Sousou no Frieren

[DarthEnderX]

Reel it in, pervs.

[shinta|hikari]

Why....?

[MFauli]

Reel it in, pervs.

Now you made him change avatar and signatur. That's on you, Darth.

[Kraco]

I didn't believe anyone would anymore bother to change avatars and sigs here at Gotwoot. Übel really has conquered Shinta. Cut right through his heart.

[shinta|hikari]

I fell to the pit...

[David75]

End of season

[Buffalobiian]

End of season

Indeed. I heard there's an S2 though, so that's nice. And the next season has lots of sequels that I'm interested in so I can't say I'm that said.

Of all the fan art out there, my favourite has to be this artist's cat depictions.





Link to other cat-Frieren pics.

[DarthEnderX]

24

---

And that's our finale. The exact kind of low-key epilogue you'd expect from this series.

[Kraco]

The exact kind of low-key epilogue you'd expect from this series.

Because otherwise it would be embarrassing when the next season launches in the future.

[MFauli]

A cleaning-spell being labeled "legendary" was still stupid, though. That should be an everyday spell.

Btw how does spell-learning even work? Do they receive "grimoires" aka spells on paper, activate them like in a video game, and they grimoire vanishes and they got the spell? Otherwise, why not just teach others the spell?

Anyway. Next season, huh.


PS: All the flashbacks with Himmel are ruined for me because of him turning into a dwarf in episode 1, sigh.

[Buffalobiian]

Btw how does spell-learning even work? Do they receive "grimoires" aka spells on paper, activate them like in a video game, and they grimoire vanishes and they got the spell? Otherwise, why not just teach others the spell?

You read it and remember it.

You don't go around teaching it because you might like the exclusivity and you're also not a charity.

Spells and mages used to be common, and there's folk magic etc where people just locally develop their own thing. It's like regional recipes for foods. Logically, one as useful as laundry shouldn't have become obscure of forgotten though, unless mages never do their own laundry.

I'm going to interpret it as just being a gag / contrast.

It would be cool to see Lernen fight. Looks like he's a powerhouse too to break Frieren's barrier. Weird how he'd just request a duel so he can kill her and accomplish something. Frieren's got nothing to gain from it and he should have realised that.

[DarthEnderX]

A cleaning-spell being labeled "legendary" was still stupid, though. That should be an everyday spell.

It's legendary because nobody knows it.

Seems to be a general stigma against "useless" spells. Likely a result of Serie running the organization.

[shinta|hikari]

It is an epic spell though. No laundry ever???

My wife would kill Fern for that spell.

Ubel is the best. That interaction with Serie was legendary.

[Kraco]

Spells and mages used to be common, and there's folk magic etc where people just locally develop their own thing. It's like regional recipes for foods. Logically, one as useful as laundry shouldn't have become obscure of forgotten though, unless mages never do their own laundry.

I'm going to interpret it as just being a gag / contrast.

It's all gags. Magic is so useful that its use should have been becoming more and more common over the centuries, not more rare. It's like suggesting that, in RL, most of humanity would gradually forget how to use electricity, while only a small minority would still keep using it. That's just not going to happen. With magic, the only plausible explanation for such would be that there's genetic factor in being able to become a magician, and it's recessive. That just might result in a situation where only pure-blood families would maintain it, otherwise random lucky individuals might be able to, but possibly they would never realise it. Though you'd think at the dawn of the time it would have been so über beneficial that it would have become extremely common, thanks to population genetics.

There have been some "magic goes away" stories over the years, but that doesn't seem to be the case in this series. Magic is as strong as ever. Awfully oppressive religion doesn't explain it either, since religion in this work doesn't hunt down all and any magicians. There simply are no explanations given to why pretty much everybody is not trying to rely on it. So, it's all artificially forced for the sake of the story.

[DarthEnderX]

Awfully oppressive religion doesn't explain it either, since religion in this work doesn't hunt down all and any magicians.

No. But they do seemingly horde knowledge.

Serie has this massive collection of spells, but she only gives out one each to 1st Class mages. And the mages that make it to 1st Class are the ones that would pick some OP combat spell as their spell. Hence, why Serie calls Fern insane for making that spell her pick.

Serie doesn't run a school where she teaches as many people as she can, as many spells as possible. She runs an exclusive organization where she only teaches the biggest badasses one big badass spell.

[MFauli]

If you guys are gushing over a "never cleaning again"-spell, then why not go for a "never pooping again"-spell? Surely that would be an even more attractive spell for a self-conscious young woman like Fern. "WOMEN DON'T POOP, OKAY, STARK?!"

It's all gags. Magic is so useful that its use should have been becoming more and more common over the centuries, not more rare. It's like suggesting that, in RL, most of humanity would gradually forget how to use electricity, while only a small minority would still keep using it. That's just not going to happen. With magic, the only plausible explanation for such would be that there's genetic factor in being able to become a magician, and it's recessive. That just might result in a situation where only pure-blood families would maintain it, otherwise random lucky individuals might be able to, but possibly they would never realise it. Though you'd think at the dawn of the time it would have been so über beneficial that it would have become extremely common, thanks to population genetics.

