Anime / Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia

The Age of Gods - the final age when Mystics remain.
And the age when humanity and the gods part ways.

— Teaser trailer

Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia is a 21-episode anime based on the "Babylonia" chapter from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order. It is produced by CloverWorks, former sub-studio of A-1 Pictures (Fate/Apocrypha), and began airing on October 5, 2019. Episode 0, a prologue to the main story, premiered on August 4, 2019 via the Fate/Grand Order game app in Japan. Aniplex licensed the episode for North American territories through FunimationNow, and for Australia and New Zealand through AnimeLab.

The series is the first in a joint venture, through Sony/Aniplex, that involves Funimation, Wakanim and AnimeLab exclusively simulcasting the show for their respective territories (with other services like Crunchyroll streaming it with a month long delay). The English dub began streaming from November 2, 2019 via Funimation's service who, as part of the aforementioned deal, have exclusive streaming rights to it for a year.

In the present day, the Chaldea Security Organization, already struggling to reverse the incineration of human civilization, has located the final disturbance in the space-time continuum. As the seventh singularity linked to humanity's destruction, Chaldea sends Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash Kyrielight back in time to put an end to it and retrieve the Mage King's Holy Grail. Landing in ancient Babylonia at the dawn of human civilization, Chaldea teams up with an older, wiser, and calmer Gilgamesh to save his kingdom from hordes of demonic monsters and vindictive goddesses.

After the anime ended, a sequel Fate/Grand Order Final Singularity - Grand Temple of Time: Solomon covering the Final Singularity was announced. The film premiered in Japanese theaters on July 30, 2021 as part of the celebration for Fate/Grand Order's sixth anniversary.

Previews: Teaser trailer, Trailer 1, Trailer 2

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The anime provides examples of:

