My favorite tidbit about the portrayal of time in Frieren is that the thousand-year montage in Episode 10 is almost exactly 100 times as long as the half-second rapid-fire montage of the heroes' 10-year journey, thus visually showing the audience how "a mere 10 years" feels compared to 1000.
I did a bit of napkin math a bit ago to put the 'mere 10 years' into perspective for myself. Frieren is somewhere around 1000 years old, so I just used 1k, I'm almost 40, so I used that as the basis of 1/100th of a span of time, and it came out to be something like 149 days (or something around there). Their journey would be like me trying to remember a half year span of time 5-ish years ago... Putting it like that really made me realize, no matter how fun or interesting or whatever happened in that timespan, only the most impactful and important things would stay with me, the rest of that time is..well, it's as memorable as a day when nothing happened and I was just going through the motions. I've also noticed that as I've gotten older, time does seem to go by faster and faster, for instance, I started a new job nearly a year and a half ago, but when I think about it, it feels as if almost no time has passed, I cannot imagine how fast the flow of time must be for someone 80 years old, let alone 1000 years old.
Demons: Can't help but see humans as prey, butchering without care as a human might butcher cattle. Frieren: Suppresses her mana. Demons: "What a disgusting perversion of magic."
My go-to example when I'm trying to explain the premise of this show/character to someone is when she and Fern stop by a new town and Frieren is like "I like it here, let's stay for 10 years" and Fern has to be like "that's 1/6 of my life. You get 6 months".
Serie is such a fascinating character, a mage with this Machiavellian view of magic as raw power, but with an eidetic memory of countless spells that are clearly not that, from an era where magic was viewed very differently. The portrayal of Serie's complicated relationship with her academic descendants is absolutely brilliant, and it all ties into the world-building and themes of the show so well.
I am not sure that Serie truly has a Machiavellian view, but her view may be antiquated (given the prevalence of demons in the past, it may have been merely a means of self-defense). she is a very complicated character that shows a lack of self-awareness that is delightful even if one doesn't like her personally.
It's also a great parallel to Frieren who's initially distant and didn't find the importance in getting to know more about humans, but she remembers a lot of mundane small stuff people said and did because she's a great listener and actually is very emphatic.
This video made me realize that Himmel has seemingly stayed single his entire life, having likely understood that Frieren would take a while to understand the implications of him giving her that ring back in the day. Or maybe I'm reading too much into that detail.
Given how subtle most of the writing in BJE tends to be, it wouldn't surprise me if that was intentional. Good shipping material, even if headcanon, tho.
Almost certainly he never dated anyone besides Frieren. He realized he couldn't romance her in the present, so he laid the groundwork for her to understand his love for her in the future, through statues and rings and flowers, on her own timeline.
@@bhig3 my fiancee doesnt like when I read manga about stuff she ALSO cares about because I'm "reading ahead," so I'm trapped here. I have this same predicament with Kaguya and Jojo :(
I think the real power of the show is that it constantly reminds us to be kind to one another, to treat others the way we want to be treated. Sure, you're having a sh*tty day, but the guy behind the cashier must be having an even worse day than you, so it wouldn't hurt to be nice, patient, and say "thank you" with a smile. That one simple act of kindness may be enough to put a smile on his own face, and last him through another day. THAT'S what we need now more than ever.
Serie's the ambitious young adult elf that is lonely because she also has noone to share the joys atop the peak of magic. She acts harshly to her students not because she doesn't appreciate them, but because she hates that they all die too fast. Her sharp intuition tells her that they would've gotten to her level and maybe even surpass her if they had the same lifespans. Kraft's the adult elf whose lonely because all of his heroic deeds and fond memories have been forgotten by time. As he grew old, he turns to religion to have the Goddess as a sort of immortal friend that he can share his life moving forward, and one that will remember it all once he too dies. Frieren is the young elf that steered her way out of loneliness because unlike Serie and Kraft, she's had the chance to learn about relationships through the Heroes' Party. Himmel is truly pivotal to this elven problem. He taught Frieren to be kind to others and to cherish the moments she has with them. Through this, Frieren opens herself up to a lifetime of making friends and valuing their lives instead of worrying about their eventual death. Oh and the statues he left behind for her doesn't hurt, too. I love this show man.
I find the idea that Kraft is older than Serie to be hard to believe, since she is implied to have lived in the Era of Mythology, the same time period when the Goddess of Creation walked the world. Yet, Kraft notes he spent much of his life not believing the goddess ever existed, so he must have been born after that time period (or somehow never saw her during it). Body type may have more to do with the individual elf than with how old they are.
@@Ryodraco or perhaps during the time the Goddess was with them, Kraft simply thought of her as this "Weird neighbor that led a religion and taught strange magic to those blessed enough to make use of it." Only realizing the worth of her teachings later in his life.
@@cirnotheicefairy3609 maybe, but weren't his words "I need her to exist"? Doesn't seem like he witnessed her existence, in which case he might say "I need her to be who she said she was." Plus, his big adventure was recent enough that while people have forgotten the names and other specifics, they do still know the statues depict ancient heroes who saved the world, and oral traditions like that can only stay intact so long. The statues are also in pretty good condition (i.e. if they were ten thousand years old they would be a lot more worn I assume, just look at how much the pyramids have eroded in like four thousand years).
As a person who's lived internationally for their whole life, I've come to a sort of peace with the idea that all relationships are temporary. Either they will leave for distant shores or I will, but I still struggle to find the energy to pursue deep relationships in the here and now, while still retaining the acquired skills to socialize and establish easy comradery with almost any friendly person in less than an hour. In this way, I HEAVILY sympathize with Frieren. We both have high social skill but struggle with maintaining the extended process of friend-having because we assume impermanence.
I liked your aside about neurodivergence. I don't assert that Frieren is neurodivergent, because she's not human and we don't know what "neurotypical" would mean for an elf. But I still say that she is good representation for (a specific point on the spectrum of) neurodivergence, because of all the reasons you gave in the video. In fact, Frieren as a character feels more representative of my own hue of autism than literally any other character I've ever seen in fiction, even the ones that are explicitly presented as autistic. I joke that at least once per episode, she says something I've said to my therapist (although to be fair sometimes that something is "I'm going to eat cake").
I came here to say something similar. We can easily call her neurodivergent if our standards of neurotypical are based on criteria for humans. But given that the audience is (presumably) human, it's easy to see Frieren as someone who is living in a world where everyone's norms are so different from how she operates and relate to her as a neurodivergent person.
The "I'm going to eat cake" line made the entire asexual community freak out, because they frequently say that cake (and garlic bread) is better than _adult fun time._ The fact that Frieren specific said this in response to a request to dance is what made the connection real. Regarding neurodivergence, she certain shows many autistic behaviors, and her difficulty relating to humans has parallels with autistic experiences, however what I found more interesting that Frieren and autism was _ADHD._ Frieren definitely doesn't behave as ADHD as she does autistic, but her perception of time, and how that formed the core of so much of the show, really resonated with me and how my own experience of time is moulded by my ADHD. Ironically, the least human aspect of her character was the part that felt the most relatable. I was downright _spooked_ when reading the premise since it eerily paralleled an RP character that I made a while back who was specifically intended as a reflection of myself. There's a reason why some people with ADHD have proposed the alternative descriptor of "time blindness."
@@angeldude101 I certainly have "time blindness" but sadly that's paired with somewhat poor memory processing, to the point that even at 24 years old, the days blend together as if I were already an old man. Its eerie when I actually think about it. I like to say that I'm "living in a new world with an old soul" because of this.
