acroUsually when I tell people who aren’t anime trash like me about the Fate franchise, the reactions vary from great excitement to outright revulsion. Among very normal people and academic types, there’s a lot more of the latter. They tend to be disappointed that the mythical heroes and historical figures aren’t designed how they imagine them to be. Yes, there are some designs in the series that don’t really work at all (Erzsebet Bathory, while cute as a button, isn’t very true to her namesake), but think about it: would you really want to see a historically accurate Fate series?
Let’s take Attila the Hun, for example. In Fate, Attila looks like this:
Tan, foreign-looking, skilled on a horse (her Scythian-style riding heels are out of frame), and most importantly of all, majestic as fuck. This is very convincingly a person whose soldiers cut a swath of destruction across an entire continent, a veritable goddess of war. And the proof is right there in her hands: the legendary Sword of Mars (or just “Sword of the War God” depending on which account you read). Merely looking at the sword is indisputable evidence of Attila’s right to rule, and its many-hued blade even portends its rumoured later name: Joyeuse, many-hued personal sword of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne. Despite the sex change, Fate’s Attila truly lives up to the Hunnic conqueror’s legend.
Now let’s describe the reality. Roman historians gave an account of Attila’s appearance, saying that he was “ Short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head; his eyes were small, his beard thin and sprinkled with grey; and he had a flat nose and tanned skin”. Though they describe his actions with appropriate reverence, his looks really… don’t sound too impressive, do they? Now let’s consider other factors: the Huns were nomads. Nomadic life is hard and frequently dirty. Though Attila was a ruler, being “on the go” all the time doesn’t really allow for much flash or pageantry. In fact, the historian Priscus described Attila’s clothes as “ different from those of his men only in being clean”. It’s probably a safe bet they didn’t stay that way, either. People these days also tend to forget that MOST of history was extremely gross by today’s standards. The Huns PROBABLY had a way to clean their teeth, and they PROBABLY had cultural ideas about bathing and cleanliness in general, but they most certainly didn’t have a tube of Crest or a bar of Irish Spring. History was simply not very glamorous, and even someone whose name carries as much weight as Attila’s was not immune.
O…oh. That’s… cool, I guess. There certainly is a lot of gold on there, and it certainly is very decorative. It’s, uh… not quite as long as I was expecting, though. And where are the legendary rainbow colors that change thirty times a day? Honestly, I’m not awe-struck. It’s a great museum piece and it’s very exciting we still have such an old weapon is such great condition, but I was expecting to be blown away. Attila’s legend really makes it seem like he could’ve carved through Europe with this thing alone. I was hoping for more.
And THAT’s why the Fate franchise is so exciting. Rather than focusing on total accuracy, Type Moon researches different historical and mythical figures, reads through their legends, and carefully picks out certain elements around which to model their depictions. Yes, there are a lot of unnecessary sex changes (though having more female characters with diverse motivations is always a good thing), but if you study the series’ characters you can usually tie them to their original stories very easily. It’s not that Type Moon doesn’t do their homework, because some of the things they decide to use are really obscure. Look into Fate/Apocrypha a bit and you’l find Avicebron, a Jewish philosopher that I almost guarantee you’ve never heard of. Hell, type that name into Google and the second result is the Fate wiki. Type Moon even included his skin problem, which even people who’ve read the man’s works don’t usually know about. Type Moon DOES research their characters very closely, but then they apply a more modern sensibility when designing them. Most importantly of all, however, they strive to depict these people as the idealized icons spoken of in their legends. If they didn’t do that, let’s be honest, the Fate franchise would be about a bunch of average-to-dumpy-looking people (mostly men) from time periods where ideas about hygiene were much less advanced than they are now, wrestling on the ground until one or both of them gave up or bled out, because real fights are ugly. And some of them (SHAKESPEARE, MATA HARI, HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN) likely wouldn’t even make it that far.
