Dayne dual wielding

[MountainThatSkates]

First off, I was skeptical of the dual wielding, especially when one of the two swords is potentially the best sword in the world.... BUT whoever choreographed that fight convinced me.  I think that was one of the best handicapped sword fights I have seen.  Usually when its a bunch of guys vs one in a sword fight its rarely done in a way that works in real life.  Usually on shows/movies if there is a 4 on one sword fight it really is just several one on ones while the other guys are pacing around "waiting" to attack after their buddy gets cut down or gets knocked away from the action.  I haven't rewatched the fight yet, but it seemed like all four were really going after Dayne and he was moving away and parrying attacks at a vicious rate.  I don't think it would have been nearly as effective if he just had Dawn.

I don't know why Stark and company weren't also in armor and again it was still a "show" fight vs. how a guy in full plate would have fought, but it was way better than any expectation I had going in.  No offense but I think many who are slamming this fight are those who decided long before they saw the episode that they would be critical of it.  

[Wynafryd Manderly]

I also loved the fact that that they were all going at Arthur Dayne at once. It was realistic. As for the lack of armor for the northmen...I actually can't remember Ned Stark ever wearing armor, I just remember him in that leather "vest". Robb did wear armor, so it's probably not a northmen thing.

What I love about the fight is that you don't know who to be rooting for: none of the parties are evil, and the eventual winners are unchivalrous.

[Nami]

Watch Spartacus.

I was rooting for Arthur Dayne though. Sorry Ned

[HellasLEAF]

That was a fantastic sword fight.  Believable in every way.  Very well done.  

And I really liked how it showed how stories are twisted and told by the victor.  GRR at his best there. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

The swordplay in that scene was brilliantly done.

[Direwight]

It was indeed surprisingly convincing the sense that it wasn't just everyone waiting their turn. I've only rewatched the fight once, but I didn't notice any grievous martial blunders either (there's usually some).

But that dual-wielding crap, with lots of twirling... good grief. One could conceivably for example write a character duel-wielding longswords because I can imagine some way it'd not look silly, but... it's a visual medium so I don't get that luxury, and it just looked silly. A shield or just a second shorter sword would have looked tons better. Still, as said, the choreographer did very well with what they had to work with.

Except I hate this trope of a fight suddenly ending with a backstab. I hated it before this season already, and now we've had 3 in this season alone. It's always (almost) exactly the same: Karl, the harpy about to cut Barristan's throat, waterdancer in the fighting pit, Tyrion saving Missandei, the Bolton guy who Pod was fighting, Trystane, Dayne. They look and are paced the same way, and it's really tiring.

[goomba]

9 minutes ago, HellasLEAF said:

That was a fantastic sword fight.  Believable in every way.  Very well done.  

And I really liked how it showed how stories are twisted and told by the victor.  GRR at his best there. 

indeed! they made it look realistic as possible as possibly could

But you can tell this would not be a good option in real life and death swordfighting.

You could tell the Dayne stunt double was struggling not to drop a sword whenever he was blocking.

 

[Nami]

I think Whent went (lol) down too fast though

[Nami]

I think Whent went (lol) down too fast though

[goomba]

4 minutes ago, Nami said:

I think Whent went (lol) down too fast though

Bwahaha, yeah... he did

i was actually really disappointed with that, but then i realized that the one who killed him was Ned Stark himself.

I first thought he got killed by just some Stark grunt, but after realizing it was Ned it made Whents death a little more acceptable.

Ned wasn't a great swordsman but he was decent, probably decent enough to have been a kings guard member himself.

[Fredwin]

The dual-wielding was distracting from an otherwise tense and well choreographed scene. It wasn't even an issue of Dayne not being portrayed as we know him, but just that the showmanship and the flashiness of his antics took away from one of the center flashpoints of the series.

Just a nitpick though, as well as Ned's actor. Is that really the closest Sean Bean lookalike they could find in a couple years notice? They would have been better off trying to do a CGI job on the real Sean Beans face, haha.