In the third test, she only approved the mages who thought they could beat her or trick her, because she thinks the most important quality for a great mage is imagination. But what about Fern? She doesn't seem to fit with the others in that regard but she also passed the test. It seems Fern being able to see the fluctuation in Sense's magical aura convinced Sense to pass her, but why? I think it was what noticing the fluctuations implied, that she was seeing what was in front of her for what it was and not for what she expected. That shows curiosity (imagination's best friend), and presents Fern as someone who embraces all the posibilities of what can be instead of sticking to just one conception of what has to be. I believe Sense passed her because, while Fern hasn't conceived herself capable of beating her, she also hasn't conceived herself to be incapable of it.
I really liked your analysis of Frieren and yeah, as a DM, I too like the worldbuilding and how it influences the characters. Funny to hear about your all-elf party being younglings though. Maybe it is the DM in me talking, but I think I always end up playing elves (though I am usually just lukewarm on them in media) due to the benefits of using time as as a tool and usually make characters that are like 300-500 years old. To constantly ask if my character has heard of this before, seen this before, etc. is so invaluable. It feels like a cheat code. Like the korean manhwa trend of regression as superpower. (It's also cool how you relate to Frieren as an autistic person. tbh, I feel like almost all non-human characters that end up confused at understanding human society get low-key autistic representation, but that's neither here or there. What's important is that you feel represented emotionally.)
Out of all the Frieren analysis videos on RUclips (and I have basically seen all of them because I absolutely love the manga/anime) this one is definitely one of the top 5 best.
Its worth noting that the flower spell is NOT harmless. In the right hands, you'd have dozens or even hundreds of poisons at your fibgertips whenever you want... But, to a mage that is quite powerful, that is likely not a consideration they would think of.
The most powerful mage is the one who uses those spells purposefully to shape the future on a grand scale. You can change the course of a river with a single rock.
Serie is such a tsundere. Constantly attacking others and calling their efforts meaningless of calling them failires. All becaose they are too embarrassed to admit they care, or to show any weakness to another.
No, Serie is actually forcing herself into not caring, not cooling others but herself. coz she has lived way longer than frieren and effectively has taken on dozens of Ferns, that have all died through the ages, she can't get attached. And her attacking Frieren is the same as not getting herself caught up in her memories of Flamme.
This was the push I needed to start watching Frieren. Thank you. I only got to episode 7 before wanting to finish this video, but I think it was worth it, both binging the first few and watching this.
Probably the only non-combat non-destructive spell Flamme taught to Frieren, and the most impactful and important one of them all. Not only is it the spell that saved young Himmel and caused him to seek out Frieren and leading to the death of the demon king, it also put Frieren on the path toward sympathizing and understanding humans, though it took 1000 years to bear fruit. Season 1 literally revolves around that spell. Nice to see a creator acknowledge it.
Nice video. I can't say that I agreed with everything, but it was a lot more entertaining than a ton of cookie-cutter "Frieren is great"-style videos I've seen lately. Good job. Oh, I have a kid on the autism spectrum, and you may have given me a bit of insight on why my kid likes Frieren so much.
I watched your last anime video about the shift in romance anime and decided I would watch the next anime video you put out, so here I am! And what a good choice. I love this show, but I haven't watched any video essays about it besides the one that convinced me to watch it because I feel like it's so good, there's not much to say about it besides how good it obviously is. But you came at it from such an interesting angle. I'm a sucker for literary criticism and analysis and I love the way you broke down the perspective and literary devices used to bring the audience into that perspective. Like I experienced but I didn't notice the way decades passed in literal minutes from the audiences point of view, but then after Himmel dies, Frieren slows down and so do we. We don't really even slow down to the storytelling pace we're used to until the mage exam arc starts, which is where a lot more new humans are introduced, which works with Frieren's character arc. It's really fascinating, and is an amazing reference for creatives working on pace and perspective. I also think sharing this video would be a great way to get my friend who doesn't think she'll like frieren invested enough to watch it. Great video! 10/10
I 100% agree that Frieren could be neurodivergent, as someone with both ADHD and Autism, I really can see and relate a lot to Frieren. Loved the video, and was very very helpful. Thanks for the effort and knowledge 😊
I've seen people use "Enlightened/Cultured races" because it's a divider between "wild beasts" and "people", but that can turn ugly really quickly. It's all in the execution, though. Really nice piece on Frieren, thanks.
I just use "sapients" because thats the big hallmark of what makes a person a person irregardless of what they are; no matter their personality or standing, ultimately sapiency is the mark of what makes someone a thinking being
@@ARStudios2000 Exactly! Sometimes people get confused and use sentient instead of sapient, not realizing that sentience is the quality of being able to feel, like for example dogs, cats, foxes, chimps, etc are sentient creatures, but IRL the only sapient living things in existence (that we know of) are Human beings, Homosapiens, the only living thing with the quality of having wisdom and knowledge and awareness of what the self is and whatnot. Even the smartest monkeys that can process logic are still not sapient, that is exclusively a Human trait, and a trait of fictional races based on Humanity, such as Elves, Dwarves, fantasy Demons, fantasy Angels and Deities, sapient animals or talking creatures, eldritch entities, etc all have the Human trait of sapience. Even when you twist your imagination as a writer to record an utterly inhuman point of view, it still falls under having the Human exclusive trait of sapience, its kind of why we use the term Humanoid for inhuman fantasy or sci-fi races that are bipedal, upright, intelligent, feeling, thinking and wise people, because as the writer of such, the only word to describe them is Humanoid, because they are Human-like in form to better make obvious their Human-like intelligent minds. This is actually also why AI gives me the shivers, because if we ever do manage to create an AI, it will be sapient, but not sentient, and a sapient non-sentient being is a being that operates only on its logic with nothing to feel whatsoever, no morals no discernment just action no matter how horrifying.
Third comment by me after watching the video and man, this was awsome, your perspectives and way of looking at things is really amazing and very enjoyable, glad you had as good of a time like me. Also as a German.. your pronounciation was good enough. Its not like the show does a particularly better job at pronouncing it.
I'm gonna say that for Japanese show - pronunciation of German words in Frieren is at least much above average. Probably depends on how much time VA's had to prepare. But this is general "problem" (not really a problem, more like characteristic) in Anime and with Japanese language. It is hard to not add "u" at the consonant ends of words for Japanese person. And pronunciation here was good enough. "Khaaft" bit was a bit funny, but IDK all the regional dialects of German.
@@jannegrey Well I presume for the perspective of a japanese speaker german is more easily to pronounce then english because our words are more phonetic, however there also just certain sounds in german that simply do not exsits in japanese as it is a laguage based on sillybels.
@@timoth4529 Show yes. When it comes to pronunciation in this video - not the Anime, I thought that maybe the way he pronounced Kraft was a bit odd but it might be from some dialect I don't know. Most people criticize me for writing very long replies, so I tried to be very brief and it sadly impacted how readable is my comment. Apologies.
I think this is an interesting thing to think about when making a long lived character. Now I want to play as that Druid who has lived way past the normal age and is just ancient and this whole adventuring business is their final journey and them leveling up is just remembering how to do old techniques they haven’t used in centuries. Or an elf that is trying a new lifestyle having done all they wanted with a previous one, think of Craftworld Eldar and their paths.
I just wanted to chime in and say two things: this video is the reason i ended up watching the show (which was incredible!), and also you did a great job in this video! So, thank you in both counts!
i truly love how Frieren establishes time passing as so ephemeral and the perspective around it all. I feel there is an element here to be analyzed and compared with how Jon Bois' 17776 handles long lifespans and the passage of time, tho the two works come from diametrically opposed perspectives. Whereas in Frieren, it is a single character that is effectively immortal compared to her world, 17776 is [spoilers for 17776's central premise] 17776 is the whole world being actually immortal, and our newly awakened character whose POV we follow trying to understand why everything has slowed down and become so silly and with such lack of urgency. They feel like companion pieces, like two facets of the same coin, and idk i wanted to voice this thought out in the void :D Great video btw, would love to hear you talk more Frieren, and i hope you enjoy Dungeon Meshi as well - i ended up starting it last weekend, and from what spoilers i've caught (since idc about it) online on tumblr, it's gonna be a real interesting story!
