Saber Alter

Saber Alter (セイバー・オルタナティブ) is the Saber-class Servant of Sakura Matou in the Fifth Holy Grail War of Fate/stay night's' Heaven's Feel route. She is a changed version of Saber after being consumed and blackened by the mud from the Shadow. She is one of the Servants of the Protagonist of the Grand Order conflicts of Fate/Grand Order.

Identity
Saber's identity is Artoria Pendragon (アルトリア・ペンドラゴン), better known as Arthur Pendragon (アーサー・ペンドラゴン) and Āsā Ō.

Appearance
Corrupted by Angra Mainyu, she is vastly different from her normal self. She is also called Black Saber (黒セイバー). In Fate/hollow ataraxia, she wears her casual clothes; a gothic dress called Alter Gothic Dress (オルタ・ゴシックドレス).

Personality
Saber Alter's personality changes vastly from her normal self upon being corrupted by Angra Mainyu, but she cannot be called a villain. She is more of a dark hero who is still an idealist clinging to her own values even after being blackened. After taking in the hatred of the curse, she comes to the realization that the duty of a hero is to be hated and ostracized, that a hero's only duty is to cut down foes using all their strength. She believes that she was prepared for such an outcome upon drawing Caliburn, and decides to entrust her blade to All the World's Evils. While she still takes her duty as king seriously, believing it is her obligation to those whose lives were lost because of her, she no longer believes in the ideals set for herself and her people. The end was concluded long ago, after all her prayers and glory vanished on the hill in Camlann.

She is mostly emotionless towards the situation of Shirou, Rin, and Sakura. While she seems to hold favor for Shirou and Rin coming out victorious, she is largely apathetic towards the entire situation. In the case of the battle going wrong, she doesn't care about the victor and can only hold a slight amount of pity towards those left alive. She feels a connection to Sakura as someone who has felt similar despair.

She holds no particular issues with fighting with Shirou, as she neither actively desires it nor is against it. She simply follows Sakura's orders without any deviation, so she will only attack when she is ordered. She does get angry when Shirou isn't putting his all into fighting her, going as far to ask if that is all she meant to him. She is pleased with his victory over her in Sparks Liner High, even urging him to kill her before she can regenerate, but quickly falls back into her apathetic state upon seeing the result of the battle on him. She simply states it is her victory, and compares him to all of her other enemies who had risked their lives and died meaninglessly.

Saber retains the personality in Fate/hollow ataraxia, but it only appears in comedic segments when her ahoge is plucked from her head. She is mostly emotionless, but also selfish and even more gluttonous than normal. Her taste for food changes completely, preferring fast food to the food she prefers normally.

Fate/unlimited codes
Saber is known as the Dark-Tainted Tyrant (闇に染まりし暴君). Her story begins after Saber is corrupted by Dark Sakura, realizing that the hatred now corrupting her is the true form of the Holy Grail she was seeking. She decides to take up All the World's Evil, entrusting her blade to it. Sakura asks her how it feels to be reborn as her Servant, and Saber says that it feels like she has awoken from a very long dream, finally prepared to face the reality she had long ignored. Sakura is surprised that someone of Saber's stature conforms to her so well. Saber believes that as a king who believed in the ideals of her people and then sacrificed herself for those ideas is in the best position to truly understand despair. She decides to make her sword Sakura's own in order to sow the hopelessness she desires.

She eventually encounters Shirou, telling him that she will destroy all who pass. She believes such a warning to be pointless considering that he would never simply walk away from the fight. He notes that Saber has yet to make a move to kill him, but she simply refutes that she will not attack until he steps before her. Upon taking his battle stance with Kanshou and Bakuya, she asks if he does not intend to copy her sword instead. Such things do not matter, as she is simply surprised that he has taken arms. Considering it to be an act of hostility, they battle with her coming as the victor.

After having collected all the Servants within Sakura, she notes that Saber has been draining twice the magical energy from her for some time. Saber is confused, until her original personality manifests itself. She claims that he has not yet rid her self of her old self, and her old self claims that she is what she would have been like on the wrong path. Saber believes that is twisted logic, and asks that even if she were to be defeated would her old self be able to handle that Shirou was killed by her own hands. She tells her old self that she will not remain, that her and her ideals will be given eternal despair.

Saber emerges victorious over her old self, and she tells the King of Knights not to cry, lest even she may tear up. Her old self asks how it could end as such, but she simply says that it is not the end. It had already concluded long ago, all of her prayers and glory vanishing on the hill in Camlann. As her old self fades, Saber tells her to close her eyes before true despair, the birth of Angra Mainyu, presents itself to her. Saber says to sleep soundly, for she is the light inside of her.

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA
The Saber Class Card takes the form of Saber Alter. Saber appears after the retrieval of Caster. She overwhelms Illya and Miyu, and even Rin and Luvia utilizing the Kaleidosticks are only able to damage her enough that her barrier is destroyed. She then utilizes Excalibur to easily defeat them. Kuro, channeled from within Illya, then installs the Archer Class Card, and she manages to destroy Saber with a projected version of Excalibur.

Abilities
Saber Alter, having been provided with Sakura's nearly infinite magical energy, can be said to have even more power than she had in life and gains the ability to overwhelm even Berserker in a head-on fight. She is blackened by the mud from the Holy Grail in the form of the Shadow, and she is incarnated by the power of the Grail to have more concrete ties to the physical plane. This makes her into a powerful being, and while Blackened Servants cannot return to spirit form, Saber never had the ability even as a regular Servant. She does gain the ability to travel quickly by sinking into the Shadow and moving elsewhere at Sakura's command. Due to no longer having to restrain her magical energy consumption, she has lost her limitations, causing her fighting ability and destructive power to jump significantly, comparative to a runaway train, but fine control is no longer possible for her. She is the strongest in straightforward attack power, and she is probably, without dispute, the strongest Servant.

Compared to her regular state's already superb regeneration, Saber Alter's regeneration is bolstered by the almost infinite source of magical energy from Sakura, healing even fatal wounds in ten minutes and requiring the destruction of her head or heart for immediate death. Her Charisma is much lower than normal, and it increases her leadership while dramatically lowering the morale of her soldiers. Her Instinct is lowered by one rank and becomes more blunt due to continually suppressing her rage.

Saber Alter's Mana Burst takes the form of an enormous amount of magical energy always covering her body like a dense fog. Combined with her black armor, the trail of magical energy increases her defense considerably. It engulfs her more powerful attacks and leaves a black trail behind her strikes. She can release a burst of black energy in varying sizes called Burst Air (バースト・エア) that can either travel towards the opponent or rise high into the air. She can create solid energy in the form of a dragon head to grab, bite, and throw the enemy with Tyrant Clap (タイラントクラップ), and she can strike at the enemy from afar by surging magical energy around her and attacking with several black tentacles of energy.

Reception

 * In the first Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2004, Saber Alter was ranked 35th.
 * In the second Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2006, Saber Alter was ranked 16th.
 * In the Type-Moon's 10th Anniversary Character Poll, Saber Alter from Fate/hollow ataraxia  was ranked 49th. Saber Alter from Fate/stay night was ranked 222nd.