My sympathies, fallacies. The belief likely comes at least in part due to the source material being in Japanese, leading to English fans having issues knowing what is 'canon' or not due to translation differences. Personally I feel all is fine for writing fanfic and such as long as you maintain general themes and outlines of the setting, but that sort of thing would be subjective.
Degraded approximations are not the same as the actual deal. Archer and Shirou being unable to project the real deal doesn't mean that they couldn't in theory project something similar that performs the same function despite the cost. The only retcon here is pretending that the fan interpretations were right in the beginning when it was that Archer could project Excalibur because of Shirou projecting something that looks like Excalibur Morgan.
It looking like Excalibur doesn't make it Excalibur. And Archer claiming that he can approximate something similar isn't saying that he can project Excalibur either. CM3 clarifies later that projecting Excalibur isn't possible, but degraded NPs that can pull off the same function are. This isn't a retcon given that nothing prior explicitly states that he could project Excalibur in the first place. Hence the fact that this is simply fan interpretation getting contradicted rather than any canon retcon.
Again, assuming you had the correct assumptions from the start is not in any way an argument that there was a retcon in the first place. You still have to prove it, and given the obvious lack of statements saying "Archer can totally project Excalibur" pre CM3, this wasn't something you could do at all. Strong incorrect impressions happen all the time, considering Vader's line to Luke has been twisted into something else over the years. And Archer never states that he could replicate Excalibur explicitly either. Making an approximation isn't equivalent to making a copy (like Rho Aias, K&B or Caladbolg).
He makes an approximation. That is never used to describe his other projections like Rho Aias, Caladbolg, Hrunting or K&B. What makes you think that he means that he can replicate Excalibur exactly, other than personal interpretation?
You're getting a degraded/ranked down version of it out of nowhere. Again, personal interpretation is not fact. Especially when approximation has never been used to describe other projections, something you keep ignoring for essentially no reason.
Again, it's not stated explicitly to be Excalibur, just something that approximates it enough to pull off a beam sword clash vs the real deal. Pretending otherwise that he could actually project Excalibur as of FSN when the text never says so unlike any of his other projections is lying to yourself. Sorry, but this isn't exactly up for debate unless you like to pretend you knew what the writer intended to depict in the story better than what was actually given and love to ignore other facts that disagree with your personal interpretation.
He says he can't project Excalibur but make a approximate of it.
Killing myself by projecting Excalibur is not being able to project Excalibur. Again, when none of the already ranked down projections like K&B, Caladbolg, Rho Aias and Hrunting are called approximations unlike what Archer says he can do for Excalibur, are we somehow going to ignore the other examples and pretend like he totally can project Excalibur and not it's 2 cents knockoff that can do something similar to the real deal?
Every grail is fake. Even the one in Stay Night. It has been canon since Stay Night that the Fuyuki Holy Grail is the 726th artifact to hold the name.
There's a difference between Holy Grails-wishgranting devices, in Fate Terms-and Holy Grail Wars. The latter in Apocrypha are courtesy of Darnic leaking the basic details as a distraction, and a bunch of people making their own. I presume they run off the same Rhinegold Foundation as the main War, except without directly using the Rhinegold.
The problem is that even if you'd said "yeah, the faker grail" then that'd be something entirely different as well.Saying 'fake grail' seemed simpler than saying 'Fake Grail that isn't the Greater Holy Grail that isn't the actual Holy Grail'.
...Thinking on it, I don't actually have a straight citation, I just have heavy implications between the Einzberns having it, the Grail in Apocrypha clearly being made of gold and our other known Heroic Spirit summoning system, FATE, running off something that gathers legendary figures as well. 'Scuse me, I'm off to citationhunt.
EMIYA has a Grail? That's news to me.
I've heard rumours that he's gotten severalEMIYA has a Grail? That's news to me.
