Best Fighters of Westeros

[martinsp007]

No, Ned and six other people fought three Kingsguard knights(Arthur Dayne, Gerold Hightower, and Oswell Whent) and only Ned and Howland Reed survived. Ned's talent lay in leadership and strategy, not personal fighting skills. There is no indication that Ned was an exceptional fighter.

^

It is known.

[martinsp007]

“ I learned from Ser Arthur Dayne , the sword of the morning, who could have slain all five of you with his left hand while he was taking a piss with his right. ^[7] ”

Jaime to Loras and some other KG Shortly after he became Lord Commander

[Batman]

How big is Sandor? Because it is possible to be incredibly big and strong, while simultaneously quick with excellent balance...

Roughly 6,9. Lyle Crakehall is about the same size and strength and Sandor is described as much faster.

[Barty]

My list would go like(no particular order):

Arthur Dayne

Aemon the Dragonknight

Barristan Selmy

Cregan Stark

Lyn Crobray

Jaime Lannister

Robert Baratheon

Brandon Stark

Garlan Tyrell

Qhorin Halfhand

Sandor Clegane

Gregor Clegane

The Greatjon

The Smalljon(I don't know why people ignore him - he's supposed to be even bigger than the greatjon - should be around 7.5 feet - nearly as big as the mountain)

[Lightstar]

Why has basically nobody mentioned Mance, who kicks Jon's ass. Anguy, the best archer in the land. Darkstar, the most dangerous man in Dorne. JonConn, a mercenary who should have defeated Robert and who we now know is the only commander ever to take Storms End via battle.

Others to mention:

Balon Swann: Kicks ass at the Blackwater

Khal Drogo: DUH!!!

Randal Tarly: Amazing commander...everyone agrees

Blackfish: Basically runs Robb's war

Victarion: Kicks a ton of ass

Thoros: wins like every mele

The Big Man: everyone who looks at him knows he can kick some ass.

Daario?

[Be26]

Drogo is an interesting one, but the problem with including Dothraki in discussions like this is illustrated when Jorah Mormont throws down with one of Drogo's bloodriders (Qotho, maybe?) - those arakhs ain't that good against armoured foes, and pretty much everybody discussed so far would be an armoured foe. He's a good fighter, naturally, but unless somehow everybody else was as unarmoured as he, Drogo's getting his braid cut in a straight fight.

[Frey family reunion]

How about the Smiling Knight? According to Jaime he was his generation's Gregor Clegane. Arthur Dayne killed him but I'm sure a lot of that had to do with his sword, Dawn.

[Rolex Baratheon]

*IN ADVANCE*: Fighter does not necessarily mean swordsman.

Okay so the posts in this topic are under the constant threat of being the same old 'who's best' type of posts. I want to make my own list different, so I'm going to base it off a certain criteria instead of basing it off who said the most bad-ass quote or one or two short fights in the series. I'm going to do relatively main characters and ones who were alive at the start of A Game of Thrones, except one because he's just such a legend.

The criteria for who is the best fighter should be the number of encounters/battles they have lived through which they actively participated in. If they survived battle they obviously killed men, some of who were very probably good fighters. And if they ran away from battles we'd know, seeing as they'd have Westeros-wide nicknames mocking their cowardice.

So, I'll go about the list now.

1. Khal Drogo. Alright so since he was born he has learned how to kill others and is seemingly a sort of professor when it comes to killing. Killing's a big part of his very culture. He can rip a man's tongue out after dodging repeated fast slashes from the guy's arakh and has an assortment of body parts laying next to where he sits. He kills white lions with his bare hands. Tall, muscled, very strong and has the grace of a panther in his movements, so he is not Gregor-Clumsy.

Yes he does not wear armour but he has his reasons xP And besides, armour or no armour I think he is the best fighter the series has seen.

2. Robert Baratheon. He fought like how many battles? Battle of the Bells, Battle vs Randyll Tarly, Battle of the Trident and some more with that. And he survived them all. He was physically a specimen and we know he fought like a real soldier, amidst the action, despite the fact that his life was central to the Rebellion. So he didn't sit back in the rear and watch things like, say. Tywin or any other lord or king who recognized the importance of his safety would.

Add to that the fact he killed Rhaegar Targaryen, who is established as a very good warrior. Plus his weapon is a warhammer that strong men like Ned Stark (wields Ice) could 'scarcely lift' back in those days.

