Midnightfiremoon - Can't You Tell I'm Stupid?

MAZE RUNNER HEADCANON #8

Death Cure Spoilers!

The only time Alby broke the rules was when Newt didn’t come back from the maze. He ran straight in and was searching frantically for him, and when he saw Newt laying half-dead and bleeding on the floor, he hugged him so close and so tight, crying his eyes out. In happiness or in sadness

I feel like we don't talk enough about the actual depth of the changes that happened to Alby when passing from the book to the movie. Like sure, he was mean in the books and nice in the movies, but it goes much deeper than that. In the book he represented the universal issue of trying to measure up to someone's standards and inevitably failing, and then in the movie he was just... there.

Because in the book we have that first scene the "if you ain't scared you ain't human" scene, where Alby progressively makes everything worse and worse and worse with every word that come out of his mouth. But the thing is, he's trying to fulfil the expectations that everyone places on him the moment he becomes a leader. He's genuinely trying and I'm too lazy to get the book and quote actual fragments that you can analyse (I might do it later if anyone wants me to), but he tries a bunch of stuff to put Thomas at ease, only he has a short temper and doesn't think before he speaks and it's been under a month since one of the people closest to him died (because Alby had to have been the second in command before and there's no way he wasn't close to Nick).

But in the movie, he has no reason to not be an exemplary leader and role model, so all the complexity and representation of a constant part of being human is erased and we're just left with a cookie-cutter archetype of the leader who's little more than a plot device and I find that sad.

I wish someone would look at me the way Aris looks at cornbread.

I can't cope with this

Why, James Dashner, why???

Do you ever think about how Alby stopped Newt’s suicide and brought him back to the Glade to heal him and keep him alive and stay with him even though Newt hated being alive in their situation

Hey do you ever also think about how Newt couldn’t save Alby the way he did for him. He couldn’t give him the thanks and repayment he likely thought he owed. He couldn’t save him and hardly had time to mourn him. Do you ever think about Alby’s death being a sacrifice, and how even in death he saved Newt. He was always saving Newt.

I'm begging for my partner to have this mindset, please

I'm gonna marry a man with the coolest last name the world has ever seen