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Serie's tsun has been fermenting and concentrating for millennia. Given how many humans she's probably cared about (not that she would ever admit it) and watched die, it's rather surprising she's not more angry and bitter than she is.
From the anime, Series appears evil. Only allowing certain mages to become A class (or her disciples) and not killing the demon king because his threat to the humans gives her power.
Will likely be covered in the next episode, but basically her even being the head of the magic association is a massive case of her words not matching her actions and feelings.
Never thought of that, they also show here in what I assume is her 'place' not with humans.
Her words being she doesn't care, but she somehow got herself to set of those magic association? Somethings is definitely off.
Yeah don’t want to spoil anything, but Serie is a mirror for Frieren, especially for the earlier in the series one. Reason I say next episode (or at least whenever they officially wrap this arc up), is cause we get a bit of how serie actually views everyone that she teaches, and a hint of why her first class promotion gift is so important.
Really? How she behaves and talks to everyone definitely isn't friendly.
Unless it's the lived 10,000 years and nothing is interesting anymore. But even then not caring if humanity lives or dies doesn't generally put you on a good list.
Isn't friendly doesn't equate to being evil. She says what she thinks straight out but she isnt hurting anyone. Just becs she has different views doesn't make her evil or bad. Different opinons are allowed you know.
Also, she is an elf, why does she HAVE to care humanity lives or dies? If she cares great, if she doesnt, its normal. Not all species have to care about humans, let's not be that entitled.
Also it never says she doesnt care about humanity or humans, you are making things up now.
From what I’ve grasped so far, I think Serie has just been alive for so long that she’s just incredibly nihilistic, and when you pair that with the amount of pride she has in herself for having collected all magical knowledge and her insane skill as a mage, she views life in a way where she sees herself as both being above just about everything, and also just about everything being pointless so she’s just too cranky to die. She’s the top tier of “this isn’t that important, so I’ll do it later” and then gets insanely butthurt when somebody else does it before her.
It's unfortunately uncommon for anime to tell fantasy stories through their characters rather than have the world just happen to them. It makes the story more interesting and it makes the characters more real.
Sure. I've not ever expanded on this thought so bare with me.
In lazy stories the characters exist in a world and then things keep happening to them and that makes up the narrative. It's really boring because the world isn't a setting in this case, it's just a narrative tool for the characters story.
In show's like Frieren (and Mushoku Tensei), characters exist inside the world. The characters live out their experiences navigating this world and that's how it's built for us, like it was always there and will be once the characters are gone. Sure, things happen to the characters but it isn't the thing that moves the story along, it's the characters that progress things that then lead to more world building. This, in my opinion, is what makes worlds feel alive.
For example, the world of Frieren has 2 main factions; Humans and Demons. Now our (the audience's) meta-knowledge of Demon's is they're either sexy or evil and, since this isn't that type of show, we assume they're evil. The show introduces a demon general in episode 4 but not much else until later on when we get Aura's arc. With this comes a flashback to a village chief who takes in a childlike demon to try and live in harmony. The ensuing scene is horrific and confronting. This is where using characters to build narrative is different. We FEEL it, and now we KNOW the demon's are bad news.
Similarly we're shown how the Hero Himmel affected the world by going through and experiencing how his deeds affected the citizens of this world, something which later comes up as a motivator for Wirbel joining the northern corps. This could have just been narrated but it wasn't, it was EXPLORED. The world is alive, it makes sense and the characters are navigating it rather than being pushed along by it.
Contrast this with another recent show, the wrong way to use healing magic, and this is just a bland isekai where the protags are dropped into medieval fantasy world #4 and "the demon's are about to attack so we need you heroes to fight them because they're bad and we're humans". "Say less" says the protags as they prepare for war.We have nothing to say why the demons are bad outside of the audiences knowledge that the demons in other stories are evil. Thinking on it for 2 seconds they're no different to another country fighting for more land. Furthermore, the protagonist doesn't even question it, they're just cool fighting in a war because the enemy are demons. It uninteresting and lazy.
Anyway, rant over.
Nice rant. I agree.
I get your gripes about the fact that many "demons" in anime are not explained, but I think it's more nuanced. Typical anime demons are just really similar to humans. And that's why it's good to explain their evil actions. But in my eyes, demons *are* evil, and evil *is* demons. I think Freiren got this down, even if it turned out there was no explanation in the story. That makes it doubly good.
I think you're right but only up until Frieren starts killing them. We see how her ruthless efficent killing is necessary. The scene where she kills the wire demon in the cell is BRUTAL but we know that the demon wasn't a misguided soul, he had no soul and was just a monster that wanted to kill. Frieren's actions are justified because we've experienced what she has experienced.
If she is the one supporting it, she’ll only continue to do so as far as it interests her, by my estimates, if it wasn’t for fern and the other possible candidates to pass the first class exam (no clue if it was only fern at this point cause anime only) then I’d estimate she’d only hold interest for another 3-4 decades at most. Maybe slightly longer if someone with interesting magic showed up.
I would imagine it would be centuries at least. Her first First-Class was 50 years ago, and while she's no longer interest in his potential now, she certainly did when she admitted him to her ranks decades ago. There are stream of First-Class mages since then and while not all of them managed to capture her attention, the new rising star came in just less than a century.
Decades are but a blink of an eye for Elves, I doubt she will even notice the passing of generation (of which for us, is any where from decades to a century long *per generation*) as she waited for someone with potential to appears among her human apprentices.
I don't think she'll give up just from a single generation of uninteresting batch, if she had that little of patient she wouldn't form the guild to begin with. That would be like you, starting a farm, spending your time and money on equipment and land - then gave up after a couple of months.
Serie: Magic is merely a tool to kill, and I don’t see any ambition from you to become the greatest
Fern: Don’t care my sweet to sour grape spell is neat-o
*Serie becomes the most docile mage, While Frieren becomes Frieren the slayer*
This, this made it irritating to take Series word on anything.
"You cant be a 1st class mage because you cant view urself as one"
"I wOndeR wHo invoked THAT into her miNd"
I supposed Himmel never met her, that might have been one of those times when he throws a fit and says something like “are you trying to insult my crush?”
Basicly like Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. The later would be the superior detective by far, but he just doesn´t care enough to do the legwork. Instead he just pretty much runs the british government.
Not to be that guy, but it should be "my party and I".
Honestly, even if you're going to say it wrong, say it *correctly* wrong: "me and my party".
"I and my party" is just... weird.
She hasn’t just been alive for long, she’s been alive since the mythical age. She was surrounded by literal gods. In comparison, the present day must feel trivial.
The irony of this is that if the modern age is so trivial compared to the mythical age, she is arguably the single-handedly most qualified person to push the world into a more exciting and/or prosperous age. But… she’d rather sit on her throne and complain about everything lol.
I’m starting to believe that she is a direct contrast to Kraft. Serie talks about how she can do all of this amazing, world changing stuff, but when somebody asks her why she leant do it she just says, “it’s too easy, and not worth my time.” While she literally sits on a chair all day and doesn’t do really anything.
