The end of the Mage Academy Arc is here and this episode provides one of the satisfying closures one could have hoped for.

Recap & Reaction

The end of the third exam is here as Serie passes Fern because she is too talented to not give up on. This episode goes on to provide closure to many of the newer characters’ character development and an end to the clashing ideologies between Serie’s and Frieren’s.

Opener

The opener starts off with a recap of Fern telling Serie that she is “Frieren’s student.” The creators added a little extra scene with Frieren yawning while waiting for Fern, as Serie passes Fern.

Frieren yawning is a reminder of what kind of character she is. The whole Mage Academy Arc has been a huge inconvenience to her. However, she was able to meet and develop relationships with many new characters and was able to display some very important details about her character that wouldn’t have happened without the exams. At the same time, this arc was very much needed for Fern’s development.

The Exam Must Continue!

After the opening credits, the next test taker vying for Serie’s approval is Denken. Serie starts to rattle off everything about Denken’s background; how he was a mage from a military family that became the Imperial Mage and was well known across all of the Northern Lands.

I’m convinced. The animators are 100% the “Quentin Tarantinos” of foot fetish.

Serie makes the remark about Denken and his old age, wishing she would have had a youthful and ambitious Denken to train. Just like her insult against Lernen about his old age, an old Denken feels like a waste to her as well. Although, she recognizes that that thought and feeling was not right. Then, she asks Denken if, “he thought about fighting her.” Denken responds with, “only for a brief moment and then abandoned the idea.”

It was Denken’s fire of even entertaining the thought of fighting Serie that has moved her. With Denken’s answer, it confirms to Serie of that “fire,” so she passes him. Unlike Kanne and the others that were not as talented, it shows that Serie not only prefers magical talent, but ambition and maybe even a defiance against her.

Serie is mean to old people. Then again.. she is ancient herself. Basically, if you have the wherewithal to defy her, it shows a certain kind of drive that is needed with those at the top.

In the very next scene, Serie immediately passes Ubel. Ubel questions why when they didn’t even say a word to each other? To Serie’s response, “do we even need to?”

If Serie truly values those strong Type A personalities and those with strong will and ambitions, then this passing of Ubel is exactly the split dynamics between what makes Serie’s gatekeeping of magic flawed. These are all traits that can be shared by a crazy person like Ubel.

Next up? Land, which is an interesting experience. He shows up with one of his clones, as Serie berates him for actually having the gall to not actually show up. That’s not until the “real Land” appears right behind his clone. Serie reveals that for the entirety of the exam, Land “never actually left his hometown.” The scene zooms straight into the actual land that is still “drinking tea” outside his home. Land is “surprised,” as Ubel hasn’t even noticed the entire time. For Land having the gall to attempt such a trick on her, she passes Land.

Land’s real body sitting at home really affirms Frieren’s thoughts about Serie’s intuition. Also, this would make you question if any of the other participants noticed what Serie noticed? If Frieren, Fern and the others like Denken didn’t notice, then that would make not only Land supremely impressive at making his clones, but shows how much more superior Serie is compared to everyone else. At least, in her “intuition.”

After failing so many in a row, there are now three participants in a row that have gotten the nod to pass by Serie. Following the impressive clone maker Land? Wirbel, the “captain of the Northern Magic Corps.” Right away, Serie already sees that Wirbel knows that he is not match for her. Once again, unlike Kanne and the others, Wirbel wasn’t scared, he was just being factual.

Serie drops the, “what is your favorite spell” question? Wirbel answers with, “magic is for killing” and that he feels indifferent when it comes to liking or disliking magic spells. This is music to Serie’s ears as she puts a big smirk on her face and she gladly passes him.

If there was one attribute that the story showed the most in Wirbel, it’s his ability to properly assess and make the right decisions as a leader. In the 1st exam, it was about the “necessary & unnecessary.” In the 2nd exam, it was about Wirbel knowing everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. Then, properly using that knowledge to defeat their clones. Once Methode showed up, that’s where the “necessary vs unnecessary” kicked in and he made the correct choice to team up with everyone else too. Overall, Wirbel is an impressive character that might have the strongest “intuition” among all the test takers.

