History Literature / FateApocrypha

* EnemyMine: Jeanne enforces a temporary ceasefire between the Black and Red Factions so that they'll work together to stop [[spoiler:Dracula from acquiring the Greater Grail]].

** If you look closely, [[spoiler:Sieg's [[https://img00.deviantart.net/d8cd/i/2017/223/7/c/fate_apocrypha_seig_command_seal_by_aki_artist-dbjr9ov.jpg command seals]] are shaped in the form of a dragon reflecting his power from Siegfried. Later on, he himself transforms into Fafnir in order to carry the Greater Grail to the Far Side of the World.]]

* QualityOverQuantity: {{Inverted}} for the Yggdmillennia. They are stated to favor quantity over quality in terms of their magi and their homunculi.

* RuleOfSeven: Seven Masters and Servants each, in both the Black and Red factions.

* ObviousBeta: Looking over the various half-finished and hilariously broken Servants listed, it's clear that this was a project that was abandoned halfway through development. The Light Novel has taken some steps to remove this by replacing or altering characters or skills.

** It's not the first time we hear Carla Castañeda (Assassin of Red) voicing magic users before. She dubs Twilight Sparkle from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Kirche Von Zerbst from ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'', and Merlin from ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins''.

** Unrelated to the Red faction, the light novel also had the occasional MeanwhileScene back in London where Lord El-Melloi II and others at the Clock Tower would discuss what they heard was going on in the war. One of these scenes in particular is notable for being the debut of Reines El-Melloi Archisorte, who is only a minor character here but would go on to be one of the main protagonists of ''LightNovel/LordElMelloiIICaseFiles''. All of these Clock Tower scenes were cut from the anime, but fortunately the manga kept them.

* DubInducedPlotHole: After Astolfo's GenderReveal to Sieg, Astolfo expresses surprise that Sieg assumed he was female, as the Japanese version [[GenderNeutralWriting avoided direct references to Astolfo's gender]] before that point. The English dub keeps gendered mentions of Astolfo to a minimum, but Sieg still calls him by female pronouns at least once when Astolfo could hear, and Astolfo's reaction is unchanged.

A novel called ''Fate/Apocrypha: Side of Survivor'' was released in the second Blu-ray edition which details what happened to the survivors of the Grail War. A sequel called ''LightNovel/FateLostEinherjar'' details a new Grail War ten years in the future where each Master summons two Servants.

* AlternateTimeline: To ''LightNovel/FateZero'' and ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''.

** In addition, there have been numerous Holy Grail Wars fought all over the world since the theft of the original grail, which is presumably how Waver managed to achieve the title of Lord El-Melloi II as he did in ''LightNovel/FateZero''. The main difference is that the Romania Leyline is better than most, allowing the summoning of fourteen Servants rather than ''fewer than'' seven (a number of these supplementary Grail Wars apparently don't even boast a normal complement of seven) and is capable of reaching the Root.
** And the original summon catalysts for the usual ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and ''LightNovel/FateZero'' Servants have been lost since, once the information of the war spread, they were stolen and passed around until no one knew where they were. The Servants of ''Apocrypha'' can seem a little "second-string" because that's the ''point'' - they're easier to summon with broad catalysts (like Mordred) or are a bit obscure and all their relics haven't been plundered yet. [[spoiler: However, it is implied that El-Melloi II managed to keep the very same catalyst he used to summon Iskandar in the Holy Grail War he participated in.]]

** Waver Velvet of ''LightNovel/FateZero'' brief appearances [[BookEnds at the beginning and the end]] as Lord El-Melloi II.

** The brand of cigarettes that Kairi smokes, "Dragon Smoke", are also smoked by [[LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners Touko Aozaki]] and [[LightNovel/FateZero Natalia Kaminski.]]

* YouShallNotPass: Near the end of the story [[spoiler: [[LightNovel/FateZero Gilles de Rais]], who had been summoned by Shakespeare's Noble Phantasm in order to MindRape Jeanne, uses Jeanne's Noble Phantasm Luminosité Eternelle[[labelnote: translation]]eternal luminosity[[/labelnote]] to defend her and Sieg from Shirou.]]

* HollywoodBoardGames: In the anime adaptation, there are heavy chess {{motifs}} assigned to the Servants. The first TitleSequence starts with the camera panning over the seven classes of Servants, each modeled after black chess pieces. Soon enough, the board itself appears, containing not only the aforementioned pieces but also pawns that are supposed to represent the Masters in front of them. In the center, there's a miniature of the Holy Grail and, on the other side, there's another set of fourteen pieces, this time red-colored. The same board can be seen midway through the first episode when Lord El-Melloi II is explaining the rules of the Holy Grail War to one of his students. This is all to highlight how, in this war, the surplus of Masters and Servants demands a more strategic approach (there are two sides now, instead of the Literature/BattleRoyale this wars usually are), something that is heavily associated with chess. It's also a little nod to the fact El-Melloi II survived a previous Holy Grail War, learning to be more patient and confident in his own strategies.