#y'all know you don't work for the show right-- it's a battlefield out here

[pragmatic-optimist]

You know...

The vague posting and reblogs in the LS fandom aimed at invalidating people and their thoughtful and specific critiques about aspects of season 4 are a Choice™️.

How about having a little empathy for the folks who are disappointed and managing their sadness? What about constructive discourse and concrete explanations about how you think the writing holds up rather than dismissing those who don’t agree? Because it's not a few of us with these thoughts, there are many of us. 

I don't know if y'all have noticed, but this fandom has lost a lot of content creators in the last year (especially in the last 3 months) because the inspiration in canon is lacking. It's not a matter of folks being unable to differentiate between fanon and canon. As an individual who can analyze and think critically about the media I'm consuming, I can respect when canon tells me something different from a headcanon—especially when the execution is sound—and many others who feel a certain way about this season are able to do so as well. 

I really don’t care about convincing anyone of anything. If this season works for you, it works for you. Keep on keeping on. What is upsetting is seeing how the disagreement over the direction of season 4 for certain characters has led to attempts at gatekeeping and discrediting people who dare to voice a critique on their blog.

If the only way to justify your disagreeing stance is to criticize people and question their ability to be objective thinkers, you’re standing on shaky ground.

[siriusblack-the-third]

Here's the ninth chapter of Freeing death!!!

Am I aware that "Father of Monsters is actually an epithet for Typhon? Yes. Will I still be using it for Poseidon in this story? Also yes.

The portrayal of the Amazons in the Riordanverse was not. It.

There is so much more to the legends of Amazon and Themiskyra, and literally none of the myths with actual base to them mention the warrior women as man hating. In fact, they are actively called "man-loving". Granted, they were also called "man-killing" but did people forget that they were warriors? Warriors kill, and idk how much people know about ancient warrior ethics, but killing children, old people and women who weren't participants of battle was generally considered a grave sin. So obviously the Amazons were called "man killers". Killing women went against the very essence of being a warrior, but men were literally on the dam battlefield.

.

Also, why are all the powerful women in the Riordanverse somehow made out to be villainish?? Hera, the literal queen of the Gods and an extremely venerated deity of the Hellenics (y'all her epithets are so fucking cool), is given such a bad character arc. Athena, such an important goddess, and why is she shown like she is? Why is she shown so vengeful against the Romans? She was nearly more important than motherfucking Mars in Roman religion. Mars! The literal Father of the damn city!

The Amazons are given a bad representation, and then Piper is a "quirky" girl and I'm.. disappointed.

.

Anyways, I just wanted to make clear that I'm also going to change a lot of things about Percy Jackson and The Olympians, and in The Lost Hero. Those changes will be made known when relevant.

Also to be noted is that the Gods are still assholes, but they do help. They are present in their children's lives, even if they can't show themselves due to the Rules of Existence. They are there, they are supporting their children.

.

List of Gods Percy respects:

Sally Jackson (a goddess in her own right)

Poseidon

Amphitrite

Triton (don't tell him that)

Artemis

Apollon

Hestia (obviously)

Persephone

Hades (whose character is going to be changed drastically because canon is horrifically inaccurate)

Demeter

A few others

.

The thing about Percy going down to Atlantis twice a week and about him having bi weekly dinners with the whole family? Yeah, none of the Gods know about it. Just you watch as the whole thing blows up.

I mainly use epithets in describing Hera and the other Gods because in Ancient Greece, names were believed to have immense power, and calling a God by their given moniker was belived to attract their attention. Percy does not want any more attention from the Gods than is necessary, fuck you very much.

Also what do you think about the change in the Amazon way of life? I found the books very disappointing as i already said, so I changed it up hehe.

.

The upcoming chapter is going to be interesting, that is for sure. The Worship of Artemis Astrateia is a fictional ritual that I made up based on actual facts that we know about the Amazon legends, and I've taken a lot of creative liberties while trying to stay as true to myth as possible.