Last but not least, Methode shows up to be judged. There is a brief moment of silence as Methode just blankly looks at Serie. Serie breaks the silence by asking Methode, “what she thought of her when she saw her?” Slightly embarrassed, Methode replies that Serie looked “small and cute.” In Serie’s response, she couldn’t help but say how much of an anomaly all the participants were this time and passes her. As Serie exits the testing room, she apologizes to Sense that they do have a “bumper crop this year.”

The Aftermath of Success and Failure

Scharf complains to Wirbel that he has failed, as Ehre sits next to him with her head held down. Wirbel comforts him. Ubel continues following Land like a creep. Hopefully for the last time, Land tells Ubel to “stop following me.” Kanne sits in disappointment, as she ponders “3 more years, huh?”

Fern arrives outside to tell Frieren that “she passed.” Frieren in her “ho-hum” attitude, tells her “great job” with the nice pat on her head.

Here is the “patting on the head” motif. Only Frieren can make something normal feel so forced and awkward sometimes. This is such a wholesome lesson in the show..

Before Frieren and Fern can walk off like nothing happened for 10 episodes, Denken stops them. He thanks the both of them for helping him pass the exam. Every character had their own personal motivations for passing the First-Class Exams and this allowed Denken, who has all the money & power in the world to do something personal and thoughtful—visit a “certain” person’s grave.

Back to Slicing of Life

Fern struggles over the paralysis of choices as Fern & Stark are shopping back at the bakery. Stark waits patiently as Fern finally makes a choice to point at one of the delectable goodies. Just as she picks one, Laufen picks the same one out of nowhere with Denken looking slightly bewildered behind her.

Due to the conflict of picking the same sweets, it looks like old future Richter, Denken does the grandfatherly act of providing sweets for all three: Laufen, Fern and I guess Stark too. There’s nothing more grandfatherly like telling all the young buckaroos how “he never got to eat sweets when he was young.” Then, Denken notices Stark’s slight confusion as Fern enjoys the sweets without him.

Denken is out here just feeding random kids off the streets and Stark is best used as the punching bag for comedic relief.

Denken puts on his “don’t be shy, eat child” face on, to have Stark comfortable eating along with them. Still slightly bewildered, he moves closer to the sweet munching Fern to ask, “just exactly who are these people?” Fern responds with, “Denken, the Imperial Mage.” Taking a delayed moment to soak it all in, he finally realizes how big of a deal Denken is and throws on his shonen shocked face. Stark quickly apologizes for his rude behavior, but Denken stops him short to let him know that he came into town, “as a regular mage.”

Denken’s Lesson

Stark still insists that Denken doesn’t need to bless him with his kindness and the discussion of children and grandchildren comes up. Sadly, Denken doesn’t have either and finally reveals the big nugget that, “his wife passed away in his mid-twenties.” Going on further about his deceased wife, she was “sickly and a daughter of a frontier noble of the Northern Plateau that lost in a political dispute.” Like Wirbel’s motivations as a child over a girl, Denken felt like gaining “power & influence” would be the best way to try to save her.

Once Serie started the “Continental Magic Association” to provide “privilege,” Denken’s wife had already passed away. Denken feels the strong sense of irony over the “powerlessness” of being able to do nothing for his wife, while at the same time, he can command an entire army. In the lesson of his reflection, he tells Fern how much Frieren helped him recapture his joy for magic; since magic has been strictly “political” for him. It was the Hero’s Party that inspired him to be a mage in the first. With a big smile of her face, Fern tells Denken to relay all of that information to her himself. In which, Denken agrees.

Denken becomes another adult-like figure like Sein that proves how life can end up when you are doing all the things in your life for the wrong reasons. While Denken may have had honorable reasons to get to where he’s at, it doesn’t takeaway the fact that he would likely trade that sometimes “dirty” power & wealth for his wife to come back. While power and wealth can do a lot for you, it saps away all of the joy that magic should have provided like in Flamme’s vision.

