Rwby Ironwood - Tumblr Posts
(fanart for team FRBD on yt and their reaction on v8ep13....i think....i hope maybe 14)
Random rwby vol8 theory (scroll if you don’t want to see kind of spoilers for chapter 1).
So you know how General Ironwood shot one of the council memebers without any regrets just because they came in asking about martial law and abandoning Mantel. Well, Qrow and Robyn have just been arrested for disobeying orders and the murder of Clover. Robyn definitely isn’t going to stay quiet about Mantel and Qrow “murdered” one of the ace ops. I don’t think he’s gonna have any qualms about killing either of them in cold blood when he meets them.
So if one of them does get killled by Ironwood, I called it
Is it just me or the volume 9 ost is just perfect? I was saving the songs that i liked while watching this whole show and the most songs that i saved are from volume 9. Its either that or im just a sucker for this show which is also most likely but WHO CARES! I just finished the whole series in two days 😎😎😎 and after hearing the ost i wanna go back and watch it again just to pay attention more.
Also its fascinating to see how much the animation quality got better and better each season. Like in the first season they didnt bother to animate the NPCs but now! And dont even get me started on this story!
I cant believe im just finding this show and not sooner! I envy all the people who started watching this series early on and actually experienced these changes and upgrades! you guys must feel so proud! I know i am even tho im a two day old fan 😅😅😅😅 BUT THIS WAS PERFECT AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
imma probably write some stuff abt this show too like i did for tdp and i dont even know where to start!!! Theres so many places i wanna talk about!!!!
ALSO IF ANYONE HAS FUNFACTS OR ANYTHING THEY WANNA SHARE ABT THE SHOW PLS DO TELL I WANNA KNOW MORE!!
Ironwood is not a good marksman
Amongst Ozpin's inner circle, Ironwood is the weakest Huntsman.
His marksmanship is average.
He is not skilled enough to use complex weapons like Qrow.
He can't use Dust like Glynda.
He doesn't have Ozpin's experience.
But he has determination, he never gives up, and he can make the decisions other people can't.
Ironwood is essentially Batman.
I think the main thing is how politics are in Remnant. Projecting real world politics into a fantasy world may make the critique of a show ... weird. Of course, RWBY does reflect real world politics to some degree, and we can't tell someone to entirely NOT compare real world politics to RWBY politics. The trick is finding the right balance.
In any case, the rightness of Ironwood's choice is really dependent on how one interprets the show's narrative at any point in time. So yeah, perhaps you could do everything right and still lose.
Ironwood's Army was the right choice
In RWBY, Grimm are attracted to negative emotions. So it stands to reason that Grimm are either repelled or uninterested in positive emotions like contentment and security.
Which is why huge cities could thrive alongside Grimm. The concentrated feeling of safety and security that comes from being protected in a city like Vale overpowers the concentrated negative emotion that one would expect where large numbers of people gather.
This is why the pageantry of the Huntsmen is so important. It gives people confidence, and generates more positive emption to deter Grimm.
Therefore, Ironwood coming to Vale with his fleet is the best solution at that point in time because: Ironwood is playing to his strengths to help Ozpin.
The presence of the fleet would inspire confidence in people during the Vytal Festival.
Vale's government would be confident that Atlas is showing their support in Vale's favor. Which would further boost the feeling of security to counter any potential negative emotion due to uncertainty or mistrust.
Additionally, Ironwood made the right decision to put his forces in control after the breach because:
People are panicking.
The ability of the Huntsmen to safeguard Vale's citizens is put into doubt.
Ironwood's fleet was essential in restoring order to the city, hence the citizens would have more confidence in Ironwood's fleet.
Therefore, Ironwood made all the right moves during V3.
Dad Ironwood
Once, Ironwood was invited to a wedding as a joke and he attended. This has started a tradition amongst couples in the Atlas Military to leave a seat empty for the General in case he was ever invited to one of their weddings.
Ironwood's attendance has also started a tradition where families, who had lost Fathers under Ironwood's direct command, could request that Ironwood give the daughters away during weddings. As a favor that Ironwood tries his best to personally fulfill when he can.
Port to Ozpin's inner circle: Everyone! One of us is having relations with General Ironwood!
Qrow: You mean 'Daddy'?
Port: Exactly ...
