Fate/Grand Order - Sabers G to M / Characters

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Gaius Julius Caesar

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/caesar1.png

First of the Empire

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{Formal Outfit}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Ryōtarō Okiayu

Illustrator: Shimadoriru

"Saber... Saber? I wonder what makes me a Saber?"

Perhaps the greatest of the rulers of the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar earned his fame in the Gallic Wars and his campaign into Britain. He was a skilled military commander and a womanizer, said to have fathered offspring with feyfolk descended from the goddess Venus. Cunning and ambitious, he revels in trickery and uses his frightening intelligence to win his people's loyalty.

He is an antagonist in the Septem chapter and plays a role in the first Christmas event ("Almost Weekly Santa Alter") and the second Halloween event ("Super☆Ghouls 'n Pumpkins").

Acrofatic: For a Servant, Caesar is surprisingly rotund. And for such a large man, his Agility is B-rank. His animation renewal demonstrates this by giving him a Rolling Attack.
"My figure is different from statues? Fool! Look at different angles!"
Adipose Rex: Very inexplicably, as the real Julius Caesar was depicted as relatively thin by his time's standards. When Cleopatra runs across him, she's surprised at his current appearance, so there may be something wrong with his current appearance compared to how he was when Cleopatra knew him. Side materials have suggested it might be because he started Post-Stress Overeating after backstabbing his way to the top of Roman politics.
Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: In Cleopatra's second interlude their son Caesarion is distinctly unenthused about being Together in Death with him, maybe because he knows his dad is faking it.
Caesar: Ahh... Wait for me, Caesarion! I'm coming to join you, my son!
Caesarion's Voice: (Uh, that's okay. I'm fine on my own. Really.)
And a Diet Coke: Caesar's Valentine's Day return gift Craft Essence, Cena, Caesar Style, is a lavish feast with "exponentially more [food] than usual. There's more fruit, in an attempt to be health-conscious". There's so much that Caesar then proposes inviting Cleopatra to help out.
Animation Bump: He received an animation renewal for the 2020 Valentine's Day event. More impressively, he has two different sets of animations for whether or not he's at Stage 3 ascension.
Bad Santa: During the first Christmas event, he plays this trope straighter than Santa Alter. While Alter actually did her job, Caesar decided to use the fact that people confused him for Santa to con people. (He can't bring himself to scam Nursery and Jack, though).
- By the time of Nightingale's Christmas Carol, he's amended a bit and switched to selling overpriced Henshin Hero toys, claiming it is the ultimate balance between fulfilling the desires of children and his own capitalistic tendencies. In his defense, his Aśvatthāman-themed toys kick ass.
Balance Buff:
- His Incitement EX was buffed from a Rank Up Quest, and it now gives him a three turn crit star generation increase. Combined with his Noble Phantasm and a Quick chain, and he can output incredibly good crit stars despite being a Saber.
- The 2020 Valentines event gave him Rank Up Quest that increased his NP's base damage, gave it a Buff Chance Increase that scales depending on how low his HP is and a chance for his NP to increase his ATK up to five times.
Being Evil Sucks: Caesar admits that at first he didn't mind all the deception and manipulation but as he continued to do so, he felt disgusted by those actions and would go on conquests to get away from it all.
Beware the Silly Ones: His stout build hides a deceptively high strength and speed; and under his lazy attitude and weird speech patterns, he's actually a brilliant thinker and highly charismatic leader, complete with C-rank Charisma and EX-rank Incitement (effectively meaning he's impossibly good at speeches) skills. A Running Gag is that whenever he appears, people end up wondering how a guy who looks like he does can move around so fast.
Big Beautiful Man: Despite his weight, Cleopatra seems to have come around to his new looks, and as mentioned under Kavorka Man, he's seen as quite a ladykiller, nearly seducing Nero effortlessly in Septim. His appearance on Show Time definitely shows off his appearance better.
Big Eater: He claims in Septem that his consumption of fine Roman cooking is what led to his body being so rotund.
Blade Spam: The active effect of Crocea Mors allows Caesar to get an automatic clean hit on the target, after which he keeps on doing a luck check until he fails to deliver a flurry of consecutive sword slashes.
Brilliant, but Lazy: He confides to the Protagonist that while he could help lead the Singularity missions, he's so exhausted from all the bureaucracy and busywork from his previous life as Emperor that he's content to follow his lead as a loyal Servant. Could be seen as a case of being Properly Paranoid given all the unexpected treachery that does come the Protagonist's way as the story goes on.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Indulged in this frequently while he was alive, but dissimilar from Lu Bu, his Karmic Death and guilt over his misdeeds have dissuaded him from doing more of it as a Servant.
Combo: In the character material, Crocea Mors' main strength is that it gives Caesar a free first hit, and then continues to give him a free next hit after a Luck check. In theory, this can be an infinite chain of attacks against an unlucky opponent.
Composite Character: Some of his attributes (also affecting his appearance) come from Artistic License – History. Most prominently, the "first emperor" of Rome was not him, but his grand-nephew and adoptive son Gaius Octavius (later known as Augustus Caesar).
Consummate Liar: One of his main traits is his incredibly smooth lying, being able to con most people out of their possessions.
Cool Crown: Wears a laurel wreath, which becomes golden from his Third Ascension onward.
Cool Sword: Crocea Mors, which has the power to instantly claim victory in close combat, though he never feels like making the first strike.
Cultured Badass: He's one of history's greatest examples, with his Bond CE being a copy of the Commentaries on the Gallic War. He's a solid enough writer that Murasaki Shikibu asks if he could write another Commentarii.
Death of a Thousand Cuts: Caesar's Crocea Mors: Yellow Death is executed by slashing his opponents multiple times. When prepared properly, it can lead to overkill.
Everyone Has Standards:
- While he's willing to use people mistaking him as Santa during the first Christmas event as a way to cheat them out of their savings, when he meets two lonely little girls (Jack the Ripper and Nursery Rhyme) who make the same mistake he comes clean about not being the true Santa and says that the real Santa will be along shortly to give them gifts. If Santa doesn't come, then he will definitely have something for them next year.
- During the Da Vinci event, the heroes run across him and Paracelsus while investigating the fake Mona Lisas and accuse them of being the culprits. After the battle, Caesar pleads innocent, and Da Vinci accepts it, noting that he is the kind of guy who would prioritize his customers' trust as a merchant. It turns out he and Paracelsus were actually there to investigate the fakes themselves.
- Apparently, it wasn't difficult at all to enlist his help against Columbus during Servant Fest when it became obvious he was ripping off the contributors to an anthology by paying them a flat fee instead of a percentage while knowing the work was going to be extremely profitable. Using his negotiation skills, he worked out a fair deal for the artists without mention of a reward for himself. It probably helps that said artists included child servants such as Bunyan and Nursery Rhyme.
- In Van Gogh's Interlude, it's revealed that he and Columbus are the ones behind the interview questions being sent to her, with their plan being to use her answers to write a tell-all Biography about the details of the real Van Gogh's life that no one else knows. However, when Gogh explains why she wishes to preserve the secrets of the memories of Van Gogh, Caesar quietly understands and promises that not only will he not pursue the plan anymore but will try to explain to Columbus in a way that he'd comprehend.
Fat and Proud: If the player has Cleopatra, he tells her that he has no interest in losing weight since he's quite happy with his body now.
Frontline General:
- Subverted. He confesses during his Interlude that he only went on military campaigns to attain personal glory and to take time off from all the cruel politics going on in the capitol. As he explains, there was nothing heroic in how he threw himself into battle. His animation renewal also changed his Extra Attack animation to make him summon soldiers to attack the enemy.
- Zigzagged in Septem. He starts out ordering his army from the back until he realizes the group cutting its way through his men is the player and their Servants. Knowing his men stand no chance against a Servant, he orders them to avoid engaging your party and takes the field to fight you himself.
Gameplay and Story Integration: He brings up the fact that he was never technically a bonafide Roman emperor and this fact is reflected in his skillset lacking Imperial Privilege. He's also better known for his skills at oratory and leadership than personal combat ability, which is shown by all of his skills being party buffs.
Glass Cannon: Caesar's skills are essentially 3 damage buffs, one of which reduces defense of its target. His survivability is even more spotty due to being an R rarity servant which comes with lower stats and he didn't have a single survival skills. While Caesar's damage potential have always been decent, the cannon part comes up big time after his Balance Buff, which gives him an absurd amount of attack buff upon using his NP allowing him to do extreme damage. How extreme? Assuming he gets all five attack buff (which comes with a very high success rate), Caesar's Noble Phantasm essentially outdamages every single Saber in the game, including SSR at NP5.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Caesar shows a more humble side in his first interlude when he has the protagonist and Mash help him defeat his other half that he calls his escapism. Saying that while he was a skilled general, an intelligent leader and Chick Magnet, he has his regrets such as being unable to grant the wish of Cleopatra who he truly loved, deciding not to name their son as his heir as well as the fact all his military feats were nothing more to get away from the manipulation he took part in. He is so disgusted by his other half, he even calls him a disgusting pig.
Hunk: In "Super☆Ghouls 'n Pumpkins," Caesar is described by Cleopatra as formerly looking like this in vivid detail, especially on his sharp facial features.
Cleopatra: I still remember... The day he whispered sweet nothings into my ear while holding me in his slender but strong arms... His chiseled features, his cheek bones ever so tempting...
I Am Not Left-Handed: In Septem, he admits he held back during his first battle with the protagonist and Nero to get their mettle before declaring his intent to fight for real. His portrait and battle sprite both change from his second Ascension to his third to reflect this, and he's a higher level than the first time as well.
Instant-Win Condition: Crocea Mors's effect when called as a Noble Phantasm, which lets him defeat any enemy in melee combat as long as he can see it (and luck checks roll in his favor), as a play on his most infamous quote^note. As Caesar himself puts it when using the NP.
"I came! I saw! Now all that is left is to win!"
Lethal Joke Character: He's generally one of the comedic relief characters, but aside from a decent skillset his NP Upgrade turned him into one of the most powerful units of his class despite being a 3*.
Karmic Transformation: He admits to being The Hedonist when it came to food, women, property, and political influence so his current appearance may be reflective of his legendary decadence.
Kavorka Man: Despite being greatly overweight, he's extremely charming and referred to as a ladykiller. The extremely vain Cleopatra is also head over heels in love with him despite outright fainting from shock when she meets him again during her Halloween event debut. When he compliments Nero and Mash during the Septem chapter, both are left blushing and stuttering in surprise. His Profile also states that he has lain with fairies, creatures that are rather eerie and hostile in this setting^note.
Large Ham: Usually soft-spoken, but terribly loud when he sees fit to be so.
Lazy Bum: Most of his dialogue consists of how troublesome things are. He could also potentially use Incitement EX to do some big damage with the crit stars he generates with his cards and Noble Phantasm... or he could foist the buff and its Defense penalties onto a different Servant to do his fighting for him.
Manipulative Bastard: Most of his appearances in events have him fast-talking people into giving him their valuables. In the dango event Mash even makes a point of warning against trying to persuade him to give back the dango because Caesar is likely to talk his way out of it.
Master Swordsman: Downplayed. While he's classed as a Saber, Caesar is far better known for his oratory and skill at leadership than his personal abilities in combat. His animations post-update feature him using Blade Spam, but his attacks are far less defined and devastating-looking than heroes renowned for their swordsmanship like Altria, Siegfried, and Musashi. The description for his Noble Phantasm, Crocea Mors, even notes that he lost his prized sword when it got stuck in an enemy's shield before Caesar was forced to flee.
Moving the Goalposts: He tries to claim the tower in the Setsubun event belongs to him and charge the protagonist a trespassing fine. When General Setsubun points out it's Shuten's tower and they have permission to be here, he changes tracks and says he'd need some kind of evidence like an audio recording to verify that. And then when da Vinci offers the recording he dismisses it as hearsay.
Caesar: Phew. Bullet dodged.
No True Scotsman: Despite the Byzantine Empire being the actual continuation of Rome even after the fall of the Western territories in the 5th century AD/CE, Caesar does not consider it as such due to finding it radically different and by that same logic doesn't consider Constantine XI an actual Roman.
One-Handed Zweihänder: For his Noble Phantasm, Crocea Mors: Yellow Death, he only uses one hand as he attacks the enemy with Crocea Mors since he finishes it with a slap of his marble arm.
Only Sane Man: The most even-keeled and sensible of the Roman-affiliated Servants by far, however, his immense greed tends to get him in as much trouble as Nero and Caligula if not more so.
Pronouncing My Name for You: As described in his profile, his name is pronounced "Kai-sahr" in Latin and "See-zar" in English.
Power Fist: In this Third Ascension, his left arm becomes enormous and made of marble, reflecting the famous statues of him. He uses this to clobber his foes.
The Right Hand of Doom: By Stage 3 and 4, Caesar's entire left limb seems to have been converted into one made of marble, although it's one he can move and use. One may take it to represent the fact that Caesar's life, works and effect on Roman history are immortalized in the marble busts and statues of him. His updated animations has him use said arm to smack his enemies around in his Stage 3 form.
Rolling Attack: One of his new Quick animations has him using a high-speed rolling attack a la Sonic the Hedgehog.
Rousing Speech: How Incitement works on his allies. Unfortunately, performing it on them lowers their defense.
Sarcastic Devotee: Lazy, sarcastic and has the large ego most Roman Servants seem to share, but is also big-hearted and loyal. His profile notes that his advice is always good and honest, no matter how snarkily he might give it.
Semi-Divine: The reason why he has the Divinity skill is due to his claims that he is a descendant of the goddess Venus.
Sharp-Dressed Man: The image is slightly broken by him wearing a toga instead of pants.
Simple, yet Awesome: He shares the same Quick-class Noble Phantasm with Okita Souji. While Okita's three-hit attack is expected to cause massive damage, Caesar's actually has more separate hits, which means he can serviceably stand in for her as long as he is buffed properly. Furthermore, his NP Buff drastically improves the damage potential, making him one of the most powerful single target Sabers in the game.
Situational Sword: In-universe, when Crocea Mors strikes an enemy, a Luck Check is made, and if an enemy fails it, they are hit again and so on and so forth. However, Caesar himself has C-ranked luck, so the effectiveness of his combos on those with equal or greater luck is truly up to chance. This is reflected in his NP Strengthening, where he gets a chance to increase its damage up to five times.
Square Race, Round Class: He himself points out that he doesn't really make sense as a Saber; he used a sword, sure, but he wasn't a master swordsman or anything, and he finds his one real legend of swordsmanship to be a bit embarrassing. The fact that he ended up in Saber instead of whatever his natural class is seems to be why he came out looking the way he did. It's implied that his "real" class is probably Rider, given the class's association with leaders and generals and Caesar's focus on Quick attacks and criticals.
The Strategist: He's Caesar, who prided himself on his political and strategic accomplishments, particularly in Gaul. He admits that he'd rather not be on the frontlines and instead be behind the scenes making plans, though he understands that as a Servant it's his duty to fight for his Master.
Stout Strength: Would you believe by looking at him that his Strength is A-Rank? For reference, this is just below Heracles at A+ rank.
Trash Talk: His Incitement skill can be used as an extremely powerful mental attack, likely implying this.

Gareth (Saber)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s354_stage1.jpg

Gareth Akin to the Sun

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Yuki Kuwahara

Illustrator: Nekotawawa

"Gareth at your disposal! My Saint Graph has changed to summer, but…Somehow…I’m a Saber now! So, of course, I’d put up a sword. I don't know if I will be of any use, but don’t take your eyes off me, Master!"

One of the Servants that debuted in the Summer 7 event.

Battle Trophy: She has the red sword Robigus Ironside as a Noble Phantasm due to defeating the original owner, Red Knight Ironside. She broke it with her lance during their fight back then.^note
Canine Companion: She's accomplied by Anet who sometimes assist with attacks.
Flaming Sword: Robigus Ironside: Red Sword was the sword of the Red Knight Ironside. The sword has the power of fire imbued to it, representing Red Knight's nature as uncontrollable chaos. Gareth herself uses it like she was wielding Excalibur Galatine.
Girliness Upgrade: Compared to her Lancer self, her Third Ascension is far more feminine armored, complete with a tiara.
Goofy Print Underwear: In contrast to most of other swimsuits Servants have worn, Gareth's swimwear looks like a pair of undies with a strawberry design on them, not unlike a certain other knight.^note
Mythology Gag: Her Canine Companion Anet is a reference to the medieval prose "Culhwch and Olwen" where the hero Culhwch alongside King Arthur is tasked with killing the monstrous boar Twrch Trwyth but to do so they must acquire the hunting hounds Anet and Aethlem. Of note is that Twrch Trwyth also appeared in a previous Summer Event.
Odd Job Gods: According to her profile, Gareth's red sword is also somehow tied to the Roman God Robigus, god of Wheat Rust.
The Power of the Sun: Her Sun-like Gareth B+ activates Sunlight Battlefield for three turns, which while active gives her NP's attack boosting Overcharge effect a bigger effect. Her Bond CE also gives her party a Buster and Crit damage bonus while in Sunlight Battlefield.
Spirited Competitor: Gareth's usual fighting spirit has stayed the same in her new Spirit Origin, with her taking part in the Rayshift so that she can get a chance to fight polar bears, and wanting to take on the next amusement park attraction the most. Even her concept as a summer Servant is having her wear more of a sporty uniform with another Ascension being just a simple swimsuit, and her bringing a genuine Demonic Sword with her when other Servants would have their Noble Phantasm be more summer-themed.
Stone Wall: At level 80, her max health before applying any modifiers is close to 14,000 while her max attack stat is on the low end at only 8,119. To compensate, her skills boost her crit star generation, she has two skills that boost her Buster effectiveness, and her NP also gives her a massive attack bonus while under a Sunlight Battlefield.
Was Once a Man: It is implied that Anet is actually the original Red Knight; turned into a dog by Merlin.

Gawain

Knight of the Sun

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{Scion of Summer}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Takahiro Mizushima (Japanese), J.P. Karliak (Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot) (English)
Live actor: Daichi Yamaguchi

Illustrator: Wada Arco

"Knight of the Round Table, Gawain. I look forward to working with you."

A prince, the eldest of the children of Morgan of Orkney, and one of the longest-serving knights of the Round Table. Despite his serious appearance, Gawain is a charming and humble man who carries himself as a true knight. As a Servant, he cannot forgive himself for allowing a personal grudge to destroy his king and country, so he vowed to redeem himself by serving his next Master as "the perfect knight".

His first appearance was as the Saber-class Servant of Leonardo B. Harwey during the Holy Grail War conducted on the Moon Cell. In Grand Order, he debuted in the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot as an antagonist, and is a major ally in Epic of Remnant/EXTRA: Abyssal Cyber Paradise, SE.RA.PH, replacing Nero in the middle of the Rayshift. He then appears during the third part of Lostbelt No. 6: Faerie Round Table Domain, Avalon le Fae" as an ally.

Adaptational Curves: Downplayed, but his design in this game makes him somewhat more muscular in comparison to his design in Fate/EXTRA, with broader shoulders and thicker arms. His April Fool's art exaggerates this and depicts him as a Top-Heavy Guy.
Affably Evil: In Camelot. He's a genuinely friendly and courteous individual, it's just that the king he serves without question asks him to slaughter people without mercy.
Always Save the Girl: In SE.RA.PH, Gawain is inspired by the protagonist's insight regarding the Alter Egos. Seeing how his Master is willing to help them, particularly Passionlip's suffering, Gawain is more than willing to save them, discarding most of his suspicions against Alter Egos, and he starts to view them as girls.
Anachronism Stew: It has been noted that basically the only thing he cooked for the Round Table was mashed potatoes. The thing is that potatoes are native to America and were only introduced to Europe in the 16th century.
Animal Motif: In-and-out of universe, Gawain is compared to a gorilla.
Animation Bump: With the release of "Holy Grail Front ~My Super Camelot 2021~", Gawain and fellow Knights of the Round Table received animation renewals. Gawain's new attack animations include more flames, shoulder charge attacks, and more swordplays.
Armor Is Useless: He takes off his breastplate at his Third Ascension in exchange for that fabulous cape.
The Atoner:
- This is his motivation in the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot. He views his part in Altria's death, holding back Lancelot from joining their forces against Mordred out of spite, as an unforgivable sin he must atone for with unquestioning obedience until the day he dies.
- According to Nasu on his blog, working under the Lion King and committing so many atrocities is currently what Chaldea's Gawain perceives as his greatest sin to date and his upgraded Charisma is incorporating the Lion King's Gift as a permanent reminder of what he has done.
Badass Cape: Just like the other Round Table Knights, as he ascends, he gains a fabulous cape. He also holds the distinction of having the most stylish cape of them all, even beating out Altria and her other versions.
Balance Buff:
- His first Rank Up Quest upgraded his Charisma skill to the Nightless Charisma skill, increases its damage and changes field to Sunlight for 1 turn. This means he's able to get both benefits of his first skill anywhere without needing to rely on field types. Also, since both skills have the same cooldown limit, you won't need to wait for either skill to finish recharging before being able to use both of them again.
- His second Rank Up Quest during the 8th Anniversary upgraded his NP to, in addition to the usual damage buff, add a 50% Crit Damage buff and 300% Crit Star Absorption for his Buster cards both for three turns if he's on a sunny field.
Beef Gate: Gawain is battled very early in the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot at Section 4 and was so difficult as a boss at the time that when the Sixth Singularity's Memorial Quest was made, he was picked as the boss of it instead of Goddess Rhongomyniad. If you can defeat Gawain, that's your way of proving to the game you're ready to take on the rest of the Sixth Singularity.
Being Evil Sucks: It's pretty obvious in his appearances throughout Camelot that despite following the Lion King without question, he's miserable with the knowledge that everything they're doing is unquestionably heinous.
BFS: Excalibur Galatine, which has a shard of the sun in it. Its name is a reference to both Excalibur, which certain early French stories had him wielding, and Galatine, the sword he wields in most other stories.
Big Brother Instinct: Even though she killed him, he considers himself to be Mordred's big brother and seems protective of her. For her part, she finds him obnoxious. His profile also states out of his family, he's the closest with Gareth.
Blessed with Suck: Gawain sees his Nightless Charisma B skill as this. While it does increase his ATK and turns the field into Sunlight, Word of God from Nasu revealed it's actually the Gift from the Lion King and it's a painful reminder of his actions in Camelot.
Buxom Beauty Standard: After being asked by Meltryllis in "Epic of Remnant/EXTRA: Abyssal Cyber Paradise: SE.RA.PH", he admits without any shame that, yes, he does favor big breasts. And yes, he does very much approve of Faerie Knight Gawain's "great body" in his voice line for her.
Character Exaggeration: Fate/Grand Order continues to emphasize Gawain's love of ladies found in later Arthurian Legend, making him a noble Chivalrous Pervert that defends the innocent but has a Buxom Beauty Standard when charming the ladies he protects, as seen with Passionlip and Faerie Knight Gawain. He is also written with some Incest Subtext, such as working with Lancelot to convince a counterpart of his aunt Altria into wearing a bunny girl outfit or wishing his younger sister Gareth would grow up to be as big as Faerie Knight Gawain.
Cheated Death, Died Anyway: He manages to survive his fight with Passionlip despite being at a major disadvantage, but during the night after the battle, Kiara ambushes him in the church under her Mable disguise and quickly kills/eats him.
Chivalrous Pervert: As a knight, he treats most women with respect but that doesn't stop him from ogling their breasts and charming women whenever he can. He doesn't even mind getting called out on this. He and Lancelot even convince Altria Lancer to wear a bunny girl outfit, who is not only (an alternate version of) their king, but she is also Gawain's aunt.
Cool Horse: Gringolet, Gawain's fairy steed and Bond Craft Essence. It's completely brown, compares Gawain as a gorilla, but has a high opinion on the knight. Although Gringolet fails to remember Gawain's name.
Crippling Overspecialization: As noted under Situational Sword, Gawain's Numeral of the Saint is the bread and butter of his abilities, as it provides him a very strong Buster buff and just a flat damage buff as well. If combined with his Charisma skill, he can unleash very strong Buster chains that can trump many other Sabers' damage output at 5* rarity. However, Numeral of the Saint has such a narrow window of opportunity to be used that in turn Gawain becomes significantly weaker when he cannot activate it. Basically, Gawain is so dependent on said skill that he is a godsend when able to use it, but is virtually useless when unable to use it. Thankfully, he got a Rank Up Quest that allows him to change whatever field he's in to sunny, averting this.
A Day in the Limelight: Gawain becomes a major ally in "Epic of Remnant/EXTRA: Abyssal Cyber Paradise: SE.RA.PH", where he displays his chivalry in a more heroic light, receives quite the Character Development and gets a major moment which heavily contributes to Passionlip's rescue and her character development.
Double Unlock: Can only be rolled from the story gacha after beating Camelot.
Eaten Alive: He's unceremoniously and quickly eaten by Kiara in the middle of night, after the party saves Passionlip.
Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Downplayed in the game's art, which, save for Percival, noticeably hugs his body compared to his fellow knights. However, it's played straight in the sixth singularity's adaptation.
Flaming Sword: His Animation Update has Galatine occasional become one, representing its (and Gawain's) connection to sunlight.
Foreshadowing: In Fate/EXTRA he revealed he wished to go back to serving his king no matter what their actions or choices result in. Sure enough he fully supports Lancer Altria and the countless atrocities she commits to protect her kingdom.
Gameplay and Story Integration:
- He is considered the hardest boss of the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot since the Holy Grail makes the sun shine overhead whenever he's fighting, making Numeral of the Saint always active, which in gameplay is a 75% damage cut against all enemies and fills two bars of his NP gauge every turn.
- As your Servant, his Numeral of the Saint skill only applies a mediocre non scaling attack buff on maps without sunlight; if the map does have sunlight, he gets a better Buster buff on top of it.
Gate Guardian: In the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot, Gawain is guarding the gate to the Holy City.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: As your Servant, he's unfailingly kind and loyal.
Honor Before Reason: He is extremely loyal to his king almost to a fault, and would follow her orders without question, even if it means slaughtering innocent people left and right.
- This is also the root cause of his greatest failure as a knight, as his staunch opposition barred Lancelot from participating in the Battle of Camlann, which resulted in his own death as well as the king's.
Hour of Power: Between 9AM and 12 noon, and 3PM and 6PM, his power increases threefold, represented by the Numeral of the Saint ability, potentially making him stronger than Altria herself during this time. During the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot, he is blessed by the Arthurian Grail to have this power active at all times. According to Bedivere, only someone like Lancelot with Arondight's power would be able to defeat him in this state, which makes King Hassan's utter domination of him all the more impressive.
Hunk: Played with. As Gringolet put it in his Max Bond Level Craft Essence, Gawain's got the face of a Pretty Boy but he's also the most visibly muscular Knight of The Round Table, Percival aside.
Knight in Shining Armor: Looks the part straighter than the other Camelot knights (compared to the blackened Lancelot, the brooding sniper Tristan, and the simply-brash Mordred).
Knight Templar: His loyalty to the Lion King in Camelot makes him tolerate all the horrific violence the Lion King does, even when he admits that he knows it's wrong.
Lethal Chef: His cooking is so horrid, it's implied that the reason why Altria is such a stealth glutton is because she put up with his food during their time in the Round Table. He's aware enough of this to use it as a punishment for Mordred in his interlude.
Lightning Bruiser: Gawain boasts a card layout with three Buster cards, like most Berserkers. However, he commands enough speed, strength, agility and finesse with the sword to out-fence even the other Sabers in the class. Not to mention his harder-hitting multiple-hit Noble Phantasm, Excalibur Galatine. He is also quite tough, especially in the story and as a Camelot boss.
Made of Iron: Gawain's durability is quite insane. In the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot, the Gift he receives allows him not only to tank a hit from Rhongomyniad, but he also takes much less damage from your party. In "Epic of Remnant/EXTRA: Abyssal Cyber Paradise: SE.RA.PH", he's critically injured when fighting Passionlip. Once the fight is over, he rests for a second, but then immediately stands up and has recovered as if nothing happened.
Mr. Fanservice: Gawain is very handsome and attractive, and his swimsuit in Servafes shows just how muscular he is. There's a reason his Fae Knight counterpart Barghest is Distracted by the Sexy.
My Master, Right or Wrong: Firmly obeys Lion King and her every command, even while knowing that Altria the Lion King and Altria the King of Knights are two separate beings. He even swears to not fail again after his failed execution at her hands. Before his final battle, he admits that he and the other Knights of the Round Table became villains the moment they raised their blades against their brethren who refused to follow the Lion King, and that the only path left was to follow her to bitter end.
Old Shame: An In-Universe example. If you have Saber Lancelot, his My Room comment about Lancelot makes it clear he sees his refusal to allow Lancelot to fight for Altria during the Battle of Camlann as a major mistake on his part, and tries to be amicable to the man for said refusal, knowing he contributed to the downfall of Camelot. Lancelot himself is never shown to blame Gawain for that and treats him amicably, as Lancelot himself is very aware of his own sins he committed in his life.
One-Note Cook: He only cooks potatoes for some reason. During his interlude, he scolds Mordred for her bad behavior as proof that she's not eating enough potatoes.
The Power of the Sun: The sun empowers him during the day, tripling his power.
Playing with Fire: Excalibur Galatine's specialty and boy, does it burn! Up to eleven when he uses his NP and his Extra Attack also has him wreath his sword with fire before slash-burning the enemy with it. With his animation renewal, more of his attack animations include flames now.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: One of Altria's most favored Knights and the 2nd strongest Knight of the Round Table beaten only by Lancelot.
Real Men Cook: He does love cooking even though he's a Lethal Chef.
Red Baron: The Knight of the Sun.
The Reliable One: Always ready to do anything Altria asks of him.
Rule of Three:
- His Numeral of the Saint ability triples his strength during three-hour periods.
- He has three Buster Cards in his card selection.
Second Love: In SE.RA.PH, he mentions that he does miss his wife dearly, and thinks of her every day, but that, since he is now a Servant and living a new life, he doesn't mind looking for a new partner.
Ship Tease: With Passionlip. One of Meltryllis's dialogues when talking about Gawain is stating that her little sister seems happy whenever she's with him, with the added jealousy mixed in due to the fact that she found her prince before she has.
Situational Sword: His Numeral of the Saint skill will grant him a Buster buff on top of the non-scaling Attack buff on stages with sunlight on them for three turns. Since his NP and majority of his deck is Buster-based, being on a map without sunlight can seriously gimp his damage compared to other Sabers with less situational Buster buffs, but on it, he can unleash some of the highest damage of any 4* Saber. No longer the case with his upgrade now letting him change any field to sunlight for 1 turn, which is enough for his Numeral of the Saint, as its effects would last for three turns even if the sunlight fades away later on.
SNK Boss: The Gift "Nightless" he received from the Lion King made Gawain one of the most prominent and most difficult bosses of the entirety of Part I. The damage he receives is greatly reduced and he charges half his NP Charge meter per turn, making his AoE NP spam very dangerous. Gawain is so difficult that he's actually one of the eight Memorial Quest bosses instead of the Lion King.
Strong and Skilled: In addition to having roided stats that are tripled while Numeral of the Saint is active, Gawain is also one of the best swordsmen of the Round Table, only matched or surpassed by Altria and Lancelot.
Sword Beam: One of the longest in the series, said to be able to cover thirteen kilometers... or so.
Undying Loyalty: A deconstructed example. In the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot, Gawain's oath to serve Altria without letting his personal thoughts clouding his judgement makes him one of the most dangerous members within the Round Table in addition to his very powerful Gift. Throughout the Singularity, he has killed his comrades and his own sister (and at least witnessed the death of his brother Gaheris who was against the Lion King) and killed a lot of innocent people for the sake of the Lion King. Unlike Tristan and Gareth who both couldn't bear the sins they had committed, and unlike Mordred whose "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl tendencies have consumed her or Agravain who has a Lack of Empathy towards the people, and unlike Lancelot whose morals eventually make him betray Altria a second time despite not having clean hands himself, Gawain endures all of his sins for the sake of his chivalry and his loyalty to his king. With all the atrocities he has done, there is no way for him to turn back on his oath.
Wave Motion Sword: Excalibur Galatine can shoot a massive arc of heat and light to wipe out an entire army.
Weaksauce Weakness: As a boss in the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot, he is considered to be one of the hardest Knights of the Round Table bosses due to his ability to charge his NP incredibly faster (in addition to his already built in NP charge skill) and his NP dealing a lot of damage to your entire party. However, being a male and a Saber Servant, he is susceptible to anti-male damage and effects. This leads Euryale to be one of the best counters to the boss fights due to her ability to Charm lock him and preventing him from doing collateral damage to your party. If the player brings Stheno and a friend support Euryale, the fight becomes an absolute joke. (Ironically, Euryale is not as effective against the other Knights of the Round Table, either because of their Gift (Lancelot), class (Tristan) or gender (Mordred).) In addition, while he is very durable, Noble Phantasms like Robin Hood's Yew Bow can take a good chunk of his HP with a bit of setup because of the extra percentage damage scaling he gets on his NP, allowing one to nearly trivialize him.
What the Hell, Hero?: As he dies in the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot, he sadly calls out Bedivere for not arriving sooner in the Singularity, stating that if anyone could have swayed the Lion King's heart it would be him, the closest of the Round Table to Altria, and saying that it's for this failure that he resents him.
The Worf Effect:
- The fact that he can't even put a dent against King Hassan, who is almost casual in his treatment of their battle, while Numeral of the Saint is active goes to show how much more powerful Grand Servants are than regular Servants.
- After getting a showcase of his durability fighting Passionlip, his sudden swift death by ambush comes off as an incredible shock given said feat. Then it turns out the one who killed him was Kiara, a nascent Beast who ate him.
Worf Had the Flu: In Tristan's interlude, he claims Mordred only killed him in life because her good instincts led her to attacking him when he was at his most vulnerable after being beaten but not killed by Lancelot in a lengthy duel. Otherwise, he'd beat her even without his sun boosts. She doesn't really dispute it.

