#never thought I'd write a nalby thinkpiece but ig i have more thoughts on them than i realized

[mazegays]

that nalby hc 😭😭😭😭 (from the tags of that other post which im too lazy to copy sjdjsj)

the post, for those curious

yes bc like!! the "He's in charge when I'm not around" "good thing you're always around then" bit from the movies--it's always read more as teasing than Newt, like, actually caring about leading.

And in the books, sure, Alby is the 'on-paper' offical leader, but we know he's not been doing it long, and Newt is clearly more experienced with Greenies. (If you haven't read Fever Code and don't want spoilers, skip this next part. If you don't care, then continue on. Also, Newt’s suicide attempt is discussed, both here and a little later.) It’s revealed in Fever Code that Newt’s suicide attempt is not too long before Thomas enters the Maze--only about 6 months, compared to the time Newt has been there.

(If you skipped you're good now)

Newt was a Runner, right? But obviously something changed, and he can’t run very well with a limp, something that's noted more than once by Thomas. So Newt becomes a jack-of-all-trade (starts Thomas each day with his trial runs, helps the medjacks with Ben, etc), learns the ins and outs of the Glade, helps out with Greenies where he can. He gives the motivational/you're-here-so-make-the-best-of-it speech where Alby only gets angry, at which point Newt pulls him back so he doesn't scare Thomas (the first Greenie since the last leader, Nick, died. Yes, I have the book open rn. I have some of it memorized but I want to be thorough lol. probably more so than I need to be). Alby doesn't have his footing as a leader yet--Gally doesn't like Thomas, so all of their interactions are colored negatively anyway, but he also seems not to exactly respect Alby as a leader. Minho affords Alby some respect but also just... doesn't really care about the chain of command. We don't know if the Keepers voted, but Newt is both well-liked and clearly has a handle on running the Glade. Why wouldn’t he be picked, in such a scenario?

Unless he took himself from the running because he realized that yes, he can lead, but being well-liked and being respected are different things, and his authority seem to come mostly from the Gladers listening to him because they like him.

That's where Alby comes in. Presumably a Keeper (though what he did is never made clear), and probably worked with Nick-- maybe even as his second-in-command--before his death, but not handling the Glade in the way Newt does.

Newt suggests he becomes the leader, takes himself out of the running, and they listen to Newt and make Alby leader.

Newt, who knows the ins and outs of everything, who is good at talking boys down and bouncing around where he's needed, gets to keep doing that.

And Alby is really thrown into overseeing everything; Greenies, the Box requests, what needs to be built and repaired more urgently, all of that stuff. He would have known it was done, but actually making the decisions is very different from just knowing about them.

But they start dating long before Thomas comes to the Glade, right?

Yeah. They do. Alby is the one who drags Newt of the Maze, they were already close. But working together doesn't always work out. Now working more closely after Newt’s attempt, they start butting heads more, and their whole relationship seems to fall apart, until they realize they're trying to do the same job, and one of them is just better suited for it than the other.

Don't get me wrong, Alby is great. He’s an asshole, yes, but they all are, really. Especially compared to Newt, though, people don't seem to be his strong suit. So they work it out that Alby mostly does logistics stuff, and Newt deals with people.

They're both leaders, and they work so well together because they're different types of leaders. Once they stop fighting-as-flirting arguing over everything, they figure out a system and slowly realize there are Feelings there. (Newt makes the first move, and this surprises no one.)

By the time Thomas reaches the Glade, hell, by the time Chuck gets there their relationship is an open secret. They're not very affectionate publicly as to keep the appearance of neutrality, but everyone knows anyway. They were on the edge of 'are we friends or are we dating' before this, anyway, but it was working together that pushed it over the edge.

tl;dr: Newt and Alby are both leaders in very different ways, Newt on the people side and Alby on the logistics side. They figured this out after Newt’s suicide attempt and clashed for a while before things finally clicked into place. After that, they eventually started dating sometime before Chuck was sent into the Maze.

#newt #alby #nalby #never thought I'd write a nalby thinkpiece but ig i have more thoughts on them than i realized #thomas #minho #chuck #tea #nalby relationship development #this wasn't supposed to be this long #but it is! so like #enjoy it! #ask box #suicide cw #newt's suicide attempt #tmr