The finale of RWBY Volume 7 has finally pushed me to write SOMETHING. It isn’t that there wasn’t anything before in the other volumes, but this volume unleashed a torrent of emotions that I can not even begin to touch on. With Atlas left in the balance, and a raging debate about right or wrong, I felt now was the time to get this out of my head before in consumed me.
And the best place to start is with General James Ironwood, or resident Tinman with no heart. I think he desperately needs a character analysis to really put his actions into perspective. And I need to ramble, of course.
The first thing I want to do is really give an outline for his character type, and this has been obvious since he first showed up in Volume 2. Even at this time, we get an obvious introduction to the unquestionable loyalty of Winter and his main soldiers. More than that, we get a sneak peak at his superiority complex, and it only grows as time goes on.
Follow Orders. It was the theme of this volume, but it was hinted at back in V2 and other interactions between him and his subordinates. This is a huge red flag when RWBY and co come to him in Volume 7. Ironwood has surrounded himself with Yes men, people who only follow orders and never once question them. It is a dynamic theme throughout this volume, about controlling and crushing down your emotions to follow orders--or manage your semblance? Winter started eluding to this back in V3, which really set the stage for her and future Atlas soldiers.
He is RIGHT. This is important. He demands that his subordinates follow his orders without question because he thinks he is right and will always be right. And he never once afforded Ozpin that same loyalty, trust, or authority. Since day 1, he was constantly questioning Ozpin’s choices, even though HE was the subordinate to Ozpin. He thought differently from Ozpin and could never accept Ozpin’s ways, nor listen to them. He expected the council, Ozpin, and his soldiers to follow him without question and he truly, honestly believes he is right. This is scary, especially when you compare him to Ozpin, but I will get to that in a moment. The big point is that people who are so sure that they are right, even if they are dead wrong, are the scariest adversaries.
What we have here is a narcissist with a superiority complex who can not accept that he is wrong. He was unbalanced since he came into the picture, and Ozpin knew it. But here is where things get interesting.
Ironwood condemns Ozpin’s choices for keeping things secret and not sharing with the world everything. And, yes, Ironwood does the EXACT same thing. The difference here is in intention. Ozpin’s purpose was to protect the people and ensure that as few people died as possible. Ozpin’s choices were not based on control or the need to be RIGHT. They were based on experience, a bit of fear, and concern for the people he needed to protect. To Ozpin, sacrifice on a great scale was never an option. He tried his best to make sure that the causalities were as limited as possible. A difficult thing to do, given that hunters and huntresses were constantly fighting Grimm and such. But creating a mythos around the Maidens and eliminating Salem from history allowed him to save many many lives. And I can guarantee that he attempted what Ironwood planned to do, at least on some levels, and met with staggering deaths.
Ironwood, however, is keeping secrets to keep control and out of fear. He needs control, and he is frustrated that people do not agree with him automatically. After the fall of Beacon, these traits became enhanced to an unbelievable level. We see something else surface, though: Ironwood’s ability to manipulate people and be charismatic. Ironwood is looking to survive: for himself. He will, manipulate others and sacrifice millions of people’s lives to protect himself, though he clings to his mantra of “it’s for the greater good.” It will become the sign on the wall of the slave labor he creates. “For the Greater Good”.
Back in V2 and V3, Ironwood showed his ability to be both charismatic and manipulative. His subtlety in his manipulation is a statement to his rise to power. He puts himself into the position of a Father Figure to lure in the people he wants. It worked with Winter and the Ace-Ops, which is why they are his right-hand yes men. During Dance Dance, he was praising Ruby and fueling her admiration for him. Even when team RWBY came to Atlas, all his actions were calculated to manipulate the team into trusting him. Unfortunately, his actions never really lined up with his words, which was why the team was on edge. That is for another post ^_^
Another thing you can do to really get an idea for the type of person Ironwood is, is by looking back to the round table discussions orchestrated by Ozpin versus Ironwood. Ozpin was constant in listening to his people, sometimes taking ideas from them, and allowed them to question him--even yell at him. He was patient and understood what they were trying to say. He demonstrated this Ironwood and Qrow the most.
You would never see that kind of discussion with Ironwood. RWBY and co are new to the scene and it does throw him off. You can tell he is trying not to pressure them too much because he knows they are not on his side yet. Hooking them up with the Ace-Corps and Winter was a move to help sway them more, a subtle kind of brainwashing tactic that never worked on RWBY. Thank goodness!
