Why Do Frieren Characters Show So Little Emotion?

Summary:

• Fans wonder why so many characters in Frieren show little to no emotions.
• Elves don’t show many emotions in general, and for the exam participants, it also makes sense.
• There are multiple characters in the anime who show their emotions in different ways.

If you’ve been watching Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Sousou no Frieren), you might have been wondering about the way characters express emotions. Or, more specifically, about why most of them don’t show them that much.

That might feel like they’re cold and distant — and while for some characters, this is understandable, for others this might feel wrong. There’s no common answer for every character, but most of the time, it actually makes sense.

Elves experience time and emotions differently

Frieren herself showing little to no emotions — outside of moments when she’s suddenly under stress — is perfectly understandable. In fact, that’s actually a part of the anime’s themes: Frieren experiences the passage of time differently from humans, and this makes her cold and distant by human standards.

Serie, who is an even older elf who taught Frieren’s teacher, might feel even more distant than Frieren herself. It’s understandable why: she lived for so long that she saw civilizations rise and fall — every event in the series happens in a blink of an eye for her.

Mages tend to show little emotion

While it’s fairly understandable for elves, this still doesn’t explain the lack of emotions for other characters. More specifically, many first-class mage candidates showed no emotions — but that actually makes sense as well.

Mages generally have to be calmer and more collected than others — and this may be mistaken for being emotionless. To get to the first-class exam, you have to be good at controlling yourself and not losing your calm. Considering the fact that mages already tend to be overly focused on their craft, it’s understandable why they can feel cold.

Not every character is like that

That said, there are exceptions. Not all characters in Frieren show little emotion — that trait is mostly limited to mages, and not even to all of them. There’s Übel, who’s notoriously unusual even among mages — and while her expression of emotions is certainly unique, she still can’t be called “cold.”

Even Fern, who is a part of Frieren’s party and also a first-class mage candidate, shows emotions pretty often. She might not express them with her face, but her actions speak for her — especially in her slowly developing relationship with Stark.

And Stark himself, of course, is very hot-headed — something that is a core trait of his character. It’s only the select few characters in the last arc of the anime who are emotionless, not all of them.