I finally watched this

Fern, having been trained on the purest form of magic via Frieren's autism, was able to defeat anyone she went toe to toe with

Except she got clowned by Methode.

Why people want to be versatile, and learn many skills? Can't they just fix all problems with hammer?

Plus you ignore the fact, that Frieren and Fern also know shitton of spells, but they have few they specialize in.

Frieren and Fern also know shitton of spells

Frieren does, Fern does not (at least it terms of combat spells).

The big point of the exam arc is to divorce what we have seen of Frieren and Fern from other mages. Up until now, for lack of other examples we were forced to assume that how Fern was taught was emblematic of how mages in this setting were taught. The exam arc revealed that this as very much not true.

Put most simply, the other mages we see in the exam were *taught to be good at magic*. Their knowledge of magic is extensive. Their understanding of the craft is high. They were taught options and strategy and the rock paper scissors of different magical options against each other.

Fern was not taught to be good at magic. Fern was taught to *win fights*. She withholds key information from her opponent to bait them into underestimating her supply of mana. She only uses two spells: attack and protect, and she has cast those spells over and over again since she was a child to the point that they are second nature to her. Fern is the embodiment of "I'm not afraid of a man who knows 10,000 techniques, I am afraid of a man who has practiced 1 technique 10,000 times". Fern can be so much faster casting spells than her opponents BECAUSE she doesn't have to think about it. She doesn't have to weigh her options in the heat of the moment to try and figure out what the best spell is for this exact situation on paper. She never has to reach for an unfamiliar spell that offers some incremental advantage. She sees the target and she's already casting Zoltraak before she even knows what it is yet, and with the effortless ease of someone who has cast this spell every day since she was 8.

Fern is really only in trouble against an enemy where zoltraak + shield can't win. Because she has no other options. But as long as her enemy is someone whose defenses can be overwhelmed with enough zoltraak spam, it doesn't matter if another spell would erode their defenses *faster* per spell if Fern can dump out 5 casts of Zoltraak in the same time.

where zoltraak + shield can't win

Seeing how anyone can use basic defensive magic, she could be in trouble with many mages if they were to not underestimate her.

Correct. Fern is very strong in a 1v1 because as long as she keeps spamming fast attacks she can force her target to burn through more mana defending than she spends attacking. Like how she stunlocked Ehre until her defenses gave out and she lost. Ehre made tactical mistakes like not realizing that Fern's mana wasn't going down even though she should be spending it, but really Fern's assault would have been very effective even if Ehre wasn't wasting mana flying for the incremental advantage of maximizing the spread of her rock spray spell.

But you'll notice that Fern's tactic quickly falls apart the moment she is outnumbered. She can't maintain that level of suppressive fire on multiple targets at once. She can make them defend, but she won't be able to force them to drain their mana fast enough to force a defeat quickly. So while her tactic is strong in some circumstances, it is weak in others.

Because in shounen manga every character has to use a single unique skill in order to stand out even if it doesn't make a lot of sense for them to do so.

Not really, she can outlast most mages due to her superior mana capacity, even mages known to have a lot of mana, such as Ehre, simply because it cost a lot more to defend than to attack.
Once Fern turns on the faucet, weathering the attack is not an option, even a demon not using shield magic to protect himself were overwhelmed.

Fern's strengths lie in mana control and magic sense. Her preferred tactic of going invisible and hitting her opponent outside of their sensory range with a highly accurate and powerful zoltarak is beyond what most opponents can handle. However, she is weak in a close range fight where is is on her own, but that is true for most mages.

Then there is the whole "height of magic" which is probably what Frieren is guiding her towards, and probably what got Serie all hot and bothered. Something to do with how she experiences mana, related to her having grown up suppressing her own mana. Fern immediately recognized Frieren's trump card as the "height of magic", something she was only able to deduce due to Heiter and Frieren's efforts.
My best guess, Fern will view mana as an extension of her own body, being able to produce effects at her own whims. Creating new spells as she does whatever, that is her potential and what Serie knows is possible with magic. A synthesis of folk magic, elf magic and demon magic, of understanding of human and elf magic with the intuitive natural understanding of demons. Magic of the goddess etc etc.

