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“RT should hire a consultant on racism.”

No. No fucking way. 

First off, the people espousing the above are also the ones who say they are shit writers on the grounds they are guys, white and from texas. “Hire a consultant” actually means, “Take a bunch of people who our idealogy praises off the street and make them the writers.”

Secondly, why should they? Only time I’ve EVER seen people complain about the WHite Fang plotline being badly handled is from people have outed themselves as racists themselves and whose suggestions for improvement scream “VALIDATED MY IDEALOGY!” Everyone else seems perfectly fine with it. We know the writing for it could be better (as with everything) but no one but you seem to call it racist.

So why should they hire a consultant for a group of about 10 people (where 7 of whom have admitted to pirating the show)? Unless of course, YOU are gonna pay for it.

PS: Telling me to see [X media] doesn’t work if I can just ASK real people. So to anyone whose suffered racism and sees this: tell me how YOU think about the White Fang plotline.

[egg-crusher]

One and a half correct theories out of three

New “the amazing digital circus” trailer, new theories

1-Jax seems to particularly hate the fast food place, maybe the theories of him remembering are true and he KNOWS this will suck. Or the players still have their memories DEEP down and this little familiar scenario triggered something within Jax, we know how the memories and character of the players can quickly change with a trigger (like Kinger) but the reason no one has regained memories yet is because Cain doesn’t know he can do this and all his adventures are too irreal to make a player completely regain their memories

2- Gangle’s mask looks different, is not just that she can have more than happy and sadness but the design is completely changed to show emotion showing a kind of emotional variation for once. We see Cain looking at a suggestion box, so he probably read a suggestion to upgrade Gangle’s mask and this could be said upgrade since we see her putting the mask on in what seems to be the circus, however Gangle’s mask may not be perfect for some weird ways gangle acts (but it could probably just be the scenes being out of context to look weird)

3-and finally, returning characters, we see the Gloink Queen which surprises Jax (probably because Cain hasn’t reused characters as quickly as now or because he doesn’t usually reuse villains as quickly)

Then we see Pomni going from 1 to 100, we later see what could be the continuation of this scene with her forcing herself to smile, and finally we see her seemingly sneaking on the floor curious to look at something…

We know this story will have repeated characters, so maybe she’ll see HIM again

[egg-crusher]

Blake does mention they once were good, in the Adam trailer we are shown he was once good, and the sole concept of a victim of racism fighting against it with excessive violence HAS to show a character as something more than the villain

Adam did have a drastic change from “I don’t care how many have to die for our freedom” to “I want my cat girl!!!�� With how he tells his lieutenant to let Blake go and how he refuses to work with Cinder. There was glimpses of him being more than meets the eye, even if that more doesn’t justify his prior actions.

But then Adam suddenly becomes the focus of a abuse plot line which in a bubble works, but the problem is how the plot line isn’t in a bubble but is actually intruding in the racism plot line that came before it

There was a genuine conflict there with shades of grey, but instead Adam never really takes off to be part of this conflict outside of being the face of the white fang

The system that oppresses the faunus is still there, Jacques might have died because of something that had nothing to do with Faunus, but that just means once dust settles someone else will take his place, and once that happens someone else like Adam will crawl out of the mines to grow into a monster that will take many lives until it inevitably falls because of its own weight into the cold water that is the bed of its predecessors corpse, until another victim crawls out of the mines.

What caused the problem hasn’t been fixed, the only difference between Adam and the meme is how Adam never really got to have a point beyond how racism is BAD, and the status quo wasn’t destroyed because of RWBY but because they’re literally going through the apocalypse, and if they survive they’ll try to go back to the old way it was

can we stop doing this trope

[egg-crusher]

New “the amazing digital circus” trailer, new theories

1-Jax seems to particularly hate the fast food place, maybe the theories of him remembering are true and he KNOWS this will suck. Or the players still have their memories DEEP down and this little familiar scenario triggered something within Jax, we know how the memories and character of the players can quickly change with a trigger (like Kinger) but the reason no one has regained memories yet is because Cain doesn’t know he can do this and all his adventures are too irreal to make a player completely regain their memories

