Max as the Anti-Hero and RNM Comment Bingo
Mar. 5th, 2023 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impala_chickI've been doing a season one rewatch, and I'm struck by how complete Liz and Max's arc seemed to be. Also, after the anti-hero panel at online Escapade Con, I think Max would actually fit into the definition.
The hero's journey, as defined on Wikipedia: a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed. I also like how this site defines the hero's journey. Max's story doesn't follow that traditional model. Max doesn't go on an adventure (Liz returns to Roswell and kicks off the story) and the crisis is one of his own making - the past coming back to haunt him. In the end, he sacrifices himself for Liz and proves that he hasn't changed at all.
We start off with Max pining like hell. Liz feels attracted to him, but she doubts her feelings because of the handprint/psychic connection. Then she starts to suspect him of Rosa's murder, and that makes her nearly walk away. Max's dedication waivers when Isobel and Michael confront him, but then he learns Isobel betrayed him. Liz comes back to Max when she knows the truth and they finally share a kiss. They don't define their relationship, but they have sex in the season finale and seem blissful. Then Max finds out Rosa is in a pod, so he sacrifices himself to right one of the biggest wrongs he's ever committed. I'm convinced he knew the toll it would take, considering he was really messed up physically after saving Liz. He trades himself for Rosa, as a final act of love for Liz.
Liz's default is usually anger. She's not the self-sacrificing type, instead throwing herself into work to find a solution. Therefore, if Max had really died, I think Liz would have been angry Max didn't tell her about Rosa, and didn't try to find a solution. And I think Max knew that, but he thought it was still a fair trade.
The biggest take-away here is that Max would do anything for Liz. There are no limits, even if he knows Liz will disapprove. That means Max's moral compass is defined by those he loves, instead of doing what is 'right'. He does acknowledge this in season one, telling Liz he'll do anything for Isobel and Michael (when she makes that serum). Even though he's a man in uniform, he's not loyal to the uniform in the same way he is to his family. Max's morals are easily compromised to save those he loves, and I think this makes him an anti-hero.
It's easy to forget Max killed a random person pre-canon, because it seemed like he didn't mean to do it. But we learn from Noah that killing made Max feel powerful and satisfied. Max must have realized the true power he held at that point, if not before. And he never saved anyone else before Liz, because he had been wary of consequences. Liz makes him disregard consequences.
ETA: After a convo with infp on Discord, I'd say Max has a clear sense of morality, but he steps over his own line multiple times. Maybe that means he's got no line? Max is defined more by his emotions than by what's 'right.'
And I completed RNM Comment Bingo and won a fic!
Here's my tumblr post.
The hero's journey, as defined on Wikipedia: a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed. I also like how this site defines the hero's journey. Max's story doesn't follow that traditional model. Max doesn't go on an adventure (Liz returns to Roswell and kicks off the story) and the crisis is one of his own making - the past coming back to haunt him. In the end, he sacrifices himself for Liz and proves that he hasn't changed at all.
We start off with Max pining like hell. Liz feels attracted to him, but she doubts her feelings because of the handprint/psychic connection. Then she starts to suspect him of Rosa's murder, and that makes her nearly walk away. Max's dedication waivers when Isobel and Michael confront him, but then he learns Isobel betrayed him. Liz comes back to Max when she knows the truth and they finally share a kiss. They don't define their relationship, but they have sex in the season finale and seem blissful. Then Max finds out Rosa is in a pod, so he sacrifices himself to right one of the biggest wrongs he's ever committed. I'm convinced he knew the toll it would take, considering he was really messed up physically after saving Liz. He trades himself for Rosa, as a final act of love for Liz.
Liz's default is usually anger. She's not the self-sacrificing type, instead throwing herself into work to find a solution. Therefore, if Max had really died, I think Liz would have been angry Max didn't tell her about Rosa, and didn't try to find a solution. And I think Max knew that, but he thought it was still a fair trade.
The biggest take-away here is that Max would do anything for Liz. There are no limits, even if he knows Liz will disapprove. That means Max's moral compass is defined by those he loves, instead of doing what is 'right'. He does acknowledge this in season one, telling Liz he'll do anything for Isobel and Michael (when she makes that serum). Even though he's a man in uniform, he's not loyal to the uniform in the same way he is to his family. Max's morals are easily compromised to save those he loves, and I think this makes him an anti-hero.
