Ozpin

All of the four kingdoms( Vale, Mistral, Atlas and Vacuo) are located on the corner of one giant super-continent, with a small sea off the coast of Vale. Across that small sea is the Black Dragon Continent that is also full of Grimm. All of the four kingdoms are located on the corner of one giant supercontinent that’s based off of Pangea. The four kingdoms and all of the settlements that they own are protected by walls that create energy domes to keep Grimm out. They are all connected by train stations, as flying machines do not shown in this story. Common forms of transportation are by train, cars and horse carriages. Beyond the four kingdoms lay the dangerous lands where most of the Grimm are. Menagerie is the deep underbelly of Atlas that is so far underground that the people there barely get to see the sun in their lifetime. It’s primarily used as a mining facility for Atlas.
A major problem with V3 is that the Ozluminati are completely incompetent by not having any security, background checks, anti-hacking measures, any foresight, which lets the villains be a million steps ahead of the heroes. The villains don’t win by a result of their own merits, but because of how incompetent the heroes are. A good conflict is born out of a contest of wit between both protagonists and antagonists.
These fan-contents capture the spirit of this character: Chapters 3 and 4 of the Fanfiction "Jungles Among Deserts".
Ozpin is one of the most mismanaged characters in the show. I liked his character in the first two Volumes because he was the wise mentor, but Vol 3 onward he's been so stupid. The Yellow Brick Bunch was a terrible idea and trying to make him some sort of head of a conspiracy group just doesn't work. On top of that he becomes a total idiot in Vol 3 just to ensure that Cinder wins. While he was cautious and preferred to make deliberate moves in the first two Volumes he was still doing something. He used the info Ruby gave him in Vol 2 to help RWBY investigate Mountain Glenn, even having Oobleck go with them. Then in Vol 3 everyone becomes an idiot. Ozpin disappears at times for no reason aside from the fact that if he didn't he would have done something. Like Yang being disqualified. That whole part of the show has Ozpin and Glynda absent, as well as having not a single person of authority trust Yang, not even her beloved Uncle Qrow who treats her like crap. Oobleck knows Yang yet does nothing. Ironwood suddenly decides he doesn't want to bother looking into things after getting mad at Ozpin for not doing something in Vol 2. Ozpin is missing because Ozpin would have noticed something was off and done something, and you can't have any logical choices being made because it was already determined that the bad guys HAD to win despite their entire plan hinging on the good guys basically handing victory to them and numerous coincidences. Ozpin sits in his office for a while during the big fight at Beacon.... why? It takes him a while before he actually goes out despite it making no sense to sit around while Beacon is under attack. Had Ozpin immediately gotten Glynda, Qrow, and Ironwood, gathered other people like RWBY and JNPR, and then tried the transfer with Pyrrha then they would have crushed Cinder and stopped everything. And why wasn't Glynda the one they tried to give the Maiden powers to? She's already in the loop, she's a woman, AND she's a powerful Huntress. It seems weird that they would choose someone random like Pyrrha who's not even the strongest member on her team let alone Beacon (Nora performs better than her in the Vytal Tournament despite them trying to tell the audience Pyrrha was the one carrying the team). Unless they gave a reasonable explanation for why it HAD to be Pyrrha, which they never do and the rules they do provide are openly called out as dumb and convoluted, in which case just rewrite the rules to something less stupid.
They try SO HARD to set up Ozpin as a morally gray character but never commit to anything. He didn't do anything that would really cause alarm in the first 3 Volumes, but now they're trying to treat him like a suspicious conspirator... except they don't. They don't let these suspicions last longer than a single conversation and they're always brushed aside. I've noticed that Miles and Kerry don't like having good guys look bad or bad guys look good. None of the actual good guys are anti Faunus despite Faunus discrimination being a supposed systematic issue. The teachers at Beacon are supportive, the headmaster of the school is opening supportive, and the students are supportive with only Cardin (who's only ever allowed to look like a one dimensional bully) showing any kind of mean behavior to a Faunus. And even then he's shown to be just as cruel if not crueler to Jaune who's a human so that's just Cardin being a dick. Vol 3 onward really pushes this by having Adam be nothing more than a 1 dimensional evil monster with not a single redeemable trait. All the villains are card carrying members of evil. Ilia is really the only bad guy who was meant to be sympathetic and not only was her redemption super forced and way too fast, I didn't actually feel sympathy for her character so they totally screwed that up. And none of the good guys are allowed to have any real argument or conflict anymore with each other. Blake completely pissed on the team that trusted and helped her, but when she shows