#how does he get the ADAM without harvesting them

[all-lars-bars]

I have a character pitch!

Former Little Sister who is now transmasc

[resetting37]

brian

i wanted to talk about brian's story a bit on his birthday but though that has past I now have access to a computer lol.

but yeah it's a shame I don't talk about him more ! he was one of my first ocs, and sometimes I think I should kind of give him his own mini storyline (kind of how heidi and ian have one... none of this is actually written down but you kind of get my gist i hope)

but I don't have much of brian's childhood planned out. I just know he was a middle child and lived in the city of Recom, a port city that didn't have many permanent residents, lots of people traveling through. When he was older he became a mechanic and started a relationship with one of those said travelers, a pirate named Ronnie. (Well, they claimed to be """""just friends"""" but they were intimate and wanted to be romantic, but it was a lot of Brian following Ronnie around on her trips) Brian didn't care too much for Ronnie's crew, which you might be familiar with (Crimson, Morgan, Naomi, Skylar...) But Ronnie loved them, so Brian tolerated them.

However, Ronnie eventually became pregnant ! And so they decided to keep the baby, who would grow up with a little mutation due to both parents' overexposure in harsh toxic environments (is this biologically sound ? Absolutely not, but Oliver has six eyes so yay !) Even Ronnie's crew adored the little guy ! However, this happiness would only last for about a year or so when Ronnie and another of her crewmates, Morgan, were involved in a scavenging accident that led them both in critical condition.

The crews' makeshift medical team, Adam and Seth (they were organ harvesters, but they picked up the skill of transplanting organs too !) were left with the decision to only save one of them, but to brian's dismay, their choice was easily favored towards Morgan (who was actively trying to insert themself into their relationship, so there's that bias lmao) Everyone in the crew kind of took this as "well it had to be one of them, we have to move on now" but this was brian's breaking point. He couldn't believe they brushed off Ronnie's death so quickly, and without her, there was no incentive to stay, so he took Oliver and left.

Though he decided to check out the city of Evelow. Brian heard the city was nothing like Recom or the badlands, and the risks of scavenging were unheard of there, so to Evelow he went. From there, Brian took on a job at the energy factory, and befriends people like Cora and Orisa, the latter of which becomes his roommate. He also meets Cora's best friend Jake, who eventually becomes Brian's boyfriend.

While Brian thinks his days in the badlands are gone, little does he know Cora was a childhood friend of Morgan, so when Morgan strolls into town, Cora (mistakenly) decides Morgan and Brian should reunite ! And we know that doesn't work out ! But is a little less expected is that Cora ultimately takes Brian's side, and while Morgan is my favorite and I love them to pieces, this was a good choice for Cora lol.

[the-eyes-special-boy]

so I recently rewatched tokyo ghoul and I have Thoughts.

thought the first

gore, hunger, body parts and cannibalism exist in literature and visual media mostly as an inherent metaphor/allegory of all consuming lust. there’s a reason they call Saw torture porn.

Lawrence shoots Adam as an act of penetration -in a return to the older/younger relationship between two men. an erastes and eromenos if you will- Strahm creates a hole in his throat so he can breathe, literally carving life for himself out of his own skin. if I was one iota smarter I could probably connect this to the whole thing of viewing Adam as the sacrificial lamb, and taking the transmasc Adam Stanheight lives and thrives narrative a little further I could also bring in Lawrence playing the role of god if he’s the surgeon who does Adam’s top surgery. and how Adam gets the tattoo of the hand of adam and god over the scars. shame I’m not that smart /lh.

so how does this fit into Tokyo Ghoul? well when the ghouls eat, they don’t just… eat. they consume. they devour. with such fervour and desperation that is begins to look like a sexual conquest. The Kagune act as a form of penetration and when poised to attack surround the ghoul, literally enveloping them in their own lust. and when the CCG agents claim a ghoul’s Kagune to form a Quinque they carve the lust from them. acting almost as a hand of god taking the sin from the ghoul.

thought the second

say an all ghoul family had a kid that was born without Kagune and couldn’t consume the blood and gore that the rest of the family needs to live. now what if this child got so frustrated with themselves for not being like the rest of their family, they harvest the Kagune from a dead ghoul and stitch it to their own back. boom you have a trans allegory and before you ask yes this is how I’m coping with being a trans man.

[asgh-youtube]

Kh-thoom

Kh-thoom

Kh-thoom

The heavy hammers of Everforge 3449 ring out through the surrounding area. Just as they had yesterday. Just as they should tomorrow. The surrounding forge-city has grown quite accustomed to the ear-shattering klangs, some elders even boasting on how long they can last without head-phones.

"2 minutes 39!" One shouts in between klangs, broken smile plastered across her face.

"3 minutes 14!" Another one barely eeks out, nearly cut off by the klang.

This conversation continues on as the shadows from the near-forgotten sun pass through, slowly inching towards a night just as bright as day. They descend deeper throughout the layers, inching closer and closer to the forge itself.

Here, there are no contests. No joyous smiles. You work from AM to AM, getting those desperate few hours of rest in between. This would be a day just as any other, but the local (though a stretch of the term) ultralite has come to monitor his production and pat his back with stolen gold.

The workers, mind you, continue on just as they do every day. They reaffirm to themselves that they are to be grateful for the ending of death. To not wish for it's come. That work is an unending payment for an unending life. It is hard to not wish, though.

They won't have to wish much longer.

Kh-thoom

"Model F9-22397-SCY," reads the 'anvil'. Set to produce a harvesting tool for one of the highest luxuries, grain. With every calculated hit, the blade deforms into its designed shape. This is one of the highest efficiency anvils in the sector, producing at a rate of 6 a minute. The workers, monitoring every movement to check for inefficiencies, watching every monitor to keep the anvils running, are paid 5 cents more than their comrades

A high, high amount.

Kh-thoom

The anvil slams down once more, providing a stark shadow to the embers of other forges. Serial number 34982-723790785342-3449 is completed, sent down the grinder to sharpen.

Kh-thoom

Again, there is a brief darkness, a small respite, provided to the workers of this anvil. Work on 34982-723790785343-3449 begins as its predecessor sharpens, shredding through hardened material and ears to provide the tool its cutting edge.

Kkkreeeeeeeeych

The sharpening is finished, and it glides near graciously down the belt, nearer to the Overwatch station. Ultralite Jackson Adams, named after figureheads long ago forgotten, watches very closely as it goes down the belts, its successors following along, not far behind.

"Just as magnificent as always, Foreman," he booms, smile wide across his face. The foreman tries to share such a feeling, and almost presents himself as such.

The Ultralite continues watching, near entranced with the magnificence of his work (deluded though he may be about who put in the effort), as rolls down the belt, getting closer to the Overwatch room. And closer. And closer.

Thhk

The Ultralite jumps back.

The scythe embeds itself into the glass, cracking it but not causing it to shatter just yet. That would be the job of the reaper.

The thing of shadows jumps out of nowhere and nothing, glding towards the glassand colliding with the scythe.

Now, the glass does indeed shatter.

Khrk-rackk

Shrrrack!

The Ultralite falls down to the ground, along with his assistants and the foreman. The reaper and their scythe do not.

The first of the assistants, a person who may not be dead but is certainly dead, draws a baton, charging foreward just as they had time and time again.

The reaper takes hold of their armed hand, quickly disarming them (in a much more literal definition of the word disarm). The reaper wields the armless baton in their other hand, with one quick jab sending it through the heart of that already dead assistant.

The next draws a gun, letting loose shots quickly masked by the ever-present banging of the hammer. Shots which reach a place where the target once was, but is no longer. A ghastly hand from behind grasps her by the throat, effortlessly raising her high and chilling her to the bone.

Neither are dead, however much they may wish.

The Ultralite, dumbfounded by the possibility that one might dare go after him, looks the reaper dead in the eyes.

And laughs.

"Who are you supposed to be, hm?" He questions, face reading cocky.

"Death." Death answers.

The Ultralite lets out short, strained laugh.

"Death is locked away, buffoon. You can file your complaints on progress and its inevitability with my secretary."

"There is but one inevitability, and you found yourself too much a coward to face it."

"It has been a long, long time since anyone feared Death."

"And that just makes it all the more sweet."

With one swift slice, and a tumbling of a head to the ground, Death reconquers part of its throne.

And soon, all the rest.

Many ages ago Death was defeated and sealed. Immortality is the norm, but the loss of death has lead to a society of ultralites that rule over never dying slaves. As Death’s first reaper after the unsealing, you are here to remind them why Death exists… and why your master should be feared.

[christian-perspectives]

Set Free From Sin And The Law

How do we ensure we are set free from sin and the law? What does Romans 7 mean when it says once a person dies, they are set free? Let’s investigate this chapter to read about it. So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. Romans 7:4 In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve allowed the serpent to deceive them. Because they disobeyed God, their sinful nature became a part of everyone born into the human race. As men and women populated the planet, they had nothing to guide them except their consciences. That didn’t work, so God destroyed everyone except Noah and his family. As the earth began to repopulate, the Lord called Abraham and his seed as His chosen people. His descendants grew into a large nation while in captivity to the Egyptians. Free eBook God chose Moses to set them free from Egypt and lead them to the Land He promised to Abraham. During that time, Moses received God’s law, beginning with the Ten Commandments. When God issued the law, He knew the Israelites needed that type of guidance. All of the laws and statutes kept the nation focused on the direction of the Lord their God. The law doesn’t do anything for our righteousness or draw us close to the Lord. The Apostle Paul, though, explained the law’s benefits. In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” Romans 7:7

The Law will not Set us Free

Many use the law, however, to justify themselves to self-righteousness. When people see the law, they try to skirt it without breaking it. But they usually fail. Paul gave the following example. But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. Romans 7:8 In Acts 23, the apostle claimed to be a Pharisee, which also made him a student of the law. But in this chapter, he admitted that, at one time, he lived without understanding it. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. Romans 7:9-10 He concluded that the law did nothing to set him free. Then, in this chapter, the apostle delved deeper as he unfolded some theological principles. He continued by saying the following. Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. Romans 7:11 Still, at his old tricks, the enemy uses God’s law to deceive people. He has nominal Christians believing that if they obey the law, it will get them into heaven. Paul said that the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. Then, in the next verse, he threw out some questions, and fortunately, he answered them as well. - But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? - Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. - So we can see how terrible sin really is. - It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes. Romans 7:13

The Law Used for Evil

Are you like the apostle? Do you want to do what is good but end up not doing it? And then you don’t want to do what is wrong but do it anyway. He said his sinful nature trips him up. Paul discovered a principle of life that when he wants to do what is right, he does what is wrong. Even though he loved God’s law with all his heart, he knew it couldn’t set him free from sin. He also discovered another power that was at war within his mind. It makes him a slave to the sin that resides within him. Maybe you have felt this way, and it makes you miserable. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Romans 7:24 The Bible teaches us that our conscience won’t set us free. The apostle wanted us to know that even though the law is good, it won’t set us free, either. It does help us move in the right direction. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. Romans 7:16 Paul finally gave us the answer. He said, “Thank God.” Why? Because we don’t have to be miserable. We don’t have to worry about who will set us free from a life of sin. The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. Romans 7:25

How Do You Try to Set Yourself Free?

In Romans 5, the apostle had already laid out what he spoke about in our chapter for today. Why do you suppose he brought it up again? Why did he need to repeat himself? Because, people want to be set free from sin by trying to do what is right. In other words, by their good deeds and obedience to the law. He told us again why God’s law was given. God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. Romans 5:20 Thank the Lord for His abundant grace. Sin no longer needs to rule because Jesus conquered sin and death. And He will set free all who call upon His name, you know, the name of Jesus! So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules. Instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:21 Lord, thank you for Jesus’ victory over death, which set us free from sin and liberated us from the law. Check out these related posts about freedom - God Helps the Helpless and Sets Us Free - How To Be Free In Life - Freedom From God For Everyone Read the full article

[thewhitefluffyhat]

barbie doll not in a barbie world

We know John based Alecto’s body on his favorite Barbie doll. Does that mean Alecto literally has Barbie Doll Anatomy as per the trope?

Like, no body hair, no female-presenting nipples, nothing but featureless smooth skin between her legs?

Because I agree that John didn’t intentionally put Alecto in a doll-like body to make her “sexy.” But what if - accidentally or not - he instead made her sexless?

So first of all, we know that Alecto-as-Nona finds Harrow’s scrawny, lumpy-brain, unattractive-by-popular-vote body to be beautiful. And yet, in Nona the Ninth, Alecto describes her own body as a “hideousness.”

Now, it could be that Alecto hates the body John made her just because he got the proportions kinda wonky, or because there’s something unique to the Alecto-body that keeps her trapped there unlike when she’s in Harrow’s body.

But I can’t help but also think of the passage where Nona describes the “cradle creature” that she drew to the Angel. Because she doesn’t defend her drawing on how creative, or beautiful, or accurate the doodle was:

Nona looked down at the animal she had drawn, and thought perhaps she understood. She said, “No, I made it up. It does work, I promise. See these things? They're its ears,” she said in much the same tones as she would have explained to Kevin. “This thing is its nose, and you can’t see it because I didn’t draw it, but the mouth is under here. When it was first born it used to live in a river, but then it got cold so it had to get large. I know the legs can’t rotate, but you don’t think that’s stupid, do you?”

Nona the Ninth, p251

Instead, Nona is completely focused on the fact that despite her doodle’s unusual features, it’s an animal that “works.” It’s a being that could live.

Is Alecto… not a being that “works”?

At the very least, Nona doesn’t seem to like or need normal human food. Presumably, Alecto was the same way. So her lacking an anus or genitals likely wouldn’t be an issue given that this is a woman who thinks rubber and graphite are a yummy snack. Also who, per Mercymorn, might not even have DNA.

So why would this matter?

It’s because there’s something especially potent and horrifying about taking the soul of Earth, of Mother Nature herself, and then forcing her into a body without a functional digestive tract or reproductive system. Not, to be clear, that people lacking those things are in any way less human or less worthy of life. It’s just… speaking of life and nature in the most broad and planetary terms, ’can eat and reproduce’ are the significant features that set living organisms apart from rocks. The uniqueness of which is also what sets Earth apart from every other planet in the solar system.

Plus there’s the way Gaia (the ancient goddess, not Kiriona) was somewhat associated with fertility and the harvest. Meanwhile Christmas tree fairies, Renaissance angels, Adam and Eve in their innocent state, Galatea the statue, Frankenstein who was denied a mate… they’re more associated with the opposite of that.

So when it comes to the symbolism of Alecto, there’s these Classical thematic connections between womanhood and abundance and fertility, now being placed in dialogue with a very Christian idealization of abstinence from food and sex. It’s Muir using two mythological building blocks and putting them in tension with each other.

(There’s also the building block of Māori traditions that Muir draws on with Alecto and her saltwater, though I am nowhere near qualified to comment on that… would love to read more about it, though!)

Last but not least, there’s the modern context to consider. Alecto’s body is specifically a Hollywood Hair Barbie. Hollywood formerly of the Hays Code, Hollywood now in the age of “everyone is beautiful and no one is horny.” The gilded facsimile of life, distanced from the messy, primordial desires underneath.

I don’t have any kind of grand thesis to tie all these observations together, but the juxtapositions are interesting, aren’t they? Especially in a series that is less shy than many about normalizing queer (often female) desire. In that context, taking such desires away would be a hideousness, wouldn’t it?

.

And you know, while we’re on this subject… it’s unclear whether Gideon can eat or feel arousal in her revenant form either. (Yes, I’m sure fanfic writers have opinions on this, but I haven’t gotten to post-Nona works in my chronological AO3 binge and we’re just talking about the text of NtN here.)

Did John take those pleasures away from Gideon too?

I hadn’t even really thought about all the Kiriona/Alecto parallels, but they sure are plentiful. John puts both women into bodies that seem superficially wonderful yet which they both resent and dislike. And they also both act/consider acting as John’s cavalier, with the implication that this is because they don’t have any other options or people who care about them. At least John seems to like their company, even as he manipulates and hurts the ones they love.

