My favorite thing about this world's magic system is that element of visualization. It gives each magic user a different flavor and vibe, depending on the way they think and see the world. I absolutely agree with Ubel here. The sound of heavy fabric metal shears against cloth? Very satisfying.
Me and my fellow people with aphantasia be like 😮 (basically inability to form pictures or visualise things, or even have a voice in head.) (we do understand & know & can 'see' things like an orange in mind, but it's similar to how a computer does can do the same without a monitor connected or turned on)
@@arnabbiswasalsodeep I have been very curious on how people with aphantasia translate their own thoughts. For me, my thoughts translate as my voice that I "hear" in my head basically "speaking" my thoughts out like a mock conversation, and I've always wondered how that works for people who don't have that
To explain the Visualization part and Übel a little bit better. In this World Magic is not just about who uses the most destructive Spells or has the most Mana, you need to visualize the Magic you wield to do what you want to do. If your Magic specializes in Ice and Freezing you can easily imagine freezing a Lake to cross it, but what if that sea is made of Lava can you imagine to freeze that over and cool it down? Sure you can try but in your Mind you will have doubts and those doubts hinder you from the Task, I mean its only Logical that Lava cannot just be frozen Over. Übel is special in that regard ( she might be Sociopathic/Psycopathic) that she can completely blank her mind of all the doubts and instead of Logic she uses pure feelings to accomplish her Task. A cloak made of Cloth ( like the Proctor that she killed had) even if her mind screams that its full of defensive Spells her Gut-Feeling just blends it over and says cloth can be cut same as hair. If that Proctor would have worn a Steel armor imbued with defensive Spells instead she would have failed that test.
The beauty of her cutting spell, is that there is a lot of mundane cutting tool that exist which is used in life to help you in visualizing it. The fact that Ubel also visualizes the sound just makes her spell that much more effective.
The way I saw it is that in a world of magic that focuses on visualization most skilled mages have built upon experience using their magic to trust in their ability for more situations than a novice. For Übel, her senses are attuned with the act of cutting, She could imagine what it sounds like to cut, she could percieve the action of cutting to the smallest of details, there is no doubt in her head that thats what it feels like to cut that object. Her Reelseiden spell is a simple spell but because it's matched with her high sense of cutting from childhood its unusually more powerful. Its equivalent to how one kid can pick up a higher frequency noise in a room of adults. Its that at that level of sensitivity lets say
Clone Frieren showed us how a serious Frieren looks like. And she hasn't been this serious for 80 years 😂 Honestly, I still found her cute when she was serious. I love everything about her 🥹
From Ubel's "Magic is about visualization." to Fern's "This is the the height of magic." witnessing clone Frieren do magic by visualization and knocked her off the wall without staff/hands.
in addition Uebel is very fond of the cutting sound since childhood. The cutting sound is engraved into her consciousness and is a very positive memory of her sister. This attachment makes it possible for her to master the PERFECT visualization as long as she can imagine it. The attachment to the spell - or rather to the happening of the spell, which is the cutting sound she perfectly remembers, makes it so much more powerful. The better your imagination of the spell you want to cast is, the better a mage you are and in result are more powerful. Magic is all about imagination/visualization - if you can not imagine/visualize the spell to happen, then you can not cast it or it is absolutely weak.
@@redroseibarahime8755 Übel reminds me of Zorro from One Piece. She doesnt care about magical bounds, she knows there is a way to make it happen and the laws of magic only limit does not skilled enough to find a path to a solution. I think Frieren meditated in her 1000 years to a deeper understanding of magic, like Series. My Theory is that Frieren find a way to use the power of nature itself(in this case Gravity). They all describe magic as something natural they saw, collected, studied and find a way of using it. She simply broke the boundaries, not abusing magic and twist it to work her way, but to simply use pure magic. Its something Fern never saw. so she couldnt detect this pure form of mana.