[thefairyletters]

Showdown

Naruto and Hinata versus Sasuke and Sakura

According to stats: Naruto and Sasuke are almost equals, and Sakura is the most powerful Kunoichi, only second to Kaguya who is not a Kunoichi but a goddess. But if in Boruto, these two couples were to face each other for real (and not just spar) then it wouldn't be Naruto vs Sasuke while Sakura faces Hinata, contrary to what most of you may think.

Sasuke and Sakura have an extreme Intelligence advantage. The 3/4ths of the total brainpower in this fight would be coming from their team. Sakura is the second smartest shinobi in the Leaf village as an adult, only next to Shikamaru, and Sasuke is arguably a close third. It has been like that since their genin days. The amount of tactical planning going on from their side of the battle would be ridiculous. Naruto and Hinata are both the type to charge headfirst through sheer willpower and pressure, but this isn't going to work against any plan Sasuke and Sakura manage to think up. Brains are always one step ahead of brawns.

As an adult Sasuke shows us that he is capable of using the Rinnegan in far more versatile ways than he did in the war arc, when he was new to the power. He can jump dimensions, swap places with another body, affect the gravity around a person, throw immensely powerful genjutsus with a single glance, see any invisible barriers, predict movements, recognize patterns/codes/signals, and much more. Like holy shit y'all. You really think Naruto would preform as well as he did against war arc Sasuke now that Sasuke actually has a full understanding of his Rinnegan and frequently UTILIZES it?

Gravity and pull. Sasuke's Rinnegan gives him limited control of the gravity around a person or between him and another person. Using this, Sasuke has the ability to tap into some Deva path shit and yank Hinata towards him. It is immensely difficult to resist the pull, and someone as physically weak as Hinata would be easily ripped forward away from Naruto. Once they're separated, Naruto has no surefire way of getting Hinata back to his side and safe in enough time, because she would either be led right into a fatal punch from Sakura or a chidori or sword through the gut from Sasuke himself. Either way, if Naruto lets his watch on her slip even a little bit, she probably already dead or close to it. This could also be a support tactic. Sakura gets separated and is in danger. Using his Deva path pull Sasuke can drag Sakura out of a potentially dangerous situation and back to his side. Same works with the body swap. If Sakura is in a nasty situation, Sasuke can swap places with her in his Susanoo to easily tank a hit that may have killed her. That or he can swap her place with a rock if need be.

Two words: Summoning strength. Sasuke and Sakura hold two of the three boss summons in the three way deadlock. Naruto holds one. Hinata holds…nothing. It doesn't stop there though. Sasuke has at least two other powerful summons that we know of, and while they aren't as powerful as Aoda, they still give him some fair advantages. For example, Sasuke's hawk, Garuda, gives him an aerial advantage should he ever need to take to the skies as a countermeasure against Naruto. Naruto and Hinata have no summons who could reach Sasuke, and this gives him many solid opportunities. Sakura, on the other hand, has Katsuyu. Katsuyu can be spread out across the battlefield in various sizes to heal her allies wherever they may end up on the field. She could also be used in her original form to spit acid or protect the two from any taijutsu and most ninjutsu attacks. Katsuyu is stated early on to be extremely resistant to taijutsu and ninjutsu, and for fucks sake she can tank Pein's attacks with ease while protecting people inside, plus she survived Naruto's corrosive 8 tails chakra just fine. I see absolutely no taijutsu attacks that Naruto and Hinata pull getting through or truly damaging her, and Naruto would have to really put some effort into his more powerful ninjutsu techniques to take her down (also note that since Katsuyu has a very jelly like body type and is resistant to taijutsu and ninjutsu, Naruto's summons wouldn't be terribly productive on offense). But this leaves him wide open for counterattacks if he focuses too much on Katsuyu. And then of course Katsuyu can heal fatal injuries or at least sustain the life of a person fatally injured until help is given. The ultimate win for Sasuke and Sakura in terms of summoning.