It's easy to forget Max killed a random person pre-canon, because it seemed like he didn't mean to do it. But we learn from Noah that killing made Max feel powerful and satisfied. Max must have realized the true power he held at that point, if not before. And he never saved anyone else before Liz, because he had been wary of consequences. Liz makes him disregard consequences.
ETA: After a convo with infp on Discord, I'd say Max has a clear sense of morality, but he steps over his own line multiple times. Maybe that means he's got no line? Max is defined more by his emotions than by what's 'right.'
And I completed RNM Comment Bingo and won a fic!
Here's my tumblr post.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-16 02:29 am (UTC)The hero’s journey, according to Wikipedia, is when a character goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed. I also like how this site defines the hero's journey. There are many different definitions, just as there are different definitions of an anti-hero. For argument’s sake, I’ll use the wikipedia definition: An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero)[1] is a main character in a story who may lack conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality.
Max's story doesn't follow the hero’s journey. Max doesn't go on an adventure, he stays in the same town with the same job, and the ultimate crisis/decision point for him is more about the past than his future. Although Noah is the villain of s1, I think Max should be considered an anti-hero (whereas I would consider Liz and Isobel the heroes of s1).
Max spends most of s1 believing Isobel killed Rosa, just like the other characters. He hides this truth even though he wants to start a relationship with Liz, because he won’t betray Isobel. He even tells Liz to keep the anti-alien serum and protect herself, because he could never choose between Liz and his family. This tracks with what we find out later about Max - he only started wearing a uniform and became a police officer because he wanted to protect Michael. Family comes first in Max’s mind, no matter the consequences. Max doesn’t see an ideal world where Isobel and Michael and himself can live as aliens out in the open. He knows it would end badly for them, and that’s why he must protect their secret.
Then Max finds out Rosa is in a pod, so he sacrifices himself to bring Rosa back to life. I'm convinced he knew the toll it would take on himself, considering how physically ill he was after saving Liz. He trades himself for Rosa, as a final act of love for Liz. I think Max knew Liz & Isobel & Michael would never have agreed to his chosen course of action, but he thought it was still a fair trade. This choice could be seen as courageous, because he does take on this final act all by himself. I agree, but I think the even more courageous choice would have been to tell Liz. Again, Max is unable to believe in an ideal world where he gets to live and Liz is able to find a cure for Rosa and bring her back too.
It's easy to forget Max killed a random person pre-canon, because it seemed like he didn't mean to do it - he just acted instantly to protect Isobel. We learn from Noah that killing probably made Max feel satisfied, or at least powerful. Max must have realized the true power he held at that point, if not before. And he never saved anyone else before Liz, even though he watched several people die as a police officer. He knew he could of done something to save them, and yet he chose not to.
Additionally, Max is the one to kill Noah, and that wasn’t a tough moral dilemma for him. He had been resolved to that course of action as soon as he found out what Noah did to Isobel (and Rosa, and all of the other women). Even when Michael argues to keep Noah alive (very logically, I think), Max has already made up his mind to neutralize the threat that Noah presents.
The bottom line is that Max is motivated by his love for his chosen family, and he doesn’t see any limits to that love. Even if he knows Liz or Isobel or Michael will disapprove or be angry, he still goes forward with protecting Isobel and then saving Rosa. Max's moral compass is defined by his end goals, instead of doing what is 'right' or what his loved ones want him to do. He’s not an idealist, and he doesn’t try to follow a stringent moral code.
Saving Rosa does have consequences for Max that he couldn’t have predicted (being awake in the pod, and then forgetting Liz for a time), but I’m not sure that they change his outlook. He’s steadfast in his protector role even after that. I think he finally has to confront himself/his motivations when Jones arrives, but that’s meta for another day.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-23 02:52 pm (UTC)Also, generally speaking, a movie or book will fit that model better because they are more likely to be about one thing. A TV show may be primarily about one thing, and in fact they usually are because there's a pressure from the time of the first show pitch to make what it's "about" really clear. So it's both a marketing thing and a development thing.
But especially as a show goes on, while the main thing is still there it often becomes a variety of things (especially with a variety of characters). So with Roswell it was clearly marketed as a romance from the start but also a scifi show with a whole aliens storyline.
It's interesting what you suggest about an antihero model being merged into a romance model too. I mean, the romance genre in general tends to have a number of tropes and genres that split them off into different things, but I'd love to see a discussion of how it tends to have more things blend together than hero's journeys (which are often coming of age stories of some kind).
no subject
Date: 2023-03-29 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-16 02:30 am (UTC)