I've heard that the manga doesn't focus on the fights because, frankly, this story isnt about action. The studio didn't really need go this far. But they did it anyway, and in the most spectacular way at that. Mad respect to all Madhouse staff.
Best Girl Methode single handedly defeated Fern's clone...when the the clones disappeared, you can see her standing and looking down the floor as if she already beaten/restrained fern's clone before it vanish
Outside of Frieren, She's arguably the most versatile of this batch. She can use binding magic, mind control magic, she's adept at mana detection, and she's capable of healing on top of the basic offensive and defensive magic. Alongside Denken, she also noticed Frierens weakness when Fern showed it. She's easily overlooked in this first season but in this short time she has some pretty impressive feats.
The stare of the clone Freiren to Fern always gives me chills, makes you wonder how she and Himmel with the crew defeated the Demon King with that spell.
It really fascinating to me how with Frieren's overall cute and pretty design they manage to make her look so intimidating even without her crazy magic.
The way they split the match ups was neat. Richter has issues dealing with Kanne's water magic but she's not experienced enough, so they sent her with Dunste. Lawine struggles against Richter's earth magic and Lawine's Ice can stop Kanne's control over water. Denken is very strong as an individual so they sent an entire team to fight against him. Fern is susceptible to Methodes binding magic and Methode has shown to be quite competent at defending and counter attacking. Methode is quite strong, so they sent Laufen not to defeat her, but to slow her down using hit and run tactics using Jilwer.
Also, Kanne is fairly weak in the dungeon because she has no water readily available in the dungeon. She can be easily defeated by everyone there, honestly.
@@RealSoccerFreakI think they were banking on the slim chance that they were near some water. We've seen that there's water in this dungeon. But yeah, she isn't strong enough to fight on her own
kanne is that one mage that is the weakest when there are no resources but insanely leaping in levels when there's abundance of. even richter's earthbending cant do shit against her despite being surrounded by ground
In this world, what you can do with magic for the most part is learn as much of the rules of the world as possible so that you can visualize, imagine, a method toward achieving your goal. For example, Frieren combined a flowerbed spell that she knows works with finally seeing blue-moon weed to make the flowerbed around Himmel's statue. She knew she could make a flowerbed, and now that she knows what blue-moon weed is like, so she can make a successful spell. But Ubel is insane, which makes her powerful. She takes no effort to learn about the world, she just does her cutting magic on instinct. Also, she picks up new magic on instinct just by empathizing with the person who she saw perform the magic. That's how she picked up the binding spell from Weirbel. That's one of the reasons she's hanging around with Land, is because she wants his spell, and if she can figure him out enough to empathize, she can make clones of herself too. (Land knows this, so he gives away very little of who he actually is to Ubel.) But the most insane thing about Ubel's magic is that she can do the opposite of what other mages do. Her strength is based on ignorance. People cut cloth, so she can cut through a cloak even though everyone else knows that with the protection charms in the cloak, it's impossible. She knows she can cut hair, so no matter how everyone else feels about Sense's hair, Ubel knows she can cut it because it's just hair. And since she has absolute confidence, her magic works to cut through it. She doesn't need to listen to reason. Reason is actually a hindrance to her.
The attack Frieren used againts Fern also looks similar to the general she killed in her flashback with Flamme. He looked like he was shoved againts the tree and Flamme also said that she looked nearly dead. Fern also mentioned that the attack itself left her very open, and she probably had the hero party to rely on for defence when she used this againts the demon king.
I think it makes her vulnerable only if there is multiple opponents or if the target don't get immobilised by it. I agree, i thought it looks similar to the general in the flashback too. I guess the demon king was able to do something about it, unlike fern or that general, otherwise this spells looks kinda OP.
@TsuChan_ Idk if you're caught up with the manga but Basalt was also looked like some type of warrior, so I've been trying to tie the two together while waiting for the manga since it looks like it's gonna focus on warriors later. The similarities with Basalt and the attack clone frieren used on fern has been sitting on my mind a lot whenever I see discussions like these so I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees the similarities 🥲
I really love that Ubel has such a weird mind that she could defeat enemies far stronger than her. First she can copy spells if she empathize with the caster. Then she can cut anything she think she can. Give a few years and i believe she will become the strongest mage ever.
