I missed a chunk of your explanation because one of the close shots of Serie stopped my brain with the realization that she’s wearing the parts of Flamme’s earrings that Frieren’s earrings are missing. The level of detail in this show!
I noticed it around the 2:00 mark and then had to go back to another video to make sure Serie had no earrings in the flashbacks to Flamme’s time. Another reactor had pointed out that Frieren (current) wears the same earrings as Flamme (1,000 years ago), but Flamme’s have brassy bits above and below the jewels, and Frieren’s have them only above. So deductively, Serie’s brassy earrings are the missing pieces.@@onepromaster69yt82
But Serie doesnt like peace, it's why she didn't want to defeat the Demon king. If she would go out to battle and easily beat the demons then she would end up bringing peace and slowing magic development. Where as Frieren wants/needs to fight the demons because she wants peace
@@netoisthebest Not true, when she heard Macht finally went rogue, she immidiately arrived and went for the kill. Macht only survived because the other mages think they could do somthing about the curse. She doesn't care about weaker Demons but Macht and co are assuredly on her hit list. Given the heaviest hiiters on both sides hadn't showef up on the frontline for thousand of years, likely she and the Demon King had some way to keep each other at bay.
Excluding Frieren for 1000 years is likely to make Frieren one of the most remembered mages. As long as that organization exists it will have to teach it's receptionists to reject Frieren.
That’s a good point. But Goddess help Frieren if she isn’t right outside the organization’s doors to visit Grandma Serie the day after the ban is lifted.
I also think it is important to separate what Serie says with what she does. She *says* that Frieren is wasting her time and effort learning how to suppress her magic aura, yet SHE DOES THE VERY SAME THING. She gives the impression that she barely cares about her apprentices, yet she remembers all of their favorite spells and apparently many other tidbits about them. She tells Frieren that she can't be a 1st Class Mage, but Frieren is the one who trained Fern, and she is very impressed with Fern's potential. Interesting, isn't it?
I think it's important to recognize that Serie's suppressed mana is the same as Frieren's unsuppressed mana, and that that amount of mana is enough to scare most humans. Serie likely has such an extreme amount of mana that had she not learned how to perfectly suppress it she would probably be incapable of living among humans due to how terrifying they'd find her mana. Serie does genuinely think that Frieren wasted her time learning such extreme suppression, as like she said Frieren would've been a far more capable mage had she dedicated that time to learning magic instead of suppression, but that doesn't necessarily mean she disagrees with learning it period, just that Frieren learned it before it was "necessary" which majorly slowed down her growth as a mage.
I wonder if serie is doing the opposite of frieren. Instead of suppressing her mana she’s making it look like it’s more than it is since she does the opposite. Just a high thought I had
@@h20lucifer24 That wouldn't make any sense, we know the amount of mana someone has is well established to be directly related to how long the person has been using magic. For someone like Serie who has been practicing magic for vastly longer than Frieren has even been alive it would break the world building to have her have less mana than Frieren.
Serie basically chooses based on whether they are afraid of her or not. Everyone who failed was terrified of her power. Except for Frieren. Serie just knows that Frieren doesn't even care about being under her in the first place. Serie and Frieren don't like or hate each other. They view the whole world differently and they just decided not to be a bother to each other. Serie certainly wishes Frieren would join her side. But just accepts that Frieren isn't the same as her.
Frieren is Serie’s rebellious, hippy granddaughter that refuses to settle down with her in the massive organization that she built from the ground up, and instead is content wandering around the world like a vagabond.
In my opinion. Serie checks for what the participants would do against an impossible challenge (herself). Most saw the challenge and froze before taking action, thus failing. For those that passed, Wirbel and Derken at least considered the challenge before giving up, Ubel thinks she could take on the challenge, Land was trying to cheat through the challenge, Methode didnt even see her as a challenge, and Fern literally saw the correct way to solve the impossible challenge. The reason why she is so angry at Frieren is because she already passed another impossible challenge (demon lord) and literally choose to not even try to pass this one.
Almost immediately after Serie fails Frieren, we are shown the flashback where Frieren delivers Flamme's will to Serie, and we have Serie saying to Frieren that taking 1000 years to make an important decision is no big deal to an elf. And almost in the very next scene we find out that Serie has banned Frieren from entering CMA facilities for exactly 1000 years. The juxtaposition of these two scenes right after the test scene puts an additional perspective on why Serie failed Frieren, which is that both Serie and Frieren, for differing reasons, do not think Frieren gaining the First Class Mage title at this specific moment is important in any way. Serie is basically saying to Frieren "go home, if you change your mind about it, come back in 1000 years and you can have the First Class Mage title then."
It does seem obvious which way Serie wants Frieren to go when that time comes. She wants her granddaughter to give up her wandering ways and settle down with her to help run and expand her budding empire. She’s such a hopeless tsundere.
I've seen a lot of people say that Serie hasn't had people in her life that helped her like Flamme and Himmel did for Frieren. However, I think that while this may be somewhat true, it's also downplaying their true natures: (1) From what we've seen of Frieren, she has always been a kind and peaceful person. It was the massacre of her village that changed her. Flamme (at the end of her life) and Himmel (throughout their journey) helped her regain/remember that old self. While Serie has been less developed, but just going off of her existing scenes, she treats magic as a tool for killing and sees value in strength for strength's sake. So, I would say that they are still fundamentally different people and see the world differently. (2) Another difference is how they handle their emotions. Frieren is kind of a kuudere. She wasn't originally aware of her feelings for Himmel and the party (hence her cold demeanor), but when she becomes aware, she's pretty honest with her feelings. As opposed to Serie, who probably is aware of her feelings, and yet always puts up a heavy tsundere (mainly just tsun) act.
she wears it with everything around her everyone she cares about is incorporated into her environment from her spell list to the very guarden she lives in
@@mesiagamer5217 Sure, Serie cares about her disciples to some extent. However, not only does she not express that properly to them, but she does the tsun act as well, which probably hurts them at least a little. Just look at Flamme and Lernen. Flamme most likely didn't dislike Serie, but she probably didn't enjoy spending time with her either, even though Serie was a mother-figure and mentor/teacher to her. We know this because Flamme never visited Serie once during her life after the meeting where she introduced Frieren to Serie. That's ~50 years of never visiting your master/foster-mother. There has to be a reason especially for Flamme who was such a wise and caring person. As for Lernen, he has been her disciple for ~50 years, and yet we can easily conclude that he's never been told "I'll remember you" or "I'm proud of you" or similar things from Serie. This has caused him enough anguish that became the reason for him wanting to go down in history by any means (even bad ones), until Frieren managed to set him straight by telling him the truth about Serie and her feelings. Something that Serie failed to do for her own disciple for ~50 years. Comparatively, Frieren was/is already a better master to Fern even though she's much younger and much less experienced in relationships/teaching/etc. Now, you could argue that Serie is cold because of her much longer life or defense mechanisms or other such reasons. But it's still a fact that she comes off as quite cold and we don't actually know for a fact how much of it is inherent to her as a person, and how much was learned through her vast life experiences. My own experience suggests that people rarely if ever change on a fundamental level regardless of how much life experience they get. They may act somewhat differently, but their core is still basically the same. This is also something that Heiter says more or less in the Ep14/Ch29 flashback to Frieren. Finally, please keep this discussion spoiler-free or at least properly give warnings before posting any manga spoilers, and also post them in such a way that it's not immediately visible to all (ie, hide them behind RUclips's "Read more"), since anime-onlys may end up seeing this as well.
I mean, it's worth noting that Serie taught Flamme. So saying that "Serie hasn't had people in her life that helped her like Flamme" is misleading. Flamme herself said in that flashback that Frieren was different to _both_ Serie and Flamme, that she was a mage who could and would thrive in a world without the Demon Lord. And also, notably, that this was the reason she's defeat the Demon Lord where Serie wouldn't bother and Flamme just couldn't. (Or however the reasoning went, the point is Flamme expected neither of them to take out the Demon Lord.) Now, Himmel's influence on the other hand...that probably did have a sizeable impact on Frieren's mindset and unwillingness to shift her views in line with Serie. Though, the fact that Flamme was noting the divergent mindset 1000 years before Himmel was even born means that he probably helped bring Frieren's philosophies and strong points to her own attention rather than being the inception of such things. Even Flamme probably can't claim too much credit; she was from what I can tell trying to help a young elf onto the path that her master was already walking and _failed spectacularly_ before realizing that her failure was actually probably a good thing. After all, no matter how militant her mindset about magic was, and how unflinchingly underhanded she was willing to be about anything that gave her an edge in combat...she was still the sort of person who most liked to just conjure up a field of flowers and drink in the beauty of the moment. And...well...it's not like Serie took _nothing_ from that relationship, either. Even 1000 years later, she still used that same flower spell to create a magnificent garden for herself, and was as focused on drinking in its beauty as she was in vibe-checking the test-takers. She seems to understand Frieren's point of view perfectly well, she just doesn't think it will help her reach the height of magic and so has (mostly) discarded it. And yet...she can't quite bring herself to fully commit, it seems, because some things are just beautiful enough that inefficiency be damned you've gotta admire them.
Also it’s directly pointed out she does care. She has an objective though. She’s training humans to be war mages. This isn’t a personal adventure for her. This is her job.
The impression I got from Serie is that when she says that she is a living grimoire, she meant it literally. That she is more interested in collecting spells than any individual person. I see her proctoring the last test as to view people's potential and ambition. And by that ambition, whether or not they could formulate a new spell.
Also her garden where she likes spending time She called the magic to make a field of flowers useless, but it looks like she really enjoys looking at it
There’s no other reason for her to constantly complain about taking humans as her apprentices, while also perfectly memorizing her apprentices’ favorite spells, activities, and meals.
I think people will appreciate this arc more once season 2 drops because this arc introduced many characters who will be more relevant in season 2. But from what I've seen people already love this arc. All 136 chapters of frieren so far has been amazing. It is just one great arc after another
I could tell by the way we spent so much time with them that the new characters would be important later on. How does reading the manga affect watching the anime? Should I read the manga?
@@sooyster4033 Season 1 is almost a perfect adaptation of the manga. So if you want to continue the storyline then you can start reading from chapter 61 of the manga. Frieren manga is great overall. It gets even better after the events of season 1 in my opinion. But if you can wait 1-2 years for season 2 then it's worth it too since almost all the key staff members who made season 1 are also coming back to make a season 2
@@sooyster4033 the arc after where anime s1 ends is AMAZING. you absolutely should read it. its an absolute joy to love the manga and then watching the anime make it even better.
Mana recognition is both a personality test and a capacity test. You have to have the capability to sense her fluctuations first and foremost, then on top of that you have to actually have the nerve to use that capability to assess her. Most other contestant have the nerve, but not the capability. Land has the nerve to think "can I trick her?", Ubel has the nerve to think "can I cut her?", Denken has the nerve to think "can I beat her?". Only Fern did both. Visualisation is important as a human mage, so Serie only gives a pass to the mages that believes (or assume) that they can surpass or at the very least match her in one aspect (trickery, disguise, fight).
When most mages look at Serie, they have one of two thoughts: 1) “What kind of monster is this?!” 2) “Hmm… how can I beat her…?” Those who think the former are immediately failed and dismissed. While the latter, even if only for a moment, think that there’s a chance of winning, and are passed and considered worthy of Serie’s attention. Menthode is an outlier. Either Serie really liked being called cute, or she was the perfect amount of unhinged for Serie to pass her.
