[Abyss]

Most of my lit ones have been ref'd...

Mieville's Doul scenes are great, but we don't see his only single combat scene.
GRRM's the Viper v the Mountain was stunning.
Great props to many, many of SE's fights which i won't spoil.
I have a fondness for RJ's early big finale Rand's blademaster fights... i like the style of describing the fight by the moves, like Leopard takes Antelope, Crane spreads wings, Accountant opens suitcase, etc.
Also echo earlier comments re Stover, Morgan.
Jim Butcher's done some fun stuff with his wizard PI Harry Dresden. Most of the books i've read have some big finale with Dresden mano y mano/womano/monster/etc.
Re Bakker, while Kelhus' fights were always good fun, i thought Cnauir absolutely stole the show every time he whipped out his sword and went all Conan-the-Terminator on someone.


Over in the Movies category... i feel obliged to mention TOMBSTONE: Doc Holiday v. Johnny Ringo, because in the history of the Western genre, THIS. SCENE. RAWKED.

- Abyss, "I'm yer Huckleberry".

[Dagger]

LOTR: FOTR Aragorn vs. Lurz This was just a quick, brutal, no-holds barred, to-the-nasty death match. When Lurz pulls Aragorn's knife out of his thigh and licks the blade, half the audience climb up in their theater seats.

[Werthead]

Oberyn Martell versus Gregor Clegane in A Storm of Swords. Beric versus Sandor Clegane in the same book is pretty good as well.

Ganner Rhysode versus a couple of hundred Vong who wish to engage him singly in combat in the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order novel Traitor sounds like the lamest thing ever, but it's actually the only moment in all 60-odd Star Wars books that comes close to rivalling the lightsabre scenes in the movies. Impressive.

Flashman versus the Giant Dwarf of Kabul in Flashman (not SF&F though) is probably the most randomly entertaining fight I've read in some time.

[Kage-za]

When I was an ESL tutor for an immigrant family in Washington DC during university, I swear the final straw that got the oldest boy reading was me reading them all Gandalf vs. the Balrog from the LotR. "Fly you fools." What a scene. (Later I read the kids Helm's Deep and Pelennor Fields, though they are not single combat.)

Obviously I'm a Tolkien fanatic but here are some of my favorite mano a mano combat scenes:
Sam vs. Shelob (The Two Towers)
Eowyn vs. the Witch King (Return of the King)
Fingolfin vs. Morgoth (The Silmarillion)
Finrod Felagund vs. Sauron as the Wolflord ("Lay of Beren and Luthien," Lays of Beleriand)

[polishgenius]

I agree with Abyss on Bakker, up to Warrior Prophet anyway, because Kelhus's fights were deliberately... well, deliberate, highlighting the way he went about it, while Cnauir was more brutal.
In films, the mano a mano between Achilles and Hector which was mentioned is up there. Achilles in general in that film is a good example of a realistic-ish awesome warrior.
I like some of the fights in Hero too, the first one, the lake one (for different reasons) and the one in the white library probably stand out most.
Oldboy: Clawhammer! Okay it's not one-on-one, but I don't think I'm the only one going by only one side has to be one person for this. By the same token Bride vs lackeys, though the buildup was more special than the fight there.
I like the swordfight with guns in Equilibrium, was cool.

[Sol Invictus]

The Mountain versus the Viper in Storm of Swords. Thanks for the reminder. Ah hell, how could I forget that one? It's easily one of the best.

[Mithfanion]

Abyss

Over in the Movies category... i feel obliged to mention TOMBSTONE: Doc Holiday v. Johnny Ringo, because in the history of the Western genre, THIS. SCENE. RAWKED.

- Abyss, "I'm yer Huckleberry".

I love that as well, such a great film. Val Kilmer is tremendous here.

[MrXIII]

The Samurai Trilogy has some fantastic one on one fights and even a one on eighty fight that's just killer. If you can forgive the fact it's a touch dated, then it deffinately deserves a mention in this thread.

Novel wise (well the Samurai trilogy is based on a book that I've not read so it might have some well writen fights it might not)

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, has a lot of duels... the only problem is that many of them are written along the lines of "they rode out and faught 12 score bouts" but Guan Yu's solitary journey see's him slay a good few people in fantastic (and short) one on ones. Few others that spring to mind that either contain spoilers or that I cannot remember, it's been a while.

[Falco]

No love for Inigo Montoya vs. the Stranger atop the Cliffs of Insanity in the movies section?

I love fencing.

[GardenGnome]

Wait, did the original poster say something positive about Troy? I assume that`s what eh refered to? It`s god damn horrible, and should not be mentioned. By anyone! Anywhere!

Except yours truly, in order to tell you this.

[polishgenius]

The fights in Troy are awesome and should be mentioned.

[Valgard]

The last fight in "Sanjuro". The film is a light hearted fun, which suddenly changes as the hero faces up to the main samurai bad guy eventhough the everyone else in the gang has been defeated already and the fight is over they have to fight to satisfy honor. The spend 30seconds just staring at each other waiting for one to make a move the suddenly with only one attack each one is dead and one is alive. It was a brilliant example of what a real aiujitsu fight should be like one strike only then the victor walks away leaving the deafeated person dead.


I also agree with the fights in troy they were awesome.

[Mithfanion]

Quote

The Samurai Trilogy has some fantastic one on one fights and even a one on eighty fight that's just killer. If you can forgive the fact it's a touch dated, then it deffinately deserves a mention in this thread.

What films does the Samurai trilogy consist of and what are the titles of the novels?

[Use Of Weapons]

Kage Baker's 'The Anvil Of The World' has an excellent (and very funny) wizard's duel. And I love Pratchett's Cohen in his fights (when the Silver Horde are fighting in the Caliph's palace in 'The Fifth Elephant', it's hilarious!)

[polishgenius]

jitsukerr;153656 said:

Kage Baker's 'The Anvil Of The World' has an excellent (and very funny) wizard's duel. And I love Pratchett's Cohen in his fights (when the Silver Horde are fighting in the Caliph's palace in 'The Fifth Elephant', it's hilarious!)

In Interesting Times, actually. But yeah, I reread that the other day. The scene with the Ninjas is great.

[The .303 bookworm]

polishgenius;153664 said:

In Interesting Times, actually. But yeah, I reread that the other day. The scene with the Ninjas is great.

True, It's blood fantastic. (Even better than the Valkryies and what the bard does to a certain god in "The last hero" in my opinion)

[James Hetfield]

I liked the end scene of Briar King when Aspar gets the shit kicked out of him, but still comes off victorious.
My other fav's (not already mentioned) are in David Farland's Runelord series. Raj Ahten kicking the Reavers' asses, Borensen and his non-existent conscious killing and laughing at the same time, and finally when Borenson gets de-nutted by Raj Ahten. Made me cringe, but o' boy was it a good read.
Oh yeah, what about Arya knocking Joffrey upside the head and then Nymeria about takes his arm off? Not a super great fight scene, but very satisfying.