History YMMV / Arknights

** The FinalBoss of Episode 14 and the second story arc as a whole is [[spoiler:Theresa]], who ends up not being very threatening for a climactic final battle. While she ''is'' [[DamageSpongeBoss incredibly bulky]], she doesn't hit particularly hard even with her OrbitingParticleShield, and her backup is the bigger threat through sheer numbers. Even that, however, is also cut short by the fact that [[spoiler:you only need to defeat Theresa in her first phase to instantly win the battle, regardless of how many enemies have yet to spawn, with the following battle being a CutsceneBoss.]]

** Meteorite gets casually mentioned in the "Grani and the Knights' Treasure" event despite not appearing there at all.
** Players who started during the "Heart of Surging Flame" event may be confused on who "Male Tourist B" is and why he had a [[TheCameo cameo]]. He is Big Bob, who made his debut on the "Knights' Treasure" event, which takes place before "Heart of Surging Flame".

* MorePopularReplacement: The [[DecoyDamsel Chained Sarkaz Girl]] encounter from ''Phantom & Crimson Solitaire'' is one of many repurposed events from ''Ceobe's Fungimist'', replacing a similar one with a Cautus girl feigning injury to try and lure you into an ambush. While her predecessor was largely forgotten, the Sarkaz girl became an instant fan favourite thanks to her appealing design and more interesting characterisation as a powerful Vampire noble as opposed to a mere wasteland bandit, and proved popular enough to recieve an {{expy}} in every subsequent ''Integrated Strategies'' season.

* MorePopularReplacement: The [[DecoyDamsel Chained Sarkaz Girl]] encounter from ''Phantom & Crimson Solitaire'' is one of many repurposed events from ''Ceobe's Fungimist'', replacing a similar one with a Cautus girl feigning injury to try and lure you into an ambush. While her predecessor was largely forgotten, the Sarkaz girl became an instant fan favourite thanks to her appealing design and more interesting characterisation as a powerful Vampire noble as opposed to a mere wasteland bandit.

* RonTheDeathEater: While he takes up the role of TheHeart of the [[spoiler: reformed Reunion to keep the movement from re-degenerating into a violent group similar to Talulah's days]] and remains true to his morals [[spoiler: even up until his HeroicSacrifice]], some players consider [[spoiler: Guard]] as an UngratefulBastard who rendered all of [[spoiler: Ace and Scout's sacrifices in Chapter 1 moot]] by essentially joining the very group that caused their deaths in the first place just because [[spoiler: Guard thought Reunion's visions of advocating the infected's rights are better than Rhodes Island's after [[BecomingTheMask spending some time]] with Patriot's Shieldguards during the Reunion arc.]] Even though [[spoiler: Kal'tsit canonically let Guard go from Rhodes so that he can be freed of his obligations for the company when fighting for the infected's rights and his eventual death is treated as a [[AlasPoorVillain somber moment]],]] his reputation is most likely damaged for good in the fanbase's eyes due to his fully conscious decision to "betray" Rhodes Island due to his fanboying for Patriot's ideals.

* ScrappyWeapon: Well, ''items'', but the King's Collectibles from ''Integrated Strategies'' see very little use outside of extremely niche strategies. The buffs they give are fairly substaintial, but they [[CriticalStatusBuff only trigger when you're at 1 life]], forcing the user to intentionally bring themselves to 1 HP and then fight under the pressure of not being able to leak even a single time. Furthermore, many encounters, squads, or buffs can force players to pick up Life Points, which would instantly invalidate the items and force you to leak again just to trigger their effects, even if you took Spearhead Squad, which is otherwise perfectly suited for the items - albeit with no guarantee of whether or not you'll even ''get them'' that run, with the randomness of the mode also severely undermining the game seemingly want you to collect as many as possible and synergize their effects. You can't even get Objective Shields as they count towards Life Points for the purposes of the item, which makes the King's Fellowship (sacrifice all Life Points for an equivalent amount of Shield) not even work the way it was seemingly intended to. Integrated Strategies 3 and 4 also penalize life loss with the Light/Collapse mechanics to make it more punishing to even trigger the effect, with the former additionally punishing you harshly for fighting at low life points, meaning you have to shoot yourself in the foot to even ''use'' the items. If you can't meet all of these requirements, all of the items are dead weight, especially the King's Crown which not only has the 1 LP requirement, but only reaches its full power with ''three'' or more King's items, with no guarantee whether you'll get either the Crown or the other items. And while "useless" is still not actively detrimental, the King's Crystal defies this and ''drains 2 LP on every battle in exchange for Hope and Ingots'', which while setting up for the King's items...also doesn't guarantee that you'll get any to make use of it, which makes it an active liability in most situations, especially if it was forced onto you as a random Collectible.

** Many jokes and memes about Hypergryph being secretly a music company due to all the SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic they made becomes this with the fact that Arknights officially had a collaboration with Rayark's VideoGame/CytusII in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XeFxS1JKWs December 2021]]. This later gets doubled into hilarity as in 2023, that years's Ambience Synesthesia concert '''[[https://twitter.com/AK_CN_Shitpost/status/1725170275870720389 won the HMMA Awards]]'''.

** A BlackComedy example. This isn't [[VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors the only game]] where [[spoiler:a character named Ace dies from being incinerated. The only difference is that the latter only meets this fate in one ending, while Operator Ace has been KilledOffForReal]].

*** Pre-amnesia Doctor advocated for the exile of a traitor to Babel instead of an execution. [[spoiler:Ironically, Marco was '''more''' loyal to Theresa than Doctor was, but the Doctor probably made up Marco's motive (him losing his faith in Theresa) using ''the Doctor's wavering faith in the plan to save their fellow Precursors'' as a basis. Worse still, the Doctor reporting Marco's suicide (which was actually Marco letting Ace execute him on Kal'tsit's orders) may have been the Doctor wanting to do just that after arranging for Theresa's death had she not wiped their mind in her dying moments.]]

* {{Starboarding}}: Those not dissuaded by Kal'tsit's hatred of the Doctor for [[spoiler:killing Theresa]], '''''especially''''' after "Babel" [[spoiler:paints the pair as akin to [[IncestYayShipping a parent and their daughter]]]], might have a hard time pairing them after reading "Lone Trail": [[spoiler:she explicitly tells the Doctor that their StrictlyProfessionalRelationship over 10,000 years being anything more than that simply won't help either of them in their mission to protect Terra, which makes the idea of Kal'tsit reciprocating the Doctor's affection quite implausible (at least up to that point in the timeline)]].

*** Pre-amnesia Doctor advocated for the exile of a traitor to Babel instead of an execution. [[spoiler:That Doctor probably saw themselves in the traitor, as their own faith in the plan to save their fellow Precursors was wavering, not unlike the traitor's faith in Theresa. Worse still, the traitor's suicide may have convinced the Doctor to do the same after arranging for Theresa's death if she hadn't wiped their mind in her dying moments.]]

* CanonFodder: The Flame Demon Incident is a NoodleIncident in-game, but its most common fan interpretation is that [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin it had to do with a flame demon]] that was somehow inside Ifrit, or even put in her, and it got out momentarily, causing a lot of damage and Ifrit going out of control (not unlike [[Manga/BungoStrayDogs the entire case of Nakahara Chuuya and Arahabaki]], but with flames and a little girl instead of with gravity and a young man). Typically, Saria and Silence were the instigators (if unknowing differs from interpretation to interpretation). This is based on Ifrit's E2 art and the fact that an ifrit is a type of flame entity.
** ''Records of Orignium - Rhine Lab'' confirms what happened in full: [[spoiler:Ifrit did have a semi-conscious Diablo shard implanted in her as part of Parvis and Rhine Lab's experiments, and she went berserk when Silence tried to drug her and break her out of containment, forcing Saria to intervene and nearly kill her in the process.]]

