Hey everyone! This is Hailey from Cartoon Universe and I have another RWBY theory video
for you guys!
This one has to do with a possible reveal regarding the character Adam Taurus that people
have been speculating on for a long time.
With the new character short of him revealed at RTX, we can now confidently say that Adam
is still going to have an important role in the show.
In addition, from what I heard the short did not show his eyes, but a point was made of
him taking off his mask, so the theory may still stand.
And I hope you are all prepared from something quite different since this theory is pretty
much unlike any other theory video I have ever made.
It is a little tricky to explain, but first let me just say that a ton of this theory
was made by Strain of Thought, who gave me permission to talk about this very interesting
topic as long as I prefaced it by saying that this is part of a much, much bigger theory.
I'm still figuring out all the details of the theory myself since so much research has
gone into deciphering the hidden secrets of this show.
But basically, everything in RWBY, from the characters to the show itself, is also something
entirely different than what it initially appears to be.
That means that every character is not solely based on a single character from a fairy tale,
they could be based on a multitude of different references that could have been made hundreds
of years ago to even popular modern works.
So for example, a character widely known to have more than one reference is Qrow. He is
most commonly known as being the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, likely one of the most
important sources for RWBY.
But, he is also known to be Hugin from Norse Mythology. Hugin is a raven, and along with
Munin, flies around the world and brings information to Odin. Munin is of course, Raven. Since
both of them can turn into birds and at one point both gave information to Ozpin, this
works out.
We know this one to be very likely since in Burning the Candle we can see a line of a
poem about them on a chalkboard.
So that was just one example, but people have found more than one reference for almost every
character in the show, and I must say, it's amazing.
This is called the G.U.N. theory since pretty much every weapon in the show is more than
one thing, and this applies to everything else as well.
It's also a customizable high impact sniper rifle. (A-what?) It's also a gun.
So, with that in mind, we can finally begin the video!
Believe it or not, a ton of the evidence hinting at what is hidden under Adam's mask ties into
the symbollism surrounding one of the most mysterious characters in the show, Summer
Rose.
And this makes sense because if they are both silver eyed warriors, some connections occurring
between the two sounds pretty reasonable.
But what this actually means is that I am going to be talking about Summer Rose a whole
lot. Thought you were here to see me talk about just Adam Taurus? Well think again!
So as many people know, Summer Rose's name comes from the poem, The Last Rose of Summer.
On her gravestone it says "Thus Kindly, I Scatter" which is a line from the poem.
But, instead, this theory relies on Summer having a connection to the titular character
of the fairy tale called The Dead Moon. This is possible because of the GUN theory, where
every character has more than one source.
Anyways, the Dead Moon actually comes from the work of a woman named Mrs. M. C. Balfour,
but was translated to contemporary English and put into a collection by Joseph Jacobs.
It's name was also changed to The Buried Moon, and can be read much more easily than the
original version.
As the tumblr post states:
The Dead Moon tells the story of a feminine personification of the moon, who is a very
kind and selfless person who stays awake all night in order to shine her light that drives
away the creatures of darkness that lurk in the bogs and prey upon the people of the marshlands.
Having heard so often of the ill done by the bog monsters, but never having encountered
them herself because she was safe up in the sky and protected by her own light, the Moon
decides she wants to see for herself how bad things really are, and whether there is anything
she can do about it. On the dark night of the new moon, normally the only night when
the Moon allows herself to sleep, the Moon steps down to Earth in human form, draping
a hooded cloak over herself and pulling it closed to hide the light that shines from
her and disguise her identity, before setting off into the bogs to see what she can see.
But not long after entering the bogs on foot to investigate them, the Moon finds herself
caught by the grasping branches of a haunted tree. While the Moon struggles to get free,
a frightened, lost man stumbles upon her in the darkness. Trying to save him, the Moon
lets loose her light, briefly driving away the creeping horrors and showing him the path
out of the bogs so he can flee- but sacrificing her own chance at escape in the process by
revealing herself to the light-fearing creatures of the bog as The Moon, their old, much hated
enemy, who they instantly recognize and fall upon. Overwhelming her, the bog monsters drag
the Moon to the bottom of one of the deep black pools of the bog, and roll a giant stone
on top of her to keep her from rising, burying her alive underwater. With the Moon gone,
the nights remain pitch black, and all the monsters of darkness enjoy a long reign of
terror until the people of the marshlands band together to discover what has happened
to the Moon and find a way to restore her to the sky.
