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"Cut out"? I run this fuckin' camp!

— "Cameron Campbell the Camp Campbell Camper"

Max is the main protagonist of the Rooster Teeth internet series Camp Camp. He is a rude, profane, grumpy little boy with no respect for authority who is forced to spend his summer at Camp Campbell against his wishes. Along with his friends, Nikki and Neil, Max is always causing chaos, rebelling against the counselors, and most of all, trying to escape.

Appearance[]

Max is a kid around average height with a thin build, fluffy black hair, blueish-green eyes, and tan skin. He often has bags under his eyes. He wears a contrasting blue hoodie with a yellow t-shirt underneath, blue jeans, and red shoes with white stripes and black laces.

Personality[]

Max is an angry, jaded ten-year-old who is extremely pessimistic and seems to despise a wide variety of things, including, but not limited to, all of the amenities of Camp Campbell and David.

Particularly in the first couple of seasons, Max has gone out of his way to cause trouble, such as by building a Rube Goldberg machine in the episode "Mascot", creating a gambling ring in "Quest to Sleepy Peak Peak", and breaking the rules by dealing candy in "The Candy Kingpin". He has also actively tried to escape camp in "Escape from Camp Campbell" and "Scout's Dishonor".

He enjoys snuffing out the joy of other people, such as wanting Gwen to break up with her boyfriend in "Something Fishy" because he likes her more when she is unhappy, reading aloud and mocking her childhood dreams in "Time Crapsules", and gloating that he finally got David to understand that the world is shitty in "The Order of the Sparrow".

Max has been known to snoop into David and Gwen's personal affairs, such as Gwen's mail drawer in "Gwen Gets a Job", David's desk in "Arrival of the Torso Takers", and the counselors' cabin itself in "The Fun-Raiser". He has asked for David's Social Security Number in exchange for helping him with the behavioral boot camp in the episode "David Gets Hard", used David's credit card in order to pay for his pre-order of 500 cookies in "Bonjour Bonquisha", and has even taken money out of David's wallet, leaving a note that he'd done so in "The Forest".

He has a habit of routinely stealing David's phone for his own personal use, such as messing with his Tinder account in "Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected". In "Camp Corp.", Max demands, "Someone give me a cell phone." David's reply is, "I'm pretty sure you stole mine." At the end of the same episode, Max's pocket starts ringing; he then takes out David's phone and hands it to him. David didn't make any demands for his phone back or even scold Max for taking it, so he seems to be acutely aware of the fact that Max often steals it. He has also used said phone to take pictures of the stolen Quartermaster's hook Gwen was hiding in her shorts in "The Fun-Raiser" and pictures of the other campers' attempts to be cool in "Ered Gets Her Cool Back".

Max has blackmailed Gwen by threatening to tell David that Gwen is out job hunting in "Gwen Gets a Job", and the crowning example of how effective a schemer and blackmailer he is would be his entire plan and its execution to take back the camp in "Camp Corp." Max himself even stated that there's "only one camper at Camp Campbell worse than Nurf, and it's me." In "Gwen Gets a Job," Gwen even referred to Max as "Satan" in the same episode.

Max has repeatedly been shown to have excellent sleuthing skills, much like a detective, and has been shown to be very good at interrogating other campers and noticing small details, as seen in the episode "Who Peed the Lake". In season 1, he took charge of locating Neil in "Reigny Day", trailed David around and questioned multiple townsfolk about him in "Into Town", and took a "Journey to Spooky Island" to prove the island wasn't haunted and had very thorough and logical explanations for everything. In season 3, he made a thorough investigation into Quartermaster's missing hook in "The Fun-Raiser", went searching for the story of Jasper's death (and David's involvement) in "Dial M For Jasper", and thoroughly (and anxiously) collected information on David's odd behavior in "Arrival of the Torso Takers". The season 4 episode "Who Peed the Lake" was practically a full-on police investigation from start to finish, with him even wearing a deerstalker cap and calling himself the "camp detective." "New Adventure!" also gives him an opportunity to put his skills to use by searching for whoever stole Gwen's "feminine haptic devices", though the actual investigation was performed off-screen.