Stronger than Serie, who has multiple times Freiren's mana, (tens of?)thousands of years of fighting experience, and knows every spell ever created? I sincerely doubt that with her human lifespan she would have even achieved 0.1% of that strength.
@@anhkriva5274 Serie only know the human spells, while Ubel possibly can copy Demon specialized spells. Ubel already has a spell that Serie dont have anymore, her privilege, which can be pretty powerful like the one Denken chose. Like i said, she can copy any caster, potentially copying even more of Serie arsenal (We dont know how copying multiple spells from a caster would work). Her lifespan is not important if she can bypass that by copying spells that take 50 years to learn in just 5 minutes of conversation. And she has imagination beyond any mage seen. Even Serie was seriously impressed by Ubel, remember the interview? Ubel is the most unique caster in the manga so far, so her potential could go to where i am arguing. Besides, if you are really really pedantic about this, then she will be the strongest human mage or the third most powerful mage.
@@JP-eo8zw Ubel can only defeat extremely specific stronger opponents like ones that use hair and cloth, so besides that she would have a hard time fighting stronger mages and would lose.
@@solarferretstone614yeah, she cant imagine winning against richter because you cant scissors your way out of soil. kanne can even defeat her with the right amount of resources, ubel knows herself water cant be cut. she has to aim for their bodies directly
NOW we undestand why himmel loves her xD the first magic i think is something about Black Hole or gravitation, this have the same efecti, and the other magic that have colorfull balls i think the frieren and her copy use the same magic to nulify each other, and cause BREAK REALITY '-'
Fun fact for anyone who didn't pick this up: During the little arc with Sein, it was stated that Curses aren't usually detected as magic by Mages, and curses are just demon/monster spells so advanced that mages don't understand them yet. Fern didn't detect that attack as magic, implying frieren's clone was casting a curse. Frieren knows an actual demon curse and is choosing not to use it unless in dire emergency.
@@solarferretstone614 Anime only here, while it may not be confirmed I have to agree that whatever it is Frieren did matches the definition of a curse as given in that episode.
@@eress4 She "sealed" Quaal. At any rate Fern didn't pick up on that one being in any way unusual so I assume this type of sealing magic is reasonably normal
@@ethofan1819 perhaps, but why doesn't Frieren use it more often, if she actually cast it in a rush since they were about to be defeated and probably killed? I hope we get those answers.
Day 1 of requesting Delicious in Dungeon, hopefully by the time you add another reaction to your rotation you'll consider it :D Also the way Frieren shows how op magic can get with 1000 years of study really puts into perspective that while a genius, Fern still has a long way to go to match and surpass that
If you look back at the flashback in Episode 10, it kind of looks like Frieren used the same "apex of magic" attack to defeat Basalt the Throne, the demon general who attacked her hometown.
Frieren and Ubel really shining this ep 🔥🔥! The cloak and the hair have defensive spells on them, and so normal mages sense this and realize their spells will be blocked (unless they are just way stronger). Ubel, though, completely ignores that rational thought process and just sees cloth/hair, and she knows she can cut those objects, so her spell cuts right through. Because technically she is just cutting hair and cloth, not the magic on them. She can't cut through defensive magic though, so she can still be blocked (like her fight with Wirbel).
Peak magic, peak episode, peak season, peak anime. There are still some episodes left though and they are really good too, as every Frieren episode. Everything exceed my expectations in Frieren.
Now you witness the creation of our Universe, with Frierens big bang. Actually the black hole on the start is in science based colour. And Frieren here is using anything but ordinary offensive magic.
Anime only watcher here. My take on Ubel is, mages need to be able to visualize what they're doing, and because Ubel is crazy (like, actually off her rocker), she can visualize things that shouldn't be possible.