up even Yang who has every reason to be mad at her just welcomes her with open arms. Ozpin is a good guy, so why would they even bother trying to make him seem bad? He's obviously not evil, and they clearly have no intention of going with that, so why even bring up these suspicions especially when they're not even that bad? Giving people the ability to turn into birds? THAT is what causes people to get mad and not him bodyjacking Oscar? I mean the actual intent of things gets so muddled. If they don't want to have bad guys look good or good guys look bad then they should just stick to the simple black and white morality instead of pretending that they're doing anything close to "nuanced". At this point there's so little consistency that they could just change everything out of nowhere and it wouldn't feel out of place. Everything feels so artificial because everything bends to whatever story that Volume is trying to tell whether it makes sense or not. Ozpin himself feels like he embodies this in every season since Vol 3.
The whole wizard stuff was stupid and never should have happened. Either Ozpin should have stayed dead and was a normal human who died trying to fight Cinder, or he should have survived and gone to Mistral completely dropping Oscar. Oscar is a pointless character who only makes the issues worse. If you drop the wizard BS, have Ozpin survive and get to Mistral functionally nothing changes except it completely avoids him bodyjacking Oscar and makes it believable that he could fight a Headmaster or someone like Hazel because he's a Headmaster and not a voice in a kid's head. He wouldn't even change his role much because he'd still be talking about stuff and still be mentoring everyone. It would have worked a lot better that way. If Ozpin was going to survive they shouldn't have made it so convoluted and just had him be there. I would have cared a lot more if Ozpin was actually there and not taking over a kids body. That just makes things so creepy but the show never actually treats this as creepy as it is. The one actual thing that seems really off putting about Ozpin in the last couple Volumes is the one thing that no one really seems to care much about.
And his fighting style could have been cool. I've seen some cool fighting with canes in real life, and Roman used a cane to great effect, especially with all the bells and whistles it had. I expected Ozpin's cane to have some sort of twist to it instead of just being a cane. Adding that to Ozpin's status as a Headmaster his fights should be a spectacle in and of themselves. The sheer amount of power someone of his level should have should be staggering. This should be like seeing All Might fight in My Hero Academia and is a level of strength the protagonists should inspire to reach someday. When Ozpin actually gets down and fights himself this should be massive. And while the bits we saw of him fighting Cinder looked cool we only saw tiny bits and didn't even get to see how it ended. If they put some effort into figuring out a fighting style for Ozpin he could look cool, but they didn't. The laziness that pervades the show from the writing to the characters to the fights shows here. Ozpin's lame fighting style is only lame because they didn't bother to make it look cool. They're too busy "focusing on the story" and even that's bad. For a show that's main draw was fight scenes this is an absolute shame.
All of this really boils down to Miles and Kerry just being terrible writers. They have had every opportunity to make RWBY great and have squandered all of it. It's almost like they ended up going with every worst possible choice when writing. Every season after Vol 2 has felt like a rough draft that has never been edited or revised. So much of it is just messy and makes no sense and desperately needs an editor going through and changing things. But Miles is too arrogant to accept any help or even fix the problems that have been obvious for the last +3 years in the show. I cut the writers some slack the first couple of Volumes because they were new, but after 5 years of being head writers for RWBY they either need to put up or shut up. They have had years to work on their writing skills and they've actually been getting worse. They needed to bring in actual writers for the show but of course that never happened and we ended up with the complete mess we have now.
So really what was the point of Ozpin dying if nothing Oscar does couldn’t just be done by Ozpin? If you replaced Oscar with Ozpin and just said he lost to Cinder and made his way to Haven by himself nothing really changes. I mean outside of making the Volume 3 ending more dramatic and dark by having Ozpin lose to Cinder so he wasn’t in the way of Pyrrha dying what has Ozpin’s death done in the story? I mean if he stayed dead that would be one thing but he’s still around just in Oscar’s head. And Oscar doesn’t contribute much to the story, if anything. I would have been far more interested in seeing an injured Ozpin make his way to Haven instead of having to get Oscar to go. If you just had Ozpin himself there explaining things to Ruby and co., and had him fight Lionheart himself, I think that would only improve things since you don’t need to bother trying to include Oscar’s character as well as Ozpin’s. It also totally removes the weird issue of Ozpin being stuck in Oscar’s head, which is a plus if you ask me.

