#ironwood Protection Squad

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

I just- no matter how “joking” this is meant to be I cannot comprehend calling an in universe minority and a triple amputee “trash”. They’d probably argue it’s because they’re “eViL” ignoring how the crafting of their stories and how they became “evil” is rooted in racism and ableism.

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Fans refuse to see the ableism because to admit their favorite show is ableist would admit something they like is flawed and harmful and they can't have that so they deny it and deny it, continuing the ableism and making it even worse and harming more people in the process.

Stop Making Psychosis A Villainous Trait Challenge

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

While I’d love to hear six hours of discussion, perhaps we can hear your top 10 reasons you like Ironwood? Don’t want you to lose your voice after all my fellow Dadmiral friendo

Look I stream for 6 hours straight some days but that’s beside the point lolz. Also sorry this took so long. Life has been a thing.

1. James feels…human. I know the point of characters in stories is to make them feel alive and to immerse you into the world I know. But stay with me there are just little details like James adjusting his tie and little laughs at R/WBY’s antics that just make him feel more real.

2. James is strong. And not just in the physical sense but the emotional one. Between him in volume 3 holding it together despite the world falling apart around him and him taking on all of Atlas and Mantles hatred and vitriol while trying to protect them is incredible. Everyone hates him despite him trying his best and it’s both incredible and heartbreaking to see.

3. James is compassionate. I am not even slightly referring to volume 8 that bullshit is not canon at all just no. After watching Yang with his own eyes break (who he thought) was an innocent students leg unprovoked after the match ended and his aura was down, he believed her when she said she saw him attack first. He assumed the best of her even when all evidence showed that she was being malicious. Or in volume 4 when Weiss accidentally summoned a Grimm that attacked someone, he stood up for her or after Ruby failed to stop Cinder in volume 3 (? Or 2 can’t remember for sure) and he told her she did well and she took action which is what huntresses do. He is strict but he shows kindness to people.

4. He’s kind of silly sometimes. He’s normally very strict so it makes his funny moments stand out more. Like when he laughs when the girls admit they stole an airship or when he grins at Winters comment about how he couldn’t pay her to smile for the cameras.

5. He’s not a good public speaker. Now I can hear you say “but wait, he speaks publically all the time and while yes he does, he also does the equivalent of error 404 when things don’t go exactly as he mentally prepared beforehand and we see this in volume 7.

When the girls don’t react at all to his announcement that they’re all huntresses now he just freezes because this man needs to preplan everything and he did not have a plan b prepared and panics and it’s so relatable I adore it so much.

6. He’s awkward. While similar to the last point, people can suck at public speaking and still be able to converse well with people in a smaller setting but sometimes James seems to even be a little awkward even in less formal moments.

7. In early volumes he was allowed to make mistakes and still be a good person. I like it when characters are allowed to make a mistake and still be seen as a good guy. People make mistakes and screw up but that doesn’t make said person evil. Sometimes we can’t fix something or stop a bad thing from happening or even make a decision that winds up causing more problems. But the intention of the decision is the important thing. James wanted to protect people in volumes 2 and 3 so he brought his army because he had a feeling Salem was up to something. Cinder used said army to cause even more chaos but at the time the narrative refused to demonize him for this and allowed people to understand what his intentions were. That’s way more compelling than the narrative twisting itself to try and somehow prove the mains are always correct and never make mistakes. Learning and growing make stories interesting.

8. James is willing to make the tough decisions. Time and time again we see James making really difficult calls to try and navigate a war that most people don’t even know they’re fighting. He makes the plans to transfer Ambers Aura to keep it from Cinder. He pulled his armies from the other kingdoms to try and maintain peace, he decided to focus on Amity instead of the wall to try and restore global communication, he decided to try and save who he could when he was put between a rock and a hard place. He made the tough calls and stuck by his decision and that is admirable.