If you think back to the things we have learned throughout the series, all the people we have met, you will find that all of Ironwood’s traits align better with Salem, Cinder, Jacques, and Adam. All of them have this hunger for power and/or control, all of them are trying to protect themselves and increase their control. All of them use a level of manipulation and none of them really cared about the damage it would do to others. Ironwood might be a little better because, at first, it was something he kind of thought about. Kind of. He had trouble relating to the idea that protecting more was better than protecting less, and it seems that he had been struggling to find his heart since the beginning. I do think he has a chance to come around.
All this comes around to why his plan was not only a bastardized and twisted version of what Ozpin was trying to accomplish, but why it was a horrible plan to begin with. Two words:
Ironwood’s idea of telling the world about Salem is going to be the hair that broke the camel’s back for the world. Take the Fall of Beacon and magnify it to a million times, happening all at once all over the world. Okay, I will be a bit more fair: half that number, because there will be three groups of people after his big announcement. Those that believe him and panic or immediately try to sign up for Salem’s army, those that don’t believe him, and the very small group of people that will stand by and fight the good fight. And to those who would point out that people rallied upon his message to the people of Mantle and Atlas--they were already in the grip of madness as Grimm were breaking down the unmaintained walls and killing people. People were in the grips of fear and panic ALREADY and thus clung to his encouraging words. The people around the world are not in a panic-stricken moment. They are peaceful and calm.
Now, Atlas is a country with very strong military and technology, isolated and far away from all the other countries. Despite the strong military, it is limited in number. Who will decide what kingdoms and towns to save? How will they decide it? Well, history in our own world has outlined that pretty well. Ironwood, since he claimed martial law, would be the soul judge and jury on who to save and who not to. And it wouldn’t be long in coming before he will need to demand some kind of “compensation” to continue that “protection. Kind of like the mafia, gangs, and yakuza, etc have been doing for hundreds of years on this side of the screen. He wants everyone to rely on Him and his military might. He wants to be the hero. He wants to be a God.
And he will need people to make that happen. The factories will be working night and day, little breaks, and the big sign of “For the Greater Good” in big bold letters hanging over the heads of the people who were not of high enough office to keep themselves out of the slave lines. This isn’t some grand head canon, this is history. He is setting himself up for this.
Millions of people will die. Only the elite few will sign up to get under the protective wing of Atlas. The rest will stage a revolution to bring down the Iron Hand of Ironwood. Divided so thoroughly that it will take centuries to bring them back together. Everything Ozpin has been slowly building up and working for will fall apart in the blink of an eye.
See, that is a big point. It takes one small thing to divide people and make them fight amongst themselves. It takes hundreds of years of careful planning, movement, and cooperation to bring the human race (and Faunus!) together.
Ozpin’s priority had always been the people, however, I think he was once in Ironwood’s shoes. I am pretty sure he tried everything, including this, and saw it fail horribly. Ozpin has, after all, had centuries of experience in fighting Salem. The delicacy of the human mind and heart are something he is well acquainted, and I think he already knew what type of person Ironwood was, or at least was becoming. Near as I can tell, the big reason he kept Ironwood on was because Ironwood had the resources and technology he needed to keep his plan moving forward.
It was already stated in the show about how Ironwood would bastardize the idea of the floating city. Using the concept to create a global communication that could be independent for each kingdom seems like a great idea, and on the surface it is. It ignores the fact that only one kingdom would have full control and access over that system at its most important base: Atlas. And how that would turn out was well simulated by Watts.
I could go on and on about this, but I want to leave it with one final quote that sums up why Ozpin was almost successful and why Ironwood fell so fast.
"It is necessary for a prince to have the people friendly, otherwise he has no security in adversity." (Niccolo Machiavelli)
Ozpin worked hard to maintain the peace and goodwill of the people. Ironwood, so far, has not. Definitely having robot sentries on every corner and forcing an embargo on a kingdom that can not easily generate its own resources, as well as hording those resources and preventing necessary repairs and aid to those people--those actions all show that he is not keeping this important aspect of ruler ship.
(random side note-- it is interesting that despite all the quotes from Machiavelli, everyone ignores the fact that he himself constantly harped on and on about keeping the people happy and on the side of the ruler rather than the Nobles. I felt this applicable because Ozpin did not really care about the council or their rules, he cared about the people. Ironwood, while not caring about the council, either, did not really show any care for the people. You should definitely at least have ONE of those on your side, but Machiavelli would strongly encourage any ruler to have the people no your side moreso than the Nobles. The Medici family, especially Cosmos, was his biggest example of why this worked.)
Enough about Ironwood, that poor, damned soul. Love his character and how they did this.
