She’s actually the strongest character in the series at the moment.
Summary:
- Serie is one of the most enigmatic characters in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.
- She’s strongly hinted to be much older and much stronger than Frieren.
- She doesn’t pass Frieren in the exam because she thinks Frieren doesn’t want to improve herself.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Sousou no Frieren) isn’t lacking in interesting characters. One of the more enigmatic figures in the anime and manga is Serie — an exceptionally old elf mage whose backstory ties directly into Frieren’s own. So, who is she and how is she relevant to the plot?
Probably the oldest — and strongest — character we’ve seen so far
Despite being someone who just sits there with a smug face most of the time, Series is actually a very big deal. As is the case with all elves, she looks fairly young — but she’s much older than even Frieren.
Her attire looks like something from millennia ago, and she already wore it in the flashbacks we’ve seen. This may suggest she’s the oldest character in the anime — at least from the ones we’ve seen.
It’s strongly suggested that Serie is also one of the strongest characters in the anime. She’s a legendary mage and the mentor of Flamme. Flamme was a mentor of Frieren (as well as many other mages). And Flamme herself went on to teach Frieren, as well as give magic to humanity — Serie played a key part in that.
She’s so old no one even remembers her deeds
Despite spending most of the time doing nothing, Serie is actually hinted to have accomplished a lot. Her library of spells is the best in the world, and she greatly influenced the development of magic.
The Mage Association often consulted her in the past, and she’s responsible for the first-class mage exam having its structure. In fact, the entire exam was her own idea.
It might seem that Serie doesn’t have many personal achievements that don’t have anything to do with others.
Well, we certainly don’t know of many, but assuming that would be wrong: Serie is so old that even tales of her accomplishments were lost to time, and her detached personality is probably a result of her age combined with how elves perceive the passage of time.
In fact, Serie is actually stronger than Frieren — and Frieren herself admits that. While she definitely has enough power to become a first-class mage, Serie doesn’t pass her. That has nothing to do with Frieren’s accomplishments: from Serie’s point of view, Frieren doesn’t try to push herself to the limits or constantly improve herself.
Both of these are required traits for a first-class mage. After all, initially, the exam was Serie’s idea to find mages capable of defeating the Demon king.