#All Kerry wants to do is shave is head and be left alone

[civilization-illstayrighthere]

Cato, mess with my concepts My inner vision/ Like a strobing light Please confuse my every decision I can't even pretend that you are my friend What has happened to you and I? And don't say that I have changed 'Cause man, of course I have Are you far too depressed Now even to answer the phone? I guess you just want to Shave your head, have a drink and be left alone (Is that too much to ask?)

[elvenbeard]

2077, November

"Heeey... All good? What're you doing out here, so early?"

"Couldn't sleep... Wanted to watch the sun rise."

"Well, here I am!"

2077 was a hell of a year. It left its marks, mental and physical, trauma and scars alike, memories and lack thereof. A year ago Vince was working at Arasaka, desperate to stay in the corporate world despite it slowly destroying him from the inside out. A year later Arasaka is only a shadow of it former self - and in a way Vince felt like a shadow, too.

Six months had been Alt's prognosis, at most... then he'd die. For good this time. Vince knew the drill. But he also knew he would try everything in his power, utilize all means possible and necessary... Because yes, 2077 had been one hell of a year, of loss, despair, betrayal and pain... But also of hope, trust, friendship and love, and connections, however unlikely they may have seemed.

The road ahead is still long, and it will be far from easy. But he is at peace knowing he won't be walking it alone.

Vince through the years (9/9)

Aaand the series is complete! ;A; Ending it on a somewhat bittersweet note with a few of more pictures this time cause look at them looking at each other ;___;

Vince has always been a deeply lonely person trying to find his place and purpose - as you'll surely have gathered reading along this far. By 2077 he finally finds his people, real friends in the most unlikely places, that he cares about and that care about him. And after how badly his previous relationship with his Arasaka-coworker Shou ended, he wouldn't have expected to get another shot at love, too. I definitely feel like he found a soulmate in Kerry, very scared in the beginning that his feelings for him were only brought on because of Johnny, and should he get rid of Johnny he'd also lose the connection to Kerry. He didn't though, thankfully. Vice versa, Kerry found someone who really understands his loneliness and struggles and takes them seriously. They really match very well on many levels and bring out the best in the other (on most days at least :P), something I neither planned for nor expected, and probably why I'm so obsessed with them at the moment XD They really are each other's sun, driving away shadows and doubts, a light in the darkness.

But yeah, Vince has a lot to lose really, and together with Kerry and everyone else they try and find a way to solve the Relic-problem so now that he found his place and people he can stay with them, live the balance of quiet and exciting life he deserves and always wished for.

The scars I gave him here (and damn, it hurt me to make them 😭) are not 100% canon yet... I'm gonna explore and explain what they are and how he got them in my post-ending fic soon-ish.

But yeah... V gets his happily ever after with his loved ones, in one way or another, and CDPR can take my headcanons from my cold dead hands xDD No but really, I get it. In a world like Cyberpunk there's no such thing as a sunshine-and-rainbows happy ending with world peace and all... and even mine is gonna come at a certain cost. But if anyone, V deserves some peace and love after that shitshow :D

That being said:

Before and after! The scars are drawn on, and I used the relief layer effect in Photohsop to give them some dimension. Was really a matter of playing around with colors and layer modes to make them somewhat convincing looking, but I'm really liking the result a lot!

Once again it gets me how different Vince looks without his iconic hair and makeup 😭 Believe me, he had a really really hard time when he was told "we gotta shave your head for this procedure" cause throughout his life his hair has been a really important part of his self-expression. From dyeing it blond as a teen to rebel against his parents, to going completely wild afterwards, conforming to Arasaka, then slowly finding himself again... With everything gone he felt like yet another part of him was gone and yeah... wasn't a good time, that time in late 2077.

If you've read along all the way: thanks so much!! I hope you enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed creating it and sharing a bit more about Vince's background and how he became who he is. When I'm done writing my post-ending fic I might go back to writing and sharing his background story fic, detailing everything from this series a bit more, and you'll get to know some of the people I only mentioned in passing (his mother, his first real boyfriend, his coworkers, etc.) a bit better, too.

