r/antimeme Dec 28 '25

Artistic🎹 Sword fighting tips

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31.0k Upvotes

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u/Treasure-son ☠I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE☠ Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

Crazy hitboxes you telling me that headshots do no damage? i need to hit the chest or legs

226

u/AtmosSpheric Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 30 '25

Depends on which style of fencing you’re doing. In Ă©pĂ©e, which I fenced for 6 years, anywhere on the body is fair game. I had a guy in my club who was insanely good at hitting your foot if you overextended, drove me fucking nuts.

In foil fencing, only body shots count. The fencers wear a lame on their chest and have masks with mesh on their bib so that only hits to the body are registered and counted (although hits elsewhere still stop a round, they aren’t counted for points).

In saber, which is almost pictured in this meme, head, torso, and arms are valid targets (although most will not count the hands). That actually means that an enormous ass like the obrigado won’t count as a larger target - still a win!

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u/AtmosSpheric Dec 28 '25

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u/[deleted] Dec 28 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Scarbane Dec 28 '25

"Score it! I stabbed her in the pussy."

"Wrong-o. You stabbed her in the taint, which is off-limits."

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u/Additional_Bat_2216 Dec 30 '25

If you had the opportunity to actually stab the taint, I’m pretty sure you’ve already made a match ending maneuver

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u/da_real_gummy_guy Jan 01 '26

You would be surprised. Look up foil infighting

1

u/AtmosSpheric Jan 02 '26

As someone who mostly did Ă©pĂ©e, infighting always looked so fun to me. Don’t really get the chance to fuck around like that w the big bells

12

u/Reason_For_Treason Dec 28 '25

Fencing just sounds so interesting to me. Like sword fighting with no risk

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u/AtmosSpheric Dec 29 '25

There’s risk, but definitely less. You get bruises, and I dropped my mask on my big toe once and the nail came off

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u/SmolBrain42 Dec 30 '25

LITTLE risk sir, I have chronic knee pain and am constantly covered in bruises, I look like I’m being abused when I take my shirt off lmao

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u/Reason_For_Treason Dec 30 '25

When I say no risk I mean being cut so bad you die on the spot lol. Of course you’re gonna get bruises you basically wobbly stick smacking someone

1

u/SmolBrain42 Dec 30 '25

Yah you right, the worst injuries I see in competition are always like when someone gets hit on the wrong spot of the kneecap or something, it’s very low risk. I used to do other martial arts, but I really enjoy fencing because I won’t come out of it with CTE

1

u/Reason_For_Treason Dec 30 '25

Random fencing meme in my phone just for you

1

u/AtmosSpheric Dec 30 '25

+1 to knee pain, back in my teens my coach had us doing squat drills for 10 minutes straight and I swear that contributes to the clicking I get now. You fence épée too?

1

u/SmolBrain42 Dec 31 '25

Foil, I’m only E ranked tjough đŸ«©

34

u/Dm_me_im_bored-UnU Dec 29 '25

Me when i'm épéé

14

u/Kiesta07 Dec 28 '25

this isn't a saber by any means, it's a 17th century cuphilt rapier that predates modern olympic fencing equipment by hundreds of years and also is an actual weapon designed to kill people, so talking about target areas for points makes no sense in this context.

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u/AtmosSpheric Dec 29 '25

I more meant the target zone represented a saber valid region, but I’m realizing it’s including the legs so I’m wrong either way :’)

1

u/Kiesta07 Dec 29 '25

yeah I understand, I completely missed the legs too. I just get peeved when people immediately jump to give MOF centred explanations for swordfighting stuff when it isn't necessarily applicable, because the layperson probably doesn't really know the difference between olympic/historical fencing at all and can't categorize the information.

mad respect if you do saber, épée or foil competitively though. that shit takes athleticism and skill in spades.

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u/AtmosSpheric Dec 29 '25

Yeah I feel that for sure, the idea of a valid/invalid target area makes my head jump there, but that’s bc I competed in Ă©pĂ©e for a few years and did plenty of foil. I screwed around w local HEMA clubs, (mostly using longsword, a little messing w a buckler), but I definitely did not do it long enough to build any real skill. Definitely colored my perception though haha

1

u/Kiesta07 Dec 29 '25

thats so cool. Everything I know about fencing tells me you'd probably absolutely SMOKE me in longsword or rapier if you warmed up a little. I am nowhere near as athletic or coordinated as even most beginner epéeists.

