Who is the best fictional swordsman of all time?
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In Necropolis, towards the very end, Gaunt is fighting some chaos thingy, and thinks that this is harder than when he'd fought marines.inu-kun said:
looks like a hammer handle.jhoroz said:That's Guts from Berserk and it's pretty obvious his holding the hilt of a great sword...Sleekit said:i dunno who that is and i'm not seeing a sword...jhoroz said:I'm suprised nobody has mentioned this guy yet...
Talwin hawkins aka taln of the silver hawk. Raymond e feist riftwar cycle.
Champion of the masters court greatest swordsman in the world
Champion of the masters court greatest swordsman in the world
Given that I'm halfway through reading Game of Thrones I'm inclined to say Syrio Forel. Thoros of Myr does have a flaming fucking sword though, so he might win purely out of rule of cool, although Syrio is pretty damn cool all by himself.
Boy, girl, You are a sword, that is all
Boy, girl, You are a sword, that is all
That'd be wrist in the singular, actually. He hacked off his other arm with the broken shard of a sword. I'm not sure whether I should deduct points for that or add them.Sleekit said:that's what i thought...but i see the blade now...Hoplon said:looks like a hammer handle.jhoroz said:That's Guts from Berserk and it's pretty obvious his holding the hilt of a great sword...Sleekit said:i dunno who that is and i'm not seeing a sword...jhoroz said:I'm suprised nobody has mentioned this guy yet...
he must have some wrists...
I'd say either Lucius the Eternal, simply by virtue of being in the WH40k universe and being technically immortal or Vergil from DMC because of his Iaijutsu-style dimension-slashing awesomeness.
Here's a better picture:Hoplon said:looks like a hammer handle.jhoroz said:That's Guts from Berserk and it's pretty obvious his holding the hilt of a great sword...Sleekit said:i dunno who that is and i'm not seeing a sword...jhoroz said:I'm suprised nobody has mentioned this guy yet...
The fact he handles this monstrosity with only one hand puts him ahead of most examples in this thread for me.
Even he could hold no candle to The Dread Pirate Roberts... WHO TAKES NO PRISONERS.TakerFoxx said:
I forget: is Hiro actually as skilled in the real world as he is in the Metaverse? Cos if he's only that good in the Metaverse I'd be tempted to say he wouldn't count as 'no magic (read: coding shenanigans)/ peak human only'. Good pick though.The Choke said:
There's a lot of other great mentions here, but I haven't seen anyone bring up Skilgannon, Waylander and probably a few others from David Gemmell's books. Almost all of his heroes are impossibly good with a blade, although I'm not sure how many of them are non-magical pure humans.
EDIT AGAIN TO MENTION: Read Snow Crash if you haven't. Do it. You'll love it. Do you love anime? Read Snow Crash. Trust me.
So Hiro did code a lot of the rules into the Metaverse, which he mentions in his swordfight right before he first sees Da5id have a snow crash, however he mentions that it's just that he understands the universe more than other people the way that, say, the blind swordsman may understand the universe in a different or more complete (less cluttered) way. Also, you need to remember Juanita's influence on the Metaverse and Hiro's lack of understanding about Juanita and I've gone cross-eyed. (Also, Hiro mentions that he was one of many who coded the Metaverse when he's talking about their impossible machines evolving down to machines, so he's not really the God of this universe, just one of the Peak Coders who understands the universe more than others. I seriously keep coming back and editing this because I keep remembering shit. I think I have this book memorized. This is the fourth edit, I think? I remember more about this book than I do how many edits I've done to sing the praises of Stephenson's Snow Crash. BOB HELP US, I HAVE GONE COMPLETELY CROSS-EYED.)
Outside the Metaverse, however, Hiro does practice on a physical level, such as when you see him doing katas with the Redneck Katana. I think you can take the Metaverse, with his attention to detail, as a simulator but he maintains his physical form which the book is careful to make clear to you- it's why he's so comfortable chasing Raven into the... hops? It's hops, I do remember that right. [EDIT: First time he sees Raven. Right after the concert that YT goes to. Right after he meets the Gargoyle and that dude asdflkasjdfl's, y'know?]
