Room 25

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…a high room with the image of a crown on the wall for everyone to see now. Though one of my parents might be lowborn, the other was close to a king…. I’ve always felt at home here.

“Which door ought we take?” they wanted to know. I rather brusquely indicated the three doors.

“Any of these is fine for my purposes.”

They were disconcerted at the apparent lack of clues. “Perhaps in another room,” they said, leaving for…

 - Images and text copyright 1985 by Christopher Manson
used with permission. [Purchase MAZE from Amazon]

 

Room Type:  LOOP     Doors:  13  34  35  42

Solution Summary: [COLLECTION CURATED BY WHITE Raven. SEE COMMENTS FOR ADDITIONAL SOLUTION PROPOSALS.]

● The light–dark continuum of the pictures above the doors corresponds with the peaceful–terrified transformation – this orders the available doors from best to worst, 34 being the ideal door and 35 being the worst. [Independent Credit: vewatkin | White Raven] The light-dark continuum  is reinforced by the shading of the whole room. [Independent Credit: Wanderer | White Raven]

● The crown over the locked door indicates that this locked door is the best door – and therefore we have taken a wrong turn. [Independent Credit: Hello Gregor | White Raven]

● In the text is the word “felt” which is an anagram for “left.” In this room as well as the other two rooms in which the word “felt” occurs (11, 34) the correct door is the the left door. [Credit: Hidden Mystery / Beelzebibble]

25path

83 thoughts on “Room 25

  1. The text mentions “the three doors,” despite there being four doors; curious, although only three of the doors are accessible. It occurs to me that there are four different ways to group the doors by threes, though:

    Accessible doors (excludes 25)
    Doors with six slats (also excludes 25, if you prefer)
    Closed doors (excludes 35)
    Doors with signs falling in sequence (excludes 13)

    34, then, is the door that is a member of each group of three. I’m sure you could find an ad hoc reason to group the other three to the exclusion of 34 (“three doors on the right”), but I’m trying to go by the immediately noticeable visible distinctions. In that regard, the open door, the door with a different number of slats, and the door with a sign outside the falling sequence seem the obvious outliers.

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    • vewatkin,

      I don’t have time to think all this through right now but wow…great thinking! You took “which one of these is not like the other” to a new level!

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    • Yeah, I’d say this observation readily trumps the discovery of the guide path.

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    • Vewatkin,

      Of your four criteria two work well, the other two do not.

      “Accessible doors (excludes 25)” works fine
      “Closed doors (excludes 35)” works fine

      The premise of your solution is that three of the four are alike based on the line in the text “I rather brusquely indicated the three doors,” and yet there are four doors. In regard to “Doors with six slats (also excludes 25, if you prefer)” and “Doors with signs falling in sequence (excludes 13)” both are two and two, or if you eliminate door 25, two and one. Either way it no longer works.

      To make this work you would need something doors 34 25 and 35 have in common which is not shared by 13.

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    • I’m not sure I follow. I see three doors with six slats, and one door with seven. I see the signs from 34, 35, and [unmarked] falling in a sequence; 13 is not part of the sequence. (Instead of the sign falling forward because its top two screws have detached, it is hanging on by one of its bottom screws without falling forward.)

      Ah, I see, I think. You’re saying the fallen sign corresponds to sign 13, that that’s the next step in 13 falling, not the final step of the other two signs falling. I hadn’t really considered that because it doesn’t seem like the 13-sign would just fall forward like that from the position it’s in–well, it pretty certainly wouldn’t, but the angling of the two signs (13 and the fallen sign) is the same, which (forget physics) seems to reasonably suggest they’re intended to be linked.

      Yeah, I’d say that’s enough to kill a suggestion that seemed a little jerry-rigged anyway.

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  2. Anyone remember Beelz’s double-reverse odd-man-in solution for Room 33 on MazeCast? LIKE I NEED TO ASK.

    Something here, nothing I feel good about, but it’s interesting and in that vein. The crown door is odded out for a few reasons, whether the fallen sign or the crown or the number of slats on the door. 35 is odded out by being open. 13 is odded out by not being part of the same falling sequence as the other signs. (I.e. detaching from the bottom before the top.) 34 is actually odd then by virtue of not having unique characteristics.

