hello!! i sooo badly want to know more about gideon!! what inspired the creation of the character, and does his name also come from a historical figure? <3
Hi!! Thank you for the question and sorry it took me long to answer!!
Ok so, take into account that is been a while since I watched The Maze Runner, even more since I read the books, and I've forgotten some terminologies and names of the places. And also some of his plot is a little hazy in my mind, but I can give you some of the details. Maybe in the future i could give more insight when I watch the movies again.
• Gideon is in the Glade already when Thomas arrives. He actually has been there for a while, even longer than Newt and Minho.
• Gideon is well... he has a personality. He is judgemental, sarcastic, very serious incredibly arrogant and prideful. Basically when he says something is right is almost impossible to make him see other options or a brighter picture. He is also unwelcoming to strangers and hard to open up to others.
• So yeah, Gideon and Thomas don't exactly have the best relationship at first, it's even worse because Gideon doesn't like when his plans or schedules are changed, and yk a lot of things happened after Tommy (and later Teresa) arrived. But he's not openly aggressive with him like Gally is. He just ignores Tommy until he can't.
• Gideon also has a tactical and analytical mind, he is the one that took care of making the maps of the labyrinth and is part of the runners team (I can't remember it well but I think in my initial draft of him, he was the only glader that had survived a night in there, but he doesn't likes to talk about it, I don't know if I would change that in his current version)
• He is mostly inspired by Ty Blackthorn from the Shadowhunters Chronicles. Ty is in the autistic spectrum so Gideon is implied to be too, and maybe it gets confirmed during The Death Cure while he is in the Labs.
• There's only two persons that can make Gideon listen to them 1. Alby, who Gideon looks up to him and sees as an older brother and respect him, though that won't stop Gideon to talk back if he thinks Alby is not making a right decision, but you know he will be take the time to be more respectful and do it in private instead of in front of everyone.
• and 2 Newt, the only person that Gideon is not a complete asshole to, before they're together is painfully obvious that the they feel something for each other but it takes a while for them to act on their feelings, first because Gideon is just that dense and second because Newt is afraid that it would destroy their friendship (because at this point he doesn't know what Gideon is into, like all the other guys talk about girls, but Gideon had never made an statement of what he likes). But yeah, and like I said before PAINFULLY obvious, like even Tommy who hasn't been there for long realizes the first night. (I'm still not sure if at this point they've sorted their feelings but I still think that they wouldn't be very pda in front of the others, so for anyone else they would be seem as almost like normal friends).
• Gideon has a sister who is in the girls glade named Mia and they met in The Scorch Trials, when they're taken to the facility by Janson, who also presents himself as their uncle, and tries to manipulate them to be on his side. But Gideon fastly realizes that there's something wrong about this place and Janson, so they escape.
• Other random lore. Gideon and Mía were very close to Thomas and Teresa, and were part of the scientific team of WCKD, and of the project to find the cure. Being Gideon the first of them that volunteered to be put in the Maze. That's why during The Death Cure, he kind of pretends to be on their side and Teresa's, but in reality he's just making plans to escape with Minho until things get out of control and a lot of sad things happen at the end... :(
Also you asked if there was an historical figure I based his name on? Not really, but if you have any thoughts on that I would like to know about it.