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| 3 | %% NOTE TO EDITORS: If a link in a bullet point is not meant to be indexed (e.g. a link to AlternateContinuity), it must either: |
| 4 | %% 1) have a link to a work page preceding it in the same bullet point, even if that work doesn't have a page yet |
| 5 | %% 2) be excluded from the index tags by putting [[/index]] and [[index]] on either side of it |
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| 8 | |
| 9 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flg.png]] |
| 10 | [[caption-width-right:300:A tale of heroes, desires, and destiny [[LongRunner since 2004]].]] |
| 11 | ->''[[VisualNovel/FateStayNight The Fifth Holy Grail War]]... that is, the story of carrying one's conviction.\ |
| 12 | [[Literature/FateZero The Fourth Holy Grail War]]... that is, the story of one questioning the meaning of justice.\ |
| 13 | [[VideoGame/FateExtra The Moon's Holy Grail War]]... that is, the story of searching for oneself.\ |
| 14 | [[Literature/FateApocrypha The Great Holy Grail War]]... that is, the story of one praying towards salvation.\ |
| 15 | [[VideoGame/FateGrandOrder The Grand Order]]... that is, the story of taking back the future.\ |
| 16 | Expanding throughout time, through innumerable text... that is, the greatest heroic tale of human history.'' |
| 17 | -->-- '''"[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQwIFND99zc The Essentials of 'Fate Series']]"''' |
| 18 | |
| 19 | ''Fate'' is an UrbanFantasy action franchise, part of the greater Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} created by Nasu Kinoko and Takeuchi Takashi. Originally just a series of self-contained material, the ''Fate'' franchise very quickly eclipsed the rest of Creator/TypeMoon's works and came into its own as a standalone series. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | While concepts for the series came long before its debut in 2004 (including a literature version similar to Nasu's other works like ''Literature/TheGardenOfSinners'' and ''Literature/AngelNotes''), its first installment, ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', was released as an {{Eroge}} during Comic Market 67. Lack of official translations meant it would be relatively obscure outside Japan, if it weren't for fans translating the game and its respective 2006 anime being officially brought over. Interest in the series surged when the animated adaptation of prequel novel ''Literature/FateZero'' released in 2011, sparking a revival in interest for the original game and a wave of spinoffs and re-releases. The third surge in popularity was ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', which launched in 2015 and has pretty much made the franchise a pop culture landmark in Japan for the late [[TheNewTens New Tens]]. While official translations for its other installments still remain few and far between, the community is dedicated enough to keep up with every installment as it comes out. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | ''Fate''[='=]s claim to fame is its use of the Holy Grail War, a ritual performed by mages to create and use the titular vessel to have their [[MakeAWish greatest desire granted]], no matter how twisted it may be. Closely related to this is the Servant system, the ability to summon [[PublicDomainCharacter famous individuals from folklore and history]], who are then used as the War's combatants. Servants themselves function how {{Mons}} would in a similar series, with the prerequisite [[ElementalRockPaperScissors class advantages]], Master/Servant dynamics, and (especially in later installments) plenty of Servants to choose from. So much so, when Type-Moon did a SelfParody using ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' as the basis, the only thing that changed was that kids were the Masters and could use more than one Servant. Originally, however, the Servants were merely reflections of their Masters, while the latter group was the real meat of the story. Nowadays, the Servants are [[JustHereForGodzilla what everyone focuses on]], and the narrative importance of Master and Servant is reversed. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | Keep in mind that the franchise doesn't have a completely straight continuity; in fact, many titles are in their own ''separate'' continuity, held together by the basic concept of the Grail War, the mage system, and the Servant system. ''VideoGame/FateExtra'', for example, takes place years after the first game's Holy Grail War, but the game itself only takes inspiration from its outcome while going off into a completely different direction. Others, like ''Literature/FateApocrypha'' and ''Literature/FateRequiem'', are straight up in an alternate universe. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | !! Works in the franchise: |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 30 | |
| 31 | [[folder: Visual Novels & Video Games]] |
| 32 | [[index]] |
| 33 | * ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' (2004) - The one that started it all. Covers the Fifth Holy Grail War, and its protagonist, Shirou Emiya, as he finds himself thrust into it by accident. |
| 34 | ** ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia'' (2005) - Fandisk sequel to ''stay night'' that starts out as SliceOfLife but then turns into a mystery when a GroundhogDayLoop is involved. |
| 35 | ** ''VideoGame/CapsuleServant'' (2014) - Included as a minigame in the Platform/PlaystationVita release of ''hollow ataraxia''. Features some of the Masters and Servants in a ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''-esque tower defense game. In 2019, it got a standalone release on mobile. |
| 36 | * [[/index]]''Fate/tiger colosseum'' (2007) - FightingGame.[[index]] |
| 37 | * ''VideoGame/FateUnlimitedCodes'' (2008) - FightingGame. |
| 38 | * ''VideoGame/FateExtra'' (2010) - JRPG, takes place in an alternate universe TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, focusing on the students of Tsukumihara Academy as they fight in a digital Holy Grail War. |
| 39 | ** ''VideoGame/FateExtraCCC'' (2013) - A sequel to the first game. It essentially serves as a "third route" to the original, forking off the original game at a certain point and providing a much different experience, in a fashion very deliberately comparable to the "Heaven's Feel" route of the original ''F/SN''. |
| 40 | ** ''VideoGame/FateExtellaTheUmbralStar'' (2017) - Features a GenreShift to a ''[[VideoGame/DynastyWarriors Musou]]''-style game. |
| 41 | ** ''VideoGame/FateExtellaLink'' (2018) |
| 42 | ** ''Fate/EXTRA Record'' (TBD) - A remake of ''EXTRA'' to celebrate its tenth anniversary. |
| 43 | * ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' (2015-present) - The CrisisCrossover of the franchise, a mobile {{gacha|Games}} RPG featuring nearly[[note]]excluding most of the cast from ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'' and Saver from ''VideoGame/FateExtra''[[/note]] every Servant featured in the franchise thus far, in Chaldea's attempt to stop time anomalies from eventually destroying the world. Also largely the work that catapulted the series into true global superstardom. |
| 44 | ** ''Fate/Grand Order VR feat. Mash Kyrielight'' (2017) - A virtual reality game where the player interacts with Mash and Saber. |
| 45 | ** ''Fate/Grand Order Arcade'' (2018) - An arcade adaptation of the game with a graphical hop to 3D. |
| 46 | ** ''Fate/Grand Order Waltz in the MOONLIGHT/LOSTROOM'' (2020) - A RhythmGame adaptation. |
| 47 | * ''EverydayâȘ Today's Menu for the Emiya Family'' (2021) - Cooking game adaptation of ''Today's Menu for the Emiya Family''. |
| 48 | * ''VideoGame/FateSamuraiRemnant'' (2023) - ActionRPG that takes place in historical Japan developed by Creator/KoeiTecmo's Omega Force. |
| 49 | [[/folder]] |
| 50 | |
| 51 | [[folder: Literature]] |
| 52 | * ''Literature/FateZero'' (2006-2007) - Prequel to ''stay night'', following Shirou's adoptive father, Kiritsugu Emiya, and his exploits during the Fourth Holy Grail War. |
| 53 | * ''Literature/FateApocrypha'' (2012-2014) - Set in an alternate universe where the Great Holy Grail War takes place, which is structured as a fight between two factions rather than a free-for-all. |
| 54 | * ''Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver'' (2013-2017) - Prequel to ''Prototype'', focusing on their universe's First Holy Grail War. |
| 55 | ** ''Fate/Labyrinth'' (2015): The official crossover between ''Prototype'' and ''stay night'' as Manaka is trapped in a labyrinth with the Saber of ''Fate/stay night''. |
| 56 | * ''Literature/LordElMelloiIICaseFiles'' (2014-2019) - Sequel to ''Fate/Zero'' featuring a now grown up Waver Velvet aka Lord El-Melloi II and his sidekick Gray solving magical mysteries. |
| 57 | ** ''The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II'' (2020-present) - Sequel series focusing more on action than mysteries. |
| 58 | * ''Literature/GardenOfAvalon'' (2015) - Prequel that focuses on the original Saber's backstory. |
| 59 | * ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'' (2015-present) - Takes place about five years after ''stay night'', with a group of mages in America fighting their own imitation version of a Holy Grail War. |
| 60 | * ''Literature/FateRequiem'' (2018-present) - Takes place in the aftermath of a large war that results in everyone having a Servant with the exception of its protagonist. |
| 61 | * ''Fate/Apocrypha: Side of Survivor'' (2019) - An epilogue to ''Apocrypha'' talking about what happened to the survivors of the Grail War. |
| 62 | * ''Murder at the Kogetsukan'' and ''A Study at the Meihou Manor'' (2019) - Novelizations of ''Fate/Grand Order'''s mystery events. |
| 63 | * ''Chaldea Case Files'' (2020-present) - A ''Fate/Grand Order'' mystery anthology series. |
| 64 | * ''Literature/FateLostEinherjar'' (2022-present) - A sequel to ''Apocrypha'' about Sigurd's and Brynhild's daughter Aslaug and her husband Ragnar Lodbrok, as well as a Sub-Grail War featuring the two. |
| 65 | [[/folder]] |
| 66 | |
| 67 | [[folder: Manga]] |
| 68 | [[AC:Adaptations]] |
| 69 | * ''Fate/stay night'' (2006-2012) - An adaptation of the original visual novel's ''Fate'' route. Illustrated by Datto Nishiwaki. |
| 70 | * ''Fate/Zero'' (2010-2017) - An adaptation of the novel. Illustrated by Shinjirou. |
| 71 | * ''Fate/EXTRA'' (2011-2014) - Adaptation of the game of the same name. Illustrated by Robi-na. |
| 72 | ** ''Fate/EXTRA CCC: Foxtail'' (2013-present) - It notably incorporates several characters that were originally cut from ''CCC'' into its narrative and later begins to diverge from the game's narrative to the point of becoming an [[/index]]AlternateContinuity.[[index]] Illustrated by Seijin Takenoko. |
| 73 | ** ''Fate/EXTRA CCC'' (2015-present) - An adaptation of the game. Illustrated by Robi-na. |
| 74 | * ''Fate/hollow ataraxia'' (2013-present) - An adaptation of the fan disc. Illustrated by Medori. |
| 75 | * ''Fate/strange fake'' (2015-present) - An adaptation of the novel. Illustrated by Morii Shizuki, who also illustrates the novel. |
| 76 | * ''Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel'' (2015-present) - An adaptation of the original visual novel's ''Heaven's Feel'' route. Illustrated by Task Ohna. |
| 77 | * ''Fate/Apocrypha'' (2016-present) - An adaptation of the novel. Illustrated by Akira Ishida. |
| 78 | * ''Fate/Grand Order -mortalis:stella-'' (2017-present) - Covers Chapters 2, 4, and 6 of the game's first arc. [[/index]]{{Josei}} manga. Illustrated by Shiramine.[[index]] |
| 79 | * ''Fate/Grand Order -turas:realta-'' (2017-present) - Covers Chapters 3, 5, and 7 of the game's first arc. Shounen manga. Illustrated by Takeshi Kawaguchi. |
| 80 | * ''Lord El-Melloi II Case Files'' (2017-present) - An adaptation of the novel. Illustrated by TĆ Azuma. |
| 81 | * ''Fate/Grand Order -Epic of Remnant- Malignant Quarantined Devil's Realm Shinjuku: Shinjuku Phantom Incident'' (2019-ongoing) - Based on the first arc of ''Epic of Remnant''. Illustrated by Shonen Sasaki. |
| 82 | ** ''Fate/Grand Order -Epic of Remnant- Deep Sea Cyber-Nirvana SE.RA.PH'' (2019-present) - Based on the ''Fate/Extra CCC'' crossover arc of ''Epic of Remnant''. Illustrated by Nishide Kengoro. |
| 83 | ** ''Fate/Grand Order -Epic of Remnant- Pseudo Singularity II: Legendary Subterranean World Agartha: Women of Agartha'' (2019-2022) - Based on the second arc of ''Epic of Remnant''. Illustrated by Hideo Takanaka. |
| 84 | ** ''Fate/Grand Order -Epic of Remnant- Seven Swordsmaster Spirit Duels'' (2019-present) - Based on the third arc of ''Epic of Remnant''. Illustrated by Rei Wataru. |
| 85 | ** ''Fate/Grand Order -Epic of Remnant- Pseudo Singularity IV: Taboo Advent Salem: Heretical Salem'' (2019-present) - Based on the fourth arc of ''Epic of Remnant''. Illustrated by Aoi Ohmori. |
| 86 | * ''Webcomic/FateTypeRedline'' (2019-present) - A web manga adaptation of ''Koha-Ace GO'''s "Imperial Capital Holy Grail Strange Story" arc, though played dead serious this time around. Illustrated by Ryouji Hirano. |
| 87 | * ''Fate/Grand Order: Holy Grail Front'' (2021) - A one-shot adaptation of ''Grand Order's'' "Dance Tournament in the Land of Shadows" event. Illustrated by Mugetsu. |
| 88 | * ''Fate/Grand Order Saber Wars II ~Special Edition~'' (2021) - An adaptation of ''Grand Order's'' "Saber Wars II" event. Illustrated by Daisuke Moriyama. |
| 89 | * ''Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works'' (2021-present) - An adaptation of the original visual novel's ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route. Illustrated by Daisuke Moriyama. |
| 90 | * ''Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver'' (2023-present) - An adaptation of the novel. Illustrated by Tsuta Suzuki. |
| 91 | * ''Fate/Samurai Remnant Prologue'' (2023) - A one-shot adaptation of the game's opening. Illustrated by Mugetsu. |
| 92 | |
| 93 | [[AC:Other]] |
| 94 | * ''[[Manga/FateSchoolLife Fate/School Life]]'' (2006-present) - A comedic manga that gives the students of Homurahara Academy time to shine in the spotlight. Illustrated by Eiichirou Mashin. |
| 95 | * ''Manga/FateKaleidLinerPrismaIllya'' (2007-present) - MagicalGirl spinoff featuring Illyasviel von Einzbern as a little girl, and her quest to collect the seven Class Cards. Illustrated by Hiroshi Hiroyama. |
| 96 | * ''Fate/Prototype Tribute Phantasm'' (2012) - An anthology of partially comedic stories starring the ''Fate/Prototype'' cast, each illustrated by a different artist. |
| 97 | * ''Webcomic/LearningWithMangaFGO'' (2015-present) - A web manga all about teaching the players the basics of playing ''Grand Order''... allegedly. Illustrated by Riyo. |
| 98 | * ''Fate/mahjong night: Seihai Sensou'' (2015-present) - Yonkoma series about the servants of the Fifth Holy Grail War playing a deadly serious game of mahjong. Illustrated by Satei. |
| 99 | * [[/index]]''Sensha Otoko: A True Tank Story'' (2016) - A one-shot AU where all the characters live in a town and there are no supernatural elements. After Iskandar rescues Waver, who is {{Gender Flip}}ped into a girl, from a mugging, he falls in love with her and tries to woo her with the questionable advice of his various {{otaku}} buddies. Illustrated by Tomoya Haruno.[[index]] |
| 100 | * ''Manga/TodaysMenuForTheEmiyaFamily'' (2016-present) - A SliceOfLife spinoff focusing on the Fifth Holy Grail War participants... living peaceful lives and cooking good food. Illustrated by [=TAa=]. |
| 101 | * ''Oshiete FGO! Ijin to Shinwa no Grand Order''[[labelnote:Translation]]''Teach Us FGO! Great Men and Myths of Grand Order''[[/labelnote]] (2016-2020) - A web manga about the ''FGO'' Servants' real-world backgrounds. Illustrated by Yuu Tsurusaki. |
