History Franchise / FateSeries

** ''VideoGame/CapsuleServant'' (2014) - Included as a minigame in the UsefulNotes/PlaystationVita release of ''hollow ataraxia''. Features some of the Masters and Servants in a ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''-esque tower defense game. In 2019, it got a standalone release on mobile.

* DivineRightOfKings: The franchise deals a lot with people from different eras, so there's a lot about how divine right works in a world where divine power is very real. This is in fact among the most central themes of an episode of ''LightNovel/FateZero''.

* DivineRightOfKings: The franchise deals a lot with people from different eras, so there's a lot about how divine right works in a world where divine power is very real.
** Gilgamesh was the half-divine king of ancient Uruk, born to rule the entire world. Gilgamesh was designed before his birth to connect humanity and the gods, as the gods were already fading as humanity rose. Gilgamesh was a rather terrible person but a decent king, and he grew into a WellIntentionedExtremist who mostly kept his people safe. His treasure vault contained everything that existed at the time, and when he reappears in the modern world, due to the way magic works there is a strong argument to be made that he ''still'' owns everything. He is therefore almost always a villain whenever he appears, as he insists that it is his right to do absolutely whatever he wants, including killing off ninety percent of the population so that the survivors will be "worthy" of his rule.
** King Arthur was the prophecized king of Britain, proven by pulling Caliburn from the stone. After Caliburn was shattered, Arthur was given Excalibur, an even more powerful weapon forged by fairies from the magical heart of the world itself, thus symbolizing that the world approves of Arthur's rule.

* ''Oshiete FGO! Ijin to Shinwa no Grand Order''[[labelnote:Translation]]''Teach Us FGO! Great Men and Myths of Grand Order''[[/labelnote]] (2016-present) - A web manga about the ''FGO'' Servants' real-world backgrounds. Illustrated by Yuu Tsurusaki.

* OverusedCopycatCharacter: ** Many characters in the franchise share a physical resemblance to [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Saber]]/Artoria Pendragon, who besides having variants of the original (and one ''literal'' clone in Mordred) also has several unrelated characters who share the same face. Referenced in ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' with characters having a hidden attribute called "[[AscendedMeme Saberface]]", that causes some enemies to react differently to them. Then there's Mysterious Heroine X, who is [[ImplausibleDeniability definitely not Artoria hunting down her clones]].

* GenerationalTrauma: Zoken is the centuries-old, patriarch of the Matou family. Throughout his life, his ideals become corrupted until he only cares about power. Unfortunately for him, the Matous' magic has been slowly dying out for decades. If you combine this with that in magus culture the strength and lineage of one's magical crests are everything, then you get an unforgiving, immoral grandfather who disdains and abuses his offspring --his son Byakuya and his grandson Shinji for having been born with crests too weak to be trained as magi. Byakuya tries to be a supportive, loving father, however, Zoken's insults are overwhelming enough that Shinji grows a bitter, arrogant, rapist. To add salt in the wound, Zoken adopts the daughter of another family, Sakura, in the hopes of passing down the family magic to her. In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Shinji shows no compunctions to venting out his frustrations on Sakura and letting his Servant drain people's souls. The Matous who have indeed strong crests aren't treated any better. Zoken disowns his other son, Kariya, after the latter rejects his family's traditions out of repulsion. Even then, Shinji and Kariya are similar in that they are possessive and abusive toward their LoveInterests. As ''Literature/FateZero'' shows, Kariya only accepts the magic to save his crush's daughter Sakura from being adopted by Zoken. Both of them are subjected to what amounts to rape by magical worms and become living hives for the wretched things in exchange for a powerful magic boost.

