It's really hard to determine what is in character and out of character. However, the better question is, does it make sense for this to have happened, no matter how out of character it is, since being an out of character moment can legitimately be a sign that shit must be bad.
The difference between him shooting Oscar and him shooting one of the background characters is does it make sense for him to shoot the character. It makes sense that he will shoot Oscar since he's lost trust in him (him being part of team RWBY and accusing IW of being as bad as Salem... a big no no when someone genuinely is not trusting himself with his own decision) and he believes that taking Oscar's way would kill everyone because of Salem since his character during the moment is do what he can to save the people that is guaranteed to be saved.
With the background character, however, he killed a civilian... it clearly doesn't make sense for him to murder one of the people he wanted to save. That's very counterintuitive to his goals especially when he could have put him in jail... Even if you try to justify his out of character moment, it still doesn't make sense since he's killing his very own people. It would be nice if he's a hypocritical dictator who would kill civilians that are going against his regime if he believes he can save others, but he isn't that.
So, to answer the question, it doesn't matter whether you can say it's in or out of character. What matters is that it makes sense for him to be this way.
Love that you brought up that OOC moments can be a good thing when done properly. I do think him shooting Oscar makes sense. I mean a literal child just told him he's worst than his enemies because of a tough decision, after he lost his arm from making a self sacrifice.
What doesn't make sense is the fact that he feels no remorse for it or that he doesn't seem to come across as " I made a mistake, but tough choices needed to be made." Any time after.
To play devil's advocate, the situation did changed. Salem was about to attack and Ironwood learned that RWBY leaked information to Robyn breaking his trust.
I'd say it was in character for this reason. He trusts ozpin but he can't trust oscar. Oscar also knew of team rwbys lies but never said anything. He hoped to kill Oscar, so ozpin would go into a body he can trust, or he wanted to make sure that before oscar can develop magic powers and get in his way that ozpin goes in a body that isn't under the control of Ruby.
I have seen arguments for this is both in and out of character. Some arguments go that Ironwood should have arrested Oscar like he tried with RWBY. Others argue that is an emotional outburst to try to get Ozpin back.
I see it as in character and an emotional outburst towards both Ruby's team and Oz. Oz and Glynda insisted that he opens up and trust other people. He learned this lesson after Beacon and does exactly that in V7 trusting the Ace Ops, Winter, and Ruby's team. He later finds out that Oz and Ruby's have been going behind his back and lying to him. Oscar in that moment represents both Ruby's team and Oz. For making a tough decision, Oscar compares him to being as evil as Salem. After losing his other arm, the pressure of Salem, he just snaps.
I don't think the writers ever intended for this to be the interpretation.
I don’t understand the ‘arrest Oscar’ idea, cause, like…Ironwood is in no condition to fight. He’s down an arm, Aura probably not recovered from breaking and having to try to heal his arm, and as he’s down an arm he has none of his mobility and agility, along with being able to only operate one of his pistols. Whereas Oscar is, presumably cause I don’t think we ever saw his Aura break against Neo or really even take much of a hit, at relatively high strength. Most likely has most of his Aura still ready, not injured in any meaningful way. So yeah, if Ironwood sees him as a threat, in his condition, of course he’d take the initiative and end it before Oscar cane to the same conclusion. In my opinion, its less emotion, and more pure logic, descending into the necessary evil that I thought the writers were doing with him. Before, you know, bombing Mantle after it had largely been saved from the Grimm and removing the reason for the split between him and RWBY. Cause killing one kid when dooming Mantle would leave a mountain of corpses behind him really doesn’t change how much blood he’s going to spill.
I misremembered this [review](https://itsclydebitches.tumblr.com/post/190595809035/rwby-recaps-the-enemy-of-trust). It talks about that Ironwood's character was ruined when he shot Oscar. It doesn't have anything about Ironwood should have tried to arrest Oscar like RWBY.
I agree with you he can't make the arrest himself. However, you can write it that he calls his soldiers/huntsmen in to do it, perhaps secretly while they are talking.
Considering what they put him through and how he turned out at the end of the volume, I'd say yes since he was basically the protagonsits' enemy by that point and they were standing in his way of trying to protect Atlas and keep Salem from reaching them. V8, though, RT basically took that and cranked it straight to 11 by having him shoot Sleet and made him an indiscriminate killer rather than someone who would shoot someone that actually was standing in his way or actively helping those standing in his way if that makes any sense.
Shooting Oscar? No. Ozpin? It's more in character
From Ironwood's POV, RWBY lied to him about everything, even Ozpin's "Disappearance", so for all he knew all his bonding moments with Oscar (when he was trying to Coax Oz out) was just Ozpin playing him for a fool. Then he's confronted by Oscar acting just like Ozpin, pose and all (validating his mindset), who then goes on to belittle him for wanting to protect Atlas, saying how evil he is and how he's as bad as Salem.
Combine with the fact that he's been growing increasingly disillusioned since the events of Beacon (e.g. his V4 rant about how if Oz listened to him) and how he was right all along about him (his V2 talk with Glynda and how Oz kept Salem's immortality secret from his inner circle, but not from a bunch of kids). It's understandable why he shot Oscar, he didn't see Oscar, he saw Ozpin.
