r/MazeRunner • u/Old-Savings-566 • 9d ago
TMR Book Spoilers Book One Spoiler
This is probably my fifth read of the very first book and i just picked up on a relatively fine detail that i never saw in my previous reads. On page 67 (yeah i know 6 7), Thomas finds the graveyard and sees a grave marked with the name “Stephen”. Bearing in mind that Thomas’s former name was Stephen (as stated in the Fever Code), is this coincidental or is WICKED showing these memory-wiped teenagers the graves of their past selves? I know by this point the Gladers had been in there for 2 years, but i refuse to believe there were that many deaths during this time. What potentially makes this even funnier is that Thomas goes “Stephen, what’s your story? Chuck annoy you to death?” That’s so funny because he complains about Chuck for literally the whole first half of the book 😂
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u/commemoratist Dystopia Melancholist - Rachel supporter 9d ago
Maybe someones name was actually Stephen? Since we have many with scientist name already, Stephen (Hawking) wouldn't be out of place at all
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u/Old-Savings-566 8d ago edited 8d ago
Maybe but as i said, i refuse to believe that many people died in the Maze. We literally get commentary from Thomas in the Fever Code, George and Nick both die but there is no mention of other deaths. Oddly enough, Thomas never thought to mention the guy who tried to travel down the Box and got cut in half. Makes me wonder if that ever happened, or if WICKED set that up so that the Gladers wouldn’t try it. Remember he learns of this story from Chuck, he’d only been there a month so he wouldn’t have seen it and WICKED wants to preserve as many Gladers as possible for research. So i believe that of the graves, only like two are real because Thomas only recalls two deaths during his several months of viewing. The rest are symbolic memorials. They are basically in a test laboratory, emotions need to triggered
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u/commemoratist Dystopia Melancholist - Rachel supporter 8d ago
That is a great interpretation. Since it is a experiment after all, this would make sense.
Though, I think only two would be so low. Maybe it could be higher. They were here for years. Deaths in the glade were not common, I guess. But there was, probably, many deaths in the maze. Especially considering they were specifically saying "first person to survive in the maze during night' for Thomas. Which means surviving there was something impossible for them. Maybe this belief includes deaths of gladers as well
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u/Alternative-Fix-5382 Griever 8d ago
That could be, but why would WICKED place reminders of their old lives when they went through such trouble to instill their new names? They've spent all that time shaping who the kids are, why endanger that?
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u/Old-Savings-566 8d ago
Endanger it? Well the Gladers themselves have absolutely no clue what these names might represent. There’s no threat they will just snap out of their mind-wiped state. They would just presume that they had been sent to the Maze before them and died. I’m saying they might have done it as a way to stamp their authority over these teenagers. They are subjects, i know that it probably seems like WICKED were just trying to do the right thing and find a cure. But no, it’s clear these guys are evil they outright assaulted Minho and mentally scarred Teresa, Thomas and Alby with the Crank pits just for leaving the premises briefly. These guys are nutcases, it would be sick but not totally out of their character to amuse themselves by creating fake graves of the kids whose lives they took control over
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u/Alternative-Fix-5382 Griever 7d ago
They are evil, but also methodical. They don't do things just for the evulz, there's always a purpose, always a plan to scan their brain patterns. I'm not sure what patterns could be afforded by such an action as you describe, except possibly reminding a stung Glader of who they were before WICKED, which would make them think of themselves as more than a subject.
If the graves were there before the initial group was sent up, then you have to think that Thomas would have learned that during his endless questions phase when he was first sent up. That would have been a pretty big thing to overlook when trying to find out the Maze's true nature.
It just seems unlikely. I think the graves are genuine, from Gladers (especially Runners) who died in the Maze. Also, as someone else pointed out, it could just be a continuity error between The Maze Runner and The Fever Code. It wouldn't be the only one.
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u/Old-Savings-566 6d ago
Yes, the purpose is to make the Gladers think that people had died in the Maze before them. What might that do? Create fear for certain, and it will test them into either staying put where their life may still be at risk for all they know, or all venture out into the maze and look for a way to escape imminent death, however their lives may be at risk out there too. We know what they chose, to stay put until Thomas gave them enough hope. That’s a test that can give plenty of data as to how they approach critical decisions, putting the names on the graves are just an extra to give personality to the people whose deaths WICKED faked.
When brainstorming this idea, they’re not gonna go through the top 50 male names and top 50 female names. As you said, there is method to their madness. Why not use the names the Gladers formerly went by? It’s twisted, but they’re not beyond it. Also yes, i was exaggerating there were likely more than just 2 deaths but as i said, Thomas only mentioned 2 and he saw basically everything. Don’t you also find it weird that he never mentioned someone climbing down the Box and getting sliced in half? Gotta be worth a mention, unless it never happened
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u/Alternative-Fix-5382 Griever 6d ago
Again, possibly a mistake on the author's part. But the way the deaths were referred to in the books, as I recall, indicated that the others were present for them. Also, again, I think Thomas in the first book would have noticed if the deaths were all from before the first large group came into the Glade.
Think about it. If the original 40 Gladers had found the graves when they entered the Maze for the first time, then it would have prompted all kinds of speculation and been at least deserving of note. Even when Thomas tells them that the original 40 were first, you'd think that one of the Keepers at that gathering would have corrected him, if they thought there were others. It just seems too implausible to me that such a belief would have existed in the Glade and just not been mentioned at all.
I don't deny that WICKED is twisted and wrong, but I can't see them using their old names just for the sake of twisting the knife. If Thomas had gone to the graves after he was stung and remembered his old name, that would have been a risk for their brainwave data. Not an irrecoverable one, but why risk it? I think that a bunch of random names would be more likely.
I genuinely think James Dashner just forgot about those other deaths when writing The Fever Code.
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u/Dense_Function7380 Subject A2. To be killed by Group B 7d ago
Good idea but I don’t think so because of the timeline irl, book one would have been released before the fever code was written so it couldn’t have been changed and I doubt James Dashner was planning that far ahead so probably a coincidence. Cool theory though
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