Sousou no Frieren - Ch. 128 - The Special Forces of Magic

[liliafaerie]

I really like Ubel. Her sense of self preservation and will to live is weak. How can you protect your lover if you are overwhelming succumbed by the fact your life feels meaningless? The crude way she talks, how trivial things are relative to her, jpw she's hard to adjust to. I think it's just me, that beyond her initial trauma (whatever that may be) she is ruthless towards random bystanders because she's that much of an outsider. She's weird, off, and kind of uncomfortable as a teammate. I feel like larger society in this setting looks at her distantly, yells at her for fighting impulsively, treat her like she's crazy without standing up to offer any empathy or sensitivity. And Ubel probably hates it all. Someone caring for you that deeply probably brought a lot of mental struggle, I wonder if she worries about getting hurt and refuses to extend the same sentiment.

 

[Keplite]

so now I wonder who is actually the strongest mage in this universe

unless the author wants to pull shit out of their ass, its Serie

 

[Rafalga]

I gotta say, the more the author dives into the behind the scenes politics of the empire, it make me wonder, why the god damn fuck would ANYONE stick their necks out to save it? Just let the demons take it. Fuck them.

Well, from the things we have shown so far, only reason demons not dealing with them is probably due to fear lol. Considering every character who had a direct confrontation with the empire got shit on and played with, including Frieren herself.

At this point, i beleve they didn't deal with the demon lord themselfs because they didn't give a fuck.

 

[Anthropie]

mana capacity wise and maybe accrued knowledge too Serie might be the top... but knowledge doesn't translate directly to battle experience tho.

Maybe in a battle of attrition she'll still win, but we'll hardly get to know the truth since I doubt she'll actually get shown to have a serious fight in the story

I still would say Serie cause it was said that Serie was a warmonger and that was this reason that she wasn't able to see herself vanquish the Demon King, cause she wasn't able to imagine a world in peace. So she seem to also have a lot of battle experience. I still think that everyone underestimate her.

(And the teasing of the Empire plan to kill Serie seem to be Warrior like attack more than Mage like attack, so even in underestimating her they still seem to think that none of their mage have a chance.)

 

[NotSomeone]

I still would say Serie cause it was said that Serie was a warmonger and that was this reason that she wasn't able to see herself vanquish the Demon King, cause she wasn't able to imagine a world in peace. So she seem to also have a lot of battle experience. I still think that everyone underestimate her.

(And the teasing of the Empire plan to kill Serie seem to be Warrior like attack more than Mage like attack, so even in underestimating her they still seem to think that none of their mage have a chance.)

Well, we all saw how fast was the assassin that was taking care of the village. And that guy was old and (probably) rusty.
That also makes me wonder how strong were Himmel and Eisen at their prime, would they be stronger or faster than these guys at all?

 

[aqdv25]

How isn't he making the First-Class mages sound lame? He says something on the lines "First-Class mages are the strongest in the Empire" only to retract that saying they are a poor match against other mages, how can First-Class mages be the strongest mages, but there are mages out there better than them? It doesn't make sense. Except I do might have to draw back the "sound lame" which was too harsh, still doesn't change my mind the writing here from the author was quite poor.


That was my point in "oh Special Forces are too strong for newly First-Class mages as us"

Land literally mentions, CMA's 1st Class mages maybe the best in the continent as mages but again only as mages. It has always been mentioned that battles in this world does not always rely on pure power as mages but also sometimes can be a rock paper scissor match. Examples would be when Frieren was facing Aura, Frieren mentioned if Aura had not gotten cocky and worn Frieren down physically using her undead there was a chance Frieren would have been defeated or the earlier Shadow Assassin, where he nearly killed Frieren. Only reason the assassin let Frieren go was because his life was now more important than the mission. Meaning Frieren has a weakness against strong Physical Fighters like warriors. Any way the point is a bad matchup can and will kill even a more powerful mage.

