Darth Wiki / There Once Was a Spot Known as Camelot

Working Title. A repository for tropes about shonengirl's possible Arthurian supplementary fics to Project Alter that have blown up into something way too extensive to be contained in the main page. While the fics use and are heavily based on the Fate Series/Nasuverse version of Arthuriania (most notably whole thing with Arthur, Mordred, and Gareth being female), it also heavily modifies it by blending in tons of elements from various Arthurian legends from all across the middle ages that Fate may have not used to make her own coherent version of events. While following the rise and fall of Arthur's short but glorious reign and all the character drama that accompanied it, it also features everything from more mundane quests to Slice of Life goings-on of the knights and court, with genre and tone widely varying from fic to fic.

This collection of fics is effectively the series La Queste Stellaire is "actually" spun off from.

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There Once Was A Spot Known As Camelot provides examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • Lancelot treats the women who throw themselves at him as this.
  • A random girl fell in love with Mordred some time before “Andrivete”, and Kay finds the poor knight with the girl latched onto her. The girl is apparently a total brat and convinced Mordred is her destined knight, and Mordred is just absolutely done with her by the time she runs into Kay.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Though still immature, Mordred is noticeably smarter than her Dumb Muscle canon counterpart, or at least she uses her brain a lot more. For one, she legitimately has a policy plan for when she becomes king.
• Age-Gap Romance: When Andrivete and Kay become a couple, Kay is pushing 40 and Andrivete seems to be in her early 20’s. This is due to the fact that the author wanted into include Mordred, an incredibly late joiner, in the story. Kay even lampshades this.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Seen often in regard to Fate canon:
  • Arturia and Arthur are a play on this trope itself and how prevalent this is in actual Arthurian legend. As Arturia’s backstory is already elaborated on heavily in canon, her version of the story seems to use more material from later cycles and depictions, though this isn’t always the case. Arthur meanwhile seems to take after more earlier interpretations (fittingly for being the prototype design), and Arthur is also portrayed a bit more like King Arthur usually is all the way through. In one PA fic in which they actually discuss this, he brings up some characters Arturia doesn’t know about and vice-versa, and details like who ended up with who also seem to differ. Though their backstories can also tend to mix inspirations, so it’s difficult to say that their routes are based on specific interpretations. (This is all Pending, but I’m starting to disregard the “based on later or earlier cycles” thing)
    • Also, their “lack of humanity” in their attempts to come off as good leaders are in fact slightly downplayed from canon; it’s shown that Arturia did indeed have flashes of human emotion and even a few breakdowns in really private company, as she was human after all and unlike Galahad wasn’t Blessed with Suck with being inherently perfect. Arthur, meanwhile, is portrayed to have taken the opposite direction as Arturia unlike in canon where it’s heavily implied he took a similar route; he doubled down on the All-Loving Hero thing, somewhat resembling his The Once and Future King interpretation, to the point of unreasonableness and the equivalent cracks in this persona are shown in things incorporated from legends like occasional episodes of borderline villainous spite against the Romans; and more significantly, him going against Gawain’s final wish from beyond the grave, and his final chance to save his kingdom, by breaking the ceasefire with Mordred, which here is shown to be the moment he just finally snapped instead of as demonstrations of a Fatal Flaw.
    • They are also interpreted to not have started that way, in fact having acted way more like one would expect from teenagers at the start of their careers, if not even somewhat childishly. Artoria at least drew the sword from the stone purely by Achievements in Ignorance, much like in some legends, to her own biggest shock, for one. She also was kind of a Stock Shōnen Hero; impulsive, prone to Honor Before Reason, and surprisingly cocky as well as Hot-Blooded, and is shown to have at least attempted to trade snarky banter with Kay, with an episode taken from Culwich and Olwen having her write a teasing poem about him, promoting him to run off in immature anger as Bedivere looks on in bafflement and Merlin just shrugs and says “Hah, teenagers.”. Though the above mentioned shonen hero-ness is also shown to directly contribute to her charisma and to draw people to her ideals. Arthur seemed to be slightly calmer, but also rather impulsive and kind of snarky much like her very early on, and also he was apparently quite a bit of a Hormone-Addled Teenager, though by the time he meets Guinevere he has calmed down a lot. These are all based on real flaws Arthur has displayed in legend. They settled down much more after the securing of the kingdom, but were still pretty human for the first five years or so after. Unfortunately they took that development too far, resulting in them as we know them, though for Arthur more of his earlier personality seems to remain as shown when he cracks above and his snippiness towards Merlin and his enemies. And while they really don’t like their younger, more immature selves, they don’t seem to realize that it’s this very teenage-acting but passionate attitude their initial allies were drawn to.
  • The author has also done a similar thing with Mordred, saying that she sees the two versions of the character as representing the two different ways he tends to be written; female Mordred is “Tragic Mordred”, an interpretation more common in modern works in which Mordred is presented sympathetically, and Proto Mordred is “Classic Mordred”, the standard Card-Carrying Villain Mordred. Female Mordred is also written taking from the most sympathetic Alternate Character Interpretations in legend and mashing them together, unless they really don’t gel well (I.e. Welsh accounts describing him as being so nice that no one would refuse him). As it’s been interpreted on This Very Wiki that Mordred in legend may be disgusted with the whole incest thing and that he may be a Death Seeker, those things are also added into her; unlike in Fate canon, she indeed does become disgusted with herself being the product of incest to the point of vomiting, especially after the only silver lining to it, becoming Artoria’s child and heir, is rejected, and as her attempts to subvert fate prove time and time again to be pointless her self-loathing increases to the point that she starts seeming suicidal, by the time of Camlann saying that she didn’t care if she was going to die if she was going to drag Artoria down with her. Her self-loathing was there from the start to an extent due to how Morgan raised her, along with attachment and trust issues, but by her last meeting with Gwrddelw she becomes convinced that everyone who had cared about her before and who she ever loved now despised her and that there was no turning back, calling herself disgusting and expressing genuine shock that Gwr actually loves her. She’s also Smarter Than They Look, and is hardly the Dumb Muscle she is in canon. As a Servant she also appears to smile a lot less outside of cocky grins until her shell is broken through.
