hula he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Just falling through the rabbit hole of the 17th shard, the interview database, and the coppermind... and I got to thinking- who exactly would be the best? Immediately, my thoughts were of Gavilar and Adolin, but- knowing that Adolin at least was trained by Vasher, who was not as good as Denth, who was better than Arsteel.... I'm thinking Denth? Thankfully due to the various types of magic, swordsmanship is sometimes a secondary skill, it's not world changing, but- just a thought. Anyone else I'm missing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zathoth Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Depends I'd say. If Adolin or Dalinar have their shards and Denth only has his sword and unnatural speed then Dalinar/Adolin, Denth could possibly do what Kaladin did, but he wont have his speed advantage anymore. If you give Denth shards then you have just doomed the entire cosmere. If they are just using regular weapons, then Denth. So yes, Denth is probably the greatest swordsman in the cosmere. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSC01 he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Not anymore, he's not! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Slowswift he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Not anymore, he's not! All right then. Assuming everyone is alive, who is the best swordsman in the Cosmere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king of nowhere Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 it may be denth, although we cannot be sure. he has centuries of practice and some supernatural enhancement, but swordfighting is a seondary skill to him. adolin instead did nothing else but train for it. So i wouldn't be so sure between the members of the kholin family and denth. It's pretty underwhelming when you think of it. Denth may be the best swordsman in the cosmere, and all he got to show for it was skewering a couple of random lowlife thugs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Bard he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Well, do you mean a physical, human, swordsman? Or do you mean: "If it were a bloodbath between everybody in a galaxy (in which everything but swords are forbidden), who would win? Because then I would say Nightblood. I mean, he physically can't lose without some sort of Investiture intervention. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreamEternal Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 it may be denth, although we cannot be sure. he has centuries of practice and some supernatural enhancement, but swordfighting is a seondary skill to him. adolin instead did nothing else but train for it. So i wouldn't be so sure between the members of the kholin family and denth. It's pretty underwhelming when you think of it. Denth may be the best swordsman in the cosmere, and all he got to show for it was skewering a couple of random lowlife thugs. Yeah, two shardbearers, one of them a champion duelist, against Adolin without stormlight, and he had the upper hand. If Adolin had supernatural enhancement, he would be so amazing it would be ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatebreaker he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Zorro! Er, Denth, most likely Denth. Adolin is up there, but he lacks the experience that Denth has. Dalinar might be his equal, when he had the Thrill. Or maybe it's Sarene... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxal she/her Posted November 14, 2015 Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 Adolin has certainly grown into a better swordsman than Dalinar at this point in time. Dalinar never had the finesse and the elegance of Adolin's careful dancing around his opponents: he has always been more set into simply crushing his enemies. So within the Stormlight Archive, I'd say Adolin is the best we have currently met. However, Vasher and Denth are likely superior fighters than him. They had hundred of years of experience while Adolin has not even reached his peak yet. Perhaps if Adolin had a hundred years as well, he'd be as good as Arsteel... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shardbearer he/him Posted November 14, 2015 Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 Now that you mention it, it is odd that Vasher/Zahel is now known as a great swordmaster, given his lack of skill compared to Denth and Arsteel. Maybe he was still very skilled compared to regular mortals, he just paled in comparison to those two. Or maybe he's had a long time to improve since then. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxal she/her Posted November 14, 2015 Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 Now that you mention it, it is odd that Vasher/Zahel is now known as a great swordmaster, given his lack of skill compared to Denth and Arsteel. Maybe he was still very skilled compared to regular mortals, he just paled in comparison to those two. Or maybe he's had a long time to improve since then. I think he is incredibly skilled when compared to normal people, but lacking when compared to Denth or Arsteel which are insanely good. Adolin is leagues below them. Perhaps he has the potential, but he still is very young. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cartith he/him Posted November 14, 2015 Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 It's Lan. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shardbearer he/him Posted November 14, 2015 Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 Tai'shar Aan'allein 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king of nowhere Posted November 14, 2015 Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 you also have to take into account that shardbearer fighting and sword fighting are two very different techniques. sword lenght is much different, and with shardblades you can make all the fancy swordplay that you see in movies that, if done with real swords, would cause them to go blunt and break really fast. you can also let yourself be hit for other tactical advantages, which you cannot without plate. it could be that different poeple are best at diffferent specialties. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The One Who Reads he/him Posted November 15, 2015 Report Share Posted November 15, 2015 Everyone is ignoring Hrathen here He did kill multiple Dakhor monks by himself with just a normal sword. Disarms a veteran soldier and goes from a praying/fasting stupor to martial arts bad-chull with barely a pause during his time in Elantris. Denth might have the magical and experience advantage but he should hold his own with a shardless adolin easily. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfa he/him Posted November 22, 2015 Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 Actually I think it depends on the setting. 1v1-duels, your natural abilities only? Denth, as far as we know. 1v1-duels, shards allowed? Probably Adolin. 1v1-duels, dirty tricks allowed? Probably Vasher. Massacre, everybody against everybody, everything allowed? Difficult to say, but my money is on Dalinar. Massacre, spears allowed? Kaladin, probably. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxal she/her Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 Actually I think it depends on the setting. 1v1-duels, your natural abilities only? Denth, as far as we know. 1v1-duels, shards allowed? Probably Adolin. 