Summary
Despite humans being the most predominant portrayed race, the elves are also in the limelight—at least through Frieren, due to her being the protagonist of theFrieren: Beyond Journey’s Endseries. Of the four major faces, including humans, elves, dwarfs, and demons, humans have been shown to live the shortest while elves live the longest.
Although the elves are a major race inFrieren: Beyond Journey’s Endand they live a long time, they have little to no reproduction success; meanwhile, humans typically begin to die off after 80–90 years of age but reproduce very rapidly. An elf living for a thousand years is considered nothing special, and living for a millennium certainly comes with some benefits, but do the rewards outweigh the risks, or vice versa?
Elven Society And Paradigm
Little is known about elven society, their cultures, and traditions. However, elves often try to leave their mark on history or fade into obscurity,as seen with Frieren, Serie, and Kraft.
Serie and Frieren definitely made an impact, as Serie has greatly contributedto modern-day magic, whether directly or indirectly. As for Frieren, she lived in obscurity for a long time until she joined Himmel’s party and journeyed with them to defeatthe Demon King. After that, however, Frieren simply went back to living her mundane life of training and collecting vain spells as a hobby, as she lived without garnering too much attention. If not for her strong desire to see Himmel again and get to know him better, Frieren might simply have continued to live as a hermit for the rest of her life.
This shows that because of their long lives, most elves detach themselves from the world and portray little emotion. They see most things as the passing of time and believe events that occur over a decade—what would be a long time to humans—is merely less than a thousandth of their lifespan and bear little significance. This was especially seen in Frieren, whothought that there was no need to attach emotions to her journeywith Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen as it occupied so little of her lifespan.
Long Life: A Curse Or A Blessing?
Depending on the individual and the situation of the world, a long life spanning over a millennium could be either a blessing or a curse.
As a blessing, living over a thousand years allows a person to witness the past, present, and future, as one would know what the world used to be, what it currently is, and what it will be in many years to come. Various civilizations would come and go, and a single individual would witness it all. While many tend to dread long lives because they do not want to be incapacitated as they grow older, elves hardly have that problem, as despite living for over a millennium, Frieren still looks like a teenager and can wield her staff agilely to defeat powerful demons such asAura the Guillotine.
Despite the alleged advantages of living a long life, Kraft the Monk, a healthy and fit elf, lamented the fact that everyone has long since forgotten his accomplishments. To this extent, he stated that his golden days, when he was widely known, were long over.
When Kraft met Frieren, he asked if she knew who he was and what he did, and Frieren responded negatively. Seeing as how neither he nor Frieren had heard of the other, Kraft mentioned that whether or not God exists, he believes it would be more convenient for a God to exist, as no one remembering who he was or what he had done throughout his long life would truly be sad.
Moreover, probably because of their long lives, most elves tend to treat most relationships they have established nonchalantly, as they will eventually see their loved ones die over many generations. Many would argue that being able-bodied while living a long life is a blessing; however, watching your loved ones die due to the passage of time is certainly not a place anyone would want to be. Moreover, dealing with existential boredom and experiencing detachment from rapidly changing societies could also be seen as disadvantages. Frieren even admitted this when she stated that she couldn’t be bothered to keep meeting the requirements of different mage associations to be called a first-class mage.
Tragic Events In Elven Society
Despite living such long lives, the elves are scarce, and Kraft even thought they had died out, and he was the last of his kind until he met Frieren. Further, because they live so long, elves tend not to feel romantic feelings or the need to reproduce like humans. They simply live their lives doing mundane things to feed or cure their existential boredom.
Apart from their lack of drive to reproduce, many of the elves were wiped out while Frieren was just a child. At the time, the Demon King ordered his soldiers to massacre the elves. Therefore, besides those present in Frieren’s village, it’s possible the demons also massacred various other elves across the continent. This massacring of the elves further contributed to their going extinct, as they were never a lot to begin with.
Significance Of The Paradoxical Tragedy
The paradoxical tragedy of the elves is all about how, despite living way longer lives than humans, they understand the nature of life less and enjoy it less. And so it begs the question:Has their long life done more good than bad?Regardless of the answer, it seems that some elves like Kraft believe it has done them harm as many who knew him have passed on, and now he only has God to remember his acts. While Frieren, who was initially very apathetic towards things and people in general, has become less apathetic and more involved in the lives of her comrades—Fern and Stark—while she aims to know her past comrades, Himmel and Heiter, better by going to Aureole (heaven). So, the ball truly is in the court of an interpreter to decide whether the question can be answered in the negative or positive.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s Endis available to stream onCrunchyroll.
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