Was Ironwood right? Part 2 -
It's difficult to say if Ironwood's plan was the right plan during v8 like it was during v3. v8's theme was about how plans could get ruined due to no fault of anyone's, or perhaps the fault of everyone, and you can't do anything about it.
As it is said; "Man devises, but Heaven decides." Everyone was going to fail in v7 and v8. If RT had not intended it, then the fan outcry ensured it. After Ironwood proved himself more sympathetic than the main characters due to some freak of writing.
Perhaps it is better when discussing whether Ironwood was right in v8, to ask if Ironwood was the villain? Or was he the Hero of the story, in a 'Superman dying to stop Doomsday' kind of way and not 'a Villain is the Hero of his story' kind of way?
Heroism in fiction is selfless action, but must that action be morally right? Our heroes have historically committed acts which we wouldn't consider morally right. Yet fantasy is meant to be unrealistic, and our heroes in our stories should be held to a higher standard.
But ultimately, our Heroes should not be condemned for actions that are immoral. The legends of our historical Heroes are just as fantastic as our comic heroes, and they taught lessons that are as valuable as they are timeless.
So was Ironwood the Hero of v7 and v8? Well since this is a Pro-Ironwood blog ... But to be fair, let's address the two main incidents of Ironwood's 'villainy'.
Ironwood arresting RWBY seems to be a moment that was caused by RWBY. Not in a negative sense, but more in that RWBY were the ones who took the initiative to break the stalemate. There was no right course of action in that situation, and Ruby should have offered to go and evacuate Mantle's citizens to Atlas if Ironwood delayed the launch by an hour. Like any action hero worth his salt would do.
Ironwood would then have said; 'you have ONE Hour, not a second more. Ruby would then reply with a one-liner and shot off to save the world.
But what about Ironwood shooting down the SDC ships heading to save Mantle refugees, and threatening to nuke Mantle if RWBY did not hand Penny over?
First; Ironwood kept his word when RWBY 'kept' theirs, and RWBY followed up the backstabbing streak with a 2-0 score against Ironwood.
Second; Even if Ironwood nuked Mantle, would he be a villain if he did it to save another island city's worth of civilians? Boudica killed three cities worth of innocent Romans for the Iceni Tribe of Britons, and she is still considered a bally heroine today. Ironwood would also have destroyed Mantle for pretty good reasons, as he would have destroyed the key to opening the Vault and would have thus prevented Salem from taking the Staff.
In any case, we won't really know if Ironwood was playing a particularly brutal bluff. I'd say he was bluffing but I like Ironwood so that's a nut and a half. The more important question is whether such a bluff made Ironwood a villain.
I say, no. If Heroism is defined by Selfless, Ironwood in v8 more than fits the bill. Ironwood unironically puts himself on the line to keep Atlas, and in the process Remnant, safe. He is willing to literally tear himself apart to stop Salem. Ironwood is selfless if nothing else.
But if Ironwood is the hero, what does that make RWBY?
Ironwood has the majority of votes on the Council because Major Leaf is an official Council Member. The first time Jacques Schnee tried to become a Council Member, Ironwood refused by making Major Leaf a Council Member just to veto the decision.
The Council got the message and denied Jacques a seat, but Ironwood forgot to remove Major Leaf from the roll.
Congrats anon, “councilmen turtle” is going in the next thing on my writing blog.
OMG YESSSS. Please @ me with any writing that comes from this please! Councilmen Major Leaf rules all XD
Halloween in Atlas -
The Ace-Ops dress up as various fictional teams. Last Halloween they dressed up as the Bad Batch from Star Wars. Marrow wants the team to dress up as the Tatooine Cantina Band one day.
Penny's costumes are extremely well done. But her costume choices are various variations of the Witch from Kiki's delivery service.
Winter must be *dared* to wear a costume for Halloween, and one has to have a costume set for her or Winter would just wear a cheap plastic mask. Last Halloween, she was dressed as Lucifer from Helltaker. But no one managed to get her to do the Helltaker dance.
Hello yes I am currently imagining Penny somehow convincing James to dress up as some random villain from a show and to let her be his body guard for Halloween. On Halloween day anyone who walks into his office James sits in his chair facing away from the door and when they enter his office menacingly turns to face them with Major Leaf in his arms stroking him like a cat trying to look menacing while Penny is giggling hysterically in the background.