So yeah, what is with this dude and turning people into his perfect dolls? Once might have been an accident, but this starting to look like a pattern my guy.

[nataliaphantomhivesblog]

Thinking about the fact that Dazai found intrest in Chuuya because of his loyalty and not his ability. Thinking about the fact that the idea of Chuuya being Arahabki never crossed Dazai's mind. Thinking about the fact that Dazai truly disliked how the sheep took advantage of Chuuya. Thinking about the fact that Chuuya was Dazai's reason to live in the fifthteen light novel. Thinking about the fact that Chuuya was the first person Dazai shared an equal partnership with. Thinking about the fact that Chuuya was the first person Dazai ever started to harvest genuine care for. Thinking about the fact that Chuuya was Dazai's drive to keep living and fighting in Stormbringer. Thinking about the fact that Dazai carried Chuuya on his back and took him to the bar so he can say goodbye to his dying friends. Thinking about the fact that Dazai never doubted Chuuya's humanity. Thinking about the fact that after Dazai believed Veraline was defeated he didn't hesitate to look for Chuuya in the woods when he could've told anyone else to do it for him. Thinking about the fact that Dazai gave Chuuya Verlaine's hat because he knows it hold meaning to him. Thinking about the fact that Dazai is amazed by corruption but also uses it as a last resort for Chuuya's sake. Thinking about the fact that Dazai is always delicate when it comes to nullifying Chuuya's corruption. Thinking about the fact that Dazai started to softly laugh at Chuuya's shooked face when he found out that Adam actually cared for him. Thinking about the fact that Dazai let Chuuya rest on his lap and silently comforted him after the dragon head conflict. Thinking about the fact that Dazai covered up for Chuuya so that he wouldn't be incriminated back in the basement. Thinking about the fact that Chuuya's damsel impression was the one thing that made Dazai genuienly laugh. Thinking about the fact that Dazai proudly bragged to the enemy how strong Chuuya was in the lovecraft battle. Thinking about the fact that Dazai sewed an inside joke in Chuuya's coat. Thinking about the fact that Dazai still calls Chuuya "partner" and not "ex-partner". Thinking about the fact that Dazai probably feels the most comfortable with Chuuya. Thinking about the fact that Dazai put his life on Chuuya's hands without hesitation. Thinking about the fact that Dazai could've left Chuuya to die back in the fog but he let protected him and let him sleep in his lap.

.... But Dazai defiently uses Chuuya right? Dazai defiently does not regard Chuuya as a human being and would let him die for his own personal gain, right? Yeah.....

This isn't even me pointing out headcanons of these two or me romantizing them either. Its just me pointing canon facts from the light novels, anime and manga.

I won't bash you for not shipping them, I obviously won't shove this ship down your throat either. But you can't just simply ignore the canon trust and bond these two characters have for one another.

Right now, I only focused on Dazai's feelings for Chuuya because a lot of people always use the "Dazai doesn't care for Chuuya" as an argument when it comes to bashing this ship.

Of course I won't lie to you and say that this ship is pure sunshine and rainbows, of course not! But is any bsd ship truly sunshine and rainbows considering the toxic enviorments they all grew in?

If you truly believe that Dazai does not care for Chuuya I am seriously going to assume you only watched the anime, and even if you only watched the anime the care is still evident but I guess its more subtle.

I've seen so many people being too passionate about their hatred for this ship, and I totally get if you don't ship it but I think its pretty understandable why people ship it too.

I personally love this ship and the reason for it is because of how profound this dynamic is and how important it is to both characters.

Aaannnd im done with my rant, and if you don't ship this its totally fine! You can ship whatever you want unless its pedophilic or toxic, it just sort of annoys me when people try to bash this ship with the empty argument of "Dazai doesn't care for Chuuya" or vise versa.

[mag7dumbies]

WHO IN THE MAG7 IS LGBT+ (and who are they dating/Ed)

The Original Sassy Seven+Petra

Chris Adams is Bisexual. and has had sex with Harry at least once. He had a slight romantic relationship with Britt but it was more soft flirtation than anything physical. Of course he and Vin are a couple of marrieds

Britt is Ace. which is why Chris and him did not last long. He and Lee are a couple (I’m not sure if I got that from fic or from canon I just don’t know and I don’t care cause it’s perfect)

Lee is a gay southern belle. he just seems like he is an old queen who has a wonderful relationship with his husband, Britt. and goes to the same gay bar for about 20 years and but will gleefully hit on straighties who try to take over the bar

Harry is like straight but has sex with men HE IS ANCIENT ROMAN. that’s his sexuality I don’t know how else to describe it. But whatever he and Chris have it’s weird and there is not an English word for it (that I know of)

Vin is complicated like he probably wouldn’t have a word for it but he isn’t interested in women that much. But he and Chris are married

O’Reilly is straight like he’s a divorced dad who wears socks and sandals and has a lot of gay friends (that he didn’t know were gay until later)

Chico is very straight and hates his Bisexual wife Petra

Petra is bisexual and does have a girlfriend (they are very off and on and only stop dating after she and Chico get married but they stay friends)

The Boys+Mary,Inez, Raine, Casey and Sarah

Chris Larabee is bisexual. He, Buck, and Sarah were in a poly relationship for about 7 years, he and Buck broke up for good a few months after the fire. Chris and Vin are in love and married (it took a bit for it to take cause both of them wouldn’t know how to deal with those kinds of emotions).

Buck is pansexual (look labels don’t matter Buck will Flirt, Fuck, and Fist anyone who will have him) he and Chris were a slight item during the war but honestly that was just the war talking and didn’t actually have the love talk until Sarah was in the picture.

Ezra is Ace and genderqueer. That dress came somewhere and it came from his stuff. they will use all the pronouns. Honestly I do ship Vin and Ezra but like my otp is Chris/Vin sooooo uh yeah it is difficult

Vin is non-binary but uses male pronouns but he is still non-binary. Like I said he and Chris are married and I could see he and Ezra having a fling before Vin and Chris were a thing.

Nathan is straight but can admire the male body enough that he can question himself (ATF Nathan kissed a man in college because he honestly was curious, he didn’t hate it but it didn’t feel right)

Josiah is Demi and will fall in love with men and women (India definitely opened many doors for him) but he needs to be mentally stimulated by his company (like when he fell in love with a demon aka Maude)

JD is trans and Straight. You can rip the trans headcanon out of my cold dead hands because why else would he never contact anyone from Boston and go to the west without any plans.

Inez is a lez she will steal your wife and local news women

Mary is bi but didn’t know until her husband died (she and Terry would have been an amazing couple) but more importantly she and Inez settle down and become Gal pals

Raine is straightish kinda in the same boat as Nathan

Casey is bi and she and JD had a very long conversation about how she fell in love with JD when she believed he was full man and just because he was born differently doesn’t mean she sees him as such (terfs are not welcome on this blog)

Sarah is queer she’s kissed men she’s kissed women, she’s kissed both at the same time she’s queer

The Gayest version of the Magnificent Seven ever to exist (so far)+Emma

Sam probably is straight but like I could see him on the aro or Ace spectrum

Jack Horne is also straight

Red harvest also straight but I do like him with Teddy Q

Goodnight could not be bi-er. Everyone knows he and Billy are in love mostly because Goody CANNOT keep his hands to himself

Billy is low key gay and he likes it that way he probably would have stayed by himself if it wasn’t for Goody bombarding into Billy’s life

Faraday is like pretty fluid like he isn’t straight and has had relations with men and women. He and Vasquez may hate each other but it’s mostly because they want to jump each other bones

Vasquez is fairly close to the vest he doesn’t really do the whole having label things. But he is Bi. And he and Faraday are in love

Emma is probably straight

If y’all want I would love to hear your opinions

[margherita-dascenzo]

If Rita isn't a bride then what importance does she have to Karlheinz's plan?

*Knuckles cracking*

TL:DR None, KarlHeinz's plan is already completed.

I'm embarrassed to tell this for some reason, so if you don't understand something, don't hesitate to ask me.

Thank you very much for asking this

I would like to clarify that my story is different from Diabolik Lovers. More realistic, more classic in terms of vampires. Surely you will find some things that don't make sense in Diabolik Lovers, but this is not Diabolik Lovers, I just take the basics.

Okay, I think it's time for a little lore and context? Here we go.

Right, Rita is not a bride. That position (in my story) is gone. Yui is Eva and Adam is Ayato. Thus, there are no new women coming to the Sakamaki household to indulge the sadistic desires of the boys or to look for a new Eva. The ages of the characters range from 23 to 26 (Shu being 26 and Subaru 23), and they’re still NEET :P They actually work and/or study, if you want more info about this, just ask, no problem!

KarlHeinz is still alive and kicking, waiting for Ayato to be responsible enough to take his place as King (when? IDK) however, at this point, Karl has taken a liking to being Tougo Sakamaki, a busy politician in view of a senatorial candidacy (It has another name in Japan, for explanation purposes I call it that) so he is much more focused on that than on the demon world. Where does Rita come into all this?

The D'Ascenzo’s a clan that is practically extinct, only Rita and her grandmother Yolanda (D'Ascenzo by marriage) remain, without male members the family name disappears. A few centuries and bad decisions ago, they were a little better known for being those who managed the business of blood and hum4n tr4fficking to the Makai, a human with the D'Ascenzo seal was synonymous with good quality, like a wine come on. Although they never stopped doing it, what did happen was that the business declined quite a lot for various factors both their fault and the various historical situations both in the human world (wars and conflicts) and in the demon world (wars and conflicts, but also more passage of demons to the human world thanks to more portals). So little by little the surname stopped resonating among the nobles to be something more exclusive and anonymous ( quality, not quantity) for a period of a few years/decades/centuries. While the harvests were appreciated during banquets and feasts of nobles, very few wanted to divulge what this clan was all about. KarlHeinz among them remained a regular customer... With a few faithful to their "brand" they survived between that and some illegal tidbits among humans. However, 1900 arrives and the only ones left are:

Ettore D'Ascenzo (grandfather)

Yolanda D'Ascenzo (grandmother)

Piero D'Ascenzo (father)

Monnika Kschezak D'ascenzo (mother)

Margherita D'ascenzo (our girl)

A few historical events also arrive in the human world and we are left with only 2 female vampires from the clan I mentioned before (RIP to the others). This is where Yolanda decides to put on her pants and take matters into her own hands. Alone and with a 15 year old granddaughter (human appearance) she decides to take everything she has at hand. She is indebted to Karl for helping her save Rita and doubly indebted for asking for a loan. Children orphaned by the war? Let them come. Widowed women? Let them come. People on the street for various reasons? Let them come. Crime on the rise due to a post-war semi-anarchic period? I'm in. This woman went into the dirtiest sewers in order to start over and lead a better life with her granddaughter. And she succeeded.

Over the years she positioned herself within the crime of the Ndrangheta (Calabrian m4fia) being quite respected, and with two major sources of income: hum4n tr4fficking and money laundering. And while Rita stood by her, as did her father, she was never interested in following the family and was busier getting over her traumas. But she does know how to listen from time to time and learned certain things, useful for when she is forced to participate in certain negotiations.

And here comes the question you asked hsjskkss

Back to the KarlHeinz issue. Nominations cost money, and there are some deals to be fulfilled before jumping into the political ring. Kaminashi has an underworld of not only vampires, but criminals. It's not a tourist area, but it does serve as a hub for some yakuza families with whom Tougo is forced to negotiate if he wants to keep things quiet and have them support him both monetarily and with votes and such. On the other hand, ever since the other demons found out that Eva was a beautiful woman with unique blood, the nobles started demanding more Asian girls in an attempt to mark more status among them (Those weird things people with money do to stand out from others).

Yolanda always wished that her granddaughter would settle down and not end up as a hippie just like her father, so she talks to Karl to ask him for that favor, to leave Rita in charge of talking to the yakuza, since she is supposed to know her way around in that environment (Half-truth), to take it as a payment for the previous favors he gave to both of them. He accepts since he really needs someone to stand up for him, and he doesn't trust his sons to do such an important job.

So Rita spends two nights a month going to yakuza bars, putting on a mask she don't like at all, having to smile at creepy old men, letting herself be "seduced" while trying to close deals according to what Tougo promises or not, like different liberated neighborhoods, percentages of profits, various bribes, protection, etc. And behind his back, she tries to close others about the "Evas" for the Makai, a small request from her grandmother to quench the thirst of the other demons. Trying not to screw up, otherwise she's going to have a few problems from both sides, with the Vampire King and the Yakuza.

[indianamoonshine]

c h a p t e r | i

summary: every summer you work on your father's strawberry farm with your three sisters. it's a way to take a break from the big city but summers in the midwest are hot and they linger. this year, your father's old and mysterious friend shows up to stay on your land for a reason yet to be determined. din djarin seems dangerous, but kind enough, and the two of you quickly become...well, let's fact it...smitten.

rating: m (18+) for future and explicit sexual content.

author's note: reader is well over eighteen for obvious reasons. i won't ever go into physical detail about the reader's appearance because we include everyone. this fic is pretty much a mix between pride & prejudice and call me by your name except without the und*rage crap we do not condone. so, without further ado, here's an aesthetically pleasing fanfic.

the moment din djarin laid eyes on you he knew he was a dead man.

at first, his view of you had been obstructed because you'd opened every door and window in the house. june in the midwest sometimes required such nuisances, so all of the curtains billowing in the breeze prevented him from looking upon you.

you were also on the couch, but he hadn't known that until you lifted a hand - soft as a dove's - from the back of the sofa. you played with the light between your fingers, shielding its dazzling rays from your eyes, just before setting it down again. your hands were so small (smaller than his anyway) and gentle. he imagined how foreign your skin would feel in warm contrast to his; how your fingers would feel intertwined with his calloused ones, which had done enough work throughout the years to be mistaken for a beggar’s. within the first moment, he saw you as flawless.

your father had not stopped for breath since din arrived, lamenting about the farm or discussing the layout of the home with an eagerness din had yet to match. he would've initially been interested in the history of the farm or how many sprawling acres rolled endlessly before them, but his eyes couldn't leave your hand.

you must've been asleep - napping in the embrace of the sun - because as soon as your father drew breath upon entering the living room, your voice tickled din's ears for the first time. sweet as music.

"dad? is that you?"

din couldn't help but blink at the sound of your voice. it seemed unnatural, like one hears in dreams or spiritual awakenings. he manages to compose himself at your father's side, straightening his posture to err on the side of caution.

your father exclaims with a joyful "ah!" and then introduces you by name.

"my daughter. one of them, anyway. she and the three eldest help during the summer," he had said, and then turned to the bay windows to go on about the view.

but you meet din's eyes, rested and glimmering with curiosity, while your father droned on in the background. you reach out a hand - the one he'd thought of holding - to shake.

he does. and it's every bit as beautiful as he knew it'd be.

"how do you do?" you give him a polite and pretty smile. if he hadn't known any better, you bat your eyelashes for good measure.

your father's tour continues but din can't stop thinking about the way your skirt rose to your thighs as you stretched awake.

|||

you were lying if you said you didn't think about him for the rest of the day.

you weren't the only one. your sisters - all three of them - had also met the mysterious din djarin.

"who is he?" charlotte asked while you congregated at the nearby pond. it was a lovely place, nestled within the thick of the woods and bursting with greenery. flowers of every kind blossomed around you and scents the air with a sweetness.

rhea lays in the shade of a peach tree. "one of dad's old friends," she says. she waves herself with a floral paper fan she'd gotten from chinatown while visiting you in new york.

"but why is he here?"

madeline, who paints with her watercolors, pipes in. "i heard he got into some trouble with the law and now he's in hiding."

you roll your eyes with a scoff, lounging in the grass and watching the clouds in the bright, blue sky. "madeline, that's absurd."

rhea (who is the oldest and most pragmatic) surprises you when she shrugs her shoulders. "i don't know. he looks likes a bad boy..."

you recall the way his jaw clenched as you introduced yourself - his neck was tempting. his skin glowed with a radiant hue in the sunlight and his eyes shone with an aura of broodiness. he was very austenian.