Physical Description

Specialized Equipment

Ozpin uses Canne de Combat. Ozpin plays a lot of scrabble. How else would he come up with acronyms so easily? I love "the Yellow Brick Bunch" as their name. I hereby declare it official.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Do away with the Brother Gods, And make the Grimm, the Product of Man. 'But How?' Some of you may ask. To that End I deliver this quote.
"I have made more mistakes than every man, woman, and child on Remnant." -Ozpin
Ozpin's reincarnation isn't a curse by the gods, it's his own attempt at immortality from his first life. His connection to Salem? She was his Apprentice/Rival/Mentor/Fellow apprentice any of those roles could work. Maybe Ozpin goaded Salem into doing some kind of spell, that turned her into the Uber-grimm lady we know and theorize about today. Perhaps She is the result of a mysterious deal with Dark Powers From the Places that Cannot Be Seen? You can even keep the Maidens and Oz's diminishing Magic power, the fallout of his mountain of mistakes.
This leave Team RWBY in the position of Clean-up Crew. You can have their first meeting, before or during whatever is the beacon arc, be to battle or contain one of Ozpin's many 'Mistakes'. Maybe a magic super weapon that drives people mad and eats souls? Could be a good unwinnable boss fight to force them together through fire and flame. They don't win but manage to drive the enemy away before it hurts people. Enter Expert Huntsman team, or the big man himself, offering to recruit them.
One of the things that has me frustrated about Ozpin was the way he alludes to Ruby about having made terrible mistakes in the past. And then in the present seems to be very deliberately still making bad decisions. It would be nice if he was consistently shown to be a preternaturally good headmaster even if he's not necessarily always on the ball outside his profession. Instead he just seems to have words of encouragement for Ruby and platitude about individuality. Not that it's a bad thing for him to value. I'd say that a world that must remain in a state of martial readiness like Remnant, where differences have to be resolved without violence as much as possible, a man who values instilling an appreciation for individuality, expression, and the things that make life worth living, is pretty wise. But it just . . . never really goes anywhere. He just says that things that are supposed to sound wise. And to be fair he occasionally acts. Or rather, he facilitates RWBY's actions by looking the other way. Still, it doesn't seem enough. Ozpin is supposed to be one of the good guys. A mostly unambiguous protective figure from whom his students, staff, and allies derive a sense of security and certainty. Not infallible. But any challenge the heroes face should seem that much more daunting without him on their side. That way losing him is all the more devastating. Since even if he's still alive a lot of bad things can happen while the people who depend on him have to make due without.
Ozpin and the Maidens are just rip-offs of the Sorceresses from Final Fantasy VIII: Sorceresses (魔女, Majo?, lit. Witch) in the world of Final Fantasy VIII are humans who have received the sorceress power, a magical power said to have been given to humanity by the Great Hyne long ago.
A sorceress differs from normal humans as they can use magic naturally (i.e. without the use of Limit Breaks or Guardian Forces—see Para-Magic) until she must eventually pass her powers to another individual at the time of her death.
Calling a sorceress a "Descendant of Hyne" is a sign of great respect. The only known male sorcerer is the originator, Hyne. Though venerated in legend, sorceresses have also been persecuted and feared due to their status.