Max is much more mature than his fellow campers, to the point of which Camp Counselors David and Gwen ask for his assistance regarding difficult issues (such as the torrid romance displayed in "Quartermaster Appreciation Day"). Due to his maturity, Max refuses to participate in childish activities (read: all the camp activities) or at least do as little as humanly possible. Although he says he isn't afraid of anything in "Journey to Spooky Island", he has shown fear on a few occasions, like in "Arrival of the Torso Takers" where he shows fear that a horror movie he watched messed with his head and showed discomfort with "David’s" behavior, even being mocked by Neil for not "being able to tell the difference between fact and fiction due to his lower intellect", though in general throughout the show he simply doesn't react to scary situations.

Max almost never smiles genuinely, primarily only smirking or sneering, usually only after causing some sort of trouble to someone or after making a snide remark.

He's also very intelligent for his age and has repeatedly voiced very insightful and mature opinions on the people around him and how the world works, although they are always colored by pessimism. He has been left scarred by a spell that Harrison cast on him in "Mind Freakers" that made him vomit up random magical objects, and he has stated that the revelation that ghosts are real has turned his entire worldview upside-down in "Dial M for Jasper". He also acknowledges that the forest attacked the campers in "The Quarter-Moon Convergence", but actively refuses to think about it, lest he be traumatized. Max has a dull and sobered insight into people and the world, perhaps from consistent disappointment.

Due to his neglectful parents ("Parents' Day") and the fact that he once stated that he cries himself to sleep in "Into Town", it is reasonable to assume that he has some form of depression. As well as being shown to "grind his teeth in his sleep" ("The Candy Kingpin") as well as keeping a stuffed bear (Mr. Honeynuts), who primarily stars in "Gwen Gets a Job," this is usually a sign of anxiety and possible abandonment issues. He has implied he wanted to commit suicide (often painted as a rude remark) in multiple episodes, such as "Journey to Spooky Island" and "Attack of the Nurfs". In an effort to isolate himself from the world, he 3D-printed a sensory deprivation tank in "Attack of the Nurfs". While not necessarily a sign of depression or suicidal tendencies, he does have a particularly strong desire to isolate himself from the world. When one of the Nurf copies opens the door and drains the water from his tank, Max is left lying on the ground, saying, "So this is the feeling that drives murderers over the edge." Showing homicidal urges as well, though this isn’t much of a surprise. In "Journey to Spooky Island", he is aware of what religious repression is, implying that he has some kind of personal issue (or issues) that he is repressing. He also doesn't believe in the afterlife, cheerfully stating, "When you die, you're faced with eternal nothingness. It's gonna be great."

Despite Max's cold disposition, he does have his moments. He had tried to get David back together with Bonquisha in "Bonjour Bonquisha", and despite his initially misguided efforts, he ultimately and genuinely tried to correct his relationship with Gwen in "Time Crapsules".

Max throughout the series has definitely changed in his personality as well as the way he views life (much to his distaste shown in "Keep the Change"). He has made so much character development, first mentioned in "Time Crapsules". Despite his frequent attempts to prove people don’t change, by the end of the episode "Keep the Change," it’s shown that David has actually changed for the worse while Max has improved as a person. In the later seasons, you can tell Max is overall happier and more accepting of his life at camp, contrasting with his behavior in the first two seasons. A big moment of realization for him was during "Camp Corp." where he realized that he does like his friends and doesn’t want camp to end. As well as saying "‘cause once the time came for us to actually say goodbye, I’d have something to lose," in response to calling Neil and Nikki "temporary friends".

In "Welcome Back, Campers!", after being constantly faced with the fact that the other campers have changed since last summer, Max accuses them of being just as lame as before, which is why they didn't have any friends back home to begin with, and is stunned to realize he's projected his own insecurities on the group. This statement confirms the long-running theory that Max's only friends are the ones he's made at Camp Campbell. He later admits that he isn't sure if he's changed since the previous summer, that he was scared this meant that something was "broken" about him, and the worry that he wouldn't have a place at the camp otherwise. He also reveals that he's taken up gymnastics, though whether or not this happened prior to the start of the series itself remains unconfirmed.

History[]

In "Parents' Day", it is confirmed that Max's parents are in fact negligent. Max's file reveals that his parents failed to select a specific camp for him, suggesting that they didn't care what he was there for, only that he was gone. Max's file only includes his first name and age, implying that his parents didn't even care enough to include his last name or any way to be contacted in case of an emergency. Max shows visible distress when seeing the other campers' parents care for them and even begins tearing up when his neglected status is revealed.

