Hilarious In Hindsight / Fate/Grand Order

• Fan artists for the longest time have been drawing artwork of a "What If?" of Jeanne Alter, Cu Alter, and EMIYA Alter. They're now playable characters in this game.
  • In addition to the above, a fan-made game featuring Altria and the other Arthurian myth characters featuring Merlin as a Biseinen with long, white hair, blue eyes and a glowing tattoo. Lo and behold, aside from the tattoo, that's exactly how Merlin's official appearance is in the Nasuverse.
  • Similarly, there has been quite a few fan-arts of a "What If?" of Julius Caesar as a Saber. On Danbooru, most of them are Saberclones. And then the official design is revealed and Caesar is definitely not a Saberclone. On the flipside, some thought he'd be a Bishōnen. Turns out he's a fat dude in this game, but then Cleopatra reveals that the Caesar she knew in life was a Bishōnen.
• Assassin Kiritsugu was propagated as a possible Servant for several years in fanfiction and fanart, and it's been legitimized in Fate/Accel Zero Order.
• Before Tesla's debut in the game, we had a heroic spirit famous for something related to electricity in another unrelated series. The spirit's name? Edison. Both Takeru (in Edison form) and Tesla fought with electrical projectiles, and even both Edison Parka and Tesla was used by the arc's villain in their debut.
• Edison's debut has him as a Caster. Kamen Rider Wizard has the secondary Rider being lion-themed while still being a wizard; in other words, still a Caster.
• In Fate/kaled liner Prisma Illya 3rei manga Chapter 35, Shirou refers to the Black Keys he got from Kirei as Craft Essences (basically toys). He then complains about how they're worthless junk and how he paid lots of cash for them, reflecting many players' reactions to rolling them.
• In Jeanne Alter's debut event, she reveals her inferiority complex by saying that no one needs or wants her. Pretty hilarious from the biggest Breakout Character the game has released yet.
• The pink haired girl in the opening cinematic was thought to be Nightingale, the main ally of the America chapter. Later, Nightingale is revealed to be a different Servant and the pink haired girl is revealed to be Medb, the main villain of the America chapter.
• The Onigashima event features a Rider-class Kintoki as an event Servant and lots of players are quick to point out that the belt he wears looks just like a Rider Belt. Well, this isn't his first time going to a place called Onigashima. ^ExplanationKintaros' name was taken from Kintaro, and the legend of Kintaro itself was based on Sakata Kintoki's exploits. For bonus points, Kintoki's VA also voiced... Urataros.
• The game director's name is Yosuke Shiokawa. It means "river of salt". Now we know why F/GO players are salty. Then it turns out the marketing guy's name means "stone cellar" and the company chairman's name means "money valley". Well played, DW.
• St. Martha's Interludes and events that she appeared in keep bringing up that she actually likes to beat enemies with her fists. Come "Chaldea Summer", the Ruler St. Martha mainly uses Good Old Fisticuffs.
• After the inclusion of EMIYA and Dress of Heaven in Fate/Accel Zero Order, fans joked that someday they could reunite the whole Emiya family in the game. And now, voila, there's Illya and Chloe ready to join their parents (and brother). And the bonus level has them all together (plus Heracles). Later on the original Illya joined the game as Sitonai. Finally, Shirou Emiya actually came out as a pseudo-servant for Muramasa.
• There was a running gag among Fate fans that the "Riding" skill involves "riding a man" (this caused Irisviel, of all people, to snicker back then in Fate/Zero). In her Interlude, Medb mentions this as her qualification for the Rider class.
• In Fate/Apocrypha, after summoning Mordred, Kairi asks to confirm that she's a Saber-class servant, to which Mordred sarcastically asks if she looks like an Assassin. Kairi then jokingly comments that an armored Assassin with a sword wouldn't be so bad. Fast-forward and we now have the Grand Assassin, King Hassan, who wears a full set of heavy armor and wields a sword.
