Who is the best swordsman in fiction?

[Guffe]

I'll throw in two masters of sword from their respective series
Zaraki Kenpachi from Bleach (anime/manga)
and Darth Maul from the Star Wars universe.

 

[DataSnake]

Spoiler: Lucius the Eternal

He's more than 10,000 years old and has spent all that time honing his swordfighting skills. He's so dedicated to swordfighting, it earned him a blessing from the God of Excess. Even without his Space Marine augmentations and Chaotic blessings, that's a hundred lifetimes' worth of combat training.

 

[Dandark]

There are lots of different swordsmen I like but im afraid that there is only one who I can call the best.

Spoiler: This guy is one of my favourite characters of all times

Guts from Berserk.

Though I would also possibly say Hakumen from Blazblue but it's really hard to judge him without accesss to any of his other abilities especially since we are not sure if he can do a lot of stuff because of his nox nyctores, his own power, the power of order or the Susanooh so the rules listed in the OP would probably rule him out.

Spoiler: A picture of Hakumen because I enjoy searching for and posting pictures

 

[Sandernista]

"Can you give an example of the bounty thing?" Another funny bounty inconsistency is when Luffy's bounty first got to 30 Million, it was apparently enough to call together almost every high ranking officer their navy had and tell them to watch out for this Luffy guy, he's dangerous, and then almost every pirate in the Grand Line had a higher bounty, yet nobody really seems to care that much (they don't even care about anybody with a 250 million bounty and below).

I don't have much time, but I can answer this.

That was naval high command of the East Blue, not of the entire world. Arlong had previously been the most dangerous criminal in the East Blue, and now we have this new upstart wearing Shanks (one of the 4 emperor's) hats! Holy shit!

 

[JayRPG]

Beatrix from Final Fantasy IX for obvious reasons... she killed one hundred fully armoured knights single-handedly and her abilities are very much human outside of a stock break and shock here and there.

She is armoured, has a bad ass sword and the skills to go with it.

 

[Battenberg]

There is only one correct answer:

Spoiler: Westley (from The Princess Bride)

Based on the simple logic that he was capable of defeating Inigo Montaya who would otherwise be the most talented swordsman ever to live.

Oh wait, fictional swordsman? Ahh, what a shame to be excluded on such a minor technicality.

Between that and the fact half the answers on here are for him I'm going to go the other way and say Azazel from Marvel comics is a decent choice BUT only if he had time to adjust to not having his other abilities.

 

[Warachia]

"Can you give an example of the bounty thing?" Another funny bounty inconsistency is when Luffy's bounty first got to 30 Million, it was apparently enough to call together almost every high ranking officer their navy had and tell them to watch out for this Luffy guy, he's dangerous, and then almost every pirate in the Grand Line had a higher bounty, yet nobody really seems to care that much (they don't even care about anybody with a 250 million bounty and below).

I don't have much time, but I can answer this.

That was naval high command of the East Blue, not of the entire world. Arlong had previously been the most dangerous criminal in the East Blue, and now we have this new upstart wearing Shanks (one of the 4 emperor's) hats! Holy shit!

That's one of the funniest things I've ever read, not one of his hats! OH NO! Then they'll need to be on the lookout for somebody else wearing one of Shank's shoes, or maybe a coat he used to own, that's much bigger than his hat, so it must be a lot deadlier.

How do they even know? Are you telling me that nobody else ever owned a straw hat or wore it because Shanks once did?

Also even if it was the command of East Blue, their headquarters is still the main headquarters.

 

[Ieyke]

Drizzt Do'Urden, and Kenshin Himura are the correct answers. They are basically equals.
Outside of fiction - Miyamoto Musashi.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I'm inclined to agree with TWEWYfan about Kenshin being the best...extreme speed, disciplined enough to only use the blunt-side of the blade and STILL win duels...and he's a human with no enhanced abilities. I thought Guts from Berserk for a moment but from what I've seen of the series he's a mix of luck, tenacity and, bullet-hell style "my-weapon-is-simply-unblockable/everywhere".