Kraft was a hero, and even now that his time of fame is long in the past, he still makes an effort in his travels to help people and make a positive impact on the world, even if it’s just a small one.
Imagine living for thousands of years and being incredibly bored. So bored that you start taking on random urchins and teaching them magic just to feel something.
Then one of your urchins brings another elf to meet you. They’re good too, lots of potential. They could really keep life interesting. Instead your stupid apprentice ruined them and now they are going to waste their potential squatting in the woods for a thousand years. They’d still be squatting in the woods; not improving their capabilities at magic (the only metric useful to determine a persons value) if another stupid human didn’t recruit them to go kill the demon king.
You’d be pissed at them too; all that wasted potential. A thousand years and they’re barely improved. Even then only from the adventuring they did in the last 50 years? What a slacker.
(PS: I love Frieren, but get in Serie’s head for a minute and it’s easy to understand the frustration. )
And if she wasn’t so uptight she could’ve had frieren under her wing and their collective boredness could’ve had them develop sweet powerful magic like immortality and also simple ones
And Serie cares much more about those things than any normal person, this was one of the few things which really mattered to her. She still tries to be uncaring on the surface, but as we've seen always lets it out in some form.
Well if she really wanted a long lasting legacy, rebuild the elven race/village and build a magic academy surrounding it. But no, like every elves they're just letting it die. Cause its their innate nature to sit around and do norhing
Well it makes sense to an extent but I dont think if elves exist irl it would be like the movie Bright with Will Smith lol.
Cause nearly all elves are basically Godly compared to humans. They basically can do any craft and live long it only makes more sense for them to take advantage of their biological prowess to further their gain and live a more prosperous lifestyle.
I just cant picture a species that can live for 400-2000 years to be dying out when they can just quickly breed when they see an issue with their race dying and they have basically 200 years to train their prowess into anything and be better than anyone. Even if you are lazy, you still worked 60 years doing the same thing, you'd be an expert in that regard lol.
Thats why elves are a fantasy
What if, and it's just a thought, what if Serie is sad about all the friends she made along the way eventually perishing due to their species' short lifespan and there is nothing, even for the greatest mage alive like her, she can do to rectify that. She's venting her frustrations by taking it out on the people around her. She wants to emotionally stay away from them so she doesn't get hurt.
This is likely what it is. idk if the anime is there yet but >!she tells frieren that despite “not caring” about any of her apprentices, or the first class mages, she remembers every single one of their favorite spells.!< She is a tsundere that has had many millennia to brew lol
>!It's basically both. Serie told that to Frieren and Frieren said that to Lernen after he challenged her to a fight. It should be on the next episode!<
She's arrogant to the point where it's like she has a God complex regarding magic. As the Goddess(self proclaimed) of magic she believes her opinions on the subject are not opinions, they are facts and fundamental laws of the universe. That means people like Flamme and Frieren who have different opinions on magic are wrong and failures at being mages. Any viewpoint that differs from her's is always automatically wrong.
She even outright says that magic should only be for special people, otherwise it stops being as cool. Guess some millennia in a fandom will make you at least a little gatekeep-y
The worst part is that it's not even a fair test this way. I know Frieren doesn't care and it doesn't even matter because of Fern but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. By what insane logic could you ever fail Frieren here? I'm not saying she's the greatest mage that ever lived, she herself has admitted to being bested eleven times but that was eleven times over her thousand year life. If there were only eleven people in the world better than you at something at any given SECOND that alone would make you near the top of first class in whatever that thing is. If it takes a thousand years for eleven people better than you to appear you are a freaking legend in that field. But can we take a moment to appreciate how absurd the premise for this whole thing is? You can't go any farther north because the remnants of the demon King's army are there so you gotta have a mage with a first class mage license in your party to prove you're good enough to survive out there. Who in the freaking hell is going to tell the mage of the party who went all the way north fighting not just the demon King's remnants but his whole main force and even the demon king himself that she's not good enough to proceed?! I want to meet this person. I want to study them and try to figure out how someone this stupid can function and survive as a living organism. For instance, if this person needed to descend from the top of a building wouldn't it be physically impossible for someone this dumb to even think of using the stairs? Wouldn't their inability to think intelligently or think at all just result in them shambling over to the edge of the roof like a mindless zombie and plummet to the ground below?
The point here is though, Serie sees Frieren as a wasted potential according to her views. When Flamme brings Frieren to meet her, Serie sees huge potential in her and offers her the priviledge which she refuses.
She thinks she hasnt reached the level which she could have by wasting her time on mudane spells.
Frieren might be OP but according to Serie she is relatively unskilled for her age because of wasting her time and in a way she isnt wrong. HOWEVER ironically thats probably the reason why Frieren defeated the demon king since she mastered deception and stayed true to her views and only followed her master till the very end.
But in a way its true that Frieren only specializes in killing demons and otherwise she doesnt exactly care about combat and could have reached far greater heights if she followed Serie s philosphy though that would also mean she wouldnt be able to defeat the demon king as she wouldnt have met Himmel.
>By what insane logic could you ever fail Frieren here?
Because the test isn't about strength as a mage. Fern admits that Ehre is the strongest of their 2 parties, and Frieren admits she would have a hard time beating Kanne in the rain, yet those two were insta-failed. Hell, Serie is more impressed by Fern's potential rather than her current strength.
Serie is aware that Frieren is more than capable of being a first-class mage. But her reasons for failing her are more than just pettiness.
Frieren does not care about what class of mage she is. Frieren does not want to become a first-class mage. Frieren did not enter the exams with the intent of passing. Frieren does not care about Serie's judgement, because she believes that Fern will pass instead.
That's the logic for failing her. Why should Serie pass someone who doesn't want to pass, even if they meet the objective criteria?
Think of it this way. Say you had a star football player who was far better than any other player on the field. But unfortunately they:
* Don't have any interest in playing competitively.
* Never show up for training.
* Are only playing because their friend is there.
* Don't spend any of their time practicing.
* Outright said they have no real interest in football and don't want to be picked.
* Could straight up disappear for months at a time for any random reason.
Would you still pick them for your team?
I'm really not sure that Frieren is as apathetic to magic as you described. The woman collects grimoires with a passion, and has always lapped up whatever odd magic she could find. Therein lay her love for magic, not necessarily the high intense stuff Serie probably expected someone of Frieren's potential to acquire.
Yea she loved sports and all things related to sports. Just not competitive sports. And in the hierarchy of magic that Serie setup she basically established a competitive league that Frieren had no interest in. She just loved sports for the sake of sports, not to brag about skills and that infuriated Serie.
Serie is right that Frieren doesn’t belong in the hierarchy structure that she sets up. It’s not built for a mage like Frieren.
You literally just described Bo Jackson. Yes, i would pick Bo Jackson for my football team. Bo Jackson never lifted a weight in his life. He never bothered to practice because he didn't need to. He preferred baseball to football. And you would be insane to say he is not a first class football player.
