A prior note before we begin, me writing this proves several things:
1: I have NO life!
2: I'm probably crazy.
3: I really need school to go back so that I have something to do.
4: I am obsessed with Maximum Ride and really need a group like books anonymous or something to help me out here because I've been spending weeks trying to justify ways in which Max and Fang will be back together. So help me James Patterson you have given me something great in Maximum Ride but really, did you have to make it so addictive?
Oh and I do not own Maximum Ride, all rights of that belong to James Patterson and all of the excerpts are out of the book and therefore not my own work.
Maximum Ride: Fang or Dylan?
It is a big debate going on within the Maximum Ride world right now. Who is really the one for Max? Is it Fang, Max's best friend from the time when she was a baby? Or is it Dylan, the gorgeous cloned mutant who is designed specifically for Max? Of course, about ninety-five percent of Maximum Ride fans would tell you that it's Fang (and that is the side I am on) but Dylan's fanbase is slowly growing, people seem to think it's going to be him. I'm going to relay, in the form of a foreshadowing and logic study, exactly why the series will end in a Fax pairing.
My ultimate argument is this: Fang is Max's soul mate and Dylan is her perfect partner. Both are true but one is more important than the other. I'm going to prove exactly how through JP's writing and my own personal beliefs on what is love. I'm going go through and build up Fang and Max's relationship from the ground for you. I'm going to point out the little things that show that Fang is Max's soul mate, the little things that are, what I believe, make a soul mate and then I will go through exactly how a soul mate differs from a perfect partner in book six.
Shall we start at the very beginning? And I don't mean The Angel Experiment, I mean When the Wind Blows and The Lake House the books that inspired Maximum Ride. This will only be very short (mainly because I don't have a copy of the books on hand to really go through but also because the characters aren't exact mirrors and I just want to point out some important facts).
Max was based on Max. They are both the leaders of the bird children, both girls, both with attitudes and what not. Fang was based on Oz (Ozymandius) who was Max's best friend and her partner in the leadership of the flock. In The Lake House Max and Oz developed a relationship (which since it was an adult's novel happened to end up being a sexual relationship but let's not go there) and were utterly perfect for each other. Unfortunately, and very tragically, Oz was killed defending Max (something that also happened in the latest Maximum Ride novel but Fang was brought back to life by a hypodermic needle in that so yay!). It was all very sad but Max never loved anyone else, in fact she had two babies from Oz at the end. She seemed to think that she wouldn't love anybody else and that's why she had Oz's babies. That's the only comparison I can bring you: Oz (being Fang's inspiration) was Max's soul mate and lover.
Now we shall go to a very "formal" study, book by book on the Maximum Ride series to prove that Max will end up with Fang.
The Angel Experiment
I could do something really annoying and go through all of the little factors that point out that Max loves Fang but the fact is we all know it. It's just little things that I'm only noticing now because I'm searching for some proof to my theory that James Patterson would only let Max end up with Fang. The whole brunt of my theory will crop up in my studies on books five and six, duly titled Max and Fang. But for now just allow me to establish the basis of how James Patterson slowly revealed the nature of Max and Fang's relationship.
Except for Angel, Max gives Fang the biggest attention for introductions. This makes sense since he's her best friend but James Patterson wanted us to get a feel for Fang's character as an important one. It's not revealed at this moment that Fang is Max's best friend, in fact she says that Angel is her favourite which is sort of true because Angel is practically her daughter and Fang annoys Max but when you think about it, it would make sense that he annoys her, don't we always hurt the ones we love?
JP doesn't really note much about the nature of Max's relationship with Fang in this novel except a few choice phrases throughout the book stating several things about Fang:
Pg 52: Our glances met. It was creepy how we knew what each other was thinking so much of the time.
Pg 129: Nudge's thoughts about Fang: Max trusted him.
Pg 157: Angel's thoughts: ... the way Max stared at Fang when they were having an argument and she was going to win.
Pg 199: I glanced at Fang, who was looking at me sideways while he ate his French fries. I knew that look.
Pg 238: His mouth almost quirked in a smile, and that's when I knew how upset he'd been.
Pg 250: I hate the way he can read me mind, since he doesn't even have mind-reading abilities.
Pg 251: He would never have said that if the others were awake. Some things, we trusted only each other to understand.
