Serie's "She was just someone I trained on a whim" is her version of Frieren's "a mere 10 years" which means her time with Flamme is the most precious thing for her.
@@somebodyoutthere Serie is the character who changes the most in a re-watch of the show. She goes from obnoxious to "tragic quiet tsundere" if you watch her scenes with the last few episodes of the show in mind ahead of time.
Yup. You have to look at her actions, not her words. We even get a hint of that in this episode: Serie says that she's disgusted that Flamme asked her to take her place training and testing human mages, and says that she wants nothing to do with it. But what is she _doing_ in the present right now? She's the head of the Continental Magic Association, that is dedicated to teaching and testing humans magic.
Conserve Mana to win by attrition Doesnt mean Freien and Fern dont have access to every spell Flamel invented as the founder of human magic or bulk of Series standard Liabrary Flamel learned in ( Series got interest in collecting hedge magic too)
Serie rejecting Flamme's will to lead humanity's magic, but in modern times she is the head of the Magic Association. Saying she just trained Flamme on a whim, but reminiscing about her holding her hand as a child. Her actions reveal her true feelings, which are the opposite of her words.
It's not even funny anymore how everyone misunderstands Serie opening the Continental Magic Association. Flamme wanted to teach ordinary every-day magic to literally everyone, so they can light a fire, create flowers, make a tea, protect themselves from monsters. Serie as she said in this episode: "That's not what i want, magic should be special, i won't teach anyone who lacks talent". So she created an organization which accepts only ... a select few (2000 people) who can pass her tests. Testes, to filter out everyone else. And teaching only combat magic to them, looking down on anything that counts as "folk magic". Meanwhile she is organizing hunger-game style deathmatches and makes mages kill each other for more power.... That's anything but what Flamme wanted
Serie is not being honest about her feelings. As with Frieren herself, seems to be a trait with Elves. Suppose being an immortal would cause one to lose contact with others and the world at large.
@@neretilderem7029 When we get to see the Empire where Flamme introduced magic we see its way more common, rather then just mages lots of non-mages also use magic for small things. Serie has decided to teach humans, but still holds to the only the talented and that it should be special, while the Empire has its own Imperial Mages and groups to regulate magic and the Continental Magic Association has no power there.
@@neretilderem7029 she doesn't organize those tests, her students do, and as seen with Sense she has no issue with peaceful tests. Also, none of the tests made mages kill each other, they simply did not punish you if you did. Also, Flamme did not ask Serie to teach magic to everyone, rather she asked her to take over training the court mages of the time (who were combat mages). Those mages no longer exist, and the Empire is no longer what it was. The Continental Magic Association can thus be seen as a compromise, as she is teaching humanity magic, even if most humans will only gain her knowledge via her students or students of her students rather than directly from her. SPOILER And as seen with Fern, if a mage she passes asks for non-combat magic, she will keep her word to give it to them. Nor does she have any issue with folk magic existing or her students learning it, she simply regards it as foolish compared to spells that serve grand purposes, and does not want such magic to be favored.
The genius thing about this dialogue between Serie and Frieren is that it just slyly hints on how old Serie *actually* is when she offhandedly remarks about the *beginnings of Human Civilization.* It's a very subtle nod to the fact that she was around *before* humanity's beginnings.
Yeah, Serie is at least 10,000 years old. At least. If I remember correctly she's been around since the Age Of Mythology. The time when the Goddess Of Creation was still actually interacting with the mortals. Series is basically the Galadriel of this series.
And the fact that she accurately predicted how long it would take humans to reach the level needed to defeat the Demon king, could imply she's seen the growth and potential decline of enough species to notice the patterns and timeframes. So not only was she around before humans, she may have been around before the things that preceded humans
The battle between Frieren and her replica harkens back to something in the first stage of the exam. When fighting some of the other mages, Fern says that Frieren taught her that only basic combat magic is necessary against mages of this era. When the replica starts attacking Denken's group, it only uses basic offensive magic. It's only when facing Frieren herself that it brings out the epic spells. So, this gives weight to the idea that it possesses their memories and mimics their thinking.
Frieren looking at the sun symolising her hope and hapiness of finding new magic in the future. Serie with turned back to this future refusing to embrace it.
I like the moment where Blei falls back to delay Sense's clone so that hopefully Dünste can pass the exam. The exact opposite of the cynical thing that one guy who went alone was saying at the start of the exam, that if you try to work together someone might make you a sacrifice for their own advantage. This show does a lot of little callbacks like this and it's so satisfying
What I adore about this episode his how they deliver this super exciting magic duel scene, where Frieren displays magic on a scale unseen to this point, the animators really get to flex their skills, and they do a great job of setting the steaks... only to cut off to a very personal and quiet flashback with two characters just having a conversation and reminiscing about someone who died that was very dear to them both, which then delivers the emotional peak of the episode, and does it in such an effective way that when it cuts from the flashback back to present time you've almost forgotten that the super exciting magic duel scene, where the animators are really flexing their skills, was going on, and they do such an amazing job of connecting the two events together. Also, the symbolism of Serie looking away from the sun-set while Frieren faces it with a smile on her face, showing how one choses to wallow on the past, while the other excitedly looks up to the future.
When serie describes the lifespan. "Humans exist closer to death" and "ours is closer to eternity " is really powerful. Really puts into perspective just how long lived they are, and their perspective of time.
I am terribly fond of your Frieren reaction commentaries. I've watched Frieren reacted to multiple times by several great reaction channels, but you've got a great eye for world building and digging into the deeper emotional notes. Loved this episode's flashbacks and Frieren's declared new accolade versus dungeon crawling. As for world building and D&D style adventure worlds, it is my opinion that Himmel's strategy of hitting all the dungeons and side quests was a key mechanic for the party leveling up enough to fight their final boss. Had they more directly gone to Ende, I suspect they'd not have built up their abilities and teamwork enough to tackle their most noteworthy opponent. Looking forward to Apothecary Diaries.
It's cool to see a detail in Serie's final conversation with Frieren, Serie is highlighted with the shadows on her face when talking pessimistically about humanity acquiring magic, Ja Frieren is highlighted with her face turned towards the light when seeing this optimistically😊
Yep. Frieren is facing the sun, the future, while Serie has her back to it, and faces only the past. Serie is, as Flamme said, a warmonger. She cannot envision a peaceful age, and so all she thinks about is "who will be able to kill who." Frieren, on the other hand, isn't thinking of an age of war between mages, but an age of peace where mages work together to develop all kinds of wonderful spells. It was this belief in cooperation that led Frieren to work with Humanity's mages to undo the horror of Qual's Zoltraak and find a defense against it. That was a matter of war, but, even so, was done to help to preserve life.
