Fate/Strange Fake Ep.08 - Faldeus is on the move! Tsubaki!

Episode 6 of Fate/Strange Fake continues with another series of preparations for the upcoming battle centered on Tsubaki Kuruoka, the child sleeping in the hospital who is the current Master of Fake Rider. Jester Karture is present and trying to use her for some purpose, though precisely what he intends remains unknown.

Everyone else is also converging on the area. We have Flat Escardos with Fake Berserker, the police with Orlando Reeve preparing new fake Noble Phantasms, Ayaka and Saber, and Fake Assassin and Sigma. Even the Church, represented by Hansa Cervantes, is heading there in pursuit of Jester, as Dead Apostles are among their most wanted enemies.

I said it in the past and I repeat it here. The four nuns of the church are so damn beautiful and I really really love their character design!

I was unsure between Fake Caster's speech and Faldeus's choice for the video of this post. I decided for the latter, but I have to say I agree with Fake Caster.

On a side note, Faldeus is instructing True Assassin to assassinate someone. It is clear that True Assassin is one of the Hassans due to the signature mask, but who precisely is the question. His behavior and voice resemble the "Old Man of the Mountain," but he is supposedly a Grand-class Servant and therefore should not be directly involved in a Grail War.

While all this is ongoing, I am also curious about the overall meaning of this Holy Grail War. Faldeus has created a system where one Grail War feeds off another to compensate for the lack of the Greater Grail, but what is the ultimate goal? He should know that the original Fuyuki Grail is corrupted beyond recovery, considering the shards he recovered were used to corrupt Heracles.

Moreover, the ritual itself was originally a way to materialize the Third Magic, "Heaven's Feel," which is the "Materialization of the Soul." Faldeus is not a mage, so he has no use for that or for reaching the Root. I cannot see any other real use for a corrupted Grail aside from perhaps waging war. He is technically connected to the government, but surely that can't be the reason, right?

The anticipation is high because I know a massive battle is coming, which is what the series has been hinting at for a long time. I feel this is one of the challenges of adapting this kind of series into an anime format. They have been teasing a major clash every week, but something always interrupts them at the pivotal moment, usually Francesca.

Fake Assassin's eyes are beautiful, but very very cold at the same time. They haven't delved into her backstory and I'm really curious. Was she an Hassan too?

Is the ability to become someone else the only thing that Fake Berserker can do? Because if that's the case he won't be much use in battle.

Will next week finally deliver the long-awaited beginning of the grand battle, or will they shift the narrative again to pursue another plot thread? We're long overdue some of the servant to exit the scene, but somehow I feel it'll take a few more weeks before that happens.