I am a notable critic of Dungeons and Dragons and how it uses its alignment system to label entire species as evil and therefore automatically guilt-free to kill, loot and despoil. I don't think anyone can look at my online history and dispute that I am, and if you do, you're wrong. You know that one quote about Gygax loving Colonel Chivington that gets reposted everywhere? I'm the person who brought that to light.
And that is why I am telling you to stop saying Frieren is doing the same thing, because it is not. And I will tell you exactly why.
It's about shitty tropes and you better buckle down for this
In D&D, the whole issue isn't that calling something ontologically evil is wrong by itself. It's that D&D uses its system of calling something ontologically evil to point it at people who are coded as non-white, poor, and victims. It uses its system to justify colonialist-esque violence and plunder of their homes. It says, "this is a goblin. It is stupid and therefore also evil. You can kill it without remorse and loot it and leave its corpse to the elements because that is all it deserves. You get rewarded for this."
Now, are Frieren demons portrayed as any of those things? No.
Even D&D does have literal demons, who are literally ontologically evil, and we don't think of them in the same terms because demons aren't portrayed the same way. And we don't mind that as much. This isn't a coincidence.
In Frieren, Demons assume the role of the genocidal overlord, the noble asshole, the ones who kill those weaker than them, rob them and leave their corpses to the elements, and this is what makes them evil. Frieren is saying, that is the really evil behavior. It is saying that being a player character in D&D is ontologically evil, basically, and then you dare compare the two? Wild.
But let's not stop there.
What evil is for in Frieren and in D&D
In D&D, there's a subtle but very present notion that characters should be free to be assholes, that compassion isn't required to be virtuous, that "good" requires a lot of genocidal violence. The actual behaviors exhibited by good and evil people aren't fundamentally different at all. It posits that good can exist without compassion and that no person is inherently anything.
In Frieren, the demons exist as a way to show that humanity is fundamentally kind and compassionate. The whole reason they are evil is that they exploit humanity's innate kindness. The story uses demons as a way to make a statement that humans are, innately and inherently, kind and compassionate and social beings who can't help but show compassion to one another. It is saying that people are fundamentally good, and that to be not this is evil. It is making a specific point of this.
Demons can't get along with people not because they are goblins. It's because they fundamentally do not wish to get along with people.
Frieren is wrong
Spoilers.
There are demons who absolutely want to and try to get along with people. They do this in horrific ways because they can not understand or emphasize with the pain their methods to attempt this cause, but they do attempt it. The kind of demon who, in trying to understand humanity better and get along with them better, throws a dagger to two children and tells them the survivor gets to live. It isn't pleasant.
And, notably, even when Frieren states her beliefs that Demons can not ever learn better, she still gives them chances to be. She can't help it.
Frieren's people were genocided
I can't stress enough that calling Frieren a genocidal evil and demons not is a fundamentally weird thing to do because we literally, early in the story, watch demons genocide Frieren's entire people, kill everyone she grows up with and knows. This happens on screen, on the page. It's a matter of historical record. It's why she has met exactly two other elves in the entire story. There's not that many left.
She didn't visit the same fate back on demons. She killed the demon king who was driving these genocidal attacks, and then left at that. She didn't hunt down every demon general, or try to eliminate them from the world. She isn't perpetuating any kind of systemic genocide whatsoever, and only confronted one of those remaining generals - Aura - when she was doing that murdering of innocent thing again. Stop being like this, internet.
The themes at play
In D&D, evil is a method to excuse players for perpetuating genocidal fantasies within an imaginary space against people who are coded minorities and therefore "deserve" this attention. This is enforced by a cosmic order of alignment.
In Frieren, evil exists to say that people are fundamentally good and kind, and no cosmic force enforces this rule.
This isn't even remotely a similar statement. I drop my mic at you.
