Fate/Grand Order: Casters N to Z / Characters

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Nero Claudius (Caster)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nerocaster1.png

Golden Theater Praised in Song

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Sakura Tange

"Surprised by the sudden swimsuit? I bet you're surprised! Umu, I am ecstatic too! My heart is racing! Caster, Nero Claudius, here to answer your summon! Let's make this an unforgettable summer!"

The self-proclaimed all-around genius has hit the beach and the racetrack! The occasionally cross-dressing beauty of the Saber class (or so she regards herself as) has this time chosen to reveal herself as a beautiful lady, boldly enjoying the summer sea. Applying the teachings of Simon Magus to their fullest degree, Emperor Nero has completed a theatrical garment that can only be regarded as a specialized Mystic Code for herself. The pipe organs floating by her sides convert her alluring song into an attack, and lasers, fireworks, flame projectiles and the like are grandiosely (and, let's be honest, randomly) fired.

But then, why does her singing voice produce damage? The cruel truth is something Nero herself is oblivious to.

Nero once again gets a variant, and is one of the main stars of the second Summer event, "Dead Heat Summer Race / Death Jail Summer Escape". She's Maid Altria Alter's race partner in team "Tyrannical Shooting Star".

Animation Bump: Her Noble Phantasm was the single most technically complex NP yet at the time of her release, being almost completely 3D modeled and a challenge for some phones to render, featuring dynamic camera work and a unique forward facing sprite for every single ascension outfit. It's longer and more technically complex than Goetia's NP!
Art Evolution: She actually showcases a bit of Arco Wada's own evolution as an artist; her design and style is closer to her Fate/Extella appearance than it is her original Fate/EXTRA appearance (as seen on her Saber card), especially in the eyes.
Attack Drone: Some of her attack animations show that parts of the metallic things floating behind her can detach and attack her enemies with beams.
Beam Spam: Her Noble Phantom is shown as summoning a stage that then fires a large amount of lasers.
BFS: Though she's a Caster, she still wields Aestus Estus, though it is far from her only method of attack this time around.
Dreadful Musician: Weaponized in her Noble Phantasm, not that she's actually aware of it.
Fighting Clown: Despite the somewhat left-field justification for being in the class, she's the hardest hitting AOE Caster.
Flash Step: She's capable of doing this so fast, she appears to produce a pair of body doubles.
Foreshadowing:
- She's been noted to have potential as a mage well before F/GO, including a Noble Phantasm as a Saber that works similarly to a Reality Marble (which is unusual for that class). There's also an optional scene in Extella where Nero explains that her own court magus, Simon Magus, once told her that she possessed the capacity to be a very powerful Magus if she wished, but it would mean "traveling the dark side of the world", which she was ultimately unwilling to do. Come "Dead Heat", and said potential (and the things Magus did teach her) are the entire basis for her ability to be a Caster.
- Her Seven Crowns skill is another hint toward her having a relation to a Beast (specifically Beast VI, since the Book of Revelations was about her and she seems to have some kind of relationship to the idea of the Whore of Babylon) and it functions almost exactly like Goetia's Ten Crowns skill, allowing them both to ignore all class advantages.
- Her profile says that she technically could have a variant of Beach Flower; which charms males. It also says that this skill was "lost." She has good reasons for wanting to avoid sexual attraction magic.
- Her third Append Skill is Anti-Ruler Attack Damage Aptitude, which differs her from Nero's and Nero Bride's Anti-Assassin Attack Damage Aptitude. Beyond just that she lessens the class resistance of the Holy Grail War overseers, Beast-VI's Beast skill is Nega-Messiah as a counter to Jesus himself.
Girlish Pigtails: She now sports long twin pigtails in her first stage outfit.
Irony: She's a Caster because of her raw magical ability, not because of her (self-proclaimed) artistic talents.
Item Crafting: She's got one of the strongest Item Creation skills yet seen at EX. The thing is, the things she makes can turn out a little... odd. Mechanically, this translates into, instead of additional debuff chance, her receiving 10% extra healing from all sources.
Leitmotif: Her NP has its own, brand new leitmotif.
Meaningful Appearance: Notable in her case - Nero is often quite sensitive about her (sub-five-foot) height, so what's she wearing in all her ascension outfits for her summer version? Platform sandals and heels, of course. It still doesn't help that much, alas.
My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Her second skill, Seven Crowns, allows her to negate the bonus damage taken from Riders and Berserkers for three turns. Maxed out she can use the skill every five turns, so 60% of the time, she just gets to ignore defensive class disadvantage. Bringing her up against a Rider is still a bit questionable (as she doesn't override her damage penalty), but it makes her a much better option against the beefier Berserkers, since she can take a lot less damage from them.
Something about a Rose: As normal for Nero, and perhaps even moreso than her Saber versions. Her standard skill animation and Extra Attack both involve a massive explosion of rose petals on use.
Support Party Member: An odd example: while two of her skills are only self-buffs and her Noble Phantasm is pure damage, her third skill is one of the strongest pure attack steroids in the entire game, can be given to anyone, lasts three turns when many effects of that magnitude last only one (similar to Merlin's Buster steroid), and it also comes with a Guts effect for the same duration. On top of this, the mechanics of Nero's second skill mean that she can avoid taking extra damage in situations where some of the other Casters might be in danger. Put together, this means that Nero can be a decent choice for strategies that involve buffing a single Servant into being an absolute killing machine while still being able to go the distance herself.
Took a Level in Badass: She's relatively weak as a Saber since it's a Class she doesn't naturally qualify for, but since she likes it the most she forced herself into the class anyway. However, doing so left her with weak class and personal skills apart from Imperial Privilege. She's significantly more powerful as a Caster with a higher ranked NP, a powerful defensive skill that seems to be related to Goetia's Ten Crowns and high ranks in the Caster class skills. She isn't a well-trained magus, but she did have significant potential in life that she didn't pursue.

Nitocris

The Soul of Ra is Divine

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{Beyond the Mirror}

^{Formal Outfit}

^{Travel Journal}

^{Heroic Spirit Tour}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Minami Tanaka (Japanese), G.K. Bowes (Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot) (English)

"Servant, Caster. Reincarnation of the Sky God Horus, I, Nitocris have answered your summons. As you can see, I am a pharaoh, but vastly inexperienced. Thus, for now I shall accept you as my ally. However, I have one thing to say. Bow your head. You're being disrespectful!"

A magic queen who held the throne only for a short while during the Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. It has been assumed that she caused all influential men who deliberately murdered her beloved brothers to die by drowning, and then took her own life after accomplishing her revenge. Even as a queen that was pushed up as a puppet, she still is a child of god and properly possesses the self-awareness as a pharaoh, a king that reaches the gods.

She's introduced as an antagonist, working under Ozymandias in Camelot, but she's too good-natured to keep it up. She's also an ally in the second Halloween event, "Super☆Ghouls 'n Pumpkins". She appears as the member of team "Desert Beauty" alongside Caster of Nightless City in the second Summer event, "Dead Heat Summer Race/Death Jail Summer Escape". She appears as an ally summoned by Chaldea in Nahui Mictlan.

Animal Motifs: Jackals, most obviously, but Ozymandias takes note of her birdlike qualities brought about by her being an incarnation of Horus.
The Archmage: Downplayed. As a magus from the Age of Gods, Nitocris is powerful next to most modern magi, able to summon strong familiars with a single word, duplicate herself, among other things. However, her skill in High Speed Divine Words is inferior to other magi like Medea's and she has yet to accomplish the reality-bending feats of magi like Merlin or Caster of Midrash, and she doesn't think she's especially impressive next to Ozymandias, an accomplished magus in his own right. As she wasn't alive for long, her skills were not really given the same chance to grow compared to others.
Bad Powers, Good People: She is an incarnation of the real life ruler of Egypt, but as her reign was fairly obscure (to the extent historians debate if she even existed at all) she receives her powers and Noble Phantasm from fictional renditions of her such as H. P. Lovecraft's or Brian Lumley's, resulting in a fairly good-natured (if haughty) woman wielding the necromantic abilities of a mad eldritch cultist. Her ability to call souls from underworld is fairly odd for a Lawful Good-aligned Servant, though it makes sense in the context of her culture.
Balance Buff: She receives a Rank Up Quest during the Grail Live event that buffs Egypt Magecraft to The Works of Anubis, which adds a three-turn Arts buff to herself while turning her heal into a party-wide one. This helps both her damage and NP looping tremendously if she can't get her Instant Death to activate.
Boring, but Practical: Nitocris is considered by players to be one of the single best Casters of her rarity due to having a simple yet effective kit. She has a NP that hits everyone and has a chance of instant killing, a skill that buffs her chance to do so, a near full NP charge skill at low levels, and Guts. She can easily clear waves with her kit and NP combined together, making her an effective farmer. With the release of Altria Caster alongside a buff that gives her an Arts card, and she's one of the best farming, and wave clearing Servants you can get, especially if you don't have Sieg.
Butt-Monkey: In Camelot, she's introduced having been kidnapped by and rendered unconscious by the Hassans, gets beat up by da Vinci to wake up, has her sphinx struck down by Bedivere, almost gets attacked by octupi...
Defrosting Ice Queen: As she grows closer to and more comfortable with the protagonist in her Bond lines, she stops demanding shows of respect and obedience and opens up a little to them.
Fighter, Mage, Thief: True to the spirit of "Super☆Ghouls 'n Pumpkins" parodying standard JRPGs, she plays the role of the mage in Elisabeth Brave's party, alongside Elisabeth as the fighter and Robin Hood as the thief.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Lostbelt 7 ends with Nitocris permanently erased from Chaldea's registry due to having offered her heart to Anubis to become an Alter. Not only is she still available in the gacha afterwards, but if you already have her the playable Nitocris is perfectly fine. This is justified as, during her death scene, Chaldea's Nitocris clarifies that while she will remain a part of the Throne and could be summoned again, her memories of Chaldea would not carry over.
God-Emperor: Like Ozymandias, she, being a Pharaoh, was both human and divine at once. She is considered the incarnation of Horus, and her related skill gives her a Guts buff, representing how the sun rises and sets but is never destroyed. Her Divinity is consequently at rank B.
Hate at First Sight: She and Elisabeth Brave immediately loathe each other the moment they meet in the second Halloween event because they're initially annoyed at the other's demeanor, which the protagonist and Robin comment are very similar. Once they realize their similarities, they quickly warm up to each other.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Nitocris thinks of herself as a weak failure of a pharaoh, since she died young after avenging her brother's death on his murderers rather than having a long and successful reign. She cannot help but negatively compare herself to all the other pharaohs at Chaldea, even though they all agree she is a fine queen and should be more proud of herself.
Hero-Worshipper: She worships Ozymandias, due to seeing him as an ideal pharaoh, unlike herself.
Heroic Sacrifice: She uses her Mirror of Nitocris to hold back the Lion King's Light of Judgement long enough for Ozymandias to crash Ramesseum Tentyris into the barrier surrounding the Lion King's tower, successfully destroying it. The sheer effort of it all kills both of them though.
Hidden Buxom: Downplayed, in that while she's only modestly endowed, her first two ascensions make her look completely flat.
Historical Hero Upgrade: As mentioned in Bad Powers, Good People; while Herodotus was neutral; other depictions in popular literature have always been that of a villain. Perhaps a case of Values Dissonance as the Japanese would appreciate her killing her brother's murderers in his honor and then committing suicide as opposed to disrupting Egyptian society.
Inferiority Superiority Complex: She demands respect from her Master, but seemingly only because of her low self-esteem. She isn't particularly strong or famous, which leaves her feeling inferior to Iskandar, Cleopatra and especially Ozymandias. They don't have any issue with her, though: as Ozymandias points out, a pharaoh is a pharaoh, and she is as worthy of respect as he is (he also gives the same respect to Caesarion, Cleopatra's son who was also technically pharaoh despite dying at the age of nine). They even joke about her being the Team Mom, being the oldest of the current pharaoh crew, despite looking the youngest.
Killed Off for Real: Her Chaldea version offers her life up to Anubis in exchange for power as an Alter to fight Tenochtitlan. The result is that the Nitocris Chaldea has known since the Sixth Singularity has been erased from their database. However, unlike the case of Miyamoto Musashi, she hasn't removed herself from the Throne of Heroes and a new copy of her can be summoned, just without the memories of the previous one.
Lady of Black Magic: Tries her best to be as classy as she can, as she has an image to maintain as a pharaoh. She considers Sanzang's own approach to battle (hitting things with commoner tools such as a stick, a rake, and her own two fists) to be shameful for someone of her stature.
Little Bit Beastly: Has jackal ears atop her head, which, during her introduction where she has been recaptured from Hassans while unconscious, she sleepily protests are not rabbit ears.
Living on Borrowed Time: Turning herself into an Alter outside of the Underworld imposes a timer on her life since it required offering up her heart to Anubis and she will inevitably die upon reverting back to normal.
Magic Mirror: Her Anpu Neb-Ta-Djeser: Dark Mirror Treasury, the infamous Mirror of Nitocris. A hellish realm is said to be beyond its surface, and she uses it to unleash evil spirits and the curse of Anubis on her enemies. Some materials note that it may not be the actual Egyptian underworld, but rather a manifestation of her own guilt and rage.
Me's a Crowd: She can use her Mirror of Nitocris to create copies of herself to fight her enemies, as shown in Camelot, though she doesn't do so in gameplay.
Mundane Utility: In Heroic Spirit Food Chronicles, she uses her mummies to delicately gut a fish without rupturing any of the internal organs. She also uses her Medjed's eye beams to instantly defrost food.
Ms. Exposition: She explains some of the details of the Sixth Singularity to the party, including the fact that the Holy Land of Jerusalem was destroyed long before Chaldea arrived.
Necromancy: Her Egyptian Magecraft skill explicitly gives her a benefit to performing acts of necromantic magecraft, while her Mirror demonstrates power over life and death. Some of her attacks involve summoning mummified dead to drag enemies into the Underworld, while another involves creating flying birds that represent the immortal spirit.
"Not So Different" Remark: While they initially hate each other, she and Elisabeth Brave come to realize they have more in common than they thought in the second Halloween event, which is part of the reason why she chooses to join the party. This gets lampshaded by Robin and the protagonist, with Robin calling them "practically one and the same" except Nitocris is a bit more intelligent.
[to Elisabeth] "You're... I don't know... um, like... the fact that I feel a subtle kinship with you is ticking me off!"
One-Hit Kill: Her NP is AoE and has a chance of inflicting instant death to enemies, and her first skill gives her a buff that increases the chances of it succeeding. While this is mainly useless in boss fights (since bosses either have lots of death resistance or are just immune), it can be a handy tool for farm nodes, as the enemies in some high-end nodes are inordinately beefy for their bronze or silver rarity. Some gold-rarity enemies might even be secretly susceptible.
Positive Friend Influence:
- Although their relationship began on mercenary terms in a silly summer event, with Nitocris promising her a magical amulet of safety in exchange for her aid during a race, the Caster of Nightless City and Nitocris become good friends over time, and good influences on one another. The Caster's judgement of Nitocris as a good king and a fine pharaoh helps her to become less insecure and more confident in herself, while Nitocris's friendship and bravery helps the Caster to grow as a person and overcome her despair.
- In the "Grail Live!" event, Nitocris befriends Serenity and enjoys performing on stage with her. When Serenity runs away out of fear that her poison would hurt Nitocris, the pharaoh is encouraged by Ozymandias to seek her out. Nitocris then high-fives Serenity, proving that Nitocris can use her magecraft to nullify Serenity's poison. This gets Serenity to overcome her fear and return to the stage with Nitocris, grateful for her companionship.
Ready for Lovemaking: He last ascension image, coupled with the following line, certainly raises a few eyebrows:
"I am now a true pharaoh... not the novice I was before. Come here, Master. Tonight I will take my time to enlighten you as to who your greatest Servant is..."
Starter Mon: As of May 11th, 2022^noteJP-only right now, Circe and Nitocris replaced Helena and Nursery Rhyme as the two starter Casters.
Stripperiffic: Starts out in a bikini. Amusingly enough, as ascensions go her bottom gets more and more ornate with a loincloth and veils, but her top disappears in favor of a golden strap that barely hides her naughty bits.
Summon Magic: Her specialty. Raises mummies from the ground, materializes magic birds, scarabs, and amusingly enough can summon copies of Medjed, a very minor but mildly memetic god.^note
Tough Leader Façade: As noted by da Vinci in the Camelot singularity, Nitocris has a kind and caring heart... but a kind and caring heart is a hard thing for a queen to possess, so she tries very hard to seem crueler and more dispassionate than she actually is.
Tsundere: Nitocris is deeply dishonest with her feelings because she tries to be a dispassionate queen. For instance, in Camelot, she projects a gigantic image of herself to frighten away attackers pursuing the protagonist and his team, then protests that it isn't because she wanted to help them. This is also present in her Bond and Ascension lines, where at the beginning she demands shows of respect from the protagonist, only to by the time of Bond level 3 actually go as far as to clean his room, under excuse of her having to take care of her allies.
Underboobs: In her Third and Final Ascensions, she wears a golden strap that covers her nipples, but not the underside of her breasts.
The Worf Effect: In the Mictlan Lostbelt, she's summoned in her Third Ascension and it's pointed out how she's at a very powerful state as far as Spirit Origins go, which is then shown when she easily repels an onslaught by Izcalli and waves of Ocelomeh. Her subsequent defeat to Tlaloc establishes that Chaldea will need even more than that to overcome the Lostbelt.

Nursery Rhyme

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rhyme1.png

The Heroine of Children

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Ai Nonaka

"Hello to the wonderful you. Let's make this a beautiful dream."

Nursery Rhyme is a unique "conceptual Heroic Spirit". Rather than being a hero based upon a real person or legend, Nursery Rhyme is a manifestation of the combined love of children throughout the centuries towards the nursery rhyme genre. In a sense, it is the "hero" most revered by children. Her Noble Phantasm, "Nursery Rhyme: A Tale For Somebody's Sake" is a Reality Marble which allows her to assume the appearance and powers necessary for her to portray the role most beloved by her Master. For example, when she was summoned in the Moon Cell, her Master's love of Lewis Carroll gave her the identity of "Alice" and a number of Noble Phantasms based upon Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

She debuted as the Caster-class Servant of Alice in Fate/EXTRA. She first appears in Grand Order as an antagonist in the London chapter and "Chocolate Lady's Commotion". Afterwards, she would recur as a supporting ally in several side events such as the second Christmas event, "The Little Santa Alter". She also appears in "Hell Realm Mandala, Heiankyo" as the Servant of Minamoto-no-Raikou.