So... Thanks for sticking around!! :D

[rwbyconversations]

Seeing Red, or: The Assassination of Adam Taurus(’s character) by the Coward Blake Belladonna

Adam Taurus. The RWBY fandom’s preferred punching bag, Adam is often dismissed as an emo turbo edgelord thanks to his design, dialogue and somewhat shaky voice acting from Garrett Hunter. But regardless, thanks to his depiction in the Black Trailer and an impressive showing in Volume 3 that led to a... notable moment in the show’s tonal shift-

Adam managed to earn a fan following, and after a lack of real appearances in Volume 4 outside of the OP and Yang’s nightmare, his fanbase were chomping at the bit to see their favorite abusive bull-headed jerk show up again. Volume 3 and 4 set the stakes for Adam’s comeback, and the inevitable rematch between himself, Blake and Yang. Heck, Yang’s focus song in Volume 4 was essentially all about what Adam’s attack did to her and how she was going to reciprocate the pain she felt on Adam’s skull stupid face. 

Regardless of how you looked at Adam, his rematch was anticipated. People were dreading and looking forward to it in equal measure, you could drown in the amount of fanart imagining the rematch. And then...

Well...

Yeah. 

So Adam’s portrayal at the end of Volume 5 was a bit poorly received. I personally take the most umbrage with “Blake teleporting into his sword strike” and “Adam going down and staying down for a good minute before getting back up from a strike that didn’t even get past his Aura.” But it wasn’t just Adam’s fanbase who were let down by the fight. Among Volume 5′s many, many fight letdowns (I will never not be over the blueballing that was Ruby, Blake and Weiss vs Hazel, Mercury and Emerald), this ranked high on the list since it combined so thoroughly with what can be generously described as a character derailment. Adam went from the cool, composed and utterly vicious juggernaut that crippled half of our protagonist team to... well just look up at those GIFs.

So what happened? Well, that’s what I’m going to try and answer. But first, we have to set the stage.

Adam in Volumes 1 through 3 was generally liked by the fandom. Tauradonna (the ship name for him and Blake) was a moderately appreciated ship at the time, and even among people who didn’t ship it, it provided some good old Angst for Blake in whatever ship people actually wanted her to be in. Adam was appreciated for his cool design (I’m a slut for men in suits), the mystery of his mask and his impressive weapon and fighting style. Coming off Metal Gear Rising, seeing Iadio in practice was a treat. And after Volume 3, Adam was in the “Love to hate” range. His reputation had been established in the fandom as an abusive monster, but one who was a terrifying nightmare to face on the battlefield and on his own, neutralized half of Team RWBY. Were it not for a lucky save by Blake, he’d have taken her scalp home with him. 

What’s especially important about his scene in Volume 3 is that while it establishes Adam as a deranged psychopath, he’s one that doesn’t lose his cool. The one time he raises his voice to Blake, it’s when he denounces her beliefs. “What you thought is impossible!” For the rest of the battle, Adam is chillingly calm, even in the face of defeat. When Blake tricks him with her Semblance, does Adam fly into a rage, start screaming and shooting at them as they run?

No. Adam just frowns and strides away, not even stopping to kill a Grimm that tries to kill him. His composure remains unbroken even as Blake flees away with Yang. He’s so sure in his victory that he turns his back to them and lets them run away, even when he could easily chase them and get the kill.

This is Adam’s last scene in Volume 3. It’s the last we see of him in person until Volume 5. That last shot stuck with the fans, Adam just... walking away, barely affected by what he had done while Yang would fall into the depths of PTSD and Blake would run with her tail between her legs, jumping at her own shadow. Like him or hate him, Adam was nonetheless a terrifying villain, mocked as he was for his edgy voice.

That’s the image that had settled in the eyes of the fandom, and would for nearly eighteen months. An abusive, cold, calculating, vicious, but composed and effective monster. One who wouldn’t even shout as he declared “I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love.” 

So jump cut to late 2017/early 2018. And, uh...

Adam, sweetie, what happened to you? You went from a person who barely frowned as the object of your twisted affections ran away to someone who screamed into your Facetime chats like a low-budget Kylo Ren. The hiatus has been mostly kind to Adam until Volume 5. Sienna says that he is seen as a symbol by many of the younger members of the Fang, Salem approaches him personally and sends an envoy in Hazel so he can gain more power. Two episodes into Volume 5, and Adam has nearly everything he could want except for Blake’s corpse at his feet. 

