Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-4141313-20190119003858/@comment-5430952-20190123161129

HotSwappableGaming wrote: This episode disappointed me, in terms of the Adam v Blake & Yang. I'll start off saying that I AM an Adam fanboy. He's a piece of shit faunus being, but he's a cool piece of shit faunus being. I share some of EruptionFang's disatisfaction towards the issues in this fight. Yang's PTSD just felt...wasted. You don't give a character severe PTSD and just fix it with the shakes. And the fight between the three just felt...wrong. Not the death, mind you. I expected he would die here and was okay with that.

But the conclusion to the fight itself just felt lame and not thought out, especially compared to the previous episode. So Adam starts fighting a 2v1 and is getting bested - makes sense. He gets Blake out of the fight, fights Yang 1v1, and we see Yang's progress. Then she throws Wilt overboard and Adam gets jumped, tripping over Blake's broken blade. He and Blake and Yang all see it and understand what's about to go down - but this is where the bulk of my disappointment lies.

1) Now I didn't think the girls had it in them to kill another person, and that caught me off guard. It felt out of character, but I don't inherently disagree with the choice. To make it feel more right, however, I think one of them should have bested. Blake shouldn't have beaten Adam to Gambol. Adam should have stabbed her, triggering Yang and dying at her hand alone. Or a similar variation with the girl's reversed.

2) Directing disagreement - don't show Blake and Adam at the same distance from Gambol and then have her stab him with it with no struggle. It's nonsensical.

3) My biggest issue - the one issue that I can't forgive (and correct me if there's a reason why. Please!) - Why did Adam even go for Gambol? He STILL has his sheath! He STILL has his RIFLE! He was in a perfect spot to shoot one, if not both, of the girls (especially the distracted one reaching for the broken blade). Even as panicked as he was, when you fight constantly under pressure with a weapon you don't just forget about it. He even used the rifle earlier in the fight! The only conclusion I have is that they just FORGOT he had it.

It's a wall of text, and I'm the unpopular fan of Adam - I get it. He doesn't need to have an honorable death or a redemption arc. He may be heartless, but he's not brainless. It just felt like a rushed ending not worthy of Adam, Blake, or Yang. PTSD doesn't affect everyone the same way, some people handle it better than others. Yang was not only fighting Adam, but her own fear on top of it, and it she let it overtake her she would've died.  That's something a good part of the FNDM don't realize, they wanted to see Yang panic so badly that they never considered what would've happened as a result. So Yang couldn't let fear overtake her, or both she and Blake would've died. And then Adam would've taken his own life, since he was at the end of his own rope. So instead of one death, there would've been three.

1) Blake clearly took no pleasure in killing him, but she knew he wouldn't stop himself.  Yang gave him a chance to stand down, and he called her bluff.  So it couldn't have ended any other way.

And again, if he got the blade first, Blake would've died. She had no Aura left, and thus was vulnerable to lethal blows. And she already said she couldn't afford to die.

3) Why, you ask?  His Aura was broken, and the loss of his sword made him panic.  So expecting him to think rationally, yes him think rationally, is probably asking for too much.  Especially since he let his emotions get the better of him before the final blow from Yang, big difference from the Battle of Beacon.  So he was in a kill or be killed situation, and thus had no time to deliberate, hence why he rushed for the broken sword.