Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-64.113.177.152-20150121173112/@comment-26206856-20150322012632

70.72.38.180 wrote: ^True. I think Ozpin's mistake is that he sent a rookie team like team RWBY to do the recon instead of a vetean team (surely there must have been 2-4th year student available) or just Oobleck (recon can be solo job sometimes). Yeah they had some victories but they are still 'weak' as huntresses and don't really seem to understand that sometimes it's better to leave it the professionals and not try to be a hero (by that I mean taking the situation into their own hands). It's not so much a mistake as it is trying to hide what he knows. RWBY's been working on their own, and have consistently been appearing to foil plans as 'those meddling kids'. While sending a 2-4th year group might not be as suspicious as the military or an adult team, it still might give away that the school is onto figuring out the plans; even more so if there's just a lone teacher sniffing about. (How else would they know what RWBY knows from getting themselves involved in these messes?) The festival gave an excuse to bring a veteran with them to 'safeguard' the group, but it still makes it look like RWBY are working on their own to figure out the plans. Since they are weak freshmen, the baddies are less likely to feel as threatened as they would if a 2-4 year team was knocking on their door which may spur them into action early before Ozpin figures out all the details (much like the train incident was pushed up). It'd be akin to having a fly that you know you can easily squash bug you vs something on or above your level prodding your side.

For Ironwood, I think he's one of the 'many mistakes' Ozpin has made in the past and is the reason why Ironwood is who he is. It's was obvious that Ironwood has never trusted Ozpin's judgement. If he did then he wouldn't have brought his army overseas with him. He was basically saying "I don't trust you and I'm going to prove that my way is better with my big army." Like Glynda said Ironwood treats everything like a contest of you-know-what. In other words, Ironwood's lack of trust in anyone is clouding his judgement on the situation and subconciously wants to "get back" at whatever Ozpin did to him in the past. By having an army around the people are going to feel scared and little opressed (what makes you think Ironwood would hand the reigns back to Ozpin after the festival? Again, he doesn't trust him.), Ruby is not going to like it one bit, and Roman will likely drive the General to paranoia until he makes a mistake himself and this time he won't have Ozpin to blame. I don't think Ironwood doesn't trust Ozpin's judgement, he's just a very reactionary man. The moment he sees/feels a threat, he needs to deal with it without thinking things through. He doesn't want anything to happen if he knew about it and could have stopped it. The fact that he knows Ozpin sees the threat and doesn't seem to be doing anything about it is what's angering him.

As far as the military show of power, again, he is broadcasting that he knows something's up, and since he isn't thinking things through in the long run, is probably going to screw things up real soon. (Missing intelligence about the virus being uploaded leading to his drones getting hacked for example, or like you said, falling prey to false intel from Roman) His way of dealing with things is to be honest with the people. If he knows there's a threat, he wants people to know there is one, and he wants them to know he's there to protect them at all costs. Once that's taken from him, he will fall big time.

For the matters of the council and the 'power position', I'm sure he complained about Ozpin doing 'nothing' despite the knowledge of a threat. The council would want to protect the people, and just like Ironwood, would see this as improper behavior for someone in charge of security which is why they gave the position to a man willing to take action, and also why they want to 'review' Ozpin after the festival. The reason Ozpin is holding back any/all info that he knows about is most likely to protect himself. With plans this large and complex, anyone could be the enemy, including someone on the seat of the council. He'd rather keep everything close to his chest as he can really only trust himself. (After all he is the oldest and wisest Oz; he's probably seen history of the other wars first hand, and is attempting to use that knowledge to twart/avoid the next)