Thread: Fate's possible weakness

I posted a couple of similar posts in another thread. To protect that thread from going off-topic, I opted to post a separate topic about Fate's possible weakness.

I observed that Fate seems vulnerable on sudden enemy attacks. I initially thought that Eva beat him because she's much more powerful than him, but as I read and re-read the manga, I noticed that Fate is almost completely defenseless on such situations. Considering he's a high level mage, he should be able to counter attacks easily.

proofs:

1. When Negi tried to attack with a punch, Fate put on a barrier, but it was just a plan as Negi employed the delayed spell, which surprised the white haired boy.

2. Fate is about to punch Asuna, but Negi countered it, then Asuna broke his barrier, in return Fate was punched by Negi. Take note of Fate's reaction when his barrier was broken down easily

3. When he's about to petrify Setsuna, Negi, who was almost paralyzed, suddenly punched him

4. He was greatly surprised when Asuna can cancel magic, which he, a high level mage doid NOT anticipated

5. When he's about to punch Negi again, he was surprised that Eva teleported through his own shadow and defeated him once

6. Fate tried to kill Eva through his water based spell. Eva was struck, but since she's immortal, she just regenerated. She turned into a swarm of bats and suddenly appeared behind Fate and defeated him twice. This caused the white haired boy to realize that Eva is much, much stronger than him, causing him to retreat.

7. Fate also tried to petrify Negi, but Asuna protected him, and Asuna cancelled the effect, which confirms his hunch of Asuna's magic cancel ability. Again, he didn't anticipated that. He opted to eliminate Asuna first.

8. When white haired-boy tried to attack Setsuna, Ku Fei suddenly appeared on Fate's side and punched him. That punch sent Fate flying. Although Ku Fei said that the punch seems to have no effect at all, carefully look at the uppermost panel of Period 188, page 08: Fate's body is 'flying' backwards on a straight line and with his body crooked badly - a proof of him being hit!

I just remembered something else, not sure if it counts though.

What about that time Kaede escaped from the magician's "dark sphere" (don't know the name)

He was like "A charm on a hair? Cra-"
Surprised if you ask me.

Indeed, Fate seems to be caught off-guard a lot for a mage of his power. Perhaps he lacks that 'combat experience' thing. A lot. Which is quite natural if he is as young as he looks. Remember, Negi was the first person to actually hit Fate.
Or maybe Fate is a remote-control puppet, in which case he has really bad perception and poor reflexes. And no danger-sense or anything of the sort, since his real form is out of danger.

Maybe he underestimated Negi and the rest, and lowered his standards in combat and magic. Does it really matter what his weaknesses are?

Not really

We're kinda going overboard about how he can be defeated

He might not even be the final boss anyways

too predictable.. pretty sure he's got more higher ups than him...

well, we already know several people who are stronger than him like rankan, eva, nagi and possibly takamichi. i highly doubt that he is going to be a final boss but he is a good antagonist for negi.

Someone told me...

Fate's power is NOT YET perfected, what he meant of the phrase 'not perfected' is still unknown. But still, this is a major flaw of that badass white-haired boy. Given Negi's newly-acquired power and some training, there'll now be a larger chance of defeating Fate (I'm not saying that Negi will instantly win, but only a larger chance). To do that (of course) is to take advantage of your enemie's weakpoint.

death incarnate: Fate and his cohorts are being made and controlled. It's clear that the overall antagonist remain to be known.

When Eva first fought Fate, she said he moved like a construct (a doll). So its possible that Fate is just a summoned creature or a golem created by some other mage. So its likely that Fate doesnt have the ability to think quickly or worry about his own safety. Both of which may make him slow to react to things that he/his master was not prepared for.