• WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    15 days ago

    I’m a child-appearing demon who kills people, gets spared because I call out for my mother, and get a chance to kill more

    Just like meemaw!!

    I spent more than a human lifespan perfecting magic that just fucking kills people

    Reminds me a pawpaw!!

    I’m a demon commander who uses a scale to judge how much mana a person has and whoever has more gets to control the other person

    SHE’S LITERALLY ME!!!

    What do you waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnntttttttttttttttttt???

  • GoodGuyWithACat [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    15 days ago

    Some people were upset about

    spoiler

    demons being ontologically evil, even so far as a child demon was needed to be killed. But I I enjoyed it. I love media that shows different types of “humanity” among fantasy, but I also enjoy media where yes there is true evil. And the reveal that Frieren was playing the demons the same way they played humans made the arc all so worth it. Making demons the white folk analogy works it for me.

    That arc is where the show transformed from “comfy DND” to “actually epic fantasy”. (Don’t worry, it still retains comfy vibes between the action)

    • CriticalOtaku [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      15 days ago

      No, we’re upset because the demons in Frieren aren’t ontologically evil, they’re presented in universe as a sentient race with thoughts and emotions, but are “evolutionary adapted to prey on humans” and thus cannot be trusted.

      I don’t think I need to explain why this evolutionary psychology bullshit is fucked up in real life when real white supremacists and Zionists use that kind of rhetoric to justify genocide, and I think I’m entitled to feel put off when it suddenly gets injected into the comfy slice-of-life “contemplating the nature of time” show I had been enjoying up to that point.

    • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      15 days ago

      The demon king is a trope. The demon king is an excuse to tell the story they want to tell. The purpose of Frieren isn’t to tell a story about the morally complicated nature of demons and their interactions with humans. It’s about the passage of time, legacy, and the asynchronicity between the elven lifespan and the human lifespan. You already have a bunch on your plate. You don’t want pizza AND pasta.

      • AF_R [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        15 days ago

        Yeah I genuinely don’t understand the folks who are getting upset at Frieren of all things.

        Like, yes I get the undertones of evolutionary psychology. Nobody is saying that shit is cool. However, to say the demons in Frieren justifies that thought is a bit reaching. The point of the demons is to subvert typical fantasy anime villain tropes and make Frieren (the character) look cool. No it’s not cool that the author used racist undertones to do so.

        One could even view the argument as a defense of fascism; fascists and psychopaths are sentient people with thoughts and feelings too, should they be allowed in society?

        Again, evolutionary psychology is not cool. Nobody is saying it is. But being bothered by Frieren to the point where it ruins the experience is the opposite of critical consumption of media. We all wear clothes made by slaves and browse this site on devices mined by slaves and assembled using slavery and yet don’t condemn each others existences daily.

        There are fascists in the streets killing people right now. It’s okay to take a breather sometimes with a media that is slightly flawed while recognizing its flaws.

  • Frivolous_Beatnik [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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    15 days ago

    The original seems like more chud malding about DMC making demons a direct Palestinian refugee allegory and though the show hasn’t been out for a week, fuck am I tired of chud takes on it “ruining the franchise” already…

    • DragonBallZinn [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      15 days ago

      It’s weird because they forget the basics of DMC.

      Sparda was a demon and said “fuck this shit” and rebelled. Demons clearly have agency, and Dante is proof demons can have complex emotions because he literally named his shop after the comforting words of a friend after he realized he was mourning someone. That’s not even mentioning Trish’s entire backstory.

      So many of these hogs are just Disney adults deep down.

    • doublepepperoni [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      15 days ago

      DMC making demons a direct Palestinian refugee allegory

      It’s just such a bizarre move given how humans have never done anything but get constantly owned by demons for the entire history of the franchise. I don’t think they’ve ever even named an actually existing real country or nationality in any of the games so to make the series about the US doing imperialism on demons is a bit of a headscratcher

      • Frivolous_Beatnik [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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        15 days ago

        It’s a plotline that didn’t exist previously sure, but I think there’s plenty of room for “normal” demons to exist alongside the very militarized traditional evil demon Mundus followers yknow?

  • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]@hexbear.net
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    15 days ago

    The people reading “foreigner” or “other races” into the Demons are normally the dumbest motherfuckers in the world. So buying into that discourse is dangerous in that you let other dumb idiots think they are justified. But I personally find the demons fascinating because their presence is a reminder of the actions and ramifications that take decades, if not hundreds, if not thousands of years to develop. It’s obvious a demon saw Frieren hide her powerlevel and then reveal her true scale. So in a long enough timelines demons will adapt.