After Jacques insulted Ironwood one day, Major Leaf started appearing around the Schnee Manor.
Nothing Jacques does could stop the turtle, and in the weirdest places and during his most vulnerable moments, the turtle would be there. Staring impassively at Jacques the way all turtles do.
It only stops when Jacques apologizes to Ironwood. 24 hours later.
You can insult James all you want and he will not care. He knows he’s hated but he accepts that as the cost of protecting everyone. But insult Major Leaf and he will make your life living hell.
When the Council Members are being stupid Ironwood stands, does his Dad Pose to assert dominance, and everyone falls in line because they don't want to disappoint Dadmiral.
BEHOLD
It is the IronDad stance, used exclusively when his child brings home their partner to introduce to him.
I have the same view. If V7 did not have the election story arc more time could be spent developing Ironwood and his power trip.
But because of the election arc, Ironwood's actions were reactions to problems caused by everyone else's shenanigans during that story arc. Which made Ironwood more of an underdog instead of a dictator. Or a villain.
RT also very definitely rewrote the ending of V8. People must have been complaining about RWBY getting away with too much and decided to sweep the board to spite the haters.
The reason a lot of people don’t give a shit about Ironwood being a dictator is that in the show, him being in a highly corruptable position of power (running the academy, running the only military force on the planet, and having 2 seats on the council) with authoritarian tendencies did not matter whatsoever.
Like… nobody in the show actually cared about the disproportionate power Ironwood had, only that Mantle sucked. Hell, the only person working to remove some of Ironwood’s power was fucking Jacques. And no one actually acknowledges the point that Ironwood probably has a bit too much power.
According to the show, Ironwood’s actual flaw is that he didn’t want to Trust Love (tm). Because apparently fascism is fine provided the fascist in power is just making ‘good’ decisions.
I’ll be honest: I did not expect him to go full dictator, but it wasn’t a thing that I ruled out automatically.
The show did a poor job at saying that the disproportionate power was a problem. Hell! Jacques only wanted some of that power to boost his own power of having a near-monopoly on the Dust market. The only “good” person who wanted to redistribute power was Robyn, and the audience hates her because… I guess it was her decision to take commercial transport to take on Tyrian instead of prisoner transport that we know that Atlas has?
And they didn’t want to acknowledge that Ironwood was acting dictatorial and stuff? I… Kinda didn’t see that. Wasn’t that rich person who Ironwood shot getting on his case about his dictatorial tendencies? The overall problem is that this volume tried to shove too many things in it at once. On top of which, it really feels like they rewrote the finale because someone guessed what was going to happen on twitter or reddit and they didn’t want to be “predictable” or something.
Personally, I think that they could have had some more time dedicated to the characters talking about Ironwood and his actions rather than having Blake give praise to Ruby’s leadership that feels like it came out of nowhere. I would have liked that that squad would have had discussions about what to do. It would make it feel more fulfilling if they were doing that on top of having tea, rather than them just doing half-assed patrols to keep Nora and eventually Penny safe. Like, in-between them walking the perimeter to keep Grimm and Atlas soldiers, they should be talking about what to do about Ironwood. It makes no sense that they wouldn’t be talking about it.
I kinda think Ironwood managed to find spaces within Atlas that was not flooded during the crash. He then found Watts and they're now doing their best impression of Subnautica as they try to find supplies, and survivors, and rebuild.
*very quietly* can james actually swim safely? even if the metal is water proof its probably really heavy....
Uhhh that is a good question that I honestly don’t have the answer to. I would like to THINK they would find a way to make it so James could safely swim and in a serious au I pretend they figure something out this is a world with magic after all I don’t have to always obey the laws of physics. But now I’m imagining James with a bunch of floaties to stay above the water while swimming.
What is a Hero?
A Hero is not someone who adheres to Moral Values.
A Hero is someone who never compromises his code or his principles and would rather forsake his life than forsake his principles.
General James Ironwood is a Hero.
Not an Anti-Hero, because I don't believe that is a thing.
Not a Noble Villain, because Ironwood never compromised or lost the high ground of his principles.
Ironwood is the Hero of V7 and V8, and that is not something Ironwood fans should be ashamed of or be forced to compromise on.