There have been some "magic goes away" stories over the years, but that doesn't seem to be the case in this series. Magic is as strong as ever. Awfully oppressive religion doesn't explain it either, since religion in this work doesn't hunt down all and any magicians. There simply are no explanations given to why pretty much everybody is not trying to rely on it. So, it's all artificially forced for the sake of the story.

Absolutely right and I always wonder when I see Fern and all walk around in town: These are all people that could massacre EVERYONE else in the town. It's crazy how they're just living among each other. Magic ought to be something EVERYONE learns, even if not everyone reaches the same height. I said it in Mushoku Tensei, but something like "create water" should be a basic spell for everyone, now nobody ever has to fear dying from dehydration. And just teach everyone basic defense against magic. It's actually unrealistic we haven't seen lots of evil mages. Übel is the only one who comes close.

[Kraco]

No. But they do seemingly horde knowledge.

Serie has this massive collection of spells, but she only gives out one each to 1st Class mages. And the mages that make it to 1st Class are the ones that would pick some OP combat spell as their spell. Hence, why Serie calls Fern insane for making that spell her pick.

Serie doesn't run a school where she teaches as many people as she can, as many spells as possible. She runs an exclusive organization where she only teaches the biggest badasses one big badass spell.

That doesn't mean anything. All of those applicants wanting to become 1st class already knew a bunch of magic/spells. Serie wasn't the one who taught them. Serie is just a hikikomori who relying on a plot convenience acquired a huge library and only thanks to being immortal has an astronomical amount of mana. That's all she amounts to. The whole Serie situation reminds me of the idiocy in the Fate universe, where Gilgamesh has the "original" of every fantastical weapon imaginable, as if mankind never invented anything new after Gilgamesh's ancient time. Similarly in this series Serie collected all spells 5000 years ago, or whatever. After that nobody supposedly invented a single new spell, aside from the rare, occasional original from the demons. Those were probably delivered to Serie by some random loser magician who wanted to kiss her toes.

[DarthEnderX]

If you guys are gushing over a "never cleaning again"-spell, then why not go for a "never pooping again"-spell? Surely that would be an even more attractive spell for a self-conscious young woman like Fern.

A useful spell to be sure. But does casting the spell feels as good as a nice satisfying constitutional?

And just teach everyone basic defense against magic.

I mean...we have that NOW and we don't do it. It's not like they teach basic self-defense techniques in school. You have to seek that training out on your own.

Those were probably delivered to Serie by some random loser magician who wanted to kiss her toes.

Well at least they aren't trying to lick her armpit...

[MFauli]

I mean...we have that NOW and we don't do it. It's not like they teach basic self-defense techniques in school. You have to seek that training out on your own.

We literally have an example in Moscow right now: 5 well-armed, really evil guys start doing evil shit. And yet all the could do is "only" kill a couple dozen people. Most of Moscow is fine. If Fern or Frieren or Denken went wild in Moscow, Moscow would cease to exist afterwards.

So teaching everyone some degree of magic defense would be more pressing there than in our world.

[Ryllharu]

Okay, so let's talk Laundry, and why Fern's choice (despite Serie's objections) is literally the greatest choice she could possibly make.

Do you know what the greatest invention in the history of mankind is behind the discovery of antibiotics? The washing machine (great video presentation on the topic). Not a joke. It is the single-most transformative invention of human culture. It took a chore that nearly an entire day's worth of heavy labor with middling results by one member of the household (or hired-out) to a task performed simultaneously with...literally whatever else you want to do with that time. Cleaner results, less damaging to clothing and skin, fewer harsh chemicals, and a whole host of other benefits.

Fern chose to learn the most practical spell ever, one that is stunningly revolutionary for the time period and setting they're in.

Of course it is from the age of myth. When magic was in abundance, people/elves must have used spells for anything and everything. Then some manner of regression across the world occurred (probably due to the demons), and the world is slowly stepping back up thanks to the steady and inexorable innovation of mankind.

It also follows the assertion that Frieren and Flamme are right in their discussions with Serie. The era of war is winding down. Fern is someone who values magic used in practical ways rather than in destruction or a cycle of revenge.

Btw how does spell-learning even work? Do they receive "grimoires" aka spells on paper, activate them like in a video game, and they grimoire vanishes and they got the spell? Otherwise, why not just teach others the spell?

You read it and remember it.

You don't go around teaching it because you might like the exclusivity and you're also not a charity.

The anime doesn't explain it, and the shot of Serie handing Fern a grimoire is deeply misleading.

Serie knows all the spells because she's old as hell. The point of her boon is that she is able to grant people spells that would take actual decades to learn no matter how skilled they are. Spells that humans would die from old age before they mastered them, but the elves and demons have the liberty of time to learn. It's why mages like Denken go to her to take the exam rather than live out their days as the strongest Imperial Mage.

I'm not going to spoil the details in case they do every actually cover it in an eventual sequel series.