Fate/Grand Order is home to many characters, so it only makes sense that a couple of them have become the fandom's punching bags. This will be categorized via their rarities.
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1- 2 Stars
- Two of the earliest Bronze-rarity Servants, Eric Bloodaxe and the Phantom of the Opera, tend to be the butt-end of jokes or considered 'so unremarkable fans forgot they exist' due to several factors:
- They don't have the early popularity for being in a previous Fate Series works. Bronze Servants who actually had this advantage include:
- From Fate/Apocrypha: Spartacus, Shakespeare.
- From Fate/stay night: Kojiro
- From Fate/EXTRA: Andersen
- They tend to be Low-Tier Letdowns. This is despite the existence of several Bronze star units with surprising potentials, such as the aforementioned Kojiro (as an early game anti-Wyvern unit that can keep up at times) and Andersen (as a budget support Servant), as well as Leonidas and Georgios (both as budget tanks).
- Their stories tend to be either one-note or rather ridiculously jokey.
- Phantom was made to be rather one-note about his Christine and can't seem to spend a few sentences without mentioning Christine.
- Eric is forced to play like he's mad so he wouldn't incur the wrath of the spirit of his wife Gunnhild, but this never gets explored further, so people would rather joke that Gunnhild is more interesting than Eric. Furthermore, Eric's biography is considered hilariously repetitive so it's easy to make him a target of mockery.
- In comparison of some other Servants like Mata Hari, whose backstory was considered tragic and attracts fans towards her, this is considered mocking material that they got shafted from day one, and thus most people see them as unremarkable in a cast full of colorful characters.
- And finally, their participation in stories. In the main story, they're main victims of Early-Installment Weirdness where the story was generally not that strong, so some Servants' appearance were just gratuitous.
- Eric's only appearance is in Okeanos, where he plays his 'one-note madman' characterization to the fullest instead of exploring his relations with Gunnhild. Then he's unceremoniously beaten to make way for Anne Bonny & Mary Read, Hector and Blackbeard. Even when he actually reveals this tidbits in Solomon, people quickly forget about that.
- Meanwhile, Phantom appears earlier in Orleans, and he exists only to be quickly beaten and then forgotten. He actually had his chance to redeem himself and be more fleshed out in the Epic of Remnants by appearing in Shinjuku. Then Emiya Alter unceremoniously kills him and he's forgotten again. Phantom can be considered a bit luckier than Eric in that he also appears in some capacities within events. However, the fact that he still can't escape the characterization of "can't seem to spend a few sentences without mentioning Christine" still means that he's considered 'unremarkable'.
- All of those are starkly contrasting fellow Bronze Servant Asterios. Like Eric, he debuted in Okeanos. However, he was actually given a memorable role, including his relations with Euryale and standing up against a mighty foe like Heracles. A role so memorable that it warrants a flashback and story importance in the first Cosmos in the Lostbelt.note
- Those factors really cemented Eric and Phantom as two of the biggest Memetic Losers amongst Bronze Servants. It was to the surprise of fandom that despite all those, Phantom still appeared in the Arcade.
- They don't have the early popularity for being in a previous Fate Series works. Bronze Servants who actually had this advantage include:
- Jason is that one NPC who the fandom likes to use as a measuring stick on how much a loser a Heroic Spirit can be, no thanks to the rather overblown Adaptational Wimp treatment he got and how much of an abusive Jerkass he is, and compounded with Chiron mentioning that he's a poor student who's more interested in hitting on girls instead of getting stronger. He's considered either "probably the weakest Servant ever" or "what may happen if the Nasuverse Memetic Loser Matou Shinji became a Demi-Servant"note He became playable after the 4th Anniversary Event and DelightWorks capitalized on his Memetic Loser status in his attacks by having his Argonaut members (Heracles, Atalante and Medea Lily) assault him in a majority of them in comical manner, topped off by his Noble Phantasm where he stumbles into the line of fire of his teammates (courtesy of Atalante kicking his ass), though his role in the Lostbelt 5 storyline proceeded to give him a spotlight as a major ally and thus giving him a moment to actually shine.