• Chapter 24 of Learning with Manga! FGO has Altera having a nightmare thanks to the female protagonist sitting on her thinking that it gives the person being sat upon bad dreams. She jumps into a world where F/GO has a PVP mode and all the best rewards are only given to the top players aka the ranking system and event ranking systems, which you recognise is one of the most hated mechanics in mobages or pretty much games in general. Cut forward to April 2017, the GUDA GUDA Meiji Revival is pretty much a player base civil war with different rewards on either side. Thankfully, it's a ladder system like Honnoji so everyone gets the rewards on both sides, the only difference is which of the higher rewards of the winning side will be obtained.
• In Fate/GUDAGUDA Order Drama CD, Nobu asks DW for a 5* "Demon Lord" version of her with Medusa saying that it wouldn't happen. Jump forward to Babylonia, in an ironic twist, we were introduced to Medusa Gorgon, which is pretty much Medusa's "Demon Lord" form.
  • And in GUDAGUDA Final Honnoji, Nobu finally got her wish, with a 5* "Demon Lord" version (who also happens to be an Avenger, similar to Medusa Gorgon). Also similar to Gorgon: Said Avenger version is a composite of three different beings, albeit Nobu's can change which is in charge at any given moment (and one of them is, incidentally, male) whereas Gorgon is literally "Medusa went insane and ate her sisters."
• When battling Ereshkigal, one may wonder why the Babylonian goddess of the dead is placed under the Lancer designation. Then you realize that the fans' observations about how "being Lancer is suffering", "E-Rank Luck", and the "Lancer died! You aren't human!" phrase in Carnival Phantasm have not gone unnoticed by DW.
• Speaking of Lancer, it's ironic that in Fate/Stay Night and Carnival Phantasm, Cu Chulainn always dies, but in Fate/Grand Order, he's nearly unkillable if you play him correctly. (And we are talking about any of his forms/alternate classes.)
• Another Carnival Phantasm-related matter: Saber Alter Maid is part of the 2017 Summer event. "I am a cute gothic lolita maid waitress, sir!" Indeed.
• In Farewell to 2016 - GUDAGUDA Order, Nero complains that she didn't get a swimsuit version for Summer 2016. Summer 2017 has her in the line-up.
• EMIYA's line about him not wanting to be paired with gold Archers and blue Lancers now gains another layer of hilarity because of Parvati's release. It's either he can't get along with Gil (gold Archer) and Cu (blue Lancer) or that he doesn't like being reminded of his trouble with women, namely Ishtar (Rin, also a gold Archer) AND Parvati (Sakura, also a blue Lancer).
  • He's also subject to the same trouble with the Cavalry triangle (Caster Artoria, Rider Ishtar, and Assassin Kama) and the Extra Class triangle (Ruler Artoria, Space Ishtar, and BB).
• During the first Christmas event, Santa Alter gives d'Eon a maid outfit. During the Agartha singularity, it's exactly the kind of outfit they end up wearing.
• Ereshkigal has always been a teased and awaited Servant ever since Babylonia release. To the extent that Cirnopedia and various resource calculators would jokingly put her in the line-up as if she was a normal Servant under the Lancer class due to her boss fight in the Babylon singularity. One year later, Ereshkigal would be the featured SSR in Christmas 2017, complete with the correct Class.
• As noted under Memetic Troll on the YMMV page, a lot of fans have come to the general consensus that the game's creator is none other than one Kotomine Kirei due to how much the paid gacha favors Black Keys (which are pretty much his signature weapon) and CEs with him on it. Guess who shows up as a part of the Clock Tower team?
• During the first Christmas Event, Astolfo, who was making an Early-Bird Cameo, became the Butt-Monkey just because he didn't show up and fight during the Orleans singularity, and wasn't even summonable in the event, with his appearance being little more than a footnote. Semiramis, a fellow Apocrypha servant, didn't show up during Babylonia, yet not only does she debut as a summonable servant in the gacha of the 2018 Valentine's event (where she makes her debut proper), but she's the focus of the event.
  • Not to mention that Astolfo as well as d'Edon (who was an actual antagonist in the Orleans singularity) went on to majorly help the Master of Chaldea in a different singularity (a.k.a. the Agartha singularity); becoming the two main allies of that singularity.
• This is not the first time Leonardo da Vinci and Vlad the Impaler are in the same series.
• When Anastasia first appeared, some players half jokingly believe that instead of her being a Romanov, she was actually a gender-flipped Ivan the Terrible using his wife's name. Not only does Ivan actually appear in the Anastasia chapter, but Anastasia used the fact that she has the same name as his wife to manipulate him.
