It’s not actually magic.
Summary:
- In Frieren, Stark’s Lightning Strike is essentially a very powerful attack that’s faster than sound.
- Despite how it looks, it’s not magical.
- Stark is strong, but he’s still not as powerful as his teacher.
Among Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Sousou no Frieren) characters, Stark is perhaps one of the most normal ones. In the world of crazy mages and other fantasy tropes, he’s just a young warrior who trained a lot.
Yes, Stark’s teacher was Eisen — a member of the Hero Party that defeated the Demon King. Still, he’s just a normal young man who often acts hotheaded, but is also incredibly kind — as we see from his interactions with others. Still, he’s an incredibly powerful fighter, though his abilities confuse some fans.
Lightning Strike
Perhaps the most notorious of Stark’s attacks is his Lightning Strike. Some fans tend to think it’s a magical strike, and it’s hard to blame them: it certainly looks like one. Yet despite that, the attack is much simpler.
Stark is not a mage and never expressed a desire to become one. He’s always been training to be a warrior, and the Lightning Strike doesn’t actually cause literal lightning to appear — it’s an entirely non-magical attack.
That said, it still creates a beam of lightning when the strike hits — but there’s nothing that implies that’s actually magic (at least by the standards of Frieren’s world). The name comes from the fact that the attack is so fast that it hits before the sound wave, essentially making the strike’s speed supersonic.
This isn’t magic
The fact that Stark’s attack requires superhuman abilities — and the fact that it produces a light beam — still doesn’t make it magical. In the world of Frieren, these physical feats are apparently possible, as we clearly see from Eisen, who trained Stark. Eisen himself possessed clearly superhuman strength and speed.
Powerful fighters being able to do this is a common fantasy trope, and it seems to apply to the world of Frieren as well. Stark’s abilities aren’t magic, they’re just showing how strong normal people can be.
Is he stronger than Eisen?
Some fans wonder if Stark has already surpassed Eisen, who is his teacher. At the current point of the story, it’s hard to say — Stark is definitely very strong, but he still lacks experience. He also still has the potential to grow. That said, he can probably at least give Eisen a run for his money.
There’s little to no doubt that Stark isn’t even close to the strength of Eisen at his peak. After all, the latter was part of the Hero Party — all members of which were crazy strong.