Gawain (Tam Lin) ("Lostbelt No. 6: Avalon le Fae" Spoilers!)

Barghest

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s310stage1.png

Faerie Knight of the Sun

^{Second Ascension/Black Dog Barghest}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{Demon Hound}

^{Dream Portrait}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Marina Inoue

'Illustrated by:MELON22

"Tam Lin Gawain... and I will now fight under your banner. What's with that look on your face? Is there something strange about my face? Hm? It's no me, but my name is what's strange to you? ...I-I see. Well, in that case, that's fine... (You're not telling me that the real Sir Gawain is here, are you?)"

Summoning Line before clearing Avalon le Fae

"Servant, Saber. I am Barghest, and I have come in answer to your summons. I may not have the right to say something like this, but... As repayment for you attending and watching over the end of Britain, I will wield my sword for you until my life ends."

Summoning Line after clearing Avalon le Fae

A faerie who serves Queen Morgan as part of the Knights of the Round Table in Avalon le Fae. She belongs to the "Fang Clan" of faeries, known for their powerful and monstrous bodies, but was later granted the name and powers of Gawain, a Knight of the Round Table from Proper Human History; hence, her body appears more human than it would otherwise. Faerie Knight Gawain is known as the most majestic but fearsome of the Faerie Knights, with a strong belief in "survival of the fittest" and completing tasks in the most straightforward (or ruthless) way possible.

Her true identity is that of the Black Dog Barghest, a fae of the Fang Clan destined to become one of the Six Calamities to destroy Britain, though in the meantime she is a secret ally of the resistance against Morgan. She becomes one of Chaldea's main allies in "Lostbelt No. 6: Faerie Round Table Domain, Avalon le Fae".

All of the Other Reindeer: Due to her unique constitution (she was born human-looking among the animal-like Fang Clan), she's an oddball in her own Lostbelt of origin, and even meeting similar beings like Nitocris has her committing the occasional faux pas due to cultural differences.
Amazonian Beauty: She sports very muscular thighs and a six pack along side massive breasts, which aren't visible with her first ascension since she's in full armor but her second and third ascension has her wearing a skin tight dress and later a leotard that leaves most of her torso and breasts exposed. When she shows up in her dress to a fancy party during the British Lostbelt, she gets lots of attention and leaves the heroes speechless. One of Gawain's My Room lines compliments her on her body wishing his sister Gareth could grow up to have a body half as nice.
Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: All Tam Lin are ensorcelled to die if they ever kill another Tam Lin.
Apocalypse Maiden: She was born specifically to become one of the six Calamities that would destroy Britain, and made to instinctively seek strong mates to devour so as to strengthen herself when it came time to become the Black Dog. While she was able to stave this off by learning to love, upon accidentally eating Adonis, she nearly snapped, requiring Oberon alter her memories to think Adonis was still alive. After seeing the fae of Manchester following her "example" and eating the humans there, she can't hold it back any longer, and becomes the Black Dog as she can do nothing but beg Chaldea to kill her.
Betrayal by Inaction: When the rebels assault Camelot, Barghest despite being tasked with defending Camelot's gates does nothing to actually fight back and simply has her forces engage, and once the Resistance breach the gates she switches sides without missing a beat and goes about convincing anyone among Morgan's forces she can to peacefully stand down.
Black Swords Are Better: Starting with her second ascension, Barghest's Fairy Sword Galatine changes its color to black with red cues.
Black Widow: She's a lonely person who has a tendency to fall in love very quickly, but her numerous relationships have rarely lasted more than a month. There's a strong implication that the limiter antenna keeping her more deadly instincts in check is far from perfect and caused her to eat all of her lovers. It's later confirmed that this was a result of her being destined to become a Calamity, being made to instinctively devour strong individuals to make her Calamity form stronger, and that while she tried to resist this by learning to love and falling for those weaker than her, her instincts just changed to make her devour those she loves. She has a reputation as both "Gawain the Loving" and "Gawain the Gluttonous" as a result, and if her reaction to Baobhan Sith's snarks about the topic are any indication, it's a very sore spot for her. Realizing she had already devoured Adonis but had her memory wiped, in turn causing the Fae of Manchester to follow her "example", is enough to make her cross the Despair Event Horizon and become the Calamity, the Black Dog BARGHEST.
Boss Remix: She has two remixes of the same song, "Sword of Promised Victory". "Black Prominence" is for when she's fought normally and is a straightforward rearrangement, symbolizing how she out of Morgan's knight trio wishes to embody chivalrous ideals of knighthood the most. "Demonic Dog" is a heavily rearranged, to the point of near distortion, version of the first to symbolize how she's lost herself to her instincts and has degraded into becoming a Calamity rampaging across Faerie Britain.
Boss Subtitles: When she's fought as the Black Dog, her battle intro is The Calamity of the Beast: BARGHEST.
Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": She believes that Japanese oni are simply faerie going by a different label. Considering most faeries have either left the mundane world behind a long time ago or degraded into sadistic demons, she might have a point.
Calling Your Attacks: While this isn't uncommon for Servants to do, as it is necessary to activate their Noble Phantasms, there's a chance for her to refer to her Extra Attack as "Jail Blazer" when using it. Loudly.
Cannibalism Superpower: She mentions that, while there are compatibility and capacity limits, she can gain the powers of any fairy she eats. This is actually how she acquired her third skill, which she calls Foul Weather after its former user.
Chain Pain: Several of her attacks incorporate glowing energy chains.
Chef of Iron: Her Bond 10 Craft Essence is a meal she cooked, and mentions that cooking is a hobby of hers. It looks well-made, but the description mentions that she made too much (likely due to basing the portions on her own appetite rather than the intended eater's).
Composite Character: Besides her emulation of Gawain, she also has the powers of the faerie Foul Weather, who used to be the lord of Faerie Britain's Cornwall and was a gnome in Cornish legend who built a cathedral, from eating him during the Caterpillar Wars.
Confronting Your Imposter: Nobody buys her claims that she's Gawain, because (barring a new player managing to summon her from a rate-up banner) they've already met the REAL Gawain (and the player may, in fact, have already summoned him themselves, which she suspects when she's immediately called out).
- And when you clear Lostbelt 6, she dispenses with the deception and introduces herself with her actual name.
Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being a literal Hellhound, her Alignment is Chaotic Good (which makes her the Token Good Teammate among the Fairy Knights as Baobhan Sith and Melusine both have Evil alignments) and indeed aside from her brutal fighting style she's earnestly trying to be a good (if not necessarily soft) person to the point of even intentionally suppressing her darker instincts and siding with the Resistance against her master.
D-Cup Distress: That gigantic breastplate she's wearing? When she hits Second Ascension, she takes it off while complaining that it's too tight.
Death Equals Redemption: Should you summon her after clearing Lostbelt 6, she has a different set of summon and final ascension dialogue. Not only that, she is the first Servant to have a dialogue line specifically for Mash, thanking her for her display of nobility.
Depraved Bisexual: She's said to have taken both male and female lovers, although she's not exactly depraved when it comes to the normal side of her relationships. In fact, she's observed to take excellent care of her partners, no matter how weak or strong. The depraved part comes from the fact that no matter her efforts to stop it, she'll always end up eating them alive, and because she constantly falls in love...
Despair Event Horizon: She nearly crosses it once, and completely crosses it at the end. At first, she found herself accidentally eating her lovers due to her bestial instincts taking over, devouring the strong in order to become a stronger Calamity. She tried to get around this by taking someone obviously weak, but unfortunately her purpose as a fae changed from "Eating the Strong" to "Eating her Lovers". She would've become a Calamity when she found she accidentally ate Adonis, but Oberon kept her from doing it via mind wipe. She fully crosses the line when she returns to Manchester, seeing all the Fae there taking after the rumors of her, killing their human neighbors and servants for sheer fun. Given she wanted what humans could be saved from Lostbelt Britain to go with Chaldea, she basically decided all the fae were monsters, and became a Calamity in hopes of devouring every fae she comes across as she doesn't want anyone like them in Proper Human History.
Distracted by the Sexy: One of her My Room quotes while in her Second Ascension outfit is, essentially, her catching herself ogling her Master (she also does so in her other outfits, but is much less blatant about it). After clearing Avalon le Fae, she gains additional ones where she's ogling Gawain and drooling over Ivan the Terrible's giant, ripped mammoth body.
Don't Make Me Destroy You: Almost said word for word when she's trying to bargain with Boggart for the Child of Prophecy in Sheffield, especially considering how Morgan's throwing all three Tam Lin and her entire army at the city.
Double Unlock: She's unlocked in the gacha after clearing Avalon le Fae.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: It's very subtle, but out of the 21 different expressions drawn for her talksprite, only one of them has her eyes drawn with highlights◊ (coincidentally, it's also the only one where she's giving a genuinely happy smile). It's never mentioned why they're drawn like that, but considering her curse and what it's put her through, it shouldn't be too surprising if they're meant to signify her depression.
The Dreaded: She's regarded as the most feared Fairy Knight by the fairies. Notably, this shouldn't be confused with the most "hated" (that would be Baobhan Sith).
Exposed to the Elements: The Ice Warrior craft essence has her and Orion in an arctic environment riding on the back of a polar bear. She's wearing a just bikini and a scarf, though she doesn't seem bothered at all by the weather.
Extreme Omnivore: As a Calamity, her way of getting stronger is by devouring those stronger than her to become an ever stronger calamity. At first she simply eats other faeries to claim their powers for herself, but as she develops further, she can drain the very magical energy from humans she's close to, shown by eating the protagonist's Command Spells. By the time Chaldea meets her in Manchester again and she's succumbed to the curse, just being in her presence has the protagonist's life force being drained. This finally culminates in her final form, where she can eat the lightning and flames around her and grow stronger.
Fangirl: Barghest is depicted as being one for the Knights of the Round Table, though she leans towards favoring her namesake the most, given that her summon line has her ask if he's in Chaldea and having a specific My Rooms line for him. And she also has one for Tristan, specifically apologizing for her actions towards him during Avalon Le Fae.
Flaming Sword: She takes things a step up from Gawain by always having Excalibur Galatine shrouded in flames even when at rest; it's covered in cracks and apparently leaking the sunfire inside. The flames become Hellfire by her later Ascensions, and by the end the blade has outright exploded, leaving her wielding a sword-shaped black sun.
Forced Transformation: In Fairy Britain she can turn humans into lesser subservient Black Dogs. This is a Call-Back to Lord El-Melloi II Case Files where a magus had copied the fairy ability.
Freudian Slip: During her Distracted by the Sexy moment, she lets slip that she's interested in more... recreational uses for her chains. Once she realizes what she said, she begs the player to forget she said it.
Gathering Steam: Most of the fights against her in "Avalon le Fae" only become more dangerous as time passes, as not only will she drain the Protagonist's Command Spells each turn, she gains an ATK buff for every opponent she beats. During the last time you control her specifically against a horde of Mors, she has two permanent buffs that increase her max HP every time she's hit and gives her a permanent ATK buff and 30% NP charge for each enemy beaten respectively, which represent her succumbing to her in-born curse to become a Calamity even as she tries to fight for the people.
Giant Woman: While already a Statuesque Stunner, her Noble Phantasm has her growing positively giant with her sword to match before bringing it down.
Gotta Kill Them All: One of her very last actions in the British Lostbelt, after discovering the nightmare Manchester has devolved into, is to kill every last faerie in the Lostbelt so none of them nor their monstrosity could ever plague Proper Human History. At first she does this in her third ascension form with an army of Black Dogs at her side, but by the time Chaldea sees her in Norwich, she's fully turned into a gigantic black dog.
Green-Eyed Monster: She's bitter that Melusine is regarded as the strongest knight. Pointing that out is a Berserk Button of hers, and she would have spend an entire night brooding about how Melusine showed her up if the protagonist didn't try to strike a conversation with her.
Hellhound: Her later Ascensions incorporate them on the end of chains. And, true to her Demonic Beast trait, she's secretly a British hellhound, the Barghest Black Dog, in disguise. This is why she loses her Round Table typing when her true identity is revealed after her first Ascension. She can also turn humans into lesser Black Dogs.
Heroic Resolve: Her becoming a Calamity is supposed to be an inevitability, as it was the entire reason she was born. Through sheer resolve however, Barghest manages to hold off the transformation as long as possible. While she fails to do so in her native Lostbelt after hitting the Despair Event Horizon, her line for her 4th Ascension changes upon completing the Sixth Lostbelt. Whereas originally the line was her begging the master to put her down before she loses control, her new line has her reasserting control over herself and refusing to become a Calamity ever again.
Barghest: Uh, gwuuuaah... Aah... My blood is burning... Lightning runs through my veins... The antennae are swelling...! My body is about to burst... No... I will never become that Calamity...! I swear, in the name of the Knights of the Round Table who struck me down, I will never succumb...! My name is Barghest the Fairy Knight! One who has overcome the curse of Britain!!
History Repeats: In two ways.
- Like Gawain, her misplaced hopes in her King's competency leads to their downfall. Whereas Gawain threw out Lancelot at the Battle of Camlann which may have been a factor in Altria losing her life, Barghest betrays Morgan when she's seemingly not upholding her end of the deal with Barghest, only for Barghest to later discover long after Morgan's death that she was right all along to be cruel to the fairies.
- When Boggart fires the Black Barrel at Barghest, she's seemingly unscathed and asked how she's not hurt. Barghest comments that his shot was nothing like Morgan's Rhongomyniads...implying she was struck by one of them like Camelot Singularity's Gawain was.
Hold the Line: As the Mors overrun Camelot and she herself is beginning to succumb to her nature as the Calamity of the Beast, she orders the remaining members of the Round Table Army to flee while she fights them off. Tragically, by the time she fights her way to their location, she only comes across their corpses still surrounded by even more Mors. All she can do is slaughter the Mors in despair and vengeance.
Horned Humanoid: At first glance she appears to be wearing a circlet or tiara of some description. Then she rips one of the spikes off for her Noble Phantasm and starts bleeding rather profusely, which instantly proves that those things are real. She also expresses an interest in the Oni Servants due to them possessing horns.
I Cannot Self-Terminate: If fully ascended before clearing Avalon le Fae, she begs for someone- anyone- to kill her because her own power is overwhelming her. In Part 3 of Avalon le Fae, her instincts as Barghest start to quickly consume her, and she begs the Master and Chaldea to kill her before she causes too much destruction.
I'm a Humanitarian: While fairies eating humans is common, she is the rare example of a fairy who will eat other fairies due to a natural predation instinct.
Instrument of Murder: Whips out a humongous flaming hunting horn for the final strike of her Noble Phantasm animation.
Irony:
- She's a big fan of the Knights of the Round Table, yet she calls the real Tristan a mindless puppet and then kills him without ever realizing he's one of her idols. Once she finds out his identity from Chaldea she's mortified about what she said to him.
- She hopes for her personal domain of Manchester to be a model for all of Faerie Britain to follow, where faeries and humans live together in peace as equals. But, after losing control of her curse, eating her human husband while her faerie subjects secretly watched, and then being brainwashed to forget, the faeries of Manchester have actually been sadistically torturing, killing, and eating their human neighbors for fun in secret, and during the final Calamity joyfully embrace their nature as the very worst of their kind, what humans call "demons," hoping to escape into Proper Human History and start abusing its inhabitants too. Unintentionally and unknowingly, Barghest has actually created the very worst place to be human in all of Britain.
Knight in Shining Armor: Well, she tries her best to aspire to such a standard, even admitting she sees the Round Table of Proper Human History as an example to follow. The reason she even became a Fairy Knight is because she chose to fight in the Caterpillar Wars against such-shaped Mors and defeated the Calamity behind it to save Britain.
The Knights Who Say "Squee!": She turns into a total fangirl when she meets the real Gawain, calling him the perfect knight and not so secretly ogling his muscles underneath his armor.
Lady of War: Educated and disciplined to the highest standard in her Lostbelt, she is a stern yet regal presence on the battlefield despite what her stature and fighting style might imply.
Lightning Bruiser: With high natural HP and several built-in defensive and regenerative powers in her kit, she can take a hell of a beating, and with natural buff removal and damage bonuses on the other half, she can dish it back out while rapidly building meter for free. Lore-wise, she sports an A Rank in Endurance and Agility and a B+ in Strength, which puts her in the upper tier of Servant stats.
Love Freak: Surprisingly enough, she mentions fantasies about getting married when asked about her likes in Second Ascension. Played for Drama later on, as part of her creation required she instinctively seek strong beings to devour for when she becomes a Calamity, but was able to partially stave it off by learning how to love. It still didn't stop her from accidentally eating the human boy Adonis, with Oberon having to alter her memory to think Adonis was still alive so that the Black Dog didn't emerge.
Magic Eater: Her unique ability allows her to devour magical energy in all forms and convert it into power. The Protagonist gets their first taste of this with her ability to devour their Command Spells. When she becomes the Calamity of the Beast, this upgrades to being able to drain the very life force of anything around her and even convert natural phenomenon into energy, such as devouring the lightning produced from the thunderclouds generated by all the smoke and fire she creates.
Major Injury Underreaction: Her line for being hit by a Noble Phantasm? "Not worth mentioning." Though if she's on her second ascension, this is subverted as she expresses anger over a massive hit.
Mistaken Identity: She admits in her My Room lines she confused Nitocris for a member of the Fanged Clan of fae when she met her due to her jackal ears and with a blush mentions "ruined the mood" by licking the nape of Nictoris' neck by accident. She also mistakes Ivan the Terrible for a Fairy Lord.
The Mole: She chooses to act against Morgan due to the latter admitting she doesn't intend to protect the people, only the land, as well as confirming with Chaldea that it would be possible to save some of the Lostworld's inhabitants by taking them to Proper Human History. She continues to act as a loyal knight until near the end of Avalon le Fae's second act, where she switches sides after the Resistance breach Camelot's gates and works to convince other members of the Queen's army to surrender peacefully.
Ms. Fanservice: Don't let her heavily-armored First Ascension fool you; as she ascends her outfit rapidly gets more revealing, going from full armor to a quite flattering dress to what amounts to a skimpy one-piece swimsuit.
My God, What Have I Done?: She has this realization upon seeing the faeries of Manchester slaughter and eat their human neighbors, especially when she hears straight from their lips they simply chose to follow her own behavior when she devoured Adonis and found it fun, and hearing them eagerly await the chance to repeat this process with the humans of Proper Human History. She realizes then and there that such capricious beings like the faeries can't be trusted in Proper Human History, and so she decides to initiate the nuclear option personally in order to "take responsibility" for her actions.
Nice Girl: In spite of her nature as a fae, Barghest is noble and courteous to her allies and the Master, and holds the Knights of the Round Table in high esteem.
Oxymoronic Being: She's a nocturnal faerie who wields the power of the Knight of the Round Table who in turn draws his strength from the sun. As she notes after Altria Caster strips Gawain's name from her, she always considered Numeral of the Saint as a limiter on her power rather than a true advantage.
Pay Evil unto Evil: When the Great Calamity rolls around and Morgan is no longer holding the leash, the Faeries of Manchester had tortured and killed their human neighbors in the streets, finding great fun in it and enthusiastically calling themselves demons. Barghest then decides to succumb to being a Calamity, slaughtering every faerie she comes across in response to their evil natures.
Perpetual-Motion Monster: Though considered to be the least problematic of the Calamities unleashed upon Faerie Britain, everyone had the misfortune of Barghest devouring the former Foul Weather, the former Lord of Cornwall, in the past. As a Tam Lin, this just gave her his ability to create thunderclouds for mostly defensive purposes, but as the Black Dog, she can not only expel them but devour them almost immediately after, giving her more magical energy than she spent making the clouds thanks to the lightning they produce.
Power Limiter:
- The horns on her head are called Antennae of A-Rei, which act as seals to her instincts. When she activates her Noble Phantasm, she forcefully rips one of her horns off so that she can tap into her true form as Black Dog Barghest.
- Paradoxically, Gawain's Power of the Sun acts as this for her since, as she notes, she's a nocturnal faerie who would normally be at her strongest without any sun. But because of Gawain's powerset, the power boost she would otherwise get at night doesn't work properly, and during the day she's weaker even with the Numeral of the Saint active.
- The title of "Tam Lin Gawain" is also one. Though she gains power from it due to how the power of names work in the British Lostbelt, and is noted to be comparable to the Lion King blessed Gawain with it, it also (as mentioned above) gives her powers that don't synergize with her as much as they could, and makes her fight closer to what PHH Gawain would. When Altria Caster reveals her true name, Barghest, instead of getting weaker as she expected, becomes stronger due to being able to use her true name and power, freaking everyone out since they assumed it was because of her title that she was so strong. Altria Caster in Avalon admits that this was certainly intentional on Morgan's part, allowing Barghest to hold back the curse of the Black Dog, and that Barghest's fate as a Calamity was sealed the moment she lost her Gifted Name.
Really Gets Around: Like the original Gawain, but she's a more romantic version of this trope and only dates so much because she has a hard time making a relationship last more than a month.
Readings Are Off the Scale: When she first appears before the party in "Avalon le Fae" at night, da Vinci notes in shock that she can't get a good reading on her magical energy. The protagonist meanwhile has the option to comment that her power is comparable to Gawain from the Holy City in the Sixth Singularity; in other words she's as strong as Gawain when he has the Numeral of the Saint active when it's not even daytime. Then, after Altria Caster reveals her True Name and strips her of Gawain's skills, da Vinci states in shock and horror that Barghest's magical energy did not decrease like they expected but instead ballooned until she can't even try to measure it anymore.
Red Baron: One of her titles in Fairy Britain is "The Black Dog Duchess".
Red Right Hand: Her left eye is always a different color than her right (which is a faded teal), but what color it is depends on her current ascension. It's split in the middle between sky blue and orange in her first ascension, turns into a deep maroon in her second, and finally becomes a demonic red with black sclera in her third. It's initially not made clear what it means, but it appears to be a mark of her curse, as both of her eyes turn red with black sclera in the scene where she's about to become the Calamity of the Beast.
Sanity Slippage: As she succumbs to the Calamity of the Beast without the protection of her Gifted name, Barghest's mind begins to fray apart as her predation instincts start taking over. The fact it's happening while she's getting a front-row seat to everyone she's trying to protect dying despite her efforts or turning out to be hidden monsters going against everything she believed in doesn't help matters either.
Shoulders of Doom: Frontal variation, and a Justified Trope. That chestplate is certainly intimidating, but it sure doesn't let her see things below her front, so it seems rather cumbersome at first glance... until you reach her Second Ascension and see that Gawain's breasts actually fill out the oversized plate, so armor that would normally be impractically huge is a perfect fit for her.
Situational Sword: She has Numeral of the Saint as a carryover of having Gawain's Spirit Origin, which boosts her Buster Card effectiveness if she fights in a Sunlight battlefield. In-universe she gets a boost to her basic abilities during morning.
The Social Darwinist: As per one of her bond lines. However, her actions in Chaldea show that she also believes that the strong should protect the weak, based on her demeanor both in and out of armor. Boggart elaborates to Mash in "Avalon le Fae" that her mindset was born from suffering Fantastic Racism by her fellow Fang Clan for her nature as "a daughter of the black dogs", allowing her to understand how the weak feel and thus made her demand responsibility from the strong.
"I might have become a Servant, but my belief won't change. Survival of the fittest───The weak obey the strong. Understood?"
Square Race, Round Class: If Gawain's Berserker deck wasn't confusing enough, Barghest outright has Mad Enhancement as a passive skill. Her playstyle encourages you to attack with her as much as possible like a Berserker would want to.
Stone Wall: Her kit and stats focus around making her harder to kill, making it easy for her to tank through attacks and beat her enemies down while doing so. Between her NP and third skill, she can reliably tank most hits with ease, at the cost of lower damage output compared to her male counterpart. Put her against any enemy that doesn't have a raw damage modifier against her, and Barghest can solo fights that otherwise most characters never could even consider trying.
Statuesque Stunner: Her official height is labeled at 190cm, which puts her at taller than Quetzalcoatl and 10cm taller than her male counterpart, and she's definitely a "stunner" with breasts and thighs well endowed even for someone of her height.
Supreme Chef: Unlike her male counterpart, Barghest is shown to quite the excellent cook, with her main issue being that she tends to make far too much food than what can be normally eaten.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Part of Barghest's kit is designed to make her able to sustain herself if she is fighting solo, but her lack of hard defensive options like Evade/Invincibility or Guts means that she cannot last on the field for that long in comparison to Cú Chulainn or Heracles. But in Grail Front where most battles only last for one turn before going back to the map, Barghest can way more easily chew on whomever she is facing while using her skills and Noble Phantasm to keep herself alive without needing to worry about getting hit by the opponent's Noble Phantasm.
Throw the Dog a Bone: Pun aside, after the absolute hell she and the other Fae Knights had to suffer in their home Lostbelt, now that she's in Chaldea, she has the chance to be with the master she loves, meet the various heroes she admires, completely reject her original reason for creation, and maybe even achieve her dream of being a bride with aid from Habetrot... provided her negative "Bridal Energy" doesn't get any higher.
Token Good Teammate: The only fairy knight within the British Lostbelt to not have the Evil alignment. While she is a brutal enforcer who kills many sympathetic characters in-story, she's also the only Tam Lin to try to make Faerie Britain a better place; Melusine is too obsessed with her love for the vain and thoughtless Aurora to break out of the vicious cycle of doing evil deeds to win her approval and Baobhan Sith is too wrapped up in sadistically taking revenge on the faeries who used to abuse her to bother.
Tomboy with a Girly Streak: A towering, imposing female knight who cooks as a secret hobby and fantasizes about her wedding day.
Tragic Dream:
- Her deepest desire is to fall in love, become a bride, and live happily ever after, yet her very nature as a fairy predator makes it all-but impossible. Even attempting to short-circuit her predation impulses through finding happiness with a human boy too weak to trigger them ultimately collapses when they turn on her and instead become the impulse to consume what she loves, leading her to fall into despair and become the Calamity of Beasts she was destined to be.
- She also hoped to make Manchester into a place of peace and equality, where humans and faeries live together as friends. But her faeries subjects have actually become the most sadistic and horrible examples of their kind in all of Faerie Britain, torturing, killing, and eating their human neighbors in secret, after watching her eat her human husband and deciding it looked like fun. Finding out while trying to help Manchester's people evacuate is the direct cause of her giving in and becoming the Calamity of the Beast, slaughtering them all before setting out to destroy all of Britain and ensure no faeries survive to trouble Proper Human History.
- Played for laughs, of all things, when she comes to Chaldea. One of her My Room lines is a complaint about Habetrot avoiding her when she's trying to talk to her (likely to commission a wedding dress). Talk to Habetrot about her, and it turns out FK Gawain has negative "bridal power" (as Habetrot puts it), and if it gets any stronger she'll never get married. This is probably related to her unintentional Black Widow tendencies. Downplayed though, since Habetrot says it's only an issue if it gets stronger, and as she's been doing better at fighting her instincts now that she's in Chaldea, her dream may not be as impossible as one might think.
Tragic Monster: All she ever wanted out of life was to be a Knight in Shining Armor and find someone she loved and who loved her in turn. Unfortunately for her, as a Child of Calamity it would never come true in Faerie Britain. Merlin even says as much when discussing the need to put her down after she becomes the Calamity of the Beast
Unknown Rival:
- Of the Tam Lin, Barghest is the one Altria Caster is most eager to antagonize, such as when Altria insists on being suspicious when Barghest cooks the Chaldeans a feast (from which Altria herself partakes). This stemmed from their first meeting wherein Barghest's upbringing as a Fang clan noble and focus on physical attributes led her to unknowingly insult Altria due to Altria's diminutive stature; Altria held a grudge ever since, which is why she never forgot Barghest's true name. Upon meeting again years later, Altria treats their reunion as one between two foes that hate one another but Barghest bluntly replies that she has no recollection of Altria whatsoever, to the point of unknowingly using the same offensive remarks from their first meeting. Even when summoned to Chaldea as Servants, Altria can only express her jealousy and dislike of Barghest whereas Barghest herself still can't remember her nor understand Altria's animosity.
- She sees Melusine as a rival and wants to compete with her to determine which of them is the stronger of the two, but Melusine is completely unaware of this, only expressing confusion over her hostility towards her, mistaking this as Barghest hating her.
You Are a Credit to Your Race: When she nearly crossed the Despair Event Horizon after devouring Adonis, Oberon wiped her mind and staved off her transformation into a Calamity while stating she's "the only faerie possessed of true nobility".
You Can't Fight Fate:
- She's been destined from birth to become one of the Calamities that would destroy Britain: the Black Dog BARGHEST, her instincts even compelling her to devour strong individuals to make the Calamity stronger. While she tried to avert this fate by learning how to love and loving those weaker than her, her instincts just changed to make her devour whoever she loved. After devouring Adonis but getting the memory of it erased by Oberon, she would cross the Despair Event Horizon upon remembering it and seeing the Fae of Manchester following her "example", causing her to stop resisting and turn into the Black Dog, only capable of begging Chaldea to kill her before she causes too much destruction.
- Subverted with the summonable version once the player clears the Sixth Lostbelt. Upon reaching her 4th Ascension, whereas she originally begged the player to put her down, she now fights against the transformation, and succeeds, through sheer force of will alone. She vows then and there that she will never become a Calamity ever again.

