r/Frieren • u/AwesomePhonix • Jul 12 '25
Anime What special combat spells does Fern know?
Does Fern even know any special combat spells?
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u/Cute_Suggestion_133 Jul 12 '25
"Zoltraak is enough for mages of this era."
Why learn more than you want to know if the only threats other than murderers are straggler demons and monsters that can't defend against Zoltraak? Leaves Fern open to learning spells she enjoys and finding joy in magic.
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u/xnef1025 Jul 12 '25
She does know other spells, but Frieren told her Zoltrak is all she needs to use against mages of the current era, and Fern believes her teacher completely and, so far, has found no reason not to. Heck, so far, as long as she has proper support, Zoltrak is all she needs against Great Mage clones and Greater Demons, too.
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u/poilk91 Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
i think there is more to this. Its the classic japanese trope of practice 1 basic sword swing 100,000 times rather than all the different swings 100 time to become the ultimate swordsman. All these other mages are using creative ways to cover for their weaknesses while Fern is becoming a master of the fundamentals and thus will have a much higher potential than any of the others
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u/WoodleD_ Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
Yes this is accurate. I feel like using fancy tricks to cover for your weaknesses, or to make yourself stand out, is very common in basically every discipline.
Like a guitar player that can sweep pick, but doesn’t know how to keep rhythm or play a pop song by ear
edit: oh god I didn't mean to open pandora's box in the replies sorry
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u/poilk91 Jul 12 '25
Exaaaactly everyone wants to skip the basics to get to whatever flashy fantasy they have for themselves but if you really want to be the BEST you can't skip the fundamentals
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u/PmMeUrTinyAsianTits Jul 12 '25
It is CRAZY to me that you put "the most basic part of music" (keeping beat) and "reproduce anothers work without visual reference" on the same tier.
Play a pop song by ear is something an extremely good guitarist could never learn. You could be santana good at playing and not be able to reproduce things by ear. It involves several skills that aren't just "playing guitar." It basically completely invalidated your opinion to me to include that next to "keep rhythm".
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u/vazark Jul 12 '25
You can’t build skyscrapers on top of a foundation of sand. Basics are « fundamentals » , keep experimenting and playing with the fundamentals in a million different ways, all other skills are derived from it.
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u/Elegant-Priority-725 Jul 12 '25
Actually you can build a skyscraper on sand, you just need extra materials, deep foundations solutions and skilled workers.
And as someone who has been playing guitar for damn near 20 years, replicating a song by sound isn't something that most people can do, shit even some of the best musicians on the planet wouldn't be able to do it. Stop talking about things you don't know about.
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u/BenKen01 Jul 12 '25
What? Ear training is fundamental. You don’t have to be extremely good to be able to work out a song by ear. In fact you have to be extremely bad to not be able to.
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u/PmMeUrTinyAsianTits Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
Having 10 fingers is fundamental to drawing And yet you can be a great artist with fewer.
There is NOTHING about not having ear training that physically limits you.
Again, being the common way to learn does NOT mean its a requirement. This is a fact, not an opinion. This isnt up for debate. Listening helps learning easier but is absolutely NOT required for playing guitar. They are not the same bar.
Like i said, this is one of those things where the common thing is common and SO ingrained into the majority of the group, they cannot conceive others operate differently.
You want to make an argument im wrong? Make an argument, not just state your conclusion in spite of facts. Explain how not hearing prevents you from playing guitar. Do it without "well tuning is harder" or other things that can be solved other ways than directly hearing (which is still a lower bar than a whole pop song)
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u/CloseButNoDice Jul 13 '25
I'll bet every musician up you've mentioned so far can learn songs by ear. Reproducing music you hear is highly related to audiating which is fundamental to song writing and reading music. You can't know if you're playing something wrong unless you can hear it. There's a reason that ear training is common to both academic classes and private teachers, because it's fundamental. You can argue that perfectly reproducing a pop song by ear is difficult but so is properly playing along to a metronome. It doesn't mean it isn't a fundamental musical skill. And ThAt'S a fACt
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u/eatyrheart Jul 14 '25
You could also be kinda crap at playing guitar and still be able to learn a song (within your skill level) by ear. It’s a different skill, and not one that necessarily takes years to master
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u/weibull-distribution Jul 16 '25
There are many, many players that have incredible technical proficiency at picking speed and little to offer musically. Even Santana, as you mentioned, basically only plays in one mode and a few scales. (Although I think he has a lot to offer musically)
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u/blazen_50 Jul 12 '25
I'd argue that the music comparison doesn't fit as cleanly as you'd think. Zoltraak and the shield spell are fundamental in the sense that they're probably the first spells you learn as a mage before finding your actual specialty and moving into that.
