Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Episode 18 Review

The Strongest Mages

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Episode 18 starts off with some very interesting information. As we know, Frieren and Fern are heading to Äußerst to get their first-class mage certifications. But, this isn’t something just any mage can do.

As you’d expect, only the best mages around are able to become first-class mages. And, of the roughly 2,000 currently active mages, only 45 of them are first-class. The classes go from ninth to first, and for reference, Fern is currently a third-class mage. What about Frieren, though? Surely she’s already first-class mage material.

I doubt anyone watching this series wouldn’t consider Frieren to be first-class. But, would you consider her to be the strongest mage around? According to her, we shouldn’t believe that. She may be the strongest mage alive who we know of. However, she hasn’t always been the strongest mage and still may not be.

Frieren tells Fern and Stark that she’s lost fights to 11 mages in the past. Four of those were demons — and we know one of those demons was Qual. So, there’s at least one mage Frieren lost to in the past who she’s now stronger than.

Another one of the mages she lost to was a fellow elf. I assume this is the female elf we’ve seen in both OPs for the series. In the first OP, she was sitting on a throne, so I assumed she was the demon lord. And, she may very well be.

Finally, there were six human mages who defeated Frieren. It seems pretty obvious that Flamme was one of them. But, what about the other five? I’m not sure if we’ll ever learn who they are. However, this seems to be setting up the introduction of another strong, human mage (Übel?).

First-Class Mage Exam

At the start of the first-class mage exams, we’re introduced to some mages to watch. First is Wirbel, a second-class mage and captain of the Northern Magic Corps. Second is Denken, an old second-class imperial mage. And third is Übel, a third-class mage who we met earlier in the episode.

We don’t have much more information about Wirbel and Denken. But, we know a fair bit about Übel. And what we know doesn’t seem good. She appears to love killing — as we saw when Kraft confronted her over the dismemberment of some bandits.

But, she doesn’t only kill criminals like bandits. According to one of the exam proctors, this is why she failed her first attempt at the exam. She killed the first-class mage who was serving as the proctor for that exam. So, we know she’s strong enough to kill even first-class mages.

This is why I was saying that Übel is probably the reason we learned that Frieren lost to six human mages in the past. That fun fact set up the idea that there are human mages even stronger (and more dangerous) than Frieren. Though, it also served to highlight that even Fern could surpass Frieren.

Anyway, the first part of the exam involves splitting the mages into teams of three at random. Frieren was paired up with Lawine and Kanne, two third-class mages who know each other. And Fern was paired up with Übel and some guy whose name we don’t know.

So, right away, we know there are going to be issues involving Übel. She might not try to harm Fern or her other teammate because she needs them in order to pass. But, she might try to kill some of the other mages.

To Catch a Stille

With the teams decided, the first part of the exam involves catching a bird. Simple, right? Well, it turns out that the bird the teams need to catch isn’t an ordinary bird. It’s called a Stille and it has some very unique abilities.

As Frieren puts it, “Stille are incredibly tough [and] their top speed is faster than the speed of sound.” So, even if you manage to catch one, it likely won’t stay caught for very long. And, that’s exactly what we see when Kanne and Lawine manage to trap one with their magic.

Kanne manipulated the water on the lake the Stille was drinking from. And Lawine froze the manipulated water around the Stille. That was a pretty good attempt. But, it’s not going to cut it. So, what’s Frieren’s team going to do? Does Frieren have a spell that will work?

Later in the episode, we see Frieren use some sort of binding spell on a larger bird. It’s possible that she could use this on the Stille. And, in fact, I’ll say it’s probable that she will. But, my guess is that she needs the Stille to be stationary to pull it off.

This is where Kanne’s observation comes in. She noticed that it’s not only the mages who can’t permeate the barrier. So, I’m predicting that they’re going to try to trap a Stille against the barrier and capture it when it can’t escape.

As for Fern’s team, the plan seems more straightforward. It’s pretty obvious, to me, that Übel’s just going to try to take out another team and steal their Stille. I mean, that’s what I would do if I was her. But, I can’t see Fern going along with this plan. She’s too nice.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Episode 18? Were you expecting Kraft to accompany Übel to Äußerst? Do you, like me, believe Denken was only introduced so that Übel could kill him during the exam? And, how do you think Frieren’s and Fern’s teams are going to catch the Stille? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 19 is available now.