First, let’s say what sealed her fate. It was drawing the Sword from the Stone, Caliburn. Doing that made her King of Britain, but there was someone else that could have pulled that sword from the stone, Morgan la Fae, Artoria’s older sister. The moment Artoria became rightful King of Britain, Morgan’s jealousy took over, and she started planning her revenge. To that end, Morgan had five children : Agravain, Gawain, Gaheris, Gareth and Mordred. In the end, they all joined the Round Table; only Mordred technically staying faithful to Morgan.
Meanwhile, Lancelot and Guinevere are having an affair together (not right away), and they are quite good at keeping it secret. Unfortunately, Agravain finds them and alerts the others, and that’s the first thing that start making the Round Table crumble. Upon being found by Agravain, Lancelot kills him and gets exiled, while Guinevere gets condemned to execution.
Upon learning that, Lancelot decides to save her. In order to get her out of her cell though, he kills Gaheris and Gareth, the latter being his former esquire.
Meanwhile, Artoria has to go in campaign in former Rome to repell an invasion. Around that time, Avalon gets stolen by Morgan.
When Artoria comes back, she discovers that Mordred had taken over Camelot, and now Mordred’s army was marching on Artoria’s. In her way, however, stood her last brother, Gawain, and she killed him. The two armies fight their final battle, the Battle of Camlann, and they slaughter each other. In the end, on the top of a hill covered in corpses, with swords planted in the ground like graves, only Mordred and Artoria are still standing. Mordred, who had been denied being the King’s son, attacked her, and in the end, died when she was pierced by Rhongomyniad. However, Morgan had one last trick, having put a curse of rebellion on Mordred, and Mordred’s body acted on its own and swung the sword, mortally wounding Artoria.
Hopefully, if you knew about the Battle of Camlann, I taught you nothing up until now. Now, onto the more emotional part.
First, in Fate, Morgan is still alive in modern day. Can you imagine having to live so long with the despair of losing all five of your children? Yeah, me neither.
Also, Mordred never got what she wanted, which was to simply be the King’s son. She never even got to touch her.
Remember when I said drawing Caliburn from the Stone was what sealed Britain’s fate? That happened twenty years before the Battle of Camlann.
Of all the Knights of the Round Table, here are the ones who were alive at Camlann. Mordred, Artoria and Bedivere, though that last one is a technicality.
Also, for symbolism I probably don’t understand, there’s the fact that every knight who died at Camlann had a sword serving as a grave. Meanwhile, Artoria’s grave is Avalon, a sheath. Don’t know what that means, but it certainly means something.
Slightly off-topic, EMIYA also died on a hill with swords serving as graves.
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