So that’s what’s so wonderful about Fate. History and mythology have always been cool, but Fate makes them flashy, exciting, and stylish. Fate elevates great heroes, writers, scientists, and villains BACK to greatness, ignoring minor details that our world now regards as unimpressive and painting these people as more-than human existences worthy of the awe, adoration, and even fear their actual legends are meant to inspire. On a personal level, Fate has pushed me to learn even more about different cultures and legends, and I know the same can be said for many (if not most) of its biggest fans. I’m very grateful to Type Moon for showing just how badass history and mythology can be.
NOTES SINCE THIS TURNED OUT REALLY LONG:
- I’m not really happy with the writing, but this is sort of a knee-jerk reaction to some ignorant whiner I saw on another site earlier. I don’t really want to edit this until it sounds good. That’s a lot of work.
- Most of the quotes and information about Attila I pulled off of Wikipedia, but it IS sourced there. I’m just too lazy to link since no one reads my blog anyway.
- The sword usually called Joyeuse is at the Louvre, whereas the one pictured here is in Vienna. There has been some confusion as to whether or not either one actually belonged to Charlemagne, and the one in Vienna is probably not Attila’s, but the rainbow colors of Type Moon’s Sword of Mars suggest the Vienna sword’s origin story and so I have used that as my example.
- Again, I wrote this on a whim, so there isn’t a lot of research here, just broad statements that, while very true, could use some proper, documented details. If I was still in school and had reason to expand this into a paper I would, but I’m not and I don’t so I’m not gonna do that.
- If I were to write a more detailed version of this, I would likely not use Attila. The Hunnic civilization died out centuries ago, and we have very little information left about their customs and culture. These are sort of vital when making more concrete descriptions of say, hygiene practices, so I admit that Attila was not an ideal choice. I just like her a lot in Grand Order. A medieval servant like Arturia herself might be good, since we’ve got a lot of details about life inside castles and such. Did you know they hung their clothes in the bathroom because the fumes from the lime and waste in the cesspit kept bugs away? Gross, right? See, there’s a whole world of disgust that could be touched on there.
- I don’t actually like how often Type Moon makes female versions of historically male figures since that’s unnecessarily just a biiiiiiiit over the accuracy line, but I will say that for many of them the difference is pretty negligible and they do their inspirations tremendous justice in spite of it. Some of them even have a bit of a historical basis, like how for a time Francis Drake was rumoured to be Queen Elizabeth in disguise. As long as the resulting character is interesting and well-designed, though, I’ve kind of stopped caring very much about the sex changes. Again, more female characters with differing motivations are always welcome in fiction.
- I like Fate a whole lot and think it’s neat to see so many of the heroes and villains I grew up reading about given anime makeovers for the modern age. Grand Order is almost too good to be true since it gives us a chance to see all sorts of people who’d probably never appear in the series otherwise (Romulus, Calamity Jane, Darius III, etc).
-”Mythological accuracy” means a character from a story is portrayed how their home culture viewed them at the time of their story’s greatest popularity. This often doesn’t match up with modern ideas about supernatural strength and beauty. For example, a mythologically accurate Gilgamesh be a rather unremarkable bearded man in period clothing who’s good at wrestling. This applies to heroic spirits’ feats, too, as many mythologized characters’ deeds, while regarded as unbelievable and astounding by those of their own time, are simply not that impressive by today’s storytelling standards. Remember Avicebron? He’s not the normal “golem guy” (that would be Rabbi Loeb), but in Fate he makes golems because there’s a story about him having a wooden maid. Kind of impressive for the time, but kind of low-level fantasy magic for a modern audience. I will say, though, even WITH a wooden maid, the greatest power usually attributed to Avicebron is acrostic poetry.
- On the opposite end of this issue, Karna, Arjuna, and some of the other heroic spirits are already pretty fucking overpowered even by today’s standards in their original legends, so a Grail War involving them would end in about five seconds as guys in leather armor with bronze swords and shit are disintegrated with sun lasers or eaten by flying snakes. Again, accuracy doesn’t always make for effective fiction. Also, Hindu mythology is hardcore.
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