Frieren’s true backstory gets revealed and we get to learn what the learning lesson is behind her journey.

Coming off an episode where Stark and Fern come into their own by testing their resolve against the executioners Lugner and Lili. It has all crescendo up to this point since their first encounter with Lugner. Now, Aura the Guilliotine, one of the last remnants of the Demon King’s Lieutenants becomes the symbol of what Frieren has trained all of her life to defeat.

Recap & Reaction

Opener

The episodes start off with a flashback with the origins of a young Frieren and how exactly she became the star pupil of Flamme, an originator of humanity’s use of magic today. Flamme and Frieren are walking, recounting Basalt, the Demon King’s general’s last words before he passed away. This scene reiterates what Frieren has been saying since her time in the jail cell, demons’ words are just meant to deceive and Flamme agrees.

Flamme tacks on the fact they these demons play dirty or unfair and so, they must play even more unfair. It’s clear from this scene that demons are to be despised and Flamme will be doing whatever it takes to extinguish their existence.

This opening scene plays into the theme of the episode. Presenting, what the big takeaway would be from Flamme Sensei to Frieren. Demons are terrible creatures and that they are going to find a way to be even more sneakier than them to defeat them. Furthermore, we are going to be presented with what could act has many different metaphors for what the learning lesson would be behind Flamme’s teachings.

Lugner’s Last Words

After the opening credits, we are presented with 2/3rds of what’s left of Lugner. Hanging onto his last words, he tells Fern with confidence that Frieren is about to get her ass handed to her. The reason being that Aura has significantly more mana than her, especially since she doesn’t have three other heroes backing her up this time. So, Lugner stating that Frieren fighitng Aura head doesn’t make any sense.

Fern tells Lugner that Frieren wouldn’t directly engage the demon without knowing how to defeat them. Lugner thinks over that Frieren, the Demon Slayer, would always directly engage with them. Given Fern’s confidence in Frieren and him literally dying because of being overwhelmed by Fern’s spammy attacks—he thinks over why Fern’s mana level seem so low, but remains the same.

Remember that this was a key point when Fern, Stark and Frieren first met Lugner. Fern and Stark stated themselves that they were completely overlooked by Lugner and the other executioners. Now, we can assume it’s likely mana related.

He then has an epiphany and before he can outright say what it is that Fern and Frieren is doing, he mentions that they should be ashamed to call themselves mages. Then, Fern lights up her staff and in flashing attack, seen from a distance, presumably Fern has given Lugner the kill shot.

Fighting deception with deception.

How Frieren and Flamme Became Master and Pupil

It flashes back in time once again with Flamme walking through a massacred elf village. Flamme mentions that Basalt the Throne, one of the Demon King’s generals is responsible for this, as he lies lifeless against a tree. Turning around, Flamme seee a young silver haired elf with a massive amount of mana, who she assumes is the one that helped defeat him.

Being strong is not enough!

Flamme begins to scold the young Frieren, who’s heavily wounded on her knees. She can never understand why power mages like her would always attack head on, rather than taking a tactical approach by surprising your enemy.

The young Frieren calls her out for the scolding because she is far stronger than her. The scene shows for a brief moment a visual representation of their mana levels, where Frieren looks like it’s significantly more than Flamme’s. Flamme questions why she would say such a thing? For Frieren, it’s “just a hunch” or likely her intuition.

Flamme picks Frieren up to make her her apprentice. Frieren states that she did everything she could to help the villagers, but it wasn’t enough to save them. Flamme goes on to say that she would have ran in her position. However, Flamme showing up to that village helped save her. Then, she notices that they are being tailed by even stronger demons.

This is a very important piece of information that Frieren is sharing. Even though she’s powerful and has defeated a Demon King general, it was all for naught because she couldn’t save anyone in the end. This is where Flamme’s thought process and perspective start to take hold. She has already questioned why powerful mages would just fight directly. It makes more sense to trick the enemy to gain an even greater advantage, throwing them off. You can see how these ideologies for how a battle should go against demons collide.