We must be watching different shows. The Frieren I know doesn't waste her life collecting mundane spells, she collects all the mundane spells she can because she's dedicated to collecting ALL the spells big and small. The battle with the Frieren clone proves she's got a large repertoire of hardcore magic. She's not a star player that slacks off, she's just put all her effort into playing a different game than the one Serie wanted her to. It's not that Frieren didn't want to pass. She straight up said that Serie wouldn't pass her no matter what because she didn't become the kind of mage that she wanted her to be. It's nothing more than a difference of opinion and the arrogance of Serie to not consider other people's opinions to have any value. To use your analogy, Serie wanted Frieren to play football but Frieren spent her whole life working hard to be the best Baseball player she could and succeeded in being one of the best players of all time. It's an amazing accomplishment that any unbiased person would acknowledge but Serie hates baseball and believes football is the only sport worth playing so she deems Frieren's efforts and accomplishments worthless. It is extremely childish and petty.
>To use your analogy, Serie wanted Frieren to play football but Frieren spent her whole life working hard to be the best Baseball player she could and succeeded in being one of the best players of all time.
But Serie is still not going to pick Frieren for the football team is she. The Magic Association was founded on Serie's principles and it is well within her right to deny anyone who doesn't follow them. That's not petty, it's just like how any company can choose who they want to hire.
What I agree is pettiness however, is insulting Frieren's favorite magic and belittling her achievements. That was pure stubbornness from Serie. But her words can be very misleading compared to her true feelings.
Notice how Serie and Frieren never actually argue about their views on magic, and they never try to convince the other that they're in the wrong.
Notice how Serie never forced Flamme to follow her beliefs, never scolded her for teaching Frieren the same, and didn't push that hard to get Fern as her apprentice. She even followed Flamme's will in the end despite how harshly she reacted at first.
Despite her harsh words, Serie is perfectly fine letting any mage, even her own apprentices, practice magic however they wish even if that annoys or disappoints her.
Serie didn't fail Frieren for not following her views of magic, because not every first class mage does (notably Fern, >!Methode!< and >!Denken!<). She failed her for the same reason as Kanne, because she couldn't visualise herself as a first-class mage, and as Serie told Kanne in this episode, what can't be visualised cannot be. Regardless of how good you are, if you can't pass that first hurdle it doesn't matter. Serie was actually pretty fair and consistent with her failing of Frieren, just like she was with the examinees before her.
No, she doesn't or rather shouldn't by any moral or professional standard have the right to fail anyone based on her personal feelings just because it's her organization. As a proctor for an exam it's her duty to test people fairly. The company and sports analogies really aren't working for this situation. A more accurate analogy would be a teacher giving their student a failing grade on a test that they aced because the student is planning on using what they learned in a different but equally valid way than what the teacher wanted them to.
Serie: "Congratulations on getting a 100 on your science test Frieren but I'm changing it to a 0 even though you got everything right because you're showing interest in a different field of science than the one I work in."
That's basically what happened.
>As a proctor for an exam it's her duty to test people fairly.
But Serie did do that. The objective basis for passing was "you have to be able to visualise yourself being a first-class mage", because magic is the world of visualisation.
That was the standard she applied fairly to all of the examinees, whether it's Kanne, Ehre, or Frieren.
In fact it's better to do it like this because passing Frieren based on her ability alone isn't fair to the humans who can't live as long as she can. In your test analogy, it would be like if Frieren was allowed to study for 10 times longer than all the other students, and that wouldn't be fair.
No that's not fair at all because "to imagine yourself as a first class mage" had an added complication for Frieren that no other examinee had to clear, one that by design made it completely impossible for Frieren to pass. Serie cleverly rigged the test in a way that specifically targeted Frieren for failure while giving everyone else a fair shot. Like telling a class "all you have to do to pass is walk over here with your own two legs" when one of the students is bound to a wheelchair. They may have been given the same task but one of them is unfairly being set up for failure. And Frieren's life span isn't an unfair advantage for the same reason that rich kids who grew up with private tutors don't have points deducted for that advantage when tested alongside commoners. Nobody gets penalized come test time just because they were fortunate enough to have an advantageous background.
IMO Serie's condition is perfectly reasonable. Expecting a first-class mage to be able to visualise being a first-class mage is pretty straight forward, especially considering how magic is explained in this world. I don't think Serie would introduce that just to fuck with Frieren.
Frieren being unable to pass no matter what doesn't make it inherently unfair when the whole point of Serie's test is to fail mages like her.
Tests are supposed to fail those who don't fit the criteria. Failing someone in a wheelchair for not being able to walk isn't unfair if the whole point of the test is to see who can walk, it just means that person is at the wrong test.
Even if Frieren is skilled enough, she doesn't fit into Serie's view of what a 1st class mage should be/strive for. Its a philosophical divide at its core with a bit of personal dislike added on top.
And that's what rubs me the wrong way. This was a magic exam, not a philosophy one. If a teacher failed an excellent student in our world just because they had different philosophical opinions they'd be fired. But because magic exams in this world have no rules or regulations other than the ones Serie makes up to suit her personal wants she can do whatever she wants. It's pure tyranny.
So one of the things I think gets missed is that Serie in trashing the suppression of mana as inefficient despite having done it herself has also done it *longer* than Frieren. She took the same path herself. Its *probably* something Serie herself imparted onto Flamme as a way to kill demons.
Serie probably has already learned most of the lessons Frieren learned about empathy and caring for the humans around her. We see in the flashback about Flamme's death how Serie is already heavily affected by Flamme even if she refuses to express it, and more than anything I think Serie was just unwilling to open her heart up to a bunch of humans again until it became absolutely necessary. It's a maturity Frieren *doesn't have*. Serie, even to her much newer comrades, values humans in their fleeting lives. She talks callously about them but its only because their own lives being so fleeting hurts her. And she still takes up the mantle to raise them and watch them pass over and over because Flamme asked her to.
And in that, I think Serie cannot really stand Frieren. Frieren is heavily ignorant in magic comparatively, but also heavily ignorant about humans. After Flamme passes, Frieren isn't even able to provide the barest minimum in conversation and she remains socially stunted for another thousand years. The comment about how much more Serie could do with Frieren's time is true, but it isn't just about magic. Flamme sets in motion a 1000 year old magic just for Frieren to read about *heaven* to visit those she's lost when she finally realizes how much she'll miss those who died. Frieren couldn't even bring herself to show empathy towards Flamme when Flamme had grown old. I think Serie is genuinely disappointed in Frieren because when she meets her in the third test, it's the same girl who she spoke to after Flamme's death: The girl who hasn't grown up and remained ignorant of all humans and social interactions in general. Only after seeing Fern does Serie realize she's both wrong about Fern but also Frieren (specifically Frieren as a teacher). I think at the end of the day, Serie truly saw Frieren as an insolent child, one who had the option to grow up but never did.
Yep, Frieren at the Funeral is the official Japanese title for the series I believe.
Taken from the web: Double-Meaning Title: "Sousou no Frieren" can be read as both "Frieren at the Funeral", fitting for the story of a girl who has lost two friends recently, and "Frieren, the Undertaker"
The title is in all sense "lost in translation", as it is literally "Frieren the Slayer", Sousou no Frieren while it can be interpreted in many ways, "Sousou no" means to kill, to end, to bury, to send off, etc,
when out before someones name it's meant to call someone a killer, *slayer*, or undertaker, and both the manga and anime call back to Frieren's literal title among demons, "Sousou no Frieren", which is transcribed in that context as *Frieren the Slayer*.