- Even despite her popularity and advantage over the aforementioned Eric Bloodaxe and Phantom of the Opera, Mata Hari certainly felt like being a fandom punchline after time passed. For these reasons:
- Since she's rather weak (mostly used as a niche debuff support unit), people have been hoping that she gets strengthened. When Strengthening Quest Part XIII (Japan) happened, the one-star Assassin that gets the rank-up was... Sasaki Kojiro. Cue the fandom of Mata Hari groaning that she got shafted and would forever be doomed as a Joke Character. Thankfully, DelightWorks took note and gave her a Rank Up as part of the 6th Anniversary, giving her something good at last... but as noted below, they would proceed to yank it from her even harder.
- The existence of the latecomer 1-Star Assassin Charlotte Corday wasn't a problem for Mata Hari at first. Eventually, the problems start culminating into one that would forever stick Mata Hari, one of the original Servants of the game, under Charlotte's shadow:
- Right on Charlotte's debut, she effectively replaced Mata Hari as the face of 'Friend Point Summon'. Additionally, while Mata Hari is still stuck with primitive 'Caster Balls' animation, Charlotte immediately came with varying animations to awe the players more.
- Personality-wise, while Mata Hari is supposed to be a Femme Fatale Spy, she does little to directly seduce the protagonist, who's supposed to be the stand-in for the player. She only contents herself with being a Cool Big Sis or mood-maker, letting her big boobs do the job automatically. On the other hand, Charlotte is actively more in-tune to fall in love with the protagonist and she also has boobs comparable to Mata Hari without even trying. So, Charlotte is already ahead on the race by making the first move in attracting players.
- Mata Hari had smaller participation in main stories. While she had her part in the fourth Epic of Remnant (Salem), she was not the main focus; she's just a supporting character. On the other hand, Charlotte appears in one of the most memorable Cosmos in the Lostbelt (Atlantis), she's heavily involved in the story and had an impressive feat of killing Lostbelt Odysseus. Once again, Charlotte beats Mata Hari in 'story importance'.
- And finally, right after Mata Hari got the aforementioned Rank Up in the 6th Anniversary, guess what Charlotte got? A 4-Star Summer version for the sixth Summer event that came out a few weeks after the anniversary. In the end, Charlotte got the better gift, which made Mata Hari's 'present' look meaningless. It was at this point that the fans realized that Mata Hari could never escape Charlotte's shadow.
3 Stars
- Cu Chulainn Prototype. Despite being in since launch, he's had virtually no role in any single event or story, and while he has some small differences from the original Cu, he isn't really all that useful compared to said version. Proto Cu is basically someone who's considered 'just a carbon copy of the original Cu', which means they're interchangeable and thus DelightWorks preferred to use the more popular, widespread, normal Cu or Cu Alter, leaving poor Proto in the dust for ZERO appearances at all (and in case of Event, it has to be accompanied with the normal Cu) and DelightWorks absolutely not wanting to touch the normal Prototype Servants (not Fragments Servants like Brynhild, Ozymandias, Arash, etc, but those like Proto Gilgamesh, Proto Perseus, etc) so Proto Cu could have familiar faces to interact and showcase his personality more (And Arthur rarely ever featured with him).
- Okada Izou also tends to get saddled with 'bullying' memes despite not being a Raid Boss whatsoever, mostly due to him being a 3* Servant, but tending to boast about his prowess as a manslayer and swordsman, forgetting that there are other great sword-wielding Servants with higher stars than him, one of them being... Musashi. Therefore, whenever Okada opens his big mouth, expect someone to swiftly shut him up by force, or 'bully' him.
- Medea's older version is starting to become this, due to the fact that she is the one of two launch Servants AND the only servant from Fate/stay night to not have even a single Craft Essence featuring her (other being Berserker Lancelot). Even those other Memetic Losers, Eric Bloodaxe and Phantom of the Opera, got a Craft Essence before her! And even worse, an out-of-series Hate Sink like Celenike Icecolle Yggdmillenia at least has a minuscule appearance in one Craft Essence (and later another one with clearer appearance, shared with Gordes Musik Yggdmillenia, Goredolf's father), which is more than she can say than poor original Medea. And when Medea finally got featured in a CE in celebration of the third Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel movie release... she had to share with way more characters than Celenike, and to add insult to the injury, Medea got put behind Shinji Matou, the Memetic Loser of Nasuverse. It should be noted however that a large part of the fandom actually resents her status, and consider her treatment to make her The Woobie on the same level as Mata Hari. She finally manages to move on, even if a little, at Valentine 2021 (JP), where she finally got a Craft Essence dedicated to her, but still had to share with Atalante Alter, though with just both of them, it's at least similar with Celenike's deal above. And then the 6th anniversary saw her thrown right back into loser territory when the annual buffs came along and the devs showed that one of the recipients was a 3* Caster as if to hint Medea was finally getting some love... and then it turned out the lucky Caster was Mephistopheles who is neither often used nor well-liked. Fans were left scratching their heads at the bizarre choice while lamenting how Medea got shafted again, and again in the next Strengthening campaign where the chance goes to Gilles de Rais (Caster), one of the best examples of Low-Tier Letdowns of the game. Outside Craft Essence and gameplay factors, there's also the fact that Medea Lily had more appearances to represent the entity of Medea. When a Memetic Loser like Jason had his time to shine, it's Medea Lily that represents her. Considering the older Medea might see her younger self as most likely horribly naive or occasionally cringe, it's another blow that she, as the older self, rarely gets the chance to blow off some steam against Jason.