Series went from "Yeah, typical apathetic uberpowerful character that cannot be bothered" to "She actually loved her apprentice more than she could afford, because now she will spend a whole eternity alone and missing her, and Frieren is now in the same situation". The scene of her holding Flamme's hand as a child always makes my eyes teary. The hidden sadness in Series' eyes behind all that facade of "too cool to be bothered". She really, really loved Flamme. What a lovely character development. Also, I love that the short life span of humans is one of our strengths, and the key to defeat much more powerful mages that would otherwise be impossible to defeat for they have lived so long that their mana is just unmatched. It reminds me of Warhammer and RPGs, in which it is usually the case that human necromancers are much more powerful than necromancers of other races, usually long lived, because we have this continuous sense of immediacy. We cannot stare at a wall for 10 years, we need to advance every day.
And that is a reason why Himmel never asked frieren out. Even the time in romantic would worth it but the pain remaining a elfes lifetime we never can rly comprehend did me just a clear decision
12:55 I love this moment, it's only for a second, but you can see both Frierens only putting up shields where her opponents staff is pointing, such precise control of magic.
This might be a bit off-topic, but I absolutely love Yorushika, who took over as the opening theme artist from the second cour. Their music is simple in sound yet features complex structures and catchy phrases that are just incredible.
Serie said that she teach Flame magic just on a whim. But she can remember MANY details of her own human disciple, such as her dream and her favorite magic spell. Such a Tsundere teacher ;p
What really illustrated to me how good this series is was when, having watched all episodes, I tried to decide what my favourite episode was. I couldn't - there were too many. What about my favourite character? No, too many! That's besides the beautiful art style, the stunning animation and the superb music. I have literally never watched anything which has affected me as much as this series.
Fern and Flamme are members of a very exclusive club - mortals who were the first treasured students of an immortal master. They are very different, but they have key similarities, just as their masters are very different, but echo each other. In a way, Serie's Continential Magic Association is her answer to what Flamme asked of her a millenia before.
🥰 love your hair!!! ^.^ I hope some day we see Frieren going all out against a demon army! I cried with Flamme taking Serie's hand and it been a parallel to Fern & Frieren.
I love how this fight shows that when Frieren is fighting someone closer to her own level (in this case a literal clone of her), she breaks her rule of using only basic combat spells.
What this manga adaptation excels at the most is, BY FAR, the directing. It is immaculate. The pacing, cuts, flashbacks, and combat intertwined to friggin perfection. I love this show.
Keiichiro Saito made back to back modern classics off the bat. Easily the director I’m most excited for what he will do next after he’s done with his 2 main projects.
That was really cute watching you realise Flamme was her Fern. "Oh No!"... And then the realization hits that Frieren will outlive Fern by hundreds of years.
Regarding Frieren not knowing about the Spiegel. Since its from the Mythical Era it predates her, and evidently the tomb it is in only started being explored pretty recently.
Serie be like "I don't really care about Flamme, I just know her favorite magic. Also her favorite foods. Also her favorite bedtime stories. Also her allergies--"
My favorite show, and I have watched >20 channels reactions to it because it felt so empty when the season ended. But I have never heard anyone mention the ED and what it implies (it is not any of the graves we have seen...). It is said that the OP is Himmel's POV to Frieren and the ED is Frieren's POV in reply, and so I think it is hinting that Frieren is very aware of the future where she will lose Fern like Serie lost Flamme - the difference being that Frieren is so much more attuned to her feelings now that she knows how devastating that loss will be. [Serie doesn't understand yet that she lost her "daughter" without ever telling her that she loved her, although she will someday and that makes the flashback of her remembering little Flamme so heartbreaking to me every time I see it.] My fear is that framing this story as Frieren's Journey to Aureole is a bit of sleight of hand by the author. As the next few years pass Firieren will come to be certain of what she now is beginning to suspect - that she does not want to outlive Fern (as no parent wants to outlive their child) and face the profound loss and emptiness that would follow. As you pointed out, we have started to see little outward flashes of joy from Frieren here and there, always showing how far she has come in being aware of and understanding her emotions (IMHO Serie is a deliberate insert to the story at this point to show the contrast between Frieren at the end of the Hero's Journey vs. Frieren now.) But other than Himmel's funeral, I can only think of 1 time when we see Frieren visbly upset: when Fern is giving her the silent treatment between the 1st and 2nd exams she grabs Stark's hand and desperately begs him to help. Already the idea of not talking to Fern for as much as a day is very upsetting to her. ...So I can easily see one last climactic battle with demons before they reach Ende where Frieren will choose to sacrifice herself to save Fern's life, so that instead of Frieren & Fern arriving at Aureole to meet Himmel, Heiter, Old Man Voll, and I'm sure a few other sad surprises (Eisen? Sein & Gorilla? one or more of the mages we have gotten to know during the exams?), the ending of Sousou no Frieren will instead be Fern arriving at Aureole to see Frieren one last time before Frieren goes off with the rest of the Hero's Party to search for new magic in Aureole and Fern & Stark return to normal life, [Spoiler Warning for anyone unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings] almost an oblique reference to epic sagas of the past like Sam going back to the Shire after Gandalf, Bilbo & Frodo leave Middle Earth at the end of LOTR). If anything could ever be sadder than the ending of Your Lie in April, it would be a goodbye between a mother and daughter (adoptive) when we have watched them both grow up since their literal and emotional infancy.
"or a human mage" cuts out to Fern with one of the most epic music in the show. I always thought this show was a fantasy slice of life. But AURA moments are also crazy good
21:20 It's worldbuilding taken from / inspired by Dragon Quest. Demon society didn't exist prior to the demon king because demons were individualistic apex predators with innately strong magic so they had no need for things like companions. Unification through power / charisma leads to something like a demon society, formed as a response to human civilization advancing where previously mythical creatures did. The demon king recognized strength in numbers and thought the demon race needed an answer of its own unless they wanted to wait for their eventual demise (kinda like Serie's monologue in the past about how humans would need a thousand years to surpass the elves). Some of the worldbuilding and elements are different but you can see where the inspiration came from for demons and elves.
One of my headcanons is that when Series was reminiscing about the kid Flamme, she was actually manifesting the ghost of kid Flamme magically. Like showing Frieren that image that we see too.
