Anticipation: it’s something that seems to be neglected in the modern consumption of film and television. With the rise of streaming sites like Amazon Prime and Netflix, waiting a week between episodes of a running show is slowly giving way to binge watching a full season within a few hours. However, one entertainment company out in Austin, Texas are using the art of anticipation to their advantage: Rooster Teeth.
You may know them already: Rooster Teeth an entertainment company which was founded in 2003 and picked up a lot of popularity through their first internet series, Red Vs Blue, a web television show that uses ‘machinima’ style animation from the Halo games and parodies first person shooters, military life and science fiction.
While Red Vs Blue is still running, Rooster Teeth have since released other productions, one of them being RWBY, an anime-style series about young men and women training to become warriors – the name RWBY itself is an acronym of the four main character’s first names: Ruby, Blake, Weiss and Yang.
Originally released in the summer of 2013, the show is the brain child of the late Monty Oum. It’s about to enter its sixth season, but Rooster Teeth have released a character short animation two months ahead of the latest installment’s release.
And it is seven minutes of pure villain awesomeness.
Spoilers ahead about the show:
Unlike traditionally regular previews, the character shorts in RWBY were not cut from the show. Instead, they are original self-contained short films that tell their own story. The short follows the history of Adam Taurus, an activist for the Faunus (the universe’s species of human/animal hybrids) and one of the show’s antagonists.
We get a taste of Adam’s origin story: starting off with him saving groups of Faunus from racial attacks from humans, killing his first group of humans, his ascent through the White Fang (the show’s Faunus activist-turned-terrorist group), to after the point where fans left him at the end of volume five, escaping and losing his iconic mask in the process.
Despite its short running time, we got a lot more answers towards a character who was otherwise shrouded in mystery. Though there are lot of aspects to note about the short, there are a few details which are worth mentioning. The first detail worth noting is his interactions with other characters throughout the show in comparison to the short: the former sees Adam being spoken about with hate, fear and apprehension, while in the latter we see him being treated with respect. A second is his attitude towards humans. In the show, he is notorious for his hatred for man, and strikes them without pity or mercy. In the short, we see him go from disarming them, to killing them in defence of his brothers, to making excuses about how he has no other choice.
The third detail – and arguably the most important thing to note – is his interaction between two characters in particular: Blake Belladonna, one of the show’s main protagonists and Adam’s ex-lover, and Sienna Khan, the former leader of the White Fang. Though there is only one conversation he shares with Blake, we can quickly tell Adam is subtly abusive to her.
When she challenges him about the humans he’s killed on missions, he quickly flips it around on her, commenting how he only does it in self defence and that he wouldn’t have come back alive had he not killed them, quickly shutting her up and making her apologise for bringing it up. As for Sienna Khan, it is interesting to see these interactions since Adam murdered her in cold blood at the beginning of the fifth season, a serious contrast to the fact that Sienna has nothing but respect for Adam.
This is a very exciting move and interesting decision on Rooster Teeth’s part. While it presents a wonderful return to the show, with the action-packed animation and music provided by family duo Jeff Williams and daughter Casey Lee Williams not holding back in the slightest, it also gives fans some ideas as to where the show is going. This is also the first time Rooster Teeth has released a short for a major antagonist in RWBY. Previously, it was reserved for the leading ladies of the show with the ‘Red’, ‘White’, ‘Black’, and ‘Yellow’ trailers that were released before the first season, as well as additional shorts for Blake and Weiss Schnee for volume 5, with a minor character featuring in Blake’s short, Ilia Amitola.
The shorts have traditionally acted as a precursor and hinted towards future character development and particular attention in future seasons. In the case of Ilia’s character, her appearance in Blake’s short was followed up by her joining the protagonists at the end of volume 5. So, what does that mean for Adam? Also, since Adam doesn’t have his mask anymore, fans may finally to get to see his true face. What does it all mean? One thing is for sure: this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Adam Taurus.
RWBY will be due to return on the 27th of October with the first episode of the sixth season through Rooster Teeth’s subscription streaming service, starting at five dollars a month, with episodes being available to the rest of the public on Rooster Teeth’s website and YouTube a week after the initial date.
Rooster Teeth First allows for a one-month free trial. If you wish to sign up for Rooster Teeth First and see the new episode of RWBY, click here.
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