An Eternal Traveler

Alright. Well, it is the thirtieth and thus as promised, time for another rambling. I did genuinely consider a metallurgy worldbuilding document, but I just don’t think I’m quite there yet. And this time we’re going a bit further afield than either of my previous discussions; into the realm of Manga [Footnote 1]. Though perhaps not too far afield since the one I have in mind is still fairly on brief. Now last time I did mention Helck and I definitely do want to get to that one [Footnote 2], I just don’t quite yet feel in the right mood for it. So instead I turned my mind to one simmering at the back anyway; actually the series I went to after finishing Helck as per the recommendation of the same friend that recommended the former series [Footnote 3]. That series being Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End [Footnote 4]. For those of you unfamiliar with the series, the main premise is that the titular character, Frieren, is an elvish mage that accompanied the Hero on his journey to defeat the Demon King in a very straightforward example of the common narrative. Operating word being ‘accompanied’, past tense. Because the Manga itself actually takes place decades after their journey when the kingdom is at peace (kind of) and the Hero has died of old age. The actual story begins when Frieren attends the funeral of a man who was one of her closest companions and is struck by how quickly the time she spent with him went by and how little of him she really knew. Then, after speaking with another friend, she embarks on a journey to a location where you are supposedly capable of speaking to the souls of the dead; a journey which just so happens to largely retrace the steps of her previous journey with the Hero. It is admittedly one that I felt a bit leery of at first. I’d heard about it before my friend recommended it to me, but I’d shied away because it felt kind of like the type of story that wants to somehow subvert the classical fantasy quest in darker, more ‘realistic’ manner; which I’m not overly a fan of. But quite frankly, I was wrong. If anything, it’s a celebration of that kind of story, seemingly written by someone who loves them and delights in them. Which leads naturally into the first thing I adore about the series: it’s awareness of what it is.

Now when I talk about ‘self-awareness’, in this case I don’t mean that the series tries to break the fourth wall or that the characters themselves discuss the type of story they’re in. It’s not that kind of self-awareness, but one of narrative style. Because like I said before, it’s clear the mangaka also knows a good deal about the kind of classic RPG fantasy story and loves them themself. Simply in the way the story is presented. The fact that as Frieren and her new companions journey, the go through things that are immediately recognizable to someone who’s played a lot of RPGs. The fact that when we see the Hero — henceforth to be referred to by his name of Himmel — in flashbacks, his attitude often captures the sentiments that an RPG player will feel while playing. For example in regards to the former, at one point Frieren and her new companions — the warrior Stark and mage Fern, just so we have that out there — arrive in town and Frieren wants to leave immediately. Fern and Stark are confused at first, since she’s kind of lazy and usually likes hanging around places for a long time, but then find out when they’re brought before the ruling lord that Frieren and Himmel traveled there previously and ended up getting forcibly assigned a quest to find the previous lord’s ancestral sword. And as Frieren describes the quest, they had to track down a Demon swordmaster who stole it and hid on the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere; the perfect description of an arbitrary sidequest with a hidden bonus boss. And the way in which Frieren absolutely despises that lord’s family for ‘giving troublesome tasks’ shows off how those kinds of RPG staples we as players take for granted would be regarded by the actual adventurers undertaking them: as a major pain they can’t really avoid because it was assigned by the nobility. In that same way, another brief conversation mentions how when Himmel and Frieren [Footnote 5] first set off, they were only given ten copper pieces by the king. Something which is a familiar phenomenon in RPGs, where even though the protagonist is the hero meant to save the world, the actual leaders of the world don’t give them the equipment or money necessary for the journey. But in this case it’s noted that they aren’t the only adventurers out to kill the Demon King. Himmel is only the Hero because he succeeded [Footnote 6]. Several other parties of adventurers have tried and failed, so the king just isn’t willing to invest too much in something that isn’t a sure thing. And there’s the fact that it’s noted that Himmel was rude to the king on their first meeting and lucky to escape with his life, bringing up the fact that this world does still operate under the principles of aristocracy and most adventurers don’t just get to act however they want around the nobility. They’re commoners. They have to take the quests assigned to them and accept whatever reward they get because otherwise the nobility could just imprison them. Sure, most of the nobles we see ae far more reasonable than that, but that the threat exists is discussed.

