Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20140829002738/@comment-25154376-20140831220801

VedranTheII wrote: Bismarkus wrote: A military school is still a school, is it not? Only difference being instead of taking a class in life science they take a class in end life science :P Ok…then answer me this, what changes if they go with saaaaaaaaay, Ironwood now?

Beacon is teaching them how to fight and kill grim and, as the latest episodes inform us, they are about to be sent to do missions that likely involve grimm slaying.

Working with Ironwood will likely cause them to be taught stuff involving fighting and grimm and they will be sent to do missions that likely involve grimm slaying.

So what changes? Remember they are in a time of peace, they won’t be sent to fight other people for stupid reasons because someone in charge had his pride broken, and they certanly won’t be sent to assassinate stuff because most of the people we have seen have a distinct lack of subtlety. My response was meant to be facetious; but hey I'll try to answer anyway. Serious mode: activate.

I always thought of Beacon as sort of how West Point operates; it's a 4 year college that teaches regular majors but specializes in combat & strategy and applies said majors for a certain military application. Most of the time in Beacon is still going to be mainly classroom time with field excursions laced in between; same as in West Point, where weekdays are spent in classrooms while weekends and summers are out in the field.

Unfortunately; classrooms and training can only help so much in preparing one for real-life combat situations; newly assigned West Point grads, for example, are notorious for making downright stupid decisions in the field due to inexperience and/or panicking once bullets start flying. This is why all newly commissioned 2nd Lt.(The rank you are given after graduation) serve under the strict supervision/guidance of a senior NCO for at least 6 months in order to help gain actual combat experience. It is safe to bet the same would happen with Beacon graduates; new Huntsmen/Huntresses are placed under the supervision of a senior Hunter/Huntress for a extended period of time.

On to your question of how Ironwood would change things; I'm sure a few things would happen...

1) A much higher priority on counter-terrorism/insurgency operations; the man seems much more concerned with fighter Humans/Faunus than actual Grimm. Makes sense as a doubt Grimm are as much of a problem on Atlas where he developed his military doctrine.

2) Much closer integration with working with the military. Ironwood would prefer the Huntsmen/Huntresses to be a special forces unit in the Altesian military than an apolitical force against mankind's common enemy.

3) I doubt Beacon would be much of a college with Ironwood in charge. His philosophy: why teach tradition college courses to highly-specialized warriors. He'd probably strip the school of all non-combat related courses and turn it from something like a West Point styled military academy and more into something like Ranger or Navy SEAL school; a few month long program which takes the already best fighters in the land and turns them into the most elite arm of the military.

...Also, I doubt there'd be a prom-like dance in Ironwood's Beacon; much to the bane of shippers.