@@coltonwilliams4153i dont entirely agree with that. Wirbel definitely thought shes a monster and that he could never beat her. What differentiates him, is he kept his composure. He accepted it as a fact and moved on. Thats why serie gave him a chance by asking him about his favourite spell. To which he gave a satisfying answer to her. One that is rational and combat oriented. Like a battle mage.
@@hulmhochberg8129 TBF Wirbel was more of a "Can this opponent be beaten? Hell no, moving on" At no point did he let fear cloud his rational thinking. The failed ones were scared on sight, he looked at the situation logically and came to a logical conclusion.
She also knew that Frieren didn't care to be a "first class mage" as to her it was just an ephemeral title granted by an organization that will change over time and ahe had already secured such a title with that amulet from the holy city that she had. There was just no point in making Frieren a "first class mage".
Fully agree, but it's still interesting and kind of hilarious that she failed her out of a difference in ideology. Does she have a solid reason for failing her or is she just petty af? who knows lol. Por qué no los dos?
I just realized for the second test, what made it diabolical was Sense entered the dungeon with them ensuring there would be at least one first level mage to be defeated for the test takers. If there were three powerful mages there would be three powerful clones plus the sense clone...the scale is tipped in favor of the Dungeon.
I mean it was already true even without that considering there were traps too =p And the replica being equally matched does force cooperation already. If anything what it does is put a minimum cap on the power a group would need to be able to pass, if nobody can deal with sense they lose, which, fair enough, having to be able to beat a first class mage in the right conditions seems like a reasonable requirement for becoming one yourself.
Though I often wonder how it would go. Friern help the girls pass, who in turn had vital info about the core trap of the dungeon, which then allow them to come up with a decent plan. though I guess it might have change who would also be in the 1st round of winner too.
I love how much discussion this series has sparked, it's just so cleverly thought out by the author. I'm very happy to live in this time to experience anime of such high caliber.
Frieren is a great subversion of this new wave of Japanese fantasy (which is itself largely influenced by Western fantasy conventions). Serie is completely utilitarian with her magic, but Frieren's philosophy of kindness and compassion is seen in-universe as quite appealing. It really comes down to one's personal philosophy; there isn't a universal "correct" answer.
Very nice video. What I´d seen it as, it´s that while of course it´s a vibe check (Frieren herself says it, Serie will choose based on her instincts, and her instincts are always right), Serie wants whoever manages to become a 1st range mage not to think "ok I´m at the top there´s nothing more to do", she wants people who will keep elevating magic. I think that list you gave of Serie´s criteria is very accurate. She wants people who doesn´t fear her, even if they admit defeat, if they don´t fear her mana, the participants will strive to go higher, Even Methode saying she sees her small and cute is a proof she´s not afraid of her. She wants to see potential of course. She says to Denken "I thought your fire had already burned but you still have it in you", because she thinks Denken can still go higher.
A I saw it Serie judges if a person has not only the skills, but also determination and dedication to get to the highest hights of magic and beyond. The reason why Frieren is disqualified is because she's mostly just playing around. She doesn't feel the urge to improve her magic beyond her limits, it's just her hobby kind of.
You should look at Serie's actions instead of her words more, I think. She might talk a lot about efficiency and other stuff, yet she has collected and learned nearly every spell ever discovered. She might prefer to sit on her ass and not interfere directly, but she was a feared demon hunter. Serie dislikes a lot of things, and she did most of those herself at some point in her life. And she had more time than anyone to think about consequences of her decisions. Maybe, except for Kraft. Who also doesn't look overly eager to rush in action and enforce justice, despite having a good heart.
I just imagine serie understanding that eventually humans will rise up and the elves will no longer be needed in the world. Humans are greedy, arrogant, fearful and more. I imagine that some day organizations will rise up and try hunting down all elves or all overly strong individuals
When series 3 of Konosuba aired earlier this year, it occured to me that if Megumin had taken this test, she would have had a good chance of passing, thanks to her overwhelming confidence and laserlike focus on magic as a force for defeating powerful enemies.
Megumin in the Frieren magic system of power being apportioned to belief would be a literal nuclear bomb - the only time she ever waivers on her favouritism towards explosion magic, Kazuma bumped its power up more lol
Always love videos about exploring Frieren! The most satisfying moment is when Fern asked Serie for the best laundry magic -Grandma- Mama Frieren is so proud xD
Freiren is arguably one of the deepest animes in the past couple years. There's soo much nuance I gathered just by watching it, each episode really left an impact on me, no wasted frames.
Something interesting to point out that i don't see discussed often is that Serie is able to read people immediately upon meeting them. What strikes me most about Methode's exam isn't that she isn't afraid of Serie or that she finds her cute, it's that Serie has to ask what Methode is thinking about. Being unable to read her as she so confidently did the others has some meaning i would imagine.
It's possible that Serie can read, but only gets limited context. She had to ask Methode because her thoughts were incomprehensible to someone like Serie, and had to ask Fern because it simply didn't occur to her that a fledgling mage could see the flicker in her aura.
What I enjoy about Serie is that she doesn't really practice what she preaches. Like she calls Frieren's approach to magic stupid, but knows pretty much every spell Frieren does even though they're 'useless' and despite looking down on mana suppression ALSO suppresses her mana. Then she gets all fussy about apprentices and outliving them but secretly remembers everything about them and continues to take on more. I'm just waiting for her to wave a stick at someone and yell at them to get off her lawn but then put out playground equipment for little kids or something.
The test actually only had one criteria. Ambition. The mages that could see themselves matching serie one day passed. Even if it was just for a moment and in any domain. If they wanted to even try taking her place in any way they passed. Thats why frieren didnt pass despite being the strongest. She has no ambition. She just has hobbies.
Excellent review of the Exam arc. While some have criticised this ending, to introduce a brace of new characters, show them in action and how they behave under stress and then they don't have to tell the readers about them. In your face is always more memorable than narrative. There is actually a very serious question involved: Who is right? Frieren or Serie? "For when man has the power to do anything, then anything he will do." - Qifrey WHA 2025
It's also quite realistic, you would be surprised how many institutions in society have their version of a vibe test(though it is usually done over the course of a longer period of time) the petty little games included, deans and professors failing students purely to stroke their own egos or to maintain some artificial standard being prime examples.
In my opinion, the criteria for the last test is very simple: whether you have both the magical capability AND the mental preparedness of being a first class mage. The first one is easy, as most of the people there already proved themselves in the first two exams. The last exam is mainly filtering the second criteria, and it doesn't matter how they does it. You can just be bold (Land), abnormal (Übel), efficiently minded but still try to fight (Denken), can just fight regardless (Wirbel), simply don't care about power level (Methode), or focusing on her weak point instead of her obvious "she's million times stronger than you" magical power (Fern). She don't just want strong mages; she want ones that are actually capable of applying that strength regardless of situation. Even Frieren is no exception (or at least it isn't in her eyes), as she's too lax to use her full potential. It doesn't matter if she's objectively strong anyways, she's a disappointment in her eyes because she could've been so much more. In the first place, first-class mage are defined as mages that received the approval of Serie, which means most of them would be strong mages but their strength actually matters less than what people thought.
Frieren herself even describes herself as a mediocre mage. She hyper focused on mana suppression and killing demons for a 1000 years, but actually she just wants to chill and make flowers or sour grapes for her friends.
Well done. Nitpicking: 1. Feel like you have what it needs to be a first class mage is just visualization. 2. Well the "small and cute" opinion of Serie is not really the criteria; it just is a play over the corner way to express, that Serie's mana does not induce fear in the examinee. they are more like underpoints of visualization.
The second is especially true given how good Methode's mana detection is shown to be in the second test. She was the only one that could find Denken and Fern when they were hiding. On the flip side, it also means she would have been aware of and able to steel herself against Serie's massive mana before any of the other examiniees (barring Frieren, but she's already not intimidated by her - she wasn't even the first time they met).
I'm confused about your nitpick number 1. Are you asserting that visualization is all that's needed to be a first-class-mage? Or are you taking an issue with the video essay making that claim?
@@Diablos-pi2qy Well, I don't have an issue with the video, just that some points under the criteria Serie looks for in first-class mages are visualization just worded differently or boil down to visualization. Like the: "1. Do they feel like a first class mage?" It boils down to can they envision themselves being a first class mage, and another word for "envision" is visualize. Just as Serie says/explains to Kanne: "You can't even visualize yourself becoming a first-class mage. In the world of magic, what you can't envision cannot be." So asking if one feels like X is just a round about way to say can you envision you doing X can you visualize succeeding with X do you "feel confident". So long story short, yes visualization is what is needed to become a first-class mage.
@@Airwave2k2 I have to rewatch the video to double check the criteria. However, I just want to say that while visualization is definitely a must to be a first-class-mage, it's not the only condition for Serie imo. They also have to be decently strong or have enough potential for future growth (and not be Frieren). I doubt that Serie would accept a mage that is lacking in mana, technique, control, but excels at visualization.
Its worth noting that serie is clearly a low key tsundere. She chastises those for having interest in peaceful spells, but she herself has created a room of flowers, I would believe in memoriam of her favorite and most inspirational student. She also still has the laundry spell, it's not like she threw it away. I think serie, is an interpretation of how people deal with the menace of time by detaching, but as living beings we can never 100% detach. Freiren is taking the opposite approach of in fact trying to acknowledge the feelings, which as indicated is somewhat un-elf-like. Apparently because when they do, they can just end up inconveniently crying for multiple weeks as they don't have a concept of time lol.
The scene with Himmle and the flowers and Series perspective is perfectly encapsulated by another wizard duo, Gandalf and Saruman. “Saruman believes that it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I've found it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.”
I think some of the analysis around Serie almost infantalizes her. Serie knows what human connection is, the entire conversation she has with Frieren about Flamme shows it. The show goes out of its way to demonstrate that Serie remembers her apprentices. Serie, more than Frieren, has lived among humans. The difference is Serie has been worn down by it. She can't allow herself to truly be vulnerable because of how much losing her apprentices hurt. Frieren at this point hasn't even reconciled how losing Himmel has hurt her. Serie is frustrated with Frieren for a number of reasons, but at least some of it is demonstrably her belief that Frieren CANNOT understand human empathy, something she holds until she talks to Fern and realizes how Frieren has changed. Because remember, the last time they really talked, Frieren had just lost Flamme who she essentially stole away from Serie for 50 years. Serie is torn up by it, even if she can't admit it aloud we see her reminiscing about the young Flamme. But Frieren? Frieren doesn't even go look for Flamme's legacy for a thousand years. Serie gets human interaction. She's burdened herself to live with humans because Flamme asked her to and Serie couldn't refuse the wish of her beloved apprentice. And she loves her apprentices, enough to remember all of them at all stages of her life. Serie cannot express that well, or may not want to have to address that because of the sheer amount of loss she must've experienced in those thousand years of gathering and losing apprentices. A burden she believes Frieren can never understand.
I always interpreted it as Serie simply weighing frieren on a whole different scale from the other participants. She simply is just not as strong as she SHOULD be for her age. Serie herself is suppressing her mana and the sheer size of it is incredibly massive despite that. And for that, she was failed.
