Henry Cavill’s sword fighting skills may have won over millions of The Witcher fans but a weapons expert is not so convinced with one scene in particular.
The Witcher has won plenty of praise since it first arrived on Netflix for its bloody and almost dance-like sword fights but weapons expert Dave Rawlings, the master-at-arms at the London Longsword Academy has said he has “issues” with one of the show’s best-known fight scenes in a recent video for Insider who gathered a host of similar experts together to analyze some of the most iconic fight scenes in film and TV history.
Frowned upon: Carrying a sword on your shoulder
In the YouTube video, Dave Rawlings is tasked with reviewing the Blavekin sword fight in season 1 of The Witcher and exploring what Henry Cavill’s character Geralt of Rivia gets right and wrong.
The first area Rawlings touches upon is the way Cavill openly carries his sword in his hand and rests it on the back of his shoulder, ready to be used at a moment’s notice.
“You get this big thing in historical European martial arts, where you’re not allowed to carry a sword on your shoulder because that’s really, really frowned upon and no one would ever do it,” he began. “Except there’s actually critique in manuals saying that you shouldn’t do it, which implies people do do it.”
“So carrying the sword in your hand is a very, very good thing,” he added. “And you see this a lot, people holding the sword on their shoulder and just walking around with it, without a scabbard on necessarily, so it’s ready to use.”
Not recommended: Reverse sword grip
The biggest issue that Rawlings has with the Blavekin fight scene is the way in which Geralt holds his sword for much of the encounter.
“I have issues with this particular fight because there’s a lot of reverse grip, with the sword being held backwards,” he said.
While it may look cool, the sword-fighting expert warned that holding the weapon in such a way would greatly reduce a fighter’s ability to defend themselves.
“It’s not a good way to use the sword,” he continued. “You sacrifice your ability to defend above very, very clearly, you have not got any reach, it’s not safe.”
Seal of approval: Cavill’s physicality and movement
Rawlings went on to end his critique of the fight by discussing a big part of how Geralt fights, in that he is very agile and often spins with his weapon to help put distance between himself and multiple foes.
“I like how he moves, I think he’s got a good organic feel to him,” he commented. “Generally, the sword is being moved in front of him which is a very, very good thing, it’s very rarely just kept behind him, so he’s closing the space off between him and his opponent with the sword.”
“One of the things I like about some of The Witcher’s fight scenes is that there is this idea of moving between the opponents,” Rawlings continued. “And you see this in things like godinho where the idea of spinning, something which people really, really quite often frown upon within the HEMA community, is very much used because you’re trying to keep opponents away from each other.”
“It’s not just about fighting ‘you’ [a singular opponent] and concentrating on moving into you, it’s about driving you back and then hitting the next person and the next person and the next person,” he said. “So these spinning moves actually become quite important and this angled, sinister straight-into-you idea goes out of the window. It’s not this focused, suddenly it’s much more wide and it’s a flurry.”
“The thing is, most of my judgment on this fight scene, is actually Henry Cavill being very, very good physically,” the sword master concluded. “And what is shown in this fight scene being probably the most disappointing fight scene in The Witcher.”
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The Witcher is available to stream now on Netflix, with season 3 arriving most recently in June and July 2023.
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