RWBY: Ice Queendom

Episode 11

I feel conflicted about this episode. On one hand, the well-animated hype presented on screen is a treat, especially if you're a fan of the original RWBY webseries, but on the other, there are also issues that the critic in me couldn't ignore. Let's talk about the good first. While the animation of Ice QUEENDOM has generally looked good and stylized so far, it is also very obvious where corners were cut. Here though, everyone gets their own incredibly well-animated and choreographed sequence, and it feels like this was the first time the soundtrack really flexed its muscles in generating excitement. Ruby figuring out what Weiss was telling her all along about her weapon being backwards made for a good payoff after the team had failed so many times before, and the last glimpse into Weiss's inner psyche regarding the relationship that she had with her grandfather was a nice touch. It's clear that based on the way that Weiss looked up to her grandfather, the Schnee family wasn't always envisioned as a company that would abuse or take advantage of people. If anything, it was probably a company built on the foundation of helping people and providing a livelihood for them. But much like Weiss herself, that purity ended up getting twisted into something else. I wish we explored this background a bit more as I feel like that's important context that would better absolve Weiss of some of her worldviews.

Which brings me to the aforementioned issues: While it did feel nice for most things to come together and for almost every character to have a moment in the spotlight, it felt like a lot of those moments were built on knowledge that haven't been revealed to anime-only viewers. I'm not gonna spoil what those are here in this review in the off chance that this anime accomplishes its primary goal and gets you to watch the original web series, but there were some powers and abilities that just sort of happen, and if you don't know the context for where those powers come from, then it would be very easy to ask why they weren't used sooner. Also, while I did like some of the emotional payoffs in this episode narratively, thematically it feels like we just tried to wrap everything up in a cute little bow. I'm not sure how I feel about Weiss completely forgetting everything that happened in the dream; wouldn't that just mean that she's bound to make the same mistakes again? I thought this whole situation was supposed to be a learning experience about coming to terms with the pressures of what she deals with and while it's good that her teammates understand her better, it would be nice if Weiss understood herself better as well. What's more, everything regarding Blake just didn't have enough time to be fully expanded upon before she had to be saved in the eleventh hour. Granted, there is one more episode left, and it's possible that is where a lot of the character reflections and discussions will happen. If that's the case, I am more than happy with this episode just being the bombastic climax for a generally solid series but for now, unfortunately, I'm just going to have to view it as a bit of a mixed bag. The RWBY fan in me ate this episode up, but the critic in me feels like it doesn't quite achieve all the things it set out to do.

Rating:

RWBY: Ice Queendom is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.