Highlights
- Frieren underestimates her need for connection, leading to minimal interaction with others and missed opportunities for deeper bonds.
- Ignoring the passage of time, Frieren delays important tasks while her human allies cannot afford the luxury of endless time.
- Frieren’s reluctance to teach magic initially and delay in understanding human emotions showcase her tendency to overlook crucial opportunities for growth.
While the last great mage, Frieren, is exceptional when it comes to magic, the same cannot be said for her interactions with people. As someone immensely skilled with magic and blessed with a long life, Frieren tends to underestimate the needs of people and makes wrong decisions here and there in the Frieren anime series.
Time often solves most problems. However, with Himmel’s death, Frieren learns that not all problems are solvable, and they often come with regret about what cannot be changed. In Frieren, the titular protagonist often makes terrible decisions while struggling to learn to communicate and interact with humans. That said, some of her decisions are worse than others.
8 Underestimating Her Own Need For Connection
Even Frieren Needs People
Perhaps because of their long lives, most elves do not seek out companionship, as they eventually watch everyone around them die off. While this reduces the need for an elf to connect with others, Frieren still underestimates the level of connection she needs to be able to properly communicate with people.
By underestimating her need for companionship, the elven mage often participates in the bare minimum level of interaction with others. While Frieren herself does not believe she needs to establish a connection with others, her fondest memories and deepest smiles have always been with people and never when she was alone.
7 Ignoring The Passage Of Time
Frieren Has All The Time In The World; Her Allies Do Not
As the great mage Serie stated, elves live for almost an eternity. Because of this, elves like Frieren can put off tasks for years until they become dire. Unlike Frieren, who ignores the passage of time, her human allies are unable to do that as they live very short lives in comparison to elves.
Generally, ignoring the passage of time because her time seems endless isn’t one of Frieren’s best decisions. As stated by Serie, Frieren is relatively unskilled for her age, showing that the elf doesn’t train all the time. Moreover, when it comes to making a stop on their journey to Auberst, Frieren is often fine with delaying the journey for years on end, a luxury her companions do not have.
6 Isolation After Her Companions’ Deaths
Frieren Almost Went Back To How She Was Before She Met Himmel
After the death of the Demon Lord, the hero’s party disbanded, and the humans in the party died off, with Eisen becoming old. Rather than form bonds with people again, the elven mage Frieren decided to live in isolation once more, as she had been doing prior to joining Himmel’s party.
Interestingly, although Frieren decided to seek out and understand human emotions after Himmel’s death, she still decided to live in isolation. Thankfully, Heiter managed to deceive her into taking up Fern as an apprentice, or the elven mage might not have changed her way of life despite the regret she harbored.
5 Ignoring The Importance Of Small Moments
Even The Little Things Bear Significance
As someone who has lived for almost an eternity and will continue to do so, Frieren often disregards small moments and rarely attaches importance to them. Even after her 10-year journey with Himmel, Eisen, and Heiter, Frieren stated that their journey was only a tiny fraction of her life, and it seemed like she didn’t think it had much impact on her overall existence.
Only after the journey did she realize that the 10 years in her over 1000-year-long lifespan had changed her. Similarly to the journey, the little interactions she has with people, the mundane tasks she undergoes, and even the seemingly insignificant moments she experiences all contribute to a greater change, but the elf seems to underestimate the little things.
4 Refusing To Teach Magic Initially
Frieren Can Change The World By Teaching Magic
After the separation of the hero’s party, Heiter took in Fern, a war orphan on the verge of committing suicide. Feeling sorry for her, Heiter asked himself what Himmel would have done in similar shoes and decided to raise her. As his end neared, Heiter decided to have Frieren look after her, but the mage from the party of heroes refused, seeing Fern as a burden.
Frieren is undoubtedly one of the greatest and most knowledgeable mages in the current world. As someone who seeks to enhance the level of magic present, Frieren could easily do this by teaching magic as Serie does. Thankfully, Frieren eventually decided to teach Fern magic, but if she had been doing so in the past, she could’ve made an impact through the various eras she’s lived through.
3 Delaying Her Understanding Of Human Emotions
Could Have Done Without Regret
Before joining Himmel’s party, Frieren lived most of her life in isolation and interacted minimally with humans. After joining Himmel’s party, Frieren went on a 10-year-long journey with Himmel and the others, but she still did not put effort into understanding human emotions.
By having Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen at her side each day for 10 years, Frieren could have gotten to master human emotions. However, as the unsocial mage that she is, the elf did not put much effort into mastering human emotions, which would have allowed her to connect more deeply with her comrades. Only after Himmel died did Frieren realize her mistake.
2 Not Saying Goodbye To Himmel
A Farewell Would Have Gone A Long Way
On returning to the human lands after the death of the Demon Lord, a celebration was held for Himmel’s party. As the people praised and celebrated the heroes, the heroes themselves went to a quiet place at night to watch a meteor shower called the Era Meteors. During this time, Frieren and the heroes reminisce about their 10-year-long journey.
Shortly after, Frieren departs without much thought as they all agree to see each other in 50 years, the time for the next Era Meteors. After 50 years, Frieren reappears and takes the party to see the meteor shower. Shortly after, Himmel dies. It’s only after he dies that Frieren realizes she could have done so much with him. Moreover, Frieren never got to say a proper goodbye before his death.
1 Causing Rifts Instead Of Forming Deeper Connections
Frieren Often Overlooks Her Chances To Get To Know Humans Better
During her world-shaking battles with the rest of the hero’s party, Frieren was never an empathetic individual. However, after the death of Himmel, Frieren took it upon herself to become more empathetic and try to understand humans better. Despite her decision to better understand humans, Frieren still overlooks opportunities to empathize with them. This is particularly seen through her interactions with Fern.
In situations where Frieren can easily empathize with Fern, she ends up getting on Fern’s nerves, causing a rift between them both. While this can be blamed on Frieren’s socially awkward personality, Frieren can do without overlooking opportunities for empathy and should try to understand humans without a rift first forming.
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