The way she casually told them if they all fought the clone together then most of them would die🤣 basically telling them if they ever tried to fight her she's going blitz them in an instant.
Frieren using anything but ordinary offensive magic. Props to the architects that 2 Frieren and a Fern can fight without collapsing the tomb. The parallels from Serie and Flamme with Fern and Frieren are just amazing. Probably without Himmel and her journey with stark and fern, she would not answer to Serie how she did. Just spending Time with your beloved can change you so much. While you read this comment, take the time with your friends value. This Anime shows us our most precious thing we have. That's time.
One of the other reason that Fern and Frieren's magic is different is that during the century in which demons really attacked humanity, the humans were really scrambling to try and stop (or at least delay) their genocide. So almost all of humanity's high level magic was reverse-engineered from the demons (zoltraak being the best example). Now, in this time of peace, humanity has started to develop their own magic, but the lack of the motivation (more like desperation) that there was during the war against the demon means that combat mages are just less good, and humans are not as talented (or not experienced enough, they've only been doing magic seriously for 100 year) to create powerful new spells.
And this is somehow related to Serie looking for battle mages with experience gained in the war against DKs remaining army. We still don't know the reason behind this.
Human mages also transition from pure magic attack to imbuing objects as a weapon, i.e. physical attacks, because to overcome magical shields/barriers which seems to be human mages' specialty. Which also implies that, more human is fighting each other than they are fighting demons.
@@zam023 Absolutly yes, but it is also because mages are weaker now so they tend to have less mana, which mean that have to use strategies that are more sparing.
@@bobislav85 I think that it's connected to how she conceives magic (first and foremost as a weapon), so she sees only those that are excellent fighters as worthy of her teachings. But its true that there could be a deeper plan for that, we still don't really know why she chose to create the Continental Magic Association just now, after the death of the Demon King.
Season 2 was officially announced as "coming soon". Unfortunately it was an image of Frieren who was saying "coming soon" and as Fern said, "what's 'soon'?". So who know when? 😛
You weren't thinking Fern would just go there and 1v1 Frieren right? She would die in like half a second 🤣 At this moment i'd say Fern seems like she's on the lower echelon of rank 1 mages. That being said, that flashback is one of my favourite scenes, we get insight on Serie's relationship with Flamme, and we now know why she continental magic association was born only 50 years ago, she had to think about it for a thousand years, to find a way to grant her beloved pupil's wish but still only teach people with talent, in the end Serie seems like a softie too, just a bit harsh on the outside. She still treated Flamme like a daughter pretty much. Teaching only talented mages is the correct approach in my opinion, mediocre mages would just get themselves killed by demons. Also love how she just casually speaks about the dawn of human civilization like my mom talks about old TV Shows, so yeah, she's lived for quite some time 🤣
Another cool thing about this episode is to see Himmel's power. He killed that dragon (?) in a single hit. We always hear that the demons were very afraid of him, but this is the first time we see him showing his power off (his speed in that episode with the demon that kills a little girl can also be considered a small show of his strength).
Despite refusing Flamme's last request and tearing up her will, Serie did ultimately honor her wishes. It's just that, like she said to Frieren about how they as elves could afford to delay an important decision for centuries or even a millennium, she took 1,000 years to finally go back to that subject and come up with a way to grant Flamme's request while not compromising her values about how she'll only teach the most talented mages. So she came up with the Continental Magic Association and the different classes of mages, and only First Class mages have direct access to her teachings. You're right that Flamme was Serie's Fern, and she repeats that remark about how Flamme was only just a student she took on a whim the same way Frieren used to say that her quest to defeat the Demon King with Himmel and the others was some inconsequential "mere ten year adventure."
2:40 - about your theory, I agree totally. Frieren uses magic mad in time of war, so the shield is something that humans did with each other, but after the end of the demon king the ideia of unification got more dispersed and Magic became something that people would learn from their parents. Because of that, Magic would become more weak and unique, as the teachers not always would be masters or sometimes people would learn themselves trought books just like fern did before she meet frieren. But, as we saw in the test, still are capable mages, most living in nobel families, in the court or as peacekeepers fighting the last of the demon kings army that left. Fern and Frieren uses a fast Pace type of Magic, that uses their concealed mana to make the enimy not know how many attacks they can do before the mana goes out. They can easly defeat mages of the present era because their magic is made to surpass the old shield, they use a lot of mana and have more rules, they fight fast paced fights, and frieren and fern can exploit that just by using a low cost mana skill that they used their entire lifetime to make It perfect. Its like the way fern Won that fight in the first test, she exponencially increase her attack output until a breakpoint when the girl couldnt defend.
Frieren is still very young. When you're young, new things come easy to you. And she has an analytical mind. If Frieren can adjust to the pace of the humans, she will become a genius of magic like the world has never seen. Serie and her vast store of outdated spells will be left behind!
Speaking of holding off decisions. It's interesting how Serie eventually did create the magic association 50 years ago (from current timeline). Which was about 1000 years after Flamme's will suggested something similiar. So she actually considered it, and eventually made that organision (or maybe took it over?) to her suiting.
The dynamic with Serie really makes me think a core theme of this show is generational trauma. We dont know yet why Serie is so demanding with her view of how magic is special, but in any case she had those expectations of Flamme, who in turn ended up passing some of that to Frieren ("in the end all i could teach you was to fight - magic for revenge") but still did what she could to keep the spark of joy in magic alive for her with the flower spell. And finally Frieren helped Fern to recognize that she does truly love magic. even if the burden of using it to fight has not totally disappeared, it seems like Fern is having so much more opportunity to take joy in it which we'll see a bit more of soon. theres also other characters we havent seen much of yet as of this episode which i think will reinforce this (others who have been trained by Serie and where ths dynamic really feels like they are children of a demanding parent who cant show them affection)
I think it's worth noting that Frieren basically declared herself to be the most experienced dungeoneer alive. She said the hero's party cleared the most dungeons of anyone in history, and she's the only living member of that party. Ironically though, despite her long life, she only started dungeoneering 80-ish years ago, and probably got most of that experience in just those 10 years. (Of course, it's entirely possible that someone like Serie or Kraft has centuries of forgotten dungeoneering experience, but if they do, Frieren doesn't know about it, and neither do we.)
It can be tricky while reading the dub but you have to watch Serie's face when she talks to see what she means. She talks dismissively of Flamme while smiling fondly and remembering her as a small child. Since Flamme says she "lost everything" to demons it may well have been her family to, so Serie may have raised her as well as taught her.