Being an Active Shinobi is very important. Sasuke is an active shinobi. Very active. He is constantly on B through S rank missions, and Sakura has traveled with him on some of these. His teammate for this battle, Sakura, is still an active medical shinobi who easily accepts an S rank mission in the Retsuden novels and is originally dealing with part of it on her own before she teams up with Sasuke, who is also present. We have seen her fight in Boruto too. It shows that she is 100% still at her peak performance. Well, what about Naruto and Hinata? Hinata is a housewife who hasn't gone on anything above a C rank mission in years. She takes a B rank mission with her father and sister when Boruto is a toddler, and this is all we hear of it. She's rusty AF and doesn't have the experience nor mission bulk that Sasuke and Sakura have under there belt, nowhere NEAR it. Naruto is somewhat similar. He is, for lack of a better description, out of practice. He was only recently taking on S rank opponents in Boruto, and other than that he's been doing desk work and some minor shinobi guard training over the past few years. Sasuke and Sakura are more in shape and have more recent shinobi mission experience than Naruto and Hinata's combination, both by themselves AND as a team in a fight, which is immensely important here.

Everyone is always forgetting about how important Support can be. Sakura is a first class, kage-level healer at this point in the series. Her medical ninjutsu surpassed Tsunade's back in her own canon novel and is confirmed in the novelization of Boruto's movie a second time. Her ability to constantly heal or boost Sasuke's chakra in battle is important. Whereas while Naruto can amp up Hinata with a chakra cloak, Sakura can go even further. We see with Obito that Sakura can transfer her Byakugou seal markings with all it's chakra to another person she is touching, and in the Retsuden novels this is looked into further. By applying her seal to Sasuke, he becomes an absolute terror for even Naruto to handle. Imagine this: super fast shinobi w/ the Rinnegan abilities and Susanoo suddenly not only getting a chakra boost, but being able to automatically heal potentially fatal wounds completely over and over again for as long as the chakra exists. Sakura at this point has 15+ years of chakra stored in her Byakugou seal (we know this because she notes briefly in the canon novels after The Last that she has not stopped storing chakra and plans to continue doing so just in case she ever needs it). But let's say she didn't continue after that though. She would still have around 6 or 7 years of chakra in her seal. 6–7 YEARS OF CHAKRA. I don't care how much chakra you think Naruto has, it isn't anywhere close to the amount of chakra currently inactive within Sakura's seal, considering the fact that she could completely replenish Naruto's chakra with only 3 days worth of her general chakra. Sasuke would be a BEAST. Absolutely nightmarish on every level if this fight. And Sakura, so long as the chakra exists, would also be nightmarish - especially for those people who think Sakura and Hinata would end up dualing it out at some point.

Have we gotten to the whole dimension portal thing yet? Nope and this is a crucial winning point for Sasuke and Sakura. If in danger, in need of a new plan or simply to dodge away from a particularly crazy attack from Naruto, Sasuke can pull both himself and Sakura into a completely different space in the blink of an eye. He can also use this to jump around the space Naruto is in and really screw around with them. And if you're worried about Sasuke's chakra levels diminishing quickly, don't be. Once again, Sakura's Byakugou seal is the ultimate support ability. Remember that whole “she has at least 6-7 years of chakra even if she, for some reason, wimped out on her plans” spiel? Yeah…that's an easy fix. She helped Obito actually hold open AND SEARCH (people seem to forget that he had to use chakra to search dimensions) multiple dimensions when she only had 3 years of chakra in the seal, and even the she still had enough chakra left to reform the seal on her forehead soon after. Sooo…keeping Sasuke's chakra level high wouldn't be a problem. They can also use the dimensions for Sakura to heal and repair them both. Hinata can't heal and Naruto can't truly “heal" so much as his life force is just really strong, so they're at yet another disadvantage.

Terrain manipulation and swaps. This is where it gets really technical. Sasuke has the Rinnegan, and with it he can do serious damage very early on in the game when his opponent is not expecting such a rush. Try to imagine a scenario like so: Sakura winds up for a full power punch directly behind Sasuke as soon as the fight begins, or otherwise as early on as possible. She fires off the punch at Sasuke. Sasuke, at the last possible second he can manage, swaps his place with Hinata, and BAM. That's one down for team Naruto. Hinata would either be dead or close to it immediately after she hits the ground and stops. Same applies for a switch with Naruto. At that close of a range with literally zero time to dodge at that point, even Naruto would be fairly damaged from a point blank shot, and a damaged Naruto from the start spells bad news for Hinata - the girl basically fully depends on Naruto in the fight, she can't do anything to Sasuke or Sakura without his constant support.

