Fate/strange fake (Free-Range Spoilers)

[Ronove]

I don't think Flat's death was fine at all. It's not like he died saving Tsubaki, sacrificed himself like Roman or anything like that. He died mid-sentence while talking to Ayaka. He hadn't even finished talking.

This is a bad thing? Not every character needs a resolution, Flat getting picked off like that is actually more organic given he's fighting a war and had no servant to defend himself. Any piece of lore relevance he has on-going can be achieved posthumously by whoever personality jacked his body.

[jennajayfeather]

Personally I think every character should get a satisfying ending. Or at least not play me like a fiddle only to take that away...

[ballinamon]

“Before my Spirit Origin twisted, I would have been willing to fall to that scratch. This venom alone may have been able to eat through all of my countless lives.”

The absolute fucking state of God Hand.

Forgot to do it yesterday because was got distracted with clarifying the old stuff, but I really want to talk about the Harli's teacher's flashback because I believe that was /strange Fake's characteristic brand of bullshit taken to most extreme level so far.

Spoiler:

Harli's parents were regular mages who inherited her grandfather's research results after he discarded his humanity. Mages wanted to steal said researched result, so the Borzaks were treated as herectics for no good reason and had everything taken away from them, except Harli's life. Since then, Harli has been raised by her teacher this entire time.

A few years before the main plot, she talked about Francesca's Holy Grail War project to her teacher. The teacher don't seriously try to stop her from taking the invitation, but very strongly advises her against, giving words of warning like (note: this is all paraphrased, partly from memory, not real translations)

-"No action is without consequence. If you destroy the Mage's Association, you would be making every mage out there your enemy."

-"I saw a Heroic Spirit once just a couple months ago when I was in a Rail Zeppelin auction, and those are some truly scary familiars. Definitely not recommendable as a plaything for your grudges."

-"You had the chance to escape with life and Magic Crest, so it would be very thoughtless of you to waste it by becoming that demonic Francesca's pawn. That Lord El-Melloi II I saw in the Rail Zeppelin holds a classroom that accepts people contrary to the magecraft world like you, so I think that would be a good place for you to move past your trauma."

But despite the whole conversation, Harli insists she's already past the breaking point and takes Francesca's offer anyway.

The teacher is described as an 80+ sly granny with the appearance of a classy little girl with an elegant dress and a crow mounted on her shoulder. If you checked the Rail Zeppelin background characters, it checks out.


The Rail Zeppelin anime is very consistent with its background characters, actually. You can see Harli's teacher a couple more times.

I fucking knew it, she was a loli granma. Well not, actually she could have been an actual loli strong enough to be there. Also I love this custom to recycle unused things.

I have to give it to Narita, the man is actually serious in being completely lore-consistent. Even the original creator don't give a fuck sometimes.

Imagine you want your story of such caliber that you have to make sure your lore don't crash with another author lore so you need a bit of support of them and at the end you have to face with the existence that is Nasu himself.

I hope Flat stays dead. His death was fine, there are characters enough running around and the cast could use a bit of trimming. Personally I didn’t like Flat that much, he felt like a side character that was taking up way to much time. He’s fine in small doses, but a bit to gimmicky and one-note as a character for me. Now the pages can be better spent on more interesting characters and Jack’s development without Flat. I hope that whatever is inside him is finished soon too, there are enough wildcards running around as it is. But with Narita who knows. There obviously are quite a few people who love him, so if he returns good for them.

Seeing how he pull an Ichigo Vasto Lorde I doubt it.

[Bugs]

Who is Harli again lmao

[Lobo]

True Berserker's master, Harli is just another possible way to translate her name, we've just been using Haruri all this time for the lack of any indication of how it should be

[Holiday]

True Berserker's master, Harli is just another possible way to translate her name, we've just been using Haruri all this time for the lack of any indication of how it should be

God damn it, of course. She's a western magus. Her given name is literally just "Harley".

I feel so dumb for not realizing this until now.

The absolute fucking state of God Hand.

I feel like we've hit peak Worf Effect with God Hand at this point. "This character can solo Berserker Herk" no longer makes me think the character is impressive, it just reminds me of how underwhelming God Hand has become.

[Asunder]

Hydra poison being super effective against god hand makes sense. Especially if it eats at the lives without letting the adaptation kick in.

[Hakuno]

How? He couldn't die and needed a pyre to take his own life, asking for Zeus to do the rest

[fumei]

This is a bad thing? Not every character needs a resolution

To be honest, they kinda do, as long as they're any semblance of a major character. That's pretty basic storytelling, and ignoring that leads to cheap storytelling since at that point you're just killing off characters who you've been building up for cheap drama/shock value, or it leads to lazy and bad writing because you're just dropping storylines and character arcs because you think it's more "organic".

Though as you say, a character arc/subplot can be completed (in some sense) posthumously by another character, but that nets you a character resolution, so...

[Kelp24]

shame Hydra Poison has never killed anything else

[You]

God damn it, of course. She's a western magus. Her given name is literally just "Harley".

I feel so dumb for not realizing this until now.

Harley is ハーレー
Haruri is ハルリ

[bananko12]

Heracles has become one of those characters that would probably be batshit insane in terms of NP's and skills if he were released today, but as it is now he becomes more of a joke with every new strong servant added and with every personal appearance where he gets trashed. And frankly, as a fan of all things Greek it sucks balls that he's treated like that.

[Kamera]

Sad Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoi hours

[Reign]

Alk is basically what Herc would be if he was released today.

[Holiday]

Herk would probably just look like Alk if he was released today, right? A separate NP for each labor.

That, or he'd have Proto Herk's "always win the first twelve battles" NP.

- - - Updated - - -

Damn, sniped

Harley is ハーレー
Haruri is ハルリ

Okay, now I feel even dumber.

...So what culture is her given name even supposed to sound like it's from?

[Kelp24]

By lore given, Nine Lives sounds ridiculously broken. Even in the current meta. Yet Alk doesn't even use it that much so it's too OP I guess, gotta show off the Pokeymans lol.

[Kamera]

It should be a Skill instead of NP tbh

[Holiday]

What's even the difference these days

[bananko12]

Alk is basically what Herc would be if he was released today.

Herk would probably just look like Alk if he was released today, right? A separate NP for each labor.

That, or he'd have Proto Herk's "always win the first twelve battles" NP.

I was thinking more along the lines of Nasu himself writing him first time. Alk's NP's have been really underwhelming, and I don't mean in terms of powerlevels but rather in terms of what they do. 3 of them are summons so far and it's getting rather repetitive for old Edgeboy. And since it's Heracles you could easily pick one of the hundred other things he did to make into a NP rather than just have him summon some more birbs.

[Kelp24]

I really wonder what the stable labour will be at this rate, summoning a load of cows, summoning a flood, summoning the toxic amounts of excrement? The possibilities are endless