caladvwlch | application to asgardeventide

OOC Information
Name; Tsu
Personal Journal;

asphalt
Contact; aim; choliamb, plurk; freikugel, tumblr; septentrione, email: our.smiles.in.concrete@gmail.com
Other Characters; n/a

IC Information;
Character Name; alias: Saber ( there's like 50 Sabers in the Fate/ series so... for all purposes, her real name is Arturia Pendragon )
Canon; Fate/Zero ( (From the Type-moon wikia ) | Saber's role in Fate/Zero (from the Type-moon Wika)
Canon Point; Post-Anime, pre-Fate/Stay Night.
Age; It gets complicated. Biologically: 16(ish- Saber is unable to age due to an enchanted weapon.), Mentally: 20(ish), Chronologically: 1500+ (the King Arthur legends are written about defending the Roman Empire in the 5th-6th century. )

House; Heimdall
Power; Damage Drain

Personality;

"I am a knight first and a lady second."
- saber, to emiya shirou (in fate/stay night)

Saber, born Arturia Pendragon but known to the world as Arthur during her reign, is someone who has spent her entire life pretending to be a man. From the moment she was conceived, she was destined to be king despite her gender. Raised into the lifestyle of a knight by her foster father, Saber essentially became the embodiment of the perfect knight: full of honour and loyalty. This earned her the title of "King of Knights". In accordance with this image of a Knight that she portrays, Saber prefers to dress in masculine fashion over feminine skirts. Her battle armour could be taken in a gender neutral sense, hidden in metal plates, and her casual clothing is a suit, which she finds relatively easy to move in. Furthermore, Saber's position as the King of England forced her to hide her gender without ever telling the world what her gender was, for revealing that she was a woman would have forced her to be rejected or even overthrown. In order to further cement her role as a man, she conceived the homunculus Mordred with Morgan le Fay with the help of Merlin. She does not know this, however, and is largely their schemings instead of her own knowledge (penis soup). All of this was done to make sure that the kingdom would not rebel against her, and in response, Saber was led to believe that her knight persona was the correct approach to life.

One could say that Saber's outward personality appears to be the knight she aspires to be. In favour of the will of the public, she buries her own emotions in a stoic mask that demonstrates above all else, self-control. She is courageous, determined, responsible, and fiercely loyal. She was warned that becoming King would put a heavy burden on her shoulders, and from that moment she would no longer be human, Saber did so regardless, accepting the responsibility willingly. She became the King of England in a time of chaos, taking on all the burden that her Father (Uther Pendragon) once beared in a land of chaos and warfare. Eventually it would be Saber who would unite all of England under the famous name, Arthur. It would be Saber, in all of her efforts, who would be immortalized as the once and future king.

" the weight of my sword is the weight of my pride. the wound from my battle with you is an honor, not a fetter. "
- saber, to lancer

It would be impossible to overestimate the importance of chivalry in Saber's life. Her ideals and even her life revolve around chivalry, even after her death into the present age. From the round table to even her personal life, Saber surrounds herself with an air of knighthood and chivalry. She demands respect, and demands to be treated the same way. She does not like to bow down to others, and asserts herself as king. The restraint upon her in the Holy Grail War to call herself "Saber" instead of her real name, makes her uncomfortable, but she is forced to go with it because it would risk her losing. Those that treat her unjustly make Saber frustrated, although she will refrain from lashing out if these people are her Masters, they do not stop her from brooding. The most prominent example is that of Kiritsugu. Saber does not speak badly about her master Kiritsugu, but from her conversations with Irisviel, struggles to accept him as a master. For the most part, Saber believes that Kiritsugu ignores her, and largely ignores her efforts to try and be accepted.

"that is acceptable. a king is a martyr to their ideals."
- saber, to rider in a discussion about kingship.

Saber is an idealistic ruler, taking ideals to an extreme upon which she believed that she was the servant of the people. But because of how fully she abides to this code, Saber does not know how to fully interact with people and is often hard-headed and stubborn when her ideals are questioned. In ruling her country, Saber put on a cold mask and only demonstrated her kingly persona and performed her duties as king. She, as Rider puts it, "saved her people, but did not lead them." She is reprimanded of this by many, including the servant Rider (Alexander the Great) and the servant Berserker (Lancelot du Lac). She firmly believes that it is her inability to carry out that idealism that caused her kingdom to fall, and subsequently believes that if another person had ruled in her place, the tragedy could have been avoided. Simply put, she regrets what is done and wishes to redo history.

When in the face of danger, she will always speak firmly if she believes that the action being taken is wrong or too sneaky. Anything that lacks hnour will cause Saber to reject it fully and wholeheartedly. This belief puts her in contrast and conflict with her master, Kiritsugu. Kiritsugu is a man who prefers operating in shadow, thus putting him directly in an angle against Saber's core beliefs. She believes that battles should be fought in daylight and not in a way that befits a thief. When discussing plans with Saber once, his actions cause Saber to be so repulsed that she is unable to keep her composure, standing up and speaking loudly in outrage. Essentially, this relationship that Saber has with Kiritsugu causes the ruin of one of Saber's most positive relationships in the series- Lancer.

" did I make an acceptable gentleman?"
" you were perfect. you were a wonderful knight today."
" you honor me, my princess."
- saber and her master's wife, irisviel von einzbern

Despite Saber's coldness, she is not without positive emotion or happy expressions, her full emotional capacities are seen in the series. This is shock and sadness at Berserker's reveal, anger at Archer's comments, frustration when speaking to Rider about kingship, and disgust at Caster's actions towards the mass murder of children for the Holy Grail war.

Saber feels all the emotions that a human might. With Irisviel, she displays positive signs of friendship, even to the extent of platonic or familial love. When Irisviel collapses towards the end of the season, Saber rushes to her side immediately and gladly acts as Irisviel's hands. It is shown that Saber enjoys her time with Irisviel immensely and is almost always found with a smile. When Kiritsugu uses the first of his command spells, "Go to Iri," it is the only command that Saber willingly obeys despite her rocky relationship with him.

Another one of her functional relationships is with Lancer. The two of them see each other as honorable knights, going so far as having Lancer offer to be Saber's injured hand in battle. Lancer brings out her humourous side, Saber responds positively to all his challenges and clever comments.

Saber's anger can be seen through Gilgamesh, as he tries to propose to her. She balks at his offer and balks even more at Kiritsugu's betrayal. It causes her lasting pain. It is perhaps this betrayal that wounds her the most, carrying on into her interactions with her future master, Shirou. She states there that for the most part, he treated her like a tool and did not understand her ambitions, but shows that she did not understand Kiritsugu was capable of being an honourable being when Shirou admits that his father was a kind person.

Saber does not understand romance, and no signs of it have been shown. It could be possible that she is simply out of touch with them. Though she married Guinevere, she did not hold romantic feelings for Guinevere and ultimately this caused the betrayal of Saber's best friend (the two were in love), and not much later, the collapse of the kingdom. In addition to not understanding romantic feelings, aside from the conception of Mordred (which was an unnatural birth), Saber has never had sex. She does not have time for love on a battlefield, and considering how her entire life has been battle after battle, there is simply no time for her to settle down and love.

There is a marked difference between Saber's appearance in Fate Zero and that in Fate Stay Night. Unlike her formal relationship with Kiritsugu and Irisviel, Saber's relationship with Shirou is more casual and changes the way she portrays herself: from a knight into the adolscent. This change is grounded in the way she no longer views herself as a tool of her master's due to how Shirou views her as a human being and keeps close to her, unlike how Kiritsugu ignores her. Although the idea of the Holy Grail War is the same in both instances, it is in the fifth that Saber really finds a chance to relax. A notable contrast between them is just how much Saber is willing to open up towards someone like Shirou. Although initially cold and rigid towards her master, once Saber grows comfortable with Shirou's constant worry towards her, she begins to open criticize him and enjoy the time she spends with him without worry that he may screw up due to his inexperience being their main topic of communication. Her relationship with him causes her to be bashful about her appearance and how she acts towards him, when initially she did not care about how cold she was. Her relationship with him convinces her to give up her wish for the Holy Grail War, accepting that what happened to Camelot in her rule was not her fault and out of her control.

Saber herself is unfamiliar with a lifestyle that would involve much socialization. Saber does not understand jokes- when Shirou suggests to her that sleeping all day might make her seem lazy, she take the statement completely at face value without considerations of context and agrees with him. Eventually, Shirou takes her to town for a day out, and Saber is extremely awkward throughout the day. She confesses, however, that she enjoys the day off from the fighting and planning. On the other hand, Saber is completely capable of being comfortable at dinner, even going forth as to fully immerse herself in eating instead of being extremely guarded.

Samples;
Network Sample;
Test Run | Dear Mun

Log Sample;

She has not seen Kiritsugu or heard from him in days, but that is nothing out of the ordinary. It is customary of Kiritsugu to leave nothing about himself when proceeding in her plans with Maiya, and even more normal for Saber to know nothing about the man's plans until later, much later. Sometimes she learns about them after the deeds are done. She thinks regards her like much like an expendable tool, and only furrows her brows when she doesn't know how to please him. She gets irritated at such thoughts, yet knows she can do little else about this arrangement when Kiritsugu simply ignores her existence.

Being regarded as such means that she spends more time with Irisviel, and these are outings that Saber appreciates. Though Irisviel is unskilled in warfare or battle, the woman does not force her to do anything she doesn't want to do. Irisviel respects her where Kiritsugu doesn't. Saber finds the relationship between them paradoxical, but it isn't her place to comment on that, so she remains quiet.

She chooses to embrace Irisviel's commands, much like she would a lady. It is reminiscent of the girlish Guinvere, so soon after her marriage.

Earlier, Irisviel suggested that they go on patrol for the day, but for the most part it has just been Irisviel poking around at things she finds interesting or strange. Saber doesn't mind, not really, as she finds the other charming and kind, accepting, even, of something that she has found before.

"Saber?"

The soft voice of Irisviel causes Saber to look up almost immediately and out of her trance from her stare on the ground. Her pose is raised to caution and her guard raises immediately, as if they are being preparing for an attack, even though Saber has sensed nothing. Saber watches Irisviel smile. Her master shakes her head and brushes back a stray bang from her face.

"Yes, Irisviel?" Saber asks dutifully, a hand placed across her heart.
"Let's go to a cafe," Irisviel responds sheepishly, folding her hands behind her back.
"As you wish." Saber finds herself smiling as she bends her elbow, letting Irisviel link arms with her as they proceed forward.

It is in these moments with Irisviel that Saber feels the most content and out of war. Though Fuyuki City is not Camelot, spending time with Irisviel makes her feel a little more comfortable with the circumstances, and a little more sad about returning when the war is over.