Frieren Can’t Keep Getting Away with it!

Right on cue, the next scene shows how passionate Frieren can be as a character when it comes to magic. There is no way in hell Frieren can pass up raiding a city known for magic for its grimoires. Just as she’s walking through town with her haul of grimoires, a lady nearby spills over her basket of fruits as Frieren watches her pick them up. Then, Wirbel comes up like a gentleman to magically put the fruits back in her basket.

Wirbel’s Lesson

Afterwards, Frieren sits down on a bench, reading her grimoires as Wirbel comes over to sit next to her, surprised that a Hero’s Party member didn’t do anything to help. Slightly offended, Frieren barbs back that he was the one that was “surprising,” as Fern mentioned to her how Wirbel was during the first exam—liking him to a person who would “kick dogs.”

Wirbel acknowledges that what Frieren said is something that people would say about him. Then, he alludes to something that we were all likely thinking, “this particular person’s death would likely make the world a better place.”

I’m totally with you Wirbel, except I like chaos in my story. Ubel is the most interesting character in this arc. After playing around with the idea of Serie being antagonistic in many villainous ways, Ubel fits that mold exactly for what she can potentially bring to future arcs. Slice-of-life can become very stale fast, so just the “potential” of someone causing chaos to the story makes it THAT much more intriguing.

Wirbel continues on about his motivations for becoming a “First-Class Mage.” Being practical, having access to stronger spells allows him to kill demons, while being able to protect his hometown. At the same time, he does what he can to help people like how Himmel would. From where Wirbel is from at the northern frontier, Himmel the Hero’s story is very much alive as the scene pans to Himmel’s statue.

It flashes back to a young Wirbel sitting with his childhood girlfriend on the tree, talking about all the incredible adventures that inspired Wirbel. All the townspeople would laud at only the ordinary acts that Himmel did for them. All of the villagers and elders were ecstatic and happy about those simple acts because those are the things that actually affect their everyday life. It wasn’t until Himmel passed away and his village started getting attacked by demons again, that he realized that those simple acts might just be what matters the most in the end.

The fact that Himmel showed up in the flesh to Wirbel’s town and did those kind ordinary acts to help the villagers, those people may have never been truly inspired. Even if the songs of his heroic triumphant of killing the Demon King reached his village, it wouldn’t be the same than actually being a hero among the people. At the end of the day, that is likely what helped the villagers to continue rebuilding after the demons attack and it was those small acts that what led Wirbel to where he is at today. That is what Wirbel wanted to tell Frieren, as he walks back to his misfits of three that includes Ehre & Scharf.

You see what the story did here? Himmel is known to do the little things that isn’t quite as epic and inspiring as his adventures. We’ve seen Frieren always question why Himmel does little chores for random people. Like with the fake Hero’s Sword, it’s the combination of the big epic awe-inspiring stories that may have some embellishment, along with the little things you do for people that makes Himmel a true inspiration as a hero.

One last thing Wirbel tells Frieren as he leaves her side is to “cherish her encounters because death isn’t the only time one says, ‘goodbye.'”

There is nothing more real than this than the days before the internet. We meet people all the time that made real impacts on our lives and then, “poof!” You never see these people again. Wirbel is too perfect of a character. I shall miss you kind boy band leader.

What Wirbel said sparks one of the last classic Frieren flashbacks of the season. All of the Hero’s Party members are helping some farmers move crates and equipment around some sheep. Eisen points out the fact that their goal is to “defeat the Demon King as fast as possible” and not help people in such menial, insignificant ways. Himmel agrees that this won’t actually help “change the world,” but he won’t “ignore those that need help.” It reverts back to the present as Frieren closes her book and says, “don’t worry Himmel, the world has changed.”