Love your content and your reactions! Can't wait to see your reaction to the next episode! If Frieren season 2 isn't out by the time you finish Apothecary Diaries, check out Girls und Panzer. It is such a fun show to watch with great characters. I would love to see your reactions to GUP. I have only seen guys react to the show so far. I would love to see a female point of view.
I would say the top 3 strongest mages of that group in terms of mana, experience and magic are: Frieren, the first class mage Sense and Denken. Other exceptional ones are: Wirbel, Fern, Übel, Methode and Land. But I wouldnt put them in the top 3
a tiny detail that a lot of watchers missed in this episode: serie mentioned that flamme taught and created imperial mages, which means that the principles/techniques of magic that denken learned are at least somewhat loosely similar to Frieren's. it makes sense that he knows her so well and openly acknowledges her legendary status. To him, she probably represents what a peak imperial mage would look like in terms of magical prowess.
Denken is very unusual in that he is an Imperial Mage and a member of the Continental Magic Association, in the Empire lots more people use magic for small things and its much more common an inline with Flamme's vision
Seele's intellectual feud with Flamme reminded me of Dorian Gray's Preface: "We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely."
It's all about efficiency... can you imagine the quantities of mana those spells require? Sure Frieren has enough to spare but humans do not... using already existing materials is powerful. Even Frieren mentions that she can't imagine beating a water mage in the rain... and mages are about imagination, right?? Also, we haven't yet heard this but we should have to understand why Serie's gift is so amazing. Some spells require A LOT of time to learn... Serie creates grimoires specially tailored for particular mages so that they can learn them in an instant. Some of the best spells can take up to a century to learn... that's fine for old elves, not for humans.
As soon as I saw your shirt it made me think of 2 anime. Of course it is a colab with an anime clothing company. I looked it up and it is Sacred Treasure Curse Collection. Not really what I was thinking. It made me think of Golden Kamuy. Then I saw the frog looking think and it's not Golden Kamuy but Ranking of Kings. Not sure if the frog is suppose to be a dog or maybe it's a bit different then IIX.
I'd argue that elves don't even DECIDE to take it slow when they make decisions. Humans are impulsive because we don't have the time to be patient. Elves have no concept of time, so they aren't driven. It's not in their nature to be hasty because they have no concept of it.
Serie really cared about Flamme, but she just is so set in her emotionless state, like Frieren. But her recall, which I don't know if if was something that Frieren could see as well, was so telling. What a cliffhanger!
Serie is just so interesting, I still disagree with the common remarks of her being a "tsundere" because she's not, she's not pretending to hate it, or hides her feelings, she just doesn't know how to feel or react about it, she doesn't understand her emotions. Like imagine saying a millennium is nothing and suddenly experiencing a wave of emotions from a mere 60 or so years from a person you trained on a whim.
She specifically seems to struggle to put words to her feelings. She knows she's feeling something, she can nearly identify the vibe of it, but she cannot define it or describe it, and that's the wall which disconnects her from those feelings and from the people she has them for. Without the words, she mischaracterizes them for herself, and she can't express her fondness to the objects of that fondness.
So Himmel's party cleared out most of the known dungeons, meaning mages no longer had to consider dungeon combat as part of their regular training regiment. The thing about only the most bonkers anomaly elves being left (the ones we've seen, the ones who survived being targets) is that our image of their capabilities is very skewed. Like, sure, elves were all just limitless lumps of potential compared to the individually short lifespans of humans, but just like humans most elves were just presumably living really long and ordinary lives. Washing and chopping veggies for dinner type stuff.
Serie's "She was just someone I trained on a whim" is her version of Frieren's "a mere 10 years" which means her time with Flamme is the most precious thing for her.
I was never interested in Serie, until what Frieren told Lernen about Serie, I think that's really sweet.
And she has been through it a hundred times. Frieren has had one lost love while Serie has lost a hundred children.
@@somebodyoutthere Serie is the character who changes the most in a re-watch of the show. She goes from obnoxious to "tragic quiet tsundere" if you watch her scenes with the last few episodes of the show in mind ahead of time.
Yup. You have to look at her actions, not her words.
We even get a hint of that in this episode: Serie says that she's disgusted that Flamme asked her to take her place training and testing human mages, and says that she wants nothing to do with it.
But what is she _doing_ in the present right now?
She's the head of the Continental Magic Association, that is dedicated to teaching and testing humans magic.
Serie just an tsundere elves
Remember how she said to Fern that ordinary offensive magic is enough to beat the mages of this era? Frieren's arsenal is on another level.
Conserve Mana to win by attrition
Doesnt mean Freien and Fern dont have access to every spell Flamel invented as the founder of human magic or bulk of Series standard Liabrary Flamel learned in ( Series got interest in collecting hedge magic too)
Yeah, and the replica only brings it out against Frieren, too, and not against Denken's group, so it was also mimicking her thinking.
she didnt use any of these basic offensive magic, coz the one shes fighting is not from this era.
@@jujoduhduh it replicates the minds of the people in the dungeon, so it is
Frieren didn't want Fern to accidentally vaporize her opponents 😅
Fern: "I know how to kill frieren"
Frieren: "my replica, right?"
Fern: "didn't you want to see Himmel again?"
😂
Then fern will be a mediocre mage..cuz who will teach her again..
@@darkcutiedamn If Fern ever manages to kill Frieren, there is no way in thousands of years will she be considered 'mediocre'.
To be fair, ten years is a long time to walk somewhere that Fern can send her to in an instant.
xDDD! so stupid, nice.
Serie rejecting Flamme's will to lead humanity's magic, but in modern times she is the head of the Magic Association. Saying she just trained Flamme on a whim, but reminiscing about her holding her hand as a child. Her actions reveal her true feelings, which are the opposite of her words.
It's not even funny anymore how everyone misunderstands Serie opening the Continental Magic Association.
Flamme wanted to teach ordinary every-day magic to literally everyone, so they can light a fire, create flowers, make a tea, protect themselves from monsters.
Serie as she said in this episode: "That's not what i want, magic should be special, i won't teach anyone who lacks talent". So she created an organization which accepts only ... a select few (2000 people) who can pass her tests. Testes, to filter out everyone else. And teaching only combat magic to them, looking down on anything that counts as "folk magic". Meanwhile she is organizing hunger-game style deathmatches and makes mages kill each other for more power....