I have a similar theory, but with a slightly different underpinning: rather than it being a funky fusion of folk magic and elf magic and demon magic, the "height of magic" that Frieren practices is essentially magical superconductivity.
Mages can sense when another mage casts a spell, which reveals their position. Why? Because when a spell is cast, mana is expended. Some amount of mana is released, expended as part of the spell. Like gunpowder burning and leaving smoke behind after the bullet is fired, or electrical wires radiating heat from the power running through them. Entropy at work.
But what do Frieren and Fern and Serie all practice? Hiding your mana. Restricting it. Containing it. Making your mana invisible to others to deceive them. What if you could apply this same principal not just to your mana reserve, but to your mana in the air? To a spell in motion?
You would, by all appearances, be casting *invisible magic*. Stealth wizardry. A magical effect happens, but with no indication of mana being used in defiance of all of the magical senses of the target. It requires a complete and total mastery of the mana in the spell such that you eliminate all of the entropy in the casting, but the target gets no warning of the attack and can't even perceive the spell while it is active and thus is powerless to fight back because their brain keeps telling them that no magic is happening to fight back against.

the elves are cultivating a new goddess for the humans out of fern

Mothode is the apex predator of girls.

Ehre is is not some mana powerhouse. Fern has probably more mana than most of her peers in the same age group but she would probably be outclassed by some a decade older.

Not all mages are weak at close range as Ubel, Wirbel or Sense show. Fern is indeed weak if she can't play her hide + Zoltraak combo. In her defense that works a lot of the times, but when it fails she gets hard countered.

Then there is the whole "height of magic" which is probably what Frieren is guiding her towards

This pargraph reads like Tumblr-tier fan-fiction. It's absolute nonsense.
What Fern saw was magic on a level she had not seen before. She got her shit pushed in and you're making it sound like "woah, look how clever she is".
She did not detect that attack as a spell. Any decently skilled mage in her position would have been able to do the same, just like they saw Frieren's "fatal flaw" when Fern brought it up (since she knew Frieren so well).

The manga is way ahead of the anime and there is nothing remotely close to what you're imaging.

The height of magic is something she was able to cast as a kid, when Flamme met her. That means it preceeds any mana supression that she learned from Flamme.

We don't know that, though. We know that she killed that demon general *somehow*, but not what spell she used to do it.
The fact that there is a massive trench in the ground actually indicates that its probably not the same spell used against Fern, because that didn't cause that kind of collateral damage. It might have been a earlier version of the same kind of attack, but its not the same thing as the height of magic as we see demonstrated.

the elves are turning Fern into a fat fuck

We know. She was barely able to fit in her clothes in the latest chapter.

Is just some cheap copy of the Hunter x Hunter power system where your powers are tied to your "personality" but this one is so badly made that it literally doesn't matter, Frieren gotta have the worst magic system of all time.

Ofc we don't know since we haen't seen it but it's absolutely being hinted at. The show often puts all the pices in there and trusts the audience can put them together (like the sour grapes spell).
The fact that it's a trench is because that general was built like a tank and was not flying like Fern.

Dude, no. I get that you are obsessed with HxH but this has fucking nothing in common with it.

your powers are tied to your "personality"

They're not though. Have you seen it or did you just watch Tik Tok clips?

He's going to try and claim that Ubel is an example of this, showing that he both doesn't understand Frieren's magic system and doesn't understand what makes Ubel work.

Ehre is an impressive mage, in case you failed to notice, Wibel, a 1st class mage considered her the strongest out of their based on their mana.

