Before talking about the Tin Man himself, how about the maiden he mistreated? Not Penny I mean Fria
Fria's treatment in canon by Ironwood and the rest of Atlas is horrific, she has it even worse than Penny did at Beacon. She's entirely isolated from everybody else in the world and the only person allowed to meet her is Winter. It's Ironwood trying to force himself into a position where the new Winter Maiden under his control, which fits with his paranoid control freak behaviors
This is an insanely dehumanizing treatment of another person, no matter how "smart" the idea may be. And Ironwood gets punished for this. His plan to make Winter into the next maiden fails because Penny becomes the maiden instead after forming a brief but genuine connection with Fria. No manipulation, no mistreatment, just a gentle passing on the maiden's power
Fria couldn't even remember Winter despite all the time they spent together, she asks if Penny was the person she was meant to pass the power too after all, but she could remember the mission Ironwood had given her for her final moments. Winter failed to leave enough of an impression on Fria to remember her, likely because this plan is over engineered and too artificial. Ironwood's plan was doomed to fail unless Winter was directly in Fria's line of sight when she died
This also creates an irony when Winter actually DOES become the new maiden. What does Ironwood say in response to seeing it? "So the destiny I chose for you has arrived." To which Winter replies "You chose nothing. This was a gift." A big final fuck you to Ironwood and his controlling tendencies. He finally got his Winter Winter Maiden, at a point when she turned against him
So how does Celtic destroy this?
The isolation of Fria is entirely retained in FRWBY, and it's arguably even worse because Fria gets blindfolded any time they have her leave the room so she could act as the key to Atlas' vault. Her medical bay is also right next to the vault to give Ironwood easy access to it
Penny is Ironwood's candidate to become the next Winter maiden. What the fuck? Obviously we the audience knows this could work based off canon, and she does have a soul, but given the fact that she's a robot you'd think there would be at least SOME doubts right? Nope, nobody questions it
Come the end of the volume Fria passes away, Penny receives the maiden powers just like canon, and due to a VERY big rewrite, Penny is still loyal to Ironwood and flies to his office
What the FUCK??? Ironwood's abuse of Fria is just as bad if not WORSE than canon, and he gets fucking REWARDED for it with a loyal maiden are you SERIOUS? Why am I not surprised though. Oh right. Because Ironwood isolating Fria to guarantee his next maiden is a "smart" plan. Fuck theming or emotional value entirely
Penny becoming the Winter Maiden instead of Winter in canon is also a narrative subversion. Winter explaining how she'll become the next maiden and becoming it by that exact plan would be boring storytelling. Instead this gets DOUBLE subverted when Penny dies and Winter becomes the new Maiden, AFTER she turned on Ironwood. And this time it's far, FAR more emotional and tragic, both for her and the audience
Celtic said fuck ALL of that, Ironwood's plan is smart he deserves his planned maiden. COMPLETELY missing the point of the original. Fuck off Celtic what the actual HELL is WRONG with you!?