3. The Hound, Sandor Clegane. So let's see, he's close to seven feet tall and extremely broad shouldered and strong, but it doesn't end there; hes apparantly very fast and thus has both size and speed unlike his brother. Sandor fought during the slaughter of Eddard Stark's guard in the throne room. He fought, as the Wiki of Ice and Fire says, 'heroically' during the Battle of the Blackwater although he left because of the fire (does not diminish his fighting ability). He later on fights two experienced soldiers, The Tickler and Polliver, while drunk and extremely hungry and still manages to kill Polliver while Arya Stark kills the Tickler. Sandor also fights and kills a few horse riders outside the Red Wedding . He then also fights and defeats Lord Beric Dondarrion despite the latter fighting with a flaming sword, thus fighting and winning despite his huge fear of fire.

So you could see he's a slightly shorter version of The Mountain who's also got lots of speed.

4. The Mountain, Ser Gregor Clegane, because he just has that one big advantage of size and has fought and survived many battles. His battles against the army of Robb Stark, where he killed many and even took lots of arrows without dying himself (fought at the Green Fork, for example). In battles where large crowds of men are fighting and its not 1v1, a guy of the size of Clegane madly swinging his sword with no technique would be pretty successful killing. His freaking size is kind of an unfair advantage I guess.

5. Ser Barristan Selmy. He fought against the Kingswood Brotherhood and killed their leader Simon Toyne, fought in the Defiance of Duskendale and killed Ser Symon Hollard, fought in the War of the Ninepenny Kings where he himself killed Maelys the Monstrous after killing loads of Golden Company members to get to him.

He fought during the Battle of the Trident as well. He then fought a much younger and faster opponent named Khrazz in Meereen and killed him. He defeated that random outlaw fellow (Meero, it was?) just with a stick. Well the list goes on. He's got a legendary reputation for a reason. He also fights off the men Joffrey The Cunt King sends to arrest him, supposedly without a sword.

6. Ser Arthur Dayne, The Sword of the Morning. Well he's known as the best knight of em all. Fought against the Kingswood Brotherhood where he ended them by killing the Smiling Knight. He fought int he 3 vs 7 battle with Eddard Stark and was killed by Stark with a little help from Howland Reed... Now the battle is unclear to some extent, but I believe that Dayne's sheer godly reputation makes up for it and puts him at 5.

7. Ser Jaime Lannister *. Ser Barristan says he's the most naturally gifted swordsman he has ever seen. Jaime fought against the Kingswood Brotherhood as a very young man and survived an encounter with the Smiling Knight who was an excellent fighter. He was knighted by the legendary Ser Arthur Dayne. Jaime later fought against the forces of Edmure Tully, which he defeated and also smashed a Riverlands force at the Golden Tooth. He also cut down ten men while being unhorsed and captured by Robb Stark's men, and that is one heck of a feat. He also came close to killing Brienne of Tarth, a good fighter, despite having both his hands tied together. That is pretty amazing.

*... He lost his hand. Warrior prowess nullified, but he was something special. Also, I do not know whether he fought during the siege of Pyke, as is hinted at by his conversation with Jory Cassel in the TV Show.

8. Ser Jorah Mormont. Again, big, strong, skilled and so on. He is an experienced fighter as well and A Wiki of Ice and Fire described his military career as successful. He fought during the Greyjoy Rebellion where he impressed his peers so much with his bravery that he was knighted; he was one of the first men to cross the breach in the siege of Pyke. He also fought and killed a Dothraki bloodrider, Qotho, and it is known (heh) that Dothraki bloodriders are awesome warriors. And before anyone says "his armour saved him", in the books the fight was different. It did not involve armour in the decisive killing moment.

Also, Jorah fought in the city of Meereen as well. Survived battle. Points for him.

9. Qhorin Halfhand. Living legend in the Night's Watch and has been on many rangings North of the wall, where it's bloody cold and there's always threat of wildlings and wild animals and the freaking cold, and survived. Killed many wildlings and, on losing all but his thumb and forefinger of his right hand, actually learned to fight with his left hand (lessons, Jaime, lessons).

His deeds go unsung since he's a Black Brother, but to go beyond the Wall so many times without dying and participating in so many fights when you're knee deep in snow and being successful must mean he was one heck of a warrior.

10. Lord Eddard Stark. I think that, if he was not a Northman, he would have been a Ser (although I don't know why Jorah took the title despite being a Northman too). He fought and lived in a number of battles in Robert's Rebellion, such as the Battle of the Bells and he survived and encounter with 3 legendary Kingsguard, killing Ser Arthur Dayne with some help from Howland Reed. Now, I know he had some help, but I just do not see any man who is not a very good fighter not being immediately killed by a master of swords like Dayne. If Ned didn't know his swordsmanship Dayne would probably cut him down within seconds because Ned didn't know how to block such brilliant strokes. And we know he did it for at least some time. He may also have killed one or both of the two other KG, although I think it unlikely.

