Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Episode 8 Review

The Guillotine and Executioners

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Episode 8 seems to confirm my theory that this arc won’t last very long. Aura the Guillotine, one of the Seven Sages of Destruction has three subordinates. And, right at the start of the episode, Frieren easily killed one of them.

But, it’s pretty clear that Draht was the weakest of the demons. He claims that his magic threads are among the demons’ strongest spells. However, having a single, strong spell doesn’t make you a strong demon. His impatience and the fact that he underestimated his opponent are what made him weak.

We can assume that Linie is stronger than Draht. At the very least, she’s smarter than Draht was. But, we also know she excels at sensing magical energy. And, it looks like the type of magic she specializes in is electricity. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see her fight in this episode.

Lügner is clearly the strongest of the three Executioners. He serves as their leader, which is a good sign of this. But, he also survived a blast of Fern’s attack magic, which he claims would have killed Linie.

The type of magic Lügner uses is blood magic. He’s able to freely control the blood that leaves his body. But, that appears to be the only magic he uses. And the reason is that, according to him, demons devote their lives to mastering a single type of magic. I guess Megumin’s obsession with explosion magic would fit right in here.

Aura the Guillotine is the demon we know the least about. We don’t have any idea what kind of magic she uses to fight. But, it looks like her army is made up of empty suits of armor. She might use some kind of puppetry.

Ordinary Offensive Magic

Back in Episode 3, we learned about how magic evolved over the past 80 years. Qual was a high-ranking demon who developed killing magic. And he was so strong that the hero’s party had to seal him rather than kill him.

But, by the time the seal broke 80 years later, Qual’s killing magic was standard offensive magic. Humans had taken his spell, reverse-engineered it, and improved upon it. We saw this in two ways in that episode. First, Fern’s defense magic could block Qual’s spell. And second, Frieren could use his killing magic back at him.

What’s cool about Episode 8 is that it expands on this further. Unlike Qual, Aura and her Executioners haven’t been sealed for 80 years. They’ve been alive and able to keep up with the advancements in magic. The killing magic developed by Qual no longer poses a threat to modern demons.

However, that doesn’t mean modern demons have nothing to fear. If someone were to develop an even stronger spell, it could harm them. And, that’s exactly what Frieren has spent the past 80 years doing. She took standard offensive magic and turned it into a demon-killing machine.

This is important because that’s the offensive magic she taught Fern. What Fern doesn’t realize is that her “ordinary offensive magic” isn’t what she thinks it is. It’s not ordinary offensive magic. It’s anti-demon magic. And, we can assume that Fern’s magic is also much stronger than she believes it is.

But, why can we assume that? The first clue comes from the simple fact that she didn’t realize she wasn’t using normal magic. To her, powerful magic like that is normal. And the second clue is that Stark is the same way. Like Fern, he doesn’t recognize his true strength.

Frieren the Slayer

When Frieren said she was leaving the town after escaping from prison, I thought she was serious. That only lasted a few seconds, though. As soon as she told Fern and Stark to deal with the demons in the town themselves, I understood her plan.

Frieren obviously wanted Fern and Stark to get some combat experience without her. She knows how strong they actually are. And she needs them to figure that out, too. Though, I have a feeling that this encounter won’t be enough.

Stark defeated a solar dragon on his own and still doesn’t realize how strong he is. So, I doubt Fern’s going to realize how strong she is even after she defeats Lügner and Linie. She and Stark will probably think they got lucky. Or, they might have some sort of plan they’ll think saved them. In reality, it’s their own strength.

But, anyway, the main reason Frieren told Fern and Stark to deal with the demons is that she has a bigger fight. Frieren doesn’t have time to waste on the small fries. She’s going straight for Aura and her army.

Now, at the start of this episode, Frieren claimed to be stronger than Aura. I don’t doubt her. She likely is stronger than Aura. But, she also acknowledged that Aura is a strong opponent. And since she doesn’t like fighting strong opponents, she wants to get the fight over with ASAP.

Oh, and also Frieren has apparently killed more demons than anyone else ever. The demons even call her Frieren the Slayer because of it. So, something tells me that Aura and her army aren’t going to last very long. The only question is whether she or Fern and Stark will wrap up their fight first.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Episode 8? Are you expecting Aura to be defeated soon or to be a longer-term antagonist? Do you think Fern or Stark will realize their true strength first? And, whose battle do you expect to wrap up first, Frieren’s or Fern’s and Stark’s? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 9 is available now.