Late reblog/reply, but I think there also might be another factor:
Ozpin and Ironwood both positioned themselves as the centerpiece of their respective Inner Circles and the absolute leaders who would have all the plans and direct those who worked for them to execute them. While Ozpin was certainly more compassionate and longer term in his thinking process, and Ironwood was…Ironwood, they both suffered the exact same problem:
Once they fell, everything they worked for completely crumbled because no one was able to lead in their absence in any meaningful way.
Glynda was Ozpin’s number 2 at Beacon, but had to stay behind to help with Vale.
Qrow was so confident in Ozpin’s plan that he ended up deferring to him and splitting up the Ozluminati even further, only for his devotion to shatter the minute he finds out Ozpin didn’t know what he was doing.
And Ironwood was…Ironwood.
They were all loosely unified by Ozpin, and ultimately splintered in their own directions once he wasn’t there to act as the keystone anymore and because they allowed their internal conflicts to drive massive wedges between them (specifically Ironwood and Ozpin), without any hope of properly reconciling because of their loose bonds and distrust.
Ironwood’s attempt was a spectacular disaster waiting to happen, with his team being nothing but extensions of himself, yes-men who only told him what he wanted to hear and not what he NEEDED to hear, with only any dissent or differing views occurring when he had completely gone off the rails.
Ruby’s leadership skills are…definitely context dependent, in that she’s very tactically minded and definitely can notice the bigger picture, but has her own blind spots. Which arguably could make her a parallel to Ironwood in some senses (I might cover that in my own post later on, assuming I don’t forget).
The one big difference she has by comparison to both Ozpin and Ironwood is who she surrounds herself with.
Her fellow team members and friends.
The team members and friends who have more or less been with them for most of the journey, undergone many similar if not exactly the same challenges as her. Who have each proven on a multitude of occasions to be capable of acting independently and thinking of their own solutions and methods outside of what Ruby tells them to do. Taking up the lead if absolutely needed when the others aren’t able to do so.
Yang seeking to rejoin her team after facing her depression, only to also deal with her estranged mother, fight alongside Blake against Adam, choosing to tell Robyn of the Amity Tower idea, and then later being part of the group who tries to evacuate Mantle while Ruby focused on Amity.
Blake retaking the White Fang along with her family and Sun, facing off against her abuser while pulling her friend from the darkness of Adam’s cult of personality.
Weiss having to find her way back to her team from her abusive father, and providing consistent support throughout the trials of Mistral and Atlas, while also contributing her own strengths in her knowledge of Atlas and also in the evacuation to Vacuo (slight poor choice of wording for Ambrosius aside).
Jaune, Ruby’s fellow team leader, who’s undergone his own parallel trials and grown from a loser to a solidly reliable huntsman and friend, and who’s numerous leadership moments have helped to bolster them many times throughout their adventure, especially in Atlas.
Nora, whose strength of power and her compassion for those suffering from either their own demons (Ren) or for those who suffer under the callousness of others (Ironwood) buoyed her through the trauma of the past in Mistral and the brutality of what happens in Atlas.
Ren, steadfast and calm, who also undergoes his own arc of truly facing his repressed nature and throughout the journey is a constant support, even if not the most noticeable in the grand scheme of things.
Oscar, coming in so late and bearing the burden of Ozpin’s reincarnation, nonetheless managing to serve to undermine Salem while also adding in some of his own insight unburdened by the biases of Ozpin’s past lives.
The simple reality is that despite them not necessarily being stronger or as skilled as those who came before them (though the gap is closing with each trial they go through), they are united even when they are divided.
They’re all on the same page for the most part, and even when they are broken apart, they strive to face those demons and unite stronger than before, even if it’s painful and difficult at first. Even if some of them falter, the others will rally and help them stand up again, even if it seems hard and hopeless.
I believe that even if one of them fell, or especially if Ruby fell, they would still strive to keep going, to keep fighting the good fight because they trust each other on a level that Ozpin and Ironwood were never able to achieve, because their pessimism and lack of true bonds made them fragile and weak against Salem’s manipulations.
RWBYJNPR will keep going forward together against the darkness.
And this is absolutely necessary for them to win.
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