Sword Fight



"Wilfred Woodruff: You should know that I was thrice named ultimate sword master at the Southern Area Regional Volunteer Infantry Reenactment Regiment!

Ned: I wanted to be a Jedi!"

- Pushing Daisies, "The Fun in Funeral"

Rapiers, Cutlasses, Katanas, Laser Blades, whatever. At times, a goodie and a baddie just have to have a one-on-one fight, with Swords.

In any given story, the main character is fairly likely to be somewhat proficient with a sword. In video games, anime, and certain scifi-fantasy stories, indeed, large segments of the population prefer swords as their primary weapons, over any firearms that may be available. This is true even in many cases where it would be far more intelligent to use a firearm.

Bonus points when it's a modern setting, and using a blade provides almost no advantage and the hero is far less likely to possess the training needed to use a sword.

Exactly why this is the case varies. In some settings, swords offer advantages that guns do not. Perhaps the predominant defensive system is effective against firearms and not against blades, a la Dune. Or perhaps the people using swords or edged weapons are just that cool, a la the Jedi. Sometimes the enemy is invulnerable to conventional weapons -- and it's fairly rare that the Ancient Tradition had advanced knowledge of firearms. Sometimes, of course, it is left unexplained.

A similar trope results when two characters choose to battle each other with their bare hands, for absolutely no reason at all. Even if one of them (usually the hero) has a gun, he will throw it away, preferring the visceral satisfaction (and added chance of failure) of beating his rival's face in. Again, this has no practical value in nearly all cases.

Unfortunately even when use of swords is justified it is usually done unrealistically. As a result of choreography safety guidelines - that minimize hazard to actors - as well as a dismissive attitude toward earlier weapons - going back to late 19th century fencers - led to a wide acceptance of the unrealistic image of sword play. The weight and lack of handiness of these heavy swords was grossly exaggerated and sword play depicted as a slow and ponderous affair where raw strength is the deciding factor.

Common sub-tropes:


 * Barehanded Blade Block
 * Blade Lock
 * Cutlass Between the Teeth
 * Flynning
 * Implausible Fencing Powers
 * Neutral Female
 * Reverse Grip
 * Slice-and-Dice Swordsmanship
 * Sword Drag
 * Sword Limbo
 * Sword Lines
 * Sword Over Head
 * Sword Sparks
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works
 * Twinkle Toes Samurai
 * Weapon Stomp
 * You Fight Like a Cow