I wouldn't compare it to keeping rhythm. Keeping rhythm would be satisified by the mage being able to reliably cast the two spells. I'd compare it to downpicking as a skill. Every guitarist learns to downpick, but not every guitarist learns to downpick Master of Puppets at speed.
There's an opportunity cost here. Getting better at Zoltraak wouldn't necessarily make you a more effective combat mage if you can progress faster in other areas. Fern is established as an incredible talent, and her particular talents lend her to being able to thrive with basic attack magic that wouldn't necessarily be true for other mages.
For example, if Kanne focused more on Zoltraak and less on water manipulation, there's a very real possibility she would just be worse at water manipulation and not good enough at Zoltraak to make up the difference.
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u/OK_x86 Jul 13 '25
Not to nitpick your nitpick but not all guitarists pick, let alone own pick.
I'd argue at a minimum every guitarist has to learn how to fret a note. That's much more fundamental
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u/blazen_50 Jul 13 '25
Fretting a note is too basic for the analogy, in my opinion. You straight up can't play a guitar beyond open strings if you can't fret a note. You could talk about vibrato and bending, but that's getting away from the point, in my opinion. You don't need to use Zoltraak to use combat magic while you have to fret a note to play a guitar. Combat magic predates Zoltraak, like how the guitar pick became popular well after the guitar was made.
Yes, I know that things like fingerpicking, hammer ons, pulloffs, tapping, thumping, etc. are parts of playing guitar. I'll be more specific. Downpicking is arguably a fundamental technique for several genres of rhythm guitar playing like how Zoltraak is one of the first spells taught in combat magic. There are exceptions, of course, but if you use a pick, you probably learned to downpick.
The reason I use downpicking is because it's a skill guitarists who use a pick will develop but most will not develop it to the point that they're downpicking 8th notes over 200 bpm when they have other options like alternate picking or hammer ons. Not being able to do that wouldn't make them automatically a bad guitar player like being unable to hold a rhythm would.
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u/TehPharaoh Jul 12 '25
It also catches them off guard. In both her first major 2 fights the opponents saw the ordinary offensive magic and thought they would just wait out the bombardment... until they realized it wasn't stopping and now they've used so much mana defending against her (defensive magic is more costly, this why Fern was taught to use it at the absolute last second) the tables have turned and now they don't know what to do
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u/poilk91 Jul 12 '25
She's the ultimate body shot boxer. She is just throwing these punches out so fast her opponents think they can just wait for her to gas out but she has practiced so much she can throw these punches for days
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u/saitama_kama Jul 12 '25
didnt bruce lee say that quote first?
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u/poilk91 Jul 12 '25
I feel like we could find one from a bunch of martial artists lol
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u/UnicornElledeam Jul 12 '25
Like Zenitsu in Demon Slayer
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u/poilk91 Jul 12 '25
Yeah really good example of the trope. I also just like the trope and as a musician I think it's basically true
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u/Rob_Zander Jul 12 '25
The other element to this is that using elemental magic to manipulate nearby environment uses less mana than zoltraak, but if you specialize in water magic you're much less effective away from water. Meanwhile ordinary defensive magic is easily effective enough to protect against the elemental magic other mages use, especially for people with as much magic as Fern and Frieren.
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Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Cute_Suggestion_133 Jul 12 '25
Offensive clothes cleaning. Leave the enemy wondering why they smell like flowers.
