#the final stroke

[grassus3000]

Free! The final stroke 2025

[divetothefuture]

"it's surprising how heavy it is, huh?"

☆彡 free! the final stroke - kouhen

[goutheswimqueen]

Free! The Final Stroke

It took me a few years but I finally watched it lmao. I have so many thoughts and emotions going through my head I feel like I haven't processed everything yet. Knowing that it's the official ending of Free!, it's bittersweet. I started watching this show when it first came out in 2013, when I was 14 years old, and now I'm 26 still getting emotional over these swimming dorks. When I was a teenager, this show saved my life and solidified my own dream of becoming an artist. That being said, imma share my initial thoughts under the cut <3

I still don't know yet how the vast majority of the fandom feels about The Final Stroke, but personally? I'm a little disappointed if I'm being honest. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved it for what it was but I still feel like there was so much missing! I think Volume 1 was almost perfect, actually, but Volume 2 had way too much going on for them to be able to properly fit everything into one movie. I think if they wanted to do the plot that they did, they should've kept Volume 1 as a movie and did Volume 2 as a season 4. It would've given them much more time to flesh out the story and make sure that all the conflict was handled in a satisfactory way. Everything in Volume 2 felt so rushed and there's too many characters in Free for everyone to have gotten the proper attention that they all deserved. Especially considering the movie as a whole covers a timespan of an entire year??? Two years if you count the ending. It's actually kind of insane. The fact that they had to cover so much of that time with montages too annoyed me to no end. It took away from the heart of the story and the depth of the characters.

The main conflict didn't really work for me. I've always been in the boat of people that feel like it didn't make sense for Haru to go into professional swimming, so when I watched Volume 1 I was really happy with the direction that things were going in. For Haru, it made sense to me that swimming in a world championship against someone like Albert would screw with his head like that. I just think the way that it was resolved didn't make sense. It's like Rin and Makoto were just like nah you're fine and Haru was like oh yeah I guess. I know that's an exaggeration but I feel like it should've taken more than that race on the rooftop for Haru to act less antagonistic. He just continued to over-exert himself with the goal of beating Albert. I think it would've made more sense for Haru's character if his goal had been to understand Albert, rather than to just beat him. He talked about how sad and cold Albert's swimming was, and I think normally that would've made Haru's friends more curious about Albert as a person.

Also, speaking of Haru over-exerting himself, what the fuck? They really just let him do that???? I say this with peace and love but Sousuke and Ikuya should've beat his ass. Cuz what the hell was that? What happened to "If you overdo it, you won't be able to do what you could before"???? It would've been so much better if we could have seen Makoto help train Haru to swim in a way that wouldn't have taken such a toll on his body. Makoto and Rin literally joined him in his training for the purpose of helping him figure out the answer of what he was looking for, but they still let him destroy himself for the sake of what, beating Albert??? It just didn't make sense!!! They should've figured out that they wanted to swim the relay from much earlier on. It should've been the answer that Makoto and Rin helped Haru find. They should've trained for that instead of focusing solely on themselves! I know that they weren't supposed to be able to choose to swim in the relay, but they fuckin ended up doing that anyways right lmao. The relay has always been the heart of Free and I think it would've been even more rewarding if they planned on it sooner, instead of watching Haru physically fall apart.

Speaking of the relay, was nobody going to tell me that Ikuya and Rin should kiss? (LMAOOOO IM ONLY KIDDING... unless? 👀) In all seriousness I adore Ikuya and Rin's newfound friendship, and I'm glad it took more than one scene for them to become friends. Those two weirdos mesh a lot better than I previously would have imagined! I wish we could've gotten more of the whole relay team bonding together. Again, it would've been much more rewarding that way! Seeing them practice together, butting heads and being dumb, with Makoto and Nao to help guide them, it would've been beautiful.

