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Is Meryn Trant less skilled than Preston Greenfield and Osmund Kettleblack?


mystickristoff

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Syrio was definitly a badass!

We even get a visual representation on the show of what a Water dancer can do vs. a armored knight with a big sword.

That Water Dancer was gonna make swiss cheese out of Jorah till he got Arthur Dayne'd by that guy with a spear LOL :D 

And that guy was probably just a mid-tier water dancer, and Jorah mind you is elite :D

Syrio, the first sword of Braavos, would have poked holes in Trant if he had just had a real sword.

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15 hours ago, Lord of Raventree Hall said:

Yes, yes it is. Basically other fighters were pathetic and lost to an amazing and talented fighter. Meryn Teant defeating Syrio, meaning he was not pathetic, however the definition of "badass" is not "not pathetic". If that was the case, then when I beat my 6 year old student in basketball, I would be a talented basketball player. Obviously, this is not the case, and defeating an unarmored, wooden sword wielding person just means you are ... bot pathetic...maybe average, but honestly....it says nothing about his skills....if syrio had defeated jamie lannister or brienne of tarth or aomeone, it might say something, but he deafeated a bunch of guardsmen who were probably born poor and very little training, if any, with an actual master-at-arms.

If you beat your 6 year old student in basketball after he had beat 5 of your peers then that would in fact make you a talented basketball player. And the folks that Syrio beat were not pathetic. They were from Cersei's personal guard. They were seasoned, armed, armored and had the trust of the lannisters.  If they were unskilled or pathetic they would not be sent with a member of the kingsguard to apprehend a hostage of house stark.  

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18 hours ago, Dorian Martell said:

IThey were from Cersei's personal guard. They were seasoned, armed, armored and had the trust of the lannisters.  If they were unskilled or pathetic they would not be sent with a member of the kingsguard to apprehend a hostage of house stark.  

Cersei seems to value loyalty more than skill. Look at Robert's Kingsguards. Aside from Jaime, Moore, and Selmy, the rest aren't exceptional. Plus Jaime and Selmy were from the former King's. But Kettleback, Greenfield, and Trant are loyal to Cersei and that's what matters more for her.

They were sent to capture a little girl who was known to be taking dancing lessons from a 'dancing master'. Even Sansa didn't know that it was actually sword training. Trant and some guards were sent over there to capture a little girl and, to their knowledge, a dance instructor was the only one there with her.

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25 minutes ago, mystickristoff said:

Trant and some guards were sent over there to capture a little girl and, to their knowledge, a dance instructor.

I do like the idea of viewing it from the guards' point of view, as far as they know they've been sent to bully a little girl and her ballet teacher, and next thing they know he's kung fu-ing them to the ground. Nasty surprise. 

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On 7/22/2016 at 1:31 AM, Dorian Martell said:

No he wasn't. He took out several lesser men at arms with a wooden training sword before being killed. He was Badass, which means that Trant is also a badass 

Syrio dying is fanfic. His fate is unknown. Martin's comments are, paraphrased, "It looks bad, doesn't it?" Sounds like he's weaseling to me.

Syrio does comment on Trant's slowness, and from the exercises he assigns Arya he seems like a parkour master, or something similar. And when Trant reports back to Cersei about his failure to capture Arya he says that the "dancing teacher" interfered, but pointedly leave out the parts where he lost men and doesn't claim to have killed Syrio.

It's not impossible that Trant killed Syrio but far from a given.

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On 7/25/2016 at 9:24 AM, Jaak said:

After Meryn broke Syrio´s sword, Syrio was unarmed. But Meryn was still armoured. Could Syrio have run at that point? Or was Arya running the only viable way?

It really was. The only thing that the wooden sword would do too full plate is exactly what Syrio did in the situation before the wood broke. He delivered ineffective blows to Trant because he was wearing full plate. There was no opening that he could have taken advantage of like in the situation to the guards that wore mail. The TV show gives the ridiculous scene of those men wearing full plate being beaten by Syrio, when in fact the books show them wearing mail and leather. The advantage is in Trant's field not because of his skill, but the weapons and armor he had gave him every advantage over a seriously under-armed opponent.

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There is a difference in skill between the guards and Trant. Plus Syrio beat up surprised guards who were not expecting to be beaten up. Clearly Trant felt differently and took him seriously enough. So with a weaker equipment( no armor+wooden sword), and the lack of element of surprise against a somewhat skilled opponent (he is a knight, so he has skills), who has an armor you can hardly break while being concerned about Arya: it's a lot of elements that go against Syrio. Plus he parried his sword but at the end Trant cut his wooden sword (because at some point you can't fight metal with wood for so long). 

 

Basically: no way that Trant beat Syrio in a serious fight, but considering the circumstances I'd say he couldn't beat him.

 

I think Trant has skills, but him beating Syrio (which is not proven btw, as light a wight tonight mentions) is not such a feat. 

 

As for who is the better knight, I'd go with prestwood, without much to back it up

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5 hours ago, Minstral said:

It really was. The only thing that the wooden sword would do too full plate is exactly what Syrio did in the situation before the wood broke. He delivered ineffective blows to Trant because he was wearing full plate. There was no opening that he could have taken advantage of like in the situation to the guards that wore mail.

Yes, but why did he deliver these ineffective blows? To slow Meryn down?

I repeat: at the point where Syrio's sword broke, he was unarmed and knew it. But Meryn was armoured and Syrio knew that, too. Could Syrio have run faster than Meryn?

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