I feel so stupid. In the fight against the sorcerer bros, Lowell kept hinting about the "colors mean elements" but i took that to mean that i had to attack red with ice and blue with fire only after i got the barrier down, not that the barrier itself corresponded to an element, because i forgot there was a green element (a la Mirania)
Dumb dumb dumb. Fun fight otherwise though.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.