If you think Ironwood is a villain, that's your prerogative.
If you think Ironwood is neither hero nor villain, kudos.
But I will not feel ashamed for calling Ironwood a Hero. No matter how many politicians he shoots.
James needed to have some pro-wrestling moves in his technique:
Or fight like John Wick:
What I like about Ironwood's fighting style is how much control he has with his own person, and having no superpower to make him as strong as the other semblance users.
Something now about Ironwood vs Team ORNJ made me realize how he's much more stronger and capable of coordination, and how others' superpowers never detour him. They have their cheats of leveling up, but he relies heavily on what he has. He may as well be a regular human and he's still much better than superhumans.
I enjoy how he uses his strength only for some moments. James is strong enough to grab a Grim arm and stop them. Strong enough to stop a Mammoth summon. And yet he still uses all that strength sparingly, rather wanting to utilize his brain and guns to perform strategic takedowns.
Too bad nobody else in the show is as unique as James. Truly king for having less than others and yet powerful in his own way.
I never finished this and I suppose I really ought to
Repost because someone decided to false flag this as porn ha ha haaa
Can y'all not
Could we posthumously award General Ironwood the title of King Ironwood the first? For his bravery and his efforts in preserving the Kingdom of Atlas?
One thing to note on people who say that RWBY’s plan with the Staff was better than Ironwood’s. Besides the fact that they “cheated” in using it, Oz never told the headmasters the specifics on how the Relics work, considering that Leo never knew Jinn’s name otherwise Salem would have known too. Ironwood thought it was simply something that generates infinite energy and based his plan around that. But if he knew what the group knew? I believe he would have come up with something much better.
That's a really good point, anon, one I don't think I've seen come up very often in conversations about Ironwood's intentions. Granted, a potential pushback is that just because Leo didn't know something doesn't mean Ironwood is in the same boat, but the story certainly implies that he's just as ignorant. Like Qrow, Ironwood didn't know about Salem's immortality and if he knew more about the Relic you'd expect him to test Ruby's lie in the office. Where did the final questions go? What did you ask? How did you know how to accomplish that when that password is a closely guarded secret? If Ironwood understands the Relics as thoroughly as the group did at the start of Volume 7, Ruby showing up with possession of a super secret password, two questions (supposedly) gone, and Ozpin conspicuously absent is damn suspicious. But if Ironwood understands the Relics only as objects with vague powers, he has no reason to question Ruby or Ozpin. Ruby says questions are gone? He has no reason to doubt that because — again, like Qrow — the show has implied that Ironwood may not have even known that questions were a possibility, let alone how many, how often, how many should actually be left, etc. (Remember that Ozpin had already lied once about the number.) If Qrow was shocked to see Jinn come out, wouldn't Ironwood be too? Now, extrapolate that to the Staff. If Ozpin said only that the Staff produces energy, why would Ironwood doubt that? And that does seem to be what Ozpin told him:
We are going to take our plan for Amity Tower and apply it to the city of Atlas. It was Oz's plan in a former life, but he didn't take it far enough. If we harness the power of the Staff, and raise ourselves high into the atmosphere, the city's artificial climate will keep citizens and food supplies unharmed.
We've long established that Ozpin gives out information in pieces and keeps as much to himself as he can. So he tells his inner circle that Salem wants these Relics, but not why. Later, he divulges that one Relic allows for questions, but they're gone for the next 100 years. Later still, Qrow is shocked to see a freaking magical woman come out of the Lamp, announcing that two questions still remain, because Ozpin both lies and lets people reach inaccurate conclusions based on what he has told them. So at the end of Volume 7, Ironwood is basically in the position of Qrow prior to the snow scene. He hasn't spoken with Ozpin since the Fall of Beacon and, thus, hasn't gone through the same realization of how many secrets have been kept from him. Or rather, he has, but the responsibility for that has shifted to the group. They said the questions were gone. They said Ozpin was gone. They betrayed him to Robyn. They kept Salem's immortality a secret. Ironwood is fully focused on them in this moment — as one would expect given everything that's gone down between them — and shifting through Ozpin's past claims to test their validity is, you know, not something he really has time for. So Ironwood seems to still be working from what Ozpin told him, accepting it as true:
Ozpin suggested that Ironwood use the Staff to raise Atlas.
