Colonel Ironwood (OriginZ)

Colonel Duke Ironwood is the 'main' antagonist of OriginZ, though more specifically to the group that resides at Safehaven.
== Bio ==
During the start of his military career, Ironwood - as a foot-soldier/grunt - worked under the authority of 'corrupt officials', naming off politicians and the like as the bane of his vocation. Through those down-low projects did he eventually amass influence, and became a Colonel in the military. He green-lit a project spearheaded by Kirkland to create superhuman soldiers. Along the way, an Intern by name of Zachary Hughes (who would later be known as Doc) caught his eye with his intellect, and placed him as a scientist/doctor of the aforementioned project.
He was aware of the 'failed experiments' from the start, as in a flashback with Doc states that he's already had to put down a handful of them. These failed experiments would become the zombies that now roam the city of OriginZ. Somewhere around this time he befriended Bryan, who he states was a 'family friend.'
Through some unstated manner, he and a group of unnamed soldiers would raze the city's airport and exterminate the zombies that had festered inside. They would eventually arise victorious, and reclaim the airport as a Safe Haven-- becoming it's name. Colonel Ironwood instated himself as it's leader, and spends the series checking on his subordinates and suppliers below him.
==Appearance==
Duke has pale skin and shaggy dark-purple hair, of which likely resemble sea-weed looking roots. His typical attire appears to be a grey-green dirty t-shirt with a singular pocket across his torso, outlined by paler colors; fitted with camo-pants and tan boots.
==Personality==
Ironwood externally appears composed, rigid and pragmatic. He addresses his subordinates with jaded intent, and incites the idea of the conventional military officer. He is easily irritated, and uses tactics of intimidation when he finds them necessary, and often brings others under his jurisdiction, regardless of it is wanted or not- believing others (Most notably the Misfits in Episode One), in need of his protection.
Furthermore, he has ideologies surrounding 'roles', as he explains to Bryan while drunk. That the apocalypse destroyed such a massive of people that it has in the process destroyed with it a superfluous amount of roles. The survivors that remain, he believes, are now made vital to humanity's survival by proxy of their extermination; without the apocalypse to have done that, they would had been considered replaceable by civilization's standards.
But that's not really the only reason he appreciates the literal end of the world. Ironwood is entrenched in monstrous interests, most of them in one way or another relating to carnage or sadism, as shown by his glee when entering the bunker beneath his tower and into a zombie hell-scape, and his collection of unique and almost sci-fi-esque arsenal with it. The only person who is aware of the sheer extent of his atrocity is Doc, who clearly despises him.
Despite his love for gore, he actively seeks to hide it away. He regularly takes medication to ease his mania, and becomes irate when removed from that source (As seen from his harried attempts to trade bananas with Cookie and Podrick for oil instead of medication, likely because he uses them.) He does this because if he were to 'show his true self', he would terrify the rest of Safehaven, making his subordinates wholly unable to trust him as their leader.
As the show develops, Duke spirals into complete paranoia, believing that Safehaven has begun to turn on him. This is added to by Doc's blatant resentment of him and 'disloyalty' (Not reporting his interactions with people to him) and that the only person who offers him info upfront is Xylo. He uses drones and cameras to spy on the conversations between his survivors, and reaches it's climax as it's soon revealed that he's rigged his tower, and everything within Safehaven, to explode.
==Plot==
==Skills, Abilities & Weapons==
Colonel Ironwood owns a mass-arsenal, not limited to:
* Numerous diverse guns, ranging from military-grade to even sci-fi-esque, take for example the Tesla gun he gives Bryan.
* three sets of power-armor.
* An innumerable number of explosives.
* Drones, cameras, and also such video-taking machinery, typically remote controlled.
* A super-computer.
Ironwood is also capable of general hand-to-hand combat as demonstrated with Ritchie at the OZ finale (though with power-armor on.)
==Relationships & Family==
* He and Doc were at one point good co-workers and beyond that- friends. They would split and become enemies after the apocalypse. It's possible that Doc despises Ironwood more than vice versa, as the latter seems to consciously create excuses to not fire at him for misconduct. This is further driven in, as when Ironwood dies, his final words is a request for Doc to prove him wrong about the world.
*Bryan is the only person that appears to hold mutual trust with one another, giving him a tour into his office and beneath it (though drunk). Ironwood is stated to be a family friend (which is made complicated by the fact that Mario doesn't seem to have ever known him). He also notes that Bryan is one of the only people able to talk him down, and invites him to use his silver tongue on Doc and see where it gets him. They also share an interest in Star Wars together.
*Xylo is one of the newest recruits before his death. Duke comes to trust him after Xylo proves himself susceptible, believing him to be of no threat to him. However during his spiral, he turns on Xylo under the suspicion that he was a leak to the others, and decided to use him as a test subject and then leave him to die in his underground bunker.
*Nick is his top sniper, and neither trust the other, but work with each-other out of necessity.
==Trivia==
* Word of God says that Ironwood's spiral could had been avoided if the survivors showed trustworthiness.
* There was originally going to be more content surrounding him, such as the first few hours of the apocalypse where he shoots his superior officer.
* In the show, his skin has black eyes, but the thumbnails that feature him typically have blue eyes.
* owTreyalP has confirmed in their Discord that Ironwood is in his "late twenties to early thirties", which brings into question how long he has been in the military, as he states to Xylo that he has been in the military for fifteen years.
*He is terrified of Xylo's chicken Carlton, calling him the "abomination chicken."
Category:OriginZ
Category:OriginZ Characters
Category:Characters