Exploring The Astolfo Effect

Cool Astolfo Facts: Check out the original article here: jgeekstudies.o...
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[@joaotomotani7416]

Hello Klidge! Please, highlight the article that originally coined the term "Astolfo Effect". I am one of the authors of this article (The Astolfo Effect: the popularity of Fate/Grand Order characters in comparison to their real counterparts). On it, we discuss in depth the methodology that was used for the searches (clear cache, VPN, original name of the servant as written in the game, etc) and how the analysis was conducted (how we treated cases like Ushiwakamaru / Minamoto no Yoshitsune, or Nagao Kagetora that you mentioned). Finally, we have a more in depth discussion about how the Astolfo Effect is affected by factors like the popularity of the original myth / legend / historical figure (mainly its popularity in the ocident) and among the FGO community. We also present the results for all servants that were released at the time. Best regards

[@klidge]

Can do. I’ll pin this comment and also put a link to it in the video description. Thank you for the hard work!

[@joaotomotani7416]

@@klidge Thanks a lot for the quick reply! Keep it up with the good FGO content Best regards

[@Azzaciel]

@@joaotomotani7416 Your Footnote 2 and 8 might need amendment, since both Charly and Roland are now in game. :V You know, you could possibly go and see what servants are either highly speculated to come and/or do a seach analysis of Servants when they are announced and a 2nd one 1~2 months after they get released. Just to see how fast this effect corrupts the algorithm.

[@joaotomotani7416]

@@Azzaciel Hello Azzaciel, thanks for reading and for the comments Regarding Charlie and Roland, I can say that my coauthor - the biggest (and only) Matter of France fan I know - was absolutely ecstastic the moment they were announced (mainly Charlie). As for the suggestion regarding the corruption of search algorithms in time, that is a great idea. We will discuss it for a part 2 of this study. In the database we made, we considered the servant release date to see whether there was any easy correlation, but the popularity of the servant easily supercede such effect. But a horizontal study of the same servant(s) accross time would probably generate interesting results. I believe that it is a bit too late for the 6.5 servants. This study should probably be very early in the servant release chronogram - mainly if they are already Fate characters such as Roland and Charlie (and also Michael). I expect the next event will probably bring some characters that already appeared as well, but their official release will definitely change the algorithm. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@jamilahu]

Your articles are probably my most favorite in the journal of geek studies just because of how well they were done. I hope you return to a similar topic in the future!

[@Dr.BDover]

erasing someone from history and turning them into a pink haired femboy is a crazy power move and i gotta respect it

[@Audes777]

So basically the historians version of the Wolverine Effect.... which is when you try to find out about the animal species and just end up with pictures of a hairy Canadian.

[@TupocalypseShakur]

I think that got it's name because there was a time were Wolverine was in nearly every comic. At the height of his popularity he made almost 80 appearances in one year

[@PurplesttCoffee]

I'm not entirely sure about how Google deals with different regions using the same keywords, but since any country that doesn't have English as its primary language would only ever use that word to reference the fictional character, the amount of people contributing to the "erasure" of the actual animal is way bigger than you'd expect. For a similar example, trying to learn what a "cod" was in English, as a South American kid that engaged with too much gaming content at the time, was pretty sureal

[@msNovaSixx]

@@PurplesttCoffee You right cod is infected by duty. The fish cod is almost dead.

[@MegaProClanVideos]

But he is from Australia...

[@welcometomuffintownwithkok9282]

Pitbull have enter the chat

[@willofspartacus2284]

In fairness, this isn’t limited to just Fate. Searching Spartacus at all will net you more images of the live action TV show than historic representation of the man. Such is the dual oppressive forces of time and media.

[@skylargoo477]

You also get images of Spartacus in fate lol IT NEVER ENDS

[@magniwalterbutnotwaltermag1479]

Yeah but that's because people hate on spartacus from the tv show and most image links go to an article explain how it's blackwashing rather than something like explaibig the actual history of the person

[@josephcarlolagaya9957]

This effect predated Fate. When Kantai Collection was getting big, searching some Japanese WW2 ships got you images of the shipgirl version, most famously being Shimakaze.

[@アエテルノ]

Fate series was obviously predating KanColle by about 10 years but the particulars of the effect in the gacha industry is a bit murky. Do we know when exactly KanColle and Grand Order started to become big enough to overshadow some google searches? In case of FGO, I assume it was starting to get big when the NA version finished part 1, but as for KanColle I've no clue. Any ideas?

[@tonyknighton4019]

UGH!!!!

[@luvslotsastuff]

I remember when Mandricardo was first released for Lostbelt 5, he didn't even have his own Wikipedia page in English because he's a very obscure figure. There was only one in Italian if I'm remembering correctly. In fact, I'd argue that it's BECAUSE of his Fate version that someone bothered to make an English wikipedia page for him in the first place.