Overall, we can go into arguments if whether Naruto is stronger than Sasuke or Sakura stronger than Hinata, but the truth of the matter is that it doesn't really matter. What matters is that Sasuke is at least competitively close in power to Naruto, and Sakura arguably the most powerful kunoichi in the series at the moment. Their power gap is extraordinarily close, so at this point it all comes down to who is best tactically suited and best prepared for this kind of nuclear fight. And honestly, with their ability to manipulate their surroundings and work more with the terrain and constantly replenish, there's no doubt about the victory. 80% of the time it'll be Sasuke and Sakura if they play their cards like they should.

Answer credits goes to Alex Hendrix, Quora

[2uselessgays]

My business, my rules.

[Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe x Female Reader]

You’d been sent by Morrison with Ashe to just tackle a “small” issue down at Route 66. Talon operatives had been tampering with the payload contents, and possibly a top secret and highly valuable project. You’d been scouring the scene for a while alongside Ashe and B.O.B. To be honest, you did find B.O.B kind of cute. He didn’t speak much, but the little gestures he did were pretty heart melting.

The main attraction to you was Ashe. She was fierce, strong, loyal, fearless and absolutely gorgeous. She was the boss. Knew exactly what she wanted and would get it whenever she wanted. You best obey or be begging for mercy. Bright, blood red eyes, lush and soft white hair cut perfectly to adorn her features, and the cowgirl outfit was a neat plus. You adored her accent, her little ways of talking brought you so much unknown joy. You just had to tell her.. somehow. But for now, the mission was what you had to think about.

Ashe had her Viper slung over her shoulder, impatiently kneeling, waiting for some action to happen. “Oh for Christ’s sake, are them Talon hooligans here or not? I’m wastin’ my time here. I could be with the gang right now.”

You hushed her, pointing towards the payload. She gave you a dirty look - Ashe was the boss, she didn’t like being bossed around. Several soldiers and four prominent agents were there - Sombra, Moira, Reaper and Widowmaker - all examining the payload. The huge white pod in the middle was their main focus, they seemed immeasurably fixated on it. Must be hugely valuable, otherwise Talon would have disregarded it long ago.

“Look there, Ashe - they’re talking about it, let’s listen.” You managed to pick up a few scraps of their conversation.

“Those Overwatch freaks haven’t come here yet, are you sure they don’t have an ambush ready?” Sombra spoke, messing around with her virtual keyboard.

“Even if they are here, we can handle them. We can’t let this end up like the museum. The boss wants this.” Reaper spoke. "You’d better not mess around, Sombra.” He spat. "I won't go easy on you next time." Sombra scoffed, knowing he wouldn't dare. They needed her.

“Stop fighting, you two. Does nothing run on time in this place? Where is the dropship?” Moira broke the tension. She let out a dreaded sigh, rubbing her temples in frustration. “Even with something this valuable, Talon forces are still late. Unbelievable.” She pressed a finger into her ear, muttering a few code words, waiting for a reply, impatiently tapping her foot. Gingerly, she grimaced, pinching the bridge of her nose. “We’re going to have to move the payload ourselves. Let’s go.” She motioned towards the cargo.

As the Talon soldiers marched their way to the payload, Ashe was raring to go. "Come on, (Y/N)! Aren't we gon’ attack them? Ain't that our job, doll?" B.O.B shot you a curious look as he tipped his small fedora. You felt your cheeks slightly pricked with warmth at the mention of the pet name 'doll.' You almost don't notice Ashe getting up and jumping away, followed by her butler. "Oh, Ashe, wait-" You whisper-yelled, whipping your arm out to grab her by the shoulder. But it's too late, she had already jumped off your vantage point and into the spotlight. You jump in after her hesitantly, wanting to have called backup first, as you were  outnumbered and in need of a medic in the fight, but you assumed she’d need some back-up. 

She slung the Viper over her shoulder, raising her head to show her piercing, blood red eyes from beneath her oversized cowboy hat. She smirked, a cocky demeanour overcoming her. "They say there's no honour among thieves. But that's not how things work around here. Y'all are in my territory now. And you better pray for mercy. Welcome to Deadlock Gorge!" She screams loudly, running towards the payload, claiming it for herself. You run after her having her back, but before you even got close to her, you heard something.