Pg 303: If my brain attacks killed me, Fang would take over.
Pg 312: His expression said, save it, and I shut up and nodded, waiting to hear his thoughts later.
Pg 313: It was almost as irritating as Fang.
Pg 381: You live with someone your whole life, you think you know them, and then they go and drop a bomb like this... I didn't have a chance to grab Fang's shoulders and yell 'Who are you and what have you done with the real Fang?'
Pg 384: I depended on Fang. I needed him. I had to be able to trust him.
Pg 394: Oh, God oh God not Fang not Fang not Fang-
Pg 396: ...keeping my voice steady, though everything in me was shrieking, desperate to run to Fang.
Pg 405: I so wished he weren't all banged up – so I could whack him.
Pg 426: I actually saw sadness and tenderness in his eyes. It made me want to hug Fang. But I didn't, of course.
Pg 426: Don't you dare say anything bad about Fang, I thought.
Pg 453-454: Fang glanced over at me, his face smooth and impassive, though I could feel the anticipation rolling off his feathers. I smiled at him, and his dark eyes lit. Fang. I had to do some thinking about him.
The above are the only indicators in throughout the book of how close Max and Fang really are (barring the accidental kiss on the beach which of course is a crucial moment in the development of their relationship). It was slowly developed throughout the book that Max and Fang were closest out of any members of the flock. It isn't shown until later books exactly how close they truly are and have always been.
JP also gives Fang a lot of attention when Makes is describing scenes in which she indicates what each member of the flock is doing. Fang gets more attention than anyone but Angel. His involvement grows in the later books but even in this first novel he receives a lot of attention.
JP makes it clear to us that Fang is Max's partner and the only one she really trusts. They makes decisions together and Fang is the one with the cool head. He makes her see sense with calm logic and is the only one she listens to when it comes to needing advice. Fang knows when to help her without her asking (since we all know Max would never ask for help). They know each other as well as themselves.
All of the factors of their friendship are the first indicators of a deep relationship and are, what most people will tell you, are the most important factors of a relationship between soul mates.
School's Out – Forever
This book is pivotal in Max and Fang's developing emotional relationship. As with all teenagers they're slowly discovering how they feel about each other, how they possibly might always have felt about each other. They're testing what they feel too. Both of them go through periods of jealousy in this book and Max's Voice even muses that she might possibly have feelings for Fang. Which of course our dear Max denies.
But it's all of the little gestures that I think are important, Fang kissing her on the forehead when she's upset, holding her when she's crying, worrying about whether or not Sam hurt her (which is partly jealousy too), trying to cheer her up.
And of course Fang's little speech when he finds out about Eraser Max is very pivotal to their developing relationship. It shows that he's becoming more comfortable with her, something Max points out too. But here's what he says to her: Look, I know you're not an Eraser. I don't know why you saw that in the mirror, and I don't know who the other Max is, but I know who you are, all the way through. And you're not an Eraser. And even if I saw you as an Eraser, I would still recognise you. I know you're not evil, no matter what you might look like.
This little speech is crucial to how he feels (not knowing it yet, I'll get to that later) and how well he knows her. He trusts her completely and admits that he knows her as well as he knows himself. It touches Max and makes her feel better.
Something that I should have mentioned earlier since it was at the start is Max admitting how much she needs Fang. When there's the chance that he could die she admits that losing him is unthinkable because she needs him. She knows that she can't be herself without him because Fang and Max complete each other, something we all know, but something that is very important to a relationship. You need to be partners, to give each other something you don't have. In this case it's Fang's level-headedness and Max's tenacity. Plus everything else but I just like teasing them.
There's a point in the book that I think is very important. I think it's when Fang realised how he felt and realised that they belonged together. After Max goes all cutter and he yells at her, they're sitting on the beach together and have a conversation that is out of both of their comfort zones, but it's important so here:
There was something I needed to say. 'Sorry. About before.'
Fang shot a sideways glance at me, his eyes dark and inscrutable, as always. He looked back out at the water. I didn't expect any more acknowledgement than that. Fang never-
'You almost gave me a heart attack,' he said quietly. 'When I saw you, and all that blood...' He threw a small rock as hard as he could down the beach.
'I'm sorry.'
'Don't do it again,' he said.
