Meh, it's just too edgy for its own good. They are just trying to appear cool and intelectual for your average animu watcher. After all this show is riddled in cheesy cliches. But in no means is it bad, after all if it works don't fix it. In this case everything this has to offer has already been done time and again, and since they cater to teenagers(shonen iirc), they have to have something a bit more thoroughly built out to keep the viewers hooked. If it wasn't for the stellar animation quality this would be another average popcorn animu. But that is(as everything mentioned here) my own personal opinion. Hopefully Heaven's Feel will give me some closure as for where this series is going, I hope for the best.

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I would almost rather he was odysseus. The future alternate dimension version is certainly out of left field, but while i feel it was done for a surprise it just feels contrived to me.

done too often for originality to be original sort of thing. liked the backstory after i read it. didn't like the identity.

They drop a ton of clues though, so it's not really out of left field. They show archer also having the 1 of a kind pendant, shirou replicates the same swords, archer's unexplained obsession with shirou, and lots of dialogue that kind of hinted at it if you were looking for it. I thought it was a nice way to say hero's aren't just something of the past, there will be ones in the future too and the summoning isn't bound by time.

I think it's kind of funny people have their minds blown when mainstream media (movies, tv shows, books) use these concepts, but when it's an anime everyone thinks it's a cheesy overused concept. It's all about the presentation.

I always search through stuff I'm interested in. Literally no matter what it is, if I'm that interested, I overcome my reservations of spoiling myself in what's to come. After all, seeing it fleshed out in an episode can't compare with whatever you read in a wiki, or a manga.

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Rider? that's weird. He should have been a lancer or saber in my opinion. He was not only a Myrmidon but the finest among them. a man who could fight and win uncontested against any other man alive had it not been for his weakness in his heel. His abilities with his sword, shield, and spear were as legendary as the strength of Hercules.

When does he ever use a horse?

According to the research I did, Achilles DID meet the requirements to be summoned into the Lancer class. As long as they've met the all the requirements, what class a servant can be summoned as is really just luck of the draw. The wiki said nothing of his being able to be summoned as a Saber, but it DID mention that he has a small sword that he fights with while mounted.

His "ability" with the heel does come into play in that series. He was fighting both Saber and Berserker of the "Black Faction" using a normal spear (and without a mount despite his being a rider) no problem. The wiki says that unless his heel is targeted, he can only be harmed by servants the the "Divinity" ability of a certain rank. It is even stated that no member of the Black Faction can win a fight against Achilles without the help of THEIR archer, who happened to be Chiron (the Centaur said to have trained most if not ALL heroes from Greek Mythology). While I'm not sure about Chiron's "Divinity" skill, I do know that the wiki claims that he trained Achilles, thus allowing him to know to aim for his former student's heel.

As for the horse... I don't remember EXACTLY, but I believe that (when I first learned the story of Achilles in middle-school) it was said that he was riding a chariot in battle when he happened to take an arrow to his heel and be killed. But that's if my memory serves correctly, which it doesn't always...

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Rider? that's weird. He should have been a lancer or saber in my opinion. He was not only a Myrmidon but the finest among them. a man who could fight and win uncontested against any other man alive had it not been for his weakness in his heel. His abilities with his sword, shield, and spear were as legendary as the strength of Hercules.

When does he ever use a horse?

Ever read about the Trojan War? He has chariot pulled by Zeus' bulls iirc. and Achilles' was confirmed to be able to be summoned in other Classes. Specifically Lancer.

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I tried to start reading it, but the translation is... well, I'll just say that it's very dense. Fate/stay night is a pretty intimidating investment already, given its length, but add to that the eccentricities of its translation and the complexity of its plot, and it was more than enough to make me put it off and instead read some (somewhat) lighter fare.

That's not the translation. Nasu's writing style is just very peculiar. Trust me, the H-scenes are hilariously bad (he learned his lesson and got someone else to write them in Fate/Hollow ataraxia)

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I would almost rather he was odysseus. The future alternate dimension version is certainly out of left field, but while i feel it was done for a surprise it just feels contrived to me.

done too often for originality to be original sort of thing. liked the backstory after i read it. didn't like the identity.

Not really. They mention, in canon, that the Holy Grail can pull a Servant from ANY period of time. Past or future. In fact, that's one of the first things mentioned, so it's more of a case of foreshadowing. Plus, the connection between GARcher and Shirou was hinted at early on: They used the exact same manner of spells and fighting style (Tracing to create/empower weapons, a bow and preference for dual-wielding). There's also the fact that they kind of look somewhat similar if you look closely enough.

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Also on the Servants meeting requirements:

Heracles (Fate/stay night's Berserker) can be summoned as EVERY class aside from Caster. Same with Lu Bu (also a Berserker, but from the video game Fate/EXTRA)

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I'm sure it was said they needed the archer because it was an arrow to his heel that ultimately killed him, and not specifically because Chiron bore any divinity.

Yu are correct about the chariot but there is a flaw in that point, even if you did say your memory on the subject is hazy. (btw the chariot was used more widely known as the device in which he drug Hector's Body around the city with, not for his battles with it.)

and also a chariot is hardly any different from a carriage in that it is a form of horse drawn vehicle. the only difference being one you stand on and one you sit in. Perseus and Hercules have more claim to the rider title in that some of their mythology at one point claims that they rode a pegasus. In a chariot you body never even touches a horse. it just directs them from the reins.

The saber point only mildly surprises me though. In Fate/stay Night saber was mentioned to be an ultimate all around-er. Achilles on the other hand while being proficient in the sword excelled mostly in the spear. On the other hand, Quite literally the only time Achilles is ever seen to really interact with horses though is in the humiliation of hectors corpse through the chariot drag. which does not, a horse rider make.

Servant's legends are taken into account. The desecration of Hector's corpse is one of the more well-known things about Achilles, hence him being a Rider. Kind of like how F/SN's Rider is Medusa, because her blood made Pegasus.

Also, nononono, you see the Saber CLASS is the most well-rounded in terms of Stats. IE: It's the best all-arounder. A Berserker like, say Heracles, would kick the shit out the average Saber because his Strength and Endurance is stupidly high (A+ STR, A END). What's funnier is he's actually at his weakest because he can't use his Noble Phantasm due to Mad Enhancement (which is good, because that thing is broken as fuck).

For an example of what kind of broken monster the Berserker class is when it can use their Noble Phantasms properly: See the Fourth Holy Grail War, Fate/Zero, and the Berserker there (hint: He's a Knight of the Round table, and the Lancer to King Arthur).

Due to his Rank A+ Eternal Arms Mastership skill and the Noble Phantasm Knight of Honor, he can use any weapon as though he had trained with it his entire life, even if it's totally alien to the person he was in life. Because he recognizes a fighter jet as a weapon, he can first turn it into his Noble Phantasm and then fly it far better than any human pilot. His second Noble Phantasm, For Someone's Glory lets him distort and alter his appearance, giving him the ability to disguise himself to be anyone, including other servants like when he convincingly disguises himself as Iskander. If not for Mad Enhancement, he could have spent the entire War pretending to be other Servants sowing chaos among the other Masters. Strength? A. Agility? A+. Endurance? A. Using his third Noble Phantasm Arondight and getting a stat boost on top of all that? Come on, man, quit hogging all the badass!