₦airaland Forum

Hi, I know this post is from 2021, but whatever. Maximus DID suffer from depression after his family was murdered. He didn't want to eat, he didn't want to speak, he let others beat him, he didn't want to fight. He also had passive-suicidal ideation. His family was the only thing that motivated him to keep living, and when that was taken away, his whole world shattered and he no longer had the will to live.
Like, imagine not seeing your family for two years, longing to go home, missing your wife and child, and then having all of that taken away. The immense trauma of seeing your child and wife hanging dead is horrific.
What motivated him to fight to the end was knowing that he could reach the coliseum and fight as a gladiator and stand before Commodus, and thus kill him to avenge his family.
So the character suffered from depression and longed for death to be reunited with his family.