That's anything but what Flamme wanted
Serie is a professional tsun tsun
Serie is not being honest about her feelings. As with Frieren herself, seems to be a trait with Elves. Suppose being an immortal would cause one to lose contact with others and the world at large.
@@neretilderem7029 When we get to see the Empire where Flamme introduced magic we see its way more common, rather then just mages lots of non-mages also use magic for small things.
Serie has decided to teach humans, but still holds to the only the talented and that it should be special, while the Empire has its own Imperial Mages and groups to regulate magic and the Continental Magic Association has no power there.
@@neretilderem7029 she doesn't organize those tests, her students do, and as seen with Sense she has no issue with peaceful tests. Also, none of the tests made mages kill each other, they simply did not punish you if you did.
Also, Flamme did not ask Serie to teach magic to everyone, rather she asked her to take over training the court mages of the time (who were combat mages). Those mages no longer exist, and the Empire is no longer what it was. The Continental Magic Association can thus be seen as a compromise, as she is teaching humanity magic, even if most humans will only gain her knowledge via her students or students of her students rather than directly from her.
SPOILER
And as seen with Fern, if a mage she passes asks for non-combat magic, she will keep her word to give it to them. Nor does she have any issue with folk magic existing or her students learning it, she simply regards it as foolish compared to spells that serve grand purposes, and does not want such magic to be favored.
The genius thing about this dialogue between Serie and Frieren is that it just slyly hints on how old Serie *actually* is when she offhandedly remarks about the *beginnings of Human Civilization.* It's a very subtle nod to the fact that she was around *before* humanity's beginnings.
Yeah, Serie is at least 10,000 years old. At least. If I remember correctly she's been around since the Age Of Mythology. The time when the Goddess Of Creation was still actually interacting with the mortals. Series is basically the Galadriel of this series.
And the fact that she accurately predicted how long it would take humans to reach the level needed to defeat the Demon king, could imply she's seen the growth and potential decline of enough species to notice the patterns and timeframes. So not only was she around before humans, she may have been around before the things that preceded humans
The battle between Frieren and her replica harkens back to something in the first stage of the exam. When fighting some of the other mages, Fern says that Frieren taught her that only basic combat magic is necessary against mages of this era. When the replica starts attacking Denken's group, it only uses basic offensive magic. It's only when facing Frieren herself that it brings out the epic spells. So, this gives weight to the idea that it possesses their memories and mimics their thinking.
I remember watching this episode and being so paranoid that Fern's replica was also in the room, suppressing its mana
That would have been epic. I wish we actually got to see Ferns clone fight with Methode. It was all off screened
@@Idk-ro9nt in the manga, it can be seen quickly, same for the trio against Denken's
The Serie/Frieren/Flamme flashback is a masterclass in storytelling, and one of my favorite moments in the show.
Love that we only really ever see Frieren use basic levels of magic, but here we finally get to see what she really could do if she wanted to.
Frieren looking at the sun symolising her hope and hapiness of finding new magic in the future. Serie with turned back to this future refusing to embrace it.
Add the breeze blowing her hair around symbolizing winds of change.
I like the moment where Blei falls back to delay Sense's clone so that hopefully Dünste can pass the exam. The exact opposite of the cynical thing that one guy who went alone was saying at the start of the exam, that if you try to work together someone might make you a sacrifice for their own advantage. This show does a lot of little callbacks like this and it's so satisfying
What I adore about this episode his how they deliver this super exciting magic duel scene, where Frieren displays magic on a scale unseen to this point, the animators really get to flex their skills, and they do a great job of setting the steaks... only to cut off to a very personal and quiet flashback with two characters just having a conversation and reminiscing about someone who died that was very dear to them both, which then delivers the emotional peak of the episode, and does it in such an effective way that when it cuts from the flashback back to present time you've almost forgotten that the super exciting magic duel scene, where the animators are really flexing their skills, was going on, and they do such an amazing job of connecting the two events together.
Also, the symbolism of Serie looking away from the sun-set while Frieren faces it with a smile on her face, showing how one choses to wallow on the past, while the other excitedly looks up to the future.
When serie describes the lifespan. "Humans exist closer to death" and "ours is closer to eternity " is really powerful. Really puts into perspective just how long lived they are, and their perspective of time.
I am terribly fond of your Frieren reaction commentaries. I've watched Frieren reacted to multiple times by several great reaction channels, but you've got a great eye for world building and digging into the deeper emotional notes. Loved this episode's flashbacks and Frieren's declared new accolade versus dungeon crawling. As for world building and D&D style adventure worlds, it is my opinion that Himmel's strategy of hitting all the dungeons and side quests was a key mechanic for the party leveling up enough to fight their final boss. Had they more directly gone to Ende, I suspect they'd not have built up their abilities and teamwork enough to tackle their most noteworthy opponent. Looking forward to Apothecary Diaries.
It's cool to see a detail in Serie's final conversation with Frieren, Serie is highlighted with the shadows on her face when talking pessimistically about humanity acquiring magic, Ja Frieren is highlighted with her face turned towards the light when seeing this optimistically😊
Yep. Frieren is facing the sun, the future, while Serie has her back to it, and faces only the past. Serie is, as Flamme said, a warmonger. She cannot envision a peaceful age, and so all she thinks about is "who will be able to kill who." Frieren, on the other hand, isn't thinking of an age of war between mages, but an age of peace where mages work together to develop all kinds of wonderful spells. It was this belief in cooperation that led Frieren to work with Humanity's mages to undo the horror of Qual's Zoltraak and find a defense against it. That was a matter of war, but, even so, was done to help to preserve life.
Judradjim(ジュドラジルム)→破滅の雷を放つ魔法
Vollzanbel(ヴォルザンベル)→地獄の業火を出す魔法
物質を操るのではなく、作り出す魔法でかっこいい🥰
14:28 "i wonder she feels about doing that" (Hitting Frieren with Zoltraak.
Fern: "this is for that the potion incident mum!"
Series went from "Yeah, typical apathetic uberpowerful character that cannot be bothered" to "She actually loved her apprentice more than she could afford, because now she will spend a whole eternity alone and missing her, and Frieren is now in the same situation". The scene of her holding Flamme's hand as a child always makes my eyes teary. The hidden sadness in Series' eyes behind all that facade of "too cool to be bothered". She really, really loved Flamme.
What a lovely character development.
Also, I love that the short life span of humans is one of our strengths, and the key to defeat much more powerful mages that would otherwise be impossible to defeat for they have lived so long that their mana is just unmatched.