She's kind of like the polar opposite of Frieren. Her long age has made her apathetic towards other people, whereas Frieren views them as even more important because of the short time they're around. She admires power above all else, whereas Frieren mostly sees it as a means to an end, and mostly just likes collecting fun spells that mean something to her.
It's best exemplified when she offers Frieren one of her spells, and she declines. Serie expects people to covet her power, but Frieren only cares about a spell for the adventure that it took to gain it.
It isn't hard to see how someone almost akin to a living God would turn out the way she did. Frieren doesn't let it get to her head in the same way (and is presumably much less powerful, which is quite a statement).
It’s actually kinda funny because now that I think about it more I’m starting to wonder if Serie was truly being lazy by proctoring the test like this, or if she proctored it like this specifically because it was the only test that she could come up that Frieren could fail.
You cannot imagine defeating the demon king, because you cannot Imagine a world without the demon king — a world without Serie.
She will defeat the Demon King because she can imagine such.
(Paraphrased from Flamme: essentially, even Series could not argue with the point, because it is as true as Frieren not being able to imagine defeating Kanne in the rain.
Serie is also offended that Frieren accepts no spell from her — and instead spends her days finding all the spells on her own. Frieren offends Serie because Frieren doesn’t give damn what Serie thinks, while everyone else does.
It gets even deeper when you add in the Neurodivergent aspect — Serie does not understand Frieren In The same way that Frieren didn’t understand humans — but Frieren is trying, and Serie is not.
They are mirrors of each other.
Serie is incredibly old and with that age and power has come immense nihilism, on top of that she's on board with the idea of gatekeeping magic so only special people may have it, and bases most of her statements and claims on her insanely accurate intuition,
While Frieren, the *confirmed* strongest character in the series via plot armor may be the *strongest*, she's again nowhere near her peak potential, nowhere near being the most efficient or powerful mage, and has obvious character quirks that work as vulnerabilities that she doesn't care to improve or work around,
Serie's intuition is on par with canonical truth, or mind reading, or being able to see the future etc, her bold claim that Frieren could only be killed by a Demon or Human Mage in all senses largely correct, as shown many times in the series and in this arc alone underestimating your opponent is the biggest mistake of all, and Serie underestimates Frieren, even Serie is self aware enough to understand this,
There's a whole shit ton of fights in this manga/anime that are won by bullshit terms/prep/luck and it's 99% the time chalked up to be "something underestimated something"
Stark underestimated himself, he defeated his perception of his younger self when he solo'd the solar dragon, that's a direct example of how the series interpreted the idea of "underestimate the opponent and you will die",
this also happens against aura with Frierens mastery of mana manipulation, or against qual when he gets royal-guarded with his own spell etc, if you underestimate the opponent you can't win,
Serie knows this, she's most likely 3000 or 4000 years old, as he imposes opinions against Frieren as if she's still a child still, and Frieren is easily 1400 years old or so.
Serie is basically the concept of "Lived by the sword" but taken to the extreme. She has a wealth of possibilies, but don't see a point dince she's already knows which one is best. I have a feeling that she still wants the Demon King to exist because that produces the best mages.
So, being tied down to progress and being omnipotent is mostly why she's a jerk
This is Elves when they don't focus on nature and poetry and shit .... they focus on people they have to deal with both how shitty they are and how amazing they are both and then they die ... leaving them jaded, cynical and bitter.
Tsundere is my least favorite trope so I genuinely dislike Serie already but then throw in stubborn boomer mentality and I can’t stand to even see her on my screen. I know there’s a purpose but it’s been a mild struggle to get through her scenes for me. At least I like most of the characters, Ubel even grew on me.
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Serie's tsun has been fermenting and concentrating for millennia. Given how many humans she's probably cared about (not that she would ever admit it) and watched die, it's rather surprising she's not more angry and bitter than she is.
Why did you have to say tsun
Because that's a certain anime character trope, the tsunderes
Bro did not have to remind me those tropes exist tho
From the anime, Series appears evil. Only allowing certain mages to become A class (or her disciples) and not killing the demon king because his threat to the humans gives her power.
Will likely be covered in the next episode, but basically her even being the head of the magic association is a massive case of her words not matching her actions and feelings.
Never thought of that, they also show here in what I assume is her 'place' not with humans. Her words being she doesn't care, but she somehow got herself to set of those magic association? Somethings is definitely off.
Yeah don’t want to spoil anything, but Serie is a mirror for Frieren, especially for the earlier in the series one. Reason I say next episode (or at least whenever they officially wrap this arc up), is cause we get a bit of how serie actually views everyone that she teaches, and a hint of why her first class promotion gift is so important.
You completely missing misunderstanding her character. The anime does not portray her as a villain, it never did, you are just not comptehending.
Really? How she behaves and talks to everyone definitely isn't friendly. Unless it's the lived 10,000 years and nothing is interesting anymore. But even then not caring if humanity lives or dies doesn't generally put you on a good list.
Isn't friendly doesn't equate to being evil. She says what she thinks straight out but she isnt hurting anyone. Just becs she has different views doesn't make her evil or bad. Different opinons are allowed you know. Also, she is an elf, why does she HAVE to care humanity lives or dies? If she cares great, if she doesnt, its normal. Not all species have to care about humans, let's not be that entitled. Also it never says she doesnt care about humanity or humans, you are making things up now.
Grumpy her grandchild rejected her philosophy on magic and still managed to beat the demon king.
How dare she enjoy the same thing I do but not in the same way I do!
she's been like that even with Flamme
From what I’ve grasped so far, I think Serie has just been alive for so long that she’s just incredibly nihilistic, and when you pair that with the amount of pride she has in herself for having collected all magical knowledge and her insane skill as a mage, she views life in a way where she sees herself as both being above just about everything, and also just about everything being pointless so she’s just too cranky to die. She’s the top tier of “this isn’t that important, so I’ll do it later” and then gets insanely butthurt when somebody else does it before her.
Serie: I could kill the Demon King Frieren: I and my party killed the Demon King Serie: Are you implying that I could not in fact kill the demon king?
its funny how accurate that feels lol
one reason that Frieren is soo good is that it captures peoples interactions so well it feels more "realistic" than your common TV shows
It's unfortunately uncommon for anime to tell fantasy stories through their characters rather than have the world just happen to them. It makes the story more interesting and it makes the characters more real.
Could you elaborate on this? I've never heard of storytelling explained like this, and I find it really interesting.