I think it is also very telling HOW people pass or fail the test The test is basically - you are thrown in a impossible challenge, and you have a split second to figure out how to tackle it. Kanne fails because she doesnt think she can do it. And creating a vision is the greatest part of magic Dunste, Laufen, Scharf and Ehre fail similarly - they are not yet capable of tackling something impossible Wirbel and Derken go through "how can I defeat this" moment, before figuring out it is impossible. They pass because they dont give up before trying Ubel is crazy hyperconfident, and not being able to defeat it never crosses her mind. She doesnt care if she dies trying Land also passes before he even begun - he made failing not part of the process, simply because he is not there. Serie respects that. Methode didnt even see her as a challenge. So she doesnt envision the failure. Fern realized that the challenge presented was not the real challenge. While Serie dislikes her, she can't deny that she is the only one that sees that she they would be playing chess, and not the checkers that is presented to everyone else. And Frieren.... well, Serie has a beef with her. Frieren doesnt want to be a first class mage - not in the way Serie wants first class mages. She just aced a test to be a rocket scientist, but she wants to be a dentist. Serie sees that, and basically tells her to come back the day she actually wants what Serie is offering.
Serie's final test seemed to boil down to anyone who wasn't afraid of her after seeing her mana, and/or dared to challenge her after seeing her mana. The other questions were just to supplement her understanding of the states of mind like how she thought Fern was afraid of her (stating Fern is just like everybody else), but later learned she was actually seeing her fluctuations and not afraid of her. People who were clearly intent on fighting her like Ubel passed right away. People Serie were uncertain of their intentions like the girl who thought she was small and cute were questioned so Serie can understand their thoughts like she did with Fern. As long as they weren't afraid of her mana they would have passed no matter how they answered the question just like how Frieren would have failed now matter how she answered.
Serie plays the game of deceiving demons with mana herself. She is most likely even the one who taught that to Flamme and Frieren by that extend. She says that it is extremely time consuming and not worth the effort to her human students, which makes sense, because they don´t have that much time. Also, at least in the anime, there is no sign of anyone finding out about Fern suppressing her mana. Maybe she fooled even Serie with that.
Yeah. Lugner figures it out, but only because Fern's output would otherwise be impossible. He didn't sense her suppression. Notably, Linie didn't notice despite being a specialist in mana detection, even among demons. Makes sense, since Heiter knew Frieren's trick and likely taught Fern suppression in his Magic 101. It's not just second nature to Fern like it is for Frieren, it's *first* nature.
Frieren is "relatively unskilled for her age" also means she's "relatively monstrous to the average human mage who can never reach her age". Flamme said Frieren was good at concealing her mana, Serie said it would take someone (any human) far too long to get good at it unless they were skilled at it. The thing about Serie is that she always talks down from above because she's been at the top for ages. She knows what works for her, and she probably wishes it worked for others lol Sorry, just had to get that out there. Great video, though. (But the background tracks changing almost as often as every other sentence can be a bit distracting.)
Thanks! Sorry about the music jumping around, pretty much everyone has pointed out haha, had some copyright problems uploading, the changes ended up a bit sloppy to cut out those bits
I sincerely believe and hope the show will go on to explain that Serie is failing Frieren repeatedly over this long period of time in a way not to punish her, but as a way to teach Frieren totally different from every other mage who all want to become a 1st class mage, but for those like Serie and Frieren who can become the absolute number 1 mage, especially if Serie was ever forced by circumstances or just simply wanted to step down from her position. Since the only person who could possibly take her place is the one person who has been trained from childhood to do the exact things Serie does, to the point that even Serie has begrudgingly respected her even though they have totally different opinions and opposing philosophical beliefs about magic.
I would argue the Frieren diverges from Serie even earlier than meeting Himel. If Frieren wasn't taken under Flamme's wing, then I don't think she would've ever thought of magic as anything other than a weapon. After all, the spell that summons a flower field, was a gift from her teacher.
Great video! I really liked your analysis. I would say though I had an issue with multiple songs kinda overlapping with eacother in the video, just a small critique though otherwise It was a great video!
Serie's checking to see how well people will handle threats that are beyond them, their self confidence, and if they'll be able to handle the pressure of living as a 1st class mage. If they're intimidated by her, they fail. If they can't even picture themselves as a first class mage after passing the two tests before getting a surprise third test, they fail.
Well technically Serie doesn't see hiding mana to deceive one's enemy completely useless since it's clearly a technique almost purely for combat. That's why Serie herself "wasted" enough time to be able to do it even better than Frieren, despite having a much larger mana pool to hide. And though this is just my headcannon, it is probably something Serie taught to Flamme before Flamme passed it down to Frieren, both masters doing so as a combat skill.
Frieren not knowing that Serie is suppressing her mana mean that Serie was already suppressing it when Frieren met her 1000 years ago so yes she don't think that it's useless. It's probably Serie who told this magic to Flamme too I think
It could be the reverse. Just as the flower making magic, Flamme gave Serie enough impression that Serie is looking back at her fondly and decide to take up both spells as a way to try to "understand" Flamme. In a sense, Flamme is like Himmel to Frieren. However, Frieren decides to trace the humanity of Himmel while Serie is stuck tracing only the magic of Flamme.
@@pouf6463 I'm pretty sure Frieren knows that Serie is suppressing her mana. She's simply chosen not to comment on it. After all, Serie's suppressed mana is equal to Frieren's unsuppressed mana, and Frieren knows that Serie's true mana is much greater than her own.
The thing that Serie said was inefficient wasn't just hiding your mana. Hiding your mana temporarily during battle so your opponent has trouble tracking your movement or telling where and when an attack is coming from is a pretty standard combat tactic (which we in fact see Serie use in battle later in the manga). What Serie called inefficient was suppressing your mana ALL THE TIME and honing your skill at it to the point where even Demons can't tell that you are doing it. But the context of how she said it also matters. Because in the very next sentence after pronouncing that it was "inefficient" she goes on to say that it helped Frieren kill more demons. And what is Frieren most famous for? Killing the freakin DEMON KING. So just as with a lot of other things Serie has said, she said one thing out loud but immediately implied the very opposite with the next words out of her mouth. Another aspect of Serie's words on this subject is the context of who she is talking to. Namely her assembled First Class Mage students, and Lernen specifically. And she is basically telling them that to get as good as Frieren is at mana suppression takes longer than a human lifetime of training, unless you happen to be born with some innate talent at it to begin with. So she's also in Teacher Mode, basically telling her students not to try to copy Frieren, because it isn't practically achievable for a regular human being with a regular human lifespan.
Serie isn't like a version of Frieren, that never met Himmel. She is like a Version of Frieren, that never spoke with anyone, including her own apprentice Flamme. Because it's Flamme, that gave the spark for Frierens character development.
Whats so morrally beautiful about this exam and fern passing it isnt some big power up or a deeper understanding of magic or anything. Its fern embracing the beauty of magic and the respect of both her master and her master's bully. Through this arc fern and the audience acknowledge 3 things • Fern is a prodigy with lots if potential Fern forces frieren to use a spell she hasnt used since she fought the demon king, dealing what is effectively the killing blow to a raid boss. And frieren nods to her power and is proud of what shes become. There is no longer any doubt whether or not fern is a competant mage or not. There is no debate, there is no arguement, fern is first class mage •Basic magic reigns supreme We see frieren conjuring blackholes, volcanos, golems, arc lightning and hell inferno, and the only thing that manages to damage clone frieren was basic offensive magic. Not once, not twice, but three consecutive times. Proving that you truly only need offense and defensive magic to defeat 99% of modern mages. The master of 1 defeats a novice of thousand. •Fern appreciate magic as an art and craft, not as tools and weapons. After all this, Fern's choice of spell was a rare laundry magic that makes her clothes smell nice. A simple, yet insurmountably useful spell for an adventurer. A lesson that teaches that magic is strong when it is the most used and useful, not when most destructive or advanced. The complexity of a simple refrigerator has changed the world ten fold compared to the nuclear bomb. Imagine a world without a fridge, how long would your milk last? You can imagine a world without nuclear fusion, sure you can, but youve been so accommodated by the fridge that you cant reall imagine a world without it. The little invention that better billions of lives across the world. That is the beauty of magic and conparitively-technology. Weve never seen frieren use her black hole spell once outside of trying to kill herself. Yet every episode we see the adventurers, their clothes are clean.
Their magic system is about visualization. If you can imagine it, you will be able to do it eventually. Series tests if the contestants have even an inkling of seeing themselves best her in any way. As they have the potential to surpass her. Denken's interaction says this directly. So do Übel and Wirbel, both think of fighting her. Methode isn't even afraid and thinks she's cute. And Land disrespects her even more by not even showing up in person, thinking no one will notice his duplicate. Fern sees Series' flaws, surpassing her already. Frieren does not see herself ever besting Series, and neither do the others who failed.
Fern learned mana suppression and how to spot it from Freiren. Its funny how Serie hates Freiren's more peacful approach to magic, yet doesn't really deny how good she is as a mage and an instructor.
I enjoy the idea of qualitative judgements being a part of a qualification exam. It satisfies my autism to see the spirit of a law/rule/role having veto power over the rigid definition. In the third season of Nanoha we learn that the fully magical world* Nanoha lives on has a peculiar "disability." If a rigorous psychological and magical exam determines that you're a dangerous psychopath or similar, you are barred from ever learning magic in any capacity. This leaves someone effectively powerless, unable to do real or lasting harm, and keeps them from becoming the kind of threat only a powerful mage can be. It also means they can't use an elevator without someone else pushing the button. Everything in their society is magical, making a non-mage effectively handicapped. I like this, because it shows forethought and responsibility. The kind of society that would do this probably has a support system for these people, who almost certainly can't be employed. Too bad season three of Nanoha is awful. There's a book where a heavily insular magical school accepts a commoner for her hilariously large mana pool. She faces disrespect and is shunned and bullied. There is a tournament in the curriculum and her confidant helps her use it to turn her reputation around. She studies very hard to try and meet the basic education that everyone else already has. She executes specific strategies to demonstrate her competence and willingness to engage seriously with the tournament and the student body in general. For the first rounds. In the final round, her opponent is too skilled to challenge. So she stops playing fair and buries him in enough basic magic arrows that she _causes the professor maintaining his emergency shield to stagger._ Clearly demonstrating that she could have buried every opponent, but chose not to. The whole thing is just framed very well as showing the school that she is one of them, and also the _strongest_ one of them. *They've developed magic to the point of a futuristic society. As in, scientific study producing technology that functions entirely through magic.
I think that you have actually missed a few things. For example, Serie is really just Frieren in another 1-10,000 years. She mocks Frieren for suppressing her mana... yet you seem to have missed that she herself is doing the exact same thing, something that only Fern notices. I feel like you are missing part of the similarity of the two. Another point might simply be that Serie's Himmel is 10,000 years in the past. The end of the second test actually illuminates a bit of why Serie might have failed Frieren. Take one more thought from this. Frieren has spent the last 1000 years collecting spells... but what does Serie already have? ALL THE SPELLS! it's very very telling that Frieren is out doing exactly what Serie has already achieved. So I feel like your premise here is misplaced. The difference between the two is not that they approach magic differently, it is that they are at different places along that path.
Serie is arrogant and lacks imagination. The ultimate power-move on Frieren's part would be to open a magic school herself and constantly 1-up Serie by training mages that bring more than "just power" into the world. It's petty to the bone while still being the most wholesome thing that could be done, other than just walking away as Frieren did.