• When the Nasuverse Knights of the Round Table are crossed over with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Fou is often cast as the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog. During the climax of Salomon, it turns out these fan artists were closer to the truth than they themselves realized.
• During the release of Semiramis, someone made a fanart of making fun on how Atalante was at the time the only Red Faction servant who has Quick NP and bullied Achilles into getting a Quick NP just so she wouldn't be lonely, much to Achilles' distress. And when Achilles gets into FGO... he's a Quick-based Rider, so maybe he really took Atalante's advice at heart.
• Marie Antoinette's "Whassup! My homies!" dialogue from the NA localization has now become this, because in another mobile game^Note23/7, for those who are curious, Marie Antoinette is depicted as having gone Totally Radical.
• Raikou, voiced by Haruka Tomatsu, is a famed oni slayer who had oni blood herself. Two years later, Tomatsu would voice Zero Two, a Hunter Of Her Own Kind who has the appearance of and is referred to as an oni.
  • It's also not the first time Minamoto no Raikou is depicted as female; New Getter Robo also has a female Raikou.
• The introduction of Katsushika Hokusai, actually a pair of characters featuring Hokusai in an octopus form and his daughter Ou'i wielding a giant paintbrush, was already this trope for Splatoon, which has a brush weapon called the Hokusai in the Japanese version (Octobrush in other versions). Then Splatoon 2 later got the Octo Expansion DLC which allows you to play as an Octoling. And then go into multiplayer as an Octoling wielding the Hokusai, with purple tenta-hair and octopus form if you're lucky.
• The day after Napoleon, a French Heroic Spirit, was released in Japan, France managed to win the 2018 FIFA World Cup. For added irony, Napoleon's reign in Real Life began to crumble after he failed in his invasion of Russia, and France managed to win a World Cup taking place in Russia.
• While not his first time playing Jekyll, this series isn’t the only time Mamoru Miyano has played a troubled Bishounen with a split personality, one half pure as the driven snow, the other aggressive and brutal... it’s just that Hyde can speak coherently and changes minimally this time, making the resemblance between Jekyll/Hyde and Fubuki Shirou/Atsuya much more uncanny. About a year after FGO’s release, the Inazuma Eleven: Ares reboot was announced, where Atsuya became a part of the permanent cast, giving both updated voices, but as separate people, and with absolutely no context Jekyll and Hyde wrestling for control can sound a lot like the Fubuki twins doing the same, or vice-versa.
• The "Tropical Summer" Mystic Code features a tanned main character and arts-related boosts. Why is this ironic? Vlad III (Berserker) is one of the Servants benefited most by this Mystic Code, and he's summoned as a vampire.
• Mysterious Heroine XX becomes this when you realize that one, Saber had a hard time defeating Berserker in the Fate route; two, her stronger variants are often gag versions for seasonal events; and finally, XX's Foreigner Class counters Berserkers. Meaning, a joke variant of Saber has an easier time defeating Berserker than her canon version. Yes, even with the buffs Saber got.
• The idea that you can have a team of Servants instead of just one? Nerve Damage had this idea in 2012. Not to mention, many of the Servants in there are surprisingly spot-on when they debuted years later in here.
  • Nerve Damage has characters who can control a Berserker's Madness Enhancement, making them lucid while retaining their immense strength. Grand Order has many Berserkers whose madness does not prevent them from rational thought and speech.
• If you have Quetzalcoatl, Gorgon comments that she's so cheerful for a servant that qualifies as the Avenger class. This becomes pretty funny when the 2018 Christmas event rolls around, where a Ruler-class version of Quetz is the welfare servant.
• In the Prisma Illya event, Illya mentioned that the fake Tamamo Cat's voice is very much like Kuro's. Come the rerun and Kuro is shown wearing Tamamo Cat's apron and collar.
• Fans have been clamoring for a playable version of Tiamat ever since she appeared in Babylonia. The CCC rerun gives us Kingprotea, whose later ascensions give her characteristics quite similar to Tiamat, due to having the essence of Earth Mother Goddesses. It's not exactly Tiamat, but it's close enough, we guess.