2- Gangle’s mask looks different, is not just that she can have more than happy and sadness but the design is completely changed to show emotion showing a kind of emotional variation for once. We see Cain looking at a suggestion box, so he probably read a suggestion to upgrade Gangle’s mask and this could be said upgrade since we see her putting the mask on in what seems to be the circus, however Gangle’s mask may not be perfect for some weird ways gangle acts (but it could probably just be the scenes being out of context to look weird)

3-and finally, returning characters, we see the Gloink Queen which surprises Jax (probably because Cain hasn’t reused characters as quickly as now or because he doesn’t usually reuse villains as quickly)

Then we see Pomni going from 1 to 100, we later see what could be the continuation of this scene with her forcing herself to smile, and finally we see her seemingly sneaking on the floor curious to look at something…

We know this story will have repeated characters, so maybe she’ll see HIM again

[egg-crusher]

Technically we do since Kagami, Adrien and Felix are all similar situations

The problems are:

Most of this characters don’t have the two parental figures unlike Chloe in which both just sucked which is hinted at with Adrien but we still don’t know the two agreste acted

None of them deal with it in a good way. Felix did everything Chloe did tenth-fold, Kagami is now with Felix who is… not a good influence, and Adrien now idolizes his abuser and was unable to face him

Chloe is the only one who’s spoiled and enabled (and shown as a bad thing) while Kagami and Adrien are basically slaves… Felix gets spoiled and enabled to do actual crimes without the Hawkmoth excuse but he gets to go free

It all just comes off as hypocritical and mean spirited

So I watch the Total Drama fanmade series, Disventure Camp, and I think this line from the character Fiore summed up how Thomas was trying to write Chloe, but failed big time:

"I know from experience. We all have problems, Grett. My mother never loved me, and I know her life would be much better if I never existed. She's told me she thinks I'm a monster. I know she's right, but it still hurts to hear. But you know what? After a while, the hurt starts to hurt less. You start taking ownership of who you are."

Basically, it sounds like Thomas was trying to say "Yes, Chloe is obviously an abused victim, but she needs to learn to take ownership for her own fuck ups and get over it." Which would be an understandable and even a good lesson and redemption arc for Chloe to help her understand that her actions don't excuse her behavior and she can't use her abuse as a clutch to be an asshole. Of course, it would work if he didn't spend time bashing her 24/7.

I hope this isn't me coming off as victim blaming, and if so, I do apologize and wouldn't mind being corrected for my mistake.

P.S. Find the Avatar: The Last Airbender reference

The thing is that later seasons have been somewhat divorced from the idea that Chloe is the product of a troubled childhood. "Derision" had a scene specifically to call out people who claim her mother leaving her led to her becoming a bully, and "Collusion" completely ignored the part Andre played by spoiling his daughter rotten.

Even if the lesson was about how to deal with trauma, the show doesn't really give us an positive example of a character processing their trauma to contrast the negative way Chloe responds to hers.

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Yang in V5:

Yang in V9:

“Man I sure love Blake and *looks at smudged writing on hand* …Rhubarb?”

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Hey, would you happen to have the template of this meme?

EDIT : THIS IS A MEME DO NOT TAKE IT SERIOUSLY (and seriously just don’t be Rude????? Like wtf lol)

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Ironic it says “sugar Marinette” when she actively chooses to lie to her boyfriend about how his Father was a super villain who tormented everyone, destroyed the world twice, put his life in danger a dozen times and actively beat him up after discovering his secret identity

And then makes him see him as a hero because Gabriel asked her to do it, she actively made him forgive and idolize his abuser to “don’t hurt him” when this will just make things worse when he finds out

"white man perpetuating cycle of abuse"

ironwood???? james "modeled after his asian voice actor" ironwood?