Anime & Manga

 * In Vision of Escaflowne, much of the fighting is done with swords, whether it's people or Humongous Mecha.
 * Great Mazinger -the sequel to Mazinger Z- was the first Humongous Mecha used swords like weapon (even before Voltes V or GoLion). The Hero Tetsuya was quite profficient using them, and he even did Dual Wield. Naturally he had several sword duels throughout the series, the most famous and most fondly remembered against Badass The Dragon Great General of Darkness.
 * Mobile suits in Gundam, in addition to their gun and missile armaments, are usually also equipped with some type of sword, usually an energy saber.
 * Similarly, early in Gundam Wing, Wu Fei gets out of his Gundam to have a fair swordfight with Trieze.
 * And Turn a Gundam
 * A staple of Rurouni Kenshin, since the good guy is a swordsman.
 * Most fights in Bleach, since the primary power source of a Shinigami is their swords.
 * Actually, many fights that are sword-on-sword haven't yet become actual fights, since most characters' weapons change as they power up.
 * X 1999. With living swords for the end of the world, no less.
 * In Ranma 1/2, Akane and Kuno duel with swords twice: in the first instance, she comes at him with a rapier, and Kuno quickly proves why "It's foolishness to challenge the Blue Thunder with a sword!" The second time, it's during a formal Kendo tournament where she's in disguise, so he goes all-out against her. She holds her own much better, however.
 * One Piece has about one per arc to showcase Zoro's three-sword style - he has declared that he will refuse to back down from any enemy swordsman and gets plenty of chances to put his money where his mouth is. Enemy pirate crews seem to have top-notch swordsmen often enough that it would fall into This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman for Zoro if it didn't make a lot of sense.
 * Ling Yao fight with Bradley.
 * The Five Star Stories is loaded with these.
 * Hakuouki features at least one of these per episode, though given that this is a Shinsengumi-based story, it should come as no surprise.
 * Samurai Champloo tends to be either Mugen/Jin facing a large number of mooks with swords, fighting a proficient master or each other, or fighting someone with an unusual-but-still-edged weapon.
 * In Bakugan New Vestroia the Bakugan system is down and then Spectra draws an ability cars which activates a beam sword in the gauntlets and Dan and Spectra duel, the duel ends in a draw.
 * In a later episode Spectra and Mylene have a duel as well, as before it ends in a draw but unlike the first time only one party escapes, Mylene and Shadow are sent to the ends of the dimension.
 * In Mechtanium Surge Dan and Mag Mel (Barodius) have an energy sword fight but it ends in a draw.
 * In Kirby Right Back At Ya, Kirby transforms into sword Kirby against a monster with sword claws on its hands, the fight ends with Kirby using Galaxia's Sword Beam.
 * When Guts isn't fighting demons in Berserk, he's squaring off against other swordsmen. This is especially true in the Hawks arc, which has a number of duels among the main characters.
 * In Soul Eater the final fight between Black Star and Mifune in the manga ends with this.
 * Sword of the Stranger culminates in one of the most technically impressive fight scenes ever animated, and can be seen here

Fan Works

 * A number in With Strings Attached--not involving the protagonists, though--the most notable being when As'taris fights Aurion; the latter wins when she zaps As with her pink sword, which seemingly turns him into her adoring slave.
 * Also, when As fights the brought-to-life statue of “Biggus Dickus,” who is fighting back with his leg-long penis.

Film
"Flynn: I know two things; Your sword grip and stance show me you're fighting with a 14th century German style defeated only by the renaissance style taught by Hutton in 1892.
 * For an example of what more realistic sword fighting looks like, check out the Lady Snowblood movies. Maximum carnage with a minimum of movement.
 * Kill Bill features a number of fights with swords and knives. Appropriately, the only two characters to pull a gun have the hero completely at their mercy.
 * The Princess Bride has a memorable fencing scene, in part due to its use of I Am Not Left-Handed. The footwork is actually pretty accurate to real fencing.
 * In Matrix Reloaded, Neo has a swordfight with several of the Merovengian's Mooks, after they try shooting him with a wide variety of guns. However, because he is The One, Guns Are Worthless against him.
 * Rob Roy features a magnificent duel at its climax that does a terrific job of telling a story and showing character through the fight choreography. Rob Roy is a plodding, grim, and determined hero fighting a slender, flashy, sadistic fencer who toys with him like a cat.
 * One of the longest sword fights in cinematic history is from Scaramouche, at six and a half minutes long. It is also the longest single-take sword fight ever put on film. It had to be single take because they had over 800 extras in full pre-Revolutionary France costume. They couldn't trust the actors with it, so they filmed it longshot using the fight director and his sparring partner, and came back later to film close ups of the leads at significant points. They didn't even stop for two nearly fatal accidents.
 * Indiana Jones films:
 * Raiders of the Lost Ark famously teases a swordfight when a Indy is faced with a scimitar-wielding baddie, only for Jones to whip out his gun and shoot him. Harrison Ford had dysentery the day of the shoot and did not want to perform the scripted sword fight scene.
 * In the Temple of Doom Indy fights some of Mola Ram's henchmen.
 * In Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Mutt (Henry Jones III) and Irena Spalko have a sword fight on a pair of duck trucks while driving through the jungle.
 * Probably the most technically flawless sword fight in cinema would have to be the climactic duel between Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone in the 1940 version of The Mark of Zorro. Honestly, almost any film with either of those two in it has excellent fencing, since both of them were world-class swordsmen in Real Life. Here is a clip of the match.
 * Sometimes their skill was used to make their opponent look good, as when either went up against Errol Flynn.
 * In the 1998 The Mask of Zorro Alejandro and Diego have a sword fight in a bar and all Diego is using is his cane! They later have several training fights.
 * Later Alejandro (as Zorro) has a sword fight with Captain Love and Montero!
 * In the next scene Alejandro fights Elena in a barn which he wins and then he cuts her shirt off, kisses her, then leaves!
 * At the last scene, old and new Zorro are fighting their archenemies to the death, Zorro 2 (Alejandro) manges to kill Captain Love first but unfortunately Montero kils Diego first but is then killed due to being tied to a falling crate of gold.
 * In The Legend of Zorro, Zorro fights a man named McGivens and later Count Arman, both end up dead.
 * Some of the most realistic swordfights can be found in The Duellists. Three of them, in fact.
 * The second Pirates of the Caribbean movie features an epic three-way sword-fight between Jack, Will, and Norrington. Including, at one point, all three men taking the fight onto a water wheel (which for some inexplicable reason is attached to a ruined church), which promptly comes loose and rolls away down the beach taking them with it. They still keep up the fight.
 * Meanwhile, the first Pirates movie has the classic duel in the blacksmith's shop between Will and Jack -- a duel in which each of the two clearly has learned a different sword style (rapier and saber, I believe) and fights faithfully to it. In between using the shop's environment to gain an edge, and one combatant throwing his sword, of course.
 * Star Wars with the iconic Jedi/Sith lightsaber duels.
 * The Three Musketeers 1973 (directed by Richard Lester) takes pride in giving fiction's most famous swashbucklers decidedly non-Flynn moves. Examples include sucker punching, groin kicking, blinding with cloaks or laundry, bashing with convenient chairs, and reversing the sword to beat the bad guy with the grip.
 * In the third Librarian film Flynn has a sword fight with a throwaway villain at the start.

