#Sword Fighting

[just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi]

Some small details for a character learning sword fighting for the first time:

- sore wrists

- blisters on hands

- every movement opens you up to be hit

- they will hit the tops of their arm and own sides with the sword while learning

- there is a primal sixth sense when you know you’re being toyed with

And, for your typically nonviolent characters.

You don’t aim for the swords. You aim for the person holding the sword.

It sounds so obvious but needs to be accepted. Actively. When holding a sword you have to understand you’re attacking another person. Even to block you have to aim your blocks at the other person or they won’t be strong enough to actually protect yourself.

[bogslob]

I was so sad when they cut Luke teaching Percy sword fighting from earlier episodes, one of the main reasons being because it would have meant that they couldn’t reasonably have Luke giving Percy instructions during the Ares fight, but having sword fighting lesson flashbacks during the fight was genius it tied everything together really well and made so much sense considering Luke hasn’t been in a huge portion of the show and your average viewer wouldn’t necessarily recognise his voice

[writers-potion]

Writing Weapons (1): Swords

The Thrusting Sword

Type of fight scene: entertaining, duels, non-lethal fights, non-gory deaths, swashbuckling adventure

Mostly used in: Europe, including Renaissance and Regency periods

Typical User: silm, male or female, good aerobic fitness

Main action: thrust, pierce, stab

Main motion: horizontal with the tip forward

Shape: straight, often thin, may be lightweight

Typical Injury: seeping blood, blood stains spreading

Strategy: target gaps in the armous, pierce a vital organ

Disadvantage: cannot slice through bone or armour

Examples: foil, epee, rapier, gladius

The Cleaving Sword

Type of fight scene: gritty, brutal, battles, cutting through armour

Typical user: tall brawny male with broad shulders and bulging biceps

Mostly used in: Medieval Europe

Main action: cleave, hack, chop, cut, split

Main motion: downwards

Shape: broad, straight, heavy, solid, sometime huge, sometimes need to be held in both hands, both sides sharpened

Typical Injury: severed large limbs

Strategy: hack off a leg, them decapitate; or split the skull

Disadvantage: too big to carry concealed, too heavy to carry in daily lifem too slow to draw for spontaneous action

Examples: Medieval greatsword, Scottish claymore, machete, falchion

The Slashing Sword

Type of fight scene: gritty or entertaining, executions, cavalry charge, on board a ship

Mostly used in: Asia, Middle East

Typical user: male (female is plausible), any body shape, Arab, Asian, mounted warrior, cavalryman, sailor, pirate

Main action: slash, cut, slice

Main motion: fluid, continuous, curving, eg.figure-eight

Shape: curved, often slender, extremely sharp on the outer edge

Typical Injury: severed limbs, lots of spurting blood

Strategy: first disable opponent's sword hand (cut it off or slice into tendons inside the elbow)

Disadvantage: unable to cut thorugh hard objects (e.g. metal armor)

Examples: scimitar, sabre, saif, shamshir, cutlass, katana

Blunders to Avoid:

Weapons performing what they shouldn't be able to do (e.g. a foil slashing metal armour)

Protagonists fighting with weapons for which they don't have the strength or build to handle

The hero carrying a huge sword all the time as if it's a wallet

Drawing a big sword form a sheath on the back (a physical impossiblity, unless your hero is a giant...)

Generic sword which can slash, stab, cleave, slash, block, pierce, thrust, whirl through the air, cut a few limbs, etc...as if that's plausible

adapted from <Writer's Craft> by Rayne Hall

[ladymirdan]

And now im imaginging getting fighting lessons from Entreri.

[korbyxd]

To wish to become stronger, is to face The Greatest Warrior in the Galaxy...

Meta Knight vs. Galacta Knight

[m3dieval]

Pont-Croix 1358

[thepedanticbohemian]

A helpful post about dying in a sword fight for all my fantasy writing folks.

[hotwife-affairs]

[hyenabeanz]

Gwendoline Christie and Maisie Williams swordfighting upon ye.

[randomthings505]

Damian: .....

Jon: .....

Jon: We're not gonna sword fight at our wedding because I proposed to you while you teaching me how to sword fight.

Damian: WHY NOT-

[sikuena]

prompt #43; bloody kisses

suggested by none other than @nostalgicish <3

[pettynun]

I finished cleaning and coloring a short animation I started as a student ^^ I think I kind of like swords. Also bonus tiny anim

[whumpninja]

Weird niche thing I like: swordfights that aren’t perfectly polished duels where they say “en garde!” and salute each other respectably before they go at it. I mean the ones where they’re trying to kill each other any way they can and it does not matter about your form or your posture as long as you stab the other person before you get stabbed. The kind where somebody drops their sword and proceeds to punch the other person in the face because screw honor, one of us isn’t walking away and it sure as hell isn’t gonna be me-

[the-fuckwizard]

Whenever I question whether I'm faking and actually am just a "not like other girls" girl I remember those times when i was 14 and fantasized about getting my boobs sliced off in an epic sword fighting accident, imagining the gaping bloody hole in my chest through which you could see my ribs, and that was a positive thing. As a sheltered 14 year old in 2011 who'd never yet heard of top surgery or the concept of transgender or nonbinary, I figured that the only way I'd ever have a flat chest again was if I sustained a grievous bodily injury, and the pain would still be worth it. The first thing my brain came up with was a fucking Sword Fight, not even something more plausible for a woman like breast cancer, but a fucking pirate sword fight on a fucking boat. Cause then with my gaping chest wound shoddily patched up, as penalty for losing the sword fight I'd be enslaved to the pirate captain. But wait, no girls allowed on the boat, it's bad luck, we're gonna have to shave your head and rename you something badass like Scar-Heart Jack. You'll never see your family again, you'll be swabbing decks and bailing out the bilge for the rest of your days until you die from scurvy at the ripe old age of 18, but that's at least plausibly young enough that the other pirates could think that the reason you're so scrawny is cause you're just a late bloomer, not a girl.

And the pirate captain will weep for you because he'd grown to love you like a son.

Yeah, totally normal thing for a real girl to want.

[m3dieval]

[Video]

Techniques from the Codex Gladiatoria demo'd by skupina historického šermu Adeptus.