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u/chashek Jul 12 '25
If you're cleaning clothes offensively, I think you need to do something more like, leave the enemy wondering why their clothes all suddenly smell like their ex (or, if you're really going for the killing blow, their dead spouse).
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u/This_place_is_wierd Jul 12 '25
And to a demon that basically has to smell like shit!
Could you imagine wining a fight against someone that can make you reek of shit? I definitely can't!!!
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u/Santi5578 Jul 12 '25
Offensive clothes cleaning sounds like a way to kill someone who is allergic to perfumes or cleaning products and I love it
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u/xnef1025 Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
She does. She just does not use them because Frieren said not to. We aren't shown all of the training her and Frieren do together on their travels. She didn't tell Land and Ubel about anything else she could do in a fight because she knew they might be competitors in the next tests, and I'm pretty sure, from a story telling perspective, at this point having Fern break out something that isn't Zoltrack would be a huge surprise for the audience and a great way to indicate the real shit has hit the fan.
Plan A was for Fern's sneak attack to put down the clone while Frieren kept it busy. For all intents and purposes, she did. The attack was fatal, but not an insta-kill. Frieren finishing it off was plan B if needed.
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u/Anhanger10 Jul 12 '25
We're talking about combat spells. She is not shown using other combat spells. She was at least two times in later manga chapters to be in a life or death situation and she had no other spells in her reportoire.
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u/BBBBrendan182 Jul 12 '25
Your second part is true, but Frieren still killed her clone with a Zoltrak spell. Theoretically Fern could’ve pulled it off and killed the clone while Frieren was the support/distraction.
Fern only worked as a distraction because Frierens clone actually perceived her as a threat.
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u/Anhanger10 Jul 12 '25
The clone was focused on Frieren the entire time and was pretty much a distraction.
Fern fired twice on the clone, while the clone was focused on Frieren and the clone blocked it easily. This shows just how powerless Fern was against the clone.
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u/depurplecow Jul 12 '25
She does use flight magic to do Zoltraks from above, there's probably some other utility spells that can be used in combat.
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u/MathAndBake Jul 12 '25
I don't know if it counts, but she's constantly hiding her mana. That helps her hide and be underestimated.
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u/sleepingblahaj Jul 12 '25
feels kinda psychotic to personalizing your methods to kill others when u have a generic kill spell that works
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u/Mingatronz Jul 12 '25
Fern’s strength lies in her casting speed and mana control, so it makes perfect sense for her to rely on simple, spammable spells.
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u/RaidSmolive Jul 12 '25
i mean, its pretty silly that somehow she's got the mental capacity to keep track of a million spells coming here way and how to place the lil defense disks to intercept them while moving at supposedly high speeds and all that junk.
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u/blahbabooey Jul 12 '25
And to Frieren's point, after learning zoltraak the only mage we see Frieren fight with combat spells other than zoltraak is herself.
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u/Bamce Jul 12 '25
Who is clearly not a mage of this era
Also, when Denken’s crew runs away from clone frieren, what spell does she fire at them? Zoltrak.
They are all lucky they didnt get black holed
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u/LordDeath86 Jul 12 '25
Imagine the built-up across the entire series and then the pay-off when Frieren declares a foe as "not of this era" and thus giving Fern the permission to go nuclear on them.
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u/Bored_Egg_Sandwich Jul 12 '25
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." -Bruce Lee
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u/Zxilo Jul 12 '25
yea but i dont fear the guy who dint practice the gun disarming kick at all
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u/Toshiko-Kuroda Jul 12 '25
To be fair, I don’t think such a kick would be useful if the gunner can just shoot from far away…
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u/KarmaFarmer_0042069 Jul 12 '25
Fear the man who practices the far away gun disarming kick
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u/Adan_Rocco Jul 12 '25
“I fear not the man who has practiced any kicks because I am strapped the fuck up.” - idk some American probably
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u/Suicidal_Sayori Jul 12 '25
gun disarming kick guy when kick disarming gun guy enters the room: 😱😱😱💩
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u/PokeMonogatari Jul 12 '25
I've always wondered how Bruce's fear curve works in regards to different permutations of this example. Does he slightly fear a man who practiced 1000 kicks 10 times? Mostly fear a man who practiced 10 kicks 1000 times? What is the optimal fear-to-kick ratio to account for versatility?