Failures & Embarrassments

It's the "out of all the things"-angle that's bothersome.
Because there is no shortage of readily available reasons for the characters to express minor/severe outrage or suspicion towards Ozpin:
All the characters know that Ozpin was aware of the maidens and didn't tell them. That he was aware of Salem and didn't tell them. That he was aware of magic and didn't tell them. That he placed a dying woman in a box and tried to transfer her aura into their friend (without telling her team) the same night that both those women died.
They died in an invasion that the characters were unprepared for because they didn't even know that their academy was secretly a fortress meant to defend a powerful artifact. A fortress he knew would be attacked because he'd been forewarned many times. Ozpin was enmeshed in an eons-long battle against some ancient evil, an evil who controls the monsters they were all taught (at his school) inaccurate information about even though they'd dedicated their life towards fighting these beings.
And even though Ozpin knew how serious of a war this actually was, with the fate of all creation at stake, he ran what was arguably a pretty bad school. When Beacon was attacked we see hundreds of its students running away without arming themselves or organizing productively, instead crying in elevators etc. We've seen two of our main characters (who belong to the stronger caliber of students who actually fight back) sleeping in class. There's race-based bullying in the cafeteria. Neither Ozpin nor any other teacher made a hands-on effort to correct weaknesses among the students such as Jaune's lack of a semblance or Ruby's supposed "inability to fight without her scythe" even though Ozpin clearly considered these things weaknesses since they were among the first potential improvements he brought up upon meeting them again.
To top it all off, Ozpin also knew that Ruby had magic eyes and didn't tell her or teach her anything useful about them, even though those magic eyes allowed her to defeat the opponent who killed their friend a mere second too late. Sure, people have speculated that there might be some poignant reason for why he didn't tell her, but our characters don't know that reason so it'd be perfectly reasonable for someone to be upset about that.
One of the magical maidens (whose powers keep the supposed ultimate evil from attaining a divine relic) disappeared from under his associates' supervision 10 years ago and Ozpin either failed to become aware of this or do anything about it.
Then there's the fact that Ozpin is not only a soul-transferring immortal parasite/bodyswapper, but he also resides in the body of a 14-year old boy who had no choice in the matter. And even if Ozpin didn't either, he then convinced that 14-year old to abandon his family and risk his life in this battle. The gang could also get upset/worried about the dubious implications of Ozpin merging his soul with said 14-year-old, as the phrasing implies that either party could potentially end up on the short end of that stick.
Even if we desperately wanted to limit our accusatory moment to something that Yang and Weiss specifically learned in their conversation with Raven, how about the fact that his special treatment of team RWBY mirrors his former treatment of team STRQ? That could justifiably disturb people or form the strong basis for an accusatory "don't treat us the same way you treated them"-seeing as how (out of STRQ's 4 members) one is an alcoholic, one helms a bandit tribe and another one is dead.
My point is: There are far greater and more obviously disturbing elements of Ozpin's behavior than the revelation that he granted two of his entrusted lieutenants with extra power. A power that is in no way stated, even by Raven when she is trying to convince W&Y how bad it is, to have a negative side effect.
“But the way this bird thing is being handled, I can't help but feel there's a reveal coming in the next few episodes.”
I have no doubt in my mind that this is correct. It seems very likely to me that the writers are trying to schedule a series of reveals so they can play around with its characters' sense of trust.
I.e "Some minorly disturbing information arises about Ozpin and the gang questions him about it. Ozpin either lies or assures them to trust him again. Calm before the storm that sets our characters up for more severe outrage/consequences when an even darker truth is revealed."
So I agree with you that they're probably intending to pull something along those lines, and there's nothing wrong with that sort of arc in general writing terms. The issue with how RWBY specifically executed upon this concept is that its characters have all been generally unfazed by a number of legitimately disturbing and world-changing revelations only to then express an uncharacteristically dramatic response to a relatively minor one. And they didn't even do so in a convincing "straw that broke the camel's back" kind of way.
That is why I think this moment could have been handled better.
I like where you're coming from, and understand your perspective, but still don't agree with you yet. Especially not that the criticisms/jokes about Birdemic - Remnant Edition are a symptom of "the FNDM's general inability to grasp nuance as well as an impatience for long-form storytelling".
“This slow buildup and continual minor reveal might just be "bad writing," but it's equally likely that it's a deliberate part of the storytelling process.”
With a plot point like this, I would argue that the important part isn't whether well-spoken people like yourself are able to go on reddit and make partially speculative arguments that try to tie the loose ends of a scene together, but rather whether it works independently as good storytelling through its beginning, middle and end. Regardless of whether one's theories about the reasoning behind why character X did Y are confirmed, proven wrong or ignored in later chapters, the current chapter's flaws can still be spotted and criticized. A person can take any scene, be it a well written one or a poorly written one, and formulate a speculative headcanon that would make every action by every character both reasonable and profound. But in that case the scene isn't providing the quality, you are.
For example, you make absolutely terrific points for why Yang-and-the-Gang might feel upset/betrayed/vexed/disturbed that Ozpin gave two people additional superpowers and no one told them. But the scene does not, in my opinion.
