Rescued From The Scrappy Heap / Fate/Grand Order

Hated characters from the Fate/Grand Order game who've subsequently been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. This includes characters who were hated due to play balance (High-Tier Scrappy or Low-Tier Letdown) as well as those who were unintentionally hated for narrative reasons (The Scrappy and its related tropes).

A No Recent Examples rule applies to this trope. This is measured from the point when the character was introduced or became hated.

• Examples that were a High-Tier Scrappy or Low-Tier Letdown due to gameplay issues shouldn't be added for 1 month.
• All other examples (e.g. characters who were The Scrappy or related tropes such as Ethnic Scrappy or Damsel Scrappy) shouldn't be added for 9 months.

Several Servants who were considered bad (whether from a gameplay standpoint or a character standpoint) were eventually redeemed in the fans' eyes.

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Bad on release, but later buffed

• Altria Pendragon was long considered the worst SSR Saber despite being the poster girl of the franchise. She was the first SSR character, and for a while (on JP) her main distinguishing feature was being the only character with three skills (instead of two). USA launched with more SSR characters, established three skills as the norm for SSR characters, and Altria was outclassed as a SSR Buster AoE Saber in stats and skills by Altera; and even by her SR counterpart Altria Alter, who exchanged insignificantly worse stats for a significantly better Noble Phantasm. As time went on and FGO found its footing, Altria's kit aged terribly — she was one of the dishonorable few with Intuition, one of the most milquetoast skills in the game — and bizarrely did not receive any buffing Rank Up Quests even as her other peers were being updated. Then finally, with the Third Anniversary Altria received her first Rank Up Quest (binning Intuition and gaining a 30% charge skill, vastly improving her viability as a farming unit); then with the Fifth Anniversary she received her second Rank Up Quest (upgrading her Mana Burst skill to change all of her cards into Buster Cards for one turn). The combination of these two Rank Up Quests transformed Altria into an incredibly powerful, consistent, and self-sufficient AoE damage dealer, as she could now use a Buster-Brave Chain with her NP on demand.
• Initially, Waver's buffs were ineffectual and his NP merely reduced enemies' NP gauge and Cursed them. This is what led to such a negative reception and his incredibly large update to upgrade all his skills and NP. Now he's considered one of the game's best Servants and is highly sought after by many players for his sheer utility.
• EMIYA was a very undertuned and confused Servant on release: he has an Arts-focused skillset and Command Card deck, but his Noble Phantasm uses a Buster card. This made him a poor wave farmer despite his multi-hit AOE NP, because Buster cards have no natural NP refund, he didn't have enough Buster cards in his deck to form Buster Chains by himself, and he lacked any skills to increase the damage of his NP. EMIYA later received a number of buffs that increased the base damage of his Noble Phantasm, made his third skill buff all his cards instead of just his Arts, added a Critical Strength buff to his Critical Star Drop Rate buff, and eventually let him change the type of his Noble Phantasm card to Arts for a turn or keep it as Buster. If you change his NP to Arts, he can even regain enough NP gauge that he can immediately use it the next turn! These buffs enabled him to fulfill his intended design as a jack-of-all-trades, and he's now considered one of the best Servants to start the game with.
• Siegfried is a strange Saber who is introduced in Orleans and clearly intended as an anti-Dragon specialist (to be used against the tremendous number of Dragon enemies in Orleans). The problem is that all Dragon enemies are Riders. The offensive/defensive boosts against Dragons gained from Siegfried's skills and Noble Phantasm were less powerful and reliable than simply fielding an Assassin and relying on the Class Triangle. In addition, his AoE Noble Phantasm was a poor match against Giant Dragons, which tended to be solo waves. Siegfried later received three Rank Up Quests to massively buff his kit, boosting the strength of his attack buffs, Noble Phantasm damage, and NP gain. This helped to fulfill his intended design as a consistent all-rounder who excelled in particular against Dragons.
• Stheno initially only had Alluring Voice and Bloodsucking/Vampirism^note (reduction of an enemy's NP bar to fill her NP gauge), and was one of the few 4* Servants with only two skills. Her Rank Up Quest gave her a third skill that boosts ATK (up to a 40% multiplier) with a bonus attack buff to any Servant with Divinity. Considering how most Divine Servants (eg: Heracles, Gilgamesh, Quetzalcoatl, and Raikou) are some of the most potent damage dealers in the game, she's considered rather useful to help them dish out even more damage. Even a Gorgon Sisters party with her, Medusa, and Euryale is somewhat viable (and was made even moreso once Medusa got a couple of alternate versions, one of which is a rare Class). Her Noble Phantasm also got an upgrade, giving it blanket buff removal, making Stheno a viable — though gimmicky — support.