Cant quite put everything into words, but your content is like. Fresh clean air after a heavy rain, a feeling of sitting down after working for hours. Thank you. (I cant subscribe on THIS account for personal reasons but I will on my Alt in a moment)
The other alien species well-portrayed is the demons. They have their own perspective on meaning. (I expect to see more of their perspective next season with Macht of the Golden Land and Solitär - who grapple with understanding the human perspective.)
Love Frieren, love the anime, read the manga and it only gets better. Your spot on about how basically any part of the series warrants analysis, personally I love the world building and it's portrayal of demons.
thanks for breaking down the show like that I really agree with you here. im really glad we all got to see this great adaptation being made and im excited for another season :)
You make a fantastic point about Serie's "soft power". While she is compared to a deity in her degree of magical power and knowledge, that seems insignificant to compared to what she has done without magic. The ability to shape an entire culture and impress your beliefs upon everyone in that culture, without them even realizing it....that's actually a scary level of influence.
You did pretty well with the names! Edit from layer on (since I did end up noticing a couple pointers), you did really well!! But yeah, as later in the comment: if at some point you're interested in the extra 3-5% One thing would be switching the the "e" pronunciations of Fern and the second "e" in Serie. Fern tends to be pronounced by most like the english plant rather than the german "distant" and the "eh" at the end of Serie tends to also be hard for a lot of english natives. Also kudos for the attempts to hit the "r" in Kraft, german has a lot of cases like that where you need to go from a rather forward sound to catch an "r" in your throat almost and then right back to a forward vowel. Also for Stark, an "s" before a "t" or "p" becomes a "sh/sch" sound unless you're doing a northern dialect (so it'd read as "shtark/schtark"). Also watching the show recognising what all of he names mean makes for quite an interesting experience since well uhh they are kinda descriptive in many cases Aaaaand idk what case would make this comment helpful but uhhhh i guess if you're ever looking to polish those extra 5-ish% 😌
15:40 In the story I'm writing, I like using the term "Sentient" for humanoids in my setting. Maybe it could be of use to you? I'm not sure, just thought it might help
Frieren was the first series to remind me of the books Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress. You get a tiny slice of the some of the same vibes in the game Massive Chalice, but overall I feel like the experience of actually living for millennia is very underexplored in fiction.
Bro this anime is so fucking powerful, there are so many deep moments that makes me cry just thinking about it. Like, Frieren realizing that Himmel loved her FAR too late. Serle remembering the favorite spells of every single one of her apprentices in her long life, despite claiming she doesn't care about them. Just how fucking deep connections between people run, and how you see it all throughout the story, I'm sobbing just thinking about it...
Nice video! as for the mic suggestion the Shure MV7 has the ability to run just off USB (no audio interface needed) and is like the little child of the legendary Shure SM7B.
I feel like there was a good point to be added, that you didn't mention. We actually do know how the technique faired against the demon king. Serie tells one of her apprentices that "the only other being who saw through Frierens technique with a single glance was the demon king". Not only was the technique innefective, it did literally nothing.
Noice. Loved the video. Dungeon Meshi video when? Lol but in all seriousness. Really appreciated Ur take on Frieren and I'd love to see you do one on Dungeon meshi for other stuff even if it is also another hot topic. Anyways take care and take your time on Ur next one.
sapiencianoids/sapianoids i think is the best term to coin. what all humanoids share, is sentience and sapience. it is not the shape that binds us all, it is our ability to think, feel and do this at a complex level
yeah, maybe we should just stop categorizing out of human like or not. and just go with sapient or not. Humanoid brings with it the idea that there is something superior with being human like. But I personally never looked at the Elcor from Mass effect as lesser, just because they happen to walk on all four. and I personally want more fantasy people that are less human like honestly. The star trek idea of aliens gets old IMO
@@martinstensvehagen9161 i think Star Trek's aliens being more or less human like is not an idea created out of anything else but budget and prop limitations. to make the show the best it could be, it was a good compromise. Star Trek isnt a novel, or a game, or similar medium works with more creative freedom than serialised shows in decades past. and 'humanoid' definitively comes from a perspective rooted in human notions and establishes how another being relates to our way of being. this isn't necessarily something negative however. i understand we use the term in the context of fantasy and scifi, but regardless of the fictional genre, we still operate under our reality's perspective. we are humans, what we experience is a human perspective. so in abstract matters, non in-world of fiction, using the term is proper and harmless. just limits possbilities if we ever do encounter other ways of life to exist. but for in-world terms on these fantasies and scifis i think its stupid how they haven reached a more effective term.. authors are lacking.
I usually actually stick with humanoid- but only from a human perspective. I like to worldbuild each individual race as having a similar word- translating to things like elf shape, forgearm, etc. It makes sense that individual races would all come up with a "like us" word of their own
"Sapient" for intelligent beings. Perhaps "quad-limbed biped" for "humanoid", since "humanoid" more often refers to our general body _shape_ rather than our abilities.
i want you to know when i first started watching this video, i had to stop like a fourth of the way through and watch the anime myself because it sounded so good
Sophont or Sapient are words that roughly mean the same thing i.e. human level intelligence or higher. Sentient means your just awake/aware i.e. a dog is sentient but not sapient.
from about 7:00 to about 7:19 one think I like about that as the climax of episode one is meteor showers are infrequent and, especially, in a medieval world possibly unpredictable. this moment matters to her for reasons you mentioned (maybe) but also because the phenomenon happening might not happen again for a long time...even to her.
What I love most about Frieren is how the worldbuilding around magic leads directly to the story. A mage can accomplish just about anything they can imagine - but a mage of wartime who imagines cannot bring peace, which is why it is Frieren, not Flamme or Serie, who was the one to defeat the Demon King. Only she could imagine the world at peace that came after.
15:50 in Dungeon Meshi all of (non monster) humanoids species (human, elf, dwarves, etc..) are called humans while us regular human are called tallman.
I like how they show that frieren isn't like a broken person who needs to learn how love and be normal, but instead it's about how she needs to learn how to express her love in a way that others will actually see, because the way elves show affection is through their greatest traits, their memory and their patience, but humans are incredibly impatient and die like flies in the eyes of elves so elven affection is lost on them
Of course, staying in RUclips till the end will grant me a cookie, the browser cookies to be specific. You've made a good point about the writing of Frieren. But I want everyone to notice that, Sousou no Frieren is the title of the Franchise, so "Frieren the Slayer" is in fact the title that Japanese see before even knowing what the genre of this story should be. So, having that in mind, and the fact that they hide the power of magic to deceive demons, this story is a mimic trap to action adventure stories on the shelves. I didn't read the novel, only read manga and watched the anime. But I think, this story is a little bit hilarious if you got that knowledge.
The translation of episode 8's title as "Frieren the Slayer" is odd to me. Maybe it would make sense to a native speaker. 葬送のフリーレン is the title but 葬送 means funeral (more relating to the full process from body preparation to the post-cremation gathering than 葬式, another word for funeral that focuses on the ceremonial core - more what I'd translate as funeral). So the full title of the series is Frieren's Funeral/Funary Arrangements, not Frieren the Slayer.
