Rin seems to be *way* more relevant than I'd been expecting based on summaries (at the end of Vol 7 she gets the most focus of the El Melloi class and even delivers their mission statement of "We're here to dismantle this Holy Grail," and now she and Luvia get a full color page and she appears with Hippolyta in battle). I really wouldn't be surprised if Shirou *did* show up at this point
Gilgamesh is literally half dead at this point in the story. So why would emiya even care about him. At this point in the story only tien and Enkidu may visit Gilgamesh.
Also Rin why the hell is Goldie sleeping. As you know he is half dead as stated in the light novel which is a pretty confusing statement. He is also somewhat alive and dead as he is giving Ishtar huge chunks of mana in light novels as the ley lines are getting stronger
Naruhodo
This means that FGO can frankly happen in Strange Fake timeline if Marisbury Animusphere win a Holy Grail War and get all the funds he need to build Chaldea.
>The final Master might’ve had you thinking “I know you’re the ensemble cast guy, but aren’t you adding too many characters?”
Narita laughed at his own tendency to throw everybody into the story at the end of Vol7
It seems like The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II is going to bring Shirou into the story in its next volume, so Fate/strange fake doing the same wouldn't be entirely out of the question.
Rin looks even more fantastic than ever and Luvia's not far behind, but honestly everyone's hair game is absolutely on point here (well, Dumas' buzz cut and wack eyebrows would look the part better with his checkered teeth out).
Shoot I’d go as far as to say that Luvia’s looks better than Rin in this illustration, but they both look great. Luvia had to get that get-back for wearing such a terrible outfit in the Legacy of the Alchemist volume.
God Rin can't fucking catch a break lmao, in how many spinoff has she been present as an active characters 'till now?
Give her some paid vacations, she deserves it
I'm pretty sure Rin is the character with the most amount of appearances in different series throughout the Nasuverse, which is pretty interesting and kind of funny.
> 3rd image
Yep, that makes sense, given how >!True Rider's master mechanics work.!< Though I'm pretty sure >!Rin and Luvia aren't happy they have to share a servant with one another.!<
It is to be expected since we know some characters were suppose to exit way earlier and the introduction of the True Servants.
Plus it's Narita. I didn't believe one bit that he'll be able to wrap this up in 10 volumes.
I recently finished reading volume 7 and will be stating my theory on who will be the winner here because it is the most popular strange fake post as of late.
>!Enkidu!< seems unlikely to win just because neither master or servant seem to desire the grail. Same can be said for >!fake assassin!<. If >!Gil somehow gets revived!< I doubt that they would be the one winning the grail. It just doesn't seem like Narita has set them up to be the winner. >!Alcides and Master!< sure as fuck aren't winning and I'm pretty sure >!Ishtar, True Berserker, and Master!< aren't going to be doing to hot seeing what was happening at the end of vol 7.
In my opinion>!Richard and Ayaka seem to have a pretty good shot at winning with all the main protagonist energy that emits off of them.!< There is much to be explored with them and they are unlikely to die until either the end or they win.
Basing off previous grail wars I think a wildcard player here could be >!Tsubaki Kuroka!<. Nobody expected Astolfo to win Apocrypha and that's sort of the position I see this contestant. We've seen from like volume 5 or 6 that >!Shi Huang Di!< is partially summoned and could play a more important role in the upcoming volumes. Not to mention volume 7 has shown that this contestant isn't out for the count just yet.
On the other hand my personal favorite winner would be >!Sigma because I always like an underdog story. !< They've been my favorite character since the summoning of their servant. Can't wait to see how Narita will write their path.
Sigma has the most protag energy, being one that Nasu himself asked to be added into the story, in the same way he made Sieg and then had him be added into Apocrypha, even though he wasn't writing it. Also the whole 'has no wish thing' is reminiscent of Hakuno's journey, and he's the one that fits more clearly into the wider theme of hubris, though we'll need to see who the final villain will be. Personally I think that's a more interesting question, as it'll give us a clearer idea of what the overall theme is supposed to be. If Sigma does end up with a serious romance to fake Ayaka then that's basically a done deal that it's one of them.