• Arash used to be derided as one of the worst Servants in the game due to his bad skills, low stats, and self-destruct NP. However, his Interlude increased the damage of his Noble Phantasm enough (1200% damage even with low stats is no joke) that he actually became one of the most popular farming Servants in the game. There were six reasons for his massive popularity: he is easy to acquire and max out (he's available on the Friend Point banner and his max level is low due to his rarity); he is easy to use (he has exactly one trick: press the Noble Phantasm button); his NP deals enough damage to reliably clear every single Daily Quest (except against Lancer enemies); his self-destruct NP is a perfect setup to introduce the first member of your backline into the frontline without needing Order Change; the inherent memeability of his NP ("STELLA!!!"); and finally, Arash's Noble Phantasm has one of the shortest NP animations in the game, which saves valuable seconds when you're farming the same content over and over.
  • Arash later received a Rank Up Quest which gave him a 20% NP gauge charge at Lv.1 (30% at Lv.10): this increased his universality and self-sufficiency in farming comps even further, as he could now use his Noble Phantasm on Turn 1 (by equipping Kaleidoscope) without requiring a Mystic Code skill or another Servant to give him the final 20% gauge needed. And by maxing the Mana Loading append skill, you can now have Arash start with 20% NP gauge, allowing you to equip him with 50% NP charge CE's right off the bat.
• Mash is a complicated example. She's the starting Servant and is supposed to slowly grow stronger as the story progresses. However with the long gap between chapter releases and level cap, Mash was almost fated to fall behind everyone else. By the London update, she had unlocked all her skills and the 6 Million Downloads Campaign had raised her level cap, making her a decent tank, but she was still outstripped by other Servants because of her low stats. But with the Camelot chapter came a slew of new buffs, including another level cap raise and an upgrade to her rarity, giving her an extra boost in stats, a buff to her first skill which includes a huge, one-time damage cut, and most importantly, an upgrade to her Noble Phantasm that lets it give a very powerful attack buff to her other party members.
• Astolfo (Rider) was severely undertuned on release, as he had the unfortunate timing of being released when Quick Servants were in meta (due to premier Quick Servants such as Jack The Ripper and Okita Sōji being able to generate so many Critical Stars they could reliably out-perform all of their peers in damage and generating NP gauge). The developers tried to avoid adding fuel to the Quick meta, and as a result, Astolfo's NP Generation Rate and Star Generation Rate stats were incredibly low for his rarity and not sufficiently compensated by his skills; thus making him a Quick Servant who struggled to generate Stars or use his Noble Phantasm. He later received a Rank Up Quest that gave him an extremely rare +50% NP Gauge boost, turning him into a consistent and powerful wave farmer.
• Paracelsus was once considered to be a Master of None Caster who was rarely used due to his long cooldowns and having no unique niche aside from being able to apply Guts to a target party member with his third skill. He then received a Rank Up Quest which buffed his third skill so that it also granted the target party member up to +50%(!!!) NP generation at max rank. Combined with his second skill (which improved Arts performance for the whole party) and his ease of availability compared to higher-rarity characters, this turned Paracelsus into one of the most popular supports to enable NP looping for Arts characters: a farming strategy where a character (in this case, with an Arts NP) regains so much NP gauge from using their Noble Phantasm that they can immediately use their NP next turn. His effectiveness does diminish over time due to Power Creep and more Servants having more ways to enable looping, but for those lacking premier Arts looping enablers such as Nero Bride and Altria Caster, Paracelsus remains a solid choice.
• Karna was also considered a mediocre SSR unit. When 2nd Anniversary came, he received a NP upgrade, which increases the multiplier and adds an unique debuff of Buster resistance reduction. This means that after NP, Karna can burst a surviving enemy with hilariously high critical damage boosted by his third skill and the debuff, so he can even be used in Challenge Quests!
• Arthur Pendragon, Altria's male counterpart, also suffered from having the terrible Instinct skill, until an Interlude buffed it to grant him up to 30 stars, as well as boost his critical damage by 50%, letting him dish out some pretty powerful critical hits on demand!
• Mysterious Heroine X was always a decent Quick-based beatstick, hampered by the weaknesses of the Quick meta and an atrocious skillset for many, many years. However, after years of extensive upgrades, including upgrading her Instinct skill to also grant a turn of invulnerability, attaching an immediate, three-turn Defense down debuff to her timed Stun skill, and adding a flat attack boost to her anti-Saber skill, she is now considered effective and useful, and can outdamage some of her competitors, even if she's still not necessarily top-tier. It should be telling that she was so far into the scrappy heap due to her skills that she was the first Servant to receive an upgrade to all three of her skills and her Noble Phantasm.
• Yu Mei-ren was beloved by the fanbase for her role in the story, which is why it pained many that she was held back by her NP removing her buffs, almost requiring her to be with a servant that would protect her from removing her own buffs, which made using her effectively very awkward. Come her strengthening quest, which extends her buff removal resistance from one turn to three turns while also giving her a respectable attack buff, and she's now considered to be a very formidable AoE Assassin whose strengths outweigh her weaknesses.