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    • I’m glad my finest solution has stood the test of time.

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  3. Possibly a door solve here, kind of works in conjunction with the first solution listed: There are 7 photos of the man…three “light” ones and four “dark” ones. 34.

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  4. Working the theory that any explicit minotaur statements should be thrown out I have this in 25 – “…the image of the crown on the wall for everyone to see now” “I’ve always felt at home here”. The crown is bared for all to see the man has a bare crown – and bare crowned Raven feels at home here.

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  5. Clue to solving this room is “Perhaps in another room”. I noticed in rooms I think I solved so far that in the correct Door/Room you find an “obvious” clue to confirm your answer. I have seen a lot posted on the internet from people who gave up or are angry at MAZE because you never know if you have the right answer-but you do. Here are some examples of how it works:

    1. Room #18 – Musical Chairs is the answer onto Door/Room #13 – Obvious chair and megaphone in room (chair for the game/megaphone for the music). Dr. Mudd/good – Dr. Mudd slaver/evil, that treated Abraham Lincoln after his assassination is here in Room #18-Narrative: “Are you sure it’s the hat that is lost?” – hat belongs to Lincoln…the hat is not lost, Lincoln is.

    2. Room #23 – Medical items & Dr. Frankenstein/Monster is answer onto Door/Room #8 – Obvious picture of stethoscope in room.

    3. Room #13 – Close Encounters of the Third Kind is answer onto Door/Room #25 – Oval shaped crown is “hovering” like an UFO (no nails can be seen as in the signs).

    4. Room # 44 – Twenty-one Gun Salute (gator is the cannon) onto Door #18 the obvious hat on the floor is a cannon muzzle.

    5. Room #33 – The Pit & the Pendulum swings left to right/right to left onto Room #3 – the signs atop the doorways (as the signs are atop the doorways in Room #33 also) read left to right/right to left.

    Keeping the above in mind, here is the solution to Room #25:
    We take the clue from Door/Room #34 “MAGPIES” & “Not a real THOUGHT (OUGHT Room #25). Famous MAGPIES – Heckle & Jeckle. Jeckle spoke with English accent/wore a Bow Tie. The man in the pictures with bow tie is Dr. Jeckyl turning uncontrollably and painfully into Mr. Hyde (his evil persona-again the doppelganger person from (Room 35)). The sign that fell on the floor no longer hides/Mr. Hyde the crown. “ow” can be found 4 times in the narrative and in crown/CROW/MAGPIE and important “eyebrOWs” (high and low). Narrative: “rather brusquely” is how the magpies spoke/rough/crude/rude. Narrative: “a high room” Dr. Jeckyl/Mr. Hyde lived in a loft – the magpies (Heckle & Jeckle) lived together in a tree.
    An aside solution: the doors are made from “boards” + “terrified man” = MAN OVERBOARD.

    – - DOPPELGANGERS- – - ALIENS- – -ASSASSINS- – - – UFO’s- – - – MAD DOCTORS- –
    “Time, Mystery, Hope and Fear” – you bettcha!

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  6. Three numbers are mentioned in the narrative: ONE, OUGHT, and THREE = 10(one + 0) + 3 = Door #13.
    Here’s a thought: apparent lack of clues/apparent lack of hair = heir apparent…an heir apparent is certainly close to a king/crown and so is Door #13.

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    • 13 is the wrong door. But OUGHT is an interesting word. The circle of the crown could be a zero. But I can’t see it getting anywhere. The “THREE” doors is interesting as well as not only are there 3 doors but all the doors contain the digit 3. But again, to no end that I see.

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    • It’s to emphasize that, since all the doors contain a 3, the clue must be to something else.

      Like the FOUR

      WHICH WHEN ADDED

      TO THREE

      MAKES SEVEN

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      SEVEN PICTURES

      SEVEN PLANKS ON THE CROWN DOOR

      “APPARENT” LACK OF CLUES? “25″ ITSELF IS A CLUE, INDICATING THE CORRECT DOOR NUMBER’S DIGITS SUM TO SEVEN! THAT’S WHY THERE ARE 25 PLANKS TOTAL! MAN, I NEED A DOUBLE CAPSLOCK TO ACCURATELY DEPICT HOW LOUD I AM SCREAMING RIGHT NOW.

