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However, in a cast as crammed-full as Apocrypha’s, this intertextuality and background knowledge becomes beneficial for your engagement with the story. Since everyone’s pretty open about their true names in Apocrypha, there’s less of this going on there. Likewise-but with an added element of tension-folks with know-how of the Arthurian legends might pick up on clues that the mysterious “black knight” Berserker in Fate/Zero is actually Lancelot before it’s officially revealed, adding a fun “oh no!!” factor as you put things together and watch the ensuing disaster unfold. For example, viewers/readers/players who are familiar with the ins and outs of Greek mythology will likely recognise abilities, design elements, story references, and other “clues” and pick up on the fact that Fate/Stay Night’sCaster is Medea before the characters themselves do. Sometimes this creates a fun sort of cat-and-mouse game with audience knowledge, especially in the early iterations of the franchise where codenames like “Saber” and “Archer” were there to conceal the Servants’ true identities, leaving said true identities as a fun guessing game for Those In The Know. You don’t need an extensive knowledge of the Heroic Spirits’ lives and tales to enjoy their Fate versions, but I’d argue that it adds a new dimension.
FATE APOCRYPHA CHARACTERS FULL
Fitting with the franchise’s premise, the cast is full of characters from legend and figures from history magically summoned into a modern setting, which gives the series a pile of already-well-known people and stories to play around with.
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There are two levels of intertextuality going on here: Apocrypha’s deliberately-highlighted relationship to myth and history, and Apocrypha’s deliberately-highlighted relationship to the rest of Fate. Even beyond the premise, though, Fate/Apocrypha’s bread and butter is intertextuality-it revels in its connectedness to other stories, making use of familiar aspects and then playing with expectations for all sorts of purposes within the show. It’s a spinoff, for one thing, a canon alternate universe based on a “what if?” that diverts from the original formula. The answer to that question is that there is no wrong answer*, and if the epic-action-adventure tone and structure of Apocrypha is the one that most calls to you, go for it! I would say, however, that while it can probably stand on its own as a fantasy action thrill ride, the series does have an added layer of enjoyment if you’re familiar with other, earlier works in the storyworld.
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I’m sometimes asked where one should start when diving into the (ever-growing) behemoth that is the Fate franchise, and, as a sub-question, if the Netflix-nested Fate/Apocrypha is a suitable jumping-in point.