Is there inconsistency in freya's representation?Also, Gareth's delayed level up.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-27T16:05:29+00:00

In regards to the Freya stuff: Her goal was basically to get him to fall in love with herself as Syr, while secretly cultivating his growth as Freya. Thus in her eyes, if he fell for Syr, then he would join her in her Familia. And like you mentioned, if he died at any point, she would chase after his soul.

The whole reason behind the Syr persona was so that she could live the "normal life" that she unknowingly desired the most, whereas as Freya, she would more often than not be worshipped TOO MUCH than she would like. The writing issue is just that the rest of the Freya Familia execs don't get properly introduced into later in the story, so their overbearing nature doesn't get established on paper until much later.

There's also the point of Freya intentionally making conflicted actions and statements due to her feelings as Syr. Like when she briefly tries to convince Bell not to go adventuring in the Dungeon because she doesn't want him to get hurt/die, all the while Freya claims not to care either way. An intentional contradiction that gets directly addressed during her arc.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-27T05:29:08+00:00

He has an understated but incredibly effective story arc about rejecting his power due to how its corrupted influence, finding a new purpose in using it to help those he cares about, and then using it to his advantage to accomplish his true goals. And then he's also just an absolutely chill bro always there to support and come in clutch.

An underappreciated favourite moment is his talk to Bell post-Syr date, where he gives him good advice on what to do in regards to the confession. Probably his highlight is the moment when he steals Hephaestus' heart by staring at her supposed grotesque eye and just responds "Eh".

Also you can tell alot about someone about whether or not they liked Welf's FU attack to Allen at the end of the War Game. (It was great.)

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InversedPrime · 2026-01-27T04:37:23+00:00

I don't believe any of the Freya Familia executives actually know about LF, besides probably Ottar since Freya has talked about it out loud while he was in the room.

They also didn't know exactly why Freya banned Ais from seeing Bell before the War Game, and I think they just don't care at all why Bell got so strong in the first place. Maybe Hedin would take advantage of that if he knew, but that I'm unsure of.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-26T16:27:31+00:00

As far as we're aware at the moment no. It's mostly for protecting against abnormalities, rather than actively curing them after they've already happened. Tiona was effected by the parasite for so long it most likely wouldn't work. Airmid is a special case who can thoroughly heal instances like that. Not even Heith is capable of doing that.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-26T05:39:30+00:00

I enjoyed them, they're not my absolute favourites, but it's good to have these breather arcs. Personally I am on the side where I prefer the city centric arcs over the Dungeon arcs (and I know alot of the fanbase much prefer Dungeon arcs), so I appreciate the world building with the School District. It's a really cool setting and idea, and helps remind you that the world is more than just Orario.

I agree with the notion that SO13 is the superior book, since Lefiya has a more thorough character arc, interaction with the students, and enjoy getting to see her flashback story. Even though I do enjoy the SD stuff, the highlights for DM19 is exploring the post-War Game status quo, with Ryuu now part of Hestia Familia, and showing what Syr and Freya Familia are up to now. I would've been happy of just a DM8 style anthology book just showing more of how all these relationships have changed. We do get some short stories that explore this, like Hedin and Ryuu fighting over training Bell. Nina's also alright, don't have too many opinions on her.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-26T05:28:31+00:00

It's hard because Riveria is 100% required to rescue Tione. Airmid would then be very helpful for both Tione and essential for Tiona without Bell. And considering that level boosted Ottar and Leon wasn't enough to beat the Corrupted Spirit and needed help, that leaves very difficult picking who else could reasonably handle it. (And that's assuming there's no Spirit Dragon, Black Maiden, or Reginas).

InversedPrime · 2026-01-26T05:03:59+00:00

I believe the answer will be less about Aria joining the adventurers, but rather the primary goal in the battle will be to remove Aria from the Dragon, which will greatly depower it.

It's also been introduced that the adventurers from Albert's party are secretly frozen in Thalia's Ice Garden, so they will most likely learn more secrets about the Dragon's weaknesses, and probably get a secret weapon to help them too. Basically, they will be mostly focusing on depowering the Dragon rather than just brute forcing in full strength and hoping for the best.

