Frieren: Beyond Journey's End: Killing Magic Show Only

March 16, 2024 3:10 PM - Season 1, Episode 3

While retracing the path she took on her adventure with her former traveling companions, Frieren confronts an old enemy.

We briefly meet Qual, a demon that Frieren sealed away with her original traveling party because he was too powerful to defeat. The seal is about to wear out, so Frieren is back to release this terrifying, formidable opponent who eliminated 70% of the local mages back in his day... as a lesson for her teenage apprentice Fern. Uh, what?

The show's preoccupation with the passage of time results in an amusing twist ending to a short battle, as Frieren informs Qual that in the intervening 80 years his defence-piercing spell Zoltraak has been thoroughly studied, replicated and improved upon to the point where it is now magic for babies. Qual is clever enough to see how the new defensive magic works against it but not enough to stop Frieren from obliterating him with his own spell.

posted by valrus (1 comment total)

This episode is mainly about introducing the spell Zoltraak - not because it was such a feared spell in the past, but because it's going to become Fern's signature spell/beatstick in later episodes. (Seriously, she's going to make Qual look like a piker with his own spell.) We also get the first "proper" (for certain definitions of "proper") fight in the series, which should give viewers an idea what the action will look like when we get to actual fights with genuine stakes on the table. I also find it hilarious that the Crunchyroll clip from this episode is titled "When Your Strat Becomes The New Meta", which really sums it up.

Also of note here is the introduction of the song "Zoltraak", which basically becomes Fern's leitmotif - a Celtic-influenced piece that really captures the young mage's true feelings about magic.
posted by NoxAeternum at 8:05 PM on March 16 [1 favorite]