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    • THAT’S WHY 25 IS CLOSER TO THE END OF THE WEEK THAN THEY REALIZE IN 13! BBAEBNBANVkvljbjhBvJHvbjhvwerbvuWEVBKL

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    • I think you are right vewatkin. Maybe not about the end of the week part, but about the rest of it.

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    • Also the “ought” fits in with White Raven’s point above. The crown marks the best possible door, if it were not locked. The crown could have a zero in it. Ought = zero. And ought = the door we should take (if we could).

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    • I knew those capital letters would do the trick.

      I don’t think any of that is legit, but if 3+4 = 7 is meaningful, then I would guess that 2+5 = 7 is as well in that end of the week stuff. It still just seems like some goofy number chicanery, though.

      But it seems like there’s something going on with those boards in the doors, eh?

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    • 25 boards in room 25.

      7 pictures, 7 boards on crowned door, 2+5 = 7 and 3+4 = 7. (And maybe residual 7s from previous room). That’s more than a coincidental number of 7s, I think. Seems pretty legit to me.

      The 3s stuff does not add very much, except as you pointed out, they are not a clue since they clue every door equally. And the 4 is not really a clue either, per se.

      Of slight interest – the crown in 33 has 7 points, but I don’t think this one does. Looks more like 8. But could have 7, maybe.

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    • Also I should mention that adding the digits is something you to in numerology in connection with tarot cards. This is relevant since I think we have a good deal of that going on in room 9. And one case strengthens the other, since if he used an idea once he might use it again.

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    • Although -regarding “4″ we do have 4 total doors and 3 usable doors – that is another possible 7 – or more directly a 34. And maybe “three door” brusquely is a lot like “three four”.

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  7. Interesting-ish, the man’s eyes open as you go light to dark; the darkest door is also open; but it doesn’t really emulate the gradual opening of the eyes in the images, so I suspect it’s unrelated.

    As previously noted, the signs are not falling in a sequence: Room 13′s sign is hanging crooked, by one screw, but still essentially vertical, whereas the doors to 34 and 35 are both tipping straight over but apparently attached by two bottom screws. Old news there, but it just occurred to me: The sign that fell from the unmarked door seems to have fallen from a position like the 13 sign. (See what I mean? Somewhat rotated counterclockwise.)

    34 and 35, then, seem to be falling one way, and 13 and (unmarked) 42 another.

    You guessed it–I have no idea how that matters.

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  8. The door to 35 is open. This combined with [top-hatless] Tophat’s horror as he approaches it, his descent into darkness, and the room’s descent into darkness, give the suggestion that he is being sucked through the door to 35. This could connect with the Guide’s seemingly-throwaway line in Room 18 suggesting that the owner of the hat is lost.

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  9. Ignoring the door we can’t take (but the crown tells us we wish we could take), the sign furthest along the process of falling off the wall is that relating to 34. Is there some indication that it’s good for the signs to fall off? The bald man, perhaps, indicated a bare top? Hrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
    mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
    mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

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  10. There are 3 visible sign holders, then 4, then 4, then 3,4,4,3 = 34,34. Also 7 frames which we can break into 3+4.

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  11. In room 44 “to know” is used to represent “two, nine” (know=no=nein=nine). Here we have: “Which door ought we take”, they wanted to know. I rather brusquely indicated the three doors. “Any of these are fine for my purposes.”
    This can be read as a little aside “They wanted 29” since that is where the secret door to 17 is hidden.

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  12. The floor (and the room as a whole) actually gets darker in relation to the pictures, perhaps suggesting they can be trusted.

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    • Oh, good point. The fact that the room signs are catching the light at different angles, and therefore have different shades, helps obscure the fact that the darkening isn’t just in the pictures; the room itself gets darker as you go across. My god, how obvious is that? But I never noticed it!

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  13. “…image of a crown on the wall for everyone to see now.”

    “Crown” is used ambiguously here, and maybe in the prologue as well. The thing is that “crown” can also simply mean the top of someone’s head. (Remember what Jack broke when he fell down the hill?)

