Very early on in Fate Apocrypha—episode 2 to be more precise—we quickly learn that Saber of Red isn’t one to be trifled with. In fact, even when her Master Kairi Shishigou summons her, Saber of Red quickly turns her blade to his neck after a comment he makes about her gender. This might seem like a negative—to be so quick to get mad at hearing you’re a female—but the reality behind it is simple. Saber of Red wants to be seen as a proud knight worthy of her family lineage.

We can see this is the reason for how Saber of Red holds herself throughout the Fate/Apocrypha series. Not only does Saber of Red quickly draw her blade—Clarent—when confronted, she doesn’t even act very feminine but acts with poise and pride during battle. Saber of Red is also quick to state her name to anyone she goes up against which usually is considered risky in the Fate world as your enemies could gain intelligence of what your skills, weapons and Noble Phantasm are. That’s why we love the fact that Saber of Red identifies herself as less of a woman and more of just a knight. Shows that you’ll get quickly defeated if you think her womanly assets are the only things Saber of Red hides…

Saber of Red is quick to point out in her introduction that she is the “King of Knights” and that’s a very important thing to her character. By making that declaration, Saber of Red is basically saying she’s the best knight around. Though Saber of Red doesn’t just make this claim without backing it up. In multiple episodes and fights, Saber of Red proves to the viewer and her opponents how powerful a knight/servant she truly is.

Let’s look at one of Saber of Red’s fights in episode 9 where she fights against Rider of Black. While Saber of Red was willing to ignore him, after some rather harsh words, Saber of Red summoned her armor and sword for battle. Quickly, we see in the following episode—episode 10—Rider of Black was no match for Saber of Red and it’s up to Sieg—the homunculus who gained Saber of Black’s soul within him—to enter the fray. Though as Saber of Red quickly points out, Sieg, even with Saber of Black’s power, is unable to stand against her as well. Sieg is allowed to live though proving that Saber of Red has honor and won’t just kill anyone who fights against her, but we were worried for a second for Sieg who is the series’ main protagonist after all.

Despite her prideful nature, Saber of Red actually wishes to be like most servants and coexist with her Master outside of battle. Thus, in Episode 2, Saber of Red actually asks Kairi for normal clothes. Even he was taken aback by Saber of Red’s request. Saber of Red then apparently picks a red short jacket, white dress top and jean shorts with brown boots which seem very far from the image of what a knight or someone with honor would wear. We also see in episode 3, Saber of Red just lounges about in her normal attire—minus the red jacket—with a lack of care. This isn’t a bad thing, mind you, that Saber of Red is comfortable enough to be in regular street clothes when not fighting for her master, but we just think it’s funny and quite relaxing that Saber of Red isn’t always a super proud knight. Clearly, she does have a more relaxed side to her, just like her father who also wore normal clothes in the Fate/Stay Night adaptations.

While many servants in Fate/Apocrypha have rather cool weapons and armor—though this seems to be a staple of the Fate franchise—we have to say Saber of Red has easily the coolest armaments around. Not only does her suit of armor look menacing and strong, her blade Clarent mirrors her father’s blade—Excalibur—in many ways. If you’re a fan of the original Saber and trusty blade, you know that’s a rather scary thing alone. Plus, we love the way Saber of Red’s armor materializes which gives her a red aura as it engulfs her body. It just has a cool look to it which just makes Saber of Red even more awesome in our minds, and we’re sure many of us aren’t alone in these thoughts. Now, if you think this all seems a bit shallow, then you have to remember that if you know anything about the real history of knights you would know that a knight’s armor was a true sign of strength as well as how they maintained the armor. Essentially, if a knight had nice and immaculate armor and weapons, that was seen as being high class back in the medieval days at least.

Maybe this might sound wild and we know it will trigger some fans out there—we’re sorry in advance—but many of us here at Honey’s Anime feel that Saber of Red is the best Saber class in all of the fate franchise. Not only does Saber of Red act tough and cool, she backs it up with her skills, as we mentioned multiple times, and never wavers once from duties and morals. Even the original, famous Saber—which is her father—had moments of weakness in Fate/Stay Night such as the one storyline where she was captured and held prisoner till Rin, Archer and Shiro came in to save her. Saber of Red doesn’t have these moments ever in Fate/Apocrypha and, in fact, goes out with a truly mesmerizing final battle against Assassin of Red cementing her as a strong warrior till the end. That’s why, despite many trying to argue with us that Saber of Red isn’t the best Saber, many just can't deny it. Though we’ll leave the comments down below to you to try and claim any other Saber is better but please make sure to keep things civil and respectful.