At the beginning of "Keep the Change", Nikki and Neil point out that Max's attitude has lightened up a bit since the beginning of the summer, which even David and Gwen agree with. These points shock him, insisting he hasn't changed, that he's still a "cynical rebel" and a "one-man hell raiser", and that people can't and don't change. To prove these points, he spends the rest of the episode, as well as "Cameron Campbell Can't Handle the Truth Serum", trying to undermine Campbell's attempts to better himself. Although Campbell remains mercifully oblivious to these efforts, Max is extremely and repeatedly insistent that personal growth is impossible. Max still remains highly adverse to change in "The Butterfinger Effect", repeatedly rejecting the notion that change can often be positive when faced with his fellow campers' behavior suddenly and drastically skewing. In the end, he admits that he has made some change in his own right and even recognizes it in the following episode "Time Crapsules". After sincerely feeling bad for (and understanding the consequences of) hurting Gwen's feelings, he realizes that this is due to his own change in personality. None of this would have been openly admitted to in previous seasons. However, he does not make a genuine personal effort to make her feel better (until his apology at the burial ceremony); rather, he blatantly copies David's behavior in several interactions with her, especially in his opening lines of apology. If nothing else, at least he learned something in the way of positivity and conflict-solving skills from David, which is partially what has "rubbed off" on Max that Nikki mentions in the season premiere. The other part is a generally calmer nature and occasional willingness to help (in his own way), such as his unique method of wrangling money in "The Fun-Raiser" and grand master plan to take back the camp in "Camp Corp." By the end of Season 4, Max hasn't fully become "a better person" as initially claimed, in that he only wanted to help Gwen for selfish reasons, so he still has more growing to do.

Affiliation[]

Main article: Affiliation

Trivia[]

