Due Process[1] were the weapons of choice wielded by James Ironwood. They were a pair of black and white revolvers[2] that could be combined together with a silver cannon. They were later destroyed, most likely by water damage, during the Fall of Atlas.
Description[]
Due Process was a white revolver with a six-chambered hexagonal cylinder. It had an overall bulky, brick-like shape and possessed characteristics of both a revolver and a semi-automatic pistol, with both a cylinder and a slide. It also had two triggers and an external hammer. Intricate floral designs were etched onto the slide and grips and light fluorescent blue designs were below the barrel and on the cylinder. Ironwood was seen using Due Process with both his left and right hands and kept it stored in a holster underneath his jacket. The white gun was shown to be capable of firing explosive bullets of some sort, as shown in "Heroes and Monsters". It was also strong enough to take down a sizeable amount of Aura, as seen with both Arthur Watts as well as Oscar Pine, though the latter had lost some to Neopolitan earlier.
The other pair of Due Process was a black revolver which fired Gravity Dust bullets, which Ironwood could use to enhance his mobility in combat in conjunction with the white revolver, using their different recoil to propel himself into the air and keep himself from falling.
The pistols could be paired with a silver cannon, combining into a single gun which seemed to gleam of green light. As seen in "Worthy" and "The Final Word", the cannon combined version of the guns were capable of shooting concentrated blasts of green fire. These blasts were shown to be powerful enough to easily create miniature craters through marble, burn right through Metal and even destroy a Hard-Light Dust structure and disintegrate a body into ash. Later it showed that a single blast of it was strong enough that even Winter's Glyphs was not able to completely block its force. A reflected blast greatly weakened Ironwood himself, but notably didn't vaporize him.
The cannon form was designed with the intent of being able to kill Penny Polendina, who was both an android and a Maiden.[3] Whether the weapon was truly capable of reaching these capabilities, however, was unknown.
History[]
In "Battle of Beacon", Ironwood used the revolver to kill an Alpha Beowolf. It ultimately required several shots, including an exploding round to the foot to send the Grimm off-balance and concluding with one through the head to kill the beast. Ironwood also dispatched a Creep with a single shot, displaying its impressive stopping power.
During "Heroes and Monsters", Ironwood was seen using the revolver again, shooting multiple Atlesian Knight-200 units with considerable proficiency, and eventually destroying one by reversing his grip and clubbing it with the handle. In this sequence, it was shown to be powerful enough to disable and destroy each robot with only a single shot each.
Later, in "Tipping Point", Ironwood was seen dispatching Weiss Schnee's Boarbatusk summon, which she accidentally summoned, with a single shot from Due Process. This sent the Grimm flying sideways during its mid-air jump without an explosion, implying that the ammunition can send a force through its target upon impact.
Due Process itself was quite durable, able to withstand being used to hammer Grimm with Ironwood's cybernetic right arm without compromising its firing capabilities.
In "Gravity", Ironwood wielded both guns against Arthur Watts, utilizing the black revolver to help him navigate Amity Colosseum's gravity biomes. During the fight, Watts shot the black revolver away from James, causing him to drop it in the Colosseum. Ironwood didn't recover the weapon during the course of the fight, and instead only used the white revolver from there.
Some time after the events of "The Enemy of Trust", Ironwood retrieved his black revolver.[4] He used Due Process to kill Councilmen Sleet soon after in "Divide" and attempted to do the same in "Risk" with Marrow Amin but Winter Schnee intervened and took him away to save his life.
In "Creation", the weapon's cannon form was revealed. However, in a surprise ambush, the weapon was stolen from him before he was able to use it. Later, in "Worthy", Ironwood retrieved his cannon after he woke up and his cell goes down. Before he goes to the Vault, he used the cannon to vaporize Jacques Schnee.
In the Vault, Ironwood fired the cannon directly at Winter Schnee, who shielded herself from a fatal blast with a glyph. As the two began to fight, Ironwood was eventually able to break Winter's Aura, only for her to receive the Maiden powers. Ironwood fired another cannon blast at her, only for Winter to conjure an ice shield to reflect the blast directly back at him, defeating him.
As Cinder Fall hands Salem both the Staff and the Lamp, Ironwood weakly attempted to aim his gun, only to give up as the two departed from Atlas and left him in the Vault.
Due Process was later destroyed when Atlas crashed into Mantle and both cities were flooded.
Trivia[]
- "Due process" is a legal concept referring to the protections that ensure all legal rights of a person are respected throughout the judicial system, usually specifically referring to the right to be informed of charges and the right to a hearing before an impartial judge.
- The name gained a profound and sad irony to it when Ironwood abandoned such ideals in favor of killing people who got in his way.
- It was stated on the Commentaries that Ironwood's revolver was based on the Tin Man's pistol.[5]
- While the original Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz did not carry a pistol (the Scarecrow did when hunting the witch), the character from the 2007 television miniseries adaptation Tin Man did indeed carry a pistol, which may be the basis of the allusion.
- RWBY: Amity Arena first revealed Ironwood's second gun, which matched his original. It later made its debut in "Out in the Open".
- Despite having only six chambers in the cylinder, Ironwood fired seven shots without reloading in his fight against the Beowolf in "Battle of Beacon".
- The sound effects for Ironwood's guns were made by Chris Kokkinos; from Volume 7, the sounds took inspiration from Borderlands 3, being "tech-heavy."[6]
- Due Process's cannon form is inspired by the BFG from the DOOM series.[7]
- Due Process's cannon could be the alleged "gun-gun" weapon that Miles wanted to create, following a RTX RWBY Panel 2013.
- The guns appeared to be based on a Colt Python Bull Barrel though modified.
References[]
- ↑ Uyalago's Twitter
- ↑ Eddy Rivas' Twitter
- ↑ 2B vs Winter Schnee | DEATH BATTLE Cast #231
- ↑ Volume 8 Teaser Trailer
- ↑ Volume 3 Directors Commentary
- ↑ Chris Kokkinos' Twitter
- ↑ RWBY Volume 8 Directors' and Writers' Commentary Chapter 14
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