Roblox Doors is the revolutionary Roblox horror experience. The enigmatic hotel that you make your way through would be passed off as merely a creepy aesthetic choice by the developers, but MatPat from Game Theory has used the setting as the crux of his new theory that seems to explain everything. Let’s go over the broad strokes of his theory and assess whether or not he is on to something.
We WANT to be there?!
Doors, like most other horror games, doesn’t explain exactly how we arrived in the predicament we are in. Player simply accept that we are in the hotel and must get to door 100. But what if there was an in-game explanation?
At the least, the game makes it visually clear that there is no turning back. If you look out of the entrance doors before you enter the first door, you’ll notice that the bridge required to get there has been destroyed, and planks of the bridge are floating in the air. This denotes the mystical nature of the hotel for sure, but doesn’t explain how we got in and why we are there.
Based from that alone, we could arrive at the conclusion that either we walked into a seemingly normal hotel, only for its dark energy to destroy our way out, or that we went out of our way to be there. The latter explanation is more interesting.
What cements this idea, however, are the death screens that Game Theory points out. When you first die to an entity, the death screen states, ‘You’ve died to who you call…”. These death screens are to point out how to avoid each entity, however it also directly shows us that we personally already have labels for all of the entities in the hotel. We may not know how to defeat them, but we have them named.
This is a super interesting detail that most won’t think much of, but it tells a whole lot. As Game Theory concludes, we must want to be there out of personal intrigue about these entities, formerly known as cryptids. Cryptids are mystical beings such as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. Not scientifically confirmed, but are believed to be real by certain communities. The entities in the hotel could be wrapped in myth and legend, and we have gone out of our way to find them.
This portion of the theory is pretty rock solid. The devs wouldn’t have gone out of their way to personalise those death screens if it wasn’t significant. It is also so much more interesting than typical explanations, such as ‘we simply happen to be there’, or ‘we had no idea what we were walking into’.
So, with that out the way, we can move on to the more interesting parts of MatPat’s theory.
Related: How to Beat the Figure in Roblox Doors
The hotel setting explained
Doors takes place in a hotel of many, many rooms, some convoluted, some simple, yet all eerie. One simply explanation of this could be that the devs simply took inspiration from numerous viral horror themes and stories swirling around the internet. For example, the hotel has some similarities with the backrooms, and certain other SCP entities.
Doors is fantastically original, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the setting was an amalgamation of inspirations from different horror sources that the devs would have been exposed to. However, MatPat has a much more complicated, yet very interesting take on the matter.
A teased image in anticipation of the Hotel+ update was of a room labelled ‘infirmary’. MatPat points out that a hospital would have no need for infirmaries, so doesn’t make logical sense. That is, however, only partially true. In a shocking twist, he points out that during World War 2, hotels were used as infirmaries for wounded soldiers.
This gives the hotel a setting and time zone, as a hotel that was used during World War 2 to house sick soldiers. The dated-looking furnishings in the hotel seem to support the time frame, too. He doesn’t end it here, however, and then delves into angels, demons, and how the setting makes more sense. In isolation, however, it wouldn’t be too far fetched to imagine a hotel with an infirmary of sorts. The rest of his theory relies on this hotel being used for the war, but there isn’t enough evidence to suggest this is the case. It is a logical connection, and there are a few factors that point toward this conclusion, but may not be totally accurate.
But let’s first see where MatPat was taking this whole WW2 idea.
A battle of angels and demons
That’s right. Those monsters aren’t just entities ro cryptids, but actual demons. And that Guiding Light is more than a helpful tip, but an actual Guardian Angel. Let me explain his thought process.
With the Hotel+ Update, there has been the inclusion of the Crucifix, an overtly Christian symbol. These Crucifixes can chain entities to the floor (or merely stun the stronger entities, like the Figure or Seek). There are deeply religious iconography present in the circle that binds the entities in place. MatPat, after explaining the history of the symbols with their weakness to the Crucifix, concludes that the entities must actually be demons. This does exclude the Figure, who is explained to be a homunculus from its appearance and resistance to the Crucifix.
Once again, that on its own does make sense. I’m sure no one was expecting the game to deviate from anomalous entities to literal demons, but with the inclusion of the Crucifix, it cannot really be denied anymore. But with the presence of demons, comes the presence of angels.
The Guiding Light is an entity that illuminates doors in dark rooms and shows you where to go when running from Seek. The community has deemed this more than just illuminated help for the players, but an actual entity, or angel, itself. It is also suspected, and aesthetically supported, that the Guiding Light is the entity that delivers the death screens, helping you avoid the demons.
This one is a little more of a stretch, but there are certainly connections between the death screens and the light that helps players advance and escape rooms. It is also supported that an entity of some sort at least is talking to you on the death screens, as ‘You died to who you call…’ is structured as if someone talking. Not just an abstract meta message.
So there is direct religious iconography that seem to shout at us that we are dealing with demons, and support for some sort of formless entity that helps and guides us. The antithesis of demons are angels after all, so it may not be too much of a stretch.
But what does this have to do with the setting being a hospital, and what does it have to do with us?
MatPat’s story conclusion
All things considered, MatPat explains the following lore for Roblox Doors:
The setting is World War 2, when hotels were being used as hospitals for wounded soldiers. In one such hotel, the agonising deaths of the sick and injured taint their souls, not allowing them to move on, turning them into monstrous demons. Additionally, the Figure was mostly created from human alchemists attempting to make a homunculus, only for it to turn into what it is as we know it.
So with the hotel populated with demons and a failed experiment, local religious figures pray for the hotel. And the prayers get answered, as the Guiding Light, or the angel, steps in. Unable to banish the demons, the angel instead warps the hotel, trapping the demons in a near-infinite series of rooms with the entrance trashed to prevent escape.
Over time, the hotel remained abandoned, with only legends and tales detailing the monsters contained within. Until someone decided to pay the hotel a visit, to see the myths first hand. Only to realize they are beyond real.
Is he on to something?
I personally have some problems with this conclusion. It seriously has merit and I am not intelligent enough to have made all of those connections, but a few details bugged me.
Firstly, I find it difficult to believe and accept that a hotel that an angel has protected and sealed off from the world would allow someone to just waltz in. The bridge would have been destroyed by the angel, yet we still found a way in. Human intrigue is enough to warrant someone entering the hotel, but to think that the angel just allows this seems strange.
Additionally, the whole ‘agonised souls turn into demons’ thing I also find difficult to accept. This may be personal bias against the idea, as I don’t think it is a particularly interesting or unique way for the game to explain the entities. That trope is overplayed and would be quite a bummer. If these are really demons, it would be cooler and more in-line with the religious themes present in the game if the demons were instead risen or summoned or simply arrived specifically.
We could explain the demons’ presence as a response to the Figure. Perhaps they arrived to observe the first successful attempt at creating a homunculus, or perhaps they were summoned from an attempt to fill the homunculus with a soul. There are many more interesting and accurate ways to explain the demons’ presence other than ‘angry dead souls’.
However, that explanation gives the setting credit. Without that explanation, there is no explicit or direct reason for Doors to take place in a hotel. That is why I believe there to be another reason, another explanation for the setting being a hotel. Whatever it is, however, has yet to be revealed to us.
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Published: Feb 2, 2023 07:15 am