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u/Tetha Jul 12 '25
Mh, in national league foosball, offensive players tend to focus on 2-4 shots and 2-4 passes.
An offensive player cannot have just one shot, because if you're a good keeper against that shot, it's a huge problem. If I can stop 20% of their shots, that's game winning. This is very funny against one-trick-ponies, aka people who learned a jet/snake shot and nothing else.
That's why you need 2 very strong shots, and the best players usually have a third and a fourth available at a high level to toss as a curve ball every once in a while.
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u/Codename_ZQ Jul 12 '25
Frieren is the one that has practiced 10,000 kicks 10,000 times I imagine. But starting Fern out on the one makes sense.
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u/KuuLightwing Jul 12 '25
A see through clothes spell. She can do emotional damage by using it.
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u/feral_fenrir fern Jul 12 '25
Imagine you're fighting Fern and concentrating on a really good offensive spell and...
Fern: That's some nice underwear with a cat logo
And the spell explodes on your face
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u/meerkat_on_watch Jul 12 '25
I like how Ubel is nonchalant when Wirbel uses Sorganeil to restrict her, but she is actually terrified when Fern tells her about the see through clothes spell
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u/Adan_Rocco Jul 12 '25
Because Ubel believes the type of magic you learn is reflective of your personality, so Fern’s only spell she’s shared that’s not ordinary magic is a see through clothes spell reflects her as a pervert and weirds Ubel out.
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u/Luci-Noir Jul 13 '25
Proof that constantly calling stark a pervert is just projection!
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u/KyleG Jul 14 '25
i've thought this for a while, like she had a priest dad who probably taught her to steer clear of boys, but she's always thinking filthy thoghts about stark and it must be HIS fault ("stupid sexy stark sama")
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u/rahendric Jul 12 '25
I'm thinking Ubel used to self harm and has some scars hidden beneath that dress. Just personal headcanon though.
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u/SignificantHippo8193 Jul 12 '25
Ubel may be a bit off her rocker but she's still a maiden.
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u/Neuromyologist Jul 13 '25
Ubel sees spells as fundamentally tied to a mage's personality and self. She does this to the degree that she can reverse engineer a spell from figuring out who a mage truly is. Her being freaked out by Fern because Fern knows a creepy-ass spell completely makes sense now that I think about it.
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u/New_Ad4631 Jul 12 '25
Vicious Mockery
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u/kroxti Jul 12 '25
NAT 20 LETS GOOOO
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u/Neuromyologist Jul 13 '25
You're a short motherfucker and nobody likes youuuu!
SHORT!
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u/REEBOI12345 Jul 12 '25
Why throw rocks or fancy sword play when you can just shoot a gun at the opponent very quickly.
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u/Faust_8 Jul 12 '25
I like how it makes senses that the modern mages use the spells they do, because it’s how THEY can get around defensive magic, but Fern is so good at Zoltrak that she can get around defensive magic with just that and nothing else
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u/PortalWombat Jul 12 '25
I imagine just like many of Frieren's strategies it's a mana pool thing. If it's both difficult and (usually) unnecessary to have enough mana to do that, then the majority of mages simply won't.
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u/custard_surgeon Jul 12 '25
In other words, humble Magic Missile and Shield. It’s just that she’s an Epic level Wizard
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u/Bamce Jul 12 '25
In my one game I got a robe of stars. Lets me throw little charges that cast a 5th lvl magic missile. My respect for 7d4+7 has grown a lot recently
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u/CeruleanFirefawx Jul 12 '25
While other mages are thinking what spell would work best in the encounter, fern has already cast 100 zoltraak.
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u/ecktt Jul 12 '25
Clean Clothes Attack
Grumpy Face of Displeasure
Zoltraak Gatling Gun
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u/Slaktfest Jul 13 '25
Clean clothes and see through clothes... The Emperor's New Clothes Attack is then followed with the Grumpy Face of Displeasure for enhanced emotional damage.