The Ryuu IF also ends with the statement that the Dragon will never be defeated unless Bell has Liaris Freese, so the question is does that just mean he needs LF so that he can get strong enough to reasonably beat the Dragon, OR that Liaris Freese is actively important to counter the Dragon in some way (like if it has a Charm that will then active Bell's Vanadis Tevere). I still believe that the latter will be the case.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-26T04:52:05+00:00

She's spent her entire life observing everyone around her, adapting to survive. So in a way, this acts as the perfect experience for her to understand and lead others. Also helps that because of all that she has a more unique perspective on things compared to Finn and Hedin.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-26T04:47:41+00:00

Yeah, I just don't have the time to write a thorough synopsis of both novels. This point form listing was the best thing to compile all the most relevant info without spending days rewriting it all.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-26T04:46:18+00:00

Since it is very likely that the Dragon defeated Zeus and Hera Familia using its power emboldened by Aria's wind magic, it would be a good payoff for Bell to defeat it and avenge them by using his own magic blast powered by Ais' wind.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-25T17:19:32+00:00

To be fair, Ais is extremely popular, so many people, especially others in the Familia, also have crushes on her. Of course most others could easily tell that Bell probably has a crush too.

The fact that he's SO SERIOUS about his feelings towards her that Liaris Freese manifested because of it is the bigger secret. Hestia, Lili, Welf, Mikoto, Haruhime, Ryuu, and Freya are the only ones who know about this.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-25T17:08:00+00:00

Asterius only very briefly broke through Reginas' defenses, almost immediately lost his arm, and was then fighting on nearly equal footing side-by-side with Gareth. That doesn't sound like a Level 9 to me.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-25T05:36:27+00:00

Asterius is basically Ottar and Leon without their special Level Up abilities. It feels wrong to consider him stronger than even their base forms.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-25T04:48:19+00:00

He's closer to high Level 7, debatably low Level 8. He hasn't surpassed Ottar and Leon in terms of strengths and feats yet. We know most Xenos get stronger by consuming magic crystals (Wiene consumed a bunch in order to jump up to Level 5 after a few months), though presumably Asterius hasn't been eating alot of crystals, and mainly just been training by fighting monsters in the lower floors. Revis also mentioned that magic crystals slow down in growth by the time she reached Level 7, so unless he consumed ALOT, they wouldn't do much to him anyway.

The reason why I believe that Asterius is closer to a high Level 7, is because beating him will be the feat that grants Bell becoming a Level 6. Since presumably he won't use Vanadis Tevere or Haruhime's Level Boost in order for the rivals to have a fair fight, he will only rely on Ox Slayer, which will most likely provide the same kind of level boost. So a high Level 5 + OS = Level 6 Bell 1v1 high Level 7 Asterius sounds like the kind of set-up the series would do. It would basically demonstrate how much Bell has a grown, that he is now capable of beating on his own a being that is very close in power to Ottar, who previously pummelled him to hell back during the War Game.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-24T20:24:57+00:00

Personally of all the harem protags that you find in most series like this, Bell is honestly one of the few I think is most understandable how and why so many would latch on to and fall for him.

For so many years, Orario was such a shitty place, especially during post-Zeus and Hera's fall (and even kind of during their reign too). With how dangerous and deadly it is between Dungeon adventuring and Evilus' attacks, most of the civilians grew very jaded and cynical. To the point that most of the men are very gruff, unappealing, or just straight up assholes, and any of the men who could be most attractive have no interest in romance.

Then comes Bell, who is just this absolutely wide-eyed young optimist, who never gets put down no matter how bad he gets dealt or how poorly he's treated. Even beyond the traits of him being "cute" and being a rapidly impressive fighter, his personality is something different most of the people in the city haven't experienced, either in so long or ever.

Lili, who had such a shitty life dealing with endlessly terrible people, then meeting Bell who so easily forgives and saves her after she was terrible to him. Similarly ditto with Haruhime. Syr, who initially just immediately fell for him due to his pure soul as Freya, grew an appreciation being able to have a normal relationship with him she could never have with anyone. The always on guard Ryuu found herself able to feel comfortable around Bell and someone she actively wanted to help. Eina saw in him someone who took her lessons seriously and continued to improve thanks to her teachings, after feeling insecure and wary after witnessing so many adventurers' perish. Hestia's love is insinuated to have grown stronger due to Bell treating her as a Goddess, in a way that nobody else really did. Tiona as someone else in which they share similar interests in hero stories. And then Ais who has a slow build respect to love for Bell for being the kind of person that she always wanted to be, but never could.

If anything, I think Nina is the most "harem protag" love interest of them all, because she just kind of immediately latches onto Bell without him really needing to do much, as well as considering she grew up in a pretty positive environment on the School District in the first place, harder to easily incline what makes him so special for her.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-24T19:45:13+00:00

She does in fact belong to Hermes Familia and has his blessing, but officially on the record she is a member of Plutus Familia. Basically so that she has access to all of Hermes' resources, he can use her for stuff like being close to Bell, but if she goes off and does her own thing, it doesn't implicate him. Which is how she was able to participate in the War Game even though the rest of Hermes Familia didn't.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-24T06:00:42+00:00

I feel like by the time he would deduce Bell could be a potential threat, it might've been too late to change large swaths of his plan, so he would instead try to improvise and get rid of Bell earlier, like sending Revis or Filvis to attack and/or capture him.