It reminds me of Warhammer and RPGs, in which it is usually the case that human necromancers are much more powerful than necromancers of other races, usually long lived, because we have this continuous sense of immediacy. We cannot stare at a wall for 10 years, we need to advance every day.
Yeah, this is what Frieren told Qual; humans can't waste time, and that 80 years of them is an eternity, hence the advancement in magic.
And that is a reason why Himmel never asked frieren out. Even the time in romantic would worth it but the pain remaining a elfes lifetime we never can rly comprehend did me just a clear decision
@@fjoergyn I agree. Himmel is one of the most emotionally intelligent characters I have seen in a while. I love him so much.
It's so cool that a little girl's dream came true.
Flamme is a great character too.
12:55 I love this moment, it's only for a second, but you can see both Frierens only putting up shields where her opponents staff is pointing, such precise control of magic.
It is so smooth...
This might be a bit off-topic, but I absolutely love Yorushika, who took over as the opening theme artist from the second cour. Their music is simple in sound yet features complex structures and catchy phrases that are just incredible.
Serie said that she teach Flame magic just on a whim.
But she can remember MANY details of her own human disciple, such as her dream and her favorite magic spell.
Such a Tsundere teacher ;p
Another great reaction! You're getting really close to 100K Subscribers here on YT. Exciting!!!
You have the eyes of a hawk I never noticed those two "friends" fighting in the background this episode, lol
The action in this series pops off so hard
Next episode is so damn good can’t wait to see your reaction.
13:48 ロメロスペシャル、すごい、今まで気が付かなかった！
What really illustrated to me how good this series is was when, having watched all episodes, I tried to decide what my favourite episode was. I couldn't - there were too many. What about my favourite character? No, too many! That's besides the beautiful art style, the stunning animation and the superb music. I have literally never watched anything which has affected me as much as this series.
The next episode is my favorite one (except for the Old Voll one), it made so clear how the magic system works on Frieren's world
Fern and Flamme are members of a very exclusive club - mortals who were the first treasured students of an immortal master. They are very different, but they have key similarities, just as their masters are very different, but echo each other.
In a way, Serie's Continential Magic Association is her answer to what Flamme asked of her a millenia before.
🥰 love your hair!!! ^.^
I hope some day we see Frieren going all out against a demon army!
I cried with Flamme taking Serie's hand and it been a parallel to Fern & Frieren.
these last few episodes are wild. Love the reaction video.
I love how this fight shows that when Frieren is fighting someone closer to her own level (in this case a literal clone of her), she breaks her rule of using only basic combat spells.
Hope you’re doing awesome today, Flexie🙂♥️
I love that when Frieren fought Denken, she only needed to use Zoltraak, yet when she fought herself here, she uses so many different spells.
The bond between sensei and student. Nothing greater in anime Believe it Dattebayo!
We need a spin-off of the Lawine-Kanne battle in the dungeon.
What this manga adaptation excels at the most is, BY FAR, the directing. It is immaculate. The pacing, cuts, flashbacks, and combat intertwined to friggin perfection. I love this show.
Keiichiro Saito made back to back modern classics off the bat. Easily the director I’m most excited for what he will do next after he’s done with his 2 main projects.
That was really cute watching you realise Flamme was her Fern.
"Oh No!"... And then the realization hits that Frieren will outlive Fern by hundreds of years.
I'm so excited for you to finish this season!!! Let's go!!! 😁😁
at 4:50 is when Frieren remembers what serie told her at the end of episode.
I forgot about that brief flashback thank you lol
Regarding Frieren not knowing about the Spiegel. Since its from the Mythical Era it predates her, and evidently the tomb it is in only started being explored pretty recently.
I hope season 2 will be available next year and now I'm focusing on reading the manga❤
Serie be like "I don't really care about Flamme, I just know her favorite magic. Also her favorite foods. Also her favorite bedtime stories. Also her allergies--"
I like Serie so much as a character...she's the biggest tsundere I've ever seen.
My favorite show, and I have watched >20 channels reactions to it because it felt so empty when the season ended. But I have never heard anyone mention the ED and what it implies (it is not any of the graves we have seen...). It is said that the OP is Himmel's POV to Frieren and the ED is Frieren's POV in reply, and so I think it is hinting that Frieren is very aware of the future where she will lose Fern like Serie lost Flamme - the difference being that Frieren is so much more attuned to her feelings now that she knows how devastating that loss will be. [Serie doesn't understand yet that she lost her "daughter" without ever telling her that she loved her, although she will someday and that makes the flashback of her remembering little Flamme so heartbreaking to me every time I see it.] My fear is that framing this story as Frieren's Journey to Aureole is a bit of sleight of hand by the author. As the next few years pass Firieren will come to be certain of what she now is beginning to suspect - that she does not want to outlive Fern (as no parent wants to outlive their child) and face the profound loss and emptiness that would follow. As you pointed out, we have started to see little outward flashes of joy from Frieren here and there, always showing how far she has come in being aware of and understanding her emotions (IMHO Serie is a deliberate insert to the story at this point to show the contrast between Frieren at the end of the Hero's Journey vs. Frieren now.) But other than Himmel's funeral, I can only think of 1 time when we see Frieren visbly upset: when Fern is giving her the silent treatment between the 1st and 2nd exams she grabs Stark's hand and desperately begs him to help. Already the idea of not talking to Fern for as much as a day is very upsetting to her. ...So I can easily see one last climactic battle with demons before they reach Ende where Frieren will choose to sacrifice herself to save Fern's life, so that instead of Frieren & Fern arriving at Aureole to meet Himmel, Heiter, Old Man Voll, and I'm sure a few other sad surprises (Eisen? Sein & Gorilla? one or more of the mages we have gotten to know during the exams?), the ending of Sousou no Frieren will instead be Fern arriving at Aureole to see Frieren one last time before Frieren goes off with the rest of the Hero's Party to search for new magic in Aureole and Fern & Stark return to normal life, [Spoiler Warning for anyone unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings] almost an oblique reference to epic sagas of the past like Sam going back to the Shire after Gandalf, Bilbo & Frodo leave Middle Earth at the end of LOTR). If anything could ever be sadder than the ending of Your Lie in April, it would be a goodbye between a mother and daughter (adoptive) when we have watched them both grow up since their literal and emotional infancy.
This show really excels in "show don't tell" that a character like Serie that's pretty much a walking contradiction makes sense and fits perfectly.