Alice Allusion: For the same reasons as her (original) Master.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Of children's stories such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This is further discussed in "Heiankyo", as her nature as an embodiment of the concept of children's stories means she can essentially "absorb" tales she's never heard of into her being. For example: Being primarily based in European folk tale, she has little experience with Eastern ones, but when she learns about children stories that connect to Kintoki, she is able to survive a nearly fatal attack due to now technically existing now in both sides of the world.
Art Evolution: In the original Fate/EXTRA, her outfit was actually much smoother and alien-looking than her Master's, to the point that it looked a bit like she was wearing a bell. While it's somewhat similar-looking here, it looks a lot more like actual cloth and behaves a bit more like an actual dress in her battle sprite. Later on, of course, she trades up for a much more frilly dress like what her old Master wore.
Badass Adorable: Is as cute as a button and can put out serious amounts of hurt on the right team.
Berserk Button: Andersen. She hates him and calls him a bully, as she is the Heroine of Children who loves happy stories, while his tales are not^note. And because he's a jerk.
Beware the Nice Ones: She's generally cute, sweet, and friendly. She has a bit of a Creepy Child tendencies and is a very dangerous Caster.
Bizarre Human Biology: Sort of. She's technically more a concept than a "human", but outside of her initial manifestation she takes the form of a human. Except... just like EXTRA, her human form has visible spherical doll joints at her knees, ankles, elbows and wrists. Interestingly, though, the Summer Little Craft Essence from second Summer event does answer a long-standing question: her shoulders and hips are not ball-jointed and resemble a normal human's.
Call-Back: A lot of her various voiced battle lines in F/GO echo the battle lines she and Alice had in Fate/EXTRA. "More, more, let's enjoy this more!"^note & "Don't worry, we're eternal"^note are the most obvious ones. Her profile has some references to her riddles in EXTRA, too.
Cheerful Child: While not being Creepy Child, she's definitely this, always happy to spend time and play with her master.
Children Are Innocent: Sort of. This is the same Nursery Rhyme from Fate/EXTRA that happens to be a Creepy Child. At the same time, however, she's considered to be a "conceptual hero servant" that represents the innocence of children. That being said, she has adopted some of her former master's mannerisms and if the player has her as a servant, she plays this trope straight in several of her My Room dialog.
Compressed Hair: In her second ascension she wears her hair in two thin braids like she did in Fate/EXTRA; in her third ascension she wears her hair loose, and it has a lot more volume. This leads to some players wondering if most of her hair was kept under her hat, instead.
Creepy Child: Is usually cute and friendly, but there are times where she doesn't act quite right. Her attitude in battle is outright Dissonant Serenity. For example, she shouts "Aaah, it's so fun, it's so fun ITSSOFUN!!!" when hit with an opposing Noble Phantasm. Although it should be noted that a lot of this trope's tendencies are heavily toned down when compared to her EXTRA incarnation and far kinder to reflect the concept of the "innocence" of children.
Critical Hit Class: She's the second "crit Caster" of the game (the first being Hans Christian Andersen, although he's more Jack of All Trades), whose massive damage potential comes from being able to increase her critical damage and star absorption to rack up high levels of damage. However, she's very poor at generating stars herself and has rather low ATK outside of it, hence why she needs a good team to make the most of her damage potential (and why Jack is considered one of the best Servants to pair her with on a team).
Difficult, but Awesome: She's one of the harder Critical Hit Class Servants to use right since she only has one Quick card, and is in the Caster class, a class that doesn't really have good crit generation anyway. On her own she falls behind other offensive focused Casters. Provide her with a Servant who can provide good star generation and buffs (i.e. Hans Christian Andersen, Jeanne, Jack, or Merlin) however, and she can deal high amounts of crit Art damage that allows her to easily spam her Noble Phantasm.
Do Not Call Me "Paul":
- Insists on the Alice name. Yet another point of contention with Andersen, who doesn't care and keeps calling her Nursery Rhyme.
- Curiously, later on during the second Christmas event^note both Jeanne Alter Santa Lily and Jack split the difference and call her just "Nursery", and she seems okay with it. She's called similarly in "All The Statesmen", though that's not "your" Nursery Rhyme, per se.
Elegant Gothic Lolita: She wears black and pink dresses of this type.
Empathic Shapeshifter: She changes form depending on the Master who summoned her. However in this game, she still looks as she did in EXTRA. She kept it to honor Alice's wish to play with others and to remember her good times with her. (It's worth noting that she does need to be ascended once to have enough power to do this; until then, she just takes the form of a literal book). Heian-kyo finally shows what would happen if someone else would be her Master, as Nursery Rhyme who is with Raikou takes elements from Kaguya-hime and how Raikou looked like when she was a child. She also does this To Florence Nightingale during Nightingale's Christmas Carol, as a test/comfort to her being Santa.
Gameplay and Story Integration: The friend team of her, Jack and Jeanne Lily is actually pretty viable. For starters, Jack can feed Nursery all the stars she needs for her crits, which is helped by the Star Drop Rate buff on Jeanne's targetable heal, while Jeanne can buff everyone's attack with her NP and increase the healing amount of her's, Jack's and Nursery's healing skills. Meanwhile, Nursery can decrease the enemies defenses and decrease their NP bar with her NP, helping the team to both inflict higher damage and survive longer battles.
Gameplay and Story Segregation:
- Her being a "female" is purely aesthetic since her true nature is a genderless conceptual being and the one she shapeshifts into happened to be a female. Though in gameplay, she can be affected by any effects targeted for females just like real ones do, although one may find it odd that a floating book can take those effects.
- She considers Andersen a jerk and a bully for writing depressing stories... but he's actually one of the best supports for her, if you want to make Nursery Rhyme your main critical damage dealer.
Irony: Again, her aforementioned synergy with Andersen on crit-based teams.
Late-Arrival Spoiler: For Fate/EXTRA. It's, uh, actually a really huge reveal that she's a Servant in EXTRA, as for most of the third chapter it's a big mystery just what is going on with "Alice" and whether or it's two Servants with a very hidden master, whether one's a master and one's otherwise, or something else entirely. The nature of Nursery Rhyme's playability here, however, necessitates spoiling a lot of her concept out the gate, to the point that trying to mark spoilers is pointless. So even a casual playing of GO, even merely seeing her on a friends list, is more or less going to ruin the surprise.
Loss of Identity: NR's Reality Marble, the Nameless Forest, causes people to forget their names, their sense of self and then, that they ever existed. That's a good part of the reason the player version can't use it, as it's just a bit too dangerous for Chaldea to invoke at will. She uses it at partial strength during Valentine's to keep the main character at her party; but notes she doesn't want it to be permanent. Shakespeare is able to scare them out of it.
Morality Chain: Is this to Raikou in "Heiankyo", preventing her from breaking and becoming Ushi Gozen. This changes events so the "Heiankyo" Shittenou are able to coexist with the Oni.
Morphic Resonance: She takes the form of a little japanese girl as Raikou's Servant, but is quickly recognizable as Nursery because she still has her bright pink eyes, which are rather uncharacteristic of a supposed civilian NPC.
Mystical White Hair: Appropriately enough for a Caster-class servant.
Nigh-Invulnerable: When she's first encountered in London, she lacks a Master and consequently has no concrete identity, appearing in her baseline book form, making her a floating Reality Marble. As a result, the hero's attacks don't even phase her, as they're essentially trying to destroy an entire world. It isn't until Andersen gives her a name that she assumes a form that the heroes are able to damage.
Not Quite Dead: In "Heiankyo", Ibaraki deals a killing blow on her while trying to attack Raikou that leaves her Saint Graph too damaged to survive, even with Medea Lily and the Protagonist trying to stabilize her. However, though she begins to fade away, Kintoki's arrival manages to stabilize her and keep her alive, on account of the unique circumstances of their meeting.
Odd Friendship: She develops one with Jack the Ripper post-London. You'd think the anthropomorphic personification of children's stories and a serial killer formed from the vengeful souls of dead London children wouldn't get along well, but you would be wrong, though Jack sometimes bails on the tea parties. During the Christmas event, the two of them add Jeanne d'Arc Alter Santa Lily to the group, who is quite unlike either one of them. They even get a Craft Essence together in the second Summer event.
Precocious Crush: Her level 5 bond line has her admit that she loves the protagonist and she thinks that the two of them make a great couple.
Shapeshifter Identity Crisis: In her Interlude, because the Alice form she takes should never have existed in the first place, it causes her very being to split in two part. One where she's a book, and another where she's Alice, called "Nursery Rhyme?" who claims to be just a story.
Shipper on Deck: During the "Sparrow's Inn Daily Report" event, when Amakusa is taking all of the child Servants in Chaldea on a field trip to the Enma-tei, Nursery Rhyme is worried that he wouldn't rather be there with Semiramis, and is amused by his explanation that she is very poor at handling open affection.
Starter Mon: On July 3rd, 2019 in JP, Nursery became one of the 14 4* Starter Servants in addition to Mash. She and fellow Starter newcomer Blavatsky were the two 4* Casters among the 14. Both have since been replaced by Circe and Nitocris in JP as of May 11th, 2022.
Super Cute Superpowers: Her Noble Phantasm has her summon playing cards from her book which turn into hearts, candy and dolls that beat up enemies, complete with a lot of sparkly sound effects.
Sweet Tooth: Many of her dialogue indicates that she has strong fondness of sweets and candy (she even thinks the Holy Grail is candy). Lampshaded by William Shakespeare during the first Valentine's day event where he mentions that she'll get cavities if she eats too much sweets.
Third-Person Person: Occasionally refers to herself as Alice in third person.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Gets along very well with fellow child/embodied-concept Servant Jack the Ripper, but as it turns out, a prim and proper little girl and a Street Urchin do not have the same taste in hobbies. This sparks the plot of the Valentine's Day event, as Jack sneaking out of Nursery Rhyme's tea parties one too many times made her decide she'll make her own guests by turning all the Valentine's chocolate in Chaldea sentient.
Took a Level in Kindness: In contrast to her EXTRA incarnation where she shows a lot of Creepy Child tendencies, Nursery Rhyme is much kinder and sweeter in Grand Order. This is justified, as Nursery Rhyme is supposed to be a "concept Servant" of the innocence of young children, and she wants to honor Alice by adapting the sweet and innocent nature of her personality.
"Uh-Oh" Eyes: When engaging in her Creepy Child tendencies, her eyes become Tsurime Eyes.
Willfully Weak: An implied example. Her broad powers over the concept of Nursery Rhymes means she can, in theory, manifest things more powerful then anything she did in Extra or in Grand Order up to the present, demonstrated by her summoning something akin to Shub-Niggurath during an event. Choosing to connect herself to Alice as a way of remembering her previous Master means she is chosing to fight more along how she did in Extra. Even outside of that, she only uses a small amount of the abilities she used in her debut, not using stuff like summoning the Jabberwock, or using her Reality Marble in battle.

Paracelsus von Hohenheim

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fgo_caster_paracelsus_1.jpg

The Father of Alchemy

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Shin-ichiro Miki

"I have been summoned upon your request. Please, be friends with me, Paracelsus."

A legendary physician turned alchemist, he is known as a character from the Renaissance Period. He left behind many achievements and books such as the "rediscovery of the four (five) elements" and the "rediscovery of the three humors". A rare individual who went down in both human and magic history, he is the one responsible both for creating the Alchemic system that is used by most alchemists of the modern era, as well as creating the Azoth sword.

He's an antagonist working with Makiri Zolgen in the Fourth Singularity: The Mist City London and a minor antagonist in "Chocolate Lady's Commotion". He also appears in "Hell Realm Mandala, Heiankyo", as the Servant of Shuten-Douji.

Alchemy Is Magic: Considered the father of modern alchemy. He in turn considers all alchemists to be his children.
Ambition Is Evil: He's usually a mild-mannered person, but once he has goal in mind, he'll be nothing short of ruthlessly opportunistic in reaching it and has no concept of "going too far". One of the reasons he's often used as a minor antagonist during events is because often, he'll try to accomplish something that seemed kind at the time, but gets way out of hand. Subverted in that he has a conscience and does feel guilty afterwards for his more serious transgressions.
The Atoner: His profile and My Room lines mention that his goal to reach the Root is currently on hold while he is "seeking atonement". This is because of his rather questionable actions in Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver and his actions during the Londinium chapter. His Interlude deals with the latter, as they disable the backup plan he had created to unleash something worse then the demonic fog.
Awesome, but Impractical: Paracelsus's skills are actually quite good for a 3* servant, with targetable Guts being quite rare and valuable. Unfortunately, he is held back by very long cooldowns on all of them even at max level, including his party-wide Arts booster, a 20% boost at a painful 7-turn cooldown at most, making him a one-cast wonder before being switched out at best.
Balance Buff: He received a Rank Up to his third skill, which adds a hefty 50% NP gain buff on top of Guts, making him incredibly useful for farming compositions that rely on NP refund.
Boring, but Practical: Provided the player has the means to swap him out, Paracelsus is one of the best budget support characters for Arts characters, because between a party wide Arts buff, and a targetable Guts that applies a strong NP gain buff, he's a great tool for Arts servants who need that extra damage and refund. Servants like Sieg, Fionn, and Chen Gong benefit heavily from his abilities thanks to their unique gameplay strengths. In particular, if paired with a Altria Caster, he can swapped out for a second one, allowing your primary damage dealer to get several ways of refunding their NP back.
Connected All Along: In the game's story, he's merely just Makiri Zolgen's Servant, but it's revealed in Fate/Grand Order Material III that the two knew each other when Paracelsus was still living.
Cool Sword: His Noble Phantasm, Sword of Paracelsus, is the prototype for all Azoth Blades used by the alchemists that came after him. In addition to acting as a conduit for True Ether (which can be used for a variety of things, such as setting up ritual magics instantly or being used as a Wave Motion Sword), it can also steal the powers of other magecraft users and Noble Phantasms as well as create Philosopher's Stones to support his allies. However, the power stealing has its limits, and you only have access to the Wave Motion Sword in gameplay proper.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: Nobody has yet corrected Fionn mac Cumhailll's belief that Paracelsus is a woman.
Elemental Powers: Like Tohsaka Rin, he is an Average One possessing an elemental affinity for five different elements.
Hero-Worshipper: He wants to ascertain whether Holy Swords that use the light of the planet (wink wink, Excalibur Proto) are reflecting a glimpse of the Root's light.
Item Crafting: He has EX rank in this skill, and can use it to make, among other things, Philosopher's Stones, artificial elemental spirits, robots with a Hive Mind-like synchronization and much more.
Mook Maker: He can create artificial Phantasmal Beasts from the remnants of Elementals. He can also make Homunculi, and the Automata dolls you see in London.
Name Order Confusion: In Japan, his name is written as "Von Hohenheim Paracelsus". While in the west, it is written as "Paracelsus von Hohenheim".
Nice Guy:
- The first thing he asks you after being summoned is that he wants to be your friend. He also thinks that human affection is the most precious thing there is.
- During the Valentine Event, he creates a special elixir for the protagonist to protect them against Servants with Lethal Chef tendencies.
One-Letter Name: To hide his identity from the protagonists, he calls himself P in London.
Overly Long Name: His real name^note is stupendously long, so he goes by the title Paracelsus, meaning "Surpassing Celsus", a famous Roman medical encyclopaedist.
Perpetual Smiler: Always smiling.
Ritual Magic: His Azoth Sword lets him skip incantations altogether, making him able to instantly cast enormously long and powerful spells mid-combat.
The Stoic: Though smiling and seemingly kind, he never exudes any particularly strong emotions.
Wave Motion Sword: His Sword of Paracelsus. Originally, the effect of this Noble Phantasm was to help make his magecraft better but if he utilizes the five elements as a catalyst with the sword's magic in a ritual, he could use it to shoot beams of magic.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: In Gilgamesh (Caster)'s Interlude, Paracelsus had provided seven Rayshift operators with medicine that rendered them unconscious and resting from exhaustion based on how long they had been constantly (over)working. An extreme example he gives (which turns out to have been based on overdosing, which he didn't do as part of Gilgamesh's Secret Test) is that three days of constant work leads to three days of sleep, even as Gilgamesh lambasts him for forgetting about a human's nutrient needs during that time.
You Are What You Hate: Several of his My Room lines make it clear that he is disgusted with himself for betraying Reiroukan Misaya and her father, since he views betrayal as the worst thing of all.
"Misaya... for me to serve a new Master while betraying you... I doubt you would forgive me..."
"Something I loathe? ...Well. Betrayal is an unforgivable atrocity."

Scáthach-Skadi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scathachskadi1.png

Mother of Scandinavia

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{Festive Outfit}

^{Travel Journal}

^{Heroic Spirit Tour}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto

"Oh, did such a tiny thing as you.... summon me, ruler of ice and snow? I am the Divine Spirit Scáthach-Skadi. I am the bride of the ancient Norse gods, a former queen, and Lostbelt Servant."

A goddess and Jötunn of skiing, winter, brides and hunting. She is known for having married the Vanir god of seas Njörðr, before breaking up with him and then marrying Odin, having many more children together. She is also known to have been the one who placed the serpent that drips venom onto the bound god of mischief, Loki.

This version of Skadi was born in a different timeline where Surtr grew stronger than he should have during Ragnarök, leading him to trying to burn the entire world down. In order to hide her presence from the fire giant, Odin fused her existence with a certain warrior from the Land of Shadows. After the world was left in flames and her as the only surviving god, she set out to rule over the surviving humans and giants as their guardian.

She appears in Lostbelt No. 2: Götterdämmerung as its King, working together with Ophelia Phamrsolone. She was released as a limited-time Servant in the third anniversary event gacha, and appears in "Nautilus Ascend!〜 Void Space Naval Battle・Imaginary Scramble" as an ally.