9. James trusts people. After James’s talk with Glynda she took his advice to heart and was more open and honest with people. When Winter tells him something is going on at Haven, he takes her word for it. When Ruby and co lie to his face he trusts their word. He trusts Yang when she says she saw Mercury attack her first during the Vytal Festival. (Despite what the narrative tries to tell us) James gives people the benefit of the doubt and is willing to trust people.

10. James is an incredible fighter even without a typical offensive Aura. Pretty self explanatory but James is able to go toe to toe with some dangerous adversaries and hold his own despite not having a special “super power” like everyone else does. Or even a special weapon really he kicks ass with just a pair of guns and that is so badass of him lolz.

And a bonus more meta point because I want to talk about this so there. But one thing I loved about Ruby and James’s volume 7 fallout is that we can see exactly how and why each of them made the decision they did during that breakdown. On one had we have Ruby who is full of hope still and sees the best in the world. She lost her friends and is still dealing with the trauma of that and doesn’t want to ever lose anyone else again or let people suffer a loss like she did during the fall of Beacon. On the other we have James who is equally traumatized from Beacon but in a very different way. He did his best to fight back against Salem and it was in the end used against him and caused even more pain and suffering. He’s terrified of going toe to toe against Salem again and wants to protect what he knows he can until he knows they are able to take on Salem. It’s realistic and painful and neither side is really a perfect option. It’s a bad situation and we can see how the characters respond to it and it feels in character and real and I wish that we got to see that writing continue into volume 9.

Sorry again for how long this one took! As I said life’s been all over the place and chaotic and it still is but I got a burst of motivation so I decided to finally type this out.

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

Instagram introduced me to a new template and I had some fun with it lolZ.

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

It's funny (read obnoxiously frustrating) that RW/BY stans accuse me of wanting a "white man" to be the lead character because I criticize the writing of James, only for those same fans to turn around and start frothing at the mouth when we criticize Jaune getting a focus episode in Beyond insisiting he is a "main" character as well and deserves development and how he doesn't take away screen time from the mains. The hypocrisy is just insane and frustrating and I cannot fathom how they refuse to see just how hypocritical they are being.

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

The problem with your argument is actually disregarding this AS a trolley problem. The writers literally praised themselves for writing….a trolley problem. The original point of the scene was to present a morally complex situation. The argument that “well the writers retconned it later so-“ really holds no water in my book because the original writing of the scene was for a morally complex trolley problem.

This is also severely downplaying Ruby’s own disregard for human life in the lives of the exhausted army whose already been fighting all night and is not in any shape to battle again. Ruby knows this and doesn’t care. This is a decision not of saving everyone be not this is a decision of whose lives will be sacrificed for the other and while it’s easy to say “it should be the army, it’s their job.” It becomes a lot messier when realizing that if the atlas army falls, at minimum half of the worlds fighting population is…gone. And when faced with an immoral witch hellbent on ending the world with no plan in place to stop her….that’s a significantly more dangerous situation to be in that risks the entire world ending.

Meanwhile James said that only a small portion of Mantel was left (importantly no one refuted this point, only that leaving anyone is bad) and no it’s not good at all that any civilians died….at the end of the day Ruby’s choices still led to civilians dying. That’s just fact. And even if things had gone according to her “plan” her plan still involved holding a battle literally in the middle of a civilian population. Thinking that no one would die in that fight is just ludicrous in my opinion. The Grimm and Salem don’t care if it’s a civilian or a soldier or a hunter dying, they just want to kill.

Yes it’s a terrible situation, but no matter what side was chosen people were going to die. Pretending otherwise is a severe disservice to the characters and the situation being presented. We shouldn’t have to “turn off our brains and enjoy the story” when Penny’s arc in volume 8 exists. Stories like that are not stories wherein you can just hand wave another characters difficult choices can be hand waved away because “it’s a feel good story” nothing about Penny’s ending is even remotely feel good and trying to dismiss James’s situation is also disregarding Penny’s.

