#Maximilian Loxlee

[lynmars79]

Found this in my drafts, and I maybe meant to do more with it, but:

Talking to my friend who's caught up to Midst now, and thinking about Lark's story of how and why she killed Maximilian Loxlee.

In S1 E13 "Loose Ends", when she kills Fuze:

Narrator 1: (Fuze) “Well…” he says to her, his voice going quieter, “I suppose… it’s nice of you, at least… not to bludgeon ME to death…” Narrator 2: (Lark) “I would never do that… to YOU.” Narrator 1: (Fuze) “You know, I always did used to think… you seemed like such a nice young kid…”

And then in S3 E4 "Foundation" when she's talking of the factory they worked at (trimmed):

..."[Loxlee] was a regular visitor to the manufacturing islet. He liked to strut around and watch the assembly lines, the fuse braiding stations, the glass blowers. He really liked to visit testing, though. My mom and I worked in testing" .... "Whenever Mr. Loxlee showed up, he’d send everyone else away except my mom. Sometimes I’d sneak up on the catwalk above the testing vats and watch them, but most of the time I was happy to get out of there. Mr. Loxlee… scared me. He scared most of us there. He loved talking to my mom though. That’s the real reason he came to visit testing so much: just to talk to her."

Then:

"At some point I realized there were people, a few people watching from the doorway. I don’t know exactly when they showed up, but… I knew they saw what I did. They were kind of frozen and seemed just as scared of me as I was of them. I knew who some of them were, there was this nice guy from the… fuse assembly department."

And:

"We just kind of stared at each other for a moment, and then they all ran off, and I knew I had to go. I ran out the back way to shipping, I grabbed some of my mom’s things, and I got inside one of the lightbulb crates that was about to ship out."

Everyone in the factory knew Maximilian. Everyone knew his temper. Everyone was scared of him. Everyone knew he spent time alone with Clara's mother.

Why did no one stop her from escaping? There was plenty of time and opportunity, if she went to get her mother's belongings first.

And when it was over, where was Mom during and after all this? What would make nice little Clara do such a thing? Oh no...

They absolutely knew Loxlee had done something terrible--and that none of them would be believed. Clara was probably terrifying in her rage and grief, sure--but still also a 13 year old girl who'd gotten the jump on Loxlee. Also: that's Lark's assumption of their reactions, filtered through 50 years of memory.

And those others perhaps feared what would happen to her, even if her reaction was justified. What would the Trust to do them, for not stopping her from killing the Most Valorous Mr. Loxlee, from standing there watching this kid kill the man they feared?

So what do you do? Let the terrifying child who just killed your terrifying boss escape. Play dumb. Pin it on the missing woman and/or her daughter, and pray they don't drown everyone in more Caenum--or worse.

50 years later, Fuze knew if it came down to it, Lark would kill him to survive--and he always understood why. In the end, his fear of the Trust was stronger, as it had been that day in their youths in the factory.

[midstpodcast]

Did Maximilian Loxlee have a mustache? If he did, was it a handlebar mustache?

🔮: Yes and he also wore a top hat and a monocle and a tuxedo at all times

[elfietheespeon]

I'm curious to see where the Midst community's heads are at regarding this overarching mystery!

We do not have all the pieces yet, but it's safe to assume that a significant amount of the clues were present in seasons 1 and 2. It goes without saying that this is the mystery at the heart of this storyline, and there are no shortage of suspects to choose from.

(Excluding the final entry, this list has been set in alphabetical order so as to avoid personal biases)

[captainofthetidesbreath]

thinking about the chain of events in Midst and the very lengthy sequence of cause and effect behind every single thing that happens is constantly feeling like the V for Vendetta domino scene

[playerkingsley]

the population of stationary hill after hearing lark is wanted by the trust for the murder of maximilian loxlee and is currently the most caenumous criminal in the cosmos:

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

With the most recent Midst episode, I'm stuck by how much the Trust just eats its young.

Lark was 13 and already working in testing at Loxlee Lights when Maximilian Loxlee killed her mom/she killed Maximilian Loxlee, and the way she talked about it makes it sound like she'd already been there for a while, long enough to notice the patterns in Maximilian's visits and how he interacted with her mother. Meaning that she was at most a preteen and already pushed into the workforce (in an environment with open vats of Fold concentrate), presumably to work off a Caenum debt. Backpack also falls into this as she's a teenager and also already working as Pom's media intern.

Phineas tells us about how the Unlifts and other children taken in by the Family were presented with a bill at the end of every day detailing how much they "owed" society for their care, while knowing that the biggest debt they could possibly accrue was already on their accounts. These children were also constantly pushed and tested and interviewed to find out what they were good at, how best society could use them once they got pushed out into the world with their debts.

