Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to the trials of the First Class Mage Exam, as Frieren, Fern, and an assortment of skilled rivals compete for that vaunted title. Some, like Frieren or the distinguished Denken, simply desire the passage it will grant into the far northern lands. Others crave the boon it implies from the living grimoire Serie, or the momentum it would grant to any pursuit of martial or political glory. Nonetheless, with blood already spilled across the course of the first round, all are willing to put their lives on the line for the sake of this distant prize.

That first round also revealed a great deal else about our competitors, testing them on not just their magical facilities, but also the nature and strength of their convictions. I’ve been consistently delighted to see this exam avoid resolving into pure tests of martial strength, and instead frame its conflicts around how different paths through life might result in different relationships with mortality. Perspectives range from Frieren and Denken’s firm “no award is worth killing for,” a resolve gained through many years of living with their own regrets, to more nuanced positions like Wirbel’s complex relationship with killing, or Richter’s blunt acceptance of violence in pursuit of personal advancement. The weight we carry can only be measured in retrospect; just as Frieren can only now appreciate the joys of her prior journey, so can a sin on the soul only be felt after the act is committed. Let us hope our contestants act with foresight and consideration then, as they continue to negotiate the price of power!

Episode 22

Our episode title is “Future Enemies,” which seems to point towards another way of considering this test and its consequences. Is a victory that makes enemies of a dozen of the most powerful mages in the realm worth pursuing? Nothing ever ends; this exam is just another step in the road, and one must be mindful of such a step’s unintended consequences

We begin where we left off, highlighting the six teams who’ve passed. Four we know well, two are basically strangers

I like how even the faceoffs of that first round emphasized how martial superiority isn’t everything. There’s no lingering question of “can Frieren face this opponent” – it’s already clear she’s “stronger” than everyone else on the field, but that’s not what’s relevant here

With two days until the next test, we cut back to Stark sleeping in at the Swallow Inn. Warm, gentle colors and subdued, diegetic sound design complete the picture of total comfort

His luxurious all-day nap is interrupted by the girls. I appreciate how this show has successfully characterized Fern’s blank stare, to the point where her staring as the door opens seems like an act of judgment all by itself

Yep, excellent judgmental check-in between the two of them. Their relationship’s progression is clear in how accurately Fern calls out his free time itinerary, and also how gentle her rebuke ultimately is. Really more a form of flirting at this point

Determined to cheer up Fern, Frieren proposes taking her to a restaurant she visited with Himmel back in the day. Frieren about to receive a painful lesson in urban restaurant turnover

Lovely, detail-rich backgrounds as usual as we cut to Richter, who seems to work in a shop specializing in scrolls, tonics, and other magical artifacts. Some immediate context for his desperation to escape this life, to gain the prestige necessary to make his own way in the world

“Grandma, I’m not a child anymore. I’m a middle-aged man.” “To an old woman like me, you’re still a child.” He only sees his clock running out, and thus is willing to make desperate bargains like killing Frieren’s companions in order to succeed in the exam. But his very impatience reveals his youth

He is visited by his former teammates Denken and Laufen, with Denken suggesting they go get a meal together

“Now leave. We’re no longer a party.” “You don’t know how to get along in the world, do you?” In his haste for glory, Richter is neglecting the most valuable thing he gained in that first round – a genuine connection with these two, something he can carry forward regardless of how the exam proceeds. We must take care to avoid making future enemies, and always embrace the potential to create future friends

“If you intend to live as a mage, then ingratiating yourself to me wouldn’t hurt.” Denken puts this transaction in the sort of mercenary terms Richter would understand

Meanwhile, Land is called out by Übel out in the alleys

Land asks why, if Übel thinks nothing of killing, she didn’t actually kill Wirbel

Übel states that Wirbel’s words got to her – that she empathized with his desire to delay the killing

“Empathizing with someone allows me to use their spells, and I can’t use the spells of anyone I can’t empathize with.” An odd contrast there, that the mage who is most indifferent to the lives of others is also most reliant on understanding others to facilitate her own power. A dichotomy that would naturally lead towards being undeterred by sentimentality, as she has presumably had to kill a fair number of the mages she’s empathized with