| 102 | * [[/index]]''Fate/Ikustella'' (2018; on hiatus) - Yonkoma spinoff of ''Fate/Extella'' set in an alternate timeline where male and female Hakuno [[FountainOfYouth have become babies]] for some reason. Illustrated by Routo Usagi.[[index]] |
| 103 | * ''Fate/Grand Order Duel: YA Tokuiten: Misshitsu YĆ«gi MakyĆ Shibuya: Shibuya KettĆ Jiken'' (2019-2020) - Based off of the ''Fate/Grand Order Duel -collection figure-'' board game. Illustrated by Eiichiro Masshin. |
| 104 | * ''Fate/Grand Order: Eirei Shokubunroku''[[labelnote:Translation]]''The Heroic Spirit Food Chronicles''[[/labelnote]] (2019; on hiatus) - A web manga featuring the ''FGO'' Servants cooking food from their native times and places. Illustrated by Makoto Tokoma. |
| 105 | * ''Fate/Grand Order: From Lostbelt'' (2019-present) - A web manga focusing on side stories about the Crypters and other Lostbelt characters. Illustrated by Nakatani. |
| 106 | * ''Fate/Grand Order: Webcomic/YouveLostRitsukaFujimaru'' (2020-present) - A web manga series about a dense Ritsuka Fujimaru in the Lostbelts. Illustrated by Tsuchida. |
| 107 | * ''Fate/Grand Order: OrdĂș Beag'' (2020) - A one-shot featuring ScĂĄthach. Illustrated by Akisato Nagi. |
| 108 | [[/folder]] |
| 109 | |
| 110 | [[folder: Anime]] |
| 111 | [[AC: Creator/StudioDeen adaptations]] |
| 112 | * ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' (2006) - Covers the ''Fate'' route of the original visual novel, with some plot points taken from the other two routes (24 episodes). |
| 113 | * [[/index]]''Fate/stay night TheMovie: Unlimited Blade Works'' (2010) - A film covering the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route of the original visual novel.[[index]] |
| 114 | |
| 115 | [[AC: Creator/{{Ufotable}} adaptations]] |
| 116 | * ''Literature/FateZero'' (2011-2012) - An adaptation of the novel (25 episodes). |
| 117 | * ''Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks'' (2014-2015) - Based off of the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route of ''stay night'' (26 episodes + OVA). |
| 118 | * ''Anime/FateStayNightHeavensFeel'' (2017-2020) - Based off of the ''Heaven's Feel'' route of ''stay night''. Made into a movie trilogy. |
| 119 | ** ''I. presage flower'' (2017) |
| 120 | ** ''II. lost butterfly'' (2019) |
| 121 | ** ''III. spring song'' (2020) |
| 122 | * ''Manga/TodaysMenuForTheEmiyaFamily'' (2018-2019) - Monthly adaptation of the manga of the same name (13 episodes). |
| 123 | * ''Fate/Grand Order: Himuro's World ~The Seven Strongest Great Figures~'' (2018): A crossover OVA between ''Grand Order'' and ''School Life''. |
| 124 | |
| 125 | [[AC:Creator/{{Lerche}} adaptations]] |
| 126 | * ''Anime/FatePrototype'' (2011) - OVA based on the original concept of ''stay night'', with a male Saber and his female Master Ayaka. Included with the third season of ''Carnival Phantasm''. |
| 127 | * ''Anime/FateGrandCarnival'' (2021) - Two OVA 'seasons' of ''Carnival Phantasm''-style comedy skits. |
| 128 | |
| 129 | [[AC:Creator/SilverLink adaptations]] |
| 130 | * ''Manga/FateKaleidLinerPrismaIllya'' (2013-2016) - An adaptation of the manga (42 episodes [4 seasons] + 2 [=OVAs=]). |
| 131 | * ''Fate/kaleid liner [=PRISMAâILLYA=]: Oath Under Snow'' (2017) - Based off of Miyu's brother's backstory. Theatrical release. |
| 132 | * ''Prisma Phantasm'' (2019) - a lighthearted OVA funded with Kickstarter. Also saw a theatrical release. |
| 133 | * ''Fate/kaleid liner [=PRISMAâILLYA=] Licht: Namae no Nai Shoujo'' (2021) - Covers the final major battle of ''3rei''. Theatrical release. |
| 134 | |
| 135 | [[AC: Creator/A1Pictures[=/=]Cloverworks adaptations]] |
| 136 | * ''Literature/FateApocrypha'' (2017) - An adaptation of the novel (25 episodes). [A1] |
| 137 | * ''Learning with Manga! FGO'' (2019) - A fifteen minute adaptation of the manga of the same name, aired as a New Year's special. [A1] |
| 138 | * ''Anime/FateGrandOrderAbsoluteDemonicFrontBabylonia'' (2019-2020) - Adaptation of the seventh chapter of ''Observer on Timeless Temple'' (21 episodes). [[=CloverWorks=]] |
| 139 | * ''Anime/FateGrandOrderFinalSingularityGrandTempleOfTimeSolomon'' (2021) - Film adaptation of the final chapter of ''Observer on Timeless Temple''. [[=CloverWorks=]] |
| 140 | * ''Literature/FateStrangeFake - Whispers of Dawn'' (2023) - Special adapting the novels' opening. [A1] |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [[AC:Other Studios]] |
| 143 | * ''Anime/FateExtraLastEncore'' (2018) - an alternate take on ''EXTRA'', following the male Hakuno Kishinami and Saber as they make their way through the Moon Cell thousands of years after his alleged death (10 episodes + two-hour finale). [Creator/StudioShaft] |
| 144 | * ''Fate/Grand Order'' adaptations: |
| 145 | [[/index]] |
| 146 | ** ''Anime/FateGrandOrderFirstOrder'' (2016) - An AdaptationDistillation OVA of the game's prologue chapter. [Lay-duce] |
| 147 | *** ''Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom'' (2017) - An epilogue OVA to the game's first arc as the cast discuss several concepts in retrospect and preview what is to come. |
| 148 | ** ''Anime/FateGrandOrderDivineRealmOfTheRoundTableCamelot'' (2020) - Adaptation of the game's sixth chapter, made into a movie duology. [Creator/ProductionIG] |
| 149 | *** ''Wandering; Agateram'' (2020) |
| 150 | *** ''Paladin; Agateram'' (2021) |
| 151 | [[index]] |
| 152 | * ''Fate/Grand Order: Ritsuka Fujimaru Doesn't Get It'' (adapted as ''You've Lost Ritsuka Mujimaru'') (2023) - A seven minute adaptation of the manga aired as a New Year's special, followed by a weekly series of shorts in 2023. [DLE] |
| 153 | * ''Lord El-Melloi II Case Files: {Rail Zeppelin} Grace Note'' (2019) - Has both an adaptation of the ''Rail Zeppelin'' storyline from the fourth and fifth novels and original stories based on the series. Had a prelude episode air as a 2019 New Year's special and a double-length Special Episode air as a 2022 New Year's special (15 episodes). [Troyca] |
| 154 | [[/folder]] |
| 155 | |
| 156 | [[folder: Live-Action]] |
| 157 | * ''Fate/Grand Order -The Stage-: Territory of the Holy Round Table - Camelot - Replica;AirgetlĂĄm'' (2017) - Musical stage adaptation of the sixth chapter of ''Observer on Timeless Temple''. |
| 158 | * ''Fate/Grand Order -The Stage-: Order VII - The Absolute Frontline in the War Against the Demonic Beasts - Babylonia'' (2019) - Musical stage adaptation of the seventh chapter of ''Observer on Timeless Temple''. |
| 159 | * ''Lord El-Melloi II Case Files -case: Castle of Separation Adra-'' (2019-2020) - Musical stage adaptation of the first novel in the series. |
| 160 | * ''Fate/Grand Order -The Stage-: -Grand Temple of Time Solomon-'' (2020) - Musical stage adaptation of the final chapter of ''Observer on Timeless Temple''. |
| 161 | [[/folder]] |
| 162 | |
| 163 | [[folder: Crossovers]] |
| 164 | * ''Manga/AllAroundTypeMoon'' (2008-present) - Comedic crossover with ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' and ''Literature/TheGardenOfSinners''. |
| 165 | * ''Anime/CarnivalPhantasm'' (2011) - Comedic crossover with fellow Nasuverse franchise ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'', comprising three OVA 'seasons'. Adapted from the manga ''Take Moon''. [Creator/{{Lerche}}] |
| 166 | * [[/index]]''Koha-Ace'' (2011-present) - Comedic manga featured in the magazine ''Type-Moon ACE'', grouping odd versions of Nasuverse characters together for fourth wall-breaking antics. Features Servant versions of [[UsefulNotes/TheShinsengumi Okita Souji]] and UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga with ''stay night'''s Rider along with other characters in the ''Fate''-verse. One arc switched the plot to a farcial take on a Holy Grail War using mostly historical Japanese figures, which later became the basis of the comedic "GUDAGUDA" event series in ''Fate/Grand Order'', and later on, ''WebComic/FateTypeRedline''. |
| 167 | * ''Type-Moon Gakuen: Chibi-Chuki!'' (2013-present) - The official HighSchoolAU of the Nasuverse, including multiple ''Fate'' characters. |
| 168 | * ''Melty Blood: Back Alley Alliance Nightmare'' (2015-2016) - Serious crossover with ''VideoGame/MeltyBlood'', also serving as its sequel manga. |
| 169 | [[/index]] |
| 170 | [[/folder]] |
| 171 | |
| 172 | ---- |
| 173 | |
| 174 | !! Tropes found across the franchise: |
| 175 | * AlchemyIsMagic: Alchemy can be used for all sorts of purposes -- most commonly, creating homunculi with magical circuits embedded in them. Other usages include brewing elixirs to increase one's capabilities and cast unique spells. |
| 176 | * AllegedLookalikes: It's noted that Artoria Pendragon and Jeanne d'Arc are extremely similar-looking, to the point that Gilles de Rais thought they had to be the same person (though he is a bit of an unreliable source on the issue), and Jeanne is often lumped in with "Saberface" characters that share Artoria's design, such as Mordred, Nero, and alternate versions of Artoria. Thing is, other than that they're both blonde women drawn by a guy notable for OnlySixFaces, the two don't actually bear that much resemblance to each other--they have different builds, different hair in color and style, different heights, different eye colors, and even their faces are noticeably different in structure. |
| 177 | * TheArtifact: |
| 178 | ** ''stay night'' emphasizes the fact that Anti-Heroes have been summoned as Servants when only good guys should be possible, which is eventually revealed to be caused by a GodOfEvil that hijacked the Fuyuki Grail. The next major installment, ''VideoGame/FateExtra'', used this to establish a ContrastingSequelSetting where all three playable Servants are Anti-Heroes. By ''Grand Order'' this stopped mattering completely, and several {{retcon}}s would clarify that the Fuyuki Grail system is specifically very constrained compared to the ancient rituals it was based on. |
| 179 | ** When the series was in its infancy, it was established that TheBerserker class's Mad Enhancement also made its user inarticulate, mindlessly violent, and unable to talk beyond grunting and growling. Understandably, past ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', this turned out to be rather inconvenient for characterization when at least one member of your cast would inevitably be mute and mindless. This was downplayed to Berserkers indeed being able to talk and show distinct personalities, typically by using their strong will to power through the Mad Enhancement, by the Mad Enhancement manifesting in a different fashion such as obsessive love or ChronicHeroSyndrome, or by the Mad Enhancement itself having a low rank (though they remained violent and impulsive). Nonetheless, earlier Berserkers like Heracles, Lancelot, and Lu Bu who were established as mute tend to still be written as such, even though they're now the exception rather than the rule. |
| 180 | ** Sasaki Kojiro is stated to be a fake, who was only allowed to become an Assassin by virtue of Medea having screwed with the system, and therefore also one of the weakest Servants around (more of a human with some magical enhancements and moderate CharlesAtlasSuperpower). At the time, this was because it was canon that only members of an actual historical assassin order could be Assassins. Understandably, this was a bit limiting, so later installments tend to treat the qualification for being an Assassin as simply "is sneaky and killed someone", with only a handful since meeting the original benchmark. But Kojiro is still regarded as a relative weakling (he's a one-star in ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', for instance, one out of only three in the Assassin class and of eleven in total), even though there now isn't much of a reason for him to be one. Ostensibly, this is because the historical record on Kojiro is vague enough that he was most likely fictional, but this is a bit of an odd place to draw the line when ''Fate'' normally takes the AllMythsAreTrue approach with Servants--for comparison, fellow canonical Assassins have included [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Doctor Jekyll]] and Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera. One storyline even featured an alternate universe involving his famous rival Miyamoto Musashi--there's a Kojiro in that universe, and he is ''exactly'' like the "fake" one. The Musashi from said storyline is playable and isn't remotely weak. |
| 181 | ** On the topic of Assassins, Hassan of the Cursed Arm has been listed as LawfulEvil since the days of the original visual novel and shows no signs of changing. In those days, it made a lot of sense, since he was mostly just a PunchClockVillain for the monstrously-cruel Zouken Matou and didn't show any redeeming qualities. But ever since then, especially when the Camelot singularity of ''Grand Order'' [[AdaptationExpansion gave him an actual backstory and personality]], he's ''never'' been a villainous character, and has consistently been shown as [[DarkIsNotEvil heroic, kind, and goodhearted.]] Nonetheless, his alignment has yet to be changed. |
| 182 | ** Jeanne d'Arc Alter, when introduced initially, was established as an EvilDoppelganger to the real Jeanne, and in gameplay, her skillset was basically [[PoorMansSubstitute "Jeanne, but worse"]] (Jeanne is a five-star [[StoneWall Ruler]], Jeanne Alter a four-star). This informed a lot of her characterization, with her having [[AlwaysSecondBest a massive inferiority complex]] and considering herself a pale shadow of the original. But when Jalter became a BreakoutCharacter and was PromotedToPlayable, the designers took note of her popularity and [[PopularityPower raised her power considerably]]--going from four-star to five-star, [[DivergentCharacterEvolution switching class from Ruler to Avenger]], being given the highest rarity, and possessing [[GlassCannon the highest offensive stats in the game]], to the point of having been a top-tier Servant at some points. Her inferiority complex now makes very little sense in gameplay terms, but it's such an important part of her character and her relationship with her "sister" that it's stuck around. |
| 183 | ** The original heroine of the franchise, Saber Artoria Pendragon, has fallen into this. She is the poster girl of the game, prominently featuring in just about every bit of promo material and even being its icon on any given app store. When the game had just launched, Artoria was still considered the "main heroine" of the franchise due to her prominence in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and ''Literature/FateZero'', so leading with her made sense, especially since ''Grand Order'' was seen as a side project then. However, ''Grand Order'' [[AdvertisedExtra largely avoided developing Artoria]] (whether out of tentativeness with handling an iconic character or out of a sense that there wasn't much to be done with her after her many prior starring roles), instead focusing on characters from ''[[Literature/FateApocrypha Apocrypha]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FateEXTRA EXTRA]]'', its own OriginalGeneration, or side characters from ''FSN'' and ''Zero.'' Ask a fan who the main or most popular heroine of ''Grand Order'' is, and Saber Artoria probably wouldn't even make the top twenty, and as ''Grand Order'' has increasingly become the franchise's cash cow, you could probably argue that those characters are more central to the franchise at this point. It's particularly funny because her iconic status has led to her getting [[OverusedCopycatCharacter tons of alternate versions]] or characters who [[OnlySixFaces share her design]], some who exist [[BetterThanABareBulb only to poke fun at the franchise's overuse of her design]], and nearly every single one of them has had more significant showings than her -- even the gag BeachEpisode variant! Nonetheless, the sheer inertia of her prior appearances means that she isn't going to be taken out of the middle of group shots anytime soon. |
