Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Episode 21) – The World of Magic
Richter separated Kanne and Lawine from Frieren so that Denken could fight her alone. He just needed to keep them busy until Denken had won. Great plan. One tiny flaw. What if Denken couldn’t win?
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Episode 21) – The World of Magic
What happened?
Having separated Kanne and Lawine from Frieren, Richter decides that it’s time to give them a bit of a lecture. His mana is too strong for Lawine to freeze him and without any water, Kanne is left to focus on defensive magic. This is where the lecture begins, Richter explains why most mages now focus on a spell that creates physical attacks as these will eventually brute force their way through defensive magic. That’s why he uses the earth, and he’s generally got plenty to work with. He manages to knock them down with one such attack but is disheartened to see that they are not going to give up. However, Lawine thinks she may have worked out how to beat him…
Meanwhile, Denken and Frieren have taken to the skies to continue their battle. Unfortunately, Denken realises that if this keeps up Frieren will win when his mana is depleted. He’s forced to attack now with everything he has. He created a cyclone from the air and then set it on fire. When that wasn’t enough he launched a barrage of magical missiles. He thinks he’s won until a counterattack comes at him from the side. When he blocks it, Frieren is already on top of him, launching some ordinary offensive magic. He has been defeated. Now to get the Stille back.
Frieren announces that if Laufen doesn’t hand over the Stille, she will kill Denken. Denken tells her to stay away. However, Laufen thinks she can do it, but as soon as she moves with her magic, Frieren captures her. She regained the Stille and restrained the two of them. Denken warns her that Richter will try to kill the girls once he realises what has happened. Frieren isn’t worried. She’s just finished analysing the magical barrier overhead and thinks that a little rain wouldn’t hurt their chances…
What did you think?
I loved this episode and even managed to put up with Richter turning into a teacher for several minutes of it. A lot of what he said was helpful, some of it necessary even, but I came into this episode ready for the fight to finally get going after a week’s wait, so that was not the best timing. Anyhow, I’ve recently started watching Bastard!! Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy and one of my main criticisms in that series is how the magic fights are kind of dull. This is what I want from my magic fights. This series has somehow nailed the intensity of fights where people generally stay a good distance from one another and point a big stick at each other. That’s not easy to do. I’ve seen many series fall because of that element of magical fights.
It would also appear that they managed to shoot down many of my predictions, or at least that’s what they want you to think. All right, I doubt Serie would be in cahoots with the Demon King if she was the one to train Flamme. I did like that Frieren had already met her and refused her offer of any spell she could desire. Does that mean she’ll do it again, or will she finally cave and demand a spell that does the laundry or something similar?
They also took away the agency I gave Denken. Now, I can’t fault his reasoning for wanting to become a First-Class mage even if it’s not as impressive as I had it. Surely, he could still visit that grave provided he was accompanied by a First-Class mage, so becoming one isn’t entirely necessary… Unless the grave he wants to visit may be something he doesn’t want anyone to know about. It’s probably his mother, though.
Anyhow, the first round is over and now we eagerly await the next round. Also, it was nice to see that Stark is taking advantage of his alone time by staying up late. I loved the comment from the barkeeper – “Sound like you’ve got it rough, buddy.”
Episode highlights
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
You might also like…
The axiom “That which cannot be imagined, cannot be!” is real in our world, not just in Frieren’s world. Before one can build a new device or app or even a building, one must be able to imagine it and that is the method of design. Objects which self assemble are subject to a mindless process of Natural Selection. What Flamme says about Serie and herself is telling. We cannot bring about a world of peace because we cannot imagine one, but Frieren can. This makes Frieren the Princess of Peace in this world and the true daughter of the Goddess (who is an Elf). And yet of all characters which the author could have selected, he chooses an evil character who will demonstrate what all this means!
I’m a little curious how they can consider Frieren as a mage from the time of peace when her entire tribe was murdered by demons and she’s spent the last one thousand years preparing to kill all the demons. Her interest in mundane sounding spells might be the only thing I can think of, but that doesn’t cancel out the fact that she’s a demon killing machine.
First, if I understand correctly, they referred to Frieren as the mage of an era of peace because she is capable of both ushering it in – killing the demon king and the rest of the demons – and also living in it. What Flamme says about Serie being unable to do so makes me even more wary of what she’s doing making such a prominent and influential place for herself in the world of magic now.
Yeah, we waaaay overthought what Denken was up to, apparently, LOL! I mean, I never thought Serie was working with the demon king, but I am still very suspicious of her, so it would make sense for him to be looking into things. But apparently he just means to go visit a grave in the region in question. I still admire him, though. He put up a good fight, tried to warn Laufen not to buy Frieren’s threats, spoke up about what Richter would likely do, thought his way out of being tied up, refused to give up when it looked like he’d already failed the trial, and, in lieu of mana, used his great and muscled fists with zero hesitance! I really like this guy! 🙂
Yeah. There’s definitely something about Serie that doesn’t sit well with me either.
I like Denken too. He’s a fighter. He doesn’t give up, but he’s also not an ass. I have a lot of time for people like that.
Is “killing” a demon killing? Demons in Frieren’s world are not organic, they are composed entirely of Mana, they are totally magical creatures. When they are “killed”, they evaporate back into Mana and we see that. That evaporation is so complete that not even a residue is left on the floor as we see in the Draht “killing”. If their blood is spilled on clothes, that also evaporates. Demons look like human beings, and they speak like human beings, but that is only a trap to ensnare human empathy. We see this in the village scene where Himmel hesitates in killing the cute little demon girl who is crying in pain. Frieren sees demons in their true nature. In 2023, I spent research time, testing LLMs (chatbots), and the tech has risen to such a level, that it is actually difficult to tell if you are talking to a computer system or a real human being. In the future, when chatbots have bodies, and look, act, and feel like a human being, would “killing” an embodied chatbot be killing?
So what is it that makes Frieren different from Flamme and Serie. If they’ve all killed demons and all want to kill demons, I’m not sure what makes Frieren able to imagine peace anymore than the others.
As to whether it’s killing or not, I believe it is. They may evaporate and return to mana, but that’s just a quicker process than an organic being. Sure, they use the image and language of humans to deceive, but they appear to be conscious and have desires and feel fear. I’m not saying that killing them is wrong, but it is killing and it will leave an impact on the person doing it. Also who’s to say that in the distant future AI won’t be considered alive. It’s not beyond the realms of imagination.
Yeah I have similar thoughts about Serie. She is never fully explained. For someone so ancient and knowledgeable, she certainly lacks wisdom. I am suspicious of her also, until more details are revealed about her. Why does she wait thousands of years, and then only 50 years ago she reveals herself, and takes over the management of human magic?
But Denken is a trip and a half. He is actually very much like Frieren and he only gets better. He becomes a major character in this story. Denken will grab your heart and run away with it. Denken is a German word which translates as think, believe, or feel, and he is all three!