Arya Stark with needle Vs Brienne of Tarth – Game of Thrones

I don't know how you could parry a swing from a two handed long sword with a one handed smallsword wouldn't it just get smacked out the way

i can identify maybe 2 times where Arya tries to cut, and it all seems to be about hitting high tension tendons. First strike is of the wrist, say what you will, but getting whacked on the wrist with a metal rod will leave some swelling and sourness, for sake of training, is acceptable. Second strike is behind the leg to the outer supporting tendon. Yet again, a strike that was places on a load baring part of the body, this would cause irritation, and if hard enough, long lasting pain through the fight. Seems just because she can't cut, doesn't mean she can't strike critical load baring parts of the body to stiffen an opponent.

K I wanna say her sword I don't think is a full small.sword so to speak. It looks like a bastard sword or arming sword that was made specifically for a small person. Looking at the gaurd it looks like wring gaurd on a arming or hand and a half sword. If you lived in that time and had a young sister who didn't want to be a lady but wanted to fight and you where leaving would you give her a weapon that would make her less likely to win a fight or more likely. He gives the clue it's not very big but if your fast you can poke him full of holes. And be careful it's extremely sharp. You live in an area where the bastard sword is the main sword and armor is huge so would you give her a sword that would put her at a disadvantage. Just saying most likely he had the blade spacifcaly made to cut and stab for her. And after you look at it in all the different episodes it does resemble a very small light arming sword. Almost like a large dagger. I can easily see it being made to do so.
Espiecal since I make knives and working on swords not that this gives me any more credibility im just pointing out the fact that he knows what she's going to be up against. And she has been trained extremely well with it so she could use it effectively. In A few treatises the rapier was shown to be a cutting weapon. So this could easily be a cross between the rapier and bastard. Or long dagger

Im no expert but I bet getting a slap from needle across the fingers probably hurts. And Briene is wearing leather gloves not metal gauntlets. It doesn't have to cut u open to make a difference. A flinch from an errant slap may open you up to a stab to the throat

If you pause at the closeup of Arya's blade, you can tell that it actually has a flat profile rather than triangular. So it could possibly have an edge and could be capable to cutting.

She was able to cut the head off of a pigeon with it.

To be fair in LOTR the fellowship is trying to travel light so I don't think they were up to bringing practice swords with them.

She is hitting Brienne to show she is getting past her defences.

Aren't thrusting swords (more or less like needle) supposed to be common in bravos?

Agree with all your points, but have some thoughts. Imo arya is showing off here pure and simple. The first round it looked to me like she smacked brianne on the hand which I actually really liked from a realism standpoint. Your practicing without hand protection??? Ok, smack to the hand with a dull hunk of metal to show you your being dumb.

Round 2 smack to the outer knee. Looked unprotected again so just a smack to remind you your being dumb. The rest was just plot and actor fun. The flip back to her feet was something the actress could do as she has a background in dance and it looked cool and like you said. They wanted to use the dagger sooner rather than later in some way so the audience remembers she has it.

Id like your opinions on the Viking choreography. Specifically the intro scene in the premier.

Official Replicas of Arya's sword do not show it to be a triangular sword. The edges are sharp.

Even when they made this sword on man at arm's reforged the only thing that is sharp is the tip. So yes no cutting ability

First I want to say great review! With regards to why she's cutting and why Brienne would parry, I would suggest that as you say, it's a rather anachronistic, sharp blade. I agree that if she is seen to wound someone with a slash it would be problematic, but in the context of a sparring match, I'd say its merely counting coup. As to why Brienne is parrying, I'd guess it's perhaps force of habit. She's probably not used to fighting against Bravosi's and mightn't know the properties of the blade.

I think arya was kind of teasing brienne by using cutting. u can tell brienne is surprised and kinda angry looking so I think she knows shes being toyed with

Wow I'm surprised, I thought you were WAY TOO EASY on this fight scene. The way they had built up the Arya vs. Brienne Smackdown, we had a right to expect much better.

Right out of the gate, Arya does a spin turning her back on Brienne, which you didn't even mention. Anyone who turns their back on me in a bout in fencing class is going to pay for it. Arya does a lot of needless blade spinning. Brienne makes huge ridiculous cuts as if her sword weighs 20 lbs and which were telegraphed a mile away — Arya could have simple sidestepped using good footwork and gotten in a thrust. There were many instances of this – it makes Brienne look unskilled – she would know she has to fence carefully against a thrusting weapon if Arya knew what she was doing — but as you pointed out, Arya is not using her weapon properly as a thrusting weapon – so I don't understand why you end the video saying it was "quite good."

At 12:59, arya would have been toasted. She wouldnt have been able to close the distance to stab with the dagger without being ran through

I googled small sword for more into, lo and behold Easton is the first thing to pop up.

Needle is the same length and width as a smallsword, but having seen one of the actual swords used on set (it is housed in my university's library), it does not actually have a triangular blade and therefore could be sharpened and used to cut similarly to a rapier. Still not great cutting ability as they would not have much power behind them, but conceivably possible.

Awesome how she lured brien by showing her the dagger in left hand. It was just to show brien while she was actually planning to attack her with right hand. Right ?

Great review as always, Matt. 🙂 I wondered the same thing… for a MOMENT, and then, as usual… remembered:

Ah yes. This is a film/TV/theatre fight. I don't expect it to be realistic, but… I think there ARE some unforgivable sins, such as cutting with a thrust-only weapon like you note. Beyond that, I agree again that it's UNBELIEVABLE that someone with a broad sword would face a small sword… and be worried about being cut… WHILE IN ARMOR.

IDk. lol. I have grown to expect it over the past 25+ years, lol

why cant arya's sword be a spadroon

Possibly, rather than "cuts", some of those movements are "supposed" to be attempts to put the point of the smallsword on/near areas that will respond to thrusts (early on, it looks like Arya was swooping the point in (from the outside) to poke at Brienne's hand).

But she once cut a candle in half with it

When I first seen Brienne I was certain that she was the lead singer from Flock of Seagulls. 😆