| 184 | * BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Several historical figures are revealed to have possessed all kinds of non-recorded abilities to justify their might as Heroic Spirits. Other than making magecraft real, they are members of magical bloodlines, a different gender than what historians say, or half-human. If not that, they went on unrecorded adventures involving gods or magical objects that granted them special abilities or are the cause of their Noble Phantasms. |
| 185 | * CallingYourAttacks: Most Noble Phantasms must be called out in order to be used. This, along with high mana consumption, is the main reason why they are used with caution: an opponent may be able to deduce the Servant's identity through their Noble Phantasm, although some are most obvious than others. Exceptions are Noble Phantasms that are continously active, like Diarmuid Ua Duibhne's Gae Dearg and Gae Buidhe, Lancelot's Knight of Owner and For Someone's Glory, and Heracles' God Hand. Gilgamesh's ultimate weapon was NeverGivenAName until he decided to name it Ea. However, when he attacks with it, he calls the attack "Enuma Elish", presumably in homage to his best friend Enkidu, whose own ultimate Noble Phantasm is called Enuma Elish. |
| 186 | * CameBackStrong: Anyone summoned as a Servant for a Holy Grail War gains enhanced strength, speed, immunity to non-magical attacks, and special powers based on their legends that they may not have held in life. However, the Servant container has hard limits, so for big-name mythological heroes, it's a lot more common for them to come back weaker. |
| 187 | * CentralTheme: As a whole, the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} has an emphasis on the state of humanity, good and bad, and how it affects their spiritual "mother", [[MotherNature Gaia]]. If humanity is strong, humanity will try to leave their cradle, and [[MyBelovedSmother Gaia will go crazy from finding out that her kid is growing independent]]. From then, humanity will have to struggle with their utmost effort to be free, even if they have to kill their mother. If humanity is weak, Gaia with continue to baby them forever. However, her enforcers/babysitters are abusive and humanity's dependency would cause them to become no different than farm livestock said babysitters feed on. The "humanity is strong" route is the conception of the ''Fate Series''. |
| 188 | * {{Cloudcuckoolanguage}}: The Mental Pollution trait is explicitly described this way. Servants with the trait cannot be understood (or [[InsanityImmunity influenced]]) by anybody who does not [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike relate perfectly]] to their disturbed worldview. |
| 189 | * ColonCancer: Anime adaptations include the following examples: |
| 190 | ** The series ''Anime/FateGrandOrderAbsoluteDemonicFrontBabylonia''. |
| 191 | ** The movie duology ''Anime/FateGrandOrderDivineRealmOfTheRoundTableCamelot - Wandering; Agateram'' and ''Anime/FateGrandOrderDivineRealmOfTheRoundTableCamelot - Paladin; Agateram''. |
| 192 | ** The spinoff series ''Lord El-Melloi II Case Files: {Rail Zeppelin} Grace Note''. |
| 193 | * CombatClairvoyance: The franchise has this codified in several different skills that a Servant can possess: |
| 194 | ** "Mind's Eye (False)" and "Mind's Eye (True)". Those who possess either skill have the ability to predict an opponent's moves and counter them with such speed that they appear clairvoyant. The difference between the two is that the "False" variant is an inherent trait, something the Servant was born with, while the "True" variant is something the Servant learned over a lifetime of battle experience. |
| 195 | ** "Instinct/Intuition" is referred to as the innate ability to always identify "the best possible course of action" in a fight, and at sufficiently high ranks it can even be used to "predict" what actions will best serve the owner in combat. It can even be used to predict the passage of projectiles through the air and counter surprise attacks. |
| 196 | ** Gilgamesh has Sha Naqbu Imuru, which gives him all-seeing clairvoyance. Certain factors like the cursed Grail Mud can block it. Other than that, it should theoretically make him unbeatable, but he usually only uses it for mundane purposes like cheating at chess and card games. In battle, he only uses it the first time he meets an opponent to assess what they can do and then turns it off so his fights don't become boring. Even so, his incredible arrogance means that he ignores seeing possibilities where he loses, believing it is impossible for him to lose, and since he doesn't use Sha Naqbu Imuru when he meets opponents again, he can get caught off guard if they managed to improve themselves in some way. This leads to his death against Saber in the Fate route, Shirou Emiya and Archer in the Unlimited Blade Works route, and Sakura Matou and the Shadow in the Heaven's Feel route. |
| 197 | ** [[VideoGame/FateGrandOrder Xiang Yu's]] "Future Prediction" is a ramped-up version of even the previously mentioned skills because it's explicitly stated to reach beyond simply reading the battle or an opponent's moves and reacting at superhuman speeds to compensate right into the realm of precognition. |
| 198 | * CommonCrossover: Any folklore/historical series you can think of has at least one crossover with the ''Fate'' franchise considering the sheer amount of Servants a given character can be paired with. |
| 199 | * TheConstant: The series actually [[JustifiedTrope justifies]] this with the Quantum Time-Lock system put in place by [[DeusEstMachina The World]]. As a limited amount of "water" exists to sustain so many worlds without the universe effectively overloading on the sheer weight of possibilities, Quantum Time-Locks happen every once a hundred years or so to ensure that Constants exist present in all other timelines (e.g. Camelot falling). [[CuttingOffTheBranches Any other timelines that have anything different happen are purged altogether in a process known as 'pruning']]. However, while there exists several Quantum Time-Locks across human history, the ''median'' of which these timelines happen (termed as 'Proper Human History') can be extraordinarily variant to a variety of possibilities; it's just that the Quantum Time-Locks are a means of ensuring the most prosperous timelines for humanity survive, and any that have grown past the point of being able to be changed are as a result pruned. |
| 200 | * CoolVersusAwesome: The entire franchise runs on this. Seven (sometimes eight) mages summon replicas of famous heroes from history and make them fight each other. Even during the early stages when most identities are unknown and fighters are trying to keep secrets, we have such amazing moments as UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat breaking up a stand-off between Myth/KingArthur, [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh]] and a mysterious BlackKnight ([[spoiler:Sir Lancelot]]) in ''Zero''. Which eventually escalates to Gilgamesh in an Ancient Sumerian/Indian spaceship dogfighting against said BlackKnight possessing an F-15 fighter jet while ''at the same time'', Myth/KingArthur and UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat are fighting Franchise/{{Cthulhu|Mythos}}. ''Stay Night'''s various routes offer their own share of badass confrontations, often revolving around "who can stand up to Berserker ''[[Characters/ClassicalMythology Hercules]]''?" with "who can survive against ''Gilgamesh''?" afterwards. |
| 201 | * CoverBlowingSuperpower: Servants in Holy Grail Wars go to lengths to conceal their true identities, because knowing an enemy Servant's identity allows one to determine what their fighting style, strengths, and weaknesses are. This ''especially'' means Servants and their Masters must be very wise about when to use the Servant's Noble Phantasm, as [[SignatureMove the Noble Phantasm is a very defining trait of the Servant's identity]] (such as [[Myth/KingArthur Artoria's Excalibur]] and [[Myth/CelticMythology Cu Chulainn's Gae Bolg]]). |
| 202 | * CradlingYourKill: {{Defied}}. At the end of [[Myth/ArthurianLegend the Battle of Camlann]], after Arturia/Saber strikes down Saber of Red/Mordred, Mordred uses her dying breath to ask her [[ItMakesSenseInContext "father"]] to [[FinalFirstHug hug]] her. Arturia refuses, although this was because [[ToughLeaderFacade Arturia believed showing emotion was unbecoming of a proper king]] and likely feeling too guilty to embrace her own "son" that she just killed (given that in ''Literature/FateZero'', Arturia doesn't say anything while Berserker/Lancelot apologizes to her after she is forced to kill him because she didn't want to make him feel any worse) rather than Arturia hating Mordred. |
| 203 | * CrazySane: In earlier works, the Madness Enhancement trait and the Berserker class represent insanity too severe to speak and be understood. In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', many of the new Berserker or Madness Enhanced characters can speak, and seem perfectly rational except on specific topics, either a BerserkButton or a fixation. |
| 204 | * CrossoverCosmology: While most of the Heroic Spirits are historical (or at least [[LegendFadesToMyth theoretically historical]]), many of them are empowered by gods from a variety of pantheons, with no mention of any difficulties. In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', actual gods start appearing, from the Mesopotamian Ishtar and Ereshkigal to the South American Jaguar Spirit. It should be noted that the gods are far more powerful than Heroic Spirits, and have to limit themselves by borrowing the body of a human in order to participate in a Holy Grail War. |
| 205 | * DeagedInDeath: Heroic spirits, famous figures from history and legend, can be summoned as familiars called Servants. They almost always take the form they had during their "prime", generally whenever their most famous accomplishments occurred. For instance, if someone had some epic adventure in their twenties and then settled down till they died in their eighties, they'd be summoned in their twenties. |
| 206 | * {{Demonization}}: The franchise has the metaphorical demonization of [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade historical figures]] cause literal demonization with the âInnocent Monsterâ trait, with several spirits appearing as inhuman villains who may have no resemblance at all to the people they were in life because that was what public opinion imagined them to be. |
| 207 | * DependingOnTheWriter: Nero presents herself as a cheerful, [[BoisterousBruiser boisterous]], [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething battle-ready Emperor]] who [[UniversallyBelovedLeader is loved by all]] and drips with AwesomeEgo. In some appearances, this is mostly a front for her massive InferioritySuperiorityComplex, her deluded narcissism, and her guilt over her [[MyGreatestFailure complete failure]] as a ruler. In others, it's taken at face value. |
| 208 | * DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Generally {{averted}} by virtue of the Servants being {{Humanoid Abomination}}s that are not only nigh impossible for modern humans to fight and defeat but [[NoSell human weaponry will flat out not work on them]] unless magically crafted or enchanted. Some humans, such as Shirou, however, are able to put up a decent fight against a couple of Servants, if only by exploiting their weaknesses and flaws -- plus a generous serving of PlotArmor. |
| 209 | * DivineRightOfKings: The franchise deals a lot with people from different eras, so there's a lot about how divine right works in a world where divine power is very real. This is in fact among the most central themes of an episode of ''Literature/FateZero''. |
| 210 | ** [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh]] was the half-divine king of ancient Uruk, born to rule the entire world. Gilgamesh was designed before his birth to connect humanity and the gods, as the gods were already fading as humanity rose. Gilgamesh was a rather terrible person but a decent king, and he grew into a WellIntentionedExtremist who mostly kept his people safe. His treasure vault contained everything that existed at the time, and when he reappears in the modern world, due to the way magic works there is a strong argument to be made that he ''still'' owns everything. He is therefore almost always a villain whenever he appears, as he insists that it is his right to do absolutely whatever he wants, including killing off ninety percent of the population so that the survivors will be "worthy" of his rule. For him, the "divine right" is an entitlement. |
| 211 | ** UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, by contrast, argues that being king, while it comes with his being born into the elite, is something that needs to be worked for--something pursued by being the [[AwesomeEgo most ambitious, powerful, boisterous, larger-than-life character of your domain]]. Kingship for him, while facilitated by his divine attributes, is something that he has also earned by inspiring people to follow his example and his dreams. For him, the "divine right" is as much an entitlement as it is being TheParagon. |
| 212 | ** Myth/KingArthur was the prophecied king of Britain, proven by pulling Caliburn from the stone. After Caliburn was shattered, Arthur was given Excalibur, an even more powerful weapon forged by fairies from the magical heart of the world itself, thus symbolizing that the world approves of Arthur's rule. As Saber intones, therefore, kingship requires being both TheParagon and an InspirationalMartyr. |
| 213 | * DreamingOfTimesGoneBy: As established since ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', the contract between Master and Servant has side effects that both sides can see the other's past in their dreams. Since Servants do not sleep, with the exception of Artoria, it's usually the Masters who are shown to have these dreams, which shed light on the past life of their Servant. |
| 214 | * EnemyExchangeProgram: When a Master is defeated but the Servant is still around for some reason -- usually, they are in that little timespan between the Command Spells having been used up and the Servant disappearing, a different Master can bind them with their own Command Spells if both parties agree. Command Spells can also be transferred between Masters and, in some cases, even stolen. |
| 215 | * EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Servants are called by their character classes to disguise their [[PublicDomainCharacter true]] [[HistoricalDomainCharacter identities]] (and thus, their [[PublicDomainArtifact legendary weapons]], abilities, and (most importantly) weaknesses) from their opponents. Unless the Servant is too arrogant to worry about such things, as in the cases of [[spoiler: Gilgamesh]] and the ''Literature/FateZero'' Rider, [[spoiler: [[UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat Iskander]]]]. |
