I dont speak for everyone and I most definitely dont hate him -I see him as a very complicated man in a very complicated position- but I offer 2 reasons:
From an in-character perspective he seems to be about to kill someone who we like out of a massive missunderstanding.
From a meta perspective, he is about to turn Salem into the Grim Queen and cause all the problems out of his single minded obsession.
I think this last one is the biggest reason why so many people dislike him because we know that Ciel is doomed so we already judged him guilty of whatever is going to happen now.
From a meta perspective, we know that no matter what we do here Salem is going to turn into the Grimm Queen, because the quest isn't going to change enough to invalidate the future present we're used to, and not having a Grimm queen seems like a major change.
The in universe reason is more compelling, but this is basically an inevitable tragedy that Ozpin is just facilitating here.
Yeah, this is pretty much what I was operating under and was assuming was the case. Like, I can see the oncoming clusterfuck, and I can see Ozpin playing a key role in it, and I'm just sort of wincing and going "Oof, Greek tragedy and insufficient time and communication and trust and etc." "And also the fact that due to metaphysics of time travel, some of this is quasi-inevitable or soft-locked in some ways."
Others -- from my perspective -- are seeing that oncoming tragedy...
and getting mad at and hating Ozpin, and throwing blame his way that he doesn't really deserve. i.e. They're reacting by making him out to be a, or the, bad guy in order to justify their feelings or conclusions about what is about to happen.
And how much of that was due to him having not told them in the first place? You can't discount the betrayal of having not been told crucial information about an organization until you're in deep enough that it'll hurt to pull yourself away. I was raised in a cult and left it as an adult, so I have first-hand experience on that one: that shit hurts like a motherfucker. Everything you thought you knew about people and a group you trusted is wrong, or at least drastically different than you had thought, and even though you wouldn't have gotten involved had you known, they got you when you were young enough not to question it and now all of your relationships are either colored by or entirely sourced within this group that you no longer trust. Either you stay and compromise your morals to some extent because it hurts too much to contemplate breaking out of the path that's been set before you, even though you know you'd have never picked this if you'd been told everything; or you leave and watch as nearly every positive relationship you have ever had stays behind, leaving you alone to rebuild what few tatters of your life you've got left but at least it's not based on lies. It would not have hurt nearly as much if they had been open and honest from the beginning: either you join knowing what it entails and being willing to accept it, or you don't join and move on with your life.
Okay so the reason appears to be "Because it's personal for you and you're drawing parallels to personal life or history, and thus shoving a lot of blame on this fictional character. Blame he may not deserve, for parallel that may not be all that accurate."
It looks like this some of this guy's history or writing rubs you the wrong way, basically. Whereas Salem's history hits more close to home because, assuming she is not responsible for her actions, then that reminds you of cult brainwashing techniques I suppose.
Well, if I got that right, then that more or less explains your position to me. Though for me it doesn't justify your judgment/assessment of Ozpin at all -- it just moves it into a "Ah, so, personal reasons to hate the way a character is portrayed due to an uncomfortable mirror or familiarity."
... Though I'm kind of curious as to whether Queen of the Grimm Salem is any better about the way she recruits people and how much she tells them. Like. Are we meant to assume that the Evil Overlord character is any
better about this?
...yeah, okay, this is clearly the sticking point here. I do not forgive the killing of innocents under any circumstance aside from "the person doing the killing literally didn't know what they were doing and would be horrified if they knew and understood". Apparently you do. There appears to be little common ground to be had here.
Yeah, well, I feel more strongly about the fact that Salem winds up responsible for killing
a shitload of people; you feel more strongly about the fact that Ozpin is going to kill one innocent person.
You feel strongly about the fact that -- we assume, rightly or wrongly -- Salem winds up having her mind fucked with, and so her killing lots of people is something you view differently.
Whereas Ozpin doesn't have an "excuse" like that, and this is what makes you feel disdain for him.
((I will note though that, like... this set-up is kind of having to just
assume that Salem has a mind-control-related excuse/reason here? It might not be the case? Or at least, like... maybe at most it will be the case in
this timeline; in the original, she was just driven by revenge and hatred. Whereas in this one, she'll be different enough that the Chains of Causality will also need to throw in some mind-whammy on top of it, in order to get her to play the same role as she did before.))
Also... Like. I am not
forgiving murder here? I am just not
hating and judging Ozpin as being 'the worst' for it? Heck, from my perspective,
you are far too willing to handwave away the mass destruction that Queen Grimm Salem does. So from that angle, we'd probably have little common ground there too. To you, the breaking point is murdering an innocent person via time travel. To me, the breaking point is "holy shit,
how many lives and how much death and destruction?" The breaking point being the motivator/nudge for what makes a person look more critically and pessimistically at a character's actions/history/motivations and judging them in the worst way for it or not, I guess.
((That isn't making me go 'Eh, if she dies she dies' though. That's just me noting, or assuming, that from your perspective if Queen Grimm somehow got 'fixed' that you'd probably be fine with all the destruction and havoc she had still caused because it "wasn't her fault or wasn't 'her' doing it" and would let her go free or at least put her to work cleaning up her mess or trying to make up for things somehow -- whereas I sure as would
not give her that as an "out." Not without a lot more extenuating circumstances or more stuff revealed in the story. Conversely, you'd never forgive Ozpin if he murdered one person that didn't deserve it.))
So... My approach to judging history and character of people, is roughly that due to Salem playing the role of Sauron here, there's a lot more room and reason to be suspicious of her motives and actions and deeds done, during the course of history. i.e. I'm willing to entertain the thought that she probably did a
lot of awful or shady or uncaring-apathetic-jerk stuff, over the course of history. (Because, like, she's the Queen of the Grimm here.) Whereas Ozpin gets more of the benefit of the doubt from me, because he's
fighting that force of destruction.
Rough edges get sanded off. Actions get judged as mistakes rather than symbolic of their character. And the reverse.
