The Hero Sword is too mysterious not to theorize about it a little more.
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Sousou no Frieren) spoilers ahead!
Summary
- Ep. 12 shows that Himmel did not get the Hero Sword from the stone.
- Perhaps, there is a greater evil that will be defeated with this sword by another hero.
- The Sword is undeniably magical since monsters hate it. It was also supposedly left by the Goddess.
- Possibly the Goddess wanted the sword to test determination in those trying to save the world. If so, Himmel passed the Sword’s test!
Episode 12 shows us the Hero Sword. Turns out, Himmel did not manage to pull it out of the stone. He spent the entire trip with a replica sword and killed the Demon King with it.
In the Frieren universe, people took Himmel’s failure as a sign that he was not a true hero. The legends about him claim that he did pull out the sword to save his reputation. But we wonder, what if Himmel did pass the Hero Sword test after all?
A Greater Evil
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On the one hand, Himmel might be a hero, just not the hero that the sword is waiting for. There may be a future horror that will threaten the world even more, and the hero meant to destroy that danger might pull the Sword out from the stone. Given that the Sword attracts all sorts of monsters, there should be something magical about it. It is even rumored to be left in the stone by the Goddess! The Demon King probably just was not an emergency for the Sword.
A Different Test
On the other hand, we wonder if the Sword could have a different purpose. The Goddess could test potential heroes with her Sword in other ways. As we noted before , Himmel showed great qualities when he failed to get the Sword. He was resilient and shrugged off his failure. He also showed determination.
We wonder if that could be the reason for the Sword in the first place. Perhaps it is not meant to select some predestined hero; perhaps it is there to test a future hero’s determination, resilience, or any number of other qualities.
If a chunk of metal can make the hero give up on their quest, they are probably not a good, real hero. Maybe, in showing his willingness to be a fake hero, Himmel actually passed the test of the Goddess and became a real hero.