The second episode of Frieren second season was highly enjoyable as expected. This installment was primarily focused on world-building. In the first half, we learned about the Hero of the South. In the second half, there was an encounter with a Demon. As usual with this series, I was impressed by the world and character development.
Episode 2: The Hero of the South
Episode Rating: 9/10
Frieren, Fern, and Stark continued their pattern of taking random jobs in random villages for random rewards in the form of spells. They were almost exclusively useless spells in the grand scheme of things. For example, one day, in a small northern village, the group took the job of cleaning the statue of the Hero. (The reward was a spell for scratching itchy spots that are difficult to reach.) Stark assumed the statue would be based on Himmel like usual, but it was actually the Hero of the South.
According to Frieren, there were several heroes who helped save the world and lead to Himmel’s victory against the Demon King. The Hero of the South was considered the strongest in all of humanity. He was able to fight against the Seven Sages of Destruction – the top generals of the Demon King – all at once. He died slaying one of the seven, the one who could supposedly see the future. We then saw some glimpses into the past, wherein Frieren met the Hero of the South once before her journey with Himmel.
The Southern Hero told Frieren he could see the future. I presume this is why he was the only being capable of matching the Demon general with the same ability. He knew he would die fighting and could not change his fate. He also knew that the one to slay the Demon King would be Himmel. So, he asked Frieren to deliver his last words to Himmel: “I will surely open a path for you.” Frieren delivered the sobering message. I thought the Hero of the South was very cool. It must have been difficult and lonely to commit to a death mission for the sake of humanity’s future. I doubt I could ever do that. Truly, this man whose name we don’t know was a hero.
After this, the episode changed directions. The group arrived in a large town where they were invited to dinner by a nobleman named Count Dach. The noble’s great-grandfather met Frieren when she was in Himmel’s party. But Frieren didn’t want to go to the dinner at first. She knew Dach would inevitably ask for help with something. She was reluctant because, in the past, the noble’s great-grandfather was demanding and threatening. However, the great-grandson was friendly. Sure enough, he had a job for the group. The family heirloom sword of the Dach family had been stolen by a Demon. Frieren and company would need to track down the Sword Demon and recover the powerful weapon.
Frieren explained that the sword they sought originally belonged to Demons and that it was stolen back by them during Himmel’s time, too. Years ago, Frieren had the same mission to recover the sword, but with Himmel’s party. They tracked down a rampaging Demon who couldn’t resist using the sword. Apparently, the sword was somehow special to Demons, who had tried to get it back several times across the generations. With this information, the trio set out tracking down the Sword Demon.
After a couple of days, Frieren and company found a destroyed town with no survivors. The place was empty except for one woman – a “traveling priest” in a cloak and hood. It wasn’t hard to tell she was a Demon. Though she played the part of a traveling priest decently, there was something “off” about her. Frieren also observed there were no bodies buried in this village, despite the priest woman saying she was here to mourn the dead. When called out by Frieren, the priest removed her hood, revealing her Demon horns. She drew the stolen sword to defend herself, claiming that she only did this to live. To be clear, she literally devoured the people in the village, and Demons do not need human flesh in particular to survive. Frieren prepared to exterminate the threat.
The actual fight was very brief. Frieren quickly killed the Demon. Since the Demon had been posing as a priest, the subject of prayer came up. Naturally I have to rant about this part a bit as it’s an interesting subject. The character development and world-building of Frieren goes deep. It even gets into the religious beliefs of its people. That’s what I think is interesting, despite having no belief in the supernatural in reality. The Sword Demon would ask people to pray and attack them when their eyes were closed. Frieren was rightfully angry at this despicable trick. So, after the Demon was defeated, she knelt down and prayed for those killed. Fern and Stark did the same.
The show has already established that Frieren doesn’t really believe in the Goddess, and only does this sort of thing to remember Himmel and respect the lives of deceased humans. (However, she does seem to believe that an afterlife is a possibility.) We don’t know for sure if there is a Goddess in Frieren’s world, but there’s more evidence for her than there is for any deity in reality, since there’s a demonstrable school of magic based on the Goddess’ Scriptures. Regardless of whether the Goddess is real, I understand Frieren’s feelings here and her more or less performative prayer. She just doesn’t have a better way to express the grief and frustration of the tragic loss of life.
Anyway, the group returned the sword and talked about the nature of demons and humans a little. This conversation was sparked when Frieren remarked that, in the past, the theft of the Sword was enabled by the help of a human who worked for the Count. It’s Demon nature to trick humans, and it’s human nature to want power. Frieren pointed out that, like Demons, humans by and large fail to control their natural instincts. I think that makes her want to help them even more.
On a final note, Frieren’s reward was a spell that can change the color of apples from red to green. Lol. I don’t think Frieren can control her natural longing for random, niche spells. Let me know if you watched this episode and had any thoughts to share!
~Thanks for Reading~
Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants
Anime Rants 