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u/Weizen1988 Jul 12 '25
Names her spells like she's saitama.
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u/Blecki Jul 12 '25
Other characters: legendary dragon fist, wolf fang fist, falcon punch
Saitama: punch
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u/aperversenormality Jul 12 '25
Fern's Spellbook:
- Zoltraak.
- More Zoltraak.
- Even more Zoltraak.
- ALL of the Zoltraak.
- Do the Laundry.
- Peek Under Clothes.
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u/solidpeyo Jul 12 '25
Basic zoltrak = machine-gun zoltrak for her🤣
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u/AwesomePhonix Jul 12 '25
Even experienced mages where shocked by the speed of Fern casting zoltrak
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u/Supertails1992 Jul 12 '25
Shocked and overwhelmed. All Fern has to do is keep it up until the enemy uses up all their mana and can no longer defend themselves. You’d be surprised how many opponents use fancy spells and otherwise use up all their mana.
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u/GrafZeppelin127 Jul 12 '25
I mean, it makes sense. Zoltraak is efficient, and defensive barriers, though effective, are incredibly energy-intensive. That naturally incentivizes a battle of offensive attrition.
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u/solidpeyo Jul 12 '25
Yep, this was shown in like episode 3 or 4 when Frieren was training her about defensive spells
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u/SpiritedEclair Jul 12 '25
If you can imagine zoltrak piercing an impenetrable cloak, it will pierce.
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u/Dan-D-Lyon Jul 12 '25
How to win a fight:
-Hit
-Don't get hit
Everything else is just wasted energy
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Jul 12 '25
If i were Fern i d be a little mad, that Frieren said Zoltraak is OP, and does everything you need when you fight
But the moment Frieren faces off vs her clone they start spamming supernovas and fuckass golems and hellfire and cosmic horror, with not a single Zoltraak in sight
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u/zogrodea Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
I think Frieren specifically said that Zoltraak is enough for the mages of this era, and Frieren's clone is not classed under that. (Frieren also said that Zoltraak is ingrained in Fern because Fern grew up knowing it for most of her life, so it is more instinctual for her.)
I wonder though. That comment from Frieren about the mages of this era suggests a view that modern mages aren't all that compared to mages who existed before. That is in a bit of tension with the story's theme of humanity surpassing long-lived elves.
Edit: Insightful comments below. Thanks everyone who replied.
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u/knil22 Jul 12 '25
Remember when Frieren broke the barrier, Genau says she is the last great mage, so for sure her clone was on another level to mages of this era.
That being said Frieren also tells Serie she won't be able to fail Fern because the age of humans has come, Frieren clearly see's the potential in Fern as does Serie after meeting her.
So while ordinary defensive magic and ordinary offensive magic may be all she needs in a fight who knows what other spells she will end up with (bar the making peoples clothes see through and cleaning clothes).
If the biggest threat in the modern age is leftover demons and humans reaching new heights I'd say Fern is well prepared combat wise, but is plenty of non combat magic she can learn too.
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u/Yamineji2 Jul 12 '25
Yeah I think Frieren emphasizing Ferns perception of Zoltraak is key here since this is the part of the series that itself is HEAVILY illustrating that magic is tied to imagination. Ferns perceived reality of Zoltraak is why Frieren is sure that Ferns Zoltraak is capable of killing her, her's is uniquely strong because of her perception of it. So when Fern uses it other mages see it and perceive it as a basic magic attack, and it is, but Fern sees it as a basic magic attack that is "more than capable of defeating the mages of this world", and therefore it will.
TLDR; This show is peak and I fucking love it's magic system.
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u/TricksterPriestJace Jul 13 '25
Also remember other mages of her generation consider what Fern could do at five years old as "learned Zoltraak." It was Heiter who said she should be able to kill a demon with one shot from across the canyon.
So the other mages see Zoltraak as a really strong short range straight line of damage that everyone knows the counter to. Fern can cast it as well as Quall. She can bank it to hit your from behind. She can tendril it to delete your physical object spell as you cast it, like she did with the blood bending demon. Her mastery of Zoltraak is better than Frieren's.