And no, it’s not giving up without even trying. They tried to evacuate and tried to get as many people out and fought, it’s why the army is now exhausted and not in any shape to fight Salem herself. It’s about recognizing how bad things are and that the fate of the world is being decided by this battle. If Salem wins she is over halfway to ending the world. That means everyone dies. James knew this and had to make a difficult decision. It’s not a perfect solution but neither is team RWBY’s that’s the point that’s the problem. They don’t have a perfect solution because they don’t have time thanks to Salem.

This isn’t about saying one side is good and one side is evil this is about “what side will lead to the least amount of death” with James focusing on the long term goal while Ruby is focused on the short term both fueled by their traumas from Beacon. James is terrified of fighting Salem head on and thinks they don’t stand a chance (proven correct) and Ruby is traumatized from losing two good friends at Beacon and doesn’t want a repeat of that and doesn’t want anyone else to suffer from that.

That is a compelling story. That is the kind of story CRWBY insisted it was writing up until their trolley problem had too many people not picking their precious mains so they threw James’s character out to force people to side with her. Regardless Ruby doesn’t fight for every life, she throws Ironwood away the second it becomes to hard while immediately forgiving multiple mass murders cuz they looked sad. She sits in a mansion drinking tea during the main battle tsking despite saying it was their duty to fight. That’s not fighting for every life. That’s fighting for what’s convenient and easy.

So... about the "Ironwood Was Right" thing.

I recently saw this resurface a bit, in the context of Ruby's regrets in Volume 9. Basically, taking the fact that she felt like she'd failed as the show saying that yes, actually, she was wrong to go against Ironwood's plan in Volume 7.

I feel like I went into thinking about this trying to debunk it on a logical level. Like, is it actually a good idea to fly off into the sky in one big long stalling measure when your opponent is literally immortal? What's stopping Salem from grabbing all the rest of the relics and then just waiting as many generations as it takes, until the people of Atlas forget why they came up there in the first place and return to Remnant out of curiosity?

The thing is, treating it as an argument about what's the more "rational" choice is missing the point that like. We're talking about a story. We don't know exactly how many people are in Atlas and in Mantle and where they are and how many more trips they'd have to take to finish the evacuation, because details like that would just bog things down.

This is not a trolley problem with x number of people from Mantle on one side and y number of people from Atlas on the other. This is a trolley problem with a wealthy and powerful person on one track, and a disadvantaged person an alternate track, and Ironwood choosing to pull the lever instead of trying to stop the trolley. The point is not "how many." It's not about math. The point is that there is a fundamental difference between dying in the central location while a bunch of Huntresses and Huntsmen do absolutely everything in their power to protect you, and dying abandoned in the mines you used to work while the city built off of your labor flies away to safety.

The question this conflict is asking is about whether or not other people can be sacrifices. Ironwood says yes—team RWBY disagree. That's the actual crux of this argument. Does Ironwood have the right to decide who deserves protection and who isn't worth the risk? Do we get to give up on other people before we've even tried to save them? It's about the idea of certain people being disposable. Mantle's wall isn't important, Amity is. Amity will protect all of Atlas, and that wall will only help the people in Mantle. It implies that their safety is an acceptable sacrifice for the greater good. It treats them as disposable.

There's a reason it was Nora who spoke up and pointed out that it's always Mantle being asked to bear the burden for the greater good. Nora has been a disposable person before. Hell, Cinder has been a disposable person! The way Atlas (through the madame) treated a living person as a resource to be exploited or sacrificed is the entire reason that Cinder is trying to burn the kingdom down. Thematically, Atlas cannot escape the danger she poses by sacrificing more disposable people.

One of the biggest themes of this show is cooperation. It's all about how Salem can only be defeated by working together. But working together is not possible if certain people are taking on all of the risk, all of the sacrifice. Everyone has to be willing to put some skin in the game. Like, imagine trying to do a group project if you knew half of you were guaranteed to get an A no matter what and the other half weren't.

So the idea that Volume 9 is supposed to come back around and say that actually, that plan that would have literally divided a city in half and cut loose the poorer half like fucking ballast, that was the right thing all along and Ruby Rose was wrong to challenge it... that would be an absolute disaster of a thematic statement.

