Talk:James Ironwood/@comment-2602:306:805D:8C10:D95C:C8E5:3755:71C4-20180213225456

I have a bit of a bad feeling that James may be the primary antagonist for the Atlas Arc. Cinder's fate is unknown, Salem has suffered a crippling defeat, and Adam has lost the White Fang, making him useless to Salem. I honestly doubt Jacques would be the primary antagonist because he's not everyone's problem; he's only Weiss's. James, on the other hand, is very paranoid and unwilling to trust others, plus he's on familiar terms with all of them. He often believes that every situation should be handled with brute military force.

I have a possible idea of what could happen: James realizes that Ozpin's group has the Relic of Knowledge and he believes that the Relic can be used to track down and kill Salem. However, Ozpin explains that the Relic was not meant to be used for war and refuses to let Ironwood have it. Losing his trust in Ozpin, James steals the Relic and uses his authority to keep Ozpin's group in a 'house arrest' situation. However, James's conscience begins to really bite at him, asking himself if stealing the Relic was worthy losing the trust of Ozpin and Qrow. He seeks to assemble Atlas's military and fly out to Salem's fortress. Oscar manages to escape and lets Ozpin take control while talking to Ironwood, telling him that he doesn't know what he's going up against and will most likely send every Atlesian soldier with him to their deaths. However, Ironwood refuses to listen and has Ozpin sent back. Ironwood uses the Relic to locate Salem's fortress, but it shows him what will happen if he goes; thousands of soldiers will die and Ironwood will return to Atlas an absolute failure. Realizing Ozpin is correct, he lets them go and states his intentions to make amends for his behavior, but they aren't quite ready to forgive him for his hypocrisy on 'I don't trust you, but you need to trust me'.

Ironwood is a lot of things, but evil? No. He just wants to keep people safe, even if he is a bit of an extremist.