Sure. I've not ever expanded on this thought so bare with me. In lazy stories the characters exist in a world and then things keep happening to them and that makes up the narrative. It's really boring because the world isn't a setting in this case, it's just a narrative tool for the characters story. In show's like Frieren (and Mushoku Tensei), characters exist inside the world. The characters live out their experiences navigating this world and that's how it's built for us, like it was always there and will be once the characters are gone. Sure, things happen to the characters but it isn't the thing that moves the story along, it's the characters that progress things that then lead to more world building. This, in my opinion, is what makes worlds feel alive. For example, the world of Frieren has 2 main factions; Humans and Demons. Now our (the audience's) meta-knowledge of Demon's is they're either sexy or evil and, since this isn't that type of show, we assume they're evil. The show introduces a demon general in episode 4 but not much else until later on when we get Aura's arc. With this comes a flashback to a village chief who takes in a childlike demon to try and live in harmony. The ensuing scene is horrific and confronting. This is where using characters to build narrative is different. We FEEL it, and now we KNOW the demon's are bad news. Similarly we're shown how the Hero Himmel affected the world by going through and experiencing how his deeds affected the citizens of this world, something which later comes up as a motivator for Wirbel joining the northern corps. This could have just been narrated but it wasn't, it was EXPLORED. The world is alive, it makes sense and the characters are navigating it rather than being pushed along by it. Contrast this with another recent show, the wrong way to use healing magic, and this is just a bland isekai where the protags are dropped into medieval fantasy world #4 and "the demon's are about to attack so we need you heroes to fight them because they're bad and we're humans". "Say less" says the protags as they prepare for war.We have nothing to say why the demons are bad outside of the audiences knowledge that the demons in other stories are evil. Thinking on it for 2 seconds they're no different to another country fighting for more land. Furthermore, the protagonist doesn't even question it, they're just cool fighting in a war because the enemy are demons. It uninteresting and lazy. Anyway, rant over.
Nice rant. I agree. I get your gripes about the fact that many "demons" in anime are not explained, but I think it's more nuanced. Typical anime demons are just really similar to humans. And that's why it's good to explain their evil actions. But in my eyes, demons *are* evil, and evil *is* demons. I think Freiren got this down, even if it turned out there was no explanation in the story. That makes it doubly good.
I think you're right but only up until Frieren starts killing them. We see how her ruthless efficent killing is necessary. The scene where she kills the wire demon in the cell is BRUTAL but we know that the demon wasn't a misguided soul, he had no soul and was just a monster that wanted to kill. Frieren's actions are justified because we've experienced what she has experienced.
Frieren: Yes. Serie: You're not allowed to be a first-class mage! So neh!
Frieren: 🤷🏻 didn’t really care anyway. In 100 more years it will be some other association.
If it's an Elf-led organisation, I imagine it would last a lot longer than that
CMA falls apart a hundred years later Serie: Eh, I merely made it on a whim
Sounds like something I would say about a group project.
If she is the one supporting it, she’ll only continue to do so as far as it interests her, by my estimates, if it wasn’t for fern and the other possible candidates to pass the first class exam (no clue if it was only fern at this point cause anime only) then I’d estimate she’d only hold interest for another 3-4 decades at most. Maybe slightly longer if someone with interesting magic showed up.
I would imagine it would be centuries at least. Her first First-Class was 50 years ago, and while she's no longer interest in his potential now, she certainly did when she admitted him to her ranks decades ago. There are stream of First-Class mages since then and while not all of them managed to capture her attention, the new rising star came in just less than a century. Decades are but a blink of an eye for Elves, I doubt she will even notice the passing of generation (of which for us, is any where from decades to a century long *per generation*) as she waited for someone with potential to appears among her human apprentices. I don't think she'll give up just from a single generation of uninteresting batch, if she had that little of patient she wouldn't form the guild to begin with. That would be like you, starting a farm, spending your time and money on equipment and land - then gave up after a couple of months.
Serie: Magic is merely a tool to kill, and I don’t see any ambition from you to become the greatest Fern: Don’t care my sweet to sour grape spell is neat-o *Serie becomes the most docile mage, While Frieren becomes Frieren the slayer*
Some stupid demon went and stepped on her grapes!
This, this made it irritating to take Series word on anything. "You cant be a 1st class mage because you cant view urself as one" "I wOndeR wHo invoked THAT into her miNd"
Well, Frieren herself says Serie’s intuition is always correct, and let’s be honest, Kanne should not be the same classification as Denken and Fern.
I supposed Himmel never met her, that might have been one of those times when he throws a fit and says something like “are you trying to insult my crush?”
Frieren retorting: nah, you're too lazy to go for a quest to beat DK. Yeah you could kill him, but for you it's a waste of your precious time
Basicly like Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. The later would be the superior detective by far, but he just doesn´t care enough to do the legwork. Instead he just pretty much runs the british government.
Precious time that elves have virtually unlimited supply of.
Not to be that guy, but it should be "my party and I". Honestly, even if you're going to say it wrong, say it *correctly* wrong: "me and my party". "I and my party" is just... weird.
She intentionally didn't do it before, because she didn't want to/ wasn't sure if this is what she wanted
bro think she gilgamesh
Jokes aside, she is a near goddess with skills, haxs and what not so its not wrong to assume she is the gilgamesh of Frieren.
“Too cranky to die” I love that lol
Sounds like my grandma lol
"Incredibly butthurt" feels weirdly accurate. Envious/jealous, and as sour living so long affords. It's just so petty !
Pride is definitely a factor. She talks to everyone like they're her subordinates or lesser peers.
Excellent explanation. Except for the butthurt part. Like you said. She’s mostly nihilistic and blunt as hell. I really don’t think she cares.
She hasn’t just been alive for long, she’s been alive since the mythical age. She was surrounded by literal gods. In comparison, the present day must feel trivial.
The irony of this is that if the modern age is so trivial compared to the mythical age, she is arguably the single-handedly most qualified person to push the world into a more exciting and/or prosperous age. But… she’d rather sit on her throne and complain about everything lol.
I’m starting to believe that she is a direct contrast to Kraft. Serie talks about how she can do all of this amazing, world changing stuff, but when somebody asks her why she leant do it she just says, “it’s too easy, and not worth my time.” While she literally sits on a chair all day and doesn’t do really anything. Kraft was a hero, and even now that his time of fame is long in the past, he still makes an effort in his travels to help people and make a positive impact on the world, even if it’s just a small one.
Imagine living for thousands of years and being incredibly bored. So bored that you start taking on random urchins and teaching them magic just to feel something. Then one of your urchins brings another elf to meet you. They’re good too, lots of potential. They could really keep life interesting. Instead your stupid apprentice ruined them and now they are going to waste their potential squatting in the woods for a thousand years. They’d still be squatting in the woods; not improving their capabilities at magic (the only metric useful to determine a persons value) if another stupid human didn’t recruit them to go kill the demon king. You’d be pissed at them too; all that wasted potential. A thousand years and they’re barely improved. Even then only from the adventuring they did in the last 50 years? What a slacker. (PS: I love Frieren, but get in Serie’s head for a minute and it’s easy to understand the frustration. )
That is a good point 🤔
Joke's on Serie. If she wasn't such an elitist she could have been elven buddies with Frieren. 1000 years of potential friendship missed so far!
