Icarus Falls

unfortunately i dont think its queerbaiting if the creator is just so terminally heterosexual that they never remotely considered the same gender relationship their show is centered around could be read as romantic. it is deeply painful however.

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I so appreciate how Frieren develops characters not necessarily by showing us the entirety of their life but in showing us the character that came from that life. In little glimpses and pieces of what shaped them, what they consider to be meaningful to who they are today. Like Genau thinking on the tasteless bread a few times but also how he won’t get to eat it again. How he seemed dismissive about the fate of the villiage, as if he hasn’t been there a long time, yet when he’s carrying the young man he knew, he speaks of memories and hopes for the young man as if he’d been in the village only days past. It’s seeing Stark kneel down to pray and then him saying that his village was destroyed by a demon. And although we saw some of that, we didn’t see all of his life there. Nor did we see all of Genau’s life. We haven’t seen Fern’s with her parents but we know she had them and was saddened by their loss from war. And of course all of Frieren’s travels with her former companions that continue to inform who she is and will become. Instead of showing us fully fleshed out flashbacks that reveal every minute detail, these vignettes tell us everything of importance to that individual and it’s that importance that draws our attention to what they value and who they really are. Just something I’ve come to enjoy about the story.

This reminds me of the time that I asked if anyone had resources on the history of Shinto and while nobody had book recs, turns out an actual Temple Maiden followed me on Tumblr and was down to chat.