But that isn't the same thing as *actually* attempting to win by any means possible; any fight scene is choreographed, even if (as allegedly in the case of Boyarsky and Balon) the choreography is improvised in rehearsal between the performers rather than being planned out personally by the stunt arranger. The fact that Balon *was* the fight coordinator, as well as being the professional fencer who taught all the actors swordplay in the first place, probably had something to do with it in that case...
But no, good swordsmanship consists of economy of effort. Interestingly, I was actually reading an article on fencing (in order to check whether a metaphor on parries I was using made sense-- I decided it didn't and emended the wording) recently, and learned that the traditional central 'guard' position has been deprecated in modern fencing in favour of holding the blade aimed to the outside, thus guaranteeing that your enemy will need to attack to the undefended inside (and therefore you will be doing a stronger 'forehand' rather than potentially a 'backhand' parry): "It is only practical to favor the sixthe position by maintaining it as one’s guard, thus giving primary defensive consideration to the weakest of defensive lines". Very tactical :-) https://theartoftheduelevolved.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/part-19-fencing-parries/
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2025-06-07 12:58 am (UTC)But that isn't the same thing as *actually* attempting to win by any means possible; any fight scene is choreographed, even if (as allegedly in the case of Boyarsky and Balon) the choreography is improvised in rehearsal between the performers rather than being planned out personally by the stunt arranger. The fact that Balon *was* the fight coordinator, as well as being the professional fencer who taught all the actors swordplay in the first place, probably had something to do with it in that case...
But no, good swordsmanship consists of economy of effort. Interestingly, I was actually reading an article on fencing (in order to check whether a metaphor on parries I was using made sense-- I decided it didn't and emended the wording) recently, and learned that the traditional central 'guard' position has been deprecated in modern fencing in favour of holding the blade aimed to the outside, thus guaranteeing that your enemy will need to attack to the undefended inside (and therefore you will be doing a stronger 'forehand' rather than potentially a 'backhand' parry): "It is only practical to favor the sixthe position by maintaining it as one’s guard, thus giving primary defensive consideration to the weakest of defensive lines". Very tactical :-)
https://theartoftheduelevolved.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/part-19-fencing-parries/