Frieren Episode 10 Watchalong Reaction w/ Commentary | A Powerful Mage

[@rb8599]

Note that in-anime @7:39 we get from the demons pursuing Flamme a declaration of state-sponsored (from what central authority as may exist among demons) genocide against elves. We have not been given any policy or emo information about that history nor the possibility of a mirror policy regards demons among the elves. However, that declaration serves as the antagonistic motivation at the level of individual combatants. YT@13:21 your question why did Frieren not just blast away? Open combat would involve a large number of unpredictable dynamics and risks. Chance could always go against the hero. However, we see that invoking Ausrelese commits both parties to a highly constrained course with only one major risk and that subject to at least some advance assessment. Frieren's tactic here is to maneuver Aura in to committing. "We know where this is headed" he said watching a field of headless puppets. Note in-anime @21:32 how the Aura VA introduces nervous uncertainty in Aura's voice. Preimo acting and sound direction. YT@44:28 your question regards Lugner -- recall his specialty magic is blood magic. Recall from EP 8 how Lugner tells Linie if she had been struck she would have been killed. Recall in Ep 9, having nailed Fern, we see Lugner monologuing with body parts re-constructed from blood. We can plausibly invent that blood magic is how he survived where other demons would not from similar damage. Given your reaction analysis style, you might like a puzzle. First, define lore-in-passing as a lore drop of a sentence or two during some other main action or dialog. A lore-in-passing may be delivered spoken or shown. A counter-example is Frieren's long lore-dump monologue in Ep 3 @16:31 about Zoltrack lasting until @19:06. There are three puzzle pieces all delivered as lore-in-passing. The first is delivered during the Ep 3 Qual interaction, the second at Ep 8 @22:08 and again at Ep 9 @1:30. The third will be delivered in a future Ep within the first cour and will contradict the first two, leading to an incongruity, also known as a continuity goof. The lore topic is a magical capability that is key to many plot beats and is also used for theatrical effect. The puzzle is what is this magical capability and when in the series timeline did Frieren/humans acquire it given the contradictory lore-drops?

[@RiverReactsWatchalong]

I suppose I can see how "tricking" Aura into using her own ability could be, in a sense, seen as the safest course of action 🤔 LOL, I very much did not intend for that to be ironic or a pun or anything but that is actually funny now that you mention it 😆 Oh yeah, the rising anxiety in Aura's character is noticeable both visually and auditorily Did I not explicitly mention the possibility that Lugner's durability could be a result of his blood magic? I may not have, but I did consider it. Whoops 😅 While I appreciate the puzzle, I hope you don't mind if I largely ignore it. I'm _very_ anti-spoiler, and looking over that point it seems like the kind of thing that if I dwell on it might lead me to some ideas/conclusions that I don't think I should be fully considering yet. Overall though, thanks for the comment, glad you enjoyed the video ^.^

[@Airwave2k2]