Mason: What's the other thing you know?

Flynn: The renaissance style taught by Hutton in 1892."


 * Star Trek (2009) managed to work Sulu's fencing skill into the plot, when he confronted an axe-wielding Romulan with his fold-up saber. (Or maybe it was a fold-up cutlass. Or katana. All 23rd century folding swords look alike to me.)
 * In The Great Race, Tony Curtis vs. Natalie Wood at the beginning of the movie, to demonstrate just how good he is. Then, when the race goes through Ruritania he rescues the prince and engages in a massive swordfight in a parody of The Prisoner of Zenda.
 * In Don Juan Demarco, the title character's related backstory includes a major sword fight, which was responsible for
 * In the Chronicles of Narnia (2008), Peter vs the White Witch.
 * Or in the sequel, Peter vs Miraz.
 * In The Dawn Treader Repicheep vs Eustace.
 * In The Last Airbender, The Blue Spirit and Aang vs 200 Fire Nation guards.
 * Later Water Tribe warriors, Aang, Sokka, Appa, and Katara vs the invading Fire Nation.
 * Hellboy II the Golden Army features a sword fight between Prince Nuadda and Hellboy (who else?).
 * Sword fights happen a lot in Prince of Persia the Sands of Time.
 * The Mad Hatter vs The Knave of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (2010).
 * Scooby Doo and the Samurai Sword features a sword fight between the Black Samurai and Scoob and Shaggy, Scooby won by using the tremendous horse-cut technique.
 * What started out as a somewhat friendly fencing match turned into a "first blood drawn from the torso" in the James Bond film Die Another Day.
 * Also the duel between Miranda and Dual Wielding Jinx.
 * Happens in the first Three Ninjas movie, the super awesome ninja grandpa Mori Shintaro vs. the evil big boss Hugo Snyder have a fight with katanas which in the end becomes a hand-to-hand fight.
 * In the The Lord of the Rings films.
 * First, Aragorn fighting the Ring Wraiths off with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other.
 * Second, Aragorn fighting the leader of the Uruk-Hai.
 * As could be guessed from the title, the film version of Blade ends in a climactic sword duel between the eponymous protagonist and the Big Bad. This trope is subverted in the rest of the film, where Blade is the only one using such an anachronistic weapon, while everyone else just uses guns, or maybe the occasional cattle prod.
 * Happen several times in Willow with Mad Martigan against the evil soldiers, especially against the skull-masked General Kael.
 * Ricochet manages to have a nazi swordfight in prison. What else would you expect from the director of Highlander?
 * Speaking of Highlander, sword fighting seems to be the default choice of combat between Immortals in the series proper, what with Immortals only being vulnerable to decapitation.
 * On Popeye the movie, in the Final fight scene Popeye fights Bluto, both wielding rusty cutlasses, Poppeye's breaks and then it turns back into a good old fashion fisfight.
 * Happens in Hook, firstly Rufio vs Hook who loses and dies, secondly the final battle between Hook and Peter Pan.
 * Weird the second movie Robin Williams is in that has a sword fight.
 * Speaking of Peter Pan, hook constantly locks blades with Peter Pan. The weird part? Hook wields a saber but Peter wields a dagger.
 * Waxwork II Lost in Time climaxes with a sword fight that takes its combatants through several alternative dimensions.

Literature

 * Dune: Personal shields stop any object traveling above a certain speed so projectile weapons are obsolete, and lasers trigger a fusion reaction when they hit a shield. So most fighting is done with sword and dagger.
 * The sword was also largely just a diversionary tool, as most shields are set at a rate where the cutting speed of a sword would be repelled. So the point of swordfighting was actually to trick the opponent onto falling onto your knife, or making a misstep long enough for you to make a slow cut with your knife.
 * Though the Fremen of Arrakis actually use dart guns because shields attract Sandworms.
 * The Wheel of Time: Rand and High Lord Turak have a Sword Fight near the end of The Great Hunt.
 * Rand often practices sword fights before he . Other people wonder at this, since he's practically a walking god.
 * Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle has Eragon and a mysterious Rider working for Galbatorix fighting at the end of Eldest.
 * The Lies of Locke Lamora is a tale of a roguish character, which is made up almost entirely of cons and mind games. Naturally, then, it culminates in a duel of rapiers between the hero and his foe, although to the book's credit Locke does rather cock it up almost entirely.
 * A Song of Ice and Fire has a couple of pretty intense fights.
 * Michael Carpenter and Nicodemus Archleone mix it up with some intense swordplay at the end of Death Masks.
 * The Malazan Book of the Fallen has several notable ones, such as Whiskeyjack fighting  or Rhulad Sengar and  . Not to mention Anomander Rake, or Gruntle, or Adjunct Tavore Paran... you get the idea.
 * Happens a lot in Percy Jackson and The Olympians. It's the thing Percy is best at at Camp Half-Blood, and the only one better than him is Luke.
 * Ranger's Apprentice has sword fights everywhere, from Horace using a stick and his sword against a pair of thieves to Horace against Morgarath.
 * In Animorphs book 1 when Visser 3 meets Elfangor the have a tail-blade fight Elfangor loses and is then unfortunately Eaten Alive.
 * The Belgariad, where the Sword Fight between the Child of Light and the Child of Dark will decide the fate of the world.

