u/Kokiri_boi

Personally? No, I wouldn't be.

From the perspective of a Clover Kingdom citizen Yuno seems like the much better candidate.

• Yuno was the Vice Captain, and Wartime promoted Captain, of the most popular and decorated magic knights squad
• During his first six months as a magic knight he contributed more stars than anyone in his squad
• During the previous Elf crisis he was seen rescuing multiple people and contributed heavily to the final conflict
• During the most recent conflict he performed magic on a scale only previously seen by Julius, saving countless lives in the process
• He then performed an even more impressive piece of magic that allowed the Clover Kingdom to actually fight back
• He defeated a Lucius clone singlehandedly under his own power, no AM powerups or help
• He fought God Emperor Lucius alone and successfully held him off while Asta was being healed, with AM powerup

Compare this to Asta:

• Member of the least decorated magic knights squad
• During his first six months as a magic knight he contributed more stars than anyone in his squad
  • Due to Sekke people had doubts about the legitimacy of the stars he earned
  • Asta and Yuno's quick clash isn't really sufficient proof that no shady business happened, just a quick example of strength
• Only two big feats in front of the general populace
  • Beating the Demon
  • Assisting with beating Lucius
• Nearly killed by God Emperor Lucius
• Was on trial for being the possible cause of the Elf crisis
  • Absolution doesn't change the fact that he was publicly seen as a possible enemy and devil user. That's a hard opinion to overcome even if it's eventually disproved.
• He showed up late to the Final Battle

Any other feat performed by Asta will simply be word of mouth to the Clover Kingdom. It's not something that can actually be proved to them. They'd have to trust the word of the Magic Knight Captains.

They would also have no idea how instrumental he was in forming relationships with the other countries or ending the conflict with the Elves.

It's certainly not impossible that members of the public would believe in Asta and the other magic knights, but with Yuno's feats front and center alongside his position as an actual captain it feels like he's simply the better option.

I genuinely believe that until the opening of the Qliphoth pre-"death" Julius was still the strongest character. Here's my reasoning:

Firstly, I think people severely underestimate how strong Patri is. He happened to get placed into two fights against magic types that almost hard counter his and that led to the idea that he's actually rather weak. However, Patri contends very well against Yami, to the point that Yami has to be bailed out multiple times, by Asta and Gauche.

Yami has magic that is a hard counter to Patri's. He's able to make the extreme speed of light magic irrelevant due to Dark Magic's absorption abilities. He's also got incredibly strong attacks of his own. Yet even against this disadvantage Patri still very nearly comes out on top. It also needs to be mentioned that during this fight Patri actively had a seal on his magic preventing him from using it to it's full potential.

The other hard counter is Nozel, who's Mercury magic also counters Patri by redirecting all his attacks back at him. Patri isn't in his right mind in that fight and is therefore unable to even attempt beating Nozel. Therefore Nozel wins and Patri comes off as kinda weak.

All of this is to say that Patri was indeed very strong when he fought against Julius.

Julius, obviously, loses this fight. This lead to the idea that Julius is weaker then Patri who seems to be weaker than the captains. But that's not quite right.

Julius, by all accounts, should have won that fight. There are only two reasons that he didn't.

• Reason one is obvious but has some nuance to it. Julius is unwilling to hurt William's body. At first this seems like it's just due to Julius' care for William but ultimately it comes down to Lucius' manipulations. Lucius needs William to open the Qliphoth and has likely instilled it into Julius that William cannot come to harm. It's not just emotional reasons, which are strong enough, but mental suggestions from Lucius actively holding Julius back.
• Reason two is a little more understated. Patri shared memories with William. For all intents and purposes he knew Julius just as closely as William did. Because of this he was able to effectively manipulate him. He knew that Julius would choose to protect the people of the kingdom over himself and he was able to take advantage of that to maneuver Julius into a position to stab him. Without William, and by extension, Patri's knowledge of Julius, that maneuver was too risky to chance.

It's not crazy to say that Julius would have won this fight easily if even just one of these things changed. Had Patri not been using William's body and knew how to manipulate him then Julius would have either won the fight immediately with a kill move or won the war of attrition as Patri wouldn't be willing to risk Julius not rising to the bait of saving the kingdom.

Maybe all this isn't too controversial, but what I'm about to say next is. Julius beats Zagred and the Dark Triad.

Zagred is honestly only powerful because he's a Devil and therefore has extreme conditions to be killed. Julius meets those conditions due to having Arcane stage Time Magic.

The reason Zagred was so hard to kill is because the fighters with the ability to kill him were too slow and the fighters with the speed to attack him were unable to get a kill strike. Notice how Yuno's speed and Asta's strength combined made short work of him?

Julius is one of the few characters shown to actually outspeed Patri's light magic. Yami and Asta both had the benefit of Ki sensing letting them know when and where an attack would hit before the spell had even finished, while Nozel surrounded Patri before an attack started. It's really only Black Asta and Spirit Dive Yuno that get close to matching Patri's attack speed and even then they're both overwhelmed.

So Julius has both the speed and attack power to take out Zagred. But Dante? Vanica? Zenon?

Well we're told by Lucius, and shown, that Time magic reigns supreme. Almost no other magic can naturally challenge it. Asta is an exception because Anti-Magic, something seemingly UN-natural, stands outside time. Yuno is also an exception due to Neverland.

Again Julius has the attack strength and Arcane magic to deal damage to Devil hosts. He's also able to render Gravity magic moot as Gravity doesn't really matter in a timeless place. If no time is moving then Gravity has no time to act upon Julius. He's essentially like Yami's mana zone black hole in that he removes the effect of Gravity magic. Dante's body magic doesn't matter because Julius's time magic will completely erase him from existence. There will be no part of him left to regrow from.