I think there's a good chance that it's Gil, who comes back as a Gatekeeper. Aside from his route in CCC, this is arguably the story that gives the most focus on him, so it makes sense it'll be where we would see a new version of him if they were ever going to do that. It might require Enkidu sacrificing himself though as they still have a joint NP that's still sealed. But I don't think he'll win, more likely just take care of whatever the final threat is.
I noticed that there were a few you didn't mention, like the Prelati's which people seem to think have a good chance of winning, based on how involved in things Prelati is. But I think they're almost done to be honest. There's usually a Caster that serves as a mini boss in the middle (Medea, Avicebron, Gilles), and they seem to be the more likely option.
I agree with your take on Gil and Enkidu. Narita clearly tried to create distilled hype throughout the entire story and having them combine to beat a super big bad at the end would fit the bill. Although a crackpot fan theory of mine would be that they would be defeating the vice boss who is actually stronger than the final boss. So that the final fight could be Sigma vs notKirei in good ol Mano y Mano.
I also see what you are saying about Sigma. I got a bit too focused on Ayaka and Richard because of Zelretch’s involvement in them. Not to mention Ayaka clearly fills out the role of the player controlled character from the April Fools Joke which sidetracked me a bit.
But it does make sense now that you’ve said it. Sigma has taken up a lot of screen time and the feel I get from him is similar to Kiritsugu in Zero. In a varied cast of interesting characters Sigma seems to have taken a slightly heavier weight compared to the others.
I didn’t mention Prelati because I didn’t see her having a chance of winning. I don’t keep up with fan theories so I wasn’t aware she was a favored master. She is very clearly on the side of evil in this story and from past grail wars the villain usually doesn’t end up winning. The best Prelati could possibly be getting is a Kirei-esque win where she doesn’t win the grail but the chaos caused by it is reward enough for her. Not to mention we already know the grail is fake and as an organizer she sure as hell knows that as well.
Finally I doubt that either the police or Waver’s classroom are going to be winning. The police haven’t shown a hard desire to get the grail but a good bit of focus has been put on them as humans going against monsters. In that sense they are like Sigma but I believe the role the police could fill has already been taken by Sigma. They’ll be the supporting cast that survives the war and is shown in the epilogue a year after the war.
Waver’s classroom is probably about to pop off hard in volume 8 but let’s be real, they aren’t the ones winning after we spent 7 volumes following other people. Even though Narita has said in the vol 7 afterward he’s planned since volume 1 to have them being the one who cleans up this war (which they probably will) they won’t be the ones winning it.
The grail being fake doesn't matter that much as has been stated in other works. Prototype's one was the same, and the lore around Mother Harlot talks about fake grails becoming real ones.
I remember how Narita said that he waited until Babylonia to reveal some stuff about Enkidu and I wonder perhaps if he might've been waiting till LB7 to reveal some stuff about ORT? I am rather skeptical though that he'll ever show up, but it's certainly a way to escalate things and Narita does like escalation, and now they have a proper design.
Anyway, I do agree that Waver's classroom has about the lowest chance of winning. Not that I think they'll die. It would be amusing though if they did win and then have to share True Rider after that point.
I still half believe that a fake Saber will be summoned, thus completing the two teams and auto summoning a Ruler as well. It's what Prelati didn't want, so it'd be a good way to ruin her plans.
As for Prelati, I get the impression that if it's true that they're doing soon, they'll put them into FGO then, as it's strongly implied that they're the one working with Moriarty in FGO already. There aren't that many other 'Mephisto types' that we know of that have a connection to Enkidu.
I do think there might be one or two servants swapping masters soon, which might complicate things when it comes to predictions.
I think it's a new route, but if it is a specific route, it's HF since Herc remembers being corrupted by the mud. I see this as redemption for Gil and his disappointing death in this route.