"Apagando las luces!" Sombra yells before hacking you from behind. You squeal upon hearing that line. You look behind you and there she is. Before you could do anything she’d already shot at you, and you do your best to dodge the steady stream of bullets pouring out of her SMG. She chases you around, isolating you from both B.O.B and Ashe. 

You were in serious trouble. She ends up cornering you, and as you back up against the wall, you hear, "Luces apagadas, perdedor." She was gonna try and take your life. You close your eyes, your nose scrunched as you awaited the sweet release of death. But it doesn't come. Instead, you hear explosions, several bullets being fired, and Ashe screaming, "Bob, do something!"

Ashe noticed you were missing from the battlefield. You weren't with B.O.B, neither were you anywhere near other Talon operatives. She noticed the funky looking purple agent had gone missing too. She didn't like the sound of this. Better not have been what she was thinking. She wouldn't forgive herself at all if she lost you. She threw in her dynamite, letting it do the work for her, ('snuffing 'em outta there,' as she puts it) as she whistles for Deadlock Gang members to come and help and orders B.O.B around. As the smoke clears, you see that Reaper and Moira are yelling for a tactical retreat, leaving the payload. It would be top risky to try and push it with the Deadlock Gang around. Their yells resound in your ears, and you hear the swift click-clack of heels near you.  

"I believe you have somethin' that belongs to me. Put the gun down and me and my doll will be on our way." A low, familiar voice spoke - Ashe! She had come to your rescue, thank God. You opened your eyes and let out a huge breath that you didn't even know you were holding. Sombra was frozen in place, and the cowgirl was pointing her Viper at the back of Sombra's head. You jumped at the opportunity to take your double barrel scattergun and point it at her as well. She laughed in your face, mocking you as she pressed a few buttons on her suit. Her smile quickly dropped.

Ashe chuckled lowly. "Lookin' for this?" She dropped Sombra's broken translocator onto the ground, smashing it further with her heel. It released a satisfying crunch, and you saw Sombra's eyes fill with despair. "Give up and walk away, missy. Reach for the sky."

"You're not going anywhere anyway, so you might as well give up, Sombra." You chimed in, feeling a little awkward. You were nowhere near as cool as Ashe. Your fingers were steadily set on the trigger, ready to shoot. 

With a swipe of her fingers and hand, the purple glitch vanished right in front of your eyes, and you heard a low chuckle and a small touch on your nose. Clearly hers. Ashe cursed under her breath, frantically looking around, fumbling to try and locate where Sombra could have gone. "God fucking damnit! Lost her. Damn Talon soldiers… No good tricksters.." Her fiery gaze met yours and was extinguished. She flashed a warm, bright smile. "Come on, darlin', we've got a victory to secure." 

She wrapped an arm around you comfortably, as if to keep you close to her to keep you safe from any sort of harm. You weren't complaining, Ashe was the best thing to come into your life since you joined Overwatch back in the glory days.

Now, if only you could tell her that.

--------------------------------------------------

Dramatic, I know! Hope you enjoyed reading that work of art. ~S

Written mostly by ☆Mod Sakura, with some help from ♡Mod Noel

[kali-tmblr]

Problematic Atlas Quotes: Volumes 1-3

All of the places on Remnant put together have not produced as many jarring incongruities and mixed messages as Atlas. These are all quotes relating to Atlas that really stood out to me at the time and have stayed with me since.

Volume 1

Penny: I am combat ready! (Yeah, but are you ready for anything else? And who would send out a cute girl robot who was ONLY ready for combat?)

Weiss: The innocent never run, Yang! (Karmic law says that one will come back to bite your ass, Weiss.)

Penny: I don't have a lot of friends, but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things. (We haven't seen this one come back around to Penny yet. Blake, yes. Penny, no.)

Volume 2

Ironwood: But ask yourself this: Do you honestly believe your children can win a war?

Ozpin: I hope they never have to. (Note that Ozpin believes they can. It's having to fight he considers a failure. Later revelations would make his view even more tragic.)