    • In the AU based off of (as opposed to partially) Alliterative Morte Arthure, the premise is basically What If? Artoria interpreted masculinity differently and overcompensated in the opposite direction. Her and Mordred being women fits surprisingly well into Alliterative Morte Arthure and it's events, but here Artoria basically acts like an older Mordred and Mordred herself is much more reserved and even sensitive.
  • Compared to Fate canon, Gawain is less of an airhead, and even sometimes comes across as an Only Sane Man, being the Round Table's big brother figure and also to contrast him with Lancelot, Percival, and most of his siblings. His way with women is also emphasized a lot more, to the point that it's been proposed as a theoretical alternate Skill ("Golden Tongue", which would have the effect of captivating female Servants), helped by the fact that he's probably the most socially adept and tactful with words out of the Inner Table, especially compared to most of his brothers.
  • While in Fate canon Berserker Lancelot is Lancelot's mental state after Arturia forgave him and he broke from his own self-loathing, in Project Alter much like in legend he already had the tendency to go berserk in battle, though here it's said that it's more likely to happen if he's under stress and isn't actively trying to supress it; here the two are basically the product of a succesful Jekyll-Hyde split. In life he also had obsessive tendencies, particularly regarding Guineviere, that bordered on Yandere. The author says that he definitely has some kind of disorder. It's also shown that he's actually the One Note Chef, not Gawain, has a tendency to break things (that the author says she based off of Chrom), and can be awful in social situations, even if not to Percival levels, giving off the impression that his strength is made up for with a lack of common sense. He also shows none of his FGO canon self’s ladykilling (at least not intentionally), as that explicitly becomes Gawain’s territory and is heavily associated with Gawain, and in fact in life he had a huge case of Single-Target Sexuality regarding Guinevere, showing very clear lack of interest in his many other female admirers and even treating persistent ones as Abhorrent Admirers (And considering that one of the most prominent ones is Morgan and the other two, Elaine and her maid, actually raped him, he really isn’t given any reason to think otherwise). Not only that, similarly to Arthur, by PA itself he actually still seems a bit uncomfortable at the idea of too much female attention or another romantic relationship because of that and that his only true love obviously ended terribly.
  • Percival is incredibly different from Fate canon, with his big brother role being taken up by Gawain. Now he’s a socially inept but pure hearted Idiot Hero, just like in many of his legends, basically the Inner Table’s collective Big Little Brother.
  • Agravain is probably one of the Round Table knights with the most noticeable changes aside from Percival, and is this regarding the character from legend; while still quite a bit of a Jerkass, as “The Many Faces of Arthuriania” make pretty clear, compared to a lot of his depictions in legend, he’s definitely an Adaptational Nice Guy. Notably he was the only knight who wasn’t afraid of being near Mordred after her destiny and parentage were revealed; albeit he’s probably responsible for nudging Mordred completely past the point of no return. But whereas in Fate canon he’s The Stoic, basically Arturia’s prime minister, and is even a bit of an Only Sane Man, in Project Alter he’s a jealous, haughty, Inferiority Superiority Complex-laden snarky Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy, and in fact is more of a troublemaker, much less an Only Sane Man (according to the author, she used Pokémon Trainer Silver as inspiration), and his position including his place in the Sixth Singularity in PA is given to the also rather dickish and hotheaded but ultimately more responsible Kay as an extension of his Seneschal duties. In one fic, Gaheris, passing by and having been thrown in a dungeon with him even turns to him, sighing as if he’s not even surprised, asking “Agravain... What did you do this time?”. He retains his borderline murderous hatred for Gaheris, here being explained as a result of Morgan deliberately pitting the two against each other when raising them, and is most irrational with holding grudges out of the siblings. While he is shown to have slightly calmed down later, even then they’re pretty clearly different. And while he’s nowhere near as extreme in his loyalty to Arturia, this portrayal also borrows a lot from Vulgate characterizations and that loyalty gets transferred mostly to Gawain; if he and Gaheris are able to put aside their differences for anything, it’s their admiration of Gawain, to the point that when Bors tells them that Lancelot is a better fighter than Gawain, they are on the verge of 2 v 1-ing him in a fist fight before Gawain and Lancelot make them stop, and he rages at a group of Lancelot supporters for doing the same at a joust. And quite a bit of emphasis is put on this as it’s probably his most sympathetic trait in almost all the legends. The difference from, say, Mallory is probably best shown by Gawain’s reaction to his death, where while he doesn’t fly into a rage like he does with Gareth and Gaheris’ deaths, he’s still clearly saddened and angered by it, and he cites all three of his brothers’ deaths as to why he won’t forgive Lancelot. He’s also drawn much differently to fit this, with flatter hair and a more attractive, younger, and less pale but sneering and somewhat punchable face, fitting in better with descriptions in legend where he’s said to have a handsome face. Also, in Project Alter, he gets his own badass moments in fics covering the Sixth Singularity, where he, being switched out with Kay, bluntly states that the whole affair is absurd and pulls a dramatic Screw This, I'm Outta Here, taking the other dissenting knights, even for once throwing aside his love of his big brother and being willing to cooperate closely with Gaheris and Pellinore to stand by his choice, and leads the defecting group along with Pellinore. There is some focus on the weight of responsibility now that Gawain is against them now and he now has to take up the responsible older knight role as well, and he ultimately ends up as the Only Sane Man in a different way from Fate canon.