Gilles de Rais (Saber)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/giless1.png

Follower of the Saint of Orleans

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Satoshi Tsuruoka (Japanese), Dan Woren (Fate/Grand Carnival, English)

Illustrator: Shinjirō

"Saber, Gilles de Rais. I have come at your request."

A French nobleman and follower of Jeanne d'Arc, with whom he recaptured Orleans from the British. Honest and valorous, he served as Jeanne's marshal. Outside the fields he is a patron of the arts, having spent most of his fortune on them. Most importantly, this is Gilles before Jeanne was accused of being a witch and burned at the stake, before he questioned his faith in God and being lured into the abyss by Prelati. Though that is not to say that his future actions don't affect his past self...

This version of Gilles first appeared in Fate/Apocrypha. He is an ally in the France chapter. He appears in the Paper Moon chapter of Ordeal Call as a Caster mid-transition to his deranged Caster self.

Barrier Warrior: Not in the game, but in-lore he can use Jeanne's barrier Noble Phantasm Luminosité Eternelle if he is able to get his hands on her flag. He does just that in the climax of Fate/Apocrypha. At the very least, the graphics involved in his in-game Noble Phantasm, Saint War Order, involves his carrying her flag.
Chick Magnet: He is noted to be a ladies' man for rocking that Troubled, but Cute disposition. Gilles, for the most part, is immune to any advances.
Crazy Sane: Note his passive skills. Note the EX-RANKED MAD ENHANCEMENT.
Crippling Overspecialization: As noted in Gameplay and Story Integration, Gilles is designed to be used alongside Jeanne d'Arc. However, the gap between an offensive 3* Servant and a defensive 5* Servant made the duo a niche combo at most, and a later Rank Up Quest removes the self-stun from Luminosite Eternelle, removing any dependency Jeanne may have had on Gilles. After his own Rank Up Quest, he nonetheless serves as a powerful, Berserker-esque card brawler with huge buffs on attack and Buster cards, but he still needs help from Jeanne or other supports to emerge out of mediocrity.
Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Fate/Grand Order Material I reveals that he can use Prelati's Spellbook. Unfortunately it will turn him into his Caster counterpart. This makes the fact he's holding it in his third and final ascensions all the more alarming.
Deadpan Snarker: After watching Saber Lily nail Blackbeard in the crotch with Caliburn twice in "Saber Wars", he dryly jokes that pirates tend to lose their balls when on land.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: While he's nowhere near as creepy as his insane Caster counterpart, he's worryingly pale.
Face–Heel Turn: Goes through one as his stages advance.
Famous Ancestor: According to Jacques de Molay (Foreigner), Gilles is the descendant of Robert de Craon the second Grand Master of the Knights Templar.
Fanboy: He's a fan of Jeanne d'Arc. Most of the time, this is downplayed to serious, normal levels of admiration (though trying to talk with him about her requires three hours of your time in My Room), but his return gift for a Valentine's Day chocolate is a magazine from the Jeanne Fan Club, complete with paragraphs of explanation about the contents (which even includes alternate versions of Jeanne like Santa Lily). Jeanne discovers this and drags him away to get scolded.
Fashionable Asymmetry: His Stage 3 and 4 artwork, portraying his moral dilemmas and disturbed conscience coming to the fore.
Fiction 500: He is stinking rich, but ended up burning through his wealth in his and Prelati's pursuit of Magecraft.
Future Me Scares Me: He knows of the existence of his evil Caster aspect, and doesn't like it at all.
Gameplay and Story Integration: His Noble Phantasm, "Saint's War Order," and Jeanne d'Arc's NP "Luminosite Eternelle" pair well together in gameplay^note to match how closely tied together they are in the story. In the "Prison Tower" Event, they team up on the 4th Door to show off this gameplay, while in the Solomon Singularity, they even use both of their NPs at the same time in the cutscenes.
The Generic Guy: Parodied in his profile during loading screens. His profile said 'Slightly scrawny man. Not that hyped up.' Granted, his accomplishments as Jeanne's ally tend to be overshadowed with the atrocities he did as the serial killer that he became.
Good Angel, Bad Angel: His final artwork depicts him with an angel and a demon. It's known that the demon ultimately wins.
Hunk: Saber Gilles is surprisingly handsome, considering his future look.
Identical Stranger: In this iteration, Gilles looks very much like the elder, morose version of Lancelot, as seen in a revelatory flashback◊ in Fate/Zero. Which is oddly appropriate, their motivations considered.
Knight in Shining Armor: At first. As he ascends, he removes more and more of his armor, symbolizing his fall.
Know When to Fold Them: He refuses to actually fight during "Saber Wars", allowing him to walk away from the battle after being knocked out for a bit whereas Blackbeard is repeatedly blasted in the groin.
Light Is Good: Transitioning into Dark Is Evil, as his moral decay is marked by wearing darker clothing.
Looks Like Cesare: Sunken eyes, unhealthy pallor, thin build, dark hair, overall spooky effect. Yep.
Master of None: Gilles doesn't really do a whole lot well. He leans towards offense, but lacks an offensive Noble Phantasm, his Tactics skill implies a support role, but Gilles himself requires lots of support to do his job, and he doesn't easily fit into Arts teams (since Prelati's Encouragement's buffs only hit his Buster cards) or Buster teams (since his offense is very dependent on being able to use Saint War Order as often as possible, and Golden Rule isn't enough to get it up quickly).
Morality Chain: Jeanne was the only person able to keep him from falling into outright madness. So does the protagonist, to the extent that he asks them to use their Command Spell to make him commit suicide should he go mad.
Motor Mouth: His voiced Valentine's Day scene turns out to be like this. When Gilles explains to you about the content of the Jeanne d'Arc fan magazine, his seiyuu speaks so fast that the dialogue text cannot keep up with his voice.
Nice Guy: At this stage of his life, he is still a mild-hearted young man.
No Brows: His Caster self doesn't have them, but this version has pale shadows above his eyes that might be his eyebrows.
Psychic-Assisted Suicide: One of is My Room lines has him asking you to use a Command Spell to take his own life if he is on the brink of breaking. Considering past usage of using Command Spells to get rid of your own Servants, it might lead to this.
Sanity Slippage: His transformation into his Caster counterpart is marked by his artwork as he becomes more of a cold-hearted killer.
The Silent Bob: In "Saber Wars" Gilles says very little, and some of his dialogue is simply "!!!" or "..." with some facial expressions included. But from just this, Blackbeard is able to derive a very detailed description of what type of lady Gilles supposedly likes (ladies with tacky blue track suits like Mysterious Heroine X). Lampshaded by Mash, who thinks that Gilles is just making full use of his right to remain silent.
Square Race, Round Class: Due to his interesting design to synergize with Jeanne d'Arc, he was left abnormally weak without her until a Rank Up Quest unlocked his third skill, Prelati's Encouragement. He now plays like a prototype to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where his Noble Phantasm transforms him into a mechanic Berserker despite his typical Saber card deck and retaining a Saber class for the class triangle; he gains up to a 100% attack buff for two turns at a 50% defense debuff for three turns. Coupled with his passive EX-ranked Mad Enhancement increasing his Buster cards' effectiveness by 12%, and Prelati's Encouragement buffing them further (from 20% up to 40% at level 10, with the addition of it having 5CD on a buff that lasts for 5 turns), even without Buster Brave Chains his Buster-first Brave Chains will do massive damage.
Start of Darkness: His Ascensions show his, marking the start of his moral decay.
Tome of Eldritch Lore: He begins carrying Prelati's Spellbook at his third Ascension.
The Unfought: In "Saber Wars", he appears alongside Blackbeard to loot Mysterious Heroine X's ship, only for X to beat him into the ground before the battle even starts on account of him being a Saber.

Hai Bà Trưng

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/105300a1.png

Two Ladies Trung ^note

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Reina Kondo (Trưng Trắc), Kanae Itō (Trưng Nhị)

Illustrator: Take

Trưng Trắc: "Hello, I'm Trưng Trắc. This girl is my little sister Trưng Nhị. We both combined are called Hai Bà Trưng or the Trưng Sisters, but… Whichever way you call us is fine."
Trưng Nhị: "But, Sis… Older Sister is a king. Being too over-familiar is no good."
Trưng Trắc: "Sheesh, Nhị-chan… At any rate, we will be on your care from now on."

The Trung Sisters were a pair of military leaders that repelled the first Chinese domination of Vietnam. The elder one of the two is Trung Trắc, and her younger sister is Trung Nhị.

At first they were the daughters of a wealthy noble family of Lac descent, well-educated, and were set to inherit their father's titles and land. Trưng Trắc was married to Thi Sách, a general from a neighboring district. But the invading Han Chinese and the cruel general Su Ding, had Thi Sách beheaded. Devastated Trưng Trắc led a rebellion followed by her sister, Trưng Nhị.

Starting at Red River Delta and spreading towards others, the rebellion raised Thirty-six Strongholds to their cause. Being overrun, Su Ding and his forces fled. Thus, the older Trưng was made queen and her sister a co-ruler.

However, things were not to be, as the Han Emperor, slighted by this rebellion, sent for another general to topple the freed Vietnam. And with 20,000 troops they were defeated in the next year. Their fate was unknown, either they were beheaded or drowned themselves. Still their influence stayed on Vietnam's hearts, the Trưng Sisters were deified and became heroes that symbolized the spirit of the country's freedom.

They first debut in the "Water Monsters Crisis" event as the main ally.

All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats: Both of them wear a non la of their own accented with their respective colors.
Anachronism Stew: In their First Ascension they both wear ao dais—iconic Vietnamese garments to be sure, but ones that were invented in 1958, almost 2000 years after they had lived and carved their names in history.
Animal Motifs:
- Elephants, which they were both known to have used in their rebellion. In their First Ascensions, their arms have a flap that resembles an elephant's head, while on their Second Ascension, the cloth tied around their waist, it's bottom part's middle also has an elephant shape.
- They also have a dragonfly motif, particularly Nhi. Their hair colors of green, red and blue are colors that dragonflies are known to have and in the pattern on their lims resemble the thin body of the insect. While in their Third Ascensions, Trac's pattern in her non la and Nhi's dress and hair are all patterned after its wings. Not to mention in their Final Ascension where they are dragonflies around them.
Better to Die than Be Killed: Instead of falling into the the hands of their enemies, the two sisters were said to have both drowned themselves in the river to preserve their honors.
Big Sister Worship: Nhi is very dedicated to her elder sister, both as a leader, and because she thinks she's positively adorable.
Calling Your Attacks: Thanks to this, we know their water pyramid attack is named Mekong Delta.
Color Motif: Nhi is coloured blue while Trac is coloured red, which ties into their gameplay, as they are Arts-Buster hybrid Servants who can boost both card types. Ironically though with Trac being the rebel leader is red while Nhi who follows her is blue, their gameplay leans more on Arts side.
Crusading Widow: Trac started her rebellion against the Han Chinese after they had her husband killed.
Deity of Human Origin: Even after they killed themselves and their rebellion was crushed, Trung Sister's rebellion gave the Vietnamese people hope to stand up against China, and the two would eventually be worshiped as gods, with one story telling how they appeared in the Li Dynasty to bring an end to a drought. With Dagon being seemingly invulnerable to anyone who isn't a god like himself, Da Vinci is able to hack the Grail so that the whole Singularity gets transferred into Northern Vietnam where the two get a massive fame boost and become gods to oppose Dagon. Said Divinity also gave them the ability to purify Dagon's toxic lake when he turned himself into one at the conclusion of the event. This is reflected in-game by them having C rank Divinity.
The Dividual: They are the second pair of siblings to be summoned together following Castor and Pollux.
Dub Name Change: The Japanese name for them is 徴姉妹 - literally "Trưng sisters" in Japanese, their most common title outside of Vietnam. Their release in NA opts for using their original name in Vietnamese, Hai Bà Trưng (literally "two ladies [named] Trưng"), which is written differently: 𠄩婆徵. Trưng Sisters is instead acknowledged in-universe as a valid alternate title.
Elemental Weapon: The two use bamboo handles that can generate blades out of water. Trac can turn her short handle into a sword and a machine gun, while Nhi can turn her long handle into a trường đao or create a rotating blade. The two can also combine their weapons to create a large pyramid shape to either stab or smash into their opponents.
Failure Hero: With their legendary status today, it's almost easy to forget that their rebellion failed. Trac in particular has severe insecurity issues over this, feeling unworthy of being a proper hero, let alone an object of worship with temples to her name.
Foil: By the end of their debut event, they become ones with Dagon. The two sides are both water deities created by people's beliefs, but while Dagon was corrupted into his sea monster form by the people, Trung Sisters ascended into godhood by people's hopes. Dagon notably is jealous of the two due to how they are depicted in a much greater light than he is.
Green Thumb: Their Quick Card attacks before their third ascension has Trac grow bamboo spears from the ground to skewer their enemy or Nhi use a swinging log Booby Trap after the first hit. In their third ascension they have some lotus petals and leaves floating around them. Nhi can use the leaves as platforms to maneuver behind the enemy then attack while Trac makes an explosion of sacred lotus beneath their enemy.
Heroic Sacrifice: Implied. At the conclusion of "Water Monsters Crisis" the sisters used their own bodies to purify the toxic lake created by Dagon's power, and as they were not present for the event epilogue it was implied that the act destroyed their Spirit Origin.
Lady of War: The Trung Sisters are the most famous example of female warriors in all of Vietnam's history. They were the ones who led a rebellion in opposition of the Chinese invasion of Vietnam, gaining the support of 65 towns and settlements.
Making a Splash: Their animations feature a lot of water attacks ranging from a pyramid of water to a beam of it. This turns out to be because being worshipped as Vietnamese rain gods gives them power over water by extension, which in turn allows them to counteract Dagon's control over water.
Non-Standard Character Design: Even compared to the regular anime aesthetic of the Servants in the game, the artist, take, sticks with her design style that evokes much of her previous work in the Pokémon franchise. Even the Head Pets of Trac and Nhi look like Munna and Phanpy.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Their designs already matched the visual aspect of the "Red Oni, Blue Oni" trope. Trac, the red one, is very cheerful and energetic like a red oni while Nhi, the blue one, is more reserved and level-headed like a blue oni.
Power Makes Your Hair Grow: With each ascension, their hair becomes longer and more elaborate.
She Is the King: Trung Trac is referred to as King instead of Queen in Japanese.
Square Race, Round Class: On their first two Ascensions, they do fit into the Saber mold albeit with having a mount like a Rider would. But by Third Ascension, they drop their weapons and start using outright water magic and using their elephant companions a bit more. The shift between the two Ascensions and the ambiguous nature of their elephants makes them come off as being more like Foreigners like Summer BB than proper Sabers. That being said, their debut event reveals that their Third Ascension represents the deified form of the two, meaning that they are simply fighting without being shackled down to their class.
Vapor Wear: In their Second Ascension, their skirts are so low it is clear they are not wearing underwear.
War Elephants: They were summoned with a matching pair of tiny elephants, who can shoot streams of water and combine into a larger elephant for a charging attack. However, while the Trungs are known for riding elephants into battle^note the Servants don't actually know who or what these elephants are..., their Bond CE implies that the elephants are the embodiment of the people's faith and love for the Trưng Sisters.

Ibuki-Douji

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsqcsjlyyi461.jpg

Avatar of the Great God of Mount Ibuki

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{Fragment of the Great Serpent God's Spirit}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Aoi Yūki

Illustrator: Honjō Raita

"I am Ibuki-douji. Are you what they call a Master? I see. If you do not wish to die then it is in your best interest to humor me. My self after molting will not feel like playing around with a human as much as my current form does, after all."

Yamata-no-Orochi, a vile eight-headed serpent who was known for terrorizing Japan in the ancient days. In particular, Orochi tormented two earthly deities by demanding them to sacrifice one of their eight daughters every year to appease it. Before the eighth maiden would be sacrificed, the serpent was slain by the wandering god Susanoo. However, Orochi's legacy did not end there. Somewhere else, the accursed serpent was worshipped as Ibuki Daimyojin, the god of Mount Ibuki. And one day, a child was born as a descendant of the god, either as a direct child of it or someone who succeeded its blood.

The girl was named Ibuki-Douji, a bunrei of Yamata-no-Orochi. However, you might know her better by her other name; Shuten-Douji, the oni leader of Mt. Ooe.

Her existence has been teased since Shuten-Douji's introduction, and she first appeared in Shuten's second Interlude where she hijacks her body. She made her first in-person appearance in "Hell Realm Mandala, Heian-kyo" as an antagonist. She later went on to become an ally of Chaldea within the story-important Tunguska Sanctuary event.