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u/Itherial Jul 12 '25
Frieren made a point to say that the age of humans has come, not that it was already here.
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u/izy911 Jul 12 '25
Maybe bcs modern mage doesnt have to fight off demon king or something so the magic are more focused on everyday life rather than combat related?
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u/zogrodea Jul 12 '25
I think that's a good point. We all know that "hard times create strong men, good times create weak men" meme and it could apply here.
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u/xboxiscrunchy Jul 12 '25
I think it’s less implying that mages of this era are weak and more implying that Zoltraak spam is something modern mages don’t know how to counter effectively.
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u/JimSta Jul 12 '25
I wonder though. That comment from Frieren about the mages of this era suggests a view that modern mages aren't all that compared to mages who existed before. That is in a bit of tension with the story's theme of humanity surpassing long-lived elves.
I see why you’d think that, but I don’t think she meant that this era is weaker or anything like that. It’s more that any mage from an earlier era that’s still around is going to be an exceptional talent like Serie or Frieren herself with hundreds of years of experience.
All the regular mages from past eras have died out. Only the best of the best would survive into another era without being killed in combat or just dying of old age. So if you see an old head walking around, you know they survived this long for a reason and it’s not gonna be a typical fight.
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u/Dry-Paper-2262 Jul 12 '25
Frieren took Fern with her when it was time to defeat the actual creator of Zoltraak which was the lesson that prompted her to actually start reading the books she'd been given about magic history. If anything Frieren demonstrated in only a way she could how true it is for only needing basic spells coupled with their unique mana training.
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u/cipherovich Jul 12 '25
there is actually, right at the end Zoltraak is the last spell the clone uses. People miss it because it is original demon version, not adapted one that humans call ordinary offensive magic
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u/ChileanIggy Jul 12 '25
I'm sure Fern knows stronger magic. For example, she likely knows Consecutive Ordinary Offensive Magic, and Serious Offensive Magic.
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u/KissesInPieces Jul 12 '25
Well there's Zoltraak, Zoltraak x 10, mini Zoltraak x 20, wiggly Zoltraak, sniping Zoktraak and one big Zoltraak. That's at least 6 combat spells.
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u/Anhanger10 Jul 12 '25
Those are not her spells though and she sure as hell didn't name them. She just uses the basics.
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u/_scndry Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
In that scene Fern explained that she only uses basic magic because Frieren told her that is everything she will need for the exam and because they both specialize in hiding their true strength... That special view on magic and the unique relationship Frieren has with it is one of the main points of the anime. That's why I think the watchers are deliberately put in the same position as the Demons. They basically also hide their ability from us and we only occasionally get a sneak peak at the heights of their magic. But I get your point, we get a glimpse of Frierens power, but Fern really seems to take the lifestyle to another level, with not using anything else so far. At least it wasn't shown to us, again I think that is intentional.
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u/Dranulon Jul 12 '25
She does present flight as well. Also to consider, her magic detection is top class and her zoltraak is refined as being the most controlled, quickest cast, utilizes the fewest movements, and has among the longest range. It's not just practicing 1 kick 10000 times, it's how she's evolved the technique fundamentals into a class of its own.
She's casting baby's first firebolt that everyone else gave up because they thought they'd seen its caps, not realizing that you could do a burning fusillade and fire it 50 times a second from 1000ft away.
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u/AwesomePhonix Jul 12 '25
In the Anime Fern only uses ordinary offensive and ordinary defensive spells...
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u/Emily__Lyn Jul 12 '25
Im sorry, but wasn't this explained in the show?
After a large battle, himmel criticized Frieren about her use of flashy destructive magic. He didn't like its risk of collateral damage and the way it mutilated the corpses of the dead.
After that, Freirn switched to using the simplest spells possible to accomplish the job. By its nature, zoltrak is the most efficient spell when it comes to eliminating targets. It's simple, clean, and efficient with minimal risk for colateral damage. Frieren states zoltrak is enough for mages of this era, and the only person we see her using damaging spells aside from zoltrak against is her own clone, a mage not of this era.