Even Spahr, who was, presumably, born with Valor, most likely joined the Company in his mid-teens, based on him already being Prime Adsecla when he Unlifted Phineas, and him having been appointed Prime Consector at about age 25. Spahr, 30ish now, gave half his life (and the half where you're figuring out who you are to boot), to an institution that readily hung him out to dry that moment it would take any heat off of them. And s3e3 showed how badly this effected Spahr.

Something about the way the Trust is organized and how it conceptualizes of the ideas of Valor and Caenum, and debt and wealth incentivizes society (or at least those on top of it) to drive their young people into the ground.

[the-littlest-goblin]

Phineas coming into the cargo hold to tell Lark the entire Trust knows she killed Maximilian Loxlee and he is absolutely NOT going to turn her in and also here's lunch!

[essektheylyss]

Because of today's appendices I want to know what IP law looks like in the Trust. It's gotta be convoluted as fuck. There is no way Maximilian Loxlee built a monopolistic empire on lightbulbs without the most legalese bullshit of a patent law protecting him. This society runs on intricate bureaucracy and deified individualism. I wanna know if Loxlee's strong-arming of IP protections makes Disney look like ye olde upstart press baron.

[captainphotogirl]

How did Maximilian Loxlee even figure out that Lark's mom could predict the future?

[captainofthetidesbreath]

Now that we're through season two of Midst and are looking forward to the trailer for season three this week, I thought it'd be fun to return to the season two trailer to take a look at the "questions you may have" after the season one finale that it listed and see how many of them we got answers to and which are questions we still have!

——

Why the fuck did the moon explode? This is still a question we all have, audience and characters alike.

What's gonna happen to utterly doomed Midst and everybody trapped on it by an incoming wave of reality-devouring fog? Just as when Saskia was asked this, it is not really possible to answer this one succinctly—but we do get an answer.

Are Lark and Tzila gonna be okay? Yes! Physically, at least. For the time being.

Are they gonna figure out that Sherman's not dead? They did. It was harrowing.

What's Phineas gonna do now that he's been abandoned by the Trust, the very institution that raised him and gave him purpose and his sense of self-worth? And like, what is he gonna do? Go to therapy. I cannot believe, in the best way, that the answer is literally "go to therapy" here. After that, it's go to the Un (!!!) to rescue Sherman. He's always running after one Guthrie or another.

Will Jonas Spahr do the right thing? He's done a lot of things. Some of it was definitely not the right thing, and some was an attempt at the right thing, and some of it was a failure to commit to the right thing. So, mixed bag at best. It can be said that, ultimately, Jonas Spahr has come to a place where he is trying to do the right thing.

What even is the right thing? This is highly subjective, both in reference to Spahr and in general, so whether we received an answer to this is up to interpretation. There are few clear and unequivocal answers in this story.

What is Imelda's deal? Zealotry!

Why did the Trust even bother rescuing Moc Weepe even though he's this weird sleazeball piece of shit who stabbed his closest friends in the back? That massive ridiculousness of an abacus was more than just an inconvenience, it represented the fact that Weepe has enough Valor to be a member of the Upper Trust! Also, Imelda sees his cunning and ruthlessness as an asset and something that the Trust needs, which should concern everyone.

And what is a mirrorhawk? This has not gotten clearer, and I suspect never will! They're apparently edible though, given herbed mirrohawk dip was served at an Upper Trust luncheon.

What is a bocular horse? "You really know what it is. It really barely needs mentioning. You've seen science fiction. Yes, that picture you've got of the bocular horse in your mind right now, that's it."

What is going on with Weepe's voice? Apparently the same as what's going on with the rest of him, given his voice has gotten more gravelly lately against all odds.

Is Landlord gonna die? They told us this one in the season two trailer directly: no. He does make a couple of lovely reappearances.

Why did Lark kill Fuze? What is she trying to hide? Tying up loose ends, trying to prevent him from identifying her as the one who killed Maximilian Loxlee. Why she killed Maximilian, however, is a new question we've got.

Is the nutcracker okay? It was! Then Saskia threw it out, so...

Will the rapidly depreciating value of Valor ever restabilize, or is the market doomed to implode? Still waiting on this one, and the Trust is sure trying to stablize the market. It's not looking great though, gonna be honest.

Is the Trust bad? It's pretty bad over there, to put it mildly.

Did Saskia's dogs really eat the melted corpse of enterprising businessman Atticus Concord? The answer to this hasn't changed since season one, so it's still at: apparently! Also, we learned the dogs' names: Lloyd and Bartimaeus.