#-C

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Downplayed, as it is used sparingly.
  • The Uridimmu, while alive, are very obviously CG.
  • The snake heads in Gorgon's hair are obviously CG, too. Actually if they show Gorgon full profile, she's obviously CG just due to her size.
  • CG is used to animate the Lahmu in certain shots, but they're supposed to stand out unnaturally.
  • Tiamat's kaiju form is the most blatant use of CG yet. However, like the above example, it's supposed to be unnatural, so it is probably a creative choice. Fortunately, it looks much better in episode 18, which has much darker lighting effects. Her Jurassic form is also blatantly CG, but it helps send home just how horrifying she is..
• Ability Mixing: In desperation, Quetzalcoatl mixes her two Noble Phantasms against Tiamat.
• Adaptation Decay: The franchise's version of the fight between Marduk and Tiamat has him defeating her by slitting her throat open with his axe while the original version had him shoot her heart with his bow.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • Mash and Fujimaru doing errands for the people of Uruk to build up their reputation with Gilgamesh was cut down to a montage in episode 3, while in the game it was several story nodes.
  • In Episode 5, the scene where Gilgamesh gets punted by a Rider-class colossus is cut completely and the journey to the observatory is cut down considerably.
  • Ibaraki-douji, Tomoe Gozen, Amakusa Shirou, or Fuuma Kotaro do not make an appearance, only making a Cameo in the second ending. Justified since they were only mentioned in passing in the game and contributed very little to the story.
  • The mango scene with Quetzalcoatl is completely cut from the anime and the initial fight with Quetzalcoatl is shortened to Mash kicking her into a building. Ishtar's explanation of the Mesoamerican pantheon's original form as bacteria riding the meteor that killed the dinosaurs and infecting the local wildlife to become gods is also cut.
  • The scene explaining what was written on the Tablet of Destiny was cut since it was about Goetia's motivations.
  • A scene where "Enkidu" consults Solomon after the real Tiamat awakens is cut, explaining how the Human Order will completely fall apart if Tiamat destroys the cradle of civilization.
  • The battle with Tiamat's Femme Fatale form is shortened to Ishtar using her Noble Phantasm to destroy Tiamat to dubious effect. Conversations about how Tiamat looks sad and how she was discarded by humanity after giving birth to them and then banished to Imaginary Number Space was also cut.
  • The conversation in which Gilgamesh reveals that deaths and averted deaths that occur in Singularities stick even when proper human history is restored is cut.
  • The scene of Benkei being attacked by the tide corrupted Ushiwakamaru was cut as well.
  • The scene where the protagonists talk about Tiamat and the scene when Tiamat says Kingu's name is also cut. Presumably, this was in service to the Adaptation Expansion scene of Fujimaru and Tiamat having a direct conversation.
  • Episode 21 cuts Quetzalcoatl getting revenge on Merlin for his stunt with the Axe of Marduk.
  • The anime also cuts Quetzalcoatl's speech about why she loves humanity and all the things she can do to humanity.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The anime shows Enkidu's death from Fate's take on The Epic of Gilgamesh, which the Grand Order game didn't do.^note Fate/EXTRA CCC and Fate/Zero both showed Enkidu's death, albeit contradictory accounts of it, but Grand Order never did so it still counts as Adaptation Expansion.
  • The anime often goes back to Chaldea to see how Roman and da Vinci are doing, while also expanding on their dynamic.
  • The fight with "Enkidu" at the observation tower on the coast was very different between the game and anime. In the game Mash and Fujimaru fight "Enkidu" off and then Gilgamesh appears after they flee, to which he says that the "Enkidu" was probably an impostor. In the anime he appears and fights "Enkidu" himself, turning it into a more dramatic confrontation and introspection into Gilgamesh and Enkidu's past.
  • Episode 6 shows the priestesses summoning Ishtar which was only discussed in the game. While showing that the head priestess was killed by Ereshkigal.
  • Episode 7 explicitly shows that it is Solomon and his plan that Gilgamesh's Tablet of Destinies is related to with the visual of Solomon sending his Grails back in time to the seven Singularities.
  • Episode 8 drags out Chaldea's first battle with Tiamat-Gorgon, turning what originally left them all fleeing for their lives into a valiant Last Stand for both Leonidas and Ushiwakamaru. Not only does Leonidas deduce the goddess' true identity from her interactions with him, he blows a hole through her body with one last spear throw. Also, in Ushiwakamaru's case, she shows off multiple forms of her Shana-Oh Wandering Tales and gave Tiamat-Gorgon a hell of a fight while mocking her to her face.
  • Episode 15 shows Stheno and Euryale being eaten by Gorgon and a never seen before Beast that might be Primate Murder based on its tail.
  • Episode 20 adds a scene during the final battle where Fujimaru and Tiamat's Femme Fatale form have a conversation, presumably within Tiamat's own mindscape.
  • Episode 21 greatly expands on the end of the singularity, letting Fujimaru and Mash have personal goodbyes with the remaining Servants that helped them.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Exactly why Ishtar looks exactly like Rin isn't addressed, leaving the viewer to assume Rin just had an uncannily identical distant ancestor in the Middle East.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • Fujimaru. In contrast to his game counterpart, he shows more doubt on his decisions, is more self-conscious of his weaknesses and his inability to save Olga Marie, fix Fuyuki or prevent the sacrifice of his allies constantly haunts him. Justified as seeing people die in front of you will traumatize anyone. He's also noticeably horrified when he sees the real Tiamat face to face.
  • Gilgamesh as well. Unlike in the game, Gilgamesh shows considerable amount of sadness and regret not only where Enkidu is concerned but also his life in general.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • In game, Mash is a Mighty Glacier / Stone Wall support Servant who is great at tanking but not very good offensively. The anime makes her more then capable of fighting like other Servants, and giving her physical strength that is enough to kick a Demonic Beast to death. Lord Camelot was also buffed: in the game it only raised the defense and attack of your front row Servants, in the anime it can reflect attacks launched against it as shown when Mash is able to reflect Ereshkigal's final attack back at her. It should be stated that Lord Camelot had this ability in both Fate/Grand Order -First Order- and Fate/Grand Order -Moonlight/Lost Room-.
  • Gilgamesh as a Caster was Weak, but Skilled in game, due to giving his Gate of Babylon to his soldiers to arm them, and his own lack of training in Magecraft making him not as strong offensively, but making him an ideal support. The anime cuts this element down and makes him far stronger, to the point where his anime self can casually fight Mash and Ana alone. Not to mention Episode 5 has him opening a really large portal of the Gate of Babylon to counter Enkidu/Kingu's own onslaught without breaking a sweat.
  • Ushiwakamaru in the anime recovers from her defeat against Gorgon that in the game left her completely knocked out before she awoke back in their base of operations, and manages to launch a second defiant attack against the goddess that's heavily implied would have managed to kill her were it not for her immortality.
  • Similarly, Leonidas is able to launch a powerful defiant spear throw that blows a hole through Gorgon's body as a last act whereas in the game he was only able to use his defensive Noble Phantasm to prevent her from killing the protagonist and breaching the walls. Not to mention the version of Thermopylae Enomotia has manifestations of Spartans actually fighting with their King instead of just the defense buff.
  • The Ugallu is this as well. While it wasn't that weak in the game, not only is it much bigger in the anime but also it is durable enough that a blade built to kill immortals has difficulty harming it. It is also capable of unleashing explosive fireballs that have the potential to destroy entire buildings, and its swipes can easily tear up the ground.
  • Ereshkigal is also shown to more formidable than her showing in the games, to the point of showing off an entirely new Noble Phantasm as part of a last-ditch attack to defeat Chaldea.
• Adaptational Intelligence:
  • While the party found the one passive Lahmu a weird but otherwise unimportant anomaly in the game, anime Fujimaru and Ishtar both quickly realize that Lahmu is Siduri.
  • Similarly when "Gorgon" returns, the party took her statement of wanting revenge as the truth in the game and it's later hinted it was Ana that came back after they left. In the anime, both Fujimaru and Mash know that it's Ana but keep quiet to respect her wishes.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Mordred in the game manages to survive Solomon's blast when they meet in London, albeit barely standing. In the flashback shown in episode 7, she's also knocked out along with the other Servants.
  • Tiamat in the game takes Quetzalcoatl's second Noble Phantasm to the face and basically ignores it. In the anime, Tiamat creates several barriers to hold her back and visibly struggles while doing so, even cracking her horn. This is entirely due to Rule of Cool though.
  • In the game, all remaining Servants help bring down Tiamat for the final battle with Archer Gilgamesh dealing the final blow with his Noble Phantasm. In the anime however, no one can harm her in any way and Fujimaru essentially has to convince Tiamat to stop.
• Adorable Abomination: Despite being a monstrous Beast, Tiamat◊ is surprisingly cute, with soft features and an adorable butterfly-like Exotic Eye Design.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Cool Big Sis Quetzalcoatl tends to gently rub Fujimaru's head while hugging him close.
• Affectionate Nickname: Ishtar takes to calling Quetzalcoatl "Coatl".
• Almost Dead Guy: Even after taking a direct hit from Tiamat, the mortally wounded Gilgamesh manages to cling onto life long enough to inspire Fujimaru and Mash to fight no matter what, help hold off Tiamat for just long enough, and say farewell to Enkidu a second time before succumbing to death with the collapse of Uruk into the Underworld.
• Ambiguous Situation: Whether Ziusu-dra is the Old Man of the Mountain's real identity, or whether it was a fake name he gave as part of his disguise. The question is left unanswered, though some characters say they don't believe that Ziusu-dra is somebody just anyone would claim to be.
• Anachronic Order: This series adapts Chapter 7 of the game. A duology movie series is in the works that will adapt Chapter 6 (Camelot), but the first film of said series won't release until 2020, after this show has finished airing. That said, a television movie adapting the prologue chapter of the game was made and released in 2016, and this series' episode 0 covers a large chunk of the game's backstory which was not in the game's version of this chapter.
• Anti-Villain:
  • Episode 9 has Ishtar (actually Ereshkigal) explain she's part of the Three Goddess Alliance as she doesn't approve of humanity trying to break free from the gods thinking it will only hurt them in the end. Believing the gods can both help humanity and as act as their scapegoats for their troubles. Episode 13 expands on this, revealing that Ereshkigal joined the Three Goddess Alliance to protect the souls of the humans that would be killed by the other goddess.
  • Episode 10 establishes Quetzalcoatl as this, too. The only reason why she's attacking Uruk is because her "mother" told her to and even then she hasn't actually killed anyone.
  • Enkidu/Kingu is one as while he does desire the end of humanity, he sees no reason for them to suffer in their last moments. He releases children caught by the Demonic Beasts and is disgusted by the Lahmu's actions.
• The Archmage: Two of them appear: Solomon, the King of Mages, and then Merlin the immortal half-incubus. Both of them are also Grand Caster candidates, marking them as the best of the best the Caster class has to offer.
• Artistic License – Paleontology: One of Quetzalcoatl's Noble Phantasms is a Quetzalcoatlus, a Cretaceous-era pterosaur that was named after her, but the creature is incorrectly depicted with a bipedal take off and the wrong number of digits on its feet.
• Ascended Extra: In the original game, Marisbury Animusphere is only known via backstory, having died before the story started. Episode 0 begins when he was in charge of Chaldea, giving him a face and voice.
• Ascended Meme: Jaguar Warrior shouts "Servants die when they are killed!" when Ishtar attacks her, referring to the infamous poorly-translated line from the 2006 Fate/stay night anime, "People die when they are killed."
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
  • Gorgon emerges in episode 7. She absolutely dwarfs the ziggurat in Nippur.
  • And then Tiamat's true form in episode 17 dwarfs even that, going full Kaiju.
• Back from the Dead: Episode 12 reveals that Ereshkigal has been using her Gallu spirits to take the souls of the people of Uruk and Nippur to Kur, the Babylonian underworld. Episode 13 has Ereshkigal return the souls she forcibly took after Fujimaru is able to convince her to join their side. Hilariously Gilgamesh is completely nonchalant towards the entire situation even snarking it's the third time he's done this already.
• Bad "Bad Acting": When making offerings to Ishtar to get her to join humanity's side, Fujimaru tosses a bag of jewels before acting like he'd made a mistake in a hilariously over-the-top way and presenting the rest of the treasure he brought to her. Ishtar would normally be more wary of him, but she's too distracted by the jewels to notice.
• Battle Aura: Jaguar Warrior crackles with energy when she's attacking.
• Battle Strip: When Quetzalcoatl absorbs the power of her Noble Phantasm, Piedra Del Sol, her armor breaks due to the immense power.
• Beam Spam: Ishtar fighting style involves spams magical lasers either from her hands or the Boat of Heaven.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Ereshkigal falls head over heels for Fujimaru for being the first person to actually talk to her and not be scared of her due to being the goddess of the underworld.
• Benevolent Mage Ruler: Downplayed. Gilgamesh is specced as a Caster in this story, but his use of "magic" consists of pulling magical wands and artifacts out of the Gate of Babylon. Even still, he's the highly capable and benevolent ruler of Uruk who has kept it standing for the past six months and enjoys Universally Beloved Leader status among his subjects.
• Beware the Silly Ones:
  • Jaguar Warrior is by and far away the silliest character in the story thanks to possessing the wacky personality of Taiga Fujimura cranked up. But she's absolutely a Fighting Clown who easily defeats Mash and Ana and forces them to retreat. She also declares her interest in devouring the entrails of heroes while sending the common folk to be worked to death.
  • Quetzalcoatl is a cheerful goddess who cracks jokes, laughs easily, and preforms over-the-top lucha libre on her enemies just for fun. She's also likely stronger than Gorgon, and capable of breaking into the fortress city of Uruk, smashing buildings, killing guards (though not really), and walking away with zero consequences. She's also the goddess of good, allowing her to No-Sell even Ishtar's attacks without a care.
• Beyond the Impossible:
  • In the underworld of Kur, any one of the living who enters without permission from Ereshkigal losses all powers and Authorities. Heroic spirits and even gods are not exempted from this rule. This is why Fujimaru's party tries to force Tiamat into Kur, hoping to render her powerless. It doesn't, baffling Ereshkigal herself.
  • Tiamat, as a primordial goddess of creation, cannot be killed. The laws of existence say so. Even being dropped into the literal underworld does not change that. Then King Hassan enters the fray and carves the concept of "death" into her very essence, thus enabling her to be killed and die.
• BFS: The spear wielded by Ereshkigal is as giant as her enormous ghost form that towers over the protagonists. It gets even bigger when she prepares to unleash her Noble Phantasm against Chaldea.
• The Big Bad Shuffle: There are multiple candidates for the main villain of the Singularity, but ultimately the position goes to the real Tiamat with Solomon pulling the strings from behind as the Greater-Scope Villain.
• Big Damn Heroes: After Quetzalcoatl sacrifices herself while battling Tiamat, only to deal seemingly no damage, Fujimaru is prepared to burn out his mana to power Mash's Lord Camelot and stall for as much time as possible despite already being drained from powering Quetzalcoatl's Noble Phantasms. That's when Gorgon suddenly rises from the depths of the Chaos Tide to battle Tiamat.
  • Episode 19 features not one, not two, but three instances of this trope:
    • First, Kingu shows up to stop the horde of Lahmu from overrunning Uruk, effortlessly slaughtering them with his chains. According to the original game, he kills six thousand of the deranged beasts.
    • Later, when the Chaos Tide threatens to overtake the underworld, a wave of it nearly crashes upon Fujimaru, Mash, and Ereshkigal — but is stopped as it transforms into flowers and dissipates. Merlin — the actual man, not as a Servant — has come back to lend his aid once more. And he's not alone...
    • The episode ends with "Ziusu-dra" shedding his disguise and revealing his true identity: The first Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan-i-Sabbah. Grand Assassin.
  • In episode 20 as Tiamat begins climbing out of the Underworld, a golden Storm of Blades stops her. Gilgamesh has arrived, but it's not King Gilgamesh who somehow survived. No, this is Servant Gilgamesh in his iconic Archer class, and for once he's serious.
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • After a period of Stunned Silence, this is everyone's reaction after Ishtar reveals that she lost Gugalanna.
  • Ishtar and Ereshkigal both share this when Fujimaru and Gilgamesh reveal their plan to drop Tiamat into the underworld to circumvent her immortality.
