A major thing that did in Ironwood didn't start with him. The Atlas Military has cultivated a culture of blind loyalty, of unthinking obedience no matter what. It doesn't matter what the details are, you obey. Winter outright describes it as Ironwood making the hard choices so they don't have to. This meant that Ironwood was surrounded by yes men who refused to disagree with him, but it also meant he came to the (possibly subconscious) belief that any decision he made was right, because he was the one that had to make it. We saw problems with this as far back as Volume 2, when he felt Ozpin wasn't trusting him with everything, and Oz disagreed on the best way to investigate Mountain Glenn, so he went behind his allies back and screwed over Oz's reputation with the Vale Council, and then said 'you brought this on yourself'. Seriously, I had alarm bells ringing about the man way back then. Then there's his attitude to having to explain the shit he's up to with the Council this volume. How DARE the government call him out on ignoring the checks and balances to prevent corruption? Every time the council was mentioned in the first few episodes of this volume, I had those alarm bells screaming in my ear.
The other consequence of Yes Men? When he was having a paranoid, PTSD induced breakdown over the fact Cinder put a chess piece in his office, none of the Ace-Ops were willing to admit that maybe Ironwood wasn't the sort of person that should be left in a position of command, and that was BEFORE announcing he'd ordered Winter to commit murder, was trying to run away to space, and was going to abandon his responsibilities to the Kingdom of Atlas by completely abandoning Mantle to die. He was out of control, and none of the people who should have spoken up were willing to do so.
On top of that, the Kingdom of Atlas as a whole has a cultural blind spot. Anything that isn't on their magic flying island doesn't really register to them as important unless someone actually reminds me of it. Ironwood himself thinks of it as being 'a few city blocks', when we quite often see just how massive it is. Outside of people like Penny, Pietro and Weiss, who make a point to spend time in Mantle, the city is mostly an intellectual exercise. Most of the Atlas military seems to be airships built around defending the actual island, while responding to Grimm attacks in Mantle apparently overwhelms and confuses them to the point they can't respond to any other crisis. Their response to Grimm attacks killing people in the streets is to institute a curfew and arrest people gathering in large numbers, punishing the population instead of fixing the problem (LIKE THE GIANT FUCKING HOLE IN THE WALL). I honestly don't think Ironwood legitimately realizes the sheer scale of death his cowardice will cause.
Honestly, a major part of the flaws that destroyed the last generation come back to being too secretive. Ironwood and Lionheart were isolated at the far ends of the planet, with no one else to confide in and no kind of real support network. Both of them had to work on their agenda without being able to explain things to the people they were working with. Raven suffers from a worldview where she tries to convince herself that the smart option is to leave the weak to die, while so often showing she knows that's not true. Qrow's self loathing issues, oddly enough, came from the other tragedies in his life. Until volume 6, his faith in Ozpins quest was one of the few things he believed in. But at the same time, being able to talk to it outside a tiny handful of people he saw maybe once or twice a year...?
Teams RWBY and JNPR aren't isolated. They communicate, they talk, they understand. They face problems together, and help each other through them. Where they go, they build allies, not through force or arms or forceful authority, but with kindness and understanding. They have others, like Qrow, Maria and Pietro, Ghira and Kali, and I suspect the Happy Huntresses will join that collection next volume. There are times they will stumble and struggle, like we're seeing with Ren, but the key difference?
They're not alone.
![[+]](/images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
SpoilerThe other consequence of Yes Men? When he was having a paranoid, PTSD induced breakdown over the fact Cinder put a chess piece in his office, none of the Ace-Ops were willing to admit that maybe Ironwood wasn't the sort of person that should be left in a position of command, and that was BEFORE announcing he'd ordered Winter to commit murder, was trying to run away to space, and was going to abandon his responsibilities to the Kingdom of Atlas by completely abandoning Mantle to die. He was out of control, and none of the people who should have spoken up were willing to do so.
On top of that, the Kingdom of Atlas as a whole has a cultural blind spot. Anything that isn't on their magic flying island doesn't really register to them as important unless someone actually reminds me of it. Ironwood himself thinks of it as being 'a few city blocks', when we quite often see just how massive it is. Outside of people like Penny, Pietro and Weiss, who make a point to spend time in Mantle, the city is mostly an intellectual exercise. Most of the Atlas military seems to be airships built around defending the actual island, while responding to Grimm attacks in Mantle apparently overwhelms and confuses them to the point they can't respond to any other crisis. Their response to Grimm attacks killing people in the streets is to institute a curfew and arrest people gathering in large numbers, punishing the population instead of fixing the problem (LIKE THE GIANT FUCKING HOLE IN THE WALL). I honestly don't think Ironwood legitimately realizes the sheer scale of death his cowardice will cause.
Quote:At this point I'm really starting to doubt Ozpin's sanity. James, well, he always seemed to go to extremes. Leo went the other way, trying anything to survive. Were these folks really the best he could do? It's like the narration says, it's about how one handles fear. But Leo gave into his fear, while James sees only killing the fear. And Raven, well, she ran away to wait for the apocalypse. Qrow became a bitterly cynical alcoholic, and he is the best of Ozpin's inner circle. Well, depending on what Glinda is up to these days.
So are these the best of the previous generation? Like, seriously? Maybe Oz just got desperate in this incarnation, having tried so many things in the past. Maybe the despair gets to him. Or maybe that's just what the fear and despair and impotence does to everyone else over decades, so no matter what happens, these folks end up doing a NERV impression. Everyone breaks, eventually. She'll find out how in the end. After all, you can't stop her. No one can.
Honestly, a major part of the flaws that destroyed the last generation come back to being too secretive. Ironwood and Lionheart were isolated at the far ends of the planet, with no one else to confide in and no kind of real support network. Both of them had to work on their agenda without being able to explain things to the people they were working with. Raven suffers from a worldview where she tries to convince herself that the smart option is to leave the weak to die, while so often showing she knows that's not true. Qrow's self loathing issues, oddly enough, came from the other tragedies in his life. Until volume 6, his faith in Ozpins quest was one of the few things he believed in. But at the same time, being able to talk to it outside a tiny handful of people he saw maybe once or twice a year...?
Teams RWBY and JNPR aren't isolated. They communicate, they talk, they understand. They face problems together, and help each other through them. Where they go, they build allies, not through force or arms or forceful authority, but with kindness and understanding. They have others, like Qrow, Maria and Pietro, Ghira and Kali, and I suspect the Happy Huntresses will join that collection next volume. There are times they will stumble and struggle, like we're seeing with Ren, but the key difference?
They're not alone.
