Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Episode 21

In the series so far, there have been two truly triumphant moments for Frieren. The first is her overcoming Aura—and in doing so showing that 1000 years of near isolation were worth the price. The second is this episode with her destroying an “unbreakable barrier”—overturning the common sense of the modern age in the process. What's most interesting about both of these events is that neither takes place in mid-combat as most “big damn hero moments” do—you know, where the battered hero powers up at the last moment or musters up that little extra bit of willpower to fight on. That's because, for Frieren, it's not fighting strength or magical power that makes one great. It's intelligence.

The actual breaking of the barrier is only the surface layer to what's going on. When it comes down to it, this is the first time we've ever seen the creation of a new magical spell firsthand. Moreover, it's not “magic” as much as it is “anti-magic”—a spell specifically designed to unmake another. And rather than something like Zoltraak, which took years and many mages to unravel and counter, the entire process of creating this new spell—from conception to first use—takes around a day. Yet, as amazing as what Frieren accomplishes, the motivations behind it are just as important as the actual spell.

Frieren destroys the barrier not for tactical advantage but for her own philosophy. Frieren started analyzing the barrier long before they were attacked by Denken's team—before they even devised a plan to catch the bird. It was back when the rain started and Kanne was cut off from it.

So while Serie sees Frieren breaking the barrier akin to Frieren throwing the gauntlet—showing off how great she has become after training a thousand years and defeating the Demon King—that's not what's going on here. Frieren, at her core, hasn't changed. It's not for pride or ambition that she destroys the barrier. Rather, it's simply for her love of magic—and as she puts it, “Magic should be free.”

All this ties directly into the main piece of world-building for the episode: the relationship between imagination and magic. Controlling your mana is only the first step. The key to bringing magic into being is understanding both the process and the result. This is what a “spell” truly is: the step-by-step information needed to visualize what you want your mana to do. If you can't do this, the magic won't work. This is why Kanne can't simply rip the water out of Rictor's body to kill him—she doesn't have the knowledge of chemistry and biology needed to imagine how such a thing would even happen.

However, as the episode points out, this rule of magic isn't just true on a practical level but on a more symbolic one. None of the mages involved in the test believe they can break the barrier of a mage so revered that she is seen as the closest thing to the goddess on earth. So even if they had access to the spell that Frieren creates, they couldn't do it. Their perception of the world and their place in it would prevent the spell from working. Yet, Frieren holds no such reverence for Serie or her magic. This is why Rictor loses so completely to Kanne in the end. He doesn't believe he can beat a mage who freely controls water in the rain. Thus, despite having numerous spells he could use to try and fight back, he simply crumples before her.

All this brings us to Serie and the existential problem she faced regarding the Demon King. Though more powerful than Frieren when they first met (and likely still so given her longer life), she couldn't see herself existing in a world of peace. Were she to fight the Demon King, there would always be a lingering doubt within her soul of whether or not someone like her who thrives on conflict could find a place in the world that would come after. This would hold her back subconsciously in a fight with the Demon King where there was no room for error of any kind and lead to her defeat (even if she was the more powerful one magically).

This is why Frieren was able to do what both Serie and Flamme could not. She could see herself living in a peaceful world—happily traveling and learning new magic spells as she is doing now. Her ever-burning hatred for demonkind mixed with her “love” for magic made her the perfect combination to bring the end of one era and then thrive in the next.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Now we know what the holy wand emblem means. It marks you as a great mage from the age of antiquity. We only know two others: Flamme and Serie—both legendary figures in their own right.

• There's great visual storytelling in this episode through a simple crossfade—where the stone around Serie (even her throne) cracks and becomes worn but she doesn't change at all.

• Even to young Frieren, the journey was more important than the destination.

• Denken is the manliest man ever to man.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.