Otherwise, I enjoyed it.

[The Black Adder of Dorne]

4 minutes ago, Fredwin said:

Just a nitpick though, as well as Ned's actor. Is that really the closest Sean Bean lookalike they could find in a couple years notice? They would have been better off trying to do a CGI job on the real Sean Beans face, haha.

 

I thought he looked pretty close to Sean Bean, but maybe my standards are low.

[Forlong the Fat]

7 minutes ago, Fredwin said:

The dual-wielding was distracting from an otherwise tense and well choreographed scene. It wasn't even an issue of Dayne not being portrayed as we know him, but just that the showmanship and the flashiness of his antics took away from one of the center flashpoints of the series.

Just a nitpick though, as well as Ned's actor. Is that really the closest Sean Bean lookalike they could find in a couple years notice? They would have been better off trying to do a CGI job on the real Sean Beans face, haha.

Otherwise, I enjoyed it.

I don't really get that.  They had to portray, in almost no time, that Dayne was the best swordsman in the world, perhaps in history.  They did that very well, and showing him capable of fighting in a way very few people could fight only magnified that portrayal.

[Daske]

I thought the fight was great.

Dual-wielding is always going to be a bit too showy to be totally realistic, but looked amazing, and it certainly gave the impression that he has two arms of equal strength and skill and had the coordination and balance to work them in tandem. I suppose if someone was truly ambidextrous and really that good it could be done up to a point. It wasn't quite good enough to actually win the fight of course anyway as it turns out.

 

[Nami]

2 minutes ago, The Black Adder of Dorne said:

 

I thought he looked pretty close to Sean Bean, but maybe my standards are low.

I agree, I also think he looks a lot like Sean Bean
I find it funny how they repeat outfits as if this is some anime crap where we recognize a character by the only outfit they wear. So Ned wore that all his life? Is that a style in Winterfell? Ugh
As if looking like Ned, having the same hair and Bran poiting out "that's my dad" isn't enough

[Fredwin]

1 minute ago, Forlong the Fat said:

I don't really get that.  They had to portray, in almost no time, that Dayne was the best swordsman in the world, perhaps in history.  They did that very well, and showing him capable of fighting in a way very few people could fight only magnified that portrayal.

Then why the need to have both Bloodraven and Bran both bring up the fact that he was the best swordsman? Show don't tell. Have him take dawn and cleave 5 men down in 20 seconds flat, is that not a feat of strength?

[Faint]

Honestly, I really thought they should have had Dayne with only Dawn against three opponents (including Howland Reed and Ned) and Whent and Hightower against two opponents each. I was very disappointed in how they staged the fight. 

 

[goomba]

4 minutes ago, Fredwin said:

Then why the need to have both Bloodraven and Bran both bring up the fact that he was the best swordsman? Show don't tell. Have him take dawn and cleave 5 men down in 20 seconds flat, is that not a feat of strength?

Indeed, Dawn by itself would have been equally impressive!

I think the writers felt they should do something similar to the Oberyn vs Mountain fight scene where they make Dayne just as flashy as Oberyn to distinguish his level of skill from whoever he's fighting.

I think Dawn by itself would have been just as great though  

[Direwight]

Yeah, if you need to portray someone as an amazing swordsman, then... choreograph them as one. If you have 2 guys go against 6, then there's all the setup you need for making sure that 1 of those 2 comes off as incredibly good. And that's something that you can't really do by having them fight using a style that's commonly and quite reasonably ridiculed for being used in fiction only because it looks flashy to an uninformed audience even though in reality it's kind of dumb.

[Tianzi]

17 minutes ago, Fredwin said:

Then why the need to have both Bloodraven and Bran both bring up the fact that he was the best swordsman? Show don't tell.

Oh, come on.

'This is my father! :o'

'He stabbed him in the back! :o'

 

About dual wielding... accuse me of whining, but when you call someone the SWORD (singular) of Morning, you don't make fighting with TWO swords his signature style.