Game of Thrones begins....

[Solmyr]

I was hoping for a "Lancel and Osmud Kettleblack and Moonboy too" from Tyrion.

None of those actually exist in the show.

[Josquius]

And I will moan once again about the swordplay.  Seriously. If any fighter in the show had simply used a thrust, all of this windmill-swinging and clashing of swords would have been eliminated.  Swords have points, people!  Using them like wood-chopping axes isn't smart.

There's a difference between realistic fighting and fighting that looks good on screen.

I think GoT has got a pretty decent medium really. There are some wide slashes and spinning and other hollywood stuff but at least there is a genuine impression of the weight of the swords and armour going on. Using swords more like blunt instruments is fairly realistic for knights fighting in a high medieval setting, though the armour generally looks a bit lighter than full tournament stuff.

[jimmy olsen]

I was hoping for a "Lancel and Osmud Kettleblack and Moonboy too" from Tyrion.

None of those actually exist in the show.

Lancel exists.

[Solmyr]

I was hoping for a "Lancel and Osmud Kettleblack and Moonboy too" from Tyrion.

None of those actually exist in the show.

Lancel exists.

Not since season 2 he doesn't.

[The Minsky Moment]

And I will moan once again about the swordplay.  Seriously. If any fighter in the show had simply used a thrust, all of this windmill-swinging and clashing of swords would have been eliminated.  Swords have points, people!  Using them like wood-chopping axes isn't smart.

Take it up with Errol Flynn et al. 

[Viking]

I was hoping for a "Lancel and Osmud Kettleblack and Moonboy too" from Tyrion.

None of those actually exist in the show.

Well jamie needed somethign to mutter to himself every time cersei gets more and more psycho

[Zanza]

Meh, I would have preferred it if Tyrion had killed Shae in cold blood instead of sobbing about it when killing her self-defense.

[Berkut]

I saw an article once that pointed out that most depictions of sword fighting with actual swords really mess up the fact that you cannot cut meat (including a human) by simply hitting it with a sharp object.

Imagine you are trying to cut a steak with a really, really sharp knife. Will your knife cut throught the steak if you simply swing it at the steak and hit it with the sharp edge? Not really - you have to CUT the steak, running that sharp edge back and forth across the meat, and then it will in fact cut very nicely.

So "hitting" someone with the cutting edge of a sword might be very damaging from a weight/mass standpoint, but you aren't going to slice through someone really in that fashion, you really have to hit them, then draw your weapon across them applying pressure to "cut".

Which is why armor works so well, since it means you cannot "cut".

Part of the problem is that modern humans simply don't really understand actual martial swordfighting, since we don't do it at all anymore. Even live steel fighting is not designed to actually cut people, quite the opposite in fact. The article I read (this was a while back) was trying to make the point that in actual reality, we don't really know HOW people with longswords and such actually fought from a mechanical standpoint, since nobody has done so in earnest for a ridiculously long time.

Most of our "fake" fighting emphasize simply making contact with sweeping hacks, but in reality, that would likely be an incredibly ineffective way to actually seriously injure someone.

[Zanza]

While I guess you are right, Berkut, you can certainly cut meat with a sharp enough knife by just hitting it. You can even cut your skin with paper after all. The problem with knifes sharp enough to cut on contact is that they get dull very fast when hitting something hard like armor.

[crazy canuck]

So "hitting" someone with the cutting edge of a sword might be very damaging from a weight/mass standpoint, but you aren't going to slice through someone really in that fashion, you really have to hit them, then draw your weapon across them applying pressure to "cut".

I have been hit buy a sharp object (although not a sword) and it sliced into me pretty easily.  Back in the day one of the jobs I had was in restoration.  My job was the initial salvage/clean up crew after a house suffered a flood or fire.  On one of those jobs I was taking a window out of its frame.  I thought it was undamaged but it had a crack along the top so that when I pulled the window out the top part of the window came straight down on my wrist.  It was only a drop of a couple of feet and the window was not very heavy.  There was no drawing of the sharp edge across my wrist.  It just came straight down on me and gave me a gash about 3 inches wide.  I have a really cool scar.

I have to think that if that had been someone swinging at me with a heavier sword with their full force they would easily take my hand off.

[Razgovory]

I don't think that's right, otherwise an axe would not function.  When I hit a tree with an axe, it cuts into it.  There's not a lot of sawing motion going on.  I can't imagine an axe on a person would function differently.  After all people are were executed with axes and swords strikes for ages.

Here's some idiots cutting up things with a sword.  The last thing they cut is a pig carcass.  It looks like they cut through it with slashs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbHjEK3Fc78

[crazy canuck]

A quick google search found another video of a sword easily slicing through the flesh of an animal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v4j3mvrDyQ

[Norgy]

You should always wear your armour, CC. 

[crazy canuck]

You should always wear your armour, CC. 

No kidding.  At least that incident got me out of that godforsaken job. 

[11B4V]

I don't think that's right, otherwise an axe would not function.  When I hit a tree with an axe, it cuts into it.  There's not a lot of sawing motion going on.  I can't imagine an axe on a person would function differently.  After all people are were executed with axes and swords strikes for ages.

Here's some idiots cutting up things with a sword.  The last thing they cut is a pig carcass.  It looks like they cut through it with slashs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbHjEK3Fc78

Agreed. 


I dont know what the hell Berkut is talking about.