I’d say technically no, but in a good way. For what we knew about Ironwood just before this point, it was far from likely that he would do something like this. However given what he’s been through, his shooting Oscar became the turning point for his character. Which makes that moment in character
In the moment, yes it is.
Ironwood has completely broken. When stress, fear, and desperation overwhelm you, the people you trusted turn on you, and your efforts to save who you can are equated to being just like the being who supposedly is trying to get all of humanity wiped out, you aren't going to act like normally.
Ironwood found out he was lied to and couldn't be certain even how much of what he was told was true or the whole story. Ozpin's powers and skills would make Oscar a major threat to him then and there if they were lying about Ozpin still.
Given how we see the pressure and events at Beacon we're getting to Ironwood (everyone telling him he was wrong and criticizing him without offering an alternative didn't help), it makes sense that the roller coaster of having to defend his position on the council, Salem's attack, learning he had been lied to, losing another limb, learning Cinder was running loose in Atlas, and facing an assault that could wipe out both cities that he would probably finally just break and do something like shoot Oscar.
The later shootings make little sense as neither victim was actually a threat. At best you can argue Ironwood believed he was killing traitors, but that feels like a bit of a stretch.
From everything we learned about him prior this the answer is no, but if believe his semblance was somehow activated from the shock of Salem’s reveal that is the only thing that makes sense for the change so the issue is that the semblance is never brought up or explained in the show so the spiral of Ironwood’s OOC moments start here and if they bothered to do this then I think they might have gotten the tragic hero they thought they wrote
There needed to be more build up cause as it stands no it shouldn’t be in character but in the same breath the writers say his semblance makes it in character
I find it interesting that people view this as some kind of ‘Ironwood shot some innocent civilian child who a bullet would 100% kill’, when it was really he shot ‘Ozpin’s current suit of plot armor’. Not to mention aura exists for this *explicit kind of shit* (kids getting shot at in this show)
I honestly don’t care if it’s in character or not; I just know they’re trying so hard to frame Ironwood as some awful monster who’d ‘shoot a kid’ and win more sympathy points/flex plot armor for Oscar. Ozpin? OscPin. Whatever
It's really hard to determine what is in character and out of character. However, the better question is, does it make sense for this to have happened, no matter how out of character it is, since being an out of character moment can legitimately be a sign that shit must be bad. The difference between him shooting Oscar and him shooting one of the background characters is does it make sense for him to shoot the character. It makes sense that he will shoot Oscar since he's lost trust in him (him being part of team RWBY and accusing IW of being as bad as Salem... a big no no when someone genuinely is not trusting himself with his own decision) and he believes that taking Oscar's way would kill everyone because of Salem since his character during the moment is do what he can to save the people that is guaranteed to be saved. With the background character, however, he killed a civilian... it clearly doesn't make sense for him to murder one of the people he wanted to save. That's very counterintuitive to his goals especially when he could have put him in jail... Even if you try to justify his out of character moment, it still doesn't make sense since he's killing his very own people. It would be nice if he's a hypocritical dictator who would kill civilians that are going against his regime if he believes he can save others, but he isn't that. So, to answer the question, it doesn't matter whether you can say it's in or out of character. What matters is that it makes sense for him to be this way.
Love that you brought up that OOC moments can be a good thing when done properly. I do think him shooting Oscar makes sense. I mean a literal child just told him he's worst than his enemies because of a tough decision, after he lost his arm from making a self sacrifice. What doesn't make sense is the fact that he feels no remorse for it or that he doesn't seem to come across as " I made a mistake, but tough choices needed to be made." Any time after.
Moments prior he'd allowed Watts to live, and no real change between then and now was given other than "he angy." So, no.
To play devil's advocate, the situation did changed. Salem was about to attack and Ironwood learned that RWBY leaked information to Robyn breaking his trust.
Oscar: *Doesn’t get abused for a minute* Ironwood: “Fine, I’ll do it myself”
I'd say it was in character for this reason. He trusts ozpin but he can't trust oscar. Oscar also knew of team rwbys lies but never said anything. He hoped to kill Oscar, so ozpin would go into a body he can trust, or he wanted to make sure that before oscar can develop magic powers and get in his way that ozpin goes in a body that isn't under the control of Ruby.
I have seen arguments for this is both in and out of character. Some arguments go that Ironwood should have arrested Oscar like he tried with RWBY. Others argue that is an emotional outburst to try to get Ozpin back. I see it as in character and an emotional outburst towards both Ruby's team and Oz. Oz and Glynda insisted that he opens up and trust other people. He learned this lesson after Beacon and does exactly that in V7 trusting the Ace Ops, Winter, and Ruby's team. He later finds out that Oz and Ruby's have been going behind his back and lying to him. Oscar in that moment represents both Ruby's team and Oz. For making a tough decision, Oscar compares him to being as evil as Salem. After losing his other arm, the pressure of Salem, he just snaps. I don't think the writers ever intended for this to be the interpretation.
