Personal gain for demons in Frieren is just eating and surviving and growing stronger. So the basic nature of any animal. Eat, get fat and survive as long as possible with no deeper meaning behind it.
Now perhaps I'm wrong I've only watched the show but that's the impression I got from it. They aren't nuanced in the slightest. Kill, eat, repeat. That's all they do. With no higher goal in mind. With the exception of the Demon King who seemed to at least realize that humans are becoming an existential threat for his own kind and managed to unite demons under the banner of that cause. Survival.
Did you watch the whole show or read the manga? Societal infiltration including of government is something the smarter demons did multiple times. This echoes the population of sociopaths. The majority of them are just dangerous animals. The smarter ones are much more insidious.
Societal infiltration including of government is something the smarter demons did multiple times.
If we're talking about the city in the show, they did it to get them to lower their defenses so they could wipe them out as they were unable to do so. Their main motivation was still to kill humies and eat them. They had no other ambitions.
Their nature is to mimic their prey to kill it. That's what they did in the city.
The majority of them are just dangerous animals. The smarter ones are much more insidious.
In the show they're all like that. They evolved from monsters that mimic their prey. Some are more intelligent than others. They're all insidious. It is their modus operandi. Mimic their prey's behaviour and use it to hunt and kill.
So there is no real difference between the demon kid who fooled the father and the demons that infiltrated the city. They're intelligent enough to adapt to different situations but they're not intelligent enough to surpress their own nature. Which is seen in both cases.
They're predators that use bait. We have plenty of animals that are just like that. The only difference is the preferred prey of the demons in Frieren are humanoids and their behavior and tactics evolved to deal with that prey.
So there is absolutely no nuance to demons in Frieren. They're highly intelligent predatory animals/monsters that evolved to hunt humanoids. Nothing I've seen in the show suggests there is anything more to them.
Demon kings have been around for ages. One of the previous ones ordered the extermination of the elves as shown in the flashback when frieren met her master
Yes, demons are sociopaths, incapable of empathy, hollow & emotionless (except basic things like hunger or fear). They try to "blend in" because openly acting on their desires will get them punished, and they fear punishment.
Oh wait, am I talking about demons or leftists? 😉
Leftist groups are composed of multiple classes of failure, the sociopaths are a small enough group that they usually end up only in management. The shock troops of leftist movements are basically religious zealots, that worship the state or communist ideology instead of god. Leftiist ideologies more closely resemble religions than economic or functional political theories.
Communism in particular is a structure uniquely suited to allowing sociopaths to manipulate large groups of useful idiots. Stalin was almost certainly one. Lenin and hitler were probably more deranged than sociopathic - the high functioning sociopaths usually succeed leadership rather than creating a movement.
They're emotionless manipulators that look like people, but aren't, that will say anything or play any role for personal gain.
Am I describing sociopaths or the demons?
Personal gain for demons in Frieren is just eating and surviving and growing stronger. So the basic nature of any animal. Eat, get fat and survive as long as possible with no deeper meaning behind it.
Now perhaps I'm wrong I've only watched the show but that's the impression I got from it. They aren't nuanced in the slightest. Kill, eat, repeat. That's all they do. With no higher goal in mind. With the exception of the Demon King who seemed to at least realize that humans are becoming an existential threat for his own kind and managed to unite demons under the banner of that cause. Survival.
Did you watch the whole show or read the manga? Societal infiltration including of government is something the smarter demons did multiple times. This echoes the population of sociopaths. The majority of them are just dangerous animals. The smarter ones are much more insidious.
I watched the show, yes.
If we're talking about the city in the show, they did it to get them to lower their defenses so they could wipe them out as they were unable to do so. Their main motivation was still to kill humies and eat them. They had no other ambitions.
Their nature is to mimic their prey to kill it. That's what they did in the city.
In the show they're all like that. They evolved from monsters that mimic their prey. Some are more intelligent than others. They're all insidious. It is their modus operandi. Mimic their prey's behaviour and use it to hunt and kill.
So there is no real difference between the demon kid who fooled the father and the demons that infiltrated the city. They're intelligent enough to adapt to different situations but they're not intelligent enough to surpress their own nature. Which is seen in both cases.
They're predators that use bait. We have plenty of animals that are just like that. The only difference is the preferred prey of the demons in Frieren are humanoids and their behavior and tactics evolved to deal with that prey.
So there is absolutely no nuance to demons in Frieren. They're highly intelligent predatory animals/monsters that evolved to hunt humanoids. Nothing I've seen in the show suggests there is anything more to them.
They don't actually need to eat humans to live, as established by the one that turned an entire city to gold and lived in it for decades.
And nearly everything you just described can also fit the description of "human" sociopathic predators.
Demon kings have been around for ages. One of the previous ones ordered the extermination of the elves as shown in the flashback when frieren met her master
+1 for using "sociopath" properly! 😸
Yes, demons are sociopaths, incapable of empathy, hollow & emotionless (except basic things like hunger or fear). They try to "blend in" because openly acting on their desires will get them punished, and they fear punishment.
Oh wait, am I talking about demons or leftists? 😉
Leftist groups are composed of multiple classes of failure, the sociopaths are a small enough group that they usually end up only in management. The shock troops of leftist movements are basically religious zealots, that worship the state or communist ideology instead of god. Leftiist ideologies more closely resemble religions than economic or functional political theories.
Communism in particular is a structure uniquely suited to allowing sociopaths to manipulate large groups of useful idiots. Stalin was almost certainly one. Lenin and hitler were probably more deranged than sociopathic - the high functioning sociopaths usually succeed leadership rather than creating a movement.