How Pride Can Fail You

A couple more demons, who are stronger than Basalt was arrive. This scene represents Flamme’s premise of why her way of fighting against demons is the most effective. Then, she goes on to detail what the demons’ weakness is. When it comes to magic, demons have pride in their magic. It’s what makes the demons maintain some kind of social structure. They were concealing their mana before they struck, but since they noticed that Flamme and Frieren are mages too, they revealed themselves.

Plot wise, the three demons request Flamme ditch the young elf because of the Demon King’s orders. Human life does not matter, but the eradicating the elves does.

Again, we can assume because of the elves’ lifespans and strong young mages like Frieren, pose a tremendous threat to the demons’ existence. Humans can’t live long enough to pose enough of a threat.

How to Take Advantage of Someone’s Pride

Flamme displays more of her wisdom as she explains that she understands exactly how the demons feel when it comes to having pride in their magic. It’s something they’ve honed and studied their entire lives. But that breed overconfidence and hubris. Like the scene prior to Fern blowing Lugner to bits from afar, this scene mimics the same. From a distant shot, a yellow flash of light erupts and the demons were no more. All that was left was a giant crater. 

The ability to keep yourself look non-threatening will throw people off. You can’t really let people know what you are capable of, if you are trying to beat someone at something.

This scene is another brilliant display of wisdom when it comes to the downfall of your pride. Imagine working your entire life to be good at something, you’d want to show that off. However, in order to win or defeat something, you can have a huge competitive advantage by concealing what you are actually capable of.

Frieren quickly deciphers that Flamme hid her strength by controlling the release of her mana, giving the answer to what Lugner eluded to earlier in the episode. Deceive and give your opponent the overconfidence to kill you, by showing that you aren’t as strong as you appear to be. The scene once more gives the answer to how Fern was able to make Lugner underestimate her. 

It’s almost like the hustlers in the pool hall analogy. You can let your opponents know exactly what you are capable of, if you want. But it becomes an unnecessary disadvantage that you are giving. Like any other sport, when the other team doesn’t know what you are doing, you can’t prepare for it.

The caveat to Flamme’s strategy is that it’s looked down upon. To fight concealed is to fight cowardly. Most people have a strong sense of pride because it’s derived within their self-worth.

If you asked me, it seems pretty smart when you’re talking about life and death; win and lose. Having someone underestimate you is always a good thing. Seeing that this is a metaphor for real life, you can see that Flamme’s point is that showing off is a status symbol, which an upcoming scene will dive into further. Generally, a person at the top of the totem pole isn’t going to pretend to be weak.

Flamme Trains Frieren

Both Flamme and Frieren share multiple parallels in their views and life experiences. Both had demons kill all of their family and friends, and both harbor a desire to massacre all the demons. They also share an unconditional love for magic. Flamme wants Frieren to prepare for the ultimate revenge against the demons, while also cautioning her not to build pride that can be used against her—similar to how Flamme used it against the demons in an earlier scene.

The way to beat the Demons

Flamme teaches Frieren how to hide her mana. While holding back, Frieren aims to raise her base level to become her “new normal.” Frieren mentions how easy it is for elves to do it, but there’s a caveat—it’s tiring to hold back the mana. She then asks Flamme how long she should do it. Flamme’s response is “just like her, forever.” The scene then shifts back to the present with Frieren facing Aura.

No one likes being deceived. Flamme continues to reiterate that what she is doing is unfair, but the objective is still to win in the end. Flamme teaching Frieren how to conceal her mana can be analogized to anything we are doing in life when competing. Just hold it in until you need to use it.

Aura, the Overconfident

Aura tell Frieren that Lugner is dead, but it won’t be a complete defeat if Aura takes down Frieren. In the previous episode, Frieren used a lot of magic to release the souls from this immortal undead army. Then, Frieren goes on to explain the powers of the Scales of Obedience. When two souls are placed on the scale, the one with less mana must obey the stronger one. 