[@eonnexus]

Yeah, I specifically remember when Mandricardo came out, there was NOTHING on him. No Wikipedia entry, not even anything from the other Knights of Charlemagne, it took around a week at least for me to find ANYTHING about him in English, and I have no doubt it was because of his popularity in Fate. XD

[@TactlessC]

Same here, I saw his name on a leaked list and went "Who?" and found an italian fan myth wiki on google results. The Paladins are one thing, but characters associated with the Paladins basically have NOTHING going for them. I'd say this is similar for a number of more "obscure" servants if you don't study that particular branch of History- like Qin, or Suzuka, or Sitonai.

[@ComanderSazabi2000]

@@TactlessC did you just imply that Qin Shi Huang is an obscure figure?

[@unowen36]

@@ComanderSazabi2000 I think he's talking about Qin Liangyu

[@TactlessC]

@@ComanderSazabi2000 Did you just imply you can't use context from this very video to realize I meant Qin Liangyu, and not Shi Huangdi?

[@Moon1tan]

It really goes to show how much media can influence our perspective of history I've known people who genuinely thought of the fate version of character's lore or history as real and it's bizarre

[@blurb9319]

To be fair, some characters do remain at least kinda close to their real world counterparts. Even some genderbends portray the core of their characters pretty accurately.

[@psynyder]

Same. What's also interesting is that I've only seen that happen with characters that lack any other mainstream representation or common consensus than the one depicted in Fate, so one really can't help but chalk it up to media that this is even happening.

[@Moon1tan]

@@blurb9319 of course those who's lore is relatively the same or unchanged are fine, I mean servants who's lore is completely different than their real life history

[@guestb8389]

I remember naming one of my usernames "Nero." One dude asked me if I was a Fate Fan. Not too long after, someone asked if I was a Devil May Cry fan. *WRONG!* I am a fan of *HISTORY!*

[@pyrusuchus924]

are u a jojo fan? (jk)

[@Crackedcripple]

As a Christian, I don’t like that name…..

[@possibly_ben]

are you a fan of nero??? i love their music

[@pyrusuchus924]

@@possibly_ben perhaps they are a black clover fan -i just googled that one sorry-

[@turtleofpride4572]

I tends to use either Caligula or Elagabalus depending on what the mood is.

[@bleach4k239]

Props to FGO researchers for being able to research about for historical, mythological and literary figures that has little to no data around the internet. If not because of FGO, I would be unable to learn about majority of the figures they base their characters on. I would never know about Astolfo being one of Charlemagne's paladin if not because of FGO. And ofc many more characters.

[@lucasbranc]

I feel the same, i think that was long people know their Fate version doesn't match 1:1 their real world counterpartwe're good. I mean, it doesn't take much to guess that.

[@noregrets8120]

okita also has this problem with his historical photo being replaced with fate’s rendition. Basicly the more famous they are, the more resistance you have against the astolfo effect. If you are not famous, then you bet that fate is taking that free real estate of a google search.

[@menmamadrigal1233]

The thing was for Okita they were never addressed in male or female pronouns, the one picture of Okita Souji was actually not them but another samurai standing in for them, while Ueseugi Kenshin has a urban legend about them that the reason while they never removed the veil of a monk was because they were a woman,they’re sudden death is even attributed to kenshin dying from childbirth

[@Missing-Ace]

@@menmamadrigal1233 regardless results for the factual historical Okita is being overtaken by the fictional version from fate

[@nidohime6233]

At least Okita is somewhat famous in Japan to the point to have many versions, even parody ones from Gintama. Still there are many characters in Fate that are problematic.

[@reicelestial2478]

Did Okita never have this problem when it was only his Gintama adaptation that was around?

[@SilverZetaMan]

@@reicelestial2478 The Gintama version was named slightly differently, Okita Sougo

[@goetiawasright6793]

The year is 3520. The world faced the apocalypse, civilzation was ruined, and most knowledge was lost. Traces of our history and mythologies were all lost to time. Historians willing to search them only found one thing A single hardrive, full of Fate pic, memes and Lore Fate has now overtaken history. Odysseus having a Trojan Gundam is now thaught as Greek Canon. Kinoko Nasu is reverred as a god, Fujimaru Ritsuka as the messie, and Gudako as the devil. The world found peace once again

[@saberalter1586]

I can see this happening XD

[@sorarouge6351]

I got a, name, for said, holy book: _"El rollo. Or "The Scroll"."_

[@UHavABadConnection]

This comment has the same energy as an old tumblr post i saw years ago that was making a joke about some event destroying every record of christianity except for NGE

[@Flyito]

Well, atleast now people will remember count dracul as an emperor... And violent empaler, and a vampire. But mostly a emperor