Makoto deserved better. They've been building up so much suspense with his fear of losing Haru I really thought there would be some kind of payoff with it. It fell so flat. He didn't even say anything about it. It just festered and festered and then fizzled out after the rooftop race with Rin. Why does Kyoani insist on sidelining one of THE most popular characters in the entire series? Let him have his fucking moment, jesus christ.

Nagisa and Rei deserved better, as always. Do I think that it was necessary for them to continue swimming in college? Not really. Am I mad about it? Of course not! I'm so glad Rei and Ai ended up on the same team as Ikuya and Hiyori, and Nagisa being on the same team as Kinjou BLEW MY MIND. If Volume 2 was a season instead of a movie, it would have been beautiful to see Nagisa crack through Kinjou's shell. Nagisa would have been the perfect character to tame Kinjou's shitty personality. I feel like Kinjou's character as a whole fell flat as well, and they weren't able to flesh him out enough because again, a movie was not enough time for them to fit in everything that they wanted to include in this! I'm glad we got some snippets of his backstory, and I do enjoy him as a character, I just think his purpose was a little lost. When he came in at the end of DTTF, he was so... terrifying. It was exciting! In The Final Stroke he's just some asshole LMAO.

I wish Gou went to Tokyo. I do think it makes sense that she stayed in Iwatobi, but I just wanted to see her shine! I wish we knew what her dream was, I'll forever be mad that they didn't tell us.

Asahi deserved better, I wish Natsuya and Nao were more than just supporting characters, I wish we could have seen more depth with Sousuke's rehab and his training with Makoto, Kisumi has always deserved better (we never got to see him play basketball with anyone and I'll forever be mad about it), Haru deserved better. At the end of the day, everyone deserved better, and Volume 2 should have been a season (or two honestly) instead of a movie to insure that everyone would get the endings that they deserved!! That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the movies, because I absolutely did and there's many more things that I want to talk about. I just think the story was too big to fit into three hours.

[fofi42]

I genuinely worry about you

[honeyhobbs]

Heat Stroke photoshoot but it's Gaz ☀️💦

[tifa-simp]

Killed by his own sword.

[kurikorso]

who died and put you in charge?

[bread-and-petals]

this scene is SO. GOOD.

it hurts so bad, but it’s so good. it’s cinematic, dramatic, and angsty. ngl i was so scared after watching this part i was NOT ready to watch volume 2. (but ofc i watched it right after)

the heartbreak, the loss, the betrayal

[bigidiotenergytm]

Omg for the FMTD AU! You mentioned on your last ask that Ody reads, fictional as you specified, what type of fictional stories do you think he reads??👀

yes this is a ref

he's genuinely not too picky. fads of books come and fads of books go. it's safe to say if you've heard of it, he's read it. also! it's mostly how he consumes movies when they're turned into a book version. though. uh. he probably steers clear of fictional stories set in greek mythology. hits too close to home, yknow?

[makoandharu]

"Starting Point of a New Journey" HOW ARE WE FEELING FREE NATION!!!!!!

[grassus3000]

Haruka Nanase in Free! The final stroke

[divetothefuture]

"i like your swimming right now the best."

☆彡 free! the final stroke - zenpen

[garygoldenbignaturals]

she's a little famished, i think

[mochiri]

Happy 12 year anniversary to this ending op 💙🐬✨

[buckycap]

i do think it’s very important that liam pointed out specifically that no matter how hardheaded orym is in what he believes he doesn’t let that stop him from seeking dorian out for comfort and wanting dorian close to him and dorian quickly reciprocating. i think that’s especially important when so many people thought that their opposing sides would drive them further apart (especially on orym’s part) when in actuality we learned that orym’s love for dorian is SO fucking strong that it it supersedes his hardheadedness which when you remember who orym is, is actually a big fucking deal

[gnightly]

henry staying the night in hans' room but having a hard time leaving in the morning is something that i can spend hours thinking about (shirtless under the cut)

i lied. its about hans being obsessed with henrys tits

+bonus