Not much has been revealed regarding Saber’s past in Fate/Stay Night (as it is assumed people know about King Arthur’s legend already) but after hearing about that bold step of gender change by Type-Moon aiming to target the male audience, people are gonna be curious about the tweaks they made to the legend. And well, what do you know, we have surprising news!
Whilst trapped in a black hole reading deep within the uncharted territories of Type-Moon’s Wikia, I encountered some cool yet shocking information regarding our dear servant Saber, Arturia Pendragon– that she actually has a son, Mordred, and that she was the one who fathered him! So wait, what? How the heck did that happen?
Fate/Zero ED: Saber, killing her son, Mordred, in the Battle of Camlann
Problem being, is that since Arthur was made into Arturia, having a son would mean her having to be pregnant and all. AND OUR OTAKU AND HIKIKOMORI FANS WOULDN’T WANT THAT. It’s taboo for a main heroine in the anime society. ‘Cause you know, they won’t have first dibs on her as a waifu lol.
Also remember that Morgan le Fay is needed to be the other parent. If she is made to be a dude and then proceeds to rape and impregnate Arturia, then we’ll have all sorts of problems. With that in mind, Type-moon stuck with the original story and temporarily made her a dude.
Long story short: Arturia’s sister Morgan le Fay turned her to a pseudo-male via Merlin’s magic and extracted sperm from her. Using those she would raise a child (Mordred) that would eventually lay destruction to the empire King Arthur has built. Mordred grew up to be a fine knight for the king, only to be constantly rejected by his father after learning the truth. This resulted to a serious daddy complex for him. His hatred grew, and eventually was able to convince the Kingdom to turn their back on the King, and serve him instead.
Their last battle is shown on the 21st episode of the original Fate/Stay Night, where Saber pierces this soldier, but then later on show’s a face similar to hers, and then calls Saber her ‘father.’ Really, it was a very confusing scene when I first saw it, and it is if you didn’t do your research on their story. I thought that the subbing group just made an error or something lol.
Why did Mordred look like Saber? It is said that like Irisviel Von Einsbern, he is a homunculus. As Type-Moon explains it, a homunculus is a creature given birth through Alchemy by the combining of human genetic material with several special substances and making the resulting embryo develop without the use of a womb. Well, that’s the Nasuverse for ya.
Here’s a video of the scene from where that picture is taken:
