Over and over again, this episode features people staring wistfully at the world around them. A dwarf stands proudly before his bridge. Later, Frieren and company drink in the beautiful icy landscape. Elsewhere, Denken steels his determination as he glimpses his lost homeland. What’s certain is that these individuals are ready and willing to risk their lives in these lands. But before we start discussing such serious matters, however, we must set the stage. Right from the get-go, the party faces a 3000 meter deep canyon that they can’t simply fly across. Luckily, they find a bridge after traveling a short bit upstream. In fact, Himmel bought this bridge, knowing that he would never live to see it. He bought it all for his elf crush, too. Sheesh. Well, there’s your “aww, Himmel was the goat!” moment of the episode. In fact, he specifically told the Gehen the dwarf to ensure that the structure would last a thousand years. I’m no architect, but I feel like that’s a tall task for a wooden bridge or any bridge for that matter with such strong winds and nasty fauna in the area. But again, I’m no expert. Plus, the point isn’t to quibble over the practicality of a wooden bridge.
Rather, it’s the fact that we need to accept our mortality, and thus think towards the future. This is one of the major themes that helps tie this short-lived season together. By comparison, Himmel’s all-too-short lifespan looks like nothing more than a mere footnote when you stack it side-by-side with a lifespan belonging to someone like Frieren. But that “footnote” has gone on to leave an indelible mark on her life. So if you want to get all sappy, the takeaway here is that you should never underestimate how your actions might influence the people and world around you. Himmel may have bought a bridge for his mage, but countless generations will now be able to use it… as soon as Frieren and company takes out a nest of nasty birds, of course. But seriously, where would we be instead if more people could put aside their immediate wants and selfish desires for the sake of the future — for the sake of people whom they would never meet? Alas, the global temperature is rising, and the oceans are slowly dying.
After a brief stay at the Gehen’s newly rebuilt village — new for any long-lived species, I suppose — the party find themselves in sore need of a job yet again. The party soon reach an adventurers’ camp. It’s a place is full of prospectors seeking veins of lucrative holy snow crystals in fields of perpetual winter. Right after our heroes just got done murdering a bunch of birds, they’ve signed themselves up for a job to slay a majestic-looking beast all for a bag of coins. Well, they call it a monster, so I guess it’s okay to kill it for defending its territory. Mankind’s greed progress must not be impeded!
In the morning, after Frieren and company just got done wiping out the local fauna, the party takes in the view, a fleeting beauty which the elf admits will soon be spoilt by human hands — for some dinky potions, apparently. We’ll soon learn, however, that the adventurer who hired them for this job intends to protect the mining vein in order to preserve the vista. Ah, this is yet another “awww, we’re protecting people’s homes” moment that has been a recurring plot device for the season. But Frieren’s barrier is going to keep everyone out, so for whom are we protecting the vista? For nature itself? Which we just murdered? Suppose they allow the barrier to go down at some point. I dunno how your average adventurer will manage this, but let’s just play pretend. If, instead, they’re going to manually keep miners away for perpetuity, that still sounds like a Sisyphean task. Never underestimate what people are willing to do to earn a buck.
Over and over again, our heroes have risked life and limb for folks who continue to cling to the Northern Plateau despite the very real and ever present threat of demons. Even the fauna can tear villages apart. The extreme weather alone makes life up here harsh and brutish. Nevertheless, Frieren deliberately chose to travel by foot in lieu of a relatively quick jaunt across the sea. She chose this route all so she can retrace Himmel’s footsteps and help those who cannot help themselves. That’s the second major theme that ties these scant ten episodes together: our homes are worth dying for. Well, I can’t say I personally agree. Not to this extent, anyway. Dying for our homes is a sentiment that humanity has carried with it for a long, long time. You could, however, also argue that it’s a sentiment that has bred countless cycles of violence, because people simply won’t let go of the past. How many have died over a supposedly sacred piece of land? And how many more must die in the future out of sheer reciprocity? But I’m not a very sentimental person, so I just don’t understand. But don’t get me wrong. Even though I don’t agree with a lot of the views espoused by this series and this series’ author, I do very much enjoy Frieren as a whole. It’s a thought-provoking show.
And thus, their journey continues.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— The sheer cliffs overlooking the sea kinda remind me a bit of Ireland, actually. Obviously not an advertisement, by the way. Just the first link I saw on Google.
— Last week, we dealt with a nest of wyverns. This week, a nest of stubborn ass birds that keep attacking travelers attempting to cross the bridge. Though not the bridge itself, which is curious…
— Ah yes, more spells that you could just do yourself with a little practice. By the way, I prefer pancakes to waffles any day of the week.
— Yeah, ain’t no spell worth this.
— Oh hey, a callback.
— All this world-building for the Northern Plateau is not quite what I expected for a season finale, but I also didn’t expect a mere ten episodes for the second season. I wonder how long the third season will be. I hear that the manga is sadly on hiatus due to illness. This seems to be a recurring problem for mangakas.
— So many montages.
— Stark never seems to catch anything when the girlies are watching. The man can’t perform under pressure.
— We are treated to yet another fast and furious action scene. It’s well-animated, so I can’t complain much. Fern reuses a trick she had employed against Revolte’s underlings: flying out of reach so that her foes can’t detect her mana. Well, no reason to change tactics if it keeps working. It then looked like we were going to get yet another fight before the cavalry literally arrives.
— According to Himmel way back in the past, the view of the holy snow crystals alone is worth defeating the demon king for. Eh, to each his own.
— We’re told that the crystals are needed for magical potions. You can’t help but wonder if magic becomes a crutch for these fantasy societies. Perhaps they fail to employ human ingenuity to overcome their everyday problems, because there’s always a spell that you can cast. Why bother with the struggle when you can utter a mere incantation?
— At this point, these one-on-one moments might as well be dates.
— Unsurprisingly, Fern looks exactly like her mom. If she gets with Stark, however, I wonder what color hair their kids will end up with.
— Good ol’ Frieren up to her nasty spendthrift ways. How did she use to manage before Fern? Who kept her in check? Or was she often just penniless on her travels? Hell, Frieren’s solo journey would probably be a decent enough spinoff series. Think Kino’s Journey but with an autistic elf instead.
— I remember back in the first season, people loved to draw parallels between Frieren’s parties. Stark is the new Eisen, Fern is the new Frieren, so we need a new Heiter. Well, this episode doubles down on Frieren being the new Himmel, because Fern drops a “Because that’s what Ms. Frieren would do.” Well, Himmel liked wasting money on not-his-girlfriend, so our elf mage has to follow suit. Frieren soon wastes a good chunk of the coins they had just risked their lives for. Half, apparently. Why does she even get access to any of their traveling funds? C’mon, Fern, just hide all of the money!
— Well, I saw the announcement for a third season, and judging by the teaser at the end of this finale, Denken’s going to get a major arc in it. So the fabled Golden Land is real, and it used to be his homeland. Or it includes his homeland? I’m not entirely sure on that. Some demon — the most powerful of the Seven Sages of Destruction, apparently — has the Midas touch, and had turned an entire city to gold. According to Lernen, the former imperial mage intends to die in order to reclaim said city. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the poor animators), we won’t get his story until late 2027. Damn, who can say if I’ll even be around by then. Well, we’ll see.
