Fate: Top Characters By Class

Heroes of the Holy Grail

The Fate anime franchise began as a videogame in 2004. Seven mages summon seven heroes from myth and legend to fight a shadow war for The Holy Grail. The game was a sleeper hit that spawned many sequels and adaptations.

Summoned Heroes are divided into seven different Classes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. They often use their Class as a pseudonym to prevent enemies from knowing how to kill them. Wouldn’t you aim for Achilles’ heel if you were fighting him? Deducing their identities is half the fun. So who are the best Heroic Spirits by Class? Can you solve the mystery before we tell you their True Names? Let’s find out.

Note: There are dozens of candidates for each Class, so we’re limiting ourselves to Heroic Spirits from the Fate TV shows.

Glossary

Heroic Spirit/Servant: A representation of a character from mythology, history, or fiction encapsulated into a superhuman warrior. Many appear as a different gender because of mistold stories. Heroic Spirits are fueled by mages in exchange for becoming their Servants. We’ll refer to them as Servants.

Noble Phantasm: An iconic element of a Servant’s story magically recreated as their ace in the hole. Weapons, vehicles, allies, and events all qualify. Noble Phantasms are a dead giveaway to the Heroic Spirit’s identity and should only be used as a last resort.

The Holy Grail: Not the Cup of Christ from Arthurian legend, this Grail is a wish-granting artifact. It requires six slain Servants to grant a wish, and only Servants who have a wish may be summoned. Ritualistic battles for the Grail are called Holy Grail Wars.

Saber

Country of Origin: England
Title: Knight of Rebellion

Saber-Class Servants are strong, agile melee fighters who suffer from predictability. Fate’s best Saber has a complicated relationship with its most famous one.

A witch slept with a king to create a homunculus. Saber grew up alone because they subconsciously knew that they weren’t like other humans. Saber was sent to the castle to become one of the king’s knights and ordered to hide their face with a magic helmet.

Saber’s deeds made them famous, but the stoic king kept them at arm’s length. Saber was ecstatic when the witch revealed their parentage, but joy turned to hatred when the king refused to acknowledge Saber’s lineage. The witch was his enemy and Saber was lacking as an heir to the throne. Saber misunderstood, thinking that they were being deemed unworthy of their father’s love. They led a rebellion against the kingdom, destroying it, and dying by their father’s hand.

Saber’s most-used Noble Phantasm is Secret of Pedigree, a horned helmet that prevents anyone from recognizing them as long as it’s worn. They wield Clarent, a demonic sword that fires a powerful laser called Clarent Blood Arthur.

True Name: Mordred Pendragon
Wish: To save King Arthur from the burden of being “a perfect king” by pulling the Sword from the Stone first.

Fate: Lancer

Country of Origin: Ireland
Title: Child of Light

Lancer-Class Servants are known for three immutable traits: wielding polearms, incredible speed, and horrific luck. Fate’s first Lancer set the pace.

A druid’s daughter gave birth to the Sun God’s child. The baby was prophesied to live a short, but glorious life. Lancer was a prodigy in warfare who earned respect in the army. He famously killed a blacksmith’s guard dog in self-defense and served as its replacement until the dog’s puppies were grown.

Lancer trained under a legendary warrior in the Land of Shadows and earned a cursed spear. That spear later killed Lancer’s best friend and his unknown son. Lancer’s final fight came when he spurned the goddess of war’s love and was tricked into breaking an oath that fueled his power. He died holding off an army, his still-standing corpse making them fear that he was alive.

Lancer only has one Noble Phantasm, but it’s a doozy. Gae Bolg is a barbed spear that inflicts cursed wounds that only magic can heal. When he calls its name, Gae Bolg impales an opponent’s heart before reversing reality to explain how it got there. The only ways to survive are by making it impossible for the spear to reach your heart or not needing a heart to live. So naturally, the writers never allow it to work.

True Name: Cu Chulainn
Wish: To fight strong opponents

Archer

Country of Origin: Babylon
Title: King of Heroes

Archer-Class Servants are the most cost-effective and independent. Despite the name, they can use any projectile so long as that’s their main tactic. Fate’s best Archer made our list of the Top 5 Mythological Superheroes.

Archer was a demigod king. He ruled over his country with an iron fist, hoarding every treasure in the world and raping any woman who caught his eye. The gods created a divine wildman to kill Archer. They fought to a stalemate and became friends. Archer and the wildman enjoyed many adventures until the wildman’s death led Archer to a fruitless search for immortality.

Archer can back up his universe-sized ego. His Noble Phantasm Gate of Babylon contains every treasure that he collected, which can be fired at mach speed out of floating gates. It contains prototypes for everything that humanity has made because Archer ruled one of the first and most influential civilizations. 

Ea is one of the few Noble Phantasms strong enough to destroy planets. The drill-shaped sword channels primordial chaos into Enuma Elish, a spell that annihilates foes. Archer views Ea as his greatest treasure, one that he won’t sully unless an opponent has earned his respect or hatred. 

