Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25266931-20170224140119/@comment-25266931-20170228023916

ChishioKunrin wrote: 1. Adam is at a higher level than Team RWBY currently is, due to him being older and more experienced. Blake herself called Adam her mentor in Mountain Glenn ("I had a partner named Adam... more of a mentor, actually."). Though, overall, his attacks throughout the majority of the Black Trailer were not much different or that much stronger than Blake's, aside from the fact that his sword's blade appears to be made of fire Dust, hence the fire trails some of his attacks made. It was his Semblance that really made a difference.

But we've been told that his Semblance is a bit similar to Yang's. He absorbed a very, very powerful attack from the giant robot, and he returned that power multiplied, which resulted in the robot getting disintegrated. However, we know that his Semblance isn't always that powerful. If it was, Yang would be dead. He hadn't absorbed enough power to do more than cut off her arm. In the Yellow Trailer, Yang basically did something similar to Adam. She had enough power saved up in her Semblance to explode the entire dance floor in the nightclub with the tantrum she threw over Junior pulling her hair out.

Both Yang and Adam are capable of pulling off a huge, devastating attack via their Semblance, if they can absorb and save up enough power to do it.

2. The thing is, your style actually isn't bad, per se. It's all about the execution, how you do it.

I know this is a terrible example, due to it being mainly a comedy anime with just a bunch of wacky goofy stories and not much serious fighting, but Gintama has a couple main characters who are really powerful from day one. One of them has superhuman strength, and the other, Gintoki, is an incredibly skilled swordsman. Though, in their universe's Japan, swords are banned by the aliens who run Japan, due to samurais having fought back against the aliens trying to take over. Only the special ops police are allowed to have swords. Gintoki gets away with carrying his sword because it's purely made of wood and no one takes it seriously. But, as he says, a samurai's true sword is in his soul. He was able to break a real sword blade with his wooden sword.

I didn't get super far into Gintama, but I recall there is an arc that was actually really serious and had a serious plot going on, and Gintoki and his friends had to fight some bad guys, and he kicked ass! But the way that it was executed had there still be struggle and danger and uncertainty over whether or not the good guys would succeed, despite Gintoki being an incredibly skilled swordsman.

So, yeah, it's not necessarily a bad thing to have characters start out super powerful from day one. What matters is how you actually execute that, and RWBY... did not execute things very well. The way that RWBY's story is set up doesn't really allow for the main characters to be super powerful and still have it make sense, due to them being just first-year students. You'd have to change the story. 1) What? No I mean the swings he did in the 4th intro? He's not swinging like a guy who master bushido. It's nothing like the awe-inspiring stuff of the Black Trailer. Some attacks he did then couldn't even be seen. When he did in the 4th trailer looked out of character. Like a dance. It didn't fit his personality to do a full 360 spin because he missed slashing Blake. I feel like now that Oum is gone Adam's cool fighting style is in danger. And by extension, I feel like ALL cool fights are in danger. Has there been ANY COOL FIGHTS THAT SURPASS NO BREAKS? ANY?!

2) I don't need to see the characters be all-powerful. They don't need to be really strong to have creative fights. The quality and imagination in the battles since season 2 has slowly vanished. In all of season 4 the only fight I love no matter how many times I watch it is Qrow vs. Tyrian. In season 3 almost every fight is short IMO and leave very little lasting impression. But I will say Qrow vs. Winter was good, Merc vs. Coco and Yatsu was good, and Neo & Torch vs Ruby. Oh and Amber vs Cinder's trio was decent. Not GOOD. But I respect it. But like I said, all short. Season 2 had No Brakes and Paint the Town, Season 1 and Players and Pieces and Sun vs. Torch.

Now what does that tell you? Other than Season 3 the majority of each season as basically only 1 or 2 good fights. The rest of the time is lots of drama and talking. I wouldn't mind if it was suspense. But it's not.

When Adam and Blake ran into each other why didn't he just wail on her like a monster? Why doesn't Qrow use his scythe almost the whole fight with Tyrian? Why hasn't anyone used any of the aura barrier or aura bomb moves from the earlier seasons? It's like all the fights got dulled. Just because they're not that great as warriors yet doesn't mean the fights can't be badass and cool. Why are they holding back so much on the action now that Oum's pushing up daisies?