Zenon seems weaker than Dante before Qliphoth opens but I'll give examples for him too. Julius would out speed Bone magic and easily disintegrate it if necessary. We've seen Julius freeze Langris and his spatial magic so it tracks that he could do the same with Zenon.

Vanica actually might give the most trouble just because Curse Warding magic is a little poorly explained. It's not quite clear how it would interact with Time magic. But I still feel that Julius would out speed Vanica. If Spirit Dive Noelle can outspeed Vanica in 30 seconds then Julius should also be capable of a similar feat. Julius exhibits significantly greater speed than partial SD Yuno.

All that said I fully believe Lucifero would best Julius and obviously both Yuno and Asta would beat Julius by the beginning of the Final arc. Asta comes close to beating Lucius, who is significantly stronger than Julius due to having absorbed Lucifero, singlehandedly and only really loses due to Lucius playing the emotional manipulation game. I can also see Yami + Adramelech beating him considering they were able to beat a Lucius clone.

You may think that a lot of characters could beat Julius in the Final Arc but you'd be forgetting that half of them have AM boosts and all of them are being simultaneously boosted and protected by Neverland. Without Neverland literally everyone would have been dead instantly due to time magic.

Do you think that when Lucius discovered the existence of Asta he shaped his plans around making him stronger in order to use him as a tool against Lucifero? Or do you think Asta was a happy coincidence that wrecked Lucius' original plans and left him bidding his time till he thought Asta was too much of a threat to remain alive anymore?

Cause Julius did seem pretty intent on sending Asta on missions to grow his strength, he also positioned himself and others to keep Asta safe during some of his most dangerous battles.

Also, did Lucius know about the elves? He gained nothing from letting them run wild and Patri actually succeeding in taking over William's body would have ruined Lucius' plans to use his World Tree Magic for the Qliphoth. So if Lucius knew what would happen then why wouldn't he put a stop to it before it could start, or accelerate his plans to open the Qliphoth?

Lucius can't read Asta's future. He should have no idea that Asta would be able to resolve these issues. So was he caught off guard and misjudged the threat of the elves?

This is a quick timeline documenting how old Asta is during any given story arc. A quick fact to keep in mind, Asta's "birthday" is Oct 4th. (Very long post, TL;DR at bottom)

The story begins in March, to get a Grimoire you must be 15 years old so we know this March is in the year after Asta has turned 15.

• March - Asta is 15 years and 5 months old

6 months pass between Grimioire day and Magic Knight Exams

• September - Asta is 15 years and 11 months old

The next arcs take place between September and December until the EOMS encounter arc. This arc takes place the day after Marie's birthday which we know is on December 10th.

• December 11th - Asta is 16 years and 2 months old

Again the next multiple arcs happen over a span of 3 or so months until the Star Festival which takes place at the end of March

• March - Asta is 16 years and 5 months old, officially a year since Grimoire day but only six months with the Black Bulls

This is where the timeline gets a little tricky. The entire royal knights selection and elf reincarnation arcs happen very quickly. Possibly a couple weeks at most pass during this time. Afterwards there is a 6 month time skip during which the Heart Kingdom training happens. The issue is that immediately before Zenon's attack on the Golden Dawn someone remarks that Yuno has been a magic knight for 18 months.

If you're keeping track you'll realize that based on this timeline that's not possible. A total of 18 months have passed since Grimoire day, but Yuno and Asta have only been Magic knights for a year at this point. That leaves two options.

• Option 1: We ignore this comment and continue as if only 12 months have passed since Asta joined the Black Bulls. This is personally what I feel is correct, I believe Tabata just made a mistake and meant to say 18 months had passed since Yuno got a Grimoire. Alternatively you can consider this Manga canon as the Devil Banisher/Believer arc doesn't seem to happen in the manga. (Based on what is actually featured in the Manga and not on Author's comments)
• Option 2: We accept that an additional six month period happened before the Heart Kingdom training. I feel this is less likely as every other time skip has very good concrete evidence and clear passage of time while this seemingly missing period is mentioned only once. Alternatively you can consider this Anime canon as the Devil Banishers/Believers arc happens during this time which may explain the skip.

To continue we know that the Spade Kingdom invasion must take place either 6 or 12 months after the elf arcs in April/May. I'll now be saying option 1 and 2 to let you know Asta's age in either option. The movie likely takes place shortly before the end of this period meaning Asta is likely this old during the movie.

• Option 1: November - Asta is 17 years and 1 month old
• Option 2: May - Asta is 17 years and 7 months old

We are now presented with a time skip of 1 year and 3 months and then LOTS/Judgement day which takes place over a week.

• Option 1: February - Asta is 18 years and 4 months old
• Option 2: August - Asta is 18 years and 10 months old (again, I feel it would be very odd for Asta to be this old as when he proposes to Sister Lily he says "I'm 18 now" which tracks if he just recently turned 18, you may say he was waiting for his name to be cleared but in that case why not say "My name is cleared and I'm almost 19". It's odd for him to mention being 18 if he's two months away from being 19.)

An additional 6 months pass after Judgement Day before >!Asta becomes Wizard King!<

• Option 1: Asta is 18 years and 10 months old
• Option 2: Asta is 19 years and 4 months old

Finally 2 more years pass before the end of the last chapter making Asta's age at the end of the series:

• Option 1: 20 Years and 10 months old
• Option 2: 21 years and 4 months old

TL;DR: anywhere between 5 and 1/2 to 6 years pass between the beginning and end of the manga, leaving Asta either 20 or 21 years old. OFC since Yuno shares Asta's "birthday" he is also roughly the same age as him through every arc. Noelle is a month younger than both, being born in November. Lemme know if you want more information on everyone else's ages through the Manga.