- Jekyll got this treatment after the 7th anniversary rank-up quests. For his rank-up quest during that anniversary, he ends up receiving a 80% NP Charge which would be huge on pretty much any other servant. However, due to how much of a Mechanically Unusual Fighter Jekyll is, said NP Charge did not help-out in fixing a lot of his issues that makes him a Low-Tier Letdown. Because of that, Jekyll tends to be the butt of jokes for having a not very helpful buff.
4 Stars
- Parvati used to be treated like this for her lackluster art and her SR rarity, but after an incident regarding her illustrator, Aotsuki Takao, calling her this is now considered to be inappropriate. Not helping is that Quick-based servants became more popular after the release of Scáthach-Skadi, who proved to be a vital Support Party Member for them, not to mention her prominence in the plot-important Ooku event.
- Low-Tier Letdown characters exist, but Stheno gets hit with this treatment the most, due to her gimmicky skillset and tendency to show up over other, better Servants combined with her arrogant attitude.
- While Siegfried was initially hit with this treatment as at launch, he was a Low-Tier Letdown, but this died down after some Balance Buffs have him be Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. However, he became one again when his wife Kriemhild was released in Traum and revealed just how badly he fucked up with his Suicide by Cop plan that he never bothered to tell her about. Naturally, she's very resentful of how he basically abandoned her, and most fan depictions of the two end with Siegfried being forced to sleep in the doghouse. He can't even be a cool dad to Sieg in those same depictions because whenever he tries to save Sieg from Kriemhild's lecturing on self-sacrificing heroics, it doesn't take long before he's forced to sit next to his "son" on the floor and take her ire.
- Because Ibaraki-Douji is the first global raid Servant boss, she was first and hardest hit with the "bullying" meme, so it's kind of hard to see her as the intended fearsome Oni of Mt. Ooe. It certainly doesn't help that personality-wise, she's shown to just be plain goofy and a bit of a try-hard in maintaining her reputation.
- Saber Lancelot is also similarly often bullied for merely existing next to Mash/Galahad, and never living down the moniker "deadbeat dad". Despite being one of the more powerful 4* Sabers, in the eyes of the fandom, he exists to be beaten to a pulp by Mash for accurate or overblown versions of his actual flaws.
- Watanabe no Tsuna, despite his beloved design, ended up as one due to the timing of his release and the amount of Sabers released around him. He came out right after Tomoe Gozen's Saber alt and Saitou Hajime, around the same time as Ibuki-Douji, and shortly after his release Saber Karna (Santa), the long awaited Muramasa, and Fairy Knight Gawain would come out to much popularity. In a sea of unique or long desired Sabers, he happened to be the most "generic" of them in both appearance and gameplay strengths, causing him to be seen by the community as one of the least popular Saber's released in recent years (he does have fans, mind you).
- Lakshmibai quickly joined the ranks of "bullied" Servants thanks to canonically having the worst luck of any Heroic Spirit, at a miserable E- Rank.
- Rama's Curse of Separation "skill" reached the highest level in 2020 when Sita was finally released in Fate Grand Order... Arcade. And no, he isn't playable on that version of the game. And so, he became more or less the Memetic Loser in terms of marriage stuff, because he could NEVER be with Sita when the roster provided many many Happily Married couple (Sigurd-Brynhild, Xiang Yu-Yu Meiren to name a few), and Rama is left having to sit in the corner all alone unable to be with the girl he's Happily Married with. That's still not counting his role in the American Singularity (being put in a body bag and carried around by Nightingale) and 4th Lostbelt (having to relegate the big spotlight time to Karna because the main antagonist is closer relationship-wise to Karna (God Arjuna)). If you squint hard enough, this puts Sita in a similar boat with Rama because on her side, she also gets to see those Happily Married couples (when they come...) and can't do anything but sit and watch alone, with Rama never going to appear in her continuity.