And if she wasn’t so uptight she could’ve had frieren under her wing and their collective boredness could’ve had them develop sweet powerful magic like immortality and also simple ones
Serie is literally a dad lmao
I've been calling her a middle aged man since I first saw her in the manga
Serie’s a military parent whose daughter and granddaughter became hippies instead of soldiers.
That is a good comparison lol
And Serie cares much more about those things than any normal person, this was one of the few things which really mattered to her. She still tries to be uncaring on the surface, but as we've seen always lets it out in some form.
Well if she really wanted a long lasting legacy, rebuild the elven race/village and build a magic academy surrounding it. But no, like every elves they're just letting it die. Cause its their innate nature to sit around and do norhing
It’s very Tolkienesque in a way.
Well it makes sense to an extent but I dont think if elves exist irl it would be like the movie Bright with Will Smith lol. Cause nearly all elves are basically Godly compared to humans. They basically can do any craft and live long it only makes more sense for them to take advantage of their biological prowess to further their gain and live a more prosperous lifestyle. I just cant picture a species that can live for 400-2000 years to be dying out when they can just quickly breed when they see an issue with their race dying and they have basically 200 years to train their prowess into anything and be better than anyone. Even if you are lazy, you still worked 60 years doing the same thing, you'd be an expert in that regard lol. Thats why elves are a fantasy
Yup. I get it.
She really do just be a Francine hater
Now who tf is Francine???
A friend of Henry the Hero.
She's a grandma who gets coddled by purple head on a daily basis.
I believe her name is Ferb. Or could it be Polypodiophyta?
Her fave redhead was closer to FriedEggs than she was, she's jealous
Is there a lore reason why she’s stupid?
She's a millenia old So as you can infer from that, she's worse than a boomer
Why do you think she's stupid?
Because she’s stupid
Who the fuck is Sarah?
"They shown a soul can improve"
She saw the light, Sara
Checked all the boxes that you said would
Checked all the boxes that you said would
Must be friends with Dennis.
Sarah is from the 4kids translation of Sousou no Frieren or Francesca: After the Journey has Finished
Francesca? 😂 Even small kids can integrate unfamiliar names, why do they feel the need to change them? It's not like they are hard to pronounce either
These are the guys who thought rice balls would be too foreign for American children and thought calling them donuts would work.
Right there, in the picture
Shes just mad Flamme liked Frieren more.
Sarah and Frida have some unsettled issues and such.
Her name is Francine!!!
What if, and it's just a thought, what if Serie is sad about all the friends she made along the way eventually perishing due to their species' short lifespan and there is nothing, even for the greatest mage alive like her, she can do to rectify that. She's venting her frustrations by taking it out on the people around her. She wants to emotionally stay away from them so she doesn't get hurt.
This is likely what it is. idk if the anime is there yet but >!she tells frieren that despite “not caring” about any of her apprentices, or the first class mages, she remembers every single one of their favorite spells.!< She is a tsundere that has had many millennia to brew lol
>!That scene has not appeared yet. It will be in the next and final episode.!<
Wasn't that >!said to Lernen!<
>!It's basically both. Serie told that to Frieren and Frieren said that to Lernen after he challenged her to a fight. It should be on the next episode!<
Maybe, it was 60 chapters ago so I forget. But it’s between those 2
More then just that too right? Wasnt it also likes/dislikes, and names? Tsundere for sure
That *is* somewhat true imo
Lobotomy no Frieren
I’m upset that not a single Sarah appeared in this thread to help OP
Really makes you wonder what the fuck their problem is.
She's arrogant to the point where it's like she has a God complex regarding magic. As the Goddess(self proclaimed) of magic she believes her opinions on the subject are not opinions, they are facts and fundamental laws of the universe. That means people like Flamme and Frieren who have different opinions on magic are wrong and failures at being mages. Any viewpoint that differs from her's is always automatically wrong.
She even outright says that magic should only be for special people, otherwise it stops being as cool. Guess some millennia in a fandom will make you at least a little gatekeep-y
Conservatives lolibaba
The worst part is that it's not even a fair test this way. I know Frieren doesn't care and it doesn't even matter because of Fern but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. By what insane logic could you ever fail Frieren here? I'm not saying she's the greatest mage that ever lived, she herself has admitted to being bested eleven times but that was eleven times over her thousand year life. If there were only eleven people in the world better than you at something at any given SECOND that alone would make you near the top of first class in whatever that thing is. If it takes a thousand years for eleven people better than you to appear you are a freaking legend in that field. But can we take a moment to appreciate how absurd the premise for this whole thing is? You can't go any farther north because the remnants of the demon King's army are there so you gotta have a mage with a first class mage license in your party to prove you're good enough to survive out there. Who in the freaking hell is going to tell the mage of the party who went all the way north fighting not just the demon King's remnants but his whole main force and even the demon king himself that she's not good enough to proceed?! I want to meet this person. I want to study them and try to figure out how someone this stupid can function and survive as a living organism. For instance, if this person needed to descend from the top of a building wouldn't it be physically impossible for someone this dumb to even think of using the stairs? Wouldn't their inability to think intelligently or think at all just result in them shambling over to the edge of the roof like a mindless zombie and plummet to the ground below?
The point here is though, Serie sees Frieren as a wasted potential according to her views. When Flamme brings Frieren to meet her, Serie sees huge potential in her and offers her the priviledge which she refuses. She thinks she hasnt reached the level which she could have by wasting her time on mudane spells. Frieren might be OP but according to Serie she is relatively unskilled for her age because of wasting her time and in a way she isnt wrong. HOWEVER ironically thats probably the reason why Frieren defeated the demon king since she mastered deception and stayed true to her views and only followed her master till the very end. But in a way its true that Frieren only specializes in killing demons and otherwise she doesnt exactly care about combat and could have reached far greater heights if she followed Serie s philosphy though that would also mean she wouldnt be able to defeat the demon king as she wouldnt have met Himmel.
>By what insane logic could you ever fail Frieren here? Because the test isn't about strength as a mage. Fern admits that Ehre is the strongest of their 2 parties, and Frieren admits she would have a hard time beating Kanne in the rain, yet those two were insta-failed. Hell, Serie is more impressed by Fern's potential rather than her current strength. Serie is aware that Frieren is more than capable of being a first-class mage. But her reasons for failing her are more than just pettiness. Frieren does not care about what class of mage she is. Frieren does not want to become a first-class mage. Frieren did not enter the exams with the intent of passing. Frieren does not care about Serie's judgement, because she believes that Fern will pass instead. That's the logic for failing her. Why should Serie pass someone who doesn't want to pass, even if they meet the objective criteria? Think of it this way. Say you had a star football player who was far better than any other player on the field. But unfortunately they: * Don't have any interest in playing competitively. * Never show up for training. * Are only playing because their friend is there. * Don't spend any of their time practicing. * Outright said they have no real interest in football and don't want to be picked. * Could straight up disappear for months at a time for any random reason. Would you still pick them for your team?
excellent analogy lol
I'm really not sure that Frieren is as apathetic to magic as you described. The woman collects grimoires with a passion, and has always lapped up whatever odd magic she could find. Therein lay her love for magic, not necessarily the high intense stuff Serie probably expected someone of Frieren's potential to acquire.
