Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we reach the grand finale of Frieren\u2019s confrontation with Aura the Guillotine, as the woman whose bloody history earned her the title \u201cSlayer\u201d confronts one of the proud remnants of the Demon King\u2019s army. This has been a fraught and ambiguous arc for Frieren both in a dramatic and conceptual sense; the distrust these characters have felt towards Frieren judgment has been matched by my <\/span>own<\/span><\/i> distrust of the <\/span>author<\/span><\/i>\u2019s judgment, in theoretically making the theme of this arc \u201csome people are born evil and the only thing for it is to butcher them.\u201d That\u2019s a bad theme and a boring narrative, but the evidence we\u2019ve seen points towards a slippier, more interesting truth: demons are just as emotional and full of diverse passions as humans, but their conception of value and society may be inherently incompatible with our own.<\/span><\/p>\n Demons are \u201canimalistic\u201d in the fact that they value strength above all else, and are ruthless in their pursuit of such strength \u2013 but then again, does that make them any different from a great number of humans? And aside from that, they exhibit pride, scorn, loyalty, playfulness, and a gamut of other emotions, often seeming <\/span>more<\/span><\/i> animated by their passions than the blank-faced Frieren and Fern. It was in fact Aura\u2019s offhand mockery of Himmel, the man who first introduced Frieren to love and loss, that convinced her Aura is beyond understanding \u2013 an entirely personal judgment, and one emphasizing how little distance exists between Frieren and Aura\u2019s perspectives. If war is inevitable, so be it, but I am happy to leave this arc more uncertain of Frieren\u2019s judgment, and more attuned to the ruthless moral ambiguity of this world.<\/span><\/p>\n Episode 10<\/b><\/p>\n We open with a flashback to Frieren and Flamme, a perfect opportunity for this production to show off its marvelous control of atmosphere. We are carried into this forest through incidental details \u2013 the shimmer of light between the trees, the crunch of leaves beneath their feet, reflections on the pond beside them and the trilling of birds in the trees. Every episode of this show makes me all the more excited to watch Keichiro Saito\u2019s career unfold<\/span><\/p>\n Flamme proves herself the source for Frieren\u2019s perspective on demons, stating bluntly that \u201cthey\u2019re nothing more than monsters capable of speech\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t play fair, so we must be even more unfair.\u201d Basically a word-for-word justification for dehumanization across history. I\u2019m still not sure this is the intended read (just sticking with my general policy of \u201cassume purpose until proven otherwise\u201d), but there is certainly some fascinating potential here for interrogating Frieren\u2019s idolizing of memory \u2013 \u201ccherishing the past\u201d is all well and good, but what if the figures you cherished actually steered you wrong?<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, in the present time, Lugner\u2019s missing his whole dang torso<\/span><\/p>\n Lugner consoles himself with his certainty that Aura will defeat Frieren. Fern says Frieren would never confront a demon directly, while Lugner reflects that Frieren has <\/span>always<\/span><\/i> done so \u2013 so has Frieren changed so substantially, or is it simply that Fern has never experienced this side of Frieren?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis girl\u2019s mana is weak, and yet I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of her rapid attacks.\u201d Yamada\u2019s heart doesn\u2019t really seem to be in this magical tactics stuff, and I frankly think that\u2019s for the best, given this story\u2019s actual strengths. We\u2019re not writing Hunter x Hunter here; this is a reflection on future opportunities and past regrets, not a board game transposed to visual drama<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat you\u2019ve done isn\u2019t fair. You\u2019re a disgrace to all mages.\u201d I love Lugner\u2019s pride in mastering magic the \u201cright\u201d way. He\u2019s basically like any proud yet brittle competitor bickering about \u201ccheap moves,\u201d and it\u2019s a very human quality<\/span><\/p>\n We cut back to Flamme standing before Basalt the Throne, another demon king general<\/span><\/p>\n Ah, this is when she met Frieren. Their bond was forged in the context of the atrocities committed by the demon army, a context that would presumably color all that came afterwards<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhy do people always engage their enemies directly? Run, hide, take your enemies by surprise\u2026 there are plenty of other options.\u201d Interestingly, it was also Flamme who taught Frieren not to fight \u201cfair,\u201d to do whatever is necessary to achieve victory. She possesses none of Lugner\u2019s ego regarding proper magical form, because she is not dueling to demonstrate her strength, she is fighting to win<\/span><\/p>\n And of course, it\u2019s that same sort of cunning and trickery that Frieren said makes demons impossible to reason with. Her own master embodies the ruthlessness she sees as intrinsic to demonkind<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was the strongest, but I still couldn\u2019t protect them.\u201d \u201cIf I was in your shoes, I wouldn\u2019t have hesitated to run.\u201d An interesting pair of lines. The first demonstrates Frieren\u2019s disillusionment with pure strength \u2013 a precedent for the brutal efficiency she would eventually develop, a power based more in her unwavering mindset than magical abilities. The second emphasizes Flamme\u2019s total disinterest in moral calculus, a coldness she would ultimately cultivate in Frieren as well. If Frieren is a monster, it\u2019s clear Flamme played a key role in sculpting her so<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe moment they realized we were mages, they stepped out into the open.\u201d Demons\u2019 conception of value and honor again \u2013 those without magic do not deserve accommodation, but the training of a mage must be respected<\/span><\/p>\n Flamme describes this as a \u201cridiculous sense of pride,\u201d treating it as a personal failing rather than a collective value system. Of course she, who runs from any conflict she is not certain of winning, cannot see honor in the alternative<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThough they were exceptional mages, they lost because of their overconfidence.