"boy is hardly the word," you correct.

charlotte, being the flirt, wiggles her eyebrows suggestively. she swims in the pond, hair wet and fanning against the water. she sinks lowly for dramatic effect. "how right you are."

"trouble or not, he was a perfect gentleman." rhea sighs and skims the water with her forefinger. "either way, he's easy on the eyes so i don't mind having him around."

easy on the eyes was putting it mildly. you wouldn't say that to the girls though; they had a habit of teasing when you showed interest in anyone attainable let alone a man decades older than you.

"don't do anything stupid, charlotte." madeline dips her paintbrush into her mason jar full of pond water.

charlotte huffs and flips her hair from her shoulder. it makes a splash, rippling the water as a result. "why not? we're all of legal age."

"he's dad's friend and a guest," you remind her, tearing your gaze away from the clouds.

the middle child lets out a pathetic whimper. "you guys are no fun," she groans.

|||

it was a busy season on the farm.

strawberries were ready to be picked by mid june and there was a three week window to do it. harvesting wasn't easy and it took a lot of man work. hands went numb, skin grew calloused. the sun that beat down on the fields was only manageable by the sprinklers that went off every blessed-ed fifteen minutes. during a drought, it was even worse.

the employees picked from seven in the morning until five in the evening. your father was adamant that breaks be plenty and pay be as prosperous as he could afford, but a strawberry farm wasn't a fortune five hundred company. he did what he could to provide the families with some semblance worthy enough to continue, and so every year he threw a dinner party.

it was always a lovely occasion, brimming with delectable treats and savory entrees. candles were aflame, lanterns lit up the pathway that lead to the entrance of the home and then the land leading into the woods. as a child, the dinner party was as exciting as a birthday. it was a night to look forward to all year long, sharing time with family and friends and gorging yourself on food you wouldn't eat any other friday of the week.

your sisters loved it too, mostly because they enjoyed the promise of gossip that poured from the mouths of guests like the wine served. and now that din djarin - a stranger, in all respects of the word - was attending an annual dinner that's managed to keep as tradition for years, gossip would surely be abundant as the wine itself.

guests arrived by the hour until the clock struck seven. the evening was crisp but warm enough to be comfortable without a blanket wrapped around your shoulders. the rock doves sung loudly to declare that sunset had begun, a few rogue and early lightning bugs blinking rhythmically. children of the employees ran throughout the fields bare footed and chanting taunts to their friends as their parents chattered among themselves.

home. here is home.

while the party had already begun (officially, at least), dinner hadn't yet been served. admittingly, you were a bit behind schedule, but you worked quickly to finish setting the tables. the theme was simple; linen napkins and wildflowers in random antique vases you found in your basement. the lilacs you'd picked from their bushes were already beginning to limp but you hoped no one would notice.

you hum when you work. whether it be intentional or not you find your lips buzzing with a tune plucked subconsciously from your brain as your hands busy themselves. you straighten the tablecloths, fill the vases with water, and set the silverware in their particular order. needless to say, you had a tendency to get lost in your own little world. so when a hand gently tapped you on the shoulder, you spun around with a shriek.

din djarin - man of the hour - is smirking handsomely at you, hands fiddling with a depressed looking lilac. you place a palm against your heart and count its beats. too many.

"mister djarin," you sigh out. "you scared me."

he lets out a breathy chuckle, hands running through his wavy locks. "i see that. i'm sorry, but i was just wondering if you'd like some help."

his voice...oh, stars and garters. it was so rough but tender - like a steak. you cock an eyebrow at how strange the comparison is but convince yourself it didn't matter. still, you're blushing from the jump so you duck your head from his gaze.

"there's not much left to do," you admit, turning back to the table. you spread your hands against the tablecloth to ward off any wrinkles. "you can double check if i missed any forks, i suppose. i have a tendency to do that."

din hums in his throat and nods a little. "sure," he says, moving to the first setting. his eyes scan along the silverware carefully. "where are your sisters? they don't help, huh?"

"they're better at entertaining," you say truthfully. "i volunteer to take care of the dinner part...as long as i don't have to socialize as much i'm content."

it was true. it's not that you had an aversion to people in general, but you tried to avoid conversation whenever possible - it wasn't your strong suit. you could get away with it when need be but you found it took too much energy to pretend to enjoy conversation about the weather or politics.

"i understand," din nods. he straightens a spoon with the nudge of his finger. "i find myself to be the same way."

there's an awkward silence between the two of you. you didn't know how to respond. while you weren't good at social situations in general, you found it natural to feign interest in subjects bland enough to circumvent discomfort...but you felt the need to impress him.

"so you'll be staying with us this summer then?" you decide, falling short. how stupid.

din nods swiftly. "yeah. in one of the cabins."

the cabins were located at various points of the land your father owned. in order to get there, one usually took an ATV or walked if the going gets tough. you preferred to stroll along the river, but your sisters liked riding the four wheelers or their bikes.

"which one?" you ask, tone mindless.

din's finished with double checking your work. he pulls out a chair - an old, wooden antique - and sits down upon it with caution. you stifle a laugh and, if he notices, he doesn't say anything. he'd soon learn that everything here was old but sturdier than they looked. you wish you could say it was for aesthetic purposes but it was more convenient than anything.

"the one closest to the pond," din replies lowly.

you notice how his eyes survey your form and how intimate it was. he was studying you but for whatever reason you couldn't be sure. you try to shake away the idea that he could be (dare you say?) pining over you. how silly. like you told charlotte: din djarin was off limis.

that was the end of it.

you find yourself blushing again so you hide your face. "that's my favorite one," you tell him honestly. "i like the view."

din smiles in agreement. "so do i."

if you weren't so heated with frustration, you would've called him out on the implication (as out of character for you it may be). then again, you found yourself weakened by the mere presence of this man. it wasn't unlike you, per say; you were naturally timid but there was an eagerness to his charm that you weren't familiar with. guys your age were so sure of themselves but it was almost always under false pretenses. this man however...well, he was a man and that was intimidating.

fine. it was hot.

you clear your throat in an effort to regain a semblance of poise. this summer had already proven to be laborious in a way you hadn't expected.

[lore-of-the-silvereyes-rwby]

The Hero that was never meant to be

I’m going to ask you guys a quick question. Think back to the volume 2 season finale in 2014. Or before Salem's debut. Once all of the antagonists are defeated and you're now left asking; Who's going to be the next antagonist for the series?

Before we proceed with this inquiry let's take a look at what exactly distinguishes a hero, from a villain.

Hero/Villain/Anti;who knows?

Below are multiple examples/definitions and meanings of heroes and villains as well as their anti sub groups.

Hero

a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.

the chief character in a book, play, or movie, who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to sympathize.

“a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities." Heroes come in many forms in life, ranging from one's family and friends to athletes to movie stars. A person's heroes can change over time.

Villain

(in a film, novel, or play) a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.

 a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel. 

a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot.

Anti-Hero

a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes.

is 'a central character in a story, film, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes'. These missing attributes include idealism, courage, and morality. Anti-heroes can sometimes do the right thing, but it is usually because it serves their interests to do so.

Anti-Villain

is the opposite of an Anti-Hero — a character with heroic goals, personality traits, and/or virtues who is ultimately the villain. Their desired ends are mostly good, but their means of getting there range from evil to undesirable.

Now that we have some measure of clarity about this let's get to the point.  Basically Ironwood is a Anti-Villain character

If you think back to the things we have learned throughout the series, all the people we have met, you will find that all of Ironwood’s traits align better with Salem, Cinder, Jacques, and Adam.  All of them have this hunger for power and/or control, all of them are trying to protect themselves and increase their control.  

All of them use a level of manipulation and none of them really cared about the damage it would do to others.  Ironwood might be a little better because, at first, it was something he kind of thought about.  Kind of. He had trouble relating to the idea that protecting more was better than protecting less, and it seems that he had been struggling to find his heart since the beginning. 

Ironwood is a well intentioned and desperate man who wants to protect Atlas against Salem, but he can reach extreme means to do so. By the end of Volume 7, he's willing to abandon both Mantle to die and throw away humanity's best chance of survival by leaving Amity Tower; he also falls far enough to shoot a teenager for comparing him to Salem.

Going hand in hand with his Never My Fault tendencies. Ironwood hates anyone bringing up how his ways don't work, with extreme annoyance being the best reaction possible. It doesn't matter if someone is simply stating the objective tangible negatives of his actions, he will not hear it. He gets into a shouting match with Nora when she calls him out on how much damage he's doing to Mantle and only stops when she points out his proposed solution to deal with the current unrest (martial law) is just going to cause far worse problems if he goes through with it.

While he demands complete loyalty from others, Ironwood has repeatedly betrayed the trust of others in the name of the greater good. If someone is an obstacle to accomplishing what he believes is necessary, he will use political or even military power to enforce his will.

Ironwood has helped Ozpin fight Salem for years but they disagreed over the best way to defend Vale; Ironwood secretly convenes a meeting of the Vale and Atlesian councils to report Ozpin's behavior, resulting in Vale removing Ozpin from overseeing the Vytal Festival security in favor of Ironwood. Qrow later tells Ironwood that he has a strange idea of showing gratitude if he responds to Ozpin bringing him into the fight against Salem by betraying him. Even after being confronted, Ironwood insists that he had no other choice.

Ironwood spends most of Volume 7 promising that the Kingdom of Atlas is safe and that Mantle can count on him to protect them. However, when he discovers Salem is arriving in person to attack Atlas, he decides to abandon Mantle to the Grimm in favour of raising the floating city of Atlas higher in the atmosphere where the Grimm can't go. When Ruby tries warning her allies about Ironwood's plan, he disables her scroll, and has Teams RWBY, JNR, Oscar and Qrow arrested.

Ironwood's a man with good intentions, but he seems to believe the best way to handle any sort of situation is if he is in full control of it. This is seen as early as Volume 2, where he both brings a large fleet (composed mainly of machines) along with students for security and later has the Vale and Atlas Councils transfer security control of the Vytal Festival from Ozpin to himself. 

After the Fall of Beacon, James continues to tighten Atlas' defenses with a Dust embargo and closing of its borders, and by the time the heroes arrive in Mantle, there are broadcasts of the general practically saying that as long as they cooperate with his laws, he can and will keep them safe. 

As Salem's forces continue to sow discord and increase his paranoia, and when he discovers that Team RWBY has consistently hidden important information from him, Ironwood decides to invoke martial law and raise Atlas out of Salem's reach, under his control. When Ruby warns the others of his plans, he shuts off her call with his own Scroll.

Ironwood is noted for being a man who never gives up pursuing his vision of how people should be protected. When his attempts to convince Ozpin that they're on the wrong path fail, he convinces the Atlesian and Vale councils to override Ozpin's authority and give him direct control of protecting the Vytal Festival Tournament. 

In Volume 7, he is willing to pursue his goal of protecting the Kingdom of Atlas against Salem no matter how bad his public reputation becomes with the citizens.

To be clear Ironwood is an Anti- Villain type character in the RWBY story. He may have good intentions but it is unknown as to their extent of what they are. His methods to achieve those methods have only made things worse.

I couldn’t let you breath, cause I didn’t wanna Die

We all say we would die for something but do we actually mean it?

��I would die without regret I offer up my life”

It is hypothetical but not in the way you suggest. The difference between using would or will is not about whether the speaker is being disingenuous about their offer, it’s about whether the speaker knows if they are ever going to be in a position to fulfil their promise

It is hypothetical because the speaker does not know whether there will ever be a situation where they would be in a position to give their life to save you. If they were to use will, it implies they are anticipating that they will be in a position to give their life to save you 

When someone says “I would die for you if you need it,” is it just a hypothesis that's never going to happen,  the subject doesn’t want to die at all, otherwise they’ll use “will” instead of “would”?

Kill or be killed

All the weapons in rwby appeal to the audience as they have options when it comes to fighting. Ironwoods does not. His weapon is only designed to kill as a reflection of his inability to see reason. As opposed to other characters that show that when they kill it would be a last resort option.

(Think of the Jedi's preference for lightsabers instead of blasters)

Ironwood has a revolver  -  reliable, never jams. high attack power, similar to his mentality on robotics in general and how he values them focusing on the characteristics of the revolver is the important part, and you see it in another Atlesian character--Weiss Myrtenaster is a Rapier and a Revolver as well, and revolvers are still used nowadays because of their reliability. They'll never jam, and when it comes to a gun all that really matters is hitting the target on a pragmatic mindset at least, and ultimately in the show the weapons used by characters say a lot about them. For example;

Qrow has a scythe - not a weapon, a farmer's tool, alluding to the scarecrow. The actual weapon would be the sword mode, and is inspired by the grim reaper, who uses a scythe because he reaps souls like one would reap what was sown(or harvest)

Jaunes shield and sword are both offensive and defensive weapons which offers a variety of options as to handle conflict

Ozpin's cane symbolically conveys the message that it's okay to be weak and its normal to accept help and support from others

Yang's gauntlets are basically Bruise but don’t kill type weapon as such they give her  more control of the damage that is inflicted on her opponents

As ruby put it the Weapons in the show are an extension of the characters. The extent of Ironwoods weapon is that it conveys his blunt, and cold methods that he can’t or won’t embrace alternatives solutions or anyone else's ideas to problems

This can also be seen with his use of militarized Huntsmen and the use of mindless android soldiers. As I stated in I am power Ironwood’s personnel combat abilities are mediocre to non-existent with his true power stemming from the consent of the people to die for his cause instead of him since it's guaranteed that he will die instantly due to his lack of unique or special combat abilities. 

(Pretty self explanatory considering he had to sacrifice an arm to beat a nerd)

Fear of death is basic human instinct

Ironwood believes that he is this chosen savior and can’t die and he believes his life is more important than others and would instead sacrifice everyone else instead of him if it would mean victory

Now you're probably asking why does Ironwood not want to die when he said he would? As stated before he doesn’t trust anyone but himself to do the job right. His narcissism and ego prohibit him from trusting others and having faith that people besides him can win. 

This has been hinted as early as his debut in V2 where he asks Ozpin;

“Do you honestly believe that your children can win a war?”

Because of this and his Nihilism for rejecting the truth, he believes that he is the most important piece on the bored and everyone should listen and die for whatever he needs if it would mean victory

Ambitions and desires of a broken kingdom

A character without motivation is a really boring character as opposed to one who does. But to realize what their motivation is or what it is truly is another. Ironwood is no different but what exactly is his personal motivation that is unique to him one must wonder?

That's just it, he has no real personal motivation. Like what does he have to lose? What does he have to gain? What is so important that he is willing to go to such lengths that clash with the ideas of Ozpin and the heroes? To answer Atlas. After all, what is Ironwood without Atlas?

 It is important to know the effects of a characters home and origins to better understand a character's personality. Ironwood's plans have always been in line with Atlas, whose intentions are that of Ancient Mantle. Now what exactly are the intentions of the former capital that would live through Ironwood.

Atlas as I stated before is more or less a Technocratic Conservatives society led by Authoritative totalitarians with a focus of becoming an Extreme Militaristic Oligarchy that had originally started out as a Resource driven Empire out of necessity and without restriction 

To clarify, Ironwood is a byproduct, and enforcer of Mantle’s(later Atlas) Philosophical Ideology and Culture. The effects of one's origins can have a very lasting impact on one's life. Ironwood’s life has been heavily affected by his homeland to the point that he will die for it, and sacrifice whatever he deems necessary for it. 

Because of this Ironwoods alignment is that of Lawful Evil because of his Atlas ideology

A Lawful Evil character is an evil character who either tries to impose or uphold a lawful system on others without regard for their wishes, and/or adheres to a particular code. They believe in order, but mostly because they believe it is the best way of realizing their evil wishes.

