Commander

My take is that he didn't suddenly start losing in order to preserve his threat as a villain, and to emphasize that BY did something incredibly difficult in defeating him, which neither of them could do alone.

Adam's power isn't derived from from any cybernetics or maiden powers or Grimm arms. He's just a really skilled huntsman with more issues than a lifetime magazine subscription. Blake and Yang managed to leverage their bond and new skills to their fullest extent and just barely eeked out a win. 

That mech fight was excellent though, I agree. My favorite parts were Ruby taking charge and finally being a leader after spending much of v4 and 5 solidly in the backseat.

So I actually saw a cool theory that Adam could be a bastard son of the Schnee Dust Company explaining his whole scar situation but...that's a different story altogether. Would definitely be cool to see that explored but it doesn't seem like it would.

Adam was always a powerful character and is probably the strongest White Fang Member by a good margin. He honestly should have had an entire episode dedicated to him if he was going to be sent off like that and with how little he was involved in the volume. He was a man with nothing to lose at this point and that's when someone is the most dangerous. It also kind of felt dirty that his final stand was a method to turn Yang and Blake into a thing when Blake and Sunny have had a 3 season buildup. I don't know, but it just didn't feel right which is kind of why I said I would have wanted Yang to beat the living hell out of him instead of killing him off. Definitely was potential to turn him around.

It's just weird as I wanted Cinder to die as it'd flip the plot on its head seeing Salem pissed about losing an important pawn, but of course the typical she lives happened which was disappointing. Now that I want Adam to somehow survive (he ain't gonna be in fighting shape after that though) he probably won't which makes me a bit disappointed.