Now that I think about it of course...there's also Motoko from Love Hina...a 15 year old who seemed to have mastered Kendo to the point that she is disciplined enough to beat the crap out of Keitaro with her true sword but without straight-up murdering him. Someone above also mentioned Twilight Suzuka from Outlaw Star who uses a bamboo sword to destroy concrete and whatnot...I imagine Motoko could do that given a few more years practice but I don't know Twilight Suzuka's age...

 

[Ignatz_Zwakh]

I'd have to nominate Brys Beddict, King's Champion from the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series. You only ever see him in action once, (At least in "Midnight Tides' wherein he's introduced) but it's one hell of a scene. I shan't spoil it!

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Someone?s already mentioned Berserk?s Guts and FMA?s King Bradley, so I?ll say Polnareff from JoJo?s Bizarre Adventure. Before you say that he?s superpowered, his Stand ?Silver Chariot? is pretty much just a really fast and precisely powerful swordsman, whose only real ?super ability? is being able to shoot his sword. Polnareff can?t even see through Chariot?s eyes like most other Stand-users, due to its armour, but he?s still proficient enough to skewer even fire and light with it.

 

[Sandernista]

That's one of the funniest things I've ever read, not one of his hats! OH NO! Then they'll need to be on the lookout for somebody else wearing one of Shank's shoes, or maybe a coat he used to own, that's much bigger than his hat, so it must be a lot deadlier.

Now you're just being silly. The hat has a history of notorious pirates, including two of the most dangerous pirates to grace the earth, Red Hair Shanks and Gold Roger. Nothing else has that history, its called symbolism bro.

How do they even know? Are you telling me that nobody else ever owned a straw hat or wore it because Shanks once did?

Cause Luffy tells pretty much everyone he meets? Shit he blurts it out to the first marines he meets.

Also even if it was the command of East Blue, their headquarters is still the main headquarters.

No it was explicitly the high command of the East Blue, in the East Blue. The Naval high command was always in the Grand Line.

 

[RJ 17]

To start things out I'm going to nominate Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin

Spoiler

Points in his favor:
1. He's a former assassin so he knows how to take opponents down very quickly.
2. He's fast and has very good reflexes.
3. Has experience against a wide variety of opponents.
4. Katanas are just better. [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KatanasAreJustBetter]

Truly a great choice and from my favorite anime series to boot! However Kenshin isn't the greatest swordsman in fiction, nor even his own story.

I can only hope that after 5 pages of this someone has already pointed this out but just in case they haven't...

Spoiler: I am pretty sure that this guy is superior to Kenshin in every way possible.

Yeah, Hiko Seijuro is the greatest swordsman in fiction. Period. End of story. Purely by coincidence I was going to name him when I came to the topic, only to find that you had picked his apprentice in your OP.

Hiko even breaks down all the ways that he's superior to Kenshin when he's teaches Kenshin the Kuzu Ryu Sen: "No, your Kuzu Ryu Sen was perfect. But even if the attack is the same, the power changes if the user changes. A multiple-hit attack requires arm strength. A charging attack requires weight. However, compared to me, you seriously lack both!"

This basically means that whenever Hiko duels with Kenshin, Hiko's Hiten Mitsurugi style will always be superior to Kenshin's because Hiko is, by far, a superior physical specimen.

"But wait! Kenshin beats Hiko when he learns the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki!" Ahhhh but Hiko wasn't. He was, once again, using the Kuzu Ryu Sen. The point was "Either Kenshin will find the will to live and naturally fall into the form of the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki and strike through my Kuzu Ryu Sen, or I will end his tormented existence." That's why the instruction for the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki is simply "Find an attack that can cut through your master's Kuzu Ryu Sen", which is why the Kuzu Ryu Sen - an attack that is supposedly impossible to dodge or block - is taught before the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki. The master's Kuzu Ryu Sen puts the absolute fear of death into the apprentice and forces them to walk that transcendental line between life and death, so they either learn the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki, or they die.