Gamer moment. ... ED kicks in "And you allright" Aura? Simple put. Yes this is peak. 29:29 10, 20, 30 minutes. Well 1:41h says it is over an hour. Oh boy. That after discussion makes some interesting points. Is it to much in length. I don't know. I think if it is called for to make it in such a way you can do that. I think if anything you could have left out completely your justification why you did it now this way. This rather is the boring part I would like to skip over. After all as audience I want to hear thoughts on the show itself. A thing that get commented on in episode10 on in other reactions is - the time montage when Frieren has her hermit life is 50 seconds. Afterwards there is a quick succession of 4 frames which are 0.5 seconds - proportion 1/100 just like her adventure was 1/100 of her life. I think it is a neat detail so I leave it too. After all you don't have that much commenters and so I will bring up what is usually mentioned at other reactions. Regarding your comment on the animation. I don't think over all this episode dropped in quality. Sure some things are rather unpolished. However they are "animated", where in other anime you would get stills. And it just stays consistent in the detailing for backgrounds it does not feel off. I rather would say it is impressive that some walking on a sideway with the sideway so well painted is absurd. The combat in ep9 is outstanding, so yes taking this as the measurement I can see it is not reaching this height. But for being non action heavy epsiode over all it has something animated/moving/changing keeping you engaged. The episode itself is structurally completely broken in the way storytelling builds up to climax generally. Just it works. With giving more and more hints to being blunt what will happen in the fight, so there should be no climax out of reveal, this establishes a far more satisfying climax one out of anticipation. It does not suffer a drop of suspense, since you learn so much about Frieren. Aura going in such a short amount of time through the stages of grief makes her such a quirky but also interesting foe; especially with the backdrop of knowledge about demons we were given. In my book one of my favorite episodes, because it makes things different, but it works. A risk taken by the author and I think it was well done. Seeing it animated enhanced the manga material, but structurally it is 1:1. Flamme mommy is such a treat of a character. She is pivotal for Frierens development. She gave her the mission "to kill the demon king" and with that Frieren subordinate pretty much everything to achieve that goal - so much so that living in seclusion incorporated into Frierens characteristics. As you say Flamme appears to be very thoughtful and for that her actions and words have weight. While you are correct the earrings are different in detail view, in "headcanon" Frieren wears the earrings as heirloom. When Flamme commented that she is "painfully aware of being a powerful mage" my interpretation is, that she can not stop suffering in the whole world despite being powerful. Yes she can save and help people, but it does not change suffering everywhere at every time. So even the most powerful are "powerless". It also plays back into episode 2 for me when Fern commented Frieren is so powerful, and that she should use the power to help so many, but instead Frieren doing Frieren things the Frieren way. Well for teenage Fern this comes of as unsatisfying. Flammes goal (demons toke everything from me / me too) is clear. Aid humanity to stand against demons. Flamme made tours through the world. Her little house (later overgrown by the "big tree") was in the Voll basin, but the barrier the Granat town is under is her doing from back in the day. And these places are apart. Also remember that Flamme toured up to Ende and was in Aureole (seemingly before taking Frieren on as apprentice) otherwise she would not have written this down in her memoirs Frieren discover in ep4. I will not comment on other speculations you do as for example the power thing. So I stop myself in commenting further and let you enjoy coming episodes.

[@RiverReactsWatchalong]

Eh, I like to explain _why_ I do things. I know that most content creators (not just specifically reactors) don't really do that, they make their videos or do their streams and what you see is what you get, but I like hearing the occasional insight and reasoning for decisions myself and so like to provide my own transparency. I've also found that people often like to make assumptions about me and my behavior and words, which contributes to making a habit of trying to express myself clearly even in situations where it might not be fully necessary 😅 That is an interesting detail. I think that Frieren (the character) has maybe put too much emphasis on the quantitative length of her life over the qualitative nature of certain experiences. That is to say, even if the Hero's party only travelled together for what was 1/100th of Frieren's life, the memories of that time likely stand out more than some of the centuries that we now know Frieren spent isolated and ostensibly not doing much other than training and surviving. I expect this topic will be explored a bit more later. An interesting detail/visual choice nonetheless. Your view of Flamme isn't exactly the same as what I was saying, but they are definitely similar, and your perspective actually reminds me of a point that I've talked about in other series (I think only on reactions for my original channel so far though). There's this old show I watched when I was younger called MASH. To keep this brief, it's basically about doctors during war. In one episode after they lose a patient and they're talking in their tent afterwards, one of them says, "I think I'm having an identity crisis: I know I'm Dr. Pierce, but I want to be God". I see that mentality in characters from time to time. Characters who want to save everyone but tragically recognize that for one reason or another they simply can't. I didn't fully see Flamme in that way after this episode, but it seems to fit with how you see her 🙂

[@Airwave2k2]

@@RiverReactsWatchalong Regarding Flamme I think the "god complex" you refer to with the doctor is not what I was about. I mean yeah we learn more about characters Frieren had relations too, so it is not much at this point to give away we will see a bit more of Flamme. Anyway what I said was to get you of the track she would not have cared. She is no legendary mage for no reason, she is referred to as the founder of humanities magic back in a previous episode. It seems to hard to comment further without spoiling. I just remmebered that you are now deep enough into the episodes, so you could watch the video of youtuber Kelsey Eng who mad a video "Color Design in Anime: Frieren's Eyes".

[@RiverReactsWatchalong]

I did remember this video recommendation! I think I'm just unsure if I want to watch now or after I finish the series, even though I know you said there were no direct spoilers in it post-episode 10 🤔