Which goes back to Land's point, CMA has the better mages on more criterias like discovering new magic, inventing new magic, researching magic, creating magical artifacts so on and so forth. Magic is NOT always battles. Especially they are now in an era of peace. Hence Land's statement CMA has better mages but the Empire has better Anti-Mages Mages can BOTH be true. Especially that the Empire deals with demons(which are inherently superior mages) more constantly compared to any country or organization out there. It makes sense that the Empire Special Forces Mages can fight against 1st class mages.

Lastly it would be more bad writing if the Empire was actually weaker because remember the Empire has fought the demons at the frontlines in the north for more than 1000years there were even times when they were able to push the demons back and gain territory against them! Then remembering the power levels of the demons alive back then like the 7 Sages or Qual, the Empire achieving these feats warrants them to actually have mages that are competent, strong, and on par with the CMA 1st class mages.

Hence its not poor writing, its actually consistent and proper according to the lore if you just spend a minute to actually think about it and stop whining whenever some of the main characters get defeated.

 

[WesRT]

I wonder if the shipping online influenced the author in giving these two this kind of relationship 🤔

 

[Ignore]

Well, we all saw how fast was the assassin that was taking care of the village. And that guy was old and (probably) rusty.
That also makes me wonder how strong were Himmel and Eisen at their prime, would they be stronger or faster than these guys at all?

The Shadow Warrior couldn't easily dispatch two sleep deprived elite mages with the advantage of terrain, Himmel fended off Solitar and chopped up one of the Seven Sages of Destruction while trapped in an illusion and needing to protect two immobile party members.

This manga seems pretty statistically sound. People with the potential for acheivements rivalling members Hero's party have been born in era of peace (Lernen, Denken, Fern, Stark) and were being born before Himmel's time (anyone who perished in combat with the Demon King had to carve their way through his army, and Himmel mentioned knowing of dozens who got that far). People with less talent and/or lots of training can wtill accomplish superhuman feats in battle, but will perish when faced with the same enemies someone at the level of a Hero could beat or escape from (First/Second Class mages, Stark's warrior village, the noble family with a kid who looked like Stark, the old Shadow Warrior)
Will the Empire have at least one or two people of 'Hero' caliber? It would be stranger if they didn't. Will they have dozens of assassins as strong as Himmel? We've already seen they do not.

 

[Princessmaker]

Frieren has been shit for a long time, but a fucking no one getting two 'first class' jobbers out without any difficulty is even worse than I though.

 

[1idd0kun]

I gotta say, the more the author dives into the behind the scenes politics of the empire, it make me wonder, why the god damn fuck would ANYONE stick their necks out to save it? Just let the demons take it. Fuck them. Let these glowing bastards fight them if they are so powerful.

If I was Frieren, I would just take myself and my crew to an island, use magic to produce everything I need, and just live the rest of my days there and just lay back as this empire just rips itself apart from its intense hatred and fear of its own citizens.

The Empire doesn't govern the whole continent. They only rule the north. There are other kingdoms. The king that sent Himmel's party to slay the demon king was a king of the central lands.

 

[rluka]

(And the teasing of the Empire plan to kill Serie seem to be Warrior like attack more than Mage like attack, so even in underestimating her they still seem to think that none of their mage have a chance.)

Black ops kind of thing seems more likely.

These not-so-secret police works to suppress problems, and instil fear to the people.
But if they plan on having a nobody expect the imperial magic FBI break into the party, there’s no need for that much secrecy.

 

[EFMD]

Land is one lucky bastard. He is slowly fixing her! Damnit!

 

[esker]

It's impressive how much I don't give a fuck about these characters. Back to Frieren and co. please.

 

[NEOO_]

the author really does have a lack of creativity,
almost all the attacks relate to the same thing with telekinisis or just shooting mana bolts and when he thinks of something new he just reuses it over and over.

why does ubel only have 2 spells?
are you implying author that she only emphaized with 2 people in her life? perhaps even 1? this doesn't fucking make sense!
is this like hunter x hunter's skill hunter ability where the user has to be alive?