Live Action TV

 * Virtually every episode of Highlander featured a sword fight between two Immortals, usually to the death. This made some sense in the series, because decapitation was the only way to kill an Immortal and gain his power. The use of firearms to incapacitate them was also seen as dishonorable, so only the most unscrupulous Immortals used them.
 * In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer second-season finale, Buffy has a fencing duel with Angelus for no apparent reason other than that it's cool. (Well, OK, she had to stab him with the sword for mystical reasons related to knights, purity, and the closing of the way to hell).
 * There was a perfectly good reason. They were going to fight. They both had swords in their hands. What else are they going to do?
 * Angel occasionally got into swordfights.
 * The various alien races in Star Trek were far too eager to engage in this type of combat. Naturally, Starfleet actively shunned it, because swords lack a stun setting. But this didn't stop a preposterous amount of crew members from engaging in Ancient Ritual Combat to avoid offending said aliens' culture.
 * In the Firefly episode "Shindig", Mal engages in a "duel of honor" with Atherton Wing. He tries for either fist fighting or a gun duel first. Mal, despite generally being proficient in more modern methods of fighting, has no clue how to fight with a sword. (Gentleman: "If you require it, any gentleman here can give you use of his sword." Mal: "Use of his s-what?") He has to learn from Inara (who is, as part of her back story, classically trained in pretty much everything).
 * Played with in the Big Damn Movie, where Mal has to fight the Operative hand-to-hand after losing his gun. When the Operative draws his sword, Mal's counter is with a screwdriver.
 * Subverted in an episode of Stargate SG-1 when the team is on an Arthurian grail quest. Lt.Col Mitchell touches Excalibur in an attempt to get at the McGuffin, and is challenged to a sword fight with a holographic knight to prove his worth. While he is a seasoned and deadly warrior, he is a 20th century warrior, and is completely worthless with a sword. As he's taking a whupping, his team discovers that their other weapons go right through the knight and he tries to give the sword to Teal'c (a Proud Warrior Race Guy that's excellent at this sort of thing), but discovers that only he can touch it. They end up shutting off the trial another way.
 * Actually, the first time Mitchell duels the knight, he is actually able to beat it in a straight sword fight. It isn't until the season finale, when he duels a far more powerful one, that they have to take it down via alternate means.
 * Mitchell mentions that he took fencing in college, which explains why he's even remotly competent with a sword. In the season finale, prior to the sword fight, he encounters two kids who are mock-swordfighting, and gives them a few pointers.
 * Ronon He has a rather big sword and he's rather good at it (mainly due to him being even more muscular than a Jaffa, he handles it like a really big kife). In fact, Satedans appear to be naturals at sword fighting despite being skilled at guns and gunplay too.
 * The Doctor has always been pretty good with a sword. His skills have been called on in
 * "The Christmas Invasion", against the Sycorax leader.
 * "The King's Demons", against Sir Giles Estram. The Doctor defeats Estram who then threatens him with a Tissue Compression Eliminator.
 * And then his duel with in The Androids of Tara.
 * A lovely parting shot from that gentleman, as he leaps from a high tower into the moat to escape: "Next time, Doctor, I shall not be so lenient!". Apparently Tara is the universe's primary source of both Soft Water and Magnificent Bastards.
 * Also in The Sea Devils, where he dueled the Master (because it's apparently standard practice to hang swords on the wall outside the cell of the most dangerous and evil man on the planet).
 * And then there's the massive sword fight between Rory, Vastra, and Jenny against the Headless Monks.
 * In Pushing Daisies, Ned fought the man who murdered the twin of the man he killed in a sword fight. Ned's sword-fighting skills are pretty implausible, even given his explanation (see quote at the top of the page).
 * Happens at least once in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, where Endymion and the Shitennou all have swords as weapons.
 * Everyone has a sword in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. Well, except Jupiter who gets a poleaxe instead.
 * In Dollhouse Adele and Victor have a sword fight. Then have sex.
 * Whatever happened to dinner and a movie?
 * In Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, Takeru vs Juzo, Mako vs Dayuu... it's a show about samurai...
 * In the Smallville episode "Icarus", Slade Wilson finds his gun to be ineffective against the mace-wielding Hawkman. What does he do? Draw out a katana and close with the hero. Badass ensues.
 * In Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, sword fights happen a lot; even when some of them don't even have swords they fight the ones that do.
 * Dragon Knight (both Kit and Adam) have fought Wing Knight: Kit's fight is a training fight; Adam's is for real.
 * Xaviax poses as Eubulon and uses his Sword Vent against Adam, who uses his own Sword Vent agaianst Xaviax. Xaviax wins via his Speed Vent.
 * Strike and Dragon Knight cross blades a couple of times too.
 * Wing Knight and Strike have fought each other as well: sometimes Wing Knight is temed up with Dragon Knight.
 * Wing Knight and Wrath have crossed swords many times in the series.
 * Back when Sting worked for Xaviax, he tried to eliminate Wing Knight and Wing Knight wound up fighting Sting with his own sword. Sting used his Copy Vent and fought Wing Knight with another Wing Lancer.
 * In R L Stine's The Haunting Hour four kids get sucked into a video game and when they get to the final boss he breaks out his twin dao and fights the other four and all the have are baseball bats, chains, and other around the house stuff.
 * Happens a lot 1n Charmed
 * Sword fights happen often in Power Rangers/Super Sentai.
 * In the recent ICarly episode iStill Psycho Freddie's mom has a sword fight with Nora and her mom who wield fireplace equipment.
 * Hiro vs Adam in Heroes.