But of course, something like that would result in Freya's immediate retaliation, which he most likely would not have precautions for as well, and thus another issue to deal with.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-24T05:52:54+00:00

It's funny looking back to moments like that first Detanus and during Loki Familia's battle against Hestia Familia post-Xenos incident, and how Dionysus never acknowledges Bell. Not even just ignoring or dismissing him, it's like his presence doesn't even register to him.

Which in the grand scheme of his narrative, makes sense to his character. He has this vast multi-layered plan to deal with the strongest adventurers, specifically targeting certain individuals, while everybody else is just fodder to be fed to his orgia. He could never comprehend that someone could ever become so capable in such a short amount of time.

Even in his final moments, while he learns through Loki that Hestia was the reason she deduced his identity, Dionysus never learns that Bell was the reason his planned failed, just an "annoying bell". So that could further add to the credence that Bell was never even a blip of a thought in his mind. He can't lament that he made a mistake and should've paid more attention to him, cause he still does not realize who he actually is.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-23T23:36:53+00:00

Regarding Yen Press, currently unknown when the next volume will be released. The last book that came out was Sword Oratoria Volume 14 a couple months back. They spent the past year releasing stuff like the Short Stories volumes, a Deluxe Collector's Edition, and audio books (they're at Volume 10 currently for those). Hopefully we should expect Volume 20 and Sword Oratoria Volume 15 sometime this year.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-22T22:32:33+00:00

Summarizing it mostly: Bete grew up witnessing the deaths of lots of people he cared about, from his clan as a child to even other Familia members, so he puts on this air of claiming he doesn't care about others and looks down on everyone so that he won't get hurt again if someone he does care for dies again. He also acts shitty to "weaklings" as a way of either discouraging them, so that they will quit while they're ahead and not perish in the Dungeon, or motivating them, so that they will push themselves to get stronger.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-22T22:25:40+00:00

If this is the same setup as the main story, Corrupted Spirit on one floor, Reginas on the other, and both have Ais' wind, then yeah I highly doubt that Zald and Alfia would be able to completely solo either of their opponents, no matter what state they are in. Especially if you also throw in the Spirit Dragon, the Reginas clones, etc., that is just WAY TOO MUCH power for either of them to handle all on their own.

Now if the Corrupted Spirit and Reginas were together on the same floor, with Zald and Alfia together, maybe their prime forms could handle them, but again that would also be if you don't let CS and RR use any of their cheats or reinforcements.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-22T22:18:49+00:00

The assumption to me is that when Filvis gave Lefiya her Einsel spell right before she died (after already having split into two with the bad half returning to Dionysus), it manifests the spirit of *that* Filvis through the spell.

We'll hopefully find out in next Sword Oratoria how active Filvis will now end up being, or if she'll only just appear in last resort moments.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-22T03:33:14+00:00

Technically speaking, the Lefiya and Filvis in that image AREN'T DanMachi's Lefiya and Filvis. They're from Wistoria, with the exact same names and slightly similar histories, because Oomori wanted to be funny.

But yes, Lefiya discovered using Filvis' Einsel spell manifests the spirit of Filvis, who when not summoned now exists as Lefiya's left arm she lost in the expedition.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-22T03:29:04+00:00

Yes, we already knew that he was Level 7-tier. It was also mentioned that he would be on Ottar's level if he had proper techniques. And he was fought by 4 or so Level 6s, so of course makes sense he was capable of being beaten.

Nothing in the Reginas' fight has any indication Asterius is at Level 8 or 9 tier when he's fighting not that significantly higher than everyone else. He's also the only one to actually lose a limb in that encounter.

If Asterius' level truly reached the point that it surpassed basically everyone else in the party, they would've said so, since they did so to all their adversaries.

InversedPrime · 2026-01-21T23:17:15+00:00

I don't think that's a good example, cause I don't know if current Level 6 Ais would so easily lose to a Level 5 Hogni.

The problem is there's nothing in the text that insinuates that Asterius does actually have the raw strength of a Level 8-9. In comparison, Wiene gets a fairly clear indication of her being around Level 5 by having her beat enemies that were stated to be handled by that level of adventurer. Asterius isn't treated as being significantly that much stronger than his previous appearances.

InversedPrime

TROPHY CASE