u/MysteriousStrategy86

Hi, I'm a noob whose understanding of swords is almost entirely based on web researches.

I'd like to ask you guys, how hard is it to mantain edge alignement through an actual fight against an opponent on a comparable level ? And what factors make it difficult ?

Also, I've never seen a term for that, but I suppose there should be some equivalent to edge alignement for thrusts. If that's the case, how is it called ?

Rank-ups increase things like senses, perception and cognition speed. But despite the fact that just receiving a Falna increases Abilities just like a rank-ups do, I don't remember anything about perception and cognition.

So does anyone remember such a line ? For example in early MS volumes or SO 9 and 14 ?

Development Abilities generally comes from repeated actions (example : killing a high number of monster for Hunter, Mixing is also something Lili could have choosen at level 2 due to all the substances she made in order to trick adventurers and survive).

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Ariel puts considerable pressure on Ais' body, so I think it's weird she doesn't have it already (especially when she only has four DAs, despite being a level 6). Meanwhile Riveria and Bete got it.

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Now if she rank up before the OEBD fight, I hope it will appear (it should since she fought several monsters who came from the CS). It would allow her to use more of Ariel's potential without hurting herself.

Many people theorized about what kind of magic Bell would obtain if he got a Grimoire. Many talked about a fire and/or lignthing enchantment, and I rly think this is the best spell possible for him, for all the following reasons :

I Fighting style

While Bell's Magic isn't far behind his other stats, Firebolt remains a underused in certain context due to Bell being more skilled in cqc. An enchant would allow to use his magic power more effectively in his field of predilection. A fire and lignthing echant specifically would synergize well with his quick and offensive fighting style.

Plus, if he got another type of magic it wouldn't be useful to him : a defensive spell doesn't fit his style and Firebolt plus Argonaut is more than enough for offense. Also he's not used to chanting, so enchants, which have short chants are better for him.

>!Finally it will allow him to use Afterglow without Argonaut.!<

II Narrative relevance

>!Afterglow, aside its usefulness in combat, represents the legacy of H&Z Familias. Bell, the last person they left behind, has to master it and use it against the OEBD.!<

Using an elemental enchant would also make a nice parallel with Ais, who fights with wind.

And Bell's rematch with Asterius would be even more enjoyable if it's done with such an enchant : it would be a reminder of Argonaut, who fought against the Minotaur (Asterius' past life) using the lightning of the spirit Jupiter and the fire magic sword of Crozzo.

Finally, just like with Firebolt, fire and lightning would represent Hestia and Zeus, the two gods who are / have been his family.

III Plausibility

Magic manifest depending on one's experiences and feeling. Bell experienced Laurus Hildr, the lightning enchant of Hedin, who he admires (too much but anyway). He also experienced >!being burned from inside by his current fire and lightning spell!<. And given his admiration and desire to catch up to Ais, he would probably want an enchant.

In addition, characters often develop magics of the same element (example : Alfia, Lefiya, Alicia, Vena, Hedin, Natalinoe), and Firebolt is already fire and lightning.

Finally, we have a precedent of past life influencing the magic of the next life with Finn and Crozzo. Argonaut's contract with Jupiter's might influence Bell's magic.

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A possible aspect of such an enchant that nobody suggested (asfaik) but that I'd like to see is a physical backlash : the fire coating would protect Bell's body and the lightning coursing his body would enhance his speed and reaction, but it would gradually burn him.

Throughout the story, Bell often sacrifices his safety for others, >!his self immolation in MS21 is the peak of this tendency!<. It'd make sense for this trait of him and this experience to lead to a magic extremely useful, but dangerous, hurting his body to gain the power to save as much people as possible.

Plus it would reinforce the parallels with Ais, who can't use Ariel's full power without hurting herself, and Argonaut, who was consumming his life by using Jupiter's lightning.

There are sometimes debates about what type of magic allows to use Afterglow.

