RWBY: Ice Queendom Episode 6

RWBY: Ice Queendom Episode 6

The Battle for Weiss’s Heart

RWBY: Ice Queendom Episode 6 is terrible. After completing the episode, I lowered my score of the series from a 4 to a 3/10. And, I’m very tempted to drop the series. I don’t see what people like about it.

The one thing this adaptation of the series had going for it was the animation. But, the good animation is no more. Episode 3 may have been the last one to have good animation. And in this episode, RWBY decided to go back to its roots animation-wise.

I never got into the original RWBY series. Why? Because it looked like garbage. I know people are nostalgic for it, for some reason. But, it looked like trash. If you think otherwise, you’re coping extremely hard. This anime is the best RWBY has ever looked by a longshot. It’s not even close.

Blake Belladonna distracting Negative Weiss from the anime series RWBY: Ice Queendom Episode 6
Blake Belladonna distracting Negative Weiss

That’s why it’s so unfortunate that the animation has melted. Episode 6 decided to go back to the poorly-animated CGI that RWBY was originally infamous for. The battle against Negative Weiss could have been great. Instead, we got a lot of characters floating around and looking awkward.

I also noticed that most of the visuals from the OP of the series are reused from the first 2 or 3 episodes. If that means the rest of the anime is going to be as bad as Episode 6 was, I have no interest in it. I’ve already had no interest in the story and characters from the start.

RWBY is an action series. What’s an action series without good animation? And since Negative Weiss is the main villain of the story, a battle against her needs good animation. Imagine if the Naruto vs. Sasuke fights in Naruto had animation this bad.

Mission Failed (Again)

Let’s move on from my complaining about animation to complaining about the progression. At the end of the episode, Team RWBY is going into Weiss’s dream world for the third time. First, Ruby went in alone. Then, Yang and Blake joined her. And now, Jaune is coming along too.

At first glance, it might seem like this is pretty good story progression. Ruby scouted out the world before bringing Yang and Blake in to help her save Weiss. And when that failed, they regrouped, learned from their mistakes, and picked up Jaune.

Is that really how the story has been progressing, though? I don’t see it that way. Ruby’s first attempt at saving Weiss amounted to nothing. It’s hard to even say she learned anything from it. When she went back in with Yang and Blake, she was going to make all the same mistakes again.

Shion waking up Team RWBY from the anime series RWBY: Ice Queendom Episode 6
Shion waking up Team RWBY

The only reason the second attempt got farther is that Yang and Blake were there. If they went with Ruby from the start, we could have skipped an attempt. The same is true after this second attempt failed. The third attempt seems like it’s going to invalidate the second.

This might be a bit less obvious. Ruby, Yang, and Blake all came up with new plans to help them succeed on the third attempt. We don’t know what those plans are yet. But, the fact that they came up with these plans implies that they’ve learned from their mistakes. That’s good.

The problem is Jaune. It’s only now that we’re told Jaune can actually bypass the Nightmare’s defenses. This isn’t something that was just discovered. Shion knew this and never mentioned it. An author shouldn’t hide important information for plot convenience. There’s no good reason to do that.

Nightmare Immunity

I’m going to attempt to be a little less negative in this section of the review. If we learned of Jaune’s immunity to the Nightmare earlier, it could have been interesting. By this point, I’m tired of the series. But, it’s a decent development on its own.

The Nightmare recognizes intruders in the same way your immune system does. If someone from the outside enters the dream, you can think of it as having different DNA. The Nightmare created everything in the dream world, and so it all shares the Nightmare’s DNA.

Ruby, Yang, and Blake were not created by the Nightmare. So, they’re viewed as something different and therefore dangerous. Jaune is a special case, though. Because the Nightmare infected him earlier, he has its DNA inside him. This allows him to slip into the dream world undetected.

Jaune's body being affected by the Nightmare from the anime series RWBY: Ice Queendom Episode 6
Jaune’s body being affected by the Nightmare

Jaune’s current condition was likened to having an immunity to the Nightmare. But, we should really be looking at it the other way around. Jaune isn’t immune to the Nightmare. Instead, Jaune functions like a cancerous cell in the body of the Nightmare. It thinks he’s one of its own. But, he’s actually going to be causing all sorts of damage.

Assuming that Team RWBY saves Weiss on their third attempt, Jaune will be the one with the biggest role. While Ruby, Yang, and Blake distract Negative Weiss, Jaune will be the one causing the real damage. By the time the Nightmare realizes Jaune is an enemy, it will be too late.

And, it’s possible that even if it recognizes Jaune as an enemy, it won’t be able to do anything. We don’t know what limitations Nightmares have. It might not be able to attack what it perceives as itself.

Conclusion

What do you think of RWBY: Ice Queendom Episode 6? Are you even still watching the series at this point? Do you like this more or less than the original series? And, how successful do you think Jaune’s intrusion into the dream world is going to be? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 7 is available now.

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