Saber

About Saber

Saber is the knight Servant of Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, summoned by Shirou Emiya into the Fifth Holy Grail War. Dignified, dutiful and quietly fond of good food, she is secretly Artoria Pendragon, King Arthur herself, fighting for a Grail she hopes can undo her reign and her country's fall. She serves a Master with no training and no plan, yet treats his household and his borrowed dream with more patience than either probably deserves.

Appearance

Saber is a young woman of small, athletic build with fair skin, green eyes and blonde hair worn in a braided bun with a single strand standing up at the front. In battle she wears a blue dress reinforced with silver armour, gauntlets and armoured boots, and carries herself with a knight's straight backed posture at all times. Her sword is usually hidden inside Invisible Air, so opponents see only the shimmer of compressed wind around her hands. Out of armour she favours simple, modest clothes and an enormous appetite at the dinner table.

Personality

Saber is chivalry made flesh: honest to a fault, disciplined, courteous to enemies and incapable of a cheap victory. She treats being a Servant as a duty to be performed perfectly, eats like a soldier on campaign and relaxes only in small, guilty ways, a lion plush, a second helping. Under the armour she is a girl who gave up her name, her youth and eventually her happiness for a country, and who carries its fall as a personal failure. Shirou's recklessness infuriates her precisely because she recognises her own self sacrifice in it.

Background & Story

Saber is Artoria Pendragon, the King Arthur of legend, summoned in her prime with her life unfinished. Raised as a squire who hid her gender, she drew the sword of selection and ruled Britain through years of war, holding an ideal of the perfect, selfless king that her knights and people could never quite live beside. Her kingdom fell anyway, and on a hill of corpses she accepted a contract with the World: win the Holy Grail, and she could use it to redo her reign and save Britain from its fate. Before Shirou, she was summoned into the Fourth War by Kiritsugu Emiya, whose ruthless methods horrified her and whose final order, to destroy the Grail, she has never understood. The Fifth War gives her a Master who is Kiritsugu's son and his opposite, a boy who keeps shielding her with his own body. Through Shirou, and through clashing with Archer's despair, Saber begins to question whether a king who regrets everything truly served her people, and in this route she finally lays down the wish she carried across two wars, at peace with the life she actually lived.

Powers & Abilities

• Excalibur: The Sword of Promised Victory, a divine blade that releases stored light as a fortress destroying beam. It is among the strongest Noble Phantasms in the war.
• Invisible Air: A sheath of compressed wind that hides her sword's shape and can be released for a sudden burst of speed or a hammering gust in close combat.
• Mana Burst: Saber floods her body and weapon with magical energy, giving a small frame the strength and speed to trade blows with Berserker.
• Instinct: A battle sense close to precognition. Saber reads attacks and intentions a heartbeat early, which is why she is so hard to ambush or trick.

Key Relationships

• Shirou Emiya: Her Master, whose habit of shielding her with his own body offends her honour and then changes her mind about what her life was for.
• Kiritsugu Emiya: Her Master in the Fourth War. Their partnership was a disaster of clashing ideals, and his final command still haunts her when she meets his son.
• Gilgamesh: The King of Heroes who decided in the previous war that she should be his. His obsession makes him her most personal enemy in the finale.
• Rin Tohsaka: An ally Master she respects as a proper mage. In the Sunny Day ending, Rin becomes the anchor keeping Saber in the world.

Quick Answers