A New Approach
"Amity was built to bring the nations together, and it will serve that purpose once again."
Written by Kiersi Burkhart
Directed by Connor Pickens
Directed by Connor Pickens
"Ozpin believed the best way to fight Salem was to do so in secret. Whether that was the right choice or not isn't for me to say. But we find ourselves in a position of needing, well, a new approach."
— General James Ironwood
After learning of Ironwood's plans, the heroes have to decide whether they're going to help him achieve his goals.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Anger Born of Worry: Winter is frustrated with the team stealing the airship to enter Atlas, not because it was against the law or military property, but because they might have been shot down. It's made very clear that her anger is mostly worry about Weiss's safety.
- Cooldown Hug: After finding out the protagonists illegally entered Mantle in their stolen airship, Winter tells Weiss they could have been shot down for doing just that. Weiss, however, calms Winter down by giving the latter a hug and assuring her they did what they had to do.
- Exact Words: When Ironwood asks Ruby if they learned anything from Ozpin about the lamp, Ruby tells him that Ozpin said the lamp can answer three questions but that the questions have been used up already. While it's true that they did learn this from Ozpin, what Ruby's omitting is that Ozpin wasn't being honest.
- Hollywood Hacking: Watts is able to disable technology in Mantle with a simple push of a button, even if the technology is dramatically different, like road barriers and security cameras. He justifies it as saying that he wrote the code for the systems, and Mantle's digital security was not updated, so his old backdoors still work.
- Info Dump:
- During an argument with a fellow prisoner, the prisoner explains to the heroes and viewers who Robyn Hill is. He covers how well trained she is, that she's running for a seat on the Council, that her priority in life is protecting Mantle, and that she has the backing of the poor and disenfranchised behind her.
- After he receives them in his office, Ironwood explains to the heroes his plan of action against Salem. He reveals that he's informed Penny, Winter and Ace Ops of Ozpin's Secret War against Salem and is currently re-purposing the Amity Colosseum as a high-atmosphere CCT satellite to restore global communications. He also explains that he withdrew his fleet to Atlas so he could safely defend his kingdom when he reveals Salem's existence to them. Once that's done, he and his military aim to spread the the news about Salem to the rest of the world and use his military to help protect everyone.
- Internal Reveal: Ironwood spends a lot of time explaining to the protagonists who he's entrusted with knowledge of the war with Salem, and what he plans to do about it since Ozpin is gone and the Relic of Knowledge is in Atlas. However, he doesn't realise the significance of Oscar's presence in the room until he says that he's doing the best he can without Ozpin here to guide him, causing the protagonists to fall silent. Qrow then makes Ironwood, Winter and Penny aware of what the viewers already know: that Oscar is the next Ozpin. However, Ruby refuses to let Ironwood learn the real reason why Ozpin is currently missing from Oscar's head, thus leaving Ironwood unaware of Jinn's revelations and thinking the Relic has used up all its questions.
- Irony:
- Situational Irony: Ironwood tells the heroes that part of his plans have included trying to prevent the villains from infiltrating Atlas. However, while that's true for the city of Atlas, he has not included Mantle in his security upgrades. The end of the episode confirms that the villains have managed to get past the kingdom's locked border and hidden themselves in Mantle; the lack of security upgrades to Mantle means that the system is still functioning on the coding that Watts originally designed, enabling him to infiltrate Mantle's system.
- Dramatic Irony: Ironwood describes Ozpin's original plan as simply holding Salem at bay, but designs a new plan based on the premise that Salem will eventually win, and which rests on the ability to outright destroy her. However, both the viewers and heroes know Salem is indestructible. When Ruby commits the heroes to helping complete the plan without revealing that the end-goal is unachievable, the camera angles and ominous music score invite the viewers to share her companions' disquietness about this decision.
- Man Hug: After the heroes leave Ironwood's office, Ironwood goes after Qrow and catches him alone in the corridor. He emphasises that he meant what he said about it being good to see Qrow again and hugs him. Qrow stands still in shock for a moment before softening into the hug, rolling his eyes and patting Ironwood comfortingly on the shoulder with a smile.
- To Unmasque the World: Since Ozpin is no longer around to guide them, Ironwood feels a new plan is needed: so, instead of continuing the fight against Salem in secrecy, he's going to reveal her existence to Remnant and unite humanity against this common enemy. Although the heroes were very angry with Ozpin's secrecy, their response to Ironwood's plan is to display similar misgivings to Ozpin himself over the potential chaos and panic revealing the truth to the world might cause.
- Tsundere: Marrow claims that he's not happy about working with the group, but is then mortified to realise his wagging tail is giving him away.
"Well, I suppose we all have our talents."