And yet despite Adam being one of, if not the only characters to come out of the hiatus smelling like roses, he’s been reduced to a child throwing a tantrum when in private. The cold, calculating figure stages a brazen coup in the heart of the White Fang when Sienna won’t play ball. Ideally, Adam shouldn’t be angry. He should be smug. And wouldn’t that make you, the viewer, hate him more than Adam just yelling about the Belladonna name? The one guy to walk out of Beacon better off than when he walked in being inconsolably smug about the events, that would make anyone loathe him. 

But instead, he’s lost it. 

So yeah, let’s stop beating around the bush, Adam’s character does a nearly complete 180 in terms of his depiction personality wise (not to mention fighting wise) and it’s a character shift that doesn’t make much sense in the grand scheme of things. That much is obvious, Adam’s downfall was one of the more criticized moments in Volume 5′s... eh, let’s call them contentious... batch of finale episodes. Adam takes a nosedive in intelligence and falls for the same trick Blake played on him at Beacon with her shadowclone (nevermind that Adam and Blake worked together for years so that trick shouldn’t work once let alone twice)

So why did Adam suffer the cruelest fate of all, in character derailment? Why did he specifically go from his A-game to a joke in just one season?

Well, this is just theorycrafting, and I might make a full post about this one day, but I believe it’s because The Battle of Haven was rushed to fit in Volume 5 due to Miles and Kerry over-reacting to the backlash from Volume 4. 

Adam’s character derailment is actually part of the theory. I believe in the original draft for Volume 5 (which we know got a heavy rewrite close to the end of the production cycle) that the Battle of Haven was never going to be part of the volume, and that instead Volume 5 would focus on getting the pieces set up for the battle over Haven. We’d get moments like JNR meeting Pyrrha’s parents, Yang dealing with being a pariah since people still thought she maimed Mercury, and most importantly, Blake getting over Adam.

Outside of her scene with Sun where she personifies him as wrath, Blake never mentions Adam in Volume 5 while she’s in Menagerie. She never has a scene where she acknowledges that Adam essentially groomed her to be his lover or that he abused her. Think of how powerful it would be to see her not so much getting over Adam, as learning to swallow her fear so she could face him head-on next time they met (also it would give Kali something to do outside of  smashing Lanipator’s face in with a tray). Hell, think of what a great scene it would be between Blake and Ilia where Ilia learns just how depraved Adam truly is.  

But instead, Blake never acknowledges Adam. When they meet in Haven, she’s just over him, because “I have better things to do.” She’s content to just let Adam run away after lightly smacking him upside the head. Villain exit stage left, audience is too busy applauding Miles and Kerry for letting Blake just noclip through an entire character arc like a speedrunner. 

There’s a great post by @y8ay8a about how Adam’s downfall feels cheap because it feels like Miles and Kerry engaging in self-gratification at the cost of the story at large. Adam as a consequence of this rush to write a “Fuck Adam Taurus” moment has been weakened. He’s not a scary threat anymore, he’s not someone whose presence inspires dread like the old Adam was. And I feel like Adam can’t really be saved. Letting Blake beat him so thoroughly, and having Adam leave Haven by running with his tail between his legs has neutered him, and now I feel like the Yang and Adam rematch won’t have the impact, that moment of visceral satisfaction that it would have had Adam not even been at Haven. For the sake of a cheap “hell yeah!” moment that Blake never earned beyond “the plot says so,” Miles and Kerry have made Adam Taurus almost a caricature, a yandere that isn’t even good at being that. And that saddens me, Adam had so much potential as a villain that I don’t really get with the rest of WTCH or even Salem. He had presence, a personal connection with our heroes, and had the strength to back up his claims and be a genuinely scary threat- moreso than Hazel “How many children must die as I crush a child’s skull” Reinart. And now with Volume 5... he has a zipper. Was it worth it, Miles and Kerry? Was it worth ruining Adam’s potential so he could get some zippers like he’s guesting in Kingdom Hearts? 

Could Adam pull himself back from the brink? Maybe, but at this point Volume 5 would remain a black spot on Adam’s track record, one that his fans would never let him live down.

To close this post with an analogy, Blake beating Adam now is like eating candy every day. You get the sugar rush but it becomes predictable after enough time. But if you go a few days without indulging, earn it by hitting the gym and shaving off the pounds, when you finally treat yourself it feels all the better than just having it right there. 

Thank you for reading.