• Mata Hari was basically overshadowed by every other assassin in the game, with a weak NP that various others can do better with such as Euryale and other supports, not to mention how she's basically a Joke Character both in-universe and out. However, two of her strengthening quests gave hope to her: Her first Strengthening quest gave her third skill which contained a guaranteed Skill Seal, making her situational, and her second Strengthening quest basically gave her an absurd Crit Star gen rate increase alongside a massive Crit Damage up buff. Suddenly, she found a great niche around cheap critical hit-based teams.
• Anne Bonny & Mary Read had skills that did nothing to help their Desperation Attack playstyle, which was heavily jarring when their swimsuit variant could do that much better. A later Strengthening Quest later not only provided them a Guts Buff to their first skill, but a taunt buff as well alongside increased NP generation rate, meaning that they can properly perform their playstyle well.
• Miyu Edelfelt was heavily hyped due to her importance to Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA, so it was a major disappointment to see her kit being a complete utter mess, with skills suggesting her prowess as a solo-offense based Caster, yet having a wonky NP that has demerits who outweigh their positives, combined with the fact that other servants perform much better than her. Her Strengthening quest not only removes the HP demerit, but also replaces it with an ATK buff, making her far more usable than ever before, and is seen as a decent support Caster, with her rarity being the only drawback.
• Gawain was generally considered one of the weakest 4* Sabers in his class, with a number of weak skills, one of the best of which needed a specific field type, Day, to work at full effectiveness or scale at all. Then, a Rank Up saw his weak Charisma E skill changed to Nightless Charisma B, not only dramatically increasing the attack buff he grants the party but granting the field the Sun property for a turn to let him gain the scaling benefits of his Numeral of the Saint skill. In one fell swoop, this skill fixed much of what was wrong with Gawain, allowing him to brawl with the best of his competition, and allows Gawain to serve as a semi-support for characters who need the Sun property, such as Ozymandias or Tam Lin Gawain.
• For a long time after his release Amakusa's damage wasn't as good as other Servants with AOE Buster Noble Phantasms. His first buff gives his God's Resolution skill a buff to his Buster cards which helps his damage. He received his second buff when the "Inheritance of Glory" Rerun happened, which changes Revelation skill so that it increases one of his ally's NP generation rate for three turns, as well as increasing the number of Crit Stars produced to a maximum of 10. And his third buff that came with the White Day 2021 event gave him a 20% NP Charge (making it more easier to spam his NP), and decreases the enemy's buster resistance (in other words, increase the party's buster damage for those specific enemies).
• Fionn mac Cumhaill was terrible on release, with average stats, awful skills, and a confused kit: he's a farming AoE Lancer with only one attack buff, a Crit Rate Drop boost (but no Crit Damage or Star Gather skills to take advantage of it), and a "Target Focus + Evasion" skill but the Evasion only triggers 60% of the time (a demerit which no other Evasion skill in the game has). His only distinction was being one of the only Lancers (at the time) with an Arts Noble Phantasm. He later received a number of buffs that removed the main weaknesses in his skills and granted him a 30% NP charge. Combined with the rise of the Arts Looping meta and premier looping supports such as Tamamo, Paracelsus, and Altria Caster, Fionn became a solid choice for a Lancer looper.
• Demon King Nobunaga was a serious disappointment on release. Despite a sky-high attack stat with a Gorilla deck their damage potential was quite low due to their skills lacking cohesion. Their Avenger class' low star weight kept their burst damage low and their fragility (despite an invincibility buff) meant they were too fragile for longer fights. Thus began years worth of buffs and rebalancing. The first was buffing "As if it Was a Dream" to allow greater damage against enemies with the Heaven attribute, enhancing Nobunaga's niche as a killer of Divine enemies. Yamataikoku brought on Nobukatsu whose entire kit was meant to be a support unit for all the Nobunaga units, Demon King Nobunaga especially. Koyanskaya of Light's reworking of the Buster meta was a huge boon for them, but the clincher was the buff to "Demon King of the Sixth Heaven." While the Buster performance increase was welcome, the increase of the NP charge entered Demon King Nobunaga into the coveted realm of a Buster Looping Servant. With their neutral damage against most enemies (except Moon Cancers, which are so rare it's basically irrelevant) and how common Divine attribute enemies are, Demon King Nobunaga went from the weakest Avenger to a premier wave clearer and god killer overnight, rivaling even Space Ishtar with the proper support. With the standard Buster Loop setup in particular Demon King Nobunaga has the absurd benefit of being able to double buff themselves, leading to an absurd damage ceiling.

