#tmr analysis

[flew-like-a-moth-to-you-sunlight]

everybody feels so bad for newt but does anyone think about the fact that minho found him the first time and was too late the second

[manukoda]

The Maze Runner book review: Newt

Guys, I love him.

I loved him in the movies too, but now that I’ve got to know him on a more personal level in the books, it’s just different. 

He’s a very genuine person. He feels everything so deeply, and there’s something beautiful but also delicate about it. He gets worked up easily but comes back fast when he feels like the situation is hurting someone, because of how kind and compassionate he is. He’s got this way of understanding people in a heartbeat and knowing how to best deal with them. He’s got this sunny, must-protect side too; he smiles and jokes a lot; has a sarcastic sense of humor; a teasing love language. And he’s brave, even when he’s scared, even when he’s hurting. I just love everything about him.

And of course I gotta talk about it: he’s a boy in love with another boy. In the books it is quite obvious that Newt has feelings for Thomas; he’s everything that I mentioned times one hundred when it comes to him. Everything is wired. You can feel his deep concern for Thomas; how frustrated he gets that Thomas is always in harm’s way; how much he cares that Thomas stays safe. You can feel his longing and yearning; his jealousy of Teresa. How he tries to flirt sometimes and it’s so cute. 

Ahh.

There’s this angst to unrequited love that gets to me; I personally love this trope, even if it hurts.

Now back to Newt’s qualities, he’s actually a very important and influential character. The first movie didn’t quite convey how much he kept the Glade from falling apart. 

Thomas, particularly, respects Newt a lot—something that wasn’t really shown in the first movie, imo; it felt like Thomas didn’t really care that much for Newt’s (or anyone’s) opinion, he followed his heart and that was it. In the first book, however, Thomas recognizes Newt as his true leader (as opposed to Alby) and values his guidance a lot; even if he went against it, it was not without considering it.

Lastly, I have a headcanon that Newt has sad eyes. Something like “it's dark inside; it's where my demons hide.” He’s a sweet, tender soul, and I care for him a lot.

[neptunezviv]

"be nice to me" by the front bottoms is SOO newt/newtmas coded so here comes a very long character analysis-ish where i yap for way too long about newt and his relationship with thomas.

okay so the first line of the song is "i got boulders on my shoulders, collarbones begin to crack" and i mean this definitely fits newt; he always had too much responsibility and was under constant pressure, especially in the glade, and the "collarbones begin to crack" is him no longer being able to carry everything, mostly due to the flare.

"there is very little left of me and it's never coming back" is him slowly succumbing to the flare and losing more and more of himself. at that point, he has also lost the little hope he had and doesn't believe he can, or even want to, survive; therefor the "it's never coming back".

"there are certain things you ask of me and there are certain things i lack" honestly this one just fits. thomas obviously wants newt to keep fighting, while newt wants to give up, and doesn't even consider himself able to keep going.

"the beginning, we were winning and now im just making up facts" is definitely thomas getting them out of the maze and being the first person ever to give newt hope, just for him to lose everything again when they all realize they're still in WICKED's hands.

"what's it matter anymore, if you believe the lies i tell you, there's no meaning to the words" is newt in the death cure no longer having the energy to pretend that everything is fine because its obviously not.

then after that there are a few lines i can't really connect to tmr, i mean "if we left it all alone, im sure it'll work itself out fine" could refer to the gladers not trying to get a cure and just wanting to be safe, but that doesn't have anything to do with newt, especially since at that point, his intentions are so different from the gladers; they want to be safe, newt wants to die.

in fact, he doesn't just want to die, he also wants to make sure his death leaves a real impact and hurts someone. that was the purpose of his suicide attempt in the fever code: trying to make whoever put them all there take response for their actions and feel bad. (it definitely also had to do with him genuinely just wanting to die and seeing no other way out, but still). in the death cure, he chooses thomas to put at blame for his death, which i think is because he realizes he will never be anyone to WICKED and that they will never feel bad or take responsibility for their actions, and instead, with his flare-infected mind, puts it on thomas, most likely because he has the closest connection to WICKED, and also because newt already has some complicated feelings towards him and his involvation with WICKED. honestly, in tdc, newt probably doesnt even see himself as one of the gladers anymore, and also, the whole concept of newt, long before catching the flare, never really feeling as if he belongs with the others, is something i honestly love and highkey need to explore more. hellengellen here on tumblr has talked about that and it's soso interesting.

