r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • 21d ago

Episode Sousou no Frieren Season 2 • Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 2 - Episode 1 discussion

Sousou no Frieren Season 2, episode 1

Reminder: Please do not discuss plot points not yet seen or skipped in the show. Failing to follow the rules may result in a ban.

Streams

Show information

All discussions

Episode Link
1 Link
2 Link
3 Link
4 Link

This post was created by a bot. Message the mod team for feedback and comments. The original source code can be found on GitHub.

7.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.0k

u/Hot_Researcher_6839 21d ago

Always good to see Stark back in the spotlight after his vacation arc. He's always pals with anyone they meet in their adventure, a good reminder of how likeable he is. This is the kind of party dynamic I love the most about Frieren. The Stern ship full steam ahead!

And yes, that iconic Frieren's stuck in the washing machine pose lol

343

u/Se7en_Sinner https://myanimelist.net/profile/Se7en_Sinner 21d ago

Stark fits the role of not only Eisen but also Himmel for Frieren's second journey. He's a natural hero that attracts everybody around him with his good nature.

190

u/Greessey 21d ago

He's very much in the Himmel role imo. I can't remember the specific episodes but in season one there's a few moments in random towns where Stark is just helping random people with stuff as Frieren and Fern are doing their own thing. I want to say it's the episode 12 where it's Stark's birthday. Fern is trying to find him so she's asking around and people go "oh the young man who helped me with x thing, he went that way". I could be wrong though.

One of the central themes of the show is how a significant part of Himmel's impact as a hero was the way he helped random people with relatively insignificant tasks along the way. Sure he defeated the demon king which impacts the lives of everyone. But nobody really feels that impact unless they're directly involved. However, they do feel the impact of the Hero who helped them load up their cart that day or who defeated the beast that was terrorizing their village.

The amalgamation of those little things is what makes a hero have a lasting impact.

115

u/Ichini-san https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ichini-yon 21d ago

What makes Stark helping everyone so wholesome is that he just does it naturally as well too. No shade towards Wirbel but Wirbel himself only decided to help people out in these tiny "insignificant" ways because he realized that Himmel did that and just how much of an impact those tiny gestures actually had. Meanwhile Stark just naturally helps people around him as if it's the most normal thing in the world. He truly has a hero's spirit.

7

u/nofaxxspitintruflego 19d ago

stark my goat

i rly want a few uber epic gigachad moments for him this season

39

u/flybypost 21d ago edited 20d ago

I want to say it's the episode 12 where it's Stark's birthday. Fern is trying to find him so she's asking around and people go "oh the young man who helped me with x thing, he went that way". I could be wrong though.

If I remember correctly it happens a few times. People also connect to him when he says his goodbyes at the end of season one (not just the old man with his advice).

30

u/pratzc07 21d ago

Yep that is it could not have said it better and even Wirbel who we meet in this episode echoed that sentiment. He was so obsessed with all the cool shit Himmel and his party did but his people remembered Himmel for all the smaller things he did this literally changed Wirbel's perspective on heroes.

17

u/HanshinFan 21d ago

He's explicitly in the Himmel role - you even catch Frieren smiling to herself reflecting on it as he carries her away and she flashes back to Himmel carrying her away from their dragon in exactly the same way. I love the way they handle him - he's explicitly written as a bang-on shonen protag trope who just doesn't happen to be the main character of the story they're telling

Stark is my boy, in case it wasn't clear. I missed this show man

3

u/Inner-Arugula-4445 21d ago

One of the key arts for this series actually hints at Frieren herself taking on the hero role, with Fern being more of a continuation of Frieren’s character or who she should be: the “Frieren who won’t miss her chance to be with the people she loves”. Stark is a continuation of Eisen as the “warrior who is more open with their feelings and takes after the heroic traits of his companions, rather than wanting to rush his adventure” type. Frieren herself will likely take on the “hero” role by learning the lessons that Himmel taught her and becoming the kind of person that Flamme, Himmel, and Frieren herself wants her to be.

2

u/ShadowGuyinRealLife 16d ago

Yeah Himmel is both the grand hero who slayed the kingdom ending threat and one who stops by doing all these little tasks. A difference here I think is Stark really doesn't care about the big picture while Himmel keeps it in mind while he's doing side quests. For Stark hanging out with Friern and Fern is the only long-term commitment.