In other words Ironwood will always be the loyal son of his Kingdom and will do anything to save it.

Now that clears his main motivation and the scale of what he is willing to do to achieve it but what motivates him personally?

Well that's just it there is none. His primary motivation is pretty shared by most of the heroes and main characters and as is the common clause of save the world stories everybody knows they can’t let that happen as peter quill would say;

“Why do you want to save the Galaxy?”

“Because I'm one of the idiots who lives in it.”

So with that in mind what's in it for him that he can’t lose or let the world be destroyed?

You overstepped your boundaries

To help understand his character it is important to understand what exactly his role in the plot was originally and how he ended up biting off more than he can chew when he broke away from it.

Essentially Ironwood was meant to be the overseer and guardian of the relic of creation as well as the trainer of the next generation of huntsman/huntresses. Meaning the only position of power that he should only have is Headmaster of Atlas academy. As I stated in I am machine Ironwood's heroism stems from a lack of trust and in doing so has burdened him with more responsibility than he can handle.

The catalyst 

All of the events and conflicts that plague remnant at the shows present can all be traced to Ironwood. An argument can be made for Salem but to me she seems more of an opportunist instead of an actual evil master mine. Being the opportunist she is she needs ammo for which she is otherwise incapable of making on her own. Thanks to Ironwood she has plenty of it to enact her plans and reach her goals 

Below is a list of events and conflicts as well as characters that have been affected by Ironwood

(Whether Directly or Indirectly)

The Schnee Dust Companies Immoral and shady practices

I know Jaques is mostly to blame for all of this but one must ask; Why didn’t anyone stop him before V7? 

It's already been established in the show that the S.D.C. and Atlas Military have a corporate alliance to mass produce Weapons and ammunition. The most prominent weapons to come out of this alliance was the paladin assault mechs. Now how important was this alliance to Ironwood?

In short, they are the best choice to provide for his needs for war. As long as he gets weapons and all that he needs to sustain a war he doesn't care what the giver has to do to meet his demand. As such Ironwood had enabled Jaques and allowed him to continue his immoral ways so long as he gets what he needs. On the other hand Jaques seems to be at least a decade older than Ironwood so there is a possibility that the corporate alliance has already been there long before Ironwood ever came to power.

But I ask again why didn’t Ironwood who was aligned with a man like Ozpin didn’t stop him? As the Volume 7 commentary stated Ironwood doesn’t care for Ozpin's rules and sees being efficient is more important than being morally good. Because of this Ironwood had been more focused on starting a war first and caring about people second thus he has only spread misery by enabling Jaques’s greed just to have his war. The crimes of the S.D.C. are also Ironwood’s 

The family strain of the Schnee family and Winters abandoning

While we’re still on the subject of the Schnee's let's talk about how essentially Ironwood made Winter the Blake to his Adam

As I stated before in “You had me with your words”  we don’t exactly know why Winter would be so loyal to Ironwood to the point of saying that her life doesn’t matter in V7 and why she would be so against her family to the point that she makes no effort to see Weiss, and Whitely included and only bothering to be apart of Weiss’s life only because she seems to be following the same path of defiance against their father. In other words she only chooses to interact with her sister only if she is rebelling against their father. If she is not, then Winter wants nothing to do with her. 

Now who or what exactly would cause Winter to have this unhealthy mindset in regards to her own personal existence and relationships?

The answer being Ironwood. 

If we were to consider Jaques words being serious than it is more than likely the truth. Ironwood did steal Winter, not just from her father but from the rest of her family. I don’t know what exactly Ironwood said or did to turn winter away from her family but it wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart. He did this  just to have a loyal subordinate with incredible power( her hereditary semblance) & status( her grandfather's legacy and accomplishments) just to give his power and status more legitimacy.

By doing so Ironwood made Winter  believe that her family as well as herself is beyond redemption due to the actions of her father thus leading her to abandon them and only believing Ironwood can redeem her hence why she values her life so little and is willing to die for whatever Ironwoods says.

I understand that winter joined the military to get away from her dad but she had options besides the military and like weiss she could have went to the other academies to get away from her dad but she didn't which i consider Winters greatest flaw is that she has no idea of an actual healthy relationship

The White Fang

This is also speculative but not unlikely as the show has clearly shown; Faunus and Atlas don’t mix. 

Same thing with the S.D.C. this can really be seen as indifference on Ironwood’s part and lack of care  but still Ironwood didn’t do anything to settle the racial inequality in Atlas even though he is allied in a secret circle that's supposed to keep the peace.

Especially when that inequality was being used to help legitimize a terrorist organization that can be used as a disposable army for Salem which it did.

Watts’s Defection & the P.E.N.N.Y. Project

Ironwood commissioned 5 scientists including Watts and Pietro to make Weapons for war.

Even though Watts is an egotistical bastard it really makes you wonder how someone as smart as him would work for a literal demon lady hell bent on conquest. The same can also be said about why he chose Penny instead of any other actual and practical projects ideal for war.

One thing to note is the possibility that Ironwood did not tell the 5 about the real reason as to why they’re making these weapons in the first place. For example would Pietro really want Penny the closest thing to an actual child that he may have had to be used as one of Ironwoods militarized assets?

We’ve seen what Pietro is like and that he really cares about Penny and if it were his choice Penny wouldn’t be in the situations that Ironwood would place her in. Ironwood had basically taken and drafted Penny without her or Pietro's consent and made her a tool for war and much more.

In semi canon sources(Amity Arena) the general consensus is that the Paladins were Watts’s idea and project. One of the misconceptions is that it was a contest for whose idea would be made but since we see both the Paladins being used and Penny that's not the case. All 5 projects were going to be used but only 1 would take top priority first before others and that project was Penny. 

This might actually explain why the paladins were ugly and incomplete in V2 as opposed to their slicker and finished versions in V3. The Penny project took both praise and priority first before the others. Once penny was finished the other projects would begin that may also explain why the Paladins weren’t first revealed until the events of V2 even though Pietro said that the commissions for the projects including the Paladins were almost a decade ago as of  V7 ep 7 

To Watts he felt insulted that his (to him) practical project was being postponed for a sad man's personal self indulgent pet project. This and due to not really knowing as to why these projects were going to be used for. Because of this and Ironwood’s lack of concern for people He had essentially driven Watts to Salem and made him one of her most valuable assets that she ever had. Salem herself even states that she should have employed his services years ago that alone tells us how valuable an asset Watts was and Ironwood discarded it. Which led to the fall of Beacon and the civil unrest in Mantle With Watts out of the way let's move to the next question

Why the Penny Project?

We all know at this point that Penny is the Pinochio for Pietro’s jopedo. So why would Ironwood approve a project that seems the least efficient and effective for war? There have been many theories as to why but two of them stand out the most; Potential vessel for the maiden powers and Espionage

It has been made clear that Ironwood has been readying for war against other people Salem specifically but how does one go about that? The first of which can be explained as Ironwood trying to make the ultimate artificial warrior with incredible power. As Ironwood has more faith in machines than people he would see Penny as the ultimate super soldier that he can use in his war

The second theory as to why he chose penny could be for spy and espionage purposes. As stated by cinder in volume 3 where this theory originates from; why would Atlas make a robot look like an innocent little girl? We know why Pietro made Penny look human but why would Ironwood go along with making a T800 complete with realistic skin and hair?  Besides Pietro there was no logical reason to make penny look as humanly as possible. Like the Terminators who were designed for infiltration and assassination missions and Ironwood being a paranoid individual who sees the world as one of two things; you’re either an asset or a threat / Penny or similar models would have been used to spy and eliminate potential threats in the other kingdoms. With the possibility as to what Ironwood would use penny for before her reveal in V3 clear let's move on to the last part of this bullet point

Why didn’t Ozpin know about Penny?

Prior to the truth of her origins being revealed via her death by Pyrah the only people who knew she was an android are cinder’s team, Ruby, Pietro, and Ironwood. The villains knew that truth after being fortunate enough to have Ironwoods scroll infected by the virus and Ruby found out by accident from penny. 

So officially the only people that were allowed to know the truth about Penny were Pietro and Ironwood. Winter and the Ace-opts don’t count as Volume 7 confirmed that they were brought into the fold after the fall of beacon along with penny so by the time of the fall of beacon they had no idea about salem or that was the sole purpose as to why penny was made.

 The same can be said for Watts too since Penny was still an idea being developed along with being assumed dead and not seen in atlas for years. Thus Watts never even knew what penny looked liked. Had he known i'm pretty sure he would’ve revealed that to Salem who would have given it to cinder for use in her mission. But as V3 shows Cinder finds out after getting access to Ironwood's personal scroll. Meaning that Ironwood kept Penny so secret that he never even bothered or considered to tell Ozpin.

By the end of PVP Ironwood sounded like a terrified child who got caught while trying to explain to a pissed off Ozpin about Penny only to be coldly told in a threatening tone to use the army that he brought to clean up his mess or else. That alone is proof enough from Ironwood that he never told Ozpin about Penny and was scared of what Ozpin would do to him for catching him on his secrets and lies.

So why didn’t Ironwood tell Ozpin about Penny? Short answer Ozpin would never approve the use of Penny. It was already established in V3 ep 6 that Atlas has been doing unethical experiments with Aura. Ozpin and most of the inner circle don’t really approve of such practices but can tolerate it  and use it if they have to. But most likely not to the extent of using it to make artificial living beings just to be soldiers.

This would be a similar moral dilemma as the clone troopers from star wars who were bred and mass produced at an accelerated rate to fight  in a war that they didn’t even understand or have a choice to fight in with the mindset and innocents of a child. The Umbara arc from season 4 of the clone wars series perfectly depicts the unhealthy amount of abuse the clones faced and the length of being taken advantage they were forced to endure

Now apply that to an army of pennies with the same childlike innocence and naivety and sentience being deployed into combat without much preparation and are expected to die just to buy time for the real heroes to win.

Now who is more likely to use a clone army without concern for the morality and ethics about making it let alone not care for the well being of those clones

A key important factor to remember is that until V7’s end Ironwood was pro war as he thought he could win against Salem if he had the largest army at his disposal. Penny was no exception and Ironwood only saw her as a potential part needed for his war machine. Because of the war centric views of Volume 2 & 3 Ironwood and lack of concern for the safety of others Ironwood had set the stage perfectly for volume 3’s finale

The Fall of Beacon

The points above actually help validate and contribute to the Fall of Beacon, but it's true Beginning for its fall started when Ironwood arrived at Beacon in Volume 2. As stated by Oz in Ironwoods first appearance Headmasters don’t usually attend the vytal festival with their students. Given what we now know about the importance of the academies, Ironwood pretty much abandoned his post and risked the safety of the relic under his charge.

All in what appears to be an effort to make a power grab against Ozpin and promote Atlas.(That’s probably speculative but not far off the bat given Ironwoods doubts and actions by the end of V2).Ever since his debut Ironwood has always been a character that contradicts the main characters that are suppose to be the heroes

He seems to only believe the best way to handle any sort of situation is if he is in full control of it. This is seen as early as Volume 2, where he both brings a large fleet (composed mainly of machines) along with students for security. Ironwood has helped Ozpin fight Salem for years but they disagreed over the best way to defend Vale; Ironwood secretly convenes a meeting of the Vale and Atlesian councils to report Ozpin's behavior, resulting in Vale removing Ozpin from overseeing the Vytal Festival security in favor of Ironwood. 

 Volume 2 also has Ironwood reveal to Glynda that he thinks Ozpin is hiding something from them. Glynda points out that he's part of the inner circle that's hiding things from the rest of the world and that he needs to stop talking about trust and learn how to trust others. Ignoring her advice, he secretly collaborates with the Vale Council to strip Ozpin of his control over the Vytal Festival security, then tells Ozpin to trust him.

This also brought up the possibility that Ozpin would be removed as Headmaster of Beacon academy. Not only was Ironwood willing to depose the leader he was following from his position of power but also remove an important ally from safeguarding one of the most important and crucial places in all of the world that also holds probably the most important relic of all of them(The Crown of Choice)  

I already talked about how Penny’s secret had contributed to the fall so I’ll be talking about how Watts contributed to it since I forgot to include in the last bullet point. Its a very small Easter egg but on Cinders scroll as she was rigging the vytal tournament for CVFY’s match and discovering Penny’s android nature there is a small cursive W at the corner of her scroll. The small W that Watts uses as a holographic icon when he calls Leo in V5. RT has said that they had WTCH in their back pocket for years until they were revealed taking that into account it is clear that the virus that infected Beacons CCT Ironwoods scroll and forcing the droid army to commit order 66 was made by Watts.

The virus and the cyber warfare aside the next final contribution on Ironwood’s part was the imprisonment of Roman Torchwick

It's pretty much been clear that Torchwicks' imprisonment was an improvised plan on the villains part to get an inside man aboard a warship. Basically it was like Heath Ledger's joker in the dark knight; he wanted to get caught. Torchwick himself said that he is where he wants to be to Ironwood at the end of V2. As V3 showed Torchwick and Neo took over what can be assumed to be Ironwood’s personal flag ship and used it to destroy the rest of the air naval section that was brought for the Vytal security team. 

This could have been avoided had Torchwick not been released into Ironwood's custody or at the very least kept somewhere else that should he escape he couldn’t have done so much damage. The Airships aside it was also possible that Roman had used the onboard artillery on the city as well that means that innocent civilians weren’t just being mowed down by hacked robots but being carpet bombed as well increasing the death toll at the fall of Beacon.

The Dust embargo and closing of borders

Since the fall of Beacon Academy, Ironwood has become increasingly unstable and paranoid, making more and more ethically questionable decisions that he repeatedly justifies as the greater good; by his own admission, he will do anything it takes to stop Salem. 

This however does not fare well with the rest of Remnant though.

As Atlas is the primary location for most of Remnants Industry as well as having a monopoly on Dust; Remnant’s most crucial resource that everyone needs in order to survive, the other  kingdoms rely heavily on Atlas for technology, resources and weapons. By placing an embargo he has cut off everyone in the world from their most valued resource. Though he did this to stop the enemies chain of supply he is still letting people suffer and die by with-holding the one thing they need to live and survive. 

Which brings us to the borders

Though it could have eased tensions after the fall of Beacon it just lasted too long as well as the fact that Ironwood had essentially turned his back on the world and refused to help the other kingdoms in their time of need. In the CFVY book spin-off all of the Beacon students either went to Haven or Shade academy to finish their training. As well as the Vale refugees going to other kingdoms as well. But due to Atlas closing its borders none of the students or the people went to Atlas for help. Basically due to Ironwood’s orders the Kingdom of Atlas was forced to not help the other kingdoms when they needed it the most.

And it has only gotten worse due to the events at Mistral in V5 as not only are the students of both Beacon and Haven going to shade, putting a strain on the academy but leaving the entirety of the worlds largest kingdom unguarded and undefended as it now lacks able huntsmen to protect it due to Ironwood’s refusal to help 

It should also be noted that when Ironwood closed the borders he had failed to inform any off his subordinates of who can and can’t enter the kingdom especially in regards to allies like Glynda or Qrow who again are allies against Salem and Ironwood made little to no effort in keeping contact with the other Oz members. This is made evident in V6 when the Argus soldiers refused to believe Qrow about being an ally to Ironwood. you could say that he was waiting on the amity project to make contact with the other members but  he had to have realized that they needed to get into atlas at some-point. But did he make it easy for them or any other ally to reach him? No he did not. 

The Mistral Huntsmen Genocide and the Battle of Haven

Second verse, same as the first, he had put them in a hearse. Another example of Ironwood’s indifference and hypocrisy that led to the death of allies and innocent people.

Due to the events of the Fall and it being broadcasted the enormous state of panic had spread throughout all of the kingdoms. The negative emotions in mass had attracted the Grimm and caused much havoc and loss throughout all of them and the worst to suffer from this mass hysteria was most likely Mistral due to its larger population and territory.

