Winter finally comes to a close on the Northern Plateau, and demon hunts end… instead, we’re hunting dragons!
A Thunder of Dragons
It’s amusing how hunting a whole herd of giant dragons is only a 1 episode affair compared to fighting demons. It feels like dragons should do a whole lot more damage.
Himmel has a strange complex about how he views his heroism and the thanks he gets for it. He finds it uncomfortable to leave with only his client’s gratitude and without a reward because it implies that his favors will burden them with a debt they cannot fulfill. This discomfort is so strong that Himmel will personally mandate that his team take even pointless rewards from poorer clients who have nothing better to give.
I personally find this to be an overaccommodation on Himmel’s part, because it implies that his heroism is inherently transactional and that the only transaction that matters is material rewards. The villager’s tome doesn’t carry any significant value, they even say so themselves. Their gratitude, however, does. If anything, the brief scare Himmel may have given when the villagers reluctantly offered their food was a riskier scenario. But perhaps that’s more an interesting trait of Himmel’s character than the show’s objective reading of things.
Another Rant on the Northern Plateau
Seriously, why does Frieren’s world feel it is so necessary to live in the Northern Plateau?
I feel the need to bring this up once again because I oddly found myself feeling quite bad for both the dragons and the people here. It feels weird for the goal for first-class mages like Frieren’s team to completely exterminate the natural population of monsters that aren’t demons. The dragons are just animals that live there, and if anything, the humans are making too much of an effort to make the land accommodate them.
Without barriers, walls, or any available heroes, the people on the plateau are as good as dead, yet people are so stubborn to risk their family and lives to continue staying there. And again, a lot of human culture cannot thrive in a land in which even burials or visiting other towns are a logistical impossibility. It’s cemented even further by how much death and destruction are casually occurring every other day here.
Though it’s far from ruining the show for me, I’m finding it harder and harder to accept the show’s sentiments on this matter.
Himmel’s Memoirs
On a lighter note, Himmel’s Memoirs is a very uncontroversial, relaxing episode.
I’m gonna miss the winter outfits at the party, but the scenes where the party finally unwinds and rests in the cabin have fantastic animation. I often don’t bring up the animation because of how consistently high quality it is, but I keep being surprised by how much unnecessary effort is put into even pure dialogue scenes where characters are constantly moving or even interrupting themselves in between, like Fern undressing Frieren at the start.
I’m pretty glad that Frieren received the memoir at the end. Her whole journey is just to have a moment to speak to Himmel again, and whether that goal succeeds doesn’t matter as long as Frieren can learn from and hold onto his memories.
Stray Observations:
- DENKEN!!!
- “Magic that lets you say tongue twisters no matter the situation”, this is the kind of magic I wish we got to see more applications of in battles. Frieren using that while being dragged around by a Kraken to give Stark info on how to fight is really inventive.
- Maybe it’s for the convenience of the designers, but I wonder why Himmel is always portrayed, even in legacy, as a young man rather than a middle-aged man. Did he stop adventuring once his group retired? Doesn’t seem in-character for him.
- “Carelessly praising her isn’t good for her development.” … I dunno Fern, positive reinforcement is a good thing for children/”young” elves.
- POV magic compass. No other words.
As season two continues, keep up with the episodes on Crunchyroll.
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