* GenerationalTrauma: Zoken is the centuries-old, patriarch of the Matou family. Throughout his life, his ideals become corrupted until he only cares about power. Unfortunately for him, the Matous' magic has been slowly dying out for decades. If you combine this with that in magus culture the strength and lineage of one's magical crests are everything, then you get an unforgiving, immoral grandfather who disdains and abuses his offspring --his son Byakuya and his grandson Shinji for having been born with crests too weak to be trained as magi. Byakuya tries to be a supportive, loving father, however, Zoken's insults are overwhelming enough that Shinji grows a bitter, arrogant, sexual abuser. To add salt in the wound, Zoken adopts the daughter of another family, Sakura, in the hopes of passing down the family magic to her. In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Shinji shows no compunctions to venting out his frustrations on Sakura and letting his Servant drain people's souls. The Matous who have indeed strong crests aren't treated any better. Zoken disowns his other son, Kariya, after the latter rejects his family's traditions out of repulsion. Even then, Shinji and Kariya are similar in that they are possessive and abusive toward their LoveInterests. As ''Literature/FateZero'' shows, Kariya only accepts the magic to save his crush's daughter Sakura from being adopted by Zoken. Both of them are subjected to what amounts to rape by magical worms and become living hives for the wretched things in exchange for a powerful magic boost.

* ExplosiveOverclocking: A Servant can overload their Noble Phantasm with prana and transform it into a Broken Phantasm, causing them to take a massive power hike in exchange for being lost. Given that most Servants only have between one to three Noble Phantasms ([[PublicDomainArtifact which are artifacts such as Excalibur]]), and Noble Phantasms represent the solidified history of each Servant the very idea is unthinkable.

* DreamingOfTimesGoneBy: As established since ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', the contract between Master and Servant has for side effects that both sides can see the other's past in their dreams. Since Servants do not sleep, with the exception of Artoria, it's usually the Masters who are shown to have these dreams, which shed light on the past life of their Servant.

** The original heroine of the franchise, Saber Artoria Pendragon, has fallen into this. She is the poster girl of the game, prominently featuring in just about every bit of promo material and even being its icon on any given app store. When the game had just launched, Artoria was still considered the "main heroine" of the franchise due to her prominence in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and ''Literature/FateZero'', so leading with her made sense, especially since ''Grand Order'' was seen as a side project then. However, ''Grand Order'' [[AdvertisedExtra largely avoided developing Artoria]] (whether out of tentativeness with handling an iconic character or out of a sense that there wasn't much to be done with her after her many prior starring roles), instead focusing on characters from ''[[Literature/FateApocrypha Apocrypha]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FateEXTRA EXTRA]]'', its own OriginalGeneration, or lesser lights from ''FSN'' and ''Zero.'' Ask a fan who the main or most popular heroine of ''Grand Order'' is, and Saber Artoria probably wouldn't even make the top twenty, and as ''Grand Order'' has increasingly become the franchise's cash cow, you could probably argue that those characters are more central to the franchise at this point. It's particularly funny because her iconic status has led to her getting [[OverusedCopycatCharacter tons of alternate versions]] or characters who [[OnlySixFaces share her design]], some who exist [[BetterThanABareBulb only to poke fun at the franchise's overuse of her design]], and nearly every single one of them has had more significant showings than her -- even the gag BeachEpisode variant! Nonetheless, the sheer inertia of her prior appearances means that she isn't going to be taken out of the middle of group shots anytime soon.

** Jeanne d'Arc Alter, when introduced initially, was established as an EvilDoppelganger to the real Jeanne, and in gameplay, her skillset was basically [[PoorMansSubstitute "Jeanne, but worse"]] (Jeanne is a five-star [[StoneWall Ruler]], Jeanne Alter a four-star). This informed a lot of her characterization, with her having [[AlwaysSecondBest a massive inferiority complex]] and considering herself a pale shadow of the original. But when Jalter became a BreakoutCharacter and was PromotedToPlayable, the designers took note of her popularity and [[PopularityPower raised her power considerably]]--going from four-star to five-star, [[DivergentCharacterEvolution switching class from Ruler to Avenger]], being given an extraordinarily high rarity, and possessing [[GlassCannon the highest offensive stats in the game]], to the point of having been a top-tier Servant at some points. Her inferiority complex now makes very little sense in gameplay terms, but it's such an important part of her character and her relationship with her "sister" that it's stuck around.