• Bittersweet Ending: Tiamat is defeated, but it costs the protagonists nearly everything, including the city of Uruk, while the Mesopotamian Underworld is a wreck. What's more, Quetzalcoatl,Jaguar Warrior, and Gilgamesh have to fade away, and Merlin returns to Avalon, meaning only Ishtar and King Hassan remain in the era. Regardless, Gilgamesh assures Fujimaru and Mash that civilisation will continue, and we see a few survivors leave the region. However, the anime reminds us that this is only the penultimate battle, and there's only a little time left before they face off with The King of Mages one more time.
  • However the phone game retcons some of the events afterwards to make the aftermath more positive: Gaia will eventually realise that the sheer damage, caused by an incredibly unexpected supernatural phenomenon (ie, Tiamat), cannot be justified by alternate means and resorts to restoring Uruk back to normal.
• Bloodier and Gorier: In contrast to the game's Bloodless Carnage when fighting monsters, episode 1 shows the Uridimmu bursting apart with blood when Mash, Ishtar, and "Enkidu" kill them in various ways.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The old man, actually First Hassan in disguise that Fujimaru helps advises him that trying to understand gods by human standards is foolish because they simply aren't human.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution:
  • Ishtar makes the mistake of bragging that she's the most beautiful goddess between herself and Ereshkigal while also calling the latter out as a "goddess of rot and decay" while on the deity's own home turf. She gets a bolt of divine lightning for it so bad it knocks her out and leaves her smoking while the gate that asked the question of the most beautiful goddess calls her a nitwit.
  • Quetzalcoatl gets one after she's manipulated to attacking Gorgon's Blood Fort by Merlin while still bound by the Three Goddesses Alliance's oath. Jaguar Warrior states Quetzalcoatl lost half of her divinity due to the lightning.
• Book Ends: Fujimaru and Mash's time in the Singularity starts and ends with them in a ruined city making their way to Uruk.
• Boring, but Practical: The Three Goddess Alliance is gunning for the chance to kill Gilgamesh, but only one of them succeeds. It's Ereshkigal, who waits until Gilgamesh is tired from work then reaps his soul while he's asleep.
• Breather Episode:
  • To help deescalate from the brutal episode 8 in which Gilgamesh's side takes significant losses with Benkei leaving the warfront in response to self-perceived failure, Ushiwakamaru taken by enemy forces, and Leonidas dying, episode 9 has the protagonists on a light-hearted expedition to recruit Ishtar to their cause with significantly lower stakes.
  • Similarly, episode 16, which was filled to the bring with action and raw emotion, is followed by an episode with little of either aside from Ishtar unleashing her Noble Phantasm on Tiamat. Instead most of the focus is on character conversations and levity.
• Brick Joke: In episode 9, Fujimaru bribes Ishtar into joining their side by offering her 20% of the gems within Uruk's treasury. She brings this up in episode 21 as a convenient afterthought when she's explaining that she's sticking around in Uruk for the foreseeable future.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: When Cthulhu is a primordial mother goddess gone berserk, certainly. By the end of the series, nearly the entire cast sacrifices themselves to defeat Tiamat, and even then, Uruk is destroyed. At the very least, Chaldeas ensures a world for humans and civilisation remains.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Jaguar Warrior in Episodes 10 & 11. Her first reappearance has her suffering Amusing Injuries courtesy of Ana, her Werejaguars don't even get a proper onscreen fight, and then when Fujimaru and his allies return to the jungle, all of them except Mash proceed to ignore her and walk past her until she starts crying. And when they finally do pay attention to her, Ishtar hits her in the forehead with a magic bolt. This continues in Episode 11, where she gets caught by Quetzalcoatl in a pile driver and ends up with her head stuck in the ground. And unlike Ana and Ishtar, who get back up, she stays that way until the fight ends, at which point Quetzalcoatl puts her in charge of taking the Axe of Marduk to Uruk, but when Jaguar Warrior protests, Quetzalcoatl threatens to send her to a skinner or a taxidermist.
  • As in the game, Ishtar. She gets captured by the heroes in Episode 6, albeit through Worf Had the Flu, turns out to not be part of the Three Goddess Alliance like Chaldea thought, and then when she, Mash, and Fujimaru travel to the Underworld, she gets insulted by Ereshkigal's tests, zapped when she calls Ereshkigal a goddess of rot and decay, gets shrunk by the seven gates to the point she can ride Fou, and finally gets mocked and manhandled by Gilgamesh when they meet him. Later, upon admitting that she lost the Bull of Heaven, it culminates with her being forced to wear a tablet reading "I'm the worst goddess" around he neck. Useless goddess indeed.
• Call-Back:
  • A heartbreaking one. Ristuka and Ishtar know that Siduri was turned into a Lahmu when she gives the raise-the-white-flag gesture that Ishtar talked about in episode 3.
  • Episode 18 ends with Gorgon emerging from the burning Chaos Tide and unleashing her Mystic Eyes as "Prover" plays in the background. Just like Ana in episode 14.
  • In Fate/Zero, when Aŋra Mainiiu asks Gilgamesh "who will bear the burden of all the world's evils," Gilgamesh answers as king, it is his duty to bear the burden of the world. Ereshkigal has similar sentiments, saying that it is the gods' duty to bear the blame for humanity's suffering. She cannot accept that Gilgamesh encouraged the separation of the mortal and divine, leaving the gods and Ereshkigal herself behind as humanity continues progressing.
• Calling Your Attacks: To quote Jaguar Warrior: JAGUAR KICK! JAGUAR CRASH! JAGUAR JAVELIN! JAGUAR HAMMER! JAGUAR DYNAMITE!
• Came Back Strong: Gilgamesh returns in the Underworld after Tiamat kills him as a soul specced as his stronger Archer form.
• Came Back Wrong: This story takes place after The Epic of Gilgamesh so Enkidu is supposed to be dead. It quickly becomes apparent something is off when "Enkidu" attacks the heroes after this fact is revealed. The Reveal that "Enkidu" is actually Kingu expands on this further; Enkidu's body is essentially being used by Kingu.
• The Cameo:
  • Episodes 0 and 2 give brief flashbacks to the various singularities before Babylonia, giving this to the Servants who appear there.
  • Episode 4 opens with Sakata Kintoki, Tamamo-no-Mae, William Shakespeare, and Mordred all collapsing to the ground after their battle against Solomon, as Fujimaru remembers the ending of the London singularity. Later in the same episode, we see flashbacks of Amadeus and Olga Marie.
  • Episode 5 has Mash recalling a conversation with Drake, and Humbaba appearing in the fog-shrouded distance during Enkidu's memories.
  • Episode 9 features a still shot of Stheno, Euryale, and Rider Medusa as Merlin recounts the legend of Gorgon.
  • Episode 10 features a still shot of a Giant demonic boar and a Gazer.
  • Episode 11 features a flashback of Sherlock Holmes as Fujimaru remembers their discussion with him in the Camelot Singularity. It also shows a cascade of still shots of Servants from previous Singularities, including Amadeus, Nero, Drake, Mordred, Jekyll, Nightingale, and Bedivere.
  • The second ending sequence features Tomoe Gozen, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, Fuuma Kotarou, and Ibaraki-douji. All of them were among the Servants that Gilgamesh summoned, but they died before Fujimaru and Mash arrived.
  • Episode 15 shows Ana having a vision of her sisters, Stheno and Euryale. We also get a glimpse of a doglike monster while Gilgamesh is explaining the Beasts, which is almost certainly Beast IV, Primate Murder.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: It's implied that Ushiwakamaru swapped Leonidas' tea with beer, and a single sip is enough to send him into a drunken stupor.
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Ana despises Merlin and is constantly telling him to drop dead, but she also has a deal with him and continues to humor his whims despite her disdain for him.
• Casting Gag:
  • In Japanese, Nightingale is voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro, the same actor who plays Mordred. So for the English dub, Nightingale's cameo in this show is voiced by Erica Lindbeck, who was the English voice of Mordred.
  • Similarly, Da Vinci's voice is the same as Jeanne d'Arc in both languages, though Da Vinci's English debut was in the virtual reality game, not here.
  • Continuing the trend, The Old Man or rather King Hassan is voiced by Kirei Kotomine in both languages as well.
  • Jalen K. Cassell voices both Lev Lainur and the Mage King in English, matching with Tomokazu Sugita. In this case it's because Lev is a Demon Pillar, and the Mage King is the conglomerate hive mind of all the Demon Pillars, so in a way they're the same character.
  • Invoked. Just before recording for Gilgamesh in the anime, Tomokazu Seki was hired by the Ancient Orient Museum in Tokyo to narrate a guided tour of the Gilgamesh and Heroes of the Ancient Orient exhibit. Fittingly enough, the script called for the narration to be in-character as Gilgamesh and was made available as an audio CD, Recitation of The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Man that Peered into the Abyss
  • Reaching outside of the Fate franchise itself, Ana, as well as Gorgon, is voiced by Melissa Fahn, who has very famously played another purple-haired Little Miss Badass with a misanthropic streak.
• The Chains of Commanding:
  • Gilgamesh is stuck administering all of Uruk for most of the story, preventing him from taking to the frontlines personally to help defend his kingdom despite being more powerful than all of his soldiers put together. Of course, being the king, this doesn't stop him from sneaking away with Mash and Fujimaru to go fight some monsters and take a break from all of his kingly duties. At least until it's revealed that this trip also has a purpose, as he was testing the Indian Ocean to determine the status of Tiamat.
  • Ereshkigal less humorous example. Having been born to be the goddess of the underworld, she had no say in the matter and is left to languish alone among the spirits of the dead as part of her divine duties. She has never seen the sun, or flowers, or even had someone else to talk to aside from gods or mortals seeking favors from her. This has left her desperately lonely and starved of affection and understanding.
• Chain Pain:
  • Ana uses her chains as a weapon in the anime a lot more than she does in the game. In the game her animations only have her using it to attack with her scythe from afar, while here she is constantly wrapping it around enemies or using it as a rope to swing around the battlefield.
  • Enkidu, being the source of the Chains of Heaven, also makes extensive use of these in combat to skewer and bind their foes. Kingu, who is using Enkidu's body, scoffs at the thought of Ana using chains against him before quickly tying everyone one up, only to realize that he's been fighting an illusion the entire time.
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Subtle, but Quetzalcoatl hesitates when Fujimaru asks her motivation, then tangents off into how attractive he is. While she does get around to answering it, it hints she's not actually evil.
• Character Development:
  • Unsurprisingly, the current King Gilgamesh (classed as a Caster) is living, walking proof of how far he has matured from how he was from the beginning and during the original Epic—and for most of his previous appearances throughout the franchise. Some notable moments stand out:
    • His arrogance/sense of superiority: In previous appearances, Gilgamesh is quite unbearably proud and in-your-face in demonstrating his superiority. Here, he lets his actions and capabilities speak for himself. Furthermore, whereas he always goes into a fight expecting to win/be superior, here he fights about as good as his opponents deserve—commenting only on whether they are useful or not.
    • His self-respect: Originally, the Archer Gilgamesh expects everyone to bow/follow him, and will openly destroy/kill anyone who seems to be treating him beneath his own self-belief. Here, he has no issues praising people more openly, treating them with kindness/encouragement (especially the children), and even takes comments on his attitude in stride.
    • His view on fakes/imitations: He is best remembered to massively despise anyone who aspires to reach his level (as his disdain for both Archer and Emiya Shirou in Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] suggests). When faced with "Enkidu" and informed by Mashu that they are a fake/imitation, he nonetheless concedes that they are "quite convincing nonetheless".
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Downplayed. Fujimaru knows that there's no way he'll ever be able to keep up with a Servant in a fight, but he keeps up his training regimen anyways in order to be less of a burden on his allies if he's ever caught in a bad situation. To his credit, he's pulled off feats like a Diving Save for Mash against "Enkidu", so it hasn't been for nothing.
  Fujimaru: I'm just an ordinary human, and half-assed as a Master to boot. At the very least, I need to be buff.
• The Charmer: On top of his natural Chick Magnet charm, Fujimaru knows just what to say to make friends. While his "compliments" to Jaguar Warrior would be terrible under any other circumstances, it was apparently enough to verbally deflower her, turning her to his side in about 30 seconds.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The shrine that Quetzalcoatl set up to grant her the same powers as she would have with Home Field Advantage. It ultimately allows her to use Piedra Del Sol against Tiamat, making it a very good thing that Fujimaru didn't try to destroy it earlier after all.
  • Episode 7 has Fou teleport Ana after Kingu trapped her, episode 20 has Fou use this ability again to teleport Fujimaru right in front of Tiamat to deliver the final blow.
• Chick Magnet: Fujimaru upholds the proud Type-Moon protagonist tradition. Mash obviously has a crush on him, Ushiwakamaru is rather quick to swear her loyalty to him, he was able to charm Jaguar Warrior with just two compliments, Ereshkigal falls head over heels for him, and Quetzalcoatl calls him a cutie the second she sees him and asks for his hand in marriage. Harem Protagonist EX indeed.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • Mash is increasingly displeased as more and more female Servants start contracting with Fujimaru. When Jaguar Warrior joins the team, Mash is quick to introduce herself by stepping in between the two and boasting of her status as Fujimaru's "official" Servant, all with an eerily cheerful smile on her face.
  • Ereshkigal as well, pinching Fujimaru's cheek when he was able to win over Quetzalcoatl.
• Colony Drop: Ishtar's Noble Phantasm, An Gal Tā Kigal Shē, conceptualizes the planet Venus and launches it at her target. However, unlike the game where she warps to Venus, here she uses a huge gate to bring Venus to her.
• Combat Pragmatist: Merlin. He uses illusions to confuse his opponents, and will use his swordfighting skills to preoccupy an opponent until they get blasted by the staff in his other hand.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The game established that Mash is a big fan of both Hans Christian Andersen and Sherlock Holmes. Episode 0 shows Romani introducing them to her with him giving Mash a book of Andersen's fairy tales and the two of them watching the 1984 Holmes series together.
  • Episode 1 features snapshots of the previous singularities, along with some of the people Fujimaru and Mash met in each one.
  • Episode 6 reveals that Fujimaru works out in his spare time to make up for his sub par skill as a magus which was shown in Fate/Grand Order -MOONLIGHT/LOSTROOM-.
  • Episode 7 shows Fujimaru and Mash's encounter with Solomon from London in greater detail.
  • Episode 8 features Kingu saying the Chaos Tide is also known as the mud of the Holy Grail, referring to the corrupted Holy Grail that existed in Fuyuki during Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero.
• The Corruption: Tiamat's Sea of Life, aka the Chaos Tide, aka Grail mud. Just like Saber before her, Ushiwakamaru is doused in the mud and corrupted into a blackened version of herself.
• Crash-Into Hello: Fujimaru first meets Ishtar when she crashes into him in episode 1.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Fujimaru forgoes Chaldea's original plan of destroying Quetzalcoatl's shrine of power in favor of flying incredibly high in the air, then jumping off and performing a lucha move to show Quetz his determination. Oh, and his only landing strategy was his enemy saving him, so everything is over if this doesn't work. It does, naturally, but Romani points out how completely illogical it was.
  • Same with the idea to drag Tiamat into the Underworld to beat her.
• Crazy-Prepared: In case Ereshkigal's first plan failed to work, she would resort to moving all of Kur underneath Uruk and dump the entire city into her domain. She spent ten years doing so, which comes in handy when the heroes need to lure Tiamat into Kur.
• Cruel to Be Kind: What Gorgon pulls on Fujimaru and Mash when she reappears to fight Tiamat, claiming in a low pitch that they're in her way and she wasn't doing it for them. She rightly berates both Mash for barely being able to lift her shield up and Fujimaru's body nearly breaking down due to using so much of his mana, and so tells them to leave. Mash is disappointed, but Fujimaru understands that Gorgon—Ana—didn't want them to see her current form, later indicated by her more gentler voice and bidding them farewell.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Chaldea's initial fights against the goddesses tend to be this in the goddesses' favor.
  • Ishtar's first fight with Mash and Ana consists of her easily batting them away and dodging their attacks before entangling Mash in Ana's chains.
  • Jaguar Warrior runs circles around Mash and Ana, forcing Chaldea to make a Tactical Withdrawal.
  • Quetzalcoatl's battle against Chaldea is nothing less than a one-sided thrashing. Nothing the heroes do can even lay a scratch on her and she pummels them all with a smile on her face.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Despite their best efforts, there's nothing Leonidas and Ushiwakamaru can do to cause lasting harm to Tiamat-Gorgon. But before they go down, Leonidas throws his spear straight through her and Ushiwakamaru tries to go out in a blaze of glory.

