Serie is a true fanatic for magic. She loves seeing mages reach their full potential. Nothing excites her like seeing a genius pushing the very limits of what magic is capable of. That's why she doesn't like taking human apprentices - not because she inherently dislikes them or thinks they are inferior in talent, but because magic takes so long to master that they die on the cusp of greatness, but never quite reaching the pinnacle. When she says "disappointing" she doesn't mean that her apprentices disappoint her, she means that it is disappointing to see them die to old age or natural causes before they can take that last step to the peak. Now imagine how much lower the chance is for a mage to reach that pinnacle if they have the short lifespan of a human AND aren't supremely talented. She spends so much time, care and attention to teach them only to see them fall before it can all pay off for either of them and I guess that discouraged her to the point where she's trying to tell herself she didn't care to begin with. That she's just teaching them on a whim. She's bullying Frieren because she's a genius but "wasted" the majority of her time training to suppress her mana to trick demons instead of pushing the boundaries of magic and becoming the prodigy she knew Frieren could be. Kind of like that grandma that keeps telling you to pursue your dreams instead of wasting your time in an office job.

Well said. Fern is very talented and skilled. The mere fact that she was able to force Frieren's replica to resort to that last trick, which made lowered her defenses speaks volumes about Fern's abilities as a mage. I definitely think Fern has the potential to surpass Frieren (now rather she does it or not is another story) and loved her moment here.

Well we know where all the budget for fights went, Beautiful Sakuga. The entire fight between the two Frieren's she didn't use her ace until after Fern took her arms, so Frieren is definitely still pulling her punches. Would love to see a extended fight against a opponent requiring ALL her strength. Also a big thing we learn here is that while the staff is important Frieren's double casted without a focusing conduit. How big does it need to be and is there a detriment to not using one or could you get by with more freedom of movement by having a smaller wand rather than a full staff.

Seiren dont want magic to special because few people have it, but because only talented people have it. If we have a bunch of talente people, so be it, we have a bunch of people with magic. I think this is a great lesson for today, when, in school we have to learn a lot of crap that we will never use and a bunch of things we should learn are left out. Ps.: remember, Frieren is a mage of peace and Seiren is a mage of War, that is a important thing people forget when analizing the mage test 😉

When Fern said "This is the Height of Magic" when Frieren used an attack she couldnt understand or see she ment it. Thats basically top tier magic that frieren only had to use aginst the demon king, so frieren using it aginst Fern is a HUGE point to how strong Fern is. Fern is as powerful as the Demon King is what your supposed to take from that. She still has room to grow but she has the power to support her. But its also noting that Fern has more to learn still, that there is magic beyond her understanding and knowledge still.