English Dub Review: RWBY: Ice Queendom “Awaken in a Dream”

Overview

Attacked by Weiss and finding herself cornered, Ruby is rescued by Shion. Even after she had awakened from the dream, Ruby starts to feel uncertain having heard Weiss’ aggressive words. However, she decides to take on the challenge once again and returns to the dream, this time accompanied by Yang and Blake. In the dream, the empire, ruled by the Schnee family and protected by Nega-Weiss, had increased their alert levels due to Ruby’s escape. Seeing how important the Schnee family is to Weiss and also her fear and hatred toward the White Fang, the three girls get confused but make their way into the dream…


Our Take

After a rough encounter with Negative Weiss (as her dictator-like appearance represents the negative aspects that manifest within her due to the nightmare Grimm). Ruby escaped an abrupt shootout thanks to Shion Zaiden’s efforts to help her avoid her death in Weiss’s dream, Ruby also manages to do an admirable job trying to identify what’s going on in the titular Ice Queendom specifically how much of a hold the Nightmare Grimm’s grip has on Weiss herself.

Later on, Yang & Blake tag along with her back into Weiss’s dream world to try again but also sporting new looks which are passable I guess. As they evade the ED-209-looking Mechs that Negative Weiss has at her disposal, Ruby discovers she left the red key to the core of the dream on Ruby’s bed, as if subconsciously hoping/expecting that Ruby would be the one who’d manage to break through and unlock it giving a possible clue to save her ass which is a lot harder than it sounds…

Overall, it’s getting progressively interesting with every new episode. As a longtime RWBY fan, even though it’s a dream. On one hand, It’s a fascinating exploration into the mind of a spoiled rich kid and the hardships and titles she’s forced to live up to mixed with Weiss’ inner feelings and exploring her mind. And the callback to Weiss’s theme song “Mirror Mirror” was one of the best highlights and was definitely a surprise. Hopefully, the show continues to impress in this imaginative yet dangerous Dreamworld that Weiss is imprisoned into.