D-G

• Darkest Hour: Episode 15 has the real Tiamat awaken after Gorgon's death at the price of both Ana and Merlin dying. And she brings with her the Lahmu, monsters that run on For the Evulz who are slaughtering humans wholesale. Within just two episodes the Lahmu have slaughtered the people of Mesopotamia until there are only a mere 500 left in the entire region - and that's before Tiamat herself even reaches Uruk!
• Death of the Old Gods: The Singularity takes place right after the second major decline in the Age of Gods, the Separation, or the further widening gap between gods and humanity which Gilgamesh encouraged in defiance of his created purpose as a keystone to connect them together. This factors heavily in Ereshkigal's motivation for joining the Three Goddess Alliance, since she doesn't want to be left behind.
• Death or Glory Attack: It's heavily implied from the way Ushiwakamaru and Leonidas' weapons ignite with a burning golden energy as they prepare for their Last Stands against Gorgon that they turned them into Broken Phantasms for a last-ditch power-boost, especially evident by how the former's blade begins to crack ominously from the energy flowing through it.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The ED sequence has Mash in monochrome at the start as she observes the colored world outside Chaldea. When she becomes Shielder and leaves Chaldea, she's fully colored and able to see the full grandeur of the night sky.
• Designer Babies: Mash's origin, created as part of a project to create Demi-Servants.
• Destructive Savior: A shepherd the main cast meets in episode 6 reveals Ishtar saved him from Demonic Beasts but heavily damaged his fields and took all his gems as payment.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the game, Benkei and Ushiwakamaru die together when the former uses his Noble Phantasm, The Pilgrimage of the Five Hundred Arhat, to remove Ushiwaka from the Chaos Tide. In the anime, Benkei instead holds Ushiwaka back so that the two of them can be incinerated by Quetzalcoatl's Piedra Del Sol.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?:
  • Ushiwakamaru does this to Tiamat-Gorgon, mocking her as an amateur at warfare as she Flash Steps all around her to buy time for Fujimaru and co.
  • Leonidas does the same, telling Tiamat-Gorgon "μολὼν λαβέ" or "molon labe", the Ancient Greek equivalent to "Come and get them", referring to his boast to the Persians when told to lay down his arms at Thermopylae.
• Didn't See That Coming: Gilgamesh's Clairvoyance warned him of every threat to Uruk ahead of time and he's never really been surprised or caught off-guard. That's probably why he's left with a slack-jawed Stunned Silence when he discovers Ishtar somehow lost Gugalanna, the very weapon he was banking on for the fight against Tiamat.
• Dire Beast: Ugallu. Even compared to their game sprite, they're huge, even compared to the other Demonic Beasts (and to say nothing of the lions they resemble).
• Dissonant Serenity: Mash is very disturbed by Quetzalcoatl because she had a smile during her attack on Uruk when she was killing 100 soldiers. It's revealed that's because she wasn't actually killing them.
• Divine Ranks: Dr. Roman notes there's a clear difference in power between ordinary Divine Spirits and demiurge class ones, like Quetzalcoatl.
• Do Not Go Gentle: Gilgamesh reveals that he saw that Uruk would fall in a vision thanks to his Clairvoyance, thus meaning the battle against the Demonic Beasts and Goddesses would be a losing battle, a sentiment he revealed to the rest of his subjects. Despite this, he and the rest of his people are determined to struggle and fight until the very end.
• Dying Moment of Awesome:
  • In episode 8 Leonidas using his Noble Phantasm is able to temporarily hold back "Tiamat", realize then reveal her true identity as Gorgon and even pierce a hole through her stomach before he dies as he states humanity is immortal.
  • Subverted in the same episode by Ushiwakamaru, who clearly intended it to be this by sacrificing herself to take out Gorgon. Unfortunately for Ushi, not only does this fail thanks to Gorgon's immortality, but she survived, was captured and the enemy have a Fate Worse than Death in store for her.
  • Episode 18 gives us Benkei, who allows himself to be incinerated by Piedra Del Sol in order to finish off Corrupted Ushiwakamaru and protect Quetzalcoatl as she activates it. It also appears as though Quetzalcoatl also sacrificed herself when she channeled the power of the meteor impact that killed the dinosaurs to break through Tiamat's defenses.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Team A, aka the Crypters of the game's Cosmos in the Lostbelt arc, appear in Episode 0, prior to the point they were introduced in the game.
  • Meunière and Sylvia are seen working in the control room whenever the anime shows Roman and da Vinci at Chaldea; the game introduced the former in Epic of Remnant and the latter in Cosmos in the Lostbelt (though technically they have been working at Chaldea this whole time, just never voiced, seen, or named).
  • Leonidas is briefly shown commanding troops in episode 2 before he's properly introduced in episode 3.
  • In episode 6 Ereshkigal appears with her blonde hair before that design appeared in the game; at this point in the game's story she still looked identical to Ishtar.
  • We get a glimpse of Tiamat not long after Merlin croaks in the anime, while in the game we only see her appearance after going through several later events.
• Eating the Enemy: Upon being disarmed, First Hassan reacts by taking bites out of the offending Bel Lahmu.
• Eldritch Abomination: Tiamat. While her first form doesn't look the part, her second form, and especially her third form absolutely do.
• Elite Mooks: The New Eleven Offspring Bel Lahmu are Lahmu with wings who are stated by Merlin to be divine-class. They are so strong that even Ishtar, Ereshkigal and First Hassan are eventually overwhelmed. First Hassan states that due to Ishtar and Ereshkigal being related to Tiamat, they're especially weak to them. The only Servant strong enough to handle them easily is Archer Gilgamesh.
• End of an Age: Due to the Lahmu attacks and the sea rising due to Tiamat, only five hundred people from Uruk have survived. Gilgamesh states the first dynasty of Uruk has fallen due to the extreme losses they've taken.
• Episode Zero: The Beginning: Episode 0 begins with Mash becoming a Demi-Servant and Romani Walking the Earth, then follows their paths from there to the point Chaldea gets ready to travel to Babylonia, taking the opportunity to do a quick recap of the previous singularities along the way.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Tiamat's immortality is tied to the life of the world. While trying to figure out a way around it, Ereshkigal reported in on the chaos in the underworld. The barren and lifeless underworld. This gives Fujimaru and Gilgamesh the idea of dumping Tiamat in the underworld to negate her immortality.
• Every Man Has His Price: The only thing bigger than Ishtar's ego is her greed, especially since she's not getting any more offerings like she once did. Gilgamesh uses this to bribe her into joining their side by giving her a large down payment of a cartful of gold and gems, with up to 30% of the treasure in the Gate of Babylon if she completes the job.
• Evolving Credits: Episode 9 replaces Ushiwakamaru and Leonidas in the ending sequence with Ereshkigal and Quetzalcoatl.
• Famed In-Story: The Servants are all legends who have engraved themselves into human history and myth. Ushiwakamaru is especially popular in Japan, and Fujimaru informs her that her legend is still told in the modern day and songs continue to be written about her. This, along with his kindness toward her, moves Ushiwakamaru to swear complete Undying Loyalty to him.
• Familial Body Snatcher: Ereshkigal can possess Ishtar's body at night because they were both summoned possessing part of Rin Tohaska's body.
• Fighting Clown: Jaguarman or Jaguar Warrior in NA is a Divine Spirit strong enough to easily fight and defeat both Mash and Ana which Merlin outright says the current party can't hope to defeat without a god or goddess on their side. Jaguarman is also Fujimura Taiga, with her silliness cranked up (she just flat-out ignores gravity for several seconds until she retrieves her weapon), in a silly cat costume.
• Flaming Meteor: Quetzalcoatl's strongest move is mixing two of her Noble Phantasms, Piedra del Sol and Ultimo Tope Patada to recreate the asteroid collision that killed the dinosaurs.
• Flash Back: Episode 4 has multiple from Fujimaru's perspective such as Olga Marie being murdered by Lev or fighting Solomon in the London Singularity.
• Flash Step: Jaguarman is absurdly fast to the point that neither Mash nor Ana can land a hit on her while she juggles them in the air. She also produces Speed Echoes she can use to confuse her opponents.
• Flat "What":
  • Ereshkigal gives one when Fujimaru asks her to trap Tiamat in Kur. Then she and Ishtar scream.
  • Gilgamesh also gives one when Ishtar admits to having lost Gugalanna.
• Fling a Light into the Future: While battling Tiamat-Gorgon, Ushiwakamaru declares that she will stake her life for the sake of Fujimaru, a child who admires her a thousand years in the future, regardless of how hopeless the battle may seem.
  Ushiwakamaru: We are Heroic Spirits! Shadows of humans who once existed, engraved into human history. Our reward for the restoration of humanity will be our continued history. That's right, a child who admired Ushiwakamaru, existed a thousand years in the future. That fact alone allows me to fight! It makes it all the worth risking this temporary life for!
• Foil: Quetzalcoatl's Desperation Attack is this to Ushiwakamaru and Leonidas's own attacks earlier in the show. Both were fighting against foes they had no hope of beating and sacrificed all of their being to do it. Quetzalcoatl however actually managed to do lasting damage and she wasn't trying to kill her.
• Food Porn: It wouldn't be a Type-Moon work without it. The feast that the heroes enjoy in episode 3 is lovingly drawn and detailed. Be careful to not salivate.
• For the Evulz: The Lahmu engage in senseless butchery of humans, and tend to do so in methods as painful as possible. Not only that, but in Eridu, the Lahmu force humans to fight each other to the death for their own amusement before murdering the winner. There's no real reason for this other than sheer enjoyment of making humans suffer.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Extremely subtly in episode 1. The flashback of Enkidu during the Info Dump about their friendship with Gilgamesh shows Enkidu with green eyes. The present-day "Enkidu" that Mash and Fujimaru are talking to has purple eyes. This gives away that "Enkidu" is Not Himself and is actually Kingu.
  • The first opening has a closeup of Ana cut immediately to a closeup of "Tiamat", hinting at their shared true identity: Medusa. In that same vein, episode 9 has a few seconds focused on Ana as Merlin summarizes Gorgon's backstory.
  • The ants seen in a close-up in episode 2 are leafcutter ants, which are native to South and Central America, hinting at Quetzalcoatl's own anachronistic presence in Mesopotamia.
  • Early in episode 4, after killing some Demonic Beasts, Merlin goes on a Exposition Dump about the beasts and their origins. He specifically names Tiamat as the creator of them, giving a heavy piece of foreshadowing to the major reveal of the chapter, as well as hinting towards his knowledge of it.
  • Part of the set-up for Episode 5 involves Fujimaru and Mash retrieving the results of researchers studying the water at the Persian Gulf. When Fujimaru asks Gilgamesh why it's so important, the king doesn't give him a straight answer. It's because under the waters of the Persian Gulf Tiamat is lying asleep and sealed up, and as a result is not yet active.
  • In episode 6 Fou is able to get the inhabitants of the underworld to stop attacking Fujimaru with a shout despite his tiny size, hinting that there's more to him than appears. Granted the payoff for this one doesn't come in Babylonia but in the Solomon movie instead.
  • In episode 8 Kingu makes reference to the mud in the Bloodfort, as well as its name, the Chaos Tide. This foreshadows the major role that the Chaos Tide plays later on and hints at its effects.
  • During Fujimaru's chat with Ishtar by the campfire in episode 9, the viewer is shown a couple of glimpses of the Underworld. This further drives home that it isn't Ishtar that Fujimaru is talking to, but Ereshkigal.
  • In episode 10 Merlin mentions that the bulk of his magical energy is already in use elsewhere. It's being used to keep the sleeping Tiamat enraptured in her dreams.
  • The Axe of Marduk is absurdly big, even when compared to Gorgon. It's much more reasonably sized against the real Tiamat's true form, and is was used to banish her long ago.
  • When Merlin explains that a Grand Servant followed Fujimaru to Babylonia, the scene switches to a shot of Roman in Chaldea looking on in astonishment. As the Final Singularity reveals, Roman was originally Solomon, Grand Caster.
  • Merlin states that Roman isn't that different from him in the last episode. Roman or Solomon is a Grand Caster candidate that loves humanity just like Merlin.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Averted with Olga Marie. While in the game her death is quickly put aside in the following chapters and she's not mentioned again, the anime showcases how traumatic was it for Fujimaru to fail saving her back in Fuyuki.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: It's hard to see since there are so many characters onscreen, but Mash is the only one paying attention to Jaguar Warrior when the latter is trying to gain the party's attention in episode 10.
• From a Single Cell: Roman says that if even a single hair remains, the corrupted Ushiwakamaru can make copies of themselves. She uses this power in episode 16 to make an army of herself and even after being defeated, she taunts that she'll be back to kill Chaldea later. She's ultimately destroyed for good when Quetzalcoatl unleashes Piedra del Sol while Benkei holds on to her, the resulting blast of sun fire burning away the Chaos Tide around Tiamat and completely eradicating every piece of her.
• Future Spandex: The Chaldea Combat Uniforms are the most spandex-y and science fiction in aesthetic of Chaldea's uniforms; Team A are seen wearing them in episode 0 for Operation F and Fujimaru and Mash don them before entering the Rayshift coffins in episode 1.
• Game Face: Quetzalcoatl is normally quite pretty to look at, but once she gets serious her eyes narrow into Death Glare while she gives a Slasher Smile filled with very, very sharp teeth while exhaling poisonous smog.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • In the game, the NPC Enkidu who joins your party is Purposefully Overpowered. The anime gets this across by having "Enkidu" both easily slaughtering the Demonic Beasts that Mash and Fujimaru were running from in seconds and doing it in an absolutely brutal and bloody way, visibly shocking the two of them.
  • One of Merlin's skills in game is Illusion, which provides the party a turn of invincibility, with it being stated in his Profile that it allows him to create powerful illusions. During the heroes' fight with "Enkidu" in episode 2, Merlin uses this at the start by tapping his staff on the ground, causing "Enkidu" to fight a set of illusions and not the heroes.
  • Gilgamesh's refusal to acknowledge Chaldea after their battle. Originally, the fight was a quest that required you to defeat Gilgamesh; in the anime, the fight is heavily in Gilgamesh's favour and ends with his victory, which justifies more easily his dismissal of Fujimaru and the others.
  • Surprisingly, the fact that Fujimaru can't use other Servant characters aside from Mash. In-story, the Age of Gods is difficult for Chaldea to observe, let alone operate in, which is why Servants can't Rayshift to fight alongside Mash.
  • More of a retro case of the game integrating the story after the fact, but Fujimaru, besides shooting a generic blast of magic, primarily assists by giving someone mana, healing, or giving them a boost to their power. In the game, the Mystic Code given to players based off his outfit in the anime gives a Buster buff (the raw power card damage), a heal, and charges someones NP, all three things he does in the anime.
  • Fighting and defeating Ishtar in episode 6. The anime also justifies Servants beating a Divine Spirit^note Which has been previously noted to being almost impossible by having Ishtar become unresponsive when the sun goes down.
  • In game, Quetzalcoatl had a passive skill that reduced the damage of all Servants, with Good aligned Servants doing no damage, while Evil/Neutral aligned Servants merely did half damage. The anime has Quetzalcoatl dominate the fight against her, as all the Servants present save Jaguar Warrior have Good alignments, and in the case of Jaguar Warrior, her Neutral alignment is accounted for by the simple fact she is too weak compared to Quetzalcoatl to be able to win.
  • When Quetzalcoatl attacks Uruk, Jaguar Warrior is able to dodge two of Ana's attacks with her scythe, but ends up getting hit by the end of her scythe's chain. Jaguar Warrior has an Evade skill in the game, but it's only good for two attacks; she'd used it up, that's why she got hit.
  • First Hassan is immune to Tiamat's Nega-Genesis which Merlin states will destroy all Servants. In the game one of First Hassan's unique passive skills gives him immunity to instant kills.
  • Episode 20 has Ereshkigal, Merlin and Archer Gilgamesh unleash their respective noble phantasms which are very accurate recreations of their latest in-game Noble Phantasm animations. Also, Merlin and Mash use their Noble Phantasms together to help Ritsuka get to Tiamat, much like how in game, players can have Noble Phantasms chain together to boost the power of the one after the first.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • While in-game, players can summon lots of different Servants to help them fight, by the first episode the only Servant characters assisting Fujimaru are Mash and da Vinci, the latter being only a Mission Control.
  • Ishtar in the game fights using primarily the Boat of Heaven as a bow. In the anime she sometimes uses it to fight either using beams from her hands, kicks or the sword she has in her card art but never used in the game proper more.
  • While Fujimaru is still a Non-Action Guy, he is a bit more proactive in combat in the anime than in the game, going so far as to physically save Mash from "Enkidu" and attempt to punch him.
  • In the game the first initial fight with Tiamat has her give status debuffs to not only you but to the Lahmus defending her as well. You are also within melee distance of her. In the anime her singing is strong enough to cause shockwaves so strong that Fujimaru and crew opt to shoot at her from a distance.
• Geas: The Three Goddess Alliance have an oath that prevents each of the goddess from directly attacking or spreading information about the others at the price of complete annihilation. The First Hassan saw it necessary to cut the Ereshkigal's oath when she had a Heel–Face Turn and Quetzalcoatl being manipulated into breaking it lead to her losing half of her strength.
• Genetic Memory: The fake "Enkidu", Kingu has access to Enkidu's memories due to using Enkidu's body. This, ironically, stops him from killing Gilgamesh in Episode 5. It also allows Kingu to identify Siduri, even after she's been turned into a Lahmu, as she dies.