The element of visualization for Ubel cutting spell is so well done to me. To her logically scissors are meant to cut so in just that basic logic alone “scissors are meant to cut hair” is all she needs. To humans scissors can’t cut through everything that’s just doesn’t make sense but Ubel simply doesn’t think of it that way, it doesn’t matter if there was a mountain made out of paper it’s still paper and it can always be cut. It’s a cool way to showcase how psychotic she is 😩
With regards to Ubel's "cut" magic, it was mentioned by Wirbel during his fight with her that she's only able to use it within 5 meters in distance between her and her target. Hence, why she's leans more toward close range combat. So the way it works is that anything that Ubel thinks she can cut, it will get cut--e.g., how in the flashback during the second mage exam, she was basically just looking at the cloak as a piece of cloth/fabric that she can cut (reminiscent of anything sewing related in terms of cutting a fabric with a pair of scissors), or cutting hair; regardless of how strong they are/imbued with any magic, Ubel just imagines them to be at their basic material, thus enabling her to cut them with her magic. Though when it comes to the general defensive spell, like what they've been using in fights, that's more complex for her to imagine cutting.
The girl that talked to Richter surprised him out of nowhere because that was the first time they interacting and he probably didnt even care or remember the other contestants that was irrelevant to him. Hence "...who are you again?"
Replica Frieren with her serious look was so amazing I made it my Lock Screen on my phone. I can’t wait to find out more about that moment. Undetectable magic that has no visual activation. I really hope season 2 covers the Demon King fight.
Also I don't know if anyone's mentioned it in previous comments sections, but the VA for Ubel is also Kita, the singer from Bocchi the Rock. Quite the range.
When magic became so common that mages don't see it as something fantastical anymore, it becomes rigid and defined. It's why I can see a difference between folk magic which Frieren likes collecting and mainstream magic. Most folk magic just does its thing like the bird capturing magic that can even ensnare a giant bird monster. Mainstream magic are so thought out and studied that they kind of self-sabotage because you are taught that it 'can only be used this way' which subconsciously limits how you use it.
I love the implication that Fern is likely on-par in power or threat to Frieren as the Demon lord with Frierens comment about how she (specifically her clone) was forced to use a move she hadn't used since 80 years ago with her fight with the Demon lord.
Ubel can cut things she thinks she can cut. So she was able to cut the defensive cloak because it is, in her mind, is just a cloth and clothes can be cut. That’s what “magic is all about visualisation”, some mage can’t comprehend imagining penetrating it because they’re told no one can penetrate it because it has mix of complicated defensive spells but Ubel doesn’t care about logic, she just sees it as a fabric so she easily can imagine it as something that can be cut.
It seemed to imply that Ubel couldn't cut the basic defensive magic that all the mages use. She thinks she can cut hair, cloth, people, etc... The difference in mana probably matters as well. In the 1st part of the exam, when the water and ice mage were fighting the guy with earth magic, they said they were unable to directly freeze him because of his mana+concentration. When he lost his concentration+put his hand in water, he was able to be frozen. It is an interesting magic system because if you can believe in it, you seem to be able to accomplish it. That could be how Frieren was able to beat the Demon King. Himmel and Flammen both believed in her, given Frieren a thousand years of confidence.
But magic hair that’s stronger than defensive magic? Most mages can’t visualise that. Ubel just sees regular hair though. Like the guy she cut in half, just a cloak.
I'm not sure we've actually received a full explanation of how Uebel is able to do what she does. If we take Uebel at her word, then that implies that defensive magic doesn't actually do anything at all, except for sit there and look defensive so that attackers can't imagine getting through it. But we know that's not true. Frieren even explained how the new shield spell works against Zoltraak in Episode 3. (Plus, the shield works against physical attacks too.) As Sense says, it's just not as simple as imagining cutting through ordinary cloth or hair when that cloth or hair has defensive magic on it. Except for Uebel, somehow, it is that simple. She can imagine cutting the hair like it's ordinary hair while "ignoring" the defensive magic cast on it, which allows her to cut it like ordinary hair. I think the explanation is left intentionally incomplete, to be explored further later on.
