I decided to finally do it. I would try to catalog all the various Saber variants there are. The fact that there are more and more variants of Artoria Pendragon has gone from a few different versions of the main heroine to a running joke that has had an official term for characters who look like Artoria: Saberface. In Fate/Grand Order there are units whose whole gimmick revolves around doing more damage to Saberfaced characters, certain characters will target Saberfaced characters, and there was even a whole event centered around Saberfaces.
All of this attention is clearly because Saber is a popular character but it has also engendered an equal amount of resentment for all the focus the Saberfaces have gotten. As a major aficionado of Saber, I decided to catalog how many Sabers there are. I went to all the different version of Sabers as well as the different costumes those characters have.
As always a few caveats on any list I make:
1. I am pretty much purposely invoking Cunningham’s Law here. I am almost surely missing an official iteration or two. I plan to update this list whenever I get the chance so new additions are always welcome.
2. I realize some of these are the same character in different outfits. The main thing is that over time some iterations of Saber in costume have become characters in their own right. Lily Saber and Saber Bride are 100% this case in action. Therefore I have just decided to make all different versions their own thing but readily admit that this list could easily be condensed.
Let’s see how bad this really is.
One of the best parts of any Holy Grail War is seeing the different Servants fighting. It invokes all the craziest parts of any “which of these two historical characters would win in a fight” argument with a healthy dose of fantasy spectacle. A fight like this battle royal multiplies that excitement seven fold. Part of the entertainment is seeing what Servants throw down with each other. You can see everything from the seeming mismatches of a speedy hard-hitting lancer vs a low defense Caster or a more evenly matched battle of ranged combat between a Caster and Archer. Even when two Servants of the same class face off they can have fascinating permutations. Two Sabers with similar styles can be a pure battle of skill but it can also be a clash of wildly different styles and how they compare. It is also interesting to see which Servants pairs up, who goes it solo, and who jumps in to save (or betray) a fellow team member. Will fighters makes themselves a huge target to draw out the most powerful champions, will they strike from the shadows, and will they just sit on the sidelines and wait to see what happens? There are so many and exciting permutations so it is intoxicating to see which ones play out.
Reverse Thieves 