* TaintedByThePreview: [[spoiler:The ContentLeak of a playable Theresa nets this reaction from many players who bemoan that Theresa should have stayed dead and that Hypergryph is breaking their previously establisedh status quo of not making deceased characters playable. Even after said unit, which was revealed to be the crown of the Lord of the Fiends, "Civilight Eterna" itself taking on Theresa's image, and is individually ''different'' from Theresa, [[WinBackTheCrowd which some group of fans accept and warm up to her for it]], other players aren't convinced and argue that she's just a playable Theresa in all but name.]]

** The Witch King, fought as the final boss of ''Zwilligsturme im Herbst'', is a surprisingly easy fight to overcome despite being hyped up as the last remnant of the greatest caster Terra has ever seen (although [[FightingAShadow him being just a remnant]] may serve to justify it). In his first phase, he's a teleporting caster boss with a huge amount of HP and RES along with highly damaging attacks, but his special abilities aren't nearly as threatening as other bosses fought before him: Punishment of Insipidity can be countered by just keeping your units in range of their allies to free them from the marks, with its instakill mechanic only coming into play if you neglect the sealed units for a whole ''40 seconds'', while Punishment of Foolishness' forced redeployment can easily be baited out while generally being only an inconvenience unless you mismanaged deployment order and had it hit your core units, and can even work in your favor if it repositions a unit with their skill refreshed and in a position to tear the Witch King a new one. In his second phase, he becomes a StationaryBoss instead, with increased DEF and a one-way shield that blocks ''any'' damage from that direction, but although his attacks become global ranged and gain a wider splash radius, his second phase also ''halves'' his ATK, making his attacks incredibly easy to outlast as long as you don't cluster your units too much or neglect your healers. He does take control of the Variations and prevent the player from stopping the enemies from unlocking their special abilities, but if you have a general idea of what ; in fact, he'll even ''help'' you by dealing massive Arts damage to any enemy that is Stunned during his Variations. On top of this, although his RES is extremely high, his DEF is comparatively a lot lower, even in his second phase, and his event stages just so happen to give you Aspects of Annihilation that can convert your units' hits into physical damage and deliver it to him from behind his one-way shield...

** Eikthyrnir from ''Expeditioner's Joklumarkar'' bucks the trend of Integrated Strategies second ending bosses being [[ThatOneBoss fiendishly hard]], and in turn becomes possibly one of the easiest final bosses out of the four seasons to date. Although his HP is massive and his titanic DEF makes him nearly invulnerable to physical damage, his ATK is surprisingly low for an IS-exclusive melee boss despite his fast attack rate, letting any dedicated tank with a few Collectibles under their belt permanently stall him with the help of any source of healing. Even though he has the ability to permanently freeze anyone he attacks, he lacks the Frozen Monstrosity or Last Knight's damage bonus against frozen targets, meaning he often has no way to push through a sole Defender with healing support. His backup ''can'' take out blockers frozen by his attacks, but his waves are programmed to come independently of how he's doing, meaning that it's perfectly possible to stall Eikthyrnir until he's the last enemy left, and then go to town. Not only that, but as long as you avoid skills or collectibles that cause either the blocker or the healer stalling Eikthyrnir to deal damage (e.g. Hoshiguma's S2 or the Devotion collectible) the weak starting mobs will permanently soak up the staller's block count keeping them safe from the actual dangerous foes such as the Yeti Icecleavers who will walk past them harmlessly. Every time Eikthyrnir loses 30% of his HP, he'll perform a charge which makes him unblockable and NighInvulnerable as he rushes through a good chunk of the level - this usually causes an instant loss if you aren't prepared for it, but if you block him early and block him each time his buff wears off, he physically cannot make it to the blue box even with all three of his dashes. His stage even telegraphs the chokepoints that can be used to know where to place down blockers against him. While you ''will'' most likely lose the first time around going against the boss blind if you try to tackle it like a regular stage, once you know the boss's mechanics and prepare your squad beforehand you will rarely ever have trouble with him again. To add insult to injury, although he can shrug off Binds and Slows in his charging state, there are several loopholes: he's not immune to Levitate, making it possible to further waste the duration (especially if you brought Ho'olheyak or Qanipalaat who can permanently lock him down with a few attack speed buffs), Mostima's third skill with a fully upgraded module can bypass his Slow immunity to completely immobilize him[[note]]One of Mostima's talents inflict Slow - Movement Speed, which is different from the Slow Decel Binder Supporters apply, on every enemy inside her range. Her full module upgrade increases the slowing effect from 15-18% to 30-33%, and her third skill triples it, letting her inflict a ''90-99%'' Slow - Movement Speed on enemies[[/note]], and Shu's third skill can constantly teleport him back to the starting point of Shu's seeded tiles whenever he tries to escape. Compared to the brutal difficulty of the previous secret bosses, Eikthyrnir can be taken down with shocking ease even at the higher difficulty levels with the only additional requirements being a more sturdy blocker to stall him with.

