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| “ | Ink shall learn! *I* shall learn! And I..shall conquer.. | „ |
| ~ Ink Max's promise to his enemies, his most famous quote. |
Maxim Volkov, better known as Ink Max or his publicly known name Max Hound, is one of the main antagonists of the Traitorverse, being the main antagonist of the 2024 animated sci-fi drama series Traitor and it's prequel story Traitor: The Grave. He is the fascist ruler of The Ink Authority, a government which controls a series of underground metropolitan cities and more. He is also the arch-enemy of series protagonist Katelyn Templeton.
He is voiced by Andrea Corte, who also voices Steven Snake in The A-Men.
Appearance[]
Ink Max has a massive build-up with a huge muscular body. he is towering over any other character, being 8ft tall. his face shows eyes that seem to almost be empty, one of them having a scar. His mouth has razor-sharp teeth with blackened gums. He seems to have lines running down his eyes similar to that of a clown. His face is also paler, indicating how he's never been fully human. He has the ability to morph his hands into blades at ease and at any length. He is currently the largest character in the entire franchise, with his form being twice the size of the normal human.
In Episode One, he is shown to have stitches across his chest and up the side of his neck, indicating he was either operated on or brutally injured at some point. 0327 can also be seen etched on his shoulder, indicating he was a prisoner at some point.
For his outfit, he wears a 1920's-esque suit with a dark red vest and pocket square and a lighter red neck tie. The rest of the suit is a dark gray color and his top right suit lapel has The Ink Authority's insignia printed onto it.
In The Grave, he has the same appearance aside from a more youthful look and no scar on his left eye. In a 1945 flashback, he interestingly has a more drastic look to him such as having a more 40s-centric hairstyle as well as a more paler skin color, leaving it up to question as to how his skin suddenly became yellow in-between then and 2020.
At times, he's shown to have a human disguise, where his appearance is the same with the exception of him appearing as a Caucasian man with orange irises.
Personality[]
| “ | Subject 0327 is stubborn and he refuses to cooperate with the team. | „ |
| ~ Jacob Polk giving insight on how Ink Max acted during his time as a CIA prisoner. |
Ink Max is a rather enigmatic figure, but it is known that he has a personal vendetta against humanity. He mainly wants to stop the rebels from disrupting his plans. Nonetheless, he normally keeps a calm sense of dignity to himself, making it hard to get information out of him.
Ink Max is a boastful, intelligent and confident villain, understanding his power and not using it's full potential unless necessary. A quirk he likes to make clear is the fact he is all-powerful and the universe's ultimate living power. It goes without saying Ink Max has sheer confidence to aid him alongside his size and power, to which he uses this and his devious nature to intimidate enemies or underlings into following his orders or surrendering.
Ink Max is also quite capable of mental tormenting at a dangerously close level (although most isn't specified), making him a dangerous enemy in a battle of wits. Ink Max is also a divisive schemer and designer, being the mastermind of a massive government.
Ink Max comes off as a sly and egotistical individual, showing zero remorse for anyone, normally giving anyone a solid, glaring expression as he speaks, suggesting he either finds his underlings requests or questions annoying and useless to his personal gains or refuses to show many emotions. Nonetheless, he is a rather stoic person, not showing many emotions to most situations.
Ink Max is also a charismatic individual, wooing over many people. Despite this, he has zero care for these people besides his wife, Ink Samantha. At times, he will properly manipulate her to keep her in line and where he wants her to be, going as far as bruising her during fists of rage and anger at something else or even forcing himself onto her, giving the idea that their relationship isn't exactly a healthy one. The same is said for his children, who he'll ridicule and embarrass just for the sake of it being possible.
Maxim can be best described as an entity of pure evil, heavily allegorical to The Devil or the Antichrist from Judeo-Christian theology. His wanton cruelty and depthless malice do not appear to be humanized outside of his stemming hatred for characters such as Katelyn Templeton. Regardless of who the victim may be, Ink Max does hold a moral compass but kills mostly for the hell of it, using his empire as a gateway to get away with it unnoticed.
Despite such inhuman traits, this doesn't stop Ink Max from truly expressing emotions. When situations such as losing a battle or being overwhelmed happen, Ink Max tends to burst into a flurry of anger and rage, going as far as even harming his own soldiers. He has extremely rare moments of possible empathy for others but the emotions are short lived and tend to only be there to benefit him in the long run.
Despite his seemingly immortal appearance, he is shown to be capable of being injured, as his ankle is blown open by his own eye lasers during his first encounter with Jake Birch. This is also proven immediately after this, where he shouts profane words (some of which are even bleeped out) in a fit of pain and forcefully drops Jake deeper into the studio in a moment of unstrained anger, seemingly uncaring if he actually survived or not, later showing his frustration at not only Jake's survival but him finding Katelyn Templeton "just as he had foreseen" as he puts it.
History[]
Prior to Traitor[]
Little to nothing is currently known on Ink Max's past other than he was born sometime before the 20th century. The Grave is planned to dive a bit into his past as well as how he created his empire.
