Unexpected Character / Fate/Grand Order

• No one expected Zouken to show up in any arc and have a role due to everyone on modern-day Earth dying and the apparent lack of connection to the human characters of past Fate works.
• Edison is the first non-event Servant that wasn't from the original datamined list of Servants not hailing from an event and thus is completely new to players. It doesn't help that his physical appearance was even more unexpected.^note He has a Lion's head, is buff beyond belief, wears blue spandex, and has two massive light bulbs on his shoulders!
• Very few (if there are any) actually considered that Martha would be granted the Ruler class—especially for a lighthearted event like Chaldea Summer.
• Since Tristan had no apparent connection to Fate/Extra or its sequel beyond being tentatively connected to Gawain as a comrade, his inclusion in SE.RA.PH came as a surprise to players.
• Most people expected "the monkey" Hideyoshi himself to appear in another GUDAGUDA event, as he has already appeared in previous comics by keikenchi as a Saber. If it was Hideyoshi's wife making an appearance as a Servant, they thought it would be Nene, the more popular and recognizable one. Instead we got Chacha.
• While a Christmas event Servant was expected, most people were expecting Iskandar (as he's already a bright red, hammy, huge bearded guy on a chariot) or Nero (who actually had a Santa design in Fate/Extra side materials), not Altria Alter who didn't seem like the type of person who would work as Santa.
• After 2015, some folks figured it'd be Jeanne getting the next Santa version, as she's the third leading lady alongside Mash and Altria. An attentive few, especially on re-reading the quest during the rerun of the event in 2016, wondered if it might not be Jeanne Alter and a running joke of Santa Alters being established. Nobody, nobody expected an "Alter Santa Lily" as a Self-Deprecation meta-joke on the concept and proliferation of alternate versions of Fate heroes over the years.
• Not many expected Riyo's joke Servants to make it in-game, which is why Paul Bunyan's inclusion was so damn surprising. Even better, she's the first new bronze Servant since launch!
• Although mentioned in materials under EMIYA's relationships, Sengo Muramasa's inclusion in Shimosa came out of nowhere, especially with his possession of Emiya Shirou's body as a Pseudo-Servant.
• The robot versions of Bathory were a surprise to players, especially her being an Alter Ego and having two different versions. Though they're exactly the same gameplay-wise, their personalities and profiles are different.
• Altera the Sun(ta). It seems to be a tradition for "Santa" Servants to be unexpected. Most players expected another Alter or Saber-face Servant to be the third Santa and then when the event was announced, most speculated that the next Santa would be someone who appeared in Babylonia but didn't get an event bonus (most expected Quetzacoatl or King Hassan). However, when the event rolled out, it turned out the Santa was Altera, someone who was completely unexpected.
• For the New Year's 2018 limited Servant, a lot of people were expecting/hoping for Sengo Muramasa, despite the emphasis that he was a one-time thing in Shimosa. Others anticipated perhaps a Round Table Knight or someone else who might be relevant to part 2 based on what little was known. Absolutely nobody expected Katsushika Hokusai, and especially not as a Foreigner, since she was so hot off the heels of the first Foreigner.
• The Garden of Order -revival- event would give us our second The Garden of Sinners servant after Shiki Ryougi. It could've been another major character for the storyline like Touko Aozaki or Lio Shirazumi. Instead, we got Fujino Asagami. While she's a huge fan-favorite and ridiculously powerful, she still only served as a major antagonist for one chapter. Adding to this unexpected factor is that up until then, re-run events had never added a brand new Servant.
• Many people were expecting the Caster of Lostbelt to be the already revealed Anastasia, so the reveal of an entirely new character caught many people off guard.
• Adding another Avenger was something that wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility in Cosmos in the Lostbelt. Adding Antonio Salieri as a 3 star, on the other hand, was something no one would've seen coming. Salieri himself is pretty out of the blue. On his first appearance, people thought such a creature of shadow with a blade could instead be Hattori Hanzō. When he showed musical movement, the first thought was something of 'Mozart Alter', but it turned out to be Salieri.
• A version of Shuten being the 2018 Halloween welfare servant caught everyone off-guard, as they had grown accustomed by that point to Liz getting a new variant every October and didn't really believe claims that she would no longer star in Halloween events, expecting her to pop up again or Carmilla to get a welfare version.
• As the past 3 Christmas Events had the final boss of the first 3 singularities as a Santa, many expected that the 2018 Christmas event would have some variant of Medea as the Santa servant, given that Okeanos was next in line. Instead, it's Quetzalcoatl as a Ruler-Class servant - while Quetzalcoatl had been expected in the 2017 event, many had moved on to predicting it would be Medea.