“It's specifically because it's so harmless that it gets zeroed in on as such a big deal. In the grand scheme of things the bird transformation is so quotidian, and potentially useful in planning tactics/strategy, that there is no real reason to conceal it. Maidens with stealable powers and world-altering relics make sense to keep concealed, the fact that Raven and Qrow have one-off bird transformations isn't that big a deal and not worth concealing from the kids you're already entrusting with so much.”
To exemplify, I think this interpretation of things depends too heavily on an apologetic audience headcanoning and speculating better motivations into the scene than what is actually delivered by the show itself. No character expresses that they understand why Qrow & Oz would keep the big things a secret, but feel outraged that they would also be deceitful over something so small.
None of the characters make the note you so astutely brought up, that the bird power would simply have been useful to know about.
And if we wanted to believe in your theory that the characters actually zeroed in on the the bird transformation because it is quotidian ("of or occurring every day; daily" - Dick Shonary) then the scene's delivery sure undercut that by having the characters react to it with more shock and disapproval than (for example) when they're told Ozpin created the Maiden system that led to Pyrrha's death. Besides... "Why would you do something like that? I mean, what is wrong with you? doesn't exactly scream that they perceive it as harmless.
“Instead they sit on it and let Raven control the narrative.”
That could have made for a great plotline. Except, again, part of the reason why the birds-conversation and its tangential scenes gets so justifiably criticized is because the show doesn't pull this off effectively. Raven's control over the narrative is squandered because the writers didn't let Raven DO anything substantial with the opportunity afforded to her. Even though she seems to express a desire to make Yang trust Ozpin less, she doesn't do the one thing any actual person would in that case: Provide good reasons, prove why she herself does not trust Ozpin.
Raven reveals that Ozpin gave her the power to shapeshift, and she does this dramatically as though it were some horrendous thing. Ok, sure. Then she sends Yang off on her way to Qrow, and Yang brings that accusatory energy straight into Ozpin's face. "You did some horrendous thing."
To which Ozpin then responds that Qrow and Raven both accepted this seemingly harmless, useful power freely and willingly. There was nothing horrendous about it. Qrow substantiates.
At which point... Yang has no more ammo in her distrust gun. No counter. Because Raven gave her nothing else.
Raven made what was ultimately an incompetent, toothless and flaccid attempt at sowing discord. And the problem I had with the scene was that Ravens actions very transparently only made sense if, say, she were the puppet of a bunch of writers with the goal "we want to edge towards a growing distrust of Ozpin that eventually boils over when shocking reveal X, Y or Z rears its head... But we don't want that to happen yet. So we'll create a very tame early edition of that conflict, something that can be negated effortlessly, but we'll still have the characters act real up in arms about it for a bit to sell the escalating tension within the group."
It... It felt incredibly forced, in my opinion. And there were so many versions of the scene that could have achieved the same goal without being so forced. For example:
“We aren't at risk of having our consciousness overwritten by someone else, someone who wouldn't be there if he had just done his job and beaten Salem ages ago.”
Very true. Except nobody expresses this! Not to Ozpin, nor to each other. Not in words or action. You bring up so many great avenues of suspicion and contention, of justified anger and blame that the scene COULD and possibly SHOULD have used as the fuel for this conflict, but I would argue that in doing so you are actually providing more fuel for why the birds-scene was flawed.
“Who killed Summer Rose and how did she die? Can Silver Eyes be activated deliberately? Who are Ozpin and Salem and what is their history together? Where do the faunus come from and why weren't they mentioned in Qrow's creation myth in 4x08? What do the relics do? Where do the Grimm come from, and why do they target people exclusively when they used to target animals and plants as well? How does Salem control the Grimm? What is her endgame?”
If you, the viewer, are getting fed up at how many potentially vital questions are up in the air, just think how much worse it is for the kids.
Alas, one of the major issues with Volume 5 was that the characters expressed a far too lackadaisical attitude towards these things. They didn't seem to actively pursue or care about most of those questions. The characters focused too much on the bird power and neglected so many of the far more thematically, emotionally, dramatically and narratively relevant topics.
“They're starting to doubt him. In time, all of the other issues you brought up will come into play.”
I know they will, which is why I made that very prediction at the end of the last comment. We can pretty clearly deduce the outline of what the writers are going for, the dramatic rise-and-fall-then-rise-again curve of distrust they want to accomplish.
My concern isn't whether they will do it, I just believe they're going about their goal in a clumsy and forced manner. I believe that there were better ways which this narrative could have been pursued, so as to avoid the bird-debacle and a number of other issues.
Anyway, fun discussing with you! I'm not saying you couldn't be right in your assessment of the character's inner lives, I simply think the criticism of the scene's execution would be justified regardless of authorial intent.
Things worth calling him out on:
1. Placing Pyrrha in a position where she had a “choice” to accept the Maiden’s powers but considering Oz knew her personality and most definitely had other options, it could be interpreted as intentional manipulation.
2. Possessing a 14 year old boy, getting him into something he’s not prepared for, and can take over at will without his consent
3. Training a bunch of students to fight a battle against an enemy they don’t even know exists
4. Questioning his statements of being cursed by the gods and him giving the maidens powers. No one reacts to either of these at ALL.
5. He should at least be asked about STRQ and Summer
What we got in V5.
1. Birds
2. Hazel’s weak backstory
Yeah it’s infuriating

