Fate/Strange Fake Ep.04 - Hippolyta's design is so good! Who is her master?

January 24, 2026 ยท 3:42 PM

The fourth episode of Fate/Strange Fake delivers a lot of new character introductions all at once as the true Holy Grail War is starting. The "Archer" who tried to kill Gilgamesh was Heracles in Avenger form, which is one of the non-standard classes. It seems like he hates divinity in this form and wants to kill anyone related to any gods (which puts him against Gilgamesh, who is partially divine too).

Alcides, as he prefers to be called now that he is an Avenger, seems to manipulate magic that is very similar to the corrupt Grail we have seen in Fuyuki (specifically the black mud). I am not sure if that is just his power as an Avenger or the result of something related to his summoning ritual in this weird war.

As far as we know from the information in the original Fate/stay night, Heracles would be able to be summoned in any of the main classes except Caster. However, why Avenger? It doesn't seem like something fitting the role that would normally be given to him.

Just absolutely gorgeous character design. Both face and clothes!
Just absolutely gorgeous character design. Both face and clothes!
I'm wondering what role she'll have considering she's supposedly weaker than most of the other servants.
I'm wondering what role she'll have considering she's supposedly weaker than most of the other servants.

Just as the two were fighting, a third Servant appeared as a woman with a clearly divine-class horse. She turns out to be Hippolyta, the Amazon Queen who was defeated and killed by Heracles (after the gods interfered to pit the two against each other) in the myth to complete his ninth labor.

She is also partially divine, making her another target for Alcides at this point, even if she doesn't seem strong enough to fight on the same level as him. Even Gil was hard-pressed to do anything to penetrate the cloth that Alcides was wearing, and I doubt anything other than Ea would work, to be honest.

Ok, she's cute and all, but that's not exactly what I would define as fanservice Francesca. Can you tone down the "undressing"? View video page

To prevent the battle from escalating, Francesca sends her Servant to break up the fight and delay the inevitable clash between the heroes. He does not appear visibly, even though Gilgamesh refers to him as some form of Wraith. He was able to use some vast-scale illusion magic, showing the battleground as a winter forest.

Oh, and we also saw a glimpse of Faldeus's Servant, who seems to be one of the Hassan Assassin-class Servants. Considering the scale that this war is taking, I am guessing he is the First Hassan, the "Old Man of the Mountain". I doubt any other would be of any use against the other Servants that we have seen so far.

Poor girl, she's like in a place where she was not supposed to be.
Poor girl, she's like in a place where she was not supposed to be.
Ayaka's reaction to people saying Saber was her boyfriend
Ayaka's reaction to people saying Saber was her boyfriend

Now the question is, where do we go from here? Richard of Lionheart declared his identity to Ayaka as proof of wanting to see this war to the end together with her, but she still doesn't seem that interested in fighting a war she doesn't have anything to do with. 

Of the true Holy Grail War, we know about the presence of Saber, Assassin, Archer/Avenger, Rider, Lancer (the one summoned at the end of the last episode), and Caster? (the one that Francesca used). We still miss a Berserker class servant and then we should have everyone fully in the game.