This is an awesome fight scene its so cool, also only (edit: 600) people till 100k and we start OP
Next episode is probably one of the best episodes
you know the party is strong when the healer got time to get drunk before a dungeon raid
"or a human mage" cuts out to Fern with one of the most epic music in the show. I always thought this show was a fantasy slice of life. But AURA moments are also crazy good
21:20 It's worldbuilding taken from / inspired by Dragon Quest. Demon society didn't exist prior to the demon king because demons were individualistic apex predators with innately strong magic so they had no need for things like companions. Unification through power / charisma leads to something like a demon society, formed as a response to human civilization advancing where previously mythical creatures did. The demon king recognized strength in numbers and thought the demon race needed an answer of its own unless they wanted to wait for their eventual demise (kinda like Serie's monologue in the past about how humans would need a thousand years to surpass the elves). Some of the worldbuilding and elements are different but you can see where the inspiration came from for demons and elves.
One of my headcanons is that when Series was reminiscing about the kid Flamme, she was actually manifesting the ghost of kid Flamme magically. Like showing Frieren that image that we see too.
Only fern can take advantage of frieren milisecond gap when casting spell. She is the only one who can cast that fast.
The way she casually told them if they all fought the clone together then most of them would die🤣 basically telling them if they ever tried to fight her she's going blitz them in an instant.
Frieren using anything but ordinary offensive magic. Props to the architects that 2 Frieren and a Fern can fight without collapsing the tomb.
The parallels from Serie and Flamme with Fern and Frieren are just amazing. Probably without Himmel and her journey with stark and fern, she would not answer to Serie how she did. Just spending Time with your beloved can change you so much.
While you read this comment, take the time with your friends value.
This Anime shows us our most precious thing we have. That's time.
Kanne and Lawine: Get a room, you guys. :D
Also: Apothecary Diaries is so good. You'll love it!
Yep. Fern and Flamme are mirrors through Frieren and Serie. I cant wait for us to learn more about Serie and Flamme's relationship.
Thank you for sharing 😊
One of the other reason that Fern and Frieren's magic is different is that during the century in which demons really attacked humanity, the humans were really scrambling to try and stop (or at least delay) their genocide. So almost all of humanity's high level magic was reverse-engineered from the demons (zoltraak being the best example). Now, in this time of peace, humanity has started to develop their own magic, but the lack of the motivation (more like desperation) that there was during the war against the demon means that combat mages are just less good, and humans are not as talented (or not experienced enough, they've only been doing magic seriously for 100 year) to create powerful new spells.
And this is somehow related to Serie looking for battle mages with experience gained in the war against DKs remaining army. We still don't know the reason behind this.
Human mages also transition from pure magic attack to imbuing objects as a weapon, i.e. physical attacks, because to overcome magical shields/barriers which seems to be human mages' specialty. Which also implies that, more human is fighting each other than they are fighting demons.
@@zam023 Absolutly yes, but it is also because mages are weaker now so they tend to have less mana, which mean that have to use strategies that are more sparing.
@@bobislav85 I think that it's connected to how she conceives magic (first and foremost as a weapon), so she sees only those that are excellent fighters as worthy of her teachings. But its true that there could be a deeper plan for that, we still don't really know why she chose to create the Continental Magic Association just now, after the death of the Demon King.
Actually for 1000 years since Flamme started teaching human mages.
12:55 - Yes, my favourite OST of the show is here!
This is the full version: ua-cam.com/video/0LOkjTzYNq4/v-deo.html
Season 2 was officially announced as "coming soon".
Unfortunately it was an image of Frieren who was saying "coming soon" and as Fern said, "what's 'soon'?". So who know when? 😛
You weren't thinking Fern would just go there and 1v1 Frieren right? She would die in like half a second 🤣
At this moment i'd say Fern seems like she's on the lower echelon of rank 1 mages.
That being said, that flashback is one of my favourite scenes, we get insight on Serie's relationship with Flamme, and we now know why she continental magic association was born only 50 years ago, she had to think about it for a thousand years, to find a way to grant her beloved pupil's wish but still only teach people with talent, in the end Serie seems like a softie too, just a bit harsh on the outside. She still treated Flamme like a daughter pretty much.
Teaching only talented mages is the correct approach in my opinion, mediocre mages would just get themselves killed by demons.
Also love how she just casually speaks about the dawn of human civilization like my mom talks about old TV Shows, so yeah, she's lived for quite some time 🤣
I'm from Brasil... i love your reactions...
Love!
Frieren: There isn't a dungeon that can't be conquered.
Ainz Ooal Gown: Yeah?
Another cool thing about this episode is to see Himmel's power.
He killed that dragon (?) in a single hit.
We always hear that the demons were very afraid of him, but this is the first time we see him showing his power off (his speed in that episode with the demon that kills a little girl can also be considered a small show of his strength).
13:50 I just realized after 1 year 😂
Apothecary diaries yesssssssssss that’s my second fave anime of that season with frieren being the first
I heard that this season took about 3 years to animate and if season 2 looks this good I can wait for it.
Despite refusing Flamme's last request and tearing up her will, Serie did ultimately honor her wishes.
It's just that, like she said to Frieren about how they as elves could afford to delay an important decision for centuries or even a millennium, she took 1,000 years to finally go back to that subject and come up with a way to grant Flamme's request while not compromising her values about how she'll only teach the most talented mages.
So she came up with the Continental Magic Association and the different classes of mages, and only First Class mages have direct access to her teachings.
You're right that Flamme was Serie's Fern, and she repeats that remark about how Flamme was only just a student she took on a whim the same way Frieren used to say that her quest to defeat the Demon King with Himmel and the others was some inconsequential "mere ten year adventure."
2:40 - about your theory, I agree totally. Frieren uses magic mad in time of war, so the shield is something that humans did with each other, but after the end of the demon king the ideia of unification got more dispersed and Magic became something that people would learn from their parents. Because of that, Magic would become more weak and unique, as the teachers not always would be masters or sometimes people would learn themselves trought books just like fern did before she meet frieren. But, as we saw in the test, still are capable mages, most living in nobel families, in the court or as peacekeepers fighting the last of the demon kings army that left.
Fern and Frieren uses a fast Pace type of Magic, that uses their concealed mana to make the enimy not know how many attacks they can do before the mana goes out. They can easly defeat mages of the present era because their magic is made to surpass the old shield, they use a lot of mana and have more rules, they fight fast paced fights, and frieren and fern can exploit that just by using a low cost mana skill that they used their entire lifetime to make It perfect. Its like the way fern Won that fight in the first test, she exponencially increase her attack output until a breakpoint when the girl couldnt defend.
