Analysis: Ky Kiske vs Saber
Alright so a quick disclaimer
Yes this isn’t the one I teased at the end of Aigis this is almost more of a bonus blog I had in mind when I was in the production of that teased one so I figured “eh fuck it why not.”
So how the hell is this gonna work?
I think everyone knows by now that Fate as a verse isn’t exactly a verse that can be composited as easily as Dragonball Super or something. So the big question is how will I handle Saber since she’s no different in regards to alternate incarnations and all.
For this I will be primarily focusing on her F/SN and FGO incarnations, the former due to being iconic and everyone identifying with that more, and the latter for giving Saber more stuff to work with story wise and feat wise. EX is not being considered here quite frankly cause it’s makes this match unfair as all hell and we want some entertainment. I also won’t be factoring in Saber Alter, Saber Lily, Lancer Saber, Lancer Saber Alter…
Yeah you get the point.
Ky is fairly straightforward. The games and whatever else is considered canon (Like the Xtra Manga and Drama CD’s) are one the table.
Background
Ky’s life might as well be a series of unfortunate events one after another. It all began when he was a young boy born during the biggest war in Guilty Gear history: The Crusades. After constantly backing down out of fights, Ky decided no longer to run and confronted current Sacred Order of the Holy Knights leader Kliff, wanting to join. Knowing that would be stupid, Kliff told Ky to come back in five years when he wasn’t fresh Gear meat. Naturally Ky would return and was inducted into the order. Things were going well for Ky! He was a prodigy swordsman respected by many of his peers and even achieved the rank of captain at a fairly young age.
Sol was everything wrong with a Holy Knight. Rude, lazy, and a loose canon. If Ky didn’t hate him enough, Sol would proceed to steal the Fireseal (unaware that Kliff had plans to give it to Sol anyways), cementing his disdain for his new rival.
Eventually Kliff retired and gave Ky leadership duties for the Order. Together with Sol they would seal Justice and put an end to the war but not really cause Justice was eventually revived and killed Kliff right there and then. After that sequence of events Ky became a Police Officer and was treated like dogshit by everyone around him because being the Leader of the Holy Knights doesn’t mean shit to quite frankly anyone. There was one exception however, a woman named Dizzy……..who happened to be the daughter of Justice. Ky’s ideals of justice became blurred, largely due to the fact he was absolutely fucking horny for some Gear titties. He eventually learned some lessons and would marry Dizzy in private and even have a kid that he despite being a damned Christan named………..Sin.
If life wasn’t already shitting on Ky the United Nations forces him into the position of king by blackmailing him via his secret marriage. Sin would grow antagonistic towards Ky due to his lack of time with him or Dizzy, making Ky’s life even more shitastic. AND THEN Valentine shows up and begins erasing several Gears, Dizzy included, forcing Ky to seal her in order to prevent her from vanishing entirely.
Needless to say after ALL of this, Ky would get better. He became a better king, reconnected with his son, made up with Sol, and can make his relationship with Dizzy public.
True name Artoria Pendragon, Saber was born during the “Dark Ages” of Britain, with war and chaos spread across the entire country. With Merlin’s prophecy claiming that “King Arthur” would be the one to save the country, the royal family would give up Saber to be placed in the care of Merlin and his fellow knights as she trained in the art of swordsmanship to claim her rightful position as King of Britain. After pulling the legendary sword Excalibur from it’s resident stone, Saber would officially take her role as King, regardless of her gender not reflecting the title of “King,”
So her leadership would begin, leading the front of many battles with so much power she was deemed a dragon in human form. Victory after victory, Saber would turn her country into a mighty force of power, with her obligations as king be fulfilled by every battle. Naturally this all sounds too good to be true so what the fuck happened that turned Saber’s life into a shitshow.
Because she was a woman and the country eventually needed an heir, Merlin had the bright idea to briefly turn Saber into a pseudo male and yank some sperm out of her to produce a homunculus named Modred. Saber wouldn’t learn about Mordred until later and ended up rejecting her right as an heir due to her unusual conception, leading to animosity that would come to bite her in the ass later. After her final victory in the war, a group of traitors within her court would begin to rise up, causing a split within the country that would cause it’s eventual demise in spite of all of the hard work put towards it’s resurrection. Mordred, the main cause of the rebellion, would clash with Saber one last time, falling to her blade. Mortally wounded, Saber would give the holy sword to her last loyal retainer Bedivere and died on the field of battle.
Aaaaaaaaaaand then she was summoned into the Fourth Holy Grail War, being the Servant of Kiritsugu Emiya. Wanting to right the wrongs via the Holy Grail, Saber participated in the war………..to be met with all of the BS that came with a Holy Grail War. After all she was with an Emiya. And as the chart indicates, he is a big fuck up.