In V5 Lionheart had confirmed that Mistral losses were heavy and many of the local huntsmen including the Professors from Haven were killed in the initial grimm invasion that plagued Mistral following the fall of Beacon. After the initial panic had settled down the Mistral council had been employing Huntsmen in mass and restricted their activity to crucial and vital missions in high profile areas to ensure the safety and stability of the Kingdom.

Now the real question comes in where was Atlas?

In the world of remnants shorts  its confirmed that Mantle and Mistral have an alliance that eventually carried into Atlas. With that being said, where was Mistral’s ally during the fall out and what were they doing. We know in V5 that all Military Assets were recalled within the month prior to the battle of Haven. I know that the kingdoms are weary of Atlas at this point but given the state of the world after the fall, Mistral needed all the help they could get. As such Mistral would have to call upon the old alliance and have them honor their word and offer aid. 

Or at the very least transfer some assets over to Mistral to use it as needed. We have the base in Argus sure but that was just a forward border control base  that didn’t really help anybody. Prior to the recalling Ironwood had Winter gather intel on potential activity that would lead to a second fall of a huntsmen academy and he chose to do nothing. This is further proof of his hypocrisy and arrogance. Ironwood at this point is reading the military for war and with holding aid and support that was actually needed. 

His V4 self is a stark contrast to his V2&3 self as that version of himself was willing to manipulate and intervene in the affairs of other nations under the assumption that the ends justify the means and would see himself above the rules so long as it's for the greater good and stop the threat before it can escalate. That was exactly what Ironwood did at the end of V2 by stealing power from Oz and tried to enforce his own set of rules if it would prevent a disaster.

Now why did Ironwood not do the same thing with Mistral and try to prevent the potential fall of its academy regardless of the bad publicity that it would warrant? It's already been said by Ironwood that he doesn’t trust Leo to handle the situation at Mistral and based his dissection to close the borders on Winters report and decided to prepare for an potential attack on Atlas rather than sending a small task force to handle the threat at Mistral. 

Taking into consideration his plan for Amity it's quite possible that he wanted Leo to fail and Mistral to be ready to eat from his palm. In other words unless there is something to gain and benefit from he’s not going to do it.

Ironwood all the way till he was told the truth about Salem in V7 had a War is the Answer mentality and was hoarding everything and anything that would help sustain a long campaign as well as increasing the size of that force with the intent that  that the large numbers were enough to intimidate Salem and her faction into surrendering and eventual destruction. The only problem is that the people he needs were born in a time of relative peace.

Because of the 80 year age of peace that followed the Great War the Modern world of Remnant has had zero to no conflicts as large or damaging since that one war. There were small conflicts sure like the faunus war, the White fang terrorist cell, and the criminal underworld but they weren’t that much or a threat or concern to a majority of remnant it wasn’t until the Fall of Beacon that the foundation of this peace was shaken so intensely that the cracks started to show but it was still together if only held by a thread.

With the Peace in mind and the peoples faith still with the huntsman as their distrust for Atlas Military lingers no one in the world of remnant outside of Atlas would have any motivation or desire to mobilize for war let alone a war for a foreign leader of a foreign land that has recently come under suspicion. Ironwood was never going to be able to unite the Kingdoms and mobilize their people for his war after the fall of Beacon with Atlas being painted as the bad guy. Unless the situation went from worst to extreme.

Like if another academy were to fall with the same or greater results like Beacon. Then maybe people all around the world would consider following Ironwood’s lead and wipe out the threat before things can get even worse.

Because of this Ironwood had allowed Mistral and possibly the other Kingdoms to exhaust themselves so much that they would be unprepared for the next major Grimm invasion should they come after the next major hysteria induced panic. Panic like Ironwood’s original plan to unite the world and tell them about Salem causing the kingdoms to fall into further disarray only to be saved by the flying grace of Ironwood and his Military. And the only repayment for his help is that you join his fight.

I know this is all speculative and you can say Lionheart was the one who was responsible for mistrals problems after the fall, but remember Leo was the only Faunus on the council of a racist kingdom and only had one seat over the huntsmen and can only give out and approve mission assignments that would get them killed thus he had no real authority or power in Mistral  besides siding with the majority and even if he tried to talk the council into refusing Ironwoods help their racism wouldn’t listen to Leo and they would do the opposite and call for aid. 

But again Ironwood prior to the fall was willing to stop the threat at its source regardless of politics. But after the fall he had put all of his focus on preparing for war instead of helping people that needed his help at that moment. This may be due to his semblance(still dumb BTW) but ultimately he was focusing on his own needs first than the needs of others. Because of this he had ignored the issues of Mistral and failed to see the truth of what Lionheart was doing and had allowed Most if not all of the well trained and experienced huntsmen of that kingdom to die leaving the kingdom defenseless and unprepared for any conflict that would come.

 Like the Battle for Haven for example. Had Ironwood not recalled everyone back and had Winter and whatever Atlas personal that were with her its quite possible that the battle may never had happen, the truth about leo would have been discovered sooner and the genocide of Mistrals huntsmen wouldn’t have been as bad had Ironwood actually chose to help, Instead he  started to fall back and focus on the Amity Project and Atlas instead of spending any resource outside of them, due to a narrow focus to and putting everything on it just so he can have his Victory.

The Civil unrest in Mantle

A loved and respected leader will die by the side of his people: A feared and hated one will die by their hand. Short term closing the borders cloud have helped ease tensions between Atlas and the rest of the world but long term it had made things worse

Due to the fall of Beacon it's quite possible the initial attacks that came after can explain why Mantle's defensive wall was so destroyed and ruined by the time of V7. That means that potentially for almost over a year that wall has had no repairs or maintenance  and has had the bare minimum leaving the citizens in a state of constant peril and danger since the fall of beacon

This is further made worse when Ironwood closed off the borders and cut off the chain of supplies and trade not only to Atlas but also to Mantle as well making the kingdom suffer more than it had to. As the original capital, the rise of Atlas reduced Mantle to a shadow of its former self. Streets are run-down, technology is old, security defenses haven't been updated in years, and smog from the mines hangs heavy over the city. People struggle to eke out an existence, depend on dangerous mines for work and experience regular Grimm attacks that the city increasingly struggles to repel. Meanwhile, Atlas hangs in the sky above their heads; a constant reminder of the wealthy elite that is failing to share the wealth that Mantle creates, and a target of Mantle's growing resentment and anger at having been left so far behind.

Ironwood who is again allied with and a member of a secret circle that is supposed to keep the peace and prevent any social unrest that can cause a conflict.  Thus he should have tried to ease the tensions and made the conditions of Mantle better in order to maintain peace. Now I know it's not solely Ironwood’s fault for the state that Mantle is in as he hasn’t been in a position of power for long but still he should have focused on the people instead of preparing for a war that may have never come. A stark contrast to Ozpin’s way of preserving peace and handling threats

Because of his narrow focus and indifference he made things worse as he was only focusing on potential threats that have yet to come instead of focusing on the issues and preventing them before they escalated. After the fall, the embargo and closing of Borders Ironwood concerned himself with preparations for an assumed winnable war instead of trying to restore peace and keep the people on his side. Which is ironic as he was doing this to rally a large force and stop the threat but did not consider that he may have been pushing away potential troops and allies that he would have needed. And only stoked the people's frustrations 

This is mostly due to Ironwood never giving an estimate of time for how long the embargo and the borders would last as well as not giving a clear and believable reason as to why he was doing all of this in the first place. I know he was going to tell Mantle and the world about Salem eventually and he did in V7 but that was only because he was forced to and used it to take out potential threats by baiting them. This is also added with the fact that he really didn’t have any solid proof that would make the people believe him about Salem as well. Due to the frustration of the people it would just sound like made up propaganda and Ironwood shifting blame onto a fake enemy to drive people's attention onto something else. And yes the people believed it but remember they were being evacuated so i don’t think they were buying Ironwood's statement but were just glad that they were being saved.

And in the end it doesn’t even matter as ultimately Ironwood caved in to fear and decided to leave Mantle for dead. Which could have been avoided had Ironwood focused his attention to the needs of people rather than the needs of war. One of the constant themes of the show is that victory is not in strength or in mass numbers but within the small and willing hearts of those that will fight no matter what.

In conclusion Ironwood had played a pivotal role in contributing to all of the conflicts that plague the world of Remnant at present, even if it were minor role he nonetheless helped set the stage for the villains and Salem   

The reason why I say that; as stated in earlier sections: Despite all of his talk about the greater good for the world he really means the greater good of Atlas and by extension himself. He is prioritizing his kingdom above all else at the expense of the other kingdoms and exploits of their people for his kingdom's own personal gain. As well as with holding beneficial technology that could actually benefit and improve the living conditions and way of life of the other kingdoms.

Ironwood’s inability to trust and have faith in people and others to keep the peace ultimately led to him intervening in affairs that he had no right to and with his own belief that his way is what is best had caused the Fall of Beacon and the events and conflicts before and after it.

It was over before it started

Now the Question must be asked what was Ironwood’s plan?

Ironwood throughout the series believed that he could win against Salem, and by the end of volume 7 he still believed that he could win, but in reality he had already lost the moment he tried to start a war.

To quote Ruby as she asked Ozpin: what was Ironwood’s plan to stop Salem if he ever had one to begin with? As far back as Volume 2 to Volume 7 Ironwood’s ideas and plans to handle Salem seemed to be; gather a large force, blitz run her stronghold, and destroy her with WMD’s. Most of his plans stem from an appeal to force and intimidation tactics via large numbers with heavy armament. In any other circumstances this could have worked had it been a different kind of villain that wasn’t immortal. As V6 has revealed Salem can’t die through traditional means such as modern warfare thus making Ironwood’s plans and solutions moot and pointless. Once he is told the truth in V7 he still continues down the same path of thinking that has not only failed but enabled the villains goals as well. So it must be asked why does Ironwood not see that his way is flawed and that he was never going to win if he continues down this path?

 Ironwood's numerous conflicts throughout the series occur because he feels he does not need to follow the standards he sets for others; He demands people trust him while showing them none in return. He forces others to sacrifice much for the cause while giving up very little in return. He insists on loyalty when he has turned on others solely because they disagreed with him.

As Volume 7 progresses, he becomes willing to commit increasingly dubious actions in order to oppose Salem. He starts off by imposing a military embargo on Mantle despite the economic hardships said embargo is causing for the civilians on the ground and diverting resources that Mantle needs to rebuild its infrastructure to build a comm tower at Amity Colosseum. By the end of the volume, he's degenerated into declaring full martial law, abandoning Mantle to die, and either attacking or having arrested anyone who opposes him.

Salem and her faction were a tumor that can only be handled with the surgical precision of a scalpel not with the bulk of a fleet or large armies. The Huntsmen were that scalpel and to be specific the Huntsmen that Oz had chosen as they were meant to protect all people and prevent conflicts without personal bias or desire. Ironwood only acted in the self interest of Atlas and the benefits that he would gain from it

Ozpin’s priority had always been the people, no matter where they came from. However, I think he was once in Ironwood’s shoes.  I am pretty sure he tried everything, including the same things Ironwood did, and saw it fail horribly. Ozpin or at least the soul, has had centuries to millennia's of experience in fighting Salem and managing the world. The delicacy of the human mind and heart are something he is well acquainted with, and I think he already knew what type of person Ironwood was, or at least was becoming.  Near as I can tell, the big reason he kept Ironwood on at this point was because Ironwood had the resources and technology he needed to keep his plan moving forward and wouldn’t relinquish them.

Ozpin worked hard to maintain the peace and goodwill of the people.  Ironwood, so far, has not.  Having robot sentries on every corner without the concept of morals and stopping trade for a kingdom that can not easily generate its own resources, as well as hoarding those resources and preventing necessary repairs and aid to those people–those actions all show that he is not keeping this important aspect of leadership. He is not making sure that the people are on his side so when he needs them because he does not consider their needs as important unless they are in line with his own

Even with the Knowledge of the truth of Salem’s immortality he is still sacrificing everyone and everything else for nothing just to keep up the illusion that he is the hero and to keep his source of power high in the clouds away from anyone who really needs it

I may have been a little harsh on Ironwood for his actions, especially V7 and I understand the circumstances that led to escalation by the end of the volume.  He was making dubious decisions but he was trying to do better, he listened at times and tried to show an extension of trust, the kids with giving them the lamp back, and later with Robyn at the dinner. These were due to the positive influences of Oz.  He just fell back to old habits hard and turned to extremes when it became clear he had non control of what was happening by V7 end. He was struggling with old habits and opening up and was doing better that first part of the night a prime example of what the creators meant if Ironwood had been more open and trusting of others but when everything went down he was pushed over the edge in the latter half of the night cementing his fall and decent into an antagonist further making the problem worse as he has always done. This is mostly due to his primary source of influence; Atlas (which we can agree has been the biggest source of conflict in the show so far) and probably his lack of understanding and planning for what comes after all is said and done.

What did you think would happen?

The question must be asked; What happens after Salem? The fandom has pretty much each their own idea of what might happen after Salem is finally defeated. But do the characters know what happens after the war especially Ironwood? As the end of the hero’s journey goes; Nothings the same after you become a hero. And given Ironwood’s behavior and actions before his fall in Gravity, Ironwood seemed to have ambitions and plans in the works for the long run after Salem was no longer a threat. As stated before in I am Machine no one is truly altruistic to the point that they do something that doesn’t benefit them. So what exactly did Ironwood want after Salem was gone to the point that most if not all his actions and decisions were in the effort to reach and make those plans come true?

As stated in Broken Kingdom Ironwood doesn’t really have any personal desires or motivations that aren’t related to Atlas or the Heroes common goal to stop Salem. As far as we can tell Ironwood has no current family members at present and there's very little that tells us that he has anything in mind outside of either Atlas or Salem ,so what does Ironwood have to gain from this conflict?

All hail the conquering Hero

Ironwood’s biggest issue is that he has to be the center of everything, that he has to be in control. First he’s going to try and gain control with his army, while trying to wrangle anyone else back under his control. Then, when it becomes clear that anyone who has a plan that better and could work, he’s going to get competitive, come up with new and crazy superweapons to throw against the enemy in an attempt to prove that he can defeat Salem before the heroes can gather allies from across Remnant. He believes that He is strong, that He is brave, that He doesn’t need to run to anybody for help! He believes that he is the hero and is letting his self entitlement cloud his mind and it has gotten the better of him

 An In-Universe example of this false belief comes from RWBY: Amity Arena as it  gives bios to every character in the game compiled by the In-Universe developers. While many try to be objective, the ones representative of the Atlas Elite tend to demonstrate a notable bias, most prevalent with the General's. His bio is very defensive of him, calling him the "hero of our time" and that he wears the burden of the world on his shoulders, talking him up as a Hero with Bad Publicity. The bio goes as followed;

General Ironwood. The hero of our time and Atlas' greatest protector. Under the general, we have advanced to incredible heights, discovered new technologies, and created the world's first artificial intelligence. Though horrifyingly revealed at Amity Arena, Penny is our proud foray into sentient AI, and Ada is the culmination of the machine learning we have long developed in our labs.

As reviled as he was for his misguided attempt to protect Vale, how can the world fault our General when the culprits are out there? How can the victims be blamed for the sins of the perpetrators? Is incompetence somehow a greater sin than premeditated evil? Our General may have failed to protect Beacon, but he's not the one that hacked our weapons into hurting the innocent.

Yet... he wears that burden on his shoulders like he is alone in the world...

Ozpin, missing. Lionheart, dead. Theodore, uncertain. We say Atlas is the greatest, the mightiest... the city in the clouds, but what is first place when there is no competition? Yet, our kingdom and our General... we're the best chance that humanity's got... which scares us to death.

Menagerie?

...what about it?