[captainofthetidesbreath]

everyone 🤝 Phineas Lark is explaining why she killed Maximilian Loxlee, I can't believe this is happening, oh fuck, oh god

everyone 🤝 Phineas starting to feel a little sick as Lark explains that Maximilian liked to visit Lark's mother specifically

everyone 🤝 Phineas kind of wants to throw up after everything Lark just said

[captainofthetidesbreath]

fun fact: former Prime Consector Udo, whose wine label produced the Shiraz the Loxlees serve at the dinner with Kozma, was Prime Consector at the time that Lark killed Maximilian Loxlee

Which, ngl, is wild. Imagine serving at dinners you host a wine from the label of the guy who famously failed to find your husband's killer.

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

It's fascinating that despite having fled the Trust fifty years ago, Lark stills bares the marks of someone who grew up in it. She still thinks of the world in terms of Valor and Caenum (though they don't cancel out in her mind), as she tells Phineas that he'll bare the weight of what he did to Sherman for the rest of his life, as she's born the weight of killing Maximilian Loxlee since she was 13

She also spent the vast majority of her life living in a cosmos where the Trust was the only consistent and stable government and on some level she even now still thinks that the government should make some sense. That's why she's so aghast at Phineas' living situation. She knew he was the Prime Adsecla and she assumed that with THAT high ranking of a government position would at least be furnished with a decent place to live simply because the office is powerful and important and that's the reasonable thing to do to keep your officials loyal

It's such an interesting look at how the places we spend are formative years still shape us well into adulthood

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

Phineas: Soooooooo, I have good news and bad news

Phineas: The good news is we're landing in Highest Light and you can get out this cargo hold

Phineas: The bad news is every Trustee alive is looking for you because you apparently murdered Maximilian Loxlee. Not me, though, I'm different

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

The idea that "no man is an island" seems to be one of the central thematic ideas of Midst. Ideas of how individuals impact society and society impacts individuals, the need of individuals for community, and the strength people can get from togetherness and support are all major themes across the work.

To the first point, how individuals impact society is something the Trust obsessively tries to enumerate and quantify. Ideally, prosocial actions will accrue Valor and asocial actions will accrue Caenum but we've seen how the Trust's definition of "asocial actions" includes anything that places any amount of burden on society like buying food or accepting help. We've also seen how the Trust has effected the individuals that live within it. Phineas' desperation that eventually drove him to torture Sherman Guthrie and Spahr's obsessive perfectionism are both the result of how the Trust constantly pushes individuals to keep working and keep working to accrue Valor and to avoid Caenum by any means necessary. Even Lark, who left the Trust 50 years ago, still frames the morality of actions in terms of objective good and objective bad, of Valor and Caenum, only she believes they cannot ever cancel each other out as a result of her experience living on the run after murdering Maximilian Loxlee.

On the topic of Lark, and coming to the second point, as much as she tries to deny that she desires genuine human connection even she eventually comes to realize that it was this desire and need that lead her to murder Fuze Peabody. She'd built connections in Midst; with Sherman, with Tzila, even with Landlord. And even as she kept them at a distance these connections were valuable enough to her to kill for. Likewise, Phineas and Spahr were/are so miserable in the Trust because their social situation and relentless pursuit of Valor has resulted in them lacking in significant social relationships outside of each other and even that relationship is heavily mediated by the Upper Trust. Weepe, despite being generally extremely self-centred and having gleefully sold everyone in the Black Candle Cabaret to the Trust for a payday still calls out to Saskia as he's being tortured by Imelda Goldfinch, because despite everything he was willing to do to her she's still someone he had a genuine connection to.

And these connections are shown to give the characters of Midst a strength they wouldn't have on their own. Phineas and Spahr are experiencing parallel character arcs but as of the last time we saw each of them Phineas was doing better than ever and Spahr was doing worse than ever. Something which is in no small part due to the fact that Phineas was able to get support and help in leaving the Trust and navigating morality beyond the Trust's teachings from the Mothers, Baron Kozma Lazlo, and Lark while Spahr has been left to get increasingly uncomfortable with the Trust on his own. Lark's attempts to evade capture by the Trust and rescue Sherman from it would not be progressing nearly so well (or really at all) if she hadn't listened to her precognitive abilities when they told her to stick with Phineas. He was the reason she was able to get off Midst before the Consectors came looking for her and remain informed and fed on Kozma's ship; now in the Highest Light he's her source of supplies and disguise. And Phineas for his part needs Lark, too. She constantly challenges him on his stance and convictions and as a result he's becoming ever more certain in his choices.

Midst as a work is focused on the individual within a collective and the importance of that collective to the individual. It is any wonder, then, that the most significant antagonistic force in the piece is one which uses the fact that individuals exist in societies and impact each other as a way to create such a horrific system as the Trust.