• The whole "how fast do you have to slap a chicken to cook it" meme has only become funnier due to Kingprotea's NP being a highly-damaging slap from her taking gigantic form.
• Mara being a gender flip? Not the first time, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey has Grand Order beat by almost a decade. Though that Mara was less... attractive.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kenjiro Tsuda voiced Seto Kaiba, the Master of Dragons. Now in this game he voices Sigurd, a Dragon Slayer.
• This post notes that many narrative points for the plot of Part 1 parallels Avengers: Endgame to a terrifyingly similar degree. Note that Part 1 was released on the JP server Christmas 2016.
  • A group of heroes whose presence in the world was decided by random chance.
  • They Time Travel into shredded timelines of their own past in search for the overpowered McGuffins.
  • The purpose of collecting said items are to undo the Big Bad's already completed "Mass Destruction For The Sake Of A Better Universe" plan.
  • The Big Good is an accomplished academic (sort of) while the main supporting heroes consists of being a patriotic figure to their country (Jeanne) and the other uses a shield as the main choice of weapon (Mash).
  • Before the climatic battle begins, the patriot says a rallying speech.
  • The climax has the shield hero initially go alone against the Big Bad. When all hope seems lost, all of the heroes' allies from their previous adventures gather from across time and space to assist.
  • In the most climatic moment, the Big Good uses an assembled artefact of power to defeat the Big Bad at the cost of his own life.
• Heracles' skill at using Cu Chulainn as a Boomelancer is now explained here in this game: he got good at the Fastball Special thanks to throwing Jason at their foes!
• The Oniland event featuring Shuten-douji becoming the oni equivalent of a Magical Girl becomes this, because before being the character designer for Shuten-douji, Raikou, and Murasaki (among others), Honjou Raita made a hentai manga series involving magical girls.
  • The Oniland event itself is an entire send-up of the Magical Girl genre, Pretty Cure in particular. The showcase Servant is Caster-class Shuten-douji, voiced by Aoi Yūki, who at the time of the event, has only voiced the Big Bad of the KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode's movie: Cook. Cut to late 2019 a year and few months after the event, Yuuki finally ends up voicing Cure Grace/Nodoka Hanadera, the protagonist of the 2020 entry: Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure. The Oniland event turned out rather prophetic... And furthermore, Nodoka also is a bit Delicate and Sickly and struggles with it, which is very similar to another Servant played by Aoi Yūki, Okita Souji. "Nodoka-san, Daishouri!"?
• The Learning with Manga! FGO skit featuring Gudao and Astolfo now qualifies for this, as Saber Astolfo was the featured SSR for Christmas 2019. ("Boku wa kimi no ken! / I am your sword!")
• During the 'Farewell to 2016' section of the GUDAGUDA Order drama tracks, there was a joke that a GUDAGUDA anime is never going to happen, much to Okita and Nobunaga's disappointment ("Ehhhhhhhhh....?"). Come the tail end of 2019, Type-MOON did announce the closest equivalent for that: Fate/type Redline, a more dramatic, less-jokey adaptation of the Imperial Holy Grail War.
• Several concerning Capsule Servant:
  • The minigame featured Jeanne as an Attention Whore who wanted to kickstart the "Jeanne Boom" and ride on Altria levels of popularity, primarily as a response to Astolfo eclipsing her in popularity for Apocrypha. No less than a year later, she got her wish...but it's Jeanne's own Alter self that helped her popularity along as Jeanne Alter proceeds to be far more popular than both regular Jeanne and Astolfo combined. In addition, Rin briefly mistakes Jeanne for Napoleon which later turned out to be incredibly off-the-mark as far as appearances go.
  • Bazett's class of Boxer during her stint as a temp Servant, as well as how absurdly strong she was in a normal Holy Grail War, became hilarious now that we have Summer Martha, a fellow purple-haired Servant reknowned for her powerful fisticuffs. Even funnier after the implementation of Karna Santa, whose boxing abilities and costuming make him a Boxer-class in all but name.
• Odysseus' NP becomes this, because in Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash, the rival unit is the Odysseus Gundam equipped with the Penelope Fixed Flight Unit. For even more references, the group fielding the Penelope is known as the Circe Unit.