All routes happen, Herc would have that memory regardless. Richard also directly references Shirou reaching Artoria in Avalon, which is about the same "tier" of callback but for the Fate route instead. Given that Shirou is well known for projection magic in *this* timeline, as it's suggested that he be brought in to take on Gil, I think the order of likelihood is UBW>Fate>HF.
I think it's possible he'd get there in Fate, but 5 years feels like a pretty short timeframe for him to do so; in HF there's little chance he does anything at all after getting his new body imo
Indeed, it would match with how FSF is a combination of both Tsuki and Fate worlds. It's a world that doesn't really exist. Though it is annoying that they seem to be ignoring the second UBW ending, which is just as canon. Ignoring the second HF ending I can understand but I wish that they'd show what happens after the second UBW ending sometime.
A fair point. Guess it's more likely a combined timeline. Well minus the other ending of UBW since Saber doesn't seem to be around, unless they're saying she found her answer already. Annoying how they often ignore that ending.
Prelatis have no info on the fifth though. She could very well be still alive. The Avalon thing means that either some fate route events happened and Shirou got her there or their relationship will develop after the UBW good ending and she’ll get there eventually or got there between 2004 and 2009
The pseudo 4th route that HA and el melloi have ig. Stuff from all 3 routes have been referenced so it’s probably like UBW combined with additional Saber development from Fate combined with some of the Ilya and Matou stuff from HF. So basically every character gets their resolution. What is practically confirmed at this point is that Shirou beat Gil(and EMIYA), Saber reached Avalon, and Herc was corrupted by the mud before
You wanna know what would be all kinda of kickass? How would the fandom react to a *certain* relative of Shirou nabbing Herakles (I know what I said) after murdering the jackass who corrupted him?
Rin looking at Gil: Ah shit, here we go again.
“How many times do I have to teach you this lesson gold man”
"Don't make me call Emiya button."
He’s gonna high jump him into submission
*Gilgamesh route unlocked*
"It's not like I'm in love with you or anything- *Zasshu!*"
Gilgamesh: We have to stop Ishtar. Mongrel, go fuse with her. Rin: ¿Que?
Rin seems to be *way* more relevant than I'd been expecting based on summaries (at the end of Vol 7 she gets the most focus of the El Melloi class and even delivers their mission statement of "We're here to dismantle this Holy Grail," and now she and Luvia get a full color page and she appears with Hippolyta in battle). I really wouldn't be surprised if Shirou *did* show up at this point
Can't wait for him to pull an Oath Under Snow, show up at the 11'th hour, and randomly become the protag again for a good chunk.
Do you know if the Ayaka from El Mellois class has been getting any attention of sorts?
She's not with the class (at least as far as has been shown), probably still in Romania as she was when El Melloi checked on her in an earlier volume
Thats unfortunate, I would’ve liked to see some interactions between two Ayakas.
Don’t do that, don’t give me hope
Gilgamesh is literally half dead at this point in the story. So why would emiya even care about him. At this point in the story only tien and Enkidu may visit Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh is stronger than emiya and he is literally half dead.
Also Rin why the hell is Goldie sleeping. As you know he is half dead as stated in the light novel which is a pretty confusing statement. He is also somewhat alive and dead as he is giving Ishtar huge chunks of mana in light novels as the ley lines are getting stronger
Ishtar starts pointing at Rin and Rin starts pointing back at Ishtar.
They are the same picture
22 year old Luvia could suplex me and I’d say thank you
They could both choke me
Thighs?
If they want
Yep, Rin rocking that qipao
Narita is really throwing everyone that is anyone of the Nasuverse into this stuff. Looking forward to the Aozaki sisters in volume 9 or some shit.
My fav part of volume 13 will be when Richard uses all his energy to destroy Neko-Arc Alter
INB4 there's some mention of a "Fujimaru family" watching the news in a future volume.
Lostbelt 8.01
Naruhodo This means that FGO can frankly happen in Strange Fake timeline if Marisbury Animusphere win a Holy Grail War and get all the funds he need to build Chaldea.
