Actually the light novels do get better about this kind of stuff latter on. But your mostly right the anime does sorta suck but the light novels are better and come up with a answer to most of your complients. Its still not that good though but it gets better
I would agree, but say that you should watch it/read it if you like Fate/Stay Night just for the background needed for "Hill of Swords" (very very good crossover fanfic).
(Site isn't letting me create a comment so I'll just edit this one. It's blank anyhow) As a review for the first season, I will agree with you it's full of cliches. But one interesting aspect of the series is that technology from our world are seen as magical artifacts or even creatures. But otherwise yeah, things to don't much better until later, and light novels do it better.
Also Saito is so blindly loyal, and I'm not entirely sure but, it's because he made a pact with Louise and as belligerent as he is towards her at first, he's more or less being conditioned to be loyal to her via the pact.
Yup, he's brainwashed by magic to be loyal because that's part of the summoning spell (why else would a dragon or a salamander listen to a little girl?). That doesn't become a plot point for a very long time though, and is dealt with rather poorly, so it feels more like a Ret Con than anything.
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Anime first season: Pandering to the extreme
I started this series mostly because it came across as really cliche fantasy fluff with creepy fetishistic undertones. It lived up to my expectations, but it's a shame it does nothing more than that.
You could practically have a ticker on the corner of the screen for every cliche that comes up. Louise is introduced as an incompetent failure of a mage. Will she turn out to have some hidden reserve of great power? Of course. Will she turn out to have feelings for her "servant" in spite of abusing him both physically and mentally? You bet. Will Saito ever get home? Don't get your hopes up.
Beyond its formulaic nature, the series just doesn't work. Characters are cardboard cutouts defined by their role in the story. There's the large breasted romantic rival who exists for fanservice, the emotionally withdrawn genius girl, the handsome lech and his clingy girlfriend, the perverted old headmaster, and so on. If you feel like you've seen everybody before, it's because you have.
Even the only two characters with any real definition seem to be slaves to the plot rather than organic beings. Saito's supposed loyalty is completely unconvincing, inconsistent, and just gets dropped in without any real development. It takes all of a single day and barely any resistance before he starts following orders. It doesn't feel like his thought process so much as the writers realizing their intended path wouldn't work if he remained belligerent. It's not quite as bad as the completely obvious and horribly clunky tsundere archetype that Louise embodies.
Underneath the thick layers of fanservice (with an obsession over lingerie, apparently), the plot is pretty cut and dry. You have your usual high school antics along with some class struggle and a war between nations. Yawn. It gets boring even at a paltry 13 episodes. It doesn't help that this series also has some of the lamest villains ever, but even the best antagonists wouldn't make the plot any better. More interesting are the comparisons between our world and fantasy land, but the series never really explores it very well nor uses it as anything more than a plot device.
Ultimately, the series is just your usual mass produced fluff. If all you want is fanservice and familiar fantasy fluff, this is the one for you. Otherwise, take a pass.