What makes me angry isnât 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 Blakeâs characters - and as such, they donât need to be explored. They donât have to be complicated. Adam isnât a character on his own, he doesnât have a canonical past, he didnât 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, isnât about *him*, it was only introduced to show us how he manipulates Blake with it - thatâs 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 âcharacterâ has played itâs role as an âBlakeâs villainâ, he is disposed of. Thing is, âvillainsâ are also individuals. The Joker, for example, isnât just âBatmanâs villainâ. Adam didnât 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. âBut adam is meant to be obsessed blakeâ - and thatâs okay! Thing is, you can absolutely write a character thatâs disturbingly obsessed with someone *but is still a character on their own*. The problem isnât 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 âsomething that was stolen from Blake & Blake had to reclaim itâ and once she did, the WF disappeared. No nuance whatsoever. Then there is the very nature of Blake and Adamâs romantic relationship - it wasnât explored, it wasnât expanded on, it didnât 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 Blakeâs character - we donât see flashbacks or anything of the like, the only thing we see is that cringey line in Adamâs character short where mr. emotional manipulator, in a cOmPleTeLy unassuming and definitely Not-Evil voice says âOh you want to abandon our cause? Just like your parents did? đđđđđđđđđđđđšđšâ oh woah. Thatâs. thatâs definitely what successful emotional manipulation looks like. Thatâs 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 didnât feel like a relationship between two characters, it felt like a little tweak added to make us feel a certain way about Blake. We didnât have to *see* it, we were told that Adam is abusive & we know it made Blake feel bad and thatâs 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 donât hate the idea of Adam and Blake being together and I donât hate the idea of their relationship being unhealthy, I just hate how it was presented in the show.
Tauradonnaâs 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? Itâs 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 thatâs not the case. Heâs only ever cartoonishly manipulative and abusive.
Whatâs particularly annoying about Adam is that, while stories can have secondary characters without established backstories (thereâs only so much narrative real estate, so to speak), Adamâs implied backstory was brought up suddenly and with dramatic emphasis minutes before he died without being explored. Like I mentioned in my post about Marrowâs throwaway systemic racism line: why bring it up if you arenât going to talk about it?
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