Bad on release, massively buffed by the Looping meta

• The Quick meta as a whole was revived from the grave in the wake of the Merlin and Buster-oriented meta, with the release of Scathach-Skadi during the third anniversary. The reason: Scathach-Skadi's skills (a +50% NP gauge charge, and a +50% Quick card effectiveness boost) enabled looping for certain Quick Servants, wherein they regained so much NP gauge from using their Noble Phantasms and Scathach-Skadi's charge that they could use their Noble Phantasm every round. This was a massive buff to Servants who had Quick AoE Noble Phantasms with high hit counts (such as Edmond Dantes, Atalante, and Valkyrie), and a team of one Quick Servant and two Scathach-Skadis (one owned, one recruited from Friend lists) allowed for consistent three-turn clears of three-wave battles, which is most of the grind/farming content in the game.
  • In particular, these buffs greatly benefited Dantes. Dantes as a servant has always been sub-par, with a focus on Quick cards making consistent performance with him difficult. Compared to the other Avengers (except Angra) Edmond's kit was all over the place. While this made him a great servant for solo'ing since his kit covers a wide variety of areas and his crit stars will feed back into himself, allowing him to charge his NP startlingly fast, it ultimately caused him to fall behind the more specialized Avengers like Jeanne Alter and Gorgon. Now, Dantes is a terrifyingly strong servant, able to more consistently deal damage and provide stars for his team as well as dish out a very strong AOE NP quite quickly (especially with his Rank Up Quest for his Noble Phantasm, which makes him even viable in challenge quests that involve a Boss Rush setup).
  • Similarly, Berserker Lancelot was considered very average for a Quick based AoE Berserker since his kit is considered subpar or average for an AoE Berserker. Not to mention, he was completely outclassed by Raikou, who does the same job as an AoE Berserker, but with more consistent NP charging due to her having 2 Arts cards and having a more consistent Critical Hit Class kit. With the introduction to Skadi, Berserker Lancelot becomes one of the most fearsome AoE Berserkers in the game, and if the player manages to get a team of two Skadis to support him, his kit becomes incredibly overloaded, allowing him to be just as good as, if not even better, than Raikou, thanks to the increased NP refund he gets from the Quick boosts, potentially allowing him to use his NP again the next 2 turns, making farming all kind of nodes a breeze.
  • Mysterious Heroine X (Alter) was considered to be a rather mediocre SSR Berserker on release as she had relatively low attack, a Quick-centered card set without the star generation for it, and very weak skills that did little for herself or others. During the Second Anniversary, however, the infamously terrible Instinct was replaced with a Quick buff that also happens to generate more stars than her old skill did. And with the advent of Scathach-Skadi, she became an incredibly powerful alternative to the more Buster-oriented Berserkers, with her fairly good NP gain potentially giving her enough gauge to reuse her NP again the next turn.

