Frieren: The Hero's Sword Was Always a Misdirect

The sword in the stone gets framed as the mark of a true hero, but Himmel couldn't pull it and the story never treats that as failure. That feels deliberate. I think it's foreshadowing that the title of "hero" isn't granted by destiny or relics but by the choice to keep walking toward something terrifying. Frieren keeps circling back to Himmel's unremarkable decisions, not his legendary ones, which supports this. My prediction: the sword comes up again, and whoever faces it will be told the same thing Himmel implicitly understood, that it doesn't choose anyone. Curious whether others read the stone as symbolism rather than literal prophecy.