All-Loving Hero: Well, perhaps not "hero", but Napoleon notes she really, truly loves everyone, human and Heroic Spirit, and would really rather not kill someone if she can afford it.
Alternate Self: Like her fellow Lostbelt King Ivan the Terrible, she is a Lostbelt counterpart of the Lancer Scáthach of the proper timeline. Here she becomes an avatar of the goddess Skadi (and Alternate Self to Proper-Human Skadi as well) instead of becoming a warrior queen and godslayer. She finds her mainline counterpart too imposing, and is embarrassed by how much skin she's showing as swimsuit Scáthach.
Anti-Villain: She's not really much of a "villain" at all in her Lostbelt. She's not lying at all when she says she considers herself the mother of Europe and loves her proclaimed "children", and what unsavory actions she does take are compromises she would rather not make if possible, but fall under I Did What I Had to Do to preserve the greatest amount of life, human and giant, in her Lostbelt. She's nothing but polite and courteous to Chaldea despite knowing of their mission and even spares their lives multiple times despite having them dead to rights because she really would rather not kill them. After her clash with Chaldea, Mash points out she could have used the death rune to kill Chaldea but she couldn't bring herself to go that far.
Awesomeness Is a Force: Mash notes that Scáthach-Skadi is so overflowing with power that she fears that any normal creature would be instantly killed by the sheer amount of magical energy she emanates. And even this is but a fraction of her full strength, as she spent so much of it keeping Surtr contained.
Badass Boast: Introduces herself to Chaldea with one.
"A god... is eternal. A god is absolute. In ancient times, humans saw gods in everything... but in my world, my Lostbelt, there is only one. If a god is everywhere, in all things, then so am I. If a god is incredibly powerful, then so am I."
Balance Buff: Skadi is given a Rank Up quest as part of the "Making a Christmas Party" event for her Noble Phantasm, which gets upgraded to have her party-wide crit damage buff go from 30~50% for three attacks within five turns to being 50~100% for three attacks within five turns as well adding a party-wide 20~30% Attack buff for five turns, all based on NP level.
Benevolent Mage Ruler: Zigzagged. She's desperately trying to keep her Lostbelt alive as well as sustain both giants and humans, but this forces her to resort to unsavory methods like feeding the giants anyone over the age of 25 and any woman who doesn't have a child by the time they're 15 and brainwashing the giants into being pacifistic.
Beware the Nice Ones: She sees everyone in Scandinavia as her children and forbids them from killing one another and is reluctant to kill herself. But Napoleon makes it very clear that if she were to ever withdraw her kindness, they would be as good as dead because of how powerful she is.
Big Fancy Castle: Her castle in the Lostbelt is a grand building crafted from ice, with it explicitly being noted it was designed with form and beauty in mind rather than any sort of defense. Considering who Scáthach-Skadi is, however, she's all the defense the castle needs, even if she didn't have her armies to answer her call in an instant.
Broken Bird: Subtle but shows hints that she longs for her world that no longer exists. This is particularly noticed during Valentines and her second Interlude.
Camera Abuse: She turns towards the camera during her trailer and fractures it with a glance.
Cleavage Window: In her Second Ascension, the top of her dress is held together by a small, heart-shaped clasp which is done in such a way to show almost the entirety of her cleavage.
Condescending Compassion: Skadi loves humanity as her children and wants to protect them due to Ragnarök killing a large number of them. But she sees humanity as weak due to having a limited lifespan thus they cannot do anything by themselves. She also doesn't view Chaldea as a threat at first, telling them that she loves them as her children even as she refuses to remember Napoleon's name.
Crippling Overspecialization: She's the Quick-focused counterpart to the Buster-focused Merlin and the Arts focused Tamamo, but while Merlin and Tamamo can work relatively well outside their field due to providing things all characters benefit from (NP gain, health, and buffs to cards all characters will want to use), Skadi offers far less in non-Quick teams, with even her generic buffs being mostly matched or overshadowed by Zhuge Liang. Furthermore, her Quick buff is strong but only buffs Quick crit damage, compared to Merlin's Hero Creation which buffs all crit damage. She also only offers offensive power and nothing in the way of defensive options save for her NP, meaning she is more situational and doesn't work well outside Quick teams compared to the other two. Also worth noting is that not only were there no Casters with Quick-based Noble Phantasms until the release of Izumo-no-Okuni, but Murasaki Shikibu and Skadi herself were the only ones who had so much as a second Quick card, so she is the only high-tier support Servant who is all but worthless in Caster teams.
Dude Magnet: Skadi was the most beloved and sought after goddess among the Norse gods and received many marriage proposals from them to the point that she received gifts from all nine of the Norse realms. Sadly, Ragnarök occurred before she could marry someone, unlike her Proper Human History counterpart who married Njörðr (Njord), making her very lonely about being the only god in the Scandinavian Lostbelt, and she is quite touchy about being unmarried as well.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite Lostbelt Odin handing the reins in this timeline to her, he never actually tried to help her in any way, and she laments that his ravens being used to guide Chaldea instead of her indicates who Odin favors. Her second Interlude brings this up and makes it clear how much this has eaten at her, and Cú Chulainn (Caster) eventually breaks his self-imposed silence on talking about Odin's thought processes and tells her that Lostbelt Odin simply wanted her to survive so that one day she would be able to come to Chaldea and be able to enjoy the frozen treats she would grow to love.
Elemental Weapon: One of her attacks has her wrapping her wand and hand in a BFS of purple ice to slash at the foe.
Energy Weapon: A couple of attacks involve either summoning runes to perform a laser barrage not unlike Medea, or using her wand as a laser pointer to carve a rune into her opponent that causes an explosion of ice.
Finger Poke of Doom: Her spellcasting movements are very subtle and dainty. The resulting magical discharges caused by her wand are anything but.
Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Even though she's not supposed to directly be Scathach, she shares the same penchant for extremely tight outfits (or very translucent tights under her more conversative First Ascension dress, which is her default in the Story Mode).
Glass Cannon: Her gameplay lacks the defensive support of Waver, Merlin and Tamamo in order to emphasize further offense. She has a powerful crit damage skill, can lower the defense of all of her enemies and boosts all crit damage, but her only defensive option is a single use party evade and a minor damage cut tied to her NP. As such she's more suited to, well, quick fights or at least relying on the third party member for longevity.
Gameplay and Story Integration: Skadi's final profile entry notes that she's actually thoughtless, ditzy and warmhearted, and developing a relationship with her is a rather literal invocation of the Defrosting Ice Queen trope as she reveals her natural self without having to keep up those motherly appearances as the ruler of Scandinavia. Rather tellingly, her first five Bond levels are all deceptively fast to acquire, needing a mere 1,500 points for Bond 1 and 4,500 for Bond 5.
Graceful Loser: She accepts she lost and that her kingdom is done for after the protagonists manage to beat her, and tries to undo any damage done to give everyone some temporary respite.
Hope Spot: Has one after Surtr's defeat: without needing to focus on keeping him imprisoned, she can use her full Authority to take proper control of the Giants and lead Humanity, with it actually being possible to advance the Lostbelt, a dead timeline. Since her world needs to die for ours to live, she turns antagonistic now that it has a chance of surviving, but fails. To her credit, she simply accepts this outcome.
Sitonai: And so, the Scandinavian Lostbelt was saved... The Shadow Border drove off into the sunset... and they all lived happily ever after. ...It would sure be nice if that's how it went, wouldn't it? Nothing is ever so easy, though.
Horrifying the Horror: She considers Chaldea to be terrifying considering what they have been able to do with little to no assistance from the Counter Force.
An Ice Person: A large number of her attacks revolve around the usage of purple-colored ice. The NA states that Skadi is the goddess of snow and ice.
Instant Runes: She inherited the Primordial Runes from Odin himself, and her mastery of them is greater than even Scáthach or Brynhild. Her attack animations have her rapidly casting runes to fire lasers or unleash explosions of ice, and her skill animations have her doing similar motions.
Kneel Before Zod: Upon stepping out of the shadows and introducing herself, she invites Chaldea to bow before her in supplication.
Large and in Charge: While she recognizes her new body, she still likes to think of herself as a giant, and consequently, that this trope is still in play.
Last of Her Kind: The only god to survive her Lostbelt's Ragnarök. As Cú Chulainn Caster speculates, this was intentional on Lostbelt Odin's part, who used his Clairvoyance to see the future and decided that she should be the one to survive and one day make it to Chaldea, which he did out of love for her.
Like a Son to Me: In Lostbelt 2, Götterdämmerung Skadi sees herself as the mother of Scandinavia due to being the last god thus every form of life are her children from humans, the Jötnar, her Valkyrie, Chaldea and even Heroic Spirits from Proper Human History. The only person she doesn't consider her child is Surtr. The playable version doesn't share this tendency as her valentine scene explains she's still heartbroken over her world being destroyed.
Magic Wand: She uses one to cast Rune spells.
Mistaken Identity: In her interlude she mistakes Cú Chulainn Caster for Odin himself (even though he's just a proxy and corners him demanding answers for Lostbelt Odin's actions during their version of Ragnarok. It takes Cú Chulainn quite a few tries to convince her that he's not Odin himself, though ultimately he does acquiesce to sharing his understanding of why Lostbelt Odin did what he did.
My Beloved Smother: In Lostbelt 2, Götterdämmerung Skadi sees humanity as her children and is determined to love them forever. But due to her Condescending Compassion, she sees humanity needs the gods to do everything for them due to being too weak themselves. This has turned her Lostbelt's humanity essentially into livestock.
Oblivious to Love: Discussed in her Interlude. Cú Chulainn Caster knows for a fact that PHH Odin is in love with PHH Skadi, so he speculates that this is also the case for Lostbelt Odin, who made sure she survived Ragnarök and would someday come to Chaldea out of love. Skadi is shocked to hear this as the idea that Odin had feelings for her never crossed her mind.
Odd Job Gods: It is noted in her profile that she's a goddess of skiing but besides that throwaway line, the game puts more emphasis on her other aspects, like being a bride, wildness and snow. In the Lostbelt, she has fashioned herself into the Mother of Scandinavia, with dominion over ice and snow.
Physical God: As a Lostbelt King and an actual goddess, Skadi is incredibly powerful, with Napoleon directly stating she's a true goddess, not a mere Divine Spirit. She can control the armies of giants and valkyries in her Lostbelt as if they were extensions of herself, the very ice and snow covering the Lostbelt is infused with her power, her castle forged from her power is permeated by magical energy so thick Mash directly compares the atmosphere to that of Babylonia during the Age of Gods and that a normal creature would die from exposure instantly, and it was she who set up the wards protecting the one hundred villages of the Lostbelt from monsters entering them. In the end, she's only defeated because she's running on fumes after keeping Surtr at bay for 3,000 years and using up so much energy supporting and healing Chaldea in the fight against him. And even then, she could have used her death runes on them, but she still couldn't bring herself to go that far.
Power-Up Full Color Change: Takes on a white outfit by her 3rd Ascension—and even does so specifically in-game during the climax of Götterdämmerung, emphasizing her immense power as a Caster and as ruler of her specific Lostbelt.
Purple Is Powerful: She wears a lot of purple and is a merged version of Scáthach and a goddess. Downplayed as her clothes take a lighter tone in her third ascension.
Purposefully Overpowered: Notable in that on top of being a Lostbelt King, a group of Servants that tend to have overpowered skillsets, Skadi is also made to be the go-to overpowered Quick card support. Skadi's introduction during anniversary is a huge Balance Buff towards the underpowered Quick card-type.
She Is the King: She's still referred to as a Lostbelt King despite being ostensibly a queen.
Sinister Surveillance: She mentions she is aware of everything going on in her Lostbelt due to how deeply her power pervades it. Napoleon makes it clear she knows damn well where they are at all times, and it's only the fact she doesn't see them as enemies and would rather talk terms that she just doesn't Zerg Rush them with her armies.
Snow Means Death: Referenced in her summoning quote, calling herself one "who reigns over the ice and snow of death".
Spectacular Spinning: She attacks with her Gáe Bolgs in a swirling motion, and her Extra Attack has her jumping into the air and summoning a large pillar of ice that she drops spinning on the target.
Spell My Name With An S: Her name is spelt Skaði^note, though it can be simply spelled as Skadi. Indeed, the localization goes with just "Skadi".
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Typically prideful and confident, but the occasional dorky or vulnerable moment sometimes shows itself when her guard's down.
Suicide by Cop: Implied. Before she fights Chaldea to defend the Tree of Emptiness, she confirms that Proper Human History has vastly more human life, to say nothing of the flora and fauna, and that her Lostbelt shouldn't have existed. After the battle, Sherlock notes that instead of resting after defeating Surtr like Chaldea had, she had been expending even more of her limited energy to repair damage done to the village. This, coupled with the easy way she accepts her defeat, suggests that while she wasn't willing to let Scandinavia fall without a fight, she understood that Chaldea was in the right and knew she shouldn't defeat them.
Support Party Member: She's the long awaited Quick support to match Merlin's Buster and Tamamo's Art support. Overall, her usage is a bit more niche: While she cannot provide long-term party support by herself due to lack of healing and weak party defense options, she can provide 1) amazing burst for three turns^note, 2) cutting her enemies' Defense so her teammates hit harder, then 3) getting topped off with her third skill—a targeted 50% NP charge powerful enough for setting up Quick clears (something users of Waver know very well).
They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: She doesn't like being called Scáthach given that she's, you know, actually a different person. However, she'll accept it so long as you add a -sama to the end to show the proper respect towards a goddess.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: While her Noble Phantasm can be very easily be overlooked due to how situational it is, it's very useful in situations in which the enemy can easily use their instant death NPs, due to her Noble Phantasm granting a party-wide one-use instant-death immunity, and it even comes with an one-use evasion buff, allowing less durable members to survive a what could been a nasty blow. In particular, during the Grand Nero Fest which featured re-runs of 2016 and 2017 Nero Fest Exhibition Quests, she's almost required to survive against King Hassan, since her NP can effectively neutralize his greatest weapon.
Tough Leader Façade: She's been doing her best to maintain an image befitting the final god of Scandinavia, but deep down she's a kindhearted dork. When she lets loose this side during her stay in the Enma-tei, she manages to charm the pants off both Fergus and Medb (the latter of whom can't help but find her cute, while the former eventually can't help but throw himself at her).
Trademark Favorite Food: Ice cream. She eventually manages to enjoy the Enma-tei's hot spring by happily eating an ice cream cone while she soaks.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: She certainly seems to think she is: She rules both the giants and humans as she believes she is the mother of Northern Europe. However, the giants need to eat humans to survive. To solve this problem, anyone who reaches the age of 25 will be taken by the Valkyrie to be fed to the giants, along with any woman who doesn't have a child by age 15.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She reveals in Enma-tei that she dislikes hot things, not because she can't handle heat, but because when she's exposed to hot things she'll inevitably start thinking about fire, and with that she'll start thinking about Surtr and Götterdämmerung and all the bad memories thereof.
Worf Had the Flu: The reason Chaldea is able to beat her, despite being a goddess with Odin's powers and... well, Scáthach, is because she's already used a majority of her magical energy containing Surtr for the past 3000 years and then supporting you in taking him down. She still gives you trouble, and is filled with determination from her Hope Spot, but she's running on fumes.

Shuten-Douji (Halloween)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/504000b.png

Magifender Girl, Oni Cure

^{Final Ascension}

^{Festive Outfit}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Aoi Yūki (Japaese), Emi Lo (English anime)

"Okay, allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Caster, Shuten-Douji. Well, me being a Caster doesn't really change anything. Hm, what's that? Until I take all this off, I'm going to remain an innocent Magifender Girl."

If a hero who protects humans is called a Heroic Spirit, then surely there must be someone who will raise above the lawless oni to protect the oni world's principles. Yes, surely that person will become the Magifender of Oni, Oni Cure!
...That is a story that Shuten-Douji told Ibaraki-Douji when compared to a magical girl. Even if no such individual has been recorded in human history, Shuten-Douji has taken up this responsibility.

The welfare Servant for the Oniland event.

Always Accurate Attack: Her Noble Phantasm applies a turn of Sure Hit, bypassing Evasion for her NP and subsequent attacks.
Attack on the Heart: Her Bone Collector Noble Phantasm has turned into the skill Heartbreak: Oni Magifender, Heart-Crushing Killer due to her class changing, which allows her to thrust her hand into the target's chest to crush their heart and other organs.
Black Mage: Her skillset is designed to help her dish out as much damage as possible, sporting a Buster/Arts/Star Absorption buff, and an attack buff which also increases her damage against Demonic enemies. She also boasts the highest Attack stat among all 4* Casters, beating out the previous holders Nitocris and Marie Antoinette (Caster) by nearly 500 points.
Boring, but Practical: Shuten-Douji as a Caster isn't any much different from other Casters, as she has a typical three Arts card Caster set and her kit is comparatively weaker than Queen of Sheba and has a far more selfish kit^note. However, keep in mind that getting a single-target Caster to nuke Assassin bosses is incredibly hard to get for most players and many are generally stuck with Medea as their only single-target Caster, and the player can obtain her in the Halloween event at Noble Phantasm level 5 for free. The only limitation is that the player must clear the second Lostbelt to participate in her event, which can be a bit difficult for some players due the introduction of break HP bars and various boss gimmicks.
Boobs-and-Butt Pose: In her Final Ascension art, complete with teasing grin.
Booze-Based Buff: Switched her usual dish for a giant gourd of sake. It's apparently even stronger stuff than what she usually has, seeing how not only does drinking it cause a Super Mode-like state, it can be fired like the world's most delicious Wave-Motion Gun.
Breaking Old Trends: She is the first Halloween welfare servant to not be Elizabeth Báthory.
Carry a Big Stick: Since magical girls usually wield Magic Wands, it makes sense for her to want one. Of course the Break Rod: Oni Magifender, Killer Bludgeoning Stick is less of a magic wand and more like a bright pink kanabo with a paper lantern attached to the top of it.
Clark Kenting: Played for Laughs. Due to the magical girl influence of her abilities, Ibaraki and Assassin Paraiso can't figure out who she really is. Even through Ibaraki notices that she looks, sounds, and acts exactly like Shuten, she completely fails to make the obvious next logical step. (It's extremely obvious to you, Mash and da Vinci.) Shuten comments in her My Room Dialogue that even Raikou and Kintoki don't recognize her.
Glamour: Implied to be the case, and comes with the territory. And Shuten apparently wasn't aware of this part, since it never occurs to her why no one apart from the above-mentioned three exceptions can recognize her, only note very close similarities to the Shuten they know.
Hero with an F in Good: She's only doing the magical oni enforcer routine out of love for Ibaraki, and is often unmotivated for much of her screen time due to that affection having its limits.
Hunter of His Own Kind: Her Demonic Nature of Oni (Protect) gives her special damage against Demonic enemies, which include other oni. Indeed, the duties of the Magifender of Oni include preaching to oni, denouncing them and killing them.
Kung-Fu Wizard: Given the franchise her powers are based on, it's not too surprising. In fact, seeing a little girl crush the forces of evil with ridiculous physical strength was the reason Ibaraki thought magical girls were Oni-like in the first place.
Magical Girl: She calls herself a Gohou Shoujo (localized as Magifender Girl). Her current Spirit Origin is born of Ibaraki's earnest belief that somewhere, somewhen, there had to be an Oni equivalent of a magical girl.
Mysterious Protector: She ultimately plays this role in her event, as she tends to appear when the player's cast is already engaging the enemy and vanishes right after they are dealt with. Of course the "mysterious" part is rather loose as most of the Chaldea crew realizes who she is barring Ibaraki.
Non-Human Sidekick: As part of the magical girl parody, she's accompanied by a fox-like spirit named Haku, which she occasionally calls Spot. Its other name is Moshirechik Kotanechik, the true villain behind Oniland, who took advantage of said parody to accompany Shuten for its own ends. She claims that the one after the event is just a mindless construct made from her own mana but there are rumors of it talking independently.
Paper-Thin Disguise: As mentioned above, despite barely looking any different than her Assassin version, Ibaraki and Assassin Paraiso (plus Kintoki and Raikou in her My Room dialogue) are oblivious to her real identity.
Punch-Clock Hero: Mostly helps when she feels like it, but she always seems to come around when she's needed.
Stripperific: Her outfit is clearly still not hiding much. The hilarity comes in when you realize it's basically the traditional outfit Kintaro◊, i.e. the folk-tale version of Sakata Kintoki, tends to wear, albeit many sizes too small.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Sometimes when using her NP, she'll instead launch her gourd like a rocket at the enemy for a fiery explosion... with Ibaraki-Douji riding it.
Unwitting Pawn: She never once clued in that Haku was only using her to help accumulate more of the cursed gold.

Sieg

Homunculus

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae

"Servant… my name is Sieg. Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm just an ordinary homunculus. I may not be particularly powerful, but the Noble Phantasm that's been registered to me might be useful in battle. Use me as you see fit."

One of the main characters of Fate/Apocrypha. Sieg is one of hundreds of homunculi who were originally created by the Yggdmillennia family as a disposable source of mana to give themselves an edge in the Great Holy Grail War. Sieg unexpectedly gained sentience and the will to live, and during the events of the Great Holy Grail War his body was implanted with the heart of Siegfried, the Saber summoned by the Black Faction. This uniquely gave Sieg a set of Command Spells he could use to give commands to his own body, primarily the ability to transform into Siegfried for a limited amount of time. He selflessly saved humanity from extinction by making a wish upon the Greater Grail that transformed him into the legendary dragon Fafnir, allowing him to spirit the Greater Grail away to the Far Side of The World where it could do no harm.

He is the main ally of "Inheritance of Glory", having called the protagonist forth to investigate the issues with the Greater Grail he possesses.