And then the Fifth Holy Grail War occurred and she got paired up with well….another fucking Emiya. This one is in the process of not believing he will fuck up.
And in another universe she is teaming up with other servants to stop singularities and lost belts and making bring in sweet big mobile game cash.
Weapons
Thunderseal
Ky’s main weapon to utilize in combat. A piece of the Outrage created by Sol, Thunderseal if the name wasn’t obvious, channels lightning magic better than any other weapon within the series, allowing for Ky to manipulate his lightning in different ways, primarily through using the blade as a conduit for his magic to produce several attacks. In more serious situations, Ky can even sacrifice Thunderseal to use it as a seal that freezes the time around the target.
Excalibur
Saber’s main weapon that serves as her Noble Phantasm to boot. A symbol of King Arthur herself, Excalibur is a divine construct that serves as a “Last Phantasm” forged by the gods and imbued with the wishes of all of humanity. It’s considered to be one of the best Noble Phantasms, only outshined by Ea (because Gil is Gil). Most of the time the blade is concealed by a special ability in order to avoid her true name being identified. If something needs to really die, Saber charges the blade with her magical energy, gathering all of the light around her, and produces a giant slash that can even affect the largest of monsters in its wake.
Abilities
Ky
As a former soldier in the Holy Order and a prodigy at swordsmanship, Ky has picked up several skills and talents to become one of the most adept fighters in the Guilty Gear Universe.
Special Moves
Stun Edge: A projectile that can be fired normally, or when charged for a second or two can produce a larger and more powerful projectile.
Stun Dipper: A slide tackle followed by a lightning slash.
Greed Sever: More likely known as “The Scrub Beater”, Greed Sever is an overhead strike that reminds Guilty Gear players to actually block.
Vapor Thrust: A rising slash Ky can use to catch opponents in the air.
Lightning Strike: What the fuck do you think it does.
Lightning Sphere: A special technique that Ky can apply to his stun edge.
Charged Drive: A follow up attack to the aforementioned Lightning Sphere.
Stun Ray: A cross that Ky can leave hovering to catch opponents off guard.
Overdrives
Ride the Lightning: A special charging technique in which Ky envelopes himself in a lighting aura to damage the opponent. He can even change directions while doing this.
Sacred Edge: The most powerful variant of his Stun Edge attack, creating a fast and sizeable projectile to attack the opponent.
Grinder Techniques
By placing a grinder on the battlefield, Ky can enhance his Stun Edge Techniques to be even more powerful.
Instant Kill
Ky’s most powerful technique. After chanting a quick incantation, Ky charges at the opponent with all his might and strikes them down with a swift blow.
Master Ghost
During the events of Guilty Gear 2, Ky managed to learn an ability that allows him to materialize his soul into what is known as a Master Ghost. A Master Ghost allows Ky to summon servants (which are almost as strong as he is) and minions (mostly fodder) that can aid him in battle with their own capabilities. As long as the Master Ghost is up, the servants will arrive continuously. It can even allow the user to be resurrected as many times as they please so as long as it is active. The Master Ghost is protected by a barrier that shields the actual device from being attacked. Said barrier employs a specific type of magic that is more virtual in nature, making it hard for even people like Sol to break through it without the Servants.
Swordsman
A melee based servant primarily focusing on hard hitting attacks.
Gauntlet Body
A tank that excels at launching his opponents far distances.
Springbock
A mobile unit that can lower the defense of enemies that are armored.
Wise Man
A mage that can reduce an enemies magic output extremely for a set amount of time.
Twin Trigger
A sniper that can fire consecutive shots to damage the opponent.
Convict Hammer
An elite soldier who has the ability to not only cancel debuffs to Ky and other soldiers, but grant permanent defense against magic and ranged attacks, enhance offensive capabilities, and remove buffs from opponents.
Quadro Balif
A ranged soldier that has a better chance at landing “critical” hits.
Heaven’s Libra
An elite mage that can raise the attack speed of allies and lower defense of nearby enemies.
Gear State
After being shot by Axus, Ky awakened to a new power that granted him the traits and abilities of a gear. With this he is granted enhanced strength, speed, and durability, as well as the ability to regenerate from wounds. Gear Cells also have a much closer connection the Backyard, allowing for nigh infinite energy/magic. Those with Gear Cells have the ability to even enter the Backyard safely, which can crush souls through sheer pressure alone.
Saber
As the King of Britain and apart of one of the most wanted servant classes, Saber is a adept fighter with many skills and talents to succeed in battle.