Ubel managed to beat Sense because Sense's signature spells focus on using her hair as weapons and defensive barriers. As she told Land, she can easily visualize cutting hair but she can't visualize cutting through normal defensive magic, and as she told Sense, she was able to cut through Burg's magic cloak (and later through her clone's hair) because she wasn't really seeing it from the p.o.v. of the magic in the cloak and hair and was focusing on the fact that it was cloth and hair and she expects to be able to cut them. If Sense and Burg had created normal magic barriers like everybody else, Ubel would've been just as screwed as everybody, as shown when she fought Wirbel during the Stille test and he was able to block her cutting spell with normal defensive magic, just like Land pointed out and she confirmed by admitting she can't easily visualize cutting those magic shields. As they've said several times so far, magic is about what you can visualize, and in this case Ubel was uniquely suited to visualize being able to beat Sense's clone. As Methode told Wirbel, mage duels are like a much more complex game of Rock Paper Scissors, so in this case UBel was rock to Sense's scissors, so to speak. But if she fought, say, Denken, she'd get her ass kicked.
The most simple example i can find to explain Übel, is that she's basically "Gon" with a magic knife. The ammount of simplicity, intuition and almost psychotic way of looking life, makes her stand out... in a really dangerous way.
What's funny is that the rest of them never got to see what Frieren was trully capable of. Even Denken who fought her got beaten by Ordinary Offensive Magic (tm)...
I mean technically it would have been enough during Quals prime. We haven't even had a glimpse of Frierens true battle capabilities until now since she has swiftly disposed of any enemies with very ordinary looking spells so far. The only thing certain was that she had vast mana reserves, superior control, technique and a crap ton of versatile folk magic at her disposal. That flashback at ep 25 had me fooled it was already over as well ngl.
Not "funny" at all, it is exactly how they presented it. They misguided the audience with the expectations. Fundamentally, they have established that Zoltraak is a deadly spell and a mage that gets hit without any defensive spells would die to it. Last episode they hyped up that one moment and here they just dont even bother to explain that hyping up that one moment was irrelevant and it is "a battle of attrition". They quite frankly fucked up. I personally dont know why it was not enough. Was it because the replicas are not human but stone? Did frieren react at the last second to make the hit not lethal? Does she have additional defensive magic to dampen the blow? They dont explain and they dont show. To top it off, it is actually just a Zoltraak from Fern that visually fatally wounds her in the end, so why was that last Zoltraak lethal but not the first one?
@@oguzcanoguz5977 I wouldn't agree that they fucked up. It's just like Richter mentioned, that brief window to land a sneak attack is hardly a window any mage can take advantage off since Frieren is just that skilled. And clearly Fern isn't quite there yet. That's why she said "as predicted" when the replica blocked another Zoltraak at the beginning of the episode. Its a battle of attrition because they will have to try many times until they finally land a lucky hit. Despite her fatal flaw, Frierens replica will still have her guard up and block most ranged attacks. Notice how they get into each others faces all the time? I assume its to instantly land a proper critical hit since by the time she fires a ranged spell her defenses are already up, hence Fern struggles to land her spells despite being initially undetected when firing. The conclusion is pretty sick as well. Frieren underestimated Fern big time. The first time the replica actually turned her attention towards Fern was right before the Zoltraak barrage. Being fatally wounded it finally realized that she was a huge problem and not just some stealthy nuisance. So she messed her up on the spot. That was the opening. Not Frieren creating one for Fern to finish the replica but Fern creating one for Frieren instead, nuking the replica point blank. Granted I'm not a manga reader, this is only my personal interpretation. And I really liked how they showed very subtly without explaining anything, leaving it up to our imagination why things unfolded the way they did.