• Giant Flyer: Tiamat gets around the Square-Cube Law by using her Self Modification Skill to turn her horns into jetpacks and fly off. Ishtar notes how it should be impossible for an Earth Goddess to approach the heavens.
• Glamour Failure: Ereshkigal has to consciously disguise her appearance as Ishtar while possessing her, and something as minor as a sneeze is enough to turn her hair back to blonde and reveal the clothing she's actually wearing.
• The Gloves Come Off:
  • Moments before the battle against Gorgon, Ana undoes the seal on her Divinity and activates her Mystic Eyes, revealing her true identity is Medusa.
  • Ishtar and Quetzalcoatl also engage in this upon watching the Lahmu wantonly murder humans. What they witness is enough to piss them off into holding nothing back.
• Go Through Me: Fujimaru attempts this by shielding an injured Ana with his body while imploring Ishtar to stop and talk, but it fails because Ishtar is more than willing and capable of blasting through both of them. She only pauses when she notices Ana's face and stops to examine her.
• God of Good: Ereshkigal explains that Quetzalcoatl is the goddess of good so nothing good can harm her. As a result, no one on Chaldea's side can harm her, resulting in a complete Curb-Stomp Battle in Quetz's favor.
• God Is Evil: "Enkidu" states that Babylonia is under attack by the Three Goddess Alliance and they have the same goal as Solomon to burn humanity with one of them giving birth to the Demonic Beasts attacking the land. But most of the goddesses actually side with humanity. Ishtar is protecting Uruk from the Demonic Beasts even if she's against Gilgamesh, Quetzalcoatl is a God of Good who is spending her time creating an army to protect humanity and Ereshkigal only joined the Three Goddess Alliance to protect the souls of the people Gorgon will kill and her own belief that humanity needs the gods.
• Good All Along:
  • While Quetzalcoatl's very evasive about it, her intention in joining the Three Goddesses Alliance was to protect humanity in the first place; she wanted to "win" the Holy Grail while slowly capturing more Mesopotamian citizens into a conscripted army of supposed human sacrifices or Uruk soldiers she "killed", using the goddesses' ceasefire to eventually defeat them.
  • Similarly, Ereshkigal's reason for joining the Three Goddesses Alliance is not to wipe out humanity as everyone thought, but to shelter their souls and watch over them, as per her duties as the Goddess of the Underworld.
• Good vs. Good: In-Universe example. Everyone in the game has an official Dungeons & Dragons-style alignment, and in both the game and anime it's a plot point that anyone whose alignment is any form of Good cannot harm Quetzalcoatl. Unfortunately for Fujimaru, the vast majority of his party has Good alignments. Fortunately, Quetzalcoatl never had any loyalty towards the Three Goddess Alliance and was planning to switch sides as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Sure enough, that's exactly what happens when Fujimaru proves his worthiness before her.
• Gratuitous English:
  • Jaguarman is prone to Calling Your Attacks in English, despite being a Mesoamerican god inhabiting the body of a Japanese high school teacher. Though said Japanese high school teacher does teach English.
  • Quetzalcoatl gets in on it as well, though she's just as likely to indulge in Gratuitous Spanish.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The main threat behind the incineration of human history is the King of Mages, Solomon... or rather his prized creation, Goetia, but he's left it up to the Three Goddess Alliance to do the dirty work of actually erasing human history for good in this Singularity. Characters allude to him throughout the series and he's seen in flashbacks and visions, but otherwise the conflict is squarely centered between Uruk and the various threats targeting the city. In the game, summoning Tiamat was his initial plan for the Singularity, but when Merlin put her to sleep, Kingu summoned Gorgon and elevated her to godhood on his behalf and Quetzalcoatl was chain-summoned by accident, meaning the Three Goddess Alliance is actually a backup plan for destroying Uruk.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Episode 13 shows that part of Ereshkigal's disdain of Ishtar was allowed to freely fly in the heavens while she's forced to stay in Kur.

