Maximilian Walters

**Maximilian Walters** is a main character in *War*, introduced as a guest character in *Rewritten* and later returned as a featured character in the 2018 and 2020 Christmas specials "Silent Night" and "Hollow Crown."

In terms of the series narrative, Maximilian Walters is the first Mayor of Toontown and one of the town's inaugural founders. Before escaping Cartonia, Max was the Royal Historian to the Kingdom of Canis. He is an instrumental figure in Toontown's history, often to the point of veneration.

## Appearances

### *Rewritten*

Maximilian Walters made his first appearance in "The Blizzard Wizards" during a flashback scene depicting the death of Glaucous Oldman, the first Councilmember of the Brrrgh, only a few months after the settlement of Toontown. He wished Glaucous's successor, his own son Azure Oldman, luck as he assumed the role just vacated by his father's death.

### "Silent Night"

Maximilian returned as a featured character in "Silent Night," the first

   Christmas special. In the flashback episode, during the scandalous relationship between Bentley Connelly and Victoria Vixen, Maximilian followed the orders of his monarch, King Ewan I, to split the two apart so that Bentley could go on to take the throne of Canis as planned. However, Maximilian was deeply disturbed by the way Cartonia had reacted to the relationship, making it apparent that Max was not in favor of the ban on interspecies love. He was later present at the meeting between Bentley, King Mickey XI, and King Swan XX when they determined the Vixen Queen of Vulpus was likely responsible for the assassination of Victoria Vixen. The meeting in question would later lead the two Kings and Bentley (as Regent) to unite their crowns in War against Vulpus.

### *Contact*

Though Max does not make an explicit appearance in the third season, he is consistently mentioned due to a letter he wrote and left in the Mayoral Vault. Addressed to future Mayors of Toontown to only be opened in the event of a fox invasion of Toontown, he warned of the dire consequences the foxes would bring should they ever breach Toontown's borders. Opened before Exodus by Mayor Mickey Elias, the contents of the letter sparked the creation of the Emergency Portal that would ultimately save the Toons from the Cogs. Upon the arrival of Cartonians to Toontown in "They Came From the North," Mickey dug up the remains of the letter, which he destroyed to protect Toontown from a truth within, and resolved to fulfill the last wishes of Mayor Maximilian Walters.

The contents of this letter were revealed in "Song of the Siren;" the founding of Toontown was designed to save the heirs to the Kingdoms of Cartonia, and Max believed that any foreign arrival of Cartonians to Toontown would be solely to track down and execute the heirs to solidify Vulpine authority. He warned whoever reading the letter to hide the heirs and keep them safe.

### "Hollow Crown"

   Max returned as a featured character in "Hollow Crown," though he never physically appeared. Instead, the episode was interwoven with passages from a history book he penned: *Harmony's History*, which chronicled the advent of the Harmony Crown. It specifically entailed the lives of Ozzy and Roanoke, the Crown's conceptualizers, and a history of the Crown from the moment of its inception until the date of publication, 702. However, the final chapters were amended in 709, after the outbreak of War and the abolition of the Harmony Crown by the Vixen Queen.

### *War*

Max returned in the season premiere, "Winter of Discontent," set in 708 in the days immediately after the outbreak of the War. In his capacity as Royal Historian, he organized the sudden coronation of Bentley Connelly as King Bentley II after Ewan I died in his sleep in February 708. One year later in 709, in "The Lamps Are Going Out," after the abolition of the Harmony Crown and the neutral nations of Cartonia declared war on one another, Max remarked to Thumper Connelly that "the lamps are going out all over Cartonia. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

In "Fall As Lucifer Fell" during the autumn of 711, Max received an anonymous telegram from Vulpus, in actuality sent by the Vixen Queen. The message alleged that co-conspirators in the assassination of Victoria Vixen were residing in Canis. Bentley II ordered Max to investigate the charges.

After the Siege of Talonclaw Castle and the Fall of Felexa in 712 ("Infamy"), Canis accepted Felexan refugees, including the Lazoy Royal Family. Max reunited with his friend, Lionel Lazoy, who took up exile in Highland Castle.

