(no subject)
This is partly inspired by the game and babbling at Debra last night, but partly inspired by a comment that Ashe made when we were talking about how Max is a not-Jesus, and I was like, no, no, Max is a Jesus in every imaginable way. It’s interesting to look at her that way, because in a passing thread, you might not see it. The fact of the matter is, I need to feel comfortable about her Jesusing people! Because it is the majority of what she does while keeping most people at this hard-to-tell distance. Hilariously, it’s something Lockon does, too. Only Lockon isn’t a Jesus. I bet there will be a section in this dedicated to how Lockon and Max are similar.
Max as a Jesus in Canon
In canon, it’s not as obvious in the first season. In the first season, we see someone who’s keeping her friends at a distance, going through, taking names, and generally being someone who goes out of her way to be insanely badass. She does the Robin Hood deal in order to make a living. That is: stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. In this case, the poor is herself, and she’s lifting priceless things (in S2, she steals a baseball-I think it’s one of Hank Aaron’s homerun balls, but I can’t remember clearly so that may be wrong) and selling them. She steals cars for parts-so on and so forth. As things go, it seems that she’s more intimate with her motorcycle than she is with many of her friends. And while she’ll go above and beyond for them, there’s a facet of her that’s not quite thrown herself into self-sacrificing mode.
Mind you, there’s facets of it there. The way she acts for the siblings that got away with her. The way she acts when she sees an abused girl, and goes above and beyond to make sure that little girl gets a proper life. These are things that immediately ping her and remind her of her childhood-not necessarily the one in a military institute. Rather, the one where she’s out and moving between homes, dealing with abusive alcoholic foster parents and so forth. She probably could’ve done something when she was younger, but she didn’t. All the more motivation to do it now.
I don’t think Max was always this image of strength. I think when she was younger, she was scared, uneasy, and kind of unemotional. The scenes we get of her when she’s younger generally show this. When she’s younger, she doesn’t know how to really show emotion beyond fear. The Manticore kids were mindfucked into being awesome soldiers. They had to chase after people and kill them. They were basically really fucked, and it’s understandable that twelve of them, when put into the right position, would find themselves afraid for their lives.
Growing up on the streets is what shaped her identity. There’s novel canon about this, but since I feel intensely uncomfortable about not using James Cameron’s canon for her, I don’t. But I can piece enough together from flashbacks of her as a child to how she does things now to know this. She’s trained to be stealth, to slip under the cover, to interrogate without being interrogated. She may have only gotten ten years of that training, but what the show makes clear is-even with ten years of that training, she’s kept herself alive. She’s actively using it in every walk of her life.
And then we have the end of S1. At the end of S1, Max goes in and tries to take down the military base that’s been after her and her friends all their lives after their information was compromised. Her brother, who … is also in love with her, decides to shoot himself in the head after she dies on the operating table after some facets of this turn out to be a failure. Max dies, but then she is resurrected with her brother’s heart inside of her (X5s can only be donors for X5s), and she looks up at the face of someone deeply involved with Manticore at the end of S1. Thus leading into the beginning arc and overarching arc for S2.
NOW, S2.
When I updated Max to S2, I said she was a lot more Jesus. She’s post the resurrection phase, and she realizes she has to do a lot with that heart. The thing is-she was Jesus before the whole prophetic thing came into question. She’s supposed to deliver the weak, she’s supposed to bring them into the new age and protect them, and the majority of S2 is her coming into this role. Again, there’s novel canon on how she achieves it, but again, that’s not something that had James Cameron’s backing. James Cameron had his hand in the final episodes of S2, ensuring that they were perfect, but naturally, that didn’t keep Fox from canceling the show. Unfortunately.
But still, I have enough to go on for Max. Her tendencies extend all over the place. She doesn’t shred up that part of her that keeps people at a distance, but she does help. Problem is, Max has terrible coping problems and doesn’t realize when she’s doing things. She doesn’t cope well, but she acts on instinct. It means she does a lot of things weirdly, incorrectly, and is very good at making herself believe she’s doing things right. While her relationship problems are intensely difficult, she’s pulling people together near the end and doing what’s necessary. She brings the transgenics together, and though it’s time to bring about a war, she understands that it’s necessary.
The way she approaches people is much like she does in camp. Distancing, but helpful. She helps the ones to get jobs, she does runs at night to make things work out. Generally, she’s someone who goes out of her way to deliver her people-all people-to a better place. She does this while kicking ass and maintaining the rugged, rough around the edges, persona. Her life has formed her for the deliverance, and she was created to be the one to do it. Every DNA bit inside of her was put there for a reason, and the reason is this Coming. And she embraces it, standing tall with transgenics and humans, knowing that a new day will come.
