#if i was a go-getter i would write this as a proper story but i'm only human

[unofficialadamtaurus]

If you had to rewrite Adam in canon, what would you do?

Is this question a rite of passage for rwde blogs? I feel like I see it a lot.

This turned out more as a ramble-ridden Beacon arc rewrite than anything but I guess that's just how my brain wanted to treat this question.

It's also been a minute since I watched the first three volumes, so if the order of events is inconsistent, that's why and it's definitely not intentional.

Diving right in: I'd keep his history as a child slave. I'd keep the branding. I'd even keep the toxic relationship he had with Blake and the emotional manipulation he used to keep her in the Fang after she was uncomfortable. Like in canon, immediately after Blake leaves, he dismisses her to focus on the Fang, only for Cinder and co. to force him into service solely to take down Beacon. That's pretty much as far as maintaining canon goes.

In this rewrite, he would chafe at Cinder's gun to his head the entire time and make it lowkey clear to the members of his branch that, if they want out, they should get out. Cinder of course isn't thrilled about this but he basically tells her to pound sand since he can't keep track of every single member of his division, I mean, what does she expect of him? Omniscience?

In the process of scouting out Beacon and making battle plans, Adam learns of Blake's presence there. This stirs up a lot in him - she was his best student, after all, and they were close - and he's questioning his own feelings about her getting caught up in this. Like at first he's a little vindicated, but then he stops and reevaluates because...that's petty. That's not what he as a branch leader should be focusing on given how shit his current situation is. Maybe she could even help end this hostage situation...somehow...not that she wants anything to do with him.

Around this time a bunch of WF members talk to him in secret about their fears for what will happen to their friends/family in Vale once Beacon falls. Adam can't reveal Cinder's plans without Cinder nuking his branch from existence (since Adam can't be everywhere to protect his people and his people are now very spread out), so with this group he makes contingency plans, sets up and sets aside evacuation routes and craft. In the confusion of that final attack, Cinder won't be able to stop his branch from turning on her and helping innocent faunus get out of harm's way without risking her actual objective.

And at this point he can't delude himself into thinking that this is only his problem to deal with anymore; there's too much at stake. He contacts Sienna and tells her what's going on, she agrees to help get faunus, WF or otherwise, away from Vale. They also set up a plan to have WF reinforcements from other branches arrive in Vale during Beacon's fall to provide additional security and protection for the faunus who might get stuck in the city. It's not like the huntsman will prioritize them, after all.

Blake challenges the WF she encounters on following the orders of a human, they make it pretty clear they don't want to be doing it, which just makes her more determined to figure out what the hell is going on. She debates trying to contact Adam but gives up when a combo of the fact that she doesn't have a way to contact him and Yang's demand for her to rely on her team breaking her stubborn streak.

Mountain Glenn up to the Vytal festival proceeds more or less as canon, though the WF members who aren't in Torchwick's line of sight are suspiciously willing to stay down after the first hit in a fight - all except for those who go after Weiss.

So Penny dies, Vale is in chaos, and Adam conveniently planned to have himself on one of the ships landing at Beacon. And oh, how tragic that so many of the WF ships that were supposed to ferry grimm to the school and to the Vytal arena seem to be crashing, what a shame that only the pilots know how to use parachutes, truly unfortunate. Once things get going the WF abruptly switches sides and starts mowing down grimm.

Adam tracks Blake down, she thinks he's there for revenge, he takes a hot second to clarify the situation (and make it clear that he doesn't forgive her for leaving but there are bigger fish right now) and tells her to get the word out of what's going on, mobilize a force to help the faunus, something. She's a huntress-in-training, after all, surely she has some kind of reach at Beacon.

So now Blake knows about Cinder and she knows that Cinder wants something at Beacon (which Adam surmised over the months of scheming. Cinder put up the pretense of just wanting to take down the school but she was very insistent that Adam not just plant explosives and call it a day). Yang shows up, Blake calls Ozpin to tell him everything (at which point Ozpin contacts Ironwood to tell him that the WF are not their enemies), and then she, Yang, and Adam all agree to go down into Vale and help with the evacuations. Blake and Yang convince Adam to let humans into the ships too because do they really have the time to waste sifting through all of the panicking people and picking out the faunus? People are dying and they have the space.

So they do that for a minute until the grimm dragon thing shows up, a scout on a rooftop yells for Adam and they scramble to the roof to get a better look. Seeing the dragon, Adam orders the scout to get to the ships, they're pulling out. Most of the people have already been evacuated thanks to Sienna's reinforcements and none of them want to tangle with that thing blotting out the moon.

They see Ruby's silver eye flash from where they're standing, Yang and Blake's scrolls buzz with notifications that Ruby's aura has just dropped into the red, and Yang is hotwiring a bike and Adam eyes a Blake torn between her own team and helping the faunus for a moment before saying, "Go, I'll handle things here." (and hey, that's him finally making peace with Blake leaving back on the train)

So Blake goes with Yang back to Beacon, Adam sees to the last of the evacuations, and Beacon falls.

That's the basic idea. Adam and Blake aren't strictly enemies but they're not allies either. Adam and the WF as a whole are on guard against Cinder and might just be interested in thwarting further plans by her in retaliation for using the WF the way she did.