If we make Summer Rose the Dead Moon, who in this story is literally the moon, then
we can connect this back to all of the moon imagery we see in the show.
In The World of Remnant, fragments of the moon have been scattered across the sky, and
we have not known a time where it was not like this. In other words, the moon is dead,
killed before the story begins just like Summer Rose.
In the tale of The Dead Moon, the absence of the woman who can shine the light that
drives the monsters of darkness away leaves the people of this world vulnerable and forces
them to suffer the predations of those monsters.
With this in mind we can say that silver eyed warriors are essentially warriors of the moon,
and possibly even derive their powers from it.
And there is no lack of imagery connecting our sole known silver eyed warrior to the
moon. In fact, in the Volume 2 intro they even show Ruby falling through space to Remnant
from the moon.
Now you may be asking, what does this have to do with Adam? We know that Ruby and Summer
have a direct relation to the moon, but how could he be associated to the moon or even
to other silver eyed warriors?
Well, all three of them have something else in common: roses.
With Summer and Ruby it's extremely obvious. I already talked about Summer's name source
material, which has to do with a rose that is about to die. And with that, its petals
scatter.
Scattering petals are another piece of imagery seen in the show an absurd about of times.
We see it in Ruby's semblance as well in many more places.
Then we have their emblems and their color schemes which match perfectly to roses. Roses
are not just part of their name, but part of their symbolic identity.
So we have the moon... and we have roses. These seem like completely separate things
at first until you realize just how much the two things get juxtaposed within the show.
Starting from the very first moment, of course.
The number of times that an image of the moon has a rose or rose petals in front of it in
RWBY is also no small number. And if Summer Rose is The Dead Moon, then it makes sense
for these two symbols to consistently appear together, because Summer Rose is both the
Moon and a Rose.
Even the verbs commonly applied both literally and figuratively to these two symbols within
RWBY- shatter and scatter- are conceptually related and only a single letter apart. In
“Red Like Roses Part II”, Summer Rose actually describes herself as “forever shattered”.
So whenever you encounter either the moon or a rose within RWBY, they are symbolizing
the same thing- which means they are interchangeable. Wherever you see the moon, you can substitute
a rose; wherever you see a rose, you can substitute the moon.
The Moon is a Rose; the Roses are Moons. As we know, Ruby's weapon is the Crescent Rose.
Need I say more?
In RWBY, the symbolism of the moon and the symbolism of roses are identified with each
other, and one regularly stands in for the other.
So now, after all this explaining, we can finally talk about Adam.
Just like Ruby and Summer, Adam is plastered all over with the exact same combined shattered
moon and scattered rose symbolic imagery.
His weapons are named Wilt and Blush, and his semblance that he uses to activate them
is named Moonslice. He first uses his semblance in front of a giant image of the shattered,
scattered moon, as he shatters and scatters his enemy.
And for a second in the Volume 1 intro, Adam's face is superimposed over the moon.
Then, as probably one of my favorite bits of imagery, Adam’s entire back is covered
with a huge image of his emblem, a red rose in front of a white field, evoking the rose-over-moon
symbolic juxtaposition associated with Ruby and Summer.
So with all this evidence in mind, what conclusion can be drawn?
Well, considering that Adam Taurus has never, ever shown his eyes in the show, I think its
very possible that he does in fact have silver eyes, thus making him a silver eyed warrior.
Now that was a ton of buildup for just a single sentence, but there is so much that can be
explored concerning this topic.
I was going to do a separate video on why Adam is the way he is, but apparently the
new character short just says he just went through the same thing as all the other faunus
and does not have the tragic backstory I was lead to believe prior. So that might have
to wait.
Although one thing I will say is that we know that Ruby is in fact not related to Adam,
despite the all this similar imagery between the two.
The creator of RWBY, Monty Oum, sank that theory back in 2013 by saying that despite
having similar emblems, the two are not related. And the difference between them being scatter
and wilt.
It does not mean that they don’t have any sort of connections to each other, however.
But that ends this theory video, so thank you, guys, so much for sticking around this
long, and another huge thank you to Strain of Thought for letting me make this theory
into a video.
I really suggest checking out their tumblr which has information on a bunch more characters
relating to the GUN theory, and possible material for future videos!
And of course, thank you to all my patreon supporters who help to make videos like these
possible!
Have an animated day everyone!