@@be1tube Yeah, Netflix translate it to Slayer. But the one manga translator translated it to Funeral. I think, you're right. But I find it hard how to make sense in English, so I don't do with Funeral.
Regarding you concerns about humanocentric language, the word used in the scifi rpg Traveller to refer to all intelligent lifeforms, be they human, wolf, space lion, or anything else, four limbed biped or not, is sophont - all emphasis is placed exclusively on the capacity for abstract thought, and terms related to humanity (or, in the setting's spelling of the term for all human subspecies, humaniti) referring exclusively to homo sapiens of terrestrial genetic origin.
I think Wildbow's Pale, or his Otherverse, provids a somewhat cohesive way/tutorial to make an alien being as a main character. To make an Other, the most easy way is: you deprive a human of their self. Capital S, the Self. The humanity, the nuance of human mind, or the diversity and possibility of human culture. You make a ghost like a real spectral: the Echo of the real person. You make a ghoul, who can't not truly live. You make a goblin, a ugly being being ugly. Or a fae, of beauty and horror. You extent the logics of certain rule to its extreme. So you push the creative process to collective rules and ideas, and digging their possibilities.
Surprised to not see more about the demons in this topic. The alienness of elves here is just living really long; the demons are that, plus the fully alien predatory pov of an anglerfish
Not really a lot to talk about with them yet. We really only get the one arc from episodes 6-10, and almost nothing is told from their perspective. I already know there is more in the manga, but I'm talking anime only, so more nuanced discussions of the Demon's alien-ness will have to wait for another time.
@@superdude10000 I'm running a close-to-folklore fey campaign in d&d, so this topic is very on my mind, trying to get in the head of a force of nature cosplaying as human. Frieren and the demons are intersecting viewpoints for me.
I've been writing a fantasy sci-fi novel for the last three years, and the whole story is told from the perspective of a species of sentient insect-like humanoids. Originally I thought of them as just straight up elves, but as time went on and I let myself go crazier on the worldbuilding they went into a whole different path. Less magic, and more speculative biology. From just humans with long ears to xenophobic forest dwelling locust people with superhuman agility and psychic habilities, amongst other things. As soon as these fundamental differences between these people and the "Offworlders" (lore), I began making up certain terminology that is unique to them and their way of percieving the world around them. For example, a pejorative term they use for humans is "curd-eaters", as the Yinnati (the locust people) are not even mammals, which makes them very confused when they find out about human's habit of drinking animal milk and even fermenting it into cheese, finding it incomprehensible and disgusting. However, making a story from the POV of a creature so far off from the reader might be offputting, and I'm kind of insecure about how the world of the novel might be taken. Guess I'll have to finish the first draft lol
Sophont: An intelligent being; a being with a base reasoning capacity roughly equivalent to or greater than that of a human being. The word does not apply to machines unless they have true artificial intelligence, rather than mere processing capacity. Mortality is also a good non-human centric term, but has some existential vibes about it. I'd like to keep it that way, but also have it become the more serious term.
I think people also forget that Frieren herself *was* a first class mage once. She still has the emblem. The problem is, Frieren is so old, that authority system fell apart and her old pendant doesn't mean anything anymore. When you make a character that old, it might be important to do that. They might be so old that they have several degrees, or maybe no one recognizes those degrees anymore - to mirror our college system.
I think the spell the clone used on Fern at the last battle is a curse Frieren somehow learned, and she also used a powerful curse to counter her clone. Due to there constant one up attrition strategy. Thinking outside my lane here.
What's interesting is that the demons aren't really "Evil", their whole deal is that those types of labels don't really matter as long as it gets them to live longer/get food. The veil of sentience and rationality is no more than aggressive mimicry. Of course philosophically the concept does need a great deal of suspension of disbelief, but hey, i think it works
The word I use is Sapiency. Covers multiple species and not human-centric in use. For instance, I personally believe that any creature that plans for the future, makes tools, and grieves is in line for sapiency.
I mean I've had that conversation with my tabletop friends on what the most useful spell is multiple times and we all agreed it was prestidigitation every single time
I've watched a lot of Frieren breakdowns since finishing the season, this is the first one i've seen that seems to get why it's so great, sure the art style is great and the fights are epic, but Frieren could be drawn with stick figures (or not at all) and still be an amazing story.
My theory on Frieren lack of "emotional development", for lack of a better phrase, is that Elves in this universe develops physically in about same speed as humans, but gain emotional maturity at the same relative speed compared to life span. So Frieren, being only somewhere just north of 1k years old, is still quite young emotionally. Like a human teenager or so.
15:50 I generally use the term "Logi" or "Logikos" as a stand in for "humanity" (depending on the context) that's less boring than "sentiants" to discribe any being in my worlds that has human-like sentience. Examples of use would be "Regardless of their logi" instead of "regardless of their humanity" and "logikos rights" instead of "human rights". I generally don't use it to describe body characteristics, I think it's perfectly reasonable to use terms like elvenoid, dwarfish, hobbity and humanoid because the beings within the world would still have those as descripters to indicate similarity to beings to which they are familiar.
This comment is going to be deleted.
When?
Bake 'im away, toys.
Waiting..
I wait.
Some comments are censored, while other comments are simply lost, like tears in the rain, by the overwhelmed RUclips for database.
My favorite tidbit about the portrayal of time in Frieren is that the thousand-year montage in Episode 10 is almost exactly 100 times as long as the half-second rapid-fire montage of the heroes' 10-year journey, thus visually showing the audience how "a mere 10 years" feels compared to 1000.
I remember that thinking how abrupt that flash of images felt on first watch. What a brilliant portrayal of what "a mere 10 years" feels like.
That is actually so COOL! 😮
I did a bit of napkin math a bit ago to put the 'mere 10 years' into perspective for myself. Frieren is somewhere around 1000 years old, so I just used 1k, I'm almost 40, so I used that as the basis of 1/100th of a span of time, and it came out to be something like 149 days (or something around there).
Their journey would be like me trying to remember a half year span of time 5-ish years ago... Putting it like that really made me realize, no matter how fun or interesting or whatever happened in that timespan, only the most impactful and important things would stay with me, the rest of that time is..well, it's as memorable as a day when nothing happened and I was just going through the motions.
I've also noticed that as I've gotten older, time does seem to go by faster and faster, for instance, I started a new job nearly a year and a half ago, but when I think about it, it feels as if almost no time has passed, I cannot imagine how fast the flow of time must be for someone 80 years old, let alone 1000 years old.
Demons: Can't help but see humans as prey, butchering without care as a human might butcher cattle.
Frieren: Suppresses her mana.
Demons: "What a disgusting perversion of magic."
I can tell you, that's definitely an unintentional middle finger from Frieren and Flamme to the demons 🤣
@@lexdalan9033 * intentional. It is with complete and utter intention.
@@lexdalan9033they state explicitly that they invented that technique explicitly to kill demons
My go-to example when I'm trying to explain the premise of this show/character to someone is when she and Fern stop by a new town and Frieren is like "I like it here, let's stay for 10 years" and Fern has to be like "that's 1/6 of my life. You get 6 months".
Nice lol
Serie is such a fascinating character, a mage with this Machiavellian view of magic as raw power, but with an eidetic memory of countless spells that are clearly not that, from an era where magic was viewed very differently. The portrayal of Serie's complicated relationship with her academic descendants is absolutely brilliant, and it all ties into the world-building and themes of the show so well.
She’s such a contradicting character and I fell in love with her for it!
I am not sure that Serie truly has a Machiavellian view, but her view may be antiquated (given the prevalence of demons in the past, it may have been merely a means of self-defense). she is a very complicated character that shows a lack of self-awareness that is delightful even if one doesn't like her personally.
