Is Maximus Considered A Hero In Season 2?

If you are diligent, you probably know that episode 2 of season 2 of Fallout is available since today. Broadcast on Prime Video, it immerses us even further into the post-apocalyptic twists and turns of the universe inspired by the game Fallout New Vegas. This episode focuses on the Brotherhood of Steel, but also on one of its most important members: Maximus.

In the first season of FalloutMaximus was clearly not the most striking character. Less charismatic than Lucy, less mysterious than Cooper Howard, his narrative arc was often hesitant, almost withdrawn. Stuck in the rigidity of the Brotherhood of Steel, he moved forward more out of opportunism or survival than out of real moral conviction. However, season 2 seems determined to put Maximus back at the center of the game, and to ask an essential question: can we really consider him a hero? This episode 2 gives us some answers, validated by Aaron Moten himself during an interview.

Interviewed by us, the actor who has played the character since the first season perfectly sums up this ambiguity through a key scene from season 1:

“It’s a pretty funny moment with John Daly, where Maximus takes his first steps in his armor. And he’s like, ‘Oh no, someone’s in danger. I’m going to go save him. I’m going to go help him. I’m going to be the hero I always wanted to be’. And that releases an executioner into the world. He somehow apprehended the wrong person, while he was trying to do the right thing.“

Maximus on the path to wisdom?

All the ambiguity of the character is there. Maximus wants to be a hero, but he acts without fully understanding the consequences of his actions. This is what often defines an anti-hero. The term is defined as a central character who pursues morally laudable goals, but through clumsy, questionable, or contradictory means, far from the classic heroic ideal. Or conversely, someone who acts with fundamentally immoral intentions but who, in order to achieve his goals, finds himself doing good despite everything.

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Season 2 considerably enriches this reading, especially from its second episode. This one returns to Maximus’ childhood in Shady Sands, just before the bombing. We discover his father, a respected figure and true pillar of the community. This memory acts as a moral compass for Maximus, but also as a crushing weight. How can you remain faithful to this heritage when you grew up within the Brotherhood of Steel, a deeply hierarchical, violent, masculinist organization, and convinced of being above the law? Aaron Moten rightly evokes this inner tension:

“JHe thinks that Maximus, in season 2, obviously found his calling thanks to this promotion. What he wanted most at the start of the first season may now be the last thing he would want today.“

His promotion within the Brotherhood, once the ultimate fantasy, becomes a burden. Maximus understands that power does not guarantee the rightness or goodness of decisions. His most controversial act, freeing Lucy’s father Hank at the end of season 1, is proof of this. He explains that “releasing Hank was an attempt to make the right decision with the information he had“.

Twists and turns to expect

More Fallout is not a Manichean universe, far from it, and good intentions rarely lead to simple outcomes. Season 2 shows a more lucid, less naive Maximus. Aaron Moten himself teases what his future will look like in the next episodes:

“I think he’s moving toward a realization that maybe he needs to make more effective decisions. He now sees the world around him a little better. He will no longer be the same pawn he was in the first season.”

So, hero or anti-hero? Maximus is undoubtedly neither definitively. Rather, he embodies this gray zone dear to the universe of Falloutwhere surviving, doing things well and remaining human are three often incompatible goals. It is also a moral principle that inhabits Lucy and the Totu Ghoul throughout the episodes, but each often leans towards one of the three pillars more than the other two, which is what makes their interactions interesting.