back to the song! after that we have the line "but you're a killer, and i'm your best friend", which is newt to thomas, and it could be 1, just the fact that thomas is the one to kill newt and therefor a killer, or 2, the whole thing with thomas working with wicked and the fact that he helped sending everyone up into the maze, which lead to a lot of people, including the most important person is newt's life, alby, dying, and from a point of view, makes thomas a killer. (obviously he is not actually at fault for this and im a thomas defender until i die but it could be seen like that). that definitely complicated newt's feelings towards thomas, which he expresses in his final scene.

honestly, newt's death scene is something i have been itching to talk about so here we go, because newt's intention during that scene is literally just hurting thomas as much as possible. he starts blaming everything bad in his life at thomas and is basically desperately trying to make his death leave as much of a mark on thomas as possible. personally, i don't think newt's anger towards thomas actually was about thomas and i highly doubt that newt hated thomas. that being said, i still think he meant some of the things he said; in the beginning of the scene, he's saying how thomas could have stopped all this earlier, and that i think he has definitely thought about before. but after that, he starts just spitting out blame, while also getting more violent and the flare gaining more control over him. for example he blames thomas for his suicide attempt, and i think he most likely hadn't considered those things thomas' fault before, it was rather a part of the whole my-death-is-gonna-mean-something. also something i would like to talk about is how one of the first things he says to thomas in that scene is something like "go away" or "leave" which i think proves that he does still care about thomas and wants to protect him, from himself. if he really, even when his mind was clearer, wanted to go through with the plan, that moment would have been a perfect opportunity for him to force thomas into killing him. him leaving the berg also shows that he still wanted to protect everyone from himself. so yes, i think newt loved thomas, and yes, i also think his feelings towards him was complicated and some of the things he told him during his death scene was his real feelings and thoughts.

ANYWAY. back to the song. the next line is "think it's unfair, your situation" an it could obviously be seen as thomas to newt. it could also be newt, some part of him, feeling bad about making thomas kill him. or, if we wanna twist the lyrics a bit, it could put be in a mocking way, with a question mark at the end and instead being about how newt genuinely wanted to hurt thomas by forcing him to shoot him, and in a way, punish him for working with WICKED. this line would be said like "oh you think what im putting you through is bad? well you put me through a lot worse.", referring to everything newt, and everyone, went through in the glade.

"you say im changing, sorry i didnt know i had to stay the same" the flare obviously changed newt a lot and new parts of his character were revealed. it's not like thomas blamed newt for it, but i still feel like this lyrics fits.

"can we talk about this later, your voice is driving me insane" i would say this is just newt being mad at thomas and then getting even madder when thomas tries to calm him down.

the next verse is harder and some lines really don't work but let me try.

"i try to write you poems but the words they don't make sense, the hand tries to grip the pencil but the fingers are too tense" this immediately reminds me of newt's journal, and since we don't really know what he wrote in there (lets ignore the maze cutter because those quotes did not feel in character or realistic), im gonna assume a bunch of it was about thomas. both bad and good stuff. so, he wrote about thomas, most likely not poems but still lmao.

also the line being "the hand" and "the fingers" instead of using the word "my" could also connect to the flare and how newt felt more and more detatched from everything and probably even himself.

"i try to show emotion, but my eyes won't seem to wet" i can't draw an exact connection to newt or newtmas here but it just feels fitting okay.

"i'd love to tell you stories, but i don't remember how they went" i would say this is newt's more positive feelings towards thomas, and the side of him that still has some sort of hope or a dream of something better, a side that maybe would like a future where they all got to the safe haven together, where they could be happy and safe and where newt could tell thomas about the glade, therefor the "tell you stories".

and the not remembering part makes me think of the flare; we don't know that much about how the flare works, but it causing memory loss really wouldn't be a surprise, and it definitely messed with your memories since newt started remembering things from before the maze in crank palace.

"you're a flashlight in a dark room or the loneliest black out" flashlight in the dark room is thomas who came to the glade and got them out of the place newt hated so much, which also meant thomas was the first person, ever to give newt hope. the loneliest black out is thomas also being (a part of) the organization that put them there in the first place and, from this point of view, being the source of their suffering.

then there are several lines that doesn't fit and a few that i can vague connect to this topic: we have "and all your very worst enemies will be gone soon" which would be newt, at least a part of him, despite everything, still wanting good things for thomas, wanting his "very worst enemies" (WICKED) to stop bothering him, wanting him to survive and get the future newt was convinced he couldn't have himself.