Achilles' Heel: His dragon body possesses enormous power, but naturally makes him susceptible to anti-dragon attacks, such as Balmung.
Alternate Self: The Remote Body is an extension of the original Sieg's consciousness during the event. Afterwards, he cuts it off to give to Chaldea as a separate existence. The original Sieg can still communicate with the Protagonist through Chaldea's copy via dreams.
Artificial Human: Sieg was originally a Homunculus created by Yggdmillenia to serve as a Mana Battery for Servants.
Breath Weapon: As Fafnir, he unleashes a wave of blue fire upon his enemies that provides a three-turn Defense debuff before damage sets in.
[using his Noble Phantasm] "Torch everything! Akafiloga All-grið!"
Chuunibyou: He's a fan of ninjas, and according to his Material profile he approves of Summer Jeanne Alter fighting with three swords at once.
Cool Sword: He wields the sword Astolfo lent him in several of his animations. He transforms it into Balmung during some of them.
Dark Is Not Evil: His Noble Phantasm turns him into the evil dragon Fafnir, but Sieg himself is probably one of the nicest guys around.
Dead Guy Junior: After Siegfried sacrificed his life to save him in his home series, the then nameless homunculus named himself Sieg in Siegfried's honor and memory.
Difficult, but Awesome: Sieg is one of the hardest Welfare Servants to use because of his low attack and health but powerful Spam Attack playstyle. His kit is all focused on gaining NP quicker in some form, and because he can easily be made NP 5 as long as you finish the event, he can loop his NP back to back with some mild team support, or even loop off just his NP if you provide the right setup. If the player can configure around him, he's very strong for farming events in particular, but without that he finds difficulty in being used. With the advent of Altria Caster however, he becomes much less difficult to use since she's able to buff his attack power on top of his Arts cards and NP Gain.
Distracted by the Sexy: According to his Material profile, his reaction to Jeanne's swimsuit is to doubt what he's seeing and rub his eyes to make sure he's not imagining it.
Dragon Hoard: It seems to be a part of his base instincts now that he's Fafnir, who was famous for this in myth. He asks the protagonist not to let any Holy Grails near him because he wouldn't be able to resist taking it away to the Reverse Side of the World.
The Dragon Slayer: By virtue of being able to transform into Siegfried, one of the most famous dragon slayers of legend, his Dead Count Shapeshifter skill grants him a buff against dragon enemies. He's officially counted as one of Chaldea's dragon slayers, and is called on to fight dragons in both Sigurd's Interlude and "The Glorious Path to Santa Claus" where he's enlisted to help fight Vritra.
Drama-Preserving Handicap: As Fafnir, he has enough raw power to effortlessly incinerate an army of Dragon Tooth Warriors and golems. Naturally, he's blown out of the sky by Karna's Vasavi Shakti and further damaged by Siegfried's Balmung early on in "Inheritance of Glory", forcing him rely on his weaker terminal while his main body spends most of the event recovering. As a Servant, his terminal can only handle transforming into his dragon form for a very short time, keeping him from being too powerful.
Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Though the Inheritance of Glory event and his My Room lines show that he's largely put the past behind him in regard to his former enemies from Apocrypha, he still tells the player that they shouldn't give Amakusa Shirou Tokisada any Holy Grails.
Flowery Elizabethan English: Uses this while talking to the protagonist in the English version of the game when they first meet, likely in an attempt to come across as a noble and wise dragon. He starts fumbling his words and eventually gives it up altogether.
Gameplay and Story Integration:
- In Apocrypha, Sieg was able to spam Siegfried's Balmung multiple times in rapid succession thanks to Frankenstein's Galvanism skill allowing him to quickly restore his mana, as seen in his fight with Karna. In-game, his skills, card setup and class all point to making him an NP spammer who can quickly charge and fire off his AOE NP multiple times in a fight with proper set-up.
- He also has relatively low ATK for a 4* Caster (Nursery Rhyme beats him out by around 300 points), which reflects the fact that his Homunculus body couldn't hold up against a Servant's until he was empowered by Fran's lightning. He similarly has the second lowest HP stat among his class rarity, reflecting the fact he was not expected to have a long lifespan as a Homunculus, and how his usage of Siegfried's powers took a heavy toll on his body.
Gentle Giant: When the protagonist wakes up and meets him as Fafnir, they are understandably freaked out by his menacing appearance... while he's politely asking them if they're alright.
Hidden Depths: He's good with math as shown in Apocrypha, and his Valentine's gift in this game shows that he's not half bad as an artist either.
Humble Hero: Sieg doesn't think much of himself, attributing his successes to the people who've stood beside him and dumb luck rather than his own merits.
"Yeah. That’s because I’m one of the survivors of the Great Grail War. But not exactly because I’m strong or anything. Well, I’m not even a Servant in the first place. Like. How do I put this. Coincidences, misfortunes, something along those lines. It's not like I have the power or anything, nor do I have the charisma to make Servants follow my lead."
- He also puts himself down as a "mere homunculus" and doesn't consider himself particularly battle-worthy, believing himself to only be useful through his Noble Phantasm.
  [upon summoning at Chaldea] "Servant, Sieg. My apologies, I’m just a mere homunculus. Though I don’t consider myself a great asset in battle, but my registered Noble Phantasm should prove to be of some value. Please make full use of me."
Invocation: He invokes the Holy Grail as he activates his Noble Phantasm.
"O' Holy Grail, hear my plea!"
Hunter of His Own Kind: He's counted as one of Chaldea's dragon slayers alongside the likes of Siegfried, Sigurd, and Georgios, and has a skill that enables him to deal bonus damage to dragons, all while having become a dragon himself.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In his My Room lines if you have Jeanne, Sieg assumes she won't remember him so he decides not to approach her. He may be right, because Jeanne's lines in My Room states that, for her, Sieg is like a stranger who she has vague familiarities. It may be because the Jeanne of Fate/Apocrypha did not return to the Throne of Heroes after being defeated - she started her quest to reach Sieg in the Reverse Side of the World. The Jeanne of Fate/Grand Order may not have access to all memories of the Holy Grail War of Fate/Apocrypha, despite being a Ruler (who usually have full memories of all past Holy Grail Wars they participated in) because of that, being, in all effect, a Jeanne that never met Sieg to begin with. Plus, the nature of the Summoning System makes that a Servant summoned in the past may not be the same in the present, effectively different people with different experiences who may have the memories but not the emotions associated with them.
Jeanne d'Arc: ...I'm sorry, Master. who is that Servant? A homunculus, you say? I...must just be confused, then... Yes...that must be it....
I Will Wait for You: At the end of the event Sieg goes back to waiting for Jeanne in the Reverse Side of the World, setting up for the Distant Finale of Apocrypha. However he does create a Remote Body to go back with the protagonist. Perhaps to not interfere with his dragon self waiting for Jeanne, he limits his Remote Body's memories of her.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- He admits that he's not especially strong as a Servant due to his lowly origins as a homunculus, but he says that the Master might get some use out of his Noble Phantasm, lampshading his pitiful base stats and surprisingly potent NP-spamming playstyle.
- During the event, he remarks on the number of golden apples the protagonist is eating, and asks them to be careful and to plan their time wisely. This practically doubles as Developer's Foresight, as players eagerly farmed the raids for mats and shop loot to the point of finishing raids meant to last six hours in less than half that.
Let Us Never Speak of This Again: He asks the protagonist to forget about his attempts to use Flowery Elizabethan English when he first summoned them.
Sieg: I mean, all that faux Old English and such...what was I thinking? It's embarrassing! Please...just do me a favor and forget all that?
Limit Break: All of his skills are tailored to spamming his Noble Phantasm as much as possible. His first skill increases his Noble Phantasm charge rate, his second skill increases his Arts card performance (which increases the amount of Noble Phantasm gauge he gets from using Arts cards, the best type of card for acquiring Noble Phantasm gauge), and his third skill provides an instant 30% charge to his Noble Phantasm gauge at Rank 10. He's also a Caster with three Arts cards counting his NP, meaning that it's even easier for him to recharge his Noble Phantasm after the first use if he can Arts Brave Chain it. Up to eleven with the right buffs and setup, as then he can literally recharge his NP with his own NP, which greatly makes up for his low stats.
Literal Change of Heart: In Apocrypha, Siegfried gave his heart and put it in Sieg's chest to save his life. Except... Siegfried's heart was Fafnir's according to Siegfried's first Interlude.
Not the Intended Use: Sieg has a niche of dealing bonus damage against Dragons, but the problem is that Sieg is a Caster while most Dragons are Riders (which puts Sieg in a disadvantage against Dragons). However, due to his good NP gain and spammability, many crafty players primarily use him to clear off waves of enemy mobs (especially if they are Berserkers or Assassins) and primarily use him for farming dailies and free quests in a similar vein like Nictoris.
Odd Friendship: His Valentine's scene shows that he gets along with fellow Apocrypha alumni Mordred and Frankenstein. Perhaps it's because all three of them are artificial humans with electrical powers, but all the same Mordred did kill Sieg the first time they met. Though seeing as he got better pretty quick, it seems the guy doesn't hold a grudge.
An Offer You Can't Refuse: Zigzagged. After requesting the Main Character's help, MC asks what happens if they say no. Sieg as Fafnir says that he would send them home. Sieg as Fafnir adds that it was rather unreasonable to drag them out here and just expect help. He'll figure it out somehow... at which point the MC figures out this "Evil Dragon" is not evil. And the irony is by being given the choice, the MC has no choice at all.
Our Homunculi Are Different: He is a homunculus created by stolen techniques from Einzbern family with the purpose of being a Living Battery until he gained consciousness.
Partial Transformation: In his normal attack animations, he can turn his hands into Siegfried's gauntlets and transform his sword into Balmung. His Extra Attack has him turn completely into Siegfried.
Reluctant Monster: Sieg as Fafnir is comically bad at being an "Evil Dragon".
Remote Body: Sieg temporarily recreates his old humanoid body who appears in the "Inheritance of Glory" event as an avatar/"terminal" with his consciousness, while his Fafnir body recovers. After the story ends, he separates the terminal from his original self entirely so that it can accompany the protagonist further. He also mentions that as long as his consciousness is safely within one body, the destruction of the other would at worst be an inconvenience and he could make a new one with enough time.
Scaled Up: He has the Dragon trait due to receiving Siegfried's (Fafnir's) heart and becoming his reincarnation, and then taken further when he actually becomes the dragon Fafnir.
Sense Loss Sadness: Downplayed. He laments that he was born with little sense of taste. Only particularly strong flavors, like sweetness, have any real impact on him. So instead of trying to cook for the protagonist, he uses the Greater Grail to wish some up to avoid being a Lethal Chef.
Shock and Awe: Due to the events of Apocrypha, he has Frankenstein's electrical powers and uses them in some of his attacks.
Situational Sword: His Dead-count Shapeshifter skill gives him bonus damage against enemies with Dragon trait for one turn. Good luck finding enemies to conveniently use it though, as most Dragon enemies are Riders and even amongst Servants there are only five Assassin and Berserker Servants who he can use it to its max potential on (Shuten, Mysterious Heroine X, Mysterious Heroine X Alter, Kijyo Koyo, and Kiyohime). It does also carry a decent self-charge for his NP gauge though, so it's not completely situational.
- That said, with proper setup and buffs, his capability to spam his NP means he can beat normal and even hard stages in a few turns by himself. Not bad for a welfare servant.
- And like Siegfried, his boosts also means that Sieg has excellent synergy with St. Georgios, who can render any foe a Dragon for several turns, allowing Sieg to tear them apart with the massive 100% attack bonus he gains from his Dead-Count Shapeshifter skill.
Spam Attack: His kit is designed primarily to spam his Noble Phantasm due to his good NP generation and an on-demand NP charge. In fact, he's more better fit for his NP Spamming than his anti-Dragon niche.
Stuff Blowing Up: Strase Gehen, his innate (and really only) magecraft. Once he gets his hands on a physical object, he analyzes it's structure and then channels magical energy into it to to disrupt its structure, effectively causing it to blow up from the inside. It's used in-game as his Magecraft skill.
Square Race, Round Class: From a narrative standpoint. Despite manifesting as a Caster, he's an Inept Mage with a fighting style more in line with a Saber that combines swordsmanship, lightning, and Siegfried's power.
Squishy Wizard: Like most Casters, his endurance ranks at a paltry E. He can get around this by transforming into Siegfried, who is anything but squishy.
Theme Music Powerup: When using his Noble Phantasm, a snippet of the main theme of Fate/Apocrypha overrides the battle music.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: He'll mainly be using his Dead-count Shapeshifter skill for the NP charge since it's difficult for him to take advantage of the Dragon bonus damage against most enemies on his own. There are however niche moments where said buff is a legit strategy, such as the Arc Villain of the Oniland event being an Assassin-class Dragon enemy. In these situations, Sieg is preferable then other dragon killers because he can use class damage modifiers to whittle down his enemies.
Took a Level in Badass: In Apocrypha, he could only use Dead Count Shapeshifter to turn into Siegfried a maximum of three times due to only having three command spells. As a Servant, his remote body seems to have no limit on how many times he can transform, although the time limit remains. In addition, he's learned to undergo Partial Transformations to summon Siegfried's gauntlets and Balmung, as stated above.
Weak, but Skilled: Sieg's stats are fairly low for his rarity, with his attack and health being among the bottom of his rarity and class, especially compared to his fellow welfare Casters. However, his kit and hidden stats allow him to spam his AOE NP that delivers a potent party-wide DEF down before damage sets in, which makes him able to rip through packs of enemies.
Weredragon: His true form is Fafnir, and he can revert to his humanoid form by transforming or by creating an avatar of himself that can be temporarily separated from his dragon body.
Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: The electrical power he received from Frankenstein's Monster retains its distinct light green color.
You Don't Look Like You: In the visual novel/story segments of the Apocrypha event, Fafnir uses the same portrait as the enemy Fafnir (i.e. the one in Orleans), which makes him look like the standard Dragon mid-boss enemies rather than what he normally should look like.^note

Tamamo-no-Mae

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tamamocaster.png

Miko of Amaterasu

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{Traveling Outfit}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Chiwa Saitō (Japanese), Erica Lindbeck (English anime)

"I will always be there for you! Your reliable Shrine Maiden Fox, Caster, has now arrived!"

A courtesan who served the retired Emperor Toba at the end of the Heian era, and whose true identity is a facet of the sun goddess Amaterasu. Curious about how her worshippers lived and loved within their ephemeral and inconsequential lives, this facet chose to incarnate as a young girl so she could live amongst humans on Earth. She eventually gained the favour of Emperor Toba, who was said to have fallen in love with her at first sight, and served him as a courtesan under the name of "Tamamo-no-Mae", where she became renowned for her beauty and knowledge.

When Toba came down with a mysterious illness, a travelling spiritualist blamed Tamamo for his affliction and exposed her supernatural nature. She was forced to flee from the imperial court, and was eventually overwhelmed by the pursuing guardsmen and killed while in the form of a fox. The superstitious rumours surrounding her life and death led to the popular belief she was a kitsune: a mythical nine-tailed fox demon and shapeshifter. While Tamamo does not mind being called a fox, as she finds them cute, she would point out that foxes did not exist in Japan during that era, and that the animal in her legend was more likely a wild jackal that got confused with the fleeing woman.

Tamamo presents herself as an old-fashioned Japanese lady looking for a partner to whom she can devote herself, but occasionally lets slip hints of a more predatory and competitive nature. Her cheerful and loving personality is a mask she uses to hide her loneliness and trauma as a goddess that gave up divinity only to be betrayed and killed by those she loved. As a facet of Amaterasu, her true nature would make her one of the most powerful beings in the Nasuverse, but as she has reincarnated as a Heroic Spirit rather than a Divine Spirit, her power is severely capped. Due to her trauma, Tamamo also refuses to use her EX-ranked Maleficium skill, which would allow her to control the hearts and minds of anyone she wished, including enemy Masters and Servants.

She originally appeared as one of the three playable Servants in Fate/EXTRA, and made her Grand Order debut during the first Halloween event, "The Adventure of Singing Pumpkin Castle". She also appears briefly as an ally in London and in Shimosa under the name "Otama".

11th-Hour Ranger: For London, as she ends up showing up via the Chain Summoning that brought Kintoki along as well. When Tesla helpfully informs them what's going on, she objects to humanity's destruction and teams up with Kintoki to stop London's incineration and buys time for the protagonist and Mordred to show up.
Adaptational Heroism: The original Tamamo-no-Mae from Japanese folklore would never do anything remotely good. This one, while not nice, mostly just wants to have fun and maybe find a husband if she can find a good one.
Adaptational Nice Guy: The original would only seduce and use men to satisfy her depravity. Here, Tamamo-no-Mae can easily genuinely fall in love with someone.
Affably Evil: If you're not paying attention, it can be easy to miss that she's killed hundreds of thousands of people and even her corpse became a spawning ground for youkai before it was purified. After all, she's just so cute and funny that it's easy to not take her seriously.
Alternate Self: Her Shimousa counterpart is a geisha from the capital of Edo, who prefers to go by "Otama." Like Kiyohime, she lacks many of her usual negative qualities, has a soft spot for Onui and Tasuke, puts up the protagonists while they sort out some of the dangers in the city, and even uses her experience with fires and disasters from living in Edo to help organize an evacuation of as many citizens as she can during the final bit of the chapter.
Amnesiac God: During her life as a mortal avatar of Amaterasu she was not aware of her true identity.
Anime Accent Absence: Given Tamamo's age and the time period she came from, you would expect her to have something of an older accent. However, she speaks in not just contemporary Japanese but goofy Engrishy nonsense.
Art Evolution: The New Years 2018 campaign came with an updated third ascension sprite and animations for her. Now she has 2 sets of animations: a combination of melee and magic (just like her appearance in Extella) for her first two ascension levels and the full brunt of her magical jujutsu for her final ascension. Her NP also has more flair now. Another update is patched to give her distinct voice lines for each new attack animations.
Asian Fox Spirit: She's probably the most famous kitsune in Japanese mythology, known for having seduced and seemingly slowly poisoned an emperor until she was uncovered and driven out. Because of that experience, however, she pointedly avoids using her shapeshifting and other abilities unless ordered (although she can and will use them in-game). Though going by EXTRA, Japanese people just mistook her for a fox when she's actually a jackal, which aren't native to Japan.
Balance Buff: Her kit was pretty good to begin with, but her Fox Wedding EX received an upgrade via Interlude that applied a Healing effect when used. At max level, it heals 2500 HP, making it a very useful Arts buff and a good single target heal. She received another upgrade at the end of 2018 that, after a Rank Up Quest, buffed her Curse EX to Malediction, Boundless Sunshine A, which still decreased the enemies NP gauge, but now also increases the parties NP damage, save herself, for three turns. At max skill level, it has a five turn cooldown as well, meaning that she now is a powerful Jack of All Stats when her whole kit and NP are combined together. Her NP was also buffed to heal another thousand on every usage.
Beneath the Mask: During Kiyohime's interlude, Kiyohime mentions regarding Tamamo that behind her flirty attitude hides a pure maiden who becomes speechless when approached by a handsome man.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: She's been doing it since Fate/EXTRA and she hasn't missed a beat in Grand Order.
- She's quite the meta girl as seen in her second Interlude.
  Protagonist: By the way, I don’t see any new tails.
  Tamamo: Let me think… to recover another one, I think you’d need about another 500,000 experience points?
- She's aware of her status as a raid boss in the Onigashima event.
  "Raid boss fight, GO!"
- She often protests Nero's status as the face of Fate/EXTRA as seen in the Last Encore announcement miniquest as she's annoyed at the possibility of being relegated to the preview announcer while Nero gets to be the main star. She does it again in Onigashima as one of the reasons she decided to become a Raid boss was to vent the complains that Nero has always been hogging the spotlight and leaving her with none.
Brick Joke: You finally get to see the correspondence she mentioned with Kiyohime in her first Interlude. Her other pen pal, Osakabe-hime, also appears in this game.
Broken Bird: She's actually pretty scarred by various aspects of her backstory, including parts that actually happened to Amaterasu, not Tamamo. As a result she's unwilling to use certain of her abilities unless forced, though they're all available for use to the player.
Catchphrase: "Mikooon!"^note It's even lampshaded in a boss nickname, calling her "Mikon is the Universal Language."
Chef of Iron: A damn good one at that. Interestingly enough, she likes to cook but not the food itself, she enjoys providing meals for her partner. And as a Servant there is no question that she can defend herself and her partner.
The Chosen Many: This is the stance she took in regard to her Master, she would be fine with serving anyone in general, but she states the person would ultimately need to be good or have good intentions to obtain her service. That said she also becomes infatuated easily and she can't help liking the person she serves.
Clingy Jealous Girl: She's very much this. Given her legend, who can blame her?
Crippling Overspecialization: In her own niche, she's as strong as the likes of Merlin or Waver. She has great utility, NP drain, powerful heals and is pretty tanky. However, while they can function outside their niche, Tamamo only really works either in stall based Arts teams or a few other gimmicky setups. Since stall based gameplay is rarely required and much less fun than blasting things in just a single turn, she's rarely called upon and even then she's only really performing at their level. When needing offensive Arts support, she's overshadowed by Altria Caster, though even still she is worth taking along for her support utility.
Cute and Psycho: Gives this vibe off at times, especially when she thinks she's being criticized.
Deadpan Snarker: She can be this at times, though those are a bit more rare.
Demoted to Extra: Lampshaded in "Saber Wars", where Nero asks Casko if she's going to "just play a minor role again, like in London". Tamamo apologizes, claims she was concerned about Mo-san and didn't want to take the lead role from her, and says she has her own main story anyway and she'll stay behind the scenes until her time comes again.
Elemental Powers: Her attacks are her elemental spells from Fate/EXTRA, Fiery Heaven, Frigid Heaven, and Chaos Heaven.
Fighter, Mage, Thief: The Mage among the trio of yokai beauties she forms with her friends Kiyohime and Osakabehime, as she specializes in support skills and (mostly) attacking from a distance.
Genki Girl: She's the most hyperactive of the Caster class Servants in-game, and one of the biggest in the entire franchise.
Ghost Memory: In her Valentine conversation, Tamamo reveals that her memories of Hakuno are like this, she says that she shouldn't have any knowledge of their existence, and feels that it was from some future self she can't account for.
Gratuitous English: Hit her with a Noble Phantasm and her response is "S-STOP, STOP, PLEASE!!" in Engrish.
Hypocritical Humor: In "Saber Wars", Kintoki practically begs her not to invite Shuten-douji to the event. She tells him that she has no intention of calling her because nobody wants to see the two of them being an awkward couple. That one bears repeating. Tamamo is criticizing another couple for their affection towards each other.
I Am Who?: During her life as a mortal, she was unaware of her identity as a fox spirit until one day she woke up with fox ears.
Implausible Deniability: She will constantly deny any connections to Daji. It doesn’t matter if others recognize her as Daji, other members of the Tamamo Nine use abilities connected to Daji, or even one of them flat out saying that Tamamo is Daji. According to Tamamo, she’s definitely not Daji and anyone who says othrwise is lying.
Implied Death Threat: In contrast to how friendly she was in the Shimosa chapter set in 1639 A.D., the still-living Tamamo the Protagonist meets in the Heian era gets uncomfortably close to them and politely suggests that it would be in their best interest to keep their mouth shut about her true nature once she senses that they can see her tails somehow.
Impossibly-Low Neckline: For all of her outfits.
Improbable Weapon User: She wields a Magic Mirror in melee.
Info Drop: She namedrops all the time. Many Servants are foreshadowed in her random dialogue. Kiyohime was mentioned way back in Fate/EXTRA as well as Osakabe-hime. Benienma was mentioned in Fate/Extella. The last entity that she commonly refers to but hasn't shown up yet is Ame no Uzume.
Kick Chick: In her second animation update, one of her Arts cards has her doing this, complete with "ATATATATATA!" Kiai.
Little Bit Beastly: She has fox ears and a tail which is actually pretty in-line with how kitsune are usually depicted.
Loophole Abuse: In Nezha's Interlude, she agrees to a "one-on-one" fight with Nezha... and then summons her other two aspects (Tamamo Cat and Tamamo Lancer/Shark), noting that since they're both "her" it totally counts as "one".
Magic Mirror: She tends to smack people with the copies of her NP mirror or toss them with telekinesis. The true ability of the mirror is to resurrect the dead, but she can't use that much of its power and instead uses it to improve casting ability.
The Medic: In essence, her major function is this, especially considering her Noble Phantasm is centered on providing HP heal and NP gauge refills—with just enough durability and Arts cards to allow her to sustain this for a long period of time. In addition, her Fox's Wedding skill (after doing an Interlude) is also a heal.
Ms. Fanservice: One of the biggest in the series, and definitely so for the Casters.
Not Quite the Right Thing: In her backstory, she became intrigued with humans since she isn't quite one herself and decided to try living among them and serving them. However humans don't want that from the gods. Despite probably being harmless, she was hunted down when her identity was uncovered and despite asking to simply be allowed to leave in peace armies kept pursuing her, which she destroyed before finally falling in battle.
Only Sane Man: She pegs herself to be one during "Prosperous Threshold City: Babylon" Singularity in Arcade. Since she has elements that exist outside of Tiamat's jurisdiction, she is not compelled to listen to her like she was her "mother", and thus can act as the group's voice of reason.
Overly Long Name: Her Noble Phantasm's name is Suiten Nikkou Amaterasu Yano-shizu Ichi, which translates into Eightfold Blessing of Amaterasu Under the Sunlit Heavens.
Pet the Dog: She, of all people, has a surprisingly kind moment towards Elisabeth. In My Room, she will comment on her being lonely and to socialize with her properly. This is especially ironic, considering Extella where she has the same goodwill but has the absolutely wrong way to go about it.
Pieces of God: She's basically an avatar of Amaterasu, who is probably the most important god in Shintoism. The other Tamamos are alter egos or fragments of her in return.
Power Limiter: In her second Interlude, she said that she can ascend to her nine-tailed form, but this form is strongly implied to be a Beast in its own right and would therefore cause more problems than it solves.
Retired Monster: Considerably downplayed compared to the Extra games. A staple of Tamamo's characterization has historically been that she will generally leave you alone if you have not harmed her, but has no compunctions destroying those who provoke her, get in her way, or have something she wants. In the original Extra, she states that she does not really feel guilty over having killed thousands of people (at least not for moral reasons), and it is implied she hasn't so much turned good exactly as realized that she finds her dream of being a perfect wife more enjoyable and that being a monster would get in the way of that (plus her beloved would disapprove, thus making them her Morality Chain). With the introduction of characters who embody Tamamo's dark side more explicitly, this has become more of a background element for the original in FGO, and it may also be indicative of Character Development, with her Spirit Origin remembering parts of previous games.
The Rival: Her rivalry with Suzuka from CCC Foxtail has carried over into the game, as the two still have a heavy dislike of the other. A more humorous rivalry with Nero has cropped up occasionally in the game, as Tamamo is jealous of how much attention Nero has in other Fate works.
Rolling Attack: Her melee stance's Quick attack.
Rose-Haired Sweetie She's energetic, cheerful, flirty and seems to fall in love easily. However, calling her sweet would probably be pushing it, given that she can be seriously unpleasant sometimes.
Say It with Hearts: Ends some of her sentences with hearts when she's in a teasing mood, such as when she slinks off into Mysterious Heroine X's rocket to take a break (and once again take a backseat to other characters). She also shows off her meaner side with a heart in "Saber Wars".
"That is to say — if you act too clever, then I will squish you like an ant♥"
Sexy Backless Outfit: Her outfit leaves her back exposed and, well, quite a bit else too. How she avoids disrobing herself whenever she moves is anyone's guess.
Shoo Out the Clowns: Aside from her 11th-Hour Ranger status, she's mainly around in London to provide some quips and keep the mood high. Thus, she's one of the first ones to get killed off by Solomon at the end of the arc.
Squishy Wizard: She's a Caster, this is par for the course. Though in gameplay, her defense buffs make it harder for enemies to kill her.
Stripperific: Her original costume being a kimono that shows so much skin.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: Golden eyes are very fitting for a facet of a real goddess.
Support Party Member: She's basically Merlin for Arts Servants. Her Arts buff increase more than just raw damage unlike a Buster buff, allowing the party to generate NP faster, allowing NP spam with a good setup. She can also reliably drain enemy NP gauge and her own NP heals the entire party, charges their NP and carries the nearly unique effect of reducing skill cooldown. However, unlike Waver or Merlin, she's significantly less useful without a good Arts-based Servant to support and can't provide the on demand NP party charge that makes the likes of Waver or Skadi so in demand.
Suspiciously Specific Denial: She will adamantly deny any accusations of her being Daji, a huli jing who is not only believed to have been Tamamo but a bunch of other fox spirits who have terrorized East Asia, to the point that it is clear that her being mad isn't due to being annoyed by the comparisons. This is especially when she starts throwing references to stuff related to Daji or while mentioning not being proud of things she did in her youth. And then blown out of the water when Qin Shi Huang in SIN outright identifies Koyanskaya, one of the Tamamo Nine, as Daji... except it turns out that Koyanskaya is neither Daji nor is she part of Tamamo Nine.
Theme Music Powerup: "Caster: Extra Life With Whoever She Wants" — her theme from Fate/EXTRA — plays when she uses Eightfold Blessings of Amaterasu.
Third-Person Person: She does this all the time in battle and My Room dialogue.
"Shall we go to a quest? Tamamo wants to go rampage a bit."
The Three Faces of Eve: She portrays the three kinds of women altogether on herself: Being a Yamato Nadeshiko (The Wife), being flirty towards her Master and her Stripperific appearance (The Seductress), and being playful and innocent toward the true essence of romance (The Child).
Undying Loyalty: As revealed in her first interlude, she respects the protagonist for forming a pact with an Anti-Hero such as her and so she offers her entire heart and soul to him/her.
Unreliable Narrator: The more about Tamamo's true nature is discussed, the harder it is to tell just how honest she has been about her past from her perspective. For example, her backstory claims that she chose to abandon her divinity to be reincarnated so that she could experience the emotions of her worshippers. Beyond everything related to the story of Nine-Tailed Golden Fox that would contradict it, Heian-kyo shows that she has been part of the imperial court since the Kanko era as Fujiwara no Takako, using her magecraft to disguise her fox traits to pass as a regular human.
Weak, but Skilled: Her baseline abilities are pretty crummy but she can actually perform at a surprisingly high level through clever applications of her abilities. As she grows more tails she loses the 'weak' part.
Willfully Weak: It's heavily implied that in her nine-tailed state she would manifest as a Beast level disaster. This is why she's unwilling to possess more than three tails. While they contain her power and thus having more would make her stronger, she doesn't think she'd get to stay a cute foxy waifu if she grew any more.
Woman Scorned: She invented a new attack to punish cheaters in CCC known as the "Polygamist Castration Fist", which is her NP as a Lancer.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Downplayed. Tamamo carries herself in this manner and her desire to be a good wife is as genuine as it gets. However, she's obviously faking it. On multiple levels at that since even the Genki Girl persona isn't her true personality.