I swallowed hard. 'I won't.'
Something changed right then, but I didn't know what.
What I think changed and from what I've read of a few fanfictions, other people think the same as me, is that Fang realised how he felt about Max but more than that I think that they're whole relationship changed. It's sort of like, their lives were building up the bomb, her kissing him on the beach was lighting the cord-thing (I'm having a blank on the appropriate term) and then, her nearly killing herself and him admitting it frightened him, was the explosion. Now they're relationship can never be the same, they've turned over an hour-glass and before long neither of them will be able to deny the fact that they need each other to survive.
That kind of love is worth crossing oceans. That kind of love is worth your life. That kind of love can tear you apart or make your life practically perfect depending on how it turns out. Well, we all know that it went both ways for Max and Fang. Sigh. Sometimes authors are just so mean to their characters.
And of course, after this, we have Max kidnapped and replaced with a clone. Now a lot of people are sceptical on whether or not Fang really did know it wasn't Max. I think he would have. Max II may have looked just like Max but when you're as close to somebody as Max and Fang are, you just know when they're not right. Fang would have seen that Max II couldn't tell what he was thinking, she wouldn't have spoken to him like Max does and she wouldn't have had the same looks in her eyes. Because regardless of what the whitecoats think, our bird kids do have souls and Max and Max II are not the same people.
Fang would have known straight away. This proves how completely he knows Max.
Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
This book was the first frustrating part for us because not only did Max run away from her feelings, but because she then admitted them under the influence of valium and then Fang left her with completely undermines all of my prior arguments about them not being complete without each other... or does it? Or did JP purposely split them to prove to us that they need each other to function properly.
I mean, yeah the kiss was great but it was the little bit for Fang afterwards that really got me. Just to jog your memories here:
Max.
God, but she was stubborn. And tough. And closed in. Closed off. Except when she was holding Angel, or ruffling the Gasman's hair, or pushing something closer to Iggy's hand so he could find it easily without knowing anyone had helped him. Or when she was trying to untangle Nudge's mane of hair. Or – sometimes – when she was looking at Fang.
He shifted on the hard ground, a half-dozen flashes of memory cycling through his brain. Max looking at him and laughing. Max leaping off a cliff, snapping out her wings, flying off, so incredibly powerful and graceful that it took his breath away.
Max punching someone's lights out, her face like stone.
Max kissing that wiener Sam on Anne's front porch.
Gritting his teeth, Fang rolled on to his side.
Max kissing him on the beach, after Ari had kicked Fang's butt.
Just now, her mouth soft under his.
He wished she were here, if not next to him, then somewhere in the cave, so he could hear her breathing.
It was going to be hard to sleep without that tonight.
Now if that is not an admission of feelings then I do not know what is! I mean come on, how sweet and adorable is that. Especially coming from Mr Rock. If anyone notices all of those tiny things about somebody then they have to be in love with them, or just really close to them. I notice those things about my two best friends, I can read them like open books. But that's just me. Still, my point is you have to be very close to someone to notice those things and then, for the icing on the cake, not being able to sleep without hearing her breathing means that he is so utterly in love with her it's not funny.
But Max won't let him in. She won't let herself feel that vulnerable. We all know how important feeling strong is to Max and that's why she blocked off how she felt about him, knowing it could make her weak (proof of that in how much it hurt her when he left her). And yeah she does admit her feelings when she's drugged with valium but besides making us laugh our heads off and giving Fang perfect ammo to throw at her, it really doesn't change anything.
And then Fang leaves. Now here's where I'm about to get really into their relationship because, surprisingly, JP put in a lot of things about how they feel about each other when they're apart. It's like that saying: you never know what you've got 'till it's gone.
So here are some things that are written that I think are crucial to showing how much they need each other:
Pg 173 (this one is before Fang leaves): He was my right-hand man, my best friend, the one who always, always had my back. He'd die to save me, and I'd throw myself in front of a train for him without a second's thought.
Pg 188: Flying west without Max was like flying with one wing missing, Fang thought. He kept seeing her face: furious, confused and, even though she would never admit it, scared. He'd seen that face just about every day of his entire life. He'd seen it filthy with caked-on dirt, bruised and bloodied, snarling, laughing, sleeping, telling complicated lies with total sincerity... looking down at him with that light in her eyes, that communication between them...