Mental Trauma

How not to write: Ozma and Ozcar
I’ve been meaning to make this post for awhile now, but I was stalled by school and also I was waiting to see if Ozcar would change enough that it would invalidate anything I wrote. Thankfully, that’s hardly the case, but now I do get to add a section on a new character,
It’s been five years, and we finally know about Ozpin’s backstory, AND IT’S…meh. There are a lot of problems with the whole backstory involving Ozma, but I’ll simply say my opinion of it mirrors the rest of the show: interesting concept, absolute failure of an execution.
The sad thing is, I could look passed how much wasted potential the story had if it had occurred earlier on. Had we learned Ozma’s backstory during volume 2 or 3, I would be more optimistic that’d we hear more about Ozma’s past lives.
However, that it’s taken this long to get this to point, I can’t find it in me to care anymore. That’s the thing, RWBY has been going on for over half a decade and we only now understand the basics about a crucial character. Maybe all of this could have occurred earlier with proper rewrites and time management, but then you remember this show gave Jaune an arc for each of the first two volumes and thus realize that the concept alludes the writers
One of the most critical flaws the show is that it doesn’t use its time wisely. Ozma’s story about reincarnation has incredible potential, but it’s all glanced over in a montage. Everything else about the character is almost equally rushed through, with the focus on Salem being just as bad. Instead of learning more about these elements, we had to have scenes with Blake’s harem, Neptune hitting on Ilia, two asshole hunters, and a story of the two brothers that could have been streamlined.
Moving on to Ozpin, we get hints that there’s something more to him, but those hints are all we get until volume 6. Now we know Ozpin doesn’t trust people as much because people like Leo betrayed that trust. This character trait could have been made more explicit sooner, but instead Ozpin is stuck with the old wise man trait.
Finally we have Oscar, who has yet to become a character, but the show seems to suggest he will be once Ozpin merges with him. What the show is asking me to do is wait for the writers to come up with Oscar’s character, and at this point I’m done waiting.
Many times it feels as if the writers are subtly asking the audience to wait hand and foot on them to write the story. When are we getting development for Ozpin? “Just wait, it will come.” When will we get answers to dust, semblances, silver eyes, relics, maidens, etc? “Just wait, it will come.” Can we at least get development for Ruby? “Stop being so impatient!”
Good stories take time to develop, bad stories and characters stall for time. RWBY has spent the last six years stalling, and as to be expected, the final product is not worth the wait.