Camp
This brings her to camp. In camp, I keep specific things in mind:
1. Max is not going to hide who she is. In fact, she says it proudly. It’s something she’s tired of hiding, and understands that the world is different here. Part of why she does it is because of that pride, and part of why she does it is because no one here is going to blink twice about it. Dean didn’t really, Deb didn’t really in the game-there are some strange, fucked up people in camp in every way imaginable, and she doesn’t need to be afraid.
2. Being open about what she is doesn’t necessarily mean she’s open about who she is.
3. Max is awake around the clock. She’s in a strange area, and while she’s still getting to know people, she’s also got old habits that are hard to kill. Even harder in a place where she’s powerless and can’t necessarily pull people together.
The thing with Max is this. She approaches people who ping her in some way. It means I’m restricted in the kind of threads I’m willing to do, but people who ping her are also people that she doesn’t need to talk to herself with. I feel bad about this, because it means she’s entering a conversation with a purpose, rather than entering the conversation for a friendly talk. She does it with Sealand, has done it with Latvia, with Sera-and she tends to do it with aged down characters a lot. She also did it with Ashe, seeing that Ashe was a Badass Female who Actually Fits the Same Archetype as Her. Only Max is different, because she’s good at acting like she’s normal, whereas Ashe doesn’t appear to bother. (This is my read on the situation, so.) Max is seemingly driven mostly on instincts, though a lot of these instincts are honed and polished because of her years as a child being mindfucked into things. It means that things that would normally be straightforward aren’t.
The good thing about how she approaches things is that it makes it easier for me. She can keep tabs on the people she’s worried about while essentially not building those close, close relationships. Her closest relationship in camp is Dean, and this is because it was a case of mistaken identity. The two of them actually click pretty damn well.
The thing is, with camp-Max isn’t very fond of it, but her opinion wavers. She sees the good sides of it (the acceptance) but also the bad sides (PEOPLE GETTING HURT AND SHE’S POWERLESS COMPARED TO SOME). She doesn’t like that a bunch of kids are trapped there. It bugs the fuck out of her, to be completely honest. But Sera made it clear that this place is a haven compared to where she and the Embryon were before, so Max wavers. She has a hard time trying to accept certain aspects of it. So she does her Help People When She Can thing, because that makes it a lot easier on her. She doesn’t like the idea of killing others, and strangely, the thought rarely crosses her mind. Killing is bad.
The thing with Max is-she’s really good at acting a certain way. Rude, blunt, but also pretty chill. If she forces herself to believe something, she’ll go along with it even without that little voice in her head calling her an idiot. That little voice in her head comes in the form of her best friend being her conscience, because half the time, when Max decides to go with something, she’ll stick with it until it hurts her. She’s doing this in the wolf game, she does it in camp, and so forth. When someone pushes a button (Prussia did it last night during the game), she’s forced to feel weaker, because it means that the “oh, yeah, yeah, let’s just roll with it, I’m cool guys” part of her drops. She is rude and doesn’t care, which is a large part of it, and she is someone who sees situations as missions half the time-without realizing it. She’s a strange bundle of issues.
The wolf game is good for her because it is making her really damn transparent, if sometimes very flip-floppy on her resolve. I imagine this will only continue as the game goes on. It’s helping me understand her character more. In canon, she’s put into several similar situations as the one she’s in for the game, and it makes her believe she can just brush it off. No big deal, right? She can handle it. Well, she can’t. That’s the problem. But for all her vulnerabilities and issues, Max isn’t willing to let them show. She doesn’t want to make them someone else’s problem, so even when she’s pissed off and talking about why she has a problem, she’s rationalizing it so it doesn’t have anything to do with her.
This doesn’t mean she’s pushing the blame off herself. But she focuses on the “real problem” rather than the “problem with Max.” In many ways, Max is far too self-sacrificing and selfless to have problems focus on her. Focus on other people. Help them. But never help herself. She’s reckless when she dives into situations and she doesn’t think twice. She’s angry and temperamental. It’s just how she is, and while a part of her accepts this, she doesn’t really … think. Of herself while she’s doing it.
Where Will This All Go?
I don’t know. That’s the best part, though. I have goals for her as a character, but I never know what situation will lead or who she’ll click with. Sometimes she clicks with people I’m surprised about (Ashe was actually one of them).
I need to follow up on her relationships better. If people are interested in her, feel free to PM me or jump me. I’m going to try and get her out into posts more.
BONUS SECTION: Max and Lockon. This will contain G00 spoilers.
- Max and Lockon are both the older twins, and the more “perfect” of the two. Lockon is referred to this by his brother, and Sam, Max’s twin, refers to her that way. Sam has had to deal with being in Max’s shadow because of Max’s mistakes when she was ten years old (which was running away). Lockon … doesn’t necessarily realize the mistakes he made! But then again, neither does Max.
- They both die. But really, if one of my characters hasn’t died, you should sit there shocked.
