Fate/strange Fake

Episode 12

First and foremost, this episode is all about doling out necessary exposition. It's spelled out clearly what we are dealing with: our heroes are trapped in a Reality Marble—and that Tsubaki's servant is Death, “The Pale Rider,” and the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse. On the positive side for our heroes, as a force of nature rather than an actual person, it has no real innate personality and thus its personality has been molded by Tsubaki's need for a friend in her lonely, comatose world.

This is why the Reality Marble world is basically a paradise. There's no fighting, everyone is happy, and Tsubaki is living her ideal existence. However, while its “nurture” may have made it Tsubaki's loyal protector and friend, its “nature” is nonetheless to bring death and, ultimately, end the world. Enter everyone's “favorite” asshole vampire, Jester. By tricking Tsubaki into wishing to be a “magician,” he plays on this fact and sets the apocalypse in motion.

Explaining why this is so requires quite a bit of information not covered in this series, specifically. It has to do with what exactly a “magician” is and how it differentiates from a “mage.” To oversimplify things a bit, in the world of Fate, if something can be done by science as well, it's “magecraft.” It it straight up breaks the laws of physics, it's “magic.” Currently, there are only two (of a potential five) active magicians in the entire world—one of which is Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, the man observing the False Holy Grail War from outside of this reality as seen in Whispers of Dawn. Everyone else—Rin, Waver, Flat, etc.—is a mage.

In the modern-day world of Fate, the only way to gain the ability to use actual magic is to use magecraft to create a path to the “Root”—the literal origin of all things in the multiverse. This is the goal of all mages and is why, thanks to the fact that each path to the Root is only usable once, they are generally self-centered assholes (outside of Waver's students). The problem with Tsubaki's wish to become a “magician” is that even Death itself can't simply create a path to the Root. However, there is one obvious way to do so.

The Holy Grail is a magecraft machine that uses the Third Magic to grant wishes. In theory, a wish from the Grail could be used to create a new path to the Root—or perhaps even give Tsubaki control of the Third Magic directly, making her a magician outright. Of course, to do this The Pale Rider needs to first win the Holy Grail War for Tsubaki—and what easier way of doing so than fulfilling it's nature by starting the apocalypse and killing everyone in the world, including the other Masters.

This is what we see starting to happen by the end of the episode. The world inside the Reality Marble is starting to end. Once it does, the Marble itself will shatter with the effects spreading into the real world, ending it as well. Thus, our heroes are suddenly faced with a strict time limit and real stakes.

There is one simple way to save the world: kill Tsubaki. And although none of those involved want to kill the innocent child, there's little doubt some will end up trying—likely battling those with less pragmatic viewpoints in the process. In the end, the only winner here looks to be Jester, who wants to revel in the chaos and watch as False Assassin is tortured by the ethical dilemma she'll be faced with.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• It's nice to see Ayaka's further determination to get off the bench and into the fight. The issue that she and Richard share is that neither of them has any sort of greater purpose to fight for—nothing worth risking their lives to wish for.

• It looks like the original summoning catalyst for Tsubaki was supposed to be the Godfelling Crossbow. However, the bacteria inside of Tsubaki were used accidentally instead, though Jiao seems to have been half-summoned using the weapon anyway.

• I wonder, were Francesca and François there all along, or did they figure out a way to enter the reality marble from the outside?

• My first thought when I saw the falling cookies? “Chocolate is poison to dogs, and that's how they're going to kill Cerberus!?” rather than “Cerberus has a well-noted love of Honey Cakes in various myths, and that sweets could be used to bribe him.”

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Fate/strange Fake is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.