Also, in the TV Show, in a scene that George Martin approved of, he fights Ser Jaime Lannister and visibly appears to be matching him stroke for stroke. Jame starts off seeming very confident but as the fight progresses you can tell from his facial expressions that he's surprised Ned Stark has not been killed yet. Add to this the fact that GRRM calls Ned the 'Silent wolf', and I think Ned becomes the main character who's warrior side is purposefully not emphasized by the author, and I can see why (GRRM wanted to show Ned as a leader and man of duty and honour rather than a warrior, because the series had many of those).

There's obviously a bit of personal opinion involved there. Well, duh. And some may be surprised that Victarion Greyjoy is not in the list, so my explanation is that I have certain doubts over how good the Ironborn are at equal combat

[Loon Lord]

I'd say number one is Khal Drogo, simply because he is the best fighter out of 100,000 dothraki

2. is Arthur Dayne, for obvious reasons

3. Barristan the Bold

4. Robert Baratheon

5. Qhorin

6.Rhaegar

7. Sandor

8. Jaime

9. Gregor

10. Bronze Yohn Royce, it is said that when he visited winterfell, he crushed both Ned and Rodrik in single combat

[AvengerofWinterfell]

“ I learned from Ser Arthur Dayne , the sword of the morning, who could have slain all five of you with his left hand while he was taking a piss with his right. ^[7] ”

Jaime to Loras and some other KG Shortly after he became Lord Commander

eh, that may have been difficult to accomplish seeing as how Dayne fought with a great sword. Excluding The Mountain, you kinda need two hands for that. But yeah, Dayne would destroy Loras & Co.

[Frey Pie]

if everyone is naked Drogo stands a chance.

[Tommen]

No Brienne?

Also...how good were Aegon I and Visenya? (I get the impression Rhaenys was the Sansa to Visenya's Arya).

[Rhaegar Snow]

1. The Bold-feared by every man and respected by every man.

2. Bronn- just a mean s.o.b and loyal.(Tyrion Tanner)

3. The Hound- speaks for himself.

4. Gregor(ser strong)- he crushed the dornishman who was skilled as well.

5. Jon Snow- cmon now.

6. Brienne- she beat loras

7. Jaime- he's missing a hand but barristan once said he was the most naturally gifted swordsman in all westeros

8. Ser Loras Tyrell- he almost beat brienne in the melee and took Riverrun.

9. Stannis Baratheon- he is a Baratheon..but then again so wasn't Renly??

10. TIE. Asha Greyjoy/ Victarion- clearly know how to fight.

Top ten westerosi alive anyway..

[DavosSeaworthy]

To be honest, I don't see Gregor as being overly skilled. But this is a thred about great warriors and his size and strength allows him to wear thicker armour that would be harder to pierce and he would scare the shit out of 99% of the people he ran into battle against. 1% are either other great warriors or too stupid to be scared.

[UnbentFury]

I think you guy's are over-hyping Gregor's skill because of his eyes. He whooped some ass, but that's mostly because he's huge as shit, and inspired fear. I highly doubt he was really skilled--Oberyn showed obvious prowess and I think he was clearly the better fighter.(He was just...not too bright at the end.) That's my two cents.

[Rhaegar Snow]

The mountain formerly known as Gregor does lack skill and prowess like your Oberyn or even his brother the Hound your right. Although he is a monster built like a Mack truck, He is a killer. That's what he does best and always has. Not like your lavishly lived Oberyn waited on hand and foot all his life he actually had to start his own fire.

[Rolex Baratheon]

Is my list the only one with thought out reasoning xD

[Rhaegar Snow]

Is my list the only one with thought out reasoning xD

of course

[OhSe7eNsAv3uS]

people alive at beginning of the first book Westeros only

(not in order) 20 best fighters

-I got to 15 and had a tough time with final 5

Bronn

The Hound

The Mountain

Loras Tyrell

Areo Hotah

Victarion Greyjoy

Robert Baratheon

Barristan the Bold

Jamie Lannister

Qhorin Halfhand

Brienne of Tarth

The Red Viper

Syrio Florel

Jon Snow

Beric Dondarrion

Robb Stark

Stannis Baratheon

Brynden Blackfish Tully

Darkstar- Gerold Dayne

Shaggar Son of Doth (idk if thats spelled right)

[indignant mushroom]

Fighter doesn't really equate to swordsman.

I think a strong case can be made for people like Brienne and Drogo, especially the latter if with an unarmored opponent.

I mean, Brienne did best Loras and kept up with Jaime. Something to be said there.