I think it was a great contrast to both Frieren and Serie as characters. Every mage who makes it to the final exam deserves to be there, deserves to be named a first class mage. They have all validly completed the first two trials asked of them, not because of being carried by frieren, but by being led to realize their own potential by frieren. Each and every one of them, and even a few who failed through no fault of their own on the second trial, were all shown to be able to perform to the best of what mages can do when enabled to do so. Serie, on the other hand... doesnt care. She goes into it expecting all of them to be nothings who frieren carried through, and even she was forced to admit more than she expected into being first class mages. This becomes especially true when frieren straight up tells her she will never be able to disqualify fern, and she WILL accept her, as if its predetermined. No matter what she thinks of frieren, fern will surpass everything she ever expected to such a degree that she will enthusiastically accept her. Serie doesnt believe this, and initially scoffs at the idea after meeting fern, before being immediately blown away by her innate potential that not a single human before had shown. This is why i always view frieren as the far superior mage, as she has grown deeply as a person, as an elf, in comparison to serie.
This video was amazing. I concluded a lot of the same but I was opened up to a few new angles to look at the final test from. However, all of that is overshadowed by the ending shot of Frieren asleep with the stary background. Any way to get that without the popups for a background for my computer?
One thing I do not agree with is "Serie is like a Frieren who never met Himmel". For once, Himmel actually doesn't have anything to do with this. Frieren had totally different mindset compared to Serie way back when she was still apprentice of Flamme. Thats when this started. Also yes, Serie says its waste of time to fool Demons with supressing mana. But it seems like she is the mother of that idea and she taught it to Flamme also, as she seems to be best at it out of all characters we know. Series words arent always true to herself as you say in this video.
I know yall are saying serie is a tsundere cuz she surpresses magic just like frieren despite saying its useless but also like...she doesnt like frieren so maybe its also like a "Look I can do what you can do you arent special" or is trying to be better than her to preserve her superiority over frieren
i personally think the main condition she is going for can be boiled down to fear of acting aginst her. all characterers that show fear of acting aginst her fails. while all that either dosen't show fear (aka thinking she is cute, or actually thinking they could defeat her instead of any fear) or those who does show fear of her, but not of acting aginst her aka denken, who tried to visualize ways to defeat her, not that he was succesful, but just the fact he tried made him pass. or perhaps more broadly just if they the kind of person with a desire to keep improving/the potentiel to keep improving
Honestly frieren should've just been given the title with no test knowing who she really is... It's absurd that anyone's allowed to deny one of the legendary heroes something like that.
your script writing is really good, and I agree with your analysis but, and I hope this is taken as criticism not as an insult, your musical implementation is distracting, specifically playing multiple songs on top of each other and the hard cuts from one song to another (in the middle of a song) takes me out of the experience. It made me want to click away from your video at its worst points. I am subscribing and I hope to see your channel grow in the future,
I agree with Friedan that efficiency is kinda dog shit in some aspects and should absolutely not be the “be all end all”. No one wants to eat a tasteless nutrient paste.
I know you probably do not really care, but the last E in Serie is pronounced. It's a german word. Like most of Frieren's character names. Now to the important bit: arguably while not spelt out directly, Serie really does not let Frieren pass because of personal grudges and disagreements on how to keep Flamme's legacy alive. You know, the one person who connects them? Serie's disciple and Frieren's master? Because Flamme actually combines both Serie's and Frieren's shown attitude towards magic. Also saying that she does not try is also patently false, Serie's aim throughout the arc and in general is trying to raise a generation of first class mages who can effectively combat the demon plight, she much like Frieren herself holds a grudge against the demon's for genociding the elves and also being responsible for killing their loved ones. Her presentation of "not trying" is actually a display of arrogance, because she believes herself to be so above any other mage that she can't imagine being threatened by anything or anyone. That is also the reason why she thinks she's best fit for deciding who should be a first class mage. She believes herself at the apex of Mages.
Serie says she likes magic as a weapon, but made no effort in dealing with the demon king. She was around a long time before freieren, reieren and flamme are *relatively* close in age and the demon king was already trying to wipe out all the elves. Even when confronting her own genocide, she didn’t fight the DK. She also says she hates flammes idea about humans doing magic or being involved with helping them. Yet here she is, using flammes flower spell and being the main organisation in fostering mages but also in sharing absurdly powerful spells only with those she deems safe to do so. Serie does the opposite of what she says, while also, doing exactly what she says.
I often see people say things indicating they think that Himmel made Frieren (the character, not the show), but I think people fail to credit that Himmel was just a scared lost kid UNTIL he met Frieren, and she made an impression on him not by being a cold calculated mage, but by having a heart for a total stranger, which basically became his defining feature. He then accelerated that lesson at human speed to teach Frieren the same lesson she made epiphany onto him. Though her original teacher, whose name I forget probably gave her that value as well. In the end. Serie is a douche, and Frieren is not 'Serie without Himmel', she was in fact a better person than Serie even before Himmel. Serie would have ignored Himmel as unimportant, or would have taken advantage of his desperation to make him into a living weapon, even if not an evil weapon, just a weapon for neutrality's weaponry's sake.
“What if” What if clone ubel used Land’s real bottle, and the interaction of the magics freed clone ubel from the dungeon. Allowing her to go out and wander the world as an almost real person.
Just wanted to say I enjoyed the content of the video, but the audio mixing and song selection needs work. At points, the background music is loud enough to fight for attention over your words. I hope you keep going and hope this improves future videos
I had a thorough discussion once as to how Serie is actually caring and wants the best. When she cares about her apprentices while insulting and demeaning their efforts, that's still called an asshole.
As someone who has not read the manga, even before I watched what that tsundere elf planed to do as 3rd exam, I knew it had to be sth bs that doesnt measure power or wisdom or even character. You are not giving the elf that you are most likely extremly jealous of a win. Frieren has the humanity she desires, because she already has her strenght most likely. She even tried to understand humans and most importantly Flamme even tho she publicly despises her, because aint no way you badmouth a mage and then proceed to use every spell they stand for yourself, especially the flowergarden. She seems afraid of change, while Frieren embraces it.
Himmel always wanted to be a Hero who slayed the Demon King whether or not he saw Frieren's flower spell. What the flower spell did to Himmel, is for him to seek out Frieren when recruiting the Hero Team.
In terms of writing by the author, it's an excellent plot point. In terms of in universe, as a fair and reasonable test, it's terrible. Serie literally fails Frieren out of pettiness
I don’t think it’s pettiness. It’s just that serie sees frieren as the antithesis of everything serie stands for, and as such does not qualify to serie standard of a first class mage. If anything serie treats frieren as an equal that can directly challenge serie’s view point.
What I find most interesting about the final test is that Serie is fundamentally wrong and she still doesn't change. It fits with her character as an ancient elf. She is all the knowledge and power of Kraft, an ancient hero... But lacks his personal beliefs and moral integrity. Kraft has stared into the void and decided to make an effort to make the world better for others. Serie has stared into the void and decided to merely forward her own hobbies. Serie doesn't care about the little things. The little people. She is entirely big picture, and if you dont fit into that picture you are beneath her notice. But Frieren, like Kraft, has made the acknowledgment that those little things are what makes life worth living, and will fight for them while Serie sits in a library and reads grimoirs while demons slaughter people en mass. She
serie being a foil to frieren is something I never really thought about. it was mostly just a grudge holding, antagonizing, different person. But saying that serie is just a frieren who never met Himmel just clicks so well. There's a sense of goofy emotionally humanity in Frieren's character that only seems to exist because of the goofy antics she witnessed with her old party. Zuri never had that. Oddly enough... I think serie wouldn't even pass herself by her own standards. She lacks the introspection and confidence that most everyone else exhibits to her. Serie seems to believe what she does about magic and its purpose, not because she wants to believe it, but because it is the thing that makes the most sense to her. She's at a loss as to why people ahve favorite spells, just how frieren is at a loss as to why Serie doesn't. That uncertainty, or at least the settling for what only makes logical sense to Serie, is what disqualifies her from being a first class mage. Just thought. Great video!
Something's been on my mind ever since seeing that scene, with Fern recognizing the fluctuation in Serie's mana. Everywhere I see people saying that Serie must have insanely high mana reserves compared to Frieren, afterall her suppressed mana is the same as Frieren's unleashed one. But if they're such opposites in mindset... why would Serie suppress her mana? Doing so just doesn't sit right with what I understand of her character. I can't help but think that Serie, rather than suppressing her mana, is instead constantly flaring it up. Like a cat that puffs their fur out to appear larger and more dangerous.
Wouldn't make sense from a worldbuilding point, considering it's mentioned multiple times that mana grows with training and age, e.g. Aura having a lot of mana because she lived for 500 years. As Serie has lived thousands of years constantly doing magic, it would break consistency very hard for her to have less mana than a mage that is only a thousand years old. So I suppose she does it because Flamme did and she obviously hasn't gotten over Flammes death or she was the one who actually tought it to Flamme in the first place.
I missed a chunk of your explanation because one of the close shots of Serie stopped my brain with the realization that she’s wearing the parts of Flamme’s earrings that Frieren’s earrings are missing. The level of detail in this show!
What time is that?
I noticed it around the 2:00 mark and then had to go back to another video to make sure Serie had no earrings in the flashbacks to Flamme’s time. Another reactor had pointed out that Frieren (current) wears the same earrings as Flamme (1,000 years ago), but Flamme’s have brassy bits above and below the jewels, and Frieren’s have them only above. So deductively, Serie’s brassy earrings are the missing pieces.@@onepromaster69yt82
@@onepromaster69yt82 2:20 shows each of their earrings in succession.
What are you talking about? Flamme doesn't wear ear cuffs afaik
@@ArcOfPotato Go back to episode 4 and watch the first few scenes with Flamme.
Serie wants to use magic for war while she sits on her ass. Frieren wants to use magic for peace while she slays demons.
Well, spoilers ahead - Serie claps some strongest demons
Because only demons of Sage level could give her any challenge.
Once a demon of that caliber appeared she went out and killed it with her all
Serie is the hikkikomori delusional chuunibyou Ranked 1 LoL player while Frieren is the grass toucher who keeps picking up Ws IRL
But Serie doesnt like peace, it's why she didn't want to defeat the Demon king. If she would go out to battle and easily beat the demons then she would end up bringing peace and slowing magic development. Where as Frieren wants/needs to fight the demons because she wants peace
@@netoisthebest
Not true, when she heard Macht finally went rogue, she immidiately arrived and went for the kill. Macht only survived because the other mages think they could do somthing about the curse.
She doesn't care about weaker Demons but Macht and co are assuredly on her hit list.
Given the heaviest hiiters on both sides hadn't showef up on the frontline for thousand of years, likely she and the Demon King had some way to keep each other at bay.
Excluding Frieren for 1000 years is likely to make Frieren one of the most remembered mages. As long as that organization exists it will have to teach it's receptionists to reject Frieren.
It is serve as protection from another broken Exam
That’s a good point. But Goddess help Frieren if she isn’t right outside the organization’s doors to visit Grandma Serie the day after the ban is lifted.
@@coltonwilliams4153 century or two after the ban is lifted. Remember they operate on Elf Time.
@@Алексей545-т6б or just given her the class 1 cert still dose the same thing.
@@crazeguy26 most likely... But could you imagine if Frieren had to proctor an exam? It would probably be okay, she's done a great job teaching Fern.
I also think it is important to separate what Serie says with what she does. She *says* that Frieren is wasting her time and effort learning how to suppress her magic aura, yet SHE DOES THE VERY SAME THING. She gives the impression that she barely cares about her apprentices, yet she remembers all of their favorite spells and apparently many other tidbits about them. She tells Frieren that she can't be a 1st Class Mage, but Frieren is the one who trained Fern, and she is very impressed with Fern's potential. Interesting, isn't it?