[egg-crusher]

So someone doing a move to prevent spy’s from a terrorist faction gives him more of the blame when someone instigates a riot, but when someone is actively commanding a group of bandits to attack villages to loot their supplies and leave them with almost nothing and probably will be eaten by monsters then that ones doesn’t have even half of the blame the previous one had

I understand disliking ironwood but Raven is factually a evil person, she might care for one or two people (one of them also being a bandit) her body count is far bigger and crimes are far more selfish and Ironwood’s

RWBY Fans:

Also RWBY Fans:

[egg-crusher]

The directors commentary:

Kerry: That was just like that’s absurd. Hmm. So it turned into this like, really.. you know I- I though it made a lot of sense for Watts to have this like, overly complex, like swiss army knife of like I have so many different, things he could do with it he could, you know put different d- different types of dust in it its f- along with his, his cool.. Tron rings.. and then of course Ironwood Ironwood now losing.. another part of his humanity. Get it?

Paula: (Chuckles).

Kerry: Oh man. I was.. I lost it.

Miles: (Laughs).

I guarantee you that most of the people who got mad about Ironwood's writing did not gave a fuck about his character until they realized they can use him as an excuse to get mad at The Females™.

[egg-crusher]

Also there’s Satan who’s been in Tartarus for hundreds of years, im not kidding

(Actually his name is Tirek but that doesn’t change much)

Also there was a Dragon ball Z like fight

And he blew up the MC’s house

This is a honest to god, good fight

Never watched My Little Pony but I found out something fucked up while I was on TV Tropes.

There's an episode where Luna has so much guilt for being a villain that she creates a magical force to mentally punish herself every night. In her own words "to make sure I never forgave myself for how much Equestria suffered because of me."

I have several thoughts

I thought MLP was lighthearted fluff. The fuck is this depressing shit?

I think the writers need therapy.

I feel called out.

I've heard some weird stuff about the fandom and Equestria Girls so it's a nice change of pace to find out the actual show is fucked up as well.

If you gave me a million guesses of what happened in MLP this would not be one of them.

[egg-crusher]

So

I was scrolling through my page and I saw something which made me reconsider some things about the FNDM (RWBY’s fandom)

For starters, I want to say i completely understand if you dislike the character of Adam for one or two reasons

You don’t like how he’s written

You don’t like how much overshadowed Blake in her debut

You don’t like his design (I personally hate the volume 4-6 design)

You don’t like his personality and think he’s creepy

You dislike his fans since some can be very aggressive

Etc etc etc

But please, if you genuinely believe the following statements, block me, don’t leave your comment and never try to approach me ever again, thank you

“Adam branded himself” and “Adam deserves to be one of the Schnee’s summons”

The first implies a minority branded himself with the name of a company which officially causes the death of minorities (leaving many orphans) for their negligence, are colonizers, and in the comics kidnap members of said minority to work on their mines…

So he could shit on them, their evidence? He’s not mentally stable and knows how to manipulate people

Do I have to discuss why this headcanon/theory is so dumb? I’ll do it just in case

Why would he cover the scar if he scarred himself on purpose? Remember, Adam wasn’t always a bloody murderer who wanted to radicalize the entire fang to make a personality cult but he genuinely wanted to fight back against humanity

And saying a minority branded himself so he could hate on the rich white men is… something.

And now for the later… I’ll give some small context

When a Schnee (for example Weiss) kills a foe which gave her a very big challenge (for example that Nevermore from volume 1) is added to a galley of creatures she can summon, she later on learns to summon the Arma Gigas from the White Trailer, the Boarbatusk & Nevermore from volume 1, the Queen lancer from volume 5, and a manticore from volume 6 (it only appears una film)

This have a certain degree of autonomy since they can act out of the users view, and we are never told is ONLY Grimm which are turned into summons since they only say “enemies” so any being could perfectly become a summon, okey?

Now here’s the thing

they’re Adam, who’s a ex-slave of the SDC and has Weiss name branded on his face, deserves to be turned into a summon which is literally Slaving his soul to work for a Schnee for the rest of eternity

They think enslaving a ex-slave is worthy punishment because he wanted to slave humans for enslaving him… they’re proving someone (who’s super racist against humans) right, because is fitting (their words) and I think they meant is karma/ironic

This Is not karma, is just continuing the cycle of Abuse and proving him right

He was a monster but he was one because he was abused for being a Faunus and ended up thinking all humans deserved to suffer for what he went through, making him into a Slave after death only proves his point

Slaving Adam like he wanted to do with humans for slaving him only proves him right, “humans only enslave Faunus so Faunus should do the same”