After reading that you can probably see through the propaganda, hypocrisy and ego that are written in the bio. A key factor to note is that this was possibly made after the main heroes arrived in Atlas and before the election night. And since there's been no contact or travel between the kingdoms and Ironwood was aware of Leo's status by worst case scenario  it tells us that the heroes have shared everything with Ironwood in regards to those events concerning Haven.

 Since Ironwood is looked up to as a god by his subordinates and since he was the one of the only few to have known about them as well as to have the status to make any key choices since the app is made by atlas scientists contracted to the military. Thus Ironwood had used it and the blind loyalty of his loyalists to make propaganda and shift the blame from himself to something else as well as try to emotionally manipulate the people by making them sympathize with him while ignoring the truth.

He is not Remnant's only hope nor is he the best choice.

This is another example of his never my fault montra and he does things right and its further shown in the bio as it not only continues to discredit the other Headmasters(I am well aware of leo) but ignores all the good and actual heroism of other people like the Faunus of Menagerie as they are to the primary reason as to why Haven didn’t become the next Beacon and as stated before in an earlier section the opportunity for the Battle of Haven was in a way created by Ironwood who had chosen to flee and protect his city instead of preventing an attack like he had originally intended with Vale.

It may also show how much Ironwood believes in his own hype as it does paint him as some sort of de facto king of Atlas. Again he views himself as the chosen savior of the chosen people and that it is his destiny to rule and change the world as he sees fit. Or as Watts puts it the Giant that stands above all

I’m the Captain now

I think it's safe to say that almost everything he does is a twisted version of Ozpin's ways as well as to place himself as Remnant's ultimate leader as he believes he is the one that can ensure a safe and secure world. Ever since his debut he has undermined everything that Ozpin has done and stood for because he believes his ways aren’t efficient ( Or beneficial) to him and has been systematically taking power and control away from him and placing himself as the new big good.

He wants to be the New warrior king and change the world as he sees fit as he only sees Ozpin as either a failure or a hindrance to him and his plans. Combine that with his Atlas ideology and a lot of things make sense. I mentioned in the False chosen one that Ironwood may have been influenced and tried to emulate the Warrior king as to better rise and gain power and correct the supposed mistakes of Ozpin. Even though that he has claimed to be doing it for the greater good of all of Remnant but  he really means only Atlas and himself

A world Reborn in my image

A major factor to consider is that Ironwood is a by-product of Atlas that was a by-product of Ancient Mantle. Ironwood is essentially a living mouthpiece for Atlas. He pretty much the living embodiment of the kingdom if it were a character. That's the sad truth of Ironwood is that he is simply an extension of this toxic environment and tricked into believing that its this ideal society when  in truth it never was.  In other words a legacy of tyranny lives on through Ironwood

We’re all aware of the origins of Atlas and its rise to prominent power. It started out as Mantle that began with a handful of people that prospered by adapting to the harsh conditions by making advanced technology faster than the rest of the world. It eventually formed a trade  alliance with Mistral trading tech for food. A grimm  incident occurs and Mantle thought being cold emotionless robots was a perfect solution. It tried to force its toxic ideology onto other civilizations and was met with mixed results. The Great war happens they lose and all of their resources are spent forcing it to rebuild its economy that eventually gives way to Atlas

Now how does this affect Ironwood?

Well Mantle through its alliance with ancient Mistral possibly adopted their ideals of imperialism and expansion as Mistral was the world's largest territorial economic empire of its time. When it comes to the rise of an empire and the type they are as well as their need for expansion it can be summed up to these 3 

Economic empire

Ideological empire

Territorial empire

Due to Mantle's lack of essential resources like food and energy, its early days were more or less focused on establishing a strong economic trade empire in order to get the essential supplies needed to sustain life in solitas. After its great depression period after the War the kingdom's economy began to grow at a rapid rate that by the time the kingdom shifted to Atlas it had Remnants largest economic empire.

This is also an important factor to consider since the sad truth of it all is that as long people can make a stable income and support themselves, they are more than likely to turn a blind eye to any shady or immoral activities so long as there's something to gain. What does this have to do with Ironwood you ask? Well as his bio card said Ironwood has pretty much been proclaimed as the kingdoms benefactor for its prosperity. This may have been due to his Corperate alliance with The Schnee’s since it was Mostly Nicolas and Jaques as far as we know being the most prominent reason as to why Atlas has prospered. 

When Ironwood formed that alliance with the SDC it gave him at least half of the power and influence of the company that was truly responsible for the kingdom's wealth and claiming it as his own. Once he had gotten some control over the economy it was time to move onto the next step and increase the empire from economic to Ideological or Political expansion.

Empires change and adapt in order to satisfies their needs now that Ironwood is the de facto head of that empire and given what we know about him and Atlas it is quite possible that he has been indoctrinated to have this desire to create an empire for Atlas as the politics and ideologies of its people have given it a false sense of entitlement and need to have everything under their control.

When looking at it from V1 to V3, it looks as if Ironwood was trying to occupy without resorting to force then you're left asking the real questions like "Why is ironwood selling the people of Vale on Atlas military Technology?" "Why is it that when a breach happens in vale, Atlas Bots rush in?" "Why did Ironwood make a power play to become the security of the Vytal Tournament?" It all seems to point to the same thing, Ironwood wanted control over Vale

A section of Lyrics from the song “When it Falls” may help reveal Ironwoods true intentions since his introduction and to be honest they seem relevant only to him and given his actions this is mostly likely the truth as they go like this; 

“They play the part of allies

Claiming peace their only goal

But once the fight for power starts

They'll eat each other whole

Their iron gloves point fingers

They'll wage a war of blame

And mankind will wilt in pain”

As of V7 aren’t those words mostly relevant to Ironwood? After all, what has he done recently? He claims to be an ally with intentions of peace but he’s really trying to control those who buy that lie and escalates the situation to the extreme for no logical reason other than to set the stage for the next part in relation to the lyrics.

After all is said and done the fight for power will start and he wants to win and consume everyone before they can consume him. And as things go wrong he points his metal hands blaming everyone but himself as he tries to gain control and power, the world suffers.

Ever since his debut he has been trying to amass  Political power which would lead to a territorial empire under Atlasian control. Playing into the theory that he does want to be a better version of Oz he wouldn’t make the same mistakes that he assumed the king  did by letting the kingdoms remain independent instead of being under the control of one.

A king has his reign and then he dies

To continue on with the theory that he is essentially a bastardized version of Oz, Ironwood may have been trying to find ways as to make himself immortal 

Another reason as to why he would see Ozpin as inferior is due to the fact that for all his power he can’t stop himself from dying, or at least maintain the same amount of world power and status from his last life. This may have given Ironwood ideas and ambitions to pursue any methods that may yield results that may make him a true immortal version of Oz hence why he most likely authorized the research and development of the aura transfer technology as a means to artificial reincarnate till proper immortality was achieved.

This could also be another reason as to why he may have chosen the Penny project. As it could lead to a way of extending his life as a means of transhumanism; immortality through technology

To reiterate Ironwood doesn’t trust anyone to do things right so he micromanages everyone under his control and makes them dependent on him. This is best seen with Winter and Clover as Winter would side with a madman as opposed to siding with her sister and clover’s inability to think for himself led to his death. 

Due to his lack of faith in people Ironwood makes them less independent and make them rely on him as  he may believe if everyone is dependent on him then the more control that he will have over them as to better determine who is a threat as the people he controls are more or less robots now without a conscious or sense individuality and are less likely to commit evil acts. Similar to ancient Mantle’s anti life policies before the war.

If he believes that to be the case and since he only trusts himself to see it through he’s going to try and find ways to make him live as long as possible until his methods become autonomous. Because of his lack of faith for others Ironwood doesn’t understand or refuses to understand the fact that he is going to die one day and everything that he has ever accomplished will be undone by the ultimate victor; TIME.

This is sadly the likely outcome as everything changes through the passage of time. As time moves so does the advancement of decay upon the world. Ironwood is already dying by aging and all that he has achieved will be undone or outdone by others that will come after him. The same thing can be said for everyone else in the show as they already lost. 

Ruby, Oz, Cinder, even Salem herself have already lost to time. Everything they have or will achieve will be undone as well and one day they will all die. It’s just a matter of how and when. 

To better explain let's take a look at Epsilon’s final speech from RVB season 13;

“There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero... never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith.”

Does Ironwood have faith in anyone that's not under his control? 

People only do wrong when the perceived benefits outweigh the cost in that moment. Ironwood doesn’t just see an opportunity to stop Salem he also sees an opportunity to bring the world under Atlasian control with him at the top. Since he has amassed so much power and authority he sees himself above the rules that everyone respects and follows. Because of this Ironwood tries to hold unto that power because without he is nothing and would become a lesser and weaker being which would be an affront to his perfectionist ideologies

If your nothing without it then you don’t deserve it

Take away Ruby’s Silver eyes and what is she? Someone that will continue to fight no matter what

Take away Atlas from Ironwood and what is he? Nothing but a broken man who had this coming for a long time.

As I stated in I am power Ironwood by himself has nothing to contribute to the fight against Salem. Let's face it the only thing that he had going for him was the fact that he lead the Military and as we later find out that Military isn’t going to be useful against Salem since the key concept of the show since V1 was that there is no victory in strength but in the simpler things in life that start with simple and honest souls. 

How does this concern Ironwood? 

Well that's just it Ironwood was never going to win with his methods and he was never going to get the benefits that he wanted if he followed someone else with theirs. Again Ironwood had plans and ambitions after Salem that saw him as the ruler of the world instead of her, and controlled it so that a threat like her or any threat to his power would never come again. This is probably what he thought would happen before being told of her immortality. 

Now with the knowledge that he can’t destroy her and that she’s coming he decides to cut his losses and settle with ruling the city instead and leave the rest of the world in her mercy instead of accepting the fact that he is wrong and relinquishing power to someone that can handle the situation better. Remnant doesn’t need Ironwood to survive. This is the biggest problem with Ironwood that he thinks he is the hero so long as he is in control of Atlas. Because without it he is truly nothing and has defined his whole existence around it. And will continue to make whatever plans to keep himself in power and is willing to pay the price at the expense of others.

“What if all the plans you made,

Were not worth the price they paid?

Even with the lives you stole,

Still no closer to your...

Goal.”

He never cooled the fire but he still incites the crowd for he can't see what he has  become a crown with no kingdom

Ironwood had only played to win and he would laugh at the ones who lose while millions are shouting out for him to stop but he Still lit the fuse

He says he wants to fight but Then he always runs because he doesn't want to die yet he Still shoots the loaded gun escalating things for the worse

His refusal to see the faults in his own actions. Ironwood continually defaults to and relies on methods and actions that have repeatedly been proven to not work because he refuses to see the error in using said methods to begin with.

This isn’t your story James

One of the important aspects to remember is that this isn’t Ironwood’s story. His entire character and story revolves around the main protagonists and how he interacts with them and more importantly what role he played in it. Ironwood started out as a side character that ended up getting a lot of focus because the story of  Team RWBY and the show in general is to show how the last generation can fail the next and how that generation has to learn and grow so it can avoid the mistakes of the past. 

Before we delve further into Ironwood’s true character in the show let us explore whether or not he was an antagonistic or protagonistic force in the story. Keep in mind these terms are different from hero and villain. Below are several definitions and meanings for the 2 narrative characters types;

Antagonist

a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.

a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent; adversary. the adversary of the hero or protagonist of a drama or other literary work

Protagonist

the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text.

an advocate or champion of a particular cause or idea.

In modern literature, the protagonist drives the story forward by pursuing a goal. 

The protagonist of a story is sometimes called the main character. 

Since this is RWBY’s story and to an extent Oz’s, Ironwood(and Atlas to an extent) was always meant to be an antagonistic force in opposition to the show's true ideals of  heroism and saviors. 

The antagonist is the principal source of conflict for the protagonist. Often, the antagonist is a bad guy, a villain, but he doesn't necessarily have to be. He may just be someone who has a different agenda. Antagonists might be one person, a group, or even an animal.

Due to the beliefs that his methods are for the best even though they contradict the intentions that were thought to be shared by the heroes Ironwood was always going to become an Antagonist for the series at some point

Volume 7 slowly sees him fall into this, as his paranoia and determination to stop Salem cause him to perform increasingly questionable decisions for the greater good. While Qrow, Oscar, and Teams RWBY and JNPR support Ironwood, they increasingly debate the merit of doing so, given how concerned they're becoming with his behavior. When Cinder breaks into his office and plants a black queen, Ironwood sends Winter to forcefully take the Winter Maiden's powers, and he begins to question every decision he's made and speculate whether he's played right into Salem's hands. His confrontation with Team RWBY over their decision to leak intel to Robyn triggers the appearance of a Seer Grimm, forcing him into a verbal confrontation with Salem. With the discovery that the conflict with Watts and Tyrian distracted them from realizing they'd lost long-range sensors and that Salem is already on her way to Atlas, Ironwood snaps. He orders the arrest of Qrow, Oscar, and Teams RWBY and JNPR, and decides to abandon Mantle to die in an effort to prevent the two Relics and the Winter Maiden from falling into Salem's hands. Volume 7 ends with him and the protagonists actively opposed to each other, as his refusal to acknowledge that his methods are flawed and his opposition towards anyone who might stand in his way solidifies him as an antagonist.

The events of Volume 7 slowly but surely tear away at the positive aspects of his character as he succumbs to fear and paranoia, and questions whether Salem's strength comes from her ability to strip away her humanity. By the end of the volume, he has degenerated into a paranoid tyrant who abandons Mantle in favor of saving Atlas, is willing to kill a dying Winter Maiden to protect the Relics from Salem, and arrests the heroes for disagreeing with him. At the end of the volume, Oscar even points out that Ironwood's actions and current mentality make him no better than Salem.

 His character deconstructs the mindset of the Necessary Evil character archetype. He declares his willingness to sacrifice his reputation and humanity for the greater good by forcing others to sacrifice for his cause. Characters constantly question the morality of his choices and his own actions create consequences that later bite him in the ass. His lack of concern over his image and the negativity his actions generate serve only to assist Salem's plans and increasingly alienate him from the heroes. He appoints himself the judge of what counts as the "greater good", he neglects Mantle's security and makes it increasingly vulnerable to attack by viewing it as less important than Atlas. Oscar lampshades the deconstruction by pointing out that being willing to sacrifice all of Remnant just so "a few can live" is making him just as dangerous a threat as Salem.

In a way Salem and Ironwood are also foils to each other as they appear to be dark lords from their respective genres 

Ironwood being the syfy equivalent clad in white to convey the false message of order and peace while masking evil intentions and crimes 

Salem being the Fantasy equivalent clad in black to emanate a sense of Mystery and fear of the unknown while using it to her advantage

Discussed between Ironwood and Oscar. Ironwood spends Volume 7 utterly haunted by how Leo's fear of Salem destroyed him and endangered Mistral and Haven. He is so determined not to end up like Leo, that he doesn't realize what mistakes his own fear of Salem is causing. While Leo completely submitted to Salem and became her puppet, he has full self-awareness and knows exactly how far he's fallen and why. Ironwood cannot accept that he has any fear of Salem at all and interprets the problem as possessing "humanity". He believes Salem is a threat because she has none and speculates that the solution is to become the same. He becomes increasingly controlling over his kingdom and his allies; regardless of how much suffering his methods cause, he persists in believing it's for "the greater good". While Leo is willing to give up the Relic of Knowledge and his kingdom's Huntsmen, Ironwood is so determined to prevent Salem getting the Relics, his Huntsmen and the Winter Maiden, and thereby avoid Leo's mistakes, that he travels in the opposite direction, becoming a dangerous authoritarian instead of a spineless coward.

Ironwood has made it clear that he will use whatever means necessary to defeat Salem. When Team RWBY calls out his decision to raise Atlas out of Salem's reach, he calmly says he's aware that he is essentially damning Mantle to her wrath. He later tells Oscar that he is done letting others' opinions hold him back from doing what he thinks is right. The boy warns him that he'd become as dangerous as Salem herself like that; the general simply nods to himself but doesn't deny it.

