Blind loyalty, the consequences of thoughtlessly following someone, and abandoning that loyalty when needed is a consistent theme in the Atlas arc. Mainly from the Ace-Ops, Winter, and Emerald. Fixing RWBY barely even attempts to retain this theme. At least, I think so? It gets weird
As a result of Atlas' military culture, the Ace-Ops will do whatever Ironwood says for no other reason than his authority as the general of Atlas' army. They go from allies of the main cast protecting Mantle to enemies abandoning the poorer city because Ironwood said so. Elm even considers RWBY not going along with Ironwood to be betraying them. Blake rightfully calls out how they're betraying the people they're sworn to protect due to their blind loyalty to Ironwood, and Yang taunts them multiple times about "just following orders," throwing their blind loyalty back in their face
When Clover sees the arrest warrant for Qrow, he immediately tries to detain him. He doesn't stop and think why Ironwood made the warrant, he doesn't consider it might be a mistake, he doesn't think that since Qrow has been by his side all night he hasn't done anything to warrant an arrest. He sees the warrant, he follows orders. He even goes so far as to entirely focus on Qrow when Tyrian enters fray despite the faunus being by far the more dangerous man
According to Clover, he feels that he owes Ironwood his life. And for his reckless actions from that blind loyalty, that's exactly what he loses. Tyrian kills him. If he had worked with Qrow to detain Tyrian then at worst Qrow would have KO'd him or knocked him around. But he didn't do that, Ironwood's orders took priority
Winter hates Ironwood abandoning Mantle just as much as Penny, but unlike Penny she has that Atlas military culture ingrained in her. Unlike the Ace-Ops as well, Winter gives an actual reason for going along with the plan. She rationalizes Ironwood's decision as a necessary sacrifice thinking of the "greater good" of humanity. Unlike the Ace-Ops, Winter can still actually think for herself even if it's in service of Ironwood's agendas
Throughout Volume 8 we see Winter grapple with her cognitive dissonance. After basically every decision Ironwood makes in the volume we see Winter's growing doubts over the course of the volume's runtime etched in her face and body language. We even see through Ren's evolved semblance that she has by far the most complicated emotions out of everybody in the Bullhead
Winter is even able to take advantage of the Ace-Ops' strict following orders by chain of command. When YJR plan to head into Monstra Harriet is furious at Winter agreeing due to them being "traitors and fugitives." All Winter has to do is say "I outrank you" to make her shut up even though she's absolutely livid at this, and she follows along
While we don't see Marrow's own doubts as much, we're still given multiple scenes of them. He hates sending YJR on a suicide mission of going into Monstra while they prepare to shove a bomb down its throat, and has clear moral problems with sending FNKI on the frontlines
This all comes to a head when Ironwood decides to bomb Mantle. Marrow argues with the rest of the Ace-Ops. Elm thinks he isn't serious, Vine thinks the threat is worth it if it forces the main cast to "see reason," and Harriet doesn't care. Hearing that Ironwood was serious and plans to follow through with that threat if the heroes don't comply is the last straw.
Marrow considers this a complete betrayal of his principals, and he calls out that the Ace-Ops don't believe in anything other than the chain of command if they're playing along with this plan to bomb Mantle. They went from saving Mantle's people two days ago, to abandoning said people, to going along with annihilating an entire city's civilian population with a military grade explosive because Ironwood ordered it. As the song War points out, they're "Just a mindless weapon pointed at an enemy." Marrow has had enough and abandons the Ace-Ops, and Ironwood attempting to execute him finally pushes Winter to make moves against him
Hell Harriet attempts to bomb Mantle herself out of nothing but "the principal of it," out of "loyalty." She pays for this with Vine's life. While Watts did activate the bomb, Harriet's the one who armed it, she got her teammate and friend killed for nothing, and she'll have to live with the consequences of that for the rest of her life
Emerald is dealing with her own blind loyalty issues over the series' runtime. Despite clearly being uncomfortable with everything to do with Salem, Emerald sticks by her because Cinder is the only person she ever saw as family. She doesn't care about Salem or her cause at all, she's only there from her own loyalty to Cinder. However, her own blind loyalties have already been challenged before Volume 8 even started. Mercury calls out her "never having a mommy," and how Cinder doesn't care about either of them beyond their usefulness
In comes Volume 8 and it becomes increasingly, blatantly clear to Emerald that Cinder doesn't care. Between this, her own moral problems with all this being shown as early as the Fall of Beacon, and learning that Salem plans to destroy the world from Tyrian, she deserts Salem
An important thing to note is that when these three decide to finally act on their own thoughts instead of mindlessly following somebody else, they prove instrumental in helping the main cast. Emerald disarms Ironwood making him much easier to handle. Winter gives a lot of support in the fight against Ironwood and inflicts the finishing blow. Marrow stops the Ace-Ops before they can even start a fight with Qrow and Robyn
Fixing RWBY takes this idea in a strange direction
According to Ironwood Atlas' culture of suppressing individual expression is "greatly exaggerated." This immediately puts this theme into auestion because a nation with a strong military culture still allowing individual expression is an odd mix
Throughout Volume 7, RWBYJNR repeatedly show doubts on if they're doing enough for the world or are just being Ironwood's mindless drones. Meanwhile FNCP are fully secure in what they're doing as said mindless drones
Winter is especially odd here because she seems to have doubts on Ironwood before V7 even started. She's been leaking confidential intel about him to Robyn for awhile, and she shows doubts on Ironwood much earlier than she did in canon
When the arrest warrant is given out on RWBY, nobody in Strike Team 32 seems to really question it. Flynt and Neon show some doubts but they tell the bees to just play along and get arrested so they can sort things out later. Ciel seems to view this as an excuse to kill/detain Ruby due to hating how she's involved in Penny's life and "destroying" it. Clover doesn't tell Qrow about the warrant at all as they're detaining Tyrian until Ruby calls Qrow
Winter and Penny never voice their thoughts on this at all. This is ESPECIALLY baffling because Penny explicitly has feelings of trust in Ruby despite her lack of memories, and Winter has doubts on Ironwood throughout V7. If anyone should show doubts on Ruby "betraying" Ironwood it would be them. Instead we get nothing
In canon, the Ace-Ops' and Winter's blind loyalty to Ironwood gets them punished by the narrative. The Ace-Ops get defeated, Clover dies, and Winter doesn't become the next maiden until after she turns her back on Ironwood
In FRWBY, that loyalty gets rewarded. FNC annihilates WBY with zero difficulty because they start their fight with an ambush and pick off the main cast one by one in 3v1 ganks. You would think that WBY's doubts and FNC's internal security would play into the battle but no. They just win because they used a "smart" tactic. Clover doesn't focus entirely on Qrow when Tyrian joins the fight so he survives unlike canon. Penny who was always Ironwood's planned maiden gets the power just like canon
Obviously this idea isn't done yet in FRWBY since the Atlas arc is only halfway done. But it's such a strange take on blind loyalty. I was honestly stretching with the FRWBY examples because Celtic seems to have nearly dropped the theme entirely, but still retained elements of it by accident
