I totally didn't fall for the demon's peace envoy's platitudes of peace, and I thought the village chief in the flashback was stupid for his "we'd be no better than them" speech while choosing to welcome the demon girl in when one of their own was eaten, and the grieving parents was right there upset. That said, I actually believe the demon girl was being truthful of wanting to only live in peace, and only had good intentions when killing the chief and offering his daughter to the parents as a replacement. If her intentions were actually bad, it makes no sense why she would even do her messed up plan rather than doing nothing since she was already accepted in. I think what went wrong was the chief and his daughter treated her as a human, thinking welcoming her in and playing with her and such would be enough to teach her morality and what's necessary to live with the humans; whereas what they should have done was tried to understand how she was not human, then appropriately tell her the laws, rules, and expectations for her to be able to live together with the humans. I think that would have succeeded. As for the using of the word "mommy" which is made to look so nefarious when the demon girl says it and explains it, she just thinks the word "mommy" means "mercy". Just substitute "mercy" in for anytime she said "mommy", and her pleas still makes sense but without the misunderstanding and sense of deception.
As for Frieren's strong negative views on the demons, I'm not going to say she's wrong because she isn't totally. However I think with enough passage of time, the demons could evolve to make her current views obsolete...if the correct demons were allowed to multiple (like the demon girl who seemed to have genuine good intentions), and the problem demons like the "peace envoy" were eliminated. This could be a similar situation as the killing magic spell becoming obsolete in a mere 80 years with the rapid advancement in magical research. The demons just need rapid evolution like the domestication of the Silver Foxes through selective breeding.
Anyways, the only other thing I want to comment on is Fern. I'm really starting to dislike her, she being unfairly mean to Stark, and she's being the "negative Nancy" to Frieren now with how she's making a big deal with Frieren waking up early, and expecting the worse of Frieren going to make Stark pay for calling her an old hag, but it turning out like Frieren let that slide. I know it looks like they're setting up a ship between Stark and Fern, but I really hope that doesn't happen. Not only is it trope-y, but Fern's horrible for Stark because of her bad attitude, and what seems like she's being unable to adapt to new developments.
This maybe a big curveball, but I actually think the ship of Stark and Frieren maybe better. It's not as impossible as it looks, Stark seems to be a combination of Eisen and Himmel. Frieren understands Eisen, which is why she understood Stark being afraid of the dragon, and didn't hold that against him. However in contrast Fern seem to hold Stark's perceived cowardice against him. Look at how Frieren praised Stark after he defeated the dragon, it was quite a lot from her, and she was very emotionally expressive when she did so, going so far to pat him on the side with her arm. Stark said Eisen never praised him even once, it was something he felt like he deserved or desired, and here's Frieren doing it. Also Frieren says she collects magic because she was praised once for it "by a fool", was that fool Himmel? Regardless, Frieren understands Stark a lot. There's also a sense that Himmel wanted a ship with Frieren but Frieren wasn't capable of recognizing it or reciprocating it back then. It could even explain why during Himmel's funeral the public was so harsh in judging Frieren for not showing emotions, that maybe Himmel tried to court Frieren and it's common knowledge to the public, but not to us the audience yet. This whole trip of speak to Himmel's soul could be a journey for Frieren to learn to understand what she couldn't with her original party, and while it's took late for her original party, it's not too late for her current party. Therefore I think Stark x Frieren could be possible. It would be a lot more interesting than the boring expected Stark x Fern ship anyways.
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