Goodman Games

Which do you think was the better swordsman? (not using firearms)

Been watching Akira Kurasawa movies lately.... I think Mifune would slice Fairbanks and/or Depp to ribbons....

Those movies are awesome!

P.S. I came up with this puzzling train of thought watching a musketeer movie.

Which would be...?

Oddly enough, I've been itching to re-visit the Fairbanks Robin Hood, which I haven't seen in a very, very long time...

The movie I just watched was called "La Femme Musketeer" produced by Hallmark Entertainment. I think it was a mini series or something as it was 3 hours long. As expected it has a classic Hallmark ending. But there were a few fight scenes which made the movie enjoyable and the rest wasnt that bad. But it got me to comparing d'Artagnan to somebody like Miyamoto Musashi and wondering who I'd rather have on my side.
I'm an Errol Flynn fan who also really likes Toshiro Mifune. Buster Crabbe was pretty cool, too.
Modern actors I like to watch include Dwayne "Rocky" Johnson, Chow Yun-fat and Jason Statham.

Have you ever seen Deadliest Warrior? They haven't done swashbuckler vs samurai, but there was viking vs. samurai.

I give more weight to y'alls opinions then a CGI animator for TV.
Cool show and all, but I doubt it is a legitimate answer to these questions.

I doubt we can ever have a real answer to these questions.

If we're talking Three Musketeers, rapier-wielding type swashbuckler, I'd definitely give the edge to the samurai. The swashbuckler is more agile, and probably has a slightly longer reach (unless the samurai is using a polearm, I suppose), but his rapier is not meant to be used against armored opponents. The samurai's sword is far stronger than the rapier and could snap it like a twig.

The swashbuckler's style is based mostly on improvisation and daring, while the samurai's is based mostly on discipline. Given the disparity in their weapons, I can only imagine that in this scenario the swashbuckler's boldness would be a drawback rather than an advantage.

But, to my thinking, I'd wonder if a really 'improvisational' swashbuckler could indefinitely foil a samurai -- just doing so many, deft, unexpected moves that even the intense focus of the samurai is overcome....

I've got to think it's possible.

But the reason you have that lightly armored style of combat develop is because of firearms so asking the swashbuckler to no have a firearm is rather unfair. On a pure melee combat level, the fight is heavily weighted toward the armored samurai. Give the swashbuckler a couple of wheellock pistols though . . .