What makes me angry isnāt the fact that Adam and Blake ended up in an abusive relationship- what pisses me off is how lazy it was written. It feels like Adam, the White Fang, *everything* was written to be nothing but fragments that serve to accessorise Blakeās characters - and as such, they donāt need to be explored. They donāt have to be complicated. Adam isnāt a character on his own, he doesnāt have a canonical past, he didnāt have any motivation other than Blake - even him enslaving all humans falls second to Blake for some reason. Hell, even his brand, possibly the worst thing that has ever happened to him, isnāt about *him*, it was only introduced to show us how he manipulates Blake with it - thatās the only relevance to the story it had - making BLAKE feel sad. How did he get it? When did he get it? Why did he get it - all of this is irrelevant because it has nothing to do with Blake. Once his ācharacterā has played itās role as an āBlakeās villainā, he is disposed of. Thing is, āvillainsā are also individuals. The Joker, for example, isnāt just āBatmanās villainā. Adam didnāt feel like an individual, he felt like a tool. There was zero personhood to his character. Even otome game yanderes have more personality than Adam Taurus. āBut adam is meant to be obsessed blakeā - and thatās okay! Thing is, you can absolutely write a character thatās disturbingly obsessed with someone *but is still a character on their own*. The problem isnāt that you decided to write an obsessive character, the problem is that he is barely a character. There is *nothing* to him. The same could be said about the White Fang. It was nothing but āsomething that was stolen from Blake & Blake had to reclaim itā and once she did, the WF disappeared. No nuance whatsoever. Then there is the very nature of Blake and Adamās romantic relationship - it wasnāt explored, it wasnāt expanded on, it didnāt feel like it was meant to be a representation of abusive relationships and how they impact people. It felt like it was just there to add tragedy to Blakeās character - we donāt see flashbacks or anything of the like, the only thing we see is that cringey line in Adamās character short where mr. emotional manipulator, in a cOmPleTeLy unassuming and definitely Not-Evil voice says āOh you want to abandon our cause? Just like your parents did? šššššššššššš¹š¹ā oh woah. Thatās. thatās definitely what successful emotional manipulation looks like. Thatās surely how it happens. 100/100 could relate. My ex did the same and I fell every time, especially with that evil smirky smirk. How inconspicuous. But yeah again it didnāt feel like a relationship between two characters, it felt like a little tweak added to make us feel a certain way about Blake. We didnāt have to *see* it, we were told that Adam is abusive & we know it made Blake feel bad and thatās enough. Thing is, I think that since abusive relationships are unfortunately something everyone has experienced, they should be explored with tad bit more attention and complexity. I donāt hate the idea of Adam and Blake being together and I donāt hate the idea of their relationship being unhealthy, I just hate how it was presented in the show.
Tauradonnaās depiction also reflects poorly on Blake by making it seem like she fell in love with someone who, in canon, seems to have zero redeeming qualities and no honeymoon phase. Like girl, how did this even start? Itās one thing if we see Adam as a tragic character who started off good and was a good partner and got worse over time (or abruptly once Blake was largely under his power), but thatās not the case. Heās only ever cartoonishly manipulative and abusive.
Whatās particularly annoying about Adam is that, while stories can have secondary characters without established backstories (thereās only so much narrative real estate, so to speak), Adamās implied backstory was brought up suddenly and with dramatic emphasis minutes before he died without being explored. Like I mentioned in my post about Marrowās throwaway systemic racism line: why bring it up if you arenāt going to talk about it?
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