This is not a show about hard military men making hard military choices. It's not going to contrive a situation where cold-blooded calculation determines that the right thing to do is to pull up the ladder. Because outside of weird philosophical experiments about trolleys, the right thing to do usually has more to do with empathy. Compassion. Cooperation. All that gay shit.

[i-laugh-at-you]

Damn when people talk about getting harassed by rwde they weren’t lying. All it takes is mentioning ironwood and these people come out the woodworks to harass you.

God hopefully I don’t get doxxed over this

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

Sorry not sorry lolz

[bafflement]

Deaged Oz AU - Custody Arrangements

Em Pine sighed in frustration as she filled out yet another form to try to become the legal guardian of her new nephew. She didn't remember it being this complicated to claim custody of Oscar, surely it shouldn't be in Oz's case? She double checked to make sure the birthdate matched the other forms, happy she'd asked what Oz's birthday was before they'd left. (He'd sounded so confused, the poor dear, as though he didn't think he deserved one.) So much about Oz made her angry, so many red flags. If she ever found his parents, they would be having words, she was very certain of that, if nothing else. She filed the latest form and left, at least they'd promised to actually look into things this time...

"There is no record of the boy in question. Denied." Was all the letter said. Just that and nothing more, so much for the promises they'd made. She stared down at it in frustration and anger before picking it up and storming back to the train station, hoping she'd make it in time before the office closed for the day. This needed to be sorted out as soon as possible, if only to give Oz some form of legal identity.

The official behind the desk sighed. "Look, ma'am, we can't find any record of this 'Tip Pine'. Do you have any proof he exists? Pictures, physical proof? The boy himself? Even talking to your nephew would help."

"I'm not certain where the boys are right now, they're travelling with a family friend and friends of their own, but I do have pictures, yes. She dug out her scroll and started to show the pictures to the official. Lots of images of Oscar and Oz together, a few of them with her, too. There were even a few they'd sent her of all nine kids together with Qrow in the background. The official tutted to himself.

"Tell you what, contact the older boy, see if he picks up. We'll go from there." He seemed willing to listen at least, though part of that might have been the sheer adorability of the boys in question. They'd looked so sweet asleep against each other in the house in Mistral. It had been rather nice of Qrow to send her that one.

Oscar blinked as his scroll rang, he hadn't been expecting a call after all. Pulling it out, he grinned at the caller ID.

"Hi, Aunt Em!"

"Oh, hello Oscar, do you have a minute?"

"Sure, what do you need?"

"I have a gentleman here that needs to talk to you, if that's alright?" She passed the scroll over to the official, who smiled.

"Hello there, you'd be Oscar Pine, correct?"

"Yes? Hello, who are you?"

"Well, my name is Aster Lyme and I work with the families department here in Haven. I just have a few questions regarding one Tip Pine? There are no records of him, you see. Your aunt claims that you see him as a brother?"

"The families department?" Oscar sounded confused, but shrugged. "Yes, Tip's my brother now. I always wanted a brother, and now I have one!"

The man smiled to himself. "Well, you certainly do sound very attached to him. Now, the records your aunt submitted claim that he's ten? Do you know his parents, at all?"

"Uh..." Oscar looked uncomfortable for a second. "I'm not sure who they are? He's never really talked about them. I can go and get him for you?"

"That might be for the best, yes."

Oz blinked as he accepted the scroll from Oscar, who just grinned at him, looking slightly confused.

"Hello?"

"Oh, hello there. You'd be Tip, right?"

"I, well, yes, who are you?"

"I'm Aster Lyme and I need to ask some questions, if that's alright? Do you know where your parents are? Or their names?" He sounded softer than he was when talking to Oscar, his eyes sympathetic as the little boy on the other end blinked in shock.

"I... I'm not sure who they were, why do you need to know?"

Oscar, in the background, sent a horrified look towards Oz. He hadn't known that his brother didn't even know who his parents had been. Who'd raised him, how... just, what?

"I work for the family department here in Mistral, an Emerald Pine has tried to claim custody of you, but your records are incomplete. Are you sure you don't know your parent's names, can't describe them at all?"