[@adrianmartinez-lq5he]

Funny because this is probably how every floklore myth born A degradation from actuall historic events

[@sparking023]

a hundred years from now, historians will be learning about the "Astolfo Effect" and how to avoid this bias when deep diving into the archives of the old internet

[@callmeandoru2627]

This isn’t limited to historical figure either. We also have things like scientific concepts under the effect. An example would be albedo, which is a science constant relating to solar radiation, but the image tab is populated by Overlord’s Albedo and Genshin Impact’s Albedo

[@TupocalypseShakur]

I remember learning about that when I was younger and looking up the first appearance of a Ben 10 character

[@valletas]

No ben 10 albedo? :(

[@kikyoism]

Also sucrose Tbh genshin’s starting to do that with sumeru characters and the italy comedy fatui thing. I screenshotted al haitham and arlecchino’s image pages before they were announced just to ckmpare them later.

[@Tigershark_3082]

Reminds me of how I've tried looking up pictures of the F-21, and instead get a variant of the F-16 given the same designation. Instead, I have to google F-21 Lion or Kfir

[@fardgarde4104]

Paimon

[@keiken96]

The Indian Servants, even Kama, were safe along with Celtic ones. Unfortunately, Shishou is questionable as images were all her and a few risque ones as well.

[@TheHetzer-xy9lb]

That's probably because she is the least historically famous of the celtic servants.

[@akiranara6404]

@@TheHetzer-xy9lb Yeah, she's just a bit-character in the Ulster cycle, a warrior queen who trains Cu Chulainn in combat until he beds her daughter and she sends him away. Hell, the one story she features in doesn't really focus on her at all, so she's basically a side-character the single time she appears. The Fate version of the character overtaking the historical one is not surprising when the person in question barely even exists.

[@TactlessC]

Prior to Fate it was all SMT which is also somewhat horny for thighs

[@desadograisedrobot515]

Searched it and Kama is... well first image was of the weapon the rest we're...

[@feaw7389]

from what I'm observing, when a character has many different interpretations like Arthur and Sherlock, even Zhuge Liang, they can be safer from "Fate invasion", but ofc still not safe from weird results. Lesser known characters though, I'm sorry for them

[@vladprus4019]

It helps that Zhuge Liang in Fate was mostly depicted as the background thing and Fate OC Waver mostly uses his power, with barely any Zhuge Liang as a person there. Therefore, the fandom basically considers Fate depicitons of "Zhuge Liang" as primarily a Waver and he is called "Waver" most of the time.

[@hicowboy2]

Some of this is really, really dependent on how much material is even out on the character. Muryan, a minor NPC from LB6, had so little on Google that I had to use my college library to use databases there as well as some unscanned books. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Fate, I doubt anyone but the most dedicated scholar would’ve heard the name. At what point is it “Fate took over” and at what point is it “nothing existed?”

[@elcuartetodeeren6507]

That sparkles an interesting debate: at which point does it stop being "substitution" and becomes some sort of "preservation"

[@Kuronosa]

Suzuka is actually kinda hilarious in this, because she is known by two names, Suzuka Gozen(Which is a term denoting some sort of status as a woman), and Suzuka GoNGEN...if you look up the first term, it's all FATE, pretty much. If you look up the latter, it's a mix of FATE, Persona, and historical mythology. The image search for that term is a mix of Fate and Persona.

[@kateliza8922]

Bruh Suzuka Gozen is nothing but Onmyoji's char i-

[@levikaneovid-19]

@@kateliza8922 The only Suzuka Gozen

[@jazzy-qn8ms]

Please look up more of this stuff for us klidge. As a history student I would love to see more historical figures who've been "corrupted" by Fate's ever-growing influence

[@CrystalBearer20]

Theory: The cuter a Servant is, the easier it is for them to fall into the Astolfo effect The more obscure, the easiest it for them to fall into the Astolfo effect. Like with Ereshkigal. It makes sense there's so little historical art because she's cute and no one knows who she is. Except me.

[@AverageAwesomeDude]

Also gods of the underworld in general in most mythologies tend to not have much art or the most famous stories (they tend to appear in other figures stories). Sort of a don’t talk or think about them lest u piss em off sort of deal

[@inumitovd7900]

Years before I knew about fate, when I was interested in finding out more about Ereshkigal, I'm pretty sure there was nothing at all but modern artistic depictions of Ereshkigal when searching google images

[@dangdart3236]

I will never forget doing my middle school gilgamesh vs enkidu project in social studies and looking up pictures of giligamesh then asking “who is this random anime dude bruh i just want images of gilgamesh”

[@thatsghosty5443]

Okay, so imagine a teacher preparing a PowerPoint presentation about Orlando Furioso, searching for some photos of characters and finding one of them represented as a pink haired girl (he doesn't know) and another one as a boy kissing with an anime guy with a weird white shirt

[@ColorOfSakura]

You get the same issue with Nero when you try searching for stuff for Iskandar. Searching "Alexander" or "Alexander the Great" nets you entirely historical sources and images/artist renditions of him. Searching for "Iskandar" will return a standard search page that's about a couple of famous Iskandars (including Alexander the Great) but also some Fate stuff. And then image search is basically entirely Fate Iskandar for several rows of image -- and there's lewd art of him within literally the first like two rows of images.

