“ | I will sacrifice... whatever it takes... to stop her. | „ |
~ Ironwood to Watts. |
“ | James is what my friends call me. To you... it's General. | „ |
~ General James Ironwood before shooting Oscar Pine, marking his descent into villainy. |
“ | I have only done what was best for Remnant. And no one. Is. GRATEFUL!!! | „ |
~ Ironwood's villainous breakdown while confronting Winter Schnee, blaming everyone except himself. |
General James Ironwood is a major antagonist in the anime-influenced web series RWBY.
He was the headmaster of Atlas Academy, the general of Atlas Military, holder of two seats of the Atlas Council, and a former member of Ozpin's group. He was aware of the existence of Salem and did everything he could to help the heroes stop her. However, Ironwood's paranoia ultimately caused him to alienate himself from his allies as he began to resort to more extreme measures to stop Salem and her plans.
He was voiced by Jason Rose in English and by Masaki Terasoma in Japanese.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- Though he did not start out as a villain, he becomes one over time as he attempts on more than one occasion to kill people who have merely disagreed with him, such as Oscar, Marrow and Councilman Sleet; the latter of which was successful.
- In Oscar's case, he does so as an adverse reaction to being told that he's becoming as dangerous as Salem, renouncing his friendship with Ozpin (who is inside Oscar) before shooting the boy in cold blood in an act of betrayal, which is when Ironwood truly became a villain.
- His plan to save the Relic from Salem essentially boiled down to sending the city of Atlas into orbit, thus leaving Mantle the rest of Remnant at the mercy of Salem and the Grimm for the safety of his city, which Ironwood dismisses as a 'philosophical point'.
- There was also no guarantee that he could've kept the people of Atlas alive indefinitely as the city required resources from Mantle to survive. In addition, he likely would have become a brutal dictator to those in Atlas in order to keep people from rebelling against his decisions.
- Fought Arthur Watts during their battle with the intention to kill him.
- Declares martial law on the city and makes Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang public enemy #1 in Atlas, arresting anyone who refuses to go along with his decisions.
- He uses the excuse that Yang and Blake went behind his back by informing Robyn Hill of the Amity Project to cement them as enemies, even though Robyn did prove herself trustworthy.
- He killed Jacques Schnee for no reason after Jacques asked him to bail him out of jail.
- Even when being called out on enabling martial law on Atlas by Councilman Sleet, Ironwood showed no remorse for his actions and even shot Sleet dead right in front of everyone, showing he cannot accept criticism.
- When Penny refuses to join him, he essentially takes the entire city of Mantle hostage, threatening to nuke it on the spot unless she cooperates with him. This action is especially heinous considering he appointed her as the Protector of Mantle, knowing fully well that she takes the job seriously. This action was what caused both Marrow and Winter to turn on him and work alongside the heroes to overthrow him.
- He tried to have Marrow executed for ranting about his plan to bomb Mantle, only to be stopped and talked out of it by Harriet Bree.
- Even when Atlas was falling and its people were being evacuated, he was still focused on retrieving the Relic of Creation in order to save Atlas itself, showing that he had lost any and all concern for the people.
- Although his Semblance, Mettle, opens up the possibility of him having moral agency issues as it makes him more willing to carry out extreme decisions and feeds into his paranoia, strengthening his resolve and making him more likely to carry out any decision, this doesn't hold up as a prevention as there is nothing that proves nor indicates that his Semblance was active at any point, and he still has the knowledge of right and wrong from all of his actions.
- In the end, he never showed any clear remorse for the things he had done, believing he was right to the very end. Even in his final moments it is not clear if he actually felt remorse for all his heinous crimes or just because his plan failed in general due to the circumstances.
- Despite the show's high heinous standard, James just barely manages to stand out for being a very personal antagonist towards the heroes (due to betraying them for his own selfish gain and him attempting to nuke Mantle was done knowing that Penny takes her job as the city’s protector very seriously given she would be devastated over witnessing the destruction of a city that was genuinely important to her), along with his unique crime of turning Atlas into a cruel dictatorship where people are unlawfully arrested and their lives are ruined simply for disagreeing with him or even questioning him in the slightest.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is a well-intentioned extremist as his ultimate goal is to stop Salem. He only opposes the heroes because he perceives them as standing in the way of doing so in the best way he can.
- He is genuinely tragic due to suffering from PTSD and paranoia as a result of the events of Volume 3 and being blinded to any mistakes he made, allowing the villains to manipulate him into turning against Team RWBY, Mantle and his own subordinates, leading to him dying alone and broken.
- While this obviously doesn't justify all of his actions since he became a full-on villain in the seventh volume, it is still treated with some sympathy and there is no doubt that Ironwood wouldn't have become worse if Beacon Academy was never destroyed.
- Even after betraying the heroes, he still genuinely cares about Winter, as despite almost killing her, he still gave her a chance to leave, and when she refused, he shed a tear, showing he was greatly saddened by this betrayal and felt remorse for hurting her.
Trivia[]
- James Ironwood is currently the only villain from RWBY to be Inconsistently Heinous.
External Links[]
- James Ironwood on the RWBY Wiki
- James Ironwood on the Villains Wiki
- James Ironwood on the Heroes Wiki
- James Ironwood on the VS Battles Wiki
- James Ironwood on the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki
- James Ironwood on the Incredibly Cruel Wiki