- They’re both self-sacrificing for various purposes, caring more about getting something done. However, Lockon is NOT Jesus-y about this. He is not Gundam Jesus for G00. That will be Setsuna, who’s meant to understand and deliver. Lockon is nothing more than a guide.
- They mentor others. In doing so, they push issues off themselves in order to do it.
- They’re both sexy. :D
Max as a Jesus in Canon
In canon, it’s not as obvious in the first season. In the first season, we see someone who’s keeping her friends at a distance, going through, taking names, and generally being someone who goes out of her way to be insanely badass. She does the Robin Hood deal in order to make a living. That is: stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. In this case, the poor is herself, and she’s lifting priceless things (in S2, she steals a baseball-I think it’s one of Hank Aaron’s homerun balls, but I can’t remember clearly so that may be wrong) and selling them. She steals cars for parts-so on and so forth. As things go, it seems that she’s more intimate with her motorcycle than she is with many of her friends. And while she’ll go above and beyond for them, there’s a facet of her that’s not quite thrown herself into self-sacrificing mode.
Mind you, there’s facets of it there. The way she acts for the siblings that got away with her. The way she acts when she sees an abused girl, and goes above and beyond to make sure that little girl gets a proper life. These are things that immediately ping her and remind her of her childhood-not necessarily the one in a military institute. Rather, the one where she’s out and moving between homes, dealing with abusive alcoholic foster parents and so forth. She probably could’ve done something when she was younger, but she didn’t. All the more motivation to do it now.
I don’t think Max was always this image of strength. I think when she was younger, she was scared, uneasy, and kind of unemotional. The scenes we get of her when she’s younger generally show this. When she’s younger, she doesn’t know how to really show emotion beyond fear. The Manticore kids were mindfucked into being awesome soldiers. They had to chase after people and kill them. They were basically really fucked, and it’s understandable that twelve of them, when put into the right position, would find themselves afraid for their lives.
Growing up on the streets is what shaped her identity. There’s novel canon about this, but since I feel intensely uncomfortable about not using James Cameron’s canon for her, I don’t. But I can piece enough together from flashbacks of her as a child to how she does things now to know this. She’s trained to be stealth, to slip under the cover, to interrogate without being interrogated. She may have only gotten ten years of that training, but what the show makes clear is-even with ten years of that training, she’s kept herself alive. She’s actively using it in every walk of her life.
And then we have the end of S1. At the end of S1, Max goes in and tries to take down the military base that’s been after her and her friends all their lives after their information was compromised. Her brother, who … is also in love with her, decides to shoot himself in the head after she dies on the operating table after some facets of this turn out to be a failure. Max dies, but then she is resurrected with her brother’s heart inside of her (X5s can only be donors for X5s), and she looks up at the face of someone deeply involved with Manticore at the end of S1. Thus leading into the beginning arc and overarching arc for S2.
NOW, S2.
When I updated Max to S2, I said she was a lot more Jesus. She’s post the resurrection phase, and she realizes she has to do a lot with that heart. The thing is-she was Jesus before the whole prophetic thing came into question. She’s supposed to deliver the weak, she’s supposed to bring them into the new age and protect them, and the majority of S2 is her coming into this role. Again, there’s novel canon on how she achieves it, but again, that’s not something that had James Cameron’s backing. James Cameron had his hand in the final episodes of S2, ensuring that they were perfect, but naturally, that didn’t keep Fox from canceling the show. Unfortunately.
But still, I have enough to go on for Max. Her tendencies extend all over the place. She doesn’t shred up that part of her that keeps people at a distance, but she does help. Problem is, Max has terrible coping problems and doesn’t realize when she’s doing things. She doesn’t cope well, but she acts on instinct. It means she does a lot of things weirdly, incorrectly, and is very good at making herself believe she’s doing things right. While her relationship problems are intensely difficult, she’s pulling people together near the end and doing what’s necessary. She brings the transgenics together, and though it’s time to bring about a war, she understands that it’s necessary.
The way she approaches people is much like she does in camp. Distancing, but helpful. She helps the ones to get jobs, she does runs at night to make things work out. Generally, she’s someone who goes out of her way to deliver her people-all people-to a better place. She does this while kicking ass and maintaining the rugged, rough around the edges, persona. Her life has formed her for the deliverance, and she was created to be the one to do it. Every DNA bit inside of her was put there for a reason, and the reason is this Coming. And she embraces it, standing tall with transgenics and humans, knowing that a new day will come.
Camp
This brings her to camp. In camp, I keep specific things in mind:
1. Max is not going to hide who she is. In fact, she says it proudly. It’s something she’s tired of hiding, and understands that the world is different here. Part of why she does it is because of that pride, and part of why she does it is because no one here is going to blink twice about it. Dean didn’t really, Deb didn’t really in the game-there are some strange, fucked up people in camp in every way imaginable, and she doesn’t need to be afraid.
