Frieren's Demons are Evil Because They're Human

The second season of Frieren has begun, which means another round of deliberate misunderstandings of its depiction of demons. Following the first season, a large number of right-wing extremists latched onto the story, pretending that it agreed with their worldview and that its depiction of an inherently evil race of demons was an allegory for all the real-world minorities they despise.

Naturally, that isn't what Frieren's demons actually are. Today I bring you an alternative interpretation: demons are evil not because they represent any individual group, but because they represent humans as a whole. They are a dark reflection of humanity, of how we treat those we do not view as people.

This interpretation came to me as I was watching the second episode of season 2. Near the end of that episode, the group encounter and kill a demon while out on an errand; before their brief battle, they have a very interesting exchange with the demon. It goes like this:

Frieren: "There are no corpses left, are there?"
Demon: "I killed them so I could eat them. I had to in order to survive."
Frieren: "Even though you can eat things other than humans?"
Demon: "Why is that a reason not to eat humans?"

In this scene, the demon tries to justify her actions. She is entirely convinced she is in the right and sees no flaw or hypocrisy in her own logic. Now, why do I think that makes Frieren's demons human? To illustrate, let's take the same exchange again, but replace the demon with a human and Frieren with something humans eat.

Human: "I killed them so I could eat them. I had to in order to survive."
Cow: "Even though you can eat things other than beef?"
Human: "Why is that a reason not to eat cows?"

In real life, the majority of people understand that killing animals is cruel, and most would never eat an animal they had personal attachment to, such as a pet. We also place strict cultural limits on which animals are "acceptable" to hunt and eat; in the West, eating cats is considered an act of unimaginable cruelty. Many people also understand that modern meat processing plants keep their animals in extremely cruel conditions.

Despite all of this, the vast majority of humans are not vegetarians. We know that slaughtering animals is cruel, and we can survive off of foods other than meat, but we still continue to eat meat because we enjoy its taste. Our food preferences supersede the moral issue of slaughter. That is to say, Frieren's demons view humans the exact same way humans view animals. They kill and eat humans because they don't view them as people, but as cattle—for many, their favorite food. They slaughter humans with as little thought as we exterminate pests.

Many generalize the demons in Frieren as cold, emotionless beings, and while many of them do have listless dispositions, we see several examples to the contrary throughout the series. The primary example is Aura the Guillotine, who is absolutely brimming with personality; most other demons are more subdued, but they absolutely do have defined personalities and often do feel emotion. It is not that demons lack personality and emotion, but that they simply feel a different set of emotions than humans, to a different degree and for different reasons. This relationship between humans and demons can once again be compared to the relationship between humans and animals; just as demons cannot understand human emotions, a human could never hope to understand the emotions of an ant, or vice versa.

The idea that demons view humans like animals isn't particularly revolutionary, but the encompassing logic ties them more strongly to the overarching themes of Frieren as a series. It's a story all about enjoying life as it comes, about doing good where you can simply because it's the right thing to do. Demons accentuate these themes because they are not necessarily malicious; they, too, believe they are simply enjoying normal lives, and that what they do to humans is "normal" and "natural".

Frieren's demons represent the darker side of humanity and what it is capable of. It is wrong to say that "humans are the real monsters", but it's also wrong to say that humans are wholly good. As being possessing free will, we are uniquely capable of both incredible good and incredible evil. Demons stand not only for those who choose evil, but for the unspoken evils that humanity accepts as "normal" or inevitable.

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This was a much shorter and quite different article than the bulk of what I post here, but I hope it was an interesting and enjoyable read nonetheless. After seeing some online discourse regarding Frieren's demons cropping back up, I wanted to pitch in with my two cents and get my personal thoughts across regarding what they really represent. I'd be interesting to hear what others think, as well as whether or not you'd be interested in more short analyses in the same vein as this post. Thanks for reading!