Bad on release, massively buffed by another Servant

• Boudica is the Siegfried of the Septem chapter: an anti-Roman specialist who is clearly supposed to be used against the legions of Romans in Septem. Unfortunately, even with numerous Rank Up quests to move her into more of a budget "support tank" role, she struggled to justify her deployment because there were simply too few "Roman" enemies outside of Septem. That is, until the release of Romulus-Quirinus, a 5-star Servant whose unique gimmick involves applying the "Roman" trait onto all enemies! With Boudica able to apply a party-wide buff that increases damage to Roman enemies by up to 60%, she became a fantastic choice for Romulus-Quirinus parties.

Fell behind due to Power Creep, and later buffed

• Palingenesis in general allows you to increase the level cap of Servants, effectively removing the main power limiter between low and high rarity Servants. Low-rarity Servants will generally end up with slightly lower stats than high-rarity Servants of the same level, but not to a point where they can't compete in high-level content. The most popular low-level candidates for Palingenesis include Arash (for his uniquely outstanding AoE Noble Phantasm), Lancer Cú Chulainn (one of the best "last Servant standing" Servants in the game), and Robin Hood (for the absurdly powerful single-target burst on his Noble Phantasm, which scales tremendously with stats/levels).
• Berserker Vlad's Transformation skill was turned into Legend of Dracula - Succession of Fresh Blood, increasing the value of his defense buff and adding a new attack buff on top of that. If he was usable when teamed up with Tamamo-no-Mae, his utility when teamed up with her increased exponentially. Later on during the "Inheritance of Glory" Rerun his Battle Continuation A would get a strengthening quest into Fearsome Immortal A+, granting him a second layer to his guts, and an extra 20-30% NP generation that lasts for three turns, making him even better at spamming his Noble Phantasm and surviving fights.
• Ruler Jeanne d'Arc unfortunately fell behind the power curve after the release of Merlin, whose on-demand party Invincibility skill (along with peerless Buster support) blew Jeanne's Noble Phantasm (party-wide invincibility, but tied to her NP gauge and with a two-turn self-stun) out of the water. She received a NP upgrade in 2017 that removed the self-stun and added a party-wide debuff cleanse, once again making her NP so uniquely outstanding that she regained her title as the best Ruler in the game. She has since fallen behind as a defensive support with the release of more varied and powerful Rulers, and more enemies having ways to pierce Invincibility; the release of Altria Caster was especially devastating, as it took Jeanne's niche and hypercharged it into the Anti-Enforcement Defense buff (aka Super Invincibility). However, Jeanne is still a mainstay in Challenge Quest stall comps: in particular, a combination of Ruler Jeanne and either Merlin or Altria Caster is practically immortal.
• Medb's Charisma was buffed tremendously. It was changed to Queen's Admonition, giving a bonus ATK buff to male Servants on the field and also healing herself. Later, her Siren Song was upgraded to My Red Mead: My Dear Honey Alcohol, which lowers the enemy's defense. She's considered a solid support Rider, especially in male-focused teams, and when fighting male bosses.
• Osakabehime got both a 30% Buster buff and doubled the Max Health bonus from her NP during the 2017 Halloween rerun, which while not exactly fixing her problems, has made her into a niche Quick medic, especially considering that Scathach-Skadi doesn't have any Healing skills or any defensive options other than the Evasion from her NP. Her Shapeshift was letter buffed to provide a party-wide crit star damage buff as well, meaning that while she still isn't really a good unit, she's considered a fairly decent Assassin support now because of these factors.
• Caster Gilgamesh got a 50% battery that also charges his teammates' NP gauges by 20% while still increasing the Star Generation of the party by 100% for three turns.

Intuition/Throwing (Dagger)

