Double Standard / Infinity Train: Blossomverse

The author doesn't shy away from pointing out how some people are treated differently by others in Infinity Train: Blossomverse because of who they are. And there are other Double Standard related events where it doesn't involve that schtick.

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In General

• If the person trainnapped is a girl, like Chloe, the people around will at the very least notice and be understandably worried. If the person trainnapped is a guy, like Goh or Gladion, people will briefly notice before shrugging it off and continuing with their lives.
• If a male character keeps a secret, he'll be called out by it pretty much everyone. If a female character keeps a secret, she'll be seen as sympathetic even if she gets called out.
  • Ash not explaining every detail of his history is a bad thing because it doesn't let him offer things Chloe would actually be interested in. Chloe never giving an indication she is interested in that stuff isn't a problem at all.
• Anybody who shows a lot of knowledge or passion on Pokémon will be lambasted for it, even if it's part of the job description, like a Pokémon Professor. By contrast, showing equal interest on something else, like horror or mythology, will get the person praised and be painted as a minority that doesn't get to shine in a Pokémon-heavy world.
• Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail begins with our young, introverted protagonist coming out of their (largely self-imposed) isolation, and tackling their issues with social interaction to start pursuing a new dream with new friends who love them for who they are. This is portrayed as Chloe Cerise, the long-suffering victim, finally getting what she deserves after months of unjust treatment. Specifically, "150 Days Ago," a young, introverted protagonist came out of their (largely self-imposed) isolation and tackled their issues with social interaction to start pursuing a new dream with a new friend who loved them for who they were. This is portrayed as one more piece of evidence, (as if any more were needed!) that the world revolves around people like Goh Fujihachi, and the events of the Infinity Train: Blossomverse very thoroughly wreck the boy's life in vengeance. Throughout the story, Chloe is taught that she's a wonderful, brilliant star and shouldn't let the uncaring, toxic people around her hold her back. Goh, meanwhile, is taught that he's a spoiled, self-absorbed jerk and he needs to walk his dreams back yesterday so he doesn't leave his dear friend Chloe behind. It’s not until after Parker tortured two dozen people, including Goh, that anyone makes a "Not So Different" Remark regarding those Childhood Friends, and until Infinity Train: Voyage of Wisteria for Chloe to acknowledge that Goh might have handled his Character Development with more grace than she had.
• The stories are rather biased over what it takes for a character to be condemned. The Apex are constantly touted as being irredeemable monsters after killing what might've been hundreds of Denizens, while their reputation was exaggerated and they didn't know any better. Meanwhile, characters like Specter and Paul London are identified as heroes despite not only being perfectly aware of the crimes they commit, but in the case of the former, be both giddy over it and threaten thousands of people compared to the Apex's middling numbers.
• Just in general, the Blossomverse tends to include many more references to Bullying the Disabled, specifically just how unforgivable such an action is, after Seeker of Crocus began heavily hinting that Chloe may be autistic. In Blossoming Trail, Goh's implied neurodiversity and depression was mostly focused on in terms of how he had been a bad friend to Chloe- the internet as a whole pretty much treated him as entirely responsible for Chloe's misery until Parker's actions overshadowed him. Franklin was definitely depicted as better than the rest of the class, but that didn't stop Parker from punishing him with the Unown. By the time Act 2 of Seeker of Crocus begins, there are at least three or four characters that are identified as neurodivergent... but still, this largely comes into play in excusing Chloe's actions whenever she comes across as insensitive or cruel, whereas when Goh behaved in such a manner, he was chewed out by everyone from Trip to his own parents for being such an immature brat.
• As the Blossomverse explains in exhaustive detail, it's really unfair of people to just expect Chloe to "get into" Pokemon just because it's what everyone else is into. On good days, the narrative gives an Aesop about how even when people don't share or really understand each other's tastes, they can still be there for each other and hear each other out. On bad days, the implication is that Pokemon and related topics simply aren't as important or interesting as Chloe and her interests are. But when it comes to Talia and her pastel-colored artwork of happy people, the message is pretty clear throughout Seeker of Crocus. Talia is shown to be fully in the wrong for preferring such work, because it naturally follows that she ignores actual problems in her daughter's life in favor of her art. Apparently, if Talia wishes to avoid being a Useless Bystander Parent, her only option is to start consuming work that terrifies her so she can relate to her daughter properly. After all, the moral of the Blossomverse is that sometimes you need to consume media that makes you really uncomfortable if you want to fit in!
• Regardless of story, if Chloe has trouble apologizing to someone, it means she's a broken girl who's too scared of being hurt again to say the most basic gesture of forgiveness. In contrast, if anybody else is shown to have trouble apologizing, especially to Chloe, they're heartless monsters who see nothing wrong with what they've done, and deserve to be broken and tortured because of it.
• Ash is guaranteed to feel terrible about failing to befriend or help Chloe, despite the fact that he didn't know about the situation at hand. However, if he finds himself unable to do the same for his other friends, he won't beat himself up for it and instead focus on other things.
• Whenever the story brings up the idea that Goh should've gone to school more, he'll generally be the only character who gets this call out. Ash, Trip, and other similar characters who in canon don't really go to school either, will never receive this call out.