 

[NEOO_]

also why didn't land just create multiple clones in advance and send them super close while his real body is super far like in the exams

 

[noobtube2]

it's so nice when a manga has interesting enough side characters that when they have chapters based around them it's enjoyable and not a slog.

 

[nhansieu1]

yes. Or else every single series is SoL.

Every series skips the trivial matters like eating, shitting, sleeping, etc... straight to building plots.

 

[1idd0kun]

the author really does have a lack of creativity,
almost all the attacks relate to the same thing with telekinisis or just shooting mana bolts and when he thinks of something new he just reuses it over and over.

why does ubel only have 2 spells?
are you implying author that she only emphaized with 2 people in her life? perhaps even 1? this doesn't fucking make sense!
is this like hunter x hunter's skill hunter ability where the user has to be alive?

Empathizing with other people is not easy, especially if you are someone like Ubel who has little appreciation for life.

Empathy is not just about understanding other people's feelings. It's about being able to put yourself in their shoes and feel what they feel. If you can't do that, you're not empathizing.

 

[NEOO_]

Empathizing with other people is not easy, especially if you are someone like Ubel who has little appreciation for life.

Empathy is not just about understanding other people's feelings. It's about being able to put yourself in their shoes and feel what they feel. If you can't do that, you're not empathizing.

thats incorrect, empathy is not sympathy,
psychopaths can empathise very well, thats the entire reason why they are master manipulators if they tried.
people don't understand what that even means, in fact i reckon its a mistranslation since ubels term for it is completely different.
to feel empathy is to understand the motive and reasoning behind some ones actions, motives, situations or feelings, but not the actual "sympathy" for their actions and feelings .
empathy and sympathy gets mixed up way to often.

a psychopath knows why a person would feel sad, they just don't care.
psyhopaths aren't idiots they understand why some one would feel sad if their family was killed for example but they would still do it because they simply don't care or see more benefit to themselves, they run on pure logic. certain stupid people or animals literally can't comprehend why some one who could think that way look up "the breakfast question".


also anti social personality disorder IS NOT PSYCHOPATHY just to be clear, its more sociopathy. not psychopathy which is completel ydifferent. its like how Asperger's was mixed into the autism spectrum despite having almost no relationship all due to lack of funding and politics,
an old autistic person classified before the merge would have no relation or similar symptoms to some one with Asperger's. for example true autism has more to do with down syndrome or ocd or bipolar manic depression than aspergers since it is determined based on an EXTRA chromosome duplicate

 

[1idd0kun]

to feel empathy is to understand the motive and reasoning behind some ones actions, motives, situations or feelings

That's cognitive empathy, which is to rationally understand the emotions of others, like a psychologist who understands the emotions of the client in a rational way. But Ubel has been stated multiple times to be emotionally-driven rather than rationally-driven, therefore the empathy that she needs to copy others' magic is most likely affective empathy. Affective empathy is the ability to share the emotions of others, to feel what they feel. For example, people who feel others’ pain strongly within themselves when seeing others scared or in pain. This isn't sympathy, which is simply to feel sorry for others. It's empathy because you're sharing into their feelings.

For example, when you watch a scary movie. If you simply feel bad for the characters who are going through scary situations in the movie, that's sympathy, but if you get scared along with them, as if you were the one going through those scary situations, that's empathy.

The fact Ubel still can't copy Land's clone magic kinda proves my point. Ubel knows that Land has a strong appreciation for life. She knows this and understands where he's coming from, but she can't share those feelings. She can't feel that same way. And that's why she can't copy his magic. And I get the feeling she won't be able to copy his magic until she gains an appreciation for her own life. That seems to be where the story is going, considering the dialog between those two at the end of chapter 128, in which Land berates Ubel for not caring about her own life.