As for the latter case, with Himmel’s attitude, it’s shown repeatedly that he effectively enjoys adventuring for the adventure’s sake. A lot of the sidequests Frieren takes Stark and Fern happen because she is trying to emulate Himmel’s practice of helping everyone they came across. Just like how most RPG players will take every quest they can simply because they are there. Because it’s part of the game. But it doesn’t just stop there with Himmel. It’s noted how that’s also part of what makes him a Hero. Because he truly believes in helping people, in making the world a better place step by step. And while past-Frieren would complain about how killing the Demon King as fast as possible would help them more than the petty jobs Himmel does for them, he insists on doing it precisely because while it might not help as much, it helps more immediately [Footnote 7]. That exact attitude is also noted as a bit eccentric for an adventurer, since he comes across as so laid-back and easily distracted. An attitude that’ further exemplified when they discuss things like dungeons where Himmel’s response on finding the floor to the next level is ‘Shoot. We went the wrong way.’ Because much like most RPG players, he insists on exploring every inch of a dungeon before moving on. And for as much as she likes to complain about that eccentricity, Frieren herself isn’t exactly above a similar attitude. One running gag is that, while they don’t threaten her because she’s powerful enough to escape on her own, she always falls for Mimics. Even when she’s nearly certain that it’s a trap, she insists on opening every chest she comes across because of the slight chance that there might be a new spellbook inside. Which is another familiar attitude to an RPG player. I personally will open every chest on the off-chance that I get something good and if I know it’s a Mimic, well I’m still going to do it for the free experience. Then there’s another of Frieren’s oddities: her habit of collecting things. Mostly spells with mundane uses, but also random odds and ends that will never really be useful. Which captures the feeling of teaching your characters of spell possible just in case or holding on to rare items precisely because they’re limited in use and you might need them later.

All of this presents a story that does a good job of feeling familiar while still feeling natural. These little quirks that remind a reader of things in this world are still justified in the setting itself. Oddities and eccentricities are noted as such and there’s a framework in place for the system of adventurers to exist. Which is one of the best parts of reading the Manga; while a lot of fantasy contents itself with kicking the setting to the back since we as an audience are familiar enough with the tropes to understand how it works without explanation, Frieren does not. It still presents that same fairly generic setting, but with the grace and depth to actually support it and flesh it out. Something which extends beyond just the setting or story too. Because another of the things Frieren does so well is the manner in which it presents both Elves and Demons. Of capturing the inhumanity of both of them and explaining why they are that way.

To start with, the Demons. Frieren’s Demons are one of my favorite examples of the trope because it’s well thought out without actually undermining the initial premise. To explain what I mean, these days it’s hard to get away with the ‘civilization of evil’. It often feels a bit odd and contrived to readers for there to exist a place where everyone is born evil. More than that, it can be an uncomfortable thought to think that someone can be born evil, since — at least as I believe — most people generally like to believe that everyone can be good [Footnote 8]. Often times this results in modern series swinging the other way and showing ways that the ‘Demons’ are actually not as bad as expected, and that they’re mostly just like people and it’s the differences between Demons and Humans that lead to conflict rather than any inherent moralistic issue. Here though, Frieren does a good job of showing how an intelligent species can also be so abjectly antagonistic to Humanity. As put by the series, Demons are presented as ‘Monsters that can talk’. They are essentially nothing more than incredibly intelligent animals, so intelligent that they can recognize the language Humans use to communicate and adapt to it themselves. Yet despite this intelligence, they are no more… ensouled, for lack of a better term, than animals. They have no conception of morality, ideals, or even most of the emotions humans operate by. To the extent that at one point, Demons discuss matters of family and state, in effect, that ‘Mother and Father are meaningless words that stop humans from killing us’ because they use language as a trap to try and prey upon human compassion. They repeatedly show that they can understand the effect language and emotion has on humanity without experiencing it themselves. In many ways, it reminds me of what I consider to be one of the best fantasy monsters ever: the Dread Alzabo of New Sun fame [Footnote 9]. A monster that has just enough of a connection to Humanity that the differences are stark. A monster that is intelligent enough that we feel as though we should be able to communicate with it, reason with it, come to an accord with it. But that exact feeling is nothing more than a trap. Then there’s the fact that Demons rate everything based on magical strength, further proving the way in which they have a very animalistic view of the world. But I don’t want to talk too much about that because I think it’s a fun discussion to come by in the context of the story itself which shows off a more interesting facet of Frieren’s own strength as a very, very old mage.