- Note that while Bradamante has something similar to Rama's Curse of Separation (her Spirit Origin deems her that she will NEVER find Ruggiero), she manages to avoid this fate because she's simply too happy and plucky to get bogged down with it (or she has another weapon to distract the memes from her separation: Her butt), unlike Rama and Sita, whose story were considered tragic and somehow their suffering became meme-worthy.
- BB sparked a lot of jokes about being bullied by Summer Martha, who is one of the few offensive Servants to have class advantage against her—and since BB makes a habit of being a bully herself, many fans enjoyed the irony. It became a particularly gleeful meme when BB's Summer version came out—and said Summer version has the Divine trait (which Martha gets a big attack boost against), and her boss battle has BB toss out a massive partywide stun at one point (one of Martha's skills provides debuff immunity). The many videos
of Martha soloing BB with relative ease quickly turned it into a punchline. After GUDAGUDA 5, BB's status plunges deeper since Martha has gotten herself a new 'bullying friend' in Himiko, a fellow Buster-based Ruler class, the more to bully BB. Additionally, after a Balance Buff that made Caren do bonus damage to Chaotic units, Caren is now included in the "bullying BB" circle. There is also the fact that her class went from a class just for her alone to a class to where other people got in (including one character BB has zero known connections to). As a result, BB tends to be portrayed as the butt of jokes whenever someone else gets into the Moon Cancer class, moreso when one of them is basically Arcueid Brunestud, the most powerful being in the Nasuverse, so BB can't talk/troll her way out of Arcueid. - While not to the level of ridicule, looking at EMIYA right now would generate feelings that he has been degraded in the eyes of the fans from what he used to be. Beforehand, he was considered one of the high tier badasses and favorite of the Nasuverse, coining the term "GAR" and his true identity was considered a high time secret that should have spoiler tags on it, he was that much of a badass enigma. With FGO, however, he no longer stuck out and was quite possibly overshadowed by other overpowered Servants that you can get, and is reduced to kitchen duties to the point that he's unofficially a 'mom'. It made him no less manly, but the days when he's considered the biggest GAR factor have long since passed away. He is noted to have regained some of his original reputation back during the 5th Anniversary, in where his newly acquired Rank Up Quest coupled with Caster Altria allows NP looping.
- Poor Gawain. He's commonly regarded as the Wake-Up Call Boss and the first of many brutally difficult bosses that would come after him, but his status as a feared enemy diminished thanks to one Archer: Euryale. A well-trained Euryale will tear him to shreds without much trouble since her kit is tailored to countering him, and as a three star unit she's accessible to the majority of players. It's easy to find videos of Euryale soloing him in his various boss fights or jokes about how Chaldea should have summoned her to beat Gawain in the Camelot movies.
5 Stars
- The original Saber Altria had this reputation for some time. She's infamous for being the poster girl of the game yet one of the biggest victims of Power Creep, with her Instinct/Intuition skill being the target of derision for gaining 15 stars and nothing more, until she got a Rank Up Quest during the 3rd Anniversary that added the effect of charging her NP gauge by 20-30% and another one during the 5th Anniversary that buffed her Mana Burst with an NP damage up and allowing her to change all her cards to Buster for one turn, which actually makes her one of the hardest-hitting AoE Sabers in the game now. Less noticeable but still something of a sticking point however, is about how Saber Altria is Out of Focus for most of the game's storyline outside of a flashback in Camelot (although even this point is lessened if one considers her various alternates having varying degrees of importance). The fact she only has two unique My Room dialogues with Gilgamesh and EMIYA even though there are many servants she could give a comment to such as the many Arthurian characters in the game (such as Mordred and Morgan who are both biologically related to her), her Alternate Selves, and the various master-turned-servants she met throughout her time within the Holy Grail wars she participated in doesn't help much either.