It's also a great parallel to Frieren who's initially distant and didn't find the importance in getting to know more about humans, but she remembers a lot of mundane small stuff people said and did because she's a great listener and actually is very emphatic.
@@2triedforthis830 Hypocritical is what Serie is. She just doesn't understand that yet. Makes her kind of fascinating.
@@batangbatugan Empathetic, perhaps, is what you mean?
This video made me realize that Himmel has seemingly stayed single his entire life, having likely understood that Frieren would take a while to understand the implications of him giving her that ring back in the day.
Or maybe I'm reading too much into that detail.
Given how subtle most of the writing in BJE tends to be, it wouldn't surprise me if that was intentional.
Good shipping material, even if headcanon, tho.
Almost certainly he never dated anyone besides Frieren. He realized he couldn't romance her in the present, so he laid the groundwork for her to understand his love for her in the future, through statues and rings and flowers, on her own timeline.
Read the manga! There's a whole arc
@@bhig3 my fiancee doesnt like when I read manga about stuff she ALSO cares about because I'm "reading ahead," so I'm trapped here.
I have this same predicament with Kaguya and Jojo :(
I wouldn't say you're reading too much into it, this is a very popular interpretation even in Japan. (Source: JP youtube comments, of course)
I love that Flamma calls herself The Legendary Mage. And it sticks. For over a thousand years, humans still call her that.
I think the real power of the show is that it constantly reminds us to be kind to one another, to treat others the way we want to be treated. Sure, you're having a sh*tty day, but the guy behind the cashier must be having an even worse day than you, so it wouldn't hurt to be nice, patient, and say "thank you" with a smile. That one simple act of kindness may be enough to put a smile on his own face, and last him through another day. THAT'S what we need now more than ever.
Serie's the ambitious young adult elf that is lonely because she also has noone to share the joys atop the peak of magic. She acts harshly to her students not because she doesn't appreciate them, but because she hates that they all die too fast. Her sharp intuition tells her that they would've gotten to her level and maybe even surpass her if they had the same lifespans.
Kraft's the adult elf whose lonely because all of his heroic deeds and fond memories have been forgotten by time. As he grew old, he turns to religion to have the Goddess as a sort of immortal friend that he can share his life moving forward, and one that will remember it all once he too dies.
Frieren is the young elf that steered her way out of loneliness because unlike Serie and Kraft, she's had the chance to learn about relationships through the Heroes' Party.
Himmel is truly pivotal to this elven problem. He taught Frieren to be kind to others and to cherish the moments she has with them. Through this, Frieren opens herself up to a lifetime of making friends and valuing their lives instead of worrying about their eventual death. Oh and the statues he left behind for her doesn't hurt, too.
I love this show man.
I find the idea that Kraft is older than Serie to be hard to believe, since she is implied to have lived in the Era of Mythology, the same time period when the Goddess of Creation walked the world. Yet, Kraft notes he spent much of his life not believing the goddess ever existed, so he must have been born after that time period (or somehow never saw her during it). Body type may have more to do with the individual elf than with how old they are.
@@Ryodraco or perhaps during the time the Goddess was with them, Kraft simply thought of her as this "Weird neighbor that led a religion and taught strange magic to those blessed enough to make use of it." Only realizing the worth of her teachings later in his life.
@@cirnotheicefairy3609 maybe, but weren't his words "I need her to exist"? Doesn't seem like he witnessed her existence, in which case he might say "I need her to be who she said she was." Plus, his big adventure was recent enough that while people have forgotten the names and other specifics, they do still know the statues depict ancient heroes who saved the world, and oral traditions like that can only stay intact so long. The statues are also in pretty good condition (i.e. if they were ten thousand years old they would be a lot more worn I assume, just look at how much the pyramids have eroded in like four thousand years).
No reason why you'd think kraft is that old
As a person who's lived internationally for their whole life, I've come to a sort of peace with the idea that all relationships are temporary. Either they will leave for distant shores or I will, but I still struggle to find the energy to pursue deep relationships in the here and now, while still retaining the acquired skills to socialize and establish easy comradery with almost any friendly person in less than an hour.
In this way, I HEAVILY sympathize with Frieren. We both have high social skill but struggle with maintaining the extended process of friend-having because we assume impermanence.
I liked your aside about neurodivergence. I don't assert that Frieren is neurodivergent, because she's not human and we don't know what "neurotypical" would mean for an elf. But I still say that she is good representation for (a specific point on the spectrum of) neurodivergence, because of all the reasons you gave in the video.
In fact, Frieren as a character feels more representative of my own hue of autism than literally any other character I've ever seen in fiction, even the ones that are explicitly presented as autistic. I joke that at least once per episode, she says something I've said to my therapist (although to be fair sometimes that something is "I'm going to eat cake").
Frieren is atypical for an elf but more in a traumatized way than a neurodiverse way.
I came here to say something similar. We can easily call her neurodivergent if our standards of neurotypical are based on criteria for humans. But given that the audience is (presumably) human, it's easy to see Frieren as someone who is living in a world where everyone's norms are so different from how she operates and relate to her as a neurodivergent person.
The "I'm going to eat cake" line made the entire asexual community freak out, because they frequently say that cake (and garlic bread) is better than _adult fun time._ The fact that Frieren specific said this in response to a request to dance is what made the connection real.
Regarding neurodivergence, she certain shows many autistic behaviors, and her difficulty relating to humans has parallels with autistic experiences, however what I found more interesting that Frieren and autism was _ADHD._ Frieren definitely doesn't behave as ADHD as she does autistic, but her perception of time, and how that formed the core of so much of the show, really resonated with me and how my own experience of time is moulded by my ADHD. Ironically, the least human aspect of her character was the part that felt the most relatable. I was downright _spooked_ when reading the premise since it eerily paralleled an RP character that I made a while back who was specifically intended as a reflection of myself. There's a reason why some people with ADHD have proposed the alternative descriptor of "time blindness."
I have personal theory that "elves" in old books and folk lores are just a way they describe neurodivergent people that could function. lol
@@angeldude101 I certainly have "time blindness" but sadly that's paired with somewhat poor memory processing, to the point that even at 24 years old, the days blend together as if I were already an old man. Its eerie when I actually think about it. I like to say that I'm "living in a new world with an old soul" because of this.
In the third test, she only approved the mages who thought they could beat her or trick her, because she thinks the most important quality for a great mage is imagination. But what about Fern? She doesn't seem to fit with the others in that regard but she also passed the test. It seems Fern being able to see the fluctuation in Sense's magical aura convinced Sense to pass her, but why?
I think it was what noticing the fluctuations implied, that she was seeing what was in front of her for what it was and not for what she expected. That shows curiosity (imagination's best friend), and presents Fern as someone who embraces all the posibilities of what can be instead of sticking to just one conception of what has to be. I believe Sense passed her because, while Fern hasn't conceived herself capable of beating her, she also hasn't conceived herself to be incapable of it.
Ok yeah, this is one of the best video essays about Frieren on the platform. I’ve watched most of them.
Good work.
Agreed, this is definitely one of the best I've seen as well 😊
I really liked your analysis of Frieren and yeah, as a DM, I too like the worldbuilding and how it influences the characters.
Funny to hear about your all-elf party being younglings though. Maybe it is the DM in me talking, but I think I always end up playing elves (though I am usually just lukewarm on them in media) due to the benefits of using time as as a tool and usually make characters that are like 300-500 years old. To constantly ask if my character has heard of this before, seen this before, etc. is so invaluable. It feels like a cheat code. Like the korean manhwa trend of regression as superpower.
(It's also cool how you relate to Frieren as an autistic person. tbh, I feel like almost all non-human characters that end up confused at understanding human society get low-key autistic representation, but that's neither here or there. What's important is that you feel represented emotionally.)
