All right. I’ve now seen that “Inigo is a better swordsman that Wesley” meme go around. (Apologies if you haven’t seen it, as I can’t sleep and I’m about to disagree with it.)
First: I’d sure hope that Inigo is a better swordsman than Wesley. Wesley is unbelievably driven and has both need and opportunity to study a lot; but Inigo is arguably at least as driven, and has devoted himself to this art almost exclusively.
(As a workaholic, I sympathize with them both.)
But for most of the fight, Inigo is doing a job. It’s a fun job. It’s a dangerous job, where he could die.
But from what we gather, if he’s come close to dying, it’s not been often, and it hasn’t affected him.
He’s not going in here afraid of losing or dedicated to the quickest and most brutal kill; he’s going in using the wrong hand because he enjoys this and wants it to last longer.
While Wesley is cheerful, the entire fight is one straight line towards his objective. His objective is over the cliff; he has to climb the cliff. It’s past the swordsman; he has to pass the swordsman. It’s eventually through Inigo and against the Sicilian; he has to go in against the Sicilian when death is on the line, like it or not. For Inigo, most of the fight is interesting, certainly dangerous, and probably actually enjoyable. I don’t think Wesley’s unhappy, but I don’t think he’s enjoying himself. His pleasure isn’t the fight; it’s the mission.
It’s only at the very, very end, when Inigo get a little serious about killing Wesley, that Wesley gets serious about killing Inigo.
Inigo is seeing the real Wesley the swordsman, yes, and it unnerves him; Wesley is obviously better than most (if not all) of the other people he’s fought, certainly nearer to Inigo’s level.
But check the look in Wesley’s eyes. What Inigo does is panic. Yes, Wesley’s better than we thought, he’s fast, he moves well. But Inigo is already running, he’s already stumbling, this excellent athlete is taking his breath in short gasps that limit his conversion of ADP to energy.
I’m biased. But when I look in Wesley’s eyes, I see someone who won’t. be. stopped.
Inigo won’t be stopped from finding and killing the man who killed his father. But that’s far away. He has to defeat this guy (or be defeated and live, which he doesn’t think will happen) – and then continue his quest. It’s a job.
“The hound is running for his dinner, but the fox is running for his life.”
Wesley, on the other hand, has lived with this half a decade, and will see the end of his quest before sundown.
IF he wins the fight.
So he WILL win the fight.
Better swordsman or not.
I can sympathize with that, as well.