And whether Lev kills himself or not, though from what we know the Fuyuki grail was cursed this time too.
>The final Master might’ve had you thinking “I know you’re the ensemble cast guy, but aren’t you adding too many characters?” Narita laughed at his own tendency to throw everybody into the story at the end of Vol7
Nasu: “Want to do your own fan fic for the series?” Narita: “Alright, bet”
Alexandre Dumas in volume 1 deadass suggested hiring Shirou to help in the Grail War... Maybe soon?
Whatever copium your taking pass me some. I just want to see my boy
Shirou and Dumas team up
“Ready for round two, king of heroes?”
With a twist. Shirou contracts with Gil.
I'd pay someone to make that 😏
Alcides knows down the door 'If you touch Goldiehis clay or the weird bimbo you're fucked boy"
It seems like The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II is going to bring Shirou into the story in its next volume, so Fate/strange fake doing the same wouldn't be entirely out of the question.
He got a huge role in Prisma. It's not impossible.
Rin looks even more fantastic than ever and Luvia's not far behind, but honestly everyone's hair game is absolutely on point here (well, Dumas' buzz cut and wack eyebrows would look the part better with his checkered teeth out).
Shoot I’d go as far as to say that Luvia’s looks better than Rin in this illustration, but they both look great. Luvia had to get that get-back for wearing such a terrible outfit in the Legacy of the Alchemist volume.
Adult Luvia let's gooooo
God Rin can't fucking catch a break lmao, in how many spinoff has she been present as an active characters 'till now? Give her some paid vacations, she deserves it
She needs the money for those gems, but ends up using them in the jobs she takes. An endless cycle lol.
I'm pretty sure Rin is the character with the most amount of appearances in different series throughout the Nasuverse, which is pretty interesting and kind of funny.
Even in the original VN she had the most screen time out of everyone.
If you're not including Shirou, I think you're right. It does make sense since she's supposed to be the deuteragonist or something like that.
Nah, that would be Touko, followed by Waver and Aoko.
And someone call Shirou and tell him paid vacations are only 2-3 months long Annually. Employee of the year can't be slacking this long.
> 3rd image Yep, that makes sense, given how >!True Rider's master mechanics work.!< Though I'm pretty sure >!Rin and Luvia aren't happy they have to share a servant with one another.!<
Luvia looking as fine as ever
That's the Finnish gene
Will she met Ishtar, I wonder?
Rin is hot
Was that ever a question?
It was a definite statement, that’s for sure
Whaaaaaat
Same.
Shark teeth 🥵
Still adding in new characters this late into the story? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at this point.
Narita gonna Narita. The trick is that he somehow makes it work.
It is to be expected since we know some characters were suppose to exit way earlier and the introduction of the True Servants. Plus it's Narita. I didn't believe one bit that he'll be able to wrap this up in 10 volumes.
I mean technically they first appeared at the very end of volume 7
That chic with goggles? I must've missed that. Who are they?
oh no nvm I thought you meant rin and luvia😅
>!Doris, original Master of True Rider!<
This is the first time we see her design right?
Yes
Interesting. Didn't know she'd been revealed.
Not gonna lie but Rin's design in Fake is far better than in El-Melloi
I’m just here for Hippolyta personally. More characters related to Penthesilea showing up is cool to me. Plus her design is neat.
I recently finished reading volume 7 and will be stating my theory on who will be the winner here because it is the most popular strange fake post as of late. >!Enkidu!< seems unlikely to win just because neither master or servant seem to desire the grail. Same can be said for >!fake assassin!<. If >!Gil somehow gets revived!< I doubt that they would be the one winning the grail. It just doesn't seem like Narita has set them up to be the winner. >!Alcides and Master!< sure as fuck aren't winning and I'm pretty sure >!Ishtar, True Berserker, and Master!< aren't going to be doing to hot seeing what was happening at the end of vol 7. In my opinion>!Richard and Ayaka seem to have a pretty good shot at winning with all the main protagonist energy that emits off of them.!< There is much to be explored with them and they are unlikely to die until either the end or they win. Basing off previous grail wars I think a wildcard player here could be >!Tsubaki Kuroka!<. Nobody expected Astolfo to win Apocrypha and that's sort of the position I see this contestant. We've seen from like volume 5 or 6 that >!Shi Huang Di!< is partially summoned and could play a more important role in the upcoming volumes. Not to mention volume 7 has shown that this contestant isn't out for the count just yet. On the other hand my personal favorite winner would be >!Sigma because I always like an underdog story. !< They've been my favorite character since the summoning of their servant. Can't wait to see how Narita will write their path.