Amazing Technicolor Population: She has a deep grayish-purple skintone, in contrast to Ibaraki-Douji and Shuten-Douji who both have normal skintones.
Animal Motifs: Snakes.
Anti-Magic: Alongside having Magic Resistance A to deal with debuffs, she also has Snake God's Essence A which in addition to a flat damage bonus gives her innate Buff Removal Resistance.
Apologetic Attacker: In her playable version, she apologizes to the enemy when attacking.
Armor-Piercing Attack: Her Noble Phantasm grants her a 1-turn Ignore Invulnerability and Ignore Defense Buff effect, making it nearly impossible to mitigate her damage for that turn short of ATK or NP Damage debuffs (and that's what her Magic Resistance is for).
Assimilation Backfire: Douman tried to absorb her into his Tree of Emptiness to fuel his ascension to Beasthood, but she still retained her will long enough to give Kintoki's Golden Bear her Kusanagi blade in order to defeat Douman. And she later mocks him during the battle, which causes him to suffer a permanent NP Damage Down debuff.
Badass Boast: Her proper introduction is just one long boast about who she is.
"Hear my name, creatures of this world. Gaze upon my form, creatures who slumber in the great beyond. I am Ibuki-Douji... ...the dragon god of disaster. I am the mountains and water. I am the earth and steel. I am the heavens and storms. I am fire and war. I am... ...the first of Yamata-no-Orochi's eight heads and tails. I come to you now from the mountain, and calamity follows in my wake. To all living things... I am disaster made manifest."
Bad with the Bone: The main weapon she uses in her third sprite is a giant whip made out of some creature's spine.
BFS: Proportionally speaking, the Kusanagi she wields is almost as big as she is, and she is already much taller than most other Servants. She lends it to Kintoki for the final battle against Limbo, and it turns out to be a perfect fit to be wielded by his giant mech.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: She's Chaotic Good compared to Shuten's Chaotic Evil, but while Shuten is a career villain who knowingly wrecked havoc during the Heian Period for hedonistic purposes, Ibuki indulges in her whims both friendly and ferocious as permissible under her divine station. Shuten might destroy a village to be cruel. Ibuki could do it completely by accident and not care in a way that wouldn't seem callous to a human being.
Born Unlucky: Stat-wise, her Luck is ranked D.
Breath Weapon: Not her specifically, but when she summons Orochi in her Extra Attack from her Third Ascension onwards, the three heads breathe in and fire a red, green, and yellow beam respectively.
Cool Big Sis: She starts acting this way towards the Master in her second ascension, with the sweet and semi-flirty tone to match.
Cute Monster Girl: Ibuki-Douji is massive, has multiple horns and purple-grey skin, and grows a long snake tail out from her back, yet she's still depicted as a beautiful woman.
Discard and Draw: Tosses away her Invincibility buffs after losing her first two health bars in exchange for one that bloats her HP to over 1,000,000 depending on how many of the Invincibility buffs were used up before doing so.
Dual Age Modes: Her First Ascension depicts her in her freshly hatched child form.
Four Is Death: She has four health bars. The protagonists only need to get through three of them to beat her, as she's betrayed and absorbed by Douman shortly afterwards.
Giant Woman: Her default height listed on her profile is 300 cm (atleast while in battle, otherwise she shrinks to "just" 180cm). For reference, Quetzalcoatl, one of the premiere Statuesque Stunners in the game, is "only" 181 cm, while Kijyo Kōyō in her T-rex form is "only" 234 cm. The only playable female Servant bigger than her is Kingprotea.
Glass Cannon: Downplayed, as she actually has decent HP, one of her passives reduces damage by 200, her second skill provides a three-turn 20~30% DEF Up, and her third skill seals an enemy NP, but the majority of her kit is focused solely on offense. She has an ATK stat of 12,709, putting her not only over Arthur and Sigurd as the highest ATK of all Sabers but also putting her over Dantes and Avenger Nobunaga and only just below Kintoki and Musashi (Summer); her first skill boosts ATK for three times three turns alongside a strong NP battery, her second skill gives her a three-turn Buster buff alongside Crit Stars, her third skill gives her three-turn Crit Damage Up and Undead Damage Up, and her NP has Ignore Invincibility and Ignore DEF while reducing Buster Resistance for the cherry on top afterwards. Stat-wise, she has A+ Rank Strength and NP and EX Rank Mana, but only an average C Rank in both Endurance and Agility.
Going Native: The summonable version of Ibuki-Douji seemed to have been influenced by the modern era, either by herself studying the modern era or having met someone else who was already used to modern society which was then transferred to her in Chaldea's summoning system. As a result, her overall personality is a slightly seductive Cool Big Sis who even dresses up in modern clothing, compared to fellow oni Ibaraki and even her Alternate Self Shuten preferring their traditional wear and keeping some level of distance from modern customs. "Ibuki as a kami" aspect of her comes into play in her first form where it is mixed with her "big sister" persona, and it fully comes out when either using her Noble Phantasm or with her Costume Dress.
Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Fitting, given she's an aspect of noted drinker Shuten-Douji. Her Bond 4 line has her mention she's not intoxicated, having "only" drunk three barrels of alcohol so far. Among her likes in My Room include essentially all kinds of alcohol.
"Japanese sake, shochu, beer, wine, whiskey, brandy, vodka, tequila, Shaoxing wine, ale...you name it, I love it all!"
Healing Factor: When the protagonists are finally able to injure her, she simply shrugs off the wound and heals right away.
Holy Halo: She has a large metal one behind her back, denoting her status as the avatar of the divine eight-headed serpent.
Horned Humanoid: She has four black-and-purple curled horns coming out of her head.
I Have Many Names: The Kusanagi is known by various names such as Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi and Tsumugari-no-Tachi. Her Bond Craft Essence suggests that the reason for the different names is because there are several Kusanagis out there, each of them having their own name.
Improbable Use of a Weapon: In her second sprite, she uses Kusanagi to do regular attacks... by swinging it around by the Yasakani no Magatama necklace.
Improvised Weapon: She uses an eggshell as a weapon in her child form Ascension, often as a helmet to aid her headbutt attack.
It Amused Me: Befitting her divine mindset, much of what Ibuki does is motivated by what she finds amusing. Even at her darkest in Heian-kyo, she manages to find amusement in watching the heroes struggle against her, hearing Douman's intention to feed her to his Pseudo-Tree of Emptiness, and most significantly listening to Kintoki's declaration of finding his reason to be a hero and standing against Douman. The last in particular is what motivates her to aid them by lending the Kusanagi.
Just Toying with Them: During the battle in Heian-kyo, her Invincibility buffs are actually her method of playing around with the protagonists, as she also has a permanent NP Seal on herself labeled "Try to Make me Unsheathe this Blade". It's only when her first two bars are taken off that she finally gets serious, buffs her third HP bar, takes the NP Seal off, and gives herself a permanent Critical Chance buff for good measure.
Lampshaded Double Entendre: While talking about her personal type, that being "someone strong yet shy" (whether it's a pretty boy or girl doesn't matter), she claims she'd love so much she'd "devour" them. When the protagonist clearly asks what she means, she notes that "obviously, that has a double meaning!"
Lighter and Softer: The summonable version is a LOT more friendly than the enemy version. Even her profile is confused as to why, besides implying that she might just be having fun "playing human". Chiyome, in particular, was so shocked to meet a spawn of Orochi who's not out to make her life miserable that she had a nervous breakdown and started hugging Ibuki while crying.
Magical Barefooter: She constantly levitates and her shoes disappear in Third Ascension.
Magical Floating Shawl: Has one in her First Ascension, emphasizing her supernatural existence.
Ms. Fanservice: Is a lot more voluptuous compared to her Assassin self, having an outfit or lack thereof to reveal her breasts and thighs and matching Minamoto-no-Raikou in terms of physique. Aoi Yūki joked about her being "a one-woman department store of delicious fetishes".
Monster Lord: In Heian-kyo, Ibuki-Douji's appearance allows her to instantly assemble the legions of Oni on Mt. Ooe into a disciplined fighting force through her sheer divine presence alone. It's pointed out by both the narration and a shocked Ibaraki that no one, not even Shuten, had ever been able to impart such loyalty to the hordes before.
Monstrous Humanoid: While Ibuki-Douji looks like a young Snake People or a giant horned human, she is one of the two playable Servants in the game who does not have the Humanoid trait on them.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Her outrageous proportions aside, Ibuki-douji's physique is lithe and curvaceous. But her divine and monstrous strength lets her restrain Kintoki with ease, who, despite even as a child possessing the raw strength to shatter a grown man's arms and punch a hole through their chest, can't break free from her grip no matter how hard he tries.
Never the Selves Shall Meet: Strangely, she can't seem to percieve Shuten's existence if you have either of them, seeing only a vague shadow.
Nigh-Invulnerability: Her boss fight has her stack multiple irremovable Invincibility buffs on herself, and once they're gone she bulks up her HP to over 1,000,000. Unfortunately for her, she's also a Saber, and several Archer class Servants have ways to bypass these buffs to hit her directly. In the story, no one in the protagonist's party can really land a scratch on her save for Shuten, and that's because they share the same origin as an Alternate Self. And even then, she heals up right away.
Older Alter Ego: To Shuten-Douji, in a similar vein to what Carmilla is to Elizabeth, representing a different aspect of her life.
Orochi: She summons one with her Noble Phantasm and her Extra Attack. However, unlike the Orochi enemies seen in-game or the one summoned by Assassin of Paraiso, hers is even bigger and has pale white scales, implying that rather than a mere facsimile or shadow, this is the actual Yamata-no-Orochi.
Parental Title Characterization: She refers to Yamata-no-Orochi as "Papa" when summoning him for back-up, implying that they have a close relationship.
Perception Filter: Her My Room dialogue indicates that she cannot see or hear Shuten-Douji, only seeing "mist" in her general area.
Person of Mass Destruction: This is Shuten-Douji at the peak of her power and fully worthy of her title as one of Japan's Three Great Calamities. For reference, fellow Calamity Tamamo-no-Mae at her full power is worthy of being considered a Beast level threat.
Physical God: Being an avatar of Yamata-no-Orochi qualifies her, as she pretty much shrugs off any attack thrown at her and shares Zeus's ability to make mortals kneel by their presence alone. She's pretty similar to the Lostbelt Kings at that, and Douman originally summoned her to be the vessel for the Beast-Class Orochi before changing his plans and absorbing her into the Naraka Mandala to become a Beast himself. In the "Chaldea Summer Adventure" event, she treats a battle with fellow Divine Spirit Caenis as a fun diversion rather than a potentially lethal fight.
Public Domain Artifact: She has two of Japan's Imperial Regalia on her person: the Kusanagi as a large blue-green longsword, and the Magatama as a necklace of blue-green comma-beads.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Zig-Zagged, as while she has them in stark contrast to Shuten herself, her alignment is listed as Chaotic Good. The version of her that shows up in Heian-kyo, however, who combines this with Black Eyes of Crazy, does play this straight.
Sacrificial Lamb: Despite being set up as important as Ashiya Douman's host to summon Orochi as a Beast, she actually has a fairly minor role in "Hell Realm Mandala, Heian-kyo", as her appearance in this chapter pretty much exists as a reason to finally give the long awaited Ibuki-Douji a design and show off her power and move-set so that she could become playable. She is absorbed by Ashiya Douman's sneak attack fairly quickly after her introduction, though she lives inside the Narka Mandala long enough to give Kintoki a hand with the final showdown.
Sexy Sweater Girl: She wears a light pink sweater in one of her Ascensions which really serves to accentuate her large bust. When asked, she says she wanted to get acquainted with clothes from the modern age, and seems to be really attached to that sweater in particular. When reaching her third ascension, she's almost annoyed at having to take it off in favor of her divine garments.
She Is All Grown Up: Her First Ascension depicts her child form in stark contrast to her adult form.
Shock and Awe: Across her forms she utilizes purple lightning, be it discharging it for her skill animations, firing it from her hands, or conjuring storm clouds to unleash lightning strikes.
Sizeshifter: She's a giant by default, but uses her powers to downsize herself when interacting with regular humans.
Snake People: In her First Ascension, she has a snake lower body.
Statuesque Stunner: Compared to Shuten-Douji, Ibuki-Douji gets one hell of a growth spurt, towering over almost every other female Servant in the game, and it only serves to highlight her physique and beauty.
Summon Magic: She can summon parts of Orochi, such as smaller snakes to use as grappling hooks, a mini Orochi that constricts the target, or any number of the true Orochi's heads to either bite her enemies or fire their Breath Weapon.
Sword Beam: The final part of her Noble Phantasm has her unleashing one from the Kusanagi-no-Tachi. According to her profile, invoking the sword's True Name and swinging it once can unleash enough power to blow away eight valleys and peaks while simultaneously giving birth to eight rivers...and this is only a fraction of what the sword is truly capable of, with Ibuki claiming that its true power wouldn't stop at such a low level. As shown by Kintoki using it via his Humonogous Mecha, it can even destroy a Tree of Emptiness with one well-aimed stroke.
Tail Slap: In her First Ascension, she will slap the enemy with her large tail.
The Tease: According to her Bond Level 3, she loves to try and seduce and arouse others, including the master, as a way of studying humans and modern society.
Too Important to Walk: Briefly stands around in her introductory CG before opting to float above her opposition.
Unseen No More: Her existence was teased since Shuten-Douji's debut several years ago, but she had never shown up on screen. It wasn't until "Hell Realm Mandala, Heian-kyo" that she was given an official design and became playable.
You Don't Look Like You: A same-work example. While she's supposed to be the divine aspect of Shuten-Douji, they look nothing alike.
Zigzag Paper Tassel: She uses two of them to cover her chest in her first ascension.

Jason

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s254stage1.png

Captain of the Argo

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{As seen in Okeanos}

^{Heroic Spirit Tour}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's 2021 Ver.}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi

Illustrator: BLACK

"Saber, Jason. I've come to answer your summons. I may be a hero, but I am first and foremost a captain. Listen up. Never put me on the front lines. Got that!?"

One of the most famous heroes in Greek mythology. As the son of Aeson (king of Iolcus), Jason sought to become a famous hero on his own merits and set off on an ocean-spanning quest for a mythical artifact called the Golden Fleece. He used his incredible charisma to assemble an army of heroes dubbed the Argonauts, convinced the gods to make the sorceress Medea fall deeply in love with him, and after many adventures finally claimed the Golden Fleece and his kingdom.

Unfortunately, with victory came hubris, and in his desire for more political power, Jason broke his promise of eternal love to Medea and dumped her for the princess of another country. This enraged Medea, who retaliated by murdering their children and his new wife. Jason's selfish betrayal of his vows also provoked the wrath of his patron goddess Hera, and without her favour he lost much of his wealth and power. After leaving what remained of his kingdom to his son, the famous hero Jason was reduced to a beggar who lived out the rest of his life squatting in the rotting remains of his ship, the Argo, until one night when he was ignobly crushed to death by its stern while sleeping.

Jason first appeared in the Okeanos Chapter as one of the main antagonists. He returned in a minor role in the Prisma Illya crossover event, as the familiar of Medea (Lily). He finally made his debut as a playable Servant during the 4th Anniversary event. He also appears in Lostbelt 5: Atlantis, acting as said chapters primary ally.

Achilles in His Tent: He's touted as the leader of the anti-Kirsch resistance in the Atlantis Lostbelt, but when the protagonists meet him, the death of Heracles has since taken the fight out of Jason and he's content to just twiddle his thumbs and wait for the rogue Greek gods to find and kill him. Notably, the actual Achilles is also an ally in the chapter and doesn't engage in this trope.
Adaptational Jerkass: While Jason in the original myth was no saint, the Nasuverse version makes you wonder, how did anyone stick around long enough for him to complete his search for the Golden Fleece?
Adaptational Wimp: The mythological Jason was a warrior who was strong enough to pull two bulls at the same time with the only help he received for the task being a fire-resistance potion from Medea, not a wimp who relies on others for protection. The fact that he was trained by Chiron is still there, but he didn't seem to really get any of his lessons and would have preferred if he had taught him how to deal with landmine-like women like Medea. He's still a Servant worthy of the Throne of Heroes by the usage of analysis and trickery, but compared to his mythological self who also does the physical weigh-lifting in the same time, this is notably jarring. This is likely due to the Saber class being a bad container to summon him in, and thus weakening him, as his bond profile implies that the Lancer and Rider classes are much more suitable for him.
Alpha Strike: In his Noble Phantasm, he bands Heracles, Atalante and Medea Lily together to attack enemies, only for Atalante to kick him into the enemies and force him to avoid their attacks.
Anti-Villain: He has noble intentions, but his personality leads him to antagonize and be a dick to almost everyone. Especially Medea (Lily) when things aren't going his way.
Arc Villain: Of Okeanos, somewhat, after Blackbeard leaves center stage as the Disc-One Final Boss.
Assist Character: Jason can call Heracles, Medea Lily and Atalante to fight for him in battle, he's also forced to fight himself. Heracles shows up for Jason's Buster attacks and Extra Attack, Medea for his Arts attacks, and Atalante for his Quick attack. All three show up when he uses his Noble Phantasm. This unique idea is also the reason of Medea Lily's animation renewal.
Avengers Assemble: At peak performance, his Noble Phantasm can summon his 50-strong crew to aid him in battle.
Awesomeness by Analysis: Jason's combat abilities are middling at best, but he's an inhuman monster when it comes to analyzing the assets of his allies and putting them at the best positions in utilizing those assets. Of course, put him in a life and death situation first to make this shine even more.
Because You Were Nice to Me: While acknowledging that Jason can be a jerkass sometimes, a major reason why Heracles puts up with him and genuinely likes him is because he's one of the few people during his life to treat him as an actual person.
Berserk Button: He's not fond of getting insulted at all, but most of his retorts to those don't tend to have too much bite. If someone insults Heracles, however, he'll go for the verbal jugular, which Caenis learns when she does exactly that in the Atlantis Lostbelt.
Bling of War: He dons ornate golden armor in this class that only gets fancier as he ascends.
Brought Down to Normal: The ability to summon his Argonauts makes it so that his enemies potentially have to fight up to a hundred Servants at once, but Jason pointedly cannot summon them again if they are killed, and if that happens, he's left on his lonesome as a mediocre warrior.
Bungled Suicide: His Bond 10 Craft Essence shows that in his last moments Jason tried to hang himself under the wreckage of the Argo, after losing all his wealth and power. Only for the ship to collapse under him, killing him.
Butt-Monkey: About half of his animations have him either getting stuck in his allies' own attacks or being thrown into the fray, such as Heracles using him for a Fastball Special in his Buster animation or Atalante kicking him forwards during his Noble Phantasm.
Character Development: Twofold.
- First, learning from his mistakes about chasing after things like the Holy Grail in Okeanos or the Golden Fleece in his legend. He knows by now that any legendary relic is, at best, exaggerated in its scope of power, or at worst, not worth all the pain and trouble to actually obtain them. This extends to distrusting the gods in general.
- Second, he grows as a person when it comes to his goals and expectations. In Okeanos he goes along with Medea Lily's plans blinded by the promise of his own dreams finally being fulfilled. The Atlantis Lostbelt shows his dreams and those he relies on most crushed, and having to pick himself back up and do what's right exclusively for others. Even when Secretly Dying he hides this fact exclusively for the benefit of Chaldea, refusing to make it about him in any capacity. Even after, the version of Jason summoned to Chaldea acts akin to his original Butt-Monkey self, but with a greater degree of care about those outside his circle of influence and doing right by Medea.
Charm Person: He has little more combat power than an above average human, but his charisma and abilities as a leader are off the charts, to the point where even a fully berserking Heracles follows his commands. Though described as a "useless person" when it comes to battle, he is an inhuman monster in eloquence who organized the Argonauts with just his immense charm.
Combination Attack: His Noble Phantasm, Astrapste Argo: The Dazzling Ship that Splits the Heavens, has him command Heracles, Atalante, and Medea Lily to attack together in rapid succession. It can summon any and all of the Argonauts, but it's worth noting that unlike Iskandar or Okita, he's not actually that popular with his crewmates, meaning that they won't answer his call if they don't agree with whatever he's calling them for.
Composite Character: The aesthetics, ego, and Jerk with a Heart of Gold nature of Gilgamesh, but instead of a Smug Super, he is a Butt-Monkey in a manner closely imitating Shinji Matou.
Cornered Rattlesnake: Medea Lily admits and Jason himself shows in Solomon that it's only when the chips are down and he's under pressure with his life on the line do his traits as a master commander and strategist come out. His Inspiration at Death's Door skill means that he will get flashes of inspiration when in a life-threatening situation. He hates that skill since he can only get these flashes of inspiration when acting like he is throwing his life away.
Chiron: (Regarding Jason) "It's alright. Even when you think he's reached his limits, he will exceed them; for therein lies Jason's true worth."
Cowardly Lion: He's typically a rank coward who will whine incessantly when put in the front lines but when push comes to shove he proves his courage and cunning to the point that he'll willing put himself at risk for the sake of a successful strategem.
Crazy Enough to Work: Sailing straight into the blockade guarding final stretch of Atlantis. It's so obviously suicidal that any sane individual would try to circumvent the blockade, but Jason expects the enemy to have already planned for such possibilities, enough that they'd just be walking into one of many traps. That only leaves the head-on assault, which he reasons at least would allow them to maintain the initiative by playing their cards right and causing as much chaos as possible.
Declaration of Protection: It's revealed in Fate/strange Fake that in their youth Jason vowed to Heracles that he'll create a kingdom without prejudice where everyone will be treated equally, including him.
"Listen to me! In that land, no one will look at you and be afraid! [...] Because as long as you're my man, my friend, my property, everyone will understand you."
Despair Event Horizon: He breaks down badly after Heracles dies in both Okeanos and Atlantis. In the latter it got him to the point that he becomes a Death Seeker until the protagonists snap him out of it.
The Dividual: As a Servant, he is never summoned by just himself alone, but he goes with the Argonauts to fight for him. In gameplay, he commands Heracles, Atalante and Medea Lily to attack for him, while he himself just either attacks with sloppy sword swings, provides support or just runs around.
Domestic Abuse: Something Orion outright points out when they first meet him, except he concludes that what he has with Medea is actually worse.
Dwindling Party: His allies start dropping one-by-one in the latter half of Okeanos and, more tragically, during the Atlantis Lostbelt where his new crew members perish in very rapid succession.
Dying Alone: His Bond CE, as he sits in the wreck of the Argo in the last moments of his life, wondering how and where it all went wrong, thinking over his mistakes (and refusing to admit that what happened with Medea was his fault), how he can try to find a second chance, before cursing as the beam falls and crushes the life out of him.
Expy: He is a very clear, deliberate attempt at recreating Gilgamesh, at least in his arrogant Jerk with a Heart of Gold aspect (not so much the Smug Super part). For instance, there's the looks, Tama-Cat nicknames him "Fake Goldie" in a reference to Gilgamesh, he has a soft spot for Heracles in a similar manner as Gilgamesh has for Enkidu, and in his Valentine's scene, he spontaneously decides to nickname the protagonist "shrimp", only to complain when they disapprove that Gilgamesh gets to call them a mongrel.
Everyone Has Standards: One of his few positive traits is that he vocally dislikes discrimination against non-humans. Aside for his friendship with Heracles, Jason had zero problems accepting Asterios, even declaring that he deserved to become one of Greece's greatest heroes.
Fanboy: Of his friend Heracles, to the point in Atlantis he's always gushing about how cool and strong he is. He gets angry and overcomes his own cowardly nature if he perceives any insult towards Heracles. In Jason's eyes, Heracles is so awesome, he considers Super Orion and Achilles inferior compared to him.
Jason: That is ENOUGH out of all you Greek heroes! I mean it! Dammit, I wish I could sacrifice you two in exchange for summoning Heracles back!
Achilles: Well, you can't!
Orion: Come on, don't you think that'd be a waste of a perfectly good hero right here?!
Jason: Oh? Name me ONE thing about you that surpasses Heracles in any way!
Orion: MY GOOD LOOKS!!!
Jason: He and I've both got you beat there!!!
- Later, when Jason orders Achilles to distract Chiron, there is this exchange:
  Achilles: That's a hell of a tall order, you know.
  Jason: Course it is. I'm only giving it because I know you can do it. You're Greece's second strongest hero, after all!
  Achilles: Wait. What do you mean "second"?
  Jason: What, did you really think you were stronger than Heracles? Don't be an ass.
  Achilles: (Sigh) All right, fine. We've got better things to do than argue now, so I'll just leave it at that.
Foil: In many ways to the protagonist; neither of them are particularly useful in a fight but they are both brilliant battle strategists with great charisma. But where Jason has a horrible personality and is a Jerkass, the protagonist is unfailingly kind and accepting of others, showing compassion even for those who have been their enemies.
Gameplay and Story Integration:
- He's an abysmal fighter for a warrior from Ancient Greece. Despite being summoned as a Saber, his swordsmanship amounts to clumsy flailing and he generally relies on the other Argonauts to pick up the slack. This is not only reflected in his 1* rarity and the stats it entails, but also in his skills, as they're all meant to support his teammates, especially the Argonauts, rather than dole out damage himself.
- Jason works best with Argo-related Servants who like or have a healthy respect for him like Heracles, Theseus, and the Dioscuri, as he either plugs holes in their survivability, helps them generate critical stars, or synchs well with their Arts-based decks. Argo-related characters who have more contentious relationships with him like Medea, Asclepius, and the Atalantas don't benefit as much from teaming up with Jason.
Heel–Face Turn: Joins the protagonist and all of his other former enemies against Solomon and the Demon Pillars in the Final Singularity: The Grand Temple of Time Solomon.
Hidden Depths:
- He's the kind who does well under pressure, something we didn't see in Okeanos because his team spent too long in control. Once he joins the fight at the Temple of Time, he displays his true talent: knowing exactly how to use and coordinate the talents of his allies. He also shows a surprising willingness to risk his own safety if it means his team gains an edge. Lostbelt 5: Atlantis shows that he can be an effective leader, and it's clear that without his help, Chaldea would have been defeated.
- Despite his jerkass personality, according to Fate/strange Fake he was the one of the few people who considered Heracles a friend. Fittingly, he doesn't take it well when Heracles is actually killed, breaking down in Okeanos and Atlantis over his friend's death.
Irony: He is undoubtedly Chiron's worst student, but he not only winds up outlasting both his much stronger fellow graduates like Heracles and Achilles in the Atlantis Lostbelt, but manages to mastermind the death of the villainous version of Chiron who was standing in the way of Chaldea during the chapter's climax.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Similar to how Gilgamesh was being a colossal jerk yet listed as in-universe Chaotic Good, Jason is an example of a Lawful Good character who is ALSO a massive jerk. He had good, lawful goals that might benefit humanity if things go his way, but as long as he's being a dick about it, that becomes really hard to impossible to attain. That being said, he isn't a complete ass, as he does cherish all of the Argonauts including the newer members to join in Atlantis and truly does just want to help people. It's just his ego makes it hard for him to get that across.
Jerkass Has a Point: Him dumping Medea is horrible but as he states in his My Room line about Medea Lily, anyone would have second thoughts if someone cut their little brother into pieces for you.
Joke Character: He's basically Fate/Grand Order's answer to Dan Hibiki, a low-rated Servant who's more bombastic than his actual strength and generally used as a joke, even by his allies.
Kick the Dog: Admits in his Bond CE that he never liked Medea, he just used her for the sake of his dreams.
The Leader: His unambiguously best positive trait, as he's incredibly good at strategy and utilizing the people around him.
Lethal Joke Character: While his stats are bad, his Noble Phantasm carries a self-Arts buff, is AoE, and hits multiple times—if he uses it on a three-man wave, that's fifteen hits of Arts. Add in Paracelsus, who also has an Arts buff and an NP gain buff, and suddenly Jason can get back about 40% of his charge immediately, making him a very cheap and surprisingly effective option for Arts teams looking to farm Lancer nodes.
- His third skill is just a 20% Attack buff at full level...if you're not an Argonaut. If you are an Argonaut, however, you get an NP gain of 20% on top of a 30% star drop rate. Jason makes for a very good support if you got some high Level Argonauts in your roster, like Heracles and the Dioscuri. And while the Argonaut buff doesn't buff your Jason, it can buff a Support Jason you've summoned from your Friend List.
Licked by the Dog: Usually a No-Respect Guy with his old crew, Heracles and the Dioscuri treat him with a healthy amount of respect bordering on outright fondness.
Magikarp Power: His skills are great, with his first skill being a heal and one debuff removal at 4-turns at max level. Its really his stats as a 1-star rarity which hamper his performance. With enough investment in Grails and Fous, he can be a powerhouse.
The Minion Master: While only Heracles, Medea Lily and Atalanta are used in-game, he can potentially summon any of the Argonauts.
Muscles Are Meaningless: A muscular and well-toned student of Chiron's who was the weakest member of his crew.
Non-Action Guy: Played with, as he's passable enough with swords to make a few attacks in gameplay, but mostly prefers to have his stronger allies do the dirty work for him.
Odd Friendship: His second group of Argonauts are a group of rather varied individuals with drastically different backgrounds and personalities. Despite this though, they're all Fire-Forged Friends and work well together under Jason. Among his new crew is Achilles, Paris, Orion, Mandricardo, Bartholomew Roberts, Mochizuki Chiyome, and Charlotte Corday. And while they may all fall by the end of Atlantis, their bond was enough to be represented by the completion Craft Essence◊.
Only Friend: In Fate/strange Fake, True Archer Alcides mentions that he was one of the few people who considered him a friend. Though he still admits that Jason is an humongous jerk. Also in gameplay that doesn't stop him from subjecting Jason to bodily harm whenever he attacks.
Overshadowed by Awesome: He has decent parameters and is capable of some deft swordplay, but he's an ant compared to Chiron's other students. Even Castor, Jason's only other human peer in that group, is packaged with his demigod sibling Pollux when summoned as a Servant.
Pet the Dog:
- For all Jason's bluster, as his bond lines go up, he does acknowledge his Master is their valuable Commander. He tells the Master they should survive at all costs, showing that he cares in his own roundabout way. He gets to prove it during the climax of Atlantis, where he stays back to face the Lostbelt Chiron on his own while the others escape, and while he does die, his strategy lets him actually defeat Chiron.
- Jason has a genuine friendship with Heracles, with the latter acknowledging him as one of his only friends in other Fate works. The feeling is mutual as Jason is absolutely despondent if Heracles dies.
The Power of Friendship: His skill named Conquest of Distant Seas with Friends goes with a party attack buff and if his ally is an "Argonaut"^note, it will increase their star gain and critical damage as well as charging their NP gauge.
Promoted to Playable: It took four years for him to become a playable Servant. He is also the first bronze rarity Saber.
Secretly Dying: Jason sends the party on ahead, playing off how he wants to rest instead of escaping from the final explosion in Atlantis when in reality, he's been dying for a while and just barely holding on. He had been using a Mystic Code he obtained from Medea Lily to hide his fatal injuries, to keep the group for being worried about him. Rather than kill the morale of the group, Jason quietly disappears while having a conversation with the also dying Chiron.
Semi-Divine: He's a "great-grandson" of Hermes, but because of the huge generational gap, his demigod blood is so diluted that he's basically a normal human. This is especially glaring when put aside his crewmates Heracles and Asclepius, whose divine lineages were more immediate, granting them noticeable boons and superhuman abilities.
Sole Survivor: When Jason was called to the Atlantis Lostbelt to defend Proper Human History, he immediately summoned his crew of one-hundred or so Servants to organise a resistance against the Crypters. By the time the protagonists encounter him, he's the only Argonaut left. Even after he reforms the group with numerous other servants during the Lostbelt, Jason is once again left as the last one standing when the others all die protecting Chaldea and taking on the gods.
Square Race, Round Class: Even though one would think he'd be summoned as Rider for commandeering the Argo (and indeed some of his lines imply Rider is one of his summonable classes), he appears as Saber once he's made summonable. Despite being in the so-called "Strongest Class" that specializes in close combat, Jason's swordplay is clumsy at best and he spends most of his time running around while trying to stay out of the Argonauts' warpath as they destroy everything for him. He himself is shocked to see he's been summoned as a Saber, and questions whether he wouldn't make a better Rider or Lancer.
Support Party Member: Despite being in a traditionally offensive class, all of Jason's skills are supportive in nature. He can heal any of his allies and remove their debuffs, give them 1-hit evasion and a boost to Star Gather Rate, and has a powerful Charisma skill that charges the NP Gauges of his fellow Argonauts along with boosting their Critical Star Drop Rate and Critical Strength. However, his 1* Servant stats and lack of self-buffs like Mana Burst means that his own performance will be mediocre at best even with the Arts performance buff from his Noble Phantasm.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Deprived of his usual crew of Argonauts in the Atlantis Lostbelt, Jason assembles a motley (if not necessarily weak) gang of replacements. It's nowhere near as balanced as his old group as it's chiefly composed of Riders and Assassins (there are no medical Casters to act in the stead of Medea Lily and Asclepius), but he manages to find stand-ins for Heracles and Atalanta at least in the forms of Orion (Superhuman) and Paris respectively.
Token Human: Among the prominent Argonauts featured in the franchise, Jason's the only outright human one of the bunch. He is the great-grandson of Hermes, but seemingly retained little divine power.
Training from Hell: His education from Chiron was noted to be exceptionally sadistic (possibly even moreso than needed, given Chiron took notice of Jason's abilities when backed into a corner.) He later joins Li Shuwen's classes alongside Mandricardo and Jack, whose lessons which are noted to be similarly brutal.
True Companions: His Argonauts new and old were/are, through to the end. Granted, they can still defy his commands if they deem them unjust, but the Argonauts all still respect Jason's leadership, even the demi-gods and kings among them. And through him, they met each other, forming lasting friendships such as Medea and Atalante. He's even still close to his companions in Atlantis, such as regularly hanging out with Charlotte Corday and going through Training from Hell with Mandricardo.
A Twinkle in the Sky: What becomes of him after his Noble Phantasm. Heracles's final smash sends him flying.
The Unfought: Jason is never actually fought by the player in Okeanos, until he's been converted into a vessel for Forneus. This is likely because his combat abilities are so low that he has to rely on allies to fight for him. However, since his playable version was already out before the fifth Lostbelt, this is averted for Atlantis.
Unwitting Pawn: Of Medea (Lily) and the mage Solomon/Goetia that beat her.
Utopia Justifies the Means: Medea Lily notes that even though his dream world is good and beautiful, he's such a jerkass being that anything he creates will turn bad and twisted. Seeing just how much Kick the Dog he did to gain the Grail, this is absolutely correct.
Weak Boss, Strong Underlings: He's considered weak as far as Servants go, but is capable of commanding heroes of far greater strength. Jason managed to assemble a crew of some of the greatest heroes of Greek Mythology and whose talent is that of a tactician capable of squeezing out a victory when his back is against the wall. This is shown by how in-game he's of the lowest rarity while his attacks have him calling upon Heracles, Atalante and Medea (all of whom are of the second-highest rarity in the game) as well as having a largely support-focused move set.
Weak, but Skilled: What he lacks in personal power he make up for with his skills as a tactician with a talent for overcoming the odds when his back is against the wall.
We Have Become Complacent: Due to the fact that he only truly shows his worth when struggling, him being at the top in Okeanos led to his flaws becoming more evident.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: He wanted to create a utopia for everyone using the Ark; the problem is that he's a jerk who has no qualms with killing anyone who might stand in his way or needs to be sacrificed.
With Friends Like These...: While they're willing to fight for him, the Argonauts in his animations seem like they're deliberately trying to kill him. Even Heracles isn't above using Jason as a projectile and Atalanta outright punts him into the firing range of her arrows.
You Remind Me of X: Hektor states in Solomon that he reminds him of his "dumb little brother" (Paris) in that both of them only show off their heroism under pressure, which is really the reason why he joined forces with them in Okeanos.

