Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20140801004849/@comment-10390252-20140801111053

A couple of things occured to me (and occured to others on the Roosterteeth forums too).

1) General James Ironwood may be the Black King;

2) I'm thinking Qrow, Ironwood, Port and Ozpin were old team-mates (the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, the Lion and the Wizard);

3) I think that Ironwood is attempting to impose order by force; as Cinder, Emerald and Mercury are posing as his students (may actually be two of his students and a tutor) Cinder may be either wholeheartedly be an ally or she may be using him much as she is using Roman and The White Fang;

4) Ozpin knows everything about Blake but, knowing that confronting her could scare her off, is giving her the time and space she needs to confide in him on her own initiative; the problem is that they may have less time than he thinks;

5) Cinder may have the limited ability to cloud people's minds when they're not actively resisting her - She may have done that to Roman last week and she may have done it to Ruby this week;

6) Cinder may be setting Roman and the White Fang up to take the fall - create anarchy on the streets of Vale and give her Black King the excuse to impose martial law. Why bring a brigade strength of airborne troops with you if you weren't expecting to use them? The 'bodyguard/escort' excuse he gave Ozpin doesn't wash;

So, in terms of meta-plot. I think that Cinder is setting up White Fang and Ironwood as her tools and patsies. Both of them think she's ultimately their agents (motivated by either by loyalty or money). What she wants is for them to smash each other and create anarchy in the process, which is in line with her personal political objectives. This is to force the collapse of society so it must be rebuilt in a better form (as directed by her, of course).

Oh, and a P.S. New ships are sighted! S. S. Iron Witch - James and Glynda - A curious experimental vessel one side of which does not want to stay attached to the other. Also ''' S. S. Icy Ocean''' - Neptune and Weiss.