Tabletop Games

 * Warhammer 40000's chainweapons and powerswords. 'Nough said.
 * Nope, Daemon Swords. Now 'nough said.
 * Traveller dueling is still a custom in the Traveller universe.

Theatre

 * Hamlet. "A hit, a very palpable hit!"
 * Romeo and Juliet has several between members of the feuding families.
 * Even though he's The Woobie of the play, Romeo walks away from every fight.
 * In Henry IV, Part I, the fight between Prince Hal and Hotspur usually takes the form of a sword fight; however, in many productions it ends up suffering a Combat Breakdown, usually serving to highlight (intentionally or not) the massive amounts of Foe Yay going on between the two characters.
 * A sword fight is a stock element of the Mummers play, common to most (if not all) versions.
 * Cyrano De Bergerac: At Act I Scene IV, Cyrano and Viscount de Valvert engage in one and Cyrano wins, at Act V Scene VI, Cyrano raves another Sword Fight with all his enemies (Falsehood, Treachery, Compromise, Prejudice, Folly and Death itself), a combat that Cyrano know he already has lost.
 * Macbeth vs. {=Mac Duff=}.
 * Twelfth Night has quite a lead-up to a swordfight set up by Sir Toby because he thought it would be funny--the coward Andrew Aguecheek against the Sweet Polly Oliver, "Cesario", both terrified because each has been separately convinced that their opponent is a Complete Monster. After Sebastian shows up and gets mistaken for Cesario, he thinks he's being attacked for no reason, and a fray results, ending with Sir Toby (who's jumped in to help his friend) bleeding at the head.
 * The Things I Will Not Do When I Direct A Shakespeare Production, On Stage Or Film, #187: "If the play I am producing does not have a swordfight, I will resist the urge to add one."

