"I remember falling ill as a child. It's probably my earliest memory. My mother fussing over me, my father saying the healing prayer. It was the first time I had a sense of their immense, overpowering love for me. And the fact that I could entice it from them. I wanted their love more than anything. I became greedy." - Max in S1E3
This stupid quote is driving me insane. Max who downplays his injuries, Max who rolls his eyes and tells everyone to stop fussing, or flat-out lies when Oskar and his parents ask what happened to him, is the same Max writing this in his private journal.
Writing about how desperately he wants to be loved and how he worked out as a small child that being hurt or vulnerable was a way he could get people to show him some affection.
No wonder Max is always taking risks - if he does something dangerous or gets himself injured, he's rewarded with attention. And no wonder after his first encounter with Oskar, where Oskar instinctively protected him and checked he was safe afterwards, something lit up in Max's brain and he never fully recovered.