  • Kay is indeed arrogant much like his legendary counterpart from the French romances onwards, instead of like the canon Fate interpretation who is pretty well aware of how he’s at the bottom of the deck as far as Round Table knights go. Though the author also throws him a bone in showing that he still isn’t exactly weak and is good at disarming people, what with his important role as the gatekeeper of the Round Table as addressed in Parzival, even having some quests to his name early in his career, and that he’s genuinely an effective bureaucrat who is good at keeping things in order and running smoothly, even if he himself is kind of a hypocrite about it and is hardly nice about it either. Also, whereas in Fate canon it’s said that he admires Arturia the least due to seeing her as a human first, in Project Alter he’s critical but still undyingly loyal to her and didn’t even think about running away before Camlann, to the point he takes Agravain’s place in the Sixth Singularity purely out of sibling loyalty.
• The Berserker: Lancelot. And as one can imagine, the strongest knight in Camelot having the tendency to go berserk in battle is indeed a terrifying prospect, and generally only Bors, Galehaut, or Gawain are able to even hope to effectively restrain him in this state alone, and even then in one instance he makes Bors sustain a terrible injury for three months, to his horror. It’s heavily implied that this is why he tends to go on quests unannounced.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Gawain. It’s made clear that if anything he’s a guy that values his siblings a lot (though they needn’t even be his actual siblings). Especially Gareth, though before Mordred was outed he was pretty protective of her too, and even after the fact he was constantly conflicted over it and tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. Though he’s not super over protective regarding them getting into danger at least as it’s part of their profession, this trope becomes apparent to utterly terrifying levels when Lancelot kills Gaheris and Gareth rescuing Guinevere from her execution (not long after killing Agravain as well). And he hesitated on striking Mordred as well, leading to his demise.
    • For at the very least Gaheris and even Agravain, the feeling is mutual, to rather ridiculous levels, to the point that reminding them that Lancelot indeed took Gawain’s title as the strongest of the Round Table is a Berserk Button and one of the few things that can unite them.
  • Some of Kay’s most badass moments come from his loyalty to his stepsister. While he might be a massive braggart, he’s willing to do anything to defend her, and even sees basically absorbing negativity coming her way as part of his job as Seneschal. In Project Alter, this becomes apparent to heartwrenching levels in fics taking place in the Sixth Singularity, where despite knowing how wrong it is and having the clearest head on his shoulders, he continues to follow The Dragon King to the bitter end purely out of sibling love. He has an UTAU cover of "Servant of Evil" based on this version of events for a reason.
  • A less violent example in Gildas, one of Gwrddelw’s older brothers and here depicted as having been pretty friendly with Mordred, even seeing her as a bit of a brother. While Word of God states that what he wrote in this universe’s version of the De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae most likely isn’t the same as it was in real life, especially due to the weirdness of what the time period even is, after hearing of Mordred’s rebellion and death and his little brother’s account of it, he was so furious that he burned all of Artoria’s biographical entries, gave all of her accomplishments to her uncle Ambrosius, a king with already such good reputation that no one would suspect otherwise, and wrote the worst account possible of Constantine, her successor who inherited the rump state that remained, also adding his prayer to Gwrddelw’s to spare Mordred’s soul, lamenting that he should have stepped in as soon as he had heard from his network of monks that Mordred hadn’t been seen recently.
• Bishie Sparkle: Used sometimes in art, but among them and even among the already sparkle-prone Round Table Knights, Galahad is especially noticeable for how often he is drawn with these, and if he is otherwise visually depicted in a comic or PV for example he will almost always sport these somewhere in the work, if not more than once, fitting for being the perfect Knight in Shining Armor. Or in the Once and Future King based mini-comics, literally constantly. Occasionally accompanied by god rays in more comedic Arthurian works. Hell, even in pure text form he’s described as almost shining or sparkling a few times. One pretty amusing description goes as far as to say “he seemed to draw all the sparkles from the other knights’ already sparkling armor into himself.”
• Butt-Monkey: Kay, especially in more comedic fics, tends to have bad stuff happen to him, though usually he did something to deserve it first.
  • Percival tends to get himself into stupid situations that result in slapstick happening to him, from being chased by a lion to stumbling into the most basic of Dinadan's pranks. Though he also happens to be extremely lucky, so he usually just shrugs it off.
  • Gareth also isn't always the smartest person around, so like Percival she can become the brunt of jokes, and having Lynette as her companion doesn't help. Lynette even actively cheers on one of her enemies. Though poor Brunor takes her tendency for this and multiplies it.
  • Lionel also doesn't have the best of luck either, especially compared to his brother Bors. By the time of the Grail quest it finally seems to really be getting to him.
• Cast Speciation: The author has joked about how the Inner Table (the knights who were in the canonical Round Table of the Nasuverse) are like a boy band/moe show fulfilling certain archetypes, or at least present this way to the public. They are:
  • Lancelot: The Ace and Memetic Badass; actually the awkward and troubled not quite Ineffectual Loner.
  • Gawain: The heartthrob/everyone’s reliable older brother, yet simultaneously The Big Guy. Has also been described as “If the knights were women in a harem show he’d be the one with the largest breasts”.
  • Bedivere: The Butler and reasonable one
  • Kay: Jerk with a Heart of Gold, or “Basically a Tsundere”, but one of least popular. For Artoria is is willing to take any hit. Also the resident cook.
  • Tristan: “The Melancholic Emo”.
  • Percival: “The Adorable Resident Idiot”/Keet
  • Bors: “Lancelot’s Sidekick”
  • Agravain: “The Other Jerk”/Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy/“Obviously has a massive chip on his shoulder”
  • Gaheris: Strong But Silent Type
  • Gareth: “The Girl”/“The Cute One; no, I mean the other one.”
  • Palamedes: “The Exotic Foreigner Guy”
  • Galahad: The Ace to end all Aces/“The Gary Stu”.
  • Mordred: The gentlemanly but casual, mysterious, edgy “Bad Boy”
• Curse of The Ancients: Along with the standard four-letter words, there are also many medieval swears upon Jesus or God’s body parts or other holy things which sound really silly to modern ears, especially with how gravely they’re treated in-universe. However, because of the weight they have in-universe, a character (i.e. Mordred) spamming these may actually mean something really, really bad.