Here's Leon's explanation of Afterglow in MS20 :

「この『残光』を極めるためには、条件があると私は考えている。一つは当然、剣や斧といった斬撃の武器の使い手であること。そしてもう一つは──」

"I believe there are conditions for mastering this 'Afterglow.' One is, of course, being a wielder of slashing weapons such as swords and axes*. And the other is—"

[…]
「──『強化』に類する『魔法』や『スキル』を持ち合わせていること」

"—Possessing a 'magic' or 'skill' similar to an 'enhancement'."

"Enhancement" doesn't refer to stats increase : Gareth, all dwarves and other characters have Str increasing Skills, and Finn's Hell Finnegas increases all stats, but they can't use it.

Also Argonaut doesn't increase stats, Rea Ambrosia only coats Zald's weapon in flames, and Hildis Vini is a "power" boost, not a "Strength" boost : https://www.reddit.com/r/DanMachi/comments/1tswolq/about_hildis_vini/

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So the only prerequisite of Afterglow based on the common properties of BoR, HV, RA, and Argonaut, is that the Skill or the spell coat a weapon, or even make it out of pure magic, and enhance its power.

Enchants can do that, and until proven otherwise Rea Ambrosia only coats a sword in flames so it is a pure enchant.

It's true that Leon talked about enhancement/strengthening/reinforcement, not enchants, but he said『強化』に類する : similar / akin to enhancement, wich leaves room for interpretation. Plus "enhancement magic" was never pprecisely defined, so enchantments, wich enhance a person or an object with an element and are written with the kanjis the 付与 (literally bewtow/add) could just be a subtype of enhancement.

As for why Leon never teached it to Ais who got an enchant, either she doesn't need it because Ariel already creates fliying slashes, or Afterglow only works with enchants specifically applied to weapons (Ariel enchant Ais wich then warps the wind around her sword, while RA; as well as HV, apply the enhancement specifically to the weapon).

Edit : I forgot Alfia used it in Leon's flashback, so yeah every enchant do allow to use Afterglow.

I wanted to highlight a mistake in the official translation, it isn't a "strength buff".

Official translation : It’s a simple strength buff.

Japanese text : 単純なカの上乗せ.

カ can be translated as "power" or "stength", and indeed the strength stat is written "カ". However, when he talks specifically about stats, Omori often puts the kanjis between brackets like this『カ』.

This line confirms that "power" and "strength" are distinct :『威力』の単純強化という属性が、化物じみた膂力と純み合わさつた場合、どうなるか? (official translation : what happened when a simple enhancement raised the force of his already monstrous strength ?)

It indicates that Hildis Vini increases『威力』("iryoku"), "power", like the power of a punch, a fire arm, or an explosion. The fact it's in brackets (genrally used to highlight technical terms like stats, type of spells, Skills...) makes it definitively different from the Strength stat (『力』). And in the same phrase it is distinct from 膂力, wich is specifically physical strength.

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Also the fact the golden light only coats Ottar's blade and not his body is another proof. There a line in AR3 that says it coats his body but it's also a translation mistake :

Official translation : “Hildis Vini !” A golden light enveloped my body. It enveloped my sword, my final weapon, transforming it into a blade of radiant light.

Japanese text :「【ヒルディス・ヴィーニ】!!」生まれるは黄金の光輝。己が持つ最後の武器、最後の大剣に光が付与され、黄金の光剣と化す。

It only says "a golden light is born", then it coats the weapon.

One thing I hope to see soon enough is floor 50 becoming a common training ground for the main Familias, plus the Xenos.

MS21 / SO16, was the first time all the main factions of the story (Hestia F, Loki F, Freya F, Hephaestus F, Dian Cetch F, the School Dirstrict and the Xenos, plus Ganesha and Kali F in the backgorund) colaborated to take down a common threat.

But that was only a forced alliance in emergency situation, they need to train together way more before fighting the OEBD. It would have been impossible earlier in the story, but with FF being technically on Bell's order and the fact LF and FF actually bonded a bit in this battle, it's not absurd.

