Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-34633327-20171123054740/@comment-5430952-20171127072348

KingFubuki92 wrote:It's not just predictability, his methods have a key flaw in general: being too secretive. Ozpin has even said he likes to keep his cards to his chest and Yang says he tends to tell half-truths. While this is understandable for the need to keep people calm, ignorance is bliss and all that, it makes it that much harder when the secret comes to light for people to trust him.

Raven said she had to dig for information before she found out the big picture, meaning unlike her twin, she didn't take Oz at face value. The lie she believed he made caused her to dissert. Look at the groups reactions to the accusation Oz forced Qrow and Raven to become birds, they only calmed down when they said it was a willing choice, and even then, based on Raven's opinion on it, this could be another half-truth (They may have agreed to get magic, not specifically be turned into birds).

While it is understandable lying to protect people, if you lie too much it comes off as the person being untrustworthy. Yang and Jaune both seem to be treading carefully when it comes to Ozpin, both seeming skeptical in the talk, and with good reason.

What is an alternative to being too secret though? Be more open. Instead of half truths, give whole truths, but phrase them in a way that makes the impact come off gentler. For example, we will use the bird topic operating under the idea that it was a half truth and that while the magic was choice, the bird specifically was not.

Half Truth: It was their own choice.

Blunt Truth: They chose, but I never told them what they chose.

Gentle Truth: They accepted the offer of magic, but I did not explain to them all the details as time was of the essence and messengers/spies were a neccessity, so I had no choice but to make them birds.

The constant secrecy and half truths is what causes so many problems. Look at Ironwood, he thinks Ozpin is dead and thinks Ozpin was a fool for not listening. This is because instead of saying "Our enemy did just infiltrate Beacon Tower recently, they may have done something, so having the army here could be just as dangerous, and maybe you should check the networks to be safe. They shouldn't be taken lightly as she has ways of taking control of things." He said "Fear brings Grimm. Guardians are symbols of Peace, Armies are symbols of conflict, your army just makes the public scared." Or when Cinder lauched the Fall of Beacon and Ironwood tried to tell Ozpin that Penny wasn't a sleeper agent, instead of going "I understand but this isn't the time, we must protect the Tower at all costs, get there asap", he said "You brought your army to my Kingdom James, use it."

By leaving a vaguer message, Ironwood went to take his flagship back instead of going to Vale with the students, where he would have been more useful. Ozpin never outright told him the truth, merely just keeping things vague. Maybe if he had outright told James the neccessity of the Tower, it would have been both Ozpin and Ironwood against Cinder, or even better, Ironwood could have guarded Amber's pod while Ozpin and Jaune focused on Pyrrha! ^

Now this is a good post, I applaud.

Though I'd like to add that considering everthing we've learned about Ozpin, I get the impression he trusts no one but himself to lead the attack on Salem. And he clearly doesn't trust the outside world with the "whole" truth. Perhaps if he'd state it gently, as you suggested in your post, there'd be less chance of a panic and more people would support him against Salem. But no, he takes no such risks when it comes to that, and thus he could be denying himself the best weapon against Salem - a unified Remnant, something that can't be done from the shadows. So he's essentially shooting himself in the foot, yet none of his most trusted companions will dare confront him on it. Even worse, one of them has gone over to the other side yet Ozpin is too passive to confront him on it. Hopefully the heroes realize this, or else they too could meet their end as so many others before them.