• Deadpan Snarker: Kay, Drill Sergeant Nasty and especially well-versed in the art of Armor-Piercing Response, and Agravain, in this canon Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy extraordinaire. But Dinadan of the Outer Round Table, described as “Sokka crossed with Mushu crossed with everyone’s cool uncle”, may be the snarkiest, and also the most cheerful out of the Snark Knights.
• Denser and Wackier:
  • The tone can vary a lot, to the point some fics are even rather cartoony. Percival’s overall tend to be a bit more on the wacky, comedic side, what with his debut legend being a bit of a comedy itself, and him being the dumbest knight of the Inner Round Table and all that, but every major character at least gets a wackier story at least once or twice.
  • The Green Knight episode is also presented in a comedic way, at poor Gawain’s expense. It’s very first scene basically entirely consists of the Green Knight being a relentless Merlin-tier Troll.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Sir Pellas. Lady Ettard's overdramatic, persistent, luckless Stalker with a Crush. His most major appearance is in his debut, the fic simply titled "Pellas and Ettard", a Gawain-centric fic taking place early in Gawain’s career when he was about 16. Pellas asks Gawain to help win Ettard over by telling her that he died; Ettard not only doesn't care whatsoever, but she finds Gawain rather attractive, thus starting Gawain's career of sleeping around and Pellas being presented as a minor recurring Butt-Monkey from that point onwards. Him being stated to be 18 in that fic, he also plays up the teenage romance effect a lot just because it's funny.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: The author tries to subvert this, as it's often presented in Arthurian stories completely straight. The subjects are handled as sensitively as possible, though notably, no one calls what they went through “rape” or seems to acknowledge it as such except for maybe Arthur.
  • Lancelot tells himself that because it didn’t hurt and that Elaine did it for the sake of conceiving Galahad that he should be fine with it, making her promise that she would never do it again, halfway between recognizing it as rape and blaming himself. Elaine pulling it off again and Guinevere catching them and screaming at him is enough to send him into a mental break and send him jumping out the window, though both Gueniviere most of the Knights seem understanding after that and he explains just what she did. At least one story goes deep into the dark depths of his psychology on this, also incorporating why he continues his affair with Guinevere at all, feeling resentment that a total stranger “witnessed what should have only been for the Queen’s eyes and heard what should have only been for the Queen’s ears”.
  • For Arthur, while he seems to recognize it as rape, it’s heavily implied that it’s also because of the incest and the fact that she’s evil.
  • And with Bors, while Clair is shocked to learn that Bors’ consent was dubious at best, it’s resolved by her apologizing, and Bors seems more bothered, or at least rationalizes it, by his broken chastity vow. Most horrifyingly, Clair’s governess apparently saw nothing wrong with enchanting Bors to “consent” to it (and it’s likely that if he never took the ring off he would have never snapped out of his state of constant infatuation and arousal for her) and Bors says that she was just doing her job serving Clair. However, he still goes through some torment from the ordeal.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Kay being a perennial victim of The Worf Effect is at least partially explained by him being the gate keeper of the Round Table who tests beginner knights. With this and his sharp tongue, he’s also basically the entry-level boot camp trainer, and pretty much the medieval equivalent of this trope.
  Gawain: Heavens, Sir Kay! That was a bit much, wasn’t it? The poor boy is in tears!
  Kay: You’d also understand if you were assigned these bloody grunts all the time! Someone’s got to keep standards high around here! ...WHAT WAS THAT, SQUIRE?! YOU WANT TO FIGHT FOR THE KING WITH THAT ATTITUDE?! I’VE MET DAMSELS WITH MORE GRIT THAN YOU, YOU FILTHY MAGGOT!
  Squire: S-sir, yes Sir!
  Kay: SAY THAT AGAIN!
  Squire: SIR YES SIR!
  Lancelot: ...That man. He scares me sometimes.
  Squire currently under Gawain’s care: Gah, the terrible memories are flooding back...
• Even the Girls Want Her: Artoria and Mordred (pre-Tomato in the Mirror, of course) have quite a few female admirers, albeit none of them know they are actually women. Artoria for being the king and all, with her naturally high charisma and regal air, but for her it’s more quiet respect. Mordred develops a reputation as “the young semi-Bad Boy knight” and as a bit of a darkhorse, straight-up becoming something of a Chick Magnet, a reference to Mordred being said to indeed be a bit popular with the ladies before his fall in some legends. The fact that “he” never shows “his” face doesn’t impede her popularity at all, in fact it becomes part of the appeal. Mordred’s popularity with fangirls, especially with teenagers, apparently rivals even the likes of Tristan or possibly even Percival (though of course they stop short of fan-favorites Gawain and Lancelot, the former who is basically treated as a Sex God in-universe, and the latter the resident Memetic Badass), with a whole score of Squeeing, adoring fangirls who cheer her on at jousting tournaments. The fangirl legions also serve to show just how accepted Mordred was before her fall, however, making their comical behavior one of many Harsher in Hindsight things.
• Fandom Rivalry: Invoked and Played for Laughs in-universe with the kights’ fanbases, who are presented as if they were a mix of modern sport and fandom culture, with all that implies. Though for the most part, the “camps” are shown to merely have stereotypes of each other, and apparently getting into spats at each other in sidelines and taverns (during the bet scene at the joust, there are mentions of Lancelot fans being just in it because they know he’s going to win, Gawain and Tristan fans being half Estrogen Brigade, Mordred fangirls being young, and a joke about if Kay fans even exist), Lancelot and Gawain, being the two most popular knights, seem to have amassed a fanbase who are at odds at each other, with there always being a few particularly Fan Dumb-y hooligans and rabid fangirls who get into outright fights with each other, mainly because Gawain fans are bitter that Lancelot has “stolen” Gawain’s status as The Ace and Lancelot fans are extremely smug about it. Agravain and Gaheris (Gawain camp), and Galehaut and Bors (Lancelot camp), don’t help at all whatsoever in discouraging it, with the former even snapping at some Lancelot fans who were stupid enough to push him on it. Gawain and Lancelot themselves are more confounded and baffled by the whole thing, though they also find it a bit funny and ironic that they want them to have some kind of rivalry so much despite them being Heterosexual Life-Partners. ...Though much like with Mordred’s fanbase, this also serves as really cruel Dramatic Irony considering what happens to them later.
