I think a lot of people are being overly harsh on this article, which I think is a completely fair and competently written piece of criticism.
The central thesis of the criticism is that demons are portrayed without much in the way of moral complexity so that it can be used as a plot device to better highlight the changing and more relatable main character. I don’t disagree with this, but I also don’t disagree with many of the comments in this thread about how this serves the story very well and that creating moral complexity in this case is unnecessary. Both of these can be true at the same time.
Creative works always exist within the context of their creation. Without the fantasy works that came before it, Frieren would have to do tons of dry world building to establish the setting because the readers wouldn’t have any preconceived idea of what an elf, dwarf, demon, etc. is. In Frieren’s case, there is the added context of the Japanese media landscape in which poorly done plotlines sharing similar veneers of morally gray demons are all too common. This makes Frieren, an excellent story which smartly uses a straight evil portrayal of demons to feel like a subversion (Himmel being unambiguously good is a similar situation). However, just because Frieren is subverting badly written versions of morally gray demons, doesn’t change the fact that the demons in Frieren lack the moral complexity like the author is discussing.
In any case, this was an interesting read and helped me stay awake on the train this morning. Thanks for sharing!
anyhow2503@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The author seems very eager to leave the context of the fantasy world and draw comparisons to the real world, as if all fantasy has to be social commentary at the same time. The demons in this world are effectively aliens, tailormade in every possible way to be enemies of the other intelligent races. Why do they need complexity or present a nuanced moral dilemma? We’ve had that same exact setup just as many times as the “plainly evil enemy”. It’s a weird claim to me, that Frieren would be improved in any way by turning the demons into yet another plot twist about how all of this was really just the fault of humans or a grand conspiracy or whatever. The point about this being used to make a convenient punching bag in game-like settings to level up the heroes, doesn’t apply to Frieren either. Almost every confrontation against demons starts out humanizing them in some way, only to show how that is a misinterpretation of their outward appearance and empty words. It really hammers home the point that humans are incredibly susceptible to empathizing with anything that looks like one, which is exactly what makes them so dangerous and skilled at exterminating them.
The audience is constantly invited to empathize with demons, even if it doesn’t yield the expected result of a troubled, complex, but ultimately human character that the author is looking for. In my opinion.
Frieren plays with the “bad guy actually turns out to be relatable, maybe we can all just get along :)” trope very successfully.
6daemonbag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
I’ll admit it was incredibly jarring (for me) to experience Frieren outright say demons are 100% evil, cannot be trusted, and must be exterminated with prejudice. But what you say really is what makes it interesting. We’re so used to media humanizing villains in fiction that we just expect it at this point.
Flipping the trope and trend makes it novel again.
mo_lave@reddthat.com 9 months ago
I would just equate demons to Nazis
ReluctantZen@feddit.nl 9 months ago
Great comment. Explains the problem with the article quite well.