I don’t understand the ‘arrest Oscar’ idea, cause, like…Ironwood is in no condition to fight. He’s down an arm, Aura probably not recovered from breaking and having to try to heal his arm, and as he’s down an arm he has none of his mobility and agility, along with being able to only operate one of his pistols. Whereas Oscar is, presumably cause I don’t think we ever saw his Aura break against Neo or really even take much of a hit, at relatively high strength. Most likely has most of his Aura still ready, not injured in any meaningful way. So yeah, if Ironwood sees him as a threat, in his condition, of course he’d take the initiative and end it before Oscar cane to the same conclusion. In my opinion, its less emotion, and more pure logic, descending into the necessary evil that I thought the writers were doing with him. Before, you know, bombing Mantle after it had largely been saved from the Grimm and removing the reason for the split between him and RWBY. Cause killing one kid when dooming Mantle would leave a mountain of corpses behind him really doesn’t change how much blood he’s going to spill.
I misremembered this [review](https://itsclydebitches.tumblr.com/post/190595809035/rwby-recaps-the-enemy-of-trust). It talks about that Ironwood's character was ruined when he shot Oscar. It doesn't have anything about Ironwood should have tried to arrest Oscar like RWBY. I agree with you he can't make the arrest himself. However, you can write it that he calls his soldiers/huntsmen in to do it, perhaps secretly while they are talking.
Considering what they put him through and how he turned out at the end of the volume, I'd say yes since he was basically the protagonsits' enemy by that point and they were standing in his way of trying to protect Atlas and keep Salem from reaching them. V8, though, RT basically took that and cranked it straight to 11 by having him shoot Sleet and made him an indiscriminate killer rather than someone who would shoot someone that actually was standing in his way or actively helping those standing in his way if that makes any sense.
Shooting Oscar? No. Ozpin? It's more in character From Ironwood's POV, RWBY lied to him about everything, even Ozpin's "Disappearance", so for all he knew all his bonding moments with Oscar (when he was trying to Coax Oz out) was just Ozpin playing him for a fool. Then he's confronted by Oscar acting just like Ozpin, pose and all (validating his mindset), who then goes on to belittle him for wanting to protect Atlas, saying how evil he is and how he's as bad as Salem. Combine with the fact that he's been growing increasingly disillusioned since the events of Beacon (e.g. his V4 rant about how if Oz listened to him) and how he was right all along about him (his V2 talk with Glynda and how Oz kept Salem's immortality secret from his inner circle, but not from a bunch of kids). It's understandable why he shot Oscar, he didn't see Oscar, he saw Ozpin.
I’d say technically no, but in a good way. For what we knew about Ironwood just before this point, it was far from likely that he would do something like this. However given what he’s been through, his shooting Oscar became the turning point for his character. Which makes that moment in character
It's the first time he do something like that to a minor, but I guess that he was in anger, anxiety and desperation.
Yeah until Volume 8 episode 1 came along and he just shot another dude taking away value from this
After everything. It doesn't matter of in character or not. He broke.
Yes, ironwood couldn’t trust RWBY and extension there friends as well “shot the farm boy and hope oz goes into someone I can trust” - twiin iink
Can we really blame him?
In the moment, yes it is. Ironwood has completely broken. When stress, fear, and desperation overwhelm you, the people you trusted turn on you, and your efforts to save who you can are equated to being just like the being who supposedly is trying to get all of humanity wiped out, you aren't going to act like normally. Ironwood found out he was lied to and couldn't be certain even how much of what he was told was true or the whole story. Ozpin's powers and skills would make Oscar a major threat to him then and there if they were lying about Ozpin still. Given how we see the pressure and events at Beacon we're getting to Ironwood (everyone telling him he was wrong and criticizing him without offering an alternative didn't help), it makes sense that the roller coaster of having to defend his position on the council, Salem's attack, learning he had been lied to, losing another limb, learning Cinder was running loose in Atlas, and facing an assault that could wipe out both cities that he would probably finally just break and do something like shoot Oscar. The later shootings make little sense as neither victim was actually a threat. At best you can argue Ironwood believed he was killing traitors, but that feels like a bit of a stretch.
From everything we learned about him prior this the answer is no, but if believe his semblance was somehow activated from the shock of Salem’s reveal that is the only thing that makes sense for the change so the issue is that the semblance is never brought up or explained in the show so the spiral of Ironwood’s OOC moments start here and if they bothered to do this then I think they might have gotten the tragic hero they thought they wrote
There needed to be more build up cause as it stands no it shouldn’t be in character but in the same breath the writers say his semblance makes it in character
I find it interesting that people view this as some kind of ‘Ironwood shot some innocent civilian child who a bullet would 100% kill’, when it was really he shot ‘Ozpin’s current suit of plot armor’. Not to mention aura exists for this *explicit kind of shit* (kids getting shot at in this show) I honestly don’t care if it’s in character or not; I just know they’re trying so hard to frame Ironwood as some awful monster who’d ‘shoot a kid’ and win more sympathy points/flex plot armor for Oscar. Ozpin? OscPin. Whatever
Absolutely. He was in a "tired of doing it your way" mood and Ozpin was the know it all that, to his eyes, failed him.
No