Morality & Philosophy

In a world where Grimm are attracted to negative emotions, anxiety, etc... any sort of information control or suppression can be justified. Keeping people in the dark, in a "as-you-need-to-know"-basis for info, is some Dark Ages shit but whereas in the Dark Ages they thought that stuff would bring demons and devils, in RWBY-verse the Grimm are a real and existential threat.
I think Ozpin keeping Team RWBY in the dark that the relics attract Grimm was stupid, but if he felt that lying to Team RWBY would provide net advantages, then that's what he believes.
I think the show did an interesting job throwing that question out there, but it's so hamfisted into a black-white morality scheme where obviously Team RWBY is right (just trust us! a bunch of prodigal teenagers!) and Ozpin is shady for lying (about stupid stuff like throwaway shit like the relic attracts Grimm). Part of this is how rushed the Ozpin-can't-be-trusted plot has been. In two episodes we're getting season finale worth of revelations which throws into question just wtf will sustain the rest of this volume. It doesn't feel earned or properly spaced out and therefore the nuance of Ozpin's position is weakened.
I always find it strange that the heroes give so much shit to Ozpin despite:
1) He actually had very legit and understandable reasons for doing things. Yes they were still bad but and he deserved to be called out on it as should any character that fucks and that should include the heroes as well-
2) Blake was a former terrorist who likely did a lot of terrible things as part of the White Fang lied about her identity to get into Beacon and ended up outing herself by accident and even ended up abandoning the team and especially Yang after her partner lost her arm.
3) The heroes have been shown willing to talk to people that were actually pretty terrible people and did things far worse than Ozpin. Examples being Raven, Who Ruby tried to talk to their side and who Yang lied to her entire team about being the Spring Maiden. Emerald who Ruby still tried to reason with despite her literally being the main cause of Penny's death. Freaking Illia who not only BETRAYED Blake's trust and lead her into an ambush with the intent of handing her to Adam her abusive ex who planned to kill her but also took part in an assassination attempt on Blake's parents and only changed sides once the White Fang attack was stopped AND YET Blake still forgave her easily.
4) An admittedly small one but Qrow was a bandit just like Raven before changing sides which meant he more than likely was involved in a lot of deaths himself.
5) Yang ended up lying about the Spring Maiden. Even if people tried to use the excuse that she didn't trust Ozpin that's actually a really bad one since the main reason she wouldn't trust Ozpin is because of Raven and Raven is one of the least trustworthy people out there along with being among the most selfish and this was after Raven admitted to killing a child who trusted her for her power. Worse she lied to her entire team including her family and then had the nerve to tell Ozpin that lying to people isn't alright despite doing just that. And no, I'm not saying that Yang's lie justifies Ozpins, Ozpin lying was a shitty thing to do and deserved to get called out on it and so that should apply to everyone that does something like it. Yes it isn't as bad but it's still a shitty thing to do and doesn't help her case if she is showing herself willing to lie to her allies when she feels like it.
And Ozpin ended up getting a lot more shit than some of these people. Really hope that if anyone of the heroes brings up never forgiving Ozpin just because he lied that someone points to Qrow, Blake and Illia.

Yeah I really feel like some of this stuff is just a teeny tiny eensie bit hypocritical, which is frustrating but at least with Yang I’m wondering if Weiss is going to be upset with her.
I mean think about it, Yang is the only person Weiss has on screen opened up to about the way her family treats her. Yang of all people knows about that stuff. Wouldn’t Weiss be upset that Yang decided it was in Weiss’ best interest to travel to Atlas rather than search for and beg Raven to lock the relic away? Weiss is tired of people deciding what’s best for her, and she’s said so in front of Yang, like, there’s no excuse.
Don’t get me wrong I love Yang, I want her to learn a lesson and just come clean!
I understand that people think Raven wouldn’t be helpful and I even agree with that sentiment seeing as Raven is a huge selfish wildcard — but is that really Yang’s right to decide that? What gives her the right to come to that conclusion on her own?
What makes this worse for Yang is she’s simultaneously preaching honesty to Ozcar. Like, GIRL, get your shit together!
Thinking about it just remembered that after telling Ozpin that he can trust the group and that they won't turn on him she pointed her weapon at her own uncle while bearing her teeth in an extremely hostile manner even though Qrow was unarmed and was obviously trying to calm everyone down... and then she turned on Ozpin, right after she said she wouldn't, for lying and not trusting the group... Despite her lying and withholding information from everyone including her own team and threatening her own uncle who she knew for years.
Someone really needs to confront Yang about that since it seems like she herself has trust issues.

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Contacts & Relations

Ozpin loves to fuck with Goodwitch discreetly, like simply moving her pencil holder to the other side of her desk or moving her car 3 spots away from where she parked it.

Quotes & Catchphrases

The manga also has my favorite Ozpin quote being that "fighting the Grimm is a battle against the rejection of life itself" which is more depth than the main show ever gave the context of his secret war against Salem.

Character Prototype

Allusions- Oz the Great and Powerful, Odin, Vash, Avatar Roku, Gandalf the Grey, Albus Dumbledore, Aslan, Hohenheim of Light, Dumbledore. In Baum's original Oz books, the Wizard of Oz received training in magic from Glinda the Good Witch and turned out to be very talented, going on to become a very powerful (genuine) wizard in his own right, which was on top of his inventor tendencies.