  • Furthermore, years before, someone made an April Fools' Day prank about FGO having a crossover with Mobile Suit Gundam. Then comes Odysseus' NP...
• The Crypters' meeting in the beginning of the first Lostbelt looked kind of normal for its time, with Kirschtaria alone in a room with holograms of the other Crypters. The first Lostbelt was released globally amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in real world where social distancing is highly advised. And thus, the scene became hilarious in a way that while the Crypters are trying to destroy the Proper Human History, at least they're practicing safety against COVID-19 via social distancing. Gets even more meaning when Lostbelt 5.2 was released around the same time frame, revealing that Kirschtaria was Good All Along, so he looked like he had the social distancing incentive for the safety of everyone right from the start.
• The "FBI, open up!", police, and "I'm going to jail" memes involving Illyasviel (and her other versions, ESPECIALLY Chloe) becomes this after the release of the Second Lostbelt, because you first meet Sitonai (an Alter-Ego using FSN Illyasviel as a vessel)... in a prison cell.
• Blackbeard's appearance in the second Summer event has him act as a beauty judge with his verdicts speeding up or slowing down the racers. He gives most of his approval to Teams Satisfaction Ｅ∴Ｔ∴Ｅ and Electric Steam feat. Papa while only criticizing Team Desert Beauty. The third round of the U.S. Server's rerun, the same one where Blackbeard appeared, ended with Desert Beauty ending up in 1st place while Teams Satisfaction Ｅ∴Ｔ∴Ｅ and Electric Steam feat. Papa ended up in the last two positions.
  • Team Tyrannical Shooting Star dominating the NA Server's rerun with the exception of Desert Beauty's aforementioned Dark Horse Victory becomes hilariously-ironic to think about when Fate/Grand Carnival has Desert Beauty member Nitocris beat Tyrannical Shooting Star member Nero in a race by such a huge margin that Nero dies on the spot.
• This isn't the first series that portrayed Gaius Julius Caeser as fat.
• One Heaven's Feel meme involves photoshopping Saber Alter's face cards into 5 Excalibur Morgans. Altria's 5th Anniversary Rank Up Quest upgrades her Mana Burst skill to give a Buster card boost, NP damage boost, and changes all her current face cards to Buster, making the joke real... for the original Saber, not the Altered version.
• Over the course of the game, EMIYA has gone from weak and helpless to a highly competent fighter who can tangle with opponents far above his weight class. It's like he's living his teenage years all over again!
• This fan-made video only becomes funnier when you realize that the Avenger-class Servant for the Saber Wars II event is none other than Space Ishtar.
• Minamoto no Raikou as a female isn't exactly a first time amongst media, but FGO definitely popularized it. Enough that in Nioh 2, Raikou also appeared as a female, and Kintoki also makes a cameo there.
• Fans had been clamoring for years for a male summer alt as their own unit rather than a Costume Dress option or cameo, and like the girls would hope a fan-favorite receives the honors. Who broke the barrier? The unadvertised second Ascension of Nobukatsu, a Servant that wasn't promoted on his own event's banner, was released in the middle of Fall, and prior to his implementation wasn't even playable. The guy with the least prospects of getting an alt Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing.
  • Arguably, he even fits in with the treatment of male summer Servants: the first year had the boys deliberately excuse themselves from the plot, the third had fan-favorite boys show up as non-playable cameos, and the fourth year themed the boys after casino attire instead. Counting Katsu, this means the lone non-costume unit released that year was introduced a season later with no prior acknowledgement.
• Following confirmation that Merlin (Prototype) would be female and her voiced cameo in Arthur's NP, fans that didn't believe that she would be a Saberface went to work on making fan designs of her, usually depicting her as Merlin with boobs and a similar, yet feminized outfit. Come her design, kit and characterization reveal in Fate/Grand Order Arcade, Merlin (Prototype) being Merlin with boobs ended up being a spot on prediction.
