#POV you are the villain who's about to win the one thing they've been fighting for | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

itsclydebitches · 11 months

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The thing about that Winter thing, just to remind, from her POV she killed James. The last she saw of him was was her making him explode. From her perspective she is the one who killed that guy. And she is not very Brocken up about it.

Its amusing because they give Adam more sympathy then this. Blake literally broke down sobbing after killing him and even the triumphant song they released had a note about how sad Adam's story was and how this boy lost his way being consumed by hate and spite.

It was not alot, but like...its more then they give Jimmy LOL.

Pretty sure I got this ask when we all thought Winter was writing on Ironwood's grave, but regardless...

Yeeeah.

Something I've been thinking about lately is how Ironwood is the one villain who is still irrevocably against Salem and how that should have made such a difference, but didn't. Even Adam, whose story-line became 99% about his abusive relationship with Blake, was working with Cinder earlier on who, in turn, was working for Salem. Every major villain in the show (that I can think of off the top of my head, anyway) did something to forward Salem's agenda: Cinder, Watts, Tyrian, Hazel, Emerald, Raven, Adam, Roman. That consistency means that although I might often side-eye the heroes' inability to forgive (or hypocritically forgive on a dime) it at least makes sense that they would look at someone like Lionheart, someone who was helping Salem end the world, and dismiss any goodness within them.

Ironwood, in contrast, was working against Salem up until the moment he died.

Did the writers give him a senseless, fucked-up means of moving against Salem via a 'just bomb civilians' plan? Yes and I'll forever side-eye that too. However, I think if the heroes should have forgiveness/sympathy/mixed feelings/an emotional reaction to any villain, it should be the one whose villains acts were all in the name of stopping their shared enemy. In debating the ethical and practical merits of Ironwood's plans, I think many fans have lost sight of the larger picture. He's trying to get the Relics away from Salem, keep their last army of huntsmen in reserve to fight Salem later, get at least one city of people safely away from Salem. No matter how messed up, no matter how misguided and OOC there wasn't a single thing Ironwood did that wasn't guided by his attempts to keep Salem from ending the world. In a better written show, that would have meant something. Even if we still had to get cartoon villain Ironwood, the characters would at least acknowledge that he (from the show's POV) did all the wrong things for the right reasons. Winter in particular was set up to be that nuanced insight, given his mentor-esque status and her unfailing faith in 99% of the choices Ironwood made. That the show would have her (from her POV) kill him and then just sneer at how she waited too long to do it is insane. Please write these characters humanely! Even if you come to hate someone for what they've done, years worth of love for them doesn't just up and disappear!! That's the one (1) snow scene moment RWBY got completely right: of course Ozpin is still going to care for Lionheart despite his betrayal.

For me, intent will always matter. It might not excuse everything (or anything at all), but it opens the door for forgiveness in a way that few other things will. Which is why the intent of other characters, in contrast, makes Ironwood's writing so much worse. You have Qrow teaming up with Tyrian because he refuses to go see Ironwood in handcuffs and Emerald who is "redeemed" because she was literally just standing beside Oscar post-realization that Cinder doesn't love her. The show says, "You're forgiven for being so stubborn you'll deliberately help kill your friend" and the characters say "You're forgiven for trying to end the world/destroying a school and then stopping out of selfish self-interest." But there's no "You're forgiven for taking extreme measures in a no-win scenario in an effort to salvage some hope against an immortal enemy." That's messed up to me! Especially given that Ironwood is (presumably) dead. If there's ever a time to let characters extend compassion in a way they may not be able to with the person still there and potentially still enacting wrong, it's when they've died for those heroic beliefs. Ironwood is the one villain who, methods aside, was 100% fighting the right battle and he's simultaneously the one villain that characters and story alike refuse to give even a smidge of sympathy for. Wild.

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

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