Granting Privilege and.. Revoking

Back at the inn, Fern tells Stark and Frieren about her ceremony where the First-Class Mages will be “granted their privilege.” Fern is allowed to bring guests to the even, but Frieren puts on a face that tells her that she isn’t so pleased with going back. The scene skips ahead to the end of the night ceremony and it becomes known that Frieren is absolutely banned for 1000 years from ever coming back to the Mage Academy.

That’s right Serie! Only people that have the thirst to kill.. I mean thirst to get stronger and more powerful deserve to be apart of the “anti-heroes” alliance! You can’t let someone that accidentally rizzes lost little boys infect that ambition and make your members actually enjoy magic. The beauty is not within the menial magic that can disintegrate your clothing, it’s about explosions and slicing NPCs in half!

On a serious note, Frieren is legitimately antithetical to what Serie wants to build. While Serie isn’t necessarily a true antagonist in the villainous sense, her culture of privilege and acting as a gatekeeper for magic may breed actual villains than heroes.

Frieren puts back on her “I don’t want to be here anyways” look on her face, even calling Serie “child-like.” Stark decides to join Frieren in her banishment, as Fern couldn’t help but put a smile on her face as they left.

Who is going to buy all the weird grimoires for the next 1000 years when they are all on clearance?!

Recognition & Growth

An early evening bell rings as the night starts to take over. Frieren mentions how much Fern has actually grown, from becoming a child saved by Heiter to becoming one of the fewer than 50 members of the “First-Class Mages.” It truly is a “privileged” ceremony, as Frieren pulls out her pendant saying, “Fern will be more famous than her one day.”

Lernen’s Lesson

Like a villain coming out of the shadows, Lernen has waited 50 years for some kind of opportunity like this. He yells out to Frieren as Stark questions who this guy is. Of course, it’s the guy that knew exactly what that pendent means. Lernen introduces himself and apologizes for how Serie has treated her.

Frieren couldn’t help but put her “this is going to be a bother” face on. She notices that Lernen sees Frieren’s fluctuations in her mana?

So, we finally find out that Lernen can actually see Frieren’s mana “fluctuations!” Is what Serie said about Lernen false or is it that he could only see Frieren’s “instability” in her mana? There are actually a ton of questions here when it comes to Lernen, which becomes what I think the purpose of his character is. He kind of contradicts what Serie has said about him, but the story never full fleshes out of the context and leaves it unknown—that is the point of his character.

Frieren points out that Lernen is actually an impressively skilled mage that is “an old school battle ready mage.” He points out how Serie has told him how perfect he would be during the Demon King’s reign, possibly rivaling the heroics of the Hero’s Party. Frieren questions what Lernen wants from her? He starts to bring up the only student of Serie’s that “made their mark on history,” Flamme. One day when he dies, that is one less person that can prove that Serie was actually real.

Once again, Lernen is everything that Serie represents. So, it makes total sense that by the end of the arc, Frieren is face-to-face with the whole arc’s clash of ideologies. We are faced with Serie’s prized student that she thinks might even be able to defeat Frieren, but is useless during peaceful times. Then, we have Flamme’s prized student, who believes in the love and enjoyment for magic, especially the seemingly menial ones.

Also, the motif of memories, being forgotten and everything that Himmel & Kraft the Monk represents is brought back by Lernen mentioning that he would die one day; and the fact that Flamme would be less and less remembered is kind of a travesty.

Due to Lernen not wanting to leave Serie’s legacy as forgotten and lonely, he is willing to be remembered for killing the Hero’s Party mage, Frieren. Just as he finishes his sentence, he makes his move to attack Frieren—eventually breaking down her barrier to inflict a bloody wound on her. Then, he requests dual her. However, Frieren has no interest in doing so. She actually starts to comfort Lernen that, “Serie will remember him.” Specifically, referring to mages that only know how to fight as “awkward.” There isn’t any need for Lernen to do anything to “go down in history.”

