although I think the ending could have been a lot worse I was pretty alright with it, since I couldn't really see a way that they could have kept Saber and Shirou together without really twisting the plot to something that didn't make sense.....
however, this anime's ending had A LOT of potential, and I think there are a lot of ways that this anime's final stretch could have gone, maybe stretching it to ~30 episodes, so I agree that it seemed a little rushed...
what I would have liked to see is the appearance of a brand new servant near the end, say maybe someone like a Joan of Arc to contrast against King Arthur (my initial guess was that Saber was Joan of Arc), and this servant would be like a wandering Servant who had found a very unexpected Master (some quiet, unsubstantial-looking guy in Shirou and Rin's class with no magical lineage or genes, but despite his lack of magical lineage he develops some sort of powers on his own [maybe can be explained by mutation or "the same reason that the first magicians evolved" or something wierd like that]...so basically this character would have to be encountered early on in the series, maybe by Rin, but nothing should come out of it and it should be completely harmless, the character should be very forgettable until he pops up near the end in a dramatic fashion)
Upon this character and servant meeting they decide on a goal of capturing the Holy Grail and with it wishing for the removal of all magic and servants from Earth, since after all magic only causes pain and destruction and humans cannot handle power, or something like that... so this master and servant think of themselves as like a form of Armageddon, anti-christ or soemthing like that... but we don't hear anything about them until near then ending episodes
So...I was thinking when Shirou and Saber are at state of near-death near the end, both losing their battles to Gilgamesh and that priest guy repectively, this character and Joan of Arc make some sort of dramatic entrance and eliminate Gilgamesh and the priest rather handily in an awesome display of power...
Then Saber and Joan of Arc get involved, fight a bit, Joan of Arc wins, then something occurs, I don't know what exactly, but I guess it can involve some sort of sacrifice of Joan of Arc to make Saber "complete", leaving Saber with the message that she is the only one that can do what should be done and that it is her duty as King...
The other Master confronts Shirou and explains to him his plan for what he is doing with the Holy Grail but Shirou keeps fighting back until Saber appears in her "complete" form and convinces him that it is the right thing, citing the fire 10 years ago as proof, thus convincing Shirou...
and so this mystery Master approaches the Holy Grail, which is summoned through Ilya's body, and tells it of its wish... however, the Holy Grail refuses, citing its need for human selfishness and destruction as a source for its life, and so the mystery Master has no choice but to use an immense display of magic to separate the true figure of the Holy Grail from Ilya's body (leaving Ilya safe, for those who fancy her
) revealing some evil-looking entity... by now this mystery Master is almost drained of energy and so this "Holy Grail" figure almost kills him in a little fight that they have, and with his last gasp he does something cool (i dunno really) that allows Shirou to create a cool weapon for Saber....
just before he dies though Rin swoops in and saves him, and through this maybe something can develop here, since Shirou is taken by Saber
.... so now all thats left is for Saber to pull off some epic finishing move, the Holy Grail dies, magic disappears from the world ( as far as we know, if they want a second season just don't make this conclusive quite yet), Saber looks like she's going to disappear but all that happens is she loses all her armour and weapons and falls into Shirou's arms, reborn as a human (who cares about an explanation for this)....the mystery man disappears, at least for the time being, making Rin sad a little, but otherwise everything else returns to normal, and they all live happy for a couple days, despite a small whole left in the hearts of the magic-users........
and as a note: of course, I'm envisioning this mystery Master as myself
Fate Stay Night was awesome overall though, everyone imagines their own alternate endings and mine was something like this hehe...
wow half an hour to type this
Fate/Stay Night Ending
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