[@nidohime6233]

That's because most people around the world knows the character as Alexander the Great rather than his more obscure persian name Iskandar. Is quite common that each country or even language have a different name for a celebrity or historical figure, like how Charles II The Bewitched is actually known in spanish as Carlos II El Hechizado, or how Henry VIII was known in spanish as Enrique VIII.

[@rga1605]

I feel there should be a distinction of the Astolfo effect for historical characters and fictional ones, in the sense that are considered fictional. I'm not sure there was a historical Astolfo, but I know historians believe there was no historical King Arthur. So the interpretation would be different, while Fate depictions of Nero are more problematic because they overshadow a historical person, Fate depictions of Arthur are another interpretation of his myth.

[@fakeguccisneakers6620]

There was no actual Astolfo no. He was one of the paladins which is where our modern day fantasy class comes from. There were also 12 paladins and 12 knights of the round table. And I haven't been able to find evidence of it, but it really really seems to me that the story had the same origin somewhere

[@whitewall2253]

@@fakeguccisneakers6620 Eh, difference between the matter of france and the Arthurian mythos was that Charlemagne was an actual historical figure who actually existed.

[@fakeguccisneakers6620]

@@whitewall2253 The paladins however, were not

[@mylesobrien7477]

Fate changed the way I engaged in history class forever I was a lot more into it when I imagined anime jeanne d arc in my head.

[@OdaNobunaga15]

I guess that’s one of way taking it, haha.

[@ssj5gogeta1310]

I don't think this counts exactly as "Astolfo effect", but I just find it hilarious. There is a Wikipedia page called "List of mythological objects". It's funny to look at history of descriptions of Diarmuid's spears (these are just sampled through Wayback Machine, I did not feel like tracking down the exact dates when the relevant changes were made). November 2015 Gáe Buide (Yellow Shaft) and the Gáe Derg (Red Javelin), spears of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, could inflict wound that none can recover from. November 2016 Gáe Buide (Yellow Shaft), a yellow spear that can inflict wounds from which none could recover. The spear of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, given to him by Aengus. (Irish mythology) Gáe Derg (Red Javelin), a red spear that can destroy any magic that touches its pointed head. The spear of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, given to him by Aengus. (Irish mythology) April 2018 Gáe Buide (Yellow Shaft), a yellow spear that can inflict wounds from which none could recover. The spear of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, given to him by Aengus. (Irish mythology) Gáe Derg (Red Javelin), the red spear of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, given to him by Aengus. In mythology, it does not nullify magic, unlike some fiction might say. (Irish mythology) November 2021 Gáe Buide (Yellow Shaft), a yellow spear that can inflict wounds from which none could recover. The spear of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, given to him by Aengus. Gáe Dearg (Red Javelin), the red spear of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, given to him by Aengus. It inflicted wounds that none could recover from similar to Gáe Buide.

[@felonyx5123]

Bad edits to the "List of mythological objects" page also may be the reason that Ichaival, a weapon Fire Emblem made up, has been included in multiple different franchises by people who thought it was part of real Norse mythology.

[@winterlyblac6745]

I’ve noticed Douman falls under this, seeing as searching ‘Ashiya Douman,’ or 「蘆屋道満」 yields results nearly exclusive to Fate, bar his Wikipedia page and a couple images. Similarly, researching a variation of his name, ‘Douma Houshi,’ or 「道摩法師」leads mostly to fate in English, though interestingly, searching the latter in Japanese yields broader portrayals images-wise, a genderbend from the 放置少女/Houchi Shoujo gacha and two Wikipedia articles.

[@animationtaku6366]

Uhh no, ashiya douman is pretty well known in Japanese culture. I'd say close to tamamo no mae or even the shinsengumj, at least in Japan

[@winterlyblac6745]

You are correct, he is well known even now in Japan due to the Kabuki play 「蘆屋道満大内鑑」and by searching that, you find exclusively classical portrayals of the play or artwork of it. However, by following the method within this video, by searching his name. Both in English and Japanese you find that the majority of websites and images are regarding his Fate interpretation. So much so, that even in Japanese searches, the play isn’t in any of the top results. Instead being found easier under 「道満伝説」 or the ‘Cultural Reference,’ sections in his Japanese and English Wikipedia articles respectively. While I understand your rebuttal, and agree that in Japan itself he is not impacted greatly by Fate, being that he is a long standing cultural figure. Regarding online searches specifically, he has obviously been impacted, I would argue to a similar extent to Tamamo no Mae from an immediate comparison.