And if the guild can actually build the shaft up to floor 59, they'll have a whole safe floor as their training ground, so even the Xenos (who can't be exposed to the people on the surface yet) will be able to train with them. Also it's also perfect for FF wich lost it's training ground recently.

Omori once said that he's not good at writing romance, and it's both true and wrong.

He prooved he can actually create interesting love stories, notably with Ais, Ryu and Freya :

Ais is a child who lost her parents, her heroes, her protectors, and wished for someone to be able to fill the hole. On top of that she fell into a deep and self destructive hatred (what she calls the "black flame"), bordering on madness, toward the responsible (OEBD).

For her, Bell represent that heroes she was wishing for, as well as an embodiment purity a "white soul", untainted by negative and unhealthy emotions like her, wich he allows her to free herself from. Also she's just cute when thinking about him and interacting with him (because of their shared immaturity and clumsiness).

Ryuu is a character who, because of her loss and the actions she did because of it, completly lost faith inot her capacity to deliver and defend justice, sher lost her ideal, and she even probably thought it wasn't even achievable in the first place.

But Bell perfectly embodied her ideal, a pure hearted hero who actually manages to save eveyone. And and pushed her past her trauma and self hatred to finally reconnect and fully embrace her ideal again.

Freya also has a great arc and an interesting relation to Bell.

All three loves Bell for good and interesting reasons, it doesn't feel forced, and it's actually logical in relation to Bell's character : his story is that of a boy who grows as a hero, and his relation with each of them is always part of this growth, in one way or an other.

And it's not limited to love stories arround Bell, Welf and Hephaestus story was good, and there's also the tragic and twisted story of Lefiya and Filvis (never explicitly said to be romantic, but we all know it).

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Then what's wrong with the romance in danmachi ? Simply put, it's that Omori wrote "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon ?" instead of "Familia Myth".

You probably konw Omori originally wanted to call danmachi "Familia Myth", nothing else, but because the novel wasn't interesting enough at the start, or at least because the editors thought so, they pushed Omori to call it "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon ?" instead of "Familia Myth" and make it a harem bait.

From then onward it doesn't matter that the story picked up and prooved to be valuable far beyond that, the fact it used this title and made the story like this makes that, both because of the audience and editors, Omori just has to add new girls and put Bell into all sorts of stupid situations with the pseudo harem.

So there's way too many girls who love Bell, wich is just annoying and repetitive. And many (like Hestia, Eina, Nina, Tiona, Cassandra, Ray, Marie) do so for weaker and/or less interesting reasons than the characters I mentionned above, obviously because writing different and individually interesting feelings for each character would be too long and redundant.

And there another problem on top of that : the fact we know that, no matter what, Bell will go for Ais and no one else. It's not a bad thing in itself, I like this aspect of Bell's character. The problem is that it makes that all these love stories pointless. The interest of having more than one love interest in a story is either to put characters in front of dilemas and to have them question their feeling and hesitate, or the rejection itself can be the point.

As great as Ryu's arc was, what's the point of making her develop feelings for Bell if we know it won't lead anywhere ? And while the rejection did kinda happen, it was quick and almost annecdotic.

Honestly, I wish Omori had made Ryu's feelings toward Bell platonic, he can represent her ideal, save her, and become extremely important to her without it being romantic. But with danmachi's editorial line there's no way he could have done that. And even if he could idk if he would : representations in fiction makes that people rarely imagine such a strong bond between characters from opposite sex without immediatly putting love into it.

There's also Hestia, who, aside from being annoying cockblock way too often, would just be better as a strictly mother figure imo. Especially given the age gap, another reason why many girls danmachi, like Ryu, Eina and Ray, should not be attracted to Bell.

The only character who doesn't suffer from these writing flaws imo is Freya, because the fact Bell will never be hers is the whole point of the arc, plus the rejection actually happens and concludes her development, all while serving Bell's growth.

Finally, the cherry on top is that all those potential love stories are completly ignored because he made her Bell's goal, but he also limited these two's interaction for plot reasons (both to keep Bell motivated to grow stronger, and to preserve the secrets arround Ais' origins until the later arcs). That makes their relationship weaker than some others depsite Ais being the end goal, and creates frustration.

