Unpopular TM opinions you have

[Mattias]

I don't think there's a single Grail War story that has only seven Servants

Fate/Zero, I think?

Depends if you count Angra as a Servant or the Grail.

[asterism42]

Beast VI is also an extra Servant in Fragments

[madarra]

Wasn't true assassin prevented from being summoned because of Caster using rule breaker to break the rules and summon fake assassin, at least until he died? Where does the ninth come in? I only remember the eight.

Rule breaker has nothing to do with breaking rules. Caster is just that good of a mage.

[Hawkeye]

Wasn't true assassin prevented from being summoned because of Caster using rule breaker to break the rules and summon fake assassin

From what I recall, though I can't find my source right now, Medea found the person who was supposed to be Assassin's master (Implied to have already gained Command Seals, but not having summoned a servant yet) and shanked the crap out of them to then summon her own Assassin. Since she didn't have real command seals or the mana to waste on doing the whole thing correctly, she summoned an even shittier wraith than the Hassans using the Ryuudou temple gate as her catalyst and anchored him to it. So it wasn't strictly any feature of Rule Breaker, but she probably did stab them with it.

EDIT: Found my source, Fate/complete material III: World material - FAQ with Nasu: Servants, p.133 apparently.

at least until he died?

I don't think his death was the catalyst for True Assassin, I think Zouken just abused his extensive knowledge of the ritual to use Fake Assassin as the catalyst for True Assassin, which is why Cursed Arm comes out half-baked to start and only gains all his personality back after munching on bits of Lancer and such.

Where does the ninth come in? I only remember the eight.

Gilgamesh, since he was around from the previous war. The seven core servants of the war, then Cursed Arm and Gil bring it up to nine, so maybe technically ten if you're including Angra Mainyu?

Effectively, FSN gave us a bunch of rules that are supposed to be 'typical' because the LN establishes this as the fifth war and Rin is our font of knowledge for what's supposed to happen. It then obviously subverts all this by giving us shit like Sasaki, Gilgamesh outta left field etc. So it's kinda like they were writing a sequel without a prequel, which isn't really all that unusual in media.

[Herod]

"Well," says the figure with a smile.
The "place" this time is far from perfect.
The hole is opening less than ten years after the last battle.
The supervisor, the priest, has two Servants, and the Servant residing at the Ryudou Temple has summoned a Servant herself.
The conditions are not good.

[Random]

Honestly, I don't really get the whole "stop breaking your own rules" attitude... It's weirdly pervasive among Redditors too, but then it's Reddit, so what would you expect...

Specific overrides general. That's true in most RPG-like systems (which Fate at least undeniably has), it's true in most stories, it's even true in real life. Circumstances dictate the precise applicability of any rule and how that rule should be interpreted.

Nobody in their right mind complains that the laws of thermodynamics are inconsistent because refrigerators can make cold things get even colder instead of heating them up to room temperature like they normally do.

You can create an exception to any rule, because rules of the settings are observations by the characters rather than edicts by the author.

[Petrikow]

Nobody in their right mind complains that the laws of thermodynamics are inconsistent because refrigerators can make cold things get even colder instead of heating them up to room temperature like they normally do.

I will interject and say that you can only consider the Law of Thermodynamics broken in a refrigerator if you analyze it as a closed system. That is to say; it doesn't get broken.

There are some rules which are more sacred than other in this world, and this is one of them.

[Random]

Yeah, I kinda knew going into it that it was a bad example, but I couldn't think of a better one off the top of my head.

Though if you really want to use thermodynamics, you can make the case that it's not completely sacred either - at least specifically in the case of the common lay-conception of it.

Which is the point I'm trying to get at: mechanics are more complicated than the baby's 101 class we get introduced to them with, and it's sort of annoying that people consider them to be "broken" when something even slightly unusual is done with them.

[Kirishima]

I just got home from my statistical mechanics class, I didn't come to BL for this

[Random]

hello and welcome back to hell

[Cypher Attic]

Nobody in their right mind complains that the laws of thermodynamics are inconsistent because refrigerators can make cold things get even colder instead of heating them up to room temperature like they normally do.

