Easter...But then you remember that London is essentially old enough to be Specter's father (he's pushing 40 when Wisteria starts).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Despite being touted as a group of characters whose presence would change the story, The Ultra Recon Squad ultimately fail to live up to said expectations. Across the entire story, they spend most of their time reacting to the happenings around them, coming across as more like a chorus than a force of active players. However, the one hit the hardest by this is Soliera; at in terms of her compatriots, Zossie gets a Pokemon and interacts with the main cast the most, Dulse knocks Lillie down a peg by making her realize she's not completely guiltless in what happened, and Phyco manages to give Mallow a confidant and create the Infinet. But Soliera doesn't do anything noteworthy of her own.
• Trapped By The Mountain Lions: The Ultra Recon Squad's subplot turns into this by the end of the story. Despite being touted as characters who would change the course of the story, in practice, they spend most of their time goofing around, looking at the scenery, and just failing to properly address the Infinity Train situation despite that being the reason why they show up in the first place. Even their biggest contribution, revealing the history of the Train to Mallow and her confiding in them about her being a former passenger, does nothing for either this story or Blossoming Trail, as it goes completely unmentioned in the latter and doesn't benefit or move Mallow's character arc in a significant manner.
• Shocking Moments: The Intermission for Act 1 ends with White Gestalt in Silent Hill. Those who remember what happened in Blossoming Trail have reacted accordingly.
• Unexpected Character: The Ultra Recon Squad appears at the end of the 3rd chapter, heavily changing the Ultra Beast arc... allegedly.

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