Fate/Zero2011

Saber:
To ensure their country's prosperity, a king should make any sacrifice.

Rider:
No. The king does not make any offerings. The nation and the people offer themselves to the king, not the reverse.

Saber:
What? Those are a tyrant's words!

Rider:
Just so. We are heroes *because* we are tyrants. However, Saber, if a king regrets their rule or its conclusion, that king is nothing but a fool.

Saber:
Iskander, your reign ended with your heirs slain, and your empire dissolved into three parts. You have no regrets about that end?

Rider:
None. Not if it came to pass by my judgment and my retainers' sacrifices. Its destruction was inevitable. I shall grieve. And I shall weep. But I shall never regret - let alone *undo* it! Such an act would be a mockery of all who fought with me!

Saber:
Only warriors can find glory in destruction! Of what worth is a king who fails to protect the powerless? A just rule, with just laws - *those* are the true duties of a king!

Rider:
So you, the king, are a slave to what is right?

Saber:
That is acceptable. A king is a martyr to their ideals.

Rider:
That is not how a person should live.

Saber:
If I rule the nation as king, I cannot ask to live as a person. King of Conquerors, you seek the Grail merely for your own benefit. You could never understand - you, who became a ruler only to satisfy your endless greed.

Rider:
A king without greed is even worse than a figurehead! Saber, you said you would martyr yourself for your ideals. In life, you must have been a pure saint. A proud and noble figure, certainly. But who can truly admire the martyr's thorny path? Who dreams of such an ending? A king. The king must be greedier than any other. He must laugh more loudly and rage for longer. He must exemplify the extreme of all things, good and evil. That is why his retainers envy and adore him. And why the flames of aspiration, to be as the king is, can burn within his people. Proud king of chivalry, the righteousness and ideals you bore may indeed have saved your nation once. However, I'm certain you know what became of those who were saved, but left to themselves.

Saber:
What?

Rider:
You saved them, but you never led them. You never showed them what a king should be. You abandoned your men when they lost their way. Then, alone and untroubled, you followed your own petty little ideals. Thus, you are no true king. You are only a little girl, enraptured by a false idol of a king who serves others, but not themselves.