And on the other side, this would also explain why she’s so curious about others, in spite of being ultimately indifferent to their fates

Wirbel states that Übel is the type of mage who learns by “feel,” without understanding the mechanical processes behind them. I wasn’t aware there were such magical savants here; apparently book learning is not the only route to magical mastery

“I’m saying I won’t tell you because I don’t like you.” Wirbel exhibits surprisingly little distress in this life-or-death confrontation. Or perhaps he just knows Übel won’t kill him for nothing, at least not while he possesses a secret she desires

Yep, that’s precisely how he frames his defense

Denken leads his troupe to the restaurant where he dined with his wife, fifty years ago. A point of connection across the ages, with this restaurant serving as a link between Denken and Richter’s lives

And of course, that’s precisely where Frieren’s crew are dining

Our team’s meals offer a funny articulation of the limits of this show’s worldbuilding. In spite of them dining in a specific high-class restaurant within the far northern reaches of the kingdom, they are still able to order precisely the styles of omurice, steak, and parfaits that you might find at a Denny’s-style Japanese diner. We all have blind spots in terms of what we can’t divorce from our perception of normalcy, and it’s clear that food is one for Frieren’s author

Frieren reflects back on eating here with the first adventuring party, when Himmel urged her to not eat so much and save some experiences for next time

“I thought so, too, but there are many flavors I’ve never been able to experience again.” ‘Next time’ is an extremely relative term, and most restaurants don’t last for eighty years

The chef assures her these flavors will endure for hundreds of years, to which she blankly replies “yeah, all chefs say that”

It’s certainly one form of eternity, or at least the same level of quasi-eternity as songs or statues

Himmel’s only request as a reward is for the chef to ensure his flavor endures. Much like songs, certain flavors can carry a powerful memory within them

Frieren’s fear of losing the flavor she loved is assuaged at the end, not by the flavor actually being unchanged, but by the genuine improvements that have been made. Let memories serve as our reminders of how things were, and do not let veneration of those memories lead us to stagnation

An extremely Frieren choice to prioritize this procession of meals among friends as highly as the battles themselves. In hindsight, which moment will actually feel more precious?

Apparently Stark has been practicing meditation. Solid deadpan gag as he reveals the old man imparting wisdom is actually just some stranger who keeps bothering him during training

“Do you have to fight like children?” Stark is not wrong about Fern and Frieren’s relationship. Fern in particular “gets mad” like an eight-year-old

Elsewhere, Kanne and Lawine are out on a date

“Allow me to escort you today, Little Miss Lawine.” Goddamn, Kanne. She’s clearly more comfortable on some battlefields than others

They bump into Frieren’s party, seeking a snack to calm down Fern. And then Wirbel shows up, in need of a warrior to cover the front line for a local bounty

Fern says she was surprised that Wirbel harbored no ill intentions, given his behavior during the exam. It seems she never got a particularly good read on him – Wirbel tried to project a bloodthirsty air, but Übel easily read through him. Not a terrible surprise, given Fern’s lack of socialization and general tendency to make oversimplified initial assumptions about people

Lawine and Kanne present the opposite of Richter’s perspective, offering gifts to solidify their bond with Frieren

“Maybe it’s because I want people to remember me.” Kindness is itself another form of partial immortality

“Change someone’s life, even in just a small way.” No gods or heavens await, but that only makes it all the more important that we enact positive change in the here and now. “While I’m alive, I’ll make tiny changes to the earth.”

Then at last, the second round of testing is announced

And Done

In quintessential Frieren fashion, the conclusion of our first test served as a perfect opportunity to slow things down, to meditate on the relationships forged during that first trial, and consider how these characters might impact each other’s lives in the future. Though our title “Future Enemies” obviously referred to Lawine’s last-minute declaration of how the next round will go, every moment of this episode demonstrated that to be a somewhat tongue-in-cheek label, a denial of the positive ways these characters have already changed each other’s lives. Life is brief and glory is fleeting; while we can, we should at least dedicate ourselves to making those precious tiny changes, the most noble form of immortality.

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