Serie is an overpowered tsundere
I think it's important to recognize that Serie's suppressed mana is the same as Frieren's unsuppressed mana, and that that amount of mana is enough to scare most humans. Serie likely has such an extreme amount of mana that had she not learned how to perfectly suppress it she would probably be incapable of living among humans due to how terrifying they'd find her mana. Serie does genuinely think that Frieren wasted her time learning such extreme suppression, as like she said Frieren would've been a far more capable mage had she dedicated that time to learning magic instead of suppression, but that doesn't necessarily mean she disagrees with learning it period, just that Frieren learned it before it was "necessary" which majorly slowed down her growth as a mage.
It's different. She's so powerful that it doesn't matter what she does.
I wonder if serie is doing the opposite of frieren. Instead of suppressing her mana she’s making it look like it’s more than it is since she does the opposite. Just a high thought I had
@@h20lucifer24 That wouldn't make any sense, we know the amount of mana someone has is well established to be directly related to how long the person has been using magic. For someone like Serie who has been practicing magic for vastly longer than Frieren has even been alive it would break the world building to have her have less mana than Frieren.
Serie basically chooses based on whether they are afraid of her or not. Everyone who failed was terrified of her power. Except for Frieren. Serie just knows that Frieren doesn't even care about being under her in the first place. Serie and Frieren don't like or hate each other. They view the whole world differently and they just decided not to be a bother to each other. Serie certainly wishes Frieren would join her side. But just accepts that Frieren isn't the same as her.
Basically cats.
@@felixtoulgoat3185 Not a coincidence they both make the cat face.
Frieren is Serie’s rebellious, hippy granddaughter that refuses to settle down with her in the massive organization that she built from the ground up, and instead is content wandering around the world like a vagabond.
I would ad the word "begrudgingly" before accepts, but pretty much.
Must've had some mixed feelings watching Frieren play such a large role in zoltrack research given how that seems right up Serie's alley.
In my opinion. Serie checks for what the participants would do against an impossible challenge (herself). Most saw the challenge and froze before taking action, thus failing. For those that passed, Wirbel and Derken at least considered the challenge before giving up, Ubel thinks she could take on the challenge, Land was trying to cheat through the challenge, Methode didnt even see her as a challenge, and Fern literally saw the correct way to solve the impossible challenge. The reason why she is so angry at Frieren is because she already passed another impossible challenge (demon lord) and literally choose to not even try to pass this one.
I think for Land it's more that she saw Land taking such ridiculous precautions and respecting the play.
Almost immediately after Serie fails Frieren, we are shown the flashback where Frieren delivers Flamme's will to Serie, and we have Serie saying to Frieren that taking 1000 years to make an important decision is no big deal to an elf. And almost in the very next scene we find out that Serie has banned Frieren from entering CMA facilities for exactly 1000 years. The juxtaposition of these two scenes right after the test scene puts an additional perspective on why Serie failed Frieren, which is that both Serie and Frieren, for differing reasons, do not think Frieren gaining the First Class Mage title at this specific moment is important in any way. Serie is basically saying to Frieren "go home, if you change your mind about it, come back in 1000 years and you can have the First Class Mage title then."
It does seem obvious which way Serie wants Frieren to go when that time comes. She wants her granddaughter to give up her wandering ways and settle down with her to help run and expand her budding empire. She’s such a hopeless tsundere.
That's basically the same as saying to a human "if you still want it come back next week".
I've seen a lot of people say that Serie hasn't had people in her life that helped her like Flamme and Himmel did for Frieren. However, I think that while this may be somewhat true, it's also downplaying their true natures:
(1) From what we've seen of Frieren, she has always been a kind and peaceful person. It was the massacre of her village that changed her. Flamme (at the end of her life) and Himmel (throughout their journey) helped her regain/remember that old self. While Serie has been less developed, but just going off of her existing scenes, she treats magic as a tool for killing and sees value in strength for strength's sake. So, I would say that they are still fundamentally different people and see the world differently.
(2) Another difference is how they handle their emotions. Frieren is kind of a kuudere. She wasn't originally aware of her feelings for Himmel and the party (hence her cold demeanor), but when she becomes aware, she's pretty honest with her feelings. As opposed to Serie, who probably is aware of her feelings, and yet always puts up a heavy tsundere (mainly just tsun) act.
she wears it with everything around her everyone she cares about is incorporated into her environment from her spell list to the very guarden she lives in
@@mesiagamer5217 Sure, Serie cares about her disciples to some extent. However, not only does she not express that properly to them, but she does the tsun act as well, which probably hurts them at least a little. Just look at Flamme and Lernen.
Flamme most likely didn't dislike Serie, but she probably didn't enjoy spending time with her either, even though Serie was a mother-figure and mentor/teacher to her. We know this because Flamme never visited Serie once during her life after the meeting where she introduced Frieren to Serie. That's ~50 years of never visiting your master/foster-mother. There has to be a reason especially for Flamme who was such a wise and caring person.
As for Lernen, he has been her disciple for ~50 years, and yet we can easily conclude that he's never been told "I'll remember you" or "I'm proud of you" or similar things from Serie. This has caused him enough anguish that became the reason for him wanting to go down in history by any means (even bad ones), until Frieren managed to set him straight by telling him the truth about Serie and her feelings. Something that Serie failed to do for her own disciple for ~50 years. Comparatively, Frieren was/is already a better master to Fern even though she's much younger and much less experienced in relationships/teaching/etc.
Now, you could argue that Serie is cold because of her much longer life or defense mechanisms or other such reasons. But it's still a fact that she comes off as quite cold and we don't actually know for a fact how much of it is inherent to her as a person, and how much was learned through her vast life experiences. My own experience suggests that people rarely if ever change on a fundamental level regardless of how much life experience they get. They may act somewhat differently, but their core is still basically the same. This is also something that Heiter says more or less in the Ep14/Ch29 flashback to Frieren.
Finally, please keep this discussion spoiler-free or at least properly give warnings before posting any manga spoilers, and also post them in such a way that it's not immediately visible to all (ie, hide them behind RUclips's "Read more"), since anime-onlys may end up seeing this as well.
I mean, it's worth noting that Serie taught Flamme. So saying that "Serie hasn't had people in her life that helped her like Flamme" is misleading. Flamme herself said in that flashback that Frieren was different to _both_ Serie and Flamme, that she was a mage who could and would thrive in a world without the Demon Lord. And also, notably, that this was the reason she's defeat the Demon Lord where Serie wouldn't bother and Flamme just couldn't. (Or however the reasoning went, the point is Flamme expected neither of them to take out the Demon Lord.)
Now, Himmel's influence on the other hand...that probably did have a sizeable impact on Frieren's mindset and unwillingness to shift her views in line with Serie. Though, the fact that Flamme was noting the divergent mindset 1000 years before Himmel was even born means that he probably helped bring Frieren's philosophies and strong points to her own attention rather than being the inception of such things. Even Flamme probably can't claim too much credit; she was from what I can tell trying to help a young elf onto the path that her master was already walking and _failed spectacularly_ before realizing that her failure was actually probably a good thing. After all, no matter how militant her mindset about magic was, and how unflinchingly underhanded she was willing to be about anything that gave her an edge in combat...she was still the sort of person who most liked to just conjure up a field of flowers and drink in the beauty of the moment.
And...well...it's not like Serie took _nothing_ from that relationship, either. Even 1000 years later, she still used that same flower spell to create a magnificent garden for herself, and was as focused on drinking in its beauty as she was in vibe-checking the test-takers. She seems to understand Frieren's point of view perfectly well, she just doesn't think it will help her reach the height of magic and so has (mostly) discarded it. And yet...she can't quite bring herself to fully commit, it seems, because some things are just beautiful enough that inefficiency be damned you've gotta admire them.
@@ThePCguy17 Very well put. Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed reading it. :)
Also it’s directly pointed out she does care.
She has an objective though. She’s training humans to be war mages. This isn’t a personal adventure for her. This is her job.
The impression I got from Serie is that when she says that she is a living grimoire, she meant it literally. That she is more interested in collecting spells than any individual person. I see her proctoring the last test as to view people's potential and ambition. And by that ambition, whether or not they could formulate a new spell.
Not sure I agree, but that does fit in with later info we get about why Frieren collects spells instead of making new ones.
Serie is a tsundere, she supresses her own magic herself. So she calls it useless but uses it herself.
truuuuuuu..... hadn't thought of that
Also her garden where she likes spending time
She called the magic to make a field of flowers useless, but it looks like she really enjoys looking at it
@@Phoenix77989 u know... dang..
You start digging a little you find all this character development 😆
There’s no other reason for her to constantly complain about taking humans as her apprentices, while also perfectly memorizing her apprentices’ favorite spells, activities, and meals.
She suppresses her mana, but so much leaks out that her leaked mana is the same as Frieren's when unleashed. Every demon would get splat by Serie.
I think people will appreciate this arc more once season 2 drops because this arc introduced many characters who will be more relevant in season 2. But from what I've seen people already love this arc. All 136 chapters of frieren so far has been amazing. It is just one great arc after another
I could tell by the way we spent so much time with them that the new characters would be important later on.
How does reading the manga affect watching the anime? Should I read the manga?
@@sooyster4033 Season 1 is almost a perfect adaptation of the manga. So if you want to continue the storyline then you can start reading from chapter 61 of the manga. Frieren manga is great overall. It gets even better after the events of season 1 in my opinion. But if you can wait 1-2 years for season 2 then it's worth it too since almost all the key staff members who made season 1 are also coming back to make a season 2
@@sooyster4033 the arc after where anime s1 ends is AMAZING. you absolutely should read it. its an absolute joy to love the manga and then watching the anime make it even better.
how could anybody not love this arc, it was spectacular
I can’t believe they don’t already. I was hyped the entire second half of the season. Magic fights in this universe are crazy good.
Mana recognition is both a personality test and a capacity test. You have to have the capability to sense her fluctuations first and foremost, then on top of that you have to actually have the nerve to use that capability to assess her.
Most other contestant have the nerve, but not the capability. Land has the nerve to think "can I trick her?", Ubel has the nerve to think "can I cut her?", Denken has the nerve to think "can I beat her?". Only Fern did both.
Visualisation is important as a human mage, so Serie only gives a pass to the mages that believes (or assume) that they can surpass or at the very least match her in one aspect (trickery, disguise, fight).
When most mages look at Serie, they have one of two thoughts: 1) “What kind of monster is this?!” 2) “Hmm… how can I beat her…?” Those who think the former are immediately failed and dismissed. While the latter, even if only for a moment, think that there’s a chance of winning, and are passed and considered worthy of Serie’s attention.
Menthode is an outlier. Either Serie really liked being called cute, or she was the perfect amount of unhinged for Serie to pass her.
@@coltonwilliams4153i dont entirely agree with that.
Wirbel definitely thought shes a monster and that he could never beat her.
What differentiates him, is he kept his composure. He accepted it as a fact and moved on.
Thats why serie gave him a chance by asking him about his favourite spell.
To which he gave a satisfying answer to her. One that is rational and combat oriented.
Like a battle mage.
@@hulmhochberg8129 TBF Wirbel was more of a "Can this opponent be beaten? Hell no, moving on" At no point did he let fear cloud his rational thinking. The failed ones were scared on sight, he looked at the situation logically and came to a logical conclusion.