** How specialized can a Servant class get? The Assassins initially were ranked from the 19 members of the Hassan clan (that changed), while the Rulers were initially servants of God (also changed). ''VideoGame/FateExtra'' introduced the concept of special classes that only one Servant can have, like Saver ([[spoiler:Buddha]]) and Funny Vamp/Temptress (a possible class for [[VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}} Arcueid Brunestud]]). As of ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', we have the Moon Cancer class, which consists of [[VideoGame/FateExtra B.B.]] and for the long time ''only'' B.B. As of 2023, there are still only five different Moon Cancers, however, making it the rarest class with more than candidate. The same game introduces another uniquely rare class: the Beast class reserved for apocalyptic monstrosities, which has a variety of candidates [[spoiler:but apparently only one, the Whore of Babylon, who could ever approach a more normal existence as a Servant with a Master]].

** How specialized can a Servant class get? The Assassins initially were ranked from the 19 members of the Hassan clan (that changed), while the Rulers were initially servants of God (also changed). ''VideoGame/FateExtra'' introduced the concept of special classes that only one Servant can have, like Saver ([[spoiler:Buddha]]) and Funny Vamp/Temptress (a possible class for [[VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}} Arcueid Brunestud]]). As of ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', we have the Moon Cancer class, which consists of [[VideoGame/FateExtra B.B.]] and for the longest time ''only'' B.B. (until Ganesha/Jinako showed up, turning it into generally Moon Cell-only).

* RubberBandHistory: There are multiple timelines in the verse, and the history in each naturally branches based on decisions/different happenstances that may occur. The "rubber band" here exists in the name of "Quantum Time-Lock" --a phenomenon where the world (which is a sentient being in this verse) decides that things that happen in a particular time and/or in a particular place are immutable. One can theoretically change the past events that led to the event that was secured by Quantum Time-Lock, but that past will inevitably be "corrected" so that it will fit the secured event in some way.

* ''Fate/Grand Order: Webcomic/RitsukaFujimaruDoesntGetIt'' (2020-present) - A web manga series about a dense Ritsuka Fujimaru in the Lostbelts. Illustrated by Tsuchida.

* TheConstant: The series actually [[JustifiedTrope justifies]] this with the Quantum Time-Lock system put in place by [[DeusEstMachina The World]]. As a limited amount of "water" exists to sustain so many worlds without the universe effectively overloading on the sheer weight of possibilities, Quantum Time-Locks happen every once a hundred years or so to ensure that Constants exist present in all other timelines (e.g. Camelot falling). [[CuttingOffTheBranches Any other timelines that have anything different happen are purged altogether in a process known as 'pruning']]. However, while there exists several Quantum Time-Locks across human history, the ''median'' of which these Time-Locks happen can be extraordinarily variant to a variety of possibilities; it's just that the Quantum Time-Locks are a means of ensuring the most prosperous timelines for humanity survive, and any that have grown past the point of being able to be changed are as a result pruned.

* GratuitousEnglish: Regardless of their nation of origin, there are very good chances that a hero's Noble Phantasm, an armament or technique representing their legend, will have an English-language True Name. In ''Grand Order'', at least one Servant is [[RuleOfCool doing this on purpose]], so maybe True Names aren't as foundational and immutable as you might assume.

** The original heroine of the franchise, Saber Artoria Pendragon, has fallen into this. She is the poster girl of the game, prominently featuring in just about every bit of promo material and even being its icon on any given app store. When the game had just launched, Artoria was still considered the "main heroine" of the franchise due to her prominence in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and ''Anime/FateZero'', so leading with her made sense, especially since ''Grand Order'' was seen as a side project then. However, ''Grand Order'' [[AdvertisedExtra largely avoided developing Artoria]] (whether out of tentativeness with handling an iconic character or out of a sense that there wasn't much to be done with her after her many prior starring roles), instead focusing on characters from ''[[Literature/FateApocrypha Apocrypha]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FateEXTRA EXTRA]]'', its own OriginalGeneration, or lesser lights from ''FSN'' and ''Zero.'' Ask a fan who the main or most popular heroine of ''Grand Order'' is, and Saber Artoria probably wouldn't even make the top twenty, and as ''Grand Order'' has increasingly become the franchise's cash cow, you could probably argue that those characters are more central to the franchise at this point. It's particularly funny because her iconic status has led to her getting [[OverusedCopycatCharacter tons of alternate versions]] or characters who [[OnlySixFaces share her design]], some who exist [[BetterThanABareBulb only to poke fun at the franchise's overuse of her design]], and nearly every single one of them has had more significant showings than her -- even the gag BeachEpisode variant! Nonetheless, the sheer inertia of her prior appearances means that she isn't going to be taken out of the middle of group shots anytime soon.

