History Main / NeutralInNameOnly

** ''VideoGame/FateSamuraiRemnant'' doesn't involve the Church, for once... but the overseer Tsuchimikado Yasuhiro still turns out to be a Master out to get the Grail himself. On behalf of the Shogunate, no less. He goes so far as to [[spoiler:directly interfere with the leylines in Edo in order to cast a spell that will let him mind-control a good chunk of the Servants and set them to kill the rest]]. Meanwhile, the war's Ruler-class Servant is Gilgamesh, who doesn't favorably come down on any side... or rather, has pretty much blown off any interest in mediating the conflict in favor of being a shopkeeper at a textile shop while at best giving cryptic hints and tools to Iori and Saber to solve things instead. [[spoiler:And at worst, he can straight-up decide to [[TakeOverTheWorld go for world conquest]] while offering Iori and Saber a place as his vassals.]]

** In ''Literature/FateZero'', Kotomine Kirei, who is the son of the current church overseer and a member of the Church, is a Master in the war. While that in itself falls under a loophole (the Grail chooses the Masters), his father assigns him to secretly assist Tohsaka Tokiomi, another Master. That is DEFINITELY against the rules. [[spoiler:Then Kirei goes rogue and betrays Tokiomi after his father's death by a third party because they wanted him to fully leave the war due to pressure from Emiya Kiritsugu's faction and the fact he had apparently lost his Servant, and Kirei by that point had decided that he was in it to win the Grail and decided to contract Tokiomi's own dissatisfied Servant, Gilgamesh.]]
** In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Kirei is now the overseer, and he is also a Master working for his personal gain. Which is again, illegal. This time, he went so far as to betray another competitor and took her Servant for himself [[spoiler:while still having Gilgamesh

** In ''Literature/FateZero'', Kotomine Kirei, who is the son of the current church overseer and a member of the Church, is a Master in the war. While that in itself falls under a loophole (the Grail chooses the Masters), his father assigns him to secretly assist Tohsaka Tokiomi, another master. That is DEFINITELY against the rules.
** In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Kirei is now the overseer, and he is also a Master working for his personal gain. Which is again, illegal.

** ''VideoGame/FateSamuraiRemnant'' doesn't involve the Church, for once... but the overseer still turns out to be a Master out to get the Grail himself. On behalf of the Shogunate, no less.

** In ''Webcomic/FateTypeRedline'', Tsukumo Fujiyama was invited to take part in the Imperial Holy Grail War on the Church's behalf.

** While the current Einzbern homunculi don't count on account of being TrueNeutral to their core, the human Einzbern family that created the ritual did so purely to return the Third Magic (the Holy Grail in question) to their family. Yes, not even the ''original designers'' of the Holy Grail War were on the level, aiming to give the war's winner only YourHeartsDesire while the Einzbern family themselves would gain ''RealityWarper'' powers. Perhaps fortunately, this never came to pass.

** In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Kirei is now the overseer, and he is also a master working for his personal gain. Which is again, illegal.
** In ''Literature/FateApocrypha'', the role of the Ruler Class Servant is to enforce the rules of the Great Holy Grail War as a neutral party. Unfortunately [[spoiler:Amakusa Shirou Tokisada]], the Ruler in question, actually wants the Grail, and he is also working as the Church overseer. So much for neutrality.

** In ''Literature/FateApocrypha'', the role of the Ruler Class Servant is to enforce the rules of the Great Holy Grail War as a neutral party. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:Amakusa Shirou Tokisada]] wants the Grail, and he is also working as the Church overseer. So much for neutrality.