She also knew that Frieren didn't care to be a "first class mage" as to her it was just an ephemeral title granted by an organization that will change over time and ahe had already secured such a title with that amulet from the holy city that she had. There was just no point in making Frieren a "first class mage".
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Fully agree, but it's still interesting and kind of hilarious that she failed her out of a difference in ideology. Does she have a solid reason for failing her or is she just petty af? who knows lol. Por qué no los dos?
@JeffDvrx "Her intuition is never wrong," Frieren.
'Hey bro i need to update my OP badge because the old guys died out or something idk'
I just realized for the second test, what made it diabolical was Sense entered the dungeon with them ensuring there would be at least one first level mage to be defeated for the test takers. If there were three powerful mages there would be three powerful clones plus the sense clone...the scale is tipped in favor of the Dungeon.
I mean it was already true even without that considering there were traps too =p
And the replica being equally matched does force cooperation already.
If anything what it does is put a minimum cap on the power a group would need to be able to pass, if nobody can deal with sense they lose, which, fair enough, having to be able to beat a first class mage in the right conditions seems like a reasonable requirement for becoming one yourself.
Under normal circumstances, senses clone would be were frierens clone stood.
"In order to become a first class mage, one must be able to overcome both adversity and unfairness. Frankly, this qualifies as neither." -Sense
Though I often wonder how it would go. Friern help the girls pass, who in turn had vital info about the core trap of the dungeon, which then allow them to come up with a decent plan. though I guess it might have change who would also be in the 1st round of winner too.
It’s why she has a low pass rate lol
I love how much discussion this series has sparked, it's just so cleverly thought out by the author. I'm very happy to live in this time to experience anime of such high caliber.
Frieren is a great subversion of this new wave of Japanese fantasy (which is itself largely influenced by Western fantasy conventions). Serie is completely utilitarian with her magic, but Frieren's philosophy of kindness and compassion is seen in-universe as quite appealing. It really comes down to one's personal philosophy; there isn't a universal "correct" answer.
I do think it’s saying grander things than just this.
While that's nice to say, the story clearly implies Frieren is right and it's everywhere in the story with the themes
Very nice video. What I´d seen it as, it´s that while of course it´s a vibe check (Frieren herself says it, Serie will choose based on her instincts, and her instincts are always right), Serie wants whoever manages to become a 1st range mage not to think "ok I´m at the top there´s nothing more to do", she wants people who will keep elevating magic. I think that list you gave of Serie´s criteria is very accurate. She wants people who doesn´t fear her, even if they admit defeat, if they don´t fear her mana, the participants will strive to go higher, Even Methode saying she sees her small and cute is a proof she´s not afraid of her. She wants to see potential of course. She says to Denken "I thought your fire had already burned but you still have it in you", because she thinks Denken can still go higher.
A I saw it Serie judges if a person has not only the skills, but also determination and dedication to get to the highest hights of magic and beyond. The reason why Frieren is disqualified is because she's mostly just playing around. She doesn't feel the urge to improve her magic beyond her limits, it's just her hobby kind of.
You should look at Serie's actions instead of her words more, I think.
She might talk a lot about efficiency and other stuff, yet she has collected and learned nearly every spell ever discovered. She might prefer to sit on her ass and not interfere directly, but she was a feared demon hunter.
Serie dislikes a lot of things, and she did most of those herself at some point in her life. And she had more time than anyone to think about consequences of her decisions.
Maybe, except for Kraft. Who also doesn't look overly eager to rush in action and enforce justice, despite having a good heart.
I just imagine serie understanding that eventually humans will rise up and the elves will no longer be needed in the world. Humans are greedy, arrogant, fearful and more. I imagine that some day organizations will rise up and try hunting down all elves or all overly strong individuals
@@erickellar5867serie understands that the most isn't that what she talked about with frieren after flamme died.
When series 3 of Konosuba aired earlier this year, it occured to me that if Megumin had taken this test, she would have had a good chance of passing, thanks to her overwhelming confidence and laserlike focus on magic as a force for defeating powerful enemies.
Megumin in the Frieren magic system of power being apportioned to belief would be a literal nuclear bomb - the only time she ever waivers on her favouritism towards explosion magic, Kazuma bumped its power up more lol
Always love videos about exploring Frieren!
The most satisfying moment is when Fern asked Serie for the best laundry magic
-Grandma- Mama Frieren is so proud xD
Laundry magic would be very useful. In the British winter, fuel prices going mad,let me insta dry my clothes
Freiren is arguably one of the deepest animes in the past couple years. There's soo much nuance I gathered just by watching it, each episode really left an impact on me, no wasted frames.
Something interesting to point out that i don't see discussed often is that Serie is able to read people immediately upon meeting them. What strikes me most about Methode's exam isn't that she isn't afraid of Serie or that she finds her cute, it's that Serie has to ask what Methode is thinking about. Being unable to read her as she so confidently did the others has some meaning i would imagine.
With Fern she thought she was scared though. Serie had to actually ask as well.
It's possible that Serie can read, but only gets limited context. She had to ask Methode because her thoughts were incomprehensible to someone like Serie, and had to ask Fern because it simply didn't occur to her that a fledgling mage could see the flicker in her aura.
What I enjoy about Serie is that she doesn't really practice what she preaches. Like she calls Frieren's approach to magic stupid, but knows pretty much every spell Frieren does even though they're 'useless' and despite looking down on mana suppression ALSO suppresses her mana. Then she gets all fussy about apprentices and outliving them but secretly remembers everything about them and continues to take on more.
I'm just waiting for her to wave a stick at someone and yell at them to get off her lawn but then put out playground equipment for little kids or something.
The test actually only had one criteria.
Ambition.
The mages that could see themselves matching serie one day passed. Even if it was just for a moment and in any domain. If they wanted to even try taking her place in any way they passed.
Thats why frieren didnt pass despite being the strongest. She has no ambition. She just has hobbies.
It can be argued that even without ambition, Frieren has already matched Serie.
Every scene with Himmel, Flamme or Serie is a treat.
Excellent review of the Exam arc. While some have criticised this ending, to introduce a brace of new characters, show them in action and how they behave under stress and then they don't have to tell the readers about them. In your face is always more memorable than narrative. There is actually a very serious question involved: Who is right? Frieren or Serie? "For when man has the power to do anything, then anything he will do." - Qifrey WHA 2025
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how good this show was.
It's also quite realistic, you would be surprised how many institutions in society have their version of a vibe test(though it is usually done over the course of a longer period of time) the petty little games included, deans and professors failing students purely to stroke their own egos or to maintain some artificial standard being prime examples.
Bro. Why do you only have 554 subs? Your videos are well made and the script is thought provoking. Keep it up my dude.
Thanks. Now I understand better, why Frieren resonates with me so much.
Frieren is such a fresh take. I can’t wait for season two.
In my opinion, the criteria for the last test is very simple: whether you have both the magical capability AND the mental preparedness of being a first class mage. The first one is easy, as most of the people there already proved themselves in the first two exams. The last exam is mainly filtering the second criteria, and it doesn't matter how they does it. You can just be bold (Land), abnormal (Übel), efficiently minded but still try to fight (Denken), can just fight regardless (Wirbel), simply don't care about power level (Methode), or focusing on her weak point instead of her obvious "she's million times stronger than you" magical power (Fern). She don't just want strong mages; she want ones that are actually capable of applying that strength regardless of situation.
Even Frieren is no exception (or at least it isn't in her eyes), as she's too lax to use her full potential. It doesn't matter if she's objectively strong anyways, she's a disappointment in her eyes because she could've been so much more. In the first place, first-class mage are defined as mages that received the approval of Serie, which means most of them would be strong mages but their strength actually matters less than what people thought.
Frieren herself even describes herself as a mediocre mage.
She hyper focused on mana suppression and killing demons for a 1000 years, but actually she just wants to chill and make flowers or sour grapes for her friends.
good voice. good script. peak explanation. and only 1k subs boost this guy to the fucking skies he deserves it
Well done.
Nitpicking:
1. Feel like you have what it needs to be a first class mage is just visualization.
2. Well the "small and cute" opinion of Serie is not really the criteria; it just is a play over the corner way to express, that Serie's mana does not induce fear in the examinee.
they are more like underpoints of visualization.
The second is especially true given how good Methode's mana detection is shown to be in the second test. She was the only one that could find Denken and Fern when they were hiding.
On the flip side, it also means she would have been aware of and able to steel herself against Serie's massive mana before any of the other examiniees (barring Frieren, but she's already not intimidated by her - she wasn't even the first time they met).
I'm confused about your nitpick number 1. Are you asserting that visualization is all that's needed to be a first-class-mage? Or are you taking an issue with the video essay making that claim?
@@Diablos-pi2qy Well, I don't have an issue with the video, just that some points under the criteria Serie looks for in first-class mages are visualization just worded differently or boil down to visualization. Like the: "1. Do they feel like a first class mage?" It boils down to can they envision themselves being a first class mage, and another word for "envision" is visualize. Just as Serie says/explains to Kanne: "You can't even visualize yourself becoming a first-class mage. In the world of magic, what you can't envision cannot be." So asking if one feels like X is just a round about way to say can you envision you doing X can you visualize succeeding with X do you "feel confident". So long story short, yes visualization is what is needed to become a first-class mage.
@@Airwave2k2 I have to rewatch the video to double check the criteria. However, I just want to say that while visualization is definitely a must to be a first-class-mage, it's not the only condition for Serie imo. They also have to be decently strong or have enough potential for future growth (and not be Frieren).
I doubt that Serie would accept a mage that is lacking in mana, technique, control, but excels at visualization.
Methode simply can't be read or predicted. She had lots of specializations. That's what led Serie to ask what Methode thinks of her.
"slows it down" and then proceded to give us the freren v freren fight
Fantastic analysis, and outstanding jokes too. What a great video!
Thanks!
Its worth noting that serie is clearly a low key tsundere. She chastises those for having interest in peaceful spells, but she herself has created a room of flowers, I would believe in memoriam of her favorite and most inspirational student. She also still has the laundry spell, it's not like she threw it away.
I think serie, is an interpretation of how people deal with the menace of time by detaching, but as living beings we can never 100% detach. Freiren is taking the opposite approach of in fact trying to acknowledge the feelings, which as indicated is somewhat un-elf-like. Apparently because when they do, they can just end up inconveniently crying for multiple weeks as they don't have a concept of time lol.
The scene with Himmle and the flowers and Series perspective is perfectly encapsulated by another wizard duo, Gandalf and Saruman.
“Saruman believes that it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I've found it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.”
Ubel is able to learn magic from others just from getting to known them Serie is aware and doesn't even engage in a chat other than you pass
I think some of the analysis around Serie almost infantalizes her. Serie knows what human connection is, the entire conversation she has with Frieren about Flamme shows it. The show goes out of its way to demonstrate that Serie remembers her apprentices. Serie, more than Frieren, has lived among humans. The difference is Serie has been worn down by it. She can't allow herself to truly be vulnerable because of how much losing her apprentices hurt. Frieren at this point hasn't even reconciled how losing Himmel has hurt her.
Serie is frustrated with Frieren for a number of reasons, but at least some of it is demonstrably her belief that Frieren CANNOT understand human empathy, something she holds until she talks to Fern and realizes how Frieren has changed. Because remember, the last time they really talked, Frieren had just lost Flamme who she essentially stole away from Serie for 50 years. Serie is torn up by it, even if she can't admit it aloud we see her reminiscing about the young Flamme. But Frieren? Frieren doesn't even go look for Flamme's legacy for a thousand years.