Thats’s inhumane, but since is done to him for hating humans then is somehow right?! Slavery is never right, and people who think enslaving others is a fitting punishment then they aren’t better than the ones who slaved them, because I don’t think I should be saying this since this is something obvious every smart human being should know but… SLAVERY IS BAD and NO PERSON DESERVES IT specially since Adam already was a slave

Kill him and burn his body to ass, but making his soul into a puppet is not the way to go

And before you say “oh, him being a child slave is a headcanon” please go read the CANON descriptions of the character in amity arena

“Adam Taurus used to gaze up at the sky with bright blue eyes whenever he could, between shifts in the dust mines, dreaming of the day he would leave the tunnels behind to find his place in the world. But what he found instead was himself... on the ground, staring up at the three letters that damned him now and forever.

Scarred. Despised. Cold. Adam's heart grows black, his hatred red hot. The final traces of love, the beauty he let go, never returns, and as the last petal falls, Adam is cursed to forever remain a beast. Because, in this tale as old as time, there is no happy ending.

In this story... HE is the monster.

Adam Taurus had finally found his place, and he would watch humanity... burn.”

And before you say “oh that’s just form his point of view” you should check his other description which clearly states he’s in the wrong

“With a scar on his face and anger in heart, a wayward boy looked for a home. When he found it... oh, how glorious it was. Accepted and loved, here was his happily ever after.

But Adam was cursed with a gift few others had.

Adam had... talent.

And when Wilt tasted humanity's blood...

Adam realized he was... STRONG.

Now king without kingdom, he wonders where it went wrong.

Coming up with excuses, reflecting the blame,

Coming to a conclusion, all find insane.”

The descriptions are obviously from a narrator and not the characters themselves, so I think the narrator is reliable to some degree and isn’t Adam at all…

I understand not liking a character, but people have to think about what they say since they usually end up saying very racist things like this.

Adam was a villain and a evil one, but dear god, people treat him like he’s worse than Salem and cinder combined

[egg-crusher]

Don’t forget how they used “loss of limbs as a metaphor for loss of humanity” with Ironwood, who’s already 50% prosthetics long before he loses his arm, and I think Adam’s scar was down for shock value since the SDC or any Schnee character is never faced by what their racism did.

Jacques isn’t arrested for Faunus exploitation, Weiss never finds out about it, we don’t know if they’ll ever mention SDC was a main colonizer of Vacuo, we don’t know Whitley’s opinion on Faunus or if he even has one

So revealing this company did things like marking a race of people like cattle and then doing nothing with it shows they only did it for the shock value of it!

lowkey the grossest thing about adam’s face reveal in v6 (outside of the. you know) is that it so blatantly plays into the “scary disfigured” trope that I see fucking everywhere.

Wow look at how ugly this guy’s face is. Look at how the whites of his eye has turned completely red. Look at that cataract, scary right? Look at how the whole brand & s carrying covers most of his face. Look at how jagged and grotesque it looks. Look at how squinted the eye is because of the burn. He doesn’t even have a second eyebrow anymore. Isn’t that scary?

The reveal is meant to shock you— but not in a “Oh, this guy was branded, that’s kind of sad” way, or even in a “Oh, this guy was branded, that’s kind of scary” way. The reveal is framed to be shocking in a “Oh, this guy was branded and looks dEfOrMeD, he’s kind of scary” way.

It’s a trope I see fucking everywhere. Characters with facial disfigurements/“facial differences” of any sort are 99% of the time used in media as villains who are “more horrific” because of their faces.

I think there’s genuinely one piece of media that has a main character with a facial difference who isn’t either a villain or is portrayed as being “tragically misunderstood” by the narrative (sorry elephant man) and

it’s a kids book. A really good kids book, but a kids book. (said kids book also has one of the few small yet positive representations of tourettes but that’s uhhhh not the point. I just wanted to mention it. Yeah. Wonder should be mandatory reading tbh)

But back on topic. The reveal of Adam’s face is narratively framed as something to make him more evil and scary then he already is. It’s not enough to have him just be an arrogant asshole— let’s give him a purposefully “grotesque” and “discomforting” facial scarring that comes with the implication that he got it while in slavery. And let’s be sure to put in lots and lots of detail when we model it on.