1v1-duels, dirty tricks allowed? Probably Vasher. Massacre, everybody against everybody, everything allowed? Difficult to say, but my money is on Dalinar. Massacre, spears allowed? Kaladin, probably. For the first one, I'd say Artsteel would beat Denth. For the rest, I do agree. Dalinar would be the best in the melee. I would not count him out in the "dirty trick" fight as well, but Vasher probably wins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baby he/him Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 Zorro! Am I the only one who caught that 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ookla the Absent Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 Uh, Nightblood anybody? Duh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oversleep Posted November 28, 2015 Report Share Posted November 28, 2015 Since Nightblood cannot wield himself, I doubt he can even be considered swordsman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comatose he/him Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 I would say either Hrathen, Ham, or Denth, probably. Hrathen seems to be naturally skilled, and he supplements this with extreme discipline and a perfectionist attitude. While we don't see Ham use a sword often, he is a capable warrior even without Pewter. We don't know enough about his sword skills to say for sure, but he could be a contender. I'd say that Adolin may be on his way to being the best (provided I can handwave and say that skill with shards transfers directly to skill with a conventional sword). Sarene seems like more of a hobbiest to me; though she is skilled in an athletic sense, she lacks actual combat experience. It is interesting that many prominent sword wielders in Brandon's books are male. On that point, what about Eshonai? I know she's not human, so its tough to compare, but she gives Dalinar a good beating, and could probably do the same to Adolin. Doesn't it also say she is one of the best Parshendi warriors? There's also Dockson; we never really get to see much combat from him, but we know he's capable. While he predominantly uses knives, doesn't he also use a sword at one point? Denth's skills have already been extensively remarked upon, so I won't waste time here agreeing with what has already been said. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreamEternal Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 I'd say that shardless Adolin would fall a lot in his position even in one on one duels, since when your sword is breakable, differently balanced, shorter, denser, maybe heavier, and your armor doens't give you extra strenght, speed and thoughness, them you will have a hard time adapting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oversleep Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 As for Shardless Adolin...It's not that much matter of losing strenght or speed of Shardplate... What really is the matter that fighting with a sword and fighting with Shardblade are very, very different things. With normal sword parrying and blocking is different, for starters, since you can't block with the edge as you would do with Shardblade. This alone forces a lot of changes to the way you fight. Even more, if you use a shield. No more blocking and parrying with the sword, you have to get used to blocking with a shield and also to having your sword blocked not by another blade, but a shield (this changes quite a lot).What's more, the entire mechanism of the fight changes. You have to learn to use the sword and shield. With normal sword, you can't just smash the same segment of opponent's armor to get through - you have to aim for the openings and holes and so on.Without Shardplate, you have to be more carefull, since no armor provides as much protection as Sharplate. You can't just think 'hey, I will receive that blow to the side, since the Plate there is in good shape and at the same time I will aim for his head'. This blow can be potentially fatal for you.Not to mention the radical change of length of the blades and the distance from your opponent as a consequence...I am not an expert in swordfighting, but I think most of my points are valid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfa he/him Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 As for Shardless Adolin... It's not that much matter of losing strenght or speed of Shardplate... What really is the matter that fighting with a sword and fighting with Shardblade are very, very different things. With normal sword parrying and blocking is different, for starters, since you can't block with the edge as you would do with Shardblade. This alone forces a lot of changes to the way you fight. Even more, if you use a shield. No more blocking and parrying with the sword, you have to get used to blocking with a shield and also to having your sword blocked not by another blade, but a shield (this changes quite a lot). What's more, the entire mechanism of the fight changes. You have to learn to use the sword and shield. With normal sword, you can't just smash the same segment of opponent's armor to get through - you have to aim for the openings and holes and so on. Without Shardplate, you have to be more carefull, since no armor provides as much protection as Sharplate. You can't just think 'hey, I will receive that blow to the side, since the Plate there is in good shape and at the same time I will aim for his head'. This blow can be potentially fatal for you. Not to mention the radical change of length of the blades and the distance from your opponent as a consequence... I am not an expert in swordfighting, but I think most of my points are valid. Most are valid ( I do a bit of swordfighting - no shards, of course ), except that with armor hit to the side. Actually, as long as it hits the side where the armor is good, it will stop the blade. Just make sure it stays there and does not go for your axlehole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxal she/her Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 I'd say that shardless Adolin would fall a lot in his position even in one on one duels, since when your sword is breakable, differently balanced, shorter, denser, maybe heavier, and your armor doens't give you extra strenght, speed and thoughness, them you will have a hard time adapting. Yes and I'd like to point out Adolin has trained in a Plate since his teenage years. He likely never had much training without Shards considering how young he was when he earned them. The regular sword is heavier, can his arm take the additional weight and not bulk in fatigue prematurely? An armor is heavier, can he still maintain his mobility while wearing one? Can he keep on the same stamina while being imprisoned into a heavy armor he is not used to wear and while yielding a heavier sword then he is used to? Basically, his entire fighting technique was developed and perfected with him being a Shardbearer. Last time he fought with a regular sword, he must have been 16 years old... He has also grown into a bold duelist, willing to take hits to secure more important ones: can he lose the instinct without his Shards? If not, he may get seriously injured. Also, his Plate is nullifying the injuries he does receive as even when covert in bruises, he can still fight nimbly, a feat he wouldn't be able to perform without it. I think Shardless Adolin would get into some serious trouble on the fighting ground... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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