This is who he has always been. The only difference is the more desperate he becomes, the more extremes he goes to to maintain the illusion he is strong and in control of the situation.

During Ozpin's speech, notice how this unique line of dialogue is purposely inserted over Ironwood's last scene of  Volume 7.

“Or will the person staring back at you be the very thing you should have feared from the start? I suppose we all find out... sooner or later.”

As the other parts of the speech are relevant to the other characters shown in the montage This specific line cements the Truth of Ironwood's character being a threat that was planned for a very long time. Going with the show's themes of Grey morality and the balance of light and dark, we are to learn of the possibility that with the potential to do great good also comes with the potential to do great evil. 

As we were focused on the obvious threats in the show like the grimm, the white fang, Cinder, and Salem we are tricked to neglect the obvious signs of evil intent that are hidden and growing  among the heroes. The real monsters of the world aren’t the ones with fangs and red eyes hiding under your bed, No the real monsters of the world look just like you and me. After all if we assume everyone is like us then how can we tell who the real monsters are, that are hiding in plain sight. 

Ironwood’s evil nature and antagonism  was subtle and growing under the skewed perception that he was the hero and that he was right. But this comes down to the fact that he is only in it for himself and what he has to gain from it. 

I understand that James Ironwood was a tragic character even from his introduction, and the seeds for his volume 7 turn were planted in volume 2. I eventually recognized that RT was setting up this pivotal plot point way back in the day and now they are harvesting what they had sown.  

Ironwood didn’t snap when he found out RWBY lied to him. He was content, even after he defeated Watts. He snapped as soon as he saw Cinder’s present. The Queen piece. He unraveled immediately and, sure, the discovery of RWBY’s lies didn’t help,  but it wasn’t the cause for Ironwood’s descent.

 He genuinely means well in opposing Salem and her forces, but his severe paranoia complex, exacerbated by the stress of being one of the only ones in the know about Salem and having to explain his actions to the skeptical populace and council, cause his decisions to degenerate over time. By the end of Volume 7, he becomes willing to abandon everyone in Mantle to die, violently lashes out at anyone who opposes him, and manages to undo all of the hard work he's accomplished by second-guessing his own actions.

James Ironwood is undoubtedly a fascinating character that has this certain appeal to most people. I  can understand Ironwood's viewpoint but it is not the same as forgiving or condoning as good. Sure, I thought him intervening in affairs that he had no right to was a skewed perception, but I understood where he was coming from. I thought him ignoring the concerns and advice of people was reckless, but I also kind of understood  his limitations and his upbringing. But in all honesty I was neutral about Ironwood ever since he debuted and didn’t think he had much to contribute to the story besides being the guy with an army along with the pride and arrogance that comes with.

Because of that Ironwood was always an antagonistic force in RWBY with ideals and plans that contradict the established ideals and motivations that are already shared with the world of Remnant. He just simply couldn’t fit in and when he tried he didn’t like it. When he tried to change it and take charge he only made things worse. Ironwood had potential to be good and a proper hero due the influence of Oz but his pride and ego that he got from Atlas got the better of him and now the show's true heroes will have to fix the problems that he has caused.

Summary

[danwhobrowses]

MCU: 10 Ways WandaVision and Falcon & The Winter Soldier are the Same

So now we have 2 of Marvel's Phase 3.5 shows in the books, and both have been pretty great. In the 7 week wait for Loki though we'll have time to mull things over.

When watching the Falcon & Winter Soldier finale though, I started to notice that there were some patterns between it and Wandavision. While two completely different stories they did share some similar beats, so here's 10 I spotted and thus 10 to look out for when Loki comes around.

Spoilers for WandaVision and Falcon & The Winter Soldier, give it a watch before you give this a look

10 - Villains become Memes

While one can contest that Zemo acts more as an antihero in The Falcon & the Winter Soldier, he still provides an antagonistic edge in the story. However, both he and Agatha became villains that had charisma to charm the audience, and their actions brought about multiple memes. On Agatha's side there was the wink, Agatha All Along and her in the fitness outfit, while with Zemo there was the 'it captures the experience', his iconic dancing and Turkish Delight. While not a story beat on the shows, the writers must've known that fans would gravitate to these characters to give them such content to use. Also add a hat tip to John Walker who got his own memes too with him about to embed the shield into a dude's chest, and Wanda herself for her nose scrunch being used as a meme alongside Thor's 'is it though?'.

9 - The Government aren't exactly helpful

While the Government aren't entirely the enemy in the show, they don't do well to stay on our heroes' good side. In WandaVision, they enhance Wanda's grief in the fact that she can't even lay him to rest, SWORD instead deciding that her lover is government property and they are harvesting his 'organs' and vibranium skin as a resource to use for weapons. On Falcon & Winter Soldier, the US Government deliberately deceive Sam by having him hand over the shield to put in a museum, only to then take it out and give it to John Walker without even telling Sam or Bucky about it. In addition when they disavow Walker they try to reclaim the Shield - which, as the Contessa does reveal, isn't technically their property either. While Falcon & Winter Soldier delved deeper into the government's lack of help through the GDC subplot motivating the Flag Smashers, there were still similarities found with how SWORD - which is quite different to its comic version - antagonizes Wanda. In the end all this escalates because of them, and in the end neither of them get to keep the Vibranium.

8 - 'Good Person' is Bad Guy

Although there's a more supernatural threat in both stories, the characters end up having their trust betrayed by people they believed to be decent. For WandaVision it is current Director of SWORD, Director Hayward, who appears adamant in silencing Wanda after using her as a means to power up White Vision as a programmable weapon. For Falcon & the Winter Soldier, it's Sharon Carter - descendant of Steve's beau who he also made out with - the discarded agent who gave up a lot for the heroes only to not get it in return, remaining enemy of the state and becoming the Power Broker. The shows can also have this reserved for 'Agnes' and John Walker but in the end people expected them to break bad from day 1. You could make a statement for Wanda since she looks to be an antagonist for Doctor Strange 2 though.

7 - The MCU add a little history

Marvel has had a habit of changing Wanda's (and Pietro's) origin on a whim, the MCU deciding to source their powers on an Infinity Stone. Doing this however left a gap in the fact that Wanda is a Witch, which they cleaned up in WandaVision. Treading back on the Scarlet Witch being a mantle (though cutting her mother being a Scarlet Witch before her) as it is in the comics, they changed Wanda's powers from being latent and amplified by the stone rather than gifted to the stone itself. Falcon & Winter Soldier added to their history with the impactful Truth: Red, White and Black story, adding Isaiah Bradley into the MCU to further layer the conflict and tragedy Sam faces with being Captain America. Both are welcome additions to the MCU timeline, setting up for newer things to come in Phase 4 Movies.

6 - The hero wins the fight, but not the day

Winning isn't always winning, as Wanda and Sam would discover upon the finale of their respective shows. Wanda defeats Agatha and Hayward is forced to face his crimes, but she has also come to terms with the face that the Hex must go, and in turn her family with it. While the Hex has freed all its residents, Wanda knows that she's not on anyone's good side either with the people she subconsciously enslaved. Sam gets it a little better, he's recognized himself as Captain America and given a patented 'Cap-speech', but he was unable to save Karli Morgenthau from being killed, someone who he was once so close to reaching and sympathized heavily with. Although the Super Soldier threat is neutralized, the Flag Smashers' ideals will live on to further radicalize itself, and its vision will further sow conflict and division.

5 - (Mostly) Bigger Roles for old MCU Side Characters

Never one to shy past their crossovers, Wandavision and Falcon & the Winter Soldier both brought back side characters - some more obscure than others - from older films to gel into the plot. WandaVision brought back Darcy from the Thor franchise and Jimmy Woo from Ant Man & the Wasp to great comedic effect, fans already wanting a spin-off with them and possibly Monica - who may also count but technically not the same actress, the same can be said for 'Pietro' too. Falcon & the Winter Soldier stayed primarily in their lane of Captain America movies; with Batroc and Sharon both debuting in Winter Soldier and Dora Milaje's Ayo debuting in Civil War, while it was less comedic, the story was more interwoven with them since they all had ties to the main two characters.

4 - [Person] is obviously [Character]

Possibly a bit of a narrative backdrop, or maybe years of MCU has clued us in on a plot twist a mile away, but both shows also were unable to hide well that Agnes from WandaVision and Sharon from Falcon & Winter Soldier were in fact Agatha Harkness and the Power Broker. It's not to say that knowing ruined the story, it just felt more of a 'when' rather than an 'if'. The main difference though is that Sharon managed to keep her villainy secret, and remains that way, while Agatha went too far in trying to take Wanda's power rather than help her with it and has now become stuck as Agnes instead.

3 - New Blood coming on the Hero Scene

While the shows already did their job in setting up Wanda and Sam as big league heroes, they also looked a bit more in establishing new blood too. WandaVision established the potential for the twin Maximoff boys to grow into Wiccan and Speed - once Wanda finds a way to re-canonize them, Falcon & the Winter Soldier also made sure to introduce Elijah Bradley, Isaiah's grandson, which may also aid in establishing a Young Avengers team - what with Kate Bishop also soon to appear in Hawkeye. WandaVision also created the origin for Monica Rambeau, having her body altered by the Hex, which will likely be furthered in Captain Marvel 2, Falcon & the Winter Soldier also established John Walker as the US Agent to leave a potential for Thunderbolts, as well as introducing Joaquin Torres - opening the possibility to have a new Falcon. While not a bad thing to set up for the future, it is interesting that both shows had exactly 3 names that could become future heroes.

2 - 'Villain' character partly redeems themselves after a Grief-Fuelled Mistake

Make no mistake, technically speaking Wanda is still a villain in WandaVision: she enslaved an entire town and suppressed them as side characters of a tv show. But the thing is that she didn't really intend to cause pain, it was an impulse action triggered by her grief. The same can be said for John Walker in Falcon & the Winter Soldier, he was already pressured by the standards being Captain America would entail and he was feeling the stress of a string of failures, a Dora Milaje humbling and a frosty reception from Steve's two close friends, juiced up on Super Soldier serum, and then his best friend just got killed because he didn't back him up, in a rage he killed a Flag Smasher with the shield - even though they were fleeing and not the one who killed Lemar, which he would lie about to Lemar's family. Despite this though, they managed to find some form of redemption, even if it was small. Wanda released the Hex and stopped Agatha from going haywire with her chaos magic, John gave up on his revenge seeking to save a truck from falling. Even though it doesn't entirely make up for what they did, it was at least a sign that they had not completely gone off the deep end...yet.

1 - Comic-Accurate Costumes

Comic costumes are always a tough one because some of the older costumes were borderline atrocious. WandaVision at the very least managed to poke fun at it with them dressing up most of the Maximoff/Vision family in their comic-accurate costumes, Speed getting a few more nods in the finale alongside Wanda's revamped and quite on the money look. In Falcon & Winter Soldier, there was accurate costuming for John Walker's US Agent look and Sam's Captain America costume, not to mention Lemar's Battlestar outfit, Zemo's mask and Batroc's jumpsuit.

Overall, it's not a bad thing that they kept these story beats, but it may be worth trying to avoid some of these in later tv show plot points so that it doesn't appear repetitive and formulaic. These shows have been great, so let's keep that momentum going.

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Okay I was talking to the amazing @border-spam and I kinda accidentally Went Off in her inbox so imma ramble here instead cuz I wanna go more in depth on the topic of the afterlife in the borderlands universe bc it is definitely canon thru the Guns Love and Tentacles dlc

Tl;dr: at least they didn't introduce time travel [stares directly into Lilith's fucking soul]

So she brought up the whole aspect of the siren afterlife where the siren can choose their successor or let their powers go off and choose 'their own' user (and they usually choose young kids for some reason) which is a weird thing to suddenly introduce in the 3rd game, because this should've been, if it did exist, talked about before in past- Maya would not have been the first person to know about this. And the fact that this siren afterlife even exists is a weird thing to have in general, to even introduce as a story point when they could've kept it as randomly chosen people getting siren powers (because what sort of sicko wants to give a little girl a probably shortened life of pain and fear that they themselves had to live through).

And it IS weird because introducing an afterlife is just a wild thing to do in a universe where technology can be used for all sorts of weird shit and magic borderline (pretty much) exists. I mean ik we're all pretty much on the page that siren stuff ISN'T actual magic and is instead Eridian stuff that hasn't been explained, but still you get what I mean it is insanely advanced tech or science that looks like magic to us

Because listen. In GLaT that side quest where you go help the dead little girl. That happens because of Maliwan tech. I remember, because I remembering musing to myself that it is probably the same sort of Maliwan tech used to access Heck during the Bloody Harvest event. I am going somewhere with this I promise

Firstly, since this afterlife or weird death dimension is Officially Canon (idk if the Bloody Harvest event is canon but this is official main DLC so it's canon), why is it never mentioned by the characters? I feel like they wouldn't keep quiet about it, and told Tannis, and I don't think she would have let that go without investigating it. The characters don't know they're in a story, and they don't care about satisfying character arcs or development or shit. If Lilith or Tina had the ability to see Roland again, don't you think they'd try? If Ava or Krieg knew there was a chance they could speak to Maya, even if for one last time, don't you think they'd go for it?? Like they don't care about satisfying character arcs, they would try it. Tannis invents a machine that lets us go inside people's heads, this is a universe where you can copy/turn people into AI, and put that AI in a robot body, don't you think SOMEONE would try to make that happen??? When the afterlife scientifically EXISTS?? This removes, like, ALL stakes if we're literally able to open portals to this death dimension and talk to the people in it. And in a game where the writers were soooo adamant that the new-u stations aren't canon, why did they introduce the concept of an afterlife in a dlc that is canon

There is more to this, hang on, I'm not just bitching abt logistics I swear

Okay so when you go thru that quest, there are manticores that appear. Manticores are enemies on Nekrotefeyo, so it's weird that they suddenly appear in this 'completely unrelated' area of the game. I put that in quotes because it's probably related tbh. The green colors in this dimension and the wisps and everything remind me a LOT of Nekrotefeyo's core spilling out. It also reminds me a lot of the wisps we see when we kill Guardians, of their souls/minds getting whisked away to be put in either the main place they're stored OR into another Guardian body, but those are usually R e d. It ALSO reminds me a lot of Krieg's mind's planetscape in his dlc, same color scheme and everything

So u guys know I am a big fan of the whole Eridians created humanity as a step up from the Guardians theory, because we see guardians/Eridians in the murals of the Vaults interacting with humans and gifting the babies Eridian relics and such and such. There are human statues in the Vaults, sirens are obviously linked to Eridians, etc etc. They clearly, at the very least, lived side-by-side, tho I believe the Eridians created humanity. I believe this theory very hard, I wrote a whole essay on it previously, yada yada. So if we take it one step further and imagine that the Eridians created a place to store Guardian souls when they die before they find a new vessel (the inside of Minos Prime, perhaps? The inside of Nekrotefeyo?), what is stopping them from doing the same thing for humans??

Which would explain how this place is accessible through technology- it is a physical place created by Eridians. If it IS the core of Nekrotefeyo, given the color scheme being the same as the death dimension and human 'wisps', it would make sense that dark Maliwan is there doing research and why it is their portals specifically that can access this area, and, if bloody harvest IS canon, why we only fight Maliwan soldiers in Heck (besides ratch). They were exploring their new discovery until we came along

It would also explain how sirens are able to choose their successors after they die- they're brought back to the 'collection unit', the 'soul storage place', idk, and they can either choose someone to burden, or let the powers go and choose a random person.

Which is really messed up if u think about it, but then I don't believe the Eridians are good people ever since they started feeding us to the Destroyer, soooooo.

I wonder if wisps eaten by the Destroyer are lost forever. If so, then I wonder if Steele's Siren powers are gone and that's why her resurrected claptrap body couldn't use her powers, or if her wisp just escaped and her powers went to some random person.