H-N

• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold:
  • Averted. According to Merlin the Mesopotamian gods are blonde (Ishtar only isn't because she's possessing Rin), but in Fate's backstory the Mesopotamian pantheon seeks to dominate humans, and in real life they're famously Jerkass Gods. Even Ereshkigal, who is an absolute sweetheart compared to Ishtar, is not one-hundred percent this trope, as she is perfectly fine killing humans, even if it is for their own sake.
  • Quetzalcoatl plays it straight being a cheerful blond goddess that loves humanity. Despite her talk of sacrifices and her attack on Uruk, she never actually killed anyone and intends on using the men and soldiers as her army against Gorgon when the Three Goddess Alliance ends.
• Hand Blast: Possibly due to Rin being Ishtar's host, Ishtar can shoot highly deadly mana blasts from her index finger that can behead Uridimmu in one shot.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Unlike the game, the guardsman who gives Ana some sweets does not have a helmet to indicate his friendliness.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Many characters end up having to sacrifice their lives over the course of the story to stave off the impending threats to various characters or Uruk.
  • Leonidas gives his life to protect Uruk against Gorgon. Subverted by Ushiwakamaru; it looks as though she sacrifices herself at first, but at the end of the same episode it is revealed that she was simply captured. Unfortunately for Ushiwakamaru, Gorgon and Kingu have more sinister plans for her...
  • Ana performs one in episode 15. She sacrifices herself so that she can slay Gorgon.
  • Siduri is mortally wounded fending off several Lahmu in order to protect Kingu, who she thinks is her old friend Enkidu.
  • Benkei allows himself to be incinerated by Piedra Del Sol in the process of guarding Quetzalcoatl from Corrupted Ushiwakamaru, and manages to take Ushiwakamaru with him in the process.
  • Soon afterward, Quetzalcoatl pushes her Noble Phantasms to their limits to try to take down Tiamat even though her Spirit Origin is breaking down and cracks appear across her body.
  • Ana comes back as Gorgon to pull it off a second time. She uses Pandemonium Cetus to destroy one of Tiamat's horns, grounding her and slowing her advance toward Uruk.
  • Kingu earns his redemption by using Enkidu's Noble Phantasm, Enuma Elish, to transform into the Chains of Heaven and bind Tiamat. This buys Ereshkigal the time she needs to complete her preparations.
  • Ereshkigal breaks the laws of the Underworld to help the living, and also spends too much energy and Authority trying to hold Tiamat back. Her help is essential for Tiamat's defeat, but Ereshkigal fades away from the sheer strain of it.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Despite solving 6 of the 7 Singularities, Fujimaru still just seems himself as an ordinary person that became a master because he was the only one to survive. Being harsh on himself for his failures and seeing himself useless due to his inability to fight. Downplayed as it doesn't seem to bother him much. It also helps that he's not wrong.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Ishtar always hides her kinder side from others such as being frustrated when she lets slip she would have saved people for free but doesn't out of fear of corrupting them.
• Home Base: Siduri provides the protagonists some accommodations to use for their time in Uruk, which ends up serving as their primary base for their time in this Singularity. Mash dubs it the "Chaldean Embassy".
• Horrifying the Horror:
  • In episode 6 when Fujimaru accidentally enters the underworld, various spirits attack him for being alive, Fou is able to temporally frighten them with a scream being an alternative version of Primate Murder. Ereshkigal is similarly terrified, and refers to him as a Beast of Calamity long before the term becomes relevant in the Singularity.
  • Then during the final battle, King Hassan does this to the Bel-Lahmu, allowing himself to be repeatedly stabbed, shot through, and otherwise be injured to a point beyond recovery for most other Servants, only to completely shrug it off and tear them apart soon afterward. The Lahmu are only given a few scant moments to go Oh, Crap! before he devours them on all fours.
• Human Resources: The true purpose of the Demonic Beasts isn't to overrun and destroy Uruk, but rather to capture people for Gorgon-Tiamat to use as resources for creating more, stronger Demonic Beasts. The real Tiamat is not bound by this limitation and spawn them on her own.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: Ana's scythe is meant to kill immortals which she uses to kill her older self, Gorgon.
• I Kiss Your Foot: Ishtar demands Fujimaru do this to establish a Master-Servant contract once she's bribed into joining their side. Mash is not amused.
• I Know Your True Name: Leonidas manages to figure out who "Tiamat" really is and manages to convey the information to Chaldea and the heroes. Just before his Heroic Sacrifice.
• I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: Even though they've never met, Kingu starts crying and breaking down over the death of Siduri due to Enkidu's Genetic Memory.
• If I Wanted You Dead...:
  • A flashback scene shows Solomon curb-stomping Fujimaru's allies before saying that he'll simply ignore Chaldea unless they acquire all seven holy grails, making it extremely clear that he could have stopped Chaldea any time he wanted to.
  • Gilgamesh points out that if "Enkidu" seriously wanted to kill them, he would have already, regardless of whether or not Gilgamesh were present to face him. This is shown by the fact that "Enkidu" managed to open a portal behind Gilgamesh to bind him to the ground before throwing down a bombardment that would have killed Gil had "Enkidu" not had a painful Flashback at the time.
• Ignored Enemy: Jaguar Warrior tries to hype things up when the party returns to her jungle, but everyone except Mash ignores her in favor of discussing the situation.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
  • This is the disturbing and nightmarish MO of the Lahmu—when they're not simply reducing their victims to flying body parts or Ludicrous Gibs, they choose to subject and play with their dead bodies this way. Even their purported ally, Kingu, was subjected to this, emphasizing to him that he no longer has a role to play in Tiamat's onslaught.
  • They later attempt this against King Hassan, cackling the whole time until they realize he's taken their attacks without even flinching. They're given all of two seconds to go Oh, Crap! before he rips them apart.
• Implacable Man: King Hassan proves completely and utterly unstoppable once he takes to the battlefield. Right after sacrificing his Grand container to inflict the concept of death on Tiamat, he proceeds to tackle multiple Bel-Lahmu fast enough to Speed Blitz Ishtar at once. He allows himself to get pierced by their attacks multiple times without even flinching before tearing them apart with ease. Even Tiamat's eye beams get cut apart and he steps into her Nega-Genesis field, which is said to destroy any Servant that touches it instantly, without even a hint of discomfort.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Despite the very gruesome turn taken in episode 15 after Tiamat's awakening, it takes great pains to avoid children explicitly harmed by the Lahmu, with the protagonists shown saving a girl right before she gets stabbed.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: In episode 12 each gate of Kur shrinks Ishtar due to taking away part of her divinity by the sixth gate, she's small enough to ride Fou.
• Inevitable Mutual Betrayal: Ishtar, actually Ereshkigal reveals that the Three Goddess Alliance is actually a nonaggression pact till one of them gains the Holy Grail that Gilgamesh holds. Said pact prevents the goddesses from attacking or even revealing crucial information about each other. Episode 8 even has Kingu warn "Tiamat" that once they get the Grail from Gilgamesh, the other two goddesses will attack.
• In Medias Res: Babylon is an adaptation of Grand Order's seventh chapter, so it's actually set towards the end of Ritsuka and Mash's journies through time.
• Insufferable Genius: Merlin is one of the most talented magi to ever walk the Earth and he's sure to make sure you remember that.
• Internal Homage:
  • When Fujimaru lands in the underworld and is saved by "Zisu-dra" they are positioned in the scene exactly the same as the iconic scene of Saber being summoned by a floored Shirou.
  • The scene when Quetzalcoatl uses her Noble Phantasm to break through Tiamat's defenses plays out just like when Lancer's Noble Phantasm breaks through Rho Aias in Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works].
• It Never Gets Any Easier: While on retreat from Ur, Ana wonders to Fujimaru if after all of his travels he grew accustomed to leave people behind when the situation was untenable. Fujimaru almost quotes the trope verbatim, stating how it's painful to be unable to save people.
• It Only Works Once: The Axe of Marduk that defeated Tiamat falls victim to this. The heroes use it to break into Gorgon's Bloodfort assuming she's the real Tiamat, breaking the weapon in the process. Then the real Tiamat appears, and the only weapon that can harm her lies broken and useless just when they need it the most. Whoops.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gilgamesh may still be an arrogant prick who laughs at people when they fail to appeal to him, but he's king to his subjects, works around the clock to keep Uruk running, and is humanity's most powerful defender against the Three Goddess Alliance.
• Jungle Japes: A humid and anachronistic jungle has invaded part of Mesopotamia, around the cities of Ur and Eridu. It reminds Mash of the jungles that covered Earth in the time of the dinosaurs, and is home to both Jaguar Warrior and the person she refers to as "Kuku", Quetzalcoatl.
• Kick Chick:
  • Mash frequently uses her shield as a vaulting pole to land kicks on her opponents, in contrast to her usage of it as a battering ram in the game.
  • Ishtar makes extensive use of kicks when going into hand-to-hand combat, flying straight at an Uridimmu before nearly kicking it in half with a 720 degree spinning kick. This was later adapted in-game to tie into the show, replacing firing larger magical arrows for some of her Buster animations with spinning kicks.
• Killer Rabbit: Played for Laughs. The normally sweet and adorable Fou becomes unusually aggressive around Merlin, leaping at him in a spinning tackle before trying to beat him to death with his paws. Subtitles translate Fou's noises as "Die, Merlin! Die!"
  • Happens again with Ereshkigal. She identifies Fou as a "Beast of Calamity," to which Fou responds by hopping on her shoulder...and smacking her cheek with his paw.
• Knight of Cerebus: The arrival of Tiamat turns the series from a relatively lighthearted romp with plenty of comedic moments into a deadly serious battle for survival with multiple deaths as the cast struggles to win every step of the way.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Merlin knows when facing gods, sometimes the only option is to escape to fight another day.
• Lap Pillow: Fujimaru gets two in episode 11 - one from Quetzalcoatl, one from Ishtar/Ereshkigal. The second one apparently helped him sleep great.
• Last Stand: Gilgamesh gives one on behalf of Uruk when Tiamat arrives by using all his energy to control all 360 Dingirs and bombarding her with continuous fire. It's a valiant effort, but ultimately doesn't do much to slow her down.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • Episode 0 reveals several late game twists like Marisbury winning the Holy Grail War, his eventual death, and Mash's origins as a Demi-Servant.
  • Episode 1 casually spoils that the Heroic Spirit fused with Mash is Galahad, that her true Noble Phantasm is Lord Camelot, and that Solomon is the Big Bad. Justified, as these are all major twists that already were revealed at this point in the game, so their impact has to be conveyed or else audiences would be confused.
• Leitmotif: As one of King Arthur's closest advisers, Merlin is associated with "Sword of Promised Victory", which appears most strongly when he dreams his way out of Avalon to aid in the final battle against Tiamat.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Hilariously subverted. The goofball Merlin looks like he's finally going to get serious against Gorgon and show everyone why he's one of the greatest mages of all time. At least, until he's threatened with petrification to get around his immortality. Cue Merlin cowering behind Mash and Fujimaru. Then played completely straight when he pulls out his Caliburn replica and cuts a Bel Lahmu in half before taking on multiple Lahmu on the level of a Divine Spirit at once. He even lampshades it.
  Merlin: This is a bit out of character, though.
• Lightning Bruiser: Both Ishtar and Jaguar Warrior are lightning fast, brutally effective in close quarter combat, and can easily parry any and all of Mash and Ana's attacks.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Merlin appearing as a Servant should be impossible because Merlin is still alive in Avalon. Merlin states it's only possible because he was summoned in an age before his birth thus is technically dead and that his master is very powerful.
  • After discovering that Tiamat is unkillable due to the nature of her authority as embodying life itself, Fujimaru and Gilgamesh come to the conclusion that if Tiamat can't be killed until she's the last living thing on Earth, then she would have to be killed in a place where she's the only living thing on Earth: the Underworld.
• Loves Only Gold: Ishtar loves gems to the point that Gilgamesh schemes to uses her adoration to bribe her to joining their side with 30% of the gems in his treasury. Ishtar had a panic attack out of pure joy when she heard the offer.
• Magic Knight: Merlin fits this, to a degree. Though his sorcery is vastly superior, he's no slouch with a sword, either, as he proves against the Bel Lahmu guarding Tiamat in the underworld. Considering he's responsible for training Altria, it makes sense.
• Major Injury Underreaction: After Taking the Bullet for Fujimaru from Tiamat, Gilgamesh assures him and Mash that it is "merely a mortal wound."
• Male Gaze: The first episode has several butt shots of Ishtar and Mash when they're fighting against the beasts. This trend would continue throughout the show.
• Master of Illusion: Merlin shows his skill when he is able to trick "Enkidu" with illusions mere minutes after meeting them.
• Me's a Crowd: Corrupted Ushiwakamaru has the ability to create copies of herself. She displays this in episode 16 by making over a dozen clones.
• Mesopotamian Monstrosity: Between the Eleven Offspring of Tiamat, Ereshkigal going One-Winged Angel for her fight against the protagonists, the Lahmu and Tiamat herself, safe to say there are plenty.
• Mighty Roar: The Ugallu lets loose an impressive one when it first appears.
• Million Mook March: Once the real Tiamat is awakened, she spawns an army of 100 million Lahmu to fight for her.
• Mood Whiplash: In episode 4 the dark revelation that the people of Ur are sacrificing one man a day to keep the Demonic Beasts away from them is followed immediately by a wacky fight with the over-the-top comedic Jaguar Warrior. What's more the sky is gray and cloudy to fit the former reveal even while Jaguar Warrior is yelling silly attack names in Engrish.
  • In episode 8 the horror that comes with Gorgon's appearance is offset by Merlin panicking and begging for protection when Gorgon unleashes her Mystic Eyes.
• Mook: A rather extreme example when Jaguar Warrior summons her Jaguar Underlings to fight the party while she makes her escape. They're so irrelevant that the camera cuts away immediately after their introduction and everyone pretends that they never existed.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: While she usually looks normal, Quetzalcoatl's Game Face shows rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth as a nod to her true nature as a winged serpent god.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The busts in Marisbury's room are taken from the iconic pictures of the main Servant classes.
  • The activation of Mash's Demi-Servant powers uses the same three rings from the game's summoning animation for a Servant.
  • The montage at the end of episode 0 shows Cu Chulainn facing against a grail mud-corrupted Emiya, which didn't happen in the game (Emiya was a Shadow Servant in the Fuyuki chapter and swiftly defeated as the final obstacle before fighting Altria Alter) but did happen in the First Order OVA.
  • Gilgamesh is shown in flashbacks in his "unleashed"/"full-power" outfit—originally seen in Fate/hollow ataraxia (better known in-game as his 3rd Ascension outfit). It is implied, continuity-wise, that he mostly wore his full-plate armor (as shown in Zero / stay night before he met Enkidu), and went around topless during his adventures with Enkidu.
  • In episode 1 Ishtar makes the exact same expression Rin made in an episode of Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works].
  • Episode 3 has Ishtar go on what can be best be described as a tsundere rant and then lose her temper afterwards just like Rin did when Lancer Cu found Shirou and Rin after Illya's death in Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works].
  • In "Enkidu's" flashback in episode 5, the flowers next to Gilgamesh when he's sitting down are the same type of flowers that Enkidu gives the player for Valentine's Day in the game.
  • Episode 6 shows a confrontation between Ishtar and Fujimaru's group that mirrors Rin’s pre-combat exchange with Shirou in Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works].
  • When Leonidas uses his Noble Phantasm in episode 8, instead of its appearance from the mobile game (which is just a Battle Aura) it instead takes inspiration from his animations in the arcade fighting game, with the Spartan shields floating in formation at his sides.
  • The werejaguars that Jaguar Warrior calls in as reinforcements in episode 10 all mimic their sprites and their movements from the mobile game.
  • Jaguar Warrior is sure to remind everyone that Servants die when they're killed, repeating Shirou's most (in)famous quote from the original Fate/Stay Night anime.
  • Episode 15 shows a flashback of Gorgon devouring her sisters, complete with a shot recreating a CG of the same memory from Fate/hollow ataraxia.
  • In the same episode, Merlin invokes the name "Potnia Theron" in describing the newly-awakened Tiamat. One of the earlier mentions of the name was in scrapped material from Fate/Prototype—a name used to describe Enfant Terrible Manaka Sajyou and the phenomenon she wishes to unleash: The Beast of Revelation.
  • First Hassan giving Tiamat a concept of death in episode 20 is shown as the lines of death being grafted on her body. Calling back to the wider Nasuverse where the lines of death are a big part of Tsukihime and The Garden of Sinners.
• Mr. Exposition: Several characters take on this role but most notably it belongs to Mash, Romani and Merlin as they explain things about the era and antagonists to Ritsuka.
• Naked on Arrival: In a flashback to when several priests summoned Ishtar and Ereshkigal, she materializes naked with Godiva Hair.
• Neck Lift: When Fujimaru stumbles into the underworld, the spirits there try to strangle him and lift him up into the air by his neck. He's only saved when the spirits are scared off by Fou's shout.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The shock of death from the heroes defeating Gorgon was enough to rouse Tiamat from her enchanted slumber. To make matters worse, she strained Merlin's Servant container into breaking in the process, removing him from the equation.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: The real Tiamat is so ungodly powerful that Quetzalcoatl states that even with Ishtar and all the power remaining in Uruk, they can't even scratch her. Roman reveals that as long as there are living beings on Earth, she cannot die as proof of her status of mother of all living things.
• No Ontological Inertia: Episode 21 shows that when Tiamat was defeated, her Chaos Tide disappeared.
• No-Sell: Despite Merlin saying Tiamat's Nega-Genesis will kill every Servant, First Hassan can stand it's effects.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Leonidas picks up Fujimaru from behind without warning and feels him up all over to gauge his muscle tone, much to Fujimaru's and Mash's embarrassment.
• Not Quite Dead: Episode 21 reveals that Quetzalcoatl actually survived her final attack on Tiamat due to Jaguar Warrior saving her at the last second.
• Noble Demon: Enkidu, actually Kingu fully intends to exterminate humanity and replace them but he draws the line at excessive violence and doesn't like children being harmed.
• Non-Action Guy:
  • Fujimaru barely qualifies as a magus and is a mere human compared to Servants. As a result, all he can do is provide tactical support and some supportive magecraft while Mash and Ana do most of the fighting.
  • Despite Merlin's boasts about being an all-powerful Caster, he's mostly religated to this role in the Anime with Romani lampshading this trope by claiming he's virtually useless in battle (though by the end of his rant, he reluctantly admits that Merlin's a useful guy and was mostly referring to his "present-day only clairvoyance" that contrasts Solomon's ability to see the past and the future and Gilgameshs ability to see the future). It's ultimately justified toward the end, as it's revealed that Merlin was channeling his magic elsewhere to seal the Gorgon in a dream and prevent her from destroying Uruk, though she eventually breaks free when she "kills" him. He does also have some moments where he's shown to be capable of combat, though this being Merlin, it's likely that his lack of action is based more on his Brilliant, but Lazy characterization.
• Nonchalant Dodge: Gilgamesh does this during his brief scuffle with Mash and Ana, easily avoiding some of their blows with a blank expression and using strategic firing of his staffs from the Gate of Babylon to counter other blows.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Merlin explains that he and Gilgamesh aren't too different from each other when answering Fujimaru's question of how they can work together. Merlin states while they are partly human, Merlin being half Incubus and Gilgamesh 2/3 god, they can't truly understand people on an individual level but still love humanity as a whole and are 100% their allies. Gilgamesh and Merlin are also Grand Caster candidates that don't typically don't use magecraft when fighting, Gilgamesh using an axe and pulling magical staves from Gate of Babylonia and Merlin using a replica Caliburn. They are both egoistical jerks that have their kind sides.