• The arcade version gaining an Welfare Servant in Leonardo di Vinci as a Rider in her back up body before the main game, even though the arcade's main story still has a long way to go until it reaches that point. She wouldn't be added into the main game until the 4th anniversary, as one of eight new Servants.
• For the Lord El-Melloi II Case Files Collaboration Event, many fans guessed that Gray would be a Welfare Servant added into the Gacha. They were right, but she was joined by Reines El-Melloi Archisorte and Luviagelita Edelfelt as Pseudo-Servants for Sima Yi and Astraea, respectively. While a major character, Reines caught everyone off-guard with being the main protagonist of the Event, and to an extent her Mystic Code Trimmau was also someone not expected to be added into the Gacha due to her fighting with Reines/Sima Yi. Luvia meanwhile was only a guest character in Case Files, and not part of the major cast.
• The fourth Lostbelt takes place in India but people got caught off guard when William Tell, a Swiss hero/Servant, showed up.
• While the release of 8 new servants in the 4th anniversary was all around unexpected, of special note was Jason, who was released as a 1-star Joke Character.
• The arcade version surprised us again by adding a Santa version of Helena Blavatsky in December 2019 before the main game did.
• There was a fair amount of speculation on who the Lostbelt Rider was, mainly due to him not having a lot of distinguishing details, with his only major detail being his wooden sword. The speculation reignited when it was revealed that he was going to be one of the new Servants in the Atlantis Lostbest, directing speculation about which possible Greek figure he could be. So who did he turn out to be? Mandricardo, a figure from Orlando Furioso who most people probably haven't heard of, even in context of the story. Even he himself acknowledges how obscure he must be.
• Fate/Requiem getting a crossover starring Prin/Voyager took the fanbase by surprise because Requiem's second volume hadn't been published yet and was picked over other completed works like Fate/Prototype (Fragments) or Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star. Neither Prin's/Voyager's proper identity nor Servant class had been officially revealed at the time, leaving players scratching their heads at how the crossover would play out. The event would not only clarify that not only did his name "Voyager" actually mean he was the personification of the Voyager probe, but that his class is Foreigner, making him the first male Foreigner Servant in the game. The event's other two Servants, Utsumi Erice and Kijyo Kiyo are similarly spoilery; Erice has a clear connection to Izanami, while Kijyo's first and third Ascensions gives her a human form.
• The arcade version's release of America came with a surprise Servant, Merlin's Prototype counterpart. While the original version of America did have a Merlin cameo, it was the regular version and the Prototype version had never been revealed in any media prior to her announcement, taking everyone by surprise at her release.
  • The arcade's America came with another surprise, Sita. The long demanded Sita is finally playable at the price that Rama himself isn't playable in arcade, keeping the two lovers still separated.
• No one was expecting to see Vincent van Gogh of all people become a servant... and he didn’t, as it’s actually someone else pretending to be him. At least, initially.
• Santa Karna was a surprise to a lot of fans since all of the previous Santa servants before him were female; making him the first male Santa servant.
• Avalon La Fae:
  • The stream for Lostbelt #6 announced four servants. While Oberon and Morgan Le Fey were not very surprising inclusions to the game, having genderbent versions of Tristan and Gawain were definitely a huge surprise to the fanbase... and much like Van Gogh, they ended up not being genderbent versions of those characters but instead merely are fairies pretending to be them.
  • Speaking of Oberon, while his class was initially thought to be Ruler, later in the story, his class later changed into Caster, Archer and then Rider, leaving players puzzled at what his true class might be. Part 3 of Lostbelt 6 ultimately revealed his true class to be Pretender, a completely new class, but what was really unexpected was his true name to be Oberon-Vortigern, and while there were some hints towards Vortigern appearing in Lostbelt 6, nobody predicted that he would appear as a fusion of Oberon.
• For the Chaldea Summer Adventure Event...
  • Summer Charlotte Corday was pretty all-around unexpected because she was the first Bronze servant to have a summer variation.
  • The child version of Christopher Columbus, who originally was just a What If? design by his illustrator Moto Murabito uploaded on Twitter, makes an appearance here.
• While many people were hoping for Jacques de Molay to appear in the game, very few expected it to actually happen, and absolutely NOBODY expected to do so as a genderbent Foreigner. The game even acknowledges this by having Molay explain the situation in the Bond 1 line.
• Considering she was a Beast through-and-through, Tiamat fell squarely into the camp of a character everyone wanted but no one expected. Arcade cares not for expectation; not only has Tiamat reincarnated herself as an Alter Ego, she's your main ally in her debut Singularity! Even better, in a series where Alternate Selves and Alternate Continuities abound, the game makes it clear this is the same Tiamat as the one in the mobile game; she remembers her defeat and isn't enthused about it, but she hates the villain who is trying to Make Wrong What Once Went Right a lot more.
