Frieren: Not about Power or Romance

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End feels different from other fantasy stories - why does it start where most narratives would end?

That's because Frieren, different from most other fantasy anime, is centered around questions around time, memory and the shaping of personality. Let's bring some Jungian theory into the mix and have a look at this incredible story.

Chapters

00:00 Stories about what?
03:19 How memory informs choice
07:31 How to create a softer world
11:26 You get it already
12:26 Other cognitive functions
17:15 Superfriends

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Evidently I do not own Frieren, it was written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe; and its animation was adapted by Madhouse:

Check out @ecyinka's channel!

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Video edited by the fantastic Carolina Aleixo :)

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Soundtrack:

Dosi - Faubourgs

Tibeau the traveler - Eisinsel

Those two are a courtesy of @LofiGirl, the most influencial lofi project out there :) thanks for letting independant creators such as myself use those soundtracks!

The Deku Trio - Ocarina of Time

Jokabi - The Lost Woods
Follow @jokabibeats

TuneInWithChewie‬ - Elden Ring
Follow @TuneInWithChewie

Those three are a courtesy of @gamechops, an amazing game+music project. Music distributed under a CC (attribution) license.

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#frieren #frierenbeyondjourneysend #anime

[Hexan_Flare]

Thank you for a frieren video! This anime is so fascinating and starting to understand even a bit of it is super exciting. Very useful watch! Will definitely rewatch to process metaemotion better.

[MaxWithTheSax]

I was hoping you would cover frieren. It's incredible how well written and animated it is.

[MLeoDaalder]

Another aspect of world of Frieren that I admire (aside from what your video essay explores) is how the demons (by some classified as "monsters who use language to deceive") are quite "alien" (for want of better word). You can talk to demons and reason with them, but they lack empathy/emotions (or at least most recognizable by non-demons). So you can make a demon promise to do no evil upon a town, but the demon has no concept of what 'evil' is, and would have no qualms about eating the citizens as it's just normal food to them.

Another aspect of demons in the world of Frieren is that they have no family, once born the babies are left to fend for themselves, eating small animals to stay alive and tricking humans into thinking they are unfortunate babies abandoned. One scene/flashback deals with a child demon who when cornered by Frieren and company after several murders who says "Mommy, it hurts", Frieren coldly asks as she kills the demon "why do you say that, you have no mother". The demon then states "it's a spell to make you humans stop hurting us".

[MorgottofLeyendell]

A really interesting concept, you have made another great video. A really beautiful aspect of fantasy that hasn't been explored enough.

[martindiaries]

What a joyful video! It gave me a wonderful idea about an essay story! Thank you 😄❤️

[aetherial]

Frieren is one of the best shows I've seen in years

[christianlie]

When it comes to non-standard narratives, my first association was with Ursula Le Guin.

I think some of her books still deal with power but she does it in such a unique way where conflict is rarely the solution.

For wizard of earthsea, I would suggest that the meta emotion is mistakes and forgiving yourself.
What do you think?

[Dragonmoon]

Great video. I'll have to give this show a watch.

It really stuck with me your comment, "Fantasy of today lacks hope." I have to admit, while I love the genre, I have been more focused on romance novels. I'll need to turn my attention back to fantasy and see if that rings true. Or see if there may be some hope left.😁

[rentro]

O conceito do vidente que pode ouvir e sentir o cheiro do passado e do futuro é uma das ideias mais facinantes que eu já vi

[mmessi]

I'm mad that the second world at 17 min isn't a fully fleshed out story
I would 100% dive into it

[pabloruansabino]

I love só much frieren thank you for keeping the fandom alive

[SkeletonBeleton]

While it of course comes from her incredibly long lifespan in-fiction, a lot of Frieren's struggles seeming normal and being able to relate to/easily read the people around her resonated a lot with me as an autistic person. Certainly more applicability than allegory, to pull from Tolkien's playbook, but it's a lens that helped me enjoy the story even more on a personal level!

[barbarajenner]

Frieren means "feeling cold" in German, so I was ready to watch a video about why the trope of a female character feeling cold and the male character giving her his jacket is NOT actually about power or romance, and the broader implication that realisation had on your understanding of tropes (or something along those lines...)

Turns out this was way deeper and more interesting than that! Especially the lines about missing hope in fantasy worlds, and building a better world after the big evil was defeated resonated with me because I'm currently working on an adventure game in a Solarpunk setting. Solarpunk is about hope and changing things for better in the here and now, and trying to tell a story that fits that premise is really unintuitive for me (and least for a video game). At the start I wanted to create a world that already has dealt with the most pressing issues, there is no big evil left to fight and the challenges are more interpersonal, building and maintaining a society fundamentally different from what was before.
But it's so far removed from both common storytelling practices and my own perception of the core topics, that's it's difficult to keep the original vision straight. At this point it's back to a more common "underground rebels fighting against consumerism and it's bad consquences" narrative. Having a big evil to fight for power is just so convenient for stakes and emotional engagement that it feels safer than sticking to the "world is already good, and you're trying to keep it good and make it greater". That just feels too much like american hero narratives, where you're in the position of power and have to keep the powerless where they are... aaaand everything is about power struggles again, dangit.

I think I'll watch Frieren and think more about the other emotional themes in the story we want to tell, and how they could shape our narrative and the gameplay.

[ekij]

Branden Sanderson - Mistborn. When they 'good guys' eventually overthrow the 'bad guys' they realise that running an empire isn't straightforward. That there are other perils and threats out there and that many of the 'mean' things the 'bad guys' were doing had a higher purpose.