Decided to get ahead of the game a bit today; so here's the thread.
Decided to get ahead of the game a bit today; so here's the thread.
The Devil's Advocate WP wrote: I'm not denying that is what it is like, but it is exactly one example of controlling behavior where it isn't even really about their personal relationship. When you talk about Weiss or Mercury, it is all about them and their relationship with their family member, plus it is established to be a continuous string of acts. However, really the point here was about an abusive family environment. Whatever her relationship with Adam was like, Blake had a loving home she could go back to at any time. By no means was she bound to Adam except by choice. There is a different dynamic involved with family.
That's where the controlling part comes in. It doesn't matter if Blake came from a loving family, Adam maintained control over her through manipulation and guilt tripping. Something real life abusers do even if there victims have an out like family. As long as they maintain control over there victim said victim will stay put.
Blake also wasn't just part of this "loving family" in a fancy house. they lived on the road, Blake was at every rally and they were the organizers, this is where Adam and Sienna met her, this is where they managed to convince her of their views, and this is how Adam managed to guilt her into leaving their fancy house, convinced her they didn't value the cause because they were living there while others suffered, and convinced her that they either didn't love her or wouldn't accept her because of it. If she'd thought differently she might have gone home, but she didn't, because even then she wasn't free of his influence, just apart from him.
1. When you talk about Weiss or Mercury, it is all about them and their relationship with their family member, plus it is established to be a continuous string of acts.
2. Whatever her relationship with Adam was like, Blake had a loving home she could go back to at any time. By no means was she bound to Adam except by choice. There is a different dynamic involved with family.
1. Blake mentioned Adam's manipulative behavior to Yang, though. In The Coming Storm, she said "Adam's strong, but his real power comes from control. He used to get in my head, make me feel small. But now I see he just wanted to pull me down to his size."
She outright states that Adam was controlling and that he used to "get in [her] head", in other words manipulate her.
2. She could've gone back to them at any time, yes, but she either didn't want to or would have felt guilty doing so, considering the last time she had seen them, she had yelled at them and called them cowards for leaving the White Fang:
Blake: (emotional) You were right. I shouted at you and yelled at you. (looking up at him) But you were right. I called you cowards!
Remorsefully, she lowers her head closer to her father. He holds her.
Ghira: It's okay.
Blake: (pulling back) I should have left the White Fang with you and Mom. I should've listened to you, and I'm sorry. (turning away) I'm so, so sorry.
At the time, she was mad at them and believed they had abandoned the White Fang's cause, like Adam mentioned in his character short.
Honestly, these responses just reinforce the problem. Blake turning away from a loving family and acting spoiled with them is rationalized as "Oh, she was abused because of one comment she made once about feeling small" rather than because she spent her entire life committed to a political cause and yet a whole pattern of conduct mentioned and shown from Jacques doesn't seem to get Weiss much consideration at all.
They didn't really sell that Blake was abused and they certainly didn't sell it by Adam's actions after they ended up on opposite sides of a battle. Maybe the problem here is the fact one is familial abuse and the other is potentially partner abuse. With family it is easy to get mixed up in this idea that the older family members are permitted to "discipline" younger family members and the older family members are presumed right by default barring exceptionally bad treatment.
Blake wasn't abused by her family
the problem is that Adam was so edgily shown like a horror villain you never really see the abuse first hand, because he himself in only relevant to Blake and Yang.
Okay just wanted to point it out, but I just noticed that so far the story is setting up so that the members of Team RWBY become the next maidens.
uby - Cinder hates Ruby with a passion, so no doubt she'll be thinking of Ruby when she dies.
Yang - Raven's shown she fully regrets abandoning Yang in the hopes of avoiding Salem. So if/when Raven dies, she'll most likely be thinking of Yang first.
Weiss - Winter was chosen as the next Winter maiden, and if she gets it and dies, no doubt she'll be thinking of Weiss, as that's the only one from her family she really cares for.
Blake - No clue yet, the Weiss one was only recently revealed in this episode, so pretty sure some connection to Blake and the last maiden will be established and thought of in a later episode/volume
uby - Cinder hates Ruby with a passion, so no doubt she'll be thinking of Ruby when she dies.
Yang - Raven's shown she fully regrets abandoning Yang in the hopes of avoiding Salem. So if/when Raven dies, she'll most likely be thinking of Yang first.
Weiss - Winter was chosen as the next Winter maiden, and if she gets it and dies, no doubt she'll be thinking of Weiss, as that's the only one from her family she really cares for.
Blake - No clue yet, the Weiss one was only recently revealed in this episode, so pretty sure some connection to Blake and the last maiden will be established and thought of in a later episode/volume
ooh interesting theory
the problem is that Adam was so edgily shown like a horror villain you never really see the abuse first hand, because he himself in only relevant to Blake and Yang.
DA was talking about Jacques, not Ghira and Kali.
I get that he was trying, but that argument doesn't float either
The Devil's Advocate WP wrote: Honestly, these responses just reinforce the problem. Blake turning away from a loving family and acting spoiled with them is rationalized as "Oh, she was abused because of one comment she made once about feeling small" rather than because she spent her entire life committed to a political cause and yet a whole pattern of conduct mentioned and shown from Jacques doesn't seem to get Weiss much consideration at all.
They didn't really sell that Blake was abused and they certainly didn't sell it by Adam's actions after they ended up on opposite sides of a battle. Maybe the problem here is the fact one is familial abuse and the other is potentially partner abuse...
Not a single person has disputed Jacques being an abusive asshat, it was Blake's abuse that was questioned, there are people who said Jacques has certain rights to abuse Weiss(as he is her father she couldn't just leave for years) beyond Adam's having no rights to do so as he is at best just a leader of a movement, because Jacques abuse is much harder to prove.
Not a single person has disputed Jacques being an abusive asshat, it was Blake's abuse that was questioned, there are people who said Jacques has certain rights to abuse Weiss(as he is her father she couldn't just leave for years) beyond Adam's having no rights to do so as he is at best just a leader of a movement, because Jacques abuse is much harder to prove.
I definitely don't think it is true to say "not a single person has disputed Jacques being an abusive" unless you are saying here and even then I don't know how certain one can be of that. Also, I never questioned whether Blake was abused, only that they didn't really sell it because what they showed or said from before she left isn't quite enough and the stuff after is in a very different context where "abuse" is difficult to fit.
Blake getting backhanded by Adam during a fight where the overriding factor is him wanting revenge against Blake for ruining all of his plans doesn't really work. The only real power difference is Adam being more capable than Blake is on her own, but they are otherwise fighters of similar capability so treating her being struck during a fight as them showing abuse just doesn't wash.