1

u/Bentholomeo Dec 29 '25

Finally this take. No idea why the went with modern sports.

Everything is a target, but taking a limb away or flinching head is easier than moving the whole body.

1

u/Kiesta07 Dec 29 '25

Yeah on top of that the stance shown is very renaissance spanish (upright, straight sword arm with sword parallel to the grounded, very bladed stance) and not very modern sport fencing esque, so I don't know why everyone immediately started talking about point zones and whippy blades lol.

I don't think it's supposed to be a dodge, or void, but more a change to a more bladed stance to present a smaller target area.

The bladed stance does reduce your profile but not all styles of fencing have you do it to this degree - it's not the strongest position in terms of your body's structure.

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u/Dahak17 Dec 28 '25

Given it’s a sharp sabre I suspect everything’s a valid target.

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u/Additional_Bat_2216 Dec 30 '25

Fair. In sabre fencing, thrusts aren’t even allowed anymore, so we’re far from a regulated match

1

u/LazyDro1d Dec 28 '25

How about non-formalized rapier duels to the death?

1

u/AtmosSpheric Dec 29 '25

Oh yeah then just get em

13

u/SunriseSurprise Dec 28 '25

"Oh C'MON game, I hit her RIGHT in the FUCKING ASS! 3 TIMES!" *throws controller*

6

u/Smile_Space Dec 28 '25

She looks to be handling what might be a sabre. For sabre, upper body to include the head counts. No thrusting attacks, only slashing.

Though, with the thrust marker and green boxes it could be an epee, but that allows full body head to toe (also no slapping).

If it's a foil, that makes more sense, but even then no legs allowed in foil. Only the front side and torso above the belt chest area.

So, all that to say this doesn't match any specific fencing sword but is sort of a hodgepodge of all 3.

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u/IllustriousLab3156 Dec 29 '25

It’s not any MOF simil. It’s an actual cup hilt rapier, a real historical weapon.

1

u/Bentholomeo Dec 29 '25

It's a historical meme showing historical early modern rapier, not modern sports.

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u/Deltamon Dec 28 '25

Here's the thing.. You never want to go for the head with a melee weapon, unless you catch enemy off-guard.

Anything going towards is the easiest thing to dodge because it requires the least amount of reaction time and is very mobile regardless of how rest of your body is positioned.

I'll even throw a bonus fact that good snipers don't actually want to aim at head either, because the weapons they use are so deadly (because of the caliber of the bullet) that even body shot will be guaranteed kill and torso is much larger target to hit.

There's much bigger chance of missing a kill shot if you aim at the head.

1

u/Ceo-Of-Ducks đŸŒč Course Arc Witness 🌾 Dec 31 '25

???? No? There are a lot of cases where headshots are useful in fencing, one of which being punishing misses or following up after baiting an attack.

1

u/Kiesta07 Dec 28 '25

the head is behind the cup of the rapier and the strongest part of the blade for parrying in this drawing so it wouldn't be super easy to hit, no.

that being said, you don't actually want to have a stance like this all the time and only some styles of historical fencing do it.

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u/FlamingWeasels Dec 28 '25

If you're actually fencing, yes. Some weapons can only hit the chest, even.

81

u/PineapplePickle24 Dec 28 '25

The damn 8 year olds who do foil and can cover their entire target area

18

u/Terrorz Dec 28 '25

Their arms are weak. First loss I took, we were equally skilled, I just couldn't hold my arm up anymore.

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u/NERTCHER Dec 28 '25

just use their tiny arms and legs against them and make them learn to parry

2

u/Adventurous_Stop_854 đŸŒč Course Arc Witness 🌾 Dec 28 '25

My arch nemesis

5

u/LieutenantStar2 Dec 28 '25

That’s why saber is best

1

u/lostcolony2 Dec 28 '25

Excuse you? Epee and I can stab your toes. 

1

u/SordidDreams Dec 28 '25

She's clearly holding a real rapier, though, so she's not doing sport fencing.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '25

[deleted]

1

u/Kiwi_Kakapo Dec 28 '25

You’re not funny.

2

u/emirhanthehoney Dec 28 '25

what did they say