Fate Stay Night, or I Hope Saber Arc Isn't Anyone's Favorite Because it Stinks

I was browsing an anime store many years ago when someone suggested I watch Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, which sat on one of the shelves in a video boxset. I told them I watched a Fate series once (Fate/Zero) and found it dreadfully boring. Fast forward twelve years later, and I live in an apartment with a dozen Fate figurines, mobile game Fate/Grand Order on my phone, and eagerly tune in for the latest series, Fate/Strange Fake. I am a thorough convert (but I still hate Fate/Zero). When the original game that started this franchise was announced for Nintendo Switch, Fate/Stay Night Remastered, I immediately preordered. I play it during long nights when my baby struggles to sleep, or whenever she's taking a nap. It's good for Fate nerds like me, but the first playthrough is...odd.

Being a visual novel, there are three decision trees that most fans know about: the main Fate route starring Saber; Unlimited Blade Works starring Rin Tohsaka; and Heaven's Feel with Sakura Matou. I didn't know that the first time you play must be on the Saber route. Because I didn't understand this mechanic, the choices made were chosen based on my interest in Rin, a tsundere who (I feel) best compliments the naive idiosyncracies of Shiro Emiya, the game's protagonist. As a result, I butt heads with Saber on multiple occassions, some of which led to several BAD END and DEAD END scenarios.

Enjoying the Fate franchise at all demands a few concessions, and this game in particular has a major one. (SPOILERS AHEAD?) Shirou Emiya is infatuated with Saber--who turns out to be a time-traveling, genderbent King Arthur--and the two eventually fall in love. I don't mind the absurdity of the scenario, because I watch too much anime to be bothered. But the interactions between Shirou and Saber overwhelmingly reinforce the most realistic scenario for these two: there's no realm in which they'd be compatible.

The game tries to establish a parallel between these characters. Shirou is a survivor from the last Holy Grail War, a conflict between mages and their Heroic Spirit servants for an omnipotent vessel. That devastation has wracked him with guilt, which he channels into the idea of saving other people at expense of his own safety. Saber, who was a servant-participant in that war, needs the grail to undo becoming King Arthur in the first place. She sees her reign over medieval Britain as having ended in bloody disaster and defeat. The similarity here? Both Shirou and Saber are driven by an altruism that masks a deeper self-loathing. 

The problem with this pairing exists for a few reasons the game makes clear:

Shirou is obsessed with Saber as a girl. Perhaps owning to Fate/Stay Night's origins as an eroge or pornographic PC game, Shirou has the emotional stability of a teenage boy when it comes to being with Saber. (In all fairness, he is one.) As a result, Shirou leans on the teachings of his late father, Kiritsugu, to always protect girls when he can. This is all fine, except Saber is very dismissive of this technicality of her birth, and takes every opportunity to downplay her sex in favor of elevating her status as a king. She does not need protecting because it is, in fact, her job to protect Shirou. This flies over Shirou's head because Saber is, in his eyes, beautiful beyond compare and more fragile than she's willing to admit. Because of genre conventions, this fierce denial of Saber's personhood is meant to show Shirou sees her as a deeply traumatized victim of fate, someone who would otherwise embrace the wiles of an ordinary girl if she could only escape her circumstances. And who should this poor king come to rely on if given a chance? None other than Shirou Emiya. It's hard for me to see this as anything other than disrespectful, a fact Saber agrees with for almost the entire story.

Shirou is a hypocrite. After a so-so date between him and Saber, Shirou makes his argument for Saber to abandon her dream of rescuing Britain from her own ineptitude by persuading her to live for herself. He is emboldened by visions he has of Saber's past, of her life as a girl who picks the Sword of Selection from the stone and is guided by Merlin towards her destiny. Saber is offended by this outburst on two fronts: As a king, Saber cannot accept Shirou's words because she is duty-bound to keep her kingdom's interests before her own. She is also offended that Shirou would claim to know her at all, since he has such a poor understanding of his own motivations. As mentioned earlier, both of these characters are tormented survivors of utter ruin, but Shirou can't see that his suicidal need to rescue people is not dissimilar from her own need to sacrifice her personal interests. Yet, their similarities are insignificant when compared to the categorical differences: Shirou is adapting the mantle of a "hero of justice" out of personal conviction, while Saber had already lived as a hero to her people and had no say in the matter. She was, in essence, a servant of Britain.

Saber doesn't love him; this is a more contentious point, so hear me out. Saber does confesses her love just before vanishing from reality at the end of the story, but I think this is a matter of infatuation at best. There are two reasons why I think so:

• This shift in Saber's perspective initially occurs after Tohsaka implants Shirou's magic circuits into Saber. (This scene is highly erotic and definitely cleaned-up for Nintendo Switch release.) After this, Saber grows bashful when interacting with Shirou. While it's clear Shirou has always been infatuated with Saber, she cannot rely him as a mage, refuses to share her ambitions, and doubts his decision-making for much of their time together. Giving her magical circuits is somehow a way of mitigating these factors. 
  

• The other pivot takes place when she realizes Shirou contains Avalon within him, the sheath which preserves her sword, Excalibur. This revelation occurs during a low-point for both characters as they are assaulted by Gilgamesh, a wayward Heroic Spirit who has his eyes set on Saber. As this love triangle manifests and Shirou continues to literally die for Saber, Avalon is a convenient metaphor for the fact Shirou has always tried to protect Saber. We'll never know if she would love Shirou without the presence of Avalon.
• By the end of the story, none of the differences in opinion or belief is reconciled between Shirou and Saber. The physical bonds between the characters is how fate ties them together. It's fitting for a sexually-charged story but sloppy for any cathartic resolution. 

Because this is a visual novel meant for multiple replays, I'm willing to play it again to attempt to woo Saber properly. The frustrations I felt towards her and Shirou, pleasantly enough, don't exist as strongly while I run through Unlimited Blade Works. Shirou is a better character when he understands who Saber is and respects her wishes. That's a relationship I'm happy to see unfold.