Karna (Santa)

The Santa of Charity

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Koji Yusa

Illustrator: pako

"My name is Karna. My Class is Santa, however, it’s also possible for me to be a Boxer as well. Though saying that, I’ve barely passed the gates of being a Santa. From here on, I’ll train hard so that I can grow― so that I can become a full-fledged Santa. I’ll be counting on you."

The Santa version of the Hero of Charity, Karna, one of the main characters of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. He carries a punching bag as his "sword" and primarily uses his fists as his weapon.

He's the welfare of the sixth Christmas event, "The Glorious Santa Claus Road ~The Sealed Christmas Present~".

Beam Spam: One of his Quick attack animations has him punch a target, only to assail them with beams from all directions.
Beware the Silly Ones: Karna's unfamiliarity with being Santa makes him a Literal-Minded Cloudcuckoolander who struggles at his role and keep foisting training on himself in the name of being Santa Claus. But this is still Karna we're talking about here as one of the strongest Servants in the lore.
Blood Knight:
- According to him, it'd be unbecoming for Santa (read: a warrior) to turn down any challenge laid at his feet. At the end of the event, he beckons Arjuna to meet him in the simulator at an appointed time so they can both duke it out and revel in combat.
  Karna: I don't care what you are as long as I can punch you.
- In his line for Romulus-Quirinus, Karna says he learned a great deal from Rome. Now that he's a Saber, he says he's looking forward to a match with him with a huge grin on his face.
Boxing Battler: As his profile points out, this version of Karna inexplicably fights like a professional boxer, which he attributes to his training under masters of every form of martial arts. Whereas the ancient form of boxing described in The Mahabharata includes kicks, knee strikes, and finger jabs, Karna sticks exclusively to clenched fists. Despite this, his speed, footwork, and "draw technique" produce an effect akin to Blade Spam.
Breaking Old Trends: After five years, Karna is the first Santa Servant to be male.
Calling Your Attacks: "SANTA PUNCH!"
Cloudcuckoolander: Karna as a Santa brings forth his more... interesting trails of thought. For example, he thinks that his father Surya is a Santa since "Santa is the sun of children", to Arjuna's confusion. Or his explanation for why he is a Saber is because his lightspeed punches are like draws of a sword, this time to Aśvatthāman's confusion. He also explains that he doesn't matter what his opponent is as long as he can punch it, which Arjuna lampshades as sounding terrible, especially for Santa Claus.
Counter-Attack: His Graharaja Santa Cross is nothing more than a precisely aimed cross crounter that is invisible to the eye as his fist connects with his opponent's jaw at the moment the attacks is thrown. He uses this to KO Vritra at the end of the event.
Critical Hit Class: Karna's strength as a Saber is this. His first skill increases the effectiveness of his Quick and Buster card and his Critical Strength, while his second skill increases his C. Star Gather Rate and the Critical Strength of his Quick cards. Combined with his NP giving himself a Quick effectiveness buff and having a unique Passive Skill that gives him a 15% Critical Strength Up on his Buster cards, and Karna, once he gets going, can throw out insane damage for his rarity.
Full-Contact Magic: His boxing fighting style unleashes a lot of magical energy that take the form of beams.
Hot-Blooded: According to Aśvatthāman, being Santa is so unfamiliar and confusing to Karna that it's bringing out the more impetuous, training-obsessed part of his personality from his youth. Karna is constantly going on and on about how he needs more training to be a better Santa, will throw hands with anyone if asked, and is a seemingly endless font of energy impatiently rushing to his next challenge. His profile even says that he'll sometimes act like a Stock Shōnen Hero amidst his stoicness.
In the Hood: Karna wears a black mantle with a hood.
Legacy Character: His Bond CE reveals how he gained the mantle of Santa Claus: by defeating all the other Santas of previous years in single combat. Except Santa Lily, whom he just had a heartfelt conversation about hopes and dreams with.
Literal-Minded: His fighting style takes the name "Boxing Day", which is the 2nd Day of Christmas, quite literally.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Karna's outfit emphasizes his spindly, stick-figure arms and legs, but he boxes with great strength as well as agility.
No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Downplayed, but according to Aśvatthāman the big reason for the shift in Karna's personality as a Santa is because it's so new and unfamiliar with him his mindset has shifted to back in his youth when he would train non-stop to become the best he could be.
Aśvatthāman: Back then, he was stoic, earnest as all hell...and so hell-bent on improving himself that he'd pull off the craziest shit before you even knew what he was doing.
The One Guy: Karna is the first male Santa Servant, including the Arcade-exclusive Helena (Christmas) and Suzuka (Santa).
Poor Communication Kills: One of his struggles when being Santa is the fact that he forgets to mention that he's Santa. He doesn't bother to explain himself when barging into people's homes to deliver presents, resulting in them understandably accusing him of being an intruder.
Pun:
- Ken (拳) = Fist. Ken (剣) = Sword. Which explains why he primarily uses his fists and why he would fall under the Saber-class. The punching bag does serve as a "sword".
- His mantle has "SUN田" written on it, which would be pronounced "Santa" in Japanese. He basically combines The Power of the Sun with the concept Santa Claus.
- His second Noble Phantasm, Graharaja Santa Cross, is a play on how "cross" as in "cross counter" and the "Claus" in "Santa Claus" are pronounced identically in Japanese.
- His whole boxing theme is because the second day of Christmas is called "Boxing Day".
Readings Are Off the Scale: His Agility is clocked in at EX. Similarly to Tajima-no-Kami, it specifically refers to Karna's punching speed and footwork rather than raw speed.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Like his Lancer version, Karna's color scheme is black and red. And like his Lancer version, he's an inversion of this trope, since he's very good.
Slasher Smile: While normally his grins are heartwarming as a sign of respect toward a Worthy Opponent or during one of his showings of kindness, his smiles look like psychotic grins as a Santa. The protagonist tries to get him to smile to make him less threatening when barging into houses to deliver presents, but Karna's huge grin terrifies Osakabehime instead.
Square Race, Round Class: He is a Saber without a sword, instead using his fists and punching bag.
Stone Wall: Stat-wise, Karna's ATK is pretty average for his rarity and on the lower end of his class of said rarity, but his HP is on the higher end. This means if he isn't able to throw out Critical Hits, his damage is not as potent as it normally would be. If he does though, he's an insanely strong damage dealer.
Super-Speed: His amazingly fast punches and footwork give him an EX in Agility, and he has high hit counts all around on his cards.
Temporary Online Content: While his event got a rerun, it was two years later instead of the following year like usual.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Karna Santa's NP, "Winning Arkaputra: Saint's Combo-Punch", has a Guts removal effect on it. This is a very situational effect, but as there are a number of Lancers and Berserkers with Guts, it gives Karna a unique role as an anti-Guts Saber.
Verbal Tic: He tends to emphasize his statements whenever he's feeling happy or concentrating.
Workaholic: Arjuna says this is what's preventing Karna from being a proper Santa Claus. Karna is the Hero of Charity/Benefaction who earnestly tries to give everyone the gifts that would make them happiest, throwing his all into being the best Santa Claus he can be and training nigh-constantly to improve. But not once does Karna ever consider whether or not he's enjoying being Santa compared to the rest of the Santa Clauses who all found ways to have fun in the role. Only when Karna allows himself to relax and give himself the "gift" of enjoying his training and being Santa Claus does he have the "Eureka!" Moment that allows the party to beat Vritra.
You Didn't Ask: Despite Karna's usual perchance towards Brutal Honesty, in his youth he wasn't afraid to trick people into assuming things about himself that he never actually said were true. According to Aśvatthāman, such was the case when he pretended to be a brahmana in order to learn from his father's teacher. Apparently that ended with a beating, but Aśvatthāman guesses Karna would just brush it off with "I never lied. I just never told them I wasn't [a brahmana]."

Katsushika Hokusai (Saber)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/saberhokusai.png

The Swordbeauty Mad About Art

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Yukana

Illustrator: Kōhaku Kuroboshi

"Yo, Master! Is this the first time we're meeting? Nah, we're old pals already, aren't we? I'm the best when I paint, I'm like a fairy when I play, and I can mix it up like the Forty-Seven when I draw a blade! The extraordinary female ukio-e painter, Katsushika Hokusai...that's me! Ahahaha! What? Good for me to have my guardian tag along? Gah, how rude! I'm gonna make Toto-sama retire once and for all!"

One day in Chaldea, Oui exploded from her room while sporting a brand-new swimsuit, calling herself an artist-slash-fairy-slash-swordfighter, and decreed that she would participate in a swordsman tournament taking place in the Dazzling Las Vegas. To be more specific, this is Oei before she had to endure the hardships of artistry, when all she wanted to be was a fairy tale character than a ukio-e artist and who believes that her clan has relation to the Kira family of the Chuushingura tales, driving her to becoming a swordfighter. Oh, and Toto-sama is tagging along here.

She is the free Servant given to you by participating in the "All In! Las Vegas Championship Match ~ Seven Duels of Swordbeauties!" event.

Alternate Self:
- During the event, she is the regular Oui transformed into a Saber and turns back into a Foreigner after the event story's end. After that, Chaldea simply goes back and summons a new copy of Oui purely as a Saber-class Servant. According to her profile, she is the dream ideal grown up form of Oui from her childhood, who wanted to be a storybook warrior more than an ukiyo-e artist. Unlike most alternate versions, the two are shown standing next to each other during a Battle in New York into, confirming they co-exist.
- However, according to Foreigner Oui, the Hokusais accompanying her and her Saber self are totally the same, and are linked together some more for good measure. Even she doesn't get how that works.
Armor-Piercing Question: Hokusai receives one from Mysterious Alter Ego Λ in their first confrontation when she asks her what she truly wants as a swordswoman and not as a painter, making the former freeze and leading to her defeat. She spends the next chapter in a Heroic BSoD until the Protagonist snaps her out of it with a pep talk.
Mysterious Alter Ego Λ: An artist of your caliber must have realized something when watching my show, "What is it I truly want to express?"
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Being a Saber, they are no slouch on swords, but they are just too cocky on their sword skills, such that whenever a Master Swordsman appears or is even merely mentioned, their immediate action is to challenge the said swordsman to a fight.
Ascended Fangirl: She's a big fan of Miyamoto Musashi and was thrilled to learn she's been fighting beside her hero the entire event.
Breaking Old Trends: They're the first Saber to have a QQAAB deck.
Chuunibyou: The 19th century equivalent of one. In this form, Oui has interest in becoming a fairy, not realizing that as a Heroic Spirit, she might as well already be one. Her profile describes her as the kind of cool storybook hero that Oui wanted to be as a child.
Critical Hit Class: Their first skill increases their NP Gauge and drop up to 20 Critical Stars, their second skill is a Star Gather Rate buff to help them gather those Critical Stars, but their third skill is where it starts getting insane. For 3 turns, any Critical Hit they deal increases their Critical Strength by 20% for 3 turns, letting them snowball quite well.^note
The Dividual: As with Foreigner Oui, her father's come along for the ride in cephalopod form, although he doesn't assume control at any point.
Dual Wielding: Both father and daughter fight using two swords in each tentacle/hand. Hokusai takes it even further in some animations by grabbing all four swords with his tentacles and charging a target like a spinning buzzsaw.
Foreshadowing:
- Many of the designs and symbols on her clothing represent future Foreigners like Yang and Summer Abigail. One of her swords is also a European Longsword which doesn't match her style as a Japanese Swordswoman, which is a hint for Jacques de Molay.
- In Fate/Grand Order Material, she has a section where she talks about Chinzei-Hachirou Tametomo, the protagonist of "A Wonder Tale: The Moonbow" book who could sink anything he shot his bow at, and when asked who in Chaldea she would have face him, she wonders if Siegfried would be a fitting match for him. This exact scenario end up happening in "The Boundary Where Thoughts of Death Manifested - Traum", where Siegfried uses his Balmung to fight off Tametomo's all-sinking shots.
Genki Girl: Hoo boy. Oei is very energetic and even kookier than usual in battle.
Jack of All Stats: Lore-wise, all of her stats are well-rounded, with her worst stat being Mana at C- and her best stats, her Agility and NP are ranked a B.
Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Turns out she doesn't have any idea what a Swimsuit Swordmaster actually means. She's just following whatever's going on in the hopes that no one will find out about it.
Making a Splash: Not only do some of their attacks and their NP incorporate water, but they have other attacks that have them splashing the target with ink.
Non-Standard Character Design: Animated commercials render her in Thick-Line Animation to imitate the artist's woodblock prints. This is in stark contrast to thin-outlined characters in the same scene.
Other Me Annoys Me: Foreigner Oei treats Saber Oui as her embarrassing teenage Chuunibyou phase come to life. In turn, Saber Oui thinks Foreigner Oei deserves to be taken down a peg. Following Summer 2019, however, Foreigner Oei decides to let Saber Oui be, since she's trying to take up the pen too.
Sword Beam: Oui can fire one of ink at a target.
Thick-Line Animation: Animated commercials render her with a bold outline to imitate the artist's woodblock prints. This is in stark contrast to thin-outlined characters in the same scene.
Tsundere: Having a mindset closer to that of her teenage self, Oui has a hard time reconciling how she feels about her Master.
Walking Armory: They carry three Japanese swords along with one Western longsword.

Lakshmi Bai

Rani of Jhansi

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Rina Sato

Illustrator: Takashi Takeuchi

"I am the Rani of Jhansi, Lakshmi Bai. I have manifested under the protection of the goddess. If there is need to resist against any sort of unreasonable invasion, I shall lend you my aid as best I can."

The Rani of Jhansi. She was one of the leaders of Indian uprisings against the British Empire during 1857. She first appears in Lostbelt No.4: Yuga Kshetra as a brief enemy turned ally.

All for Nothing: She spent all of her time in the Lostbelt trying to free the people from Arjuna Alter's rule and secure them a better future, only to learn that they'll vanish along with the Lostbelt once the Tree of Emptiness is destroyed. She's devastated by the news, but unlike Atalanta Alter, Lakshmi stays on your side. And shortly afterwards, Arjuna Alter deletes them because of her interference anyway.
Badass Driver: She has a B in Riding, allowing her to ride anything short of a Monstrous or Phantasmal Beast with incredible skill and at high speed. This is what allows her to ferry the heroes toward William Tell in the back of a wagon, redirecting his killing shots at the protagonist to herself with her own bad luck to get her allies within fighting range.
Bad Powers, Good People: Lakshmi is granted the powers of Alakshmi, the Hindu goddess of misfortune, allowing Laksmi to bring misfortune on others (as well as herself). These powers of hers make her quick to blame herself for things going wrong, but she's passionate about fighting for the people of the Indian Lostbelt and even manages to use them for good on various occasions through painful acts of self-sacrifice.
Balance Buff: Her Resistance of Gwalior skill was buffed in the "Road to 7" Campaign, which not only decreases the cooldown from the skill, but also gives it a Quick and NP Gain buff to compensate for her middling damage input and NP refund.
Barrier Warrior: Her Noble Phantasm, Nahi Doonge, normally is this. Lore wise it functions in a manner similar to a Bounded Field where she can protect her allies (another thing she shares with Jeanne). The ability is described less of a barrier to save herself, but rather being a barrier that defends her nation. Due to being summoned as a Saber, the ability was changed into an offensive attack that instead of defending, focuses on purging threats to her home. She still can use it, but she only does so once in the game so far.
BFS: For her third Ascension and her NP, she trades out her respectably-sized sabre for a giant curved blade.
Born Unlucky:
- She has E- as her Luck stat. Her biological son died four months after birth, her ruling husband died when the British had established the doctrine of lapse, meaning that she was not the legal queen for her nation, and while she is spoken in high regard in terms of leadership, she only led an isolated rebellion for a year until she was ambushed and killed. This is on top of the fact that the goddess residing inside her is not actually Lakshmi, but her sister Alakshmi, who is the goddess of bad luck and unhappiness. Part of this is also reflected in gameplay — two of her skills are technically unreliable with a 60% chance to activate two buffs, but her third skill buffs these chances to 100% if fully leveled-up. She also relies on a bit of luck to ever gather Critical Stars despite her Critical Hit Class flavor. During Pārvatī's interlude, she rolls dice 6 times and every time she gets two 1's^note.
- In the Captain's lines for her, she trips, causing her tea to splash in her face before knocking a trash can on top of herself. He then says he can't keep his eyes off her for a variety of reasons.
- She weaponizes this during her first battle against William Tell. Normally, the Archer would never miss any of his shots, but her bad luck is so powerful that the arrows get deflected into her instead of their intended targets. From there, she powers through her injuries while constantly Taking the Bullet for her team until she gets the carriage ferrying them close enough to battle Tell on their own terms.
Bullet Barrage: Her Buster attack is a shot which also signals her soldiers to fire off-screen.
Critical Hit Class: While most of her skills can affect allies, she can also benefit from them. She has a Quick-leaning deck with good hit counts on her cards (a 3-hit Quick, 4-hit Buster, and 5-hit Extra Attack), letting her generate a decent amount of Critical Stars that can be increased by 50% if her first skill's Critical Star Drop Rate buff to all allies is applied. This skill will also buff all allies' Critical Strength by 50%, while her Noble Phantasm decreases the Critical Hit rate of enemies.
Determinator: Her most notable trait is her boundless resolve. She admits that she may hesitate or waver, but once she has her mind set on something, it's nigh-impossible to completely shake her out of it. Getting riddled with arrows means nothing if it means protecting others, as does staring down an army of kali and sacred beasts.
Doom Magnet: The goddess inside her is Alakshmi, the goddess of misfortune. Because of this, Lakshmi tends to blame herself for anything that goes wrong and wrestles with coming clean about the goddess within her, lest her allies turn on her for bringing them such awful luck. To her surprise, they lightly brush it off, as Chaldea has fought alongside much worse than a goddess of bad luck. In addition, this bad luck lets her influence the kali's behavior, which she uses to point them in the direction of the sacred beasts Arjuna Alter sent after them.
Empowered Badass Normal: Historically she was a regular woman with more or less no unique powers. After being summoned as a Servant, she found that she was made into something like a Pseudo-Servant because a goddess was placed inside her at her summoning. Due to this, she is more powerful than she would otherwise be, and even has Divinity thanks to it.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: In-story, she uses her Born Unlucky powers as something that works almost the same way as a taunt does in gameplay, but her kit doesn't have a taunt skill.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: She advises against relying on her since her bad luck might mean she makes a fatal mistake.
Identical Stranger: Design-wise she looks like a dark skinned Jeanne d'Arc. Her third ascension makes this even more apparent with a diadem that resembles Jeanne's. Although this may have been intentional, as Lakshmi Bai is often called the "Jeanne d'Arc of India." In her interlude, she actually gets confused for Jeanne by Caster Gilles, much to her annoyance.
Idiot Hair: Oddly for a Jeanne Expy, she has an ahoge which looks similar to what Summer Jeanne Alter, of all people, had.
Ironic Name: She's named after the Hindu goddess of fortune, but possesses infamously bad luck to the point she has actually been possessed by the Hindu goddess of misfortune.
It's All My Fault: She's very quick to blame herself due to her bad luck when things go wrong, though the worst case is definitely when God Arjuna erases all the resistance members she inspired to stand against the "false god" during one of his resets.
Jeanne d'Archétype: She has a non-coincidental resemblance to Fate's Jeanne d'Arc, and in real life she shares numerous similarities to fit the trope — among others, she's an Action Girl fighting to liberate her people, and is honored for it. She is also often called the "Jeanne d'Arc of India." One of her lines if you have Jeanne is saying they'd get along based on their shared history of fighting the English.
The Klutz: Her incredibly poor luck means that she's the butt of all kinds of physical accidents, whether it's falling off the walls of her city during her introduction, tripping and splashing tea all over her face, stubbing her toe on random objects, or crashing headfirst into a trash can.
Lady of War: She has the title of Rani which means "warrior queen".
The Magnificent: The "Bai" in her name is a noble honorific/title for women akin to "Lady", used for female nobility, princesses and queens etc.
The Man Behind the Monsters: After some time, she eventually comes to realize that the kali are drawn to Alakshmi, second wife of the original Kali from Mahabharata. While she cannot fully control them, she can at the very least manipulate them to make them attack sacred beasts instead of Chaldeans.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: She was the queen of Jhansi in life and a national symbol of rebellion against British tyranny.
Semantic Superpower: Her bad luck operates under rather rigid and perceivable standards that she can work around. In particular, getting hit or harmed always qualifies as "bad luck" regardless of her intent. Thus, she is perfectly capable of Taking the Bullet without having to worry about being thwarted by "luck".
Starter Mon: As of May 11th, 2022^noteJP only right now, Tsuna and Lakshmi Bai have replaced Siegfried and Suzuka Gozen as the starter Sabers.
Suspiciously Specific Denial: Her My Room lines have some moments about her low luck like having a broken shower and stubbing her toe, and she keeps trying to deny they're anything of the sort.
Sword and Gun: Aside from a sword, she also uses a rifle like Hijikata.
Sword Beam: As a Saber tradition, her Noble Phantasm is a crescent-shaped sword energy beam. Her Noble Phantasm is also the game's first Quick AoE Noble Phantasm used by a Saber-class Servant.
Too Desperate to Be Picky: Lakshmi is quick to ask if any of the members of Chaldea are British due to her understandable grudge against the British Empire. She's initially on edge around Holmes because of this, though she admits that things are too dire in the Indian Lostbelt for her to be picky about her teammates and tries to treat things as water under the bridge.

Lancelot du Lac (Saber)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lancelots1.png

Knight of the Lake

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{The Strongest Knight of Summer}

^{Formal Outfit}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Ryōtarō Okiayu (Japanese), Kyle Hebert (Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot) (English)
Live actor: Kento Ono

Illustrator: Shimadoriru

"Saber-class Servant, Lancelot, has arrived. It may be just for a moment, but I shall offer my sword to you, Master."

One of the Knights of the Round Table and a knight among knights at Altria's court. This version is a manifestation of his earlier, happier days, long before his adultery with Queen Guinevere shook the fellowship — just, chivalrous, and noble. Despite being claimed the paragon of knightly nobility, his fall from grace was, so he hoped, to be a lesson to Altria on humanity.

He debuted as an enemy and later ally in the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot. He has a minor, silly role as a Queen's Knight in the second Halloween event, "Super☆Ghouls 'n Pumpkins". He then appears during the third part of Lostbelt No. 6: Faerie Round Table Domain, Avalon le Fae" as an ally.