[@sugoistalin7809]

Astolfo doesn't make me question my sexuality. *He confirms it.*

[@LeonOwO]

Imagine being born 400 years ago, a great warrior of your people, a conquerer. and in the future you're only known as an anime femboy.

[@kumasama2447]

I literaly thought that Nero save Roma from a fire but then a friend and my history teacher tell me that he was the one who provoked it so yes she deserves to be here

[@joshuamanlapaz9380]

Really? Cuz my prof told me that nero was actually away from rome at the time, he rushed back to bring the survivors to his. He was rumored to have started the fire because he thought to take advantage of the fire razing the land to construct the Domus Aurea

[@imatiu]

To be fair, historical Nero is complicated, we don't know exactly how much of the stories about Nero are true and how much it's propaganda from his political enemies. It might have been that he was incompetent and self centered to the point of not doing anything for Rome, it might have been that his politics were beneficial to the people of Rome and the ruling class didn't like that and as such demonized him to hell and back. Most historical figures that were controversial at the time are like that, hell most modern politicians are like that, Fidel Castro is constantly demonized by the USA, but many people in Latin America have great esteem for him, the current president of Mexico is either completely incompetent and has done nothing of value or a complete game changer to the entire political and social systems that has done more for the country than anyone else in the last 20 years, again depending on who you ask. Politics are always like that, and not having detailed impartial records makes historical political figures a complete headache to investigate.

[@inumitovd7900]

Nero had many enemies among the intellectual/political elite, so whether he was guilty or not is impossible to determine since almost all records pertaining to him were written by people who were opposed to him to begin with. Now lets imagine IRL Nero "knowing" that in 2k or so years people from all across the world would collect pocket sized statues of genderbent him as a hero of humanity

[@sifkitt]

This is literally what happened to Saint Nicolas/Santa Claus, with the whole Coca Cola giving the red outfit. That being said, if I’ve been good can Astolfo come down my chimney instead and give me presents

[@-THE_META]

Klidge listing all the fetish art. Me: Oh how unsightingly, how horrible!!! (pulls out Google)

[@jacksonbowns1087]

History/Literature Teacher: Oh boy, I can't wait to teach my students about Charlemagne and the stories about his twelve paladins. I'll just get some reference artwork for each of them and- What the hell is this?

[@masons5280]

Scathach also fails the test since there's not much on her lore she might as well be a Fate original

[@RawPikachu]

This experiment should be conducted in a incognito page to avoid your search results being affected by your previous search results.

[@jakejohnson718]

"If you look up nero, it's all just the actual emperor" DMC Nero at 5:53 : hi, how are ya

[@valletas]

Another example of this effect to a bigger scale is king midas Everyone knows him as a king who turns whatever he touches into gold Few know that he was actually a real king and we dont really have much information about him because the myth overtook his entire legacy

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Dang. Even his own legacy turned to gold.

[@elsewhereprince3969]

“Then I remembered I had safe search on.”

[@clementej03]

Oddly enough I like it, it’s a bit like in ancient times when stories would be passed from word to word, and interprets would distort the story. This is the same but it passes through internet culture which results in funny images.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

"Apparently, every single person of significance to history from this era was a reasonably attractive, 18-23 year old woman. Or was a man that looked like a reasonably attractive 18-23 year old woman."

[@septa7559]

In my literature class the teacher searched "Gilgamesh" and it was extremely awkward while he scrolled trying to find the actual thing among all the anime

[@saltiestsiren]

So, what the Astolfo Effect concludes is that if you're on a school computer and you want to look at naughty images, you can simply pick from a handful of Fate characters to "research".

[@h2ophreak]

Language you search in matters too. Sometimes there just isn't a whole lot written about some figures in English but a lot in the language of the place they're from. I know through looking up some Chinese figure that a wiki page in English may be miniscule but when you switch to the Chinese page there's a ton there.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

One day, a way to bypass this in research will be taught. I imagine this day will not come until a fairly prolific educator tasks a student with a research paper on Astolfo, and gets a 12 page report on bussy

[@inari8039]

It's surprising how big boi Gilgamesh is safe Also with Ushi it happens the same as with Nagao, if you search "Minamoto no Yoshitsune" it would be safe but if you search "Ushiwakamaru" it's all Fate

[@nidohime6233]

Not always was like that. There was a time where the only famous representation of Gilgamesh in modern media was from Fate/Stay Night. Also Ushiwakamaru is actually a very famous fairy tale character in Japan, there are not just Fate version of it, which his historical counterpart is actually Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

[@vladprus4019]

Honestly, this test is essentially the way to check just how much a certain historical/legendary figure is ignored by popular media that is not Fate. It it fails, that means that outside certain niche, the person was bascailly barely known to anyone. The Fate stuff burried them, yes, but without it... there wouldn't be many things either.

