#Elm hasn't gotten much to do in Volume 8 and that hurts me to my core

[your-dar-ling]

The Ace Ops and Ironwood

A series, by me!

I think RWBY has as a keen awareness of how much of a hot ass mess Ironwood's character is to understand. To compensate, I think the Ace Ops basically serve as a team of characters onto whom you can project individual aspects of his psyche in order to understand him better.

For example,

Elm, the 2nd most skilled and pillar of the Ace Ops, represents Ironwood's compassion.

She has been described as her voice actor as "big buff lady with a heart of gold." I'm gonna be honest here, Elm has always been my favorite. I find her character the most compelling of them all. As Ironwood's emotions, she has always been overzealously kind. At the earliest convenience, she's shaking Ruby like a ragdoll in excitement over the prospects of new teammates. She encourages their enthusiasm and wants the kids to be the best they can be. At one point, she literally carries Team RWBY on her shoulders, if I recall correctly.

But she would never tell you this. This is Atlas we're talking about here. Whenever asked if she considers her teammates friends, she'll go "This isn't the playground kids." ?!? Um, ma'am, you are like the world's most supportive gym teacher what do you mean this isn't the playground? I- okay?? Whatever. So she's in denial, got it. I still love her.

And then...the fight happens. Look I love Elm but this girl is neck deep in cognitive dissonance. She likes to believe that she is Ironwood's perfect soldier, that she doesn't have feelings and all that matters is the job (perhaps something akin to her partner) but she is nawt that. She's constantly steeling herself against what are clearly very strong feelings towards the matter.

And she can't stand having it pointed out to her either. "They're just following orders." Why are you mad, Elm? You said that yourself all of 20 minutes ago. It's because at this point it's not as much about orders as the fact that, well, she trusted these kids. She threw her all into helping them realize the best possible versions of themselves. And they betrayed her. And her resulting anger clouds her judgement.

Ironwood is clearly operating on emotions at this point too. If he would've just stopped and thought for 3 seconds about any and all of his plans the obvious solution would be to compromise with Team RRAYNBBOW. I'm not about to go into the minutiae of all of his plans, other people with more time on their hands and a better understanding of military tactics have done that already. A big part of what's really keeping them from working together is that Ironwood is simply hurt.

Jacque Schnee (ugh, I know) says in Volume 4 that James has "Never trusted anybody but himself," and James response is "And for good reason." He didn't trust Lionheart, he never even trusted Ozpin, but he took a risk on these kids. They've been through hell and back. They're innocent. How could they possibly betray him after he's given them food, housing, state of the art technology, and their Huntsman Licenses? But lo and behold.

But he will never tell you that. He will just say he's doing what has to be done, and he can't let his silly feelings about...all of Mantle freezing to death or being exploded...get in the way of the bigger picture: Defeating Salem. He's not emotional at all. He'll shoot you if you say otherwise!! Because, y'know, you're a liability to him now if you won't fall in line, not because you're cutting to the core of his fractured psyche or anything...

But what happens when emotions no longer matter?

Ironwood's heart pulls him in every direction, and the more his emotions fail him, the more emotional he becomes.

Next character: Vine

(Actually, the next character is Clover: Redux. This is really the 2nd post in this series of mine. The reason it appears to be the only one is because I accidentally edited a REBLOG of Clover's post in my queue so I have to redo his now...I know. I know.)