• After Caster Altria’s reveal trailer before she was revealed by name, many fans assumed she was Merlin (Prototype) due to the long-held belief that Merlin (Prototype) would be a Saberface based on their shared voice actors. This was eventually jossed due to the servant being revealed to be Altria from a timeline in which Merlin (Fate/Stay Night version) taught her magic instead, leading to fans being disappointed... that is until Merlin (Prototype) was revealed to be an Arcade unit the very next month, giving her an official design after the years long waiting period. What makes it better is that Caster Altria takes some visual cues from both versions of Merlin (though more obviously the male version), clearly acting as a set up for the eventual reveal.
• One of the FGO artists, pako, joked in 2017 that Ashiya Douman would star in a Christmas event as a Black Comedy joke. Three years later, Ashiya Douman would be getting a big story chapter release on December 2020 and with the month in mind, it quickly became joked that pako was actually on the money for the event.
  • Pako also predicted Ashiya Douman’s Final Ascension art, having made a Dakimakura depicting the character as completely nude and wrapped in Christmas lights. Not only is Douman completely nude in his Final Ascension, he has a crazed expression that is remarkably similar to the expression Pako drew for him on the flipped side of the Dakimakura. While there are no Christmas lights present, Ashiya Douman being released in December makes up for it.
• It would make sense that Douman would name some of the Seven Swordmasters after keywords from Dante's Inferno. After all, he's voiced by Dante!
  • Even better, this time it's Dante's turn to attach himself to a giant tree for power!
• Setanta (or Cu Chulainn Lily) was announced at least for the Arcade version after the airing of the pilot episode of Fate/Grand Carnival, which means at least there still is one version of Cu Chulainn that avoided the "CU CHULAINN DIES!" "YOU AREN'T HUMAN!" gag.
• The meme calling Violet Evergarden "Violet Sabergarden" due to her resemblance to Altria has now become this, because one, Morgan le Fay's voice actress has been revealed to be Yui Ishikawa; and two, Morgan and Violet both share the same "Saber, but with PTSD" characterization.
• Cleopatra is an assassin servant, but in an actual assassin game, she is stated to have been killed by an assassin. Come Assassin's Creed Origins, she actually appears in person, and her assassin is a main character.
• The meme "this is so sad, Tristan play Despacito" only becomes funnier because a harp cover of Despacito actually exists.
• The NeroFes rerun in the JP server makes it here, because the UEFA Euro Final has England (i.e. Artoria) vs. Italy (i.e. Nero), mirroring a scene in Fate/Grand Carnival. Even funnier since Italy won, since you're left wondering whether Nero threw the festival rerun as an advanced celebration or something.
• When Morgan was first released the fan reaction was originally lukewarm in part to her design being seen as uninspired and it wasn't until later when her full backstory was explained that she became the Breakout Character that she is today. Then interviews about Lostbelt 6 which revealed that the original story plans for Morgan were wildly different but were changed because the design given to her didn't fit with what Nasu imagined Morgan Le Fey to actually look like, revealing that one of her most criticized aspects led to one of her most beloved ones.
• In Lostbelt 6, we get to know that the Pretender class (Oberon-Vortigern) is a class that is able to take up the role of another Class. Thing is... Nasu wasn't the first to come up with that idea, Koha-ACE's keikenchi did it first: Changing class and getting new Noble Phantasms based on it is basically the schthick of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
• Shirou supporting Artoria as her Master becomes this when you realize that Artoria Caster is perhaps the most compatible support for Muramasa, both in gameplay and in the Avalon le Fae story.
• Back in April 1, 2019, a fanmade trailer of an event crossing over FGO and Tsukihime was posted by the same creator of the Gundam collaboration above. Fast forward to the 7th anniversary and the reveal that Archetype Earth aka Arcueid will be joining the game as well.
  • And, in return, Mash, Dantes and Ushi were added into Melty Blood as guest characters.
• Xu Fu gets this because of Bocchi the Rock!, because her voice actress portrays the introvert heroine's little sister... who is her complete opposite in demeanor.
• Summer Musashi's insistence on being Iori, her adopted son, becomes this with the arrival of Fate/Samurai Remnant, where Iori is not only the main character, but also the master of Saber, Musashi's normal class.
• Speaking of Summer Musashi, Marie Antoinette Alter's weight going from 48kg in her 1st ascension to 53kg in her 2nd and 3rd ascensions only makes the "TWO KILOGRAMS EACH!" meme involving Summer Musashi funnier.

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