Pg 189: Fang would have followed Max to the end of the world, wherever and whenever that was. If she'd dropped into the cone of an active volcano, he would have backed her up, no matter what.
Pg 190: Always pretend there was a plan. A lesson he'd learned so very well from Max.
Pg 212: I was going to kill Fang. That was totally on my list, right after 'save the world'. Jerk. Cretin. Oh, God. He was part of me; he was in my blood. My blood was in him, literally. How could he have done this?
Pg 273: It was times like this he missed Max the most- because she would have felt it too, and they would have exchanged glances and known what to do in a moment, without speaking.
Pg 284: He ignored the way his heart thumped when he thought about seeing her again.
Pg 352: Fang felt a cold jolt, then dismissed it. Max wasn't dead. He would know, somehow. He would have felt it. The world still felt the same to him; therefore, Max was still in it.
Pg 359: I would have felt even better if I had looked up and saw Fang, standing behind me, ready to back me up.
And of course, everything that was written about their reunion just made us all go 'naw' in unison. We all loved that Max was inadvertently telling us that she loved Fang and never wanted him gone again. Plus his totally OOC promise never to leave her again (which he later broke) made us all love Fang even more than we already did. But my point is that this reminds both of them how much they need each other and tells us how they complete each other.
Them together is the only way they can be the best they are. Max is at her best when she has Fang backing her up, and Fang is at his best when Max is by his side helping him feel whole. This is the point of their splitting up in this book.
The Final Warning
In this book we notice that something has changed between Max and Fang. Since they've been back together things have been… different. It could still be remaining hurt from Fang leaving and Max picking Ari but I think it's just the realisations they had when they were apart about how much they need each other and how important they are to each other.
I just have to point out that everything Fang says seems to come out wrong in this book: the complimenting of Max where he said she actually looked like a girl (totally wrong), his 'you're such a pain' comment before kissing her, his harsh comments when she flew off in a jealous rage over Brigid. The only thing that came out right was his comment about 'us'. But in this book even Max is starting to realise that something is there that she can't ignore forever (of course this is Max so she'll ignore it for as long as she possibly can).
But once again JP reiterates their partnership and the depth of their friendship with just little things. Max's jealousy, their shared look while searching for Angel. Just tiny little things written that we normally wouldn't think anything about but are important to the development of their relationship. The groundwork that JP laid down to prove to us that Fang is the one for Max, not Dylan.
And finally… Max gives in…
Max
At last we reach our destination. This was it. The epic book that goes up to a high rank in our favourites because, finally, finally in the fifth freaking book Max and Fang became an official couple. Not that they weren't already technically a couple as discussed above because they both felt a way about each other but here Max finally gives in to her feelings.
JP spent four books laying the basis for a relationship between two of our favourite bird kids. Why would he spend four books doing so if he was just going to split then up and leave it like that? I mean come on, nobody's that cruel.
But I think the reason he split them up is because when you're reading, writing, or watching a movie or TV program, the most exciting part of the romantic side of things is the chase. It's the hints, the teasing, all of those 'naw' moments that keep us wanting to see them together that make us keep reading/writing/watching. In the sense of entertainment purposes, relationships can be boring but the build up is always interesting. I mean come on, didn't we all keep shrieking in frustration every time Max ran away from Fang? And that kept us reading because we wanted to see them together.
I spent the last four books pointing out all of the little interesting things in Max and Fang's relationship, all of the things that showed how much they cared about each other and relied on each other. I pointed out all of their cute moments, their frustrating moments but all of it leads up to how their relationship is structured and the voice can spell it out in two simple words: soul mate.
All of the prior books have been proof of this sentiment. In this book Max finally admits to herself (not that we all didn't know it anyway) that she loves Fang and wants him for herself. But there is one page in particular that I would like to quote and it is my favourite page in the book:
Oh, my God. It hit me like a tsunami then: how perfect he was for me, how no one else would ever, could ever be so perfect for me, how he was everything I could possibly hope for, as a friend, boyfriend – maybe even more. He was it for me. There would be no more looking.
I really, really loved him, with a whole new kind of love I'd never felt before, something that made every other kind of love I'd ever felt just seem washed out and wimpy in comparison. I loved him with every cell in body, every thought in my head, every feather in my wings, every breath in my lungs. And air sacs.