- Tamamo is often seen as this whenever she is compared to the other three powerful supports, Waver, Merlin, and Skadi, since the meta she specializes in (Arts) tends to focus more on stalling and as such, doesn't seem to stand out much compared to the omnipotence of Waver, or the crazy damage potential of Merlin and Skadi, all the while missing an NP charge skill. That being said, most of it is light-hearted jokes, as the Arts meta is every bit as powerful as the Buster and Quick meta in its own way. However, after the 5th Anniversary, she went on to become a full blown one when Caster Altria came to the scene and seemingly dethroned her as the Queen of Arts meta, because she has the exact NP charge skill that Tamamo lacked (while Tamamo actually helps out Caster Altria by covering the one part she lacked, healing, she's a bigger damage booster, thus leading Tamamo to be treated like the loser). This is on top of constantly getting upstaged by Nero since Fate/EXTRA days, promotions and side materials and the closest thing she got above Nero in terms of story importance was that (seemingly) one of her tails, Tamamo-Vitch/Koyanskaya, play a major part in the Lostbelt storyline...but in actually, Koyanskaya is somebody who just modeled her spirit core after Tamamo. Even worst is when another Arts support got released in the form of Lady Avalon, and a lot of people believe she is more powerful than Tamamo; causing the kitsune to be ignored even more-so. The only thing Tamamo can rest easy for from this is that she's less likely to become Chen Gong's NP ammo from now on.
- Ishtar sometimes gets this treatment due to her lack of respect (which also invites comparisons to fellow loser goddess Aqua) and relationship with Gilgamesh and Enkidu, leading to plenty of fanart of her suffering at their expense.
- Okita Souji is basically a Butt-Monkey taken up to eleven. The chief reasoning being that no matter how many times she literally complained about it, she's NEVER going to get a Swimsuit variant (until the Summer 2019 TV CM revealed that she's FINALLY getting her swimsuit) and she never got any enhancement on her skills (the latter was more likely to counterbalance the fact that she was one of the Quick Servants left unscathed and performing better than others when Buster meta was prominent and Scathach Skadi hadn't appeared yet) until the releases of GUDAGUDA Yamatai-Koku and Interlude Campaign #17 which gave her buffs for her first and second skills. Kinda expected when one is a prominent gag character. Made even worst when her summer form is a 4-star servant while her Alter counterpart's summer form is a 5-star servant.
- Kama in fan work is typically the butt in any joke involving her, from being trolled by her counterpart Kiara, to being flustered by others, to even being treated like a child or acting like one in her young Sakura form. Mostly this is taken from how once Kama's master plan fell apart in her event, she quickly devolved into panic and seems the type to easily rile up once something unexpected happens. This was eventually made canon, as by Summer 2021, Parvati and the protagonist have fully stopped taking her as a serious threat anymore, and her Avenger version just keeps making shenanigans in a desperate attempt to seduce her Master. She's also this following the main interlude release of the Ooku event, as people joked how she'll be just as bullied as her Beast rival Kiara.
- Odysseus radiates with sheer coolness regardless of whether he's from Proper Human History or Lostbelt History. He's one of the strongest Greek heroes, his Trojan Horse is basically doubling as a Humongous Mecha... and yet he's remembered mostly as Charlotte Corday's punching bag, because she completely counters him despite his greater rarity and she canonically killed him in the 5th Lostbelt.
- Nikola Tesla, at least after Olympus chapter. Although he exclaimed at times of how he had surpassed Zeus, Tesla met "the consequence of bragging" when he, alongside Helena Blavatsky and Thomas Edison, became eliminated by the army of Olympus not long after their arrival even without meeting Zeus face-to-face. People started to consider Tesla an example of some backfired bragging. It becomes especially disappointing considering Tesla is the unnamed Archer mentioned in Atlantis chapter. Perhaps, the only saving grace is that Tesla and his companions continue to serve as pivotal allies, albeit in the form of A.I..
- Ashiya Douman, initially presented as a major threat in Shimosa and Yuga-Kshetra, quickly became this upon the release and completion of Hell Mandala Heian-kyo, where it's revealed that despite all of his efforts and his despicable acts in pursuit of one-upping his eternal enemy, Abe-no-Seimei, Seimei himself doesn't see him as that big of a threat, to the point where he simply passes on some boons and advice to Chaldea to defeat Douman in his stead, without even appearing at all in the Singularity/Lostbelt hybrid. It gets worse (or better?) when it's also revealed that his lack of love towards humanity meant that he was never qualified to become a Beast in the first place, no matter how hard he tries. It's, uh... quite the far cry from the nefarious scheming bastard that he was in Shimosa and Yuga-Kshetra, and more or less cemented Douman in the fandom as a try-hard villain desperate to get clout while being bullied by all his previous victims in Chaldea.