• Intuition was a Skill shared by many Saberfaces and similar Servants, and gained a reputation as being one of the most milquetoast skills in the game. Throwing (Dagger) was a similar skill originally possessed by Hassan of the Cursed Arm and Hassan of the Serenity, however the original version is actually worse, because it only produces at maximum of 12 Critical Stars, regardless of the letter at the end of the skill's name. On the surface, "gain Critical Stars on demand" might not seem bad, but the amount gained was far too few (5-15 stars in most cases) to justify an entire skill with no other effects, and was often added to Servants that didn't have any other tools to support or take advantage of a Critical-based play-style. Following the Second Anniversary, Rank Up Quests started rolling out that upgraded or entirely binned Intuition, replacing it with more interesting or tailored skills:
  • Mysterious Heroine X Alter had a Quick buff on top of the skill's regular effects.
  • Mysterious Heroine X had a one-turn invincibility added.
  • Saber Artoria had her Intuition upgraded to Road to Victory, which generates up to 30% NP charge alongside its previous effect on a 5 turn cooldown.
  • Arthur Pendragon received a buff that doubles the number of Critical Stars produced and increases his critical damage.
  • Artoria Saber Alter received a buff that increased the number of Critical Stars produced (to a maximum of 20) and also charged her NP Gauge by a flat 20%.
  • Mordred got a buff that increased the number of Critical Stars produced (to a maximum of 15), increased the critical star absorption of her Buster Cards for 1 turn, and increased her critical damage.
  • Hassan of the Cursed Arm's Throwing (Dagger) skill was upgraded so that it produces a maximum of 15 Critical Stars on the turn that it is activated and then automatically does the same thing one turn later.
  • Hassan of the Serenity's Throwing (Dagger) skill was upgraded so that it produces a maximum of 15 Critical Stars and then applies the Toxic status effect to the targeted enemy, which increases the damage that an enemy will take from the Poison ailment by 100% for 5 turns.
  • Artoria Pendragon (Santa Alter) was a somewhat underwhelming welfare Rider when she was released in December 2015 on the Japanese server, but in early February 2024, she received a buff to her second skill that increases the maximum number number of Critical Stars produced from 15 to 20, as well as charging the NP Gauges of all Servants currently on the screen by 10%, overcharging the Noble Phantasms of all Servants currently on the screen by 1 stage for 3 turns, and increasing the critical damage of all Servants currently on the screen by 10-20% for 3 turns. This buff is especially notable because the old version of this skill was previously the only skill that produced Critical Stars with no secondary effect.

Characterization

• In light of the SE.RA.PH event, many fans expressed their respect and sympathy to EMIYA (Alter) - despite his much derided design - after the story told his tragic past. The NA release of Epic of Remnant also gave EMIYA Alter a simple visual redesign that made him look a lot more like an altered EMIYA than before.
• If a character in their original run didn't leave a good impression to the fans, being heavily featured in a scenario (especially those written by Nasu) can help increase their reception. Some examples include:
  • Gilgamesh was not thoroughly hated, but his antagonism, gigantic ego and straying very far from his more known legend where he changed for better after meeting Enkidu, made him some sort of a creepy pseudo-Hate Sink thanks to his rape innuendos with Altria and being an utter asshole, with his sole saving grace being ridiculously overpowered and embodying Evil Is Cool. While further Fate media did help in rounding up his personality (Zero, Extra CCC, Carnival Phantasm, strange fake), this game is what completes it with the presence of Caster Gilgamesh, who proves himself as a wise king while still retaining his old arrogance, but toned down with none of his ultimately questionable acts. In the Babylonia Singularity, he temporarily appeared as his old Archer form... but with the experience and maturity of his Caster self. It was considered awesome and the pinnacle of Gilgamesh's evolution throughout the series, washing away old memories when Gilgamesh was nothing more than an entitled overpowered asshole.
  • Hassan of the Cursed Arm, who was previously often thought to be the least liked Servant in Stay Night due to only appearing in one route, killing off several fan favorite Servants despite weak stats and being the Servant of Zouken Matou. Him introducing the now-defunct rule of 'all Assassins must come from the Hassan-i-Sabbah group' was a turn-off for those looking for flexibility of the Assassin class during his time. The Camelot Singularity greatly fleshed out his character, revealing his more honorable side, and as a result, he gained his own following; this, along with the introduction of First Hassan at the same time, also lightened people about the Hassans as a group overall.
  • The same can be said of his fellow assassin, Hassan of the Hundred Personas, who previously existed as merely Cannon Fodder to show off the awesomeness of Iskandar and making sure their Master, Kirei Kotomine, could begin his Start of Darkness by contacting with Gilgamesh a lot more. After Camelot gave her prominence, Hundred Personas started receiving a lot of following on her own (and it also helps that her 'main face' is the ponytailed muscular woman).
  • Gawain wasn't well liked for being a dick to most of the characters back in Fate/Extra as well as how he lacked much Hidden Depths like many of the other Knights of the Round Table had in their works. Here, he was given more time to be fleshed out and now he's more well liked for being a lot kinder and chivalrous to both the player and other servants.
  • Passionlip used to be hated by the community due to her over the top design in combination with her both a Yandere and an Extreme Doormat towards the player character. The CCC event greatly improved fans perception of the character by making her experience Character Development, and altering her design a bit to be more modest. Both of these helped her stand out and be more likable, thus earning her a lot of love from fans.
  • Amakusa's role in the Christmas 2016 event storyline increased his stock in the eyes of the fanbase substantially. Given that he acted like a Tuxedo Kamen wannabe, complete with rose-hilted Black Keys and incredible theatricality, all for the sake of helping an innocent little girl get to the sea and fulfill a deep, unrealized wish, so that she wouldn't disappear in a Puff of Logic, it's not too surprising. Even people who disliked him in Apocrypha have gained new respect for the man. And when his Rank Up Quest was introduced, he became the MVP of several Challenge Quests due to its new effect of removing buffs before dealing damage. Additionally, most people agreed that he's written more competently here than in his home light novel. Since Amakusa's appearance in FGO was long before the Apocrypha anime aired, fans warmed up enough to him thanks to this game that they were more looking forward to his appearance in the anime.
  • Avicebron, who was the least popular Servant to come out of Apocrypha, became a far more fun and interesting character in the First Lostbelt. This was due to him being nothing but helpful towards the protagonist, from repairing the damaged Shadow Border, to playing Double Agent to get information on Ivan and Kadoc, to sacrificing himself by using himself as the core to Adam so that the protagonist can engage in a Kaiju fight with Ivan's Divine Beast Mount as atonement for betraying Roche and using him as Adam's core.
  • Sieg is much more universally liked due to being Older and Wiser after having been through Apocrypha, while retaining some of his more Adorkable traits even as a gigantic dragon. While his light novel self is still a Base-Breaking Character, most players can agree that he's improved in Grand Order.
  • Tokiomi Tohsaka was largely viewed as being Unintentionally Unsympathetic thanks to the anime adaptation leaving out the real reason behind Tokiomi giving up Sakura to the Matou family, and the fact that he's fine with the idea of his daughters fighting against each other in the Grail War. However, comes to "Saber Wars II", he's much more well-liked due to his Alternate Self being a good parent to Space Ishtar, and purposely taking steps to raise the literal evil half of Astoreth Origin, and successfully making her less evil.
• The Caster of Nightless City (Scheherazade) was widely disliked upon release for her petty motives for her role in her Singularity, misunderstanding of a beloved character's Heroic Sacrifice, and often one-note thanatophobic characterization. Years of Character Development have fans appreciating her and her growth more and more over time, from befriending Nitocris, to revisiting the protagonist's old adventures and gaining new appreciation for Solomon/Roman's sacrifice and her own role as an heroic spirit, and finally culminating in the Tokugawa Labyrinth, where she willingly risks her life because letting the friends she's made die would hurt her more than dying again.
