Fate/strange Fake

Episode 13

Our final episode of Fate/strange Fake's first season is a bit of an anti-climax by design. While our heroes find their resolve and the villains are knocked down a peg, the actual conclusion to this arc doesn't rest with any of them.

In this anime, the closest thing we have to an innocent victim is Tsubaki. Too young to understand the mage mindset and how it differs from that of normal people, Tsubaki tries to escape into her fantasy ideal—i.e., one where she has a loving family. Pale Rider, not having a set personality of his own, becomes her idealized best friend—one who is always there for you and will do anything in their power to support your dreams. Thus, he uses his apocalypse-causing powers to create an ideal world for her where all those dreams come true.

However, in this episode, Tsubaki is forced to confront reality. She sees her parents for the monsters they truly are—that she is nothing more than a tool in their eyes. She can never make them happy, and they can never be the parents she longs for or deserves. But rather than strike out in anger—against them and the world in general—Tsubaki opts to save it. She won't destroy her ideal of a normal life just because she doesn't have it. In fact, she's willing to return to her lonely, comatose world forever just so other people can have the chance to be happy.

Through these actions, Sigma sees a child much like he was—a tool rather than a human. Yet, she chose to go against what she was supposed to be—something he never even considered at her age. In fact, he actively robbed others of that choice. And when he sees her parents have learned nothing from the entire ordeal—that they intend to chop off her hand and continue their plans for the grail—he does something both needed and unforgivable and kills them both.

While once a near mindless slave following orders, Sigma realizes that the holy grail war is a place where people discover what they're willing to fight and die for—his mom included. Little by little, he is discovering the same—being molded into the form of “True Lancer” just as Watcher predicted.

On the villain front for this story, we get a bit deeper into the Tsukihime side of things with the downfall of Jester. This comes at the introduction of Van-Fem, one of the oldest and most powerful vampires. To oversimplify, the relationship between humans and vampires is a zero-sum game—humans are either on top (which are the Fate timelines) or vampires are (the Tsukihime timelines). Thus, both sides by default deny the superiority of the other, though that's not to say that some, like Van-Fem himself, haven't found ways of coexisting with humanity to a general extent.

However, what Jester does is state that he is a hard-line vampire who sees humans as inferior, but also has an obsessive love for False Assassin—a person whose very existence as a servant is proof of just how great humans can be. This is a clear double standard, as an ancient vampire, Van-Fem, cannot stand the hypocrisy, so he basically excommunicates Jester from vampire society. This pushes Jester even further over the edge. Now all he has is his obsession—and he'll do whatever it takes to have False Assassin to himself alone.

Now, as for the heroes, we have our big character moment for Richard. Basically, Francesca and François, for no other reason than being sadists, try to destroy Richard mentally by showing him the truth about who King Arthur really was. Thus, they show him the events of the three kings' drinking party from Fate/Zero—where Iskandar and Gilgamesh compare philosophies and ultimately refute Altria's wish for the Holy Grail.

However, showing Richard that Altria was anything but a perfect paragon has the opposite effect. He is ecstatic to watch a new story in her legend and see firsthand her true personality and ideals. And more than that, Richard understands what Altria at that time did not. Her life and death had a lasting meaning—that her successes and failures all formed a legend known around the world for millennia to come. She created an identity and an ideal for a nation to aspire to—and in the process gave one young boy worried about his place in the world a goal to forever chase after. Seeing Altria at her lowest inspires Richard to be greater—to win this broken Grail War the right way with Ayaka at his side as friend and Master.

Lastly, we come to Flat. If there was any character that seemed safe from death going into this story, it would be Flat. From Lord El-Melloi Case Files to Fate/Apocrypha, he's been a recurring character up until this point. His death is a crazy twist for the story—not just in the metatextual sense but in an in-universe sense as well.

While we see all of Faldeus' cameras across the city go out, this is just the surface level of what he has unleashed. After all, how will Waver—one of the most politically powerful mages in the world—react to Flat's death? What about his classmates like Sven, Luvia, Caules, and Yvette—not to mention Rin Tosaka herself? And what about Gray, the woman with the physical body of King Arthur reborn, who sees him as one of her few friends? These implications are the true cliffhanger for this season of Fate/strange Fake and what will have us all returning for Season 2.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Boy, they really wanted us to know Flat's super dead by showing his corpse just get shot again and again.

• Poor Ayaka, if those snipers would have just waited a few more seconds, she'd have gotten all the answers.

• Richard's Grail wish is for a song to echo through a specific place. My guess would be either the place where the mortally wounded Altria waits for Bedivere or Avalon itself.

• I'd love to see Richard meet Gray—it would make for the most awkward conversation ever. (Though they might have a bit of fun geeking out about Add if Richard recognizes what it truly is.)

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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.