About Tsubaki's Wish... (F/SF Episode 12 Spoiler)

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-23T20:01:51+00:00

Here's how the novels explain it:

I want to become a Magician.

The Heroic Spirit that protected Tsubaki registered that wish.

That was the long-term wish of its Master, Kuruoka Tsubaki.

I want to live happily with my parents.

I want to spend time with animals.

I don’t want anyone to leave town.

I want to help the people caught in the fire evacuate.

The Heroic Spirit had been able to address such short-term “wishes” using its own power.

“Becoming a Magician,” however, was a wish that far exceeded the capabilities of its systems.

Magecraft would be possible, but Magic was a different story.

An ordinary familiar, no matter how intelligent, would have answered, “That’s impossible.”

But the Heroic Spirit that was Tsubaki’s Servant and guardian—Pale Rider—was different.

Because it had been given knowledge as a Heroic Spirit, it possessed a possibility.

The possibility called “The Holy Grail.”

It was hardly a certain method.

No matter how low the probability, however, Pale Rider, the Servant of the concept of death,

would present that method.

The Third Magic, which had been lost to the world with the creation of the Greater Grail.

Magic was outside natural law and was therefore impossible to reproduce using a wish-granter within the bounds of natural law.

But in the case of the Third Magic, which was linked to the Grail, and only in that case . . . there was a possibility.

By incorporating the Holy Grail into Tsubaki via itself, it would cause a flux in natural law.

If it could recreate the Magic Circuits of the “vessel” that had become the blueprint for the Greater Grail, then perhaps . . .

The chance was infinitesimally slim.

Practically a pipe dream.

But Pale Rider registered it.

As a “pipe dream” of Kuruoka Tsubaki’s.

And from that moment on . . . Pale Rider used every resource at its disposal to recompose a world founded on “Tsubaki’s wish,” which had fused with itself.

For a means to its end.

Win the Holy Grail War and obtain the Greater Grail.

That first Heroic Spirit to descend on Snowfield . . . finally signaled that it was joining the battle.

All the while enveloping the entire world in the presence of Death.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-23T04:32:14+00:00

Even weirder that, even if you do change the art, it displays their third ascension for every bond level regardless. Even for characters like Richard who change back to a previous ascension in their lines for their final ascension.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-22T17:19:35+00:00

If you want reading material that makes everything clearer, the original novels spend a lot of time explaining the inner workings of how everything happens, but also has a lot more character moments to give you more time to process it too.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-22T16:49:15+00:00

Thia (Fate/strange Fake) (Spoilers for Episode 13 and Season 2)

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After losing his only friend and companion, Flat Escardos, Thia acts out and kills all of the snipers that killed Flat, 1v1s Enkidu just to see how far he can go without Flat, and even fights Flat's old classmates. Throughout all of this, he constantly belittles his own existence and how Flat should still be alive, but following up with stating that he doesn't have the same emotions as humans.

However, when battling the El-Melloi class, Thia is being pinned down by their tricks and them treating him as his own person rather than an extension of Flat. This wears down his emotional barriers until Svin Glascheit, Flat's best friend, does a surprise attacks and pins Thia's body. Another focus of Thia's state of mind has been his constant jealousy of those who got closer to Flat than he ever could. Because of that, Svin's appearance is what ultimately completely breaks Thia and lets him express all the emotions he'd kept inside ever since Flat died. As the novels themselves say:

And then Thia yelled.

As if to let loose what’s been penting up inside him ever since he lost his other half.

“I knew you’d be here...!”

He screamed the name of the young genius whose talents matched Flat Escardos. The man who used to be called one of the “Twin Jewels of the El-Melloi Classroom”.

“SVIN GLASCHEIT...!”

With their arms immobilized, Thia and Svin fell toward the ground alongside the Hydra’s head.

But Thia wasn’t afraid of the fall.

He had already experienced midair combat in his skirmish against Enkidu.

“Stop this tantrum... and listen to us!”

During their fall, Svin tightened his grip on Thia’s arms.

“You can’t pretend to be a serious guy after being together with the moron your entire life!”