O-R

• Oh, Crap!:
  • All of Gilgamesh's soldiers flee for cover when Ishtar arrives, knowing full well that they can't stand up to the goddess of power and war.
  • Ishtar has one when the main cast talk about Gugalanna and how powerful it is in episode 9 because she lost it.
  • Fujimaru gets a big one when he sees Tiamat's true form.
• Older and Wiser: Gilgamesh in this Singularity is from the end of "Epic of Gilgamesh". As such, he is much more responsible and a good king that cares for his kingdom, especially compared to the tyrant he was in Fate/stay night. Fujimaru lampshades this when he first meets Gilgamesh due to Merlin only talking about Gilgamesh as he was during the Epic.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: Whenever Kingu responds to the original Enkidu's memories (such as when Fujimaru cries out for Gilgamesh), his scenes and moments with Gil tend to flicker in and out with a scratching, sound static. Kingu's pupils also visually start pixellating as he remembers more.
• One-Winged Angel: Ereshkigal spends her entire fight against the heroes in episode 13 as a giant skeleton ghost, the moment she loses she changes back to her real form.
• Only I Can Kill Her: Tiamat's Nega-Genesis will destroy every Servant thus only the living can kill Tiamat, leaving Fujimaru to deal the final blow since Mash needs to use Lord Camelot to counter Nega-Genesis. While the First Hassan proves to be immune to Nega-Genesis, he's too wounded from fighting the Bel-Lahmu to do it.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Being his typical smug self in addition to having Clairvoyance, Gilgamesh is normally unflappable. If his composure ever breaks, it can only mean two things: he has been epically blindsided, or something very bad is about to happen (or is happening). Shit generally hits the fan not long after. So when he angrily snaps at Siduri's offer to personally assist Eridu she realizes something is very wrong. It's implied his Clairvoyance showed her transformation into a Lahmu if she goes.
• Out-of-Character Alert:
  • In episode 5 Gilgamesh knows something is wrong when "Enkidu" states Gilgamesh's fighting style, using portals to fire weapons, is the most efficient way of fighting. He explains that Enkidu actually disliked his fighting style, even saying it was a massive waste of energy. Which is why he accepted that this "Enkidu" in front of him was a fake easily. He even openly mocks this "Enkidu's" condescending fighting style, in contrast to the real Enkidu's tendency for Dissonant Serenity.
  • There are subtle hints that Ereshkigal has taken over Ishtar's body after the cast tie her up such as Ishtar being openly kind to the cast while she usually has a Hidden Heart of Gold and she has no idea what Fujimaru means when he says he's the last master of humanity when she even taunted Fujimaru over needing her help if he was going to stop the incineration of humanity when they met in episode 1.
    • This goes further in episode 9. During their talk by the campfire overnight, Ishtar behaves unusually shyly as she converses with Fujimaru. She seems to think that Fujimaru hates and/or fears her, blushes like a lovestruck schoolgirl repeatedly, and even her manner of speech changes. Fujimaru further catches on when she sneezes and her hair turns blonde for a brief second. It's only in Episode 12, however, when the party realize and discuss that Ereshkigal must have been summoned alongside Ishtar as the true third member of the Goddess Alliance that Fujimaru realizes who she really is.
  • In episode 15 the heroes come across a Lahmu that is acting differently from the rest (specifically, it is remaining passive while all others are brutally aggressive). This tips off Fujimaru that something isn't right and helps him to realize that it's actually Siduri.
• Parrot Pet Position: Fou usually rests on the characters' shoulders when they're traveling long distances.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Merlin and Roman indulge in this in the final episode after all the threats have been taken care of.
• Physical God: Several, three of which have united together to eliminate humanity. It should be noted that with the sole exception of Tiamat they are all handicapped due to not being in their original forms.
  • While Ishtar isn't at her strongest due to using Rin as her host, she is still an incredibly powerful Servant, as seen when she easily kills a small herd of Uridimmu when Mash mildly struggled to kill two of them. She also easily defeats Ana in the throne room of Uruk and only halts her assault when she realizes who Ana is and what her role is. Given that she's the goddess of power and war, this is to be expected.
  • Jaguar Warrior, a bunrei related to the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, mops the floor with both Mash and Ana upon first meeting her despite being doubly handicapped; one by having to possess a human and two by not being on the land they originated on. Merlin states plainly that they have no hope of fighting her unless they also have someone with divinity on their side, and the group is forced to retreat.
  • Gorgon is a bit of a strange case. She is a monster but is also a god which is strictly speaking impossible. The higher one's monster value is the lower your divinity values are. She gets around this by using the grail to grant her the divinity she had before becoming a monster.
  • Much like Jaguar Warrior, Quetzalcoatl is doubly handicapped by not being a native to the land and also not being in her original form. However in her mythology she is holds the same seat of power as Zeus or Amaterasu and she also controlled the sun at one point. That mere fact makes her strictly speaking stronger than most divine spirits including Gorgon. She also sets up a shrine for herself nullifying the handicap of not being native to the region.
  • Ereshkigal zigzags it as Gilgamesh states she's invincible against Heroic Spirits and Gods in her own domain of Kur, but outside it or against the living who she doesn't have any authority over, she's middling in terms of divinity and authority with Fujimaru and Mash being strong enough to handle her.
  • The real Tiamat is far and away the strongest god to appear with even her weakest form being able to shout with energy equal to a hydrogen bomb. Once she reveals her second form, she is technically unkillable due to her status as mother of all life.
• Physical Hell: This is the Age of Gods, so places like Kur, The Underworld, domain of the goddess Ereshkigal, exist on Earth and can be reached without the usual method of dying. Fujimaru ends up in the Underworld after taking a wrong turn in the abandoned town of Kutha, and has to be bailed out by Fou and the First Hassan.
• Playing with Fire: In episode 18 Quetzalcoatl reveals fire powers, using them to enhance her melee attacks.
• Power Limiter: Merlin attributes his general uselessness to investing much of his magic power elsewhere. As it turns out, he was using his power to keep Tiamat sealed in a dream to prevent her from destroying Uruk.
• The Power of Friendship: Much like Iskandar shown before him (and unlike in-game), Leonidas is shown to summon wraith-like versions of his 300 Spartan compatriots in Thermopylae. They could, as a collective, throw spears to damage the opponent (albeit Leonidas's is the strongest throw), and is the key component of Thermopylae Enomotia: rendering their 300+ shields as a curtain-wall of defense that, depending on the opponent, can function much like Rho Aias.
• The Power of the Sun: One of Quetzalcoatl's Noble Phantasms, Piedra Del Sol, allows her to summon a sun which she uses to evaporate Tiamat's Chaos Tide. For further power, Quetzalcoatl can absorb the solar energy into herself.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: In general, the anime cuts out the various inconsequential fights against the smaller Demonic Beasts the players had to do in the singularity for the story to flow better.
  • Episode 0 focuses on Mash in her original Rei Ayanami Expy state as a young girl, but the meat of the series is set well after she opens up. Since her character development happened in the previous singularities that were not part of the anime, the ending of episode 0 provides a montage of those stories while characters from them speak to Mash about why humanity is great (all of which are real things they said during the game).
  • Episode 3 has Fujimaru and Mash helping out around Uruk like in the game. Unlike the game however, where the chapters were combat chapters where the characters helped out with a seemingly innocent task only for there to be battle for the sake of gameplay, the anime simply skips the middleman and actually shows them busy at work. Since those chapters in-game are quite lengthy (and even then there's a lot implied to be abridged as they report to Gilgamesh) and engage in a more tone-breaking sense of humor, this gets across Uruk as a fully living city, why Mash and Fujimaru are going to protect it, and what exactly Gilgamesh values from his citizens.
  • Episode 4 shows Da Vinci and Romani discussing how Rayshifting to the Age of Gods is almost impossible for Chaldea. This serves as explanation for why Fujimaru can't summon aid from Chaldea, as well as a way to keep the cast easy to follow.
  • In the game after Ishtar joins the heroes, Ereshkigal starts having nightly talks with Fujimaru possessing Ishtar's body but changes Ishtar's appearance to her own during the conversations. In the anime her appearance only changes for a brief second whenever she sneezes, and the effects vary from just her hair to her entire wardrobe.
  • In the game you fight Jaguar Warrior again and befriend her after beating her. In the anime, the fight is shortened to Ishtar firing a half-assed shot at Jaguar warrior then Fujimaru seducing Jaguar Warrior with questionable compliments.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Jaguar Warrior pulls off the kicking variant to break through Ana's guard.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: Tiamat's power was always this even in her first form but when she turns into her third form we get a shot of Roman looking at the power readings as they max out.
• Really Gets Around: While Fujimaru and Ana are working, Merlin is seen cavorting with the local women as much as possible. Justified, as he's half-incubus and needs to keep up his strength.
• Red Baron: Fujimaru is known to Gilgamesh as humanity's last master.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: "Enkidu"'s eyes turn red during their Sanity Slippage scene at the end of episode 5.
  • Also in general, red eyes are a sign of divinity in the Nasuverse. Case in point, as Gilgamesh, Ishtar, and Ereshkigal possess them. Notably, though, Quetzalcoatl averts this.
• Reforged into a Minion: Ushiwakamaru reappears in episode 16 corrupted into a Servant of Tiamat.
• Retcon: The visual depiction of Fujimaru finding Mash in flashback is changed from First Order so Mash is in a female combat uniform instead of her civilian garb and the slab crushing her is smaller.
• Rousing Speech: Gilgamesh gives one to his subjects in episode 18. He tells them that even if Uruk falls, as long as one person survives, they will live on forever in humanity's memory.
• Royal Brat: Ishtar is the daughter of the Mesopotamia pantheon head god An, and shows her more unpleasant side when she refuses to listen to Fujimaru and leaves him and Mash to deal with the remaining Uridimmu, saying that if he can't deal with this, he can't stop the incineration of the world.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Compared to his Archer version, Gilgamesh is exceptionally hard-working here and is rarely seen not working and administrating when he isn't fighting. He's also Uruk's most powerful defender who can screw around with even the goddess Ishtar.