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The Main Trilogy

Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail

• Chloe notes that Yeardley, one of her male classmates, is able to dismiss any questions about what he plans to do with his life by calling himself a 'work in progress'. She, on the other hand, is pressured to take after her father, and Goh slams her for not having a Goal in Life.
• Trip was allowed to refuse Ash's offers of friendship without issue. But when Trip learns that Ash wasn't able to connect with Chloe, he chews him out for his hands-off approach.
• In Chapter 10, the author notes point out that Goh angsted over Tokio while never considering that he still had Chloe.
  • It's notable that when Goh made a promise with Tokio, he gets all worked up about it. Yet he can't extend that same courtesy to Chloe and constantly keeps making excuses.
• Ash spends part of Chapter 11 happily regaling Trip with tales of his travels in order to get to know him better... something he never did with Chloe.
• Talia questions if Mr. Pepper just really hated Chloe due to how he picked on her always going by the book, while not doing the same to the rest of his students.
• When attempting to pin all the blame for their ruined friendship on Chloe, Goh insists that she should have made more effort to maintain their bond... while also allowing him to continue to do whatever he pleased. Funnily enough, this goes both ways too: before her character development, Chloe put all the blame for their ruined friendship on him despite her own issues- not speaking up, and expecting Goh to just know what she wants without her telling him- contributing just as much to their friendship breaking.
• When Yeardley's bullying is brought up, a lot of people on Facedex are pissed off at how the PE coach, a woman, turned a blind eye to how Yeardley was physically abusing Chloe.
• Ash is the one who gets most of the blame for not helping Chloe whereas Goh, her Childhood Friend, didn't get chewed out by everyone for not helping Chloe when she needed it.
• Between Chloe's parents, her father is given little to no comfort over what happened. Talia gets to talk with Delia, who lets her know that she's not at fault for Chloe and Parker deciding to keep their real feelings hidden and letting things boil over. The closest thing the professor gets is Mr. Bradbury, who decides to beat a dead horse until the professor shuts him up (albeit this is justified as Bradbury did advise the Professor to get his daughter into counseling, which he refused) or a few small scenes with Ash or Renji and Chryssa (which are not as in-depth or extensive as what his wife gets).
• Franklin Borage was part of Class 5-E but he's not getting expelled. Rather, he'll have a better time getting into another school compared to everyone else. But this is actually justified; for one thing, he never did any bullying on Chloe and focused on his work along with having a tape recorder by his side as evidence. The other thing is that he has Asperger's so being disabled would make it easier to transfer.
• Miss April, Chloe's homeroom teacher, was fired from her job and blacklisted because of how she did nothing while her students got away with insulting and harassing Chloe even though she had plenty of evidence and all the time to call her parents. The other teachers, like Coach Zee, who let Yeardley get away with breaking Chloe's arm kept their jobs. Likewise, Mr. Bradbury points out how he just got a disciplinary citation over the Ms. Turner incident.
• When Trip first hears what happened between Ash and Chloe, he immediately takes the latter's side, despite not only having the biased word of mouth to go through, but also knowing that Ash is nowhere near the prick people are making him out to be.
• In this story, the Cerises get absolutely lambasted for not doing more to help their children, despite not knowing what was wrong until it was too late. Meanwhile, not only are the Fujihachis, who actually knew what Goh's problem was, left alone, but don't even get called out when their attempts to fix things makes them even worse.
• When Chloe goes missing, everybody gets thrown up the wall, throwing blame at each other and doing everything they can to try get her back. When Goh goes missing, his parents are practically the only people who act worried for him.
• When Chloe calls someone out or complains about something, she's typically seen in the right or at least given some comfort about it. When Goh, Ash, or Professor Cerise do the same, they're given a spoonful of The Complainer Is Always Wrong.
• When Professor Cerise calls Chloe and tries to apologize, she spitefully tears him down and disowns him. When Talia calls her and actually puts her in her place, she takes the lesson to heart.
• Renji is treated as his not liking horror and scary stories is a problem that needs to be fixed, despite his dislike of the genre being as valid as Chloe's fondness for it.
• The story paints Chloe being seen only as an extension of Professor Cerise and being expected to follow his footsteps as a bad thing, complete with a Be Yourself aesop. Goh, meanwhile, not only is treated as if him being Chloe's friend is the only thing that matters about him with little fuss, but the story pretty much sings that instead of being himself, he should be what other people say he should be: someone who goes to school more often, someone who hangs out with Chloe whether she wants to or not, and so on.
• Chloe making new friends who share her interests is seen as a positive thing, whereas Goh bonding with people who share interests with him means he's "replacing Chloe".
• When Chloe says she doesn't want to be friends with someone, the story paints her in the right. When Ash, due to various factors, fails to become friends with Chloe, everybody acts like this means he doesn't care about her and that he should've befriended her.
• Chloe lambasts Professor Cerise for putting attention on Ash and Goh, outright claiming he's replacing her as his children, despite working for him. She doesn't share the same opinion of Renji and Chryssa, who have been there for longer and are equally guilty of the same "crime" as Ash and Goh.

Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily

• As the Author's Notes point out, the anime presented Gladion as a hero that boldly called Lusamine out for her ignorance, while glossing over the little detail that Gladion withheld vital information. The part he played in their family's tragedy was never called out, treating his quest for strength as noble self-sacrifice, never mind the impact it had upon others. Least of all Lillie, the one he was supposedly doing this all for.
  • Moreover, while Gladion is on the train himself, this wouldn't have happened if Lillie didn't give that bouquet of orange lilies in the first place. So while he has to go through trauma on the train and have a high chance of being injured or killed, she coulf care less about her brother abandoning her.
• Lillie completely blames Gladion for hiding the truth about what happened with Nihilego from her. Dulse turns it around by stating that Lillie herself never told Lusamine that she even had a trauma in the first place.
• When it comes to letting people know of the Infinity Train, Mallow is hesitant to tell it to her friends despite having been through just as weird if not weirder adventures, while she's willing to share it with Phyco, who's a relative stranger.

Infinity Train: Voyage of Wisteria

• When Tomie suggests Goh to try have fun on the Train, Amelia, who's concerned for his worsening mental state, scoffs at the idea, when Chloe not only got to have some fun, but it was beneficial to help her get her number down.
• During their argument, Lexi states that Goh's pain is nowhere near the same level as Chloe, believing she was the one more hurt between the two of them... While also knowing that what Goh went through sent him to a suicide ward.
• Paul London doesn't have any qualms on the Apex being dragged to the Hazbin Car and mocking them for their crimes, while being aware that he killed people with his own hands.
• Carrying over from Blossoming Trail, when Chloe was taken by the Train, Goh did everything in his power to try get her back, and got worried sick. When Goh got taken by the Train, neither Ash nor Chloe treat the situation with much severity, with the excuse they give doing little to dispel the blatant difference in treatment.

Spin-Offs

Infinity Train: Melancholy Afterlife

• Chapter 4 has Chloe question why she never gets to go to serious research expeditions yet Ash and Goh get to, addressing what qualifications she needs to give to her father in order to do so. She also questions how Goh gets it so easy to capture a Pokémon while Chloe can't. The fact her dad can't give her a precise answer doesn't help.
• Specter completely failed to provide Chloe with a Pokémon, something which she could've used to repel the Spearows, and fails to protect her when she tries to summon him, and yet her vitriol is directed at Ash, Goh, and her father instead, who were worried sick about her. It's later revealed that Chloe got angry at him for not giving her enough protection, but her vitriol against Ash, Goh, and the professor is still more notable.
• As revealed by Yeardley, people constantly threw paper balls at him to get his attention, both at home and in school, and nobody did anything about it or tell him that it was wrong. By contrast, when Yeardley tries the same with Chloe, not only does he get the tar beaten out of him, but he's finally told that it's wrong long after the damage is done. Although to be fair, none of the previous attempts of paper ball throwing somehow led to someone disappearing...

Infinity Train: Fury of Thistle

• It's both wrong in story that Parker's parents 'don't care' enough about him to visit him after he ruined their lives and the lives of others or Goh's parents for being busy, and for Delia to care that something around Parker mentally tortured her son.
• People shouldn't be angry at Parker for anything he does or happens around him. Not forgiving him for doing bad things and defending what he did gets you mentally tortured again. This is a good thing. This is justice. Unlike imprisoning Parker for hurting people. That's not justice.
• Parker can tell people how much they messed up or suck all day. When anyone tells Parker anything approaching that, they are bad and need to be mentally tortured.
• Parker is in no way responsible for his actions or what his actions caused. Goh's parents are totally responsible for what Goh did/does and are only not mentally tortured because it isn't time to do that yet.