The World of Lucid Dreaming — A Thesis on Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

The World of Lucid Dreaming — A Thesis on Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Lucid Dream: A phenomenon where one is conscious that they are dreaming while still in the dream. In such cases, it is said that the dreamer can control the dream's content. — Wikipedia

1. Regarding Dreams

In Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, dreams are frequently used to great effect. What is characteristic, however, is how quickly the characters realize, "I am dreaming." Of course, this pattern isn't rare in shonen manga. Usually, heroes are lured into sweet or nightmarish worlds by an enemy, only to be shaken awake by some catalyst to return to reality. Yet, in Frieren, this transition is almost too casual. They realize "this is a dream" as if suddenly remembering a task on today's to-do list.

Denken, the imperial mage, sees a dream while being turned into gold during his battle with Macht of El Dorado. In it, his late wife, Lektüre, appears. Like anyone in a dream, Denken isn't surprised to see his long-dead wife standing before him. However, he doesn't rejoice either. Almost in the very next frame, he thinks, "...I see, so this is a dream." But the dream itself continues without him waking up; he is, in effect, having a lucid dream.

Another example is the episode involving the Hero Himmel and Frieren. In Volume 12, after touching the Goddess's Monument and returning to the past, Frieren faces Grausam of the Miraculous, one of the Seven Sages of Destruction. She is cast into a dream world where she and Himmel are at their own wedding ceremony. Grausam’s "Magic that Guides to Paradise" can "realize even the happy dreams one has given up on as impossible."

This implies that at a subconscious level, the two loved each other—or at least, that Himmel loved Frieren. Yet, at the moment of the wedding kiss, Himmel looks at Frieren, who is waiting with closed eyes, and asks, "You have a solution, don't you? What should I do?" He knew from the start that this was an illusion created by Grausam. (Himmel’s quality as a hero seems to lie in his extraordinary mental fortitude, compared to Frieren’s mana or Eisen’s combat prowess). Still, the dream persists as a lucid one.

Furthermore, in Volume 15, this mechanism surrounding dreams is deployed on an even larger scale. The great mage Serie intrudes into the dream of the Emperor of the Empire. Both are aware it is a dream, yet they discuss the future of their paths as if holding a summit in reality.

What does this signify? As mentioned, using dreams in battle is common in other works. If deceived by a foe, one must wake up. To survive and find the truth, one must remain awake. This reflects a common worldly wisdom found in modern society: in the harsh games of reality, those who are absent-minded or trapped in their own delusions have no hope of winning. We are constantly required to be as calm and objective as possible.

However, in Frieren, "waking up" is subtly different from merely "awakening from a dream." This is because the reality Frieren and her companions inhabit is different from the reality we know. This isn't just because the work follows the fantasy tropes established since Dragon Quest, but because a different yardstick is used to measure reality itself.

"Memory" is a primary theme of Frieren, but it is approached from the perspective of its fleetingness and unreliability. As an elf, Frieren is a "long-lived species," a mage who has lived for over a thousand years. This is equivalent to ten human lifetimes, or over 33 generations. From her perspective, human memory and history are entirely unreliable.

This is emphasized repeatedly. It is especially clear regarding "fame," the most conspicuous aspect of memory and history. Flamme, Frieren’s mentor who spread magic to humanity, hasn't been forgotten after 1,000 years, but the statues built to commemorate her look nothing like the real person. Furthermore, most of Flamme's remaining grimoires are considered forgeries.

Frieren has no interest in the Continental Magic Association organized by Serie or the certifications they grant. This is because titles and qualifications lose meaning as eras change; indeed, the "Holy Cane Emblem" she possesses was once reserved only for great mages, but today, almost no one recognizes it.

Similarly, the elf monk Kraft, whom Frieren’s party encounters, was likely one of the heroes who once saved the world, yet no one remembers him. The same goes for Lernen, called the "Hero of the North," who currently lives as a vagrant in his temporary guise.

Kreis (nicknamed "Gorilla"), Sein’s childhood friend who has fallen to the dark side as a "Shadow Warrior," seems to be tormented by this point. For someone who left home yearning to be a hero, the sight of a true hero like Lernen being forgotten and reduced to vagrancy must have been a shock. If the serialization continues, this theme of "oblivion" will likely be explored through Kreis.

In this way, in the world of Frieren, our memories are presented as far more unreliable and ambiguous than we usually assume. This is a crucial point. The system we call "reality" is essentially constructed by our memories. If the memories that comprise reality are unreliable, then reality itself must be fragile. Through Frieren’s thousand-year sense of time, "reality" is relativized and stretched thin until it becomes translucent.

