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insaneoddball · 1 day ago

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TW: mention of sexual abuse, grooming, and pedophilia

Long post/rant ahead from a casual fan.

Hello. I'm only gonna make one post about this and then never talk about it again because I along with many casual fans am tired of hearing about it.

This post is not about me. This post is regarding the character Adam Taurus from RWBY, who I’m well aware is a point of controversy in the fandom. Specifically how many fans came to accuse him of pedophilia, grooming, and even SA despite no evidence existing in the show. However, I feel it’s important for me to give a background on where I stand as a fan of this show and why I’m making this post.

If you’re not interested in reading my personal ramble, feel free to skip to ⭐️ where I go over the only supposed actual evidence of Adam’s age.

I’ve been a casual fan of the show since its inception. I’ve made some friends along the way who are also casual fans. None of us have ever been super involved in the fandom, we engaged pretty passively, mostly through liking and sharing fanart and fanfics with each other. We all had our criticisms like most fans do, but we still loved the show. We always looked forward to every volume and oftentimes would watch the episodes together and have fun with it.

For transparency, Adam was not a character any of us latched onto or even liked (for obvious reasons), but like most fans, we thought he had some missed potential (meeting Weiss, going to Atlas, his brand, etc.). Other fans (especially who are black and POC) have already covered these issues + issues with the WF in general, so I won’t go over those points here.

Anyways, one day, one of my friends showed our group a post where someone made a claim that Adam was not only an abuser, but also a groomer, pedophile, rapist, among other things. We were all pretty shocked when we saw it, partly because some of us had dealt with a similar situation in another fandom with an evil character that we did like. Yes, obviously Adam is a villain in the show. He’s a terrorist and an abusive partner, those are all facts. But the other stuff? Where did that come from? None of that was ever depicted in the show.

We kinda let it go at the time because we didn’t want to get into an online argument with an internet stranger over a fictional character none of us even liked. I ignored it too and moved on with my life like most people do. But I kept seeing those comments again and again. I don’t even look up Adam content, they would just show up on occasion on tweets and posts talking about Blake or Yang.

I kept ignoring it until it finally hit me that people genuinely believed this. People really believed there was some sort of age gap between Adam and Blake and that he was an adult (or at least an older teen) grooming a minor.

The reason why wasn’t hard to find. It was just stated on the wiki that his supposed age came from a VA panel. Nothing in the show, nothing in their character shorts, literally just an age range and an estimate stated by the VAs at a panel. Everything else is built upon this statement from the VAs.

Setting aside the fact that it’s incredibly distasteful to imply (not even confirm) something as serious as one of your characters being a groomer and not put any actual evidence of it in the show — especially when that character is a victim of oppression, something anyone with common sense can tell is a gross thing to do — I wanted see what was actually said, mainly for myself. All I wanted to do was check.

5 seconds of googling + 5 minutes of skimming through the panel later, I was shocked by what I found. That’s when I knew I wanted to make this post because I haven’t seen anyone else talk about the actual clip.

⭐️

“On the wiki it states that the VAs said he was in his early to mid 20s with an estimate of 23.”

People often say this to back their claim, and yet I’ve never seen anyone actually bring up the source where this statement was made. Hell, not even people who disagree have ever brought up the source to counter it as far as I saw.

So here you go.

Here’s the link to the 2016 MCM London Comic Con RWBY VA Panel.

Below is the clip (at 30:50-31:41 in full panel linked above) people talk about when they say the VAs gave their estimate for Adam's age (along with Neo's age since it was two questions in one):

Listen to how they answer the question.

First, they treat it as a joke.

Barbara: “Adam is 95”

???: “—and a half”

Barbara: “and Neo is 7."

Cue the dramatic pause and then...

Barbara: "I have no idea." [laughter]

This is their opening answer to the question.

I. Have. No. Idea. Followed by laughter.

No correction with the other VAs, no “we’re just kidding, we actually do know their ages,” nothing.

But it doesn't end there.

Now, they're actually trying to come up with a number after openly admitting they have no clue what their ages are.

Look at their body language. “I don’t know,” “I don’t know,” “we don’t know,” they all say as they start to look at each other, making sure they all agree on what is being said, an indication this was not something that had ever been discussed beforehand.

