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Roblox Wonderland is missing something, and I'm not talking about a creepy mascot or a reasonable difficulty curve. It's missing its story mode. But, fear not, because I'm here to figure it out anyway. Hello, Internet. Welcome to Game Theory, the show that really, really hopes it doesn't wake up in a mascot horror hellscape. I deal with them enough in my life. I don't then need them in death, as well. But, apparently, there is no rest for the wicked, at least according to the new Roblox game to hit the scene, Wonderland. This game has been highly anticipated. It was in development for over two years. It looks gorgeous, and it was being made by the same developers
as The Mimic, another Roblox horror game that a lot of people praised for its storytelling and horror atmosphere. We've actually had a bunch of requests to do that one in the past. So, if this all goes well, maybe we'll cover that one soon. Regardless, it was therefore no surprise that people were hyped for this thing. And then it came out. People were reporting bugs, complaining about the insane difficulty curve, even on easy mode. And overall, they just felt the game didn't live up to their expectations. Based on the trailers, fans had believed that this would be a story-driven game, but instead, it was a horror-themed extraction game with a lot of RNG. In fact, when you log into the
game, you can see there is a story mode. It's just not available yet, and won't be until next year. So, people are upset. These characters and this world seem super interesting. They want to know more about it, but they now have to wait at least another four months until they get it. However, I believe I have the answers that you so desperately crave, loyal theorists. Figuring out obscure lore when there is none is quite literally what we do best. And there is something here. You just have to go a little deeper down the rabbit hole to find it. Grab your lumens and feed them to the big old worm, because we're going to ride this train to the end and find the story hidden in the darkness of
Wonderland. You know what else you can grab? Our latest official partnership line of Theory wear merch featuring a different but equally terrifying group of nightmare toys, the toys of Poppy Playtime. Did you guys see the new trailer? Poppy has another multiplayer game on the way where we get to play as the smiling critters. Yes, I'm working on a video for it. But in the meantime, you can dress up as your favorite characters with our merch. There's our heavyweight Huggy hoodie, our Lily Love braid tee, and my personal favorite, our Globy reusable film camera. All of them boast original and officially approved designs of the character that you won't find anywhere else. But there is only a
limited amount. Once they're gone, they're gone. And people have been snatching them up fast, so get them while you still can in preparation for the new release. And while you wait, why don't I tell you a little bit more about the creepy toys we see in Wonderland? Let's start with what little we do know. Well, what we sort of know? In the lead up to the release, the devs released an animated trailer which actually plays if you beat the game. Spoilers, I guess. But basically, in it we see a room full of Wonderland merchandise. We see a statue of the main character Wonder, a plushie of his face, and a jack-in-the-box of the jack-in-the-box character clown. We're then introduced to a child who is sitting in a hospital
bed, bags under his eyes, medical clothes, and an IV attached to him. He tells us that mommy said that when they wake up, they'll be in a much happier place, Wonderland. He says all this while holding another plushie of Wonder, and then he flatlines. Now, this immediately raises a weird question. Is Wonderland a real place? It feels like it should be a real place like Disneyland. These characters clearly exist, otherwise why would there be so much merch about them? As I mentioned, this video actually plays on the TV when you wake up at the end of the game. So, it would seem like they're characters in a show that kids would watch. But if that's the case, why doesn't he act like he knows what Wonderland is? It's
something his mom had to reveal to him. He wasn't like, "It's okay, mom says I'm going to my favorite place." It's his mom trying to comfort her child with a made-up place with his favorite characters. It implies that he doesn't have to leave his room to get there, which then implies that Wonderland is more like a white lie that parents tell their sick kids to make them feel better about what is about to happen, their death. That's one of the reasons people say that heaven is such a comforting factor for Christians. When you're close to death, you can just relax and sleep because you'll be somewhere much nicer soon enough. Plus, if Wonderland was real, why did his mom frame it as
when you wake up you'll be in Wonderland and not when you wake up we'll go to land. But if that's the case, then what the heck are all these plushies? Maybe Wonder is a character that exists, but Wonder land doesn't. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into one specific word choice that doesn't matter all that much. Although, there is another way to look at this question. Rather than focusing on whether Wonderland and its characters exist in the real world, we can see they exist in the game, let's instead focus on whether this is real in the sense of the afterlife. What I mean by that is it's clear this kid is not doing so hot. They are dying in some way, but is them closing their eyes and
