RWBY: Ice Queendom

Episode 10

While I do think a few of the ideas and animation sequences in this episode were a little messy, it's nice that everything feels appropriately bombastic like a true climax should. The first third of the episode is mostly exposition, going over Blakes plan and catching us up to the twist ending of last week's episode. Basically, Blake is going to infect herself with the previous Grimm that was inside Jaune towards the beginning of the show so that she could also have a nightmare that would overlap with Weiss's. So the version of Blake that we are seeing is a negative version borne out of her deep-seated fears and insecurities. It's no surprise that's being projected heavily onto Weiss in the form of her own assigned blame and judgments. I'm curious about how the fight between these two will resolve considering that they are literally pitting the worst versions of themselves against each other. There's a lot of rhetoric about Blake judging Weiss by her association to her family, which you could argue isn't really fair to Weiss when you consider the fact that all she's known is the destruction that the White Fang have brought to the people that work for her family's company. Then again, the show is also a little vague regarding just how much Weiss knew about everything that went on, so it's a little hard to gauge how justifed a lot of Blake's calling out is. While I have mostly praised the direction of Ice QUEENDOM, it would be nice if the writing is a bit less abstract about what is informing the worldview of these characters. As a fan of the original web series, I have a little bit more knowledge in this regard, but I can imagine how first-time viewers might have questions regarding exactly how much each of these teenagers knew about the role that the other played in the larger scope of their prejudice.

I guess this is kind of a downside to having everyone's character development revolve around the progression of one main character's arc, because while I do think Weiss's background and worldview is beautifully fleshed out, it makes me wish that everybody else got the same attention to detail. I already complained a little bit last week about how Ruby's arc about being a leader has been constantly brought up but never fully addressed. Now I worry that the same thing might happen to Blake. The thing is, when you're dealing with such heavy subject matters as bigotry, racism and prejudice, it's not something you want to half-ass. Granted, Ice QUEENDOM is doing a much better job of handling these topics from an individual perspective than the original show ever did in its first couple of seasons, but that also wasn't a super high bar to pass. There are only a few episodes left, and everything up until the final shot implies that this is the true climax of the season. It's unlikely that everything will be wrapped up in a tight little bow, but at this point I just hope that the show's main ideas get communicated clearly enough in a satisfying manner.

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RWBY: Ice Queendom is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.