Thomas Edison

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fgo_caster_edison_1.jpg

(Lion) King of Inventors

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Takuma Terashima

"Servant, Caster. I am Thomas Alva Edison! Don't worry about my looks! This is the symbol of America!"

A scientist/inventor with considerable renown, but his power as a Servant is somewhat inferior to others because of his recentness. To compensate for this weakness, all presidents of the United States of America throughout history granted him a Mystic Code that would reinforce the concept of “Edison.” Despite the lion’s head, Edison’s intellect is completely undiminished.

He is both antagonist and ally in the American chapter, as well as a major ally in "All the Statesmen" and Helena's teammate in "Dead Heat Summer Race/Death Jail Summer Escape" alongside his rival, Tesla. He also plays a minor role in "Chaldea Heat Odyssey" and is the familiar of Helena in the Prisma Illya crossover event.

Abled in the Adaptation: Besides the obvious enhancements, Edison as a Servant has perfect hearing whereas his real-life counterpart spent most of his existence half-deaf.
Adaptational Nice Guy: While still comparatively proud and self-important, Edison is much more good-humoured and social than the infamously contentious and reclusive "Old Man" of human history.
Affectionate Parody: His Interlude parodies Noble Phantasm Strengthening Quests, and is purely about Edison trying to enhance World Faith Domination in various ways. It ends with him technically unsuccessful, as he instead unlocks his third Skill, Concept Improvement, which overcharges Noble Phantasms rather than flatly improving damage or adding additional effects as Noble Phantasm Strengthening Quests tend to do. However, Edison himself would receive an actual Strengthening Quest years later.
Anti-Magic: His Noble Phantasm W.F.D: World Faith Domination's main power. Representing the audiovisual media's massive impact in bringing the truths of the world to the people, its light cancels the Mystery that gives Servants most of their power. In gameplay, it does relatively low damage but locks all skills and Noble Phantasms for a while and further decreases their critical chance and attack for three turns.
Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: His entire shtick. Though, to be fair, this generally is the case, as his specialty is to take a preexisting concept and improve upon it.
Bad Boss: A rather interesting variant. Sure, you might not want to work 36 hours (somehow) a day, but Edison will be toiling right next to you as a fellow agent of industry.
Badass Armfold: When he enters battles and approaches opponents.
Balance Buff:
- His NP was given a buff in a Rank Up Quest that allows him to inflict an Attack Debuff that scales with Overcharge.
- A Rank Up Quest upgrades his Morph into "Wizard of Menlo Park", which makes it a targetable buff that also reduces cooldown. This makes him very good at working with allies better, as he can now directly help allies use abilities more, alongside being able to buff an ally to be more durable.
- The Battle for New York 2022 event gave him a Rank Up quest alongside Tesla, which upgraded "Mass Production A" into "Mass Production A+" which not only shorted the cooldown by two turns but also charges the party's NP as well as buff NP Damage for five turns.
Berserk Button: He is very certain about the power of direct current, and tends to throw a fit whenever something uses alternating current. When Altera, acting as Davy Crockett, called DC "bad civilization" while calling AC "good civilization", he threatened to impale her onto the Edison's Tower to be used as decoration.
Big Damn Heroes: After Helena rekindles his fighting spirit in America, he throws himself in front of a Demon Pillar to save Elisabeth's life.
Big "NO!": Lets one out during the first summer event when he finds out that the boar piglet's civilization that he helped advance was destroyed by demon boars in his 100-year absence.
Call-Back: Like Karna (who he works alongside in the Fifth Singularity), Edison wears a skintight outfit as well as a similar (if less flashy) codpiece.
Captain Patriotic: Wears a spandex suit themed after the Red White'n'Blue, and his final ascension art has him doing a Pietà Plagiarism with the American flag. In-story, it turns out that he is empowered by a fake Grail-like construct powered by the patriotic spirit of every president of the USA. Unfortunately, while this does make him more powerful than ever, the sheer Patriotic Fervor messes with his mind and makes him willing to even let the world die for a chance to make America great again.
Chest Blaster: Fires a rainbow beam from a cannon on his chest for one of his attacks.
Comically Missing the Point: He's surprised at how young Helena is if you have her, when she remarks that Edison should be surprised at how different he looks. Edison notes that his beard has grown out quite a bit.
Creative Sterility: Downplayed. As opposed to Tesla's creative genius, Edison is much better at putting his own spin on preexisting things. Hence his Concept Improvement and Mass Production skills as opposed to Tesla's Natural Genius. Most of his creations appear to be taking previous designs, modifying them to suit his needs, covering them in stars and stripes and calling it a day. For example, his Mooks are Babbage's robots with a paint job, their previous weapons replaced with gatling guns and turned into armor for his soldiers.
Crippling Overspecialization: At first. Mechanically, his most powerful and unique niche was his Concept Improvement skill — no other Servant had anything close to empowering Noble Phantasm Overcharge for two years since his debut ^note. The rest of his kit suffered for this in practicality: Mass Production is a sidegrade to typical Star Generating skills and leads to comparisons with other Servants like the readily-available Hans Christian Andersen or Edison's friend Helena (Edison generates more Stars while it's active, but its downtime is much longer). His Morph let him survive longer to maybe recast Mass Production after ten long turns. His own NP can delay a turn with NP and Skill Seal, but the enemy is still left to whale away at your party with normal attacks unlike more common Stuns and Charms, and much of his NP generation is once again tied to Mass Production. With his Balance Buffs in place, he's no longer cripplingly overspecialized, finding a place as a stalling Servant without needing a teammate with a good Overcharge-scaling NP.
Despair Event Horizon:
- He nearly hits it in America as he and the Servants of the Northern Army find themselves being overwhelmed by the 28 Demon Pillars of Medb despite their best efforts, blaming the events on his own weakness and failures during the arc. It takes a pep talk from Helena to get him back into the fighting spirit.
- Played for Laughs earlier when Florence Nightingale, while giving him a stern talking to after his boss fight, minces no words in telling him that his selfish desire to prove himself and come out on top is the reason why he lost to Tesla in the War of the Currents. He falls to the ground like a dead man, and Karna and Helena have to make sure he survived. (He apparently barely has a pulse.)
Did You Get a New Haircut?: Does this to himself when Blavatsky points out that he looks completely different from his historical appearance. He thinks it's the beard, it has grown a lot.
Disney Owns This Trope: His patent troll tendencies are Played for Laughs. He's contemplating patenting the cookies he gives you for a Valentine's return gift before Helena shows up to remind him it's her recipe and her decorations.
Double Unlock: You can only summon him from the story gacha after beating America.
Eagleland: Edison is nothing if not very, very 'Murican, even serving as its "Presi-King" in the E Pluribus Unum chapter.
Everything's Better with Rainbows: In addition to the above, he has wings made of rainbows that appear to come out of film reels, symbolizing his achievements in the domain of cinematography.
Gameplay and Story Integration: Edison and his friend Helena Blavatsky are a decent pair of supports to bring together, thematically. They both give passive Star Generation every turn, they both have infamously long cooldowns on their primary Skills, and Edison's Concept Improvement has a fantastic target in Helena, whose suite of Noble Phantasm debuffs are greatly amplified by Overcharge (at base Overcharge, she debuffs DEF, Critical Chance, and Debuff Resist by 10% each, and each of these effects scale linearly up to 50% at max Overcharge). The America Singularity features this pair with Karna, who is a decent third Servant thanks to his third skill boosting critical damage and his first skill further decreasing debuff resistance.
- Direct Current electricity is marginally less lethal than Alternating Current, which is reflected in how Edison's displays of lightning are much less damaging and impressive than Tesla's.
Good Old Fisticuffs: His muscles aren't completely for show, as a couple of his attack animations start off with brawling the foe hand-to-hand. His ATK stat is low enough that it's clear that this isn't quite effective.
Gratuitous English: Especially his motto, INDUSTRY AND DOMINATION!
Hero Antagonist: He opposes the protagonists at certain points, but he and his allies are simply trying to protect America from the threat of Medb and her Celtic army. By the end of the chapter, he is fighting off the Ars Goetia alongside his rival Tesla.
- His status as secondary antagonist comes from the fact that while he's fighting the Celts, he has no intention of fixing the temporal singularity, and in fact wants to usher his own industrial revolution in the United States he governs. When the heroes refuse to go with that plan, he declares them enemies until they finally manage to reason with him.
Heroic Build: Edison is ridiculously muscular for an inventor who spent most of his time tinkering with gadgets.
Inferiority Superiority Complex: Beneath his bombastic exterior is a kind of inner fragility. He confesses to Helena during the America singularity that he worries that his critics are right, and he really is a worthless inventor good for nothing but lawsuits. Part of his rivalry with Tesla involves, essentially, Tesla's resentment that Edison achieved greater financial success in life, despite being, in his mind, a mediocre inventor whose gifts lay in putting his own spin on others' work via making it work better, more efficiently, and/or mass-producing it, than with his own creative genius.
Large Ham: When you're a huge, muscular man who inexplicably has a lion's head, you can't really be anything else.
Leitmotif: "Presi-king's March", an utterly bombastic theme that simply oozes with patriotism.
Light 'em Up: His main specialty, even more than electricity, thanks to his feats involving cinema and the lightbulb. His Noble Phantasm, WFD: World Faith Domination, uses the light shone upon the world by audiovisual progress to destroy mystery.
Mecha-Mooks: He made his own army of American Helter Skelters based off of Charles Babbage designs (renamed "Hard Word Mk II"), but as Archers instead of Sabers. It should be noted they're not actually robots, but re-modified to be battle suits for his soldiers.
Magikarp Power: His Balance Buffs fix most of his problems as a generalist support. Adding an Overcharge-scaling ATK debuff on his Noble Phantasm guarantees a good target for his unique Concept Improvement skill to improve Overcharge power, while his upgraded Morph gives a rare source of targetable cooldown reduction with him later gaining the ability to grant both NP Charge and NP Damage (which is almost always useful). While at launch he had difficulty being used at all, when upgraded he is a hybrid of high DEF stacking, frequent cooldown reduction (at only 5 turn cooldown), and Star/NP Generation.
Miles Gloriosus: He's not as much of a genius as he likes to pretend. Hilariously enough, his Class Skills' (Item Construction and Territory Creation) ranks are written as EX but are actually D, while his profile hints that his EX-rank Endurance and Mana are also really just D-rank in practice.
Muscles Are Meaningless: His Heroic Build belies the fact that both his Strength and Agility are rank E. In contrast, his rival and fellow scientist, Nikola Tesla, is both physically stronger and faster than him even without the backing of the various American presidents. Edison has EX-rank endurance, but he explains that it only refers to his ability to stay up for days on end to complete an invention. Physically, he's about as durable as most other Casters with average raw HP and a single defensive skill at first.
"No. Just… No" Reaction: Has this in "All The Statesmen!" upon hearing what the Nameless Master planned to do in the singularity.
Non-Human Head: For some reason, he has a lion head. It could be a reference to MGM's famous lion. Oddly enough, this trait does not actually give him any animal Traits in gameplay.
The Nose Knows: During the first Summer event, he realizes the 'Altria' confronting them at the climax isn't the real deal because he can pick up the scent of oil and rust, and figures out that 'she' is actually a mechanical construct masquerading as the King of Knights.
One-Winged Angel: He tries to do this in America after he's defeated by the party, declaring he'll transform into "Thomas Mazda Edison" and cast aside his "humanoid gentleman's form," but Karna destroys the superhuman elixir before he can. He complains he could've withstood his heart exploding, so it probably would've been bad.
Popularity Power: He wasn't chosen to protect America by its presidents because he was necessarily strong, intelligent, noble, or heroic, but because he was a man of their country who achieved international historical renown, which would be a phenomenal boon for any Servant.
President Action: Because of interference with history, he's become the President of the United States and has the power to back it up.
Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: His summoning line has him do this as he expresses his patriotism.
"Servant, Caster. I am Thomas Edison! Don’t mind my face! This! Is the symbol! Of America!"
The Rival: To Tesla. Even when trying to save the day from the Ars Goetia in America the two try to turn it into a contest of who can kill more. It verges on Sitcom Arch-Nemesis territory when it's noted that Edison gets along with most geniuses of the time such as Alexander Graham Bell or Babbage... with the lone exception of Tesla.
Rivals Team Up:
- With Tesla in America's climax, as they combine their Noble Phantasms to trap the 28 Demon Pillars summoned by Medb.
- With Tesla again for "Dead Heat Summer Race" as neither inventor wants to ruin Helena's good time with their petty squabbling.
Self-Made Man: One of the most famous in human history. This trait is also why Qin Shi Huang is wary of him, as the emperor views a man rising from such humble beginnings to such a lofty level of fame and affluence as "Confucian".
Shock and Awe: Of course he is, as a "founder" of electricity. In-game, he punches enemies with lightning. He repeatedly notes that it is, of course, direct current, causing Mash to complain that he's still stuck on that.
Super-Scream: One of his attacks is a short-range concussive roar.
Sour Grapes: In his Valentine's scene he claims Americans don't exchange chocolate or else he would have gotten some, and anyway that he doesn't like it and it's fattening. Once you reveal you have some for him he does an about-face and enthuses that it's brain food.
Square Race, Round Class: Non-mage intellectuals and creatives are already lumped into the Caster class simply because no other class fits. Edison is an especially interesting case of this, considering his Noble Phantasm is the ongoing decline in Mystics caused by his recording technologies. He's a Caster that represents the end of magic!
Stone Wall: He does very little damage as a Support Party Member, but he has decent bulk with a stalling Noble Phantasm and a (weak) defensive skill. After his Balance Buffs, he fits this trope much better as his NP has an Overcharge-scaling ATK debuff (10 to 50% at max Overcharge, with 30% being common thanks to Concept Improvement) and he can target his upgraded Morph skill on any ally, including himself, to increase their DEF by 30% and also reduce skill cooldown.
Stranded with Edison: Literally, in the America Singularity. To defend 1783 America from a similarly time-displaced army of Celtic warriors, Edison's Mass Production skill matches the endlessly spawning magical Celtic warriors with his own army of mechanized troops (literally robots with machine guns and rockets) that fight side-by-side with Americans otherwise using contemporary muskets.
Super-Empowering: His Concept Improvement skill boosts the effectiveness of a Noble Phantasm's Overcharge effect by 2 tiers for 1 turn while also increasing their critical star generation for a brief period of time.
Support Party Member: Edison has one of the lowest Attack stats among all 4* Servants and his NP doesn't have much damage potential as a result. However, he works amazingly at buffing the power of other Servants' NPs with his Concept Improvement skill, the side effects of his NP outside of damage work wonders for stalling out the enemy, and his decent bulk means he can last long enough to use them multiple times.
Trade Snark: Edison adds ™ to W.F.D. during "All the Statesmen".
True Companions: With Helena Blavatsky. He doesn't quite understand her unique way of looking at the world or her magecraft, but he deeply respects her convictions and even in life, they were friends (Edison famously gifted Helena a phonograph before her most well-documented trip to India). If Helena is in any kind of real distress - be it physical or emotional - he'll drop everything, even his rivalry with Tesla, to help her, which is how he becomes involved in "Dead Heat Summer Race". Helena, for her part, is a good moderating influence on his more grandiose impulses and helps to bring him over to the heroes' side in the America chapter.
The Unfettered: He's less of a determinator and more of a man who will do anything he has to do in order to succeed no matter how difficult or underhanded.
Workaholic: Insanely dedicated to his work even as a Servant to the point where his Master would probably have to keep an eye on him to ensure that he doesn't drop from sleep deprivation or exhaustion, and would have to themselves avoid being worked to the bone themselves.
Worthy Opponent: Of Tesla. The two inventors have considered each other their nemesis for their entire life. If you have Tesla, he immediately decides to drop whatever he was working on to challenge him for the title of the world's King of Inventors.
You Remind Me of X: According to Karna in America, Edison reminds him of his friend Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas (i.e. the nemesis of Arjuna and his brothers, the Pandavas).^note This is a big part of his Undying Loyalty to him.