Additionally, Arryn started their answer with “I don’t think there was an actual—” before cutting themselves off. An actual what? The most likely thing they were going to say is “I don’t think there was an actual conversation about it.”

This isn’t just their headcanon, this is their headcanon they just came up with in that moment.

If Adam was always intended to a fair bit older than Blake and this was intentionally part of their dynamic, they would not react that way. They would not repeatedly state "I don't know" before even attempting to answer the question. They would not open their answer with a joke followed by "I have no idea” and laughing about it given the potential implication their answer might have.

Even at the end, they jest how “they’re [Adam and Neo] timeless and ageless” as well as agree with the host’s comment of “between 7 and 3000,” once again treating the matter as a silly joke you’re not supposed to take seriously.

They started the answer with a joke and ended it with a joke, which once again is used as justification by fans of Adam being a canonical pedophile.

Are you fucking serious?

THIS is the only objective evidence that fans have? A VA panel where the VAs themselves are clearly unsure about the answer they're giving, and thus unaware that they’re manifesting an age gap between Adam and Blake (something they’re likely not even thinking about given how they answered) based on their own off-the-top guess? Would you be laughing and joking around about your character being “timeless and ageless” if you knew your answer just implied that said character might be a groomer to a character you voice?

“Their ages aren’t an accident. CRWBY knew what they were doing when they said he was 23.”

This is the actual evidence. This clip is proof that it was an accident, that they did come up with it on the spot and not a single one of you making this claim have watched this goddamn panel. The fact that I — a casual fan who’s barely involved in the fandom — had to look it up because somehow no one else did is insane to me.

Not to mention the estimated age isn’t even 23! Arryn clearly says “20 [awkward hand gesture] 23” meaning they’re saying they thinks he’s 20-23, not specifically 23, while Barbara just says mid-20s. Do you know how big of a gap it is between early and mid-20s? 6-7 years depending on who you ask. There is no moment of mutual agreement between them of him being 23, they’re both stating two separate headcanons. They don’t even agree with each other’s headcanons, jesus christ—

I get it, Adam is a despicable person. There’s no question about it. But to throw accusations of grooming onto an in-universe minority character who was revealed to be a former slave to a megacorporation right before his death and who’s already one of the most evil and hated characters in the entire show? It’s actually deplorable.

And now the question is why. Why do some RWBY fans cling so desperately to this headcanon? Truthfully, I don’t know. Maybe they don’t like that some people sympathize with Adam or wanted a different ending for him. Maybe they want him to be an even more irredeemable sack of shit even though he’s already dead and was never going to be redeemed anyway. Maybe they don’t want to acknowledge the legitimate criticisms of his character writing so they just throw out “the VAs said he’s much older and therefore a pedo, so nothing else matters” to avoid confronting those critiques without even realizing their claims are based on literally nothing. Maybe they genuinely believed it because they saw what the wiki said and never bothered to fact check it. Or maybe it’s some other reason.

However, that doesn’t change the truth of the matter.

Adam is not a pedophile/groomer. That is not canon. Not even the VAs think that because they made up his age on the spot. No consideration for what that meant for him, for Blake, or for their relationship. Treating a REAL LIFE matter of this scale as something they can just throw onto a character (unintentionally in the VAs’ case but that doesn’t make it better) without thinking it through is absolutely despicable.

“But they couldn’t depict pedophilia in the show!” Yes, they could have. RWBY is no stranger to tackling serious topics, volume 9 and Ruby’s mental state being the most recent example. RWBY’s also discussed PTSD, abuse, racism, etc., all to varying levels of accuracy. Therefore in my eyes, if these were objective aspects of their relationship, it would have been in the show.

For example, take season 2 of Apothecary Diaries (very mild spoilers) which doesn’t shy away from saying the word “pedophile” when referring to a certain character. I’m not saying RWBY had to be that direct, but there are also clear scenes in that anime that visually convey that character’s pedophilic nature even without such direct dialogue. It’s not that hard to do, to treat a serious matter with proper care and respect. There is no excuse. If CRWBY intended it, it would have been in the show just like every other serious topic they’ve included.

