Does maxwell has any studies ?

[Malfario]

Maxwell studied the codex umbra and deciphered the secrets of it alongside what i suppose was either the language of the ancient ones or the cosmic horror callygraphy that THEM use to write eachother, without any reference or touch with said entitys.

Not only that but he is able to came up with the telelocator staff and the live giving amulet without manipulating the gems only reading its theory.

When maxwell examinates the archive murals eventhough he isnt able to read them fully he is able to distinguish names adejectives and the structure of the text as soon as he seems them for the first time, he is even able to get the name of ALTER, which is one of THEM.

Clearly maxwell had high capacitys before finding the codex and i am trully curious of where he got said abilitys, or maybe he was a prodigy, anyway i would like to hear your thought on this

 

[ShadowDuelist]

Maxwell was and probably is a very capable man in terms of learning and understanding. But he didn't have to be superior, I believe.

My take is that he was really obsessed about learning the codex's secrets when he got it, which was probably the steepest first step into the learning curve, but once he started deciphering it it all got downhill. The codex is also a magic tome, which seems to be responding to "Them's" will and probably imbued Maxwell with some superior learning capabilities to be able to figure it all out, just by being in contact with it for too long (as Maxwell imbued Wolfgang with superior strength, or Wickerbottom with superior knowledge)

I think the current super knowledge of Maxwell does not respond to a superior mind, but also to a very long lived one. Maxwell existed for Eons, even in the real world not many years went by, but for his mind and body an eternity passed, so he probably learned a lot more in his time of the throne whether he wanted the knowledge or not.

I think of the current Maxwell as that guy from groundhog day, who was basically an average evil guy that spent so many years, even centuries, living the same day over and over, that he managed to learn most possible careers, became a prodigal musician, and even knew all the events that happened every second at all times in the whole town. 

[Malfario]

i firmly believe that the current state of maxwells mind cames from having the same time spam as the human race, no doubt on that.

However when he was just a humble magician tht just discovered the codex i am not sure about the codex taking over him, its a good theory but for some reason lefts me unsatisfied, i thinks its more fun to think maxwell had a bright future on the academia but he refused so he could achieve his dream of been on the spotlight

[Frosty_Mentos]

There's likely two kinds of Maxwells when it comes to DS and DST. Him discovering deepest darkest secrets of the multi-universes, and the other being dethroned one, whom cause of the lack of throne's power the knowledge was lost with it. While Codex is his, it's only a piece of that ultimate power that's locked in the throne room or whatever that made him that powerful. In his current state he's nothing more than a pawn with similar limitations as other survivors with some of that shadow expertise retained assisted by his own book.

The part where he discovered Codex and was decrypting it could be related to a location he probably found upon when exploring somehow somewhere accidently. I'm unsure how people decrypt ancient texts unless there's references or something to those words, but I'm a bit more sure that the shadows assisted them in that. Or some entity like displayed in Charlie's story (which honestly we don't know if any of what she told is true either way since it doesn't match the comics.)