Therefore, the inverse can be said: if reality isn't all that "real," then the opposition between dream and reality loses its meaning. If love, success, and honor are fleeting and destined to be forgotten anyway, then there is no need to think bitterly, "This is reality," when faced with the failure or limits of those "dreams."

The Emperor, meeting Serie in a dream, uses a "magic tool to determine if one is dreaming" before discussing matters with her. The distinction between reality and dreams in this world is that blurred. In Frieren, reality and dreams do not conflict. There is only a difference in "brightness" between the two; in the consciousness of the characters, there is no clear boundary, only a relative difference in how "awake" one is. This is likely why dreams appear so often and why the characters naturally accept the rare experience of lucid dreaming.

2. The Absence of Sex

Another characteristic of Frieren is the limited mention of sex. At most, there are "blown kisses," "potions that melt only clothes," and "skirt-flipping." These are quite modest even by shonen manga standards, and they are, by any account, childish.

The protagonist, Frieren, knows nothing of human men. While she understands that blown kisses or clothes-melting potions supposedly please men, she doesn't wonder why. In short, her understanding of "men" is merely secondhand knowledge taught to her by Flamme long ago.

It is understandable that Fern, a war orphan raised solely by the priest Heiter, would have strict views on sex. Fern trusts her companion Stark, but she becomes extremely wary when things turn sexual. Or rather, Fern considers things that aren't strictly sexual to be "perverted," so one might simply conclude she is ignorant.

The young warrior Stark is a classic shonen character—strong, honest, and brave like the protagonist of One Piece—but his mental age is about ten (Fern thinks of him as a "brat"). He sometimes thinks Fern is cute, but he cannot imagine anything beyond that, and the same seems to go for Fern.

The fourth party member, the bearded priest Sein, is a grown man, so it's natural for him to seek the opposite sex. Yet, even he does nothing more than lament the lack of encounters with "beautiful older sisters," and in the end, it amounts to nothing.

Additionally, we have the First-Class Mage Methode in the typical "allure" position, but her hobby is stroking "small children" like Frieren or Serie. The usual trope of a lecherous man hitting on her never appears (though we don't know what would happen if Sein met her). She, too, is a character whose sexuality seems intentionally diverted.

Nonetheless, the most important relationship is undoubtedly that between Himmel and Frieren. Frieren lacks the emotions ordinary humans have, and she finds them difficult to understand. This can be explained by the fact that she is an elf. Recall when the Great Demon Solitär spoke to Macht; she brought up theories of genetics and evolution to explain why Macht couldn't understand human emotions—because humans and demons are different species.

Over unimaginable spans of time, creatures undergo countless generations of change, evolving unique traits like wings or venom. Human emotions are no exception. If we couldn't feel affection for specific others, we couldn't lead social lives or marry and have children. Human emotions were crafted through evolution for social living. Thus, no matter how obvious feelings like love or guilt are to humans, they are absolutely incomprehensible to birds or fish. Indeed, Macht of El Dorado risked his life to understand human emotions but concluded, "In the end, I understood nothing."

(As a side note, the model for Macht was likely King Midas of Greek mythology. In exchange for helping a certain god, Midas was granted a wish; driven by greed, he asked that everything he touched be turned into gold.

His wish was granted, but the result was catastrophic. Everything he touched—his clothes, his food, his home—turned to gold, and finally, he accidentally transformed his own daughter into a golden statue.

If we consider the magic that made Macht the strongest of the Seven Sages of Destruction to be his equivalent of "gold," then King Midas’s daughter represents Macht’s own desire to "understand humans—the Other." In this sense, Macht can be seen as the character who most purely embodies the core themes of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.

By evaluating the concepts the author infused into Macht as a form of social commentary, the central theme of the series becomes clear. In his willingness to sacrifice anything to achieve his goal, Macht’s earnestness even surpasses that of Frieren—and yet, his wish remains desperately unattainable. In our modern society, approaching and truly understanding "the Other" has become unnervingly difficult.)

Like the demon Macht, the elf Frieren may not understand human romantic love. Given that, even if she didn't—or couldn't—feel romantic love for Himmel during their ten-year quest, what about the human Himmel?

There are many scenes indicating Himmel had feelings for Frieren. Yet Frieren never noticed, and there is no sign that Himmel brooded over it. In the first chapter of Frieren, the hero’s party returns to the Royal Capital after defeating the Demon King. A celebration is held, and that night, the four—Himmel, Frieren, Heiter, and Eisen—watch the Era Meteors together. For Himmel, this should have been the perfect chance to confess to Frieren, but he apparently did nothing.

Why didn't he try to keep Frieren in the capital, or at the very least, convey his feelings? Did he hesitate because of the racial difference between human and elf? Did he give up from the start, thinking Frieren would never accept his love? It isn't clear.

