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.
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.