| 216 | * ExpendableAlternateUniverse: This is part of the world's natural law. As shown in ''Videogame/FateGrandOrder'', the timeline naturally branches multiple times following the different possibilities of human history. However, there are only a finite amount of "water" (energy) to sustain so many different timelines at once, so every once in a while (around a century or so, usually during certain important historical events) the world would use something called a "Quantum Time-Lock", making everything that happened during its usage immutable. This has the side effect of CuttingOffTheBranches that strayed too far from the "trunk of the history tree", especially if those timeline branches end with humanity becoming stagnant in one way or another and thus the energy would be wasted on them. The timelines that are "pruned" underwent CessationOfExistence, but as shown in the second saga of the game, they can be "resumed" by planting something called the "Tree of Emptiness" on them, creating a "Lostbelt" that are centered on where the trees are planted (e.g Russian Lostbelt shows an AlternateHistory of Russia). These trees are planted by the new villains and the resumed "defunct" timelines threaten to overwrite whole human history, so our heroes travel around the world to destroy them; however, they're faced with the dilemma of having to end the lives of the Lostbelt inhabitants, but they're encouraged by one of their Lostbelt allies to continue fighting for their world's future, no matter the cost. |
| 217 | * ExplosiveOverclocking: A Servant can overload their Noble Phantasm with prana and transform it into a Broken Phantasm, causing them to take a massive power hike in exchange for being lost. Given that most Servants only have between one to three Noble Phantasms ([[PublicDomainArtifact which are artifacts such as Excalibur]]), and Noble Phantasms represent the solidified history of each Servant the very idea is unthinkable to most Servants. |
| 218 | * ExpositionBeam: Whenever a Servant (a Heroic Spirit of a legendary figure) is summoned, the Holy Grail provides them with vital information like the native language and some basic knowledge of the modern world. |
| 219 | * ExpyCoexistence: While Waver Velvet didn't ''start off'' as a SherlockHomage when introduced in ''Literature/FateZero'', he's acquired enough similarities to him by the time of ''Literature/LordElMelloiIICaseFiles'' to warrant occasional LampshadeHanging. Naturally, with the franchise being the FantasyKitchenSink that it is, Sherlock Holmes also exists and even becomes the MissionControl in ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'''s second MythArc. Should you manage to summon both of them as playable Servants, Holmes will even ask to have a chat with Waver (with one piece of official art implying that said chat involved [[HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs Holmes's stash of chemical assistance]]). |
| 220 | * FightingSpirit: The Heroic Spirits, who are mythological figures from across history, employ Noble Phantasms, which are aspects of their legend formed into tools for defense/offense. For instance, Gilgamesh, one of the earliest Heroes whose myth has him collect all the treasures of the world, has the Gate of Babylon, a vault that contains every weapon ever made. |
| 221 | * GenderBentAlternateUniverse: A staple of the franchise, seeing it features gender-bent versions of popular figures from history, folklore, and urban legend. Despite this, the trope is [[InvertedTrope inverted]] with its signature character, Artoria Pendragon-- our universe's "Arthur" [[HistoricalGenderFlip is a female]], but the male Arthur comes from a parallel world. |
| 222 | * GenderBlenderName: The franchise, which is notorious for gender-bending various male historical figures and characters, keeps the names of the people/characters, so in this series, male-looking names are absolutely no hint as to which sex the character is. The only, sole exception to this is Arturia, the iconic female King Arthur, with her male prototype design being named "Arthur" instead. As a result, you get a cast full of female characters named such things as Francis, Jack, Hassan, Mordred, or Nero, and people don't really question it. Though there's no shortage of actual male characters and female characters actually based on female historical figures/characters. |
| 223 | * GenderFlip: |
| 224 | ** The series as it was released is gender-flipped compared to [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the scenario originally planned]]: Saber herself was originally going to be a male character and servant of a {{Meganekko}} who was the basis of [[DecompositeCharacter Shirou and Rin]]. The original scenario was eventually turned into a 12-minute long [=OVA=] called ''Anime/FatePrototype'' and later expanded to the ''Fragments of Sky Silver'' novels. |
| 225 | ** In the parody manga ''Sensha Otoko: A True Tank Story'', Waver Velvet is a girl and Iskandar's love interest. Enkidu, who in the canon is AmbiguousGender but is usually referred to with male pronouns, is a girl and Gilgamesh's love interest. |
| 226 | * GenerationalTrauma: Zoken is the centuries-old patriarch of the Matou family. Throughout his life, his ideals become corrupted until he only cares about power. Unfortunately for him, the Matous' magic has been slowly dying out for decades. If you combine this with that in magus culture the strength and lineage of one's magical crests are everything, then you get an unforgiving, immoral grandfather who disdains and abuses his offspring --his son Byakuya and his grandson Shinji for having been born with crests too weak to be trained as magi. Byakuya tries to be a supportive, loving father, however, Zoken's insults are overwhelming enough that Shinji grows into a bitter and arrogant rapist. To add salt in the wound, Zoken adopts the daughter of another family, Sakura, in the hopes of passing down the family magic to her. In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Shinji shows no compunctions regarding venting his frustrations on Sakura and letting his Servant drain people's souls. The Matous who have indeed strong crests aren't treated any better. Zoken disowns his other son, Kariya, after the latter rejects his family's traditions out of repulsion. Even then, Shinji and Kariya are similar in that they are possessive and abusive toward their LoveInterests. As ''Literature/FateZero'' shows, Kariya only accepts the magic to save his crush's daughter Sakura from being adopted by Zoken. Both of them are subjected to what amounts to rape by magical worms and become living hives for the wretched things in exchange for a powerful magic boost. |
| 227 | * GodIsGood: The Mesopotamian deities Ishtar and Ereshkigal are also summonable servants and quite nice girls in their own way. Neither wants humans to suffer and both help in their own way when Tiamat threatened Sumer. However, this may be {{subverted}} when looked through the whole franchise at large: that Ishtar and Ereshkigal could afford to be nice because they were inhabiting the bodies of [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Rin Tohsaka]], thus allowing her good side to influence them. In ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'', [[spoiler: we're given another version of Ishtar that does not possess the body of Rin, and as it turns out she is extremely malicious and stole the ''Grand Order'''s version of Bull of Heaven to attack Gilgamesh and Enkidu out of spite, without any care to the collateral damage]]. |
| 228 | * GratuitousEnglish: Regardless of their nation of origin or the current language being spoken in-story, there are very good chances that a hero's Noble Phantasm, an armament or technique representing their legend, will have an English-language True Name. In ''Grand Order'', at least one Servant is [[RuleOfCool doing this on purpose]], so maybe True Names aren't as foundational and immutable as you might assume. |
| 229 | * TheHashshashin: One of the standard classes of Heroic Spirit is directly called Assassin, and in almost all of the Holy Grail Wars (at least [[RetCon originally]]), the Assassin figure was none other than Hassan-i Sabbah, one of the most famous leaders of the historical Hashshashin. More precisely, it was one of the leaders of the order who, in the ''Fate'' continuity, all bear the title of Hassan. |
| 230 | * HealthyInHeaven: "Heroic Spirits" (notable souls of history, myth, or old fiction), when summoned as "Servants" (i.e "souls" given a body out of mana), tend to be taken from their prime, i.e relatively young and healthy. [[VideoGame/FateGrandOrder Okita Souji]] (a member of UsefulNotes/TheShinsengumi, class Saber), however, is a subversion -- she's well known for being sickly (with tuberculosis) and dying young because of it that it becomes part of her "legend" and as such, even as a Heroic Spirit, she still has her sickness (it's even a skill called "Weak Constitution"), even if it won't kill her. Similarly, Nero Claudius still suffers from migraines and Benienma is still missing her tongue as Heroic Spirits because those traits were part of their legends. Professor James Moriarty frequently complains about being summoned as a middle-aged man with back problems. |
| 231 | * HistoricalDomainSuperperson: Historical figures can be summoned as magical beings called Servants to fight in the Holy Grail War. Servants are far more powerful than normal humans and their Noble Phantasms can leave areas in ruins (some are capable of wiping out entire cities). Some highlights include: |
| 232 | ** ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': UsefulNotes/SasakiKojiro's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsubame_gaeshi Tsubame Gaeshi]] can twist dimensions so as to allow him to [[BladeSpam attack with three different strikes all at once]]. [[TheHashshashin Hassan-i-Sabbah]] is actually [[LegacyCharacter a title given to multiple people over generations]], each one with their own unique ability, with the one portrayed here having the ability to [[BeatStillMyHeart create a replica of a person's heart that's magically connected to the real heart]]. |
| 233 | ** ''Literature/FateZero'': UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat has [[ShockAndAwe lightning powers]] as a result of being a descendant of Zeus, drives a chariot pulled by two divine bulls, and is portrayed as a huge muscular man whose account of being too small to sit on Darius III's throne is only because Darius is ''even bigger''. UsefulNotes/GillesDeRais, while not an actual mage, owns a spellbook that allows him to summon {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. |
| 234 | ** ''Literature/FateApocrypha'': [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_ibn_Gabirol Solomon ibn Gabirol]] is a [[MakerOfMonsters master golem creator]]. Creator/WilliamShakespeare is a MasterOfIllusion who can trap people in recreations of their past that he narrates over. |
| 235 | ** ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'': Creator/AlexandreDumas can magically create {{Effective Knockoff}}s of any Noble Phantasm. UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart can give any object the powers of Excalibur simply by ''insisting that it is Excalibur''. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/François_Prelati Francois Prelati]] is a MasterOfIllusion with BornAgainImmortality and demon blood inside him due to making contact with Beelzebub. |
| 236 | ** ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': UsefulNotes/AnastasiaNikolaevnaRomanova has [[AnIcePerson ice magic]] and formed a contract with Literature/{{Viy}}, who also serves as her Noble Phantasm. UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun was born from the remains of an alien superweapon and wields a LaserSword that can summon a KillSat fired down by Mars. UsefulNotes/HelenaBlavatsky has actual psychic powers due to having magic circuits. And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this game. |
| 237 | * HistoricalGenderFlip: Gender-flipping famous historical and/or legendary figures has for better or worse become one of the series's hallmarks. |
| 238 | ** Saber's character is thoroughly explored in different ways in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and the prequel ''Literature/FateZero''. It should be noted that she is quite insistent [[SheIsTheKing on being called "king,"]] and spent most of her life doing everything she could to ignore or hide her female gender. Due to sexism, she didn't have much choice. A relatively small core of her inner circle knew the truth, including Merlin, Lancelot, Gawain, Guinevere, and her older foster brother Kay. Certainly puts a different spin on Lancelot and Guinevere's affair, doesn't it? |
| 239 | ** ''VideoGame/FateEXTRA'' features a gender-flipped version of [[spoiler:UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}]] as the playable Saber. It also has a female [[spoiler:UsefulNotes/FrancisDrake]] as the PirateGirl Rider, originally implied to be Queen Elizabeth in disguise, though later games have dropped that interpretation. ''VideoGame/FateExtellaTheUmbralStar'', the spin-off, added a female version of UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun ([[spoiler:who was more notably an alien superweapon]]). |
| 240 | ** In ''Literature/FateApocrypha'', Assassin of Black is gender-flipped UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper (though justified as Jack's true identity is unknown, and while Assassin of Black killed prostitutes, she doesn't know for certain if she was Jack due to her vague memories) and Saber of Red is a gender-flipped [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Mordred]] (created through a bizarre set of circumstances involving sorcery who, like her "father," insists on not being treated as female). Non-historically, it also has a gender-flipped [[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Frankenstein's Monster]], because Victor Frankenstein always intended to make a [[AdamAndEvePlot pair]] (instead of being blackmailed by The Creature to make a mate) but just made "Eve" first and was turned off after seeing how she turned out with her wanting him to finish the job. Amusingly, it also features a subversion with Astolfo, who several characters in-universe originally mistake for being female due to both [[DudeLooksLikeALady looks]] and [[{{Keet}} personality]], but he's still a guy, as Jeanne finds out first-hand [[UnsettlingGenderReveal when he comes out of the shower naked with his privates exposed]]. Worth noting is that Astolfo's existence as a gender neutral character is what lead to Modred being made female, so as to avoid having two amibigiously gendered characters. |
| 241 | ** ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'' changes genders without flipping the male/female binary. [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Enkidu]] gets changed from being male to having NoBiologicalSex and an androgynous appearance (depending on the translation, they're given "he" or "they" pronouns). There's also another iteration of Jack the Ripper, this one a personification of Jack's legend; they have no fixed gender, and are able to take the form of anyone or anything that's been identified as Jack, including Assassin of Black. |
| 242 | ** ''Koha-Ace'' features a genderflipped UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga and [[UsefulNotes/TheShinsengumi Okita Souji]]. The rest of the cast retain their historical genders until the introduction of [[UsefulNotes/UesugiKenshin Nagao Kagetora]]. Since it's a gag series, it isn't treated particularly seriously, but Nobunaga has actually been fleshed out a bit more in later, more serious works, where she crushed all dissent through force and ruled openly as a woman, and her downfall came when one of her retainers, Akechi, who was in love with her and jealous of her seemingly favoring others, assassinated her out of mad jealousy. It also introduced well in advance the idea that Sun Wukong has the power to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting change his physical gender along with his shape]]. |
