-reconciled with the outcasts
-convinced the western bos to bury the hatchet
-killed a deathclaw at the age of 13
-has turned the brotherhood into a nigh unmatchable powerhouse
-was named elder at 16
....Is only 20.....dude is mighty impressive...If a little unrealistic even by fallout standards

Yeah it's ridiculous. You have to wonder how much is just propaganda though, like the other Brotherhood talk about the killing of the Deathclaw as a rumour amongst themselves.

The shine comes off later, Danse says that "Maxson never does his own dirty work" when he thinks your their to kill him.

I wonder as well, but how many leaders actually do their own dirty work

Well presumably he had to have done do something to make a load of serious combat veterans put a 16 year-old in-charge of them.

Maybe he just told them a lot of fancy speeches.

He's 20?! Yikes. Dude looks like he's 35 - 40.

War. War will do that to you.

Was that one deathclaw? How many deathclaws do our protagonists kill? Mutant behemoths?

Our characters have more bragging rights.

He was ten in Fallout 3 and this is 10 years later

Beards age people too

Agreed, I too thought he looked 40 at first, but then I imagined him without the beard, and I'm pretty sure the face underneath all that hair could belong to a 20 year old np.

I just want to know who thought putting a twenty year old in charge of a major Faction and created vague reasons for doing so in lore was a good idea.

I mean if he accomplished these things over thirty or forty years I'd believe it. But all this before his twentieth birthday? Come on Beth you can do better. I'm half tempted to believe he had under the table dealings and bribed his way into Elder status.

Given he shot Sarah Lyons accidentally at age 10, I maintain the Deathclaw story is made up.

Of course, I don't think the Western BoS buried the hatchet so much as made him their mouthpiece.

As a teenager, it must have been an incredible honor to be made Elder at 16.

Even though it had it's price.

Arthur is just there so the Lone Wanderer isn't in charge, a man or woman of known Outsider blood who befriends ghouls and Super Mutants.

I'm the same age as him, and when I grow my beard out relative to his, I get comments saying I look 30+

Wow, we're the same age. Makes me feel bad. Why am I not leading a super flying kingdom of power armored soldiers?

I wouldn't blame this on bad writing. Maybe he did do under the table dealings to get ahead in the BOS. All we know about Sarah Lyon's death was that it was in combat. There is nothing to say that Maxson didn't take the shot himself at her, or pay someone else to do it, then make them vanish without a trace. Nothing at all.

He had a crush on her, he wouldn't kill her at the age of 13/16/whatever.

I think her death hardened him into the man he is now, however.

Maxson is full of it. "Killing a deathclaw at the age of 13" just reeks of a Davie Crockett type myth. Something just made up to add to his mystique.

My guess is that he did alot of back-room politicking, and became the poster boy of the counter-reformation movement within Lyon's Brotherhood. Which is what netted him the Elder spot. Not merit.

Unless he's a secret genius and all of the indications are he's not very good at much than frothing at the mouth, I think it's unlikely he did much politicking.

Indeed. He was likely just handed the position by the pro-Western Elder elements in Lyon's court and the Outcast reunification deal just fell into his lap after that.

Aye. He's likely Elder in name alone. He is a Maxson, after all.

You guys are obviously more versed in Fallout lore than I am. I am thinking that I need another playthrough of 3 after this next run with 4 is done.

I imagine Maxson is very good at delegating authority and rousing speeches personally. Also, a good warrior, but he doesn't strike me as having everything he needs to be King.

I suspect part of the reason why he's going to war against the Institute is because war is all he's good at.