Ozpin Isn’t Shady

Yup, I’m back at it again.

With the release of the new volume, and the fact that Ozpin continues to exist, the antis are out in force again, so here I am, tackling this old, accusation. Good stuff.

To start, lets go over what people seem to classify as shady behaviour from Ozpin and we’ll go through it point by point.

1. Ozpin doesn’t tell everyone everything

This is probably the basis of most claims of shadiness on Ozpin’s part, and I really don’t see why? Why exactly is it shady behaviour for an ancient immortal not to tell a bunch of children he’s known for a year all of his secrets when it has been established in the main plot line that in the past he’s trusted people whom he shouldn’t have and they’ve betrayed him (See: Raven, Leo)? @sunder-the-gold does a fantastic breakdown of this here, and I highly recommend giving it a read.

2. Posession

For some reason its Ozpin’s fault that he’s cursed to reincarnate into the bodies of like-minded souls for all eternity until he defeats the source of all evil? I mean, sure, maybe he did something to cause it, but anyone who claims that this is something he either wanted or has any control over clearly isn’t paying attention. I mean, as much fun as I’m sure it is not having a body of your own, having to experience puberty again and again, and destroy the lives of the people he’s sworn to protect, I’m not really sure what enjoyment people seem to think Ozpin is getting out of this situation, or how he should be blamed for literally being unable to die.

I mean, what do you expect him to do here? Just sit there and not say anything? Oh, but then he’s being a creep that is leaving the world to Salem isn’t he? Its just, it doesn’t matter how respectful he is, how he tries to juggle the needs of Oscar and the rest of the world, there is nothing he can do that people aren’t going to try and twist in some fashion when everything anyone has said about how hard this is on Oscar can be applied to Ozpin to the nth degree.

3. Haven

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is nothing Ozpin can do that people won’t villainize. Not to take away from how big the forced switch was, because that was a massive thing. But what people don’t seem to realize is that its only a massive thing because it was something Ozpin would never normally do and this is because Ozpin, as a character, revolves around the theme of choice. @tigerstripedmoon made a fantastic elaboration on this point here and honestly I couldn’t say it better.

At the end of the day I’ll leave it at this: if Ozpin hadn’t taken control, Oscar, and possibly others, would have died and people would be blaming him for that. No one is ever happy.

4. Pyrrha and Jaune

So, I’ve personally gone over this point before here, but I’d like to add to this because it always irritates me when people blame Ozpin for Pyrrha’s death. Lets do a play-by play shall we?

Ozpin and Pyrrha go to the vault with Jaune in tow. No one is being forced, they’re all running together. They reach the transfer station and Ozpin directs Pyrrha to get in the pod and for Jaune to stand watch. Even though Pyrrha came here willingly and got into the pod willingly, he still asks for her verbal consent, making a point of not simply accepting a nod. Pyrrha verbally accepts and the transfer starts. Due to it being painful Pyrrha cries out, Ozpin apologizes, and Jaune get distracted, turning away from the entrance and allowing Cinder to shoot Amber, and take the power. Jaune rushes her and gets blasted back and when Pyrrha tries to do the same Ozpin stops her. He tells her specifically that she cannot fight Cinder with the connotation that she is not strong enough and tells them both to leave and get an Inner Circle member to back him up.

Ozpin dies fighting a battle he knows he can’t win so they can escape. He told Pyrrha specifically that she couldn’t fight Cinder.

At what point is it his fault that they both disobeyed literally EVERYTHING that he told them to do?

And people wonder why he doesn’t trust the students…..

Really, I just don’t get why people are so hellbent on hating Ozpin. He’s always either too strong, too weak, doesn’t do enough, does too much, gives too much exposition or he doesn’t tell people literally everything. I just don’t get it. I know this won’t change anything, people are going to blindly hate Ozpin no matter what he does, but I wanted to write it anyway because Ozpin is a fantastic, kind-hearted underrated character that gets thrown under the bus whenever anything goes wrong and he deserves better than that.