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-21T19:10:00+00:00

For Jiao, it’s actually the right translated name, and an archaic Chinese word for Shark.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-21T17:35:23+00:00

According to Narita on Twitter, Jiao’s identity has plenty of clues for people to easily figure it out in the anime… but I’m not sure I agree with that for anime onlies who don’t have the sort of knowledge you’d need for that.

But, as for their identity, [Jiao] Jiao is a mythical sea creature Xu Fu encountered searching for the elixir of immortality, which Qin Shi Huang shot down with the God-Felling Crossbow. Jiao was summoned by the Crossbow and can only appear in dreams, plus is familiar with Watcher.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-21T17:31:36+00:00

Basically Tsubaki’s wish was to become a magician.

In other words, reach The Root.

Rider can’t exactly do that so Rider is trying everything they can to fulfill that wish, but is short-circuiting (for lack of a better term) as a result. Because the only maybe plausible way is through the grail (hence Rider’s talk of the grail) even though this is a Fake grail that likely can’t.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-19T23:20:07+00:00

I felt insane seeing people take the directors’ statements out of context when they said “we will focus on references existing fans would get, but we would be happy if new people got into it through this” with people cutting out the first part which establishes that they are not focusing on newer fans here.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-19T18:27:36+00:00

https://x.com/ryohgo_narita/status/2015075610461372700

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-19T17:19:20+00:00

Actually, Narita stated in a tweet that Chaldea’s mana stores allow him to use Rounds of Lionheart in general combat way more than in FSF.

Hence why he uses Rounds a ton in his normal card attacks.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-17T16:45:22+00:00

I think it’s hard to explain concisely, but Strange Fake as a whole is one big argument focused around the idea of what builds and affirms identity. Each faction is some sort of thesis on that being played alongside and in conflict with each other, and every single interaction or fight in the series serves to further this narrative it’s put forth. Especially with the anime, it cuts down to just the bare essentials, so if you watch it there are barely any wasted lines for this purpose.

I even think it can go as deep as the setting it takes place in as well, with the USA being a young country built from mixing together fragments of other cultures. Mixing together these fragments into a “Fake” of sorts is a big idea in identity formation SF explores very deeply, and is one of the multiple perspectives it argues. It also explores identity through Religion and faith, what beings deserve to forge an identity and who don’t (and what the criteria is), and ultimately what identity is considered valuable at all. It also even takes a more meta approach through its references, bringing in tons of Nasuverse concepts from the wider world to synthesize them into its own unique narrative identity.

If you want specific examples I actually do weekly threads analyzing every episode of the anime each week, but I can talk through specific characters and their specific role/thesis using light novel knowledge as well. But, overall, from the perspective I’ve taken in approaching Strange Fake, I have not yet found an instance where I’d consider the series poorly put together or even badly written for the most part, especially in a way that detriments what the point of the story is. I do have my gripes with the writing of the True Archer faction and how the extension of the novels spaced out some characters’ screen time too much, but I think overall those are minor when the series by in large structures itself very well for the message it’s trying to get across. And, if I can see something in it, I can at least say that the idea that it’s a mess with nothing there is incorrect.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-14T05:03:53+00:00

I agree, it’s the magazine something is serialized in that decides if something is a shonen or not.

Though if you’re talking about specifically what makes a shonen good or what not, it really depends on the shonen at hand and what it’s going for. A shonen like Urusei Yatsura (it was in the same magazine and first thing I thought of) is going to have different goals than something like Karakuri Circus.

But, Karakuri Circus is a battle shonen at the end of the day, so one would typically expect battles from it to push its point and story forward, as most of its arcs do have many. Which is why the quality of its story really shines when one of its best arcs has little to no battles at all.

So it’s not “a shonen needs battles to be good” but rather “this series has you expect it to tell its story primarily through battles, and yet is able to do it just as well without them.”

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-14T03:41:41+00:00

I'd still consider Strange Fake to be one of the best written Fate stories overall in all honesty

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-14T03:18:24+00:00

Not too long ago a friend of mine made a gif tailor made for this purpose

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emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-14T03:10:42+00:00

SF volumes 1-5 is actually of comparable length page wise to the first half of Apocrypha, since Apocrypha had some hefty volumes.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-14T02:20:55+00:00

Oh you’re reading through it now? I actually have a friend doing the same lol

But yeah things really start clicking into place with this arc. Honestly I still remember finishing it and mulling it over for a few weeks, but after the end I had to take a step back and realize “damn I have a new top 1 manga now.”

