Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Episode 15) – Smells Like Trouble

Frieren’s party comes across a village afflicted with a sleeping curse. They need to kill the monster responsible and fast. However, only Sein is immune to curses and the others start falling asleep too!

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Episode 15) – Smells Like Trouble

What happened?

Everyone in the village had dropped wherever they were and whatever they were doing. It had to be a curse to impact everyone so suddenly. Unfortunately, there’s nothing a mage can do about a curse. For that, you need a priest. Luckily, they have Sein. He can cure the curse, but it will take time. Their best option is to kill the monster casting it. They set out, following Sein’s lead, but Stark falls asleep almost instantly. By nightfall, Fern has joined him. Frieren puts a protective barrier over them before they continue. Then, Frieren stops and tells Sein not to fight it alone. Then, she too, falls asleep.

Sein finds the monster and attempts to defeat it, but it has the ability to deflect magic. He’s struggling to dodge its attacks and can’t work out if five seconds will be enough if he wakes Frieren up. Then, he remembers when they were visited by Heiter and he talked about adventuring and how he never truly understood Frieren, but he trusted her entirely. Sein realised he had to wake her. He attempted to explain the situation as she woke, but she had already fired off a magic shot that looped through the air before crashing down on the monster’s head. It died. She knew it could deflect magic.

As they arrived at the next town, they were approached by two men who seemed to take an interest in Stark. Before they knew what was happening, they were whisked away to the castle where the lord had an interesting proposition for them. Frieren wasn’t even prepared to listen to it until Fern pointed out that they had almost no money left. Basically, the lord’s son died fighting demons, however, he had managed to keep it a secret. There was a big ball coming and he needed Stark to pretend to be his son to buy them time to prepare his second son to become the heir. Frieren accepted the job on behalf of Stark…

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What did you think?

This was a pretty easy-going change of pace and I really enjoyed it. I liked that it finally explained why the party would benefit from having a priest. I’ve seen other fantasy series with priests in and always just seemed to be magic casters who received their magic from some sort of deity. In this world, they are the ones who can read and use the ancient texts. Much like some of the demon magic, no one had been able to decipher how they worked so they remained a part of the priesthood. The timely memory of Heiter talking about Frieren was a nice way to tie everything together and showed Sein what he needed to do.

Then, we had the second half of the episode which opened with quite an amusing scene which felt like someone was about to receive an indecent proposal and it was funny that Frieren wasn’t even prepared to hear what it was until she realised they had no money. Stark better hope no one comes after his body the next time their broke. Anyhow, there was a great moment when Stark found out that there was a younger brother who was quite like him as a child. He worried that the lord was going to treat him the same way his father had. Stark was doing some sword training and was clearly concerned about the young heir. The lord noticed and calmed him by telling him it was not like his village despite their shared ancestry.

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What have you learned?

So, Stark absolutely swept Fern off her feet with the dancing. There was a moment where she looked at him with utter shock and then found herself smiling, which is a rare enough occurrence that I’m sure everyone would have noticed. I’m quite certain that Stark and Fern will end up together by the end of the quest, although it’s going to take Frieren’s influence to make that happen. I think she’ll start to notice the similarities between their journey and the one she experienced with Himmel. Himmel clearly loved her and I feel like she didn’t fully realise until after he had gone. Her memories are painting a picture that shows the effort he went to make sure that she would remember him long after he had died. He didn’t want her to be lonely.

By the time they complete their quest, which may involve taking down the remnants of the Demon King’s forces, I think Frieren will have no doubt in her mind how Himmel felt about her and she may have realised that she feels the same way about him. We’ve got around thirteen episodes before that happens and I think it’s going to be the most emotional moment in the series. If they get this right, and I think they will, it will finish off this series perfectly. I can’t wait to see how it goes!

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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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