** The entirety of some story arcs rivals that of ''novels''. A website ([[https://050644zf.github.io/ArknightsStoryTextReader/?s=en_US#/en_US/analysis EN]], [[https://050644zf.github.io/ArknightsStoryTextReader/?s=zh_CN#/zh_CN/analysis CN]]) keeps track of the word count of all the story arcs, and on CN, ''Zwillingstrume im Herbst'' tops it at 148,804 characters, although it's worth noting that these word counts tend to be a good bit lower when translated into English.[[note]]Lone Trail, which was 143,893 words in the CN script, is "only" 78,139 in the EN translation.[[/note]] The entirety of the game's story (not even including things like Operator Records, the mangas, or other supplementary texts) is over 1 million English words and counting, and many of the stories also [[ContinuityLockout require reading of one or more previous stories to understand]].

** Logos managed to win over the fanbase [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen before he even had a character design]]. He made a great first impression as the unseen [[SwitchingPOV viewpoint character]] in ''Rewinding Breeze -- Recollection'', where he [[spoiler: saved the lives of Mudrock and her squad and brought them to Rhodes Island, making him directly responsible for another dark horse becoming playable]]. While further information about him was scarce, this air of mystery only piqued further interest. It wasn't until Episode 11 that [[UnseenNoMore he'd make his onscreen debut]], and it quickly became one of the most talked-about aspects of the chapter.

** Kal'tsit's interactions with the Doctor have lead to the popular interpretation that the two were romantically involved at one point prior to the Doctor's amnesia, and that she's being a {{tsundere}} this time around. [[spoiler:Chapter 7 and 8 confirms this to be completely untrue. Kal'tsit holds the Doctor openly responsible for killing Theresa, and actively hates them. The BABEL event debunks it further by revealing that Kal'Tsit is ''created'' by the Doctor.]]

* TaintedByThePreview: [[spoiler:The ContentLeak of a playable Theresa nets this reaction from many players who bemoan that Theresa should have stayed dead and that Hypergryph is breaking their previously establisedh status quo of not making deceased characters playable. Even after said unit, which was revealed to be the crown "Civilight Eterna" itself taking on Theresa's image, resonating with the real Theresa's wish to see Amiya grow, and is individually ''different'' from Theresa, which some group of fans accept and warm up to her for it, other players aren't convinced and argue that she's just a playable Theresa in all but name.]]

* WinBackTheCrowd: [[spoiler:A ContentLeak occuring near the time the ''Babel'' event is announced, where Theresa is said to be a Playable character has fans grow skeptical, wondering if Hypergryph is going against its previous established quo of not having deceased characters playable if the leak is true. When the 5th anniversary livestream reveals the new operators, the Theresa unit being leaked is instead named ''Civilight Eterna'', revealing that the Theresa that was brought back was the crown itself borrowing Theresa's deceased body instead of the real Theresa herself, winning most of the skeptical fans to warm up to her.]]

* TaintedByThePreview: [[spoiler:The ContentLeak of a playable Theresa nets this reaction from many players who bemoan that Theresa should have stayed dead and that Hypergryph is breaking their previously establisedh status quo of not making deceased characters playable. Even after said unit, which was revealed to be the crown "Civilight Eterna" itself taking on Theresa's image, resonating with the real Theresa's wish to see Amiya grow, and is individually ''different'' from Theresa, which some group of fans accept and warm up to her for it, some players aren't convinced and argue that she's just a playable Theresa in all but name.]]

