Frieren 2×07 Review – “The Divine Revolte”

Frieren anime season 2 episode 7, titled ‘The Divine Revolte’, didn’t waste time when it came to having our party of heroes face a group of powerful demons.

Due to Genau being the current narrative focus exploring emotional connections amongst humans, ‘The Divine Revolte’ opened with a flashback showing Serie telling Methode she needed to pair up with Genau for a mission after his partner was killed during battle. In retrospect, it doesn’t really make sense for Genau and Methode to operate as a team. So, I appreciated the flashback providing some explanation to the (as of now) temporary duo. Also, points to Serie for making Genau shake Methode’s hand. Genau being closed off to other people was understandable. However, that didn’t excuse his unprofessionalism. They didn’t need to be friends, but Genau still had to show Methode some respect as his partner.

Jumping back to the present, it’s shared that Genau was familiar with the four-armed demon that led the attack on his village. Going by the name, The Divine Revolte, the four-armed demon’s lower body resembled a snake. Serving as a Demon General (from what I could understand), he had managed to create four magical blades. The special (and very dangerous) thing about the blades was how easily Revolte could change their physical attributes. This meant that, on will, Revolte could make the blades sharper, lighter, or heavier to confuse his opponents during battle.

According to Genau, Revolte was the one who killed his partner. Apparantly, Genau’s partner was too focused on saving a human child instead of doing what was necessary to destroy the demon. Genau described his partner as someone who was full of life and would go above and beyond to help those in need. However, such people, in Genau’s experience, didn’t live long in the dangerous world they operated in.

One of the interesting things about Genau’s character was how he kept on saying he didn’t care about others, and yet, all of his actions (from what we have seen) were somehow linked to him caring. In the previous episode, he mentioned feeling nothing for his childhood village. But we also saw him gather all of the dead bodies in a church and put a protective ward around the building to prevent creatures from feasting on the corpses.

The latest episode had Genau saying he would stay behind while the rest of the heroes tracked the demons because someone needed to be in the village when a bunch of humans came to transport the bodies to a safe burial site.

Genau seems to be suffering from a severe case of not allowing himself to be fully honest about his emotions. That dude is a big well of feelings, but has confused being emotional with being weak. Heck! Even him bringing up the question about whether or not he was a good person, considering the things he’s done in the name of completing missions, was him being emotional about his existence.

Even though Genau was currently incapable of emotional honesty, I think the rest of the characters could see through the ruse, especially Stark. I liked having Stark and Genau bonded over their past while they waited in the village, and the women went to track the demons.

Determining from what occurred during the recent attack, it was deduced that Revolte was ordering around three other demons. The theory from our leads was proven right when the narrative switched to Revolte talking to one of his minions about what the heroes might do next.

Due to the demons in Frieren treating humans as food, Revolte was someone who was quite knowledgeable about his potential prey. He and his demons had hit three villages to lure powerful mages (rich in mana) into his territory. Revolte was also aware that humans had the habit of looking after their dead. So, yeah, he knew the best time to attack would be when the party separated, which it did when the men stayed in the village, and the women walked into the woods.

The narrative made a point to let viewers understand that Revolte’s knowledge of human behavior wasn’t to be confused with his finding them intriguing or wanting to be like them. Instead, it was similar to humans learning as much as possible about the behavioral patterns of their next prey.

With Revolte arriving at the village to attack Stark and Genau, I’m very excited about their battle. Apparantly, Revolte’s strikes were too powerful for Stark to block head-on. So, he would need to focus on deflecting or dodging the sword strikes while Genau focused on landing some good hits on Revolte. Due to mages in Frieren having specialities, I’m quite intrigued by Genau’s ability to give himself angelwings. I wonder what other tricks he has up his sleeve.

As for Frieren, Fern, and Methode, their objective was to reach a deserted fort, as it would be the ideal site for demons. The trio couldn’t use long-range detection magic, as doing so could lead to pinpointing their location.

I liked the comedic moment shared between the women because of Methode’s need to give elves headpats. She had been patting Serie, much to the elder elf’s annoyance. However, having said that, Serie even allowing Methode to pat her head in the first place, regardless of the displayed annoyance, makes me think Serie might be into it somewhat.

Methode was ready for Frieren. She knew our titular character wouldn’t allow headpats without some kind of reward in return. Seeing Methode offer Frieren a grimoire housing a spell that lets you crack eggs without any of the eggshells falling made me laugh. Of course, Frieren was more than okay with headpats and even hugs with the grimoire as payment. Poor Fern!

The action commenced with two demons having tracked the mages. The guy demon summoned a thick mana fog that prevented the trio from detecting the demons as well as their incoming attacks. The girl demon decided to fight Methode because she sensed something interesting about Methode’s mana, while the guy demon took on Fern and Frieren.

I was quite surprised when Frieren made Fern face such a foe solo. Even though Fern mentioned how she was unable to sense his attacks, Frieren was confident Fern could defeat him. I have no doubt Fern will be victorious. However, I’m curious about why Frieren decided to keep moving while Fern and Methode fought. Frieren did say that the current mission was meant for First Class Mages, which she wasn’t. However, I think there’s more to her decision than the magical ranking system.

The demon who was shown talking to Revolte about human behavior didn’t appear to face the humans. That’s why I have a feeling that particular demon might be very dangerous because of her interest in humans as more than just food, and thus, Frieren would be the one to take her down.

What did you think of Frieren anime season 2 episode 7 ‘The Divine Revolte’?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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