Not every villain needs to have a complex backstory for why they’re sympathetic and actually human. Great example: the Disney Cruella remake. The character is more fun as a literal human demon who wants to make a dog skin coat. She doesn’t need to be a humanized person.
Obviously when tropes combine (looking at JKR and the goblin bankers) that’s a different thing. But the fact that many of the Demons are ATTRACTIVE is part of why we should recognize them as (if anything) analogs to fascists.
To think through this: is it “problematic” that certain creatures in nature use aesthetically pleasing colors to trap prey? Is this somehow something we should “humanize” rather than recognize the cold calculation of nature at work (and perhaps, as communists/marxists, work to fight against the logic of nature and fascism’s evil cooption of it. After all, don’t we believe that men make history, but not as they please, and thus are beyond mere “nature”).
The key difference between the fash cooption and the reality of the story is that the demons are not human. They’re angler fish/carnivorous plants that use language. This idiot’s take (the OP image) obviously assumes the inhumanity of his subjects and that’s all you have to do to undermine every Frieren bad take. Simply put, the real “analogy” is if you went to go make friends with a starving tiger in the wild. It doesn’t see its actions as good or bad - it’s “beyond” good and evil not because they’re niezschean ubermensch but because they’re simply nonhuman. Now, this doesn’t mean we should kill every nonhuman entity in the world (though cattle ranchers would do so with wolves, evil fucks). We can recognize ecosystems and our role in it. But it’s a fantasy story, and should be taken on its own terms until it gives reason not to (and again, if every demon started looking like a JKR goblin or something, then I would immediately reverse my position).
Always evil races, or armies of questionally sapient drones that act as convenient meat waves for the protagonists to cut down are worth scrutinizing and critiquing even if their narrative purpose (being convenient meat waves for combat set pieces) is obvious enough.
However, in those examples, orcs, goblins, bugs, darkspawn, what have you, the protagonists generally aren’t in the situation of being presented with their child forms and having to kill them. Again, because their purpose is threatening armies. They’re often even born as adults for this purpose.
Frieren is the one that looks directly into the camera and says No, you Must kill the child. Sympathizing or showing mercy is the wrong choice, you Must snuff them out wherever you find them, because they will grow up to be dangerous and subversive No Matter What because that is their nature
and I don’t think they had to do that. and yeah that’s much closer to fascist propaganda than it is Tolkien orcs
Frieren is the one that looks directly into the camera and says No, you Must kill the child. Sympathizing or showing mercy is the wrong choice, you Must snuff them out wherever you find them, because they will grow up to be dangerous and subversive No Matter What because that is their nature
I mean, that’s one reason among other very problematic ones that I didn’t watch goblin slayer.
![[CW: Racism] I was a much happier person before I'd heard of Frieren](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/4f3895d3-ba9b-4da6-b745-d43ddc2847c6.png){kind=link}
It’s fantasy.
Not every villain needs to have a complex backstory for why they’re sympathetic and actually human. Great example: the Disney Cruella remake. The character is more fun as a literal human demon who wants to make a dog skin coat. She doesn’t need to be a humanized person.
Obviously when tropes combine (looking at JKR and the goblin bankers) that’s a different thing. But the fact that many of the Demons are ATTRACTIVE is part of why we should recognize them as (if anything) analogs to fascists.
To think through this: is it “problematic” that certain creatures in nature use aesthetically pleasing colors to trap prey? Is this somehow something we should “humanize” rather than recognize the cold calculation of nature at work (and perhaps, as communists/marxists, work to fight against the logic of nature and fascism’s evil cooption of it. After all, don’t we believe that men make history, but not as they please, and thus are beyond mere “nature”).
The key difference between the fash cooption and the reality of the story is that the demons are not human. They’re angler fish/carnivorous plants that use language. This idiot’s take (the OP image) obviously assumes the inhumanity of his subjects and that’s all you have to do to undermine every Frieren bad take. Simply put, the real “analogy” is if you went to go make friends with a starving tiger in the wild. It doesn’t see its actions as good or bad - it’s “beyond” good and evil not because they’re niezschean ubermensch but because they’re simply nonhuman. Now, this doesn’t mean we should kill every nonhuman entity in the world (though cattle ranchers would do so with wolves, evil fucks). We can recognize ecosystems and our role in it. But it’s a fantasy story, and should be taken on its own terms until it gives reason not to (and again, if every demon started looking like a JKR goblin or something, then I would immediately reverse my position).
Always evil races, or armies of questionally sapient drones that act as convenient meat waves for the protagonists to cut down are worth scrutinizing and critiquing even if their narrative purpose (being convenient meat waves for combat set pieces) is obvious enough.
However, in those examples, orcs, goblins, bugs, darkspawn, what have you, the protagonists generally aren’t in the situation of being presented with their child forms and having to kill them. Again, because their purpose is threatening armies. They’re often even born as adults for this purpose.
Frieren is the one that looks directly into the camera and says No, you Must kill the child. Sympathizing or showing mercy is the wrong choice, you Must snuff them out wherever you find them, because they will grow up to be dangerous and subversive No Matter What because that is their nature
and I don’t think they had to do that. and yeah that’s much closer to fascist propaganda than it is Tolkien orcs
I mean, that’s one reason among other very problematic ones that I didn’t watch goblin slayer.