English Dub Review: RWBY: Ice Queendom “Mirror of Darkness”

Overview

Blake’s plan was a much too dangerous one, making the “Nightmare Grimm creature” that previously took over Jaune possess Blake so that they could confront Nega-Weiss. Yang objects but Blake was firmly determined. Shion and Ozpin decide to accept her plan, considering Weiss’s urgent condition. As Blake becomes covered with the “Nightmare”, an ominous herd of shadows appears. Blake gives the word of command, “Burry the Schnee Dust Company!” toward the shadows, which looked just like Adam, who she had left behind in her past. Blake attacks Nega-Weiss along with the herd, and Nega-Weiss confronts them with anger. It was indistinguishable if the herd was Grimm or the White Fang. Meanwhile, Ruby uses this chance to head toward the center core of the dream, where the “Nightmare” had rooted…


Our Take

In an unexpected twist, instead of just forcing the Nightmare out of Weiss, having Blake be infused with Jaune’s Nightmare Grimm, not to mention the conflict between the Schnee Family and White Fang…to do all that in a dream, it’s not just a love-hate nor a human-Faunus affair, but a “Kill or be Killed” scenario. Team JNPR wants to help, but it all hinges on Shion Zaiden’s decision to put the nail in the coffin, and Professor Ozpin gives the green light on Blake’s idea, though at the assurance of keeping the black relic safe, and having enough coins to reverse and get them out of the dream to save their real selves as a major failsafe.

All of this is a dangerous gamble, but this is the only way left. And when Negative Blake makes her presence known, it’s one hell of a first impression as Nega-Blake goes all-out against Negative Weiss for a long-standing judgment to avenge the one-sided persecution and vindication of all Faunus and intentionally lets the Nightmare manifest her for power. While this is going on Ruby proceeds to fight the Nightmare Grimm infecting Weiss while she’s distracted, and if her plan of freeing her fails, there’s no second chances to save anyone, not even Weiss herself…

Overall, this was one hell of a twist that played with my expectations. Despite a good portion of the episode being devoted to the long backstory of what Blake’s plan was. It ate up half of the runtime, which is a bit letdown. At the very least, Nightmare Blake is badass amalgamating herself with her shitty ex Adam Taurus who has basically become the CEO of a twisted racism ideology, but now I’m not even sure unleashing her was a good idea since she looks way stronger than Weiss and the others. And now with two episodes left, everyone now has something to do in this episode, they’re all doing what they can in order to save Weiss. And with two episodes left, I’m hoping for a strong finale.