** When it comes to "Servants", they tend to have their true names hidden behind their class name, i.e "Saber", "Archer", etc. {{Downplayed}} in that it happens less for "magical" reasons and more for practical ones: Servants are (typically) [[HistoricalBadassUpgrade historical/mythical people]] and thus are famous in one way or another; their abilities and weaknesses can be easily discerned just by learning their true names, so they make sure to not reveal them to anyone but their "Masters". In ''Anime/FateZero'', two Servants discard this advantage by openly announcing their true names, both [[AwesomeEgo purely out of ego]]. [[spoiler:Alexander the Great]] (Rider) [[RefugeInAudacity tries to recruit all the other Servants to abandon the Holy Grail War and become his generals to conquer the world]], while [[spoiler:Gilgamesh]] (Archer) simply thinks the other Servants and their Masters are so far beneath him that there's no point hiding his identity. It's played straighter with their "Noble Phantasms", an item/ability that is the "crystallized legend" of the respective Servants in question; they usually have to be invoked by [[CallingYourAttacks saying its name]] if they want to use the greater extent of the Noble Phantasms' strength. Like the identities of the Servants, having other people learn of a Servant's Noble Phantasm's name can lead to them deducing the Servant's identity, so they tend to not be used until the right time.

** ''stay night'' emphasizes the fact that Anti-Heroes have been summoned as Servants when only good guys should be possible, which is eventually revealed to be caused by a GodOfEvil that hijacked the Fuyuki Grail. By ''Grand Order'' this stopped mattering completely, and several {{retcon}}s would clarify that the Fuyuki Grail system is specifically very constrained compared to the ancient rituals it was based on.

* GodIsGood: The Mesopotamian deities Ishtar and Ereshkigal are also summonable servants and quite nice girls in their own way. Neither wants humans to suffer and both help in their own way when Tiamat threatened Sumer. However, this may be {{subverted}} when looked through the whole franchise at large: that Ishtar and Ereshkigal could afford to be nice because they were inhabiting the bodies of [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Rin Tohsaka]], thus allowing her good side to influence them. In ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'', [[spoiler: we're given another version of Ishtar that does not possess the body of Rin, and as it turns out she is extremely malicious and stole the ''Grand Order'''s version of Bull of Heaven to spite further on Gilgamesh and Enkidu, without care of any humans around her.]]

* CoverBlowingSuperpower: Servants in Holy Grail Wars go to lengths to conceal their true identities, because knowing an enemy Servant's identity allows one to determine what their fighting style, strengths, and weaknesses are. This ''especially'' means Servants and their Masters must be very wise about when to use the Servant's [[LimitBreak Noble Phantasm]], as the Noble Phantasm is a very defining trait of the Servant's identity (such as [[Myth/KingArthur Artoria's Excalibur]] and [[Myth/CelticMythology Cu Chulainn's Gae Bolg]]).

* ''Fate Apocrypha'' (2016-present) - An adaptation of the novel. Illustrated by Akira Ishida.

* ''Fate/Prototype Tribute Phantasm'' (2012) - An anthology of partially comedic stories starring the ''Fate/Prototype'' cast, each illustrated by a different artist.

* ''Literature/FateApocrypha'' (2016-present) - An adaptation of the novel. Illustrated by Akira Ishida.