Also why didn't Nyriad choose Leda instead of the twins to give her powers to. It's like Nyriad wanted them to suffer bc she locked herself in the Vault they were conceived in. And like... Can wisps not escape Vaults? Then that brings me back to Steele's Siren powers. She did technically die? Outside the Vault? I think? It's not 100% clear cuz she was definitely impaled outside of it, but idk when exactly she died died. I mean there's the whole thing about how they recovered her body in the first place, buuuut let's not go there bc I'm already brain hurt for today

The main point is: the afterlife is weird. I think it's a place created by the Eridians to store people when they die, and that's why it's a physical place we can go to and open portals to and why the Sirens have the opportunity to burden other people with their powers when they die. It does make me wonder if Troy had absorbed Maya's entire fuckin wisp when he turned her into hot chocolate powder, or just her powers. Cuz the powers go to Ava when Troy's dead, meaning Maya DID choose, but did she choose immediately after she died, or only after Troy died.

These are questions that MUST be answered they're IMPORTANT HHHHH

[cdelphiki]

Jason Joins the Family fic recs

I got asked in a comment on my Jason joins the family fic if there were any good ones out there. So here are some of the ones I’ve read:

Precedent by cdelphiki

Technically I have read it.  Like a bunch of times. :D It’s only missing one chapter, the epilogue, as of this moment.

In a world where Bruce raised Damian from infancy, Bruce finds Jason in the typical fashion: stealing the tires off his car. Bruce takes him for food and chats with him, and doesn’t like what he sees. He decides to bring Jason home, with the intention of helping him find a better living situation. Obviously, the best living situation for Jason is with Bruce, but it takes a little convincing for both of them to reach that conclusion. Fic is like a slow-burn found family, with look at how a homeless child with a history of abuse would react to having a kind and caring adult suddenly be in his life.  

From the Alley by blueiben

Bruce stumbles upon Jason stealing his tires, and grows immediately concerned when Jason passes out while trying to run. As it turns out, Jason is dehydrated and famished. Bruce takes Jason home to help him recover, and the two of them end up growing close. This fic has a sequel and is super cute. Lots of adorable Bruce & Jason and even Jason & Alfred moments.

The Longer You Stay by emiv

Set in the Nolenverse, Bruce and Selina move to Europe after Bruce quits being Batman. They forge documents saying they’re married and everything, although Selina is adamant it’s totally just documents. They aren’t really married. Then they go to a circus and Bruce decides to take home a newly orphaned kid without consulting her. It only gets worse from there. And Bruce isn’t the only one guilty of picking up new kids. She was quite partial to the little thief they met in Paris. 

We’re Not in Crime Alley Anymore by ChimaeraKitten

Instead of it being a 12-year old Jason Todd jacking Batman’s tires, it’s a 9-year-old. Bruce, being a genius, decides to drug Jason in order to take him home. Jason does not react well, predictably, because clearly people only drug little children to harvest their organs. But they somehow manage to become a family, anyway.

Through the Walls by Maychorian, WIP

TW: rape/non con. Read the tags on ao3. Jason is kidnapped by a freak who abuses him in terrible ways. Adorable 10-year-old Tim Drake was there, watching, as Jason was captured. In an attempt to save Jason, he ends up getting himself kidnapped, too. Months later, Jason escapes, and is able to draw the attention of Nightwing, who helps him to safety and saves Tim, too. It takes all of fourteen seconds for both of them to fall absolutely in love with both of the kids. Now Bruce and Dick have to figure out how to take care of two traumatized little children. 

Gifts From the Sea by Raberba girl, WIP

This is a mermaid AU. Or, sea creature AU? There are superheroes, but Bruce isn’t Batman. He’s an intern at a park like Sea World, where he meets an 8-year-old mermaid named Dick. Basically the first part follows his journey with raising Dick and helping him gain his freedom from the park. Then, he finds a thieving little selkie (a person who can turn into a seal? That’s what it is in this story) named Jason and basically just claims him as his kid. It’s super cute. I don’t even like mythical AUs, or whatever, but this sucked me right in from chapter one and holy cow I love it so much. Very few stories have me daydreaming in the AU, and this one is one of them.

Common People by AmariT, WIP

Jason is the biological child of Bruce AU, where Jason’s mom punts him off on Bruce when he was 13. It takes adjusting to live in Wayne Manor, but he has Dick and Tim there to help him out. There’s an interesting twist on how Catherine ended up being his adoptive mom, like in canon. And some fun angst associated with the fact Bruce is keeping Batman secret. Great story. 

-

Those are all the ones I can think of that are more than like 3k word one-shots. Please, if anyone knows of others, feel free to reblog and add! I’m always excited to read more baby-Jay.  

[taiblogcomics]

Small Town, Big Jerks

Hey there, never-ending movie franchises. We're gonna be two-thirds through The Ravagers after we're done this issue (the zero issue doesn't count). We're all looking forward to finishing this one, yeah? At the very least, I'm looking forward to having something to actually write about in the preamble again someday~

Here's the cover:

Hey, are you tired of these assholes yet? Too bad, because here's an issue all about these assholes. I also love that they're kind of stuck just calling her "Rose" now. You know what here supranym was before the New 52? Ravager. But we decided to apply that to a team rather than a single person, and now it's stupid. She also looks odd without the eyepatch. I just realised how used I am to her having one looking at this cover. Other than that, though, this cover's fairly competent, if bland~

So we open in a small Colorado town, where a girl named Candice is attempting to sneak into a house. A fellow dressed in sherrif's garb catches her and orders her inside. Turns out, this is her father and this is her house. So he just casually wears his uniform around the house? Especially late at night, since it's implied Candice is sneaking back in from being at a raging party. While he's chewing out both his daughter for sneaking out and his son for not keeping his sister in line, there's a big explosion outside. Like an idiot, Sherrif Dad goes to investigate.

Downtown, Warblade and Rose Wilson have turned up to fight another of their former charges, a glowing guy named Adam. Adam, for his part, isn't interested in being one of Harvest's lapdogs again. Not even when his powers start going critical. Adam implodes, causing no damage to the town but unfortunately expending his super-powered molecules throughout the population, even into Candice and Kris from earlier. Warblade wants to blow the whole thing off and go get pie, and honestly, I would be more interested in reading that story.

Rose, however, has decided to do the responsible thing, despite being a villain. She explains to Sherrif Dad that if he doesn't do what she says, everyone in this town will explode. And the detonations will continue to infect more people, just like Adam did. While Rose talks to him, Warblade goes off to close the one road out of town with a landslide.

He's just getting back when one of the bystanders suddenly starts to glow and scream in pain. Rose asks Warblade for help without killing the guy, and Warblade points out this is a bit like asking for swimming lessons without getting wet. Nonetheless, Warblade does at least comply and try to talk the guy into remaining calm. It's not enough, and the guy succumbs to his pain and detonates.

People are getting agitated now, and who can blame them. Warblade heads out to the other one way out of town, because of course there's a secret "old switchback". And by even further coincidence, he finds Sherrif Dad's kids trying to run away using the same exit. Another person detonates down the street, and Rose and Warblade go in to pull the survivors from the wreckage. Warblade is grousing the whole time about having to play hero, and I gotta admit, as much of an asshole he is, this is actually doing a lot to endear me to his character.

What quickly doesn't endear me to him is learning that his whole costume is actually a costume. That big fanged monster smile flips up like Iron Man's helmet and reveals a perfectly normal human face under it. I honestly thought he was an all-metal monster, that's way cooler. But anyway, he's pissy that Rose isn't letting him just kill the whole town and move on. Rose explains that killing a whole town will paint a target on their backs and get the notice of someone like the Justice League. This will, in turn, get traced back to Harvest, who does not need the complications. She's so thoughtful to include her boss in her concerns.

They very quickly become more personal concerns, however. After Sherrif Dad and Warblade spend a few minutes getting in a pissing contest (which lowers my opinion of him back down again; why are you engaging with an ordinary sherrif man like you're both in high school?), Rose suddenly begins to flare up with glowing and pain herself.

This is in spite of being told they were innoculated against it due to being part of Harvest's crew. What a surprise that you can't take Harvest's word. And just to complicate things for them, suddenly Caitlin Fairchild and the rest of our heroes show up. On the very last page of the comic they supposedly star in.

Honestly, this issue could be worse. I mean, hey, technically it still stars “The Ravagers”. In fact, arguably, more than any previous issue, since our protagonists don’t use the name for their team group. It focuses a lot on Warblade and Rose, trying to make the pair of them less of unrepentant assholes. Which is good, since the New 52 turned both these characters into villains anyway. And if they were both jerks the whole time like they are in every previous issue, this would be a lot more of a slog.

I guess it’s all setup for next time, where we’ll find out why the hell the heroes are here, and what significance Candice and Kris have to the plot that justifies them opening the comic and continuing to have several pages afterward dedicated to them~

[aerynwrites]

Relationship alphabet with Ezra? But only if it inspires you. 🥰

Ahh thank you for sending this in friend! I love Ezra and hope to write for him more. I Hope you enjoy and I captured his character well!

A- Activity (What is their favorite activity to do with you.)

Ezra loves to read with you - well, read to you since you always take pleasure in just listening to his voice as he reads you his favorite tales.

B- Beginnings (How do they act in the beginning of a relationship)

Ezra is kind of skittish at the beginning of your relationship. As we all know, this man has severe self-esteem issues. He is constantly baffled that you chose him as your SO and is sure that you’ll leave him when you get the chance. But as time goes on, you assure him that you love him and don’t plan on leaving.

C- Communication (Are they good communicators? How do they normally talk about their problems or solve issues)

Ezra is an extremely good communicator. He always wants to talk to you and talk about any problems that may arise. He usually tends to be the one bringing up an issues and is adamant about resolving them as peacefully as possible. The only thing that might affect his communication skills is his very eloquent and roundabout way of speaking - sometimes you get a little confused and have to have him clarify something

D- Drunk (What are they like when they’re drunk)

If you thought Ezra was a talker sober - you are in for a surprise. This man seems to talk even more when he’s drunk.

He also becomes very handsy when he has s few drinks in him. not that your complaining of course.

E- Emergency (How are they in emergency situations? You get hurt, they get hurt, someone is dying etc..)

Ezra is very levelheaded. Automatically trying to find the quickest and most efficient way to help. If you are hurt, he is a bit less composed, his worry over losing you clouding his judgment. However, if he’s hurt, he is as levelheaded as ever, walking you through what to do if you don’t know and helping you help him.

F- Free Spot (I’ll give you any headcanon I come up with)

Ezra is a handsy motherfucker. He just loves to have his hands on you whenever possible whether its holding your hand in his, resting his hand on the back of your neck, wrapping a hand around your waist, or even going a little lower...

yeah, he just loves to touch you.

G- Gifts (What kind of gifts do they give? What kind of gifts do they get?)

with both of you being harvesters and wandering ones at that, you never had much money. Sp the gifts you give each other aren’t usually bought.

Ezra loves to give you flowers he finds when he is out and about, or if he finds a particularly beautiful gem he will give that to you instead.

Meanwhile, you always give Ezra any books you come across. you know he loves to read and hate that he has to read the same ones over and over. So whenever you find a discarded book or can trade for one, you jump on it.

H- Hugs (How do they show affection/cuddle)

Ezra loves to hold your hand - not sure why he just does. But more than that, he loves slipping into your cot as you are going to bed and wrapping his arm around you, pulling you into his chest. He just loves to be close to you, feeling your breathing and heartbeat, and taking in the smell that is just completely you.

I- Irritation (What is something that irritates them? How do they show their irritation?)

since the loss of his arm, his inability to perform tasks as efficiently irritates him to no end. he usually shows this irritation by muttering curses under his breath or just going silent altogether.

J- Jackpot (How would they spend their winnings if they won the lottery?)

Ezra - even though he’s been a drifter his whole life - would use the money to settle down somewhere with you. finding a nice planet with a quaint house that the both of you could spend the rest of your lives together in.

K- Kryptonite (What is their ultimate weakness?)

as cheesy as this sounds - you. you are the only thing that could truly break him if anything were to happen to you. He loves you too much and too deeply.

L- Laughter (What makes them laugh?)

one of the things that makes him laugh is when you try to mimic his way of speaking - it’s just so endearing to him that he can’t help but laugh.

M- Morning ( How do they wake up in the morning? Are they a morning person or a morning grouch?)

I think Ezra is a bit of a morning person, not by choice but by trade. the life of a drifter means early mornings, rising with the sun to get the day started early.

before you came into his life, he woke up and pretty much instantly got out of bed - getting dressed, eating a ration bar, and then heading out to the dig site.

However, now that you are here, he takes his time waking up. He pulls you into his chest, nuzzles his nose into the crook of your neck, pressing gentle kisses there until you too wake up. Then you both get ready together.

N- Needy (When do they feel particularly needy? How do they show it?)

Ezra still has days where his depression over losing his arm haunts him. Those days he doesn’t want to do much else than lay in bed and hold you close to him as you whisper calming and loving words into his ears.

O- Oasis (Where is their happy place? Where would they go if they didn’t have anything holding them back?)

His happy place is wherever you are. And if he didn’t have anything holding him back, I would like to think that he would take you back to his home planet - wherever that may be.

P- Pain (How do they handle pain? How do they handle when you are in pain?)

Ezra is pretty used to pain, he has gotten injured one too many times being a drifter not to be used to it. However, when you’re in pain, he will do anything to make you feel better - he may be used to pain, but that doesn’t mean he wants the same for you.

Q- Quote (What’s a quote that fits them and your relationship)

Kiss me and you will see the stars. Love me and I will give them to you. - Author Unknown

R- Reunion (How do they celebrate seeing you after a long time of being apart)

If you are apart for a long time its because of being pulled to different parts of the galaxy. Neither of you knew if you’d see one another again. So when you do, Ezra - for once - Is speechless. after he recovers, he is striding over to you and pulling you into a tight embrace.

“You truly have no idea how much my heart has ached for you all of these moons little bird.”

S- Stress (What stresses them out? How do deal with stress and how do they relieve it?)

Any altercations at dig sites tend to stress Ezra out. Before, he would become territorial and confrontational. But now, with you here, the last thing he wants to do is put you in danger.

he relieves this stress in one of two ways usually it's by moving to another site and digging there, getting back to work helps calm his mind. But if that doesn’t work than he always finds comfort in you. both figuratively and literally 😏

T- Terror (What are they afraid of?)

As we have discussed several times already lol, he is terrified of losing you. He has finally found his person, someone he loves more than anything in the entire galaxy. He never wants to lose you, and that is an ever-present fear in his mind.

U- Unique (What is a quirk that is unique to them?)

Definitely his way of speech. His way of speech and his accent are all unique to him.

V- Violence (Do they fight a lot? Are they a good fighter? What is their fighting style?)

I wouldn’t say he fights a lot, only when necessary for survival. He is a decent fighter when he has his thrower, having become skilled in using it while being a drifter. He tried to fight from a distance rather than up close.

W- Wow (What do you do that really surprises them? What do you do that they really like?)

Your constant and unwavering affection and love for him. He had never expected to be loved like this - so it always surprises him when you show him this.

X- (Explicit headcanon. For all you degenerates)

okay so like - we all know Ezra fucks right? okay, good. Because this man fucks. Ezra absolutely loves getting you into bed and just worshiping your body. constantly praising you and cooing to you in that all too familiar lilt and elevated speech. yeah...Ezra also lives for dirty talk (sorry not sorry😬)

Y- Yucky (Is there something that grosses them out so badly that they can’t deal with it?)

hmmm...I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s really anything that grosses him out that badly, or at all really

Z- ZZZ’s (What are their sleeping habits? Both with and without you)

When he’s without you, Ezra tends to sleep on his stomach, arm under the pillow, and blanket around his waist as he snores softly.

when he’s with you however, his favorite way to sleep is on his side with your back to him while he holds you to his chest. he just loves to hold you while he sleeps, the fact that you are right there next to him comforting him and lulling him to sleep.