True Name: Gilgamesh
Wish: To add The Holy Grail and Excalibur to his collection.

Fate: Rider

Country of Origin: Greece
Title: Bewitching Black Serpent

Rider-Class Servants are often middling compared to the others. They ride powerful vehicles or mythical creatures. Generals often fall into this class. Fate’s best Rider is the mother of her steed.

Rider was a lesser goddess revered for her beauty. The jealous goddess of wisdom cursed Rider by transforming her into a monster. She fled to a hidden island, living in solitude with her sisters and fending off would-be heroes who thought they were rescuing the sisters from her. 

The goddess’ curse grew stronger and drove Rider berserk. She ate her sisters alive and began killing anyone who came near her home. A prince guided by the goddess decapitated Rider and ended her rampage.

Rider can cast Blood Fort Andromeda to consume human souls over a large area and empower herself. She wears a Noble Phantasm called Breaker Gorgon that negates magic. The blindfold blocks Rider’s Mystic Eyes of Petrification, which turns anyone who can’t resist magic to stone.

Rider’s strongest Noble Phantasm is her son. By slitting her throat and raising the golden reins Bellerophon, she summons Pegasus to ride. He flies at mach speed, blocks almost any attack, and his charge hits enemies with the strength of a meteor. 

True Name: Medusa
Wish: To save her Master from a rapist who has magical control over both of them.

Caster

Country of Origin: England
Title: Storyteller

Caster-Class Servants are physically the weakest, but don’t count them out. They tend to be the smartest Heroic Spirits, capable of creating Territories to boost their powers while wielding lost magic. Fate’s best Caster is the most unique Servant in the franchise.

Once upon a time, a species was born called humanity. They slowly learned about the world around them, passing on information and explaining mysteries by telling stories. Caster then appeared, telling stories to entertain and teach.

Caster is a storyteller who has been there for every child. Their tales allow kids to escape our mundane world and find more interesting ones. Their words conjure worlds where brave knights save princesses from dragons, inquisitive children venture into the unknown, and fearsome villains lurk just out of sight. Those tales have taken Caster everywhere in the world.

Caster’s territory is The Nameless Forest, a pocket dimension she drags foes into. Wandering the forest will erase a target’s memories until they cease to exist. Caster summons Trump Soldiers and The Jabberwocky to slow down enemies until they forget. If those don’t work, she can trap foes in a time loop with The Queen’s Glass Game. 

Nursery Rhyme is the secret to Caster’s power. The book contains every tale that could be considered a children’s story and transforms her into an embodiment of the reader’s favorite. This incarnation draws from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but she could theoretically become anything from Aesop’s Fables to The Hobbit, gaining the powers and appearance of every character from those stories.

True Name: Nursery Rhyme
Wish: To entertain and comfort children who read her book.

Fate: Assassin

Country of Origin: Japan
Title: Sword Saint

Assassin-Class Servants are the second weakest. They rarely stand a chance in direct battles, and target their enemy’s Mage to sever their power source. Fate’s first Assassin was a false Servant created by a Caster.

Assassin is a composite of three men sharing a legendary name. The first was a nameless sword master who was capable of fighting multiple enemies at once. The second was rival to the greatest swordfighter in Japan and was killed while dueling him. The last trained in isolation until he could slash a sparrow out of the air.

This Assassin has no Noble Phantasm, but his signature technique comes close. Tsubame Gaishi is a single slash that transforms into three simultaneous slashes from different angles. Assassin has no magic whatsoever, but tapped into the multiverse by practicing the technique until Reality gave up. That should be impossible. Only one immortal mage can cast multiversal magic, but Assassin did it by accident and doesn’t understand how big a deal that is.

True Name: Sasaki Kojirou
Wish: To perfect his technique.

Berserker

Country of Origin: England
Title: The Knight of the Lake

Berserker-Class Servants are physically the strongest. They all share the Mad Enhancement ability that makes them stronger in exchange for draining their sanity. The higher the boost, the more they lose. Fate’s best Berserker is a black knight who terrifies every other Servant.

Berserker was a king’s confidant and the greatest knight in the kingdom. The king didn’t know that Berserker was sleeping with his wife. When the affair was revealed, he murdered several knights to protect the queen and fled.

The king forgave Berserker, despite the revelation fracturing their order and sparking a revolution. Berserker was barred from joining the final battle by his former allies, who hated him for killing their comrades. News of the king’s death drove Berserker mad.

Knight of Owner lets Berserker wield anything he considers a weapon as a Noble Phantasm, up to and including fighter jets. For Someone’s Glory wraps Berserker in a dark miasma that makes him impossible to recognize. Deactivating it allows him to draw Arondight, which strengthens Berserker and is deadly to dragons.

True Name: Sir Lancelot du Lac
Wish: To be slain by King Arthur in atonement for his betrayal

Who do you think is the best member of each class? Could you solve any of these seven’s identities? Tell us in the comments.

Image courtesy of Crunchyroll

Jared Bounacos

Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.