That’ll sure make him more hatable!

For a show that’s been promoted as being “subversive” and not following many common themes seen in media… it sure goes out of its way to make sure a bunch of that media’s worst tropes get included in its narrative.

It’s disappointing.

[egg-crusher]

thus falling into that Nintendo-style hole of making something no one asked for and then wondering why it didn't sell

I have never seen Nintendo every do that… except for Paper Mario, and even then they still sold very well since the fans kept hoping to go back to the past game styles

Why RWBY can't come back

The last news we got of RWBY was all the way back in July, when it was acquired by VIZ Media.

This much serves as a hard letdown for anyone who was hoping Dillon Goo and his studio could acquire the property, as VIZ Media is owned by freaking Shueisha, aka the guys who run Shonen Jump. It is unlikely to be sold back to a smaller studio.

VIZ Media buying it was a baffling choice to begin with, as RWBY isn't nearly as eternally-profitable as some of the other ventures it's been focusing on, such as Bleach and animating its Thousand Year Blood War arc. I suppose RWBY doesn't make for an ill fit when considering that it can simply languish on a shelf generating endless merch sales at a slow but steady pace over the years--VIZ Media is in charge of many, many series, and all of its biggest properties are surrounded by a haze of particle-sized smaller properties whose only real purpose is to add to the cumulative money flow in towards the studio.

But it does mean that Volume 10 of RWBY, in sharp contrast to what diehards crowed about when the acquisition was announced, is almost certainly not coming. VIZ Media's main practice is taking control of works that start in serialization form, usually manga, and adapting them, not generating whole new content. If VIZ Media even did feel like continuing the RWBY Saga, it would depend on:

other writers being welcomed into the room, because VIZ Media is a large corporation and is very unlikely to adhere to any fandomized purist idea that only Miles and Kerry should write for it and be credited with it,

other writers actually wanting to be associated with a series that is so badly stigmatized on the internet now. If you're Rooster Teeth, it won't be hard, you can pick from a pool of fans who will sell their souls to do so (and who cares about any quality), but VIZ wouldn't even glance in the direction of a tactic like that.

And if so, there's no real telling what it would look like, which is the axe coming down for the remaining RWBY fanbase, who are volatile and hostile and protective of what they think RWBY should be (i.e., Miles and Kerry). If VIZ Media is stupid, they'll plow ahead with this anyway, generating almost no profit because RWBY's tiny remaining fandom won't associate with it and RWBY's very large ex-fandom also isn't interested in it, thus falling into that Nintendo-style hole of making something no one asked for and then wondering why it didn't sell.

It would be much more in line with VIZ' profit-lined goals to maximize the revenue trickling into RWBY with another spinoff series like Ice Queendom or the manga series, which won't actually advance the story forward but will sate people expecting a Volume 10 at some point and merely needing any form of content to assure themselves it's inevitably coming.

Unfortunately, that means RWBY as a rebooted series with actual writers is also probably off the table, because VIZ Media are unlikely to do something they view as risky even if they think profit could be generated from it; the safer option is the trickle rather than hoping to strike a renewed spirit in fans.

And so RWBY is very likely to have the ultimate fate that I had naively thought we'd avoided back in May: spinning its wheels on the shelf of anime limbo for eternity rather than rebooting or dying peacefully.

[egg-crusher]

1-I complete understand why someone could be embarrassed of liking something, it could be because is badly seen for a person to like it (is for nerds) is badly seen someone of certain race of gender to like it (like when people insulted boys for liking girl shows, which I’ve been a target of) and because some people don’t like talking about their hobbies

2-RWBY doesn’t have a good reputation online, and is not because “popular = bad” since RWBY has been niche for years and its current relevance in pop culture is almost unnoticeable

RWBY has many controversies through its story which are related to one thing, it’s awful parent company, rooster teeth was many things but a d good company was not