| 243 | ** ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', having a huge cast compared to most other entries in the franchise, has naturally added many more examples, such as Minamoto-no-Raikou (Yorimitsu) and her descendant Ushiwakamaru (Yoshitsune). As early as the first event, the developers had already begun to parody the trope with [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Artemis]], who originally pretends to be a gender-flipped Orion, and the cast buys it before the ''real'' Orion, whom she's trapped as a stuffed animal, starts to speak up. In fact, gender-flipping historical figures has gotten so common that the franchise has begun to try to be clever about it. UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi is a woman, but she actually comes from an AlternateTimeline while the "main" Nasuverse's Miyamoto Musashi is explicitly referred to as male. Creator/LeonardoDaVinci appears as a woman, but is confirmed to have been male in life; his obsession with aesthetics and the Golden Rule (Beauty) skill altered his appearance and gender into that of the Mona Lisa (not that da Vinci seems to mind). And the original Katsushika Hokusai takes the form of a tiny octopus that floats near his daughter Oui (the "Servant Hokusai" is ''both of them'', since Oui produced some of her own art under her father's name). Xu Fu is a woman and comments that some bureaucrats hated her seemingly for being a woman given the important task of discovering immortality for the emperor and thus wrote her as being a man just to spite her (her own androgynous looks combined with her clothing doesn't hurt either). Van Gogh claims to be a female Creator/VincentVanGogh, but it is noted that the real one was male, with lots of evidence to counter her claim; [[spoiler:she is eventually revealed to be an artificial mashup of Van Gogh's memories and the body and soul of [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Clytie]], created by an EldritchAbomination after the real Van Gogh refused to serve its plans to the point of killing himself.]] Meanwhile, Kiichi Hougen appears to be another genderbent servant, but it turns out that Hougen has [[VoluntaryShapeshifting the ability to shapeshift into different genders]] (in which their gender is listed as unknown instead). Lostbelt 6 introduces GenderFlip and Fairy versions of Lancelot, Gawain, and Tristan that serve Morgan le Fay. [[spoiler:However, they are revealed by the Tristan from Proper Human History to actually be Fairies that have stolen the identities of the real knights]]. Russian folk-hero Dobrynya Nikitich appears as a woman rather than a male, [[spoiler:though it's revealed that like Artemis with Orion, it is actually Dobrynya's wife Nastasia taking over his Spirit Graph when summoned]]. Literature/DonQuixote's squire Sancho Panza is a [[LittleBitBeastly horsegirl]], but rather than being gender-flipped, she's a [[CompositeCharacter composite]] of Don Quixote's supporting cast, including Sancho, Dulcinea, Altisidora, and his horse Rocinante. |
| 244 | ** While she was alluded to and had a voiced cameo prior to her official [[UnseenNoMore reveal]], ''Fate/Grand Order Arcade'' introduces Merlin Prototype, who is a gender-flip of both her male counterpart Merlin from the main game, and also of the mythological figure Merlin who himself was an [[CompositeCharacter amalgamation of different historical and mythological figures]]; in [[Anime/FatePrototype her native universe]], Arthur and Mordred are male, and she's the one who got gender-flipped. This is also a CastingGag since as the Male Proto Arthur and Main Universe Merlin share the same voice actor, so too do Proto Merlin and Artoria. (Staff have joked this would also apply to a Proto Fou, since regular Fou also shares his actress with Artoria) |
| 245 | ** The mobile and arcade versions of ''Fate/Grand Order'' are basically {{Alternate Timeline}}s, with one of the differences at first glance being that Jacques de Molay is a male Saber in Arcade and a female Foreigner in Mobile. However, Foreigner Jacques was a man in life, who changed genders post-mortem due to the influence of his patron Outer God, which would point to them actually being different classes of the same Heroic Spirit... if it weren't for the fact Foreigner Jacques asserts she wasn't strong enough to become a Heroic Spirit by herself, and dismisses the idea of her Saber counterpart's existence. What's actually going on with them is currently unknown. |
| 246 | ** The practice in ''Fate/Grand Order'' is {{Justified|Trope}} (and mocked) in the parody manga ''Webcomic/LearningWithMangaFGO'', where the implied reason for the genderflips among the original Servants' ranks is due to the protagonist being a lesbian with a "no boys" policy. This is the origin of the Myth/PaulBunyan servant in the game, who doesn't understand how on earth she became a small girl. |
| 247 | ** ''Literature/FateRequiem'': Erice Utsumi ponders on the series' tendency to have men in history and myth actually be women, using Francis Drake as an example, as all of her contemporaries remember her as either male or female. Erice concludes that Drake's actual gender doesn't really matter, compared to the great feats achieved. So far, the Greek mathematician Euclid has been revealed as a woman. |
| 248 | * HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The franchise uses this trope a lot, along with its [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade counterpart]], and [[JustifiedTrope justifies it]], since the summoning of a Heroic Spirit draws its power from the legends surrounding the person and integrates them, so people who for some reason have acquired a popular reputation of being evil will be influenced by it. There is even a special attribute for it: "Innocent Monster". |
| 249 | * HollywoodBoardGames: On two occasions a modified TabletopGame/{{chess}} board can be seen -- 7x7 grid, Masters as the pawns, Servants as the other pieces, and a Holy Grail in the middle. Each time, its presence signifies different things. Although, in both cases, the Masters are the pawns not only because they are more plainly designed than the Servants but also because the power plays between the Servants have as much of an impact on the Wars' outcomes as the interactions between the Masters. |
| 250 | ** ''Literature/FateZero'': Gilgamesh is seen idly playing with a golden set of this board, although it appears to only have one side. That is golden is a nod to how Gilgamesh only owns the very best of everything because he considers himself king of everything. On the other hand, this also gives ChessMotifs to him in the sense of him being a massive ManipulativeBastard who treats people as pawns because [[ItAmusedMe it entertains him]]. Curiously enough, his class (Archer), is not positioned in the center. That position belongs to the Saber class. Plot-wise, this makes sense as Saber is TheProtagonist and also the most powerful class. |
| 251 | ** ''Literature/FateApocrypha'': That it's Lord El-Melloi II, aka Waver, the one explaining the modified rules of the Great Holy Grail War to one of his students through the aforementioned board means two things primarily. One, he survived a previous war and not only emerged unscathed but also learned to be more patient and confident in his own strategies. Two, that he's a much more approachable Professor than Lord El-Melloi I was. About the student himself, he's very much a {{Keet}} and seems to learn better when he can see and interact with stuff. On a related note, this particular board has two sides (black and red), thus matching the special circumstances of this war. |
| 252 | * HomeFieldAdvantage: |
| 253 | ** The Unlimited Blade Works spell (and indeed any and all [[MentalWorld Reality Marbles]]) basically invokes this trope, turning the battlefield into one that's perfect for Archer [[spoiler: or Shirou]] to battle in. |
| 254 | ** In fact, the power of a Servant varies depending of how much it's known and/or revered in their current location. For example, WordOfGod states that [[Literature/FateApocrypha Lancer of "Black"]] (UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler) could completely destroy Berserker ([[Myth/ClassicalMythology Heracles/Hercules]]) and Saber ([[HistoricalGenderFlip gender-flipped]] Myth/KingArthur) from ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', two Servants whose identities are known ''world-wide'', because he was summoned in his home country of Romania, close to his native city to boot, and has a Skill that lets him secure a certain amount of land as his own and boost his power as long as he remains within the bounds of that land (which fittingly enough, is at the headquarters of the Yggdmillennia). This dual-layer homefield advantage is enough he's able to fight toe-to-toe with [[PlayingWithFire Lancer of "Red"]] ([[Literature/TheMahabharata Karna]]) when normally he would be [[CurbStompBattle completely crushed]] by his [[StoryBreakerPower Gilgamesh-leveled opponent]]. [[spoiler:This is what ends up happening when he is forced to sacrifice said advantage to fight on the enemy's home turf]]. |
| 255 | ** Caster Servants have a Skill called Territory Creation, which lets them designate an area as their "Workshop". Inside the Workshop, they are able to gather Mana from the environment (Servants normally need to get Mana from their Masters) and have some control over the surroundings. |
| 256 | * HumanFocusedAdaptation: |
| 257 | ** {{Inverted}}. Whereas the first few installments had a greater emphasis on the human Masters (the ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' saga, ''Literature/LordElMelloiIICaseFiles''), many of the spin-offs will put focus on the Servants instead, with the Master either playing SupportingProtagonist or backup. ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' even plays around with this by taking alternate versions of previous Masters and turning them into Servants, either by posession or due to the feats they accomplished in their own timeline. |
| 258 | ** ''Manga/FateKaleidLinerPrismaIllya'' is one of the few straighter instances of the trope, as the focus is on {{Magical Girl Warrior}}s that primarily use Servants as powerups. |
| 259 | ** ''VideoGame/CapsuleServant'' is also primarily about the antics of the human Masters, as the Servants are reimagined into more traditional {{Mons}} in this universe. |
| 260 | ** The Servant Universe is a parody of the franchise's usual inversion, as it takes place in a timeline where ''only'' Servants exist. There used to be regular humans around, but that was generations before everyone figured out how to put Saint Graphs in their body. |
| 261 | * IKnowYourTrueName: |
| 262 | ** When it comes to "Servants", they tend to have their true names hidden behind their class name, i.e "Saber", "Archer", etc. {{Downplayed}} in that it happens less for "magical" reasons and more for practical ones: Servants are (typically) [[HistoricalBadassUpgrade historical/mythical people]] and thus are famous in one way or another; their abilities and weaknesses can be easily discerned just by learning their true names, so they make sure to not reveal them to anyone but their "Masters". In ''Literature/FateZero'', two Servants discard this advantage by openly announcing their true names, both [[AwesomeEgo purely out of ego]]. [[spoiler:Alexander the Great]] (Rider) [[RefugeInAudacity tries to recruit all the other Servants to abandon the Holy Grail War and become his generals to conquer the world]], while [[spoiler:Gilgamesh]] (Archer) simply thinks the other Servants and their Masters are so far beneath him that there's no point hiding his identity. It's played straighter with their "Noble Phantasms", an item/ability that is the "crystallized legend" of the respective Servants in question; they usually have to be invoked by [[CallingYourAttacks saying its name]] if they want to use the greater extent of the Noble Phantasms' strength. Like the identities of the Servants, having other people learn of a Servant's Noble Phantasm's name can lead to them deducing the Servant's identity, so they tend to not be used until the right time. |
| 263 | ** The normal way to summon a Servant requires a catalyst, an item from their life (or at the very least intimately associated with their legend) to focus in on them and summon them. The exceptions are the True Assassins, the nineteen men and women who bore the name Hassan-i-Sabbah. Since they are the origin of the word "assassin," the class name itself is the catalyst. Other members of the Assassin class still need normal catalysts. |
| 264 | ** Servants with the Skill "Uncrowned Martial Arts" cause anyone they meet to underestimate them, and if someone looks at them through StatOVision, all of their stats will look one Rank weaker than they actually are. If someone learns the Servant's true name, the effect will not apply to them and they will see exactly how strong the Servant is. |
| 265 | * InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: The franchise has the infamous "Saber-face" phenomenon, whereby random female heroines will inexplicably have the exact same face as Saber Artoria Pendragon, whether they're from Britain (Artoria, her AlternateUniverse counterparts, and her "son" Mordred), Rome (Emperor Nero), France (Jeanne d'Arc), Japan (Okita Souji) or India (Lakshmibai). The reason for this is the head character designer really, ''really'' likes Artoria's design and frequently re-uses it for new heroines. Later stories in the franchise begin to {{Lampshade}} this, up to and including a version of Artoria whose sole desire is to brutally murder all the other Saberfaces in the franchise for copying her looks, or various characters who had a fixation with one particular Saberface in life but cannot tell them apart as Servants. |
| 266 | * TheInfested: The Matou clan make up for their diminishing magical potential by having mana circuit enhancing "Crest Worms" infest their bodies. The process is extremely violating, and both Kairiya and Sakura were subjugated to it. |
| 267 | * InterspeciesRomance: Most of the Servants used to be humans but, after passing away and being recruited by the Throne of the Heroes, they become Heroic Spirits -- beings made of {{Mana}} with suprahuman abilities that can be summoned. The Masters, on the other hand, are human beings who more often than not are practitioners of magecraft. It's a staple of the franchise to have the Servants and the Masters engage in some sort of romantic relationship or, at least, feel attraction. |
| 268 | * ImaginationBasedSuperpower: Shirou Emiya and his future counterpart Archer EMIYA have the Reality Marble Unlimited Blade Works. A Reality Marble is a MentalWorld that can create anything the user imagines and either draw people into it or pull their creations into the real world. While they cannot create divine constructs, it is easier and less energy-consuming for them to create weapons, especially swords, hence the name Unlimited Blade Works. If their hearts and minds falter, their creations become brittle. Chloe von Einzbern, who has a copy of Archer EMIYA's powers, can use it to create weapons, clothes, and a chair once. |
| 269 | * ImmortalProcreationClause: Servants are spirits that don't age and can't die unless they run out of Mana or are killed via violence. They cannot have children with each other or with humans under normal circumstances. |
