| “ | The people of Vale needed someone to protect them, someone who would act. When they look to the sky and see my fleet, they feel safe, and our enemies will feel our strength. | „ |
| ~ James Ironwood. |
| “ | 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. | „ |
| ~ Glynda Goodwitch telling Ironwood that he is a good person at heart. |
James Ironwood is a major character within the popular Rooster Teeth web series, RWBY. He is the general of the Atlas military while serving as headmaster of Atlas Academy. He is a member of Ozpin's group, who are individuals that stand against Salem, the main antagonist of the franchise, and her lackeys. But after the fall of Beacon Academy, Ironwood started to develop a worse case of paranoia due to having deep concern over what Salem is planning and trust issues with other people.
He is voiced by Jason Rose in the English dub and Masaki Terasoma in the Japanese dub.
What Makes Him a Base Breaking Character?[]
What Do People Like About Him?[]
- Fans love Jason Rose's performance as he shows the complex nature of Ironwood's character. He shows Ironwood's arrogance in his personality but also shows how genuinely affable he is as a person and his desire to save the world from Salem while illustrating his downfall into a paranoid man.
- Ironwood has a set of cool designs over the course of the series.
- Fans relate to Ironwood's character and understand where he is coming from in what he's talking about and the situations the cast is in.
- Despite his slightly arrogant personality, James genuinely wants to protect the world from Salem and her dark forces of Grimm and work hard with Ozpin's group to stop her. Though he and Qrow tend to have difficulty working together, Qrow trusted him and knew that James wasn't behind the attacks of his robot army.
- James is also compassionate and understanding of others, as he allowed the young students of Beacon a choice to flee to safety or defend themselves from the Grimm. He even says that no one would fault them for fleeing from danger.
- Some fans find his downfall pitiful as Ironwood has become consumed by paranoia after the fall of Beacon and the threat that Salem poses while finding out that Team RWBY, and by extension Ozpin, was keeping secrets from him. This worsens James's paranoia to the point of committing ruthless actions that turned him into a villain. Even in the end, he sheds a tear towards Winter when she refuses to step aside and feels remorse for hurting her. He then tragically dies alone when Atlas crashes to the ground after failing to stop Cinder and Salem from obtaining the Relics.
What Do People Hate About Him?[]
- Many fans strongly despise Ironwood's characterization in volumes 7 and 8 as they perceive it as character assassination because despite James arrogance, he has always been shown to be a level-headed person and capable of being reasoned with and that he would never go out of his way to hurt his own allies. It's even worse when the show tried to present him as insane when he never was, leading to his downfall story feeling rushed and unbelievable. Ironwood is doing his best in protecting Atlas from Salem's army while fans accuse Team RWBY of doing nothing in the Atlas arc and wasting time.
- Detractors even question why the show is presenting an anti-government message within Ironwood's character when the government is their only defense against Salem's army. Which cause some fans to call the detractors bootlickers, making the discussion of Ironwood's character more toxic due to the current nature of American politics.
- Many fans have come to blame Team RWBY for worsening his paranoia, as they were purposely keeping vital information from him. The team argued that they didn't think they could trust him, which comes off as a weak excuse since Ironwood didn't do anything wrong up to this point. Had they told James about the information they found out, he wouldn't have taken a turn for the worse.
- When Rooster Teeth finally revealed Ironwood's Semblance called Mettle, many fans strongly despised the fact that his entire power is just him thinking differently from others. The description says, "It strengthened his resolve, which allowed him to carry through with tough decisions and helped him hyper-focus." It's not made any better when it's implied that his Semblance is always on and can't be turned off. Not only does the ability amount to instructive thoughts, but it also portrays him as neurodivergent. Since James is treated as an unreasonable villain with a hint of insanity, fans have accused the show of being ableist.
- Not only is his Semblance ability awful, but it is never brought up at all in the series, and none of the characters ever mention or suspect that Ironwood has a Semblance.
- The ableism accusation is even worse when fans felt the series is dehumanizing Ironwood through his cybernetics. When he destroyed his arm in order to defeat Arthur Watts and got a new one afterward, the show tried to spin it as if he was losing his humanity. It should be noted that he was already a cyborg in the beginning of the series and was just a normal person, but the fact that he gets a new arm and is presented as a bad thing when it really isn't.
External Links[]
- James Ironwood on the RWBY Wiki
- James Ironwood on the Heroes Wiki
- James Ironwood on the Villains Wiki
- James Ironwood on the Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
[]
 Base Breaking Characters
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