All of this is written off of memories of reading this book a million times though I haven't read it in the last three years. Also, should be tagged with spoilers.
EDIT TO MENTION: Though Hiro helped code the Metaverse he isn't sure he is the greatest motorcyclist, for instance, which is why he's so uncertain about his race against Raven at the end. We can extend this to the rules of swordfighting, it's just that swordfighting has a leaderboard in the Metaverse and so Hiro is more confident in his position as the greatest swordsman which is why he feels comfortable including it on his business card and there it goes again.
Here I go. God help us. Spoilers follow.snappydog said:
So Hiro did code a lot of the rules into the Metaverse, which he mentions in his swordfight right before he first sees Da5id have a snow crash, however he mentions that it's just that he understands the universe more than other people the way that, say, the blind swordsman may understand the universe in a different or more complete (less cluttered) way. Also, you need to remember Juanita's influence on the Metaverse and Hiro's lack of understanding about Juanita and I've gone cross-eyed. (Also, Hiro mentions that he was one of many who coded the Metaverse when he's talking about their impossible machines evolving down to machines, so he's not really the God of this universe, just one of the Peak Coders who understands the universe more than others. I seriously keep coming back and editing this because I keep remembering shit. I think I have this book memorized. This is the fourth edit, I think? I remember more about this book than I do how many edits I've done to sing the praises of Stephenson's Snow Crash. BOB HELP US, I HAVE GONE COMPLETELY CROSS-EYED.)
Outside the Metaverse, however, Hiro does practice on a physical level, such as when you see him doing katas with the Redneck Katana. I think you can take the Metaverse, with his attention to detail, as a simulator but he maintains his physical form which the book is careful to make clear to you- it's why he's so comfortable chasing Raven into the... hops? It's hops, I do remember that right. [EDIT: First time he sees Raven. Right after the concert that YT goes to. Right after he meets the Gargoyle and that dude asdflkasjdfl's, y'know?]
All of this is written off of memories of reading this book a million times though I haven't read it in the last three years. Also, should be tagged with spoilers.
EDIT TO MENTION: Though Hiro helped code the Metaverse he isn't sure he is the greatest motorcyclist, for instance, which is why he's so uncertain about his race against Raven at the end. We can extend this to the rules of swordfighting, it's just that swordfighting has a leaderboard in the Metaverse and so Hiro is more confident in his position as the greatest swordsman which is why he feels comfortable including it on his business card and there it goes again.
That only makes me think how much more effective he would be if he actually used a proper sword instead of that over-sized hunk of dead-weight. He won't get high on the combat intelligence list, let me tell you that.jhoroz said:
Have you actually read Berserk or are aware of his feats? Because he pretty much uses that "hunk of dead weight" to cut through legions of armies like butter, with the speed of a regular sword. Not to mention that he probably crushes a majority of the examples in this thread through sheer will power and endurance.GundamSentinel said:
It depresses me that no one has mentioned Zatoichi yet. Classic blind swordsman movie series.
The one-armed swordsman series (I really only liked the first movie) is also a classic.
But before there was a Kill Bill, there was the movie series Lone Wolf and Cub which became seriously bloody films that seemed to have inspired Kill Bill. He takes out like whole armies sent after him while protecting his kid.
Also, just because Val Kilmer's fat now, lets give some props to Madmartigan.
The one-armed swordsman series (I really only liked the first movie) is also a classic.
But before there was a Kill Bill, there was the movie series Lone Wolf and Cub which became seriously bloody films that seemed to have inspired Kill Bill. He takes out like whole armies sent after him while protecting his kid.
Also, just because Val Kilmer's fat now, lets give some props to Madmartigan.
I'll vote for Ser Barristan Selmy. Arthur Dayne fanboys-and-girls will be tempted to say Arthur Dayne, but he doesn't actually do that much in the books, outside of defeating the Smiling Knight and putting up an impressive fight at the Tower of Joy. Barristan, on the other hand, has a long list of badassery to his name.