- Vritra ended up gaining a reputation as one of the most quickly forgotten about Servants due to all the Servants that were released around her: being preceded by the likes of Van Gogh, Ashiya Douman, and Ibuki-Douji, her debut being alongside the first male Santa Servant (Karna), and being immediately followed by the long requested Senji Muramasa, Minamoto no Yoshitsune (Taira no Kagekiyo), and Caren Ortensia.
- Arjuna Alter has gotten this treatment as for a while, he was the only playable Lostbelt King to lack a second summoning campaign barring Lucky Bag Summoning, and possibly the only Limited 5* in general to lack a second rate-up after a specific time window. Even Servants like Fujino and Miyu have gotten a second rate-up before he has. While White Day 2022 did give him his long awaited second rate-up banner as well a costume and a starring role in the event, there is one other factor that keeps him here- fellow Lostbelt King Berserker Morgan. Not the only there is the fact that Morgan has three rate-up campaigns within a mere ten months after her initial release as opposed to Arjuna Alter having an extremely long-waited second rate-up, Morgan pretty much becomes a Breakout Character in a similar vein to Jeanne Alter and Ereshkigal especially thanks to her extremely tragic backstory while despite the fact that his playable self grew to be a better person, Arjuna Alter's initial Lostbelt self was made to be a very unsympathetic fellow, which can rub some players the wrong way. This caused many fans to claim that Morgan has completely overshadow Arjuna Alter in terms of notability.
- Cleopatra has fallen into this category as of the Halloween 2021 event. Despite being the subject of ReDrop's traditional Fanservice-focused Halloween Craft Essence, Jade Hairpin, and looking very attractive lounging in a bathtub while wearing Barely-There Swimwear, all of the focus from the fandom has been on the background figures of the immensely popular Morgan and Faerie Knight Tristan, wearing swimsuits, and leaning against the balcony rail outside the room. The ability of the fandom to collectively Ignore the Fanservice was so incredible that it inevitably led to poor Cleo being the symbol of neglect and the butt of jokes. On top of that, for someone whose real life fame was so high and having great potential within her own portrayal, Cleo herself is constantly being reduced to background role for events (and chiefly on Halloween ones, so less her, more Elizabeth) and how she's fawning over the very fat Caesar, while some are okay with it, is also seen as a joke element because somehow Caesar always finds a way to 'cheat on her' or making it look like he's doing that. All of them make Cleopatra get ignored over other Pharaohs that appear in Chaldea like Nitocris or Ozymandias, both of them having huge roles in the actual story (and in the most praised Camelot singularity too).
- Poor Europa. Within the Japan server, she was first introduced into the game as part of the initial summoning campaign for Atlantis... even though she has absolutely zero story role during that chapter as she ended up being a part of the following Olympus instead. Because of this, she fell into being a forgotten Servant in a similar vein to Vritra and Tsuna as listed above. It's to the point where in the North America server, she isn't even in the initial summoning campaign for Atlantis and instead regulated to the second one; causing her status as a Memetic Loser to explode after the NA live stream for that story chapter aired.
- Musashi has received a few jokes after following her death in Olympus that caused her to be Deader than Dead. While it's mostly light-hearted jokes, she (or rather Summer Musashi to be more exact) fully became this due to one reason- Summer Ibuki-Douji. After the release of that oni servant, Summer Musashi's niche as the sole AOE Arts Berserker servant got taken away by a more powerful servant who managed to get a Game-Breaker entry on this wiki a mere hour after her release. Because of this, Summer Musashi ends up being on the same boat to the aforementioned Tamamo due to how they are both victims of Power Creep.
- While all of the big support Servants are the subject to jokes about being overworked, Waver gets this the most. As a general support (compared to say, Caster Altria focusing on Arts) and being one of the few Game-Breaker supports who isn't a limited or story-locked Servant (and is thus much easier for the average player to obtain), fans joke that he will never be given a break no matter how much Power Creep occurs, as he will always still have a use in the changing meta and players who fail to roll for the newest support can still fall back on him.