William Shakespeare

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shakespearnew1.png

The Playwright

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Tetsu Inada

"I am Caster-class Shakespeare, and I have come to see you! So, shall we begin our story?"

A legendary English poet and playwright, and one of the greatest recognised contributors to the English language. He wrote nearly 200 works accredited to his name, most notably his plays which have since been translated and performed in almost every major language in modern human civilisation. Despite his modern-day renown, the private life of William Shakespeare is shrouded in mystery, leading to much historical speculation over details such as his appearance, sexuality, and even how many of his works were actually written by him.

He was first introduced as "Caster of Red" in Fate/Apocrypha, where he prided himself in the self-cast role of "the Servant who does not fight", preferring instead to manipulate events to ensure the greatest possible story. He appears in Grand Order as an ally in the London chapter and briefly in Shinjuku. He is also the main companion character during the first Valentine's event, "Chocolate Lady's Commotion".

Affably Evil: Fittingly of a Brit, he's an absolute gentleman to the core. He's also quite obviously up to no good.
Badass Cape: Gains one in his second ascension.
Black Mage: Of a sort. Apart from the snappy third ascension's black suit, his skills and Noble Phantasm are best utilized in conjunction with hard-hitting Servants that have Buster Noble Phantasms (i.e. most Sabers, Archers, and Berserkers). It's probably appropriate, considering his plays have been replete with the stories of knights and warriors—and his skill-set in Fate/Apocrypha is focused on providing weapons for the Red Faction.
A Day in the Limelight: He appears as the protagonist's companion in the first Valentine's Day event. After all, his literary reputation is equally-built on his romantic sonnets as much as his genre-busting plays.
Diabolus ex Machina: Literally weaponizes this, usually because he's bored and wants something dramatic to happen.
Flat-Earth Atheist: He claims that witches and curses were just made up nonsense people claimed to push their agendas. The fact that he said this with a straight face while in Chaldea and standing right next to Medea is honestly impressive.
The Friend Nobody Likes: As an author he is well respected, but as an actual person the most he gets is disdain due to his over-dramatic behavior and being able to bring tragedy with his writing. Even Andersen, the guy who spends the most amount of time with him, isn't afraid to call his life more dramatic than his plays and even calls him a monster, albeit in the context that "Oberon" is even more of a monster than he is.
Gameplay and Story Integration: The "Red Faction mastermind" team of him, Semiramis, and Amakusa is actually very potent as the three of them are Buster-oriented Servants with very good synergy between them.
Gentleman Wizard: Cultivates the image—which really kicks off with his final ascension outfits as seen above.
Gratuitous English: He quotes some of his works for the appropriate situation written in English.
Historical Villain Upgrade: As he appeared in Apocrypha, he's certainly more unscrupulous than one would imagine the real Shakespeare to have been. In Grand Order, however, he's more operating on Protagonist-Centered Morality: since he knows that you are the protagonist, he will stick with you to witness a great story and be on the winning side.
It Amused Me: To Shakespeare, a story without conflict is a boring story. And since he considers life itself to be a story, sometimes he'll write a Diabolus ex Machina in should he feel that things been have wrapped up too neatly.
Shakespeare: "Master, I do write stories with happy endings from time to time, but... a fairytale world like this sure makes me want to write a bad ending."
Protagonist: "Stop it."
Shakespeare: "Ah, Master, it's dangerous. I really want to write that ending now! Hey, right hand, settle down!"
Large Ham: All. The. Time.
Lemony Narrator: Takes this role with great relish during the first Valentine's Event.
Lethal Joke Character: Shakespeare has abysmal stats and zero combat abilities, but clever use of his skills and Noble Phantasms means he can effectively save scum his way to victory. In-game, he is a very effective support in a Buster-oriented team.
Man of Wealth and Taste: Has one of the sassiest looks of any Servant in the entire franchise: look at how his outfit becomes more opulent after each ascension. After all, he is the playwright who went toe-to-toe with his more educated contemporaries, managed to accumulate enough wealth to even buy a noble title, and enjoyed the patronage of two English monarchs: Elizabeth I and James VI & I.
Master of Disguise: Shakespeare's scrapped Noble Phantasm enabled him to assume the appearance of another individual and interact with people who know said individual without arousing suspicion.
Mook Maker: In Shinjuku, he's forced to make monsters for the Phantasmal Alliance, both of which are distorted versions of his creations. There's Romeo and Juliet, fused together into one giant ghost and a Spriggan King Lear accompanied by a jester doll.
Non-Action Guy: Noted as having no actual combat capabilities.
Not Helping Your Case: He doesn't do a great job defending himself during the Valentine's Day fiasco.
Protagonist: "Are you really NOT the mastermind?"
Shakespeare: "...Of course not! I have nothing to hide, Master. So please stop questioning me like that just because I put a "..." in front of my answer. For I am super innocent."
Not Me This Time: The protagonist can accuse him of being the mastermind behind the Valentine's event multiple times, mostly because he seems to be enjoying the chaos a little too much and because he's the kind of person to orchestrate such an event just to see the story that would unfold. Shakespeare denies any involvement, claiming that if he was responsible for the event, then there would be a lot more tragedy involved.
Omniscient Morality License: All the world's a stage to him, and he'll lie, cheat, and manipulate his way to create magnificent stories. Although not as necessarily vicious as the Casters in Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night, the sheer scale that Shakespeare operates on and his lack of empathy for the "characters" in his tales makes him in many ways just as horrific as they were. This is why during his interlude, he decides to create a village of monsters and have them attack you to see if you're fit to be the protagonist.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Pretty much invoked by his final ascension artwork, even if he is, strictly speaking, not operating on the good-evil scale. Lampshaded in the first Valentine's event, as while denying that he had anything to with the Servants made of chocolate, the player has the option to say they "know what his final ascension looks like."
Red Baron: The Playwright.
Required Secondary Powers: As he himself states in Semiramis's Interlude, in order to use First Folio to its fullest potential he must immerse himself in the culture and civilization of his target to accurately recreate the past, and more importantly he needs to have an understanding of his target themselves for it to stick. As such, he admits he would prefer to have several days to research his target and relevant information so he can make it as accurate as possible (and for Semiramis's request specifically, he requires two or three hours to set it up).
Rewriting Reality: Shakespeare has a limited form of this via his Noble Phantasm, First Folio: When the Curtain Rises, the Applause Shall Be As Ten Thousand Thunders, allows Shakespeare to "tell a story", and recreate people, events or places from a person's life. The purpose of this is to break the enemy's mind by showing them their faults and flaws.
Sharp-Dressed Man: And it gets sharper (and poofier) with each stage.
Shoo Out the Clowns: He provides a bit of levity during London with his antics in conjecture with Andersen and thus is one of the ones who Solomon kills off at the end of the arc.
Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: He and Oberon have this relationship due to the latter's Rage Against the Author; In Oberon's My Room line towards Shakespeare, he wrote a "heartful letter" to the man who made him famous but warns the Protagonist as he asks them to send it to "that shit stain" that he laced the wax seal with poison. In turn, during the Queen of Sheba's 2nd Interlude, Shakespeare faked his IOU towards Oberon for the kicks and used a The Merchant of Venice reference to allow her to take Oberon's flesh, clothes, hair and wings as debt payment, with Oberon cursing Shylock's name as he gets the reference.
Strange Minds Think Alike: He gets along well with Andersen when the two start talking about things that interest them. From the book burnings in Londinium (Shakespeare viewing is as sacrilegious and thus exciting), to both not having to worry about deadlines in the Solomon event should the Demon Pillars win. In Shinjuku, he and Andersen team up to write a scenario, creating 200 Phantom detectives to empower the protagonist against Moriarty.
Support Party Member: He's been dubbed the "budget Merlin" by fans—they both have a 20% NP charge, a crit star booster, and a Buster buff, and he even shares Merlin's survival skill and heal (though both are limited to him). That said, he can do a little more than just be a knockoff Merlin; First Folio gives him (albeit unimpressive) wave-clearing potential, his Buster buff hits the whole party, and instead of a flat number of crit stars, King's Men boosts an ally's star generation by up to double.
Took a Level in Kindness: He starts out as the same sociopathic storyteller he was in Fate/Apocrypha. As you bond with him, he stops salivating over the catastrophic tragedy that will befall you because of the monstrous odds you face and starts genuinely hoping that you will defy those obstacles and create a happy ending for yourself and those you love.
Wicked Cultured: The trope you get when one combines excellent storytelling with gleeful amorality.
Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: But of course. It's Shakespeare.
Zerg Rush: In-game, his Noble Phantasm, First Folio, appears as such, rushing your enemies with an army of shadows and inflicting damage on all of them.^note Interestingly, this is almost exactly how the climax of his Villain Protagonist-centric play Richard III ends.^note

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mozartnew1.png

The God of Music

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{Festive Outfit}

^{Formal Outfit}

^{Traveling Outfit}

^{Heroic Spirit Tour}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (Japanese), Billy Kametz (English, anime)

"I am Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart! Leave battles aside, I promise only to decorate your life!"

A musical prodigy whose abnormal sense of pitch let him leave a treasury of timeless compositions. Admired even in the world of magic, there are legends of him having involvement with a certain secret society. As a Heroic Spirit, he not only uses music magecraft derived from Orpheus, but also has deep connections with the magecraft of Solomon just like in legends.

He appears as an ally in the First Singularity: Hundred Years' War of the Evil Dragons Orleans. He also makes a brief but noticeable appearance in Lostbelt No. 1: Permafrost Empire, Anastasia.

Anti Anti Christ:
- He was supposed to be the vessel of one of the Demon Pillars, but it didn't come to be because he 'sold his soul to music' before his lineage could catch up on him. This is what leads to his Star attribute, since his eccentricities fought off the influence of a Beast, essentially.
- His Arcade version, however, never met Marie and succumbed; becoming Amdusias.
The Anti-Nihilist: His general opinion on humanity is basically, "Humans are ugly, but they're still lovable anyway." His stance in that matter prevents him from succumbing to his bloodline's curse that would turn him into the heir of Demon Pillar Amdusias like Lev, as his lack of desire to change the fundamental nature of humanity is in conflict with Goetia's machinations.
Badass Longcoat: Which he wears on his shoulders.
Balance Buff: He received a Rank Up Quest for the 6th Anniversary Servant Rank Up Quest Part 14 that buffed Artistic Aesthetic B to Angel Melody A, which upgrades it from a one-turn NP Damage debuff for Servants only to a one-turn NP Damage debuff in general alongside reducing the target's Arts Resistance and Critical Hit Chance for three turns.
Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: As noted above, this version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is more than just a composer.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: When he shows up and gets defeated in the "Moon Goddess" Event:
"So yeah. A one-star Servant like me has no chance of winning."
Brown Note: In his Interlude, he creates a "fugue to inspire sudden bowel movements."
Cool Mask: Just look at the damn thing. It is basically the go-to mask for anytime a Servant needs to don a Paper-Thin Disguise (as Kojirou, Amakusa, and Holmes can attest).
Childhood Friend Romance: Averted. Amadeus and Marie Antoinette knew each other as children, but the latter was arranged to marry King Louis XVI. While Amadeus says he still loves her, he has since moved on. In Chaldea he does pursue her, having a rivalry with Sanson to gain her favor.
Childhood Marriage Promise: Averted. Amadeus proposed to Marie Antoinette when they were children, but because of her station, it wasn't meant to be. Oh, and in case you were wondering—yes, that actually is historically accurate!
Critical Hit Class: Not him specifically, but his third skill drops up to fifty Critical Stars at max level (for reference, fifty C. Stars is when every single card in the deck will land a Critical Hit), letting him turn anyone into this.
Crutch Character: He won't last that long in most player's parties due to his 1* rarity limiting his stats, but his deck and Skills help new players learn how to manage their NP Gain while mitigating the damage enemies do when their own gauges are full. Funnily, he also tends to fill this role in more advanced team compositions that do make use of him; his ability to generate a massive amount of crit stars and boost up everyone's Arts cards for a turn makes him very powerful in Arts or Critical Hit teams (drop them both on the first turn and you're practically guaranteed multiple Critical Hits and at least one full NP bar at the start of the second), but after that turn where he's dropped his two skills, he's basically useless.
Dark Is Not Evil: With his pale skin, long fingernails, puckish misanthropy, foreboding wardrobe, and the fact that his Noble Phantasm summons a band of decapitated angel musicians, Amadeus is a very sinister figure who is nonetheless on your side, if reluctantly so.
Fingore: In the first Lostbelt, he appears in a flashback after having wasted away from using his Noble Phantasm for two months straight to keep Ivan the Terrible asleep. He is apparently horrifically ghastly in appearance, like a marionette with the strings cut, but Amadeus is only given a silhouette. The main indication of his decaying state is how mangled his fingers are, as they're skeletal, twisted, and gnarled.
Foreshadowing: His profile mentions that his magecraft has connections to Solomon which comes up during the final battle as it's revealed that his bloodline was one of the chosen 72 magi families to be hosts for the Demon Pillars.
Friendly Rivalry: Amadeus sees Salieri as a friend and even calls him brother in the first Lostbelt even if he does consider his own music as superior. Sadly this is one-sided due to Salieri's spirit origin being twisted.
Gratuitous Italian: His attacks are often accompanied by musical terms such as "Fortissimo" and "Crescendo".
Guest-Star Party Member: During the Orleans chapter.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: While he has no wish on the Grail per se, he does hope that Marie Antoinette, whose radiance left a deep impression on him when they were children, would live out each day in happiness.
Insufferable Genius: Amadeus knows he's a genius musician and isn't afraid to point it out. Despite his respectful attitude to Salieri in the first Lostbelt, he can't help but stroke his ego by saying regular people can't notice the many minute differences between their music.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even though he may seem like a cynical and morbid person, it's safe to say that there are worse people out there than Amadeus. He takes Mash under his wing and imparts some pretty insightful life advice to her, holds Marie Antoinette — who is basically a saint — in high regard and willingly aids the main cast even without the latter's insistence. He's even officially listed as neutral good. If that doesn't say anything, then nothing will.
The Load: His attempt to help Marie, Sanson, and d'Eon defend the dumplings in the "Moon Goddess" event leads him hurting more than helping. Apparently, Amadeus's mask bounced off, hit Sanson on the back of the head, and knocked him out.
Lovable Sex Maniac: Obsessed with women and dirty jokes^note which Marie often scolded him about.
Magic Music:
- Apparently the source of his designation as Caster. He was a member of the Masonic Order, and used Magecraft derived from Orpheus and Solomon.
- He has the Protection of the Music God (False) skill. As in, his music is capable of feats that would require direct, explicit blessing from the Muses. Without it, because he's just that good.
Magic Wand: Or rather a conductor's baton.
Mask Power: Anyone wearing his mask experiences a significant boost in confidence due to how it looks and how it (in their minds) enhances their mystique.
Memetic Loser: In-universe example, with even his profile stating that "as a human, he can unfortunately only be described as garbage", and Marie berating him about his awful and dirty sense of humor whenever she's in earshot. You can more or less write this entirely up to details about his private life, which involved lots of drinking and whoring, playing with children's toys and wooden horses into his late 20's and banging his cousin for most of his adult life (and possibly his teenage years as well).
Marie: "You and your one-dimensional passion for musical scales! If you love sheet music so much, wouldn't you be better off as a music note?!"
Middle Name Basis: For some strange reason, he's generally referred to by his middle name "Amadeus", including by himself. This is especially odd, considering that he's far more commonly known by his last name "Mozart", and other characters such as Andersen, Shakespeare, Tesla, Edison or Sanson are always referred to by their last names. This is to hint that he was a candidate for the Demon Pillar Amdusias.
Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack: His Noble Phantasm, Requiem for Death, has a chance to decrease the enemies' attack and give them the curse aliment.
Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: When Salieri met Amadeus in the first Lostbelt, Amadeus offers his life to Salieri because Amadeus was essentially decaying from nonstop use of his Noble Phantasm and in the hopes of soothing his friend's rage.
Screw Destiny: He was once a candidate for the Demon Pillar Amdusias. He believes either his attachment to Marie or selling his soul to musical arts is what saved him from such a fate.
Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Turas Realta shows him summoning a violin and piano with his magecraft, which would make this a case of spontaneous instrument creation, though they may as well be weapons in his hands.
Summon Backup Dancers: Summon Backup Orchestra seems to be the case from his stage two card onward. Also happens when he uses his Noble Phantasm, Requiem of Death: A Funeral March For the Death God. The Turas Realta manga indicates that they're capable of fighting on Mozarts behalf as familiars of some kind, but they never show off what they're capable of before Sanson destroys them.
Support Party Member: His kit is designed around buffing the Arts performance of his allies and handing them critical stars while debuffing his foes with his Noble Phantasm. Like Shakespeare and Hans, he tends to be seen as a "budget" version of fellow Arts-focused Caster Tamamo. To an extent, his Requiem for Death Noble Phantasm is a budget version of Waver/Zhuge Liang's own Noble Phantasm (and even easier to upgrade)—although you will probably need to use Palingenesis on him to strengthen him enough.

Wu Zetian (Summer)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/poyvta8ap8i91.png

Heavenly Empress Blessed by Tao Arts

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Shiori Izawa

"Kuhuhuhuhu! Say welcome to Your Majesty, donning a swim-suit over her perfect bomb-shell body! It seems the definition of my heyday was changed... Now that I remembered my Tao Arts, the souls of the dead are not worth fear... Not that I dreaded them before."

The elegant, hard-working and sole Empress of China has finally decided to grace the beach scene with her grown-up figure! Possessing a Spirit Origin under the Caster class, she now utilizes Tao Arts that are fine-tuned by the usage of her Imperial Privilege. More specifically, she has turned her Torturers into jiang shi, the stiff-bodied undead who will serve whomever places a paper talisman onto their forehead.

Wait, undead? But isn't Wu Zetian deadly afraid of ghosts? Has she finally overcome her fear of the souls of those who were wronged by her? What exactly is going on with her?