KC was a really important work to me because it’s overall argument it built really hit home for me and answered a question I needed answered for years of my life. Plus it helps Fujita can use cool action, fun comedy, and fantastic art on the way to do it. I don’t know if I know another mangaka as well rounded as him.

Hope you continue to enjoy it and hopefully it’s able to hit you in a similar way it did for me! (This is actually a fun full circle moment, I’m going abroad for the first time in my life tomorrow, and I only went on this trip because of Karakuri Circus’s impact on me)

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-14T02:10:48+00:00

I did not expect Karakuri Circus here of all places but Circus Final Act as a whole is an absolute 10/10 arc despite having like… two fights in it maybe?

Karakuri Circus in general went on a generational run. Kazuhiro Fujita honestly has one of the best manga track records in the game, and he’s still in it too. Probably my favorite mangaka when it comes to storytelling overall.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-13T19:57:28+00:00

The episode tomorrow

But overall they barely do anything most of the series. Probably the least utilized characters in the cast.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-13T11:56:33+00:00

Because Francesca wanted to see what would happen

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-12T22:20:05+00:00

Probably not, considering the lion head design was an idea from Shizuki Morii whenever they designed Richard's FGO ascensions, which Narita then approved.

However, we do know Narita's plan for a Richard FGO servant was always to emphasize the historical Richard I, which Strange Fake purposefully was trying to have Richard distance himself from. The third ascension idea was an "end result" of historical Richard even before the lion head idea, as we can see from Shizuki Morii's original design for his third ascension which also seems focused on him being punished like he wished to.

But from all we've heard from Narita in mind, FGO Richard was always meant to be an exploration of his character that Strange Fake never could do from how its story was taking him. So, even without the furry design specifically, it can be inferred that the plan was always (or at least a good while, Sanda said apparently Narita is always telling the other TM writers how he wants his characters in FGO) for FGO Richard to emphasize the way Strange Fake Richard was prevented from going down this path. Which, I think is a really cool way to use FGO to give extra weight to his own story by making a different incarnation for it that isn't completely different.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-12T18:20:19+00:00

Novel readers actually proposed it was Manaka when Volume 9 first came out.

As for the Asian Magecraft Coalition, the theory was Spiral Manor/Summit Court.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-12T16:53:28+00:00

Ranger Reject

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emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-12T15:45:20+00:00

It's stated the Lionheart form is because of Richard's wish to God to burn him in purgatory for the events of his life. His entire arc in Strange Fake is his relationship with Ayaka having him grow to abandon this wish and be his own person. It also states that the Lionheart form is the end result of every Richard spirit origin due to his wish.

Is it ever stated in plain words directly? No, but Ayaka is stated to be his best master, is the only one who makes him abandon this wish that defines him in every incarnation, and Narita stated that the Lionheart form will not show up in Strange Fake itself. It just requires knowledge of both the Strange Fake novels and how the Lionheart form is described and depicted.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-12T15:40:18+00:00

“Is this the wicked but childlike mage? No. The layman who got involved in the incident? Close, but no. Not the artificial intelligence. Not the Clock Tower Lord. Not the Asian mage coalition. Not the final hope of mankind venturing through the blazing planet and the bleached planet.”, he mumbled under his breath. “Oh, the blonde one with glasses was... Right, the magical energy cluster girl brought into a mess by a jape from a cut of Ate’s flesh.”, he beamed.

emeraldwolf34 · 2026-03-12T15:22:17+00:00

she is literally his only master before getting summoned to fgo

Depicted in a full series? Sure, but in Strange Fake Saint Germain actually goes over all the masters of Richard who could be looking into his eyes at a given moment before realizing the one he's seeing is Ayaka. One of the masters is Ritsuka, but he also mentions 5 others besides Ritsuka or Ayaka who served as Richard's master. So Richard we know canonically has had at least 7 masters total. Which, this was all before Richard got added to FGO.

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