I swear like 90% of the discourse on RWBY isn't about anything but Ironwood, especially on Reddit. Thank god people have shut up about Bumblebee Bad™ for the most part, but I am... So tired of the Ironwood discourse, because 85% of it is people not having basic narrative comprehension, media literacy, or knowing how to read the surface level subtext.
"It came out of nowhere" it had LITERALLY been teased since his debut in volume 2 and written in stone at the end of Breach. He spent the majority of the volume questioning Ozpin's decisions, establishing his compulsive need for control over situations, and at the end of v2 it was HEAVILY implied that he went behind Ozpin's back to report him to the Vale Council and cite the recent Grimm invasion as a reason Ironwood should take over security for Vytal. The council also stated that Ironwood had literally been reporting Ozpin's questionable actions, leading to them considering an inquiry against Ozpin's position as Headmaster. He even menacingly looks out his ship's window at Ozpin's office and says "you brought this on yourself", like it could not be more clear than that.
Volumes 2, 3, and 4 set up Ironwood's character almost every time he was on screen, and thus the most integral part of his character; its flaw that has a subset of flaws. Namely, his paranoia, which has the subset flaw of his compulsive need to *take* control and power over every situation. He was paranoid about the recent crime sprees in Vale being connected to the Big Bad, he brought his whole damn fleet. He learned that the enemy was operating in SouthEast Vale/Mountain Glenn, his first instinct was to raze them to the ground. Ozpin wouldn't give him control over security, he went behind his back to report him to the Council. The Fall Of Beacon happens? Dust embargo. Intel that the enemy is operating in Mistral? Close the borders, call back the troops, and threaten a VERY powerful man into falling in line when he inevitably takes control of the kingdom.
He keeps with this theme in Volume 7. Mantle is in a chokehold, the Atlas fleet surrounds the entire kingdom as if it were expecting attacks, and every time something goes wrong he's quick to consider taking as much control by force as possible. Robyn Hill becomes a full-time vigilante and steals resources for Mantle? "Maybe I should do Martial Law on a city that's already struggling to survive so I can achieve my goal faster". Gravity happened, shit was revealed, and his immediate reaction was to put a burn on everyone associated with Team RWBY, invoke martial law, kill Fria, kill Oscar, and increase his chokehold on Mantle.
And literally EVERYTHING he does in Volume 8, because he no longer has the leash of his friends and allies urging him to use common sense holding him back. He killed Councilman Sleet for questioning his authority just like he "killed" Oscar, emphasizing his character flaw of his compulsive need for control. He planned on using Qrow & Robyn as ransom fodder for Team RWBY to hand over Penny. Didn't work, so he went to the next best thing which was threatening to bomb Mantle if he didn't get what he wanted, which was Penny and the Staff.
"But he was kind and compassionate and did good things like give Yang an arm and-" Are y'all that intellectually inept to the point where y'all can't fathom that bad people can do good things and good people can do bad things? Do yall not understand that fears, trauma, and experience can change people? Every last action he took was driven by paranoia and a compulsive need to be in control at all times, and that only got worse after Beacon. I hate this argument so damn much and it's one of the most common ones amongst Ironwood defenders.
Yes, he was indeed supposed to be a villain. Yes, this was all in character. Yes, there was PLENTY of foretext, text, and subtext to point to this. No it did not come out of nowhere. And yes, Monty in fact planned for Ironwood to be a fascist.
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