The scene flashes back to Frieren speaking with Serie before leaving the third exam. Frieren questions the flowers where Serie was standing by were made by magic, and references how that spell was Flamme’s favorite. Serie continues to refer Flamme as a “failure,” who couldn’t reach her heights” as a mage. Although, many of her students after Flamme were failures like Flamme, she remembers all of them, including their favorite spells. Serie’s redeeming qualities start to manifest, as she realizes that she doesn’t actually have any regrets for taking on any of her students. Frieren continues being flabbergasted by her “child-like” nature, by never truly being able to show her real feelings.

Serie’s qualities as a character shows too many qualities as a potential antagonist to not show what doesn’t actually make her a true villain. While both sides of Frieren and Serie’s way of thinking about magic can be flawed, it’s a lot more apparent where Serie’s way of thinking that would make the world worse off.

Frieren continues walking by Lernen as if nothing serious happened and Fern comes out from the ceremony to greet her and Stark. Lernen is stuck watching all three walk away, as Fern questions how Frieren obtained the wound? Frieren shrugs off Fern’s question and proceed to say that, “she better get it healed at a church.” As the scene ends, Lernen confirms that mages like Serie and himself truly are “awkward.”

Remember Thy Stark

While Frieren and Fern were character developing in the main story, Stark had a “Himmel-like” blast helping out members of the village in his offscreen side story.

Without multiple scenes now showing why Himmel enjoys helping out the common-folk, it is clear that Stark continues carrying on that lesson & legacy like Wirbel did earlier in the episode.

The arc and season is truly winding down as Frieren says something truly happy and sad at the same time, “it’s time to leave Auberst.” Fern mentions to Stark how much the townspeople love Stark. To Stark’s true “shonenistic” representation, it’s not even a realization to him that people were acting so friendly to him.

Super curious about what spell Fern wished for, Frieren stops Fern to ask. Fern puts on a big smile and spins around to see if Frieren can guess. Frieren begins sniffing the floral and cleanliness of her clothes and Fern tells her that “it’s a spell that makes clothing spotless & clean.” Then, Frieren complements and confirms the legend of “Serie the Living Grimoire” as true. She goes on to say that that spell is a “legendary-level spell from the era of mythology.” With the biggest praise a proud sensei can give the happily glowing Fern, Frieren pats her on the head one more time. Of course, Serie looked to be absolutely distraught when giving her the grimoire.

Fern is truly Frieren’s student. It would only make sense that her last arc would be Fern accepting Frieren’s pervy comedic bit and make one herself.

Like a couple kids taking hide-and-seek to the extreme levels, Kanne & Lawine come out of nowhere outside of Auberst to give their thanks to Frieren. Although they both failed, they were still ecstatic to tell Frieren that they will try again in three years. After giving thier brief thanks and goodbye, Stark & Fern mentioned how quick their goodbyes were with Frieren like with Kraft & Sein. This sparks one last flashback with Himmel.

With the perfect ending to the season for “quick goodbyes,” Frieren questions why he says goodbye so quickly. Eisen chimes in that they “spent time with each other everyday for 2 weeks and practically drank everyday.” Himmel answers back that this likely isn’t the last time they will run into them as long as they keep moving forward. “Tearful goodbyes aren’t our style.” In the end, it would be “embarrassing if they met again.”

Queue the ending credits song by milet, “Anytime Anywhere,” a little early as the ending credits start to play. Looks like our classic Frieren montage has been set for the perfect ending, as Frieren mimics exactly what Himmel told Frieren in the flashback, “it would be embarrassing if they met again.” Feeling what Frieren said was extremely out of context, Fern asks, “what is that?”

Lots of ‘Last’ Thoughts

Capping Off the Lessons Learned (Macro)

This season finale brings together the entire reason of why all the characters are doing what they are doing and you guessed it! It all stems from the adventures and accomplishments of the Hero’s Party. It all leads back to the overarching lessons of why Himmel the Hero’s journey matters. Keeping his story alive inspires others to do what they think is the right thing to do. The symbols and tropes keep coming back like Himmel’s statue, as it represents and maintains that history of his greatness. Just as Frieren inspired a young Himmel with her “flowery” magic, her adventures with the Hero’s Party inspired Denken & Wirbel.