** Reed, with her quiet demeanor and the warmth she exudes in her trust lines, manages to evoke in a number of Doctors a strong desire to cherish and protect her from the horrors [[spoiler:she was forced to experience and partake in as part of Dublinn, especially from her manipulative and overbearing sister]].

** Surprisingly, with the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries'' - both are set on worlds where there are hazardous crystals that slowly poison the planet, but also have extreme economic value, and feature a highly0advanced terrorist organization as the main villains.

** Because of how abrupt their reveal was and the sheer lack of information on them despite their seeming significance to the grander story and the Doctor's backstory, pretty much everything regarding [[spoiler:Priestess]] is this. One particularly popular fan theory posits that [[spoiler:she's a colleague or close partner of the Doctor from a bygone era, who put them into the Sarcophagus to save them from some apocalyptic disaster that turned Terra into its current state. Many of these theories also involve the disaster in question involving the creation of Originium or the LittleBitBeastly races of Terra, the latter of which stems from the fact that neither the Doctor or Priestess have any visible animal traits.]] ''Lone Trail'' [[spoiler:elaborates that the Doctor and Priestess did work together at some point, and that Priestess is supposedly "responsible" for Originium, although the circumstances of the Doctor being put into the Sarcophagus or their relationship to the Ancient races remains unclear.]] ''Babel'' and the fifth anniversary elaborate on this more: [[spoiler:Priestess and the Doctor (then known as the Oracle) were responsible for the creation and spread of Originium as a means to preserve their kind, while Priestess specifically was credited for the conception of the project as well as the creation of Kal'tsit/AMa-10, as well as its current state, while it's heavily implied that the Ancient races were creatures from their original home that were mutated by Originium into the image of the First Civilization.]]

** Because of how abrupt their reveal was and the sheer lack of information on them despite their seeming significance to the grander story and the Doctor's backstory, pretty much everything regarding [[spoiler:Priestess]] is this. One particularly popular fan theory posits that [[spoiler:she's a colleague or close partner of the Doctor from a bygone era, who put them into the Sarcophagus to save them from some apocalyptic disaster that turned Terra into its current state. Many of these theories also involve the disaster in question involving the creation of Originium or the LittleBitBeastly races of Terra, the latter of which stems from the fact that neither the Doctor or Priestess have any visible animal traits.]] ''Lone Trail'' [[spoiler:elaborates that the Doctor and Priestess did work together at some point, and that Priestess is supposedly "responsible" for Originium, although the circumstances of the Doctor being put into the Sarcophagus or their relationship to the Ancient races remains unclear.]]

** Hoederer was just one of many operators who could randomly show up in U-Official's chat during ''The Ultimate Beautiful Girl'', but since this happened before he was PromotedToPlayable and was one of the first pieces of evidence the fans got that he would survive the Victoria arc, they really latched onto it. As a result, Hoederer's image among the fandom quickly shifted from a stoic ReluctantWarrior to a fawning U-Official superfan.

** With the latter's release, there's a significant overlap with ''VideoGame/LimbusCompany'' fans due to both games being strategic gachas with a similar aesthetic, an emphasis on story within a dystopian setting, and even a faceless and slightly unhinged AmnesiacHero with an implied dark past who is constantly depicted as being beleaguered by their employees. In pieces of crossover art and other media, it's often joked that the venn diagram between the two fandoms is a perfect circle.

** In ''Babel'', [[spoiler:it's revealed that [[AwfulTruth the Doctor made an agreement with Theresis to kill Theresa]] by sending nearly all of Babel's personnel out and disabling the ship's defenses from within when the assault began, and In BB-9, the player is forced to participate in the act by placing a roadblock that prevent the assassins from going to the blue box, leading them straight to Theresa instead. To make matters worse, [[MoralityPet Amiya]] was coincidentally also in the room with Theresa when the assault began - even having her own unique sprite on the stage - and both the Doctor and the player could only watch as Theresa desperately fights the assassins off to protect Amiya, ''[[MamaBear even when her HP has reached 0]]'', and by the end of it both the Doctor and the player felt '''absolutely horrible''' from what they've done]].