Official YenPress translation : "Next, there was the anti-monster ability called Hunter. Basic Abilities temporarily increased when fighting a type of monster with which that adventurer had experience." (Eina, MS4).

Wiki : "Improves abilities against monsters that the user has fought before and gained excelia from."

I know the official translation is often wrong, so I'm asking just to be sure, wich one is correct ? Hope someone who has the japanese LN can answer.

Kind of tired of the repetitive Lefiya slander (understandable but still boring and annoying imo), and I wanted to know what people used to think about her character, as well as Filvis, before things went wrong in and after SO13.

Was she actually liked before but had a huge downfall, or was never that liked in the first place ?

https://preview.redd.it/aa2w38k0wv2h1.png?width=1716&format=png&auto=webp&s=313c10ace9a282c48427d9d8b8d12615dd495546

This is Bell's status sheet in MS21.

But in the "bonus material" of volume 21, where we see Hestia updating Bell's Status before the Loki Fmailia rescue, Bell reached Strength 333, Endurance 434, Dexterity 399, Agility 474, Magic 136.

https://preview.redd.it/0sflw8mnwv2h1.jpg?width=1308&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d49d11cbab68a4e2906a613a985bd9367d6a90e

If those are the numbers before the rescue, then that would mean that the status sheet in MS21 (477, 698, 491, 689, 399) would be after the rescue (and therefore his stats would have increased by only 978 points after MS21).

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However, these numbers are contradictory with Bell's status sheet in MS20 (btw MS20 ended when Bell came back to Orario, before he even saw Hestia, so these are his stats before he went to the Valley).

https://preview.redd.it/uyd5lgllwv2h1.png?width=481&format=png&auto=webp&s=d023161180ea9e52e1fd1c546cde1b7520a10b2c

Here his Endurance is 447, above the End indicated in the bonus material (434). One of the two has to be wrong, and it has to the the bonus material for many reasons :

1 The numbers 319, 447, 363, 459,117 were released in the main volume, while the numbers 333, 434, 399, 474, 136 were released in a bonus material. The former should be more trustworthy.

2. When Omori reveals Bell's stats sheets at the end of a volume, it's always the stats from the last update. For example Bell's status sheet in MS3 and MS 11 didn't his final level 1 and level 3 stats, but the stats he got from the last Status update before encountering the minotaur/Asterius. And in MS14, the status sheet indicates 0 in all stats, because that was his status before going on the expedition.

In the absence any status update after the Loki Familia rescue, it's 99% sure the MS21 status sheet indicates his stats before and during the rescue, not after.

3. There's just no way that Bell's stats grew that little after MS21. Not only because that was the harshest battle in the story yet, but because Vanadis Tevere allowed him to fight at full power continuously. Bell arguably received more wounds and casted more Fire Bolts than in any other arc thks to his unlimited mind and health recovery, and he same logic should apply to his other stats, since he could also regenerate stamina.

The battle in MS21 was far longer than MS18 and far more intense than any other battle for Bell, especially in terms of his wounds, he got repeatedly burned from the inside, pierced, blown and torn apart, etc.

Plus there's the fact that feelings influences stat growth (Bell's emotion were extremely high in this volume due to the fact he wanted to save Ais).

So there's just no way that 477, 698, 491, 689 and 399 are his stats after the rescue. Especially when his stats grew more than that in MS18.

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Conclusion : the stats in MS21 bonus material are a mistake. His stats after the Dragon Valley / before the rescue are 477, 698, 491, 689 and 399. And his stats after the expedition are yet unknown.

I think most people who knew about that bonus material came to the same conclusion, but I still wanted to clear it up.

I just recently watched the anime and liked it quite a lot. However I know that LNs almost always have a lot of their content cut in their anime. So how faithul is the adaptation ?

And if important events or explanations were skipped, would you mind summarize it ?

Also how far did the anime went compared to the novel ?

Thanks to anyone who answers !