"I'm certain. i have no memory of them, I'm sorry."

The official sighed heavily. "No need to apologise, little one. I'll mark your parents as unknown, that's alright, I just needed to check."

Oz pouted slightly at being called little one, but still looked confused. "Aunt Em is trying to claim custody of me? But... why?"

"She seems rather attached to you, as does your brother. Now, do you know where you were born, at all? Or is that unknown, too?"

"I'm sorry, sir, I'm unsure. As stated, I don't really remember that, either."

"Noted. You have a Vale accent, so I'll note that as the possible origin point, but I think that should be just about everything. Nice to meet you both. I'll let you talk to your aunt for a while and thank you for the help!" The scroll was passed back to Aunt Em, who looked rather concerned.

"Aunt Em?" Oz sounded confused. "Why exactly are you trying to adopt me? I'm really, really honored by what you and Oscar have done for me, but custody? Really?"

"Oh, Tip. Is it really that hard to accept that we want you? You're my nephew, Oscar's brother. This just makes it official. And besides, it's only guardianship, just like I have with Oscar. Just because you don't know who your parents were doesn't mean that you didn't have them and I'd no more try to replace them than I would my sister and her husband. You're just gaining more family, and so am I."

"Yeah!" Oscar chimed in. "You're ours now, my brother and Aunt Em's nephew. Whoever raised you can't claim you anymore. You're safe."

"Safe?" Oz breathed, as though tasting the word for the first time. "I am unsure just what safe feels like, really."

The others, who had been trying hard not to listen in, glanced at each other, looking vaguely horrified.

"Oh, pocket sized." Jaune breathed. "None of us would ever hurt you, you really are safe here, or at least as safe as any of us are."

Oz looked deeply touched by the statement, smiling rather sadly back at Jaune. Aunt Em smiled to herself too, thankful that her boys had friends they could rely on.

Later, months after everything had been finalised, Em Pine got a call out of the blue herself. She answered it rather gingerly, not instantly recognising the man on the other end.

"Hello there, I'm General James Ironwood and I'm calling you regarding Oz. Well, and Oscar, I suppose. I was hoping you'd sign over custody to me. Surely they'd be better under my guidance."

"Excuse me?" She stated, flatly, eyes hard. "And just why would I give up custody of my nephews to you? I also note that you seem worryingly interested in Tip for an Academy Headmaster, does your council know about your predilictions?"

James spluttered out denials, face red as Em glared at him.

"What? What? No. Why would I, why would you imply... Oz is my friend. He needs protection while he's here, they both do. Not... not, that!" It was rather amusing for Winter Schnee, who was still in the room, to see her normally unflappable general in such a state. But then, this was a call involving her uncle and she'd heard... stories, about him, over the years.

"He may need your protection while he's there, but I'm not signing over custody. You can have temporary guardianship, but Oscar is my blood nephew and, as for Tip? There's a saying here in Mistral, General."

"Oh?" He still sounded vaguely dazed, but at least with temporary custody he could recover from the conversation. He might try again, then again, he might not.

"Yes. Finder's keepers. Tip is mine, go find your own."

Winter laughed. Maybe James had finally found his equal after all.

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

Why does only RWBY get to struggle? To be hurting? They threw themselves into this whole mess of their own free will and can walk away anytime. People like General Ironwood can’t. He has to keep fighting, nonstop. He doesn’t get a day off. He doesn’t get medical leave even. He’s not allowed to break, because him breaking means he’s weak while when RWBY breaks it’s “expected” the hypocrisy is ridiculous.

Which makes me dislike V9 more because it feels like the writers are trying to "prove" that they understand mental health.

Also shows how badly the writing needed a sensitivity reader.

[spahhzy]

Call~

-

Jaune sheathed his blade away as the last of the white fang were stopped and restrained.

Looking behind him, he saw Blake hugging her teammates before looking towards him and nodding at him.

Jaune nodded back and gave a smile.

It seems Blake had decided to tell her team the truth.