Mages are generally considered weak at close range, some mages are better than others up close, but as a rule they are easy pickings for a warrior up close. Fern is weak against a high caliber warrior up close, but so are most mages. That was my point.

Also, bold of you to assume I am animeonly. I used examples from when the concept was introduced. The height of magic has not been mentioned again, but it ties into what magic is able to do, which in turn ties into Serie and Fern as Frierens disciple.
Fern is being raised by Frieren as a mage of the future. We have seen enough talk in the series of how it is now humanity's turn, or that magic now belongs to humans etc. Whenever this topic is brought up, it then points to Fern.
I get that your mind demons convinced you that I am simping for Fern or whatever, but that just you being a retard. The series is clearly setting Fern up as the natural evolution of magic as envisioned by Flamme.

It wouldn't surprise me, I've seen some retarded posts with people saying she can cast any spell because she could simply imagine it.

Wibel, a 1st class mage considered her the strongest out of their based on their mana.

Its worth pointing out that he obviously made this assessment based on Fern and Frieren restricting their mana and thus not knowing their true power. Its entirely possible that Fern has flat-out more mana that Ehre does. Frieren unambiguously does, but Fern might as well.

Wirbel said Ehre could have defeated Fern since she has more mana. He did not say she was the strongest and Ehre herself said that when it comes to combat WIrbel is the strongest due to his experience fighint in the northern lands.

Whenever this topic is brought up, it then points to Fern.

No it doesn't. It points to humanity as a whole. Serie explicitely mentions the newer generation of mages, not focused on power, that have surprised her - Ubel, Land, Serie and Fern.

The series is clearly setting Fern up as the natural evolution of magic as envisioned by Flamme.

Fern fags are truly delusional. There's nothing suggesting that. Fern is just another first class mage, and not even the strongest.
Flamme had a burning passion and drive which made her unleash magic to humanity.
Frieren for all her lazyness is incredibly passionate about magic and has shown incredible feats such as dispelling powerful mafic and curses.
Fern has zero drive or passion. The only thing she evolved was firing Zoltrak from further away. This is the most basic shit, all the mages improve the spells they specialize in just like every person with a job or hobby get better at it.

We have never seen Fern not suppressing her mana...However, we do have one gauge of her mana.
Back when the chaos flower cursed them to fall asleep, it seemed that ones mana level dictated how long you stayed awake (unless you're a priest, who is just immune)
Fern stayed awake almost to the point where they found the flower, unlike Stark who fell asleep almost immediately. From dusk well into the night. Frieren fell asleep not long after.

Fern's full magic might be shockingly close to Frierens, perhaps as close as half her max mana.

Fern's full magic might be shockingly close to Frierens, perhaps as close as half her max mana.

We know Frieren had a lot of mana when Flamme met her s thousand years ago and called her strong. We know she's been training to supress and increase the base mana for the next 1000 years.
We know mana increase in proportion with age and the ammount of time spent training.
If you think Fern is anywhere close to Frieren
Fern's mana is probably a 10th of Frieren's if not less.

You could only eat bread & drink water everyday, you would survive.

Nuh uh

Whatever fag, you've encased yourself in your belief that I am a Fern Stan and won't see reason. I don't care much for Fern, I'm a Frieren Stan, fern is a fat child. That does not mean I am blind to the blatant Fern shilling the series does.

Fern is being set up as the next evolution in magic, as if you should need any more convincing that Serie creaming her toga over her anyway. When it is being pushed in our faces as Fern stops suppressing her mana and does some never before seen magic shit while Frieren goes "fufufu keikakudori" I probably won't even remember your seething, so I will say I told you so now.

This.
What I find strange though, is that Frieren's utilitarian approach towards magic somewhat conflicts with her love of useless spells and even puts her at odds with Serie.
Or is it just her approach towards killing magic - no need to practice glorified rock throwing when Zoltraak kills demons just as well?