waking up in Wonderland them dying and Wonderland is their afterlife or is it something else? If I seem obvious, after they close their eyes, we hear a flatline. But I ask this because once you face off against the final boss of the game, your goal is to escape Wonderland through the bright light. Typically, when you talk about walking into the light, this is seen as moving on into the afterlife. However, when we do succeed, we don't wake up in heaven or some perfect place. We end up back in a hospital bed where we once again hear a flatline and start the cycle over. Now, while a flatline is traditionally shorthand for this person has died, it doesn't strictly mean that you are now
dead. What it actually means is that your heart has stopped moving and pumping blood, meaning death is imminent, so not strictly immediate. So, if you're not actually dead in that exact moment, this could lead to a phenomenon known as end of life dreams and visions. These visions often feel incredibly vivid and tend to reflect things from your past, disease relatives, childhood homes, familiar places, or emotionally significant moments. But, much like regular dreams, your brain can start to complete ideas and twist them into things that don't fully make sense or reflect reality. Say, a world filled with your favorite toys, and now they are suddenly evil and want to put you through tests rather than comfort you. Scientists have
observed that when you're dead, rather than the brain just switching off or even slowly winding down, different areas of brain activity can actually begin to spike, including the regions of the brain that are responsible for things like memory. They're not entirely sure why this is or if it's even fully related to EOLDV, but it would make sense as there's a lack of blood flow, which leads to a lack of oxygen in the body, which can cause your brain chemistry to react in different ways. That being said, even though it's relatively common with 50% of patients in hospice care being reported as experiencing this phenomenon, I'm not entirely convinced that this is exactly what we're seeing. Mostly because
typically these visions or dreams tend to be much more on the positive side. They are comforting, not frightening. Even if the dreams are a little less coherent, they still tend to be reflective of the emotion you felt in relation to that thing or event. So, if you had positive feelings towards the toys or characters, you're unlikely to suddenly have an end-of-life vision where they're horrible monsters. Instead, that makes it seem like they are actually dead, and Wander and his crew are more like demonic entities. They take the form of something familiar in order to torture us. Although, from what we can gather, it's actually more
of a purgatory-like situation. During the final boss battle against Wander and his wife Wander, that's Wander with an A. Yes, I know my accent makes it even more confusing, but please stay with me. During that battle, Wander remarks, "Did you really think you were going to leave? I guess we'll give you a chance." So, for starters, he tells us there is a way to leave this place, which, if you're in the afterlife proper, shouldn't really be possible. But secondly, he asks us why we'd want to leave. And that answer seems obvious, because this place is horrible and full of monsters. So, escaping means heading somewhere better. Almost like we're going through Wonderland in order to
actually reach paradise. At first, this made me think back to the game theory classic reference Dante's Inferno, where purgatory is a place for saved souls that need to be purified before entering into heaven. The problem is children don't really end up there. They end up in limbo, the first circle of hell, and there is no escape from down there. Instead, this idea is much more aligned with the Japanese Buddhist mythology around Sai no Kawara. This is a place where the souls of children go if they die before their parents. From here, they are tasked with building up a tower of stones they find near the riverbed to atone for their sins and make their way up to paradise. However, there are
demons who come and purposely tear down these towers to assure that the children cannot make their way out. Sounds to me like Wonder trying to stop you from leaving Wonderland. If this is a purgatory-like place, then the monsters we encounter also begin to make a lot of sense. Upon first glance, these monsters just appear to be childhood toys twisted into terrifying creatures. But if you pay attention to their behavior and personalities, you might start to see a pattern emerge. Clown, the Jack-in-the-Box I mentioned earlier, is actually harmless until you disturb him, then he lashes out violently. Jester wants to be your friend and gets upset when you don't want to play with him, even letting out a little sigh.
Tick-Tock appears friendly, but is anything but. Alice is a doll playing with scissors and will throw them at you. Ballerina is a bit of a spoiled brat. Smiley wants to steal your Lumens to play with them himself. Are you seeing it yet? These are all negative behaviors you might find children doing. Children don't always want to share. They might play with scissors when they're not supposed to. They lash out because they can't express their desire to be left alone. Or they get upset when someone doesn't want to play with them. The owl with the shotgun in its mouth, I don't know, maybe the kid shot an owl on a hunting trip and feels guilty, but the point is these are all manifestations of child actions or sins that the child is
now coming face to face with in this purgatory as a way to atone. That idea also reminded me of something else. During the gameplay trailer, the devs used the song Pure Imagination, which I'm sure we all know comes from the iconic 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It seems like a pretty obvious pick for a game like this. It's a magical wondrous place that feels so fantastically it can't be real. Created and run by a crazy man in a flamboyant suit with a top hat and cane. But the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory also focuses very heavily on the sins of children.