"i think you're changing, don't worry, you don't gotta stay the same" okay so this doesn't really have to do with newt, but i think thomas really did change, because his major trait in the first book is his curioustly: finding out and understanding everything was his goal. somewhere throughout the latter books, it shifts, and all thomas cares about is getting himself and his friends to a safe place. in the end of the death cure, he just doesn't care anymore. he spends no time questioning ava paige or thinking further about how the world was gonna end up or about getting his memories back and everything he still doesn't know. he just wanted to be safe. (this could also be the reason we're left with quite a lot of questions in tdc. most of those gets answered in the prequels instead)

and the "don't worry, you don't gotta stay the same" line doesn't actually go well with this but it made the wheels in my head spin or whatever you say so here we go;

i don't really think newt wanted thomas to change, that's not the right word. that wouldn't fix anything, and in a way, there was nothing wrong with thomas. but maybe newt wanted thomas to be changed, from the start of it. because listen here, i think newt really did love thomas. and this can be argued about, obviously, but i have settled on that and i will not change my opinion, nor do i have any doubt about it. but as i said before, their relationship was complicated. due to thomas' connection with WICKED and especially his (kind of - obviously it wasn't thomas' fault but i think newt, part of the time, viewed it like that) involvation in alby's death, newt just couldn't see thomas purely in a good light and that led to a list of complications that, even if newt somehow got to the safe haven, would've made it hard for them to maintain a relationship, either romanitc or platonic. i do think it could've worked but it definitely would've taken time; not even just because of the WICKED/thomas thing, also because newt was generally mentally ill and probably needed theraphy that couldn't be provided in the safe haven, at least not for a long time.

back to the point, now imagine a world where thomas was different, where everything was different, where he had nothing to do with WICKED; if we also exclude newt catching the flare, he could love thomas freely, and they could actually have a happy ending together.

of course, there is also the complication of newt's mental state, and i do think they would still need some time before being able to maintain a relationship but honestly, lets just believe in them. i actually hate the idea that newt just couldn't have a happy ending or couldn't love anymore due to his mental health, obviously there's nothing wrong with seeing it like that, and i also do think him getting "better" would be complicated, but i could never think that there was just no way for him to get a happy ending.

also i haven't personally decided on how bad i think newt's mental health was, i've read analysises where they see him as a very mentally fucked up person where getting better would really hard, but there are also a lot of people who doesn't see his mental health as a hinder, and as said, i don't really know my take on this, but i do believe that he could have gotten better to the point where he could live a good life, with thomas.

okay well that was it??? this turned into less of connecting a song to newtmas than i intended but i hope someone found this interesting😭

[mazegays]

@its-tea-time-darling i am trying to answer your ask but tumblr is being dumb about it so i copy-pasted it here instead and am hoping it works yes hello i am on my computer now and so i feel like i can actually write this out better bc it is. an essay (and no doubt going to get longer when i start writing it v me just thinking about it) i'm sure others may have said similar before, but until very recently i've been avoiding most teresa content lol In this fandom (less so in more recent years than in the past), Teresa is the betrayer and the dead girl. First, she gains Thomas's trust. Then she makes out like she wants him dead--very convincingly. Then she reveal that that was because WICKED made her. And, finally, she dies for Thomas. That leaves Thomas (and us) with a very complicated set of feelings and thoughts surrounding Teresa. Let's try and unpack some of mine. 

(if you haven't read fever code and the kill order, you might want to skip or skim this part)