Which in turn leads us to talking about elves. Quite frankly I think that Frieren’s elves are one of the most interesting takes on elves I’ve seen since Tolkien because the series does look into what it would mean to live that long. What it would mean to see the rise and fall of nations like that. For starters, there’s the fact that elves longevity allowed them to become monstrously powerful mages, among other things, simply because of the fact that they have the time to grow and learn. So naturally they became one of the Demons prime targets and elves are all but extinct by the time of the story. But then there’s also the way that elves simply don’t have the same persepctive of time as humans and can’t possibly because of that same longevity. The series’ inciting incident shows this with how Himmel saw Frieren as one of his closest friends but she saw him as basically ‘just another guy that I traveled with for a bit’ and that realization tore her apart. Just about every stop on Frieren’s new journey is so long that it resorts to a montage of various events that take place while the party stays in a town for weeks. But what I find encapsulates it best is the one time Frieren meets an elf (that she doesn’t already know). It’s a fairly minor incident in the story, but the party ends up spending an entire winter in the mountains with an elvish monk named Kraft. When they first meet, Fern introduces Frieren as ‘the mage of the hero’s party who defeated the Demon King’ and Kraft says ‘And before that?’ Then when the party is somewhat confused as to what he could mean by that, since that descriptor should be so important and recognizable, he proceeds to explain ‘I’m saying that we’re elves’. In short, showing off how in this particular setting, even a journey that changed the entire world means very little to the timeframe of elves. They live so long that problems come and go and even the roles they take in their own life change drastically because they live long enough for it to happen. Something which is also shown off when, some time after they leave Kraft, they find a statue of him in a village where he’s revered as the Hero. Because he’s old enough that he already did the same things as Frieren, more or less, and moved on from it. Even when he leaves, he basically just says ‘see you in a few centuries, I guess’ because for someone as long lived as elves, spending an entire winter together might as well be a brief acquaintance spent in a cafe. Or something. That’s a bad metaphor.

I don’t think I have much else to say and don’t really want to waste time. Simply put, Frieren is a Manga that presents adventure in its simplest form. The adventure of a group of people traveling to a goal and running into unforeseen circumstances along the way. An adventure where the heroes fight to protect the innocent from evil. But it’s all done in a world built for that adventure. A world that exists and lives even as that adventure is going on in it. Though the story is what we see, it’s clear that there’s far more still going on in the world and all we get is a snapshot. And that’s worthwhile even still if for no other reason than the worth of the individual adventure. It’s worthwhile because of the characters we get to share that adventure with as they grow alongside each other. If you love fantasy, if you love adventure, I can’t recommend Frieren enough.

Footnote 1: I know. I probably don’t have to capitalize Manga. It would be like always writing Literature or Movies. But it just… I need to. It’s one of those things.
Footnote 2: And soon since there’s never been a better time to get into Helck since there’s an anime adaptation coming in under a year and it’s now three volumes in to an English localization. Seriously. If you at all like Manga and RPGs, I’d check it out. Love that series.
Footnote 3: Not that it’s any of your business, but Lunch-friend, for the record.
Footnote 3A: Please tell me you don’t intend on actually giving the details of our friends to other people. — Twisted Jerk
Footnote 3B: Of course not. That would be an invasion of privacy. Probably. But I’d mentioned Lunch-friend before and thought I’d continue the thread. Otherwise the only ones I’ll bring up are our writing buddies. Namely Manga-friend and Literature-friend. For those of you keeping score at home, the Twisted Jerk is Videogame-friend.
Footnote 4: Or Sousou no Frieren, in the original Japanese. For the record, with things like this I do intend on always providing both the original title and English, if it exists. I further intend to use the English title in the main body in most cases, since I am writing in English to an English audience and that’s the title they’d be most likely to find if they were to look further into a given series. In this case, it is worth noting that the original title does have a bit of nuance to it that the English title does not. Without getting to into it, because I am not an expert in the Japanese language, Sousou can mean, roughly, either ‘to attend a funeral’ or ‘undertaker’, because of linguistic quirks. So the literal translation can be either ‘Frieren Attends the Funeral’ or ‘Frieren the Undertaker’. Which is relevant because while the former title rather obviously refers to the inciting incident of the story, the latter is relevant because of how it — as an in-universe title — relates to Frieren’s character and role. Put simply, there’s a reason the Demons call her that.
Footnote 5: While I do keep saying ‘Himmel and Frieren’, it is worth note that they had two other companions as well: Heiter the priest and Eisen the dwarvish warrior. I just haven’t mentioned them since they aren’t as relevant to the current discussion. They are definitely worth note, however, since Eisen is the one that set Frieren on her journey to Aureole (the place that’s supposed to connect to Heaven) and Fern and Stark are the (adoptive) children of Heiter and Eisen, respectively. So their influence is felt, even though Heiter is also dead by the time Frieren leaves on her journey and Eisen, though longer lived as a dwarf, is too old, weak, and retired for another journey.
Footnote 6: And he’s not the only one. I’ll talk about it more later, but it turns out that there are other ‘Heroes’ in the setting who accomplished different feats. Admittedly I’m not sure if it’s another case of Yuusha and Eiyuu both being translated the same despite a subtle difference in sentiment, but I don’t think it is.
Footnote 7: I mean, kind of. You should read how it’s actually put in the story itself. I’m trying to sum up and doing a fairly poor job of it.
Footnote 8: And this even goes back to the beginning of modern fantasy, since Tolkien himself never really intended on making Orcs as a race born evil. Since he struggled with that concept, he opted to go a route of corruption instead, but that’s a discussion for another time.
Footnote 9: Believe you me, I intend on talking about the Book of the New Sun eventually. But believe you me, it will not be as in depth as most people. I am not a Gene Wolfe scholar and those do exist.