“But what about the other claims? He could have still SA-ed her while they were together!” Let’s look at the RWBY companion book. On Blake’s page, there is only a mention of “her partner’s emotional abuse.” On Adam’s page, it only says that he was “a control freak and emotionally manipulative.” There is no mention of SA, no mention of grooming, and no mention of any sort of age gap. None of the characters ages are even stated in the book as far as I saw.

CRWBY once again had the chance to confirm it and they didn’t. Because they know it’s not true.

But now, they can’t confirm or deny it. If they confirm it, they’ll have to acknowledge they deliberately retconned their already evil character who’s a minority, disabled, and a former slave whom they already killed into an even more evil version of himself because of something they came up with on the spot at a VA panel. If they deny it, they’ll no doubt be met with a wave of hate from these exact fans who cling to this headcanon.

CRWBY is in an impossible position because they know the level of toxicity this fandom has. Regardless, the fact that they never clarified or acknowledged this blunder rests solely on their shoulders, not on the fandom. The fans are ignorant for not doing their own research, but CRWBY is deeply negligent. They are responsible for clarifying misinformation of this severity, and they never did.

That’s all I have to say. To be clear, none of this is in defense of the stuff Adam is actually guilty of as seen in the show. Anyone trying to claim Adam is not an abuser (emotional abuse is still abuse, but I guess that’s not enough for these people) or that he’s an “antihero” is flat out wrong.

I don’t care if some people walk away from this thinking I’m an “Adam defender” or whatever the fuck, I know where I stand. And I also know that pedophilia/grooming/SA is not a character trait you can just tack onto a character without credible evidence and confirmation. It’s so disrespectful to treat a subject of this gravity in such a way.

I (with some help from my friends) wrote all this out so that if some dumbass tries to made this claim again, someone can point them to this post because somehow people are STILL making this claim to this day and no one’s actually shown them with video evidence that there is no evidence. It’d be nice for the wiki to be corrected/clarified too, since I know that’s where most people got this misinfo, but I know that’s a bit of reach.

The only reason I made this post is because somehow no one else has actually watched the panel because watching it immediately debunks everything. If someone wants to repost or share the clip on other socials, be my guest. I don’t need credit or anything, I just want it to be out there so people understand what so-called “evidence” they’re using to justify their headcanons.

This is the only post I’m going to have on this blog because I want no part in the fandom given the toxicity from stans and haters. Both of you are insufferable.

With that said, I’m going to keep watching the show from afar as we all look forward to volume 10. I’m going to keep liking and sharing fanfiction, fanart, fan animations, etc. with my friends because no matter my issues, I still enjoy RWBY. No one can take that away from me, no matter how vile the fandom and hatedom can be sometimes.

Stop spreading misinformation, especially to new fans starting the show. Acknowledge your headcanons as headcanons, and do not harass people who disagree with you. Leave this shit behind as we move forward into the next phase of the series.

Signed,

A casual fan + friends who are also casual fans that helped co-write this who are so sick of seeing this talking point that we wrote an essay about it

#rwby

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insaneoddball · 2 days ago

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Tyrian - First Debut Design Critique.

No way! It’s my favorite character from RWBY that I get to talk about which means it’s gonna hurt more when I say anything remotely negative about them- but surprisingly I wasn’t biased, I think.

After this critique I will either do Adam next or the redesigns I failed to make in some posts of mine along with the ones I’m not satisfied with such as Blake, Yang, and Neo.

RWBY Archives

Hm. Hm, Hm, Hmm. Interesting.

Tyrian is just a straight up scorpion with nothing compelling to note. They’re allergic to saying anything compelling.

I guess his role in the story and personality says more about his design, he’s got an attire that fits his combat style beautifully where nothing is dangling to his hip or boot to be flying around when HE flies around. His shirt with the smallest cuts to his collar tells me that it’s pretty tricky to land a hit on him… but the exposed chest to show his scars, showing he’s proudly survived worse than whatever his next opponent can do to him. I love it. I also gotta mention that Tyrian is a serial killer, and he very much gives the impression of being a hunter rather than a huntsman. When you’re running from Grimm and see this man, even with weapons, you’re not gonna get the impression that he’s a huntsman coming to save the day but instead the one who started the panic for Grimm to come in the first place.

Now uh… where’s the purple?

Hair

His model is gorgeous- ahem! I mean his model is gorgeous!

