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I've been watching Fate Stay Night and Unlimited Blade Works (movie). Haven't seen the manga yet.

In Fate Stay Night, Saber is determined to obtain the Holy Grail. After many experiences with Shirou, he convinces her that it is pointless, and so she accepts to destroy it. Shirou convinced her mainly because he wanted her to stay and have a normal life.

In the Unlimited Blade Works movie, there's no hint of major affection from Shirou towards Saber (who seems to be more interested in Rin). In fact, so many things happen so quickly that Saber even ends up as Rin's servant (so Shirou's relationship with her was like... null).

When the Grail is being summoned by Gilgamesh in Unlimited Blade Works, Saber doesn't even hesitate about destroying the Grail.

So in the Unlimited Blade Works movie, exactly what convinced Saber to destroy it?

I didn't really get UBW's plot very well though. I'm not sure if there was something especially wrong with that Grail that made it useless for Saber. Was there?

Hakase
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Saturn
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  • Just so you know, the original source is a [visual novel](http://vndb.org/v11), not a manga. I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know how accurately they followed the VN (or even which of the two UBW endings was adapted), but Saber's actions do make sense in the VN IIRC. – Logan M Jul 21 '13 at 03:41
  • @LoganM: Oh, I see. Maybe they did address it but I just wasn't paying attention. I'll check it out, thanks! – Saturn Jul 21 '13 at 04:37
  • Sorry, I might have misunderstood you. Did you mean the Unlimited Blade Works movie, or the UBW route from the Visual Novel? I thought you were talking about the movie, (which I don't know about) but rereading your post I'm not sure anymore. – Logan M Jul 21 '13 at 04:39
  • @LoganM: I did mean the movie. Sorry, I'll clear it up. – Saturn Jul 21 '13 at 05:08
  • That's frigging' great. Even titles need spoiler tags... – dance2die Sep 11 '14 at 20:26
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    @Sung not really, the only questions i can find which have a "spoiler tag" in the title has it at the end in which case if the title is a spoiler wouldn't do anything, and i think almost every other time if a "spoiler tag" is in the title it gets edited out later. Anyway if you don't want to read question titles for a series you don't want to be spoiled about, add that series to Preferences > Ignored Tags and set it to hide the questions. – Memor-X Sep 11 '14 at 23:11
  • @Memor-X Thanks for your kind instructions ;) – dance2die Sep 12 '14 at 19:41

1 Answers1

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In the movie, as Rin was carrying Shinji out, she told Saber to destroy the Holy Grail "cocoon" (Shinji was too weak and incompatible to be able to contain the Grail, so this "cocoon" is the result of it manifesting).

Saber she was hesitant because Rin was still there, but she knew that if the cocoon were to explode the cursed contents would destroy everything it touched. So destroying the cocoon would be natural to her in this situation.

The movie plays out almost exactly as the visual novel scenario, with a few bits and pieces cut out for time. E.g., Saber tries to cross the pond of corrupted mud to save Rin, but Rin uses a Command Seal to prevent her from doing so (because she would be corrupted by the cursed mud if she touched it).

About the corruption of the Grail:

The contents of the Grail was corrupted during the Third Fuyuki Grail War, which allowed for the summoning of non-Heroic Spirits such as Rider and Caster. Any wish made upon this upon the Grail's corrupted contents would come with destruction. The Lesser Grail, the container meant to hold the contents of the Holy Grail was destroyed in the previous Grail War (the Fourth, by Saber, commanded by Shirou's foster father Kiritsugu using his command seal).

кяαzєя
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  • I believe in all cases a command seal was necessary for her to attack the grail. In Fate she specifically says Shirou must command her, since acquisition of the grail was basically the entire purpose of a servant in general and her in particular. As such she could not willingly attack it. Kiritsugu was forced to use two seals to make her attack, as she resisted because she did not understand the danger and evil in the grail. – zibadawa timmy Sep 11 '14 at 23:11