All of these feelings have grown with them over the time since they were children. Everything they've been through together that has pulled them closer has only increased the bonds that tie them together. Fang knows Max like nobody else and vice-versa. They are utterly perfect for each other. Now why would James Patterson take time out from the story to write out a whole page where Max realises this? Is it just to crush us because she's going to pick Dylan? I don't think so. Something tells me, it's to make us think about how he differs Fang from Dylan.
So, to investigate this further let's jump to Fang.
Fang
At last, at last we have our Fax. They're together. But we were all holding our breath anxiously as we opened our copies of Fang or scroll down our e-books (I despise e-books, just so you know) because the blurb for this book told us that Fang, our beloved Fang, was going to die and that Max would be introduced to Dylan, her 'perfect partner'.
Now if you all have been ignoring everything I've said so far, Fang is Max's 'soul mate'. This is true. The Voice said it. But then the Voice told Max that Dylan is her 'perfect match' or 'other-half' or whatever variation you want to use. But the scientists who created the Flock, who created Max II and who created Dylan treat them as robots, as creations without souls but we all know this is un-true. Max and Fang's life together has bonded them irreversibly and Jeb even says 'we never meant for that to happen' which means that Max and Fang being in love is not something they intended therefore it is something that is part of them as people not as experiments.
Now Dylan is intended for Max which means that they intended that through her DNA. Yes folks, her DNA. What the scientists treat the Flock as having that is more important than their personalities or thoughts. Dylan is only meant to be with Max because he was designed so that if they ever had little mutant avian-hybrid babies they would be like super mutant avian-hybrid babies.
That folks, is the difference between a soul mate and a perfect match. When the whitecoats say perfect match they mean DNA wise. When I say soul mate I mean the one person Max can trust, the one person who has always had her back, the one person who makes her feel like everything's going to be alright. I mean Fang, guys, and I know you do too.
SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT READ LAST SACRIFICE BY RICHELLE MEAD
There's something I want to draw a parallel to. It just occurred to me because I've been talking to people about Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead which was the final book in the Vampire Academy series. Here's what I noticed: in the first book Rose met Dimitri and they fell in love but couldn't be together for various reasons, for three books they weren't together and then at the end of book 3 they did get together but then he was torn away from her. For book 4 she searched for him but couldn't be with him so she went back and finally gave Adrian a shot. Adrian isn't perfect for Rose but things were good between them and then when Dimitri returned she picked Adrian (after being knocked back by Dimitri) and she even loved Adrian which broke all of us Rose and Dimitri fans' hearts. But then they got back together towards the end of LS which was wonderful. But here's my point, Rose picked her soul mate in the end, she picked the one who made her feel safe and who being with was as easy as breathing.
Admittedly in Vampire Academy it had nothing to do with genetics but what I'm saying is that Richelle Mead put Rose with the one who's relationship she had built up over the whole series, not the new guy who was there on convenience really. So I'm thinking that Max and Fang's whole circle thing that was annoying us readers was also important because it was a building of a relationship that we've all come to love so that makes me sure that JP will pick it.
And here comes the icing on the cake as to why I think it will be absolutely possible to put Dylan out of the picture. We have to call in an old friend. Her name is Max II, Max's clone. Her clone. What is a clone? A one hundred percent DNA match! If Dylan is designed to be Max's perfect partner, it's to her DNA since the scientists don't think they're people with souls and thoughts. Max II a.k.a Maya as she calls herself now, is just like Max when it comes to DNA. Dylan could very well imprint on Max II as well as Max. It seems a very neat plan to me but then again, JP always surprises us so we'll see.
Okay, everything written above were the reasons why I'm sure Max and Fang are meant to be together and not Max and Dylan. But here's the reason why I think James Patterson will not end up putting Max with Dylan:
There are millions of Maximum Ride fans in the world. Of those fans more than ninety percent are Fax fans. Therefore I'm thinking that JP knows that if Fang and Max don't get back together there will be millions of pissed off people in this world and nobody is stupid enough to get millions of people that angry at them. He's a smart man, he'll give us our way or we'll get even. Don't you agree?
Okay then, that is the longest rant I've ever written and now I'm exhausted.
Fly on,
Erin xoxo