Serie gets human interaction. She's burdened herself to live with humans because Flamme asked her to and Serie couldn't refuse the wish of her beloved apprentice. And she loves her apprentices, enough to remember all of them at all stages of her life. Serie cannot express that well, or may not want to have to address that because of the sheer amount of loss she must've experienced in those thousand years of gathering and losing apprentices. A burden she believes Frieren can never understand.
I always interpreted it as Serie simply weighing frieren on a whole different scale from the other participants. She simply is just not as strong as she SHOULD be for her age. Serie herself is suppressing her mana and the sheer size of it is incredibly massive despite that. And for that, she was failed.
I think it is also very telling HOW people pass or fail the test
The test is basically - you are thrown in a impossible challenge, and you have a split second to figure out how to tackle it.
Kanne fails because she doesnt think she can do it. And creating a vision is the greatest part of magic
Dunste, Laufen, Scharf and Ehre fail similarly - they are not yet capable of tackling something impossible
Wirbel and Derken go through "how can I defeat this" moment, before figuring out it is impossible. They pass because they dont give up before trying
Ubel is crazy hyperconfident, and not being able to defeat it never crosses her mind. She doesnt care if she dies trying
Land also passes before he even begun - he made failing not part of the process, simply because he is not there. Serie respects that.
Methode didnt even see her as a challenge. So she doesnt envision the failure.
Fern realized that the challenge presented was not the real challenge. While Serie dislikes her, she can't deny that she is the only one that sees that she they would be playing chess, and not the checkers that is presented to everyone else.
And Frieren.... well, Serie has a beef with her. Frieren doesnt want to be a first class mage - not in the way Serie wants first class mages. She just aced a test to be a rocket scientist, but she wants to be a dentist. Serie sees that, and basically tells her to come back the day she actually wants what Serie is offering.
Turns out Serie just failed everyone before talking to frieren because she was angry over having to meet frieren
Great analysis on a great arc. Love it
Serie's final test seemed to boil down to anyone who wasn't afraid of her after seeing her mana, and/or dared to challenge her after seeing her mana. The other questions were just to supplement her understanding of the states of mind like how she thought Fern was afraid of her (stating Fern is just like everybody else), but later learned she was actually seeing her fluctuations and not afraid of her.
People who were clearly intent on fighting her like Ubel passed right away.
People Serie were uncertain of their intentions like the girl who thought she was small and cute were questioned so Serie can understand their thoughts like she did with Fern.
As long as they weren't afraid of her mana they would have passed no matter how they answered the question just like how Frieren would have failed now matter how she answered.
Underrated channel
Serie plays the game of deceiving demons with mana herself. She is most likely even the one who taught that to Flamme and Frieren by that extend. She says that it is extremely time consuming and not worth the effort to her human students, which makes sense, because they don´t have that much time.
Also, at least in the anime, there is no sign of anyone finding out about Fern suppressing her mana. Maybe she fooled even Serie with that.
Yeah. Lugner figures it out, but only because Fern's output would otherwise be impossible. He didn't sense her suppression.
Notably, Linie didn't notice despite being a specialist in mana detection, even among demons.
Makes sense, since Heiter knew Frieren's trick and likely taught Fern suppression in his Magic 101. It's not just second nature to Fern like it is for Frieren, it's *first* nature.
6:03 poor Wirbel. Denken got all the credits 😂
Finally, a video that isn't just "why this show is the greatest anime ever."
Frieren is "relatively unskilled for her age" also means she's "relatively monstrous to the average human mage who can never reach her age".
Flamme said Frieren was good at concealing her mana, Serie said it would take someone (any human) far too long to get good at it unless they were skilled at it.
The thing about Serie is that she always talks down from above because she's been at the top for ages. She knows what works for her, and she probably wishes it worked for others lol
Sorry, just had to get that out there. Great video, though.
(But the background tracks changing almost as often as every other sentence can be a bit distracting.)
Thanks! Sorry about the music jumping around, pretty much everyone has pointed out haha, had some copyright problems uploading, the changes ended up a bit sloppy to cut out those bits
I sincerely believe and hope the show will go on to explain that Serie is failing Frieren repeatedly over this long period of time in a way not to punish her, but as a way to teach Frieren totally different from every other mage who all want to become a 1st class mage, but for those like Serie and Frieren who can become the absolute number 1 mage, especially if Serie was ever forced by circumstances or just simply wanted to step down from her position. Since the only person who could possibly take her place is the one person who has been trained from childhood to do the exact things Serie does, to the point that even Serie has begrudgingly respected her even though they have totally different opinions and opposing philosophical beliefs about magic.
I would argue the Frieren diverges from Serie even earlier than meeting Himel. If Frieren wasn't taken under Flamme's wing, then I don't think she would've ever thought of magic as anything other than a weapon. After all, the spell that summons a flower field, was a gift from her teacher.
I don't think Serie is SUPPRESSING her magic, I think she's puffing up her feathers.
The music overlaying is kinda odd at times but I enjoyed the video thanks for making it :)
Thanks! Musics a bit of a mess, was cleaner at one point but had some issues
honestly, when you are at the max level. All you need is a vibe check. Game recognizes game.
You’re forgetting a key detail, Frieren’s teacher echoing this.
Great video! I really liked your analysis. I would say though I had an issue with multiple songs kinda overlapping with eacother in the video, just a small critique though otherwise It was a great video!
Glasses guy has mastered the skill of working from home.
Serie's checking to see how well people will handle threats that are beyond them, their self confidence, and if they'll be able to handle the pressure of living as a 1st class mage.
If they're intimidated by her, they fail. If they can't even picture themselves as a first class mage after passing the two tests before getting a surprise third test, they fail.
Frieren is a peaceful mage for a peaceful time.
Fern is a demon slayer for cleaning up the DKs remains.
W take keep up the good work
Well technically Serie doesn't see hiding mana to deceive one's enemy completely useless since it's clearly a technique almost purely for combat.
That's why Serie herself "wasted" enough time to be able to do it even better than Frieren, despite having a much larger mana pool to hide.
And though this is just my headcannon, it is probably something Serie taught to Flamme before Flamme passed it down to Frieren, both masters doing so as a combat skill.
Frieren not knowing that Serie is suppressing her mana mean that Serie was already suppressing it when Frieren met her 1000 years ago so yes she don't think that it's useless.
It's probably Serie who told this magic to Flamme too I think
Im pretty sure we know that Serie and Frieren started doing this because of Flamme. Not the other way around.
It could be the reverse. Just as the flower making magic, Flamme gave Serie enough impression that Serie is looking back at her fondly and decide to take up both spells as a way to try to "understand" Flamme. In a sense, Flamme is like Himmel to Frieren. However, Frieren decides to trace the humanity of Himmel while Serie is stuck tracing only the magic of Flamme.
@@pouf6463 I'm pretty sure Frieren knows that Serie is suppressing her mana. She's simply chosen not to comment on it. After all, Serie's suppressed mana is equal to Frieren's unsuppressed mana, and Frieren knows that Serie's true mana is much greater than her own.
The thing that Serie said was inefficient wasn't just hiding your mana. Hiding your mana temporarily during battle so your opponent has trouble tracking your movement or telling where and when an attack is coming from is a pretty standard combat tactic (which we in fact see Serie use in battle later in the manga). What Serie called inefficient was suppressing your mana ALL THE TIME and honing your skill at it to the point where even Demons can't tell that you are doing it. But the context of how she said it also matters. Because in the very next sentence after pronouncing that it was "inefficient" she goes on to say that it helped Frieren kill more demons. And what is Frieren most famous for? Killing the freakin DEMON KING. So just as with a lot of other things Serie has said, she said one thing out loud but immediately implied the very opposite with the next words out of her mouth.
Another aspect of Serie's words on this subject is the context of who she is talking to. Namely her assembled First Class Mage students, and Lernen specifically. And she is basically telling them that to get as good as Frieren is at mana suppression takes longer than a human lifetime of training, unless you happen to be born with some innate talent at it to begin with. So she's also in Teacher Mode, basically telling her students not to try to copy Frieren, because it isn't practically achievable for a regular human being with a regular human lifespan.
Serie isn't like a version of Frieren, that never met Himmel. She is like a Version of Frieren, that never spoke with anyone, including her own apprentice Flamme. Because it's Flamme, that gave the spark for Frierens character development.
Whats so morrally beautiful about this exam and fern passing it isnt some big power up or a deeper understanding of magic or anything. Its fern embracing the beauty of magic and the respect of both her master and her master's bully.
Through this arc fern and the audience acknowledge 3 things
• Fern is a prodigy with lots if potential
Fern forces frieren to use a spell she hasnt used since she fought the demon king, dealing what is effectively the killing blow to a raid boss. And frieren nods to her power and is proud of what shes become. There is no longer any doubt whether or not fern is a competant mage or not. There is no debate, there is no arguement, fern is first class mage
•Basic magic reigns supreme
We see frieren conjuring blackholes, volcanos, golems, arc lightning and hell inferno, and the only thing that manages to damage clone frieren was basic offensive magic. Not once, not twice, but three consecutive times. Proving that you truly only need offense and defensive magic to defeat 99% of modern mages. The master of 1 defeats a novice of thousand.
•Fern appreciate magic as an art and craft, not as tools and weapons.
After all this, Fern's choice of spell was a rare laundry magic that makes her clothes smell nice. A simple, yet insurmountably useful spell for an adventurer. A lesson that teaches that magic is strong when it is the most used and useful, not when most destructive or advanced. The complexity of a simple refrigerator has changed the world ten fold compared to the nuclear bomb.
Imagine a world without a fridge, how long would your milk last? You can imagine a world without nuclear fusion, sure you can, but youve been so accommodated by the fridge that you cant reall imagine a world without it. The little invention that better billions of lives across the world.
That is the beauty of magic and conparitively-technology. Weve never seen frieren use her black hole spell once outside of trying to kill herself. Yet every episode we see the adventurers, their clothes are clean.
A mage needs guts - test.
A very important test. You dont need mages running the moment there is trouble.
Their magic system is about visualization. If you can imagine it, you will be able to do it eventually. Series tests if the contestants have even an inkling of seeing themselves best her in any way. As they have the potential to surpass her.
Denken's interaction says this directly. So do Übel and Wirbel, both think of fighting her. Methode isn't even afraid and thinks she's cute. And Land disrespects her even more by not even showing up in person, thinking no one will notice his duplicate. Fern sees Series' flaws, surpassing her already. Frieren does not see herself ever besting Series, and neither do the others who failed.
there is no world in which she makes me pass, the same way there is no world in which she makes you fail.
Fern learned mana suppression and how to spot it from Freiren.
Its funny how Serie hates Freiren's more peacful approach to magic, yet doesn't really deny how good she is as a mage and an instructor.
I enjoy the idea of qualitative judgements being a part of a qualification exam. It satisfies my autism to see the spirit of a law/rule/role having veto power over the rigid definition.
In the third season of Nanoha we learn that the fully magical world* Nanoha lives on has a peculiar "disability." If a rigorous psychological and magical exam determines that you're a dangerous psychopath or similar, you are barred from ever learning magic in any capacity.
This leaves someone effectively powerless, unable to do real or lasting harm, and keeps them from becoming the kind of threat only a powerful mage can be. It also means they can't use an elevator without someone else pushing the button. Everything in their society is magical, making a non-mage effectively handicapped.
I like this, because it shows forethought and responsibility. The kind of society that would do this probably has a support system for these people, who almost certainly can't be employed.
