Frieren episode 10 analysis

Mana Suppression

By far this is my favourite scene in the anime. Let’s take a deeper look and see how we got here. 

One of the first interactions between Frieren and her master Flamme is one where Freiren expresses the knowledge of flamme’s immense power. This surprises the powerful mage as she has always made an intense and consistent effort to hide her mana levels. 

We later discover that she does this specifically to kill demons, you see demons are a proud bunch and due to the simplicity of their civilization, power and power alone denotes status. So for the demons, one’s mana is as essential as one’s birth into nobility or peasantry. Flamme makes a mockery of this through her mana suppressions, the demons are often fooled into attacking what they perceive as a lesser enemy and killed easily. 

Robert Greene’s 3rd law of power

 This concept reminds me of the 3rd law of power amongst the 48 written by Robert Green. Conceal your intentions. In the chapter, green writes about Otto von Bismarck and how he unified Germany as the head of Prussia through hiding his intentions and suppressing himself in a way very similar to the mage Flamme. Just like Flamme he made a mockery of traditional politics in Prussia , in the mid 1800s the then king of Prussia was against going to war with austria and unifying germany.

Bismark was a deputy in the prussian parliament and a proud soldier certainly on the side of war but when the time came to vote. He acted vehemently against any war effort. He was promoted by the king for his anti-war position, he used the new position to strengthen the prussian army and consolidate his political power. Eventually he became the premier of Prussia and when it was time; he led the country into war. He crushed Austria and unified germany just as he planned. 

Flamme uses the 3rd law of power

Flamme used this exact approach with her concealment to kill even the most powerful demons, she passed this strategy on to Frieren who in turn passed this onto Fern. Just as Bismarks deception culminates in the unification of germany;

In episode 10 Falmme’s strategy leads to the rather unfair defeat of Aura the Guillotine sage of destruction. A great demon who has practiced her magic for more than 500 years , Aura represents exactly the type of demon that Flamme’s strategy best counters. In the guillotine arc Aura and Frieren are locked in battle with Aura sending hundreds of puppet soldiers to engage Frieren. Aura could have overpowered Frieren with the share number of her undead soldiers but because of her pride and confidence in her mana.

Frieren episode 10 analysis – Auserlese

She invoked her signature magic Auserlese. It weighs the soul of the target against Aura’s soul , the one with the greater mana gains total control over the other. Its a high risk, high reward spell and the type that only an arrogant demon would use. Aura believed that once she had gotten Frieren to use up lots of mana against the puppets she would become vulnerable to Auserlese. Aura the Guillotine was defeated through pure deceptions as the weight of Freirens immense hidden mana swung the scale in her direction. Giving Frieren total control over Aura’s body. We all know what happens next.

Frieren’s use of the 3rd rule of power is what bested Aura in this battle. The deception was far more powerful than any magic that could have been invoked. Consider the value and utility  of concealing your intentions as you go about restricting and defeating your enemies.