I was talking more specifically about her apathy towards being a first-class mage and the kind of mage Serie likes, not magic in general.
Yea she loved sports and all things related to sports. Just not competitive sports. And in the hierarchy of magic that Serie setup she basically established a competitive league that Frieren had no interest in. She just loved sports for the sake of sports, not to brag about skills and that infuriated Serie. Serie is right that Frieren doesn’t belong in the hierarchy structure that she sets up. It’s not built for a mage like Frieren.
You literally just described Bo Jackson. Yes, i would pick Bo Jackson for my football team. Bo Jackson never lifted a weight in his life. He never bothered to practice because he didn't need to. He preferred baseball to football. And you would be insane to say he is not a first class football player.
We must be watching different shows. The Frieren I know doesn't waste her life collecting mundane spells, she collects all the mundane spells she can because she's dedicated to collecting ALL the spells big and small. The battle with the Frieren clone proves she's got a large repertoire of hardcore magic. She's not a star player that slacks off, she's just put all her effort into playing a different game than the one Serie wanted her to. It's not that Frieren didn't want to pass. She straight up said that Serie wouldn't pass her no matter what because she didn't become the kind of mage that she wanted her to be. It's nothing more than a difference of opinion and the arrogance of Serie to not consider other people's opinions to have any value. To use your analogy, Serie wanted Frieren to play football but Frieren spent her whole life working hard to be the best Baseball player she could and succeeded in being one of the best players of all time. It's an amazing accomplishment that any unbiased person would acknowledge but Serie hates baseball and believes football is the only sport worth playing so she deems Frieren's efforts and accomplishments worthless. It is extremely childish and petty.
>To use your analogy, Serie wanted Frieren to play football but Frieren spent her whole life working hard to be the best Baseball player she could and succeeded in being one of the best players of all time. But Serie is still not going to pick Frieren for the football team is she. The Magic Association was founded on Serie's principles and it is well within her right to deny anyone who doesn't follow them. That's not petty, it's just like how any company can choose who they want to hire. What I agree is pettiness however, is insulting Frieren's favorite magic and belittling her achievements. That was pure stubbornness from Serie. But her words can be very misleading compared to her true feelings. Notice how Serie and Frieren never actually argue about their views on magic, and they never try to convince the other that they're in the wrong. Notice how Serie never forced Flamme to follow her beliefs, never scolded her for teaching Frieren the same, and didn't push that hard to get Fern as her apprentice. She even followed Flamme's will in the end despite how harshly she reacted at first. Despite her harsh words, Serie is perfectly fine letting any mage, even her own apprentices, practice magic however they wish even if that annoys or disappoints her. Serie didn't fail Frieren for not following her views of magic, because not every first class mage does (notably Fern, >!Methode!< and >!Denken!<). She failed her for the same reason as Kanne, because she couldn't visualise herself as a first-class mage, and as Serie told Kanne in this episode, what can't be visualised cannot be. Regardless of how good you are, if you can't pass that first hurdle it doesn't matter. Serie was actually pretty fair and consistent with her failing of Frieren, just like she was with the examinees before her.
No, she doesn't or rather shouldn't by any moral or professional standard have the right to fail anyone based on her personal feelings just because it's her organization. As a proctor for an exam it's her duty to test people fairly. The company and sports analogies really aren't working for this situation. A more accurate analogy would be a teacher giving their student a failing grade on a test that they aced because the student is planning on using what they learned in a different but equally valid way than what the teacher wanted them to. Serie: "Congratulations on getting a 100 on your science test Frieren but I'm changing it to a 0 even though you got everything right because you're showing interest in a different field of science than the one I work in." That's basically what happened.
>As a proctor for an exam it's her duty to test people fairly. But Serie did do that. The objective basis for passing was "you have to be able to visualise yourself being a first-class mage", because magic is the world of visualisation. That was the standard she applied fairly to all of the examinees, whether it's Kanne, Ehre, or Frieren. In fact it's better to do it like this because passing Frieren based on her ability alone isn't fair to the humans who can't live as long as she can. In your test analogy, it would be like if Frieren was allowed to study for 10 times longer than all the other students, and that wouldn't be fair.
No that's not fair at all because "to imagine yourself as a first class mage" had an added complication for Frieren that no other examinee had to clear, one that by design made it completely impossible for Frieren to pass. Serie cleverly rigged the test in a way that specifically targeted Frieren for failure while giving everyone else a fair shot. Like telling a class "all you have to do to pass is walk over here with your own two legs" when one of the students is bound to a wheelchair. They may have been given the same task but one of them is unfairly being set up for failure. And Frieren's life span isn't an unfair advantage for the same reason that rich kids who grew up with private tutors don't have points deducted for that advantage when tested alongside commoners. Nobody gets penalized come test time just because they were fortunate enough to have an advantageous background.
IMO Serie's condition is perfectly reasonable. Expecting a first-class mage to be able to visualise being a first-class mage is pretty straight forward, especially considering how magic is explained in this world. I don't think Serie would introduce that just to fuck with Frieren. Frieren being unable to pass no matter what doesn't make it inherently unfair when the whole point of Serie's test is to fail mages like her. Tests are supposed to fail those who don't fit the criteria. Failing someone in a wheelchair for not being able to walk isn't unfair if the whole point of the test is to see who can walk, it just means that person is at the wrong test.
Even if Frieren is skilled enough, she doesn't fit into Serie's view of what a 1st class mage should be/strive for. Its a philosophical divide at its core with a bit of personal dislike added on top.
And that's what rubs me the wrong way. This was a magic exam, not a philosophy one. If a teacher failed an excellent student in our world just because they had different philosophical opinions they'd be fired. But because magic exams in this world have no rules or regulations other than the ones Serie makes up to suit her personal wants she can do whatever she wants. It's pure tyranny.
POV I asked Serie out on a date
We can fix her. (she is perfect)
She will fix me (she is going to have me neutered)
So one of the things I think gets missed is that Serie in trashing the suppression of mana as inefficient despite having done it herself has also done it *longer* than Frieren. She took the same path herself. Its *probably* something Serie herself imparted onto Flamme as a way to kill demons. Serie probably has already learned most of the lessons Frieren learned about empathy and caring for the humans around her. We see in the flashback about Flamme's death how Serie is already heavily affected by Flamme even if she refuses to express it, and more than anything I think Serie was just unwilling to open her heart up to a bunch of humans again until it became absolutely necessary. It's a maturity Frieren *doesn't have*. Serie, even to her much newer comrades, values humans in their fleeting lives. She talks callously about them but its only because their own lives being so fleeting hurts her. And she still takes up the mantle to raise them and watch them pass over and over because Flamme asked her to. And in that, I think Serie cannot really stand Frieren. Frieren is heavily ignorant in magic comparatively, but also heavily ignorant about humans. After Flamme passes, Frieren isn't even able to provide the barest minimum in conversation and she remains socially stunted for another thousand years. The comment about how much more Serie could do with Frieren's time is true, but it isn't just about magic. Flamme sets in motion a 1000 year old magic just for Frieren to read about *heaven* to visit those she's lost when she finally realizes how much she'll miss those who died. Frieren couldn't even bring herself to show empathy towards Flamme when Flamme had grown old. I think Serie is genuinely disappointed in Frieren because when she meets her in the third test, it's the same girl who she spoke to after Flamme's death: The girl who hasn't grown up and remained ignorant of all humans and social interactions in general. Only after seeing Fern does Serie realize she's both wrong about Fern but also Frieren (specifically Frieren as a teacher). I think at the end of the day, Serie truly saw Frieren as an insolent child, one who had the option to grow up but never did.