Wait, your ice cream doesn't​ melt in the freezer?

[Random]

pay your electric bill

trust me its worth the money

[Cypher Attic]

It seems like every fridge has a 50/50 shot of either not keeping anything cool, or freezing water in 10 minutes (not in the freezer portion).

- - - Updated - - -

pay your electric bill

trust me its worth the money

But $$$$$$$$$$

[SpoonyViking]

I may be mistaken but I think Paperino and assorted comic rights are separate from the "main" Disney universe stuff.
Carl Barks would certainly be rolling in his grave regardless.

That's not from the Paperinik comics, it's from Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck maxi-series.
If you're a fan of Disney comics, it's a great read. In fact, I highly recommend Rosa's Disney comics in general.

[Hawkeye]

Honestly, I don't really get the whole "stop breaking your own rules" attitude... It's weirdly pervasive among Redditors too, but then it's Reddit, so what would you expect...

Specific overrides general. That's true in most RPG-like systems (which Fate at least undeniably has), it's true in most stories, it's even true in real life. Circumstances dictate the precise applicability of any rule and how that rule should be interpreted.

Nobody in their right mind complains that the laws of thermodynamics are inconsistent because refrigerators can make cold things get even colder instead of heating them up to room temperature like they normally do.

You can create an exception to any rule, because rules of the settings are observations by the characters rather than edicts by the author.

I tend to use these 'rules' as a general guideline if I'm running an RP or something, so that I'm not dealing with like a half dozen totally weird ideas that I don't know what to do with, but as a writer, I basically expect every Fate work to take the standard and twist it, otherwise you're not really gonna get anything interesting after a point. Obviously different characters and their personal journeys still exist to make it interesting, but there's a reason in like 18 years of Fate stuff we've had one typical war and it was the story about how two broken men can fuck up everything in a week.

[JetKinen]

I may be mistaken but I think Paperino and assorted comic rights are separate from the "main" Disney universe stuff.
Carl Barks would certainly be rolling in his grave regardless.

That's Don Rosa's stuff tho, he is basically Barks' biggest fan

[Gehennahem]

Probably isn't really unpopular but I do see it come up from time and time again:
I don't think Ritsuka Fujimaru in game(Male or Female) was ever a true Blank Slate. Maybe it's my experiences with the NA side and very rarely looking over the JP script but while there is obviously the "Self-Insert" part in there, I would say they are ironically closer to Hakuno in terms of being someone for the player to see themselves as but also someone with their own personality. I've seen smartass comments, the ability to not be an idiot when it comes to certain Servants, can somewhat hold a grudge, be pissed off, etc.
Of course, I'm not saying they are a fantastic character or trying to kiss their ass or anything.
I just find this weird undercurrent especially when we have had adaptations where they make Ritsuka more boring than toast and I never really got that feeling that Game Ritsuka is as bad as Anime Ritsuka in that capacity.

[pinetree]

If it isn't unpopular it should be. Hakuno is still a self-insert but the game spends a ton of time characterizing their (your) actions in the context of the war. It's not even comprable to Guda.

I've seen smartass comments, the ability to not be an idiot when it comes to certain Servants, can somewhat hold a grudge, be pissed off, etc.

These are like the most basic emotions you'd need a character to show in this story, otherwise it'd be impossible to include them at all.
Any semblance of personality you think you've gleamed is an illusion. All their 'personality traits' and 'decisions' are just assumptions on the part of the writers on what is the most likely response of the player.

[Mattias]

I think the most defining trait of Guda's I can think of is all surrounding Mecha Liz, like in Halloween 3 where both available dialogue options are "Giant Robot's, Fuck Yeah!". Or in their Valentines skits, where they nerd out about getting pilot gear. Every other time some thing comes up, there's always the option of "yeah I know what that is" or "Never heard of it, explain please". Except for robots.

[pinetree]

People always mention the mecha thing, because I think it happens in Babbage's interlude too, but it's just another example of the writers assuming the most likely response of the otaku playerbase.

So Guda's a fan of mecha when they're around mecha, the same way they're a lolicon in Prisma Illya.