Based on her going around suppressed without anyone commenting on how little mana she has? Yes.
When Heiter met Frieren he said she had a fifth of her mana, which was pretty impressive. (as much as a seasoned old mage)
Which meant that Heiter at that age already had half of Frierens max mana as she suppresses it to 1/10.
What's weird with Heiter's adopted daughter and protegee of Frieren having as much mana as Heiter did when he was young?

When Heither met Frieren she was supressing her mana.
Frieren is not supressing it fo 1/10th. She was doing hat when she started a millenia ago. We see her supressed mana with Aura we can see she is supressing it to way less than 1/10th, more like 1/100.

Fern is 20years old. She is not even remotely in the same league as Frieren.
Flamme who was an absolute beast and arguably the strongest human still had much smaller mana that Frieren, and Flamme was noticeably older than Fern and also vastly more powerful.

If the series ever did blatant shilling for Fern it did so in season 1. In the following ones while she grows, she is still what she was from the start: a stronger than her age group but still within the same ballpark mage. We will see her get humbled by a demon sidekick. All she does in the manga's subsequent chapters is fire zoltrak fast, fire zoltrak from far away, and that's about it.

1/100

You just pulled that number out of your ass and it has no basis in anything. We are told that Frieren suppresses it to 1/10 and have no information suggesting she ever suppressed it more than that.
Frieren does not operate on dragon ball power levels, having ten times the mana of a seasoned old mage is consistent with what we see in the show.

Heiter is the priest in the party of heroes, canonical number put his mana at half of frierens Max, which is reasonable. Your numbers put Frieren at x20 of Heiter, the guy who had the mana to keep a high level spell active for months. You're being silly.

Frieren's approach to combat magic is indeed utilitarian, even moreso with Fern, but her true passion is the pursuit of magic, like she told Denken.

She literally qualified to be a 1st class mage by virtue of her having the ability to do something that the best class 1 mage were unable to do, even though it is something he is clearly good at doing.
Not sure if you think Fern will stay unremarkable or not, but the story is going to go down the path of Fern popping off and Stark being revealed to be the true hero of prophecy regardless.

You just pulled that number out of your ass and it has no basis in anything.

Absolutely not. it's based on what is shown in the anime.
See pic related and compare the surface area.

We are told that Frieren suppresses it to 1/10 and have no information suggesting she ever suppressed it more than that.

We were told that a THOUSAND years ago.
She has been training and leveling up ever since.

Heiter is the priest in the party of heroes, canonical number put his mana at half of frierens Max, which is reasonable. Your numbers put Frieren at x20 of Heiter, the guy who had the mana to keep a high level spell active for months. You're being silly.

But mana is not the only thing that matters and Frieren said so herself. We don't know how goddess magic works. For all we know casting it takes less mana.
Heiter was beast, I'm not downplaying him.
I am simply disproving the "she is supressing her mana to one tenth" and then the other comment suggesting Fern is anywhere close to Frieren's mana level which is one of the dumbest things I've read.

But the best first class mage did not train to supress his mana for most of his life, like Fern was taught by Frieren.
Secondly, Heiter was able to notice Frieren's fluctuations after travelling with her for so long. Fern likely did the same.
Lernen had no such privilege (travelling, eating, sleeping, living all her time with a mana supressing elf no matter how much he would have liked it.)
Fern is remarkable and has a lot of potential, but she is not some out of this world mage. She is simply better than most her age.

I guess that's it.
She loves magic but is not particularly fond of "useful" combat magic.
Serie and the association mages (maybe with the exception of Sense) are all aboit "how can this be used to win in combat", but Frieren cares about magic itself.
Fern on the other hand only seems to care for sweets - she doesn't seem to get excited easily about anything else...

fern and frieren spam zoltrak because they're so talented and have so much mana that they only need zoltraak
other pleb mages need fancy spells to be able to compete

I like this theory a lot. It does look like she threw fern across the room using nothing but her mind lol