Why Fate/strange Fake Breaks Every Rule of Fate Canon (And Why Nasu Loves It)

The Nasuverse is famous for its rules.

There are rules about how magic works. Rules about which timelines can exist. Rules about who can sit on the Throne of Heroes. And usually, if you break a rule, the fandom (and the lore) eats you alive.

But Fate/strange Fake didn't just break a rule. It took the entire rulebook, set it on fire, and danced on the ashes. And the craziest part? Kinoko Nasu, the creator of Fate, absolutely loves it.

Here is how Ryohgo Narita (the madman behind Durarara!! and Baccano!) committed crimes against canon and got away with it.

1. The "Impossible" Timeline (Fate + Tsukihime)

This shouldn't exist. Period.

In the strict laws of the Nasuverse, the world of using Servants (Fate) and the world where Dead Apostles/Vampires reign supreme (Tsukihime) are mutually exclusive. Their "Human Order" foundations are fundamentally different. You can't have strong Heroic Spirits and strong Dead Apostles in the same bucket.

The Rule Break: Narita asked for a "glitch."

He specifically requested permission to create a "timeline accident." A unique pocket of reality where these two oil-and-water elements crash into each other.

The Result: We get Servants fighting Dead Apostles who are on the level of Ancestors. In any other Fate work, this is "illegal." In Strange Fake, it's Tuesday. It’s a crossover that canon says is impossible, made possible by sheer narrative audacity.

2. The "Fake" Grail War System

A standard Holy Grail War has structure. 7 Masters, 7 Servants, specific classes. It's a ritual.

The Rule Break: The Snowfield Grail War is a buggy, broken mess.

• No Saber Class: Ideally, the strongest class. In the early stages? Gone.
• Illegal Classes: Suddenly we have a Watcher. We have "True" classes showing up mid-game.
• Servants that aren't... people: Look at Pale Rider. It's not a hero. It’s not a mage. It is the literal concept of disease given form. It doesn't wield a sword; it wields the bubonic plague.

This isn't a "Perang Cawan Suci" (Holy Grail War). It's a "Perang Cawan Palsu" (Fake Grail War) that mimics the Fuyuki system but fails so spectacularly that it creates magnificent chaos.

3. Servants That "Shouldn't Exist"

The Throne of Heroes is usually reserved for, you know, heroes. People with legends.

The Rule Break: Narita treats the Throne like an open buffet.

• Jack the Ripper: Forget the loli from Apocrypha. This Jack is a shapeshifting monster representing the concept of "Mystery" itself—because nobody ever knew who Jack really was. It’s a Servant made of "unknown."
• Alexandre Dumas: A writer who can rewrite the reality of other Servants? Dumas literally hacks the stats of others because he's a "storyteller."
• Flat Escardos: A Master who ignores magic logic because he's too much of a genius idiot.

These characters defy the rigid categorization of standard Fate lore. They feel like anomalies because they are.

4. Why Nasu Loves It (The "Narita Magic")

So why didn't Nasu shut this down?

The Origin: This whole project started as an April Fool's joke. Narita wrote an intro for a fake game. Nasu read it, laughed, and instead of sending a cease-and-desist, he essentially said: "This is insane. Write the whole thing. It's official now."

The "Golden Ticket": Nasu sees Strange Fake as a playground. He gave Narita a "Golden Ticket" to bypass the headache-inducing rules of the Nasuverse for the sake of the Rule of Cool.

Nasu loves it because it captures the spirit of Type-Moon—over-the-top battles, complex philosophy, and urban fantasy weirdness—without being shackled by the decade-long baggage of "strictly canon" mechanics.

A Beautiful Anomaly

Fate/strange Fake isn't "canon" because it follows the rules. It's canon because it breaks them with so much style that the god of the universe (Nasu) clapped.

It is a love letter to the chaos of the franchise. If strict lore is a cage, Strange Fake is the beast chewing through the bars.

!TIP If you are confused about where this fits in the watch order, don't worry. It doesn't. Just enjoy the ride.