Servant Physiology
To be blunt, Servants are built differently across the board due to being Heroic Spirits, which reside within a higher plane of existence known as The Root. They are effectively immortal due to their aging being halted when they reach peak physical performance and don’t require basic human needs such as oxygen or sleep, partially due to running on Mana. They get all of the necessary information about the world they spawn into, which allows them to operate a majority whatever type of technology is relevant to that time period. Even spatial distortions aren’t anything to fear for your plucky Servant.
Class Skills
Parameters: Saber’s statistics all well rounded across the board, particularly standing out in the Mana, Luck, and Noble Phantasm range when operating under Ritsuka Fujimaru. It should be noted that these statistics are not just for show, as seen with Saber’s ranking of A+ luck allowing her to not be instant killed by Gae Bolg.
Magic Resistance: This ability can cancel out magical abilities below “A” rank, which in the world of Fate not many can match up to for the most part.
Riding: An ability that allows Saber to ride just about anything, from something as expected as horses and beasts, to modern day technology such as a motorcycle
Personal Skills
Charisma: This grants Saber the ability to naturally command an army, with rank B granting Saber the ability to lead a country. This boosts Saber’s attack as well as her allies cooperating with her.
Mana Burst: By infusing her weapons and body, Saber can release her magic instantaneously similar to that of a jet burst. This can be upgraded to the Dragon Reactor Core ability.
Instinct: The ability to “feel” the best course of action, effectively operating as a sixth sense to serve as a precognition ability. This ability can be upgraded to Shining Path.
Noble Phantasm
Besides the aforementioned Excalibur, Saber has two other Noble Phantasms at her beckon call. These serve as symbols of Saber’s legend as a hero within legend, and come in various different forms.
Invisible Air: A mysterious wind that hides Excalibur from its opponents, distorting light to make it impossible for most to determine its length, width, or height. Saber can momentarily release the wind barrier to create large wind blasts that can amplify her speed or power
Avalon: The scabbard for Excalibur, Avalon serves as a healing device for Saber, specifically by transporting her to the realm of the fairies also named Avalon (for some damn reason), sitting within the sixth dimension blocking off all potential interference. Avalon can heal many fatal injuries, even if the heart at critical moments.
Feats/Accomplishments
Ky
Strength
Created a large crater with the aforementioned explosion
Lifted a giant chain that was linked to Justice
Bested Potemkin while holding back who can hit opponents to another part of the world
Stronger than Sin who can do this with his Instant Kill
Sin is a higher Humanoid Gear, which are stronger than the Megadeath Class who can lifewipe the Earth
Curbstomped Sol while still holding back
The same Sol who defeated Justice who has a galaxy cluster’s worth of information density inside of her
Sol also contains the Flame of Corruption seed, which can survive the Absolute World’s merging of the Universe and Backyard (which is bigger than our universe)
Sol and Sin also fought Jack-O who can do this
Speed
Blitzed Sol in the aforementioned curbstomp
Sol defeated Justice who could fly into space in seconds
Sol fought Slayer who can send his opponents into another galaxy casually
Sol fought Jack-O who can fly at this type of speed
Faster than Bridget who can through his opponents to the moon in seconds
Fought against Chipp, one of the fastest characters in the series
Durability
Felt no pain from being shot
Survived a fight with Justice who with her Gamma Ray destroyed Japan (that crater is what’s left of Japan)
Survived his bouts with Sol who’s Junkyard can smash a mountain
Sol has also contained enough energy to destroy the world
Took hits from Ariels
Saber
Strength
Fought against Hercules who can shatter mountains
Excalibur in the F/SN timeline can output this much
Has higher strength than Mash who fought against Gilles who was powered by a Holy Grail and Tesla
Holy Grails are powerful enough to collapse an entire timeline via the singularities they generate
Tesla was able to use his lightning to power a fog that would destroy all of creation
Jane who has overall weaker stats than Saber fought against Astarte Origin
Astarte Origin is a living universe and has the ability to cut the universe in half
Weaker Noble Phantasms such as Elisabeth’s can replicate the big bang
Speed
Can keep up with Hercules who could block Archer’s Caladbolg II
The Caldabolg II can travel 4 kilometers in a short time
Faster than Iskandar who could react to the light emitting from Saber’s Excalibur
Mash could keep up with Ishtar, who can fire an attack from Venus to Earth
Chiron, who has an inferior ranking in his Noble Phantasm can fire an attack that travels from the tip of the Sagittarius constellation’s bow to the Earth
Jeane d’Arc Alter without being empowered could fight on par with MHXX (Mysterious Heroine XX) who can fly out of the galaxy.
This is notable because when empowered Mash and the crew best her.