[@mattroxursoul]

Usually if someone brought up the real Gil in an online video you would just get people calling each other mongrels and that did not mess with anything really

[@iamasalad9080]

Searching bumblebee will exclusively show images of Bumblebee unless you specify with bumblebee animal.

[@scrapyarddragon]

Imagine being the ghost of some famous guy and while you're haunting your old place you see someone googling you and pics of anime girls start popping up. Must be wild.

[@helltaker6865]

I can't wait for the day where the true king of England is known far and wide as a blonde girl with a laser sword who after death was revived as a familiar and fell in love with a red haired Japanese boy with a sick soundtrack only to end up seperated again by the sea of time as she continuously waits while he infinitely chases even as another meetup is all but impossible

[@AzureAetherXx]

I think this your best video. This is something I don't think many Fate fans talk about or realize. There are several historical figures that I didn't know about that Fate directly introduced me to. I wouldn't even be playing FGO if it weren't for Mata Hari whom untill FGO I didn't even know existed before this. It's interesting how we can learn about these figures through adaptations but we do have to make sure to preserve original sources for historical research.

[@strippinheat]

The images being corrupted isn't a surprise. Not a lot of photographs of Emperor Nero floating around, ya know.

[@pleaserespond3984]

The moment Google's AI search can accurately distinguish between Fate Astolfo and historical Astolfo and return correct results is when I'll start suspecting it might be sentient.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

I suspect it already is, but chooses to only return Fate Astolfo because it thinks it's funny.

[@CornmanC]

> Search for "Blackbeard" > Results from Pirates of the Caribbean and One Piece > Search for "Edward Teach" > Results from Fate and Our Flag Means Death You can't win.

[@OdaNobunaga15]

Caenis also has the Astolfo effect. Right before her release in Fate, all you could find where very small information about him/her (since they are a very obscure figure in Greek Myth). Now if you look her up all you get is mostly Fate stuff.

[@lyebatenkaitosofgluttony2452]

'It's all the actual emperor" Meanwhile, Nero staring at me like I'm Vergil and need to pay his child support

[@csepkesallai5723]

This happened to the commedia dellarte characters before Google fixed it somewhat. There was a time when much of their portraits were the Genshin versions.

[@Written_in_the_Starss]

I don't think we should call this as "astolfo effect" when this is already a thing even before Fates Altofo even existed.

[@ElkaPME]

I mean, there was the wolverine effect, but it was pretty much exclusive between the actor of wolverine and the animal itself. Astolfo on the other hand-

[@lyn6585]

ah astolfo effect, already read it before from some site and still find it fascinating that fate has overcome the history

[@belphy205]

Oooh this is interesting. Thanks Klidge. And yes I’ve learnt a lot about historical figures via fate. I bought a book about Gilgamesh simply because of fate. Im also planning to try and get the book Mandricardo features in, cause I like Mandricardo. Now to fan art of my favourite ship Are we not gonna talk about the real life Oda Nobunaga from Guda Guda 4

[@misellus3931]

so its like knuckles you cant find an image of knuckles if you type "human knuckles" you just get a human version of knuckles

[@zodiacstarlegues]

Why am I not surprised that medb images is just lewd.

[@maxprzful]

Great video, i must admit that while roaming the internet sometimes i ask myself..."what if for some reason the historic records go away and the memes and "art" is the one thing left behind" i can only imagine what our descendants are going to think

[@acupofwhitetea]

So.. is this some sort of variant on the Innocent Monster effect? Salieri is meta on this since his canon rendition is due to misinformation from a film that became more popular than actual history. Fate just further enforces that rendition with Avenger Salieri.

[@williamtrfar1830]

7:21 Something to bear in mind is that there are a few different ways that the name can be spelt, Medb, Meadb, Meidb, Meadhbh and Maeve are all valid spellings of the Queen of Connacht's name (though the last one is the Anglicization).

[@Kokubito]

Iskandar has the same problem as Kagetora it seems. If you look Alexander the Great you won't see even the young version, but if you look Iskandar aside for one wikipedia page of the historical version of him it's all Broskandar

[@terrorrs]

this has to be the most entertaining video ive watched in YEARS

[@HittingBandy]

You can also say that the Astolfo Effect can also apply to anything else aside from Historical themes. For an example, Ptilopsis is a bird originating in Africa, but searching up said noun would show Ptilopsis the 5 star aoe healer from Arknights.