• Fellow Agartha Servant, the Amazonian Berserker of El Dorado Penthesilea was portrayed as a pretty loathsome Straw Feminist that underscored a lot of the Singularity's worst moments. Then the Halloween 2017 event popped up and portrayed her as "the Amazones CEO," and the sheer silliness of the concept turned her into the event's Breakout Character, which pretty much washed away resentment from her Agartha characterization overnight. To the point that the Amazones concept became an Ascended Meme, and its own event in 2020.
• Jason was pretty close as a Hate Sink when he debuted at first, being a high caliber Jerkass and having a ton of Adaptational Wimp treatment where nobody liked him. When he was Promoted to Playable into a 1-Star Saber, those who hated him quickly warmed up to him where he was turned into a Butt-Monkey extraordinaire, where the Argonauts he commanded had no problems in inflicting him harm as part of his attacks. In other words, his fighting style and Noble Phantasm caused a positive riot and while he's never going to be viewed as badass, he has already won the hearts of the fans.
  • It also helped that the new voice lines and flavor text introduced with his playable form shed some extra light on him as a character. He may have been an egotist, insufferable asshole, and borderline abusive toward Medea, but he did have some positive traits mixed in. He was disgusted by Medea's lack of regard for human life, honestly believed that he could make the world a better place, and speaks nothing but praise for his old crew.
  • Lostbelt 5(A) further boosts Jason's rescue attempt, where his capability jumps across the whole Atlantis and reminds everyone why he's a famous Greek hero, with his jerkass-titude toned down significantly.
• While Lostbelt 5(A) did further rescue Jason, the real rescue by the Lostbelt is none other than Orion. Beforehand, he was mostly derided for being a teddy bear plushie that hangs around Artemis and only made perverted jokes or being the victim of Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male. The Lostbelt reveals that if Artemis didn't make him a teddy bear, his true form is that of a heavily muscular superman that could give Heracles a run for his money and reveals that he's the Grand Archer. All that while still keeping his perversion in a more tolerable level and also showing his much more noble side, including his love for Artemis, and also having a humorous callback to his teddy bear self when Artemis chokes him to give him buff for his Noble Phantasm. Ironically, Artemis still tends to be more negatively received due to not getting the same amount of focus like him.
• Blackbeard was a scrappy in the west due to his Comedic Lolicon shtick being viewed as far more creepy than entertaining. Then the ServantFes summer event rolled around where Teach actually put his Otaku knowledge to good use advising the doujin circle as a friendly and supportive mentor, leading many western fans to warm up to him.
• The "Sparrow's Inn Daily Report - Records of the Enma-tei's Prosperity" event did wonders in redeeming Low-Tier Letdown, Fionn Mac Cumaill. In addition to the aforementioned Balance Buff above, the event tones down his usual role as comical relief while showing a more wise and cunning side to him, and even delves somewhat into how he acquired the Salmon of Wisdom. He becomes the de facto leader of the group, and is instrumental in the plan to save the Enma-Tei from closing. He even lampshades how his reputation with everyone has improved at the end of the event.
• While they were not really a scrappy, Caenis wasn't really popular due to their brash attitude, them threatening to kill characters being a common interaction, and their humiliating defeat in Atlantis had people think of them as a mere brute for Wodime, and nothing more. Olympus completely changed that perspective by showing them being more of a Token Evil Teammate to the heroes, showing their depths as a character, and their release gave insight into their past and why they ended up the way they did. In basically one chapter, Caenis went from a pretty disliked/memed on character, to a compelling character whose flaws made them extremely sympathetic.
• For a while, Kadoc Zemlupus had a lot of detractors who view him an Unintentionally Unsympathetic person full of Wangst due to his inferiority complex, and the fact he doesn't acknowledge how hard it took for the protagonist to solve the singularities in the first arc. Come to Lostbelt 6.5, he becomes much more well-liked by performing a Heel–Face Turn, becoming much more kinder, and when Ruler Moriarty gives him the option to take over Chaldea with the criminal mastermind, he refuses as he is tired of being a traitor.
• Ibuki-Doji was not well received for the longest time thanks to writing issues like her debut chapter quickly dropping her before she can do anything interesting, a very drastic and unexplained personality shift between what we could see of her in the story and her as a summonable servant, and an out of nowhere and poorly implemented amnesia plotline in Tsunguska Sanctuary leading to it feeling like the writers had no idea what to do with her as well as her design being seen as a lot less appealing than what her artist intended. Her summer form that debuted in Summer 7 was warmly received with some slight changes to color scheme and better clothing choices helping her designs be more appealing as well as the writing actually helping to bridge the gap with her playable and main story writing with her being the mastermind behind the event and working with her former partner Douman to make it happen.
• The Foreign God (U-Olga Marie) was a very controversial antagonist when they properly debuted at the end of Olympus, being seen as an antagonist that looks to ridiculous to take seriously despite their power and buildup with there being very little reason to care about them on a personal level outside of seemingly being the long dead Olga Marie. But when they finally got focus in Lostbelt 7, the fanbase's opinion turned for the better as due to a bout of amnesia on her end, she actually ends up being an ally for most of the chapter where her previously over the top personality becomes a lot more endearing, and it becomes clear that Olga herself was just the amnesiac avatar or vessel for the true antagonist CHALDEAS.
• Beast of Sodom/Draco was initially disliked for the Fan Disservice within her design in addition to her flat characterization. The Arcade collab, however, end up turning around many previous detractors of hers due to her being the main focus of the collab, becoming the first ever Beast-class servant, and a very cool-looking Third Ascension design. By extension, she also fixed many of the fandom's gripes about Nero, who had been one of the game's biggest Flanderization victims and left her lore underutilized until the collab.