Good for her.

"Jaune?" Came the voice of his partner Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha! Are you alright?" Jaune asked her a concerned look on his face as he looked up and down for any signs of damage.

"I'm fine, Jaune, no need to worry, though I'm afraid Nora had sustained some injury, but Ren is seeing to her now, although it looks like she will need some medcial treatment from Vale hosital." Pyrrha said, and Jaune nodded.

"Alright, good"

"What about you, Jaune? You took a nasty hit for that mech, " asked Pyrrha, concerned as well, but Jaune waved off her worries.

"It's nothing my aura couldn't handle," Jaune said before motioning to the ambulance carrying Ren and Nora.

"Pyrrha, go with Ren and Nora to the hospital, I need to stay around just a bit more and make sure no white fang grunts are still lurking before Atlas military comes in and cleans up" Jaune told her but Pyrrha seemed hesitant at this idea.

"Wouldn't it be better if both of us were on guard here?" Pyrrha asked, and Jaune nodded.

"Yes, but if some grunts are still stragling, they could use any of the weapons here or stashed else where and do some major damage, that's why I need you up and mobile to protect everyone including our teammates." Jaune said with a smile as he put a hand on Pyrrha shoulder.

Pyrrha, seeing the look of trust in Jaune's eyes, nodded and made her way to the ambulance in which Nora and Ren were in before nodding to her leader.

Jaune nodded back before turning to look back at the docks.

Blake and the rest of Team RWBY had left the scene as well, not wanting to get caught up in any questioning that Ironwood would undoubtedly want to ask.

Walking to the center, Jaune just looked around at the destruction as he could hear the sound of incoming squad and heavy armor vehicles arriving to the scene.

Jaune breathed in before giving a whistle.

It didn't last long five seconds at most, and then it was complete silence, other than the waves splashing against concrete and the rapid beating of his heart, Jaune could only hope and prey she was alright, he didn't know how involved she was in the little rally, hell he wished she had no part, Roman neither but we'll they really got the short end of the stick with this 'client' they're working with.

Jaune locked his lips and was ready to whistle again when all of a sudden...he heard a whistle sound right back to him.

His heart jumped for joy in hearing it, and his smile grew brightened.

Jaune didn't turn to the direction of said whistle he didn't need to.

She was safe.

That was all that matters.

With that, Jaune decided too make his departure.

-

Up in the roof tops above, a pink and brown haired individual traversed silently, narrowly escaping the failure of that rally.

Stupid plan.

Stupid people.

Stupid client.

Stupid stupid stupid.

Now she just wanted to get back to the safe house and rest, Roman got out safely, which was good, but still...

That mech tried to crush Jaune.

Her heart hurt a bit at that, but she knew he could handle it. He is her knight, after all.

Still, even if they needed to make it look convincing. 'Hurting' Jaune wasn't something she actively was looking to do, stupid Cinder.

Making sure the coast was very much clear, Neo prepared to make her escape. The valley may have been a failure, but it didn't stop Cinder from advancing her plans, and apparently, the next phase was coming soon that needed her. So, she had to keep a low profile.

Getting ready to leave, Neo prepared to flee when she heard a whistle echo throughout the area.

Neo's eyes widened.

She recognized that whistle!

She peeked around the wall and smiled to see down below Jaune, in the center, using their little call to each other.

He was making sure she was safe.

Aw.

If he could see her now, she would definitely be teased for the little sprinkles of red on her cheeks by him.

Neo whistled back in their special call, letting him know she was okay and safe.

She watched as he left the scene and prompted her to leave as well.

-

The whistle is from Lobo's/Deaths from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

Jaune whistles the first half (Are you safe?).

Neo whistles the 2nd half (I am safe).