• Fallen Angel: Among the UTAU covers, "Devil's Manner" is a melancholic, even somewhat philosophical song sung by Mordred and displaying the less Dumb Muscle side of her character. Against the backdrop of her raising her rebellion against Arturia, she compares herself to Satan; as much like how Satan was a fallen angel, she's a fallen knight, or at least she will forever seal her destiny as such and the Satan to Arturia's God with her rebellion. In the story itself, this is also brought up by her.
• Female Misogynist:
  • Artoria was an interesting case. She is and never was a misogynist per se, but she was a product of her era; as destiny said she was to be king, she refused to be queen. PA elaborates that it wasn’t just a semantic issue either, because for most of European history queens only happened when there was literally no other option, and it’s actually shown that she already wasn’t immediately accepted as a 15-year-old boy-king, so God knows how well she would have went over as a teenage queen. As such, she lives as a man and Kay, Ector, Igraine, Guinevere, Merlin, the Ladies of the Lake, and Morgan are the only people in the entire kingdom who know she is a woman (though some material suggests Bediviere was in on it as well). But even so, what role God had in mind for her was apparently a common question Artoria had (and this is shown to be another reason she tried to kill off her emotions), like if begetting an heir with Guinevere is God’s plan and therefore moral, or is a major sin in God’s eyes and unworthy of her status. This is especially as the powerlessness women could have in their fate is a bit of a theme, with episodes from legend featured that build on this theme. Igraine, her mother, saying it outright, telling her to be careful because of it (in fact this is shown to be one of the contributing factors to why she devised the Chivalric Code). And by the time of the events of “What Women Want” (an adaptation of “The Marriage of Gawain”), she is stumped by the riddle “What does a woman want most?”, with the answer ”to make her own choices” [[spoiler:being especially ironic, considering how despite her power Artoria could be considered one of the least free women in the land. However, over the course of the Holy Grail Wars, especially fighting alongside Shirou, her first actual One True Love, it appears she has come to terms with it.
  • Mordred, like in canon, hates the fact that she’s a woman being pointed out, at one point even pointing out the above “queens are only for the desperate” thing, and refusing to reveal her appearance is the one piece of advice from Morgan she always followed. It was such a given in the culture she lived in that women are weak, with those who weren’t weak either only being so because of some magical ability (e.g. Morgan) or because they fought a really, really uphill battle in trying to be taken seriously (e.g. her sister Gareth), that she never really questioned it. Here it’s emphasized that who she truly wants to be seen as is a Knight in Shining Armor and Prince Charming, not someone’s woman to be put on a pedestal, legitimately preferring to be called “cool” or “dashing” as opposed to “cute” or “pretty”. It’s pretty much all but stated that she and Gwrddelw were so perfect for each other because he saw her as a woman, but still as his knight regardless, and was perfectly happy to be her lady ^{Warning, smut and spoilers!}and he bottoms to her in the Must Not Die a Virgin scene after their confession to demonstrate that she can still take the “masculine” position while still being a woman, continuing to call her things like “my knight” and “my prince” to encourage her.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling:
  • The two Ladies of the Lake that appear, Vivian and Niimue, are apparently siblings, unlike how they’re often perceived and despite that they’re implied to be the same person in Fate. Vivian being the calm, wise one who blesses Excalibur, and Niimue being the less responsible, selfish one who took Lancelot when he was a child.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Male!Arthur was apparently one at the start of his career. While he was never really crass about it, he had a weak spot for pretty women and this apparently came and bit him at least a few times, most notably getting flustered around Vivian. By the time he marries Guinevere, he had significantly calmed down enough to want a serious relationship, however.
• Irony:
  • The collection in general is loaded with these, but the biggest ones are how Arturia and Arthur took two extremes of how to act as a king; while both swore to a life of self-sacrifice for the greater good and chivalry, Arturia put too much emphasis on logic, impartiality, and justice, and Arthur, the more typical image of King Arthur, put too much on compassion and idealism. Yet there is a strong impression that if they’d been switched things might have actually gone at least slightly better. This is exemplified by their treatment of Mordred: Female Mordred would have thrived under Arthur, as is shown in practice by their interactions in the FGO era PA fics, as Arthur accepted his Mordred as heir and regent, also by extension making everyone feel obligated to treat the new crown prince the same... but because that wasn’t the Mordred he got, and because he isn’t a psychiatrist, therapist, or even priest, the closest medieval equivalent, he ended up enabling and giving a psychotic, unstable Yandere with a creepy obsession with him the reins to his kingdom, despite advice to the contrary; meanwhile Arturia with her cold logic would have likely been able to tell immediately that something was terribly, terribly wrong with Male Mordred. (Pending)
  • The difference between the Mordreds from what is seen is by itself a giant irony, what with Male Mordred rather fittingly being pretty much exactly what everyone was expecting Female Mordred to be. Yet Female Mordred, while also not the most psychologically healthy person around, had to basically be emotionally backed into a corner in this canon to produce the same results as her male counterpart, a circumstance which everyone all but consciously brought about. While Male Mordred was probably too far gone to be anything but a tyrant, Project Alter’s Female Mordred, despite her immaturity, shows signs of having legitimate potential as a king, apparently having spent days to think of policies and possible diplomatic efforts before going to Arturia to tell her about the whole bloodline revelation, as well as showing some strategic talent, ability to rally people to her side, even resembling a feudal version of a populist, so if Arturia accepted her as heir and taught her kingship, capitalized on these strengths, and worked through her recovering trust issues and impulsive tendencies, she may have very well have become a good king and they may have even been able to learn a thing or two from each other.