The implication is that this is what the Staff is capable of doing and only what it's capable of: producing that kind of energy. This is, as Ironwood says, "the power of the Staff."
Atlas' many years of hovering in the air gave Ironwood the idea to hover Amity and reestablish communication between the Kingdoms.
Neither of these ideas take the power "far enough."
So now that Salem is here, let's rise even higher, hopefully out of her reach.
Unless I'm forgetting a scene that says otherwise (very possible), all of this seems to suggest that Ironwood didn't know the Staff could do others things. Like, say, open a bunch of magical portals for the people of Atlas and Mantle to escape through. Though it admittedly doesn't help that RWBY is so damn vague about who knows what and when and how. The group talks about the Staff like a cure-all solution in the dining room, but when did they learn (or assume) that the Staff could do something like fix all these problems? The God of Light didn't give detailed explanations of the Relics in Jinn's vision. The group (I don't think) discussed this at another point... characters just know things when it's convenient. So yes, we could maybe argue that Ironwood just knew about the Staff like the group just knew about it too, or he should have been smart enough to figure it out like the group apparently figured it out (putting aside that this is more about the authors handing certain characters knowledge rather than which characters are actually thinking through potentialities)... but again, the writing doesn't really imply that. And it's implications like this that paint the group as the more responsible party to me. Unlike Ironwood, they had this information for weeks before Salem's arrival. Unlike Ironwood (presumably, based on the above), they understood how the Staff worked. Or, perhaps more accurately, they didn't fully understand, but they had the means with which to learn. Unlike Ironwood, they knew Ozpin was still around and at any point they could have asked him about the Staff, to try and prepare their resources before the war arrived on their doorstep once more. Unlike Ironwood, they hadn't just been betrayed by their allies. Unlike Ironwood, they weren't suffering from a lost limb. Unlike Ironwood, they had two days — not a couple of minutes — to come up with some kind of plan.
It's so easy to be disgusted by Ironwood because yes, the idea of leaving anyone behind is horrific. But take a couple seconds to consider how and why Ironwood made that decision and it's easy to see that it stems from ignorance and prioritizing the many over the few, not a generic, villainous desire to abandon poor people. The group are the ones who had this information the whole time, had the means (thanks to that knowledge) of bettering their circumstances, hadn't just suffered betrayal and gruesome injury, and were later afforded time to literally sit around contemplate their problem for as long as they pleased. The situations are radically different and, thus, so is the blame. It's like watching a relay race where one party has a broken leg, wasn't told where the finish line was, has reason to think his teammates are going to undermine him, and was given about thirty seconds to complete the challenge. "Why couldn't you have just finished the race? Why can't you be more like them" the spectators ask, gesturing to the healthy group who fully trust one another and possess insider knowledge of the race's rules while also having a two day time limit to leisurely jog it. Idk. Why were they successful? Kinda feels like they had some significant advantages that the other party lacked... If we set aside everything else Ironwood was grappling with — betrayal, the shock of Salem's immortality (which the group spent days coming to terms with), losing an arm (what Yang spent months coming to terms with), the threat of immediate destruction, the responsibility of the entire world, and a canonically ambiguous semblance — then yeah, he might have come up with something other than "abandon Mantle" if he had a better idea of how to use the Staff.
Ruby's responsibility as a hero was not to save Mantle after things had reached their absolute breaking point, doing so by dissolving friendships and panicking the entire world. Ruby's responsibility as a hero was to save Mantle by doing long term work before this all went down, like reconciling with Ozpin, practicing her silver eyes, and extending Ironwood the trust she demands from others, so that when Ironwood has a crazy idea like, "Let's just run and leave half the Kingdom behind" she can go, "No, Ozpin has taught me that we can use the Staff in other ways. My abilities mean we can hold off Salem's grimm long enough to finish evacuations and I've extended enough trust to you that you'll trust me now and help me take this risk. I've prepared for this. I've earned it."
If then Ironwood had rejected a perfectly good plan and the offer to work together to instead run and needlessly leave people behind to die... yeah, then he'd be a cowardly antagonist who needs to be stopped. As it's written, he's just an understandably panicked man doing his best against a buttload of opposition from the people meant to be helping him.