They underpaid everyone, let harassment go wild in the office, let their big name have enough money to buy cars and go on planes, messy management in every aspect of every show (specially RWBY which since day 1 has barely been any plan into it since things like the maidens are last minute additions and characters like Neo just exist because they liked a girl’s cosplay of Roman and couldn’t find a voice actor so she came to be, she’s not mute because the writers wanted but because they never found a voice actress with how sudden her apparition was)

After the fiasco of Gen:lock which got Roman’s actor out of Rooster teeth and spending dozens of dozens of bucks in a movie quality series which was just fine before its second season killed most of the good will people had on rooster teeth for being everything wrong about a show and sequel

And I haven’t even talked about the things RWBY did to gain a bad reputation, the bad animation of the first seasons isn’t a good enough reason although the corny and weird writing was really a bit not many could take for long, but the great designs, music, fights and promises of much better things kept the fandom happy

The problems came when the show went on and most fans didn’t like what was happening, characters getting fridge, concepts being abandoned, confusing use of the characters and their stories with a “game of thrones” style writing the writers admitted to take inspiration from, characters arcs most didn’t like, fight scene quality dropping dramatically (rest in peace, Monty) and things fans actually found downright awful like the use of heavy topics which weren’t perfectly handled

Then the fandom… people like canonseeker made most people neutral to RWBY gain a certain amount of dislike towards the franchise (if someone so delusional and obsessive is a fan of this, then I don’t want to be near it) and I know there’s some haters which have no reason but the fandom is aggressive with haters who just hate and people with actual criticism (They tried to ban me from r/rwby for just saying a scene didn’t make much sense to me despite me having 16 upvotes)

I don’t think a person should be ashamed of liking something, but I can UNDERSTAND why they are ashamed of liking something since they are probably hiding from the drama surrounding this show

I am so sick of people, even people who claim to like the show, who act embarrassed or have to make excuses for liking RWBY.

I don't understand that mentality one bit.

[egg-crusher]

Gatekeeping is so good and important

[egg-crusher]

I want to add something I’ve seen a lot of people argue and became a very common fake information to hear in the fandom “Ironwood betrayed Ozpin’s and got him kicked out of the Security staff so he could take over and do a military occupation”

But this is false, the show only says they read Ironwood’s report and fans conclude he probably talked bad about Ozpin, but is not like that’s on character (even in volume 7 he seems to hold Ozpin on high regard) and he didn’t even had to change anything to make Ozpin sound bad if you think about it

“The day ## of ## of the year #### Headmaster Ozpin authorized a trip to mountain Glenn under the suspect of white fang activity in it

The operation sent the first year students Ruby rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long supervised by Professor Bartholomew Oobleck (they also seem to have brought a unauthorized animal, a corgi which has been the family pet of the Rose/Xiao long family for # years)

The student Ruby rose Accidentally found the white fang installations after separating from the group, she then was captured and brought to Roman Torchwick, her escape (according to Roman’s interview) was what caused him to start their attack previously

The plan of the white fang was using bombs made from the dust Torchwick stole the last months to make tunnels to the surface to drag Grimm into the tunnel while the locomotive was used as a battering ram to open way for the Grimm into Vale’s capital city

The group successfully took out several white fang members and incapacitated Torchwick but failed the stop the train and The Grimm broke into the city and cornered the students which tried to push back the attack

before the situation escalated all huntsman (including students) and my army present in the zone were successful at closing the breach and exterminating all Grimm without any other damages

Roman torchwick was apprehended by Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black, and is currently held in one of the cells in my main battleship” (or something along this lines)

By all accounts Ozpin’s plan was a mess, not bad but not very good either since GRIMM broke into the city and attacked civilians

Also I see a lot of people saying it was a “military occupation” but I don’t think they understand what that means (temporary hostile control and possession of hostile territory that enables an invading nation to establish military government against an enemy or martial law against rebels or insurrectionists in its own territory) since Ironwood was the one bringing the amity colosseum (which obviously needed protection to travel through the world) and seemingly wasn’t against what the council wanted since they later on make him the head of security for the festival (actually I think we hear and see people applauding the presentation of Atlasian Knight’s, in vale)

For all things considered it was a military support (the assistance provided by a foreign country's armed forces to another country during times of conflict) made because Vale has gotten a rather large amount of terrorist attacks lately and just heard Salem (basically the devil but he has tangible proof it exists) could be involved

Was Ironwood out of character during volume 8?