| 270 | * IndecisiveParody: ''KOHA-ACE'' stars characters that intentionally invoke and parody common Servant types, and creates Servants that would either be {{Joke Character}}s (like Caster) or outright impossible to exist naturally (like [[FusionDance Majin Saber]]). Its main heroines alone are foul-mouthed cute girl {{Historical Gender Flip}}s; one of them is a Saberface just because, and she is both aware and angry about it. The characters spend their days getting on each others' nerves instead of doing anything cool, living with NoFourthWall, and crossing over with other Type-Moon characters (Kohaku from ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' being a favorite). Even its attempts at a coherent story arc are riddled with in-jokes and comedy, and some parts are called out in-universe as only getting serious in case games like ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' canonize them -- yet the characters are treated sincerely enough to get completely serious elaborations,[[note]]everything from Okita's IncurableCoughOfDeath and exuberance to Nobunaga's wacky inventiveness and musket obsession is given a logic behind it consistent with prior worldbuilding, which suggests a real attempt to make them work outside of gags or parodies[[/note]] and its most famous story arc got a hotblooded, dramatic, very-much-straightforward-and-not-parodic-at-all remake in ''Webcomic/FateTypeRedline''. |
| 271 | * InternalHomage: Saber's introduction to Shirou in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', where Shirou is on the ground mesmerised as Saber stands above him, asking "Are you my Master?", is repeated with main Master/Servant pairs all over the franchise. |
| 272 | * IntraFranchiseCrossover: |
| 273 | ** ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' pulls from all over the ''Fate'' series, including its alternate universes (''[[Anime/FatePrototype Prototype]]'' and the universe Musashi comes from, for starters), offshoot timelines (''[[VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia Hollow Ataraxia]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FateExtra EXTRA]]''), and even its gag series (''Koha-Ace'' and ''[[Webcomic/LearningWithMangaFGO Learning with Manga!]]''). Unfortunately, not everyone could make it to the game, as most of the cast of ''[[Literature/FateStrangeFake strange fake]]'' is on embargo until it wraps up. |
| 274 | ** ''Grand Order'' incorporates the greater Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} even outside the ''Fate'' subseries; one of the first "collaboration" events of the game was with ''Literature/TheGardenOfSinners''. |
| 275 | * KnightInShiningArmor: There are plenty of examples, several of whom were actual knights of the Round Table. |
| 276 | ** To start with, there is ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'''s Saber, a LadyOfWar who believes wholeheartedly in honor and fair play. Fitting, considering she's [[spoiler:King Arthur/[[HistoricalGenderFlip Artoria]] Pendragon.]] |
| 277 | ** ''Literature/FateZero'''s Lancer is very similar to the aforementioned Saber, and the two of them actually see each other as a WorthyOpponent and FriendlyEnemy because of that. |
| 278 | ** Gawain is [[spoiler:the "most honorable knight" according to Artoria]], with being [[UndyingLoyalty undyingly]] [[HonorBeforeReason loyal]] and a bit of a [[ChivalrousPervert chivalrous pervert]]. [[spoiler:[[FailureKnight Turns out that part of the reason why he's so loyal is due to blaming himself for Artoria's death]]]]. Subverted in ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', [[spoiler:where he ends up [[MyMasterRightOrWrong following the evil Lion King]] [[TheAtoner due to his guilt over said death.]] However, the Gawain summoned by the Lion King is different than the one allied with the player, and the trope is again played straight in the SE.RA.PH arc.]] |
| 279 | ** Sir Bedivere might be the shiniest of all of them. He's unfailingly chivalrous, loyal and an [[NiceGuy upstanding guy all around.]] And even with his HeroicSelfDeprecation, he's still a ''very'' impressive BadassNormal. |
| 280 | * JackassGenie: After the Third Holy Grail War goes bonkers, the Grail is corrupted by an evil entity known as Angra Mainyu. As such, it will interpret every wish as a desire for destruction. One of the examples given is that a wish to be the wealthiest man in the world would kill everyone richer than you. Another is when a character wished for world peace, the Grail stated its intention to grant that wish by killing everyone on the planet except for him and his daughter (can't have conflict if everyone is dead). |
| 281 | * LuddWasRight: {{Inverted}} in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and ''Literature/FateZero''. This is how almost every magus views the situation, preferring to rely on magecraft and completely ignoring the technological side of things. 'As science moves towards the future, magic moves towards the past' is seen as the perfect summation, and that regressing and falling behind is perfectly okay. In ''Literature/FateZero'', Kiritsugu exploits the hell out of this ''because'' magi are so rooted in tradition.\ |
| 282 | \ |
| 283 | There is some justification for their viewpoint. In the Nasuverse's backstory, the modern age was preceded by an "[[TheTimeOfMyths Age of the Gods]]" when sorcery was commonplace and magicians could do just about anything. In the modern age, that type of all-powerful sorcery is essentially a lost art, and the magecraft used by modern magi is a pale imitation limited by numerous rules. (The corollary to that is that human beings hadn't come up with any of that stuff themselves; it was all a gift of the gods.) One of those rules is that magecraft cannot accomplish anything that normal humans can't accomplish ''without'' magecraft, but that rule also works in reverse; new applications of magecraft become possible as technology advances, and given enough time and technological advancement magecraft could eventually replace the old art of sorcery. |
| 284 | * TheMagicGoesAway: [[ScienceDestroysMagic As modern science develops more and more, magi gradually lose their powers]]. ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'''s Caster can canonically take on every living magi in the modern world and win because she's from [[TheTimeOfMyths the age of gods and miracles]], and science hasn't {{nerf}}ed her magic. This is also why the three [[AlternateUniverse known]] [[AnatomyOfTheSoul true]] [[TimeTravel magics]] are so powerful: they are beyond modern science and so haven't been hit by this effect at all. Given what happens in one of the possible "TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt" scenarios, in which magic dies out completely, this could be construed as not the best of courses for humanity (although whether it was avoidable is another matter). In [[VideoGame/FateExtra another timeline]], magic went away but was replaced by SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology from an alien civilization. |
| 285 | * MadeOfIndestructium: The weapons Excalibur, Arondight, and Durandal are said to be unbreakable in their respective myths. In Excalibur's case, it's also because of its status as the sword that reflects the light of the world -- essentially, a sword so over-powered, it can drive aliens away. |
| 286 | * MentalTimeTravel: Physical time travel is one of the few abilities that is considered to be impossible unless it's in very specific conditions or part of a special ability wielded by a select few. However, sending back mental information is an achievable task for people to accomplish with the catch being that it's usually a one-way trip from the present/future to the past and will undo the original timeline from where they were sent. |
| 287 | * ModernizedGod: Throughought the ''Fate'' multiverse, many characters of mythology and old history are summoned into the modern world as "Servants". Some of them adapt to the new world just fine (such as [[Myth/KingArthur Arturia]] or [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Gilgamesh]]), wearing modern clothing and indulging in present-day food and entertainment; a few of them even use modern weapons in fights, such as Lancelot. |
| 288 | * MonsSeries: Servants are summoned by the Holy Grail in order to serve under one Master each, so they can all fight to obtain a wish. Servants are {{Mana}} constructs of sufficiently famous historical or fictional figures. They are way more powerful than a regular human and are bound by Command Spells to obey their Masters. In some installments, it's possible for a Master to have more than one Servant active and in their repertoire. In a small twist, the Masters are often mages, so they can partake in the action as well -- against other Masters, that is, because fighting a Servant is basically suicide by proxy. |
| 289 | * MultipleChoiceFuture: As shown in ''Videogame/FateGrandOrder'' and ''Videogame/FateExtella'', history naturally "branches" into multiple timelines as it goes, following the different decisions and events in each part of history. However, the world - which is a supernatural, sentient being in this franchise - regularly [[CuttingOffTheBranches cut off those branching timelines]] with something called "Quantum Time-Lock", which occurs every hundred years or so. The branches that are cut are those that strayed too far away from the "trunk of the history tree", i.e the correct history. |
| 290 | * MusicalNod: Works handled by the original composer for ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' will frequently slip in references to his old music with each new instalment: |
| 291 | ** ''VideoGame/FateEXTRA'': |
| 292 | *** Caster's theme, "Caster ~ An Extra Life With Anyone She Wants", is lifted from a menu theme from ''stay night'', originally titled "[[{{Pun}} Extra]]" |
| 293 | *** "Last Piece" from ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia'' was remixed into "PIECE" and "Last Piece Again" for key emotional beats in ''CCC''. |
| 294 | ** ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': |
| 295 | *** Fuyuki's map theme is a remix of "Into the Night" from ''Fate/stay night'', as an indication that the protagonist, like Shirou Emiya, has just stepped into something much bigger when rayshifted to Fuyuki. It gets a DarkReprise as [[spoiler:Andromalius' battle theme, since that Demon Pillar represents Fuyuki for the final battle.]] |
| 296 | *** "Olden Capital" contains a reference to Gilgamesh's theme, "Golden King", to represent that the protagonists have been exploring his domain in 2655 BC. |
| 297 | *** "Spinal Swan Coaster" is a TriumphantReprise of "spinal coaster" from ''Fate/Extra CCC'' as a [[spoiler:an accompaniment to Meltryllis defeating Kiara once and for all in SE.RA.PH.]] |
| 298 | *** "The Sun in the Abyss" is a gentler version of ''VideoGame/FateExtellaTheUmbralStar'''s main theme, which appropriately plays in a story featuring Altera lending out a helping hand to [[spoiler:Ereshkigal]]. |
| 299 | *** "Lost Piece" is a melancholic rearrangement of "last piece" from ''Fate/Hollow Ataraxia''. |
| 300 | *** The Olympus map music is an intense remix of the music for Mare Carcer from ''Extella'' as a subtle nod to the Olympians' connection to the ''Extra'' continuity. |
| 301 | *** The Beast of Taming has four different boss themes, each being a BossRemix of a Lostbelt map theme with a common bassline; [[spoiler:and fittingly, said bassline is the one from "Caster ~ An Extra Life With Anyone She Wants"]]. |
| 302 | *** Morgan and Faerie Knight Gawain's boss themes lift several bars from ''stay night'' Saber's theme, "Sword of Promised Victory". |
| 303 | * MutuallyExclusiveMagic: Eastern and western styles of magic are considered incompatible with one another (for starters, Continental Asian Magecraft uses a completely different system of accessing spell formulas via Philosophy Foundation that Westerners don't use) so mages of either style tend to keep to themselves. The only reason mages from the Clock Tower even consider coming over to Fuyuki, Japan, which is otherwise considered the magical boonies for them, is because it was the chosen place for the Holy Grail War. |
| 304 | * NamedAfterFirstInstallment: The franchise is titled after the visual novel that began it, ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''. When other stories were released to expand on the universe, the ''Fate/'' part of the title stayed as a prefix, while the text after the slash indicated its theme. |
| 305 | * NavelOutline: |
| 306 | ** Medusa in her typical attire from the sometimes has this DependingOnTheArtist. Her final ascension in ''Videogame/{{Fate Grand Order}}'', which is embarrassingly revealing to her, always sports this. |
| 307 | ** ScĂĄthach plays this straight as a result of her SensualSpandex. |
| 308 | ** Altera's first ascension sports this, while her usual attire and other ascensions bare her midriff outright. |
| 309 | ** Ushiwakamaru and BB in the non-bikini variations of their summer variants play this straight. |
| 310 | ** Miyu Edelfelt in her second ascension, reflecting her MagicalGirl attire from her main series. |
| 311 | * NeutralInNameOnly: The Holy Church is supposed to be a neutral party to help maintain the rules of the Holy Grail War, but we never see them actually do that. More often than not, they are allied with one of the Masters or be themselves Masters in the Grail Wars. |
| 312 | * NinjaPirateZombieRobot: |
| 313 | ** Due to the way the Throne of Heroes works, Heroic Spirits can be summoned as biker gorgons, {{Magic Knight}}s with beam swords, or even [[spoiler:time travelling magic mercenaries from the future]]. And those are just from the [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight first installment]] alone. |
| 314 | ** ''VideoGame/FateExtraCCC'' introduced "High Servants", which are Heroic Spirits that are made up of more than one mythological figure. The Sakura Five are all made up of a part of B.B. and at least three godesses each. Sitonai of ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' goes even further, as she's both this ''and'' a Pseudo-Servant (meaning she's 3 different divine characters SharingABody). Oh, and the host body is a homunculus. |
| 315 | ** In addition to the abilities Heroic Spirits already have, there can be alternate selves with several further modifiers: Alter,[[note]]A darker version of the character, typically created through some sort of corruption[[/note]] Lily,[[note]]a version of the person from a more idealized or innocent time, regardless of if that time really existed[[/note]] Santa,[[note]]a gag modifier where the person takes on Santa's role[[/note]], Pseudo-Servant[[note]]a Heroic Spirit possessing a host body, whatever that body may be[[/note]], and Demi-Servant[[note]]Human permanently fused with a Heroic Spirit and possesses a body modified to be like a Servant[[/note]] to name a few. |
| 316 | ** {{Parodied}} with Jeanne D'Arc Alter Santa Lily, who is the idealized younger self of a Santa self of an EvilKnockoff. Her introductory event had the world trying to figure out how she's even alive, as Jeanne Alter never had a younger self to be idealized since she was BornAsAnAdult. |
| 317 | * NoBodyLeftBehind: Servants dissolve into energy when they die because they are summons made of and fueled by {{Mana}}. |
| 318 | * NonIndicativeName: The definitions and qualifications of the Servant classes are actually quite loose, to the point of MemeticMutation. |
| 319 | ** The '''Saber''' class is ''usually'' made up of sword users, which would be what you'd expect... Except that you have folks like Saber Karna who uses GoodOldFisticuffs, and Rama who states [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks his sword is a throwing weapon]]. And then there's the fact that most of those Sabers can shoot {{Sword Beam}}s, which technically makes them ranged fighters. Which in turn would qualify them for... |
