As we tuck into Fallout season 2, eager to see Amazon bring New Vegas to life, there’s one person who stands out — and not just because of his power armor. Knight Maximus of the Brotherhood of Steel is the most important of Fallout’s three main characters, and I’m glad the new season is finally getting into why.
Each member of the cast represents one of the factions warring over control of the Mojave Desert. The vault dwellers have the doggedly optimistic Lucy (Ella Purnell), the wretches of the wasteland get the Ghoul (Walton Goggins), and the “order at any cost” Brotherhood has Maximus (Aaron Moten). But more than either Lucy or the Ghoul, it’s Maximus’ character across both seasons that best represents the heart of all Fallout storytelling: when society has broken down, do you choose evil or good?
“I would put him right in the middle.”
Lucy and the Ghoul pretty clearly declare their own sides early in the show. Lucy is determined, no matter the extensive grief it brings her, to be a good, helpful person in the wasteland. On the other hand, the Ghoul is a selfish “the ends justify the means” kinda guy where the “means” is often “kill whatever’s in the way.” Throughout the first season and into the second, both characters are firmly set in their respective outlooks. But what makes Maximus interesting in this context is that he hasn’t figured his perspective out yet. He struggles with the choice Lucy and the Ghoul have already made.
“I would put him right in the middle of the two of them,” said Aaron Moten in an interview with The Verge. Speaking on where he falls in personality between Lucy and the Ghoul, Moten says Maximus has the best and worst of both worlds. “[Maximus] can share in [Lucy’s] naivete, but [he] also has lived a life above ground in the wasteland,” he said.
In inhabiting the middle, Maximus bounces between both ends of the good versus evil spectrum. In the first season, Maximus lets Titus, the knight he’s assigned to, die of his wounds before taking his power armor and identity. When Maximus gets his own squire, Maximus bullies him, perpetuating the bullying he experienced as a Brotherhood initiate. Thanks to some helpful flashback storytelling in season 2, we know Maximus was taught by his family to be better than that. So maybe, when Maximus saves Lucy for the first time, or when he steps in to resolve a dispute between two wastelanders, we’re seeing those teachings finally kick in.
When we catch up with Maximus at the start of season 2 though, it seems he’s back flirting with the Ghoul’s end of the continuum. He’s a fully fledged Brotherhood knight with the admiration of his peers. He also has authority over them that he has no reservations about flexing. But even when Maximus has reached his pinnacle of achievement, he knows he’s not living up to the ideals his family instilled in him, and it creates an inner tension unique to Maximus. Lucy is looking for her dad; the Ghoul is looking for his family. Their tensions are external and, now that they’re back on the road again together, often aimed at each other.
But Maximus achieved his goals at the end of season 1 — he got to be a knight. He’s the show’s most conflicted character and it makes him the one most like the prototypical Fallout game protagonist, even if he’s overshadowed by his more charismatic colleagues. On paper, Maximus has nowhere else to go, so his war turns inward. And you know what Fallout likes to say about war.
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