Who are the top 3 greatest swordsman in all fiction?

Dc, Marvel, Indepent, anime, shows, movies, books greatest swordsmen (ppl who’s standard gear is a sword) who are the top 3 greatest? Who would win in a fight between them?

Mirai no Torankusu

Across all of fiction is a bit hard, but I expect One Piece characters like Mihawk and Zoro to be up there.

Afro samurai is a beast

Samurai Jack

That's a lot of people to sort through.

Quite frankly, unless everyone has read everything about everything on X kind of character, you'll never get a definite answer on who the best is at X. So frankly, to me these questions are kinda moot to ask.

Exactly what Wolfrazer said. At a certain point questions like these are just impossible to answer.

Wolfrazer gave a good point and I agree with them to some extent. However if I had to pick, I would pick

• Samurai Jack
• Zoro-Mihawak-Rayleigh and other One piece high tiers
• Hiei from YuYu Hakusho
• Rurouni Kenshin

I can't limit it to just 3 because there are too many diverse sword users.With all of the above, all the characters are very skilled in their universe, can use long distances attacks from their swords (this is an assumption of Rayleigh's part), and can use special attacks from their swords as well. Some of them can even cut their opponent before their opponent realizes they have been injured.

Batman because he's batman

Samurai Jack

KIng Bradley

Can I just say how stupid I find Zoro to be as a character? Mainly that his 3rd sword is in his freaking mouth? So freaking stupid, and not in a cool dumb fun way, just stupid

Eh, I agree when I first picked up One Piece. Now I've just grown used to it. Plus he's badass so it makes up for it.

Kenshin Himura.

CW Arrow for sure.

No love for Gorr the god butcher? His sword is the first symbiote and killed celestials think that trumps zoro, hiei, mihawk and kenshin

If you mean the most powerful, then some Visual Novel or Xianxia characters, probably . . .

1. Me.

2. Me.

3. Me.

Mann, it's gotta be Killer B from Naruto, guy was an absolute beast, Fodderising Taka with 6 swords lmao.

@vulkanian: I totally came in here and was gonna say me...damnit all!!!

I’d say Vergil(DMC) seijuro hiko(rurouni kenshin) And Samurai Jack

On top of that even if you did know every swordsman in all of fiction it would still be impossible to say who is the best objectively. Skill isn't something you can really judge by looking at it. At least not in fiction where characters use wildly inefficient stances and maneuvers in order to look flashy. So it largely comes down to who has the best accolades and feats of beating people with accolades. So statements.

And when two characters have proven to be the greatest swordsman in their respective multiverse how do you determine who's multiverse had better swordsmen?

@metaljimmor: That's also true, yeah.

@gateofbabylon:

Name one significant character mihawk has beaten on panel.

For a character that is nearly as old as the entire manga itself. He has absolutely zero notable wins on panel.

Vista held him back.

Greatest has the implications of not necessarily being the 'strongest'

Kenshin is the gold standard of greatest swordsman possibly tied with Samurai Jack.

and in no particular order.
Afro Samurai
Jin, Mugen from Samurai Champloo,
Zoro,
Killer Bee

1. Jubei (Ninja Scroll)

2. Tsutsu Mujuro (Ninja Scroll)

3. Ashram (Record of Lodoss War)

Not necessarily in that order but definitely top three

Samurai jack

Kenshin

Ishikawa Goemon (lupin the third)

Just to give an answer no one else will, Benedict from the Amber Chronicles is definitely up there.

"Can you conceive of a millennium? A thousand years? Several of them? Can you understand a man who, for almost every day of a lifetime like that, has spent some time dwelling with weapons, tactics, strategy?"

King Bradley

Heiko Seijuro

Mihawk

Yes all of them are from anime

What about the dual wielder in Got?

Is he up there if we compare to these dudes?

@richubs:

Arthur Dayne, and he doesn't dual wield in the books. He was the best swordsman in his generation in Westeros, but Barristan Selmy can be considered his peer with a sword.

Unfortunately A Song of Ice and Fire is a very grounded setting with characters who have fairly realistic (but still underplayed for the sake of excitement) limits to their ability. Defeating a dozen armed soldiers at a time is an extremely high end feat for Game of Thrones, something only a small few can boast. But for a lot of the characters brought up here defeating a dozen enemies simultaneously is just part of their daily routine.

1. Duncan MacLeod of the clan MacLeod (Highlander).

2. Geralt of Rivia.

3. Kyuzo (Samurai 7).

@soaringturkeys: Agreed, with him it's more implied than anything. Vista is a Yonko commander, being able to cross swords with Mihawk is almost natural if we're just talking about swordsmanship; both of them are probably amongst the best in the world. One Piece is so far-fetched from reality, people may often forget that Mihawk thoroughly shaming Zoro (who was already a godly swordsman by more realistic standards) with a small knife pre-timeskip is really amazing. I just think swordsmanship in OP is on a whole other level from other fiction material.

Just to name a few.

• Roronoa Zoro
• Fuhrer Bradley
• Samurai Jack(maybe?)

Well since we're obviously not doing who would win in a fight at this point and are just playing favourites...