Sousou no Frieren - Ch. 110.2 - The Adventures of the Hero Himmel

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Love is loss that we've yet to mourn. Beauty is tragedy in waiting. Beauty, love, and all those other wonderful feelings are inextricably intertwined with pain and loss, because all things in life are transient.

In other words, the sadness isn't in Heiter's story about his past. The sadness is in the fact that it is past. Heiter is telling this story of his youth while he's an old man near to death. The rosy and hopeful time he speaks of is something that will never return, living only in memory - and soon that memory will die with him. Even Fern didn't stay awake to finish it all. But he smiles, because preserving what's gone isn't the point. He appreciates the beauty around him in the present.

The story within the story is happy. But the main story, the story with Fern and Heiter, is bittersweet.

I heartily agree that it should evoke that sort of feeling, that Heiters story should be one to draw upon fond feelings of times long gone, but to be able to live in and appreciate the moment he has with Fern and not dwell on what has been lost- Because he's already long since accepted the passage of time, so he'd rather make the most of what little he has now with Fern, but I also don't think it really hits that mark? I guess my point was/is less 'Heiters story should've been sad and made me cry' and more 'It doesn't pull upon the purposefully dour vibes I associate sousou no frieren with even when it tries to'.

It just sort of reads as chewy, compared to the chalky that drew me to Sousou no Frieren all those years ago, if that makes sense at all to anyone.

It's really hard for me to explain in a way that makes sense to others the way it makes sense in my head. Words are hard and I've tried my best to express my thoughts on why I don't particularly vibe with it :notlikethis:
 
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I heartily agree that it should evoke that sort of feeling, that Heiters story should be one to draw upon fond feelings of times long gone, but to be able to live in and appreciate the moment he has with Fern and not dwell on what has been lost- Because he's already long since accepted the passage of time, so he'd rather make the most of what little he has now with Fern, but I also don't think it really hits that mark? I guess my point was/is less 'Heiters story should've been sad and made me cry' and more 'It doesn't pull upon the purposefully dour vibes I associate sousou no frieren with even when it tries to'.

It just sort of reads as chewy, compared to the chalky that drew me to Sousou no Frieren all those years ago, if that makes sense at all to anyone.

It's really hard for me to explain in a way that makes sense to others the way it makes sense in my head. Words are hard and I've tried my best to express my thoughts on why I don't particularly vibe with it :notlikethis:
I think that what may be a major part of it for you is that this short story doesn't really dwell on that feeling in the same way that the main narrative does. Saudade is what I would call that feeling - it's a portuguese word for nostalgic pain and longing for times gone by, a very bittersweet feeling. Acceptance too is a part of it, and those two emotions are the primary narrative themes of Sousou no Frieren in general. The tragic passage of time and the acceptance of it.

What effectively communicates the saudade of the main narrative is how it hangs in the air around Frieren, with her constant flashbacks to similar experiences with her old party. We can see, in those moments, her longing for the past. But when we return to the present, we can see her contentment with her circumstances - her acceptance of reality.

If you felt it wasn't sufficiently bittersweet, it may just be that too much of the saudade was left up to implication. We only got a few pages with Fern and Heiter. Maybe that's the reason behind your words "chewy" and "chalky." When you leave things up to implication, you have to think on it more, you have to chew it in your mind. But when the passage of time and its effect on people is all laid out for you, it crumbles effortlessly into dust. I don't know if that makes sense but maybe that will help you interpret your feelings.
 
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This chapter just cemented this manga as perhaps my favorite of all time. It's up there with gunnm fr. Just pure storytelling from beginning to end
 
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Lol, Heiter just leading off with "you've got the wrong idea" instead of "watch out there's a giant fucking laser bird behind you"
 
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Wow, these extra chapters' art is noticeably better and have much more expressive characters, it really had a big improvement on that area.
I thought the near-exact opposite. Noticeably poor art for this chapter. Featureless shoes and clothing, inconsistent scaling, awkward poses, generic outfits... Amateurish in many respects. Was like reading an unofficial doujin.
 

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