Video Games

 * In Final Fantasy XII's introductory cinematics, fighters are shown jockeying for air supremacy... while hordes of knights in armour and swords go at each other on the ground.
 * Every game in the Metal Gear Solid series ends in a similar fashion, and one plays it straight.
 * The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic video game series, in addition to lightsabers and Energy Weapons, have metal swords. It is handwaved by a shopkeeper, who explains that with personal energy shields becoming commonplace, melee weapons that can penetrate them are also becoming increasingly common, akin to Dune. Why they didn't just use bullets is not explained. (This is handwaved even more when lightsabers are involved; the blades are supposedly made with cortosis ore, a metal capable of blocking even lightsabers.)
 * You do use bullets, sometimes. Ranged weapons that bypass shields are variously explained as being "disruptor" weapons or as being actual projectile weapons (the best of which is the Mandalorian Ripper). Of course, said weapons tend to do crappy damage relative to melee weapons anyway.
 * KOTOR 2 tried to fix that problem by increasing the damage that ranged weapons do. It helped, but they were still no match for a lightsaber.
 * Played straight and subverted in Final Fantasy VII. The final, final battle is Cloud and Sephiroth, one on one with swords. However, earlier in the game, Barrett fights his old friend Dyne ... and both wield their Arm Cannons.
 * Scenes from Crisis Core and Advent Children offer a potential justification for the fact that SOLDIE Rs wield large swords: They have a small ability to block bullets with the large weapon, especially from their vitals.
 * Final Fantasy VIII starts with Squall and Seifer dueling each other with their gunblades.
 * Played, to a point, in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. One mission gives you the choice of going sword to sword against a crimelord. Your other options involve whatever other guns you picked up on the way to him.
 * There is also a similar mission in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories mission, titled Waka-Gashira Wipeout, that ends with you facing off against a Yakuza boss sword-to-sword. If you opt to go with guns instead, he'll order his men to respond in kind.
 * Played straight in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Both Zant and  go through various stages until finally duking it out with Link in a straight one-on-one swordfight.
 * Actually, most games in the series since The Wind Waker have had a some sort of Sword Fight as the Final Battle.
 * Not to mention various minibosses in the series that use swords. These enemies, if appearing in pairs, usually even have the decency to fight you one at a time.
 * Played straight in Red Steel. Every level had you fighting a boss-type character one on one with a sword. This in spite of the fact you just blew away hordes of cannon fodder with all sorts of weaponry. Not to mention the advantage of slowing time to be able to shoot the guns from their hands. Nope, had to be a sword duel. And even then, you had two swords to use.
 * In Red Steel 2 sword fights happen just as often, especially against Shinjiro, whom you face twice, once earlier in the game and he's also the last opponent.
 * In Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, when Layton battles Anton in his manor. But, just so you know, that was the only weapon available, and only 2 swords out of the many in the room (including Anton's) it occurs in are real.
 * A number of the Ranking Fights in No More Heroes and its sequel are of the good ol' fashioned "One-on-one sword fight" variety, albeit with laser swords and Mexican Luchador wrestling thrown in. Off the top of the head, the battles with Death Metal, Shinobu, Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarskii, Dark Star, and  in the first game are all sword duels. The sequel gives us Skelter Helter, Kimmy, Ryuji, and technically Alice Moonlight, if you count "Swords being held by armored frame" as the proper type.
 * In The Witcher, less common but more climactic encounters are sword duals. All of Geralt's techniques are Slice And Dice, and his Group and Fast styles employ the maximum Flynning.
 * In Mario and Sonic At The Olympic Games you can have a fencing match with all sorts of Mario and Sonic characters and even your Miis!
 * You can have a sword fight In Wii Sports Resort in the swordplay part, not only can you fight just one person but in a different mode you can fight a whole horde of Miis.
 * You're pretty much forced to do this in LEGO Indiana Jones 2 with the guys with black swords.
 * Similar to in the movie, in LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean whenever you face any character with a sword you have a sword fight with them.
 * In Super Smash Bros. Brawl Marth fights Meta Knight briefly but they both learn the other is the good guy and team up.

Webcomics

 * In Sluggy Freelance, despite being friends with Riff, and therefore having access to most forms of weaponry known to man, Torg tends to prefer using his talking sword Chaz in battle. This is usually justified, however, since Chaz can kill just about anything in a single strike, even near-omnipotent immortals. Plus, most of the times Torg's used Chaz have been when he's stuck in another world or time where there aren't any firearms around.
 * On the one occasion when Torg does bring a sword to a gunfight, he says, "A sword is an elegant weapon. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster." After almost getting killed by the first hail of gunfire, he runs back to the weapons cache shouting, "Clumsy and random's got my name all over it!"