-

[rnlacc]

If RT’s Ironwood got Ace-Ops as his “Levi squad” then RTH’s Ironwood got both Levi squad and Kenny squad on his side lol

So he doesn’t need team RWBY or any child warrior team work for him?Nah he doesn’t want any kids to work for him, due to his protective trait on children, there’s no way he would make them work for him like RT’s RWBY vol7. He would let children be children, young adults are also kiddos to him, he wants to protect everyone, he wants to protect their innocence. 80% of RTH is about political fights and there’s no “fair” play in them, no politician is innocent even Ironwood so he needs both “Levi squad” and “Kenny squad” work for him instead of his students.

[chatterkat]

Okay saw the posts about Oscar’s fairy tale inspiration being The Little Prince and I not being familiar with that fairy tail read the Wikipedia plot. It honestly seems like an interesting story. I can see how it inspired his character, questioning the logic of the adults in their world.

I get why people are excited about it shipwise, but it also seems to end potentially badly for the prince. He lets a snake bite him so he could be with his rose. Like people joke about the Oscar protection squad already, but what if he actually did die? Would be a huge bummer after his life got stolen by Oz. That doesn’t feel like they would do that that, but look what they did with Penny. Brought her back and killed her again. The wiki says “He then met a yellow snake that claimed to have the power to return him to his home, if he ever wished to return.” The yellow snake reminds me of the God of Light’s gold dragon form. Perhaps it’s instead going to be that the God of Light returns Oscar, because he frees him from the curse of Ozma, and that is what allows him to go home?

Speaking of home, if another of Ruby’s allusions is of the ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz, there is yet another link to Ruby Rose and Oscar going “home” as the slippers are what give Dorothy the power to go home. I always felt Oscar also had allusions to Dorothy so it might be a secondary one for him. Ruby may give Oscar the power to go home by telling off the gods when they inevitably get summoned. As well as being a reason he wants to go back.

Anyway from the summary it kinda almost seems somewhat reversed the relationship the prince has with the rose. The prince nourishes it, but seems more like it was Ruby who did that in the show. Her showing him the ropes, watching his back in battle. At least for the most part so far. I know he sometimes helped her too in smaller ways. Like when they had that heart to heart about being afraid. Things might be different after the time skip. Also the rose was vain, but maybe it’s more like a hubris thing? Oscar does question Ruby’s choice after all with Ironwood. Ruby ended up repeating the mistakes of Oz. Obviously the story won’t always be 1-1.

Anyway as for time skip, this line like made me think a little. “The prince laments that he did not understand how to love his rose while he was with her”. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? So wonder if he will act differently towards her when we see them again. I still wonder if they really will go for it storywise, but it feels like it makes narrative/character sense.

[kittenface40]

He did deserve better.

Me reading the tags as I cradle a bottle of water in my hand, pretending that it's vodka. I hate it here

[helena-and-helena-meta]

im so glad somebody else is obsessed with ironwood 😭 i wish there were fanfics of him

I'm still trying to figure out how to write him because he deserves so much more love, especially with how adorable he looks with a beard also can we mention how he kneeled just to speak to Oscar? God, I love that man lmao

Also, James Ironwood protection squad has some fic recs that you should check out here on the hellsite :3

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

I know I know I have asks to answer and I’m not on a lot life and a insane right now. But I was going through closing old tabs on my phone and while going through them, I saw this

Which you know I’m not complaining about I loathed that he was flagged as near pure evil for the bullshit in volume 8. However. It seems the massively incorrect content of the page was just copy and pasted to the inconsistently heinous page which….i admit while better isn’t much better because again, it is filled with wildly incorrect information like claiming James was going to give Roman tech in exchange for information which is a blatant lie that never happened. Also claiming James was trying to kill Watts with no evidence this was a thing and in fact we have direct evidence that directly contradicts this in James repeatedly backing off to prevent unnecessary harm to him, or claiming Robyn “proved herself” and that James’s pointing out Blake and Yang went behind his back to reveal top secret military intel to a civilian was an issue, and it is an issue.

I could go on but you get the point. Though he’s not being flagged as near pure evil the wiki still blatantly and repeatedly lies and is still pretty ableist so it’s still an issue. His inconsistent writing though I agree make it hard to put him in a moral category, it would go a long way if the wiki wasn’t lying and continuing the ableism in the show.