RWBY: Ice Queendom

Episode 7

Just like Weiss herself, I was completely caught off guard by team RWBY's actions in this episode, proving that there is a lot more setup to Ice QUEENDOM's plotting than I originally thought. The whole idea of the train getting stopped at the beginning of Weiss's dream being a recurring event is a good way to establish a fresh starting point for the characters whenever they reenter the dream while also giving a little insight into what Weiss is using to justify to herself why the Faunus are bad. So imagine my surprise when the team subverts expectations and gets rid of the white fang for her so Weiss has no choice but to open the gates and let the train come in. The scene is not at all subtle in its implications—right down to the characters yelling at Weiss to “let them in”—but there are also multiple layers to it: not only is Weiss internally wrestling with whether or not she should let people into the inner sanctum of her mind willingly (albeit under a specific pretense), but the fact that the team got rid of one of the main excuses that she brought up to justify her bigotry at the beginning of the show speaks a lot to how she justifies her actions moving forward. Like I said, it's not subtle, but that doesn't make it any less heartfelt.

I was worried that Jaune wasn't going to contribute much to the operation, but thankfully the show followed through and made it clear why he was here. Due to his previous exposure with the Grimm, he's able to navigate the dream without much issue at the cost of feeling physically sick and weaker compared to everybody else. I liked him finding the key to the next part of the dream, and I really liked the big fight towards the end of the episode when the insert song started playing. Weiss's subconscious is trying to capture people that are silly and dumb in a cage as if they don't know any better and she's doing them a favor, but the fact that her childhood manifestations are also locked within that cage says a lot about how Weiss sees herself. The visual of little clones of her adolescent self running around and making everybody be more open about their desires can also be read multiple ways, and I wonder if they'll expand on that in the next episode.

Overall, I think this episode did a good job of really peeling back the layers of Weiss's psyche in a way that was much more foreshadowed than I originally thought. It makes me excited and curious about what other payoffs we might be seeing down the line.

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RWBY: Ice Queendom is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.