Ruby: But why not let us know you were okay?

Penny: I... was asked not to talk to you. Or Weiss. Or Blake. Or Yang. Anybody, really.

Ruby: Was your dad that upset?

Penny: No, it wasn't my father... (Ironwood speaks next. An early sign of Ironwood's controlling nature.)

Penny: I'm the world's first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura. (Tell me more.)

Penny: One day, it will be my job to save the world (The whole world? Seriously, tell me more.)

Penny: It's okay, Ruby. They're not bad people; I just don't want to get you in trouble. (And why would talking to you get Ruby in trouble? And why send her to a festival that encourages students to talk to each other if you won't let her talk?)

Penny: Just promise me you won't tell anyone else my secret. Okay?

Ruby: I promise.(If she HAD told Pyrrha, the whole debacle might not have happened. Will this come up again?)

Roman: As some of you may have heard, this right here... (Taps the giant mech) ...is Atlas's newest defense against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my "employer", we've managed to snag a few before they, uh, "hit the shelves".  (Damn, Atlas, y'all got a lot worse security problems than Ruby.)

(The image of Penny dancing by herself at the ball surrounded by uniformed guards. Say what?)

Ironwood: Ruby, I feel it's appropriate to let you know that I think what you did last night is exactly what being a Huntress is all about. You recognized a threat. You took action. And you did the very best you could. (Ah well, that's nice. Doesn't entirely fit in with the rest of your character James, but it's nice.)

Ruby: Wait. You think this girl is connected to Torchwick and the White Fang?

Ozpin: It's possible. But we still lack the required evidence to link the two together.

Ruby: Actually, I... I think I remember her saying something about a hideout, or something, in the southeast. Just outside the Kingdom.

Ozpin: Interesting.

Glynda: I thought you said the intruder never—

Ozpin: Thank you for your cooperation, Ruby. Why don't you go and spend some time with your team? You have a big day ahead of you.

Ruby: Any time.

Ozpin: And Miss Rose, please try and be ... discreet about this matter.

Ruby: Yes sir. (This tells Ironwood several things. It tells him that Ruby will lie for Ozpin, that Ozpin will cover up Ruby's lie to protect her, and most importantly that Ruby and Ozpin TRUST EACH OTHER.)

Glynda: Why must your answer to everything involve a triumphant display of military bravado!? You treat every situation like it's a contest of measuring di—!

Ozpin: Glynda!

Glynda: Well, he does. (Tell me more, Glynda.)

Ozpin: You're a general, James. So tell me, when you prepare to go to war, which do you send in first? The flag bearers, or the scouts? (Why is a civilian Headmaster schooling a general with a lesson taught to greenhorn Lieutenants? And why does he have to?)

Ozpin:  We fought for countless reasons, one of which being the destruction of all forms of art and self-expression. (SOME kingdom has control issues.)

Glynda: You're a good person, James. You've always done what you think is best for the people, even against strong protest. It's admirable. But it's high time you stopped talking about trust and started showing it. (So Ironwood's trust issues are not new. Tell me more.)

Councilman 1: You've left us no choice! The Vytal Festival tournament cannot be broadcast, let alone held, if we are unable to ensure the safety of the citizens.

Councilman 1: Ahem... Therefore, we have reached out to the Atlas Council and together have decided that the best action is to appoint General Ironwood as head of security for the event.

Ironwood: Thank you, Councilman. Our Kingdom is happy to lend as many troops as it takes to ensure that the event runs smoothly and safely as possible.

Councilman 1: And we thank you, General.

Ozpin: Will that be all?

Councilman 1: For now. But after this festival comes to a close, we are going to have a serious discussion about your position at Beacon Academy. General Ironwood's reports over the last few weeks have left us somewhat... concerned. I am sure you understand.

Ironwood: This is the right move, Ozpin. I promise, I will keep our people safe, you have to trust me.(Damn dude, what did Glynda just say about trusting people? And why do you expect Ozpin to trust you when you clearly have tattled behind his back?)

Ironwood: You brought this on yourself. (Yeah, he did. By trusting you.)

