Impression
Magnostadt sure is an impressive place! It positively radiates grandeur with all its tall spires and magic tools, which pretty much run the country as far as we know. And it’s a place populated with lots of skilled magicians, a subset of humans we don’t really know much about (other than what Yamu’s shown us). But even in ignorance, very rarely is a supposed utopia ever that perfect and wonderful; and with Magnostadt and their connection to Al-Tharmen, we should definitely be working with the precedent that everything’s too good to be true.
It’s slightly strange seeing Aladdin struggle within an environment of magic – with Yamu having restricted his magoi flow, all he can rely on is his natural talent and the amount of magoi he has internally. And he’s pretty crap without the Rukh’s help – even with a natural affinity towards fire, he produced a pitiful Halharl Infigar during his sorting exam due to his own physical limitations. Before, the Rukh freely gave him as much magoi as he needed from an external source, so none of that really mattered – stuff like physical training rightly mattered more to metal vessel users like Alibaba. Yamu probably took that into account when teaching him (though as a natural genius, I doubt she’d have gone through something as intensive as what Meiers gave the 6th Kodor students).
That training really did look like hell 😀 I love how Aladdin got through the month through constant encouragement from his instructor‘s boobs. Though maybe fewer of them would have decided to quit if Meiers had actually spoken up about why physical fitness mattered. While it’s true that, in battle, magicians will never win in close combat, that means they’ll have to rely on the strength of their spells – and if they’re not at least decently fit that’s not going to get them very far. I suppose it paid off in the end – there’s no better place to learn about magic than at a specialized magic school, where they even go into stuff like people’s natural affinities or the different types of Rukh. Much to Sphintus’ surprise, Aladdin did get way stronger by the end of the episode – even with magoi restraints, his Halharl Infigar is even more powerful now than when he used it in the past. With his promotion to the 1st Kodor after the Iktiyar, he’ll be taught stuff that’ll boost his power level even more – and by the time he takes those gems out, I’m sure he’ll be godly.