\u201d A very Flamme interpretation of her victory. She fails to understand two things: first, that her opponents would never consider employing the \u201cdishonorable\u201d method of concealing their mana, and second, that defeat in open combat would actually be preferable to abandoning their values in order to achieve victory. \u201cDeath before dishonor\u201d is a statement entirely foreign to Flamme\u2019s philosophy<\/span><\/p>\n And yet even Flamme describes her style as \u201ccowardly.\u201d Kanehito Yamada definitely has some issues with character voice \u2013 everyone in this story shares too much of a mindset and too much of an affectation, with almost everyone sticking to this blunt, low-energy speaking style<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDemons took everything from me. I hate them so much that I wish I could exterminate every last one.\u201d Frieren\u2019s deadpan words demonstrate she\u2019s far from a neutral party in this conflict<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOnly you and I should become cowards who make a mockery of magic.\u201d So does Flamme actually have some pride herself, but is simply willing to set it aside in order to pursue her higher goal of killing all demons? And then that attitude filtered down to Frieren without the shame, and Frieren has now taught it to Fern without even mentioning how it might be considered \u201ccowardly\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The main trick is learning to suppress your magical output <\/span>forever<\/span><\/i>, so no demon can ever effectively gauge your power<\/span><\/p>\n Thus we return to the present day, with the combination of Aura\u2019s pride, Frieren\u2019s cowardice, and the Scales of Obedience perfectly aligned for Frieren\u2019s victory<\/span><\/p>\n Flamme\u2019s explanation for demons not concealing their mana is simple: mana is status in their society, and thus permanently concealing your mana would mean abandoning your honor, rank, and pride<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe world of demons is cruel. They\u2019d never grant any dignity to those with little mana.\u201d Her words are complimented by the camera panning over beggars languishing in this human city, emphasizing the moral parallels between our societies<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cJust as humans are bound by status and wealth, so are demons bound by mana.\u201d Flamme intentionally framing herself and Frieren as beings apart from either society<\/span><\/p>\n These memories of Flamme are making it easy to understand why Frieren was still so oblivious to her own emotions when she journeyed with Himmel \u2013 Flamme taught her only about efficiency in destruction, and nothing about being a person. It seems Flamme herself doesn\u2019t know <\/span>how<\/span><\/i> to be a person, or at least one who embraces personal relationships with others<\/span><\/p>\n We cut to fifty years later. \u201cFrieren, do you still love magic?\u201d \u201cSomewhat, I suppose.\u201d The years have not been kind to her sense of wonder<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn the end, all I could do was teach you how to fight.\u201d Near the end of her life, Flamme realizes how little of the world she actually shared with Frieren<\/span><\/p>\n Her final request is quite unlike her, or at least unlike the self she presented to Frieren \u2013 to plant flowers around her grave. In spite of her cold affectation, it was the flower spell her parents taught her that sticks in her mind<\/span><\/p>\n Beautiful long shots convey Frieren\u2019s isolation following Flamme\u2019s death<\/span><\/p>\n In an overarching anime landscape that has largely abandoned strong layouts in favor of easily reproducible CG backdrops, it\u2019s incredibly heartening to see how dedicated this production is to consistent, diverse compositions, each with their own painted backdrops<\/span><\/p>\n As ever, Frieren\u2019s life is presented in montage, while a small village grows into a vast castle town. Her life is defined by vast empty spaces<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve lived a long time, but I haven\u2019t done much with my life.\u201d Even Frieren can recognize the emptiness in her story<\/span><\/p>\n Another excellent use of montage following her first meeting with Himmel \u2013 though that encounter sticks clearly, their entire passage to the demon king passes as a momentary blur<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve barely changed since eighty years ago. Were you working on other skills, or simply wasting your life away?\u201d Aura\u2019s words serve as a graceful capstone for Frieren\u2019s journey \u2013 though Frieren has indeed gotten stronger over this time, she has also learned that a heedless pursuit of strength above all else leads to an impoverished existence, the narrowest possible slice of what life truly has to offer. If there\u2019s anything making Aura \u201cinhuman,\u201d it is her pursuit of strength at the expense of all other potential experiences \u2013 a pursuit that Frieren herself is only just now learning to question<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I would have been in trouble if you tried to overwhelm me with numbers. I\u2019m glad you\u2019re so confident in your own mana.\u201d Good or evil, Aura\u2019s pride was her downfall<\/span><\/p>\n And Done<\/b><\/p>\n Whew, that was a fascinating episode! Getting a full portrait of Frieren\u2019s time with Flamme went a long way towards explaining her philosophy, both towards life in general and towards demons in particular. Flamme essentially taught her to be a weapon, to see nothing in demons but weaknesses to exploit, and to dedicate her life to making herself both more dangerous and more concealed as a threat. Only near the end of her life did Flamme realize she\u2019d sculpted Frieren into a vessel little different from the demons she despised \u2013 but by then, it was too late to offer her anything but her parents\u2019 flower spell. Rather than lean into the binary morality initially proposed, this episode was largely dedicated to showing all the ways Frieren herself is similar to demons, and in a way even <\/span>less<\/span><\/i> committed to either individuality or community than their proud society. A satisfyingly ambiguous conclusion to this messy tale.<\/span><\/p>\n This\u00a0article\u00a0was\u00a0mad<\/a><\/em>e possible by reader support<\/a>. Thank you all for\u00a0all that you do.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/October23102118.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
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<\/p>\nLike this:<\/h3>\n