Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20160807005311/@comment-25936766-20160816232124

Alhazad2003 wrote: 1) It's because the Moonslice is a very difficult attack to utilize, if he could use it on the fly he'd practically be unstoppable.  He clearly needed that fifteen seconds Blake gave him in order to prepare his attack.

2) And if he simply blocked the beam, why did his mask and emblem light up, much like Cinder's clothes do when she attacks?  It tells me he absorbed the beam into his sword, a requirement for his devastating counterattack, then sent it right back.

3) I wouldn't say she was as squishy as a normal person, it seems to me you're underestimating her natural durability.  Combined with her aura, and she's a walking tank.

4) ...No, I'm more leaning towards he was serious about killing Yang, but he couldn't, not with an unprepared underpowered Moonslice. 5) Oh she'd definitely know, especially with the tight rein she keeps on her pawns.

6) As for her being frozen, I thought that at first, but now I'm thinking she withstood the SEW but was called off by Salem before she could kill Ruby, citing the girl had achieved nothing (and she hadn't, that's the most frustrating part). 1) If Moonslice is a charged attack, Semblance or not, then it makes sense for it to need to be charged to 1-hit-kill stuff. But, if it is an absorb-and-counter attack, requiring him to absorb something to deal damage, then it makes no sense for it to need to be charged on top of it.

2) In Cinder's case it's just Dust. While it is possible Adam has some Dust in his clothes or weapon (I'll explain this idea later), I'm at least 80% sure that back then it was just Rule of Cool. After all, the environment also went full red with black silhouettes, both when he did it against the mech and against Yang. We could assume it's also a part of his Semblance/Technique, somehow, for some reason....or we could follow Occam's Razor and assume it's just Rule of Cool done for the sake of Cool.

2.2) Regarding the fore-mentioned idea: What if the red lighting up, was Fire Dust? I've been thinking, when Cinder incinerated Pyrrha down to the point of disintegrating her, with fire. What if what Adam did was the same? The red of his sword's blade is Fire Dust or Fire Dust-infused steel, and he has some Fire Dust on his clothes as well. The idea is that when he disintegrated the mech and Yang's arm, it wasn't just slicing them off, but adding Fire Dust to the slash to disintegrate them via incineration, at least with the mech.

Of course, the mech disintegrated in a way completely different visual-effect-wise than Pyrrha did...but it was also a mech, not a living person with Aura and all (plus it was Seeing Red, unlike Pyrrha). Adam's mask also lighting up could be either A) Fire Dust, or B) His eyes lighting up (of course, this assumes he has red eyes).

3) All the moments you pointed out where she took a damn lot of damage, she had her Aura protecting her in each of those times. Not when Adam stubbed her, since he did so much damage it took said Aura down to 0% and kept going. And if, with the remaining damage, it was more than capable of easily slicing off her hand, it was more than capable of slicing off her head, her waist, her legs, anything. Because you know, if something can slice off your hand easily in a single slash, it can also slice any of those things easily.

Or are you going to tell me that if you can slice off a hand with a sword, you cannot slice off the same person's head with the same sword, speed of motion, and strength?

4) That's one in-universe option, the attack wasn't charged as much. Another option would be lack of concentration > worse aiming, but that one I would doubt, since he didn't even aim the slash at the mech (or even really hit it well) and yet it still got disintegrated.

5) There is no internet. The only way she would know what Adam is doing and what happened to him, is if she's in the same kingdom and place, or if someone actually travels all the way to where she is, and explains personally, which takes time. If she's in, say, Atlas while Adam is in Mistral, then she would never know what he's doing unless someone travels back and forth to tell her personally, which is too impractical for anyone to bother.

Plus, I doubt she cares. The partnership was for ruining Vale, just that. As far as both sides were concerned, after Vale got wrecked to each their own. She has no reason to care about what happens to him, or his organization, until, and then if, she gets another plan that involves them. Which I doubt, since In-universe I doubt they would happily accept it just like that, and out-of-universe it's uncreative.

6) Except 2 things: 1) That's an assumption with no real evidence to back it up (at least we know the Dragon got frozen, so there's a possibility of Cinder also being frozen or worse. Nothing says it would affect her any differently, other than assumptions). 2) Ruby did accomplish something important: Froze the Dragon.

The Dragon was apparently powerful either offensively or defensively or both, and it was sweating Grimm, literally. By freezing it, it cannot do anything beyond attract more Grimm, which is miles better than attracting + wrecking + creating even more.

Basically, Ruby's Deus Eye Machina is the only thing that gave Vale a chance of recovering. Sure, short-term it did nothing, but the important is the long-term.