Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-26512661-20200118161649/@comment-50.206.199.227-20200120021947

Ironwood may be a good man most of the time, but he is a military commander first and foremost and one with noted issues involving paranoia. Finding out that Ruby was holding Salem's origins from him was one thing, but stacking that up with him recovering from his near-breakdown at the Schnee Manor, likely being on pain medication after flaying his own arm fighting Watts, seeing Cinder's black chess piece and hearing Blake and Yang admitting to telling Robyn about the Amity Tower all only cause his paranoia to fester, and thus he refuses to consider RWBY's pleas to save Mantle as he considers the risk of Salem getting both Relics and the Winter Maiden powers too high

the only person who might be able to reason with him would be ozpin but he’s currently MIA and Oscar is probably either kidnapped or being hunted by neo