• The epilogue of Tunguska Sanctuary reveals a face no one expected to see talking to Sion: Fabro Rowan, better known as Nrvnqsr Chaos from Tsukihime! Until now the only notable Tsukihime presence in the story was Sion, and purely in a "by the way, Tsukihime exists" manner — this may no longer the case, even if this Fabro might just be the local Fate version.
• When they revealed the silhouettes for Servants appearing in Traum, people were able to guess almost all of them from the very obvious ones (Roland, Charlemagne) and the less obvious ones (Kriemhild, James Moriarty). But the one in the far right threw everyone off when it turns out it was Zhang Jue. Every other Servant from the silhouette image was from Europe, so no one was expecting someone outside of Europe to be in it.
• The summer 2022 lineup includes "Lady Avalon" as one of the rate-up Servants... as in, Merlin (Prototype). While people have been wanting her to cross over from Fate/Grand Order Arcade, no one could expect her to debut through a swimsuit alt due to her not being in the base game. Her ascensions reveal that the swimsuit alt also doubles as her "base form", meaning that the developers essentially two-birds-one-stoned her.
• In the period leading up to the seventh anniversary, most fans expected the headlining Servant to be either an established character to be Promoted to Playable or an entirely new character as a tease for an upcoming story chapter. While one of the Servants is revealed to be Xu Fu, much to the shock of the fan base, the other Servant was revealed to be none other than Archetype:Earth, Arcueid's fully-powered form, fully committing to the connections to Tsukihime and coming hot off the heels of Mash being revealed for Melty Blood Type Lumina.
• Nitocris Alter's appearance within the Lostbelt 7.2 Pre-Release Banner instead of servants that actually appeared in Part One is quite surprising, especially given how she pretty much first began summonable with no prior announcement.
• Pope Joan was a minor character from the Traum chapter that, while liked, was viewed as being very unlikely to become playable due to the story making a point that she could not be summoned in Proper Human History. Naturally when it was revealed she would be part of the Valentines Day 2023 banner as a 5 star Ruler, people were completely caught off guard.
• Takasugi Shinsaku getting released for White Day 2023 is unexpected as most White Day Servants that come with their own events in the past have just been pre-existing Servants granted new costumes. The only brand new White Day servant that came with his own story event prior was Odysseus who at least has the excuse of being a plot important servant in the most recent main story chapter at the time of his release. Meanwhile, Takasugi Shinsaku was an event NPC servant from an event that was released about a year and a half ago before White Day 2023.
• Beast VI/S: Bewitching Queen Draco was very highly anticipated by players ever since she was playable as an Alter Ego in Arcade, but they didn't expect her to make her debut in the main game as the very first playable Beast class servant, with its own class advantages/disadvantages to go with it.
• Locusta being released for the Arcade collab is quite a surprise to many players as while it can make sense due to her connection to Nero, many people were expecting the Arcade collab to feature servants from the Arcade instead of a completely new one.
• After being alluded to for quite some time now through vague references, HAKUNO KISHINAMI made their appearance in the Lilim Harlot event as the main reason why Ritsuka Fujimaru has a contract with Sodom's Beast/Draco in the first place! Considering this was an event for Arcade, nobody expected this appearance at all, with the only hint at their involvement being the Protagonist being thrown into Draco's Secret Garden despite the event not taking place in a digital world.
• After many people speculated U-Olga Marie (or Camazotz to a lesser extent) to be the 8th Anniversary Servant, almost nobody expected for it to be Aesc the Savior instead. Even more surprisingly, she's also Morgan's Summer form.
• Not long after Aesc's release, the FGO team surprised us once again with another Avalon la Fae servant by releasing Cnoc na Riabh as the Summer 2023 welfare servant, which’s especially noticeable when her regular self has not debut in the Mobile game, much like Lady Avalon, whom at least has her regular self in Arcade.
• When a collaboration with Fate/Samurai Remnant was initially announced, many fans had already predicted Miyamoto Iori and Ushi Gozen would be added to the game and said predictions were later vaildated. What wasn't expected was for Ushi Gozen to appear not as a Rider but an Avenger and for the latter's Master, Yui Shousetsu, to also be Promoted to Playable as a Caster-class Servant!
• While the Valentines 2024 event rolled around, many people had guesses ranging from the recently unveiled Typhon Ephemeros, Aphrodite, and even Ciel. Nobody expected that the new Servant would be end up being Andromeda, the wife of the long-awaited Perseus, who had previously been relegated to merely being a footnote in Perseus' history and given only a mere mention as the name of Medusa's Blood Fort Andromeda.

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