Age Lift: He has a more youthful appearance than his Berserker form does, even without Mad Enhancement. This is because Lancelot is being summoned from the prime of his life as a Saber, whereas he only fell into madness after the end of Altria's reign (thus, it makes sense for him to be older). To give a scope of just how much younger he is Altria can be seen in his final ascension art still wielding Caliburn.
Always Save the Girl: He saved Da Vinci from her own suicide attack because he saw a beautiful lady and instinctively moved his body to protect her.
Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Lancelot is a well-meaning but still somewhat deadbeat father who is worried about Galahad's titillating appearance (as Mash Kyrielight), and has chastised Dr. Roman more than once for letting her near certain "bad influences".
Animation Bump: With the release of "Holy Grail Front ~My Super Camelot 2021~", Lancelot and his fellow Knights of the Round Table have received animation renewals. While Lancelot has got incredibly flashy swordplays, he has not received a third attack animation on one of the three card type, unlike his Altria (Lancer) and Gawain (who both got three Buster attack animations) and Tristan (who got three Quick attack animations).
Anti-Magic: Thanks to the Saber class container, Lancelot has B Rank Magic Resistance, equal to Mordred's despite lacking dragon blood.
Arch-Enemy: Agravain. He was the one who outed Lancelot's affair with Guinevere which brought everything crashing down. In Camelot, he is convinced that Agravain is hatching some plot against the Lion King and is the cause of her cruelty towards the people of the Singularity. He makes a point of tracking down Agravain to kill him during the invasion of the city and is shocked to hear that he has no intention of betraying the king, and he's even more shocked for realizing that Lancelot has betrayed the king again, as Agravain points out.
Archnemesis Dad: He unintentionally serves as this to Mash during the Camelot Singularity, with neither one being aware of the latter being fused Galahad. It ultimately becomes subverted when he learned about this in Part 15 and it was this revelation that helped in him defecting to Chaldea.
Badass Cape: Just like the other Round Table Knights, as he ascends, he will gain a fabulous cape. In the movie adaptations, he's also wearing his cape while still having his purple armor.
BFS: Arondight, in its true aspect as a holy sword.
Be Careful What You Wish For: His Saint Graph is haunted by a desire to be punished for his crimes against the Round Table. This desire is granted in the game’s story by the Lion King forcing him to commit atrocities during the Camelot Singularity, Agravain slaying him in the same, his own child disowning him, and even outside parties like Moriarty and Shakespeare taking potshots at him when he’s down.
Being Evil Sucks: Like the rest of the Knights of the Round Table, he's miserable as he carries out atrocities at the Lion King's command in the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot. After being defeated by the protagonist's party and getting brutally called out by Mash and by extension, his son Galahad, he finally decides he's had enough and switches sides, although the next scene makes it clear that he always intended to do it anyway.
Black Knight: He wears dark purple armor in his First Ascension, mainly as a way of showing how close he was to his Berserker self. As he ascends, he instead becomes a Knight in Shining Armor once more.
Boring, but Practical: In a group like the Knights of the Round Table, where several members had extremely powerful supernatural abilities, Lancelot was said to be the strongest of them all because he was just really good with a sword (albeit, an virtually indestructible Holy Sword that's a sister blade to Excalibur and bumps up his stats). A perfect example being his duel with Gawain, who cannot be harmed during the day that ended with Lancelot's victory.
Broken Ace: He was the greatest knight of the Round Table, but his part in the downfall of Camelot has left him absolutely riven with guilt.
Chivalrous Pervert: Chivalrous, through and through, but he also is very interested into beautiful women, even of those he only has heard rumors about (like Mata Hari in the second Halloween event). He and Gawain convince Altria Lancer to wear a bunny girl outfit in her casino.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Lancelot is a highly moral person, who would act against his own people or lords if he thinks he's doing the correct choices and for justice (albeit not without regrets) and he ultimately doesn't believe in My Master, Right or Wrong.
Clark Kenting: During the Servant Summer Festival event, Lancelot buys multiple copies of doujinshis made by Mash's doujin circle while pretending to be a stranger. He is just tanned and wears glasses, but Mash is unable to recognize him. He may or may not have used For Someone's Glory, which would justify this trope, as it would conceal his identity perfectly even if he made minimal changes to his appearance. However, Ushiwakamaru and the protagonist do recognize him.
Critical Hit Class: His skills are all about Critical Hits. His first skill drops some Critical Stars instantly on top of charging his NP Gauge, his second skill is the same Star Gather Rate skill his Berserker form has, but applies the multiplier to a much higher base Star Gather Rate and finally his third skill drops Critical Stars every turn and increases his Critical Strength significantly. Making things better is that with his two Arts cards and on demand Critcal Hits he can charge NP quite easily, making him one of the best Sabers in the game, regardless of rarity.
Defeat Means Friendship: In the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot, Lancelot joins the heroes under the justification that a knight who lost to the enemy has to serve them now. However, considering that he already created a camp for refugees, ensembled a private army and saved Da Vinci and kept her, the enemy, alive, it's obvious that he just uses this trope as an excuse as he always intended to leave the Lion King's side when the appropriate moment arrives. This is also later seen in "Epic of Remnant/EXTRA: Abyssal Cyper Paradise: SE.RA.PH.", where the protagonist and Gawain use the same logic on Tristan, who also makes it clear that he's only doing it because he saw the good in the protagonist, showing that the members of the Round Table share the same mindset when it comes to serving a new lord.
Dirty Coward: When Lancelot was caught out red-handed in his adultery with the Queen, owning responsibility for his own actions was the absolute last thing he did. He murdered Agravain and ran away, only returning on the date of Guinevere's execution. He does feel bad about it, though.
Dual Wielding: Thanks to his animation renewal, Lancelot will hold a simple stick when activating Knight of Owner, which he will also use for his Extra Attack animation.
Everyone Has Standards: He finds the sheer depths of Altria's selflessness to be remarkable and admirable, but also distinctly unsettling and not something he'd ever want to emulate.
Flanderization: In most incarnations of the Arthurian mythos, including his introduction as Berserker in Fate/Zero, Lancelot's only major romantic entanglement was Guinevere (and to a lesser extent, his king herself), and giving in to temptation and starting an affair with her was his deepest, darkest regret and the heaviest burden on his conscience. Galahad's existence was the result of what we would today call rape by deception on Elaine's part, and while his refusal to be a part of her life might've been unfair to Galahad it's at least understandable. Even during his introduction as a Saber in Camelot, his rescue of da Vinci was portrayed as him acting on his heroic instincts at seeing a woman in peril, while Mash's taking it as him trying to seduce her was played as comedic misunderstanding, and Galahad projecting his own parental issues baselessly onto him. Unfortunately, a long string of Events followed in which his fame as an adulterer was played purely for comedy, especially as part of a Running Gag involving his double-act with Tristan, and he ultimately became just as much of a sleazy flirt as Mash accused him of being whether he was in a silly comedy event or not.
Friendship Favoritism:
- Lancelot is generally portrayed as Altria's favorite knight since they are best friends. This friendship is also one of the reasons why Camelot fell to ruin, as she refused to punish him for his adultery with her wife Guinevere whom she never loved. The Lion King would execute anyone who would make a mistake (Gawain^note) or dare to question her (Agravain), yet she never does the same to Lancelot who commits both during the Sixth Singularity. Instead, she gladly answers his questions and she gives him a second chance to save his face.
- His Servant Universe version in Saber Wars II will run away immediately and end the fight if you field Mysterious Heroine X because they are childhood friends.
Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Lancelot's Gift from the Lion King is to ensure that he can make fair judgments. In gameplay, this blessing gives him the defensive properties of the Ruler class, who are supposed to be fair and impartial judges.
- For extra points in Irony, it is this very trait that causes Lancelot to rebel when he clearly sees the destruction the Lion King has wrought.
Gameplay and Story Segregation:
- When Lancelot serves as a party member in the Camelot Singularity, he plays as his regular version without his Gift boosting him, even though he supposedly still has it.
- According to Fate/Grand Order reference material IV, Arondight is capable of doing extra damage against Servants with a dragon attribute. However, Arnonight Overload does not give him this edge in gameplay.
Glass Cannon: In gameplay, Lancelot is easily among the strongest Sabers in the game in terms of raw damage output thanks to his ability to drop and gather his own Critical Stars as well as bolster his own Arts Card Performance and Critical Strength. This comes at the cost of giving him zero defensive skill options, forcing teams centered around him to babysit him with Servants like Mash, so he doesn't fall to an enemy Noble Phantasm or continued damage.
Gold and White Are Divine: His armor from the Second Ascension and on is white with gold highlights, contrasting with his Berserker state. His sword Arondight undergoes a similar change.
Heel–Face Door-Slam: Once defeated he ends up turning against the Lion King in the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot after finally having had enough of her actions, but breaks off during the final battle to confront Agravain alone and perishes in their duel in what ultimately amounts to a mutual kill.
Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: The Saber version lacks the distinct helmet of the Berserker version.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: He feels he's a better fit for a Berserker, despite being noticeably more powerful as a Saber, because of his guilt over having betrayed Altria. His guilt is so strong that his Dislike line in My Room conversations is himself.
I Did What I Had to Do: This is his attitude throughout the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot. Since Human History has been incinerated, drastic steps are needed to preserve what they can. This becomes a crucial distinction between him and his fellow knights. Since Lancelot is only doing what's necessary, he refrains from the brutality of the others because it isn't necessary and he was never ordered to. And while they are acting in service to the Lion King, Lancelot is trying to save who he can, prompting his turn to Chaldea when they demonstrate the strength to potentially save everyone.
Improbable Weapon User: With his animation renewal, Lancelot will also use a wooden stick as a weapon. It's a Mythology Gag and reference to his legend, as he defeated a knight (or giant, depending on the writer) with just a stick, which became the basis for his Noble Phantasm, Knight of Owner, which turns anything he can conceptualize as a weapon into a Noble Phantasm he can use as though he'd wielded it all his life (which is used extensively by his Berserker version).
Irony: Shakespeare in Lancelot's Interlude points out the irony that the best knight of King Arthur, one of England's biggest folk heroes, is French.
Knight in Shining Armor: Definitely compared to his Berserker form. As he ascends he loses the black armor of his fallen self, gaining white/gold armor and the armor itself being much more knightly in contrast to his Berserker state. Another indicator is how Arondight is initially quite demonic, but starting Stage 2 it regains its white/gold coloring as the holy sword it was originally.
Lemony Narrator: The notes for his April Fools profile are clearly written by Mash, who derides him as, "an evil man who seduces women without thinking, then later dumps them and pretends to be sorry!" then tells a telltale "Be careful, senpai!" This is largely due to Galahad's influence on her projecting his issues with his father onto her personality.
Loophole Abuse:
- His Arondight Overload attack seems to work on this principle. It's described as being an improper use of Arondight, overloading it with mana and letting it leak out. This implies that he's turning Arondight into a Broken Phantasm - but because Arondight is unbreakable, he won't actually lose the weapon.
- In the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot, he was never told to actually kill the refugees that weren't selected. So he took them far away from the Holy City and set up a shelter.
The Magnificent: He introduces himself in "Super☆Ghouls 'n Pumpkins" as "Lancelot the Sorrowful," following in Tristan's melodramatic footsteps as they kick Elisabeth out of her castle. He cuts the silly title and stops introducing himself at all (and starts disguising himself as his Berserker self) when he notices Mash, who is still angry at him post-Camelot due to Galahad's influence.
Master of Disguise: He possesses the For Someone's Glory Noble Phantasm like his Berserker self does and he can use its original function, though the only times he used it are in Camelot where he disguised as a random villager to pull a sneak attack against Arash and during second Halloween event when he pretends to be his Berserker self to hide from Mash.
Master Swordsman: He's not considered the best knight at the Round Table for nothing. He's good enough that his skill remains even after having been driven insane. This is shown through his attacks having higher hit counts than many other Servants. While most Sabers' Buster attacks are a single hammering slash, Lancelot lands a flurry of attacks. His Brave Chains are veritable onslaughts of swordplay. He's so good that in the story it's mentioned that Lancelot is the only member of the Round Table who would be able to defeat Gawain while empowered by the sunlight. His animation renewal makes his swordplay even flashier.
My God, What Have I Done?: At the end of the "Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot", despite having sworn loyalty to Altria again upon his summoning and having committed atrocious slaughter in her name (although not nearly as bad as the other Knights of the Round Table), he tosses all of this aside just to betray her a second time. Agravain pointing out that second betrayal causes Lancelot to freeze.
My Greatest Failure: Falling for Guinevere, which basically was the catalyst for the entire kingdom falling apart.
My Master, Right or Wrong: He often subverts this. While he follows his lord loyally, he would eventually turn against them if they leave the path of righteousness.
- In the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot, he joined the protagonist after losing to Mash and having realized that they have a chance to stop the Lion King. Even before that, Lancelot giving shelter to refugees and deserters would have been called as serious treason, as Sanzang pointed it out.
- In his Interlude, Lancelot refuses to follow the remnant of the Storm King and decides to stop her from destroying London, claiming that's how he's showing his loyalty to her.
- His My Room lines also state that Lancelot will only continue to follow his Master as long as they remain righteous.
Obfuscating Insanity: He pretends to be a Berserker during the second Halloween event because Mash is there and he has a feeling he should avoid showing her his face. For Mash's part, just seeing him irritates her, face or not, so it's probably a good call. Since he's not really a Berserker, he still speaks rather than screams, using short, screenshot-worthy lines like "LOSERRRRRR" and "SHUUUUT UPPPPP".
Punch-Clock Villain: He's an antagonist in the second Halloween event only because he's helping Cleopatra fulfill her wish, which in the first place was a Secret Test of Character hosted by Ozymandias. He's sad to kick Elisabeth out of the castle and happy by the end of the event as Halloween returns and everyone can enjoy it together.
Really Gets Around: It tends to be a joke that Lancelot has a thing for flirting with women, even amongst the other Knights of the Round Table like Gawain or Tristan. In the second Halloween event, Cleopatra even calls him "Sir Lances-A-Lot-Of-Married-Women", while this little fact seems to have been a Berserk Button Galahad had which Mash inherits.
Red Baron: Knight of the Lake.
The Reliable One: In the "Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot", the Lion King states that if Lancelot is sent on a mission, its success is guaranteed. His defection to Chaldea marks a major turning point for the Singularity, as he not only already has his own sizable rebel force, but he also becomes The Strategist who quickly takes charge and provides actual military leadership to their forces.
The Scapegoat: Regarding the fall of Camelot, Lancelot tends to get slapped with the lion's share of the blame. While he did play a part in the collapse, ultimately his role was little more than creating the opportunity for Mordred's rebellion to kick off. Not insignificant, but it becomes a bit much when people like Galahad and Agravain blame him for Altria's death more than Mordred, who actually killed her.
Stranger in a Familiar Land: A variant. In his interlude, he finds London depressing because the people don't resemble Britons at all. He notes Mordred would have no problem as she was only concerned about territory, not culture.
Survivor Guilt: Lancelot was one of the very few surviving members of the Round Table and he blamed himself for the tragedy that happened.
Sword Beam: Deliberately averted and played straight. Arondight's special attack should be an energy-beam akin to Excalibur's, but Lancelot holds back the release of energy from Arondight Overload until he has actually slashed his target to deal maximum damage on impact. However, the resulting release of mana can cover an entire lake due to its nature as an Anti-Army Noble Phantasm.
Taking the Bullet: He couldn't resist trying to protect Da Vinci from the explosion of her staff so he ran ahead and shielded her from the blast. He's fine afterwards.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Leveling his second skill Eternal Arms Mastery A+ becomes this as due to being originally tuned to work with his Berserker self low Star Absorption.^note Because of this even at Level 1 the skill being activated will cause Lancelot cards to get all available stars first no matter what, meaning the only reason to level it up would be to lower the cooldown as there is no real improvement of it's effect
Token Good Teammate: In the "Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot", among the five Knights of the Round Table who have remained until the arrival of Chaldea, Lancelot is the least villainous of them and he has committed the least amount of evil deeds on-screen compared to his fellow knights. He also spared the civilians and deserters their lives and gave them shelter far away from the Holy City.
Took a Level in Badass: His Saber form is way better for single-target Critical Hit damage than his Berserker self. Here his third skill is the very Noble Phantasm he has as a Berserker: Knight of Honor, which increases his Critical Strength. Similarly, he swaps out his Berserker state's Protection of the Faeries (increasing his Star Drop Rate) for an NP-charging skill in Knight of the Lake; by default, his swings drop plenty of Critical Stars already. On the whole, it shows how Lancelot as a Saber is a superior fighting unit to his Berserker form, though his Berserker form has its own niche with his Quick AoE NP now that Scáthach-Skadi has arrived.
Unbreakable Weapons: One of Arondight's enchantments makes it unbreakable. This combined with Lancelot's swordsmanship is what lets him go head-to-head with Gawain, even with his Numeral of the Saint active.
Worf Had the Flu: While Mash did manage to beat him in what's implied to be a one-on-one duel, witnesses point out that Lancelot's heart clearly wasn't into the fight.
You Can't Go Home Again: In his interlude, he comments how 21st Century London is far too different from Londinium for him to feel nostalgic about it. Mordred felt differently because she cared about "territory", not who lived there.

Queen Medb (Saber)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/medbsaber1.png

My Dear Summer Tryst

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura

Illustrator: Kisai Takayama

"The time has finally come. I'm finally here! Swimsuit Medb, the one everyone has been waiting for, has arrived! A Heroic Spirit with such flawless skin... Isn't so easy to come by. Don't you agree?"

After her stint last year as the prison warden, Queen Medb has finally deigned to take up the swimsuit and take both the beach and the media by storm.

Alpha Bitch: And proud of it. She plays this role throughout all of ServaFes, especially towards Ushiwakamaru, who she considers to be a classless country girl. Having adoring men working for her as slaves, winning first place in a personal beauty contest every time through liberal application of having three different talksprites (normal, swimsuit, prison warden), and reveling in her obnoxious vanity, Medb is essentially every teen drama rich girl villain in Heroic Spirit form.
Animal Motif: Penguins, as noted below. While you'd think it might be too cutesy for someone like Medb, penguins have been documented engaging in sexually-deviant behavior, which is actually so Medb.
Attention Whore: Like the spoiled brat that she is, Medb hates when anyone steals attention from her thus why she teams up with the protagonist to beat MHXX when MHXX's armor steals the attention of her club/fanboys.
Breath Weapon: Her Medb Beam, which has her firing a beam of hearts out of her mouth.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: Her Noble Phantasm's gimmick is that she has a chance of inflicting a "Nice Shot" debuff every time she hits the enemy which lowers the enemy's defense.
Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: While she had no way of knowing it, she tends to win the convention contests in the time loops where she doesn't cheat. All her attempts to do so just make her appear as a completely unsympathetic contestant in spite of how the protagonists are technically cheating themselves albeit unwillingly.
Dude Magnet: Her Charm to draw the attention of men makes her an extremely dangerous opponent on Servant Fest, allowing her to win in almost every timeloop.
Evil Laugh: She has one as one of her battle voice lines.
Exact Words: Despite calling her club, her slaves, Medb states that the Celts do not practice slavery. When Ushiwakamaru calls her out on her earlier words, Medb states while she can't enslave any Celt, she can enslave non-Celts.
Extreme Omnisexual: With her Eau de Toilette White Honey skill, she can Charm anything in the game that isn't outright immune to Charm, be they male, female, or genderless monsters.
The Fair Folk: Medb reveals she has fairy blood during Servant Summer Festival. Additionally, Caster Altria mentions that she knows a fairy who looks and acts like her. While this is definitely a nod to Queen Mab, it's also Foreshadowing to Knocknarea in the sixth Lostbelt.
Foreshadowing: Previously during "Dead Heat Summer Race," after Medb deflected yet another cheese cannon, Mysterious Heroine X fantasizes that Medb could be a Swimsuit Saber next year. The statement became reality.
Heart Beatdown: Her Extra attack has her fire a beam of hearts at an enemy by blowing a kiss at them.
The Heavy: BB may be the main instigator of the ServaFes plot, but Medb's consistent victory and preventing the protagonists from winning the Grail is the conflict that takes up most of their time as they try to slowly puzzle out a way to beat her and get the Grail. It's also implied BB deliberately let Hokusai die in the time loops to make way for Medb taking up even more convention space and accelerating her victory.
Leg Focus: Both Ushiwakamaru and Blackbeard point out that her legs look great. "Thicc thighs" as Blackbeard calls them.
Loophole Abuse: The top three winners of her beauty contest will all be treated as though they got first place. Medb enters her three different outfits separately so that three versions of her win the top three places, preventing anyone else from being considered a winner.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: On weeks where Hokusai is killed by MHXX, Medb takes her booth and wins Servant Fest. However, when Hokusai doesn't die Medb tries to steal her booth, which leads to the heroes interjecting again to help Hokusai. As thanks, Hokusai offers art lessons to Jeanne Alter to improve her comic.
Noblewoman's Laugh: She has this to match what Jeanne Alter describes as Medb's stuck-up evil rich girl act.
Selfie Fiend: Her Noble Phantasm has her taking selfies while beating up the enemy, culminating in her launching them into the background so she can take up all the foreground, with the enemy exploding to create some nice lighting.
Slave to PR: A variation of this is her major weakness, according to El-Melloi II. Medb couldn't care about the opinions of her enemies and those she views as beneath her (i.e. anyone who refuses to acknowledge her greatness), but to those she views as her subjects, regardless of how she treats them, she will always aspire to appearing as a proper dominant queen. As a result, if forced into a position where backing down would cause those subjects (i.e. her fans) to lose faith in her, she will go through with it regardless of her personal feelings.
Stone Wall: Much like her Rider version, Medb has great HP but rather low ATK.
Support Party Member: Medb's skillset is more geared towards supporting her allies with Debuffs such as a party-wide Charm, reduced Arts Resistance, and a stacking DEF Debuff with her Noble Phantasm, as well as a buff that increases their ATK and Critical Strength.
Whip Sword: Caladbolg is able to extend itself to either whip her opponents or to swing around.
You're Just Jealous: Medb's reaction to Ushiwakamaru's animosity is Ushiwakamaru is just a sporty girl jealous of Medb's beauty.

Medusa (Saber)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/saberdusa1stasc.png

Golden Sword Gorgon

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

Voiced by: Yuu Asakawa

Illustrator: hotosoka

"I'm Medusa. A Saber-class Servant. ...Huh? There are a lot of different versions of me here? Why? ...That's exceedingly annoying, you know."

A version of Medusa that has manifested in the Saber Class wielding a golden sword and a Noble Phantasm named after her other son, Chrysaor.

She appears in Ordeal Call 1: Paper Moon, as the AI-generated Sakura's Servant.

Beam Spam: When she summons Echidna for her extra attack she either uses her snake like appendage to fire multiple golden beams or a giant red one. Scylla also does a multicolored one on Medusa's other Ascension.
The Beastmaster: Her Chrysaor sword allows her to summon some of Echidna's children in her attacks, such as Cerberus and the Promethean Vulture. After she fades away, but gifts her sword to the others, the Protagonist themselves picks it up in the final battle and starts summoning monster after monster in a desperate attempt to stall Kali.
Commonality Connection: Medusa and Caenis bond over their hatred of Poseidon, and talk shit about him so much they lost track of time. This is of course because in their myths ^note they were both raped by Poseidon and so share over how much they hate him.^note
Cool Sword: Medusa wields one which is golden, a reference to her son, Chrysaor. She is confused by Britomart staring at her sword, whose reasoning is that her father, Artegall's sword was also named Chrysaor.
Deadly Gaze: Cybele, her Mystic Eyes of Petrification, only this time it's how she finishes her target on her Noble Phantasm.
Glass Cannon: In comparison to her older Rider version, she has A+-ranked Strength but C-ranked Endurance and Agility. In-game, she hits very hard, but her only defense is in form of a Invincibility buff that only lasts for 3 attacks.
Gold and White Are Divine: Medusa unlike most versions is given more white and gold in her clothing reminiscent of her Avenger version, Gorgon's Third Ascension.
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Medusa wields a shield that is clear with gold embellishments, although it does end up looking like a police riot shield more than actual traditional shields.
The Nose Knows: Medusa notes that she smells Athena on Odysseus, whose patron was Athena and owns the Aegis, which in myth bore her head. She then asks that Odysseus should stay far away from her.
Power Limiter: Her bond lines reveal that the glasses she wears in her first ascension function like the blindfold her Rider self wears, as it prevents those who look at her from turning into stone.
Related Differently in the Adaptation: In mythology, the Gorgons were Echidna's sisters because their parents were Ceto and Phorcys. Here, she is Echidna's grandmother since Echidna's father is her son, Chrysaor.
Situational Sword: Her NP does additional damage towards enemies with the Man attribute and also buffs allies with the Earth attribute by giving them an ATK buff, which includes herself.
Taken for Granite: Her First Skill and Noble Phantasm inflicts the Petrify debuff, which is the same as Stun except it ignores Stun Resistance and Stun Success Rate up.
Troll: Likely out of a petty grudge against her husband, Perseus, she claims to Andromeda that any Servant who was already in a relationship caught getting romantic with the Protagonist will be executed. When Andromeda believes her and panics, she laughs once she gets out of earshot.
Unrelated in the Adaptation: In mythology, Pegasus is Medusa and Poseidon's son and Chrysaor's brother. Here, Chrysaor is their only son and Pegasus was only a gift to Medusa from Poseidon.
Weaponized Offspring: Medusa uses Echidna's children and even her in most of her attacks.
The Worf Effect: When she attempts to use Cybele on the war's hidden Archer, not only does it not work, the feedback gives her major head trauma. It's what clues her in that the Archer is not only a Divine Spirit, but also a pretty major one, intel that she manages to pass on before she disappears.
Younger and Hipper: Her first version is noted by Chaldea to be apparently younger than her Rider version, which is reflected in her interest in girl talk with Suzuka Gozen.

Miyamoto Iori

Miyamoto Iori of Niten Ichiryu

^{Final Ascension}

Voiced by: Kengo Kawanishi

Illustrator: Rei Wataru

"You may have my name. I'm Iori. Miyamoto Iori. There is no household I serve. I'm currently a ronin."

A Rōnin who was the adopted son of the legendary Miyamoto Musashi. Like his adopted father he was man who lived by the sword. Iori seeked to learn all that his master knew, unfortunately Musashi passed away before revealing the secret arts of his sword style to Iori.

Yet the boy continued to persist even if he was told he was born in the wrong era, he persisted. One day on a visit to his adopted father's grave he met a certain man, a samurai who fought against Musashi. Iori begged him to teach him and the swordsman agreed. Years passed and on a certain eve, under the moonlight's gaze, Miyamoto Iori becomes caught in a Holy Grail War, the Waxing Moon Ritual.

Iori first appeared in Fate/Samurai Remnant as its protagonist and the Master of Saber. Before that he was mentioned in the game and in the Las Vegas Summer event when the other Musashi pretended to be him.

Amnesiac Dissonance: A mild case. His Bond lines as an amnesiac have him question the character of who he was before losing his memories with one of them implying that his past actions weigh heavily on his mind.
Big Brother Instinct: Iori loves and cares for his adoptive sister Kaya. He risks his life many times when she gets in danger. It's notable that she is the only thing he lists as things he likes.
Blade Spam: Many of his attacks involving using his two swords to strike his opponent repeatedly, repeatedly stabbing his foes in his Fire Stance for one of his Buster animations and sending waves of Sword Beams as an Iaijutsu Practitioner for his Extra Attack. His Noble Phantasm is variation of Kojiro's Tsubame Gaeshi, using two swords to create six simultaneous sword swings instead of just three.
Blood Knight: Although he ostensibly walks the path of peace, Iori clearly yearns to be a true Master Swordsman and engage in bloody combat with other skilled combatants. His desire to fight strong opponents goes so far that he's willing to pick fights with Physical Gods far outside of his weight class like Kukulcan, Quetzalcoatl, and Arjuna Alter.
Born in the Wrong Century: Emphasized throughout Samurai Remnant. Iori is a warrior born to a time of peace which makes it difficult to truly master Musashi's teachings
Boss Subtitles: Before certain fights in the Fate/Samurai Remnant collaboration, the two parties will be introduced with nanori like in Samurai Remnant itself. Iori is always introduced as "Miyamoto Iori of Niten Ichiryu". Interestingly, he's never introduced as "Miyamoto Iori, the Seeker of the Limitless Sky" like in his home game.
Critical Hit Class: Iori's skills focus heavily around doing crit damage, as his first skill gives him a three turn star absorption, while his second skill and NP give him crit stars. This lets him be a strong buster crit Saber with support that can give him NP charge.
Damaged Soul: It's not entirely clear how; but the part of Iori that desired endless combat at the end of Samurai Remnant is simply gone. It's not depicted as a healing; but an emptiness, possible related to his pursuit of the Void, possibly related to his killing his Self in his Mirror Match.
Dual Wielding: Per his adoptive father Musashi's teachings, Iori took up the Niten Ichi-ryu style. His Noble Phantasm involves performing a dual Tsubame Gaeshi, six simultaneous sword slices with three from each of his two blades.
Fiery Stoic: His brand of magecraft is focused primarily on using jewels to shoot blasts of fire at opponents, and he's generally cool and collected, with his first skill, Like Ice, just being a representation of his stoic nature. But beneath that stoicism is a burning desire to face strong opponents in fights to the death.
The Force Is Strong with This One: Iori is not familiar with judging foes by their magical energy due to only dabbling in magecraft given his focus on swordsmanship. He instead evaluates the danger someone poses by the "kenki" or the "pressure"/"aura" they give off from their presence. Stronger foes exude a greater pressure than weaker ones. He's able to recognize Kojiro by the feeling he gives off alone despite Kojiro being decades younger physically than when they met in life.
Gameplay and Story Integration: Like his teacher, Musashi, Iori practices Niten Ichiryu. Also like Musashi, Iori is a crit-focused Buster Saber focused on single-target damage. But given the divergences in their fighting styles, Iori has a different command deck than her, as he has a QAABB to her QABBB deck, reflecting his use of magecraft in tandem with his swordsmanship.
Ghost Amnesia: As a Servant, he does not remember any of his actions during Fate/Samurai Remnant, and he feels as though he has lost something fundamental to his very being. Several characters from his game know who he is and what he did though. Gramps posits that he is an Iori taken from before the Ritual took place, but there are a few hints that this isn't the case. By the end of the Collaboration event, it's heavily implied that he did this to himself: that he is the Miyamoto Iori from after Entreat The Darkness who, having been completely fulfilled, excised his memory of the mysterious swordsman who saved him as a child to remove his wish for the Waxing Moon because having and sating just one burning desire was enough for him. This had the side effect of removing all memory of what happened during the Ritual.
The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Iori is shocked and amazed if you have numerous other Japanese warriors of great renown like Inshun or Tajima-no-kami present at Chaldea. This is partially due to his admiration of warriors like them and partially due to his desire to fight them.
Magic Knight: Downplayed. He's a swordsman through and through, but his Wind Stance has him use magecraft with his left hand while continuing to wield a sword in his right. He primarily uses this to cast fireballs, either to engulf his foes or his sword in flames before he swings. However, when compared to his home game, Iori's elemental stances actually seem to use the elements they're associated with.
Master Swordsman: Iori's swordsmanship is superb even by the standards of the Older Is Better Servants. Most notably, he achieves the same Tsubame Gaeshi technique as his mentor, Sasaki Kojiro.
Mirror Match: At one point in the collab as Iori is wrestling with his lack of power compared to Servants; he is attacked by himself. The copy acts like he has Iori's memories and turns into a Black Samurai mob. Upon killing it; he regains knowledge of the Tsubame Gaeshi that he had learned to surpass his father.
No Canon for the Wicked: It's actually an aversion: the game is pretty upfront about the ending of Samurai Remnant that the collab event follows up on being Entreat The Darkness. Due to his own bout of amnesia, Iori himself can't remember any of it, but everyone else who was there does, and it's pretty heavily colored their views on him. Even Takeru, who still largely sees him as a friend, warns him straight that they will cut him down if he still plans to wish on the Waxing Moon. In the end though, Iori does get his hands on the Waxing Moon once more... but then simply gives it to the protagonist since he cannot feel any desire he'd actually want it to grant.
Playing with Fire: Some of his attack animations have him use fire through gem magecraft, and his second skill lets him inflict Burn on the enemy.
Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Iori is kind and level-headed in his demeanor and actions. But the collab event is a follow up to the "Entreat the Darkness" ending. So everyone who knew him from the Waxing Moon Ritual is afraid he'll wish for an eternal war to hone his swordsmanship in if he gets his hands on the Waxing Moon again. But he defies expectation when he simply gives it to the protagonist as he can't think of a wish he wants granted. He continues to be a force for good as a Servant of Chaldea after the event, though he admits to wondering how good of a person he really is considering his actions from before his amnesia.
Ship Tease: Carried over from his home game, Iori gets plenty of it during the Samurai Remnant Collaboration with Yamato Takeru and Yui Shousetsu. The event includes mutually exclusive scenes where either Iori or the player can go on a date with Yui. If the player decides to go themself, Takeru and Iori will tail them and end up going on a date themselves afterwards.
Simple, yet Awesome: Iori's game plan is very straightforward: press all of his skills at once and go to town with his powerful Noble Phantasm and brave chains. But despite being a free Servant, his damage keeps up with more expensive 4* and 5* options without being a Glass Cannon.
Stance System: In his home game, Iori has the ability to switch between five different swordsmanship style: Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, and Void Stances, each represented by different colors and kanji with their own advantages and disadvantages. In Fate/Grand Order, these stances are incorporated into his attack cards: Buster uses Earth and Fire Stances depending, Arts uses Water Stance, Quick uses Wind Stance, and his Extra Attack uses Void Stance.
Sweet and Sour Grapes: He lost his life because he let his desire for eternal war to temper his swordsmanship get the better for him. Now that he's excised all memory and desire of it from himself as a Servant, he gets summoned to Chaldea where there are plenty of powerful warriors and crises for him to sharpen his skills against. He got his wish just as he finally abandoned it. On the bright side, his Ghost Amnesia means he doesn't have to deal with the emotional baggage.
Sword Beam: As a carryover from his home game, his Extra attack features him quickly drawing and sheathing his swords to send out waves of cutting energy at his foes.
We Used to Be Friends: With Yui Shousetsu and Yamato Takeru. The collaboration event follows the "Ray of Light" path where Yui survives, but follows the "Entreat the Darkness" ending where he intends to use the Waxing Moon Ritual to plunge Japan into another bloody war simply to better himself as a master swordsman. Understandably, this strained his friendship with Takeru and alienated him from Yui, which carries over into the event as neither is on good terms with him. Their friendship is eventually repaired at the end of the event, though, as Iori feels a strange affection for Takeru despite Iori still lacking his memories of the Waxing Moon Ritual.