Traitor[]
in 2039, nearly 7,300 days (20 years) after his takeover of the studio and more (according to him), he successfully makes Madison Birch, Jake Birch's daughter, ill, forcing Jake to enter Max Hound Studios to find out what made her sick. Upon him turning on the Ink Machine, Ink Max gives chase, cornering Jake at the exit, to where the revelation that Max is responsible for Madison's illness hits Jake and the two have a brief fight, with Jake injuring Max's ankle, making Max shatter the floor beneath Jake, plunging him deep into the studio. Shortly after Jake is rescued by Kate and Mike, Ink Max is heard again over the loudspeakers, requesting that the studio's inhabitants find Jake and bring him to Max. Max is later seen in a hospital bed, recovering from his injury, where he argues with Ink Charley on how he could've killed Jake right there but chose to be petty and make him an actual problem. Max is later seen at the end of the episode staring out into a city from his bedroom, being requested by his wife, Ink Samantha, to come to bed.
Powers and Abilities[]
Eldritch Power[]
It's currently unclear what the basic origin is of this supernatural power. Ink Max is capable of wielding this power with ease and uses it whenever necessary to ensure he wins. When he uses this skillset, a number of things can happen:
- His body pulses red lighting bolts
- His usually empty eyes sport crimson irises
Telepathy[]
One of Ink Max's most useful psychological powers, Ink Max is capable of peering into minds of others to get what he wants. It's normally a last ditch effort if breaking them with simple fear isn't enough.
Pain Inducement[]
Ink Max is capable of delivering fatal injuries to victims if need-be. He normally uses this when they attempt to run away, to which he'll send a deep cut to their leg to slow them down. He is also capable of simply killing them on the spot but decides to conserve his power unless absolutely necessary.
Superhuman Strength[]
Ink Max possesses the ability to lift large objects no matter the weight. He normally uses this to catch enemies off-guard and strike them with large objects.
Extreme Intelligence[]
Due to both his species natural nature and his Eldritch Powers, Ink Max contains an expert amount of intelligence, allowing him to stay calm and collected, fully aware that things will go as he wishes if certain things are done properly.
Trivia[]
- In early drafts to Traitor, Ink Max was meant to be a simple ploy for a greater evil. But Charmer scrapped it mainly due to him thinking it'd waste the character's potential.
- Ink Max was inspired by villains such as Claude Frollo from The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Deathshead from Wolfenstein, and Johan Liebert from Monster.
- Ink Max was supposedly born in the Balkans but has a British accent due to parts of his family being located in what was eventually the United Kingdom.
- Andrea Corte, Ink Max's voice actor, has stated he used Heath Ledgers portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008) as inspiration for Ink Max's voice.
- Ink Max is the only villain who only uses a melee weapon, that being his hand-crafted sword Dirge. He is also the only villain to have a retractable suit of armor.
- Max, much like the rest of the show and story, is heavily based on the Ink Demon from the Bendy franchise. However, Charmer has noted that Max has more likeness to that of Wilson Arch than the Ink Demon.
- Charmer has compared Max to Ollie from Out of the Ink Machine, stating how both are relatively the same personality-wise in how they love toying with their prey and warping their sense of security/reality.
- This can be primely shown in Ink Max's case in Episode One, where he warps reality around Jake for a moment or so before giving chase.
- Ink Max is one of the few instances of a Bendy fan villain not being some variation of Bendy/The Ink Demon but rather his own character.
- Ink Max can be seen in the backgrounds of a number of shots prior to Jake entering the studio (aside from the obvious one of him staring out the window). He can be seen looking through the window when Jake and the paramedic are talking (it's hard to miss, note his red eyes) and in the mirror outside of the living room after Jake gets a phone call from (presumably) Ink Charley. It's also implied he stalks Jake when he first enters the studio.
- Ink Max's speech ordering people within the studio to find Jake is a reference to Wilson Arch's speech at the beginning of Bendy and the Dark Revival, where he asks the studio's residents to find Audrey and bring her to him.
- A fan-theory that's spurred as of Episode One's release is the idea that Jacob Polk and Ink Max are the same person, a likely callback to a similar Bendy theory regarding Joey Drew and The Ink Demon.
- He is currently the only known Bendy fan villain not operating directly in a separate dimension (this of course being The Cycle) from the real-world.
- Oddly, Ink Max has been confused for a lion caricature at times due to his hairstyle, despite him not being a caricature of anything at all.
- Max canonically has paws for feet. He was planned to have a tail as well, but it was dropped as Charmer found it to be "too silly for such a serious villain".
- He's one of the few villians in Traitor's projects that doesn't have a voice actor who voices another character(s) in the series. Funny enough, Jeremy Alder, the only other villain to take up the main antagonist role in a project, is the same.
- Ink Max took heavy inspiration from the infamous Adolf Hitler, including speeches and how he speaks. Benito Mussolini and Vladimir Putin were other inspirations.
External Links[]
Ink Max on Traitor Wiki
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 Villains
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