Achievements in Ignorance: Her entire Spirit Origin is shaped by the idea that "If she can become a Caster, she can use her Imperial Privilege to modify her Tao Arts to control the dead". The problem that Wu had is that she had already tried to use Tao Arts to repel ghosts with no success, making her unable to transform into a Summer Spirit Origin. When Scáthach-Skadi sealed off her memories of how her Tao Arts are useless, she was able to transform into this new Spirit Origin as now she has a way to ward off spirits.
Badass Cape: Wears one with a fur lined collar for her Third Ascension.
Chinese Vampire: Summons several of these in her attacks and Noble Phantasm animations. Her outfit in her Second Ascension is also based on a Hotter and Sexier version of the Jiangshi's traditional attire.
Gameplay and Story Integration: Due to her strong belief that she has shed her fears of ghosts, she has Ambition for Imperial Ascension EX as a passive skill which grants her Mental Debuff Immunity.
Gratuitous English: Calls herself "Gorgeous and Dangerous" upon reaching third ascension.
Hot Consort: Was this in life, and her swimsuit version gives a good look on how she looked like it with her more mature figure and sexy swimsuit.
It's All My Fault: The reason for that in life that her Tao Arts were unable to work to repel the dead is because she subconsciously believed that her dead victims were in their right to haunt and curse her for what she had done to them. It took Scáthach-Skadi to seal her memories to let Wu Zetian to be able to use the Tao Arts she learned and then modified with her Imperial Privilege skill.
I Know Mortal Kombat: While Wu did try to use Tao Arts when she was alive, the ones she uses as a Caster are more like what'd you see in a Jiangshi movie than the actual article, all thanks to her Imperial Privilege.
Long Hair Is Feminine: Her First and Third Ascensions has her with long hair.
Necromancer: While she can use Tao Arts to damage undead; she's also using it to give enemies the undead trait and control jiangshi.
Older Alter Ego: Her change in Spirit Origin has made Wu physically older, closer to her age when she was a consort in the imperial harem.
Power Hair: Her Second Ascension has her with short hair.
She's All Grown Up: Compared to her Assassin version yes, having grown to a voluptuous adult.
Technically-Living Zombie: None of her Jiangshi subordinates are actually undead as she can "Jiangshify" anyone she places her paper talismans onto, skipping over the idea that the original purpose of the whole ritual was to transfer dead bodies back home. Her Noble Phantasm can apply the Undead trait to anyone hit by it, meaning that she can convert anyone into being "undead".
Vocal Dissonance: Still has the same childish high-pitched voice of her original Assassin version despite being an adult.
Weapon of X-Slaying: Her kit is focused around anti-undead techniques, with Inauspicious Wu Princess A boosting damage against Undead types, Imperial Tao Arts EX being able to Stun Undead for one turn, and her NP inflicting the Undead trait on all enemies for three turns.
Whip Sword: She wields one and sometimes use it for attacks.

Xuanzang Sanzang

The Monk of Enlightenment

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{Traveling Outfit}

^{Travel Journal}

^{Heroic Spirit Tour}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Mikako Komatsu (Japanese), Reba Buhr (English, anime)

"My name is Xuanzang Sanzang! Through the guidance of the Buddha, I have arrived! Umm, I am a Caster!"

A Buddhist priest from the Tang dynasty. Traveling through the Silk Road in pursuit of the original Buddhist scriptures, she reached India from central Asia and then brought back to China over 367 sutras, becoming the founder of the Faxiang Buddhist sect.

She is known as a key character of the Chinese novel Journey to the West. Under the command of Guanyin, the monk of good looks who rode Bai Long - the son of the West Sea Dragon King transformed into a white horse - had the Monkey King Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing as her disciples and headed for India, without ever losing heart at the countless monsters that obstructed her way.

She first appeared in "Sanzang Coming to the West" and is an ally in the Camelot chapter. She is Raikou's teammate in the second Summer event, "Dead Heat Summer Race/Death Jail Summer Escape".

Adaptational Badass: Despite having the tendency of getting attacked and kidnapped nearly all the time, this incarnation of Sanzang isn't as totally helpless as her original form and could kick ass when needed to be. In fact, she's supposedly at about the same level as the likes of Lancelot. Somehow.
Adaptational Name Change: As with most portrayals of the character in Japanese media, her name is read as "Genjou Sanzou" in Japanese. This also applies to her three disciples.
All Monks Know Kung-Fu: Mixed with All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu. Up there with Geronimo and Babbage as the most melee-inclined of Casters, and her Noble Phantasm is kung-fu, plain and simple. Her physical strength is low, but as a Caster she can use magic to get around that issue. This makes her one of the few Casters that can go head to head with the Knight Class Servants.
Balance Buff:
- Her NP was given a buff via Rank Up Quest that changed her NP from simply damaging the enemy, to now ignoring their defense. This solidifies her position as the high damage dealing single target NP Caster she was designed to be.
- Her Bewitching Rosy Cheeks was buffed via a Strengthening Quest to now provide the party an attack buff that scales up to around twenty percent. While not much, it helps greatly with her utility and helps her and her team out damage wise.
Born Lucky: Boasts an amazing EX-ranked luck. She's always getting into trouble, but some miracle always seems to end up saving her anyway.
Call-Back: She mentions Sun Wukong during the event, noting that "his" gender is unclear. The Sun Wukong who appeared in Koha-ace had the ability to change "his" gender at will.
Cool Horse: Bailong, her white horse which is also her Bond Craft Essence, boosting the party's Buster Card Performance, but with a 10% DEF Debuff demerit. Sanzang rides Bailong during the Ishtar Cup, alongside Raikou Summer and her horse Kyougoku.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: She's something of a cowardly idiot, but is supposedly on par with the Knights of the Round and, despite her listed STR being the basic Caster E, she can literally punch above her weight class by buffing her own physical abilities.
Damsel in Distress: Spent a very large part of her journey getting attacked or kidnapped by all kinds of monsters and evils for being really pretty (even back in the original where she was a man). Where most active skills based around one's looks simply inflict the Charm status, hers is a taunt. A part of her motivation as a Servant is to prove that she can get around without Wukong constantly saving her, ironically, one of her lines when she takes damage is yelling after Wukong.
Deity of Human Origin: Sanzang's second Noble Phantasm not used in gameplay is Prophecy of Future Enlightenment: The Buddha of Sandalwood Merit, which reflects how the literary version ascends to becoming Buddha of Sandalwood Merit at the end of the novel and temporarily allows her to access her state as Buddha. However, it comes at the cost of destroying her Spirit Origin if she does so. She uses it in the film adaptations of Camelot to take out Mordred.
The Ditz: Self-admitted, at that. She herself confesses that she's too trusting and a bit of an airhead, which is why she relies on everyone around her to avoid making mistakes.
Faking Amnesia: In Camelot, she acts like an instance of herself that didn't go through the Journey to the West event. Later, she privately reveals that she does remember the event, but is pretending not to because she doesn't think that the protagonist remembers their adventure.
First-Name Basis: She calls Tawara by his first name "Touta".
Forgotten Superweapon: Without even realizing that she is using them, she has her disciples' weapons in her possessions, something that Roman jokes about as them being so concerned about her that it lurks within her Spirit Origin. While Zhu Bajie's rake and Sha Wujing's monk shovel aren't anything to note about, Sun Wukong's Ruyi Jingu Bang was originally a pillar holding down the ocean's Texture in place before Wukong just picked the pillar up and started using it as a staff. She is using a weapon comparable to Rhongomyniad as a regular beat stick because she doesn't even realize she has it.
Genki Girl: Always in high spirits and full of energy. The one thing she fears is feeling lonely.
Good Counterpart: To Kiara. Both are Bodhisattva, but while Kiara attained this state through everything Buddhism stands against, Sanzang managed to achieve it through traditional selfless Buddhist acts.
Hates Being Alone: Admits as much in Camelot when the party finds and saves her, on the verge of tears no less.
Heroic Sacrifice: Sacrifices her life to destroy the gates of Camelot. Said gates can only be destroyed by the righteous and it took every ounce of her life to completely crush them.
Historical Gender Flip: One of the less surprising gender swaps. Sanzang's been depicted as effeminate or even female in many adaptations. Xuanzang being a female follows a tradition in Chinese opera where the role is performed by a female actor. It's also worth noting that in recent Japanese culture, it's also quite common for Xuanzang to be portrayed by a woman, if not at least be portrayed as an effeminate male, which dates back as early as the 1978 drama Monkey.
Hyperspace Arsenal: Carries around the weapons of the original Journey to the West party (plus her own khakkhara) to fight with. They're all staffs and polearms, so they appear and disappear as needed. She doesn't even realize that she's using them. Apparently they show up when she's fighting because her original disciples were so worried about her safety that it affected her Saint Graph. She carries their worries in the form of her weapons.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: She did question at one point whether her clothing was too revealing, but after her traveling companions reassured her that they were definitely fine, honest, she no longer sees anything wrong with them.
Lovable Coward: She's always fleeing in terror from something, but it's more amusing than anything. Plus, when she's really needed, she does stand up to do the right thing.
Magical Floating Shawl: Has one in her Third and Final Ascensions which shows how close she is in becoming a Buddha.
Martial Pacifist: Due to her religious beliefs she will not willingly inflict lethal damage unless ordered. However, if her Master deems it necessary it seems like she won't mind being ordered to do so. Apart from having a damaging Noble Phantasm, Sanzang's kit of skills isn't very offensive. Two of her skills are supportive in nature, whereas her Rapid Sutra Chanting A does give her a buff in NP Strength for one turn. Her QAAAB deck is more geared towards spamming her Noble Phantasm than doing strong with her face cards.
Megaton Punch: Her Noble Phantasm has her borrowing the power of Buddha to punch her opponent into a far-off mountain after a series of Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, which causes the entire mountain to explode.
Me's a Crowd: As shown in the movie adaptation of the Camelot Singularity, Sanzang has the ability to utilize Wukong's self-duplication technique where she takes small pieces of her hair and turns them into copies of herself.
Muscles Are Meaningless: She has E-ranked Strength and has a fairly slim physique aside from that gigantic rack, yet that won't stop her from hitting things hard with sticks and rakes and throwing rapid-fire slaps at them before throwing them to a mountain.
Multi-Melee Master: Wields Sun Wukong's Ruyi Jingu Bang, Zhu Bajie's nine-pointed rake, and Sha Wujing's monk spade (a shovel/spear hybrid used by monks as both a tool for funeral rites and a self-defense weapon), and isn't half bad at martial arts either.
Nice Girl: She's extremely friendly and cheerful.
No Sense of Direction: She's... not really good when it comes to directions as she keeps getting lost whenever she's trying to go anywhere. This becomes a Running Gag whenever she appears in the story.
Overshadowed by Awesome: A competent martial artist in her own right who nonetheless needed to be frequently rescued by her three companions who were powerful combat-oriented demigods in their past lives.
Prone to Tears: Played for Laughs. She's ultimately as competent as anyone else in handling difficult situations and a constant source of optimism and cheerfulness in dark times, but she's also the most emotionally volatile Servant. If she gets lost or left alone, she almost immediately breaks out into tears and sobbing. Other characters react with annoyance rather than sympathy, especially Touta. During the second Nero Fest, she gets lost in a simulated desert with Touta and whines about wanting to play and not making the festival.
Red Baron: She is generally referred to by her honorific title "Sanzang" (or "Sanzou" in Japan) by other characters and promotional materials. As with the real and legendary Xuanzang, it refers to the Buddhist scriptures ("Tripitaka" in Sanskrit) that she journeyed to the west for.
The Red Mage: Her main niche is damage as she was the first SSR Caster with a damaging Noble Phantasm, which is a Buster and single target at that and can be quickly spammed. A Rank-Up Quest upgrade resulted in her currently being the best offensive Caster. She can tank a little, but she has low HP for a Caster and you need to be careful about when to use the skill. Sanzang's Teachings (party-wide increase to NP generation buff) is genuinely good, but as support goes she has to compete with the likes of Waver or Merlin.
Say My Name:
- Her My Room and battle lines mention Sun Wukong a lot.
  "Aah! Gokuuuuuuuuuu!"
- She also calls Tawara's first name a lot during the Sixth Singularity.
Semi-Divine: She has the Divinity skill not because she has divine heritage - though in a way that's also true - but because she's destined to become a Buddha. This would actually normally disqualify her from being summoned, but the situation in the world being what it is an exception was made. That she will one day become a Buddha is reflected in her second NP in which she partially attains this state and becomes nearly invulnerable while healing all allies around her, but afterwards effectively 'dies.' Presumably because of how impressive this is the NP is ranked EX despite the effects sounding rather underwhelming at best and contradictory at worst.
Shoo Out the Clowns: She's much too light-hearted for the serious tone of the Camelot Singularity, so when the group enters the end game of said Singularity, she's the first of the assault group to perish, though it was ultimately a Heroic Sacrifice to break open the way into Camelot. This is changed in the film as her demoted role means she displays less comedic traits and Ozymandias takes out the gate so Sanzang sacrifices herself for a Mutual Kill with Mordred after Serenity has already been killed by Tristan.
Straight Man:
- During the Ishtar Cup, Sanzang actually has to play this role to the crazy Raikou.
- Similarly, Bailong is this to Kyougoku. Unlike the perverted Kyougoku, Bailong finds the latter's lust for its rider quite disturbing.
Stripperiffic: She wears very revealing clothing because it was hot on her journey to India. She did think it was a bit too flashy but then for totally innocent reasons, her three disciples encouraged her to keep wearing it.
Telescoping Staff: While not that noticeable in the game, the Camelot movie does show that her khakkhara's Ruyi Jingu Bang form does retain the original's sizeshifting properties, allowing her to extend it really far and also make it much thicker.
Tsundere: Apparently a bit towards Sun Wukong. Sanzang's dialogue, especially her Bond Level 4 line, makes it clear she misses Wukong and wants to see him again, but she's also quick to deny it the moment the Protagonist overhears her asks them to forget what she said. She also wants to prove being able to take care of herself without him, but is also quick to cry out for Wukong whenever she takes damage from a noble phantasm or gets taken out.

Yui Shousetsu

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yuishousestsu1.jpg

The Selfless Liberator

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

Voiced by: Mutsumi Tamura

"I am Yui Shousetsu, someone aspiring to be the most upstanding... or I should simply say that I am a Caster now. A pleasure to meet you."

A military scholar and a member of the Three Great Ronin. Shousetsu grew from humble beginnings as a mere youth taught by ronin and his talent blossomed. When he came of age he found work at a samurai academy where they taught the ways of not only the warrior but also discussion in politics and greater disciplines, here Shousetsu made many comrades. While at first they were only samurais, ronin soon gathered as the Shogunate's laws made it harder for them to live as many of them were expelled from their lands.

Shousetsu would later open his own academy in Edo, here he would meet Marubashi Chuya. The two would plan a coup along with a number of their students to strike down against the Shogunate's injustice. However, these plans fell through, as they were discovered and Shousetsu was forced to commit seppuku.

Yet the truth is a little more complex. As Yui Shousetsu was not a man but a woman and a homunculus, born from the Einzbern techniques by Mori Soiken. When he left she was left to ponder her existence and seeing the harshness of the world she became determined to right it. She first appeared in Fate/Samurai Remnant as the Master of Rider and makes her debut in the collaboration event.

Ambiguous Gender: Shousetsu is very androgynous and in her home series her gender was listed as unknown before revealed. Many of the citizens of Edo presume her as a man which she doesn't correct. Complicating the issue is the fact that Samurai Remnant occurs in a pruned timeline, meaning it's completely possible that Yui was a man in Proper Human History. For its part, Grand Order does away with the ambiguity and presents this Shousetsu as female as soon as she's summoned.
Artificial Human: She's a homunculus created by Mori Souiken using Einzbern techniques. According to her profile it may be more accurate to call her a "pseudo-homunculus" or "homunculus subspecies" since she was implanted in the womb of a woman to be her surrogate mother, similar to Mordred and Morgan.
Badass Bookworm: She's an avid reader and a powerful enough magus to be summoned as a Caster-class Servant. Her dialogue lines have her visiting Chaldea's library and reading up on Proper Human History.
Boss Subtitles: Before certain fights in the Fate/Samurai Remnant collaboration, the two parties will be introduced with nanori like in Samurai Remnant itself. She's introduced as "Yui Shousetsu, the Selfless Liberator" like in her home game.
Difficult, but Awesome: Shousetsu's NP provides several powerful party wide buffs, but comes with an interesting condition: the best buffs are only applied if the target has a pre-existing Quick, Arts, and/or Buster buff (and permanent buffs don't count), with each granting a different effect. Shousetsu herself only supplies an Arts buff, so getting all three requires some tricky planning and potentially some very rare Servants/Craft Essences, but the payoff is a boost in ATK, Crit Damage, and NP Damage all at once, and these buffs stack if Shousetsu NPs multiple times. If you've got the pieces to the puzzle^note, Shousetsu's NP on top of her supportive kit will quickly ramp up the party's damage, aided by her rarity making her cheaper deployment wise.
Hidden Buxom: Her First Ascension reveals that she wasn't as flat as her Samurai Remnant/Second Ascension design implied.
Historical Gender Flip: Discussed. In Proper Human History, Shousetsu was a man and a revolutionary who attempted to overthrow the shogunate. The game's Shousetsu from the Samurai Remnant timeline, a female homunculus created using Einzbern techniques, is intrigued to read about this. But as she reads on, she's disappointed by but accepting of all the ways their lives diverged.
Honor Before Reason: Shousetsu keeps to a staunch code of ethics on the field of battle even when it inconveniences her. She dislikes sneak attacks and prefers to know her opponent's true nature while fighting them on fair terms to prove her superiority. During the events of the Samurai Remnant collab, she refuses to even take candy to eat in the empty Edo and chastises the protagonist when she believes they stole it, only to back down when she learns that they got spending money from Iori and left a receipt.
Humans Are Bastards: Discussed. In her My Room lines, she recalls a student of hers calling her "beyond selfless", so much so that no human being could possibly be as idealistic as her. She agrees with them, as she is not human but an alchemical being created using techniques of a foreign land. She declares that it's because she's a being created outside of the norms of the world that she can't ignore the wrongs taking place every day.
Innocent Blue Eyes: In contrast to the Einzbern techniques that created her, Shousetsu's first two ascensions have bright blue eyes instead of the Einzbern's trademark red. This reflects her selfless personality to the point of Honor Before Reason. While she's willing to fight and kill for her beliefs, she hates underhanded tactics and wishes to understand her foes and their motivations even if she's dueling them to the death. Li Shuwen calls her desire to right all the wrongs of the world innocent and childish. This same idealism gets her used by Ushi Gozen in her home game.
Irony: Her line for Amakusa has her revere him and hold him in awe as the man her mentor once fought alongside. Unbeknownst to her, he's exactly the type of man she depises as someone who will sink to any depth to achieve his goals.
Magic Knight: More on the Magic side than the Knight side. While she wields a katana and uses it in her Arts attacks, most of her attacks involve using different types of elements to damage her enemies. Her kit reinforces this, as she is primarily a support character.
Me's a Crowd: After becoming a Servant, she acquired a second, passive Noble Phantasm: if given a good enough source of mana, she will start automatically and subconsciously creating copies of herself. It didn't come from her own accomplishments, but from the reason behind her creation: Mori Souiken started dabbling in homunculus creation with the express intent of creating a better, more innocent humanity. When hooked up to the Waxing Moon, the sheer power coming from the device creates a full-blown Tree of Emptiness entirely made of copies of Shousetsu.
Mystical White Hair: She has the iconic white hair of the Einzbern homunculi and is a skilled magus.
Older Than They Look: Over thirty years old according to her profile.
Power Incontinence: Her second Noble Phantasm that generates clones of herself has no off switch. Once she gets plugged into a sufficient source of mana, she'll start spawning copies whether she wants to or not.
Rei Ayanami Expy: A white haired artificial being and The Count created an mindless army of copies of her; and whenever she's killed her Servant self's mind jumps into one of them. Additionally her first ascension is a plugsuit and the original Rei was cloned from a woman named Yui.
Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Funnily enough, most of the routes in Samurai Remnant show Shousetsu dying at the end, but the route that Grand Order uses for the crossover is the only one where she doesn't — yet here she is as a Servant, without the exceptional circumstances other living Servants from other crossovers had, implying Shousetsu met her end offscreen anyway. It's not clear if her homunculus life cycle ran out or if her death was something more abrupt.

Zhang Jue

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/505100a1.png

General of Heaven

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Shigeru Chiba

"Heh heh heh. I'm Caster, Great Teacher, Zhang Jue. Worry not. Now that I'm here, I'll make sure there will be prosperity under Heaven!"

