Does this count as Frieren doing the’Dawn Pose’?
©Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe/Shogakukan/’Frieren’Project
One of the best aspects of this season—and this episode in particular—is introducing us to the magicians outside of our antisocial couple and the psychotic demons they’re fighting again. On one hand, we have people like Lawine and Kanne, who seem like a pair of relatively normal (if immature) girls. On the other hand, we have a stoic older man in Denken and a battle-hardened commander in Wirbel.
As part of developing the expanding team of wizards, we learn the reasons behind why many of them take the exam. While Frieren and Fern did so simply to gain the necessary permission to continue their journey, the other magicians had different reasons for aiming for the title. Some seem to do it for fame and power. Others are doing it for the “privilege”—of being taught any magic they choose by the immortal elf who runs the magic guild. And then, Übel seems to be using the test as nothing more than an excuse to carry out his murder.
Of course, Übel wasn’t the only magician willing to kill the others taking the test. While she is the most bloodthirsty, all the magicians seem to have realized the easiest way to pass the test is to wait for another team to spend most of their energy catching a bird and then kill another their members. This will make it impossible for the opposing team to pass the test (as all members need to be alive) and likewise the bird they catch will be meaningless — allowing the winning team to take Get a bird and eliminate a group of opponents at once.
This divides the magicians into several groups. Frieren, Fern and Denken are unwilling to kill anyone regardless of whether they pass the test or not. Then there are people like Wirbel who are willing to kill only when necessary. Finally, we have people like Richter, who wish to kill other contestants simply because it’s the best strategic move.
This philosophical difference allows for both intragroup conflict and intergroup conflict. For the former, Richter cannot simply kill Lawine and Kanne like he wants because doing so would anger Denken (who could simply choose to skip the test in protest and cause Richter to fail as well). Later, Fern uses his enemy’s willingness to kill against him. She claims to have killed Ehre-tricked Wirbel into giving up trying to kill Übel and stole her team’s bird.
Overall, this episode does a great job of getting us acquainted with the other members of the test and their way of thinking. And now that Fern and her team are safe and Wirbel’s team have got their bird, all that’s left is to tackle our final two matches: Denken vs. Frieren and Richter vs. Lawine and Kanne.
Rating:
Random thoughts:
As always, the fight scenes in this episode look great.
Fern defeats monsters said to be stronger than Ehre by fighting her the same way she would fight a demon. She tricks Ehre into fighting head-on—allowing Fern to use her hidden energy reserves to force Ehre into a battle of attrition for which she is unprepared.
Cloning magic is a trump card. I wonder how much mana it takes to cast, how much mana each clone must use, and how long a clone can last.
Last week, I said I was glad for the subtle foreshadowing in how it was done. This part of the story should end but in this episode, they beat us to it.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is now streaming on Crunchyroll.