<blockquote>
<p>what you can do is limited to what you can imagine doing</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I don't think this is true.</p>
<ul>
<li>You've used Ubel as an example, but as far as I can recall, she's the <em>only</em> example of a character whose powers can ignore reality in such a way. Fern can't bypass an enemy's barrier magic just by pretending the barrier isn't there, for example.</li>
<li>Mages can't just invent new spells on the fly; they appear to be limited to the spells they've learned from grimoires. They need to be able to envision the spell they're performing, yes, but they also need to actually <em>know</em> the spell first. Fern can probably imagine a spell that's able to clean clothes, for example, but can't actually perform such a spell until she obtains a grimoire for it from Serie in the Season 1 finale. New spells <em>can</em> be created, or adapted from existing sources (as happened with Qual's Zoltraak), but it takes time and effort.</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to imagination and grimoire knowledge, there's one other component to a mage's power level: their mana level. This is something that's partly innate (Fern, for example, has an abnormally high mana level for a human teenager) and accumulates as you grow older. Frieren's mana level is the highest of the main cast simply because she's 1,000 years old and has been accumulating mana for <em>that long</em>.</p>
<p>So no, mages in the <em>Frieren</em> universe can't magically obtain godlike power just by <em>believing</em> themselves to have godlike power. They will always be limited, either by the grimoires they've learned, the logical weaknesses of said grimoires, or their mana level - and there are a lot of powerful mages out there that can and will put an end to their delusions of grandeur.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-17T10:10:12.027Z
2024-11-17T10:10:12.027Z
F1Krazy
<p>In Frieren, people mention multiple times how magic is visual imagination, and what you can do is limited to what you can imagine doing.</p>
<p>For example, Ubel is able to cut things that no one can else can, because she is able to abstract away defensive spells on items and think &quot;that's something I could cut without spells on it, so I can cut it now&quot;.</p>
<p>Why doesn't some arrogant mage that thinks their a god or similar come along and defeat everyone? This seems possible, given how the magic is structured in the show.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-17T03:21:45.510Z
Demons are all kind of arrogant and therefore have superior magic, so it kind of works. Also, I think imagination is just part of the formula, rigorous training is also required to be able to make full use of the magic.
Gao
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-17T17:45:19.803Z
@Gao They only choose one kind of magic to specialise in for their entire lives though, which is why they’re much better at that type of magic than mages tend to be at knowing a lot of general spells.
DaemonsMercy
<frieren-beyond-journeys-end>
Why doesn't some arrogant mage come along and beat everyone?
# Why doesn't some arrogant mage come along and beat everyone?
Posted by: username_0 on 2024-11-17
In Frieren, people mention multiple times how magic is visual imagination, and what you can do is limited to what you can imagine doing.

For example, Ubel is able to cut things that no one can else can, because she is able to abstract away defensive spells on items and think "that's something I could cut without spells on it, so I can cut it now".

Why doesn't some arrogant mage that thinks their a god or similar come along and defeat everyone? This seems possible, given how the magic is structured in the show.
**Tags:** frieren-beyond-journeys-end
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Demons are all kind of arrogant and therefore have superior magic, so it kind of works. Also, I think imagination is just part of the formula, rigorous training is also required to be able to make full use of the magic.  
> **username_0**: @Gao They only choose one kind of magic to specialise in for their entire lives though, which is why they’re much better at that type of magic than mages tend to be at knowing a lot of general spells.  
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## 1 answers
### Answer by username_2 on 2024-11-17. Score: 6 | Accepted answer
> what you can do is limited to what you can imagine doing

I don't think this is true.

* You've used Ubel as an example, but as far as I can recall, she's the *only* example of a character whose powers can ignore reality in such a way. Fern can't bypass an enemy's barrier magic just by pretending the barrier isn't there, for example.
* Mages can't just invent new spells on the fly; they appear to be limited to the spells they've learned from grimoires. They need to be able to envision the spell they're performing, yes, but they also need to actually *know* the spell first. Fern can probably imagine a spell that's able to clean clothes, for example, but can't actually perform such a spell until she obtains a grimoire for it from Serie in the Season 1 finale. New spells *can* be created, or adapted from existing sources (as happened with Qual's Zoltraak), but it takes time and effort.

In addition to imagination and grimoire knowledge, there's one other component to a mage's power level: their mana level. This is something that's partly innate (Fern, for example, has an abnormally high mana level for a human teenager) and accumulates as you grow older. Frieren's mana level is the highest of the main cast simply because she's 1,000 years old and has been accumulating mana for *that long*.

So no, mages in the *Frieren* universe can't magically obtain godlike power just by *believing* themselves to have godlike power. They will always be limited, either by the grimoires they've learned, the logical weaknesses of said grimoires, or their mana level - and there are a lot of powerful mages out there that can and will put an end to their delusions of grandeur.
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