Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Episode 12) – A Real Hero
After struggling through a blizzard, they arrive at the Sword Village to fulfil a duty Frieren has sworn to complete. They clear the monsters from around the village which is when Stark realises the Hero’s Sword is still there!
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Episode 12) – A Real Hero
What did you watch?
I’ve been thinking a lot about the future and it can get quite bleak when you really start to consider how quickly time passes and memories fade into obscurity. I’m sure this series has had a hand in priming my mind for this sort of existentialism. However, I can’t get mad at it, not when it continues to deliver episode after episode. Statistically, there should have been a bad one by now, but so far so good. Anyhow, let’s see if that continues.
What happened?
The chieftain of the Sword Village met Frieren at the gates and told her that she was late. She was supposed to return every fifty years but it was now eighty years, much to the annoyance of the chieftain’s grandmother who was probably disappointed to have missed out on the chance to see her. Anyhow, Frieren has a job to do. She is required to clear the monsters away from the village that are drawn there by the Hero’s Sword… Stark seemed confused about that part. Hadn’t Himmel drawn the sword from the stone? Well, it turned out that he was not the chosen hero after all, but he vowed to continue regardless and did defeat the Demon King.
After that, they made their way to the next village and settled in for some relaxation time. That was when Frieren informed Fern that it was Stark’s eighteenth birthday and that she should get him a present. She had a special potion that she was going to give him. It dissolved clothes and nothing else. She was sure he would like it. Fern was disappointed and tipped it over Frieren before heading out to find Stark. When she did find him, he was looking at the clouds and laughing at their shapes. Later, he revealed that he had never been given a present. Not by his family or his master. Fern took him to the market and bought him a bracelet. When they got home, Frieren had cooked up some enormous hamburger stakes and revealed that Eisen would do that to celebrate a warrior’s birthday.
What did you think?
I was starting to wonder if this series was going to go easy on us after the initial episodes were so emotionally charged. Well, that time is over. This was a beautiful episode. I loved Stark’s backstory. I’m not going to lie, it left me a little tearful when his brother told him to run before turning to face the demon that attacked their village. He probably knew that they wouldn’t survive and despite his father’s disappointment in Stark, his brother continued to believe in him, even sacrificing his life to save him. I may have also just acquired a new birthday tradition. Giant hamburger steaks sound better than a birthday cake to me.
What was your favourite moment?
I loved the moment that Stark realised that there were people who would give him a gift for his birthday. We saw his older brother making him a secret hamburger steak for his birthday and Eisen would have no doubt done the same for him. However, because Eisen was awkward, he would never have told Stark why without being asked. That’s why Stark never knew until Frieren pointed it out. It showed us how Frieren asked Eisen in the past about the hamburger steaks. I also loved Eisen’s belief that anyone who works hard towards something is a warrior. There are so many wonderful messages in this series and they are consistently delivered in heartfelt and memorable ways. It really is a wonderful journey.
Who was the most impactful character?
Fern is a tsundere, right? Does that mean she has feelings for Stark and can only show them by being cold and harsh? Maybe, that’s why she didn’t want him to carry Frieren. If anything, she wanted him to carry her, so she called him a perv and carried Frieren herself. Now, I’m not shipping them just yet, but that seems to be the feeling I’m getting from this series, especially with how often she sneers at him and generally gets mad at him. It all fits when you understand a tsundere’s mindset… not that anyone really does. We just have these vague ideas. I do love how Frieren seems to push things with her potion that dissolves clothes and her grimoire that allows you to see through clothes. If anything, Frieren is the secret perv. Anyhow, I love all of them. This is a great cast, both past and present.
What have you learned?
Prophecies and chosen ones are a big part of fantasy stories, so it was great that Himmel was not the one to pull the sword from the stone. The fact that he went on to defeat the Demon King without it shows that if you work hard towards something you can achieve anything, prophecy or not. You just need to adopt the warrior mindset, embrace opportunities, and surround yourself with supportive people. Seriously, this series just delivers time and again. The only downside is how much it will impact the rest of your life as you start to ponder the meaning behind everything.
Other posts in the series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – The Journey’s End
- Episode 2 – It Didn’t Have to Be Magic…
- Episode 3 – Killing Magic
- Episode 4 – The Land Where Souls Rest
- Episode 5 – Phantoms of the Dead
- Episode 6 – The Hero of the Village
- Episode 7 – Like a Fairy Tale
- Episode 8 – Frieren the Slayer
- Episode 9 – Aura the Guillotine
- Episode 10 – A Powerful Mage
- Episode 11 – Winter in the Northern Lands
- Episode 12 – A Real Hero
- Episode 13 – Aversion to One’s Own Kind
- Episode 14 – Privilege of the Young
- Episode 15 – Smells Like Trouble
- Episode 16 – Long-Lived Friends
- Episode 17 – Take Care
- Episode 18 – First-Class Mage Exam
- Episode 19 – Well-Laid Plans
- Episode 20 – Necessary Killing
- Episode 21 – The World of Magic
- Episode 22 – Future Enemies
- Episode 23 – Conquering the Labyrinth
- Episode 24 – Perfect Replicas
- Episode 25 – A Fatal Vulnerability
- Episode 26 – The Height of Magic
- Episode 27 – An Era of Humans
- Episode 28 – It Would Be Embarrassing When We Met Again
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“The only downside is how much it will impact the rest of your life as you start to ponder the meaning behind everything.”
I do not consider this a downside. 🙂
It depends on where those thoughts lead you. I started worrying about how much time I had left and how I was going to fit in everything I wanted to do.
Plus, if those thoughts tend to nihilism you can end up wondering what the point is to anything. Sometimes darker thoughts find their way in…
Late season blizzards are the most common cause for search and rescue in mountainous areas. Everyone knows that winter is bad and then you get a lovely spring and it catches them unaware.
I’m a bit confused here. Frieren ought to be able to cast a spell to keep people warm. Or to build a shelter and get a fire going. Winter in the mountains ought to be little more than an inconvenience.
I wonder if she’s become so used to hiding her magic that it’s become second nature to not use it. Because she should be able to easily sort out things like that given her power levels. She also does a lot of things deliberately to teach Fern and Stark a lesson.
Fair point.
A theory is beginning to develop in my mind…
Just after this episode, they pick up a cleric. So now they’ve got a warrior, a mage, and a cleric who are, effectively, trained successors to their predecessors. That just leaves the role of the hero open, and I can’t help but start to notice between *drawing* a sword and *using* a sword. There’s nothing that we know yet which necessarily says the hero who defeats the calamity which threatens the world must specifically be a swordsman, after all. So if Stark is the new Eisen, Sein is the new Heiter, and Fern is the new Frieren… might Frieren be the new Himmel? The real, actual hero of legend and prophecy?
Hmmmm!
Absolutely. I said the same thing in episode 11, although Sein hadn’t joined them at that point. Frieren is definitely the hero.