    So you read this line, and you think the guide’s talking about the headgear, but that “for everyone to see now” seems a little peculiar. Maybe what he’s referring to is the bald head of the fellow on the wall. If this is the man we’ve been seeing, running around in a tuxedo and top hat, then it makes perfect sense for the guide to use the phrase “for everyone to see now” in reference to Tophat’s persistently concealed noggin. (Remember, he left his top hat a few rooms back in 18.)

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  14. I thought I posted this, but maybe on another thread.

    The apparent lack of clues gets us thinking about the little that is here, including the falling down signs. “Maybe in another room” hints we should go look for them. In 14 we have 10. In 25 we have 34,13,35 and in 34 we have room 25. That’s 10,34,13,35,25. I know or can guess the word value for these rooms. Measure, I, time, stop, film. “I measure film stop time”. Well that’s a shutter. So those falling down pieces of paper represent a shutter we could infer. Now look to room 9 there is a falling painting. A line from the Raven poem that goes through this room “Open here I flung the shutter”.

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  15. Bit of number stuff I forgot to mention. The available doors to enter all have 6 slats. The crowned door has 7. You can add the numbers to get 13 or multiply them to get 42. Not apparently helpful to me, but it’s there.

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    • Huh. Good observation anyway. The total number of slats is 25, and that is the room number.

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  16. “One of my parents might be low-born…”
    34 and 35 both bow to the crown. 34′s bow is deeper- it is the lowest class door.

    “…the other was close to a king….”
    13 stands next to the king and does not bow.

    Parenthood is highlighted by “disconcerted at the apPARENT lack of clues”.

    “I’ve always felt at home here.”
    In 34: “It was amazing how much more comfortable they felt in these surroundings.” (Note: The text states that 34 is a middle-class room.)
    In 13: “They weren’t really comfortable here…”
    In 35: One of them tries to sit on a couch which then breaks.

    34 is the only room in which they can feel at home.

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    • Basis for looking in other rooms:
      “Perhaps in another room…”
      I don’t remember any other room explicitly exhorting the reader to look in other rooms for supporting clues. The loop seems the most reasonable place for a room oriented multi-room clue structure to take place.

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  17. The light–dark continuum there, corresponding with the peaceful–terrified transformation, also fairly orders the rooms from best to worst, 34 being the ideal door and 35 being the worst.

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    • I think that’s just a function of the signs’ progression of dislodging from the wall.

      Notably there, the signs don’t depict a single progression of a sign falling off the wall. (Like, for instance, we see a progression of an opening door in the four doors in Room 5. This doesn’t do that.) 13 only has one corner attached, and doesn’t fit the progression established by 34 and 35.

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    • Vewatkin,

      Correct! Bumping it up to three!

      A little bit more in this room.

      White Raven

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    • And the crowned door- the one with no placard that you can’t go through- is the best of all.

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    • Hello Gregor,

      Congratulations! Bumping it up one!

      Not much in this room, obviously, almost got it all now…

      White Raven

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  18. Let’s look at the fellow first and try to think our way through this out-type.
    Fellow+Doors:
    So, this fellow is most at peace when he’s over the correct door. He only pays attention to 35, however- a room with a pointy thing that, were it in this room, would also point to the correct door. Going through door 35 with his eyes causes him to fade- lost in the loop.
    This is less compelling to me than the top-hatted man’s fear of The Guide. The darkening portrait looks to be of a similar shade as the when the top-hatted man looks out with fear in room 7.

    I’m breaking off the type train for a hypothesis:
    “They were disconcerted by the apparent lack of clues.”
    “Perhaps in another room.”
    The other room is 35- the room the bald man fears. In that room, the fetish points to 33, which is positioned where 34 is here. After going in 35, the only way back to the path is going to take one back through here, thereby having the proper knowledge the second time through.
    Musing again:
    One parent is low-born= 33. The other is close to a king/high born= 35 (next to the crown). The child is a mix of the two= 34.

    There’s more to this room, but I feel pretty confident about the fetish hypothesis.

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  19. Just a note: the wrong doors are present at the top of this entry. I believe you have 36 instead of 34.

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  20. It seems as though each of the door signs has a different symbol above it. Whatever is behind the 35 is horrifying to the painted man. Interesting this man does not wear a hat. Off the top of my head, only the upside down fellow has no head covering. Perhaps this is the top-hatted fellow who lost his hat in the warm room?

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