Out of all the Frieren analysis videos on RUclips (and I have basically seen all of them because I absolutely love the manga/anime) this one is definitely one of the top 5 best.
I’d like to propose featherless bipeds to replace humanoid.
and then you run into races with 6 limbs etc that ruin your attempt.
pretty sure aarakocra are humanoids though
I see what you did there and I think your suggestion is ideal. A Platonic ideal, if you will.
Throws a defethered dead chicken on the floor
BEHOLD, A MAN! - Some ancient homeless guy
23:01 as i was watching this i literally said out loud "except demons", I'm happy the script didn't let me down in that moment. Liked and Subscribed.
Looking at these comments, geeze. You've developed a really affirming and constructive comment section / community, it's really impressive
Also great video! You made me think about the show in a different way that I really appreciate
Its worth noting that the flower spell is NOT harmless. In the right hands, you'd have dozens or even hundreds of poisons at your fibgertips whenever you want...
But, to a mage that is quite powerful, that is likely not a consideration they would think of.
The most powerful mage is the one who uses those spells purposefully to shape the future on a grand scale. You can change the course of a river with a single rock.
Serie is such a tsundere. Constantly attacking others and calling their efforts meaningless of calling them failires. All becaose they are too embarrassed to admit they care, or to show any weakness to another.
No, Serie is actually forcing herself into not caring, not cooling others but herself. coz she has lived way longer than frieren and effectively has taken on dozens of Ferns, that have all died through the ages, she can't get attached. And her attacking Frieren is the same as not getting herself caught up in her memories of Flamme.
This was the push I needed to start watching Frieren. Thank you. I only got to episode 7 before wanting to finish this video, but I think it was worth it, both binging the first few and watching this.
Probably the only non-combat non-destructive spell Flamme taught to Frieren, and the most impactful and important one of them all. Not only is it the spell that saved young Himmel and caused him to seek out Frieren and leading to the death of the demon king, it also put Frieren on the path toward sympathizing and understanding humans, though it took 1000 years to bear fruit.
Season 1 literally revolves around that spell.
Nice to see a creator acknowledge it.
Nice video. I can't say that I agreed with everything, but it was a lot more entertaining than a ton of cookie-cutter "Frieren is great"-style videos I've seen lately. Good job.
Oh, I have a kid on the autism spectrum, and you may have given me a bit of insight on why my kid likes Frieren so much.
I watched your last anime video about the shift in romance anime and decided I would watch the next anime video you put out, so here I am! And what a good choice. I love this show, but I haven't watched any video essays about it besides the one that convinced me to watch it because I feel like it's so good, there's not much to say about it besides how good it obviously is. But you came at it from such an interesting angle. I'm a sucker for literary criticism and analysis and I love the way you broke down the perspective and literary devices used to bring the audience into that perspective. Like I experienced but I didn't notice the way decades passed in literal minutes from the audiences point of view, but then after Himmel dies, Frieren slows down and so do we. We don't really even slow down to the storytelling pace we're used to until the mage exam arc starts, which is where a lot more new humans are introduced, which works with Frieren's character arc. It's really fascinating, and is an amazing reference for creatives working on pace and perspective. I also think sharing this video would be a great way to get my friend who doesn't think she'll like frieren invested enough to watch it. Great video! 10/10
I 100% agree that Frieren could be neurodivergent, as someone with both ADHD and Autism, I really can see and relate a lot to Frieren.
Loved the video, and was very very helpful. Thanks for the effort and knowledge 😊
I've seen people use "Enlightened/Cultured races" because it's a divider between "wild beasts" and "people", but that can turn ugly really quickly. It's all in the execution, though.
Really nice piece on Frieren, thanks.
I just use "sapients" because thats the big hallmark of what makes a person a person irregardless of what they are; no matter their personality or standing, ultimately sapiency is the mark of what makes someone a thinking being
@@ARStudios2000 Exactly! Sometimes people get confused and use sentient instead of sapient, not realizing that sentience is the quality of being able to feel, like for example dogs, cats, foxes, chimps, etc are sentient creatures, but IRL the only sapient living things in existence (that we know of) are Human beings, Homosapiens, the only living thing with the quality of having wisdom and knowledge and awareness of what the self is and whatnot. Even the smartest monkeys that can process logic are still not sapient, that is exclusively a Human trait, and a trait of fictional races based on Humanity, such as Elves, Dwarves, fantasy Demons, fantasy Angels and Deities, sapient animals or talking creatures, eldritch entities, etc all have the Human trait of sapience. Even when you twist your imagination as a writer to record an utterly inhuman point of view, it still falls under having the Human exclusive trait of sapience, its kind of why we use the term Humanoid for inhuman fantasy or sci-fi races that are bipedal, upright, intelligent, feeling, thinking and wise people, because as the writer of such, the only word to describe them is Humanoid, because they are Human-like in form to better make obvious their Human-like intelligent minds. This is actually also why AI gives me the shivers, because if we ever do manage to create an AI, it will be sapient, but not sentient, and a sapient non-sentient being is a being that operates only on its logic with nothing to feel whatsoever, no morals no discernment just action no matter how horrifying.
This video was great!! i loved your reflections on the characters and themes, it was very interesting! this video definitely stands out,
Third comment by me after watching the video and man, this was awsome, your perspectives and way of looking at things is really amazing and very enjoyable, glad you had as good of a time like me.
Also as a German.. your pronounciation was good enough. Its not like the show does a particularly better job at pronouncing it.
I'm gonna say that for Japanese show - pronunciation of German words in Frieren is at least much above average. Probably depends on how much time VA's had to prepare. But this is general "problem" (not really a problem, more like characteristic) in Anime and with Japanese language. It is hard to not add "u" at the consonant ends of words for Japanese person.
And pronunciation here was good enough. "Khaaft" bit was a bit funny, but IDK all the regional dialects of German.
@@jannegrey The show uses exclusively Standart German, or at least I couldnt spot any Dialects
@@jannegrey Well I presume for the perspective of a japanese speaker german is more easily to pronounce then english because our words are more phonetic, however there also just certain sounds in german that simply do not exsits in japanese as it is a laguage based on sillybels.
@@timoth4529 Show yes. When it comes to pronunciation in this video - not the Anime, I thought that maybe the way he pronounced Kraft was a bit odd but it might be from some dialect I don't know.
Most people criticize me for writing very long replies, so I tried to be very brief and it sadly impacted how readable is my comment. Apologies.
@@jannegrey Oh I c dont worry ^^
22:00 Serie loved all her apprentices. She's just hard pressed to define that love from a human perspective
I think this is an interesting thing to think about when making a long lived character. Now I want to play as that Druid who has lived way past the normal age and is just ancient and this whole adventuring business is their final journey and them leveling up is just remembering how to do old techniques they haven’t used in centuries. Or an elf that is trying a new lifestyle having done all they wanted with a previous one, think of Craftworld Eldar and their paths.
excellent video dude! you had a really great script and pointed out alot of things that i felt like i never noticed about frieren at all lol
I just wanted to chime in and say two things: this video is the reason i ended up watching the show (which was incredible!), and also you did a great job in this video! So, thank you in both counts!
i truly love how Frieren establishes time passing as so ephemeral and the perspective around it all. I feel there is an element here to be analyzed and compared with how Jon Bois' 17776 handles long lifespans and the passage of time, tho the two works come from diametrically opposed perspectives. Whereas in Frieren, it is a single character that is effectively immortal compared to her world, 17776 is [spoilers for 17776's central premise]
17776 is the whole world being actually immortal, and our newly awakened character whose POV we follow trying to understand why everything has slowed down and become so silly and with such lack of urgency. They feel like companion pieces, like two facets of the same coin, and idk i wanted to voice this thought out in the void :D
Great video btw, would love to hear you talk more Frieren, and i hope you enjoy Dungeon Meshi as well - i ended up starting it last weekend, and from what spoilers i've caught (since idc about it) online on tumblr, it's gonna be a real interesting story!