Now that we’ve come to understand how Frieren fights. We can make the assumption that Frieren used all that mana to release the souls from Aura’s control as deception; even if her intentions were to let the immortal souls just rest in peace.

Frieren continues to break down Aura further. She’s lived likely for over 500 years, just building up her tremendous amount of aura that gives her the confidence to amass such an army of undead. The amount of mana that Aura gives off, tells a lot about her. Mentioning further that demons can’t conceal their mana. This whole scene echoes Flamme’s teachings to Frieren. 

Before the scene shifts again, Aura uses her Scales of Obedience attack, ‘Auserlese.’

Why Demons Don’t Hide Their Strengths

The next scene takes us back to Flamme teaching Frieren about demons once again. The obvious question from the previous scene with Aura would be why demons can’t hide their mana or why they choose not to?

Flamme explains that demons are individualists.

I can’t help but feel attacked here..

Demons don’t really have strong relationships with one another. For an organization to be ran, you need order and someone to help lead it. In human society, importance is determined by status and wealth. Someone important must be the one to lead. How you dress up helps determine your level of importance, which in turn socially tells others about your level of status.

A demon’s mana is analogized to this human status and wealth. It’s essentially what makes demons feel honor and pride. It gives a hierarchical structure to help demons function as a society. I love this analogy here by Flamme because they are true comparisons between how we should view ‘mana.’ Just as the clothes on the high ranking noble tells you about a person, the previous scene with Frieren sizing up Aura is because of her mana.

Like how nobles and people with high status leaving their comfy status and wealth to live among the broke, demons wouldn’t suppress their mana too often because they too despise people with lower status. In this case, low status means low mana demons, which means the loss of respect.

Let’s be real here. Would you follow a leader or someone who portrays themselves as weak? Ultimately, this is saying that if demons were to hide their mana and pretend to be weak, they would lose respect and no one would want to follow them.

Frieren carries on Flamme’s Will

In three years, Frieren has gotten very adept at hiding her mana and it time skips way further again to a ‘obaasan’ aged Flamme saying the same about her ability to suppress her mana. She asks again if Frieren still loves magic?

Frieren responds not as enthusiastically like the last time about magic. Flamme responds that all this time all she could do is train Frieren about “revenge magic against the demons”. Ultimately, she’s proud of what she’s taught Frieren. Given her lifespan, with the magical tools that Flamme taught her, this would give her the time to be able to defeat the Demon King. 

In 50 years, this question about Frieren loving magic represents her quelling of her pride over magic—that she doesn’t need to be a showoff if push comes to shove.

Flamme has a request to have Frieren plant flowers around her grave. Her favorite spells creates beautiful flowers. 

Flower is a symbol like how it was for Himmel and those special blue-moon weed flowers. Enjoy the beauty of life! This is directly correlated to Frieren’s own personal journey, especially after defeating the Demon king.

Flamme tells Frieren more that her parents taught her this magical flower spell that ended up making her fall in love with magic. Frieren asks if she would teach her. Flamme makes another request that Frieren should never “leave her name in history.” To “live in obscurity” until she defeats the Demon King. 

This is likely so that the demons don’t end up seeking her out to kill her before she’s able to become powerful enough. 

How Frieren Became a Part of Himmel’s Party

Frieren ends up living her life peacefully for centuries, holding back how much mana she really has, honing it until next thing she knew, she lived a majority of her life secluded in a village she helped build. Then, Himmel, Heiter and Eisen are made aware of this centuries old elf and come to visit her to recruit her for their party. Heiter, when asked by Himmel to size her up, mentions that she “only has 1/5th of his mana.” However, Himmel just has a feeling that Frieren is a lot stronger than she’s letting on. 