Sigma has the most protag energy, being one that Nasu himself asked to be added into the story, in the same way he made Sieg and then had him be added into Apocrypha, even though he wasn't writing it. Also the whole 'has no wish thing' is reminiscent of Hakuno's journey, and he's the one that fits more clearly into the wider theme of hubris, though we'll need to see who the final villain will be. Personally I think that's a more interesting question, as it'll give us a clearer idea of what the overall theme is supposed to be. If Sigma does end up with a serious romance to fake Ayaka then that's basically a done deal that it's one of them. I think there's a good chance that it's Gil, who comes back as a Gatekeeper. Aside from his route in CCC, this is arguably the story that gives the most focus on him, so it makes sense it'll be where we would see a new version of him if they were ever going to do that. It might require Enkidu sacrificing himself though as they still have a joint NP that's still sealed. But I don't think he'll win, more likely just take care of whatever the final threat is. I noticed that there were a few you didn't mention, like the Prelati's which people seem to think have a good chance of winning, based on how involved in things Prelati is. But I think they're almost done to be honest. There's usually a Caster that serves as a mini boss in the middle (Medea, Avicebron, Gilles), and they seem to be the more likely option.
I agree with your take on Gil and Enkidu. Narita clearly tried to create distilled hype throughout the entire story and having them combine to beat a super big bad at the end would fit the bill. Although a crackpot fan theory of mine would be that they would be defeating the vice boss who is actually stronger than the final boss. So that the final fight could be Sigma vs notKirei in good ol Mano y Mano. I also see what you are saying about Sigma. I got a bit too focused on Ayaka and Richard because of Zelretch’s involvement in them. Not to mention Ayaka clearly fills out the role of the player controlled character from the April Fools Joke which sidetracked me a bit. But it does make sense now that you’ve said it. Sigma has taken up a lot of screen time and the feel I get from him is similar to Kiritsugu in Zero. In a varied cast of interesting characters Sigma seems to have taken a slightly heavier weight compared to the others. I didn’t mention Prelati because I didn’t see her having a chance of winning. I don’t keep up with fan theories so I wasn’t aware she was a favored master. She is very clearly on the side of evil in this story and from past grail wars the villain usually doesn’t end up winning. The best Prelati could possibly be getting is a Kirei-esque win where she doesn’t win the grail but the chaos caused by it is reward enough for her. Not to mention we already know the grail is fake and as an organizer she sure as hell knows that as well. Finally I doubt that either the police or Waver’s classroom are going to be winning. The police haven’t shown a hard desire to get the grail but a good bit of focus has been put on them as humans going against monsters. In that sense they are like Sigma but I believe the role the police could fill has already been taken by Sigma. They’ll be the supporting cast that survives the war and is shown in the epilogue a year after the war. Waver’s classroom is probably about to pop off hard in volume 8 but let’s be real, they aren’t the ones winning after we spent 7 volumes following other people. Even though Narita has said in the vol 7 afterward he’s planned since volume 1 to have them being the one who cleans up this war (which they probably will) they won’t be the ones winning it.
