#adam crit

[rwdestuffs]

While the 'Adam was nerfed/shoulda been a full team fight' arguments *generally* don't work, I do think V5 could've let him come off as *slightly* less inept at the end. Like, I dunno, have the prick nearly wreck Sun's day with one of those charged slices before Blake & Ilia score some licks & drive him off.

At the very least, damage his weapon.

[rwdestuffs]

In most media, the idea between a hero vs. villain where there is a notable wealth and class difference is that it’s often the hero who is from the lower class/income level.

Superman is a farmhand who ended up being a reporter, and his arch rival is Lex Luthor, a rich CEO who has massive xenophobic and darwinist ideals.

Spider-Man is a lower-middle class photographer who struggles to pay rent. His most iconic enemy is Norman Osborn, a CEO of a weapons company that produced a super soldier serum that made him a murderer.

Captain America is, in his own words, “A kid from Brooklyn” and he fights a fascist in charge of an army that has agents everywhere.

Now, when the hero is rich, it’s hard to make a villain for them unless it’s something that’s more of a clash of a greater scope villain or a clash of ideologies.

For example, Batman is a Rich CEO who declared war on crime after crime took his family away, his most iconic foe is the Joker, an insane (sorta) mass murderer who challenges his ideologies on order and his no-kill rule, which Batman has to grapple with as often as he does the Joker. Many of his other foes are merely challenges to his ideology, such as Poison Ivy and Ra’s Al Ghul being challenges to how industrialization can harm the planet, and that it makes it a clash of making industry jobs and manufacturing goods for people vs. saving the planet so that people can survive.

Iron Man is also a Rich CEO whose enemy is often a bunch of other more vile CEOs who manufacture weapons and don’t care whose hands they fall into. Sometimes he fights global terrorists or other people looking to turn his inventions against innocent people. Iron Man often has to grapple with the fact that he’s saving the world from the weapons he himself made, making it less of a fight against an enemy, and more a fight against his past self. Tony is atoning for his sins as a weapons manufacturer.

Now take Blake. Blake falls into the “Rich Hero” category. She may not be a CEO, but she still ultimately came from a rich family (no matter how much her backstory and dialogue in the first three volumes hinted otherwise). Another thing that the “Rich Hero” will often do is clash with a “Rich Villain” to contrast how each uses their money and/or position in the overall fight. Very rarely does a “Rich Hero” clash with a “Poor Villain.” And if the villain is poor, more often than not does the “Rich Hero” then use the points made by the villain to try and gain a new outlook on life.

Was Adam an extremist? Possibly. His final dialogue in Volume 2 indicated that he didn’t care about Faunus casualties during the Breach, and his attitude in the Black Trailer implied that he didn’t really care about civilians at all. A person who is reckless and is willing to hurt bystanders and their own people to get what they want is a legitimately good idea to roll with… That the writers didn’t do. Instead the writers decided that the “right” thing to do was to uphold the status quo and try to obtain equal rights through nonviolent, though explicitly ineffective protests.

And at the end, they got rid of the only member of the WF that was making sense. Blake said “Never fight back because it makes us bad” while Adam was saying “We should always fight because we won’t get anywhere otherwise.”

Sienna was saying “Defend yourselves, your fellow person, and your communities, but don’t actively seek confrontation.” Sienna was basically saying that doing things in such a way that would eventually point out that the fight shouldn’t be Faunus vs. Human, but Rich vs. Poor. Given recent political events, I think it’s safe to say that if a Faunus could have been someone exploiting other Faunus for the sake of profit, that they would easily and rapidly side with the racists.

The racism subplot was more than what the writers could handle, and that can be said until the heat death of the universe, but that isn’t to say that there was something there that could have been said.

In fact, the overall story could have been one of priorities. Do our heroes focus on the looming threat of Salem who is trying to destroy the world in one big cosmic attempt at suicide, or do they try to help the disenfranchised so that there’s a world they’re willing to go back to if they’re able to save it?

The story could have been one where Adam is a rich villain willing to use his position of wealth to get people to throw away their lives for the sake of revenge while Blake could have been one who doesn’t want to sacrifice people.

Blake could have easily been the “Poor Hero” wanting peaceful resolution in the name of her (honestly should have been deceased) parents, while Adam could have been the “Rich Villain” who just wanted to expand his wealth by merely pretending to be on the side of the Faunus.

There was no need for the racism subplot, but if the writers wanted to do something, they should have gotten information from somewhere OTHER than some white karen’s blog about how minorities “should” behave.

The main point of this is that the writers ultimately fucked up by making Blake the princess of Menagerie. This could have easily been a clash of ideals from two people on the same class. Adam, the one who disregards civilians, and Blake, the one who wants to save civilians. Both from the same lifestyle, but with vastly different outlooks. And making Adam be branded is also a massive mistake because there shouldn’t have been any kind of scars like that unless there was some on Blake as well. Put them both through the same ordeals, but come out with different perspectives.

There’s a quote from Justice League Crisis on two Earths that I want to put here that should have summed up the difference between Blake and Adam:

“There is a difference between you and me. We both looked into the abyss, but when it looked back at us… You blinked.”

The story could have easily been Adam blinking in the face of oppression, turning into what he sought out to destroy; while Blake looked at it unflinchingly, turning into someone who wanted peace, no matter how hard it was to attain. Two people whose stories aren’t that different, ultimately coming to vastly different conclusions as to what their ideologies are.

Would it had been perfect?- Far from it. This sort of story is always hard, no matter who is writing it.

But would it had been decent, or dare I say… Good?- Probably.

