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 able to be summoned by the Protagonist in the Grand Orders of Fate/Grand Order.

Identity
Saber's True Name is Artoria Pendragon (Alter) (アルトリア・ペンドラゴン〔オルタ〕), also known as Artoria Alter (アルトリア・オルタ), and better known as Arthur Pendragon/. In history, he/she is a different figure that may not have been known to others as a possiblity of being the legendary King Arthur himself. Accompanied with her inversion, the holy sword Excalibur is also dyed in the attribute of evil, turning into a jet black sword. It seems that Excalibur, a sword gifted from the fairies, has the possibility of possessing both attributes of good and evil as well; there exists Vivian, the Fairy of the Lake who possesses the attribute of good, and Morgan, who exists as the antithesis to Vivian that possesses the attribute of evil. In addition, in Artoria Alter's Fate/Grand Order Interlude, Vortigern, who was criticized as the "look-alike of, the late Vile King of ancient times" from a certain person (Servant), was a figure who usurped the throne of Britain and was the older brother of , the father of Arthur.

Appearance
Corrupted by Angra Mainyu, Artoria Alter is vastly different from her normal self. She is also called Black Saber (黒セイバー).

The results of her alteration is not only within Artoria Alter's interior but also extends to her outward appearance. The color of her skin becomes pale, and the pupil of her eyes that were at first concealed behind a black visor during the moment of her summoning becomes golden from her original green eye color as well.

Because the armor she wears was dyed jet black and grew in weight due to changing into a heavier armor, its power has increased more than normally.
 * 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
A different aspect of the King of Knights devoted to cruelty, greatly unlike the case of the normal Artoria. She is referred to as Saber Alter. A behavior without futility, a cold-hearted personality that makes Artoria seem like a different person, but if one is to carefully come into contact with her, they might notice that what lies at the basis is still the same.

Artoria 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 by the hatred of the curse, Artoria Alter 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.

While alive, Artoria did not fall into the path of evil even once, but she too had doubts, inner conflicts, hatred towards herself and grief towards the surroundings. This figure, influenced by the curse of the Holy Grail, is someone that had such issues hidden within her raised to the surface and caused her "policy" to go inverse.

Because a section of her character's attributes has been inverted, the basis of Artoria Alter's character speak words and display deeds like that of a "tyrant's", which is the exact opposite of her usual character, but there is no change in her goals and ideals themselves, and it seems she shows a bit of her original self as her feelings towards the people who are close to her have been left behind and intact, although barely. The usual Artoria persisted in being chaste for the sake of her ideals, but this Artoria approves tyrannical rule for the sake of her ideals.

Having been violated by the curse of the Holy Grail, this is a side of the King of Knights that persists in being heartless. Maybe, the "ideal king" that King Arthur pursued was something like this after all.

Maybe because her Magic Core goes outside the scale, but at any rate, Artoria Alter is a Servant that eats a lot. In addition, even her food preferences, which could be regarded as her identity, have changed: she spits out cooking with courteous, elaborate, abstruse tastes as bad and chews down large quantities of junk food. A new identity for Artoria who came into contact with the foundation of foreign cultures, as if food culture has become a Heroic Spirit. Concerning her who has an evil heart that is outside of the norm, meals become nothing but refreshing fuel, and it seems the manner of being able to eat food in a simple way is desirable for her. Awful eating habits, but she herself seems greatly satisfied, so maybe this can be called a form of happiness.

Concerning her motive on what to wish for on the Holy Grail and what rouses her to pursue it, it is no different from Artoria's. However, affirming her strength to the point of committing atrocities, she not only responds to the desires of a Master wishing for a strong Servant because of their objective to fight and save the world, but she responds to also do battle against the Master's more repulsive enemies and the more powerful adversaries, as well as to train the Master in improving their skills. Her methods surely differs, but her approach to guiding and understanding the Master is certainly Artoria Pendragon's. In addition, in the world of Fate/Grand Order, her existence as a Servant is separate from Artoria Pendragon's, and Artoria is no longer consumed by the blackening caused by the curse of the Holy Grail.

Santa Alter
The state of her personality is that of Saber Alter's, but there is some degree of difficulty in being bestowed the post of Santa, and with that role in mind, her personality changed to being frank. As Santa, her dreams and ideals of scattering smiles and being merry has resulted in removing the permafrost-like ice of her heart. Nonetheless, it is good that there is no change in her Spartan doctrine, being unaffected and sincere, and imbued with fortitude and vigor. She runs about for the sake of giving presents to children, gifting punishments to bad children, but later on throwing presents to them after they become good children.