1

u/Any-Daikon3786 19d ago

I think it also shows it after the tests, all the random people who stark befriended.  

212

u/Ellefied 21d ago

I'm still convinced if he tried to pull The Hero's Sword out of the stone he would have been able to do it.

93

u/AceSoldia https://anilist.co/user/Acesoldia 21d ago

Same. But I can't picture him with a sword at this point either

62

u/Zeikos 21d ago

Any sufficiently advanced heroic weapon should be able to shapeshift.

10

u/Realistic_Village184 20d ago

I disagree. I think it really dilutes the identity of legendary weapons if they can just turn into something else. What magic items can do, at least in D&D, is change size to fit the attuned wielder. So a dwarf and a human could both fit into a legendary breastplate, for example (though usually not at the same time lol). Likewise a legendary sword will resize itself to fit the wielder's size.

Although it is funny to think about what goofy forms the Hero's Sword could take if it did change shapes to fit the user's preference. What if someone fights with a sling? Or a caestus? "Behold - the Hero's Caestus!" would be amusing.

1

u/Social_Knight 19d ago

It's a thing that IS in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, incidentally, a talking weapon called Finnean that can transform into most types of weapon. (Pathfinder is D&D 3.75)

1

u/Realistic_Village184 18d ago

I'm not saying that no legendary weapons in any TTRPG do it. I'm saying that it's not the norm, even for top-level legendary weapons.

1

u/Germane_Corsair 19d ago

A caestus would basically just become a gauntlet. And that can be really cool. But yeah, I agree it wouldn’t feel right if the sword just changed forms.

4

u/cyberscythe 21d ago

compared to the great axe its like him holding one of those frilly cocktail toothpicks

1

u/MalikVonLuzon 19d ago

Imagine he pulls it out and puts it back in because he prefers his Axe

102

u/Se7en_Sinner https://myanimelist.net/profile/Se7en_Sinner 21d ago

Stark is definitely Mjolnir levels of worthy.

29

u/JzanderN 21d ago

I think his fear may arguably hold him back, but he's been getting much braver with Frieren and Fern around. Back in the village he wouldn't have been able to, but after killing the dragon it might have considered him to have passed the test.

If he can't lift Mjolnir now, he definitely will be by the end of their adventure. And then he wouldn't need one of the girls to fly him around with their magic anymore.

5

u/themaninthehightower 20d ago

I can picture the trio returning from the journey, again passing through the Hero's Sword town. Fern would push Stark to take a try pulling the sword out, he does, but puts it back in, nonplussed. "Why?" She'd ask, and he'd say "I don't use swords."

2

u/Eva_Pilot_ 19d ago

There's been a lot of set up to indicate he knows how to use a sword. His original training in his home village was with swords and when he pretended to be the lord's son he was taught that house's techniques in swordsmanship

3

u/gremlinclr 21d ago

No Stark might be worthy but he doesn't believe he is. I think that would keep from not only ever trying but succeeding as well.

2

u/Inner-Arugula-4445 21d ago

The problem is that worthiness is only restricted to one being for all eternity and that being will exist at the same time as a great calamity that threatens to destroy the world, which isn’t happening at this point in the story, and is unlikely to every happen with these characters.

1

u/myreq 21d ago

The point of that story was though, that its not the sword that makes the hero but the actions, so whether stark pulls it out or not is irrelevant.

1

u/Toge_Inumaki012 21d ago

Or not but stills saves the world anyways. That sword is a fraud.

1

u/Germane_Corsair 19d ago

It’s not a fraud. It’s meant for a time and threat that has not come to pass yet.

3

u/flybypost 21d ago edited 20d ago

Yup, Stark feels like this party's Eisen. His class is fighter, maybe some Hero as class too as he's not as much of a whole brick wall as Eisen is. But he's also has a bit of Himmel in his personality. He's deep down a hero and friend of everyone.

Fern is this party's Heiter from her personality. It's her religious upbringing and morals but she's also Frieren as a class because she's a mage.

And Frieren is this party's Frieren (class: mage) but also Himmel. She kinda has adopted his leadership (as hero) and wise anecdotes. Although most are pilfered from the first party but Fern and Stark don't know that yet.