Miyamoto Musashi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/musashistage01.png

Sword Saint

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{Traveling Outfit}

^{Travel Journal}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura

Illustrator: Hirokazu Koyama

"Shinmen Musashi-no-Kami Fujiwara-no-Harunob...!? Sorry, let me start over! Servant Saber, Shinmen Musashi at your service! Make my stay a fun one, Master!"

A legendary swordsman revered as the strongest in all of Japan, who created the “Niten Ichi-ryu” style, dual wielding a long sword and a short sword... or so it should have been, but her circumstances of being in this world and her past are different from the historical Musashi.

She debuted in the second New Year campaign as its limited Servant. She is the main ally, and really the starring character, of Pseudo-Parallel World: The Stage of Carnage, Shimousa that year. In Cosmos in the Lostbelt, she is a minor ally in Lostbelt 1: Permafrost Empire, Anastasia, and appears in The Stinger of Lostbelt 5: Atlantis, setting for her appearance in Olympus.

Alternate Self:
- Musashi never stays in Chaldea, instead meeting you after you Rayshift. Meaning her being in My Room doesn't technically happen. Although she herself comments in Shimosa on how you may have a "shadow" of her in Chaldea.
- She is also this to any number of alternate versions of herself that went down in history as male. In Fate/Samurai Remnant, she meets an alternate version of her historical counterpart's son, Iori, after recognizing that he too practices Niten Ichi-ryu and declares that she'll be Iori's teacher after his Musashi died of illness and old age.
Alternate Universe: Is from one, and has the ability to wander in and out of others which is how she came to Chaldea. The similarity of her situation to Arthur's has caused a fair bit of speculation, but unlike Arthur she's still alive and rather confused as to why she keeps dimension hopping.
Anti-Magic: She is unusually resistant to magic, even beyond the passive Magic Resistance skill that Sabers tend to have (hers is "just" A-rank for 20% debuff resistance, a high but normal value compared to the likes of nigh-immune goddesses).
- Her Noble Phantasm strips the target of all of its beneficial buffs. This combines exceptionally well with her Heavenly Eye allowing her to not only ignore Invincibility (including Evasion), but completely remove them after the fact. Her Emptiness skill also purges all debuffs and provides her own Invincibility buff for a turn.
- Kotarou notes that even as a human in Shimousa, he's seen her shrug off countless magical attacks with no adverse effects: "It's as though you have some sort of innate resistance to magical energy."
Armor-Piercing Attack: Heavenly Eye A allows her to ignore invincibility. It also buffs her Buster Effectiveness.
Attention Whore: Has a distinct weakness to flattery.
Badass Normal: In Shimousa, she is not a Servant, but the living Musashi. She is able to defeat Servants with her swordsmanship skills alone.
Balance Buff:
- Her NP was buffed via the Fifth Anniversary's Rank Up Quest campaign to not only boost its damage and increase the value of her NP damage boost on Overcharge from 20%-60% to 30%-90%, it also gains the additional effect of dealing 150% Extra Damage against Alter Ego and Moon Cancer classes. Since Moon Cancer and Alter Ego enemies often appear as bosses alone anyways for lore reasons, Musashi as already designed as a boss killer effectively becomes one of the best choices for dealing with them (and being a Saber who takes reduced damage from Alter Ego attacks naturally, she can even be a more effective fighter against them under the right circumstances than Kama when her own third skill is down and leaving her vulnerable to class damage as an Assassin).
- During the Singularity Repair Support Campaign, Fifth Force is buffed, which not only increases the turns it lasts from 1 to 3, but also adds on a damage cut.
Berserk Button: When confronting Caster Limbo, she lists three things that can anger her. The first two are fairly reasonable - one-sided slaughter (not in the context of war, more like soldiers killing civilians) and trampling on people's pride and beliefs for fun (and we see both of these buttons pressed during Shimousa) - but the third one is stealing food from her when she's hungry.
Beyond the Impossible: Her swordmanship of "Zero" is already considered the superior counterpart to Kojirou's "Infinity" (Tsubame Gaeshi), an act of True Magic that Kojirou got through sheer hard work. However, she takes it even further when she cuts the Void that Chaos resides in to seal him from the Universe. In order to cut the Void, that which can be equivalent to "Zero", she had to reach beyond Zero and achieves 「」, "True Emptiness". It was so impossible that it became Too Awesome to Use, as by cutting "Zero" she erased herself from every timeline in existence; deleting her Saint Graph data from Chaldea, and even removing herself from the Throne of Heroes.
BFS: The final part of her Noble Phantasm has her extend her otherwise normal-sized katana into a massive energy blade that she brings down onto her opponent.
Big Damn Heroes: She arrives in the first Lostbelt just in time to save the protagonist from an Oprichniki's fatal blow.
Big Eater: She tends to consume absurd amounts of food, and food is one of the reasons why she wants money. A throwaway line from the Summer 2018 event mentions that she scarfed down 634 bowls of udon in one sitting.
The Big Guy: Takes on this role for Chaldea when she appears in the first Lostbelt. She bails the protagonist out when caught in the labyrinth and serves as its best overall fighter up to the point that she's forced to Rayshift again. But right before she does, she lops off Ivan the Terrible's trunk, crippling him and allowing Golem Keter Malkuth to tear off Ivan's crown to secure Chaldea's victory.
Book Ends: At the beginning of Shimousa, she catches the protagonist while they're falling from the sky. At the end of the story, she tosses them out of the burning Onreido Castle to be caught by Kotarou.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She doesn't seem disciplined at all, being a drifting ronin with a lively, carefree disposition and very short term goals such as "getting free food". However, beneath all this is a swordswoman training herself in the Buddhism of Nothingness, and it shows - every opponent she's dueled can't help but be surprised that someone with her disposition can have such a transcendent sword style.
Buxom Beauty Standard: She is quite busty herself, yet she can't help but notice and compliment Raikou's large assets while assessing her power.
Celibate Hero: Downplayed. According to her Material V profile, although she's attracted to good-looking men and women, and is prone to falling in love very easily, she thinks she should stay unmarried to perfect the art of the sword and has not entered any romantic relationship. She also thinks to herself that even born a woman, she never planned to get married or carry on her family's legacy.
Combat Pragmatist:
- Her Battle Continuation EX works differently from the other variants of said skill. Rather than being a Determinator to continue a fight in a half-dead state, Musashi uses any dirty trick possible to win a battle, which includes playing dead, confusing enemies with her speech or running away from battle and come back and win gloriously. It's a whole Homage to Joseph Joestar's modus operandi in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency. This skill is not available to her in gameplay, probably because of the way how her skill works.
- In Shimousa, she attacks multiple Heroic Spirit Swordmasters in the middle of dialogue. It never works out as a free wound against them, but she keeps trying.
  Archer of Inferno: ...How dare you attack me while I'm still talking, you coward!
  Musashi: Don't talk to me about cowardice when you literally spread fire as easily as breathing! I know full well you're stronger than me. In which case, you better believe I'm going to try and lop off an arm or two before you get serious!
Composite Character: Her Material V profile has shades of this. For one, the skill "Battle Continuation"^noteAt EX rank to boot she has is a combination of her own tactic of running away from stronger opponents until she is able to face them and our timeline's version of Musashi's underhanded strategies to win and stay alive. One of her Noble Phantasms is the wooden oar that Musashi used in his famous duel against Kojirou, though she can't use it because it belongs to our version and not her. And her main Noble Phantasm summons Nioh as a Guardian god through her worship of Tenman Daijizaitenjin, who is a fusion of multiple gods from Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism.
Cool Sword: In Pseudo-Parallel World: The Stage of Carnage, Shimousa she picks up Myoujingiri Muramasa, a demonic sword with Absurd Cutting Power that lets it slice through everything from steel to karma itself in the right hands. Musashi is only able to defeat the Heroic Spirit Swordmasters because of this sword.
Day in the Limelight: The Shimousa pseudo-singularity is this for Musashi, as she's your constant ally throughout the entire story as it follows her road towards reaching the zero she always desired.
Deconstruction: Typically, male Heroic Spirits subject to a Historical Gender Flip don't have their histories or legends changed that much by the alteration. Not so much for Musashi, who spent much of her youth estranged from her father due to how he wanted a son to pass his swordsmanship to.
Dimensional Traveler: She is transported by randomly occurring Rayshifts to travel between worlds, which is how she encounters the protagonist. This is apparently because her Mystic Eye makes her an existence akin to a Mobile Singularity; almost like a Holy Grail. She speculates that she has achieved "emptiness" enough that the worlds don't see her as existing, thus there is no need to overwrite her (which is why the protagonist needs a team of mages constantly confirming their existence when they rayshift). This power changes after the events of Russia where she no longer randomly Rayshifts to different time periods in parallel worlds, but rather gains the ability to teleport herself freely to any location on this world, even straight into other Lostbelts.
Dual Wielding: Musashi more or less invented it in Japan (the famous Niten Ichi-Ryuu/Two Heavens as One Style) out of a belief that wielding one sword with both hands lacked in fluidity. She even has a skill that lets all her attacks deal twice as many hits as usual. Normally she uses the more historically accurate katana/wakizashi combination, but in her third stage she uses two full-length katanas, and even has two more strapped to her hips.
Early-Bird Cameo: Musashi was one of four servants used in the Epic of Remnant teaser during New Year's. She was also available to summon that same New Year's, however the chapter she's the main ally of was the third chapter of that story and would only go live ten months later.
Elemental Powers: Played with and downplayed. She has four swords, each of which has a different colored flame in the middle of the blade, which then correspond to a different element, namely Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, but they don't do anything overtly elemental. She uses a different pair in each of her ascensions^note. Her Noble Phantasm also has the Asura attack her enemies with a sword of each of the four elements before she manifests a fifth sword that uses a giant sword beam that represents Void, rounding out the titles of the five volumes for the real Musashi's Book of Five Rings.
Entertainingly Wrong: In Shimousa, she ribs Kotarou for stealing glances at Danzou, asking if he has a crush on her. Kotarou, embarrassed with a Luminescent Blush on his face, insists that's not it before running off. Later on, Kotarou reveals that he does love her, but as his surrogate mother.
Everyone Has Standards: Is pretty laid back, but is noted to get worked up from watching massacres or people being humiliated.
Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: She notes fondly that Kannon's rice bowl was probably cursed. After telling the protagonist this and thinking about it for a few seconds, she starts believing that eating out of it might be responsible for why she keeps getting dumped in other worlds.
Expy: Her role in Pseudo-Parallel World: The Stage of Carnage, Shimousa is a direct homage to Yagyu Jubei in Makai Tenshô, which becomes even more apparent once she gets her own eyepatch.^note Tajima-no-kami , who is Jubei's father, lampshades the similarities once he sees her with the eyepatch.
Eyepatch of Power: Her right eye gets damaged in Danzou's self-destruction, leading to her turning one of her sword guards into a makeshift eyepatch. After this, her Noble Phantasm animation is updated and the story support version has her third skill unlocked.
Falling into His Arms: At the beginning of the Shimousa chapter, she catches the protagonist while she sees him/her falling from sky while having a snack.
Fangirl: Seems to like Bishōnen samurais as she's mad that Shana-Ou (Ushiwakamaru) is a woman in this world. When asked what she likes, she says "bisho-", before quickly backtracking and saying it's training with swords.
Fanservice Pack: Zig-Zagged. On the one hand she gains more layers as she ascends, but also gains increasing amounts of Navel-Deep Neckline that also exposes a thin strip of skin reaching down past her navel.
Flaming Sword: Four of her swords are burning with fire representing each of the four elements (Blue for Water, Yellow for Earth, Green for Air, and Red for Fire).
Foil:
- To Yagyu Tajima-no-kami Munenori. Both are extremely capable and famous swordmasters who literally wrote the books on Japanese swordsmanship. However, their similarities end there. Musashi is solely focused on improving her skills and enjoying herself, fighting for money, booze, and food while utilizing an extremely unorthodox style for her time. A Boisterous Bruiser and an Attention Whore who suffered from Parental Abandonment, she basks in the spotlight, her efforts being supplemented by her unique Mystic Eye. On the other hand, Tajima-no-kami brought himself up by his own bootstraps, raising his no-name clan into one of the most famous in Japanese history through hard work and extensive political plotting. Serving the Tokugawa shogunate faithfully, his sword style focuses on extremely orthodox techniques honed to deadly mastery while also utilizing a zen mindset to remain free of doubt and worry. Musashi is almost invariably portrayed as a heroic character in stories, while Tajima-no-kami is typically portrayed as a scheming villain which holds true here, as well. Also, one is Gender Swapped and the other one isn't. Musashi also embraces the philosophy "A Saber who doesn't use a beam is not a Saber". Saber Empireo is one of the Sabers that don't.^note
- In addition, she's a foil to herself; or rather the Prime Universe version of Musashi. Prime Musashi was accepted by his father when she wasn't. Prime Musashi dressed slovenly to fool his opponents. Our Musashi really was a hobo but dressed elegantly. In addition she showed much more respect for her opponents than the historical Musashi. For example, her Trial Quest shows that she honored Arima Kihei to an honest match when historically male Musashi beat Arima Kihei to death while his father was trying to get him to apologize. And ultimately she fought Kojiro in a fair duel when male Musashi's legend had him using tricks like arriving late to make him impatient and using the sun to distract Kojiro.
Gameplay and Story Integration: The reason she's forced to to be present as a support unit during each of the Swordmaster's duels; is that she has to be the one execute the killing blow, as her sword combined with her skill is the only thing capable of cutting their karma which ends up killing them for good. However...
Gameplay and Story Segregation:
- She doesn't necessarily have to deal the actual final blow in the fights themselves, as you can easily accomplish beating the Swordmasters by using your own servants, which may be optimal considering how Musashi can hold you back in terms of team composition more than aid you (most notably against Archer of Inferno).
- Despite her death erasing Musashi from the Throne of Heroes, therefore making her unable to be summoned, she is still a part of the gacha as a limited rate up. This wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't for the fact that the very next Download Campaign after Olympus was about her.
Glass Cannon: She has one of the highest ATK among 5* Sabers, only being beaten by Altera, Arthur, Okita (who beats her only by about 100 points), and Sigurd. With just her base Noble Phantasm level and coupled with her second skill's Buster buff, her NP is among the most damaging of all Sabers' thanks to her intrinsic self-NP damage buff before her NP activates. Her signature first skill doubling hit counts can turn any Brave chain into a devastating, NP-damage-tier combo that can also instantly refill her NP gauge or spit out Assassin-tier Critical Stars depending on luck and timing, especially if her third skill's 30% Critical Star generation buff is active. But her only real means of defense is a one turn invincibility tied to the aforementioned third skill and a damage cut to her first skill post Balance Buff, and she has fairly low health for a 5* Saber.
Good Feels Good: She admits that it's not in her nature to be a hero and if it wasn't for the protagonist's guidance and the presence of Onui and Tasuke she would have ignored the monsters in Shimousa to run for her life. But she admits fighting for what was right for once was fun and far more fulfilling, and in her last moments, she thinks she was so grateful to have met the protagonist.
Good Is Not Soft: She admits in her Trial Quest that she doesn't like killing people who have no will to fight, stating it just leaves her hated by their loved ones and it doesn't really mesh with her preference of fighting for money and worldly pleasures, but when she does fight she launches each strike with the intent to kill.
Go Out with a Smile: Goes out with one in Lostbelt 5.2 when she dies, being proud of her achievement of sealing Chaos away.
Goroawase Number: The numbers 634, which is the number of udon bowls she ate in ServaFes and the numbers seen on a badge on her cap in C.K.T. CE in Battle in New York event, can be read as "Musashi".
The Greatest Story Never Told: Her Material V profile reveals that unlike our timeline's Musashi, this Musashi wasn't acknowledged as a swordsmaster by her society because she was a woman, and fell into historical obscurity. The swordsmasters of her era who knew of her, however, esteemed her greatly (though her obscurity meant each of them thought they were the only one to know about her).
Hard-Drinking Party Girl: As mentioned below, Musashi fights not for honor or glory, but simply to get lots of money for food and sake.
Has a Type: Admits that she likes "pretty boys" and, going by her attraction to Raikou and Katou Danzo, very feminine ladies as well; her profile backs it up, saying she loves handsome men and pretty women.
The Hedonist: Doesn't have any real motivation beyond winning fights to get money to buy udon and booze when she isn't honing her skills.
The Hero Dies:
- At the end of Shimousa, she collapses from exhaustion from fighting Tajima-no-kami, Amakusa, and Kojirou in rapid succession amidst the burning remains of Onreido Castle. Her last act is to throw the protagonist out a window so they wouldn't be consumed by the flames too. Her Servant form, however, shows up shortly afterward in Chaldea itself, leaving to become a Knight Errant walking the world.
- She dies again as a Servant when closing the gate to Chaos opened with Zeus's death in the 5th Lostbelt. This time her Spirit Origin is listed in the Chaldea's database as "Data Lost."
Hero of Another Story: She is on her own quest and only occasionally intersects with the player. She alludes to several solo adventures in a wide variety of times and places and even ran into a version of Touko at some point.
Historical Gender Flip: Played with; she's a female version of a male historical figure because she was brought in from an alternate universe. The historical Musashi in the Grand Order universe is a man who makes a text-only appearance in Shimousa with several monologues. Servants from this timeline, like Hozoin Inshun, express confusion about why she's female.
Hypocritical Humor: The reveal that unlike her world's, Grand Order's Ushiwakamaru is a woman triggers an angry rant about how this world is wrong because what should be handsome samurai are turned into cute girls. Even funnier because Okita Souji (see the next Saber characters page) also does the same thing, this time with her as the subject.
Jack of All Stats: B in everything! Except Mana. That's a solid E.
Katanas Are Just Better: She's a master of the katana and is dual wielding two, with two more in her sheath.
Killed Off for Real: Achieves True Emptiness in order to seal away Lostbelt Chaos in Lostbelt 5.2, erasing herself. This isn't a case of willingly removing herself from the Throne like Solomon or having her Spirit Origin crippled like Spartacus. Musashi has expended all of her Spirit Origin to forever seal Chaos away. However, if you have her as a playable Servant, she's perfectly fine.
Knight Errant: After dying in Shimousa and being summoned in the modern age as a Servant, she decides to wander the world and help out those in need, introducing herself as "a passing-by member of Chaldea" to everyone she meets.
Know When to Fold 'Em: She's not afraid of legging it when she faces down someone she knows is much stronger than her, which makes sense since honor and glory don't mean nearly as much to her as her life.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: In her trial quest story, upon landing on the beach on her head, she promptly forgets everything. She later gets all her memories back while traveling with the protagonist.
Limited Wardrobe: Unlike the other Servants in the first Lostbelt, she acknowledges the cold and apparently brought proper clothing to protect her but it all got torn up, so she's just wearing her regular outfit.
Loss of Identity: In Simousa, she muses that whoever she was in her past "died" the moment she first went to another world. According to her, she's been to so many worlds that she can't even remember her hometown or what her younger self was like. She even admits that it's possible she isn't even Miyamoto Musashi at all, but just someone who happened to assume the name, similar to the playable Sasaki Kojirou.
Magical Eye: Musashi possesses a Mystic Eye called the "Empyrean Eye", which narrows all possible futures to the one she desires. So if she's swinging her swords and thinks, "I want to cut that guy's left arm off", all subsequent events will line up nicely so that she will be able to cut that guy's left arm off. Of course, she still has to try to cut the guy's arm off, but this effectively makes her a Reality Warper.
Master Swordsman: Being the chief rival of Sasaki Kojirou, the man who basically forced reality to give him the technique he wanted through ridiculous grit and skill, it's only natural that she's this. She is also said to have reached "Mukou" or "Emptiness", the ultimate mental state a swordsman can obtain that defines pure mastery, and is referred multiple times to have reached the level of "Sword Saint". Even Saitou, who was praised as one of the best swordsmen of the Shinsengumi as the "Invincible Sword", admits that he looks like a side character compared to the legendary swordsmen spoken of in folk tales like Musashi.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: She is one of the few characters with a skill that alters her deck structure, in this case Fifth Force, which makes it where for one turn (three turns post-Balance Buff), all her attacks do double the hits they normally do. As a result, her singular Quick and Arts cards can singlehandledly spawn Assassin-tier numbers of Critical Stars or instantly refill her NP gauge depending on card draw, critical damage luck, and timing — especially since her third skill, Emptiness, adds 30% Critical Star generation for three turns. Leading with these cards will let even her Buster cards generate tons of Stars and decent NP gauge, while ending with these cards during an Overkill phase with Fifth Force can lead to back-to-back NPs.
Mugging the Monster: In her trial quest, she challenges Yagyu Tajima-no-Kami Munenori to a duel after they cross paths, only to realize she's badly outmatched and fleeing for the hills the first chance she got.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Her Noble Phantasm is this, summoning a massive Asura-like demon with four arms to slash the target four times before she lines up the finishing blow herself.
Mundane Utility: In the Seven-Colored Swordsmaster Showdown Event, she kicks off the event by eating Udon out of a Holy Grail, causing her to be split into her Berserker Form and the Tenma Musashi.
Navel-Deep Neckline: As she ascends, her outfit gets a thin slit that stretches from her neck down to her navel.
Non-Linear Character: The Miyamoto Musashi in Arcade is what she was doing just before going to Lostbelt 5 and 6; as revealed at the end of the arcade's Muramasa event; she says she's leaving to go to Greece.
Noodle Incident:
- She visited Enma-tei at one point. The most Beni-Enma and her sparrow apprentices divulge is that she got "intoxicated on alcohol, handsome men, and beautiful women" and caused such a ruckus that she wrecked the hot springs and was barely driven off, but her presence remains in the form of a grudge-based curse that refuses to leave unless defeated by a dual-wielding Saber, and keeps complaining about wanting to see handsome men and beautiful girls.
- Offhandedly mentions going to Hawaii, meeting and presumably fighting Pele, an Ancient Polynesian Goddess; which should be an near-impossibility during the Age of Man and especially so after 1000 A.D. It's possible she mistook B.B. (Summer) for the actual Pele...
"Not So Different" Remark: In her Trial Quest, she admits she feels a kinship with Mysterious Heroine X despite the Assassin wanting to kill her for being a "heretical" dual-wielding Saber, stating she can understand the feeling of not belonging.
Now What?: In Shimousa, she doesn't know what she'll do after reaching the zenith of mastery she's sought her entire life. In fact, she goes onto say that she has no purpose left afterward, which is why she allows herself to be consumed by flames after collapsing from exhaustion at the end of the pseudo-singularity.
"...Which means the big problem still lies ahead. Pretty soon, my Niten Ichiryu will be complete. Once it is, I will have lost the only purpose I had in life. I don't know how to get home, and I have no one to settle down with. Once my sword is truly invincible, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself."
Oblivious to Love: She admits that she's clueless when it comes to her own relationships, then she claims to be dead-on when it comes to other people's, as she thinks her "finely tuned feminine intuition" says that Katou Danzo is into Fuuma Kotarou. She's wrong. She does pick up soon afterward that Danzo is actually The Mole, but she's completely unaware of Danzo's previous life as a mother figure to Kotarou until he spills the beans.
Odd Friendship: She's implied to have become friends with Osakabehime, with Musashi convincing Osakabe to go travelling with her among other things. The nerdy, shut-in youkai becoming friends with an outgoing, dimension-hopping samurai is rather odd, though they do have a historical connection - according to legend, the historical Musashi helped Osakabe-hime out by getting rid of a monster in her castle. As thanks, Osakabe gave him a treasured sword.
Only in It for the Money: If money's involved, she'll go after any target. She claims that the only thing she needs from Chaldea is money to pay for her food.
Overly Long Name: She tries to give her full True Name of Shinmen Musashi-no-Kami Fujiwara no Harunobu... for all of ten seconds before flubbing it and just deciding to go with her more famous moniker instead. Her Travel Portrait actually uses the full name in JP. Her Noble Phantasm is even worse, being called Six Realms Five Planes - the Divine Figure of Kurikara.
Parental Abandonment: Her father abandoned and disowned her because she was a girl. Musashi later set up a hut in front of her father's house to spite him.
Post-Final Boss: She makes a surprise reappearance as the final opponent of the last story quest in the "Waxing Moon Clashing Swords Chronicles" event and faces Iori in a solo duel. After Iori manages to beat her, she gives an earnest smile and fades away with the former realizing she was guiding him towards the 'stars' of Chaldea.
Pun:
- When she uses her Noble Phantasm on Ivan the Terrible's mammoth, she suddenly rayshifts away from the Lostbelt. When Musashi reaches zero or rei through her Noble Phantasm, she's reached rayshifting.
- She shows attraction to the protagonist and several other characters regardless of gender, and her profile states that she loves handsome men and pretty women. This is a Japanese pun, as someone who wields two swords at the same time is called a "両刀使い" or "ryoutoutsukai", which is also a euphemism for bisexuality.
Religious Bruiser: It's not very obvious at first, but Musashi seems to be a devoted Buddhist since her approach to swordsmanship has Buddhist concepts tied to it. She worships Kannon, the Bodhisattva of compassion, Shimousa reveals the Emptiness she desires was cutting-edge Buddhist philosophy in her time, and her Noble Phantasm summons a Nioh, guardians of Buddha.
Required Party Member: Whenever the player faces one of Shimousa's Duel Bosses, Musashi is the only available Support Servant. Additionally, she has to be in the front of the party at the start of the battle.
Say My Name: To Sasaki Kojirou during their final duel in Shimousa.
"KOJIROU!!"
Shoot the Dog: She finds herself having to do this several times in Olympus by killing defeated Olympus Soldiers who are out to kill Chaldea because they're determined to not let their Lostbelt fall as the others have before them. It's clear she takes no pleasure in it, both the act itself and in Mash and the Protagonist watch her do it, but she can't back down if it means keeping them safe.
Smarter Than You Look: Though she'll be the first to downplay her intellect and insist she'd much prefer to just cut her way through problems without thinking about shades of grey, several monologues in Shimosa and multiple lines in Olympus (both aloud and privately) show Musashi has quite a philosophical side to her.
Sole Survivor: Her home universe is strongly implied to have been pruned (confirmed in her Material V profile), making her the sole survivor due to being transported away before it happened.
Spirited Competitor: Musashi loves finding and fighting skilled warriors as it gives her a chance to observe, adapt and learn to further her skills. Her ultimate goal is to complete her own swordsmanship and stand at the top of the martial arts world even if she's not fully confident she can do it. In her quest to do so she has long since realized the best way is to challenge the best.
Squee: She squees when she sees the famous gunslinger Billy the Kid is also exactly her type.
"This is great. This is so great! (Squee)"
Stock Phrases: "Once again, I have cut something worthless." A stock-phrase commonly used in samurai movies and often parodied outside of the genre. Musashi uses this phrase in Permafrost Empire, Anastasia when she saves a village from bandits. The phrase is one of the clues that the mysterious savior is her.
Sword Beam: Less noticeable than most of the other examples here, but her Extra Attack has her cross her swords to fire an x-shaped energy projectile while her Buster attacks occasionally have her releasing bursts of energy into the target from the swords. Also her Noble Phantasm covers her sword with a beam.
Tempting Fate: After defeating Lancer of Purgatorio, she's so upbeat at the shining sunny day that she thinks nothing bad could happen. The sky immediately turns pitch-black.
"Waaah! Sorrysorrysorry! I should've kept my big mouth shut! I went and jinxed us!"
The Force Is Strong with This One: She is noted in her Trial Quest to have the same presence as 「Ryougi Shiki」, referencing her connection to "Zero".
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: One of her attack animations has her throwing one of her katanas at the enemy. Muramasa chastises her for this, as it damages the sword and loosens the hilt.
Took a Level in Badass: By the end of Shimousa, she finally achieves the form of emptiness she sought for so long, with her Noble Phantasm animation slightly changing to reflect her new mental state and improved techniques.
Trademark Favorite Food: Noodles, especially udon, and suggests eating those for your birthday. She loves udon so much that she requests bowls of udon as gifts and once ate more than six hundred bowls of it in one setting. She mentions in her final message for the protagonist in Shimousa that she's super excited to try out all the udon the twenty-first century has to offer.
Undying Loyalty: At the end of Shimousa, she says she's formed a "pretty strong bond" with the protagonist and tells them that even though she's globe-trekking, she'll move heaven and earth to find them if they ever need her help.
Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Her final battle with Kojirou in Shimousa pits her style of cutting all possibilities down to one against Kojirou's creation of multiple possibilities with a single swing. The result basically imploded space-time around them and they could have fought forever without reaching a conclusion had the protagonist not been there to witness it.
"A single hit. Simultaneously, both of them surpass infinity. Both of them would continue to try to kill each other. Over and over, for all of eternity."
What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Her dialogue goes from teasing the protagonist about being attracted to her, to panicking about falling in love with them.
Wooden Katanas Are Even Better: Surprisingly absent from her due to Musashi being famous in history for defeating Kojirou using a wooden sword carved out of an oar. Material V reveals that the oar sword is a Noble Phantasm, but it can only be used by male Musashi from Proper Human History, since it's not a part of her legend the way it is his.
Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: She invokes this trope to speak more formally to princess Kiyohime in Shimousa (keeping in mind that they're all supposed to be speaking Japanese).
"...Pfft. Verily, thy praise doth instilleth great...eth joy in our hearts, milady!"
You Are Already Dead: When she defeats Lancer of Purgatorio, Muramasa observes that he's still moving, and he reminds her that he'd regenerate From a Single Cell and kill her. Musashi replies that she's already killed him — she's severed his karma and Lancer of Purgatorio is given a chance to thank her before fading away.

