Flat’s ‘Return’ in Fate/strange Fake Explained: Who Is Thia?

During the events of the final episode of Fate/Strange Fake Season 1, Flat is targeted and killed by the US government. While this assassination appears to remove a major player from the board, his death acts as a catalyst for a much more dangerous entity to arrive.

Flat’s physical body immediately returns to life, but the “soul” in it is no longer the genius young mage. Let’s dive into what that entity is, what the history behind it is, and why it is in Flat’s body to begin with.

How the Assassination of Flat Doomed Many

The assassination of Flat Escardos is ordered by Faldeus Dioland, who is a central figure within the organization managing the localized Holy Grail War in Snowfield. His objective is to maintain strict control over the variables and participants within the city. Faldeus determines that Flat’s presence and unpredictable actions pose a risk to his control.

While the intended outcome of this action was to permanently remove Flat from the board, as he was too gifted for his own good, the actual outcome turns out to be the activation of a dormant entity. The moment Flat practically dies, a secondary entity residing within his body awakens and seizes total control of his physical form. This entity is Thia Escardos.

Furthermore, it appears that Van Fem, one of the strongest Dead Apostles, who somehow happens to be a good friend of Flat Escardos, is aware of what is going on. Though that is speculative.

The entity displays no hesitation and requires no adjustment period to get used to the body; it appears almost as if Flat himself had some personality changes and magical buffs. Thia locates and massacres the Thorn assassins responsible for the sniper attack with minimal effort. Undoubtedly, the entire sequence is another one of those moments where the studio forgets that the budget exists, something common in the Fate franchise.

Faldeus Dioland had established a magical surveillance network to monitor the entirety of Snowfield. This infrastructure consisted of widespread security cameras and numerous magical familiars, all linked back to the organization’s central computer systems, which allowed Faldeus to have information on basically anyone. Thia targets this network directly. Within a few seconds, Thia destroys the entire system Faldeus had placed.

Thia Escardos: The Prime Species in Making

Flat Escardos from Fate/Strange Fake | Credit: A-1 Pictures

Thia Escardos is not a human being or a servant like others. Thia is an artificial entity that basically took 1800 years to create. This was initiated by an ancestor of the Escardos family named Mesala Escardos. Mesala’s objective was to ensure the continuation of terrestrial life following the eventual extinction of humanity or humanity’s departure from the planet, something that is inevitable in the Nasuverse.

To achieve this, Mesala designed a “Prime Species” – a new form of life intended to inherit the Earth. The foundation for this entity was encoded directly into the Escardos family’s Magic Crest. For new fans of the Fate franchise, most of what has been said till now could be confusing. What exactly is a magic crest?

A Magic Crest is a collection of magical circuits and accumulated knowledge passed down through generations of a magus lineage. For fans who have seen Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Bladeworks, the green circuits that appeared on Shirou’s body are none other than the Magic Circuits that he inherited.

The Escardos Crest was designed to wait for a host possessing the specific biological and magical parameters required to sustain the Prime Species. Flat Escardos met these criteria. According to Mesala’s original design, the activation of the Magic Crest should have completely erased Flat’s consciousness, replacing it entirely with Thia.

Flat was engineered to be a disposable vessel. However, that didn’t turn out to be the case because of how unique Flat himself is – as he had the ability to “see” the flow of magic from a young age.  But now that the original owner of the body is dead, we will see what chaos Thia ensues in the upcoming season that was teased shortly after season one’s end (as reported by Crunchyroll).

Are you excited for the arrival of this absolute powerhouse in the next season? Tell us in the comments.

Fate/Strange Fake is streaming on Crunchyroll