This is actually quite a funny scene and puts to test of Frieren’s pride as Heiter made her sound condescendingly weak. Just like Frieren’s intuition of Flamme being stronger than she’s letting on, Himmel has that same feeling.

The Downfall of Aura’s Pride & Overconfidence

For the last time, the scene fast forwards through Frieren’s journey and we are back at the present. Aura uses the Scales of Obedience’s power, “Auserlese.” This pushes forward both Aura’s and Frieren’s souls to be put to the test of mana on the scales. 

Here’s, the payoff we’ve been waiting for!

Frieren notices how confident Aura looks and Aura explains why. No matter what Frieren’s past may hold, her mana explains it all. This is the overconfidence that Flamme has been warning about demons. She continues explaining how Frieren likely hasn’t had more than 100 years of training and that she’s still the same as 80 years prior when she defeated the Demon King. 

With the scales tipped in Aura’s favor, she walks towards Frieren to behead her. However, the scales start to tip back to Frieren. Frieren starts to call her shot. If Aura would have sent more immortal soldiers, she might have had a chance by depleting more of Frieren’s mana, but her overconfidence in her own abilities became her undoing.

Aura explains how confident she’s in to read exactly what Frieren has been doing with her mana, so her suppressing it, was unlikely. Frieren calmly responds that Flamme was right the entire time. Frieren spending centuries having her mana suppressed is her normal, so Aura would have never guessed she’d do such a thing. 

Frieren releases all of her mana and commands Aura to kill herself. 

Last Thoughts

Classic Provider of Wisdom From the Creator’s Viewpoint

Most shows has some kind of learning lesson and it usually is told through a teacher or older character of some kind. These characters hold the true spirit of what the story’s true wisdom entails. Frieren is like many others, using Flamme for this particular episode. Heiter and Eisen was that in the prior episodes and we can expect if Frieren ever reaches Himmel, some learning lesson will be told then. 

When these lessons are displayed, the more you believe and agree with them, the more likely you’ll enjoy the show. However, the opposite occurs when it is something you don’t quite agree with. These are the kind of lessons that Flamme is spewing that could make or break a show for a viewer or a reader of the manga. Pride and confidence is generally a good thing to have, but this episode explains how that can be your ultimate downfall.

So Many Life Lessons!

What is Flamme’s ultimate lesson? Well, there are many that can be derived from this episode. Don’t underestimate people with low status. Suppressing your mana, means suppressing your pride. Train your body until your time is near. Never ever underestimate your opponents, no matter how prepared you think you are. To literally, slay your demons? This episode provides a lot of insight into what you should look for in yourself. The themes of not underestimating others, managing pride, continuous self-improvement, and the importance of humility and awareness are indeed profound and applicable in various aspects of life. That’s the brilliance of this episode! It’s great to see how this anime can incorporate such meaningful messages. It’s never about strength alone!

Last, Last Takeaway

The Genius of What Frieren Represents

What I love most about Frieren, she’s a realistic character, especially with how she sees the world. See demons, kill demon. It is what it is when it comes to these creatures. Her own personal development since the start of this anime has been about learning to enjoy the fruits of life, like how the flower represents the beauty of it. But you can’t really enjoy life without an objective and purpose in accomplishing anything. For Frieren to carry on her own revenge along with Flamme’s teachings, she’s literally accomplished what her life goal was by defeating Aura and the Demon King. However, there is always life beyond your accomplishments and disciplines. This arc provides the dichotomy between those perspectives on life. Along with accomplishing your goals with discipline, don’t forget to enjoy life!

I can’t say enough about how beautiful and incredible the storytelling is with this anime. Anytime a story can teach valuable life lessons that can legitimately be applied to real life, that’s one of the most culturally powerful things you can do to influence people. It’s a skill that I’m sure we all admire greatly. This episode was a perfect one that puts the previous one in tandem, as one of the best two episode stretches for a payoff that an anime can give.