Saber (Fate)

Artoria Pendragon, also known as Saber and the King of Knights, is one of the three heroines, and the tritagonist of the visual novel Fate/stay night and the anime series based off it. Specifically she's the main heroine and deuteragonist of the Fate route, the tritagonist of the Unlimited Blade Works route and, as Saber Alter, one of the two secondary antagonists of the Heaven's Feel route (alongside True Assassin). She is the Servant of Shirou Emiya in the Fifth Holy Grail War. After becoming the Servant of Sakura Matou in the Heaven's Feel route, she is known as Saber Alter or Black Saber. She is also the Servant of Kiritsugu Emiya during the Fourth Holy Grail War and the deuteragonist of the prequel novel and anime series, Fate/Zero. She further makes appearances in other stories set in the narrative universe of Fate.
She is voiced by Ayako Kawasumi in the Japanese version of the anime and Kate Higgins and Michelle Ruff in the English dubs of Fate/Stay Night and the Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works movie, respectively, with the latter also voicing her in Fate/Apocrypha. In the English dub of all other animated media, she is voiced by Kari Wahlgren, who also voices Celty Sturluson, Saya Otonashi and Sakura Kinomoto.
==Background==
Saber is the focus of the Fate route, as well as playing a major role in Unlimited Blade Works. She is the Servant summoned by Shirou Emiya, with her true identity being King Arthur. Being a Saber class, she excels in many areas of fighting and has a very high magic resistance. Sabers are widely considered the best Servant class, but due to Shirou's shortcomings as a Master, she cannot reach her full potential. She has a hard time getting along with Shirou and clashes over his desire to protect her life over his own, but shares his dedication towards honorable and just ways of fighting.
==Personality ==
Artoria is a strong-willed young woman who usually speaks truthfully but will lie if necessary. She is courageous, determined, and set on winning the Holy Grail. A firm believer in justice, Artoria cannot stand when evil goes unpunished. 
Artoria is loyal, independent, and reserved. She appears cold, but is usually suppressing her emotions to focus on her goals. Artoria is secretly deeply insecure, having no real sense of self-worth and can only feel fulfilled by serving other people. As king, Artoria put the needs of her people before her own and considers herself a martyr to her ideals. 
Throughout her rule, she was plagued by self-doubt about being a worthy king and eventually came to hate herself for not giving her people utopia like she promised and the atrocious actions she took to ensure Britain’s protection and future. She feels deep guilt over the eventual destruction of her kingdom, holding herself solely responsible and calling herself an inadequate ruler. 
For the most part, Artoria is a serious person who fully devotes herself to whatever task she’s given. Underneath her serious exterior that she feels forced to hold, Artoria shows herself to be a kind-hearted and gentle person who wishes to protect those she cares about.
==Abilities==
Artoria Pendragon is the legendary King of Knights, the one that ruled over the battlefields in the age of legends. In life, she commanded the Knights of the Round Table, the greatest knights to ever live and heroes that would later be sung of in legends. As a Servant, Artoria is widely considered to be the strongest Heroic Spirit in the Saber class. While her ability as a swordsman is proficient, it is not where her true strength lies, but rather her enormous amount of magical energy. She believes that there is no Servant that surpasses her in close combat, and that she can clear an escape route from the battlefield under any disadvantageous situation.
Artoria's first Noble Phantasm is Invisible Air, which she surrounds her sword with wind that reflects light to make it virtually invisible and hide Excalibur from being recognized.
Artoria wields Excalibur, a Divine Construct forged by the planet. The sword works by converting the mana of the wielder into light, that is unleashed from the tip of the blade like a laser beam that destroys everything in its path. Even though Excalibur's true power can only be invoked with the appearance of a foreign enemy threatening the planet, it remains as the strongest Holy Sword.
As a Servant, Artoria doesn’t possess Avalon, Excalibur's sheath, since she lost it in life although Shirou Emiya was later revealed to have it implanted inside him as a child. With this Noble Phantasm, Artoria can heal from any wound unless her brain is destroyed and Avalon can deploy a defensive Bounded Field that shuts out all physical interference and places her in the land of the fairies.
==Trivia==
*Kinoko Nasu's original story of Fate, Saber and Shirou were opposite gender to now. Takashi Takeuchi convinced to Nasu to change the gender of Saber but the essential theme had not been changed, it's the story about legendary heroes and "a boy meets a girl."  
*She often ranks near the top of official popularity polls, and she ranked first out of the female characters during the TYPE-MOON Fes. tenth anniversary poll. 
*In the Fourth character popularity poll in 2003, Saber was ranked 54th.  In the first Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2004, Saber was ranked 1st. Tsuku Saber (Tiger Dojo) was ranked 53rd.  
*In the second Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2006, Saber was ranked 1st. Hetare Saber was ranked 77th.  
*In the Type-Moon's 10th Anniversary Character Poll, Saber from Fate/stay night was ranked 1st. Saber from Fate/Zero was ranked 119th.  
==External Links==
Saber at the Type-Moon Wiki
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