@@HansWurst-lg1ws I disagree, this is not what I saw and I would argue objectively not what they portrayed. There is absolutely no difference between the first time Fern ambushes Frierens clone and the last time as she deals the fatal damage. Frieren feigns vulnerability, the clone goes for the kill and at the same time Fern fires. Except on the first time, the clone would not expect this strategy, but at the last time it would expect it, because it has seen it before. I have not read the manga as well, just explaining what I have seen from the anime. It could be that at the first time Fern missed or was not fast enough so Clone Frieren dodged and they are looking for a lucky hit, but that is not what they shown. If that was the case, I see absolutely no reason why they would not show the first attack missing or being dodged. On the same note, I dont really see any difference between the first shot and the last fatal shot. Also we clearly see Fern wounding Frieren at the last ambush shot, but we dont see any of her barrage hitting at the end, so I am seeing Clone Frieren diverting her attention to Fern but blocking everything. I dont really understand the point of that barrage, since she already seems to have fatally wounded her before and the barrage seems to have done nothing. So I would have preferred clone Frieren getting pissed and focusing Fern when she deals the fatal wound, without the completely blocked barrage. But I agree that the finishing sequence was nice, but that is not the place the fucked up. They clearly created an expectation on the previous episode of a sneaky one shot strategy to increase tension, but then did not follow through with it. If you create an expectation as a story teller, you have to address it. You can address it by meeting the expectation or subverting it, but if you act as if it never happened, it just creates a bad taste.
@@oguzcanoguz5977 But isn't that exactly what they did, as you mentioned, subverting the expectation? Having us believe that the plan worked only to reveal that it never was the winning plan to begin with but instead a winning strategy. Fishing for cheap shots over and over again until the replicas seemingly impenetrable defense finally slips. Additionally I expect Frieren and therefore the replica to be perceptive enough to recognize the thread of an unknown, undetectable variable as she practices the way of the ninja in order to deceive as well. Even without knowing their strategy it would have somewhat anticipated an ambush and of course Frieren herself would have been aware of the that fact. So I don't see much incongruity there, if the plan had been to end it quickly & instantly it was doomed to fail to begin with. The replica got engulfed in Ferns Zoltraak last episode but it was never shown whether it actually connected. So instead of missing or dodging, I think its save to assume that the replica blocked it just like the other times. Again, as they anticipated. To me this was how they addressed it indirectly. Seemed to me like your typical cliffhanger so I'm not too mad about it. Now the barrage might be debatable. The replica lost both arms at this point. Maybe Fern went for the kill? Why didn't Frieren join to crossfire the replica while having the chance? Because it blocked everything fully once again. And even has an ace up its sleeve Fern wasn't even aware of. So the best option was to blast it close ranged while it made the fatal mistake to briefly and fully divert its attention away from Frieren after that ineffective yet pesky barrage.
They probably will go back to the short arc format as they resume traveling, but it's hard to imagine it will be nearly as easy or light-hearted. They will need to justify this whole mage test arc by making it a very dangerous journey from here on out.
Now fern should have realized how mistaken she was while stating that she can kill frieren. Frieren could have wiped everyone in that room all together lol😂
Its not like she said it confidently.. she said “may” & even in this episode fern her self said the “vulnerability” isnt enough + Frieren continuously saying “you could do it” shes not mistaken for anything
Great reaction! What an epic fight! Tho I am a little disappointed the way that they showed it, I feel that it would have been better if it was one long cut!
I honestly also thought it was finished the last episode, I think they handled it quite poor to be honest. They hyped up this moment last episode of Fern going incognito and attacking at the last millisecond to have massive impact, but in this episode they just gloss over it. They either had to explain after the fact that it was not a lethal move but rather something they had to do multiple times or they should not have hyped up that one moment the last episode.
It's even funnier if you know that the Japanese voice actor who voices Ton also voices the main character (Jin-Woo Sung) from Solo Leveling. Dude got confused which show he was in and thought he could solo the dungeon 🤣.