Furthermore, there is no depiction of Himmel ever marrying someone else and starting a family. If Frieren had visited the capital after 50 years only to find Himmel surrounded by grandchildren, this work would not have functioned.

Himmel is far more enigmatic than the demons or Frieren. If demons symbolize human desire, malice, and aggression, Frieren symbolizes "indifference." When Flamme prophesied while planting a seedling, "One day you will make a great mistake," she was referring to Frieren’s indifference.

Frieren is not cold-hearted. It is just that, perhaps due to her species or her long solitude, she became indifferent to the fine nuances of human emotion. She only realized this when it was too late—when Himmel died.

This mistake and subsequent regret of Frieren’s are deeply relatable to us, which is likely why Frieren is so widely read, transcending its seemingly simple worldview of heroes and demon kings.

On the other hand, Himmel remains a mystery. He is a hero, a philanthropist, and seems to lack an ego. He is a saint-like existence. But because there are so few real-world examples, we actually know very little about saints.

3. Aureole

Thus far, I may have written in detail about things that are somewhat obvious and perhaps not very helpful for enjoying Frieren. However, I believe this "absence of sex" is a crucial point that touches upon the story's conclusion.

In Frieren, the roles of providing a "happy ending" in the narrative sense will likely fall to Fern and Stark. It seems almost promised that they will eventually marry and be blessed with incredibly cute children. But if that is the case, we need to reconsider the role played by the pair that is Frieren and Himmel.

To begin with, the purpose of Frieren’s journey was Eisen's request: "Find Aureole and speak with Himmel." It also aligned with Frieren’s own wish: "I want to know humans better." The story of Frieren is not a descent into the underworld to resurrect a loved one, as typified by the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. It is a wish connected to a desire broader and deeper than their romance—perhaps even preceding it.

Everyone has one or two people they would like to meet again by returning to the past, if it were possible. It doesn't have to be an ex-lover, and that person might still be alive somewhere. It could be a parent or a close friend from school. It’s just someone you haven't seen for a long time, someone you can't meet unless something drastic happens. Why do we want to see them? There are many ways to put it, but it’s because we ourselves have changed over the long passage of time.

Because we have changed, grown, or aged, we feel we might be able to say different words than we did back then when we were forced to part. If we could do that, we feel our relationship with them might become a little better. We think that if we could achieve that, we could make our own lives warmer and richer. It is a wish to reconcile with the past. Such a secret wish lurks somewhere inside us. And because it always seems just a step away from coming true, yet never does, it carries a faint ache.

Frieren’s inner self, always calm and somewhat dull, is mostly unknown, but her innermost wish might be something like this. Or rather, one of the powerful charms of Frieren is that we can freely project these feelings onto her journey.

In Flamme’s notes found by Frieren and her party with Eisen, it was written: "At the far northern edge of the continent... I reached Aureole (the Land Where Souls Rest), which the people of this world call Heaven. It is a place where many souls gather, and there I conversed with my former comrades-in-arms." As seen here, Flamme’s notes do not mention the resurrection of the dead, nor does Frieren wish for Himmel’s physical revival.

When considering the story of Frieren and Himmel, we inevitably assume a framework of "romance," and I have spoken of it that way here as well. And romance always involves sex. However, if the issue is not romance, nor the resurrection of a dead lover, then the revival of the flesh becomes unimportant.

So, what awaits at Aureole? I would like to return once more to the unique meaning of dreams in Frieren.

In the meeting between Serie and the Emperor, a subtle and startling foreshadowing was laid. When the Emperor brought out that "magic tool to determine if one is dreaming," Serie, as usual, mocked it as "one of Flamme’s useless collectibles." But the reader knows that Serie’s words about Flamme always carry some hidden meaning. In fact, this magic tool has another power: the ability to determine whose dream it is.

By realizing "this is a dream," we are liberated from the dream’s deception. But that alone is not enough. We must ask, "Whose dream is this?" At the hands of Grausam, Himmel and Frieren were taken into a dream world, and both were able to recognize it as a dream. But if we ask whose dream it was, it was ultimately Himmel’s dream.

We have no bodies in dreams. A dream is a world of pure imagery. Because it lacks the weight of the flesh, the dream world is more easily distorted by our desires. That is why demons like Einsam and Grausam used mental magic to exploit this.

The power of evil demons should not reach Aureole, which is Heaven. In Aureole, there are only the souls of the dead. What is permitted there is "dialogue" with them. If so, then might this "Land Where Souls Rest" also be a world of "awakened dreams"—a world of lucid dreaming? However, it would be a purified dream world, where all desire and suffering have been cleansed. There, Frieren’s own dream—one that has not yet been revealed—will likely be shown.

(End)

February 20, 2026