Mordred

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s76stage1.png

Knight of Treachery

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{Memories of Trifas}

^{Formal Outfit}

^{Festive Outfit}

^{Event Attire}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese), Erica Lindbeck (Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot) (English)
Live actor: Chihiro Kai

Illustrator: Konoe Ototsugu

"I am Saber, name's Mordred. Is my father here?"

The Knight of Treachery. Mordred is the illegitimate "son" of Altria Pendragon, the legendary king of Camelot. She is an artificial clone created by Altria's sister and nemesis, Morgan le Fay, as part of a plot to seize the throne. However, Mordred grew up to idolise Altria as the "perfect king" and eventually realised her dream of serving her incognito as a Knight of the Round Table. But when Mordred revealed her true identity in the hope of finally being recognised as her son, Altria refused to name her as heir to the throne; heartbroken, Mordred led a coup d'etat and eventually slew Altria during the Battle of Camlann at the cost of her own life.

She first appeared in one of Altria's flashbacks in Fate/stay night, where she was an identical twin of Altria. Her current look was created for Fate/Apocrypha, where she was summoned in the Great Grail War as "Saber of Red". Mordred makes her Grand Order debut as your main ally in the London chapter, by which time she has mellowed out (somewhat) regarding her Altria complex. An alternative version appears as an antagonist in the Camelot chapter, taken from a point in time when she was still a Knight of the Round Table. She returns as as an ally in Lostbelt 3: SIN and makes a brief appearance in Lostbelt 5(b): Olympus.

Affectionate Nickname: Calls Mash "Shieldy" several times during London.
Ambiguous Gender Identity:
- She'll threaten to kill you if you call her a girl, but she'll get just as angry if you openly treat her as male. The story seems to just treat her as a girl with issues and leaves it at that with no one asking any more about it. To make matters more confusing, the English version refers to Mordred in her profile using masculine pronouns, but drops them for female in her swimsuit version's, while in-story everyone still uses female pronouns for her regardless once they see her appearance under the armor. The Japanese version uses male forms for the early parts of her profile and female ones for stronger Bonds, indicating that she becomes more comfortable with who she is with people she trusts, something supported by Fate/Apocrypha.
- Mordred's half-sister, Gareth, refers to Mordred by "they/them" pronouns in the English translation, presumably due to lack of clarification from developers to translators whether Mordred is okay being treated as a female by her or not.
- In Mordred's second Interlude, Jekyll, Mash and Master all refer to Mordred as a female without any problem. Indicating she is comfortable being referred to by her real gender by people whom she trusts, and knows won't underestimate her because of it.
And Then What?: She admits in her second Interlude that she never really had a plan beyond "drawing the Sword of Selection" since she really just wanted to make Altria proud of her. She never gave thought to exactly what kind of kingdom she would make. That said, she also admits by this point she has at least a hazy outline of what she would do.
Anger Born of Worry: When she catches the dying Spartacus after his Heroic Sacrifice in SIN, she berates him for forcing her to rush in to keep him from screwing up his landing while clearly worried over his injuries, even saying that she would punch him if he wasn't beat up all over.
Animation Bump: She received a revamp of her battle sprites and animations during the Fate/Apocrypha collaboration event. Her revamped animations are more in line with her appearance in the animated adaptation of Fate/Apocrypha.
Armor Is Useless: As she ascends, she loses more and more of her armor.
Ascended Extra: Goes from having a mention in the original Fate/stay night and a cameo in the anime to actually starring in a series. In Grand Order, she's the main character of the Londinium chapter, a major antagonist in Camelot, a supporting ally in the third Lostbelt, and her influence is pretty important to the plot overall. Also, she's one of the few pre-existing Servants from Apocrypha to receive an alternate version.
Attention Whore: She is semi-obsessed with earning praise and approval from her master, as she was with her father Altria.
Badass Adorable: Arthur even lampshades it himself, calling Mordred cute compared to the one he knows.
Badass Boast:
- One of Mordred's battle openers is "I don't mind you running away, because your opponent is Mordred."
- She also gets a good one late into SIN.
  "I am Mordred, the damn Knight of Treachery. If you think you read my future, then I'll just rebel against that shit too!"
Badass Cape: Subverted. Mordred is the only member of the Round Table not to have one.
Balance Buff:
- Her Instinct was buffed for the "Inheritance of Glory" rerun into Cigarette Lion, giving her one turn of a Buster card crit star absorption, a three turn crit damage buff for her three next attacks, and increases her total crit stars gained by the skill by one. This massively increases her damage output, and makes her not only unique compared to the other Instinct buffs, but also makes her a strong Buster Servant.
- As part of the Lilim Harlot event, her Mana Burst is buffed to Knight of Crimson Thunder, which not only increases the Buster buff duration to 3 turns and be used up to 3 times, but also increases the critical damage of her Buster cards and gives her a general attack buff.
BFS: Her sword, Clarent, which was a holy sword but has been corrupted by her hatred for her father.
Bifauxnen: Her "Heroic Spirit Formal Dress" Craft Essence image for the 2nd Anniversary Memorial Quest shows her wearing a suit almost as impressive as her father's from Fate/Zero. She wears it in her duty as a bellhop of the hotel the protagonist and party are staying at in the third Summer event.
Blood Knight: Mordred is typically filled with bloodlust and hatred, especially towards her father, and won't allow herself to lose to anyone else. In FGO, especially as time has gone on, she's mellowed out on the hatred somewhat, but she'll still get into a fight with a grin at the drop of a hat and hates losing.
Blood Magic: The Noble Phantasm Clarent Blood Arthur is basically Excalibur with blood and lightning instead of light.
Bratty Teenage Daughter: Most of the versions of her father tend to regard her like this, usually treating her attempts to show them up or get their attention with indifference at best and loathing at worst. Save for Altria Lily and that's only because she doesn't actually know who Mordred is and is a Nice Girl in general. The male Arthur is also fond of her, adopting a kind of fatherly attitude toward her despite, or perhaps because of, her not being his Mordred.
The Brute: Her role in the Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table, Camelot. Her Gift is called "Rampage", allowing her to spam her Noble Phantasm over and over again. She's simply employed as a walking force of destruction and nothing else. Mordred is also the only knight who appears to have genuine fun and enjoyment for slaughtering innocent people and keeps insulting her victims for being weak. It does need to be noted though that the only people Mordred engaged and insulted, shown in Camelot, were Servants, making this more part of her Blood Knight nature.
Calling the Old Man Out: Combined with the mutiny in Camelot.
Cast from Hit Points: Using Clarent Blood Arthur causes her incredible pain.
Cast from Lifespan: In Camelot, the Lion King's blessing on Mordred increases the power of her Clarent Blood Arthur and the frequency at which she can spam it, but in exchange she burns out her soul with each use. It's a flaw she's well aware of too, but she's so obsessed with earning the Lion King's approval that she uses it recklessly to win her battles.
Character Development
- After spending some time in Chaldea, she has a dream about trying to pull the sword from the stone. That's nothing new because she used to have those dreams near constantly. However, she admits to the protagonist that they've become much rarer lately. Furthermore, when she had the dreams before she would actually freeze up without even trying because she only wanted to be king because her father had done it before her, but Mordred didn't know what to actually work for or if she could handle the suffering. By the end of the interlude, however, she renews her determination by deciding she would be king not to just one up her daddy but also because she genuinely wants to create an even more amazing kingdom than Altria did before her. With this statement, the protagonist then tells her that as she is now, she could probably pull the sword from the stone.
- When she received revamped animations, she also got a new NP line declaring her intent to serve as the king's knight and destroy his enemies.
- Despite her infamous temper and love for fighting, she's learned enough restraint by the third Summer event to resist being goaded into fights while working as a bellhop, though it ultimately takes Jekyll's intervention for her to calm down and get back to work.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Her master paying too much attention to other Servants is a Berserk Button.
Clone Angst: Realizing she was different from other children, she nursed a hatred for normal humans from early on and sometimes expresses insecurity about being made artificially.
Combat Pragmatist: Perfectly willing to pair what would be called an "unorthodox" fighting style at best with her raw physical capabilities in order to compensate for having the least refined swordsmanship skills of the Round Table. Unlike the other Knights, she'll use punches and kicks in order to get a leg up on the competition, and on more than one occasion in Apocrypha she threw her sword at one target and beat another one to death with her gauntleted fists.
Commonality Connection: She's friendly towards and protective of Frankenstein because they're both artificial beings and Mordred relates to her. Which is quite a leg up considering the first time they met, they engaged in a fatal duel.
Cool Sword: Clarent, the Radiant and Brilliant Royal Sword which she stole from Camelot's treasury.
Crazy Enough to Work: During the hero's assault on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in the Inheritance of Glory event, while everyone else opts to simply fly, she has her and Fran use their Noble Phantasms directly below the Gardens to launch themselves into the structure. While the others encounter heavy defenses from the enemy Servants, she and Fran get to the Gardens with no resistance. When questioned about it, she reasons that even though the enemy Servants have grown intelligent enough to predict orthodox tactics, they aren't smart enough to predict a "reckless, batshit insane" plan like hers.
Critical Hit Class: Thanks to her two Balance Buffs to her Instinct and Mana Burst skills, Mordred is capable of being a strong AOE Buster crit focused Saber, as it buffs her Buster card crit star absorption, and her own crit damage. Pair her with someone like Merlin, and Mordred can easily clear waves of enemies, then crit the remaining ones without issue.
Crutch Character: Played with. Upon her release, she was seen as one of the best Sabers due to her overall kit being solid and having a strong AoE Buster NP, but with the added benefit of her third skills 30% NP charge, Debuff cleanse, and Defense boost. Between her, Altria, and Altera, Mordred was much more useful with her farming tools in hand, especially with her Situational Sword allowing her to flatten enemies like the various Altria alts. As time went on and Altria and Altera received Strengthening Quests that buffed their abilities (NP charge for the former, debuff resistance and buff removal for the latter) while Mordred remained the same, she started to fall behind a bit in anything that didn't involve fighting one of the Altria alts. Once she got her own Strengthening Quest to replace her Instinct, however, she quickly rocketed back up into a unique niche as a powerful crit damage and AoE Buster Servant.
Cute Little Fang: Surprisingly prominent on her "wide smile" portrait in story mode, and a hint that she's not quite as much of a complete hardass as she tries to make her exterior out to be.
Damned by Faint Praise: Da Vinci recruits her in the third Lostbelt as she's one of the "Big Three" of Chaldea who excel at rebelliousness alongside Spartacus and Jing Ke.
Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Mordred's Grail blessing from the Lion King in the Camelot chapter gave her the ability to spam Clarent Blood Arthur, at the cost of burning her soul with each use.
Diving Save: She performs one on Spartacus after his Heroic Sacrifice in SIN to keep him from crashing to the ground. Unfortunately, at most she only bought him a few more moments of life and dignity.
Dragon Ancestry: As she's Altria's child and clone, she inherited the dragon blood Merlin infused Altria with, which is why she has the Dragon attribute.
Dumb Muscle:
- She's capable of thinking and isn't entirely stupid, but she prefers to just batter the foe into submission, even throwing in wild kicks to her normal attacks. Merlin considers her the only idiot of the Round Table. She lampshades this in London, saying that she prefers to leave the thinking to Jekyll as they deal with the Demonic Fog. During Camelot, this trait coupled with her adoration for Altria leaves her a disposable pawn for the Lion King, who does not trust her and won't allow her to stay in the city, instead throwing her out as an enforcer with a Gift that slowly destroys Mordred's soul in return for greater power.
- Yet, at the same time, she's one of the few members of the Round Table aside from Altria with a talent for administration. The others are too irresponsible or their personalities don't lend themselves towards proper leadership. This is why Altria left Mordred in charge of Camelot when she was away, inadvertently allowing Mordred to start her rebellion in the first place.
Evil Matriarch: Her mother Morgan la Fay is, to put it lightly, kind of a jerk. Part of Mordred's fixation on Altria is indicated obliquely when the protagonist and Mash joke that Jekyll is so worried about her that it's like he's her mom. Mordred says flatly that mothers don't worry about you or anything like that, bringing dead silence to the room. She doesn't get why that absolutely killed the mood because Morgan treating her like a pawn is so taken for granted that she doesn't realize there's any different way.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Her dynamic with all of her half-siblings. Whereas Gawain, Agravain, Gareth, and presumably Gaheris, are all upright and noble knights for the most part, Mordred in contrast basically acts like a delinquent and often gets into childish fights with others.
Gratuitous English: Her Extra Attack has her shout, "Take that, you fiend!" in English.
Hair-Trigger Temper: She's highly temperamental and it's easy to piss her off. If you treat her like a woman, she'll give exactly one warning to never do it again, but if you treat her too obviously like a man she'll get angry as well. Altria is a loaded subject as well because even Mordred doesn't know if she hates or loves her. Plus, you have to pay lots of attention to her or she'll get mad because she's an Attention Whore. However, if you can manage to do all that, she's actually a very competent, loyal and devoted Servant, and the longer you know her, the more the shell of her insecurities comes off.
Hero-Worshipper: She was raised to hate Altria by Morgan, but she rejected her mother's plans and strove to win Altria's approval. Unfortunately, Altria's poor social skills and a particularly poor choice of words on her part during a crucial moment put paid to Mordred's insecurities and convinced her Altria must hate her, which led to the fall of Camelot. This is Played for Laughs in the Fate GUDAGUDA Order segments, where Mordred is constantly trying to summon her father, only to fail miserably each time while complaining about how Lancelot has already maxed out Altria's Noble Phantasm.
Hidden Depths: Her fifth bond line has her admit that she's really not much of a knight, but swears her loyalty to the protagonist anyway. Also, despite her tyrannical attitude when she usurped the throne while Altria was out of the country, when she returned Mordred made sure to attack her in a way that would limit civilian casualties, because Mordred does care about Britain. Finally, and most strangely of all, she is one of the few competent administrators among the Knights of the Round Table, which is why she was left as regent while Altria was away.
Historical Gender Flip: In our world's Arthurian Legend, Mordred was a male. The character of Mordred was originally conceived as a male too and was planned to stay that way for Apocrypha and other projects. But because he would've debuted with Astolfo, he was gender flipped on Nasu's orders.
Nasu: Having two ambiguous gender characters in a series is too much.
Historical Hero Upgrade: The story doesn't shy away from acknowledging her flaws or the role she played in the fall of Camelot, but it also portrays her as being deep down a basically decent person who mostly just wants her father to acknowledge and praise her for being a good knight. It's even possible to read Altria as being partially to blame for her revolt because her inhuman facade caused Mordred to feel her father hated her. In truth, Altria respected and loved all her knights and simply and legitimately felt Mordred was not suited for the role of king, which is something Mordred suspects herself. She was just a bit too tactless in how she told Mordred this, causing her to take it the wrong way due to her insecurities.
Ironic Name:
- Her title among the Knights of the Round is "Taciturn Mordred". While this does fit with how she behaved before revealing her identity to Altria, everything after that shows that she is definitely not taciturn.
- Although technically deserved given her backstory, Mordred's title of "Knight of Treachery" also seems rather ironic with her current personality. Despite her short temper, it is quite clear that Mordred is actually very loyal towards her Master (Even going as far as swearing an oath of sorts at Bond level 5), and everyone else she considers a friend.
Irony: Her Secret of Pedigree skill is adapted from her Noble Phantasm helmet, and buffs her defense as its primary effect. However, she only gains it in her third stage, at which point she's shed basically all of her armor (and the skill doesn't even put her helmet back on)!
Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Repeatedly shown to be rude, insulting and extremely aggressive. At the same time she has some noble inclinations in Apocrypha, such as when she refuses to sacrifice the uninvolved civilians of the town, either as collateral damage or to replenish Mana.
- In the Londinium arc, she becomes a senpai to Mash, and helps her achieve her second Ascension and change her third skill through training. She also tries to protect Frankenstein.
- Even back when she was alive, she immediately attacked Altria when she returned from fighting Romans because she wanted to limit the civilian casualties a more widespread battle would bring.
- Bedivere himself states in My Room that while Mordred has a poor mouth, poor manners, and poor character, she also has a good side deep down and never would have been made a knight otherwise.
Kick Chick: Her animation update has her incorporate a lot more kicks and kick variants into her moveset.
Knight in Shining Armor: Before she became jaded by Altria's rejection, she strove to be a model knight.
The Lad-ette: A Tomboy and Ore Onna through and through, but her Third Ascension and her Spiritron Dress sexualize her a lot. Especially the artwork of her Spiritron Dress where she dons a sexy pose and doesn't wear her jacket.
Late-Arrival Spoiler: The fact that she's a clone of Altria is kind of spoiled with any knowledge of Arthurian Myth.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Her figure could best be described as that of a bundle of twigs, yet most of her power comes from her raw strength and Mana Burst skill. Lampshaded in SIN by Spartacus, who seems legitimately impressed she managed to catch him with "those twiggy arms" of hers.
Odd Friendship:
- In London, she's rooming with the gentlemanly Jekyll and the two seem to genuinely get along outside of their mutual need of the other to survive in the poisonous fog. This friendship endures as he becomes a Heroic Spirit as well in Chaldea, as they team up in the second Nero Fest. He is also present during Mordred's second interlude, where he is jokingly referred to as Mordred's mother due to worrying about her too much, and also realizing that protagonist is the person Mordred trusts the most even if she doesn't admit it.
- She also becomes protective of Frankenstein's Monster despite remembering their previous encounter in Apocrypha, namely the fact that they were on opposite sides of the war and both even faced off against each other. Chaldea's Frankenstein joins Mordred and Jekyll on the same team in the second Nero Fest. And in Olympus, Proper Human History Mordred was distraught when she realized under Aphrodite's Brainwashing she just murdered Frankenstein.
- Sieg's Valentine scene shows she's become close enough to him to be concerned for his health, which is particularly impressive considering their original encounter in Apocrypha had her killing him, then fighting him in a battle to the death before they grew into rivals.
One-Steve Limit: Mordred's and Astolfo's Spiritron Dresses have almost the same name, which translated mean the same: Memories of Trifas. In Japanese, they are called slightly different. Astolfo's is called "Trifas de no Omoide", whereas Mordred's is called "Trifas no Kioku".
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: The reason she helps you in the London singularity. Someone's trying to destroy Arthur's kingdom, and that's her job!
Our Homunculi Are Different: She's a Homunculus-like clone of Altria and ages considerably faster than normal humans.
Parental Neglect: From the receiving end. Since Mordred was given birth and raised by Morgan, Altria didn't know about their relation until many years later, and by that time she felt no parental attachment towards Mordred. Mordred's rebellion and their mutual killing didn't help either to improve Altria's opinion about her. Most versions of Altria treat Mordred with a cold and distant attitude and sometimes it borders even to hatred. Goddess Rhongomyniad takes it further to extreme where she actively wants Mordred to die by herself after the knight reaches the point of being useless to the Lion King. Altria Lily is the only one who actually likes Mordred, but not because Mordred is her child, but mainly because Altria is a naive Nice Girl and she doesn't even view herself as a parent. On top of that Mordred's second interlude implies that Morgan herself also treated her very coldly, and she doesn't have a positive opinion of her mother (or of mothers in general).
Pronoun Trouble: Depending on context, Mordred can be referred to with both female and male pronouns. For convenience's sake, feminine pronouns are used since she does ultimately identify as female, especially as she grows more familiar with Chaldea, but male pronouns are the default due to her Ambiguous Gender Identity with her armor on and her usual attitude. Notably, in the first Saber Wars, Mash exploits this to stop Mysterious Heroine X from going on another Saber-murderous tangent and missing the point of comparing Mordred to Altria Lily, reverting to the less familiar male pronouns and using an alias.
Mash: For example, Mordred wanted...
X: Did you say Mordred!?
Mash: Oh, dear! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm just using her as an example! Uh, a.k.a. Mo-san had the goal of becoming king. He held onto that goal from when he was alive. However, your goal, Lily, was born after you became a Servant. Your aim is to be the ideal king.
Red Baron: She is known as the Knight of Treachery for her betrayal of her father.
Scary Impractical Armor: According to Altria in the first Summer event, Mordred's armor is designed for intimidation first and doesn't even fit her frame. Mordred even starts overheating while wearing it in the island.
Secret-Keeper: Though she never says it outright, her dialogue all but states she knows that the Heroic Spirit bonded to Mash is Galahad.
Shock and Awe: Every swing of her sword results in her releasing her Mana in bursts of crackling red lightning. Her revamped animations have her sparking with red lightning as she uses her skills.
Situational Sword: Her Noble Phantasm deals more damage against enemies with the "Altria" trait. Not particularly helpful outside of fights with Servants, but it does make her the best choice for dealing with either version of Lancer Altria and also makes her boss fight in Camelot a bit more of a pain for those who thought to use Altria's popular, powerful Archer version only to find poor Archeria getting one-shotted despite the class advantage.
Sole Survivor: In SIN, she's the only one of the three "rebel" Servants summoned by Chaldea at the beginning of the Lostbelt to make it to the end alive.
Spell Blade: Her revamped animations have her charging Clarent with blood-red energy for several attacks.
Stripperiffic: Her Stage 3 and Stage 4 outfit amounts to a loincloth, an ornate strip of cloth across her chest, and coverings for her arms and legs. Her costume dress from Apocrypha (i.e. her casual outfit) also borders on this.
Sword and Fist: She mixes up her swordplay with occasional kicks here and there.
Sword Beam: Her Noble Phantasm, Clarent Blood Arthur: Rebellion Against My Beautiful Father, which is essentially a blood-red Excalibur powered by her hatred. It even gets stronger if the enemy in question is Altria or any alternate version of her.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Her revamped animation for her Extra Attack has her charging Clarent with energy before she throws it at the target, charging forward to knee the sword into them even deeper, grabbing the sword and tearing it down their body, and finishing with an upward slash that tears the sword out the top.
Tin Tyrant: A pretty hilarious case. Her Stage 1 shows her fully clad in her armor, complete with its horned helmet. It's blatantly invoking this trope, being way more menacing than Altria's and featuring a demonic full face helmet, but she's the same body size as her dad, which is as non-threatening as it gets. Her April Fool's art puts a cute little smiley face on the front of her helmet. If you have both versions of her, the Rider version will comment that she didn't realize how stuffy her armor looks.
Tomboy: Doesn't like being treated like a woman, but also dislikes being treated too bluntly like a man. She also has a Tomboyish Ponytail and aside from her Stripperiffic outfits for her Third Ascension and her Memories of Trifas Spiritron Dress, she tends to wear more masculine clothing.
Tomboyish Ponytail: Wears her hair in a ponytail, and she hates being associated with anything feminine.
Took a Level in Kindness: As Grand Order takes place after the events of Fate/Apocrypha, she's mellowed out quite a bit. She's still a rowdy, easily angered individual, but at least she isn't murderous over her issues anymore. Lots of comparisons to a post-Heel–Face Turn Vegeta have been made, complete with "you can't destroy Father's Londinium, only I have the right to do that!"-esque quotes.
Tranquil Fury: She hits this during Enkidu's second Interlude when Enkidu asks her the triple whammy of if she felt any sense of satisfaction or fulfillment from destroying Altria's kingdom as was meant of her by Morgan, the "sole purpose" of her existence, asking if she felt any different from destroying her father's life work, and finally what drives her now that her "life's purpose" has since been fulfilled. This sheer (unknowing) lack of tact causes her to go so far beyond being pissed off she's not even swearing as she tries to murder Enkidu with everything in her arsenal.
Tsundere:
- She always tries to pick a fight with Altria on sight, but will praise her whenever she's out of earshot.
  "Father is the coolest!!"
- She also acts as though she doesn't like the protagonist much^note, but paying too much attention to another Servant is one of her Berserk Buttons. During her second interlude, Jekyll also insists for the protagonist to talk to Mordred (who is acting strangely), because they are the one that she trusts the most, even if she doesn't show it outwardly.
- In London, she constantly blushes and tries to brush off Mash and the protagonist giving her compliments or praising her more caring moments towards them by loudly declaring it's making her sick.
- This is best illustrated by her sixth and final Profile entry, which is filled with contradictory advice on how to get on Mordred's good side.^note
Undying Loyalty:
- Despite her rough demeanor and infamy as the "Knight of Betrayal", Mordred says this if you've summoned Altria.
  "The King of Knights is here... No, it's fine if we don't meet. The one I've given my sword to is you. I'm not so disloyal as to serve two Kings."
- Her bond 5 line also has her swear an oath of loyalty to the protagonist.
Unskilled, but Strong: She's been noted to fight more like a Berserker than a Saber, wildly slashing away with her sword, adding in kicks and punches and even throwing her sword sometimes. She gets away with it because she's so strong that it doesn't matter. This is reflected in her visual update, which shows her repeatedly punching and kicking her foes on top of throwing her sword as part of her Extra Attack.
Vapor Wear: Subverted. She actually wears very high-cut underwear, which is why it doesn't show through that pelvis curtain of hers.
Wave Motion Sword: Just like dad, Clarent Blood Arthur can wreak massive destruction to things along its path. During the Camelot singularity, she considers nuking of the village she's attacking along with the rest of the mountain due to her frustration at being unable to take down the rebels as easily as she wanted to.
"Well Done, Daughter!" Girl:
- Was obsessed with earning Altria's approval, but the first time she tried to open up to Altria she was told she would not be Altria's successor, which made her think her 'father' hated her. She still wants Altria's approval and her wish is to try to pull the sword from the stone, which she assumes she'll do without a problem. She feels it's the only way to earn daddy's recognition.
- Taken to the extremes in Camelot, where Mordred is so eager to fulfill the Lion King's commands that she doesn't bat an eye at slaughtering anyone that gets in her way if the Lion King wills it, and despite knowing the Lion King doesn't care at all about her, she is still willing to go to the lengths she does out of the hope she can earn it even if it means her death.
- Played for Laughs during the first Summer event. Mordred continually shows off and requests the most outlandish buildings in hopes of impressing Altria, only to continually get the cold shoulder.
Worthy Opponent: When it's time for her final battle in Camelot singularity, the first thing she does is ask where Arash is and be disappointed to know he died before. She even described Arash's death as "beating her then running away", since Arash died blocking Rhongomyniad's attack while Mordred died failing to do so.
Wild Card: The same fundamental version of the same Servant shows up in both London and Camelot, once as your most important ally and once as something of a butcher, though there's explicitly no continuity of memory between them. Neither one acts fundamentally different from the other with the only real difference between them being who had the greater influence on her. London's Mordred seems to be post-Apocrypha and pretty mellow thanks to Sisigou Kairi while Camelot's Mordred lacks the same character development and simply wants to run wild and please her father.
Womanchild: She's very childish, has basically no patience and is bored by pretty much anything short of fighting. This is because she's mentally a child, and her accelerated growth gives her the physical appearance of an adult.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Before vanishing at the end of London, she gives the protagonist and Mash encouragement despite their beating both physical and verbal at the hands of Solomon, stating they have what it takes to save the world and human history. It's Mash remembering these words during the Solomon Singularity that gives her the strength to tell the protagonist to stand ready against Solomon.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: This is her intended fate in Camelot. Mordred's Gift was designed to make her spam her Noble Phantasm, which makes her extremely dangerous. However, every use of it would burn her soul away, so she would ultimately die after overuse. Additionally, the Lion King has no intention to keep Mordred in the Holy City and only allows her to stay there for a limited amount of time. Once the Lion King's plan comes to fruition, Mordred would disappear with the rest of humanity. Regardless whether Mordred would be killed by her Gift or not, Mordred is not allowed to survive with the rest of the Round Table anyway.
You Remind Me of X: In London, several times she hints that Mash and Galahad share more similarities than just their weapon and Noble Phantasm. That said, by the end of it she outright states that while that might be true, she also likes Mash a lot more than she liked Galahad. She also admits to feeling some familiarity when she first sees Fou, hinting at his connection to Merlin.
Younger than She Looks: Because she's a homunculus, her growth-rate is accelerated. In Camelot it sounds like she's not entirely clear how old she's supposed to be.

Characters / Fate/Grand Order - Sabers G to M

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