In the end, Hiko is a Deus ex Machina character in the Kenshin series...that's why he only really ever does one thing: he defeats the giant, Fuji, because pretty much only a Deus ex Machina character could pull that off. For crying out loud, he blocks a vertical strike from a sword that's bigger than a house simply by holding up his sword and bracing the dull side against his fist!

 

[TWEWYFan]

In the end, Hiko is a Deus ex Machina character in the Kenshin series...that's why he only really ever does one thing: he defeats the giant, Fuji, because pretty much only a Deus ex Machina character could pull that off. For crying out loud, he blocks a vertical strike from a sword that's bigger than a house simply by holding up his sword and bracing the dull side against his fist!

Don't forget that awesome coat of his. I'm pretty sure that's the source of his power.

 

[RJ 17]

In the end, Hiko is a Deus ex Machina character in the Kenshin series...that's why he only really ever does one thing: he defeats the giant, Fuji, because pretty much only a Deus ex Machina character could pull that off. For crying out loud, he blocks a vertical strike from a sword that's bigger than a house simply by holding up his sword and bracing the dull side against his fist!

Don't forget that awesome coat of his. I'm pretty sure that's the source of his power.

I love when he tries to give his cape to Kenshin as the official sign that Kenshin is now the Successor to the Hiten Mitsurugi Style. Kenshin images what it would look like on himself and it's way too big.

 

[Warachia]

That's one of the funniest things I've ever read, not one of his hats! OH NO! Then they'll need to be on the lookout for somebody else wearing one of Shank's shoes, or maybe a coat he used to own, that's much bigger than his hat, so it must be a lot deadlier.

Now you're just being silly. The hat has a history of notorious pirates, including two of the most dangerous pirates to grace the earth, Red Hair Shanks and Gold Roger. Nothing else has that history, its called symbolism bro.

Yeah that's quite a history, but why is it important at all?

How do they even know? Are you telling me that nobody else ever owned a straw hat or wore it because Shanks once did?

Cause Luffy tells pretty much everyone he meets? Shit he blurts it out to the first marines he meets.

Why would they believe him? ANYBODY wanting to look important will say that they know or own something from one of the worlds most famous pirates.

Also even if it was the command of East Blue, their headquarters is still the main headquarters.

No it was explicitly the high command of the East Blue, in the East Blue. The Naval high command was always in the Grand Line.

I just looked it up now, there is no east blue headquarters navy building, it IS run out of the main HQ.

 

[lord canti]

That's one of the funniest things I've ever read, not one of his hats! OH NO! Then they'll need to be on the lookout for somebody else wearing one of Shank's shoes, or maybe a coat he used to own, that's much bigger than his hat, so it must be a lot deadlier.

Now you're just being silly. The hat has a history of notorious pirates, including two of the most dangerous pirates to grace the earth, Red Hair Shanks and Gold Roger. Nothing else has that history, its called symbolism bro.

Yeah that's quite a history, but why is it important at all?

How do they even know? Are you telling me that nobody else ever owned a straw hat or wore it because Shanks once did?

Cause Luffy tells pretty much everyone he meets? Shit he blurts it out to the first marines he meets.

Why would they believe him? ANYBODY wanting to look important will say that they know or own something from one of the worlds most famous pirates.

Also even if it was the command of East Blue, their headquarters is still the main headquarters.

No it was explicitly the high command of the East Blue, in the East Blue. The Naval high command was always in the Grand Line.

I just looked it up now, there is no east blue headquarters navy building, it IS run out of the main HQ.

They gave him such high priority because of his lineage.He's the grandson of the strongest marine and the son of the most dangerous man to the government. The fact that he was making any impact in the pirate world at all was warrant enough to give him such high priority.