[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Slick_rick

That was not it's purpose. It was a sport. It was about showing off for pride, honor.

The pride and honor of being good at the heavy cavalry business. At being warriors.

Like Football, Kendo and many other sports it was for recreation and entertainment with friends and comrades.

You think soldiers toss a lot of inflated pig bladders on the battlefield? But knights used to charge with lances at other people... Much the same way they jousted.

Note, I don't deny that, despite their origins as practice for war and hunting, sports have another dimension. But it doesn't take away from the fact that, at the end of the day, a sword's made to kill people. Or as some kind of decoration or status symbol, but if that's what Cecily wants to use it for, isn't it even more pathetic?

Yes, at its core those abilities could be used on the field of battle but like you acknowledge the wielder decides what the purpose to employ their weapons/abilities towards.

And whether you use your sword to protect the innocent or to mug him in an alley, you do so by using the fact it's a lethal weapon.

You're correct but that not what he implies. He said "Swords are tools for muder" and implies that's there only purpose.

If I'm not mistaken, he said it's a tool to kill people. Which is true. Unlike, say, bows or spears, swords aren't hunting weapons. They're for killing human beings. That said, what do you do with that lethal force? Well, he's a knight, the same as Cecily. He uses to keep the peace and protect the people of his town. Except he actually does it, instead of just talking about it.

He mocks her choices of a smaller, more defensive weapon for his more offensive 2 handed weapon.

I'm not sure what his beef against Cecily's weapon is, but there's not "defensive" or "offensive" sword. All fighting styles have different trade-offs, but aim for the same thing: to survive fights, and win them if possible.

I don't know that his weapon is more murderous than Cecily. In exchange for being heavy, the Zweihander is that it's good against armor. So he expects to fight other warriors with good equipment. OTOH, if I wanted to mug innocent people, I'd prefer Cecily's weapon. Lighter, more maneuverable... Of course, I wouldn't try it against armored soldiers.

Cecily certainly has a lot of room for character growth but that the entire premise of the show. I don't know if I can jump on her after 3 episodes when it clearly they're only now begin to flesh out her character and begin her growth. Once that happens I'll judge her on what she becomes. Hopefully her growth leads her to become a better person and not lead a life like Kenshin's where she becomes filled with regret about her past actions. He had to make choices while learning and so will she. Maybe she won't be cut to be a knight, who knows.

I think what she lacks is experience all the training in the world isn't going to make up for that.

Actually, it should. Swing enough at man-shaped targets, or use tourney swords against sparring partners, and the real thing becomes easier. And it's not her first fight.

She handled herself well enough with the sword until she saw the blood and couldn't finish him off.

A weapon you're not willing to use belongs to the enemy. Is that why she wanted a katana? So some random thug could take it from her and kill her and other innocents with it? How nice for Luke.