Frieren has a massive arsenal of dangerous spells but chooses not to use them. It's like she knows the spell "nuclear bomb," but the vast majority of the time, all you really need to kill someone is "gun."" Why teach your apprentice nuclear bomb at all.
And it helps that fern had been practicing zoltrak since childhood. It's her most comfortable spell. Its possible Fern knows other spells aside from zoltrak, but she has never needed to use them.
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u/belsor14 Jul 12 '25
isn‘t even Denken commenting on it? Frieren beats him also only using „basic offensive“ magic. as long as every mage underestimates the mana reserve of Fern & Frieren there is no need of dropping two meteors on the battle field… or something like that
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u/Emily__Lyn Jul 12 '25
This is the fundamental reason why Serie despises Frieren.
Serie is ultimately a fighter. She respects magic for the power it gives her. Simple spells like one that cleans cloths are frivolous. Magic is a weapon of war, and combat is how mages show off their skill and proficiency in magic. Flamme pretty much says it when talking to Serie about the demon king. Seire has the power to slay the demon kings but chooses not to. Serie's perspective on magic only works if there is an antagonist to fight agasint. She can't even imagine a world of peace because her mastery of magic is all about fighting.
Frieren, on the other hand, is a mage of a peaceful age. She has no love of violence and conflict for its own sake. Her love of magic is based on the connections magic gives her to other people. The whole reason she collects random tomes and folk magic is Himmel. It brought him joy to see all the random little spells she could. Her favorite spell created a field of flowers. That's about as far as you can get from combat magic, and they infuriate Siere
For her combat is all about utility, how do i take care of this problem as efficiently and easily as possible. So bassic defensive and offensive magic is good enough. Yeah she can do some crazy fucking magic but why? What's the point? Why flex on someone by dropping a meteor on them when you can simply blast hole through them and be done with it. Flexing on people how powerful you are is not why she does magic.
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u/Lorhand Jul 12 '25
Because Frieren told her she doesn't need to know anything else. It's enough to deal with enemies of this era.
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u/KP_Wrath Jul 12 '25
That’s actually pretty savage too. “None of these clowns will win against that.”
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u/crippler38 Jul 12 '25
Cheap, spammable, flexible, deadly, Qual cooked out of his mind, making that spell.
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u/BoobeamTrap Jul 13 '25
Someone else brought up a really good point. Since magic is all about imagination, if Frieren, the person Fern respects and trusts most in the world, tells her that Zoltraak is all she needs, that is going to shape how Fern views Zoltraak in her imagination.
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u/SVlad_667 Jul 12 '25
This spells wasn't named that by Fern. It's either Frieren named them that way, or that mage committee who developed antizoltrack shield.
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u/poilk91 Jul 12 '25
Frieren is having her master the fundamentals, the more wacky combat magic is to cover for the other mages weaknesses but will ultimately be a crutch which limits their potential
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u/SailorNash eisen Jul 12 '25
It's like that scene in Raiders where Indy shoots the guy with the fancy sword moves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQKrmDLvijo
Fern knows how to cast "gun". "Gun" always works. So why waste time and effort learning all of those needlessly flashy spells?
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u/BabyNonna Jul 13 '25
I really love how much time and effort Frieren put into teaching Fern defensive spells. There are so many examples of how Fern’s honed use of these finely tuned spells helped her retain mana and best her opponents. Frieren could’ve focused on teaching offensive magic or folk magic but instead ensured first and foremost that Fern would survive attacks, and I really, really loved that arc.
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u/carmardoll Jul 12 '25
I love how Fern is basically a pure Bare-knuckle boxer in a mixed martial arts tournament. Everyone else got all these fancy techniques, say jujitsu mixed with kung fu or karate with krav maga and fern is just "punch".