In "Remnants of the People," Max's investigation into the anonymous telegram sent two years earlier came to a head in 713 during the War Plague. Max uncovered that his secretary, Scott Wells, had gone to Vulpus with Queen Libby Connelly in 707, directly before the Victoria Vixen assassination. Max and Sentinel Dane Mastiff brought these revelations to Bentley II, who immediately confronted his mother. Libby admitted her duplicity and was banished from Highland Castle. She later died of the plague.

In "Something Wicked" in 718, Max received a letter sent from Doe Deirdre Elkton to nations of the Granite Bloc, warning of "something wicked" in Antlerstag and Talonclaw Castle.

During the 719 Granite Bloc summit in "Two Moths Drawn to the Flame," Max, Lionel, and Minerva Taylor (who had recently resigned from Willie and moved permanently to Canis) discussed the futility of their situation. All three feared that the war would continue indefinitely, and that the victors would reign over nothing but ashes. Lionel floated the concept of escaping Cartonia through the Expanse, but Max swiftly rejected the idea as fruitless. Lionel brought up the idea four years later in "No Matter What," but Max and Minerva again regarded it as impossible.

In "Pro Patria Mori," after the 725 public executions of many members of the Granite Bloc's royal families, Max realized that Lionel's idea to escape through the Expanse had merit if they could cross enemy territory and pass through the Vulpus Dam. Max was familiar with the schematics of the Vulpus Dam embedded in the cliffs and posited that the Dam's waste receptacles could ferry the royal families out of Cartonia. In tandem with Minerva and Lionel, Max developed a proposal for an escape and walked the plan to Bentley Connelly.

The plan to escape was actualized over the following six months, culminating in a 1,200-person orientation in "The Good Must Associate" on what to expect as passengers on the mission south. Max also helped liberate O Camp in order to save Diana Loudoun as the new heir to Porcinia. There, he also met Lana Loudoun, who would become one of his closest friends in Toontown.

Max led the passengers out of West Terrier on November 3, 725, in "Bless My Homeland." He bade Canis an emotional farewell as the team crossed into Capricon, and then enemy territory. The expedition south was harrowing, marred by news of the fall of Porcinia and the looming demise of Canis. Max and the passengers reached the Vulpus Dam on November 11. He aided with the boarding of the waste receptacles, when the escapees were set upon by foxes led by the Vixen Queen. Max attempted to save as many as he could before himself boarding the only waste receptacle to survive Vulpine assault. The Vulpus Dam was destroyed, killing the Vixen Queen, and Max sailed out of Cartonia on the flood. Lionel Lazoy perished in the attack, but Max and Minerva had been aboard the waste receptacle and survived.

Max led the survivors south in "Until I Die," wandering the Expanse for a year before reaching the site that would become Toontown. Despite his protestations and guilt for leaving so many behind in Cartonia, Max was elected nearly unanimously as the town's first Mayor. He was sworn in by Farress Nilia. He appointed his own Toon Council, as direct elections for those positions had not yet been established. Max was reelected in Year 4. He remained active in Toon life, but feared that foxes would return. In the Year 17, he penned a letter to future Mayors of Toontown warning them of the foxes. He died in the Year 20, and remains the single most renowned figure in Toontown's history.

## Character

### Namesake

Maximilian Walters is named after Walt Disney and Sir Max, the latter of whom founded Toontown Rewritten. Walt Disney of course began the Disney franchise and Toontown stemmed from it. Both names were befitting the first Mayor of Toontown.

## Trivia

* Until the writing of the 2018 Christmas Special, Max Walters was just supposed to be a dog who led the escape south of Cartonia, but the author decided to add him into the episode as the Royal Historian to tie the two stories together.
* His first appearance in "The Blizzard Wizards" initially only referred to him as "the first Mayor of Toontown." Once the name and significance of this character was developed, producers retroactively added his name to the episode and updated the cast list.
* Along with Vixen VII, Max is the only other character to appear in a featured capacity in both Christmas specials.