  • The most important in terms of plot and overarching themes of the whole collection, though, is most likely Galahad’s wish, and in a way Solomon’s as well, though especially Galahad’s. A recurring idea in PA is that various characters wanted/want to be perfect, most notably and prominently Jekyll, his search for it prompting him to take drastic measures, and these measures to purify himself and eventually humanity only succeeding in manifesting the less desirable parts, as well as Arturia, Arthur, and Solomon himself, and/or befell some great tragedy because they were imperfect and made some terrible mistake because of it, something which they greatly regret. And while many of said flaws are indeed shown to be bad things, even then Galahad, the one person who ever existed who was perfect in god’s image, more than even Jesus himself, and Solomon, who was almost perfect and could have wished to become truly so, gave it all away to be truly human. Galahad’s in particular because, as he says to God himself, “How can I truly help anyone if I cannot truly understand them and all their flaws, or if others feel I am too perfect to approach? If all were to be perfect, what is life, without its joys and bonds and even trials? Is that even true perfection, after all?” (going on to talk about how even Jesus had a human heart, and even God Himself had things to learn), which may as well be stating the moral of the “series” if there was one.
• I Just Want to Be Loved:
  • At the end of the day, Mordred as well, in addition to being a "Well Done, Son" Guy. Her social isolation is shown to have been super damaging, and becoming a Round Table member, immediately gaining the support of a massive community of comrades, including her long-lost siblings (with Gawain and Gareth being particularly supportive) with its most respected member as her teacher, legions of adoring fans, and the opportunity to serve someone she found admirable and to do good in the world was the best thing to happen to her, even making some friends of her own on her own quests (most importantly Gwrddelw, also earning the respect of his family, despite the fact that the Caw family generally does not like Arturia) and generally making a name doing good was clearly the best thing that had happened to her. So obviously, that all being ripped away from her in the blink of an eye, combined with her disgust and self-loathing at her being a product of incest and an unnatural creation at that in this canon and Artoria’s refusal to acknowledge her as her child, demolished almost any ability to trust and make connections that she had been able to build up over the years.
  • Also Guinevere. At first, she agrees to serve as a Virgin Queen at first, seeing Artoria as a friend but pledging loyalty as a queen. Then she meets Lancelot, who does actually love her romantically, and ultimately the romantic deprivation became too much for her.
  • Kundry, influenced by both Fate canon and Parsifal, only seeks redemption at first, but because Percival actually showed her compassion she seeks more of a connection with him, becoming enraged when he can’t return her feelings romantically. However, by the end they gain a connection more platonic than in Fate canon, but still deep nonetheless.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Mordred has this dynamic with Gwrddelw. In fact, it’s pretty much a, if not the, central part of their dynamic. Gwrddelw, unlike the rest of his male family members, is a delicate, gentle (borderline?) Non-Action Guy, and Caw, his father, as well as some of his brothers make fun of him for his light frame and relative femininity. They met via a story that basically mirrors an episode out of a chivalric romance with her as the knight and him as the damsel, and after Gwrddelw confesses, she even realizes for a moment that she may have basically been in a Courtly Love relationship without even realizing. It’s basically spelled out when he tells her “Even if you’re a woman, it doesn’t change that you’re my knight, Prince Mordred.”, that she has right to his virginity, and basically that she can still top him even as a woman. Fitting, considering that Gwrddelw is a Historical Gender Flip, paralleling Mordred being a gender flip; sort of. While his relationship with Mordred is based off of speculation that the saint Cwyllog was Mordred’s wife, Gwrddelw was an actual saint as well, who Cwyllog, a name which seems to be derived from the place she’s patron saint of, apparently replaced. But because nothing is known about him, only his name is used and the author basically considers him an OC.
• Massively Numbered Siblings:
  • Gwrddelw and Gildas had _24_ siblings, not counting themselves, which is extremely impressive even for the era, though only Hueil and the two sisters Peithien and Gwenabwy really get much attention other than as namedrops.
• Longevity Treatment: As the timespan of Camelot increases about ten years, Morgan gives Mordred a potion that she must periodically drink to not age rapidly. She spends almost a decade as a Round Table Knight, not a few years like in canon.
• Love Revelation Epiphany: Played to extremely depressing effect. Mordred realized that what she had felt for Gwrddelw was indeed romantic love after the latter confessed to her... Said confession was an Anguished Declaration of Love from him to make her reconsider going through the rest of the rebellion, but her mind was made up. But they agree to spend one night with each other as a couple.
• Lower-Deck Episode: While they’re usually treated as sidekicks secondary to Inner Table members, occasionally an Outer Round Table member like Yvain or Dinadan is highlighted to get their perspective of what’s happening, their interactions with an Inner Table member, or even purely just to get a one-shot to themselves, though these are pretty rare. Some like Sir Brunor even get their big quests adapted due to their interactions with Inner Table members.
• The Mentally Disturbed: Lancelot is said to be “probably mentally ill”, described by the author as a possible symptom of being a human living in a non-human realm.
• Manly Man and Sensitive Guy: Galehaut and Lancelot; the former is a hammy, dramatic half-giant, and while Lancelot is hardly feminine or weak-willed, he is a bit sensitive to criticism, a romantic, and, well, the other member of the duo is Galehaut.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Dagonet and Dinadan’s Boke and Tsukkomi Routine at the beginning of one fic is clearly inspired by the Monty Python and the Holy Grail black knight skit, with Dagonet even straight-up quoting the Only a Flesh Wound line. (Pending)

    Dinadan: Sir knight, your arm is almost lopped off! Your calf is missing! The floor is goddamn sticky, dear Sir!

    Dagonet: ‘Tis only a flesh wound, Sir!

    Dinadan: *Dope Slap* What kinda wound isn’t a flesh wound?!

    Dagonet: Your slaps hurt more, my Sir!