This is such a great essay about such a great story.
Cant quite put everything into words, but your content is like. Fresh clean air after a heavy rain, a feeling of sitting down after working for hours.
Thank you. (I cant subscribe on THIS account for personal reasons but I will on my Alt in a moment)
The other alien species well-portrayed is the demons. They have their own perspective on meaning. (I expect to see more of their perspective next season with Macht of the Golden Land and Solitär - who grapple with understanding the human perspective.)
Love Frieren, love the anime, read the manga and it only gets better. Your spot on about how basically any part of the series warrants analysis, personally I love the world building and it's portrayal of demons.
This is the most essential dive into title's soul among countless themed videos on ytb.
I'm having a blast with this channel here, the nonchalant way to tackle neurodivergency is absolutely amazing and I adore you for this!
thanks for breaking down the show like that I really agree with you here. im really glad we all got to see this great adaptation being made and im excited for another season :)
Been waiting for a good Frieren essay
Very good video! I highly recommend reading the manga if you haven't already. Future arcs go into more depth on demons and the world itself.
man youre really good at making these videos, I wish i could make my thoughts on things even half as coherent as you do
You make a fantastic point about Serie's "soft power". While she is compared to a deity in her degree of magical power and knowledge, that seems insignificant to compared to what she has done without magic. The ability to shape an entire culture and impress your beliefs upon everyone in that culture, without them even realizing it....that's actually a scary level of influence.
Nice edit and use of footage. Good writing. Nice delivery. Keep up the good work!
good video! both in takes of the show, and the observations regarding imagining alien life.
I think i would enjoy an hour long video from you as much as this one
I've not much to say, but I loved this video a lot, fantastic work!
You did pretty well with the names! Edit from layer on (since I did end up noticing a couple pointers), you did really well!! But yeah, as later in the comment: if at some point you're interested in the extra 3-5%
One thing would be switching the the "e" pronunciations of Fern and the second "e" in Serie. Fern tends to be pronounced by most like the english plant rather than the german "distant" and the "eh" at the end of Serie tends to also be hard for a lot of english natives. Also kudos for the attempts to hit the "r" in Kraft, german has a lot of cases like that where you need to go from a rather forward sound to catch an "r" in your throat almost and then right back to a forward vowel. Also for Stark, an "s" before a "t" or "p" becomes a "sh/sch" sound unless you're doing a northern dialect (so it'd read as "shtark/schtark").
Also watching the show recognising what all of he names mean makes for quite an interesting experience since well uhh they are kinda descriptive in many cases
Aaaaand idk what case would make this comment helpful but uhhhh i guess if you're ever looking to polish those extra 5-ish% 😌
15:40
In the story I'm writing, I like using the term "Sentient" for humanoids in my setting. Maybe it could be of use to you? I'm not sure, just thought it might help
Frieren was the first series to remind me of the books Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress. You get a tiny slice of the some of the same vibes in the game Massive Chalice, but overall I feel like the experience of actually living for millennia is very underexplored in fiction.
Bro this anime is so fucking powerful, there are so many deep moments that makes me cry just thinking about it. Like, Frieren realizing that Himmel loved her FAR too late. Serle remembering the favorite spells of every single one of her apprentices in her long life, despite claiming she doesn't care about them. Just how fucking deep connections between people run, and how you see it all throughout the story, I'm sobbing just thinking about it...
The scene at 3:56 for some reason is one of my favorites, i dont know why i just love how Frieren looks at Fern and then smiles.
The more videos I watch the more I love this series
Fi's theme near the end what a perfect song for a character like frieren. My favorite detail of this video i think.
Nice video! as for the mic suggestion the Shure MV7 has the ability to run just off USB (no audio interface needed) and is like the little child of the legendary Shure SM7B.
Just remembering the 1st episode is pulling on my heart strings 😭
Drived me to tears, thanks. :3
I feel like there was a good point to be added, that you didn't mention. We actually do know how the technique faired against the demon king. Serie tells one of her apprentices that "the only other being who saw through Frierens technique with a single glance was the demon king". Not only was the technique innefective, it did literally nothing.
I'm not German, but I liked the video as soon as I heard you pronounce "Kraft" like that lol
Noice. Loved the video. Dungeon Meshi video when?
Lol but in all seriousness. Really appreciated Ur take on Frieren and I'd love to see you do one on Dungeon meshi for other stuff even if it is also another hot topic. Anyways take care and take your time on Ur next one.
On the point about demons... Please read the manga. Macht is a great in depth look at how they work
sapiencianoids/sapianoids i think is the best term to coin. what all humanoids share, is sentience and sapience. it is not the shape that binds us all, it is our ability to think, feel and do this at a complex level
yeah, maybe we should just stop categorizing out of human like or not. and just go with sapient or not. Humanoid brings with it the idea that there is something superior with being human like. But I personally never looked at the Elcor from Mass effect as lesser, just because they happen to walk on all four. and I personally want more fantasy people that are less human like honestly. The star trek idea of aliens gets old IMO
@@martinstensvehagen9161 i think Star Trek's aliens being more or less human like is not an idea created out of anything else but budget and prop limitations. to make the show the best it could be, it was a good compromise. Star Trek isnt a novel, or a game, or similar medium works with more creative freedom than serialised shows in decades past.
and 'humanoid' definitively comes from a perspective rooted in human notions and establishes how another being relates to our way of being. this isn't necessarily something negative however. i understand we use the term in the context of fantasy and scifi, but regardless of the fictional genre, we still operate under our reality's perspective. we are humans, what we experience is a human perspective. so in abstract matters, non in-world of fiction, using the term is proper and harmless. just limits possbilities if we ever do encounter other ways of life to exist. but for in-world terms on these fantasies and scifis i think its stupid how they haven reached a more effective term.. authors are lacking.
I usually actually stick with humanoid- but only from a human perspective. I like to worldbuild each individual race as having a similar word- translating to things like elf shape, forgearm, etc. It makes sense that individual races would all come up with a "like us" word of their own
"Sapient" for intelligent beings. Perhaps "quad-limbed biped" for "humanoid", since "humanoid" more often refers to our general body _shape_ rather than our abilities.
i want you to know when i first started watching this video, i had to stop like a fourth of the way through and watch the anime myself because it sounded so good
The thing about demons are they aren't evil at all they are another creature all together.
U make good neutral anime videos. I love perspectives from different eyes on something i like
Sophont or Sapient are words that roughly mean the same thing i.e. human level intelligence or higher. Sentient means your just awake/aware i.e. a dog is sentient but not sapient.
from about 7:00 to about 7:19
one think I like about that as the climax of episode one is meteor showers are infrequent and, especially, in a medieval world possibly unpredictable. this moment matters to her for reasons you mentioned (maybe) but also because the phenomenon happening might not happen again for a long time...even to her.
This is actually my first Frieren analysis video!
What I love most about Frieren is how the worldbuilding around magic leads directly to the story. A mage can accomplish just about anything they can imagine - but a mage of wartime who imagines cannot bring peace, which is why it is Frieren, not Flamme or Serie, who was the one to defeat the Demon King. Only she could imagine the world at peace that came after.
I feel so vindicated that I'm not the only one who saw neurodivergent traits in Frieren and Shouko Komi from "Komi Can't Communicate" 😄
15:50 in Dungeon Meshi all of (non monster) humanoids species (human, elf, dwarves, etc..) are called humans while us regular human are called tallman.
