FINALLY! A main servant that’s not an Artoriaface. (Nothing wrong with Artoria or anything, just wanted a new Saber that doesn’t look like a copy-paste of the OG)
FINALLY! A main servant that’s not an Artoriaface. (Nothing wrong with Artoria or anything, just wanted a new Saber that doesn’t look like a copy-paste of the OG)
I mean. I personally can still see the Artoriaface. Like, dye the hair blonde, get rid of the ponytail, change the brown eyes for green, and bam! Artoriaface.
But hey, I'm willing to go with the flow. I do wonder why the game's being coy about this Saber's gender. Probably not worth getting worked up about, but still pretty weird. Maybe it's a plot point? Like maybe they're actually a Demi-Servant like Mash or they're someone from the future like F/SN's Archer?
Also kinda weird that we haven't seen fan art of them by now. Maybe the usual artists are waiting for a confirmation on their condition so they don't draw anything by accident? (Wink wink, nudge nudge.)
I mean. I personally can still see the Artoriaface. Like, dye the hair blonde, get rid of the ponytail, change the brown eyes for green, and bam! Artoriaface.
But hey, I'm willing to go with the flow. I do wonder why the game's being coy about this Saber's gender. Probably not worth getting worked up about, but still pretty weird. Maybe it's a plot point? Like maybe they're actually a Demi-Servant like Mash or they're someone from the future like F/SN's Archer?
Also kinda weird that we haven't seen fan art of them by now. Maybe the usual artists are waiting for a confirmation on their condition so they don't draw anything by accident? (Wink wink, nudge nudge.)
!Link reveals Saber's identity! Only click if you already know or don't care about spoilers! Type-Moon Fandom also confirms that this Servant is just a black-haired Saber-face. Which, sure, it might be a bit harder to see at first because of the black hair. But overall... 100% Saber-face.
Honestly, my own thoughts on why they are hesitant/refuse to give Saber a gender... and trust me, the reason is really dumb: The reason is, that Saber is a Saber-face. And every Saber-face is a girl. But in this case/story, Saber's past relationship plays a pretty significant role. And I can only assume, Type-Moon doesn't want a same-gender relationship. So they were like: "Hmmm... this character is clearly a man... but we created another Saber-face now... and the rule says Saber-faces are girls. What to do? Aah, let's just leave it unanswered, who cares." Furthermore, the game isn't exactly shy in saying: this character is male. Like, the biographies use male pronouns, the story-bits from the past use male pronouns and there is a scene where someone in the city calls Saber "Onee-san" and Saber reacts with wondering "Onee-san?"
Tl;dr: The story says Saber is male; the character design(er) (aka Takeuchi) says Saber is female; they couldn't find an agreement and just went with "?"
I know I'm late to the party. Just thought I comment, since I've been wondering about this as well.
!Link reveals Saber's identity! Only click if you already know or don't care about spoilers! Type-Moon Fandom also confirms that this Servant is just a black-haired Saber-face. Which, sure, it might be a bit harder to see at first because of the black hair. But overall... 100% Saber-face.
Honestly, my own thoughts on why they are hesitant/refuse to give Saber a gender... and trust me, the reason is really dumb: The reason is, that Saber is a Saber-face. And every Saber-face is a girl. But in this case/story, Saber's past relationship plays a pretty significant role. And I can only assume, Type-Moon doesn't want a same-gender relationship. So they were like: "Hmmm... this character is clearly a man... but we created another Saber-face now... and the rule says Saber-faces are girls. What to do? Aah, let's just leave it unanswered, who cares." Furthermore, the game isn't exactly shy in saying: this character is male. Like, the biographies use male pronouns, the story-bits from the past use male pronouns and there is a scene where someone in the city calls Saber "Onee-san" and Saber reacts with wondering "Onee-san?"
Tl;dr: The story says Saber is male; the character design(er) (aka Takeuchi) says Saber is female; they couldn't find an agreement and just went with "?"
I know I'm late to the party. Just thought I comment, since I've been wondering about this as well.
You know they just did it to drive “us” (fan artists and fans of fan art) nuts. I am playing the game right now and I’m delighted with the storytelling techniques that are making this Saber is alluring as any of those that have come before. My son who thinks I’m a hopeless weeaboo was shocked that there was a Fate game without hypersexualized characters for once. Fate is keeping up its brand promise (strong feelings for characters) but doing it in a fresh way.
!Link reveals Saber's identity! Only click if you already know or don't care about spoilers! Type-Moon Fandom also confirms that this Servant is just a black-haired Saber-face. Which, sure, it might be a bit harder to see at first because of the black hair. But overall... 100% Saber-face.
Honestly, my own thoughts on why they are hesitant/refuse to give Saber a gender... and trust me, the reason is really dumb: The reason is, that Saber is a Saber-face. And every Saber-face is a girl. But in this case/story, Saber's past relationship plays a pretty significant role. And I can only assume, Type-Moon doesn't want a same-gender relationship. So they were like: "Hmmm... this character is clearly a man... but we created another Saber-face now... and the rule says Saber-faces are girls. What to do? Aah, let's just leave it unanswered, who cares." Furthermore, the game isn't exactly shy in saying: this character is male. Like, the biographies use male pronouns, the story-bits from the past use male pronouns and there is a scene where someone in the city calls Saber "Onee-san" and Saber reacts with wondering "Onee-san?"
Tl;dr: The story says Saber is male; the character design(er) (aka Takeuchi) says Saber is female; they couldn't find an agreement and just went with "?"
I know I'm late to the party. Just thought I comment, since I've been wondering about this as well.
Just to clarify for people who come back here - Saber is ambiguously gendered because Nasu wanted it, and that’s kind of it. No rule about Saberfaces being female or not wanting to depict gay relationships. In an interview with 4Gamer:
Nasu: When we got the pitch, we already had a set list of Servants to be featured in FGO up to 2020, so our first condition was having no overlap with that. The second conditions were characters touched upon in FGO Servant backgrounds, and to do things we couldn't in FGO. And the first thing we wanted for a new original Fate/ is a genderless Saber. Our starting points for them were the Japanese setting and the idea of someone with a different worldview from Iori but wouldn't feel weird around him.
Sakurai: We debated who would have balanced chemistry with Iori and went crossing out all possibilities. Ah, always a fun time picking Servants!