Santa Alter gathers unconditional trust in the Master and tells them of an aspiration of playing an active role as Santa together. The thickness of that trust is the most important role in gaining an extremely harsh victory————to the extent that she entrusts them the role of reindeer, the central part of II. And it goes without saying that the Master chosen as her reindeer will anticipate heavy labor extending over the length of one week. Although she is greatly pleased with herself as Santa, the Master should absolutely do not begin to speak of that. Because there is no need to praise her as Santa. If you says "You're a good Miss Santa", etc. to sympathize with her success, don't you agree that it would be the day the sled rises to the stratosphere?

Relationships (Artoria Alter)
Artoria Alter 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.


 * Shirou Emiya
 * Artoria Alter 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.


 * Artoria Series
 * An Artoria understands aspects of her self, but no matter how Artoria Alter looks at it, there are way too many of her. Secretly, she is shocked.


 * The Heroic Spirits of the Round Table
 * It goes without saying. No matter where, seeing the troubled Agravain makes Artoria Alter laugh.


 * Jeanne Alter
 * Views her as an interesting fellow. Though wicked, she is not very honest with her feelings. The root may be that unchanging Jeanne, but she rocks. "Kuku. That woman is the type that is quick to respond."

Relationships (Santa Alter)

 * Elizabeth (Halloween)
 * An eyesore for she is the same festival Event Servant-type as Santa Alter. She'll make her a dragon steak for everyone.


 * Asterios
 * She feels obliged because Christmas is said to be associated with getting somebody to do excessive work. Needless to say, the last present delivered is a crown for Asterios.

Fate/hollow ataraxia
Saber Alter appears in the prologue as a Servant of the Edelfelt sisters in the recreated Fifth Holy Grail War. She, along with the original Saber, kill both Bazett and Avenger.

Saber Alter appears again in a comedic scenario when Shirou plucks her ahoge in an attempt to find her Reverse Scale. After getting a new set of clothes from Rin, Saber eats a meal cooked by Shirou, but she spits it out to Shirou's great dismay. However, Saber Alter pleasantly eats the hamburgers made by Shirou at Rin's suggestion.

Fate/unlimited codes
Saber Alter 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 Evils, 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 since 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 ideals, she 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.

Saber Alter 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 out as the victor.

After having collected all the Servants within Sakura, she notes that Saber Alter has been draining twice the magical energy from her for some time. Saber Alter is confused, until her original personality manifests itself. She claims that she has not yet rid herself of her old self, and her old self claims that she is what she would have been like on the wrong path. Saber Alter believes that is twisted logic, and asks that even if she were to be defeated, would her old self be able to handle the fact that Shirou was killed by her own hands. She tells her old self that she will not remain, that she 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 Alter tells her to close her eyes before true despair, the birth of Angra Mainyu, presents itself to her. Saber Alter says to sleep soundly, for she is the light inside of her.

Fuyuki: The Contaminated City in Flames
Artoria Alter is a Servant in the prologue "The Contaminated City in Flames" who is guarding the center of Fuyuki City's Greater Grail and has a strong link to it. She appears as a Heroic Spirit in Fate/Grand Order, and it seems that Artoria was cursed by the Holy Grail in this prologue. She received a Holy Grail from Lev Lainur Flauros, and she tried to maintain this Singularity by restarting the Holy Grail War, thus bringing unnecessary trouble for Lev.

Shinjuku Phantom Spirit Incident: Malignant Quarantined Demonic Realm
During the Shinjuku Singularity, Artoria Alter acts as an ally to Ritsuka. She later uses Excalibur Morgan to completely destroy the that EMIYA failed to destroy with Unlimited Lost Works.

Interlude
In her Interludes, while in the middle of conducting a training on her Master for their sake, facing a Servant that was possibly born because of the curse of the Holy Grail similarily like herself, and facing a Servant that was once called a former king similarily like herself, allowed Artoria Alter to picture her state of being and reaffirm her personal circumstances.

Abilities
Artoria used to contain her own power, but in this condition, she wields powerful magical energy without hesitation. Because the armor she wears was dyed jet black and grew in weight due to changing into a heavier armor, its power has increased more than normally. On the other hand, it seems like her agility has decreased as a result.

Artoria 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, Artoria never had that 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, one of the strongest Servants.

Compared to her regular state's already superb regeneration, Artoria 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 skills while significantly decreasing the morale of her troops. Her Instinct is lowered by one rank and because she is constantly suppressing her rage, her senses are dulled. On the other hand, Artoria in this state may be rather more likely to take action due to her behavior being distanced away from that of a hero's.

Artoria Alter's Mana Burst takes the form of an enormous amount of magical energy always covering her body like a dense fog regardless of her will. Combined with her black armor that grew in weight, the trail of magical energy increases her defensive power considerably, but her agility has decreased as a result. 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's 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. Of course, the magical energy which is constantly consumed is also quite large, so her appetite has also grown compared to her normal counterpart in order to sustain herself.

Santa Alter
"Almost Weekly Miss Santa Alter" has appeared.

Artoria Alter has a festival-themed form known as Santa Alter (サンタオルタ) under the Rider-class as an Event Servant, the self-described "Evil Santa Claus that cleaves through the breath-freezing winter." A form taken by Artoria Alter, who resolved herself to wiping out her own image and attempted to carry out activities as the ally of children/. The sack she holds in her hand is packed with the best selection of presents that she spent a whole year saving up.

Having "taken a fancy" to acting as Santa Claus, she has decided to briefly take up the role and deliver gifts as a means of giving "thanks for the life I have." She carries with her a bag of presents containing Craft Essences that she collected, also doubling as a bludgeoning weapon in battle.

Although she has changed into the Rider Class, it is not like there has been any dramatic changes. The increase in her weight accounts for the weight of the presents. The lack of futility in her behavior and the cool-headed character are a close resemblance to Artoria Alter, but the admiration towards Santa Claus that lies at her root is making her a little more kind.

The sleigh that Santa Alter rides on has been handmade by herself, named Llamrei II (ラムレイ二号), and it is pulled by a couple of, but she has lost them after they were scared off upon her using Excalibur Morgan as a "jet engine" to reach the stratosphere. She claims that she can guide the sleigh on her own, but feels that she needs a reindeer to "capture the hearts of the children" and thus commandeers Ritsuka Fujimaru as her reindeer by means of forcibly summoning them as her Master. She boasts that the sleigh has been assembled from ash tree's wood while having a brave horse and a lion as an image, but - no matter how one looks at it - it seems like nothing but a hippopotamus. For fuel, she uses magical energy from stockings, the "crystallized wishes for presents from the children", to travel around the world.

"''At any rate, I feel like eating turkey." ''Because she has completely turned into Santa Claus, her personality has changed in various ways.

Swimsuit
Even as an Alter, she will wear a swimsuit. Because it's Summer. But due to some kind of belief, she has put aside the crown of the king, and dons a brilliant white crown - a white brim.

Yes, as a maid.

The King of Britain, Artoria Pendragon's other facet as an Alter, further awakened to another conviction. Welcoming Summer not as a sole tyrant, the high-spirited Artoria re-evaluates herself as a kind of service. Whatever she's saying makes sense, but it's a complete enigma as to why she's become this way. In order to allow the Master to enjoy a far more enjoyable Summer, she has chosen the path of the maid. As she intends to hide the fact that she is Artoria, her attire has many things as part of a disguise.

Excalibur as a mop. Secace as a pistol. Her combat style like a militant's. Mowing down opponents with a mop, stopping their movements with a pistol, using grenades for an explosion.

As a maid.

(Although the person herself wont admit it, and hasn't realized it) Alter, who has succumbed to the summer mana, has changed into a swimsuit. "I am not one of those so-called swimsuit Servants. That is because, before the swimsuit, I am firstly a maid." I see, an irrefutable, sound argument. However, ever since she turned into a maid, her overly serious personality has become much stricter. She will never allow a depraved Master to escape her eyes, taking on the role as the Demonic Chief Maid.

She joins the Ishtar Cup together with Nero. Their team name "Tyrant Shooting Star" is actually her idea. A fitting name for the miraculous team between the celebrated, selfish emperor and a tyrant maid. Her motive for entering the race is to prove herself as the strongest. She obviously seeks a (physical) reward, but that is a separate matter, and feels it's fine to win for the sake of the Master.

Nero regards "all the other teams as rivals", but for Alter, there isn't "a team I definitely cannot lose to." Nero and Alter. Both of them don't accommodate each other's whims, but as Nero wants to actively participate and enjoy the race, and Alter is seeking both the prize and to disperse her violent urges (stress), they joined hands and entered the Ishtar Cup together.

There is no real interest to unveil the hidden truth of the race. Because she is under the impression that she is being cheered on as the number one protagonist, she is in a relatively good mood. She doesn't really look that way on the outside though.

Her approach to the race is "No holding back". Nero, who doesn't think ahead and has her foot on the accelerator, and Alter, who thinks ahead but still uses the Nitro. Nero prioritizes "Beauty and Speed", while Alter prioritizes "Simplicity and Speed". Half of their interests are misaligned, but because the other half are exactly the same, they actually get along really well.

... Surely, this is a miraculous team?

Her alignment became evil not because she doesn't regard herself well as a maid, but supposedly because of her own tactlessness in resorting to forceful methods to achieve her ideal service.

Creation and Conception
Takashi Takeuchi is the character illustrator for Artoria Pendragon (Alter). Kinoko Nasu is the scenario writer for her character in Fate/Grand Order.

Reception

 * In the first Popularity Poll of Fate/stay night in 2004, Saber Alter was ranked 35th.
 * In the second Popularity Poll 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.