Now, this is going to be a bit, wild. This subject have been talked already, but, I think I can give my grain of salt. Let's start. 1. No, he always was sinister.

Since the beginning we could have say that we saw his paranoia. Bringing his army just because a message of Qrow.

"The queen has pawns".

That despite the fear that would bring Grimm. "It's the Vytal Festival. A time to celebrate unity and peace. So I suggest that you not scare people by transporting hundreds of soldiers halfway across the continent."

Even during the Vytal Festival, Ozpin mentions again that that fear would bring the Grimm. "And fear will bring the Grimm. A guardian is a symbol of comfort. But an army is a symbol of conflict. There's an energy in the air now, a question in the back of everyone's minds... "If this is the size of our defenses, then what is it we're expecting to fight?""

So, he doesn't care about the Grimm attacking Vale civilians.

Other matter. We can say he doesn't care about the faunus. He have two seats in the council and never did anything to stop Jacques Schnee and his faunus oppression.

"So, our kingdom's greatest minds, in cooperation with the Schnee Dust Company, are proud to introduce... the Atlesian Paladin!"

He cooperated with them. And never attempted to stop their exploitation. He have 2/5 of the political power in the kingdom.

Nor he have stopped the SDC colonization of Vacuo. This is not something that happened before the Great War, this is something recent as the SDC was created by Nicolas after the war, and since Jacques assumed power, the things have gone even worse.

And even Marrow admits that the law is not equal.

"The law isn't perfect, you know. It's certainly not equal."

"Trust me, I'm well aware."

Later, we have also the fact that he didn't cared too much about Mantle.

The Grimm entered in Mantle during the first episode. And the defenses weren't enough. This is something even pointed out by the characters.

"I guess the city defenses aren't doing much."

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me."

This wasn't only done by the writers to make a fight scene where Ruby's group show off. It establishes a fact, that ironwood doesn't care about its people.

Think about it, he left them to die.

He also put the close of borders and the embargo, even when that only provoked discomfort in the kingdom.

There is also the fact that he didn't upgraded the security network in Mantle. Consider that the Atlas technology have been previously hacked, so he really needed to upgrade the system.

"Well, if we're dealing with the same enemy from Beacon, hacking into Mantle's system would be easy. Fortunately, the rest of Atlas is running on an upgraded network."

There is also the fact that he haven't been acting legal all this time.

"Yes, which is exactly why we have checks and balances."

"We're supposed to, but lately you've been running roughshod all over them, making unilateral decisions without us."

And let's no forget about how he was willing to declare the martial law. Let's consider that it would only bring more negativity and therefore attract Grimm. Yes, it was to unite the world and restore global communications, but it was at the cost of Mantle.

"What's more important? Establishing communications, unite the world? Or appeasing a few city blocks?"

He only refers to them as "a few city blocks". Nothing more, nothing less.

That and the fact that he was willing to left Mantle to die during As above, so below.

"What we need is to start evacuating Mantle. If it's completely overrun, it's not going to be safe anywhere. Use the fleet to get--"

"If I move the fleet, then Atlas is vulnerable. I… I tried to keep the kingdom safe. And now we're losing everything."

He could have used the fleet to evacuate Mantle to Atlas, but initially he refused because he prioritized Atlas. The city was without heating, and the Grimm have launched an invasion. If he didn't do something, everyone were going to die. Ironwood was already ready to left them to die.

And let's not forget about how he outright admitted that he would be leaving Mantle to die.

"But we're nowhere near finished evacuating everyone! You'd be leaving Mantle to die."

"Yes… I would."

So, if he was already willing to leave Mantle to die, why would it be weird that he threaten to nuke Mantle? Is so different leaving Mantle to die and nuke it?

2. Yes, he was originally a good person.

Despite Ozpin's claims that bringing his army would attract Grimm. At the end, the citizens of Vale weren't afraid, and no Grimm was attracted to the city. I mean, there were Grimm attracted to the city, just not because of the Atlas military... it was because of Cinder's plans and actions.