  • The flesh wound line was also quoted in the Green Knight adaptation by said green knight. Gawain even lampshades that the line sounds familiar in the above scene.
  • Some other Monty Python references are the Non Sequitur, *Thud* (or otherwise non-sequitur) lines said when some of the Arthurian characters are hit in the head, (which tends to happen on a somewhat uncommon basis because the author finds it funny); aside from saying something about giant mutant snails, a gag characters like Astolfo also have (itself a reference to the weird tendency of a lot of medieval literature to have depictions of knights fighting snails in the margins of their pages for unknown reasons), Artoria once slurs out “Izzat an African... or European swallow?” after she gets whacked on the helmet and Kay asks if she’s okay.
  • One one-shot has Merlin and Artoria having a suspiciously similar conversation to an infamously suggestive exchange about what to do with a rope from Merlin (2008), from the perspective of and to the horror and then confusion of the guards outside. Then again, this being Merlin, it’s likely he knew very well what it sounded like, and was talking like that on purpose for shits and giggles. (Pending)
  • A pretty serious example, and a pretty far-reaching one thematically: Galahad alludes to the fact that Percival was the original Grail Knight by saying that he suspects that even if he had never existed, Percival would have achieved the grail, and was worthy of such, because Percival may, in fact, be the most perfect person among them all, as while his heart may be pure, it is still very much human. This also sort of invokes T.H. White’s interpretation, where Percival was portrayed as the only actually likable member of the Grail Knights.
• No Hero to His Valet: It isn't uncommon for Dinadan to call Tristan (or Lancelot, or Mordred, but especially Tristan), an "idiot" and lament how he doesn't know how he puts up with him and his tendency to get himself, and him, into trouble. However, they're such good friends that it's worth it to him.
• No Sense of Direction: A bit of a Running Gag with Lancelot. It was common that he got lost on quests and Bors, Gawain, or whoever else had to go retrieve him. To be fair, maps weren’t that good back then, but it’s said that knights tend to have a natural intuition regarding this. (Pending)
  Lancelot: ...
  Gareth: Erm... Sir Lancelot?
  Lancelot, grinning nervously: Uh... Well... ...You do remember where we were going, right?
  Mordred And Gareth Face Fault off their horses
  Mordred: Isn’t that supposed to be your job to know?!
• Not So Stoic: To contrast her with Galahad, Arturia’s seeming lack of human emotions and desires in Fate canon is not only said to have become the norm only some years after the start of her rule, but she is also shown to have had moments when keeping up the mask became too much, though these these flashes of humanity were so rare that it caused those who witnessed them to doubt if they really saw it, and only Kay, Merlin, and Bedivere ever saw her outright panic or break down. But when those do happen it’s invariably really heartwrenching. But by the end the stoic mask crackes; she’s crying as she begs Bedivere to throw Excalibur back into the lake.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Bedivere’s closest friend other than Arturia herself, and especially after Arturia tried to seal her emotions off, is not Tristan like in Fate canon (in this canon, Tristan is actually closer to Lancelot), but Kay of all people, a detail borrowed from the earliest Arthurian legends. They are the only ones in the Inner Table whose closest or most important associations aren’t Lancelot, Gawain, both of them, or Tristan (albeit, the two are also pretty close with Gawain either way due to how long they’ve been around, even if Kay is reluctant to admit it), being most associated with each other and often treated as Those Two Guys if out of focus, and they often went on quests together in the early days of the kingdom, with Bedivere’s lack of arm even explained as having been due to losing it taking an almost fatal hit for Kay in one such early quest (Pending; he may have just been born with a deformed arm). Kay’s “By the hand of my friend” Catchphrase even makes a return.
• Patchwork Fic: Takes this approach to Arthurian legend. Some examples include:
  • Artoria put a distant relative named Constantine as regent on the throne while going to fight Lancelot in Gaul, not Mordred; in Geoffrey’s account, Constantine, a real king, was Arthur’s successor. While not much info is given about him, though he does appear as a minor character in other places, he flees Camelot into exile before Mordred can assassinate him, taking the throne of the remaining rump state after Camlann.
  • Gawain is a mix of his Fate incarnation and as much of legendary material can be mixed in while still being coherent; generally his earlier Knight in Shining Armor and somewhat flawed but good Vulgate incarnations are used as the core of his character, with his being a Cool Big Bro who is a friend to young knights, has concern for the less fortunate, even lepers, and the whole protector of damsels thing, the latter of which is especially played up to the point of him being described as “kind of like the medieval equivalent of a J-Pop idol sans the restriction on sex” by the author and that this along with the abovementioned Cool Big Bro thing is what makes up his public celebrity persona. But his more fatal flaws take hints from Mallory and are gelled with Fate canon, and while the whole episode where he and all the other Orkney siblings except Gareth hunt down and brutally kill Lamorak is cut out completely, cues from it are definitely noted; his violent tendencies from Mallory are interpreted into a tendency to be utterly terrifying when angered to the point of being straight-up unrepentantly murderous (though a tendency towards wrath seems to run in the family, with Gareth being the only exception), being able dehumanize those not on his side unnervingly easily, and his absolute lack of regard for mercy (though he sees this as respecting knightly honor, and is a bit confused by Gareth’s horror at his unwillingness to show mercy to a wounded opponent until she straight-up has to remind him of the Green Knight episode, which Gareth only knows of through Gawain telling her of it in the first place) to the point that he was apparently extremely close to becoming straight-up Berserker worthy. Though even then he comes out looking more positive than he ever does in any legend written after the Post-Vulgate and even occasionally Fate canon. Also Ragnell was his canon wife and The Marriage of Gawain was completely canon. His side of Parzival is also treated as canon, save for the Relationship Upgrade at the end due to the abovementioned canonicity of the Gawain x Ragnell ship. He also turns into a Boisterous Bruiser when drunk, a reference to how he gets characterized as such in many modern works.
