FGO 11th Anniversary Servant Predictions
One week to go! Time to get proven wrong - again! Like I always do!
Azrael. Grand Assassin Azrael/Hassan Lily. Dropped with no explanation for Grand Assassin, and forced his way into the After-Time party to keep tabs on Olga Marie at the start of the year, functionally serving as our second command room figure to replace Holmes. Obviously, we have precedent for these 'support' characters being released during Anniveraries (both da Vincis, Holmes and now Olga.) While this one seems obvious, the primary issue with it is the pattern that the anni servants are connected to Summer, and at least one of their stages is a swimsuit alt.... e.g. we haven't had a male anniversary unit since Holmes.
Daji, or a Tamamo Alt. Fate/Extra Record was supposed to drop this year, so the anniversary servant might have been intended as a tie-in the same way Archetype=Earth was. That said, it's been delayed again so keeping this probably wouldn't... work.
Some Weird Sakura Alt. In line with the weird-at-the-time Saber alt (Castoria) and Space Ereshkigal, Sakura is the only OG heroine that yet hasn't had this treatment. That said, we've had a steady supply of Sakura-faces over the last few years (Durga/Kali, BB Dubai, Kazuradrop & Passionlip Summer), so perhaps not. We still need Space Sakura though...!
Beni-Enma Alter still hasn't dropped, though she seems more in-line for an event around New Years. Similarly, I just don't think Camazotz is (ever) going to drop, but if he did it'd also probably be an event with Ixcalli.
This year's events have absolutely been building up to Persephone's release culminating with her design dropping a few weeks ago, so she's probably releasing sometime this year. Given her connection to the Underworld though, I kind of wonder if she's more set for Halloween than Summer.
One of the Norns. I'm not unconvinced the next part of the Aftertime story won't rope summer into things again!
Galahad. Beyond the fact that he final has a model, Noble Phantasm and Shielder finally has a card back, last year an interview dropped where Nasu and Takeuchi mentioned that the 10th anniversary Servant ended up being Olga because they felt like it had to be. Given Olga's ultimate fate at the end of the LB arc, even if she was originally planned for 11th (once Aftertime has given context for her final ascension), I agree it would've been mean-spirited not to have her available to players + her summer event before her death. If she was intended to be 11th and got moved to 10th, that means 10th got switched to 11th. And who got his triumphant appearance in the story chapter directly before 10th anni and then fucking evaporated...
My absolute left field not-gonna-happen-would-be-delighted-if-it-did pick... Guinevere. This year's been a bit Arthurian already so come on, why not!
This year it doesn't feel like there's any obvious front-runners, like Galahad and Olga were last year. There's also no real stand-out NPCs we're expecting to drop from main story except for Azrael. Personally, I'm putting my money on a left-field pick that comes somewhat out of nowhere but connects to a future event... but can still participate in summer (e.g. female.) So maybe not the left-field Space Sakura Swimsuit Alt exactly, but something of a similar spirit!
I don't have any particular thoughts about Summer this year, beyond still anticipating a Koyan alt and that maybe, following Molay's example, we might finally get Sita.
