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| “ | Ironwood: I will sacrifice... whatever it takes... to stop her. Watts: Oh, I hope you do, James. (spits blood) I hope you do. |
„ |
| ~ General James Ironwood to Dr. Arthur Watts, foreshadowing his fall. |
| “ | James is what my friends call me. To you... it's General. | „ |
| ~ Ironwood before shooting Oscar Pine. |
| “ | I have only done what was best for Remnant. And no one. Is. GRATEFUL!!! | „ |
| ~ General Ironwood's villainous breakdown while confronting Winter Schnee, blaming everyone except for himself. |
General James Ironwood is a major antagonist in the anime-influenced webseries RWBY.
He was the headmaster of Atlas Academy, the general of the Atlas Military, holder of two seats on the Atlas Council, and a former member of Ozpin's group. He was aware of the existence of Salem and did everything he could to help the heroes stop her, but has resorted to extreme actions in order to protect Atlas and the world, even at the cost of those who once called him a friend and by the end, and was willing to actively murder millions to do so.
He is voiced by Jason Rose and by Masaki Terasoma (who also voiced Hidan in Naruto Shippuden) in the Japanese dub.
Personality[]
| “ | Sometimes, doing the right thing means making tough decisions. | „ |
| ~ General James Ironwood to Team RWBY before declaring martial law. |
James is initially shown to be affable, kind and supportive. Shown in places like where he compliments Ruby for her initiative in Volume 2. However James always had a bit of a controlling or arrogant side. As Headmaster he would have his students live a military lifestyle and pressure them into enlisting in the specialist program. He also shared context-less 'reports' to the council of Vale that made Ozpin look bad, not trusting him to oversee the Vytal festival.
James ultimate character flaws are his inability to fully trust anyone-else and his refusal to accept responsibility for his own mistakes. After ignoring Ozpin and several other's warnings about the fleet he brought to Vale sending the wrong idea to the public. Cinder takes advantage of his actions and uses it to give the public the idea there was a new war on the horizon; as well as framing Atlas for the fall of Beacon. Despite this, he shoves the blame for the fall on Ozpin, remarking how 'If Oz had just listened to me from the start'. He then continues to double down on his previous actions, which makes it easier for Arthur Watts to set up Salem's invasion.
Despite his descent into villainy and the many horrible crimes he commits in the Atlas arc, James still cared for his comrades. When he thinks Penny has turned herself in he sighs and tells her how she was 'doing the right thing' to comfort her. And while he fights and tries to kill Winter, he is shown shedding a tear before doing so.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
- Caroline Cordovin
- Pyrrha Nikos
- Glynda Goodwitch
- Fria
- Ace Operatives
- Clover Ebi †
- Harriet Bree
- Elm Ederne
- Marrow Amin (formerly)
- Vine Zeki †
Enemies[]
- Salem
- Arthur Watts (arch-nemesis)
- Cinder Fall
- Tyrian Callows
- Roman Torchwick †
- Hazel Rainart
- Neopolitan
- Mercury Black
- Jacques Schnee †
- Robyn Hill
- Winter Schnee
- Professor Ozpin
- Team RWBY
- Qrow Branwen
- Marrow Amin
- Team JNPR
- Oscar Pine
- Penny Polendina †
- Pietro Polendina
- Emerald Sustrai
RWBY: Amity Arena[]
Ironwood appears as a Legendary unit in RWBY: Amity Arena. He is a ranged/melee unit that can dash forward and can summon a pair of AK-135s to aid him in battle.
RWBY/Justice League[]
Ironwood was shown to be among those under the control of Starro. Through Ironwood, Starro controlled the Atlas Military.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Huntsman Prowess: Despite normally using his military position instead of engaging in direct combat, as the Headmaster of Atlas Academy, Ironwood is still an exceptionally skilled Huntsmen who ranks as among the greatest.
- Master Gunfighter: Ironwood has impressive prowess with his Due Process both in marksmanship and wielding it in melee combat, using the white gun to fire explosive bullets and the black gun to fire Gravity Dust bullets to enhance his mobility in combat. He effortlessly dispatched multiple Atlesian Knight-200s within the space of several seconds, the heads of the first two cleanly removed by his shots, and even destroyed one by reverse gripping one of his guns and clubbing it with the handle. Later on, Ironwood was skillfully able to counter Watts shots with only his white gun while forcing Watts to use both his gun and his shield to counter him, and effectively made use of the black gun's Gravity Dust bullets to keep himself from falling as Watts hacked into the arena to alter it, even managing to shoot Watts while mid-air. In his final battle, Ironwood paired Due Process with a silver cannon to become a single gun that can fire powerful streams of green fire and displayed incredible skill with it despite the weapon's weight, able to effectively trade blows with and eventually overwhelm Winter's swordsmanship, displaying verstaile techniques by detaching and using the Due Process to hit Winter before using the cannon to deal the devastating blow that broke her aura, and was also able to accurately fire quick shots at Winter at speeds while also dodging her attacks.
- Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Even unarmed, Ironwood is an exceptional close-quarters fighter, displaying great prowess in boxing and wrestling, sporting a fighting style that revolved around strong punches and kicks and making use of grapples and supplex moves. He used unarmed combat with his prosthetic hand to easily overpower and restrain a Beowulf for his gun to deal the lethal blow. When fighting Watts, Ironwood had the upper hand most of the time whenever they engaged in close-quarters, able to effortlessly tackle and throw him with his offhand and easily counter Watts hits while delivering powerful blows on him before soon giving him a vicious beatdown after being briefly overwhelmed by Watts rage. When fighting Jaune, Nora, Oscar, Ren, and Winter, despite being disarmed, Ironwood was still able to put up a considerable fight, pushing Jaune into the defensive, swiftly overpowering Oscar, escaping from Ren's grappling hook and quickly knocking him aside, stopping Winter's Manticore summon, and managing to catch Oscar's finishing blow and would have struck him had Winter not finally dealt the finishing blow.
- Superhuman Physical Prowess: Due to undoubtedly intensive training and years of experience conditioning his body to exceptional levels as well as having cybernetic modifications through his body, Ironwood has displayed incredible levels of physical prowess and able to perform superhuman feats.
- Great Strength: With James's cybernetic arm, he was strong enough to block the attacks of an Alpha Beowolf barehanded using his metal right hand and tear through concrete and stone with his metal fingers. He has twice displayed the ability to easily damage and crush desks and tables with simple slams. Ironwood also had the strength to quickly break through others Aura with sheer physical force and take them down with ease: With just a few blows, he was able to topple Watts and even after forcibly detaching his hand from Watts trap, he still easily had enough strength to drag Watts around like a rag doll and lift him off the ground with one hand to the neck. He later on managed to break through Winter's aura and effectively stun her with blows from both his cannon and white gun.
- Great Speed, Reflexes, and Agility: Despite his bulky appearance and cybernetic body, Ironwood is considerably fast with great agility and reflexes. During his battle with Watts, Ironwood was able to easily maneuver through Watts hacking of the terrain and keep up with him with little trouble, accomplishing feats such as swiftly climbing over platforms, reacting fast enough to prevent himself from falling to the ground even when hit, easily jumping through small platforms, all while countering Watts shots, eventually tackling him down. Later on, even while wielding his cannon, he was still able to move at sufficiently quick speeds and reaction to keep up with the extremely agile Winter, countering all her blows even when she used her Glyphs, and even managed to outpace her to deliver several blows that left her battered.
- Vast Durability & Aura Defense: Ironwood is also extremely durable and resilient with a strong aura defense, to where he could easily take a shot from Watts without being harmed and took a brief beatdown from him with little damage and reaction whereas Watts was left reeling from his own assault. He even managed to pull off his arm from Watts trap, steadily fighting through the pain to quickly break free, and was able to continue to function with seemingly little exertion. Ironwood was later able to take a full hit to the face from Magnhild while Nora Valkyrie was boosted by both her Semblance and one of Winter Schnee's glyphs without being knocked out. He was also able to survive a redirected beam from his cannon, which was powerful enough to destroy a Hard-Light cell and vaporize Jacques Schnee.
- Sharp Intelligence: Although consistently hampered by his paranoia and other personality traits, Ironwood is still considerably intelligent as displayed by his high position in Atlas and capability to be a threat to both the heroes and real villains after his descent to darkness despite his paranoia and insanity reaching its height. Part of this is contributed to Ironwood's semblance, Mettle, which grants him a heightened form of focus and resolve to carry out the task at hand.
- Master Strategist and Tactician: Despite his brawny personality, Ironwood was shown to possess remarkable tactical skills and can be cunningly deceptive and manipulative: He was able to come up with a plan to have Watts and Tyrian lured into a trap by pretending that Amity was complete, completely tricking them despite Watts own cunning with prepared traps ready to capture them, which succeeded. He later on quickly managed to adapt to the situation when Salem was on her way with the ruthless but efficient plan to abandon Mantle and raise Atlas above her reach. When Salem finally reached Atlas, Ironwood came up with a plan to bomb the Monstra and chose to use it to instead bomb Mantle when Monstra was destroyed to force Penny to return.
