Headscratchers / Fate/Samurai Remnant

• Is Saber's gender really that ambiguous? They have a wife and I can't imagine same-sex marriage being allowed in Heian-era Japan. There's also Saber's father referring to them as "son" when Iori journeys through their mind.
  • Yes, Saber is that ambiguous. If one is only looking at them without any of the background information available, one is very highly likely to just assume the gender on Saber and keep thinking it, especially if Saber never bothers to reveal and clear that matter up themselves. It also partly helps concealing their true identity.
  • You're saying this as if this isn't the same franchise whose main mascot is a gender-bended King Arthur who fathered children through a temporary magical sex change.
• Why is Samurai Remnant a pruned timeline? Aside from a handful of minor historical inaccuracies that can just be handwaved away like in other installments of the Fate series, there's nothing indicating that this world would have a reason to be pruned. Prototype Arthur and Artoria are both from worlds that exist within Proper Human History, meaning that something like a historical figure's gender shouldn't draw the ire of the Pruning Theoretical Phenomenon. It doesn't even change anything, and only seems to serve as a halfhearted Shout-Out to FGO in the Material Book, with nothing in-game ever stating that there's a reason for the world to be pruned.
  • Perhaps it had something to do with the Waxing Moon Ritual, perhaps something else happened in this timeline that prompted it for pruning that had nothing to do with it. The point is that the events of Samurai Remnant is no guarantee that the timeline wouldn't/would be pruned, just that they were allowed to happen before that came to pass later.