His braid isn’t modeled horribly like Weiss’ which thank the stars, but maybe it’s just too dark for me to properly see and judge but I’m gonna assume it looks good!

You can tell the animators have the easiest time animating Tyrian in combat as they don’t have to worry about animation limitations with the model. He doesn’t have large coattails like Yang and when he does, such as his brown coat that he wears occasionally, it doesn't seem to get in the way! It’s amazing they can animate Tyrian with a jacket so well but they can’t with Weiss’ dress or even Neo in a coat without it looking clunky.

Primary Color - Purple?

I LOVE the color purple, it’s the best color to ever exist and I will not hear any slander that it isn’t. Now why in everything that I love did they just go with BROWN??? Tyrian is suffering from a Yang problem, stuck in brown except Yang is better off given her hair/gauntlets at best, Tyrian just has his eyes… and it’s not even the correct shade of purple that he’s named after.

The only time he’s ever touched tyrian purple is when he was in Salem’s castle and whale where the lighting was much fitting to the color. I don’t understand why they didn’t put the tiniest bit of purple like making his hair a super dark shade of it or a gradient or a small streak like Ren’s pink hair. I would’ve tolerated a random bandana slapped on his knee if it meant my man could wear the best color!

There’s “theories” that the purple is symbolic of his “true nature” where he’s actually hiding it deep within him which is why he doesn’t wear it for a surprise element- yeah no, he’s introduced as someone already unhinged, why are we gonna use his main color as a metaphor? Have the purple eat him up! Look, LOOK! PURPLE! I got him in purple and it did not kill me.

Negatives?

Here’s the part where the bias is just gone-ish, I tried guys, I really do.

This outfit is lovely for Mistral but why is it still kept when he gets to Atlas??? The coat he wears doesn’t even protect anyone from a harsh winter, at best it protects one from a windy walk in the woods. Why did everyone in Salem’s council get a new outfit but Tyrian doesn’t? This man is gonna freeze and maybe I can write it off as Tyrian not caring about what his body goes through. He’s proven that he’s willing to dislocate his thumb just to do Salem’s work.

So I guess the next point of issue is the bandages. I assume Tyrian has scars beneath the bandages and if that’s the case, why hide em? The scars on his chest weren't an effort to cover up? Now maybe it’s just a fashion choice like how Oscar and Cinder do it, or maybe the scars on his arms have an in-universe reason as to why they’re covered compared to his chest. I’ll just have to wait and see but it is pretty… odd? You know with the whole aura rules and the fact I just find bandages to not be a so stellar design choice in RWBY, especially when there’s no scars to begin with but I could be wrong!

Redesign

So due to the law of “No One Being Allowed To Scroll Down To My Old/Bad Art-” I did redesign Tyrian in the past with little to no change other than just wearing purple cause that was my only issue with the design at the time. This is also just a redesign for him in Mistral than in Atlas. Now it’s just somewhat a complete overhaul as I got him to be tanner to show he’s from Vacuo cause obviously why not? He’s from the desert. His accented color is black as it makes him a lot cooler and dangerous! It also got the purple to pop up way more than what the brown hues did. His eyes are also permanently purple because take a shot on how many faunus characters have yellow/golden eyes already. I do think the redesign is just not enough, his boots especially as his prior ones made him be more protected, but also I did say this was nearly a complete overhaul- if people really wanted to, don’t be afraid of genderswapping the members of Salem’s council. After all Salem needs the maiden powers so why surround herself with dudes than with maiden candidates? I kept Tyrian the way he is because I do try to stick to canon as much as possible. That’s just me- changing outfits but not the story as much as possible.

Conclusion

I love him, I really do, if his name was something like Taupe there’d be no issue but my man aint wearing the best color alive cause it seemed whoever designed him wasn’t given his name until afterwards where they slapped purple on him as a last minute decision to his eyes. It’s frustrating.

Other than that, his design still says a lot about him that I can adore. From the braid resembling a scorpion tail to the scars on his chest that scream “DANGER” to any of his next victims, it does carry him a lot. It just doesn’t carry him well when they get to Atlas, what a shame.

But of course it’s just my opinion. If you love this design or hate the design, please share your opinion. I’d love to hear it!

#rwby

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