[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Polarpew

Spoiler for Chapter 8:

Also, Gil is being deliberately vague as usual, but does give insight on the mechanics of the Ainsworth Class Cards, where the Heroic Spirits' personalities are apparently subsumed ala Berserker. Gil reasons that he's been able to keep his personality and free will because of his massive ego, but as usual it's likely not the whole story.

not the whole story? I think Gil having a MASSIVE ego sums it up pretty nicely. Remember how the black mud back in F/SN and F/ Zero? Didn't do shit to Gil cuz rules dont apply that that badass

I think Gil (or rather Bazett) is suggesting that there is more that went behind the Servant card creation than Gil mentioned. If the Servant's personalities were suppressed in order to create the cards, then that suggests that the Servants did start out as the traditional summoned Servants a la Fate/Stay Night. If that's the case, then how did the Ainsworths manage to turn all seven Servants into cards? I can't imagine all of them went down willingly.
It's also hard to believe that Kotomine is nothing more than a humble mapo tofu ramen shop owner when he has shown to have a close connection to Gilgamesh not just in the main series but in the Ainsworth's world as well.

Gil revealing that the Servants did have personalities also calls into question how the cards were created in Ilya's world. Did the Einzberns also subjugate all the Servants into cards like the Ainsworths did, and if so, why? Considering Kiritsugu is still alive and well (and apparently "working" most of the time), could it be that he was the one who sealed the Servants into cards to prevent another Holy Grail War?