One particularly interesting detail I haven’t seen many people talking about is the fact that Ironwood has a prosthetic left arm at the start of Volume 8.
I mean, think about the implications here. Ironwood’s arm was badly injured in his fight with Watts, but it’s not like he actually LOST the arm.
It seriously looks like that in the scant few hours between the end of Volume 7 and the start of Volume 8, Ironwood decided that he wasn’t going to wait for his arm to heal and simply amputated it and had it replaced with another prosthetic.
Ironwood didn’t lose his left arm due to battle or self-sacrifice. He lost it due to his own impatience.
Now in the moment of Volume 8, this is a pretty stark indicator of Ironwood’s villainous turn and how much he’s started dehumanizing those around him. He’s flat out dehumanizing himself.
But in the broader context of Ironwood’s character, I really have to wonder: Is this even the FIRST time Ironwood has done this? Replace part of his body with machinery not out of necessity but out of convenience?
Looking at this turn from Ironwood in hindsight with the massive, Robocop-esque cyberization we see in Volume 3, I wonder how many of those numerous prosthetics were actually the result of horrific, crippling injuries, and how many were the result of Ironwood simply not have the patience for his injuries to heal?
How many times do you think Ironwood was laid up in a hospital bed after being injured in battle, hearing a doctor explain that his wounds would heal, but he would need to stay in bed or physical therapy for a few months, weeks or even days. And Ironwood deciding that it would be faster and easier if he simply had the injured parts replaced with prosthetics. Maybe because he ‘can’t afford to stay away from work for that long’ or ‘can’t appear weak in front of his troops’ or simply refuses to feel weak by laying in a hospital bed for weeks or even just days. And to him, those parts of himself are just flesh and blood. What’s the problem with just replacing them?
Again, it can all serve to reinforce how Ironwood’s villainous turn was a long time in the making. If he can dehumanize himself so easily, is it any wonder he winds up doing the same to tens of thousands of people?
And the great irony of all this is that despite how much Ironwood may have replaced his body with machines, he still clearly feels great shame about those prosthetics at some level. Just look at his choice of clothing and how he’s always trying to hide his prosthetics with long sleeves and even gloves. It’s really one of the many ways Ironwood winds up being quite similar to Adam.
Despite how important Adam’s scar is to his motivation to avenge the injustices humans have perpetrated on faunus (and more importantly, HIMSELF), Adam still does his best to HIDE that scar under masks and blindfolds. Both Ironwood and Adam are men desperate to project an image of strength, so they are deeply ashamed of the scars and wounds that they believe make them appear weak.
Which of course, contrasts perfectly with Yang and how she wears her prosthetic arm openly. Heck, Yang even painted her new arm to make it stand out even more. Even when Yang was wearing detached sleeves in Volumes 5 and 6 that partially covered her right arm, she still clearly had no issue showing that arm off. And of course, Yang’s Atlas-arc redesign doesn’t try to hide her arm at all.
While Ironwood clearly tries to hide his prosthetics away Yang wears hers openly with pride.
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