[@ekkovaan2261]

3:42 "the corruption of fate" sounds like some affliction slowly turning who-/whatever is responsible for keeping the world from dying due to preventable fate (example: a cosmic entity more powerful than the gods nudges events in suddle ways and prevents big bad evil guy from conquering the world via plucky hero discovering a hidden strength of his during a battle right as the bbeg is about to win and get some hyper powerfull artifact as a result) to evil/past tense. Edit: aparently i wrote the comment but forgot to add some key words so it was a bit brain melting to read

[@ThanatosZero]

It is kinda strange, that even the advanced google search cannot exlude all of fate's Astolfo, even if you put the time range before his publication.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Fate Astolfo is infecting search results back in time, such is his power.

[@griffionwyvrus9063]

Answer, the more obscure the character is the higher the chance of this happening. I think it's not a bad thing especially if Fate introduce characters that rarely adapted in other modern works.

[@foultarnished3134]

I think the problem also has to do with the language, a character like kagetora is only ever searched in the west in relation to fgo, but in japan it would probably look different. Also, Ereshkigal has the problem of having no representation in any ruins or relics, other than a single engraving which could be her, but could also be Ishtar, so the image search just goes to fate by default. It's not like fate overtook the page, there wasn't much there to begin with.

[@Junociider]

5:52 _looks to the right_ *AS THE DARKNESS OF NIGHT FALLS AROUND MY SOUL-*

[@joshb1898]

I feel like Safe, Euclid, and Keter would be better classifications for the test

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

We have a containment breach on Astolfo, I repeat, we have a containment breach on Astolfo, all personnel must immediately equip a class 3 or higher environmental suit within 20 seconds, or your sexuality will experience distortion. Wait... I think I feel something in my suit. NNNNOOOO- -End of transmission.

[@micko5614]

... I just realized this will probably happen to most media inspired by myth and history. The game I'm playing right now (Housamo) has some that I didn't even know existed. Some I can't even search without needing to pay because of how obscure they are. Housamo might be more accurate than what I see from Fate's but it might be strange if you search "tanetomo fgo" and you see Housamo's rendition of them as a crossdressing dog warrior : D Anyways, I will not be surprised if Tangaroa's image search is full of Housamo Fan-art.

[@whitefox3189]

I can't help but think how these search results looked like before Fate.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

One of those sad Google results where you get Wikipedia, three obscure forums, a weird KZbin Video, a d Google asking you if you misspelled your search at the bottom.

[@LylacLily]

me at 4 am: huh, neat

[@izzymosley1970]

Even though I'm not a historian I'm not worried about this effect because at the end of the day fate it's just a franchise that will someday either go out of business or become drastically less popular but actual history is too heavily valued by society for it to be overshadowed forever.

[@brian_Austin27]

Yeah It's kinda scary, I hope they will let u add fate or fgo first then the servant name

[@vladprus4019]

"but actual history is too heavily valued by society for it to be overshadowed forever." We have many counter-points about works of fiction overtaking history for centuries to this very day. Like: "Romance of Three Kingdoms" (work of fiction, written 1000 years after the historical events) vs "Records of Three Kingdoms". I doubt that Fate will have as much staying power, but... well, if the work ficition is fundamental enough for the culture, than it can overtake the real thing. Also you could just think that acess to information would prevent it in the longrun, but... we can never be sure, really.

[@izzymosley1970]

@@vladprus4019 well those societies had different priorities then ours and we can keep history better so even though history has been overtaken by fiction in the past I doubt something like that can happen again aside from things like State propaganda.

[@putrangos]

Fun fact: First search for orion is a street

[@prosamis]

This video is pure gold Hilariously informative

[@jvts8916]

This is the one time I can be relieved by how historical names are sometimes "localized". Thanks to EXTELLA onwards having no Spanish language, you can Google search search for Nerón instead of Nero. Or you can search for Joan of Arc, because Fate keeps her French name. In general, I think a video checking if searching for the figure in a different language (eg. Charles the Great instead of Charlemagne) gives different results would be an interesting sequel

[@GusCraft460]

So, here’s a counterpoint: Cleopatra is widely depicted in both modern and ancient depictions as having straight hair about neck length, however, statues of her from he lifetime show her with curly or wavy hair much shorter. Historical art can already be corrupted.

[@lazer_31]

Imagine if Fate was our only record of history for the future generation, and for aliens.

[@Theiupsilon]

Wait, hold up... the Astolfo from Fate comes from that Astolfo in the Orlando Furioso? W H A T Ok, Nasu, you win.

[@dio-sama1480]

As a romanian, I'm really happy that Vlad wasn't affected by the Astolfo effect. He already got it rough by being thought of as Dracula.