Web Original

 * Whateley Universe: Bladedancer vs. Swordmaiden. Bladedancer vs. Nightbane. Bladedancer vs. Tennyo. Wait, seeing a trend here...
 * The Questport Chronicles: Mei takes on the Eldritch Abomination Big Bad to buy her companions some time to start the spell that will imprison the monster. She actually manages to hold her own.
 * There are so many in Mall Fight, it is impossible to count. Eric and Diablo both had a sword fight that nearly made the Mall itself self destruct.
 * There are a lot of LEGO sword fights on YouTube, this one has to be one of the best
 * This is a recurring theme in Shadowhunter Peril. It was originally subverted by the Architect, but then ultimately played straight when it was revealed that he keeps a collapsible sword inside his sleeve.
 * Veronica and Osiris take it Up to Eleven: Veronica has a Bag of Holding that holds multiples of nearly every kind of sword. She'll often grab a bunch and distribute them among her allies. Osiris has seven magical swords, and an improbable sword.
 * Many superpowered beings such as Oblivion and Umbra will create a sword out of thin air to fight with, just because they can.

Western Animation

 * There were two sword fights in Metalocalypse.
 * One was a (presumably) staged one for a music video between Skwisgaar and Toki.
 * The second was a fencing match between Charles Ofdensen (Dethklok's manager, and a college fencing champion) and Melmord Fjordslorm, who had been told by Ofdensen that the only way Melmord would get his job was to kill him.
 * Avatar: The Last Airbender had Zuko vs Jet, where both of them were Dual-Wielding. Zuko won.
 * Also the entirety of the episode "Sokka's Master."
 * In "Nightmares and Daydreams" Aang has a daydream about Appa and Momo as samurai fighting each other.
 * One of the earliest sword fights happened between the Jangs and the Gan-Jins in "The Great Divide".
 * Galaxy Rangers: "Heart of Tarkon," "Tower of Combat," and "Heartbeat"
 * Crops up from time to time in Transformers Cybertron. The Final Battle between Optimus Prime and Galvatron turns into one.
 * In Samurai Jack, Jack has fought beetles with sword-shaped legs, 6-armed robots with scimitars, a robot/ninja/assassin with a blade that could cut through solid metal, a Scottish man with a machinegun for a leg and a magic claymore, his own evil side, a giant mecha, and more.
 * In Phineas and Ferb, Perry has a wrench fight with Doofenshmirtz.
 * In a later episode they have a sword fight with a hot dog and a bratwurst that make sounds similar to lightsabers clashing.
 * In the episode "No More Bunnies", Perry and Dennis the evil bunny fight with barbeque equipment.
 * ThunderCats (2011):
 * In "Omens Part One" King Claudus has a sword fight with Lion-O to show off the Sword of Omens' power.
 * In "Legacy", Leo has a sword fight against his commander, both using their respective Cool Swords.
 * In "The Duelist and the Drifter" there are multiple fights against Master Swordsman The Duelist.
 * In "Between Brothers" Lion-O and Tygra have a sword fight both using the Sword of Omens, one the real version, one created in the astral plane. In the end Tygra said he would never betray Lion-O and both put their swords away.
 * In Sym-Bionic Titan episode Escape from Galaluna, Lance has a sword fight with his former Commander. In the end, Lance stabs the commander through the stomach and lets him fall from the platform they were fighting on.
 * In the Adventure Time episode "Mystery Train", Finn follows the Train Conductor and finally corners him in the engine and has a sword fight, quickly throws the conductor's sword away and as he is about to dispatch him the conductor reveals he is Jake who was previously believed to be dead.
 * Somewhat averted in The Superhero Squad Show episode 1602 due to the fact that a) it's a pretty dumb show, b) Thor used his hammer which he cheated with by breaking Abomination's sword.
 * In the Batman episode Showdown, Badass bounty hunter Jonah Hex takes on Arkady Duval, who is using a saber, and beats him using only a knife!

Real Life

 * "Mad Jack" Churchill remarked that "any officer that goes into combat without his sword is improperly dressed." During WW 2. He also carried a longbow, and used them both on several occasions.