Augustus Gloop represents gluttony and lack of self-control leading to him falling into the chocolate river. Veruca Salt embodies greed and entitlement. She demands to own a squirrel and so they throw her into the garbage. Violet Beauregarde is prideful and disobedient, so she ignores Wonka's warnings and becomes a giant blueberry from her eating experimental gum. And Mike Teavee is sloth and violence, being obsessed with watching TV leading to him being shrunk by the television chocolate machine. Charlie is the only one deemed good and worthy to inherit Wonka's factory. Each child is a warning to the children reading or watching not to be like those bad kids, otherwise you won't
get the good thing at the end. You won't get to go into the great glass elevator to meet space aliens, become minus two years old and meet the president. That all actually happened, by the way. But the point is it ties back to that child purgatory from Japanese folklore. The chocolate factory, or in our case Wonderland, are the trials that children must complete facing their sins and if they can overcome them, they can reach the other side. But I think there's a little more to it than just they must prove they are worthy. When you get to the final boss, Wonder says, "Why would you want to leave Wonderland?" While he then goes on to challenge you to give you a chance and is actively trying to
stop you, his first point is questioning why you would want to leave. This place is great, according to him. He wants you to stay and keep playing. Why? Well, as I was playing the game, I noticed a particular item you can buy to help you with your runs. It's called the Wonder Mask, and as you might expect, it's the same mask that Wonder wears. Wearing it gives you a very special power. It stops all other monsters from noticing you. Almost like they see the face of their master and not the child they're designed to torment. To them, you've essentially become their master. If you wear the mask for too long, though, you will start to take damage as if the
mask's power is corrupting you in some way. If we then go back to our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory analogy, what is Wonka's goal in gathering the children to the factory and testing them? It's to see who is worthy of taking over the factory. Wonka is getting old and needs someone to take his place as the ruler of his candy empire. What if Wonder is doing the same? Right now, it's just him and Wonder at the top of the food chain, but that's a lonely existence, and there's a chance he doesn't want to be the one doing it forever. He may have created the world, but there comes a time in everyone's life where you recognize it's time to move on and hand over to the next generation. Not that I know anything about that. To him, these
trials aren't about escape up until the final boss battle. Before that point, he's just testing your metal. And if you embrace him and his power and his authority by wearing the mask, it becomes much easier to succeed, and you become worthy of becoming a partner or even taking over. Even if you go back to the Japanese mythology, in some adaptations, the demons that stop the children from succeeding are referred to as yokai, which are a class of supernatural spirits, monsters, and demons. In mythology, as well as one of my new favorite shows, Danganronpa, some of these yokai are shown to not just exist, but are instead tortured souls who died with deep regrets. They then try to find a way back to reality in
order to finish what they started. In the case of Wonderland, we are dying, making our way out, dying again, making our way out, dying again. We are stuck in a repeated cycle of death. Our soul is being tortured with our sins to the point where we could end up becoming like these Yokai, torturing others with the hope that we can redeem ourselves, becoming like Wonder. That, I believe, is Wonder's true goal here. Force us through a constant cycle of death and rebirth, torturing us, lowering us to use his mask to take on his ways and eventually become like him. But despite how this part of the game goes, I also believe there is a way to
escape permanently. It's just impossible to do it on our own. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie has Grandpa Joe, who acts as Charlie's guide through this magical world and its history. And in the mythology, you have Jizo, who acts as a sort of guide to the deceased children, stopping the demons from tormenting them and hiding the children in his sleeves in order that they can move on to the afterlife. So, who is going to help us in Wonderland? Well, who is the one already guiding us through the game modes we have? Zippy, the frog backpack thing. Unlike almost every other toy or creature we've encountered in this game, he is actually friendly and actively tries to help us.
He appears at the start of a level and once you collect a base amount of Lumins, he will guide you towards the exit. But he also guides us towards this guy. He's called the merchant and he too wears a backpack as well as a large robe. One, you could say, is reminiscent of the one Jizo wears that he would use to hide children inside of the sleeves. Right now, he doesn't seem to do anything, but that just means his role is not yet implemented. And I suspect in these future story updates, we are going to be seeing more of him and Zippy guiding us and helping us through this
weird afterlife and eventually our salvation. But hey, that's just a theory. A Game Theory. Thanks for watching. World premiere on Game Theory. Roblox has a new management system and it is dark.