I always interpreted the ED as Frieren and Himmel talking to each other.
17:47 Exactly! Well, more or less.
Frieren is still very young. When you're young, new things come easy to you. And she has an analytical mind. If Frieren can adjust to the pace of the humans, she will become a genius of magic like the world has never seen. Serie and her vast store of outdated spells will be left behind!
Oh, I see the mistake she thinks Fern is going to try to kill her 🤭 She’ll be “learn-on” a lot soon. 😂
Apparently Frieren not only collected folk spells😂
Speaking of holding off decisions. It's interesting how Serie eventually did create the magic association 50 years ago (from current timeline). Which was about 1000 years after Flamme's will suggested something similiar. So she actually considered it, and eventually made that organision (or maybe took it over?) to her suiting.
The dynamic with Serie really makes me think a core theme of this show is generational trauma. We dont know yet why Serie is so demanding with her view of how magic is special, but in any case she had those expectations of Flamme, who in turn ended up passing some of that to Frieren ("in the end all i could teach you was to fight - magic for revenge") but still did what she could to keep the spark of joy in magic alive for her with the flower spell. And finally Frieren helped Fern to recognize that she does truly love magic. even if the burden of using it to fight has not totally disappeared, it seems like Fern is having so much more opportunity to take joy in it which we'll see a bit more of soon.
theres also other characters we havent seen much of yet as of this episode which i think will reinforce this (others who have been trained by Serie and where ths dynamic really feels like they are children of a demanding parent who cant show them affection)
Atsuko Tanaka, Flamme's voice actress, passed away at the end of August. Rest in peace.
I think it's worth noting that Frieren basically declared herself to be the most experienced dungeoneer alive. She said the hero's party cleared the most dungeons of anyone in history, and she's the only living member of that party. Ironically though, despite her long life, she only started dungeoneering 80-ish years ago, and probably got most of that experience in just those 10 years.
(Of course, it's entirely possible that someone like Serie or Kraft has centuries of forgotten dungeoneering experience, but if they do, Frieren doesn't know about it, and neither do we.)
It can be tricky while reading the dub but you have to watch Serie's face when she talks to see what she means. She talks dismissively of Flamme while smiling fondly and remembering her as a small child.
Since Flamme says she "lost everything" to demons it may well have been her family to, so Serie may have raised her as well as taught her.
Love your content and your reactions! Can't wait to see your reaction to the next episode! If Frieren season 2 isn't out by the time you finish Apothecary Diaries, check out Girls und Panzer. It is such a fun show to watch with great characters. I would love to see your reactions to GUP. I have only seen guys react to the show so far. I would love to see a female point of view.
I would say the top 3 strongest mages of that group in terms of mana, experience and magic are: Frieren, the first class mage Sense and Denken. Other exceptional ones are: Wirbel, Fern, Übel, Methode and Land. But I wouldnt put them in the top 3
Best anime of this decade
a tiny detail that a lot of watchers missed in this episode: serie mentioned that flamme taught and created imperial mages, which means that the principles/techniques of magic that denken learned are at least somewhat loosely similar to Frieren's. it makes sense that he knows her so well and openly acknowledges her legendary status. To him, she probably represents what a peak imperial mage would look like in terms of magical prowess.
Denken is very unusual in that he is an Imperial Mage and a member of the Continental Magic Association, in the Empire lots more people use magic for small things and its much more common an inline with Flamme's vision
Seele's intellectual feud with Flamme reminded me of Dorian Gray's Preface: "We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely."
Serie is from Mystical Era
It's all about efficiency... can you imagine the quantities of mana those spells require? Sure Frieren has enough to spare but humans do not... using already existing materials is powerful. Even Frieren mentions that she can't imagine beating a water mage in the rain... and mages are about imagination, right?? Also, we haven't yet heard this but we should have to understand why Serie's gift is so amazing. Some spells require A LOT of time to learn... Serie creates grimoires specially tailored for particular mages so that they can learn them in an instant. Some of the best spells can take up to a century to learn... that's fine for old elves, not for humans.
As soon as I saw your shirt it made me think of 2 anime. Of course it is a colab with an anime clothing company. I looked it up and it is Sacred Treasure Curse Collection. Not really what I was thinking. It made me think of Golden Kamuy. Then I saw the frog looking think and it's not Golden Kamuy but Ranking of Kings. Not sure if the frog is suppose to be a dog or maybe it's a bit different then IIX.
I'd argue that elves don't even DECIDE to take it slow when they make decisions. Humans are impulsive because we don't have the time to be patient. Elves have no concept of time, so they aren't driven. It's not in their nature to be hasty because they have no concept of it.
And that's just a taste of what Himmel meant by "flashy spells"
Elves are basically expert procrastinators
Oh gosh!! At the moment im posting this you are at 99.1k subscribers 🎉soon 100k, how you feel? ❤
17:46 I never even considered that before...
11:00-> Me in evey flashback
It took me until now to recognize Killua's va
Just throwing a Mimic into the final hall would win the game.
Serie really cared about Flamme, but she just is so set in her emotionless state, like Frieren. But her recall, which I don't know if if was something that Frieren could see as well, was so telling. What a cliffhanger!
Serie is just so interesting, I still disagree with the common remarks of her being a "tsundere" because she's not, she's not pretending to hate it, or hides her feelings, she just doesn't know how to feel or react about it, she doesn't understand her emotions. Like imagine saying a millennium is nothing and suddenly experiencing a wave of emotions from a mere 60 or so years from a person you trained on a whim.
She specifically seems to struggle to put words to her feelings. She knows she's feeling something, she can nearly identify the vibe of it, but she cannot define it or describe it, and that's the wall which disconnects her from those feelings and from the people she has them for.
Without the words, she mischaracterizes them for herself, and she can't express her fondness to the objects of that fondness.
So Himmel's party cleared out most of the known dungeons, meaning mages no longer had to consider dungeon combat as part of their regular training regiment.
The thing about only the most bonkers anomaly elves being left (the ones we've seen, the ones who survived being targets) is that our image of their capabilities is very skewed. Like, sure, elves were all just limitless lumps of potential compared to the individually short lifespans of humans, but just like humans most elves were just presumably living really long and ordinary lives. Washing and chopping veggies for dinner type stuff.