  • Unlike the other campers, Max's parents "didn't care" enough to sign him up for a specific camp, leaving him without a purpose at Camp Campbell, which is revealed in the episode "Parents' Day".
    • The fact that Max's parents just left his papers with only his first name and age written on them without revealing his last name, contact number, or any other information proves that his parents didn't care for him at all, to the point where if something bad were to happen to Max, the camp would not be able to contact his family about it or take him back.
    • Their neglect may also be why he hoped the other campers' parents would fail at supporting their children, insinuating that Max may be jealous of how the other kids' parents care for them and his own don't. He was remorseful that Space Kid's parents couldn't make it to Parents' Day, but went right back to being grumpy when it turned out his uncle was coming instead.
  • Max and David are the only characters whose ages have been clearly established. Max's age (10) was revealed by Gwen in "Gwen Gets a Job", later confirmed in "Parents' Day", and David's age (24) was revealed in his Tinder profile in "Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected".
  • Contrary to popular belief, his full first name has not been confirmed to be "Maxwell", Maximilian," or even "Maximus"; these are actually from other people making assumptions. Pikeman has misnamed him twice, calling him Maxwell in "Gwen Gets a Job" and Maximus in "New Adventure!", and Preston called him "Maximilian" in "Nikki's Last Day on Earth." Even the registration form shown in "Parents' Day" only had the name "Max" on it, so whether or not it is indeed a nickname remains to be seen.
    • While discussing Ered's nickname in "Camp Cool Kidz", Nikki calls Max a "first-part nicknamer", indicating that "Max" may not be his full first name.
  • Max has a hidden talent: tap dancing. In "The Forest", during the scene where he addresses everyone to keep it a secret, a couple of obvious tap-shoe clicks can be heard as he walks, and his shoes are clearly black instead of the usual red. Other hints include Nerris' snicker about Max's (dance) routine, and Nurf also saying he'd rather "tap out" than give away the secret.
  • Max is skilled in knitting, as shown when he was able to knit a cloth dummy of himself in "Escape from Camp Campbell," as well as additional dummies for Neil and Nikki.
    • He is also seen to be skilled in knot tying, as shown in "Camp Cool Kidz" when David compliments his skills and, in the same breath, comments how torn he is that Max used this skill to tie him and Gwen onto the flagpole at the start of the campers' rebellion.
  • Although Max is the one who frequently steals David's phone, Neil was seen holding it and commenting on how many service bars he was getting as they drove into the city in "City Survival".
  • Max is shown to have a habit of looking up "what do boobies look like" whenever he gets his hands on anything that's connected to the internet, as shown in both "Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected" and "Anti-Social Network".
  • He has also shown himself to be able to sound suave enough for online women to think that they're actually talking to a man their age, to the point where he leads them on and breaks their hearts, unaware that they're only talking to a ten-year-old. [1]
  • Max has a taste for horror media. He is seen reading a book called "Evil Under the Sun" in the episode "Who Peed the Lake", which is about a murder investigation. The heavy romance themes indicate the book may belong to Gwen, but because of his sleuthing skills, it may be entirely possible that it may actually belong to Max.
    • He also snagged Gwen's copy of "Dark Reflections" in "Arrival of the Torso Takers", which is a British horror TV series.
  • In "Camp Cool Kidz", Max reveals that his parents left their home country, which reveals that Max's ethnic background is likely not entirely American. In "Journey to Spooky Island", he also claims that "people in sheets got [him] concerned," which could be taken as a reference to the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist cult that hates and targets non-Caucasian ethnicities.
    • In "The Order of the Sparrow," Max is implied to be of Indian descent after David claims that he is like an Indian chief, which Neil replies with, "Like Max?" He was also offended by David's costume, saying, "Wow, that is racist." in response to David's "WOWOWOWOWOWO!" This might be pointing out the fact that people call Native Americans "Indians", causing Max to get offended because he is actually Indian, not Native American.
    • "Culture Day" confirms that Max is in fact Indian when the campers are tasked with showing off their own cultural heritage. While leaning against his booth, he said, "Uhh, this is my Hindu culture, represented by a picture of Gandhi, who I'm choosing to say is my cousin." Gwen simply shrugs and says that this is more effort than she expected of him. In this episode, when listing foods for Culture Day, David says "samosas for Max", samosas being a popular dish in India.
  • Max has an undeniable love of dogs; when Gwen's father turns up at the camp with the family dog, Max immediately gushes about how cute she is and is constantly remarking about it for the rest of the episode. It's also the first time he's been very openly excited about an animal, as he states, "I never thought I'd be this happy." and, in a darling matter, also states, "That's the greatest thing I've ever seen!"
    • He did show affection for the newborn platypus hatchling in "Eggs Benefits" before it was promptly eaten by its mother, but his actions here are a lot more obvious (and extremely adorable).
  • Before Neil and Nikki, Max apparently had at least one friend in Camp Campbell, Chucky, whom he mentions he misses in "Reigny Day".
  • Max and Neil share a tent. This is mentioned in "Reigny Day" when Max says, "Well, more tent for me." after everyone assumed that Neil was dead, and later proven in "Mind Freakers" after he is seen waking up while Neil was eager to find out how Harrison did the trick.
    • Max and Neil also share a coffee maker that's propped up on a log, shown in "Mind Freakers". Max drinks the coffee it brews from a white "NOPE" mug that's been seen in "Anti-Social Network" and "Operation: Charlie Tango Foxtrot".
  • Max wears his blue hoodie over his yellow shirt as an act of rebellion. It's stated that he would rather sweat through it all day than show that he's from Camp Campbell.
  • Max has a teddy bear named Mr. Honeynuts, who was revealed in "Gwen Gets a Job".
  • Max is the only character to have appeared in every episode of the show.
  • In "A Camp Camp Christmas, or Whatever," Max, along with Neil and Nikki, sing their first-ever song in the series.
  • Max is shown to have a sweet tooth. He has asked for double dessert in "David Gets Hard" and "Cameron Campbell the Camp Campbell Camper", and seems to have a fondness for ice cream in particular, as stated in "Foreign Exchange Campers".
  • In "Something Fishy," Max is seen wearing his watch on his right wrist in the boat, making it likely he is left-handed.
    • In "Cameron Campbell Can't Handle the Truth Serum," however, it is confirmed that he is right-handed, or at least, writes with his right hand.
    • He might even be ambidextrous, seeing as he is also able to knit.
  • In "Who Peed the Lake", it is revealed that Max is the only character who can't swim, and it's stated that he'd "rather die" than let David find that out, as he would then be forced to take swimming lessons. Space Kid had been given swimming lessons from David earlier in the summer to be able to learn to swim.
  • In "The Candy Kingpin", Dolph states that Max tends to grind his teeth in his sleep. This is called nocturnal bruxism and is either caused by stress or severe anxiety.
  • Max was referenced during Michael Jones' verse in the Achievement Hunter Rap Battle, "You think your personalities are what's keeping you strong? Well, I have plenty. Ask Max and Sun Wukong".

Gallery[]

To see the full gallery, go to Max/Gallery.

Concept art[]

References[]

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