[rwdestuffs]

Hey I remember you made a post actually tried to address Adam's branding under the schnee dust company, saying it was just a last minute thing that the writers tried to illicit sympathy for this unredeemable incel who also became the clearest and harshest example of real world slavery/racism in the show. I remember you were just trying to downplay the severity of what these white writers did and I just want to say I haven't taken anything you've said seriously since.

Fair point. I’d miss you if I actually cared about some grey-faced anon.

Adam’s scar was basically just a thing that the writers decided to add to basically say “Oh look! Racism is bad! We have a person who was branded! and while he was an abusive asshole who dropped grimm into a school and attempted to bomb another school should now be sympathetic!”

The writers were too afraid to show real-world racism because then they would have to face the awful reality that what goes on in the show also happens in real life. And they didn’t want to lose their audience by making them uncomfortable.

Also: What I said was that Adam’s scar should have been shown sooner so that Adam could get sympathy. It could have been way to show his slow descent into the person he ended up becoming. Adam wasn’t sympathetic when he disregarded the faunus lives lost in volume 2. So yeah. Adam is literally the worst character to show sympathy for the victims of racism. Ilia is a better character for that.

Also seriously: The racism subplot shouldn’t have existed in the first place. We could have just had a fantasy race with no racism whatsoever. But the writers weren’t comfortable getting uncomfortable in writing racism.

Also: Sorry if this comes off as aggressive. I’ve been dealing with some other anonymous guy on a different site telling me to commit suicide. I’m still kinda feeling a bit hostile towards anonymous users, so… yeah.

[rwdestuffs]

I see people saying Salem is worse than Adam sometimes , and I would just like to argue that Salem was needlessly tortured for eons before falling in the oozy jacuzzi while Adam was a monster all along

I’m probably not the best person to talk about this to, mostly because I kinda want Salem to adopt me, but I can wholeheartedly agree that Salem got the short end of the stick here (putting it mildly), and everyone who thinks that she hasn’t suffered has clearly not understood what she went through.

Like… Really? Are we doing this again?- Really? The whole “Tormented woman goes on a rampage, and she’s evil but the abusive man literally stalks and torments young girls and he’s supposed to be redeemable” schtick?

It’s overdone, it’s detrimental, it’s harmful, it’s not even interesting anymore.

[rwdestuffs]

While we're on the subject, does CRWBY know that Adam doesn't work as Gaston because Gaston isn't a POC and generally accepted by society, despite his faults, and is extremely racist towards anyone not meeting his standards?

Would maybe have helped if right when Yang punched him, the horns were revealed to be fake and that he was a government infiltrator sent in to give authorities an excuse to attack on-sight.

Would certainly make Atlas a more credible threat.

[rwdestuffs]

Adam let himself get defeated in a pathetic manner in volume 5. It’s his own fault.

Blake managed to overcome her fears in that moment. She not only realized that Adam doesn’t hold the key to her cage, but that there was never a cage to begin with.

Because Adam’s an abusive incel who used the abuse he faced as an excuse to abuse others. A shitty childhood does not make a sympathetic character. Nor does it make a redeemable character. It’s what you do because of, or in some cases, in spite of that abuse.

Zuko took his abuse and turned it into resolve. Adam turned it into spite.

Adam chose his fate.

And the Adam stans can die mad about it.

[rwdestuffs]

Something I’ll always find interesting is that people complained about “Adam being ruined for the sake of shipping” when really… Adam had only a small handful of lines in the Black trailer, and only had like… Two sentences in the Volume 2 ending.

What?- They got an “Adam was a really cool and heroic faunus dude that strayed away from the path of righteousness” from those small number of appearances? Raven had more development than him by Volume 3!

So really, I think people fell into the same situation that I fell into with Taiyang when Adam was finally revealed: They saw this character and made up one inn their heads. One that was so persistent in fanon that it was almost considered canon. Then when canon came along and killed that fanon idea, they went berserk. People thought of Adam as an antihero, and then got mad when he was an abuser.

Similar to how I always envisioned Tai as being a dad who is saddened by the death of Summer, but puts that aside for the sake of his kids and actively does everything to help them in their struggles. As opposed to the asshole who insults his daughter and calls the manifestation of her soul a temper tantrum.

So while I can understand why people were mad, I’m just disappointed that they’re still mad after all this time. I got over my anger towards Taiyang’s characterization, and I’m actively rooting for him being called out on his behavior so that he can grow from it. So I guess people wanted Adam to have to have a redemption arc as well. Only, they thought that Adam was seeking redemption instead of revenge like they deluded themselves into thinking.

Really, Adam stans brought their misery upon themselves.

[rwdestuffs]

Given how you're mister "JAUNE NEEDS TO BE HOMELESS AND LOSE AN ARM BEFORE HE'S SYMPATHIC AND TAI IS A WORSE PARENT THAN RAVEN" you are the *last* person allowed to complain about Adam Stans.

Taiyang: I called the manifestation of my daughter’s soul a temper tantrum and every single one of my stans agree with me because they ignore the fact that I left my kids alone super consistently with little to no supervision.

Every single Tai Stan ever: OMG! Taiyang best dad! Ghira who? Tai is dad goals! And even if he messed up, he’s trying and that makes him best dad ever!

Jaune: I harassed Weiss, melted Pyrrha’s stuff down to upgrade myself, complained about losing people (despite having a family that can comfortably support eight kids), made Pyrrha’s death all about me, had an actual temper tantrum over Cinder, of which I got rewarded by unlocking my semblance (despite the fact that when Yang rushed an opponent, she got her arm cut off).

Every single Jaune Stan ever: He Is MoSt SyMpAtHeTiC oUt Of AlL!!1! JaUnE mOrE sYmPaThEtIc ThAn LiTeRaL oRpHaNs!!1!

Sure anon. Sure. I clearly have no valid reasons to dislike those characters at all.