Ice Queendom isn’t great. I feel that by itself it’s not that good of a series and for someone who isn’t a fan of the OG they wouldn’t have cared or have dropped it midway through. However, for all its faults, and as average as it is, it’s still better then the OG for this one reason.

I'll summarize it like this, Ice Queendom isn't great, it started out really well and I enjoyed most episodes in Act 1 and some in Act 2. However, I feel the massive dip in animation during the series until the very end was extremely jarring and really wrecked some of the action and enjoyment for me.

The plot was really great in concept, I just don't feel it was executed well and the pacing was really boring.

BUT! and this is a MASSIVE But...The characters are nearly perfect. SHAFT took everything about the characters that made them work and likeable in the original and made it BETTER! Weiss having her inner mental turmoil reflected by the Nightmare, and seeing her growth and development throughout the series the same way volume 1 did it but way more natural was great. (Ep12 with Weiss talking to Blake was superior to Weiss's arc in the OG, and that was one of the best parts)

Blake is AWESOME again, her interactions with the rest of the cast aside from Yang is great and I love her interactions with Ruby as we got them. Her coming up with the plan to defeat Weiss by infecting herself was also epic.

Ruby FINALLY had some damn growth in this series, her completely failing to stop the Nightmare in Ep8 and then being infected by the Nightmare after calling RWBY an embarrassment and questioning her leadership was so good. I just wish she remained in the Nightmare for longer.

Yang is not as focused on compared to the rest of the cast, hell she's the only one in Ep 1 that doesn't get a fight and doesn't get a great moment until Ep 11 where she one shots Nicholas, but she is so incredibly hot that I don't care.

I'm not kidding, Yang having a much more active role as Ruby's older sister while also being very fun loving and adorable is great, I liked that she was smiling while fighting the giant Nicholas.

Jaune wasn't great admittedly, and I definitely think Pyrrha should have gotten way more screen time then he did, especially since she is idolized in the dream and that could be explored, but whatever, nothings perfect.

That alone is what honestly makes me like IQ more then the main show, this is subjective but for me, characters are without a doubt the most important part of a series. They are what gets us invested, they are what carry the plot, and they need to be cared for by the audience or else the rest of the story suffers. For all the issues I have with IQ, I LOVE these characters again, arguably even more then I did in the original/early volumes. I CARED ABOUT THEIR STRUGGLES.

Meanwhile later volumes of RWBY, ESPECIALLY 8, have buried and ruined the cast so completely that I just do not care anymore and wouldn't be bothered if they died. Hell if they died now I wouldn't care because their superior versions are in a separate timeline. No I do not address IQ as being canon to the main show, there are way too many contradictions.

IQs biggest strength happens to be the OGs biggest weakness, and that happens to be the most important thing in writing a series. This is why the OG falls so far amongst its numerous other faults and while IQ, while far from perfect, and arguably not that good, I still believe it's better.

Ted Talk over. EDIT: Meant to be Than