I like how they show that frieren isn't like a broken person who needs to learn how love and be normal, but instead it's about how she needs to learn how to express her love in a way that others will actually see, because the way elves show affection is through their greatest traits, their memory and their patience, but humans are incredibly impatient and die like flies in the eyes of elves so elven affection is lost on them
3:30 Based and Ren-pilled
Also, Mending is a highly underrated spell.
Of course, staying in RUclips till the end will grant me a cookie, the browser cookies to be specific.
You've made a good point about the writing of Frieren. But I want everyone to notice that, Sousou no Frieren is the title of the Franchise, so "Frieren the Slayer" is in fact the title that Japanese see before even knowing what the genre of this story should be. So, having that in mind, and the fact that they hide the power of magic to deceive demons, this story is a mimic trap to action adventure stories on the shelves. I didn't read the novel, only read manga and watched the anime. But I think, this story is a little bit hilarious if you got that knowledge.
The translation of episode 8's title as "Frieren the Slayer" is odd to me. Maybe it would make sense to a native speaker.
葬送のフリーレン is the title but 葬送 means funeral (more relating to the full process from body preparation to the post-cremation gathering than 葬式, another word for funeral that focuses on the ceremonial core - more what I'd translate as funeral). So the full title of the series is Frieren's Funeral/Funary Arrangements, not Frieren the Slayer.
@@be1tube Yeah, Netflix translate it to Slayer. But the one manga translator translated it to Funeral. I think, you're right. But I find it hard how to make sense in English, so I don't do with Funeral.
Regarding you concerns about humanocentric language, the word used in the scifi rpg Traveller to refer to all intelligent lifeforms, be they human, wolf, space lion, or anything else, four limbed biped or not, is sophont - all emphasis is placed exclusively on the capacity for abstract thought, and terms related to humanity (or, in the setting's spelling of the term for all human subspecies, humaniti) referring exclusively to homo sapiens of terrestrial genetic origin.
Yay! Another frieren video!
I think Wildbow's Pale, or his Otherverse, provids a somewhat cohesive way/tutorial to make an alien being as a main character.
To make an Other, the most easy way is: you deprive a human of their self. Capital S, the Self. The humanity, the nuance of human mind, or the diversity and possibility of human culture. You make a ghost like a real spectral: the Echo of the real person.
You make a ghoul, who can't not truly live. You make a goblin, a ugly being being ugly. Or a fae, of beauty and horror. You extent the logics of certain rule to its extreme. So you push the creative process to collective rules and ideas, and digging their possibilities.
THAT FRAME COMPOSITION GOES SO HARD 27:10
Surprised to not see more about the demons in this topic. The alienness of elves here is just living really long; the demons are that, plus the fully alien predatory pov of an anglerfish
Not really a lot to talk about with them yet. We really only get the one arc from episodes 6-10, and almost nothing is told from their perspective.
I already know there is more in the manga, but I'm talking anime only, so more nuanced discussions of the Demon's alien-ness will have to wait for another time.
@@superdude10000 I'm running a close-to-folklore fey campaign in d&d, so this topic is very on my mind, trying to get in the head of a force of nature cosplaying as human. Frieren and the demons are intersecting viewpoints for me.
wow, sound tracks from Fire Emblem - Three Houses are matched with your essay.
Flamme's favorite magic is Druidcraft
Fern's favorite magic is Prestidigitation
xD
I've been writing a fantasy sci-fi novel for the last three years, and the whole story is told from the perspective of a species of sentient insect-like humanoids. Originally I thought of them as just straight up elves, but as time went on and I let myself go crazier on the worldbuilding they went into a whole different path. Less magic, and more speculative biology. From just humans with long ears to xenophobic forest dwelling locust people with superhuman agility and psychic habilities, amongst other things.
As soon as these fundamental differences between these people and the "Offworlders" (lore), I began making up certain terminology that is unique to them and their way of percieving the world around them. For example, a pejorative term they use for humans is "curd-eaters", as the Yinnati (the locust people) are not even mammals, which makes them very confused when they find out about human's habit of drinking animal milk and even fermenting it into cheese, finding it incomprehensible and disgusting.
However, making a story from the POV of a creature so far off from the reader might be offputting, and I'm kind of insecure about how the world of the novel might be taken. Guess I'll have to finish the first draft lol
I believe you mean she was a “prodigious child” not a “prodigal child”😮
Dammit.
Sophont: An intelligent being; a being with a base reasoning capacity roughly equivalent to or greater than that of a human being. The word does not apply to machines unless they have true artificial intelligence, rather than mere processing capacity.
Mortality is also a good non-human centric term, but has some existential vibes about it. I'd like to keep it that way, but also have it become the more serious term.
As far as mics go, the way its recorded matters almost as much as the type of mic. 32-bit float recording is what you need to recover peaking
I think people also forget that Frieren herself *was* a first class mage once. She still has the emblem. The problem is, Frieren is so old, that authority system fell apart and her old pendant doesn't mean anything anymore. When you make a character that old, it might be important to do that. They might be so old that they have several degrees, or maybe no one recognizes those degrees anymore - to mirror our college system.
I think the spell the clone used on Fern at the last battle is a curse Frieren somehow learned, and she also used a powerful curse to counter her clone. Due to there constant one up attrition strategy. Thinking outside my lane here.
What's interesting is that the demons aren't really "Evil", their whole deal is that those types of labels don't really matter as long as it gets them to live longer/get food. The veil of sentience and rationality is no more than aggressive mimicry.
Of course philosophically the concept does need a great deal of suspension of disbelief, but hey, i think it works
I think it was mentioned that the demon kind saw through Frierens suppression
The word I use is Sapiency. Covers multiple species and not human-centric in use. For instance, I personally believe that any creature that plans for the future, makes tools, and grieves is in line for sapiency.
I mean I've had that conversation with my tabletop friends on what the most useful spell is multiple times and we all agreed it was prestidigitation every single time
I've watched a lot of Frieren breakdowns since finishing the season, this is the first one i've seen that seems to get why it's so great, sure the art style is great and the fights are epic, but Frieren could be drawn with stick figures (or not at all) and still be an amazing story.
Good video bro
Keep it up
you have not watched it yet bro
I like it already 😊
And to me, that makes it a good video.
I've seen a light novel use "elvenoid" to describe what we'd call humanoid, because elves were the dominant species in that setting.
25:59 I feel like I remember the opposite, didn’t they outright say that the Demon King was able to see through her mana suppression?
My theory on Frieren lack of "emotional development", for lack of a better phrase, is that Elves in this universe develops physically in about same speed as humans, but gain emotional maturity at the same relative speed compared to life span.
So Frieren, being only somewhere just north of 1k years old, is still quite young emotionally. Like a human teenager or so.
What happened when she met flamme and the isolation before she met himmel have a significant impact on how she developed compared to a typical elf.
15:50 I generally use the term "Logi" or "Logikos" as a stand in for "humanity" (depending on the context) that's less boring than "sentiants" to discribe any being in my worlds that has human-like sentience. Examples of use would be "Regardless of their logi" instead of "regardless of their humanity" and "logikos rights" instead of "human rights".
I generally don't use it to describe body characteristics, I think it's perfectly reasonable to use terms like elvenoid, dwarfish, hobbity and humanoid because the beings within the world would still have those as descripters to indicate similarity to beings to which they are familiar.
I also DM and as I have gotten older I no longer allow Elves as player characters because of this problem.
15:40 you really reminded me of ngnl's "imanity" with that one
I think person is the term you're looking for. no matter what species one is they're a person if they are sentient.