In Kill Order, we first meet baby!teresa--a traumatized little girl, hardly out of toddlerhood, who is found by Mark, Alec, Trina, and Lena in a deserted village. She's got marks showing she was injected with the virus (which is not from the solar flares as WICKED posits, but instead a human bioweapon), but she's fine, marking her as immune. She was witness to the attacks on her settlement and everyone turning into Cranks and subsequently dying. Due to her immunity, Mark turns her over the the Post-Flare Coalition, aka WICKED, at the end of the book, saving her life. She has witnessed more death and had others infected with the virus assume that she's a demon because she's immune. In the second epilogue (and the prologue, where Thomas is swiped and sent into the maze) we see an older Teresa, who is sympathetic to the infected and believes they deserve a chance to be saved because of what Mark, Alec, Trina, and Lena did for her. Throughout Fever Code, we see Teresa through Thomas's eyes. We know from the two years later epilogue of Kill Order that he's five at the time he's brought into WICKED, making Teresa seven and two years older than him; he wouldn't remember the immediate-post infection world the way she does (this particular detail is also something I stew over quite a bit, but that's for another post). They have plenty of differences, and argue over methods even when they're young, but it's not nearly as high-stakes as it is later, and after a while, they're pretty much each other's only friends. At the end of Fever Code, before Thomas is sent into the maze, Teresa admits that she still believes in the possibility of a cure. This is a few years after they have to kill the original Creators. (As this is not her POV, I can guess that she might not know--or might be denying the fact--that it's WICKED who released the Flare in the first place. Thomas doesn't know at all, having been taught along with everyone else that the disease was named after the solar event it was named for--the Solar Flares.) In the epilogue--a memo from Paige to the Council--Teresa and Aris are named as the final candidates. Given the use of the same term in Death Cure (by Janson, to refer to Thomas), plans changed. It also thanks them for their loyalty. Teresa's memo is the more interesting one, here. It confirms that Teresa and Aris kept their memories, and were going to coordinate with WICKED throughout the trials. She truly believes in what WICKED is doing, and that hasn't wavered in her ten years, likely closer to eleven, there. As we know, she write the infamous 'WICKED is good' on her arm, in order to 'plant the seed' in the Gladers' minds.

(if you were skipping, you can stop now!)

In Maze Runner, she tells Thomas she triggered the end, and pretends to know as little as they do--she leads the decoding of the maps, even, when it's entirely possible she already knew the code. She programmed the maze's day and night cycle and the griever hole, after all. We don't know what she sent to WICKED, or when. (Not that there's a lot they didn't already know, with the beetle blades.) She's a key factor in their escape, despite pretty much everyone other than Thomas doubting her and her intentions at first. In Scorch Trials, she must know about the switch before it happens. Thomas can communicate with Aris telepathically, so she and Aris are probably coordinating not only the switch (Group B can't have left for the Scorch before Group A for this to work, despite canonically getting out of their maze earlier.) but also meeting up with the Gladers to kidnap Thomas. She's also the screaming girl in the first half of the book, during their first day in the Scorch. She waits until they're taking a break to stop screaming and leave the building--Thomas hasn't gotten anything from or to her mentally, so Aris must have told her. When Thomas gets close to her, he notes three specific details: She's clean, not dusty and dirty from a day in the desert, she's crying, and her behavior reminds him of Gally right before he killed Chuck. She warns him to get away from her. Obviously when he is kidnapped by Group B, her behavior has switched. She's now angry with Thomas outwardly, for reasons she's not explaining to him, while whispering to him entirely different things. She lets it slip that they were told to kill him by WICKED. Harriet tells Thomas that Teresa has 'hated' him the entire time, that she's acting like killing him is her idea. Trying to convince WICKED, maybe? That she'll do whatever they tell her to, even when it hurts her? After the chamber, she's changed again, and Thomas no longer knows what to feel about her (and neither did I, as the reader, for my first through read-throughs.) It's confirmed at this point that she's been talking to Aris the whole time, including in the maze. Thomas already knew this was a set-up, but this is the first time we see how much of a set-up it is. Free will is almost non-existent for these kids. Of course, when they meet up again, Minho and the Gladers consider Teresa and Aris traitors and don't trust them. Given how much we--and Thomas--now know that they have manipulated behind the scenes (as ordered by WICKED) that is completely fair and expected, especially when they don't know the whole story as Thomas does--but even Thomas giving them details later doesn’t matter. We all know how Death Cure goes--her biggest role in this book is dying for Thomas. She is in Denver, for a time, but Thomas is more with Minho, Newt, Gally, or Brenda, so we don't see a lot of her. With her chip removed, it's now impossible for WICKED to control her--assuming that WICKED removed the chips as they said they would, and assuming that Teresa doesn't still have hers. She's shown to believe in WICKED's mission until the end of the her life. Now, with that summary that was longer than I expected it to be out of the way, let's talk more directly about Teresa's relationship with WICKED. All Teresa knows outside of WICKED is terror and fear. She likely starved for a time, she was attacked and hurt, and undoubtedly would have died on her own or been killed by Cranks. Growing up within WICKED facilities literally saved her life, and she knows that from a young age. Unlike Thomas, she's not angry or upset about being given a new name. She's happy to accept it, because she wants to forget everything that happened outside of WICKED's walls. She wants to forget, and she wants to prove that providing for her was worth it. So she does what they tell her: Kills the Creators, lies to Thomas about his entrance to the Maze (he thinks they're both going in memories intact) and communicates with Aris and WICKED throughout TMR and TST to coordinate meetings. She acts in a such a way that Thomas goes from liking her to hating her to being so conflicted about her that he feels nothing when she kisses him again. Meanwhile, Teresa is doing this to save him, or so WICKED says. They know she likes him, watched them grow up together, and they'll use it against her, against them both. She, like Thomas, is nothing but a pawn in WICKED's game. Every time she thinks she's gaining ground, they reveal another card to put her back in her place. Her firm belief in wanting a cure for the Flare combined with a childhood of being taught only what WICKED wanted her to know, seeking their approval at many turns, leaves her very open to manipulation. This results in Teresa being someone Thomas and the others aren't sure they can trust, because of her past, and Teresa herself just being a teenage girl trying to ensure that the boy she loves, the boy she grew up with, grew up loving, survives at all costs to her. She's the betrayer, sure. But would she do betray Thomas if she thought she had no other choice? I don't think she would. Teresa, even as a secondary protagonist, is far more complex than just being 'the betrayer' and 'the dead girl'. She's a terrified little girl who doesn't want anyone to go through the suffering she saw as a child, and has been given an option to try and end that suffering by working toward a cure. She's a well-fed, well-protected child who knows of the horrors of the world outside but never goes back out to it; the same child is taught whatever WICKED wants her to know. She's a teenage girl who has killed, who may be falling in love with boy-next-door (literally), who still desperately wants to fix the world. Her avenue for saving Thomas and fixing the world isn't a branching path: They're both lined with flashing WICKED signs. If she listens to them, Thomas will be safe. If she works with them, they can find a cure. She can have both. So she writes 'WICKED is good'. She's spreading the seed, trying to convince the Gladers. Maybe that message wasn't for them, though. Not entirely. No. Maybe she was really trying to convince herself.

