In recent years the Fate franchise has become one of Japan's largest multimedia franchises. Despite the franchise beginning in 2004 with Fate Stay/Night, the franchise has recently seen an explosion in popularity thanks to the 2015 mobile game Fate/Grand Order. This newfound popularity has led the Fate franchise to expand through several new spin-offs in recent years.
The Fate franchise's track record with spin-offs has been spotty. Some spin-offs have been recognized as well-thought-out expansions of the original series and others as simple cash-ins. This article will explore what the next Fate installment should do and avoid doing to be a good spin-off that answers common fan criticisms.
10 Do: Have Visible LGBTQ Representation
The Fate franchise, like another notable Japanese franchise, has a ton of unconfirmed LGBTQ subtext. This has been present in the franchise starting with Rin and Saber's relationship in Fate/Stay Night. It was seen more recently with Gilgamesh and Endiku's bromance in Fate Grand Order- Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia.
Going forward, it's important for the franchise to turn its LGBTQ subtext into actual representation. This can be done in many ways. A gender-bending Servant can discuss issues with gender identity, and they could even utilize a Servant based on an LGBTQ individual.
9 Don't: Reuse Saber's Character Design
A common criticism faced by the Fate franchise is its tendency to introduce characters that look like Saber from Fate Stay/Night. There are many examples of the franchise copying Saber's design from Nero in Fate/Extra to Gray from Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files.
The immediate problem with reusing Saber's design is that it makes the franchise's creators look lazy. Another problem is that it strains viewers' suspension of disbelief when a Roman Emperor looks more similar to Saber than her actual clone. The next Fate installment should avoid this to preserve fans' interest in the franchise.
8 Do: Focus More On Its Human Characters
A problem with the franchise since Fate/Grand Order is a tendency to focus more on characters that are Heroic Spirits than ones who are human. This is especially noticeable in Fate/Apocrypha, with it wasting a potentially interesting Holy Grail War-based plotline for a more generic Servant focused storyline.
There has been one exception from this focus on the Servants in the post- Fate/Grand Order spin-offs. In last year's Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files, the franchise's human characters are interesting enough to hold their own in a show with minimal Servant appearances. This series provides a great case for the franchise to have more human-focused spin-offs given the amount of interesting Human characters in the Fate franchise.
7 Don't: Have A Bland Protagonist
The Fate franchise has had some interesting and complex main characters like Shirou Emiya and Waver Velvet. Some of the spin-offs, however, have focused on boring main characters like Sieg from Fate/Apocrypha who lack any dynamism or fleshed-out personalities.
The problem of series having a bland main character is an issue with the entertainment industry at large. It is a noticeable problem in the Fate franchise, as having a few interesting main characters makes the boring ones stand out more. The franchise's next installment needs to ensure that its main character is interesting to keep viewers interested.
6 Do: Released It In The West
The Fate Franchise has been good at exporting its anime series towards a Western audience. The franchise has also been bad about exporting key parts of the franchise that are either video games or print materials.
Not exporting the next installment in the franchise will create one major problem for the franchise going forward. Fate/Grand Order features many characters and plots from Fate's spin-offs. This has already created a problem in that Fate/Grand Order is harder to follow for Western fans due to previous spin-offs being unavailable in the West.
5 Don't: Have An Unmanageably Large Cast
Another major problem in the Fate franchise is that some spin-offs have way too many characters for their length. Fate/Apocrypha is a good example of this with the series having 24 major characters. This massive cast size often leads to many characters in these spin-offs coming off as less fleshed out than they should be.
Any future Fate installment needs to be aware of the issue of finding the right balance between cast size and the length of the story. This problem of cast size can be avoided in future installments by either keeping the main conflict smaller, like in Fate Stay/Night or taking its time like in Fate Strange/Fake.
4 Do: Leave Some Servants' Identities A Mystery
One interesting aspect of Fate/Stay Night that has been missing from its spin-offs is a sense of mystery in a Servant's identity. This sense of mystery is most noticeable in Saber's and Archer's plotline in the series. Comparably, most servants' identities are known from their introductions in Fate/Grand Order.
A way to easily add a sense of intrigue and mystery to a new installment in the Fate franchise would be to leave some of its servants' identities a mystery that needs to be solved. A Servant with an unknown identity can help to engage viewers by promoting a helpful sense of speculation and allowing fans to flex their literary and historical knowledge.
3 Don't: Make A Servant's Personality Less Interesting Than their Source Material
A problem with some Servants in the Fate Franchise is that their personalities lack a memorable aspect of their source material. An example of this problem can be seen in Boudica from Fate/Grand Order. The problem with her personality is that she's forgotten her vengeance toward the Roman Empire that made her a memorable historical figure in the first place.
The next installment in the Fate franchise should work to making sure its Servants keep what made them memorable and build on it. This is an important problem for the franchise to deal with as some viewers will be insulted when an important figure lacks their most defining features.
2 Do: Depict A Proper Holy Grail War
The Holy Grail War playing a leading role in the founding series of the Fate franchise. Most spin-offs tend to ignore this concept for a more generic save the world plotline like Fate Grand Order. Even the spin-offs that do feature a Holy Grail War plotline drop it about halfway through the series like in Fate/Apocrypha.
The next installment of the Fate franchise should include a proper Holy Grail War plotline. The main reason for its inclusion is that the Holy Grail War concept is both captivating to watch and easy to explain to viewers unfamiliar with the franchise.
1 Don't: Introduce A Gender-Bent Servant Without A Proper Explanation
While the franchise is well known for starring a gender-bended King Arthur it does not employ the gender-bending of historical figures as much as some claim. Some of the gender-bent Servants like Saber even have a proper backstory for why they have had their genders switched. There are exceptions to this, with gender-bent servants like Ushiwakmaru from Fate/Grand Order- Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia gender-change lacking a real explanation.
Gender-bent characters themselves are not a problem for the franchise, but its tendency to change the gender of famous historical and mythical figures without explanation has rubbed fans the wrong way. Just making sure major character changes in Servants have coherent justifications will go a long way toward keeping their fans happy.