2. Being open about what she is doesn’t necessarily mean she’s open about who she is.
3. Max is awake around the clock. She’s in a strange area, and while she’s still getting to know people, she’s also got old habits that are hard to kill. Even harder in a place where she’s powerless and can’t necessarily pull people together.
The thing with Max is this. She approaches people who ping her in some way. It means I’m restricted in the kind of threads I’m willing to do, but people who ping her are also people that she doesn’t need to talk to herself with. I feel bad about this, because it means she’s entering a conversation with a purpose, rather than entering the conversation for a friendly talk. She does it with Sealand, has done it with Latvia, with Sera-and she tends to do it with aged down characters a lot. She also did it with Ashe, seeing that Ashe was a Badass Female who Actually Fits the Same Archetype as Her. Only Max is different, because she’s good at acting like she’s normal, whereas Ashe doesn’t appear to bother. (This is my read on the situation, so.) Max is seemingly driven mostly on instincts, though a lot of these instincts are honed and polished because of her years as a child being mindfucked into things. It means that things that would normally be straightforward aren’t.
The good thing about how she approaches things is that it makes it easier for me. She can keep tabs on the people she’s worried about while essentially not building those close, close relationships. Her closest relationship in camp is Dean, and this is because it was a case of mistaken identity. The two of them actually click pretty damn well.
The thing is, with camp-Max isn’t very fond of it, but her opinion wavers. She sees the good sides of it (the acceptance) but also the bad sides (PEOPLE GETTING HURT AND SHE’S POWERLESS COMPARED TO SOME). She doesn’t like that a bunch of kids are trapped there. It bugs the fuck out of her, to be completely honest. But Sera made it clear that this place is a haven compared to where she and the Embryon were before, so Max wavers. She has a hard time trying to accept certain aspects of it. So she does her Help People When She Can thing, because that makes it a lot easier on her. She doesn’t like the idea of killing others, and strangely, the thought rarely crosses her mind. Killing is bad.
The thing with Max is-she’s really good at acting a certain way. Rude, blunt, but also pretty chill. If she forces herself to believe something, she’ll go along with it even without that little voice in her head calling her an idiot. That little voice in her head comes in the form of her best friend being her conscience, because half the time, when Max decides to go with something, she’ll stick with it until it hurts her. She’s doing this in the wolf game, she does it in camp, and so forth. When someone pushes a button (Prussia did it last night during the game), she’s forced to feel weaker, because it means that the “oh, yeah, yeah, let’s just roll with it, I’m cool guys” part of her drops. She is rude and doesn’t care, which is a large part of it, and she is someone who sees situations as missions half the time-without realizing it. She’s a strange bundle of issues.
The wolf game is good for her because it is making her really damn transparent, if sometimes very flip-floppy on her resolve. I imagine this will only continue as the game goes on. It’s helping me understand her character more. In canon, she’s put into several similar situations as the one she’s in for the game, and it makes her believe she can just brush it off. No big deal, right? She can handle it. Well, she can’t. That’s the problem. But for all her vulnerabilities and issues, Max isn’t willing to let them show. She doesn’t want to make them someone else’s problem, so even when she’s pissed off and talking about why she has a problem, she’s rationalizing it so it doesn’t have anything to do with her.
This doesn’t mean she’s pushing the blame off herself. But she focuses on the “real problem” rather than the “problem with Max.” In many ways, Max is far too self-sacrificing and selfless to have problems focus on her. Focus on other people. Help them. But never help herself. She’s reckless when she dives into situations and she doesn’t think twice. She’s angry and temperamental. It’s just how she is, and while a part of her accepts this, she doesn’t really … think. Of herself while she’s doing it.
Where Will This All Go?
I don’t know. That’s the best part, though. I have goals for her as a character, but I never know what situation will lead or who she’ll click with. Sometimes she clicks with people I’m surprised about (Ashe was actually one of them).
I need to follow up on her relationships better. If people are interested in her, feel free to PM me or jump me. I’m going to try and get her out into posts more.
BONUS SECTION: Max and Lockon. This will contain G00 spoilers.
- Max and Lockon are both the older twins, and the more “perfect” of the two. Lockon is referred to this by his brother, and Sam, Max’s twin, refers to her that way. Sam has had to deal with being in Max’s shadow because of Max’s mistakes when she was ten years old (which was running away). Lockon … doesn’t necessarily realize the mistakes he made! But then again, neither does Max.
- They both die. But really, if one of my characters hasn’t died, you should sit there shocked.
- They’re both self-sacrificing for various purposes, caring more about getting something done. However, Lockon is NOT Jesus-y about this. He is not Gundam Jesus for G00. That will be Setsuna, who’s meant to understand and deliver. Lockon is nothing more than a guide.
- They mentor others. In doing so, they push issues off themselves in order to do it.
- They’re both sexy. :D