Gilturia

"Defying me until the very end, huh? But I shall forgive you. The most beatiful things are the ones you cannot obtain."

- Gilgamesh

Gilturia is the het ship between Gilgamesh and Artoria Pendragon from the Fate fandom.

Fate/Zero
Artoria and Gilgamesh were initially only passingly aware of each other due to being summoned as servants for the Fourth Holy Grail War and had only briefly seen each other several times during it. Their first actual interaction occurred when Gilgamesh was invited to a "dinner among the kings" by Iskandar - the war's Rider servant better known as Alexander the Great - taking place in Artoria's "home base" at the Einzbern family's castle. Gilgamesh, despite his arrogance towards everyone, offers the wine he brought to Artoria. During the ensuing conversation, Gilgamesh takes note of Artoria's flawed ideals and finds the idea of her being crushed by those ideals breaking to be interesting. Over the remainder of the war, this fascination evolved into an obsession with Artoria.

By the end of the war, Gilgamesh and Saber are about to have the final fight which is going to decide the winner, when Gilgamesh proposes to Saber, saying that in the spasm of disillusionment, she was still stunning, and that she should stop fighting and marry him. Saber gets surprised by his words, but before she could refuse his request, he attacks her, saying that she has no choice between marrying him or not, and they start fighting. Not long after, Artoria's master - Kiritsugu Emiya - appears and uses his command spells to force Artoria to destroy the Holy Grail, ending the war with Saber's “death”. The fallout of the Grail's destruction resulted in Gilgamesh obtaining a physical body, with which he plans to use it for his own purposes when the next Holy Grail War starts. Until then, he and his current master - Kirei Kotomine - go into hiding.

Fate/Stay Night: Fate Route
One night, while Artoria is fighting against the Caster servant Medea, the latter is suddenly attacked and brutally killed by a rain of Noble Phantasms from a new arrival - Gilgamesh. To her surprise, she recognises the mysterious eighth Servant as the Archer from the previous Holy Grail War, who leaves after vowing to claim Artoria when they meet again.

The next day, Artoria and her master - Shirou Emiya - go on a date in an effort to make Artoria happy. They were on their way back from their encounter when they again met Gilgamesh, who starts talking about how the Holy Grail had just appeared in Fuyuki. Artoria questions Gilgamesh about his desire for the Holy Grail, and he replies that, as he's told her earlier, he doesn't have a desire and that the only thing he really cares about is her, and that she's the only thing he has been thinking about during his time on Earth. Artoria prepares to use Excalibur against Gilgamesh, who draws his ultimate Noble Phantasm - the sword Ea. The two Noble Phantasms clash, and Artoria is easily defeated and gravely injured. Unconsciously projecting swords to heal his body, Shirou gets up to fight Gilgamesh again, projecting Caliburn. Gilgamesh, disgusted by the copy, draws its original, Merodach, and defeats Shirou yet again. However, Shirou continues to regenerate and gets back up, whilst confessing his feelings to Artoria. Then, to both his and Gilgamesh's surprise, he projects a mysterious object which, with Artoria's help, deflects Gilgamesh's attack back at him, damaging him and causing him to retreat. After the fight, both Shirou and Artoria go home.

The next night, Shirou and Artoria proceed to Ryuudou Temple for the final battle, where the corrupted Holy Grail is being summoned by Kirei. They confront their respective enemies; Artoria against Gilgamesh, and Shirou against Kirei. As they fight, Gilgamesh aims to force Artoria to drink the Grail's corrupted mud to gain a body as he did, so he can claim her as his own. Artoria resists his advances, and after seeing her determination, he decides to finally go all out and kill her with Ea at full power. Although Artoria is able to momentarily offset Enuma Elish with Excalibur despite being so exhausted she couldn't lift her sword or walk due to her legs not being even at one tenth of their original power, once Ea's turns reach their maximum speed, its light starts to mow down Excalibur. Artoria blocks Enuma Elish using the sheath Avalon, and then charges towards Gilgamesh before he can react, attacking him with a fully-charged point-blank Excalibur. Right before dying, Gilgamesh gently cups Artoria's face, says she is a very persistent woman, so he admits his defeat to her, and says it was fine that he was rejected, because as according to him, the most beautiful things are the unreachable ones.

Carnival Phantasm
In Saber at Work, Artoria gets a temporary job at the Cafe Ahnenerbe to save money for a birthday present for Shirou. Gilgamesh finds out about it, and goes to the Cafe to get to be served by her. At first, she is mad to see him there, however, she needs to treat him with respect and patience, as he was a client. Gilgamesh asks waitress Artoria to bring a popular dish, and for her to smile, he smiles at her as well to demonstrate what he would like to see. Artoria gets angrier, and smirks at Gilgamesh, who is celebrating Artoria's unusual action.

Artoria went to sort out other things at the restaurant, and after a while, Gilgamesh calls her to pay his bill, and says that for his takeout, he'll want her. Saber becomes extremely angry with the last words uttered by Gilgamesh, and transforms into her Alter counterpart, who begins to judge Gilgamesh for not having even finished eating what he asked for. Artoria starts calling Gilgamesh an idiot for wasting food, while he questions who she thinks he is to treat him this way, and she replies that she is a lolita gothic maid waitress. Then Gilgamesh apologizes and starts to flatter Artoria.

Quotes
"Forming a contract with the King of Heroes... Impressive. He...is a Heroic Spirit with problems, to be sure, but his abilities are unparalleled. You'll get used to him sooner or later. Well, I will never get used to him though."

- Artoria's My Room Dialogue on Gilgamesh in Fate/Grand Order

"...Hm. Some things are beautiful because they are unattainable. Hm? Who am I talking about, you ask? The hell I know. That was a mere jest on my part!"

- Gilgamesh's My Room Dialogue on Artoria in Fate/Grand Order

"She is so lovely, it's making my chest tighten with a modicum of adoration. This is the first time I have felt jealous of someone! Merlin, you bastard...and yet forgiveness is also in order...!"

- Gilgamesh's My Room Dialogue on Artoria (Lily) in Fate/Grand Order

Fanon
Gilturia is one of the most popular shippings within the Fate fandom, being Fate's couple with the most published fanfics on AO3. Despite this, it is still frowned upon by a part of the fandom, due to other pairings involving these characters rivaling Gilturia. On Saber's side, rivaling ShiSaber and on Gilgamesh's side, rivaling Gilkidu.

Gilturia can be considered cotroversial in the view of these people in the fandom, because some of the Gilgamesh lines to Saber can be considered sexual harassment.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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