[flew-like-a-moth-to-you-sunlight]

does anyone ever think about the fact that in the movies newt tries to commit 3 times and fails twice, and then only succeeds the third bc thomas was ready to die for him and newt couldn’t have that.

does anyone think about this.

[manukoda]

The Scorch Trials kinda ruins The Maze Runner. It makes no damn sense—WICKED wants to see how the kids’s brains will respond to trauma variables, it’s a test. Great.

Then it’s revealed that Group A and Group B had the EXACT SAME responses to everything, everything, in trial 1. What??

I’m sorry there’s no way. If it’s a human experiment there should’ve been different results. Different reactions y’know, as human nature goes.

And yet there isn’t, which makes one conclude that WICKED is controlling their responses too, right? But that’s a contradiction to what WICKED say it’s doing in the first place.

Anyway. I’m sure the author thought it was a great plot twist to have everything be the exact same but if I’m being honest, not a fan. What’s the fun in getting to know characters, then learning most of the things they did or said was prompted by someone else. I just don’t like things that aren’t genuine.

[manukoda]

The Maze Runner book review: characters (I’ll make a separate post dedicated only to Newt)

Thomas: Probably the character who’s most similar to the movies; he's awesome. Very cute, smart and impulsive. He's got that protagonist feel about him. The only thing that’s fundamentally different is that movie Thomas makes it seem like he willingly went into the Maze cos he couldn't take what they were doing to the Gladers anymore, as if he truly was on WICKED's side then changed his mind. On the other hand, book Thomas was forced to both help the Creators and enter the Maze, which makes more sense but… I do love the movie version a lot too.

Minho: 10/10. He's that character that says everything I wanna say and does everything I wanna do Imao. Such a great friend! | I absolutely adore him.

Alby: Soooo different from the movies. He reminds me of Gally in the books; which I guess it makes sense cos they go through similar experiences, but yeah. I liked him in the beginning, then he was stung and I didn't anymore. He let fear get the best of him and used anger as a defensive mechanism, becoming someone verbally abusive, especially towards Thomas. It’s a shame cos he started off as a good leader... Still, his death was really sad. He didn't get a chance to grow, in both senses of the word.

Teresa: I feel like Teresa was not done justice in the movies. To be honest, first movie Teresa felt kinda pointless; while first book Teresa felt important. I feel like the first movie cut out all of her interesting moments and all that is interesting (to me) in her personality—she's kinda boring in movie 1. In book 1, however, I like her (not sure about the ones to come... Imao). She's quite the havoc, really cool, cocky in a charming way, and freakyyy. "Wicked is good" is still insane but I'll ignore that for now.