  • Percival has the same backstory he has in the Chrétien de Troyes version of his story, but the end of his story, influenced by Fate itself, is based on Parsifal, going halfway between the Parsifal and Fate versions of his relationship with Kundry by him showing her platonic compassion, and due to following the events of the play he misses the fall of Camelot completely. His Chaste Hero status and pairing with Blanchefleur are compromised with the grail quest by them marrying after the quest, as he resolved to marry when he thought himself worthy of her. Before that point, they’re basically dating, but it stays chaste.
  • Kay and Bediviere being best friends and Heterosexual Life-Partners (from the earliest Welsh legends).
  • Especially prevalent with everything regarding Mordred, even more so than Gawain; she has a gender-flipped Cwyllog as her love interest (albeit unlike the legends she/he is thought to be canon in, she has no children with him), can be “joyous and courteous” even post-Tomato in the Mirror, albeit only when in manipulation mode after she’s made into a pariah (an Italian poem), was told about her fate to destroy Camelot by a prophet when adventuring with Lancelot, who tried to keep it secret because he didn’t want Gawain to be heartbroken (as well as not wanting to do that to Mordred, though he does become the first knight to grow fearful of her and they grow distant after this) before Merlin outed her to everyone later (Prose Lancelot, though the actual Prose Lancelot version of events was depicted separately in TMFOA written before it), was a Chick Magnet (some Welsh legends) and her antagonistic treatment by Merlin is even based off of a modern work, Merlin (2008); these are only a few examples among many. And with the heavy attempts to incorporate the gist of her Fate canon backstory and character, this is all heavily mixed with a lot of modern depictions of Mordred which make the character more sympathetic.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Several examples:
  • Kay (Red) and Bedivere (Blue), reflected in their color schemes. Or for that matter, Artoria (Blue) and Kay (Red), in fics taking place after the first few years of the former’s career as king.
  • Percival, fittingly for his other signature color besides white, is Red (naive, emotional, cheerful, not very bright, childlike, flighty) to Gawain (mellow, polite, worldly, reliable), as well as to Galahad's (Always rational and calm) Blue.
  • Mordred, fittingly, is Red to Gawain, Gaheris, Lancelot, and the battle-shy, common-sense knight Dinadan, who she is particularly close with, as well as Gwrddelw. Though Dinadan is more cheerful, wisecracking, and openly emotional than other examples, he's also one of the most reasonable of the knights, and with Lancelot, while they both have their issues, when the two were at their closest and as Mordred's insecurities were taken care of to more managable levels, Lancelot is actually the more obviously emotionally tumultuous.
• Rescue Romance:
  • Mordred x Gwrddelw. Kind of. Gwrddelw saved Mordred first in a way by taking her in on a cold, stormy night and taking care of her. But then the more typical form of this trope takes hold, just with the genders reversed, as she returns the favor by saving him and his sisters from pillaging bandits by curb-stomping them. The pseudo-Courtly Love dynamic they develop after this could be considered a central part of their relationship, with the above scene even ending with Mordred realizing she’s holding Gwrddelw in her arms.
• Shipper on Deck: Galehaut. He finds the pairing of Lancelot and Guineviere so great and epic that he breaks into Manly Tears at the sight of it. Yet he does it in the most manly way possible, in typical Galehaut fashion.
  Galehaut: My lad! What more is there for a true man to desire than the love of his lady?! And a man pursues what he wishes! Go forth, and pursue your love! For that is the beauty of youth!
  (Note: in a comic adaptation of the above scene, he punctuates the last line, standing on a cliff, a wave crashing on it, with Dramatic Wind swishing his cape and hair)
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Basically how Camelot fell. In attempting to avert the fall of Camelot and because of other reasons, Artoria refused to recognize Mordred as her child and crown prince (and avoiding her entirely so she has no opportunity to assassinate her) and Merlin breaks his laid-back character and shuns her publicly (despite at this point having been nothing but a good knight), with basically everyone else she knows with few exceptions following suit or being too afraid to go near her and making her a pariah. And while Mordred tries to defy the prophecy and prove her goodness and loyalty, she eventually gives up on it and embraces the prophecy and stages a coup immediately when she has the chance to. No one seems to think that treating her with kindness despite the prophecy or her upbringing might actually avert the prophecy.
• Supreme Chef: Kay, to the joy of Big Eater Artoria; this is part of their bond, in fact, where he cooks for her and she eats it. He’s basically the head chef of Camelot’s cooking staff.
  • Percival, being raised as a girl for 15 years, is, like in canon, quite a good chef. In fact, he’s apparently better than Kay, as shown in the story where the two have a cook-off with the other knights as judges. This actually breaks Kay more than Percival soundly kicking his butt. Though Artoria and Artoria alone considers them equally good, which is at least somewhat of a consolation to him.
• Virgin Power:
  • Of course, was a virtue needed to be a Grail Knight. Though here it’s stated that Galahad was basically Asexual as God literally made this an Enforced Trope.
  • Played with in an Arthurian one-shot in which Lancelot and Mordred go and try to track a unicorn. Because the legends merely say that unicorns are drawn to female virgins, Mordred, despite not exactly being the most pure of knights even though this did take place when she was still a respected, noble knight, actually qualified, said unicorn recognizing that she’s indeed actually a woman and due to her keeping her gender secret still being a virgin. Though she of course panics and flips out over this. Fortunately Lancelot merely shrugs in confusion and suspects that maybe perhaps unicorns don’t really mind gender as much as previously thought. Mordred before her fall was apparently known for being surprisingly chaste, especially in contrast to Gawain, despite her more rough-around-the-edges image, and was admired by some for this fact as everyone interpreted this as a dedication to virtue.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Mordred being accomplice to Agravain's brutal murder of Dinadan not only marks the point where Mordred is finally starting to slip past the point of no return, but also symbolizes the start of Camelot losing its joy and happiness. The death of Gareth later then goes on to truly drive home Camelot's loss of innocence.