And, what's more, he used his army to protect the citizens of Vale. He later bring even more troops because he wanted to protect Vale. Of course, he didn't know his army was going to be hacked.

Even during the battle of Beacon, he and his troops fought along the students against the Grimm and the hacked atlesian robots.

He later closed the borders and made the embargo because he needed to make sure no one infiltrates inside the kingdom.

"I needed to ensure Salem couldn't infiltrate Atlas. And I wanted my military here, protecting my people."

His plan of Amity wasn't only to benefit Atlas city, but also to unify the world and joined defeat Salem. He also planned to use his military to help the rest of the world.

"But everything will fall apart. Grimm will be everywhere!"

"You're right, but Atlas is willing and prepared to assist."

According to this card of RWBY Arrowfell, Ironwood is someone willing to help all of the world, not only Atlas.

Other characters have also mentioned about Ironwood's willingness to help the whole world.

"A new communications tower. He's trying to help... everyone."

"I used to think you were hiding something to protect yourself. But I can tell there's something much bigger going on here. Now I think it's to protect something else. Us… Atlas, maybe even all of Remnant. And you're afraid of what might happen if you tell the truth."

There is also the fact that he attempted to protect Mantle. He put soldiers and Atlesian knights. Forces in charge of defending the city. They, along the small manta ships and Penny. Penny isn't there just because she is a robot, as there are also human soldiers there.

He also acknowledge the problems in Mantle and wanted Ruby's group to help down in Mantle.

"No. No, you're right. Things in Mantle have been... hard to manage lately. I'm not blind to its issues. In fact, that's what I want to talk to you about. With the launch of this mobile communications tower and tensions down in Mantle, I think there's a lot of good your teams can do here."

And, there are some missions on the mission board to help Mantle.

"We need someone to escort children to pre-primary school down in Mantle. There's not actually any danger, but the parents fret, and that attracts Grimm."

"A massive Sabyr is loose in the Mantle sewers! We need two brave warriors to flush it out!"

The military, and Ironwood since he is the head of it, was worried about Grimm being attracted to Mantle, and Grimm being a threat to the people of the Mantle.

Later, Ren and Nora were assigned to protect the wall on Mantle.

"Diverting all construction resources to Amity Tower means there are going to be gaps in Mantle's defenses against Grimm. They'll need help on the perimeter."

"But there's still plenty to do in Mantle itself."

Yes, they are helping because of the lack of Mantle defenses. But, they were there ALSO because the military wanted them there, not only protecting Amity tower.

Ironwood also was someone willing to participate in the debates of the council. Of course, it made him mad, but at the end, he was willing to comply.

"I swear if I have to sit through one more council meeting like that…"

"Actually, I've already informed them. As this is now the site of a classified military operation, it didn't even require a vote."

"My father's first act. We've all been invited to dinner where the General will be defending his seat on the Council."

Ironwood was anyway willing to go to a meeting with the council, instead of simply shooting everyone who opposed him.

We also have the fact that, despite initially not being willing to use his fleet to evacuate Mantle, at the end, he was willing to help them.

"All we can do for the moment is what we can to save Mantle. That's what's in front of us."

Ironwood was willing to help Mantle and even focus on it, even after knowing that Salem was immortal. At the end, while he was willing to abandon Mantle, it was because he thought that Mantle couldn't be saved. And that even Salem wanted him to evacuate Mantle to Atlas.

"How do we know they didn't want us to bring people into Atlas by the thousands?"

"We are saving who we can." So, if Ironwood did care about Mantle, but only abandoned the city because he thought that it was Salem's plan... Then, it doesn't makes sense that he later tries to nuke it. Even when he already left Mantle to die. It's different abandoning the city than being the one who pulls the trigger. He was willing to help Mantle till he thought he couldn't anymore. 3. In conclusion. There are two perspectives about it. I think that both perspectives have their pros and cons. I'm not here to tell you which interpretation is correct.

Whether the volume 8 was well written around Ironwood's character, or not. Some might consider his fall into villainy something natural, while others would see it as something out of character. But, I'm not the one with the final word, what do you think? Comment it and leave your opinion!