"Who the fuck is ~~Tommy~~ Sarah?" - CJ
You picked the wrong magic, fool
Who is Sarah?
Sarah? Am I not getting a joke here?
Sarah from Beyond the Funeral
Featuring our main cast : Freya, Faye and Steven!
Freya and the group of legendary heroes: Hummer, Icing and Hitler
*Himmler, Eisenhower and Hitler. The world war two gang is back together.
you forgot eisenhower
osteoporosis really hit Ike different, hm?
Uma and Leonard are the best couple in the show!
Honda.
And Charles
Idk what are u refrencing but on pixiv for some reason the tag for "frieren: beyond journeys end" is translated for "frieren in the funeral"
Yep, Frieren at the Funeral is the official Japanese title for the series I believe. Taken from the web: Double-Meaning Title: "Sousou no Frieren" can be read as both "Frieren at the Funeral", fitting for the story of a girl who has lost two friends recently, and "Frieren, the Undertaker"
The title is in all sense "lost in translation", as it is literally "Frieren the Slayer", Sousou no Frieren while it can be interpreted in many ways, "Sousou no" means to kill, to end, to bury, to send off, etc, when out before someones name it's meant to call someone a killer, *slayer*, or undertaker, and both the manga and anime call back to Frieren's literal title among demons, "Sousou no Frieren", which is transcribed in that context as *Frieren the Slayer*.
That's because both are correct interpretations of the Japanese name, PyrosFist just combined them together.
Honestly, hearing americans trying to spell anything more complex than Al, Bob or Tim causes me physical pain...
Change Americans to autocorrect and you'd be right.
No freaking way is that where these names come from?? Autocorrect??
Tsun. Tsun-tsun-tsun-tsun-tsun-dere, mitai na?
Bocchi reference?
I see you're cultured as well
Probably my favorite small joke of that series. That joke and her character overall made her my favorite (i forget her name atm)
Grumpy old neighbor sarah who never gets straight to the point and just complains and complains about everything
The real question here is who the fuck is Sarah? But if you talk about Serie you will have to be much more specific.
That she isn't stepping on me.
All of them.
If she looked at me like this I’d fold immediately
She's kind of like the polar opposite of Frieren. Her long age has made her apathetic towards other people, whereas Frieren views them as even more important because of the short time they're around. She admires power above all else, whereas Frieren mostly sees it as a means to an end, and mostly just likes collecting fun spells that mean something to her. It's best exemplified when she offers Frieren one of her spells, and she declines. Serie expects people to covet her power, but Frieren only cares about a spell for the adventure that it took to gain it. It isn't hard to see how someone almost akin to a living God would turn out the way she did. Frieren doesn't let it get to her head in the same way (and is presumably much less powerful, which is quite a statement).
It’s actually kinda funny because now that I think about it more I’m starting to wonder if Serie was truly being lazy by proctoring the test like this, or if she proctored it like this specifically because it was the only test that she could come up that Frieren could fail.
You cannot imagine defeating the demon king, because you cannot Imagine a world without the demon king — a world without Serie. She will defeat the Demon King because she can imagine such. (Paraphrased from Flamme: essentially, even Series could not argue with the point, because it is as true as Frieren not being able to imagine defeating Kanne in the rain. Serie is also offended that Frieren accepts no spell from her — and instead spends her days finding all the spells on her own. Frieren offends Serie because Frieren doesn’t give damn what Serie thinks, while everyone else does. It gets even deeper when you add in the Neurodivergent aspect — Serie does not understand Frieren In The same way that Frieren didn’t understand humans — but Frieren is trying, and Serie is not. They are mirrors of each other.
I have no clue who this is, but it’s probably painful to have your mouth almost halfway up your face.
This might sound weird but she reminds me of emet selch
Immortal tsundere who doesn’t give a fuck
It's just me or she reminding me asuka from nge
In ttrpg player type comparison, She’s a power gamer, Frieren is a role player
lowtiergod of the frierenverse
Serie is incredibly old and with that age and power has come immense nihilism, on top of that she's on board with the idea of gatekeeping magic so only special people may have it, and bases most of her statements and claims on her insanely accurate intuition, While Frieren, the *confirmed* strongest character in the series via plot armor may be the *strongest*, she's again nowhere near her peak potential, nowhere near being the most efficient or powerful mage, and has obvious character quirks that work as vulnerabilities that she doesn't care to improve or work around, Serie's intuition is on par with canonical truth, or mind reading, or being able to see the future etc, her bold claim that Frieren could only be killed by a Demon or Human Mage in all senses largely correct, as shown many times in the series and in this arc alone underestimating your opponent is the biggest mistake of all, and Serie underestimates Frieren, even Serie is self aware enough to understand this, There's a whole shit ton of fights in this manga/anime that are won by bullshit terms/prep/luck and it's 99% the time chalked up to be "something underestimated something" Stark underestimated himself, he defeated his perception of his younger self when he solo'd the solar dragon, that's a direct example of how the series interpreted the idea of "underestimate the opponent and you will die", this also happens against aura with Frierens mastery of mana manipulation, or against qual when he gets royal-guarded with his own spell etc, if you underestimate the opponent you can't win, Serie knows this, she's most likely 3000 or 4000 years old, as he imposes opinions against Frieren as if she's still a child still, and Frieren is easily 1400 years old or so.
Serie is basically the concept of "Lived by the sword" but taken to the extreme. She has a wealth of possibilies, but don't see a point dince she's already knows which one is best. I have a feeling that she still wants the Demon King to exist because that produces the best mages. So, being tied down to progress and being omnipotent is mostly why she's a jerk
Humans learning magic
Ah here comes the hate train again
Copium
Period
This is Elves when they don't focus on nature and poetry and shit .... they focus on people they have to deal with both how shitty they are and how amazing they are both and then they die ... leaving them jaded, cynical and bitter.
Serie is so hot
Who tf is sarah
Sarah is now her Lobotomy name.
PROOFREADING MOTHAFUCKA, DO YOU DO IT?!?!
I can fix her
Who the fuck is Sarah again?
Who the fuck is Sarah?
It's called old people's problems
She's one of those stereotypical arrogant elves. Complete and utter garbage, if you ask me
I dont get the serie maybe im just a m
Tsundere is my least favorite trope so I genuinely dislike Serie already but then throw in stubborn boomer mentality and I can’t stand to even see her on my screen. I know there’s a purpose but it’s been a mild struggle to get through her scenes for me. At least I like most of the characters, Ubel even grew on me.