- Master Politician: Despite his apparent preference for straight-forward military actions, Ironwood has proven himself to be a good politician when needed, having been able to hold two seats on the Atlas council. He possesses enough political power and skill to be able to override Ozpin's credibility to the Vale and Atlas Council by convincingly reporting his dismission of Ironwood's suggestion that they send in the military to deal with the White Fang, resulting in him obtaining control over the Vytal Festival from Ozpin. After Beacon falls, Ironwood was still able to successfully convince the Atlas Council to perform the acts of organizing a Dust embargo on the rest of the world to cut off the villains' supplies of Dust and sealing Atlas from the outside world, preventing anyone from entering or leaving without the approval of the Council, and skillfully leverage the fact that he has two council seats to Jacques's one to keep the profit-hit Schnee Dust Company in line, confidently threatening Jacques that he could easily damage his business if he wished to, which even Jacques was unwilling to challenge on his own. Ironwood also had the option of declaring Martial Law.
- Master Leader: As the General of the Atlas Military, Ironwood is an exceptional leader with a considerable amount of charisma despite his personality traits, being able to command the absolute respect and authority from his soldiers, with the Ace-Ops and Winter following his orders without question and Ironwood inspiring sufficient loyalty to make them believe in his decisions even when he had started to grow aggressive until he finally crossed the line when he threatened Mantle. Ironwood had been able to defend Atlas from Salem's Grimm army long enough for Oscar to destroy Monstra and end the invasion.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Ironwood takes Glynda Goodwitch for a dance.
Ironwood takes his leave from the party.
Ironwood catches Ruby somewhere she should not be.
Ironwood attends a virtual meeting with Ozpin and the Vale council.
Ironwood with two Atlas Soldiers.
"Our enemies will feel our strength."
Ironwood's cybernetics exposed.
Ironwood in Volume 4.
Ironwood in the Volume 7 opening.
Ironwood discussing his plan to tell the world about Salem.
Ironwood's reaction of disbelief when Oscar informed him that Salem cannot be killed.
Ironwood wielding Due Process.
Ironwood clenches his robotic fist.
Ironwood delivering his ultimatum.
James Ironwood as he appears in RWBY: Amity Arena.
James Ironwood's unit in RWBY: Amity Arena.
James Ironwood's card in RWBY: Amity Arena.
Videos[]
RWBY Volume 7 - Ironwood vs. Watts
RWBY Volume 7 Soundtrack - Hero (feat. Caleb Hyles)
James Shoots Oscar (RWBY Volume 7)
Trivia[]
- Like many characters in RWBY, Ironwood is based on a figure from a specific fairy tale. In his case, he alludes to the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz.
- However, in contrast to the Tin Man, who is a robotic being who desires to become human, Ironwood is a human who loses his humanity over the course of the series, both figuratively and literally.
- Ironwood's fall into villainy was an ironic echo to his attitude towards Leonardo Lionheart's betrayal, particularly when he assured Oscar that he wouldn't become the next Lionheart, meaning how much Ironwood despised Lionheart. Ironically, both Ironwood and Lionheart were hit by the fear towards Salem and her forces that drove them into the darker side.
- However, Ironwood is much more complicated as he had become more paranoid rather than submissive because of his fear. He refused to surrender himself to Salem and was willing to do anything, even questionable and extreme acts, to stop Salem and protect Atlas & the Relic, later becoming a full-on villain after performing horrible acts such as shooting Oscar off of Atlas to his death for questioning him, killing councilman Sleet after approaching him about declaring Martial Law, and later threatening to destroy Mantle in order to get Penny back to complete his plan.
- In contrast, Lionheart had completely submitted to his fear of Salem and became her follower out of sheer cowardice.
- "Ironwood" is a common name applied to a number of types of wood known for their hardness. Alternatively, Ironwood (Járnviðr) is also the name of a location in Norse mythology.
- The name James means "supplanter", which could be a reference to military supplanting.
- The writers wanted to make Ironwood's fall into villainy "be subtle and make sense".
- The writers said that Ironwood losing his left hand is symbolism for him "losing his humanity".
- Ironwood's death was foreshadowed as early as the Volume 3 opening sequence focusing on him and his army with the lyrics "Crushed by the weight of the World" playing during it.
- During the Volume 8 opening, both Salem and Ironwood are on opposite ends of a chessboard during one scene. During the scene however, the chess pieces on Ironwood's side of the board all start disappearing until only Ironwood is left on his side of the board. This sequence later foreshadows all of Ironwood's close remaining allies leaving him by the end of Volume 8.
External Links[]
- James Ironwood on the Heroes Wiki
- James Ironwood on the RWBY Wiki
