Frieren’s party reaches a village that is busy reconstructing many of its homes. Apparently, a dragon did all this. In fact, there’s a whole ass nest of dragons living nearby. Frieren even remembers her old party having to run away from a flight of them. Yo, stop living in dangerous places. “But our homes!” is such a weak excuse. It’s not just your lives you’re endangering. It’s also the lives of the people who have to come all the way up here to help you, i.e. the adventurers whom you’re about to petition to get rid of said nest. I’m going to keep putting my hand on the stove, and you need to keep bringing me to the hospital when I do! It’s asinine! And even if and when the adventurers succeed, it’s not a permanent solution. Frieren‘s universe feels video gamey at times, and that includes respawning mobs.
Sure enough, Frieren agrees to help in exchange for yet another useless spell. This time, it’s a grimoire that allows you to say tongue-twisters without stumbling over your words. Again, this is something you could just… practice doing. When Methode said that magic can be fun, I believed her. A spell that clears up the fog sounds very neat. A normal person can’t accomplish the same feat by themselves. We can’t just practice waving our arms until the fog goes away. So sure, bring on the magic. But the ability to say tongue twisters? Now you’re just trolling.
It’s also a bit sad how dragons are just large predators in this universe (and anime in general). Dragons should be these large, majestic creatures with intellect often surpassing our own. Yes, sometimes, you meet an even dragon or two. But they’re grand mythical beasts of legend. Oftentimes in anime, however, they’re just another big, dumb target to kill. So once again, we get Stark-on-dragon violence. Also, these look more like wyverns. Frieren reminds us that dragons are smart, and yet they never once look in hers or Fern’s direction.
Afterwards, we get our regularly scheduled episode of “What would Jesus Himmel do?” Fern wants to know why Frieren always asks for something in return even from the most destitute and desperate of clients. Well, duh, it’s because that’s what Jesus Himmel would’ve done! But he didn’t demand compensation to be cruel. Rather, he didn’t want people already in dire situations to feel indebted to him and his party. As a result, any payment will do! This is one of those schmaltzy moments designed to elicit awws from the audience, i.e. “Awwww, Jesus Himmel was so wonderful!” Let the nonstop glazing commence! But I’m not here to pretend that Himmel could walk on water. If anything, I think he’s being over the top, because that’s not how human psychology works. If your parents bought you a damn house, then said, “Son, you just need to pay us in hugs,” you would still feel indebted to them. Likewise, Frieren and company just wiped out a nest of dragons. Our boy Stark had his head inside one of their probably germ-ridden mouths at one point. Yeah, I think the village chief knows that a grimoire for tongue twisters isn’t a proportionate payment!
Most of all, there’s nothing wrong with pure and simple, straightforward charity. There’s nothing wrong with just helping people out of the goodness of your own heart. After all, we all just need a break in life every now and then. What they feel afterwards — if they’re going to torture themselves over being indebted to you — is their problem. And honestly? A lot of people will get over it in a flash. Not because they’re scum, or because they’re ungrateful. It’s because we generally believe in the goodness of humanity, so we understand what it means to help each other out without asking for anything in return. I whole-heartedly disagree with Jesus’s Himmel’s philosophy here.
At one point during the original journey, the party found themselves stuck in place due to inclement weather. Peep all the empty alcohol bottles surrounding Heiter. Dude had a serious problem. You gotta wonder if alcohol also ravages your liver in this fictional universe. Either way, it’s a good thing he cleared it up before he adopted Fern. Anyway, history repeats itself, so Frieren’s current party soon runs into the same exact scenario (minus the alcohol). With no means to cross a giant lake, they have no choice but to shack up in a port city for months. As a result, the series treats us to yet another one of its classic montages to demonstrate the passage of time.
Even with Fern around, Frieren can’t help being a slob. Nor can Fern prevent her from wasting all their money on useless spells. Luckily, when it comes time to pay the ferryman, all they need to do is recover Himmel’s memoirs from some nearby island. How fortuitous. And I bet you anything that the ferryman won’t even keep the memoirs. What kind of show would this be if Frieren, the object of Himmel’s unrequited love, doesn’t end up with his precious memories in her hands. She’s literally on this journey to talk to him in Heaven. It would be ludicrous if some random NPC got to keep Himmel’s precious words to himself. And if Frieren is ever in doubt again on what Jesus Himmel would’ve done, she has the literal ass scriptures to turn to.
Frieren eventually locates the memories at the foot of a Himmel statue deep inside a long abandoned monastery. As she leafs through the pages, memories of her journey with the man comes flooding back, but this time, we see most of them through Himmel’s eyes. Only at the very end, when Himmel could write no more, does the perspective switch back to Frieren. How romantic. As predicted, the ferryman lets Frieren keep the memoirs. The audience would’ve been up in arms if he had insisted on keeping them for himself. What would he do with it anyway?
As a parting gift to close out the second to last episode of the season, a huge ass squid — they call it a kraken — attacks the party in the middle of the… freshwater lake? Ah well, this is a made up world with magic, so whatever. Oh, the comedy hijinks…
Stray thoughts & observations:
— I like how we just get a one minute glimpse of Denken. Oh yeah, remember him? Look at him read a letter! Now look at him walking! I assume he’s visiting his wife’s grave.
— Where did the duck and ducklings suddenly come from?
— Fern talks about Frieren’s development as if she’s still a child. Well, maybe she is in human years. After all, Fern often has to wipe Frieren’s own face for her.
— Did Stark toss a stick at one point to help them pick a direction?
— Having dragon blood rain down from the sky is a bit much. Can you imagine the smell? Stark is going to need a good bath after this.
— Stark is abnormally durable for a human.
— Why are these grimoires always so thick? Especially when it’s such a useless spell. What are all the pages for? 300 pages for acknowledgements?
— I’ll try a lot of foods, but several whole ass fish in a pie isn’t one of them. But they’ve been eating stale bricks of bread for a while now, so this probably tastes like Michelin 3-star cuisine by comparison. Plus, Madhouse has some of the best animation around, so this is the prettiest anime fish pie you’re ever going to get.
— The ferryman talks of a rumored Golden Land far up north. Really? You guys can barely survive up here. How on earth is anyone constructing a city of gold? It must be demons. While listening in on the conversation between the ferryman and Stark, Frieren recalls a peculiar memory, but it’s gone in a flash. Darn. At the rate that we’re getting new episodes, we’ll probably never find out what that memory is for at least a few more years.