Lessons Learned (Micro)

At this point in the story, it starts to feel too formulaic and predictable for what the audience can expect out of Frieren, Fern and Stark. It’s great to see the story expand upon the aspects of what we already know about Frieren and Fern. How strong is Frieren exactly? Apparently, she doesn’t need arms. Is it time to pass the torch to Fern? Serie’s flashback to announce that “humans will take over the world one day,” is exactly the kind of storytelling the audience needed to see something “usual” from an outer macro perspective.

Having strong side characters during different arcs is a must for stories that want to maintain a level of “freshness.” There are so many new characters that got introduced in this “Mage Academy Arc,” that it provides everything we love about Frieren. Lessons learned, big reveals & revelations and the “potential” for a future villain is enough to make this arc the best out of the first season. Of course, certain characters meant more for the story and had more fascinating backstories than others, but that is just the reality of introducing such a large amount of new characters at once. This episode provided character development closure for Denken, Wirbel and Lernen like what the previous episode did for Richter.

Frieren versus Lernen is the Perfect Ending

The theme of the episode as the arc ends is “closure.” The biggest theme in this arc is clearly Flamme’s legacy of how she approaches magic versus Serie’s. One believes in the love for magic as pleasure and joy that should be shared with the world. The other, wants those with ambition & talent to far exceed those of her own. This dynamic isn’t far off from reality—from super successful business people and entrepreneurs, versus those that have regular jobs that enjoy more family time & being with friends.

Lernen is a character that hopes to bring honor to Serie’s legacy that she has always wished someone to take from her. She becomes a third example presented in the story from doing what it takes to be remembered. From Himmel’s hero’s journey, to Kraft the Monk’s forgotten one—Serie is somewhere in between the results of those two character’s journey. At the same time, it is her own flawed thinking of being privileged and acting as a gatekeeper for magic, that may never become fully realized in her vision. That is the nature for the “kind of legacy” a person wants to build.

The story uses Lernen’s character in a contradictory way, where we don’t know exactly how strong he is and what he is capable of and that perfectly sums up his character. The point is that we will never know how powerful he is because it is only useful during times of war, which in reality is nice to have characters that are ready when war starts unexpectedly. Simultaneously, that isn’t what magic and living should be about. The writing in Frieren does a perfect job in blending the lessons behind the characters into the story, seamlessly. By the season’s end, I think most viewers would be able to catch the formula for how Frieren builds their characters.

Serie is a character that wants to pass on her legacy, but no one can actually match the “height” of what a centuries old elf can achieve. Even though Flamme is the only one that literally changed the world, maybe even more so than the Hero’s Party—Serie may become an unreachable character that will likely end up dying with her being the bar. Ultimately, this might be the lesson behind Serie. Sometimes, you are the bar that no one will reach. Like many Gods in different religions, even those put on that pedestal will be forgotten.

Maybe Serie can be a villain and be remembered forever that way? Alright, alright.. This whole “Fern’s villain arc” bit I’ve been doing has morphed into me wanting a strong villain for this story, post Demon King. Ubel is the closest by being that gray area between an “anti-hero and villain.”

We are finally at the end of the season and this episode beautifully closed everything that this arc was about. Frieren faced her opposite idealogy in Serie and many characters showed why the Hero’s Party journey was so important to them. Being inspired and living life for all YOUR reasons is what matters. I’m sure if you made it this far that Frieren has had a positive outlook on how you live your life. All good things come to an end, but that just means it’s the start of a new beginning.

Manga

This episode covers manga chapters 58-60.

P.S.

Thanks guys for reading my Frieren reviews! Don’t forget to check out my YouTube Channel covering many of the episodes. I’ll be on hiatus for anime reviews for now. I’m still trying to figure out if I want to write reviews for the new season of Mushoku Tensei Season 2 Part 2 or just stick to videos for now. If you guys want me to cover any specific animes, then feel free to make any requests. Until next time folks!