S-Y

• Scaled Up: Tiamat's Jurassic form takes on a quadrupedal form, grows more reptilian, and sprouts wings, giving her a very strong look of a dragon. However, it's mixed up with humanoid features, which makes it look all the more horrifying.
• Scenery Porn: The last third of episode one mainly comprises of Fujimaru, Mash, and "Enkidu" walking around the beautifully desolate forests and grasslands of Mesopotamia.
• Schmuck Bait: In Chaldea's rematch with Ishtar, Fujimaru challenges Ishtar to a one-on-one duel with all of his Servants out of sight. Ishtar mocks him for it, but ends up taking the bait when he refuses to back down. Cue Ana chaining Ishtar's leg from behind and slamming her into the ground. That said, it only worked because Ishtar was then possessed by Ereshkigal due to the setting sun knocking her out.
• Seers: Roman states that all potential Grand Casters are seers but what they can see vary, Solomon can see the past and future, Gilgamesh can see the future and Merlin can see the present.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Ushiwakamaru and Leonidas are defeated by Gorgon with nothing to show for it other than revealing Gorgon's true identity to the heroes. Their Last Stand does no lasting damage to her and she would have continued rampaging had Kingu not convinced her to hold back and gather more strength for fighting the other two goddesses, meaning all the heroes' efforts trying to stop her were for nothing. To add insult to injury, Ushiwakamaru is captured and Reforged into a Minion. Oh, and Ana knew Gorgon's identity the whole time and was summoned specifically to kill her, so learning her True Name was also a giant waste.
• Shield Bash: Due to Mash's Noble Phantasm being a shield, she regularly uses it as a weapon.
• Shipper on Deck: Merlin tells Fujimaru to take Mash on a date on their day off, then walks away laughing as the two blush.
• Shock and Awe: Gilgamesh extensively uses magical lightning while battling "Enkidu" in Episode 5.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Unlike in the game, Jaguar Warrior is completely absent from the final battle.
• Shout-Out: Episode 0 reveals that Mash and Dr. Roman made a habit of watching Granada Productions' Sherlock Holmes; the episode specifically depicted in the anime is the very first episode, "A Scandal in Bohemia".
  • Leonidas' defiant spear throw towards Gorgon during his Last Stand mirrors that of his famous last moments in 300, albeit without the memetic roar.
  • When the party meets up with Jaguar Warrior again, she brandishes her staff and begins making a Badass Boast, only for an annoyed Ishtar to shoot her in the face mid-sentence just like Indiana Jones. However, Jaguar Warrior is strong enough to survive it with only a small bruise to show.
  • Quetzalcoatl's final attack against Tiamat takes the form of a Rider Kick.
• Shown Their Work:
  • The ants seen carrying off leaves and a beetle in episode 4 are leafcutter ants, not native to Mesopotamia at all, but to Central America. This offers a hint to the coming of "Jaguarman" to those with sharp eyes.
  • The game that the kids in Uruk are playing in episode 5 is a real ancient Mesopotamian board game, called the Royal Game of Ur.
• Sinister Scythe: Ana's weapon is a small scythe on an extremely long chain. Its true identity is Harpe, the weapon that Perseus used to kill Gorgon.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Dr. Roman hates Merlin and Ishtar hates Gilgamesh. The feeling is mutual for Gilgamesh albeit he doesn't think highly of her, but meanwhile Merlin doesn't take Roman seriously in the least bit. Ana later gains a grudge against Jaguar Warrior for losing in battle against her, but Jaguar Warrior is too easygoing and powerful to really care about it.
• Spell My Name With An S: Like with the game's translation, the official English subtitles and dub use Altria Pendragon instead of either "Arturia" or "Artoria" when Dr. Roman questions Merlin's appearance in episode 2.
• Spoiler Opening:
  • Ereshkigal is shown twice in the first opening, including one shot that focuses directly on her. She doesn't show up until much later in the plot and was originally a surprise character in the game.
  • Tiamat gets a few quick shots in the second opening while also giving several extended shots of the corrupted Ushiwakamaru, the former of whom is a Walking Spoiler and the latter's appearance serving as a Knight of Cerebus for how quickly things go From Bad to Worse in the latter part of Babylonia in the game.
• Spotting the Thread: Leonidas quickly deduces that the Tiamat he's fighting is not the actual Tiamat because no legend states that she has Mystic Eyes and she's far too familiar with Greek deities and legends when interacting with him, allowing him to reveal her true identity as Gorgon, the monstrous version of Medusa.
• Square-Cube Law: The heroes decide to exploit Tiamat's dependence on the Chaos Tide creating a field where the law doesn't take effect on her incredibly unbalanced body mass by using Quetzalcoatl's Piedra del Sol to erase the mud and force her spindly legs to collapse under the weight of her horns. Unfortunately for them, Tiamat modifies her body to give herself flight, bypassing this problem altogether.
• The Stinger:
  • Episode 3 ends with a scene inside the Blood Fort, foreshadowing Gorgon's appearance.
  • The final episode ends with a scene of Solomon launching an all-out attack on Chaldea's headquarters, setting the scene for the animated adaptation of Solomon.
• Stunned Silence: Everyone's reaction when Ishtar admits to have lost Gugalanna, which everyone assummed to be their last trump card against Tiamat.
• Super-Empowering: Gorgon is much more powerful than normal thanks by borrowing Tiamat's Authority, giving her the ability to spawn the Demonic Beasts and the Chaos Tide.
• Super-Toughness:
  • Even after two glorious last stands, one of which left a hole in Gorgon's torso, she walks away from the fight like it was nothing, all without using the Holy Grail's power.
  • Tiamat takes Quetzalcoatl's ultimate attack — which involves her using the power of the meteor impact that killed the dinosaurs — without a single scratch.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Ishtar's eyes turn gold whenever she fires a high-power blast or uses her Noble Phantasm.
• Superweapon Surprise: Gilgamesh's main reason for recruiting Ishtar. He planned to unleash her Gugalanna, a weapon capable of even standing up to a Beast-class creature, to defend Uruk in their greatest hour of need. Except that Ishtar lost it.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: When Fujimaru and Mash wonder why Gilgamesh is joining them on their task for episode 5, he denies that he's taking a break or that he's bored and then asks that they tell him a story to entertain him.
• Symbiotic Possession:
  • Mash shares her body with the Heroic Spirit Galahad.
  • The Mesopotamian Goddess Ishtar uses Tohsaka Rin's body so she can be summoned to the world despite the Age of Gods nearing its end. It's because Rin was the most ideal vessel for Ishtar's personality.
  • The Jaguar Warrior, a Mesoamerican guardian spirit, has possessed the body of Taiga Fujimura, Shirou's English teacher and big sister figure from Fate/stay night.
  • The Mesopotamian Goddess of the Underworld Ereshkigal also used Rin's body. It's suggested that Ishtar and Ereshkigal were once a singular goddess before they split thus why Ereshkigal was also summoned when the High Priestess of Uruk summoned Ishtar.
• Synchronization: This is the secret behind Tiamat-Gorgon. Since Tiamat is trapped in her sleep by Merlin, she uses Gorgon as a proxy by lending her Authority and Divinity to her. Kingu exploits this when the heroes kill Gorgon and and end up letting the shock of her death travel back through their link and awaken the real Tiamat, though he admits he would have preferred that to have been a last resort since he had grown fond of Gorgon and wanted to find a way to awaken Tiamat without killing her in the process.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Tiamat's Nega-Genesis rewrites the world around her to her will thus preventing the remaining Servants from killing her. It takes Fujimaru successfully convincing her to stand down for Tiamat to turn off Nega-Genesis, allowing Archer Gilgamesh to finish her off with Ea.
• Taken for Granite: It wouldn't be Gorgon without her eyes of petrification. The mere presence of Cybele is enough to scare the crap out of Merlin, and Leonidas falls victim to it in his valiant defense of Uruk.
• Takes One to Kill One: Proper Divine Spirits are basically invincible unless fighting another of their kind, as the heroes find out in their encounters with Jaguarman and Gorgon. They decide to get around this by bribing the infamously greedy Ishtar to fight for them.
• Taking the Bullet: In episode 19, Tiamat tries to snipe Fujimaru from afar. Gilgamesh shoves him out of the way and takes the hit himself.
• Time Abyss: In episode 6 the old man identifies himself as Ziusu-dra, who many consider being the prototype of the biblical Noah. This would make him absolutely ancient even during this show's ancient setting. Of course it's left ambiguous whether he was telling the truth or not about his name, seeing as he's later revealed to be King Hassan in disguise.
• Time-Compression Montage:
  • For the first six singularities in episode 0, summarizing Mash's character development as she learns about humanity.
  • Episode 3 compresses several chapters of Fujimaru and Mash working together in Uruk and slowly accruing credit to make themselves worthy of Gilgamesh's time, which is established to be about a month's time in episode 4.
  • Episode 12 compresses down the gate trials in the Underworld to only showing the beginning of the trial before cutting right to before the final gate where the team reunites with Gilgamesh and he mocks Ishtar's tiny form.
• The Time of Myths: The story is set during the Age of Gods, when magic was commonplace and gods were real. That being said it's set near the end of the Age of Gods, so gods can't manifest their full selves anymore and need to possess human bodies to appear. The trigger that started the downfall of the Age of Gods is elaborated on in Fate/Extella, and the age fully came to an end when the calendar switched from B.C. to A.D., beginning the Age of Man.
• Title Drop: The "Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia" is revealed at the end of episode one to be the name for humanity's bastion against the horde of Demonic Beasts.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Gilgamesh in this anime is far kinder compared to his previous portrayals in Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night as shown in episode 5 when he happily praises his children subjects as well as taking Mash's light-hearted jab in stride.
• Top God: While all the gods and demigods in the singularity are forces to be reckoned with, Tiamat, the Primordial Mother Goddess, stands atop them all. She possesses Nigh-Invulnerability, Complete Immortality, and her screams alone have the energy output of a hydrogen bomb. By the end, she tries to create an entirely new universe to start Earth's history all over again and is only restrained by three top-class Noble Phantasms from seriously powerful Servants. The heroes need to pull out every stop to take her down, including multiple goddesses sacrificing themselves and the intervention of a Grand Servant. Even after all of that, she's only finished off with the full force of Ea, and even that wouldn't have been able to work had Fujimaru not convinced Tiamat within her mind to stop using Nega-Genesis to protect herself from being hit by Ea.
• Tragic Villain:
  • Episode 16 shows Kingu as one who due to feeling he had nothing, dedicated himself to Tiamat's goal and then the Lahmu attack him, showing that his "mother" never truly cared about him.
  • Tiamat's quick conversation with Fujimaru in episode 20 shows her a sad figure that wants to always be with her children.
• Tsundere: Even if she is merely possessing Rin, Ishtar still very much acts like how you would expect. For example, she insists that she doesn't care about Uruk, while ranting about how she can't destroy it as its patron goddess. Gilgamesh is one as well, as despite claiming he had no use of Fujimaru and Mash, has Siduri give them a base and takes care of their needs.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Episode 16 and its special ending implies that Gilgamesh, Enkidu and Siduri were this when Enkidu was alive.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Once per Episode, the current antagonist will have a short skirmish with the heroes before randomly running off into the distance.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Gorgon undergoes one of these in episode 15 due to Ana's presence. Justified since her past selves are a major Trauma Button for her, plus the fact that Ana is wielding a scythe capable of killing immortal beings.
  • The Lahmu also undergo one in episode 19 when Kingu makes their return, not only because the Lahmu thought they had killed them but also because they're siding with humanity. While normally the Lahmu talk in childlike glee as they butcher things, when addressing Kingu they sound outright furious, to say nothing of how they're being cut down with ease despite them claiming Kingu was defective and thus inferior.
• Villainous Friendship: Although she was originally a means to an end for him, Kingu genuinely liked Gorgon and sympathized with her, and was extremely angry with the heroes for killing her before he could arrive to aid her in battle. Her death gave him exactly what he wanted (Tiamat's awakening), but he wanted to use other means of breaking the enchantment that didn't require her to die.
• Visual Innuendo: The moment after Fujimaru charmed Jaguar Warrior, the scene turns to blooming flowers and partially opened fruits dripping with juices as she moans.
• Wall Run: Jaguar Warrior casually runs along walls during her fight with Masha and Ana.
• Was Once a Man: The Lahmu are often created using humans. This is shown to have happened to Siduri in episode 15.
• Wave Motion Sword: Merlin pulls out a Holy Sword-like Mystic Code against Ishtar that looks suspiciously like Excalibur.
• Weapon of X-Slaying:
  • The Axe of Marduk was used to kill Tiamat in the frachise's version of mythology, making it conceptually effective against her.
  • Harpe was the scythe Perseus used to kill Gorgon, also making it conceptually effective against her on top of being an Immortal Breaker. Ana uses it kill Gorgon in one hit.
• Wham Episode: Episode 15 serves as this. Gorgon's death doesn't lead to victory within the Singularity, but instead serves as the catalyst for things going From Bad to Worse. Merlin's Servant container is destroyed, Tiamat awakens, and the Lahmu descend upon Mesopotamia to begin killing the people.
• Wham Line:
  • Gilgamesh delivers one in The Stinger of episode 11.
    Gilgamesh: I seem to have awoken from my nap in the depths of Kur. This is no time for jokes! I really am dead here!
  • Episode 12 has Ishtar completely change what we know about the Three Goddess Alliance.
    Ishtar: I'm not one of them, okay?
• White Mage: Both Fujimaru and Merlin operate in this way, with the latter being contrasted from his usual Magic Knight characterization from the game.
  • Fujimaru has been showing healing Mash in combat as well as teleporting her near Gilgamesh in their test fight against Gilgamesh in episode 3.
  • Merlin can create illusions, give the group speedy escapes and boost allies. This is game accurate since Merlin is one of the best support Servants.
• Why Isn't It Attacking?: While most Lahmu were happily tearing people apart limb-from-limb, one just tried to motion with its arm to Fujimaru. It was the "white flag of surrender" wave Ishtar taught Siduri, revealing what happened to their friend.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Ishtar's power is shown when she easily defeats Mash and Ana at the same time in episode 3.
  • Jaguar Warrior's ability is also showcased by taking down Mash and Ana with ease. This is right after Mash brings up that her powers are derived from a Knight of the Round, who are all powerful, famous Servants.
  • Quetzalcoatl is hyped up as a very powerful goddess, potentially even stronger than the Big Bad Tiamat and this is shown in episode 11 when Mash, Ana, Jaguar Warrior and even Ishtar working together aren't a match for her. This is especially important as before Jaguar Warrior and especially Ishtar were shown to be untouchable when Mash and Ana fought them before.
• The Worf Barrage:
  • Ereshkigal unleashes a Noble Phantasm she never used in the games, Naamu Abzu Gugalanna, in a last-ditch effort to defeat Chaldea. While impressive, it ultimately fails to penetrate Lord Camelot because Mash's will and Fujimaru's desire to protect Ereshkigal's dignity are so much greater.
  • Ishtar fires her Noble Phantasm, An Gal Ta Ki Gal She, at Tiamat in her Femme Fatale form, seemingly annihilating the latter. When the dust settles, however, Tiamat has transformed into her Titan form and ends up completely impervious to any further attack, forcing Fujimaru, Mash, Quetzalcoatl and Ishtar to retreat.
  • Quetzalcoatl goes all out against Titan Tiamat unleashing both of her Noble Phantasms while bolstered by a Command Seal. It does jack squat to Tiamat, and she indicates that even if her power wasn't halved, it still wouldn't have done anything.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • Chaldea is only able to defeat Ishtar because she had been possessed by Ereshkigal at the time, preventing her from seeing through their obvious Schmuck Bait when she took back control.
  • Gilgamesh in the singularity proper is an older, physically weaker man who has given up most of his arsenal, including his vaunted Ea, and on top of all that he is significantly overworking himself at a constant pace. He is still strong enough to hold his own against Kingu, and when he summons his stronger and younger Archer self at the end of the story, said Archer form does the lion's share of the work in defeating Tiamat.
• Would Hurt a Child: The Lahmu are shown (sort of) murdering a child who had been hiding. This further hammers home just how vicious they are.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Within the Bloodfort, Kingu is shown allowing a small group of children to escape.
• Worthy Opponent: Gorgon shows Leonidas respect for having resisted her Mystic Eyes, identifying her, and wounding her all in quick succession. She considers his Last Stand a heroic death.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Ishtar pulls this off twice in episode 16 against corrupted Ushiwakamaru.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Quetzalcoatl loves lucha libre and engages in high-flying acrobatics throughout her battles, juggling her foes in the air, and even finishing Jaguar Warrior with a Suplex Finisher. In fact, her love of wrestling is so profound that Fujimaru manages to sway her to his side by challenging her determination and daring her to catch him after he jumps from Maanna for a powerslam.
  • Ishtar also improvises a wrestling move in episode 16 to prevent the Bel Lahmu carrying the Holy Grail from reaching Tiamat.
• Wrong Context Magic: Quetzalcoatl tries this against Tiamat, as she's neither a descendant of Tiamat being extraterrestrial bacteria that rode the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, nor is she from Mesopotamia whose weapons save the Axe of Marduk cannot harm Tiamat. Tries being the key word. In practice, Tiamat is just too powerful for Quetzalcoatl for this trope to even matter.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In episode 15, Kingu gets stabbed In the Back by the Lahmu. With Tiamat awake, he's no longer needed.
• Your Days Are Numbered: As a designer baby, Mash's cells degrade much quicker than a normal human's, giving her a limited lifespan.

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