Maxwell also brought up an interesting topic but I also have this weird feeling Maxwell is faking being a “different person”… putting someone’s brain in another body doesn’t suddenly change what it makes you or create new feelings such as “wow she’s not my friend, but a creator now!” Unless I’m mistaken, every “Nikke” has been the same person as they were before, no real changes in personality or feeling unless they’ve been mind wiped and forget how they feel about specific things

It’s heavily implied she’s faking her current personality all to try to teach Syuen a lesson. Kinda akin to how Hanson has to fake being his father for the rest of his life. Granted, the former is her way of teaching Syuen a lesson and trying to keep the last vestiges of her humanity intact (something I think Laplace does a better job at), while the latter has to fake being a (somewhat. He still has his moments) redeemed version of his monster of a father, especially after he faked his death as Hanson. The connecting tissue is that neither can ever go back to their old character unless completely isolated or among those who know the truth.

Honestly, I think the one and only way Maxwell comes clean is if Syuen lays dying somewhere (dying to the point that it’s too late to even convert her into a Nikke to save her. Probably as a result of a massive Rapture attack), and the former overhears the latter regret absolutely everything she did since becoming CEO, with one of her biggest regrets being that she (from her point of view) never got to properly apologize to Maxwell for everything. Either she accepts her apology as “Fake Maxwell”, or she comes clean and reveals herself as “True Maxwell”.

It’s interesting how much of a dichotomy there is between Laplace and Maxwell’s viewpoints of what it means to become a Nikke. The latter unintentionally was the final push over the edge, but the former served as an emergency tether.