- Galatea is a good example of a new character becoming a joke in the eyes of the community, almost entirely because of factors outside of her as a unit. She came out in her own little event as a uniquely designed single target Arts Berserker, with a lot of players feeling she had potential as a unit. Not even a month later though, and Berserker Vlad got an NP damage buff that basically made him superior to her, and the two already were similar enough as it were that Galatea was questionably better than him to begin with. Than the meta shifted, making her less likely to be used, and despite getting a buff, she largely was not all that discussed, until the 4 star Kremhild came out, who basically out performs Galatea, meaning Galatea, in barely a year, went from a potentially new and interesting character, to the butt of a lot of jokes about being outclassed quickly.
- Koyanskaya of Darkness has gotten this treatment thanks to one reason- Kukulkan. Prior to Kukulkan's release, Koyanskaya of Darkness was pretty much the go-to servant if you want to use an AoE Buster NP Foreigner for a quest (especially since Summer Abigail (a.k.a. the only other AoE Buster NP Foreigner at that time) was a Low-Tier Letdown). However, that came to a head when Kukulkan came out, and she pretty much ended up Power Creeping Koyanskaya. Because of that, Koyanskaya ended up receiving unflattering comparisons to Kukulkan with some people even making certain jokes relating to the "Hydrogen Bomb vs Coughing Baby" meme with Kukulkan being the Hydrogen Bomb and Koyanskaya being the Coughing Baby. Worse was when later units like Draco and Tiamat came out, who quickly established themselves as broken units on par with Kukulkan, making Koyan Dark look even worse.
- Noah became this after the Arcade collab as he's the the only story-relevant Arcade exclusive servant to never make any appearance in the Arcade collab at all, barring the event’s Command Support mechanic. While Saber Jacques de Molay and Sita made appearances in the story albeit as NPCs, the same can not be said about Noah.
- Archer Arjuna has gotten this treatment after the 8th Anniversary rank-up quests. For context, prior to the rank-up quests, both him and Karna had 25% NP Charges that made both of them be unable to three-turn farm with Koyanskaya of Light and Oberon. However, after Karna managed to get his NP Charge buffed to a 30% NP Charge, many fans ended up hoping Arjuna will get his NP Charge buffed as well, since a five-star Archer servant was stated to receive a buff as well. However, Archer Altria ended up receiving the buff instead. Because of that, Archer Arjuna has become the buff of jokes for how his rival can participate in the Buster farming meta, while he can't.
- While Ivan the Terrible has low-key received this treatment for years due to being the weakest of the Lostbelt Kings gameplay-wise (he's plenty strong, but Skadi, Qin Shi Huang, Arjuna Alter, Morgan, and Kukulkan are all Game Breakers), his status as this grew exponentially with the release of the Tunguska Sanctuary story event on the global server. A copy of Ivan serves as the first raid battle of several in the event, but due to a programming error, Ivan's raid battle was scheduled to end five hours before its starting time. This meant that the battle instantly skipped to its final phase, and as Taigong Wang had spent time hyping him up to be a challenge, it turned him into an Anti-Climax Boss. The fandom took this and ran with it, making no end of comics and memes at the mighty tsar's expense.
Non-playables
- Demon Pillar Barbatos, despite in-lore being more powerful than many Servants, is best remembered for how quickly he dies as a Raid boss due to the sheer amount people farming him for rare Ascension materials. He's the first Pillar to go down in Solomon long before any of the others, and when he makes a reappearance in "Lady Reines Case Files", the developers had to quadruple his hit points because what should have been a raid boss that would take several days to defeat was nearly killed in a single day due to the sheer amount of people farming him.
- Surtr is a sadistic Yandere obsessed with the only girl who talked to him once during his 3000 years of isolation and only knows how to express his love through the twisted means of burning the world and showing her the planet covered in flames. While he does have a Freudian Excuse that many fans find valid, he's still quite often likened to elementary school children who give bugs as a present to make the girl they like cry, teenagers who fall in love with a girl for picking up their dropped pencils, and even his fellow Memetic Loser Roa.