Too bad season three of Nanoha is awful.
There's a book where a heavily insular magical school accepts a commoner for her hilariously large mana pool. She faces disrespect and is shunned and bullied. There is a tournament in the curriculum and her confidant helps her use it to turn her reputation around.
She studies very hard to try and meet the basic education that everyone else already has. She executes specific strategies to demonstrate her competence and willingness to engage seriously with the tournament and the student body in general. For the first rounds.
In the final round, her opponent is too skilled to challenge. So she stops playing fair and buries him in enough basic magic arrows that she _causes the professor maintaining his emergency shield to stagger._ Clearly demonstrating that she could have buried every opponent, but chose not to.
The whole thing is just framed very well as showing the school that she is one of them, and also the _strongest_ one of them.
*They've developed magic to the point of a futuristic society. As in, scientific study producing technology that functions entirely through magic.
I think that you have actually missed a few things. For example, Serie is really just Frieren in another 1-10,000 years. She mocks Frieren for suppressing her mana... yet you seem to have missed that she herself is doing the exact same thing, something that only Fern notices. I feel like you are missing part of the similarity of the two. Another point might simply be that Serie's Himmel is 10,000 years in the past. The end of the second test actually illuminates a bit of why Serie might have failed Frieren. Take one more thought from this. Frieren has spent the last 1000 years collecting spells... but what does Serie already have? ALL THE SPELLS! it's very very telling that Frieren is out doing exactly what Serie has already achieved. So I feel like your premise here is misplaced. The difference between the two is not that they approach magic differently, it is that they are at different places along that path.
Nice vid! And it was a great subject too, of course! 🙂
Thanks!
Thanks!
Serie is arrogant and lacks imagination. The ultimate power-move on Frieren's part would be to open a magic school herself and constantly 1-up Serie by training mages that bring more than "just power" into the world. It's petty to the bone while still being the most wholesome thing that could be done, other than just walking away as Frieren did.
I think it was a great contrast to both Frieren and Serie as characters.
Every mage who makes it to the final exam deserves to be there, deserves to be named a first class mage. They have all validly completed the first two trials asked of them, not because of being carried by frieren, but by being led to realize their own potential by frieren. Each and every one of them, and even a few who failed through no fault of their own on the second trial, were all shown to be able to perform to the best of what mages can do when enabled to do so.
Serie, on the other hand... doesnt care. She goes into it expecting all of them to be nothings who frieren carried through, and even she was forced to admit more than she expected into being first class mages. This becomes especially true when frieren straight up tells her she will never be able to disqualify fern, and she WILL accept her, as if its predetermined. No matter what she thinks of frieren, fern will surpass everything she ever expected to such a degree that she will enthusiastically accept her. Serie doesnt believe this, and initially scoffs at the idea after meeting fern, before being immediately blown away by her innate potential that not a single human before had shown.
This is why i always view frieren as the far superior mage, as she has grown deeply as a person, as an elf, in comparison to serie.
This video was amazing. I concluded a lot of the same but I was opened up to a few new angles to look at the final test from. However, all of that is overshadowed by the ending shot of Frieren asleep with the stary background. Any way to get that without the popups for a background for my computer?
7:58 serie absolutely agrees with frieren, she suppressed her own mana 😭😭 my theory is that serie is the goddess
One thing I do not agree with is "Serie is like a Frieren who never met Himmel". For once, Himmel actually doesn't have anything to do with this. Frieren had totally different mindset compared to Serie way back when she was still apprentice of Flamme. Thats when this started.
Also yes, Serie says its waste of time to fool Demons with supressing mana. But it seems like she is the mother of that idea and she taught it to Flamme also, as she seems to be best at it out of all characters we know. Series words arent always true to herself as you say in this video.
I know yall are saying serie is a tsundere cuz she surpresses magic just like frieren despite saying its useless but also like...she doesnt like frieren so maybe its also like a "Look I can do what you can do you arent special" or is trying to be better than her to preserve her superiority over frieren
i personally think the main condition she is going for can be boiled down to fear of acting aginst her.
all characterers that show fear of acting aginst her fails. while all that either dosen't show fear (aka thinking she is cute, or actually thinking they could defeat her instead of any fear)
or those who does show fear of her, but not of acting aginst her aka denken, who tried to visualize ways to defeat her, not that he was succesful, but just the fact he tried made him pass.
or perhaps more broadly just if they the kind of person with a desire to keep improving/the potentiel to keep improving
Serie is Fireren if she never had met Himmel - a very clever assesment.
Honestly frieren should've just been given the title with no test knowing who she really is... It's absurd that anyone's allowed to deny one of the legendary heroes something like that.
your script writing is really good, and I agree with your analysis
but, and I hope this is taken as criticism not as an insult, your musical implementation is distracting,
specifically playing multiple songs on top of each other and the hard cuts from one song to another (in the middle of a song) takes me out of the experience. It made me want to click away from your video at its worst points.
I am subscribing and I hope to see your channel grow in the future,
I agree with Friedan that efficiency is kinda dog shit in some aspects and should absolutely not be the “be all end all”.
No one wants to eat a tasteless nutrient paste.
I know you probably do not really care, but the last E in Serie is pronounced. It's a german word. Like most of Frieren's character names.
Now to the important bit:
arguably while not spelt out directly, Serie really does not let Frieren pass because of personal grudges and disagreements on how to keep Flamme's legacy alive. You know, the one person who connects them? Serie's disciple and Frieren's master?
Because Flamme actually combines both Serie's and Frieren's shown attitude towards magic.
Also saying that she does not try is also patently false, Serie's aim throughout the arc and in general is trying to raise a generation of first class mages who can effectively combat the demon plight, she much like Frieren herself holds a grudge against the demon's for genociding the elves and also being responsible for killing their loved ones.
Her presentation of "not trying" is actually a display of arrogance, because she believes herself to be so above any other mage that she can't imagine being threatened by anything or anyone.
That is also the reason why she thinks she's best fit for deciding who should be a first class mage. She believes herself at the apex of Mages.
Serie says she likes magic as a weapon, but made no effort in dealing with the demon king. She was around a long time before freieren, reieren and flamme are *relatively* close in age and the demon king was already trying to wipe out all the elves. Even when confronting her own genocide, she didn’t fight the DK. She also says she hates flammes idea about humans doing magic or being involved with helping them. Yet here she is, using flammes flower spell and being the main organisation in fostering mages but also in sharing absurdly powerful spells only with those she deems safe to do so. Serie does the opposite of what she says, while also, doing exactly what she says.
I often see people say things indicating they think that Himmel made Frieren (the character, not the show), but I think people fail to credit that Himmel was just a scared lost kid UNTIL he met Frieren, and she made an impression on him not by being a cold calculated mage, but by having a heart for a total stranger, which basically became his defining feature. He then accelerated that lesson at human speed to teach Frieren the same lesson she made epiphany onto him. Though her original teacher, whose name I forget probably gave her that value as well.
In the end. Serie is a douche, and Frieren is not 'Serie without Himmel', she was in fact a better person than Serie even before Himmel. Serie would have ignored Himmel as unimportant, or would have taken advantage of his desperation to make him into a living weapon, even if not an evil weapon, just a weapon for neutrality's weaponry's sake.
“What if”
What if clone ubel used Land’s real bottle, and the interaction of the magics freed clone ubel from the dungeon. Allowing her to go out and wander the world as an almost real person.
Hollywood: "Our movies flop because the audience are sexist and can't handle strong female protagonists!"
Anime: "LOL losers"
Just wanted to say I enjoyed the content of the video, but the audio mixing and song selection needs work. At points, the background music is loud enough to fight for attention over your words. I hope you keep going and hope this improves future videos
I had a thorough discussion once as to how Serie is actually caring and wants the best.
When she cares about her apprentices while insulting and demeaning their efforts, that's still called an asshole.
As someone who has not read the manga, even before I watched what that tsundere elf planed to do as 3rd exam, I knew it had to be sth bs that doesnt measure power or wisdom or even character. You are not giving the elf that you are most likely extremly jealous of a win. Frieren has the humanity she desires, because she already has her strenght most likely. She even tried to understand humans and most importantly Flamme even tho she publicly despises her, because aint no way you badmouth a mage and then proceed to use every spell they stand for yourself, especially the flowergarden. She seems afraid of change, while Frieren embraces it.
Himmel always wanted to be a Hero who slayed the Demon King whether or not he saw Frieren's flower spell. What the flower spell did to Himmel, is for him to seek out Frieren when recruiting the Hero Team.
Great video 💯
Thanks!
Bet you, Serie only suppresses her mana as another homage to her apprentices.
This might be it, you’ve cooked
In terms of writing by the author, it's an excellent plot point. In terms of in universe, as a fair and reasonable test, it's terrible. Serie literally fails Frieren out of pettiness
I don’t think it’s pettiness. It’s just that serie sees frieren as the antithesis of everything serie stands for, and as such does not qualify to serie standard of a first class mage. If anything serie treats frieren as an equal that can directly challenge serie’s view point.
What I find most interesting about the final test is that Serie is fundamentally wrong and she still doesn't change. It fits with her character as an ancient elf.
She is all the knowledge and power of Kraft, an ancient hero... But lacks his personal beliefs and moral integrity. Kraft has stared into the void and decided to make an effort to make the world better for others.
Serie has stared into the void and decided to merely forward her own hobbies.
Serie doesn't care about the little things. The little people. She is entirely big picture, and if you dont fit into that picture you are beneath her notice.
But Frieren, like Kraft, has made the acknowledgment that those little things are what makes life worth living, and will fight for them while Serie sits in a library and reads grimoirs while demons slaughter people en mass.
She
Agreed. But on that note, no tournament arc will ever compare to Rosen Garten Saga... NONE!
serie being a foil to frieren is something I never really thought about. it was mostly just a grudge holding, antagonizing, different person. But saying that serie is just a frieren who never met Himmel just clicks so well. There's a sense of goofy emotionally humanity in Frieren's character that only seems to exist because of the goofy antics she witnessed with her old party. Zuri never had that.
Oddly enough... I think serie wouldn't even pass herself by her own standards. She lacks the introspection and confidence that most everyone else exhibits to her. Serie seems to believe what she does about magic and its purpose, not because she wants to believe it, but because it is the thing that makes the most sense to her. She's at a loss as to why people ahve favorite spells, just how frieren is at a loss as to why Serie doesn't. That uncertainty, or at least the settling for what only makes logical sense to Serie, is what disqualifies her from being a first class mage.
Just thought. Great video!
What’s the background music around 6;15?
Something's been on my mind ever since seeing that scene, with Fern recognizing the fluctuation in Serie's mana. Everywhere I see people saying that Serie must have insanely high mana reserves compared to Frieren, afterall her suppressed mana is the same as Frieren's unleashed one.
But if they're such opposites in mindset... why would Serie suppress her mana? Doing so just doesn't sit right with what I understand of her character.
I can't help but think that Serie, rather than suppressing her mana, is instead constantly flaring it up. Like a cat that puffs their fur out to appear larger and more dangerous.
Wouldn't make sense from a worldbuilding point, considering it's mentioned multiple times that mana grows with training and age, e.g. Aura having a lot of mana because she lived for 500 years. As Serie has lived thousands of years constantly doing magic, it would break consistency very hard for her to have less mana than a mage that is only a thousand years old.
So I suppose she does it because Flamme did and she obviously hasn't gotten over Flammes death or she was the one who actually tought it to Flamme in the first place.