Volume 3

I have already written a detailed post on the vast discrepancies between how Winter Schnee behaves and what she is trying to convey in her first scenes, titled "Snowbirds of a Feather". Suffice to say Ironwood isn't the only Atlesian sending mixed messages.

Ironwood: If you were one of my men, I would have you shot!

Qrow: If I was one of your men, I'd shoot myself.(So y'all have an acrimonious history as well. Okay.)

Goodwitch: While I wouldn't condone his behavior, retaliating like you did certainly didn't help the situation. ("Call yourself a grown-up? I've seen better behavior from first-year students! Why do I even have to say anything to you? Don't answer that.")

Qrow: You sent me to get intel on our enemy, and I'm telling you, our enemy is here.

Ironwood: We know.

Qrow: Oh! Oh, you know! Well, thank goodness I'm out there risking my life to keep you all informed!

Ironwood:Qrow-

Qrow: Communication's a two-way street, pal. You see this? That's the SEND button.

Winter: They had reason to assume you'd been compromised. (So, Ironwood, explain to me WHY, if you seriously think Qrow has been compromised, you haven't brought it up with HIS BOSS before now? Isn't that information kind of important?)

Qrow: Despite what the world thinks, we're not just teachers, or generals, or headmasters. The people in this room, the leaders of the other two academies, we're the ones that keep the world safe from the evils no one even knows about! It's why we meet behind closed doors, why we work in the shadows. So you tell me, James, when you brought your army to Vale, did you think you were being discreet, or did you just not give a damn!?

Ironwood: Discreet wasn't working. (Explain.)

 I'm here because this is what was necessary. (Explain.)

Qrow: You're here because Ozpin wanted you here! (Is it just me, or does anyone else think this sounds like it was an unpopular decision?)

Ciel: Ruby Rose. 15. Hails from Patch. Leader of Team RWBY. Status: Questionable. (Daaaammmn son. We need to talk. You ordered a full background check on a teenage girl just because she talked to your android? And then you gave it to your android's handler? And on top of all that, a gifted honor student from a multigenerational Huntsmen family who leads Beacon's first-year star team, who Ozpin clearly trusts, only rates as "Questionable"? Who doesn't rate as "Questionable"? Oh that's right. Qrow is also "Questionable", and so is Ozpin. Tell me, do you rate yourself as "Questionable"?)

Ciel: Penny? I believe it is best if we move on to our next location.

Penny: Could we have just a minute to talk? (No seriously, is Penny now not allowed any free time?)

Ciel: It's been precisely one minute, ma'am.(Apparently not.)

Penny: Ruby, there's something I've been wanting to talk to you about. I want to stay at Beacon.

Ruby: Penny, they'll never let you do that.

Penny: I know, but I have a plan.(Tell me more.)

Yang: You're from Atlas. What could we expect?

Weiss: Well, seeing as their Kingdom, academy and armed forces are all merged as one, I think we can expect strict, militant fighters with advanced technology and carefully rehearsed strategies.  ... Or whatever they are.(So even other Atlesians think Atlesians send mixed messages.)

Ironwood: For the past few years, Atlas has been studying Aura from a more scientific standpoint; how it works, what's it made of, how it can be used. We've made... significant strides. And we believe we've found a way to capture it.

Qrow: Capture it and cram it into something else. (Dude, exactly WHERE did Penny's Aura come from?)

Ironwood: What I believe and hope this to be is nothing more than the result of stress and adrenaline. When you're out on the battlefield, your judgment can become clouded in an instant. Sometimes you see things that simply aren't there. Even after the fight is past... (That answers that question. You don't trust yourself either. What happened to you?)

Ironwood: Ozpin, the girl... I-I can explain! (You've got a full scale Grimm invasion going on and you're more terrified of OZPIN? What did you do to create Penny, James? How ELSE have you betrayed Oz?)

Ironwood: Qrow! This isn't my doing! (Why did you automatically assume Qrow is attacking you instead of looking behind you? Guilt?)

This post is long enough already, so I'll finish later. While I may be overreacting to some of these statements, that doesn't explain all of them. It's looked from the beginning like there was something fishy going on in Atlas, especially having to do with Ironwood.