| 320 | ** The '''Archer''' class, which is not actually just archers but anyone who "fights from range". This includes people who use guns and crossbows, like Billy the Kid and William Tell, but also has [[AbnormalAmmo some completely absurd members]] like Summer Artoria Pendragon (who uses a squirt gun), Nikola Tesla (who [[ShockAndAwe shoots lightning]]), [[Literature/TheGardenOfSinners Asagami Fujino]] (who can ''twist'' things - that's not even throwing anything!), and Summer Jeanne (who throws ''dolphins''. Yes, you read that right). And ''then'' there are the folks who can use a bow and arrow but choose not to, like the above mentioned ''FSN'' Archers and [[Literature/FateApocrypha Chiron]], who uses Pankration. The game itself pokes a lot of fun with this, but the grand prize has to go to Caster Merlin, who says that "even though his sword shoots beams, he's not an Archer." |
| 321 | ** The definition of '''Lancer''' is a horse-riding knight or similar wielding a lance. The definition of Lancer in ''FGO'' is anyone who wields a spear, which includes lances, spears, naginatas, scythes, etc. And then [[spoiler:there's the Grand Lancer, who isn't wielding anything. He IS the spear, and he fights by shooting energy from his hands]]. This was questioned by a LOT of people. |
| 322 | ** '''Rider''' sounds quite self-evident compared to the others... until Medb tells you that the only reason she qualifies for it is because she's [[DoubleEntendre skilled at riding men]]. Yes, you can ride ''anything'' in this class. [[EverythingExceptMostThings Except dragons, demonic beasts, or other kinds of magical entities.]] Then you need a special skill to actually ride them. Not to mention as well that Riding in particular has been shown in other ''Fate'' works to also be a skill that a Servant of any other class can have without being a Rider; Artoria Pendragon and [[Literature/FateApocrypha Mordred]], both Sabers, have it at a decently high rank, and in fact four of the currently nine Servants to have it at its maximum level aren't even Riders. |
| 323 | ** You'd think '''Caster''' would just contain wizards. It doesn't. Other than magic users, this is the go-to class for scientists, inventors, craftsmen, and artists. This is why Thomas Edison and Hans Christian Andersen are here. It should also be noted Muramasa --a swordsmith-- is annoyed that he's a Saber as he would normally be in this class, and he even has the otherwise-Caster-exclusive ''Territory Creation'' skill. |
| 324 | ** A good chunk of the '''Assassin''' class failed to assassinate their targets. [[spoiler:Grand Assassin]] is a ''swordsman'', which is {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d the second he shows up. And why is Dr. Henry Jekyll here? |
| 325 | ** You'd think that the '''Berserker''' class is made up of people with UnstoppableRage. Sure, there's no shortage of them, but that's not the actual qualification. Berserkers are those who are inflicted with ''Madness Enhancement'', which makes their behaviour erratic even if it previously wasn't. While there are plenty of natural Berserkers who had a few screws loose to begin with, you also end up with folks like Florence Nightingale (who wasn't like this at ''all'' in real life), and Beowulf who isn't acting any crazy at all. Oh and by the way, there are some people ''out'' of the Berserker class who have Madness Enhancement. |
| 326 | ** The '''Ruler''' class, introduced in ''Literature/FateApocrypha'', sounds like a class where you'd find a lot of kings. No. It's a class for people who do not wish for the Holy Grail, and they're supposed to act as regulators for the other Servants... ''Except'' that Amakusa Shirou Tosikada didn't get the memo, because he sure wants that cup. And there are a whole bunch of people in other classes who are not interested in the grail either. |
| 327 | * NotTheIntendedUse: ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', the first game in the series, is about seven magi summoning ancient heroes to fight each other for the Holy Grail. Most other entries are variants of this theme. ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' reveals that the entire Servant system was actually designed to fight the impossibly powerful Beasts as a team. This is also why the classes seem so unbalanced; it's using a PlayerVersusEnvironment system as a PlayerVersusPlayer system, so the classes that were designed for direct combat have an advantage when fighting the classes that were supposed to stay in the back and support them. |
| 328 | * ObviousCrossoverMethod: The entire concept of Servants means that it's easy to summon a crossover character as a Servant. There are even canonical examples of fictional characters being summoned, so they don't even need to be established as previously existing in the same universe. Likewise, characters from other settings starting their own Grail Wars. |
| 329 | * OffTheRails: The horrible, horrible events of the Third Holy Grail War shape many of the awful circumstances that would later haunt the protagonists of the [[Literature/FateZero Fourth]] and [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Fifth]]. The Edelfelt sisters cheated using their Ore Scales ability to summon two Sabers. It ended with the sisters defeated, one of them running away from Japan. [[Literature/FateApocrypha Darnic Prestone]] attempted to steal the Greater Grail with Nazi help. It ended with the Imperial Army duking it out with the Nazis in Fuyuki. The Einzberns tried to cheat by summoning a GodOfEvil. It ends up tainting the Grail with All the World's Evils. [[ShaggyDogStory And in all the hoopla, the Lesser Grail was destroyed.]] |
| 330 | * OneSteveLimit: |
| 331 | ** The nature of the Servant class system means there are several characters throughout the franchise who bear the same titles, so when, for example, someone mentions the character Rider they may have to be more specific as to ''which'' Rider. It doesn't help that there's a strong practical reason to not easily reveal the Servant's true name -- that would give away their weaknesses and abilities. In some installments, Servants have different, alternate, playable versions such as when they are summoned in a different class or when they have a DarkerAndEdgier Alter. |
| 332 | ** The Biblical king David is a Servant, but there's also the normal person David Bluebook running around in the game's second storyline, whom the game frequently flashes back to at the start of story chapters. |
| 333 | * OpenSecret: In the Clock Tower, it's obvious to anyone who cares to look at the evidence that the Tohsakas and the Edefelts are recently related, something both families will vehemently deny. The story behind that started when the twin Edefelt sisters went to Japan to participate in the Third Holy Grail War, only to lose. Because only one of them would be allowed to inherit the Edefelt's magic crest, the two were expected to fight to the death so that only the stronger of the two would return. The older sister returned, but with only half of her magic crest, claiming her sister's half had been destroyed in their battle. In reality, the younger sister was rescued by the Tohsaka heir, who later married her, and added her half of the magic crest to the Tohsaka's magic crest, granting her son and granddaughter the jewel magecraft that the Edefelts were well-known for. In the modern day, Rin and Luvia resemble reach other and use almost identical magecraft, yet maintain the history that Rin's grandmother was an unknown European woman, and that Luvia's grandmother survived the Third Grail War while her younger sister didn't. |
| 334 | * OppositeSexClone: {{Subverted}}. In real life Arthurian legend, Mordred is the illegitimate son of King Arthur, made through the intervention of Morgan le Fey (exactly what she did varies depending on the legend). In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', one of the first major reveals is that [[spoiler: King Arthur [[HistoricalGenderFlip is actually female]]]]. Many fans assumed that Mordred would therefore be an Opposite-Sex Clone. In ''Literature/FateApocrypha'', we find out that Mordred is indeed an Opposite-Sex Clone... except [[spoiler: she's still female. Specifically, Artoria was [[GenderBender temporarily transformed into a pseudo-male]] by Merlin, and Artoria's sister Morgan le Fey used the opportunity to get a DNA sample. She then used that to grow a [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent homunculus]] of the opposite gender, meaning Mordred came out female]]. WordOfGod explained some of this before ''Apocrypha'' came out. |
| 335 | * OurClonesAreDifferent: Servants are {{Familiar}}s based on how the Throne of Heroes remembers those who made great contributions to humanity's history. MadeOfMagic, they function in {{RPG Mechanics|Verse}}, having things like {{Character Alignment}}s, skills with added RankInflation, and a CharacterClassSystem that functions as a SecretIdentity. They retain most if not all memories of their original selves, and they are treated more-or-less indistinguishably from the real historical figures they were derived from. |
| 336 | * OverusedCopycatCharacter: Many characters in the franchise share a physical resemblance to [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Saber]]/Artoria Pendragon, who besides having variants of the original (and one ''literal'' clone in Mordred) also has several unrelated characters who share the same face. Referenced in ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' with characters having a hidden attribute called "[[AscendedMeme Saberface]]", that causes some enemies to react differently to them. Then there's Mysterious Heroine X, who is [[ImplausibleDeniability definitely not Artoria hunting down her clones]]. |
| 337 | * PrestigiousPlayerTitle: ''VideoGame/FateExtra'' and ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' revolve around the idea that the player themselves is one of many Masters from the franchise, a mage capable of commanding Heroic Spirits, mythological and historical figures who are incarnated as Servants, and refer to the main character who serves as the player's stand-in as said Master. |
| 338 | * PrivilegedRival: Rin Tohsaka used to be rich but was orphaned and her guardian, Kirei Kotomine, squandered her money. This hurts her because her main form of Magecraft requires gemstones as ingredients. Rin's main rival is Luvia Edelfelt, who uses most of the same Magecraft as Rin, but is absurdly wealthy and can afford pretty much anything, including nearly unlimited gemstones. Luvia constantly flaunts her wealth and mocks Rin for being poor. |
| 339 | * PublicDomainCharacter: Starting with ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', the series revolves around humans summoning "Heroic Spirits" to act as a type of super-powered {{Familiar}} known as "Servants." Sources range from Myth/ArthurianLegend (such as King Arthur and Mordred), to Myth/{{Celtic|Mythology}}/Myth/{{classical|Mythology}}/Myth/{{Aztec|Mythology}}/etc. Mythology (such as CĂș Chulainn, and Heracles), to characters from more modern fiction (such as [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Dr. Jekyll]] and the [[Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera Phantom of the Opera]]). |
| 340 | * PureMagicBeing: "Servants" are the consciousness of famous mythical/historical figures (called "Heroic Spirits") being summoned into a body made of pure mana of the summoner (usually called "Master"). They require constant supply of mana from their masters to stay alive, and using their supernatural abilities may exhaust the Master's mana if they're used too much. Killing a Servant would require either being killed by other Servants (or other supernatural beings), or having their mana supply cut off in some way, usually by affecting their Master. |
| 341 | * PurposeDrivenImmortality: [[TheFairFolk Faeries]] function like this in the Sixth Lostbelt as they neither age nor require sustenance, simply born with a function to fulfill and as long as they stay true to this purpose, they can remain immortal. Faeries that forget their purpose eventually suffer thorough LossOfIdentity since it's core to who they are and will decay into Mors. Faeries that remember their purpose but cannot actively fulfill it will drive themselves mad and mutate into a Nightcall. Unfortunately in certain cases, a faerie's purpose can be any kind of goal and they will stoop to horrifying lows to fulfill like [[spoiler: Aurora, whose purpose is to be the most brilliant and beautiful faerie. This has led to a centuries-long obsession with being admired and has her mastermind the deaths of various characters because she cannot stand them outshining her and capturing the attention of others.]] |
| 342 | * ReadingsAreOffTheScale: The EX rank in general, as the rank indicates the weapon/ability cannot be properly measured. Ea is this by virtue of being incredibly powerful, but other EX abilities approach the trope from different angles. For example, A rank [[AntiMagic magic resistance]] grants incredible resilience to a spell, EX magic resistance makes spells simply miss the person entirely. A rank Mad Enhancement renders its user absurdly powerful, but completely incoherent; EX madness can be anything from "in full control of their faculties, except in this ''one'' circumstance, where they go full crazy with stats to match" to "so crazed literally nothing gets into their thick skulls, and so insane their speech goes back to being coherent". |
| 343 | * RecurringElement: Most novel spinoffs will have a Servant or some kind of threat show up at the midpoint of the story that is so absurdly strong and/or dangerous compared to everyone else that they mutually agree to put aside their differences and the Holy Grail War because it's more pragmatic to get rid of said threat before it endangers them all. |
| 344 | * RedBaron: Some Servants have nicknames such as "The King of Conquerors" (Alexander the Great), "The King of Knights" (King Arthur), or "The King of Heroes" (Gilgamesh). |
| 345 | * RPGMechanicsVerse: DownplayedTrope. Servants, particularly their "skills" which are "ranked", are consistently discussed as if they came straight out of a tabletop RPG, but more concrete "game mechanics" like hit points are only used as metaphor. |
| 346 | * RubberBandHistory: There are multiple timelines in the verse, and the history in each naturally branches based on decisions/different happenstances that may occur. The "rubber band" here exists in the name of "Quantum Time-Lock"--a phenomenon where the world (which is a sentient being in this verse) decides that things that happen in a particular time and/or in a particular place are immutable. One can theoretically change the past events that led to the event that was secured by Quantum Time-Lock, but that past will inevitably be "corrected" so that it will fit the secured event in some way. |
| 347 | * SadlyMythtaken: The franchise tends to change myths around a lot, but these are usually intentional creative modifications. Examples range from simply gender-bending historical figures to making their myths real (with wacky magic and mythological creatures) to outright changing the experiences they lived into something more fantastic. |
| 348 | * SailorEarth: |