Mash also keeps up with Billy the Kid, who can fight on par with Space Ishtar
Space Ishtar shares the same NP as her Ishtar-Astarte state, which is faster than her bullets that are as large as half of the universe
Durability
^That
Her armor survived a portion of Gil’s Ea
Survived her duel with Lancelot, another Berserker.
Took hits against the Demon God Pillars (as a note every servant ever participated in this battle have fun with that) who are as strong as the aforementioned singularities.
Mash (This is like the third or fourth time you’re hearing this name) can take a hit from Lostbelt Trees, which sustain a timeline. Also has a galaxy inside of it.
Weaknesses
Ky
Ky is an honorable man, and often won’t employ his more ruthless tactics against a majority of his foes due to not having the nature of a primal gear. While his Master Ghost technique can be useful, if the Master Ghost itself is destroyed, Ky by extension will die as a result.
Saber
Saber relies a lot on her code of honor, and often sacrifices logical decisions in favor of keeping her morals. She’s reliant on a pool of mana in order to maintain her peak physical condition, though this can be circumvented in theory if summoned by a Singularity. Lastly while Avalon is a potent healing device, it will not work should the brain be destroyed.
Summary
Ky
Advantages
Somewhat stronger overall
Gear Cells offer a larger pool of magic to pull from
Master Ghost provides Ky with an army on the go and resurrection in case of death
Arguably smarter and less bound by moral codes
Wider variety of techniques to pull from
Being stronger prevents his magic from being canceled out
Got some good ass Gear Pussy
Disadvantages
Slower and has to deal with precog
Likely not the better swordsman
Avalon is a big hurdle to fight against
Less experienced
Is mostly likely the unluckiest fucker in the Guilty Gear Universe
Saber
Advantages
Faster and has precog on top of it
Arguably a better swordsman
More experienced as a whole
Avalon is a nifty healing item for her to utilize
Brings in all of the big fucking money for TYPE-MOON
Disadvantages
Weaker to an extent
Less variety in techniques and abilities
Has no general counter to the Master Ghost mechanics
More limited resource in mana compared to Ky’s magic
Ky’s strength makes Magic Resistance irrelevant
Arguably less smart and more bound by le morals
Was fucked by an Emiya which likely means she will fuck up in some way shape or form later
Summary
Ok so first things first?
Good lord I have done like 4 blogs and they all involve some sort of cosmic scale destruction fucking hell. We're gonna take a step back after this one.
More importantly how this fight plays out is very intriguing and is muuuuuuuuuuuch closer in comparison to Void vs Jedah. Needless to say this is quite the fun match but we gotta pick one so let’s run down the details.
When it comes to Ky, his biggest advantages in this fight are his superior strength and dura, Gear State and his Master Ghost shenanigans. The Backyard+Universe merging while not loads stronger than Saber, still gives him a solid power advantage that prevents Saber’s magic resistance ability from taking effect and canceling out his attacks. His Gear State only amplifies his advantages in this field more and gives him some decent healing to go along with it, allowing him to shake off any damage Saber could deal. The biggest W he has going for him however is the Master Ghost ability. This gives Ky access to a bunch of soldiers that are around his tier in strength, with their own abilities and skills to mess with Saber, notably reducing magical output and giving Ky and the other soldiers permanent defensive gains. Of course the star of the show is resurrection, which keeps Ky in the fight even if he dies during the battle.
Saber’s biggest advantages are the massive speed gap and Avalon at her command. Coupled with her precog it’ll be extremely difficult for Ky to land a hit on her. Any hits he could possibly get however will be rendered mostly useless by the power of Avalon, which puts Saber in a state that Ky reasonably has no way of accessing. This gives her a free healing area to return to and make the fight much more difficult for Ky, given how he’ll have to deal with this constant “Lose all damage taken for free” card.
So how does this play out long term? Well if there’s one thing holding Saber back the most it’s her mana supply. While plentiful it eventually will run out, leaving her without access to any of her options to continue on in battle. In contrast Ky’s magic supply will be far more plentiful due to the nature of his Gear Cells, and even if he were to die in battle the Master Ghost would basically resurrect him with a new pool of magic to pull from. Essentially even if Ky can’t figure out how to shut down Avalon via destroying Saber’s brain, he simply has to outlast her long enough to eventually have her superhuman traits be removed due to the loss of mana.
The Winner is Ky Kiske
Thanks to GB for the TN, Utopia and Defect for some Fate lore knowledge and feats, Tommy for the bullet calc, and all other calcs here go to their respective creators.
Next time will prolly be toned down on the cosmic scale. Thanks for reading and remember to wear a mask.
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