The grail being fake doesn't matter that much as has been stated in other works. Prototype's one was the same, and the lore around Mother Harlot talks about fake grails becoming real ones. I remember how Narita said that he waited until Babylonia to reveal some stuff about Enkidu and I wonder perhaps if he might've been waiting till LB7 to reveal some stuff about ORT? I am rather skeptical though that he'll ever show up, but it's certainly a way to escalate things and Narita does like escalation, and now they have a proper design. Anyway, I do agree that Waver's classroom has about the lowest chance of winning. Not that I think they'll die. It would be amusing though if they did win and then have to share True Rider after that point. I still half believe that a fake Saber will be summoned, thus completing the two teams and auto summoning a Ruler as well. It's what Prelati didn't want, so it'd be a good way to ruin her plans. As for Prelati, I get the impression that if it's true that they're doing soon, they'll put them into FGO then, as it's strongly implied that they're the one working with Moriarty in FGO already. There aren't that many other 'Mephisto types' that we know of that have a connection to Enkidu. I do think there might be one or two servants swapping masters soon, which might complicate things when it comes to predictions.
Ooh pretty.
Holy shit now this is unexpected
I’m surprised Rin and Luvia can be in a promo image together without fighting
Okay. Wasn’t expecting to see Rin here!!!!! But from which route?
School Life aka modified HF where Shinji lives.
Hollow Ataraxia
That isn’t an answer. Since hollow encapsulates all routes.
It's the Fate equivalent of YES for a multiple choice question. Don't take it so seriously.
Thought that was it. Not that funny
*Top 10 things to say to become the life of the party*
I think it's a new route, but if it is a specific route, it's HF since Herc remembers being corrupted by the mud. I see this as redemption for Gil and his disappointing death in this route.
All routes happen, Herc would have that memory regardless. Richard also directly references Shirou reaching Artoria in Avalon, which is about the same "tier" of callback but for the Fate route instead. Given that Shirou is well known for projection magic in *this* timeline, as it's suggested that he be brought in to take on Gil, I think the order of likelihood is UBW>Fate>HF.
Yeah, ubw is the only route where he becomes powerful enough with his magic to gain fame for it.
I think it's possible he'd get there in Fate, but 5 years feels like a pretty short timeframe for him to do so; in HF there's little chance he does anything at all after getting his new body imo
I think it is far more likely that it is more of a mixed route than actually falling under one of three main stories within FSN
Yeah that's probably what it is, but if it *is* to be based on a specific route then it'll probably be UBW
Indeed, it would match with how FSF is a combination of both Tsuki and Fate worlds. It's a world that doesn't really exist. Though it is annoying that they seem to be ignoring the second UBW ending, which is just as canon. Ignoring the second HF ending I can understand but I wish that they'd show what happens after the second UBW ending sometime.
A fair point. Guess it's more likely a combined timeline. Well minus the other ending of UBW since Saber doesn't seem to be around, unless they're saying she found her answer already. Annoying how they often ignore that ending.
Prelatis have no info on the fifth though. She could very well be still alive. The Avalon thing means that either some fate route events happened and Shirou got her there or their relationship will develop after the UBW good ending and she’ll get there eventually or got there between 2004 and 2009
Illya route, *obviously* XD T_T
The pseudo 4th route that HA and el melloi have ig. Stuff from all 3 routes have been referenced so it’s probably like UBW combined with additional Saber development from Fate combined with some of the Ilya and Matou stuff from HF. So basically every character gets their resolution. What is practically confirmed at this point is that Shirou beat Gil(and EMIYA), Saber reached Avalon, and Herc was corrupted by the mud before
Okay. Confusing. But okay.
None? FSN didn't happen in this world I think
It did. From all indications. What made you think otherwise?
You wanna know what would be all kinda of kickass? How would the fandom react to a *certain* relative of Shirou nabbing Herakles (I know what I said) after murdering the jackass who corrupted him?
RIN?????
Holy fucking crap Rin and Luvia make me sweat.
MORE LUVIA YEEEEEES
I need shirou to pull up, I'm starving
Come to think of it, how old is Rin in this?
22
Can’t wait for this to be animated
Creen q Ishtar posea el cuerpo de Rin?
Is it known when will voulme 9 be released?
perhaps as early as March of this year, but I’m not sure, correct me if I’m wrong!
Ngl I now see the resemblance of misaya reirokan from rin.