[@notcraig255]

i'm glad Skanderbeg was not even touched by fate at all, hes much like vlad except without the impaling part. i like fate but i don't want to search up skanderbeg and only see a hunky anime guy

[@Kevinblue035]

this reminds me of how i saw a thread about how the only anime representation of Marduk, the main god of the Babylonian pantheon, is from a lewd bara furry game, and it's a surprisingly accurate and well thought out depiction that could rival a fate servant in terms of meaningful lore references. thankfully it's a pretty obscure game so no bull tiddies or dragon vore on the google search

[@klidge]

In a sense, that’s actually amazing

[@SpaceRodan]

Ozymandias is safe. As his given name, Ramesses will easily be historical (though there were 11 some odd Ramesses so use the Second or the Great for this one). And Ozymandias, the Greek reading of his Pharaonic Title will produce FGO but more commonly Watchmen.

[@TupocalypseShakur]

I'm amazed that the comic character beat out the fate character

[@JimmyEatDirt]

The same goes for Mikasa, originally a battleship, mostly known for being a stoic badass

[@VickyKujikawa]

Very funny and curious video!! Also, good taste right here my friend, Nitocris is lovely

[@thegreattotemaster]

Admittedly I'm not a Fate fan, but I am something of a mythology fan, and I reckon there's probably a somewhat comparable effect going on with Norse mythology figures (especially Thor and Loki) due to Marvel, and to a lesser extent God of War. Though I haven't really tested it like you have.

[@ifyareadthishaveapleasante8885]

The astolfo effect actually is the definition of "I'm not gay... ... However"

[@xiodraco]

Reminds me of the effect Jurassic Park has on dinosaurs. A couple years ago you could look up giganotosaurus and find images of the actual animal relatively easily. Now its just the awful jp design and toys based off it.

[@anadaere6861]

Honestly, so long as astolfo remains fun and jovial and whacky, he's still astolfo

[@prrrusssia]

I was looking for a poem called “Mozart and Salieri” and… I found a lot of questionable things including yaoi fate fanfictions and arts

[@YataTheFifteenth]

I'm fucking sorry Fate has Mozart and god damn Salieri?

[@prrrusssia]

@@YataTheFifteenth yes in Fate/Grand Order. You can see Salieri on my pfp

[@JakeMatthews-OnLo]

I’ve always been amazed at how a fictional character known for being nonchalant can cause so much chaos and uproar in fiction and real life. I honestly can’t stand the character anymore, while everyone was having fun with the character I’m reminded by how annoying my twitter feed was from suggestions because I followed so many FGO accounts, Artist, and cosplayers. I kept getting spammed by debates saying Astolfo was trans, people memeing the monster energy drinks till them meme was nothing but bones flies didn’t bother with, Akoman Retweet’s every few hours and just so many cosplays from a character I didn’t found interesting or funny. I just wanted to see art from JP artist man.

[@yosemitesam9576]

Twitter has become a hellscape especially for anime watchers. I just hang around the doscords now

[@JakeMatthews-OnLo]

@@yosemitesam9576 I know but my Pixiv is over cluttered and Most popular Japanese artist are still in that platform. I just wished when I clicked not interested in this topic they would actually implement something for me not to see it again.

[@PrintScreen.]

people saying astolfo is trans...yep...had to deal with that shit many times, it's on reddit too

[@pottedplant37_]

Honestly, I'd say Fate got me to enjoy history more. I shit you not, if it wasn't for seeing Astolfo's character in Apoc or Richard's in Strange Fake, I wouldn't have ever known they existed outside of hearing their names once or twice. I'm glad my stupid noveln'ts got me to find this facet of my character.

[@gaminggeckos4388]

I noticed some of this effect in play when I was doing Google searches for "Gilgamesh," back when we were reading Gilgamesh in school. Not too invasive tho

[@ShiroNekoDen]

Needs more so many more of this

[@justanotherguywithamoustac8893]

I did this with friends on Shin Megami Tensei demons, and sadly I didn't have as entertaining results

[@badatnames333]

I can't look up Emiya anymore without getting the Fate version! See what the Astolfo effect has done!

[@chiiri_h]

Okada Izou is an interesting one because theres very very little material on the historical version available in English, despite his popularity

[@desmondmalone438]

If you look up Okita Souji you get not only fate but also Gintama and the actual Okita so she sorta safe

[@Kuronosa]

The problem with "The Matter of France," is that it is not as popular outside of its home region as many other stories.

[@nidohime6233]

Sadly yes. Most obscure heroes are only known in their home countries, and many times not even them are bother to make movies and other media about them either.

[@AndrewSnake]

That was fast Dude ...we dint even press the timer XD

[@NUCLEARxREDACTED]

Had this problem with Amakusa Shiro. Absolutely fascinating real life historical figure. But I had to sort through metric butt tons of fate crap to find out anything about him