- Kirschtaria Wodime probably holds the record for both the biggest and fastest fall from grace in the entire franchise. He first presented himself in a mysterious and dignified manner, which was bolstered by incredible feats in Atlantis and Olympus. Despite this, a small meme consisting of Kirschtaria calling Daybit for help persisted in the fandom, slowly yet steadily ever gaining traction. Then Olympus revealed his massive Hidden Depths, especially his lovable goofball side, along with a comment how Daybit will finish the job if Kirschtaria failed, causing the "DAYBIT, HELP ME" memes to explode overnight. Nowadays, it's common for the fandom to see Kirschtaria as the Princess Peach (albeit much more loved) of the Nasuverse who always runs crying to Daybit for help for even the most trivial of problems. Quite a far cry from canonically one of the most powerful figures in the franchise.
- Kiara (mainly her boss form, but this can extent to her playable self) possibly got hit the worst with the bullying memes after the Main Interlude release of the SE.R.APH event. Since Kiara's boss fight can be a repeatable memorial quest, and main interludes never go away like normal events do, it's very common to see FGO Content Creators on YouTube to showcase three-turn boss fights for her own boss fight especially since no other boss fight can be permanently repeatable as well as how no servant has class disadvantage over her Beast class.
- While nowhere to the extent of Kiara, Goetia also has been hit by "bullying" memes once the 6th Anniversary Memorial Quests landed. His boss fights is among the memorial quests, and due to the fact that he is the Final Boss of the first arc, many FGO Content Creators often replay his boss quest far more than the other 6th Anniversary Memorial Quests, and thus he joins the ranks of other people that were "bullied".
- The Greek god Poseidon also falls into this. Despite being a bona fide god (which in the Nasuverse is usually a pretty big deal), he is mostly known for somehow managing to lose to Francis Drake. And his Lostbelt version encountered in Atlantis doesn't help: he's the final obstacle encountered before the heroes reach Olympus, but is defeated in direct combat with only token assistance from the local Lostbelt Servants. Normally, defeating a god would require lots of planning, lots of sacrifice, and maybe a couple of Deus ex Machina events, but he just... goes down in straight combat. The in-story explanation is that he was essentially brain-dead due to past trauma and had in an earlier offscreen fight been dealt a crippling blow (by Francis Drake again), so what the heroes fought was a broken husk of Poseidon, but many fans still found the battle underwhelming for an encounter with a god... especially one of the Twelve Olympians.
- U-Olga Marie is probably the all-time champion, considering how absolutely nothing goes her way. She probably deserves an entire page of her own dedicated to this trope. Upon first manifesting, she gets punted out of the Tree of Emptiness by Kirschtaria (who is already a Memetic Loser), then she attacks the Wandering Sea and later the Storm Border where ORT-Kukulkan lays the smack-down on her. By this point, she has a grand total of zero onscreen kills. Then Tezcatlipoca rips her heart out, removing her memories and weakening her to the point where she gets repeatedly humiliated by so many different characters that she should have no trouble in obliterating with a single disdainful attack. She's hopelessly terrified of lizards and has a full-blown meltdown the first time she encounters a dinosaur. She insists that she absolutely smashed 7 Grand Servants at once in a battle, except it was seemingly All Just a Dream. Her heart gets used to summon ORT, who reduces her to a Damsel in Distress for Wak-Chan to save at the cost of his own life. Then her final attack on ORT disintegrates herself while ORT summons itself as a Grand Foreigner and keeps on trucking until Kukulkan gets the final Heroic Sacrifice which actually finishes it off. Then it's revealed Olga was an unwitting Body Double for CHALDEAS all along. Many of her Apostles knew this, yet she didn't, so essentially her own supposed minions were pulling her strings this whole time, leaving her with virtually no agency of her own. Finally, the process to recover her Saint Graph could potentially turn her into "a defective and soulless shell of her former self" and she would be put to "cruel use" by the unknown Count, not even having control over her own body or possibly being used as a vessel for CHALDEAS or its power at least. Couple all of this with her silly appearance and oddball behavior and a huge chunk of the fanbase - due to the story's portrayal, not simply their own views - now see her as an utter joke who is really only an adorable Tsundere and a leader wannabe who the universe loves to grind into the dirt. Oh, and she doesn't even get dignified with a unique boss theme compared to all the previous antagonists that she was built up as being superior to, many of whom actually do receive unique themes. Will the humiliations never cease for this woman?! The universe probably reads Learning with Manga! FGO and decided that it could do better on her. You just know that hers is a sad existence when her Elemental variants are treated by the story as more badass and serious threats than she ever was, and they're technically just soulless fragments of her Saint Graph given physical form! Plus, at least they have a unique theme!