His other name is Zhang Jiao. He lived in the decline of the mighty Han Dynasty as a hermit and taoist with his brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang, when he encountered a wise sage that granted him a book called 'The Way of Peace'. Mastering it in a quick period, Zhang Jue became adept in manners of sorcery and gained a group of followers that eventually grew large enough. Unable to stomach the decadence of Han Dynasty and confident with his powers, Zhang Jue declared that the dynasty has lost its mandate of heaven, and as the "General of Heaven" (his brothers got "General of Earth" and "General of People"), he initiated a revolt that would become better known as the "Yellow Turban Rebellion", after the distinctive yellow headwear his followers wore. While he found early success, the generals of the Han dynasty fought back and the movement fell apart at Zhang Jue's death. His rebellion, however, sparked a notion that he would be correct about the decline of the Han, which eventually led to several events that would shape up the Three Kingdoms era of China, while he ended up naturally being included as the 'first' antagonist in the epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

He debuted in "Parting Memory Manifestation Realms, Traum" as one of Kriemhild's generals.

Ambiguously Evil: With the reveal that he was working as Subject E's Servant, it isn't made clear why he was working to keep the Traum Singularity in check. Subject E is seemingly a Tragic Monster and Zhang Jue is the people's hero, but the Singularity had the chance to threaten the Human Order. Was he working for Subject E due to sympathy, due to being a Servant or is his own vision about the world twisted? With Holmes wondering why he would listen to the Foreign God's orders, it might even be that he had no choice on the matter.
Badass in a Nice Suit: His First Ascension has him rocking a pretty dapper suit.
Creepy Good: His overall appearance makes him look a lot like your typical high-standing Evil Old Folks, but he does strive for a peaceful world even if he needs to resort to unscrupulous means.
Death Is Cheap: The technique he used on himself long before Chaldea arrives to spawn an alternate version will continuously spawn new versions of himself even if they all die as long as the original body remains intact. This allows him to maintain his Master's orders and his agenda as long as possible while shrugging off any possible deaths along the way. Moriarty shattering the original puts an end to this.
Dragon-in-Chief: The tactician who works for Kriemhild turns out to be the Servant of Subject E who is the entire reason why the Traum Singularity exists, with Zhang Jue working for his Master to make the Singularity flourish.
Embarrassing Nickname: He hates the name "Yellow Turban Bandits" in regards to the peasant army as they were simply devouts of the Way of Great Peace. Yellow Turban Army in comparison is simply tolerable.
Fighting a Shadow: As it turns out, the "Zhang Jue" everyone had been interacting with in Traum was an alter ego who wasn't aware that he is an alter ego, with the actual Zhang Jue having locked himself inside Area 51. The thing being that he achieved this by becoming a shijiexian ("corpse-free immortal"), meaning that the real Zhang Jue is left as a lifeless husk. When Moriarty finds him while taking the Protagonist and Kadoc to their destination, he shatters him into pieces.
Large Ham: He might not be as overreacting as his Dynasty Warriors incarnation, but being voiced by Shigeru Chiba allows Zhang Jue to chew quite a big portion of ham with his dramatic voice and yelling alone.
History Repeats: His primary role in the Singularity started with setting up a war between three kingdoms to be fought on behalf of his Master to damage the Human Order similar to how his rebellion instigated the Three Kingdoms Era in China.
Robot Soldier: He is a practitioner of magecraft that allows him to manipulate anything wrapped in yellow cloth, which includes being able to spawn Puppet Soldiers who wield farming tools as weapons. It is explained that the Yellow Turban Army was 300 thousand strong because their numbers were bolstered by said Puppet Soldiers.
Spell My Name With An S: '角' from his name can either be read and pronounced as 'jiǎo' or 'jué'.
Terrain Sculpting: His third skill is based around this idea. When activated, he has a chance of applying all four of the main terrain types in the game (Forest, Water, Burning, and Sunlight). If he successfully has one activate, his NP deals additional effects based on the terrain buff he has, meaning if he gets all four buffs activated, he not only does solid damage, but he applies a multitude of effects.
Touched by Vorlons: His powers came from a scroll given to him by a Xian, who warned him that misusing the scroll would have a price; Zhang Jue didn't listen, and has a result grew sick and died despite having a panacea.
Treacherous Advisor: Subverted in the Traum Singularity. Pretty much everyone in the Revenge Realm thinks he's going to be this to Kriemhild, but upon being confronted about these rumors by another would-be usurper offering to help him, Zhang Jue kills him on the spot while proclaiming his loyalty. Then it's Double Subverted when we learn Zhang Jue was going to betray Kriemhild. He's hiding Siegfried (her only real target) from her to keep her perpetuating the war, and was preparing to usurp her if she found him.
Weather Manipulation: One magecraft the Zhang brothers practiced in was weather sorcery, which allows Zhang Jue to call down anything from storms, lightning, hail or fog.

Zhuge Liang (Lord El-Melloi II/Waver Velvet)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zhuge_1.png

Legendary Tactician of the Three Kingdoms/Professor V

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Daisuke Namikawa (Japanese), Lucien Dodge (English)

"I am Servant Zhuge Liang... What? You are asking if I am the wrong person? Exactly, I am actually El-Melloi the Second. But I did inherit all the powers, so there's no issue there."

Lord El-Melloi II (true name: Waver Velvet) is an eminent professor at the London Mage Association's Clock Tower. He succeeded the late Lord El-Melloi after he was killed during the Fourth Holy Grail War, and brought the Archibald House back from obscurity after losing their clan head. Otherwise not eminent enough to attain ascension to Servant, the extremely peculiar circumstances of this Holy Grail War allowed him to serve as the receptacle of Zhuge Liang, a Chinese statesman and tactician under whose strategies the small state of Shu managed to fend off the vastly superior Wei for a long time.

Strictly speaking, this Servant is neither El-Melloi II nor Zhuge Liang. The powers of both parties have mingled together, so abilities that cannot be found in the original Servant are being displayed. Also, their thoughts and emotions conform with those of the vessel, El-Melloi II.

He's an antagonist in Rome and the main partner in Fate/Accel Zero Order.

Alternate Self: From the perspective of Chaldea he is this. As revealed in the Accel Zero Order event, the events of Fate/Zero (and by extension Lord El-Melloi II Case Files) never happened in the Grand Order timeline. Since the El-Melloi II who players summon did go through those events, this means that from Chaldea's point of view he's from an alternate timeline. In theory there should be a Waver in GO-timeline's London who never met Iskandar or went on to become El-Melloi.
And You Were There: One of Zhuge Liang's Noble Phantasms allows him to chain summon those he had ties to in life. This power also extends to those Waver knew, which became the catalyst of Sima Yi (as Reines), Astraea (as Luvia), and Gray (as herself) manifesting as Servants along with him. It's not clear if they're all from the same timeline or not, but their separate circumstances are close enough that their relationships remain the same.
Art Evolution: The patch for the FGO 1st Anniversary event streamlines his sprite art in the same fashion as Altria Pendragon (making him look more like his appearances in ufotable's Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works]), as well as providing new elemental effects to his attacks.
Ascended Extra: First appearing in Type-Moon character material as one of Nasu's many background characters to flesh out the universe and making his official debut in Fate/Zero as a Master, he later became the star of his own light novel series and his popularity led to him being a playable character in this game, with a major role in the Fate/Accel Zero Order event (also thanks to his absurd support capabilities).
Backwards Aging: In his first two stages, he's the adult Lord El-Melloi II. The latter two are the young adult Waver Velvet. In his third Interlude, he has no idea what happened and blames the Gorgon Sisters. But it turns out that this is the inevitable result of Ascension — if his young self is his pinnacle as a Servant, then that's what he's going to be. He still wants his older form back.
Badass Fingersnap: In his first two ascensions, his buster attack has him audibly snap his fingers and summon a large pillar of fire beneath the enemy's feet.
Badass in a Nice Suit: His most distinguishing physical feature; alongside a Badass Longcoat and Scarf Of Ass Kicking - he's the sharpest-dressed Servant in the game.
- After his Third Ascension, he trades the suit for his old Clock Tower Uniform from the Fourth Holy Grail War, and a Badass Cape (Iskandar's cape, in fact).
Balance Buff: Infamously the one character to get a sweeping upgrade to his entire kit from DW after several complaints. His ATK and DEF buffing skills had a massive value increase, each of them charges NP gauge by 10%, with his targeted critical buff charging by 30%, his NP had a defense debuff, which get further enhanced after an Interlude. Waver immediately went from being largely considered one of the worst SSR (if not the worst) into one of the most valued SSR in the entire game due to his sheer versatility as a multi-purpose Servant who can improve farming capability, reliability of NP charging in hard contents, and amazing buff to defensive and especially offensive capability, a position that held true even long after the release of Tamamo, Merlin and Scáthach-Skadi.
Busman's Vocabulary: When he's in charge of the mission board for Accel Zero, he talks like he's teaching a class.
"Training is over for this term. No supplementary classes. Your results were... Well, your acquisition of credits was satisfactory. Well done."
Composite Character: In-universe, his in-game profiles suggest that this incarnation is, strictly speaking, neither Zhuge Liang nor Lord El-Melloi II, but more an amalgamation of both^note. This convoluted explanation somewhat makes sense, when compared to the canonical justification for Sasaki Kojiro's Composite Character nature. For the most part, though, he tends to be treated as El-Melloi with Zhuge's powers.
Crazy-Prepared: During his interludes he's frank and open about the fact that his actual magical talent is less than his position should suggest, but that he kept up with his peers through extensive research and preparation.
Curtains Match the Window: When you get a good look at his eye color◊, it's the same as his hair (which is black but looks gray). His younger version has more green-tinted hair, so it doesn't exactly match his gray eyes.
A Day in the Limelight: He's your main partner (and oversees the mission board) for Fate/Accel Zero Order.
Defrosting Ice King: You can take his backwards aging Ascension as this, with Waver/Zhuge Liang becoming more comfortable and less suspicious (as befits a master tactician) of you as you go on.
Didn't See That Coming: Despite much of Fate/Accel Zero Order having him showing off his tactical and strategic genius, he gets blindsided quite a few times when things don't quite match up with his foreknowledge: He didn't expect Kariya to suddenly collapse after defeating Gilgamesh, which frees Lancelot to go on a rampage against Altria, was shocked at the realization Irisviel is Altria's true Master and not a decoy, was left flat-footed at the presence of EMIYA (Assassin) showing up, and was completely taken off-guard by Iskandar joining forces with Kariya and Lancelot against Chaldea (and Iskandar bluntly telling him to his face that he doesn't like him).
Dual Boss: Fights alongside Alexander for a few boss battles, first in Rome and then as the challenge quest of "Lady Reines Case Files".
Elemental Powers: His attacks consist of the usage of various elements. He can fire blades of wind, summon columns of fire, call down giant boulders, and in Arcade he can launch shards of ice and send a wave of lightning from the sky across the ground. The only attacks that don't seem to be a form of element are the ones where he shoots a laser beam or several^note and in Arcade where he seems to use a limited form of his Noble Phantasm to summon various red bricks levitated by his Bagua Mirrors around his target before having the bricks close in and crush them while the mirrors collide to create an electrical aftershock.
Endearingly Dorky: Even as a more serious and adult Lord El-Melloi II/Zhuge Liang, he still shows his nerdy side of himself once in a while as evident in his bond conversation lines.
Everyone Has Standards: He's genuinely disgusted by the Demi-Servant experiments that Chaldea conducted in the past and outright tells Roman that he would have had Chaldea shut down if they had continued.
Gameplay and Story Integration: While he works well with just about anyone, one of his best buddies is unsurprisingly Iskandar. Iskandar's main flaws are his lack of survival skills and a reliable battery, both of which Waver alleviates through his skills and NP, and Waver's three-turn crit boost synergizes very well with the pile of stars generated by Lightning Conqueror.
Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: El-Melloi II is a heavy smoker. In Stage 1, he carries a big cigar, while in Stage 2, he chomps on a cigarette—presumably when he's still quite distant from you. Like Robin Hood, he drops this once he ascends further.
Grand Theft Me: Apparently the case. Due to the peculiar circumstances of the Grand Order system, Zhuge Liang is using Lord El-Melloi II as a receptacle for his spirit. Lord El-Melloi II himself lacks the means or history to become a Heroic Spirit, but a Pseudo-Servant is another story.
Height Angst: Waver is not at all happy to return to his teenage height upon his third ascension, especially since everyone (including the protagonist) loves to needle him over it.
Historical Villain Upgrade: Not El-Melloi II, but Zhuge Liang is implied to have gone through this. In his first interlude, El-Melloi II mentions that the famous strategist is actually a lot more sinister than stories about him would have people believe.
Humble Goal: He admits that he has no desire to make a wish upon the Grail in his My Room lines, he would like the chance to study it.
I Hate Past Me: He heavily dislikes his past self and when encountering him during the Fate/Accel Zero Order event, he starts arguing with him and curses several times at how terrible his past self was as a person, ending with him telling young Waver to choke on an eel and egg rice bowl and die. However, this slowly changes as the event goes on, catalyzed in part by Iskandar vocally disapproving of El-Melloi II's actions but not doing the same towards Waver. By the end, when El-Melloi II is blindsided by Lancelot and incapacitated for the rest of the Final Battle, he trusts his younger self enough that he willingly summons Zhuge Liang to possess him, turning Waver into a Pseudo-Servant just like him.
I Have Many Names: He's a Pseudo-Servant fusion between Waver Velvet, who's also known as Lord El-Melloi II, and Zhuge Liang, who's also known as Kongming or Koumei.
Jack of All Trades: Among all the high rarity support Casters in the game (Merlin for Busters, Tamamo and Altria Caster for Arts, and Skadi for Quick), El-Melloi sits comfortably in the middle thanks to not buffing any card types at all but instead giving raw buffs to the party. This makes him very strong as a second support Caster because he can ensure good all around buffs that benefit just as much as buffing one card type, on top of his Noble Phantasm being a good way to help teams survive longer.
Literal Split Personality: He divided his being between the "Lord El-Melloi II" and the "Zhuge Liang" Graphs in order to fake his death during the 'Lady Reines Case Files' Event. Since he is a Pseudo-Servant, he has two individual Saint Graphs that make up a proper Servant. Being a Pseudo-Servant also allows him to leave being a body, as long as certain conditions are met, unlike a Servant who'd just dissipate. So dividing his Saint Graph and leaving a body as proof of his death gives him the perfect opportunity to hide and investigate on his own as "Lord El-Melloi II" without the massive magical presence of Zhuge Liang revealing him to the Event's villain, who only recognizes Zhuge Liang as a threat.
Luminescent Blush: He has the dubious honor of being among the few Servants who develop these when around you (or when you ascend them to their final stages). For reference, this is normally done by the female Servants.
Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack: His Noble Phantasm, Unreturning Formation, reduces the enemies' NP gauge by one, inflict them with a curse aliment, reduces their defense, and has a chance to stun them.
No Doubt the Years Have Changed Me: Waver has drastically changed in appearance since the 4th Grail War to the point that Mash, Romani, and the protagonist are entirely unable to recognize him when he reverts back to 19.
Occidental Otaku: A big fan of Japanese video games and pop culture. In his fourth bond conversation, he asks if there's any hints of a singularity in Akihabara in hopes of finding an excuse to go there.
One Degree of Separation: Waver has gotten around. As a participant in the 4th Grail War, he's previously met all of the Servants present from that event^note and in his capacity as Lord of the Clock Tower, he's met many other Fate characters.^note Of particular note is that he was once Olga Marie's instructor, before being summoned to her project of Chaldea by sheer happenstance. He's also had a run-in with the Ryougi family.
Plot Parallel: His storyline in "Fate/Accel Zero Order" is almost a rerun of Shirou and Archer's interactions in the Unlimited Blade Works route. To wit:
- Young, inexperienced magus (Waver/Shirou) summons a legendary spirit of yore (Iskandar/Altria);
- They become good partners; but
- There's a more personal conflict between the young magus (Waver/Shirou) and his future incarnation (El-Melloi II/Archer); then
- The future incarnation finally enables his past self to use his abilities (Zhuge Liang's possession/the UBW Reality Marble) to defeat the major villain who wants to unleash the Grail (Justeaze/Gilgamesh).
Powers via Possession: Despite being possessed by Zhuge Liang, Lord El-Melloi II's personality is still the dominant one in his body. That isn't preventing him from making good use of Zhuge Liang's abilities. This was consensual according to Waver; they discussed whose personality would be best fitted for Chaldea.
Punny Name: Zhuge Liang appears as a foe in Li Shuwen's Interlude simply because some children mistake his name for "Huge" and him for a martial artist. "ZHuge" Liang indeed.
ZHuge Martial Artist: "I am beginning to suspect the horrid possibility that I was summoned here as a one-off joke."
Red Mage: All in all, this is Waver/Zhuge Liang's actual assignment, due to the following:
- Buffing: His skills, which provide party-wide offense and defense buffs (plus filling up the NP gauges significantly)—which is why most players want him; and
- Damage: his Noble Phantasm, Unreturning Army: Stone Sentinel Maze — which affects all existing enemy units with stun for 1 turn, curses all enemies for 500 damage each turn for 3 turns, reduces all enemies' NP gauge by 20% and reduces their defense for 3 turns. His Interlude upgrades his curse damage to 1000 for 6 turns.
Set Right What Once Went Wrong: "Fate/Accel Zero Order" is a Singularity that is almost exactly like the events in Fate/Zero. He makes it his goal that all the innocent lives being lost will not happen again. He more or less succeeds at a great cost, with Kayneth and Sola-Ui as the most prominent examples, and he notes that even if the Singularity disappears and everything snaps back to how it once went, it'll have still been worth the personal victory.
Sharp-Dressed Man: In particularly his second stage outfit. He makes sure to dress nicely in battle.
Slasher Smile: His expression when Iskandar states that part of his antagonism in the Accel/Zero Order event is based on seeing him as a Worthy Opponent is... rather unhinged-looking.
Smart People Wear Glasses: Only present in his second ascension, which highlights his specialty in strategies.
Split-Personality Takeover: Revealed during Reines' Interlude, Zhuge Liang can take control anytime he wants. He just usually doesn't care. Zhuge also does this to stop Taigong Wang from talking about Chinese magecraft in front of a Lord of the Clock Tower in Taigong Wang's My Room.
Split-Personality Team: Unlike most Pseudo-Servants, Waver and Zhuge choose to retain their separate personalities rather than undergo a Split-Personality Merge. Waver is usually the one at the helm.
Stable Time Loop: His future self fused his past self with Zhuge Liang. Compounding the complication is that the Waver you can summon is both.
The Strategist: As "Fate/Accel Zero Order" shows, even though Lord El-Melloi II's personality is the dominant one, he still has the tactical genius of Zhuge Liang. Exploits include tricking Kayneth into thinking the Holy Grail War is some sort of conspiracy against his family in order to get him to leave, leaving Diarmuid behind for the heroes, challenging Gilgamesh and beating him, knowing that his ego would prevent him from asking Altria or Iskandar for help, and defeating Iskandar and the Ionioi Hetairoi with his own Stone Sentinel Maze.
Super-Empowering: Chu Shi Biao, a Noble Phantasm based on the memoir Zhuge Liang wrote to Liu Shan, allows him to grant a person capabilities they need to the situation at hand. Normally it wouldn't grant any particularly significant powers, but the effect of the Noble Phantasm increases the more dire the situation is. During the events of Lady Reines Case Files, it is this that allowed Reines and Luvia to become Pseudo-Servants and Gray to become an actual Servant.
Support Party Member: He's the original member of the really great SSR Caster supports who set the standards to follow. Unlike Tamamo, Merlin, Skadi, and Altria Caster, his skills are more general in nature with an attack buff, a defense buff and a single target crit power up for his three skills. His NP is valuable both offensively and defensively as it carries both a defense debuff for the enemy as well as decreasing their NP gauge and giving a chance to stun. Perhaps his most valuable trait, however, is that he can give any party member an immediate 50% NP gauge, allowing anyone to use a first turn NP if they wish so long as they carry the right CE or have the right skills.
Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Lord El-Melloi II is quite tall (186 cm/6'1") and regarded attractive enough to be the premier Servant in Da Vinci's ikemen summoning campaign. Euryale is quite shocked to discover this wasn't always the case during his third interlude.
Euryale: "No way! That handsome man used to look like that? How much pain do you have to endure to grow into that?"
Throw the Dog a Bone: Waver desperately wanted to fight in the Holy Grail War with Iskandar again, which was a Tragic Dream in Fate/Zero and Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, but his wish is finally granted in this game.
Trauma Button: El-Melloi admits that he is afraid of Excalibur's light after it nearly killed him and begs his master not to laugh at him.
You Remind Me of X: In his first interlude El-Melloi says that the protagonist reminds him of himself when he was younger.
Your Size May Vary: Despite being "stuck" in his younger form in his final Interlude, he's shown in adult form in all other cutscenes.

Characters / Fate/Grand Order: Casters N to Z

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