| 349 | ** Got a particularly weird Servant idea? Not a problem. Even across the canon, the Servant roster has included [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy legendary figures who had much stranger lives than history recorded, or proved to be much stranger beings than believed]], legendary figures who've undergone surprising post-mortem transformations, versions of legendary figures from {{alternate timeline}}s, {{anthropomorphic personification}}s, fictional characters who turn out to have been real, and characters who even in this 'verse are supposed to be fictional. |
| 350 | ** A more specific variation of this trope goes to [[ShadowArchetype Alter servants]]. Simply, pick one canonical servant, and think of a way for them to become more of a DarkerAndEdgier evil servant. From there, you got yourself an Alter servant people can easily use. |
| 351 | * ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: |
| 352 | ** Gilgamesh said and does this word by word during ''Anime/CarnivalPhantasm'' while stabbing Lancer with hundreds of blades with Gate of Babylon. |
| 353 | --->''[[IAmTheNoun I am the rules.]]'' |
| 354 | ** Nero Claudius possesses the ability "Imperial Privilege EX", which basically lets [[GenderFlip her]] say "I am the Emperor, so I decide what I am able to do!" It's what allows her to be a good fighter when historically Nero was no such thing (even in the Nasuverse): she decides she should be a good fighter, so she is. Skills she gains this way are only temporary though, and she will quickly forget them when they're not in use. |
| 355 | * SerialEscalation: |
| 356 | ** Just how many Servants can you fit in a Grail War? ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and its [[Literature/FateZero prequel]] keeps it at about 7 (Gilgamesh and [[spoiler:True Assassin]] notwithstanding). Then it's revealed in the original version of ''Prototype'' that Saber would've had to fight the previous War's six Servants on top of the threats he already faces. ''Literature/FateApocrypha'' tops that by having two teams of 7 and a supervisor in the form of Ruler, [[spoiler:two of them, in fact]]. ''VideoGame/FateExtra (CCC)'' has ''128'' Masters all fighting (though gameplay and story limitations means the player gets to see about 15 of the actual participants) for the Grail. ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' allows you to use all those Servants and then some, even allowing you to swing by other eras' Grail Wars with all of ''their'' Servants. ''Literature/FateRequiem'' trumps them all with everybody on the planet but the protagonist getting Servants as a result of an unspecified war. |
| 357 | ** How specialized can a Servant class get? The Assassins initially were ranked from the 19 members of the Hassan clan (that changed), while the Rulers were initially servants of God (also changed). ''VideoGame/FateExtra'' introduced the concept of special classes that only one Servant can have, like Saver ([[spoiler:Buddha]]) and Funny Vamp/Temptress (a possible class for [[VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}} Arcueid Brunestud]]). As of ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', we have the Moon Cancer class, which consists of [[VideoGame/FateExtra B.B.]] and for the long time ''only'' B.B. As of 2023, there are still only five different Moon Cancers, however, making it the rarest class with more than one candidate. The same game introduces another uniquely rare class: the Beast class reserved for apocalyptic monstrosities, which has a variety of candidates [[spoiler:but apparently only one, the Whore of Babylon, who could ever approach a more normal existence as a Servant with a Master]]. |
| 358 | * SeriesMascot: Saber (specifically the one from ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'') is single-handedly the most iconic Servant due to her historical gender flip and her status as a main character, which guaranteed she was given a lot of development. Proof of this is that she appears in several other installments, either as a major player or in a secondary role. And, when not, some Servant that shares her exact same model (aka, all of the Saber faces) is. |
| 359 | * SignatureMon: Within the Nasuverse, most Masters can only summon one Servant, but are able to make contracts with other Servants that have already been summoned. In [[InvertedTrope reverse]], Servants who have been serving more than one Master can also have their own Signature Master. This depends on the duration of the Master-Servant contract and how compelling their dynamic is. |
| 360 | * TheSleepless: As long as a Servant has a steady supply of Mana, they don't have to sleep. |
| 361 | * SoulEating: |
| 362 | ** Servants can do this to replenish their {{Mana}}, though the more wholesome ones are understandably quite averse to it. In ''Literature/FateApocrypha'', the [[UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper Assassin]] Servant --a ChaoticEvil AntiVillain-- expresses a preference for ''evil'' souls because their foulness makes them that much tastier, and souls of similar alignment are easier to digest. |
| 363 | ** It's not commented on often, but other kinds of magical creatures are able to do this since a soul is a pretty nifty source of {{Mana}} and can even be used to extend one's lifespan, and even mages can get in on this. However, it's often looked down upon in modern magical society since, moral issues aside, plenty of things can go wrong in the process, and even if successful, prolonged usage ''will'' cause DeathOfPersonality even in the best case scenario. |
| 364 | * SpecificallyNumberedGroup: There exist seven classes that can be summoned in Holy Grail Wars. The founding members of the Great Three Houses needed more Masters to participate in the ritual, thus the number of the main classes was fixed at seven. The seven classes are further divided into two categories: the Three Knights and the Four Cavalries. The Extra Classes are considered irregular. |
| 365 | * TheSpeechless: |
| 366 | ** This was originally suggested to be a trait common to all of TheBerserker-class Servants since their insanity has robbed them of their ability to speak. The Berserker of ''Literature/FateZero'' ([[spoiler:Sir Lancelot]]) also cannot speak and only vocalizes screams and growls. The one in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', [[spoiler: [[Myth/GreekMythology Herakles]]]], growls and roars a lot, but never talks. In fact, he's quite talkative after you [[spoiler: kill him]]. In ''VideoGame/FateExtra'', Lu Bu Fengxian likewise cannot speak. ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' did away with this convention, since a character who cannot speak is a very boring one to write for, and most of the Berserkers featured in it can speak, aside from those mentioned above. |
| 367 | ** Avenger of Shinjuku does not speak at all which is justified as [[spoiler:it's the Headless Horseman who lacks a head to communicate verbally with and his partner is a wolf who has no means of speaking, magical or otherwise.]] |
| 368 | * SpellMyNameWithAnS: When it comes to Saber's real name, most works use the name "Artoria", a feminine equivalent to the name "Artorius", while ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' specifically uses the name "Altria". In Japanese, both names are pronounced as "A-ru-to-ri-a", but in English, there's a rather big difference in how they're pronounced. |
| 369 | * SquareRaceRoundClass: Many Servants possess qualities that make them candidates for classes other than their main one -- e.g., a Lancer that also learned Magecraft in life could be a Caster too. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that they are actually good at their secondary classes. The reason for this is that the Fuyuki summoning system dictates that only seven Servants can be summoned and that their classes are based on their best role. For example; if two Servants in a single Holy Grail War can be a Saber class, the best one will be summoned as a Saber while the other will be summoned as something else. |
| 370 | * SummonBinding: A Servant - a Heroic Spirit which can be summoned as a familiar - is bound to their Master by Command Seals. These are three magical seals that, when used, force the Servant to obey a specific order no matter what. |
| 371 | * SummonMagic: The Servants in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', the [[Literature/FateZero prequel]], and the [[VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia pseudo-sequel]] are copies of Heroic Spirits, heroes or other major figures from history and myth stored in the Throne of Heroes, an interdimensional realm where these figures go after death. A Magus prepares a magic circle, usually made of blood. Optionally, he/she can add a relic of that hero or specify them as a Berserker (provided that someone else hasn't summoned their Servant as a Berserker yet) in order to get a specific hero. If no relic is used, the Servant summoned will be a random one who has a compatible personality to the Master. Between the two is using a "generalist" relic that can potentially summon a pool of Heroic Spirits tied to it but will end up with the one most compatible with the Master. Then they show up, the Master makes a contract for a week or two throughout the Grail War. The Servant stays until either they are defeated or the Grail War ends, at which point the Grail stops helping the Master supply them with Prana and their copies disappear and merge with their original versions in the Throne of Heroes. [[spoiler:Except for [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh]], who did not return to the Throne of Heroes after the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War. In addition, due to making a deal with the Earth, Saber/[[Myth/KingArthur Arturia]] has chosen not to join the Throne of Heroes until she wins a Holy Grail War and gets her wish, so instead, she returns to her original moment of death every time she dies in a Holy Grail War (which is what happens offscreen at the end of ''Fate/Zero'', and the cycle ends in the main ending of the ''Fate'' route of ''Fate/stay night'', where she accepts being KilledOffForReal). Saber and Rider/[[Myth/ClassicalMythology Medusa]] also stay in the present with their Masters in two of the endings of ''Unlimited Blade Works'' and ''Heaven's Feel'' respectively.]] Oh, and the magus who summons them generally has an absolutely 0% chance of ever being able to beat their Servant in combat, though there are a few exceptions. Among the Servants themselves, a few have the ability to cast their own Summon Magic. ''Literature/FateZero'''s Caster, for instance, instead of fighting the others directly, only ever uses his TomeOfEldritchLore to bring in monsters that fight on his behalf. |
| 372 | * SuperStrength: All Servants are notably stronger than humans -- in fact, an E Rank in Strength means you're technically 10x stronger than the strongest living human. |
| 373 | * SwordBeam: A Drama CD jokes about the overuse of this trope with Saber-class Servants by declaring that Sabers must be able to shoot beams from their swords. In actuality though, there are about as many Sabers who don't shoot beams as there are that do. |
| 374 | * TakeItToTheBridge: Fuyuki City has a red bridge (based on the [[https://en.japantravel.com/hyogo/kobe-ohashi-bridge/9671 Kobe Ohashi]]) as a prominent backdrop for several scenes, including Rider's last stand against Gilgamesh in ''Literature/FateZero'' and Saber's long-distance battle with Archer in ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia''. |
| 375 | * TheyWouldCutYouUp: The Magi Association [[UndesirablePrize "awards"]] Magi with inimitable abilities with the Sealing Designation, which means they are to be vivisected and taken apart for study. One of the known Magi "awarded" with such an honor is [[Literature/FateZero Kiritsugu's father]]. For that reason, Tokiomi feared that keeping [[spoiler: Rin ''and'' Sakura]], two children born with rare magical powers, would've gotten them on this list. |
| 376 | * TheTimeOfMyths: Gods used to roam the Earth as the dominant species. But (as told in ''Videogame/FateExtella''), around 12000 BC, an extraterrestrial being called "Sefar" came to Earth, then killed some of those gods and caused major devastation until it was taken down by the wielder of "the holy sword that projects the light of the Earth" (highly implied to be Excalibur). It marks the first decline of the "Age of Gods". Other points where Age of Gods is said to decline is when [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Gilgamesh rebelled against the gods]] and when [[Literature/TheBible King Solomon, the "King of Magic"]] died, with [[EndOfAnAge the age's end]] (and the start of "Age of Man") being the rise and spread of Christianity (0 AD). |
| 377 | * TranslatorMicrobes: Servants, being spirits of mythical heroes summoned in the modern day, are supplied with all the knowledge they need to function in the modern-day upon their summoning so that they won't suffer from things like culture shock. Amongst this knowledge is the ability to speak any human language, allowing Servants to communicate with their Masters as well as other Servants no matter the language spoken (most often Japanese, because the Holy Grail War takes place in a Japanese city). |
| 378 | * UnconventionalAlignment: All Servants have one specific alignment of the regular axis, with the exception of TheBerserker Class, which [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity exchanges the sanity of the Servant for a Stat Boost]], overriding the Morality Axis for the simple "Mad" label, and for example [[spoiler:[[Myth/ArthurianLegend Lancelot]]]], the Berserker of the Fourth Holy Grail War was "Lawful Mad" while [[spoiler: [[Myth/GreekMythology Herakles]]]], the Berserker of the Fifth Holy Grail was "Chaotic Mad". Within the franchise, every Berserker introduced after them does not have the Mad alignment, though. With the exception of a gag character named Mori Nagayoshi. Grand Order introduces Summer Servants, who are reclassed and wearing swimwear (Artoria is an Archer with a Squirt Gun for example), and for some instead of a Good/Evil alignment have "Summer". And then there's Nero Bride (An alternate Nero based on a costume from CCC), who has the alignment of Chaotic Bride. |
| 379 | * UnskilledButStrong: All Servants are supposed to have superhuman combat skills except for TheBerserker class, whose gimmick is that they lose their fighting skills in exchange for massive power boosts and madness. |
| 380 | * WeakBossStrongUnderlings: Usually, Masters are human mages of variable magical prowess, although there have been cases of normal people being able to summon Servants. However, no matter how strong the Master is, their Servants will always be stronger by virtue of being a suprahuman Heroic Spirit. Pretty much any Servant can butcher the {{Squishy Wizard}}s that the Masters are. Masters only control their Servants because of the contract both parties signed at the moment of the summon, which grants Masters Command Spells to force the Servants into doing their bidding. |
| 381 | * WeakToMagic: Servants and Heroic Spirits can only be harmed by things or people which have been imbued with {{Mana}} or are magical in and of themselves. This is why it's been stated not even a ''nuke'' would be able to harm a Servant under normal circumstances, but a regular knife enhanced with Reinforcement Magecraft could if used properly. On top of this, most Servants possess Magic Resistance, granting them immunity to lower-tier spells and magical weapons and resistance to higher-tier ones depending on how strong it is, and of course have wildly-varying levels of (super)natural toughness that would let some even shrug off a FantasticNuke. |
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