#i'd be too greedy if i demanded another project with the three of them together

[earlgodwin]

not to parallel between real life and the show but there is just something incredibly adorable about david oakes showing love for his borgia sibling co-stars by making efforts to reunite with them. he invited holliday grainger to work with him in a short film so they could donate the profits to the british lung foundation (an organization he is heavily involved with) he then invited françois arnaud to his nature podcast and had so much fun with him making references to the borgias. it's lowkey giving juan immensely loving cesare and lucrezia and wanting a reconciliation so the three of them can be together despite everything.

[itsclydebitches]

Funny you bring up James being open to working with Robyn. Based on what's presented I thought he was more hesitant towards her. And to be fair, for good reason. She has her heart in the right place like him but she tends to go to extremes too. Spying on the Amity Project, being extremely aggressive when angry (like Yang), talking over people on big issues (the scene with Marrow), resorting to theft just after losing the election, her lie-detector power. If I were I James I'd be wary of her too.

To my recollection the most we really hear about his thoughts is that comment that it takes both parties cooperating if you want to work together... which, fair. RWBYJNR really lays into Ironwood about not being on Team Robyn, but he’s right to point out that it’s not his sole responsibility to make things work. She has to put some trust in him too. Which frankly, she doesn’t. As you point out, throughout the volume Robyn proves herself to be a very hot-headed, untrustworthy person: 

She’s spying on the project and only approaches Clover and the others when she doesn’t succeed in figuring things out on her own. It implies that she’s more interested in just getting that information rather than actually working with Ironwood. If she’d been able to undermine him solo, she would have 

The ‘defender of Mantle’ moniker is a huge part of her identity, to the point where Robyn talks over an actual Faunus in regards to issues of discrimination. She’s really intent on being the leader of victims---a victim herself---rather than acknowledging her own privilege

She resorts to theft and violence in order to get what she wants. As noble as her goal is, the fact remains that Robyn straight up doesn’t know what those supplies are for and doesn’t care about any consequences attached to her taking them 

She hears from two teens what the project actually is and just... runs with that. Again, she doesn’t seem particularly interested in working with Ironwood. Robyn just wants information and doesn’t care where it comes from. Yang and Blake spill the beans? Great. I have what I want. No reason to approach Ironwood about this, or think through issues of loyalty if his subordinates are going behind his back regarding such significant, classified information

Then, despite knowing about Amity, she joins a dinner wherein she is supported by and in turn supports Jacques Schnee. To be blunt, Robyn is written as incredibly stupid at times. She just lost to Jacques and is supposedly furious about it. Everyone has suspicions that the election was rigged. Yes she’s going to demand that Ironwood let her use her semblance on him in front of their biggest political enemy? Again, Robyn just wants information and she wants it now. Like Yang out in the snow---is demanding Ozpin’s secrets in front of a complete stranger really the best course of action?---Robyn’s anger and aggression blinds her to all potential repercussions. She’s impatient, entitled, and that combination makes her very dangerous

Proceeds to betray Ironwood the second he does something she doesn’t like. As I mentioned in my recap, no one but Clover goes, “Hey. Don’t you think that if Ironwood is suddenly declaring martial law and calling for arrests that something really significant must have gone down? Don’t you have any trust that he does these things for a reason?” Nope. Her being proven wrong about Amity---oh wow, you weren’t doing something nefarious---didn’t matter. Ironwood trusting her, the council, and then the people of Mantle didn't matter. Him letting her use her semblance on him didn’t matter. Trusting her to help take down Tyrian didn’t matter. Ironwood keeps demonstrating trust and then the second Robyn is asked to do the same she breaks from him, proving that Ironwood was right to be wary. She never wanted to work with him in the first place, just wanted him to act as a lackey to her. That scene in the airship was the perfect culmination of everything dangerous about Robyn: I’m going to jump to conclusions, it’s going to make me pissed, I’m going to listen to the serial killer we have tied up, and I’m going to start a fight despite the fact that I’m not the one under arrest. She heard three sentences from a teen over her comm and that was enough to break her “loyalty,” to the extent that she actively caused a serial killer’s escape and the subsequent crash

Like so many characters in RWBY nowadays, Robyn looks like one thing on the surface when she’s actually another. She looks like the classic Robin Hood we should all be supporting, but she’s been chucked into a far more complicated situation than “Super rich people stealing from the poor is bad” and thus her actions do far more harm than good. Ironwood isn’t a greedy sheriff out to fill his own pocket; he’s using those resources to try and save the whole world, Mantle included. Robyn isn’t just stealing goods, she’s trying to steal information in front of their enemies and is outright shooting allies when she doesn’t get her way. So... yeah. If Ironwood got even a smidge of an inkling of what she’s really like, I wouldn’t have put any trust in her either. Especially when we see her doing very little to earn trust from him. She’s like RWBYJNR that way. All the characters in Volume 7 demand more and more trust from Ironwood, despite the fact that he’s the only character across those 13 episodes who is taking action that proves his own trust in others. No one (except the Ace Ops and Winter) is willing to meet him halfway. Not unless meeting comes with the caveat of, “You’re going to do precisely what I want, right?” Ruby and Oscar will only spill the beans about Salem when Ironwood agrees to their plans. Robyn will only support him up until she hears a totally-out-of-context order she doesn’t like. The extreme differences in trust are really apparent throughout this volume. Ironwood has done a lot to demonstrate why he’s trustworthy to everyone, but it’s never enough. In contrast, Ruby has made some reeeaally bad decisions lately, but the group is still willing to keep quiet when she starts to pull an Ozpin. That trust in the form of “I don’t agree with this but I’ll hold off on reacting until I get more information because I know you always have reasons for the things you do” is never extended to Ironwood by RWBYJNR or Robyn.