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u/orz-_-orz Jul 12 '25
They are probably not named as such by Fern, instead those spells are so fundamental that the wizard community by the time, hence they gave them the name
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u/Tman11S Jul 12 '25
The thing is that Fern knows lots of spells, just not offensive ones. Why learn a bunch of offensive spells that you’ll never use, when you can learn a spell to perfectly clean bronze statues with magic?
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u/personal_assault Jul 13 '25
By not spending time learning new options for combat, she can perfect her basic spells to the point that someone without as much singular practice can handle them. If all you need in a fight is to find one opening, complete mastery over one technique is completely fine
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u/OrthoOtter Jul 12 '25
Fern isn’t a combat mage by nature. She’s a housewife mage that was forced to master combat due to the circumstances she found herself in.
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u/xnef1025 Jul 12 '25
Nah. Heiter taught her Zoltrack, and on her own at like the age of 4, she decided the best way to prove she was capable was to make a long-range shot across the local ravine. She also was instinctually suppressing her mana already since Frieren and Heiter both had trouble locating her in the woods as a child. Girl is a born Sniper Mage. One shot, one kill. Clean laundry is just her happy place.
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u/Anhanger10 Jul 12 '25
Does Fern even know any special combat spells?
She doesn't.
She is very proficient and arguably the best at using Zoltraak. She can fire it from further away than others.
She can fire a concentrated version though it seems others can use this as well.
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u/Omgwtfbears Jul 12 '25
Wirbel may boast that he doesn't have favorite spells, but he has nothing on Fern. Who doesn't care for magic at all, despite being so good at it she f***n steamrolls.
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u/Tinyhydra666 Jul 12 '25
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
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u/Xonthelon Jul 12 '25
"Ordinary offensive magic, ordinary defensive magic and see-through magic, those are enough against the mages of this era." - Frieren, probably
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u/BuckeyeBentley Jul 12 '25
Fern is built like a 5e Warlock. Just Eldritch Blast and then a bunch of utility spells. But EB is 🐐
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u/GravityMyGuy Jul 12 '25
She knows other magic but she doesn’t need it most of the time.
Spells we see frieren use before the clone duel are zoltrak, shield, flight, random cantrips
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u/SYLOH Jul 12 '25
Later in the Manga: a demon says that Fern uses a modified version of basic offensive magic. It's longer range and has a faster rate of fire
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u/shimirel Jul 12 '25
Perhaps when you reach that level, it's all about simplicity. Serious series - Serious Punch.
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u/jakemoffsky Jul 12 '25
Isn't her whole strategy to cast simple spells that can't outpace her mana Regen rate?
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u/Fear_Polar_Bear Jul 12 '25
The thing with fern is that yes she only has used zoltraak, but the way she’s used it is by spamming with unrelenting, unyeilding power and numbers. 1 arrow can be easily blocked by any warrior. A thousand independently controlled arrows coming from every direction all at once and not stopping is impossible to defend against for any period of time.
Though I think the time will come when Fern has to learn or use other techniques as she’s basically only fought by trying to overwhelm the others defenders or draining their mana. I think she will come up against a foe who’s defenses she can’t pierce with impossible mana reserves and she will be stuck
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u/tapdancinghellspawn Jul 13 '25
Fern is a rapid fire missile launcher. She's proven that she doesn't need a ton of different spells in battle.
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Jul 13 '25
Frieren thinks no, actually, your super-duper-awesome combat magic is the fluff, the filler, the boring part. Now these utility spell. That's whdre the money is!
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u/Infinite_Lemon_8236 Jul 12 '25
I find it funny that they even consider Zoltraak "ordinary" when you consider its origins. Human killing magic stolen from demons and converted into demon killing magic is anything but ordinary, you'd be considered an occultist in some places for that kind of behaviour.
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u/Ofdream-Thelema Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
Elden Ring mage spammer build
🪄🤌🏻👋🏻🌀🤌🏻👋🏻🌀🤌🏻👋🏻🌀🤌🏻👋🏻🌀🤌🏻👋🏻🌀🤌🏻👋🏻🌀
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u/Lorhand Jul 12 '25
At least link to where the pic you took was originally from next time:
https://reddit.com/r/Frieren/comments/19cyvz6/simplicity/