The 25 Best Fighters on Game of Thrones, Ranked

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Clutching “Ice,” Ned Stark sentences the Night’s Watch deserter to death in the pilot episode, “Winter is Coming.” /

10) LORD EDDARD STARK (Previous Ranking: unranked)

Category: Gentleman Knight

Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell, Lord Paramount and Warden of the North, is a weathered and honorable leader of men still holding on to the last years of his physical prime. He’s now primarily a general and statesman, but he proves his swordfighting skills when he battles Jaime Lannister in an abbreviated duel on the streets of King’s Landing in the show’s first season. (His fight is cut short when a Lannister soldier intervenes by lancing Eddard in the leg, much to Jaime’s dismay).

We can also look to the young Lord Stark’s display of swordsmanship during the fight at the Tower of Joy in “Oathbreaker” (S6/E3), where he overwhelms Gerold Hightower, then Lord Commander of King Aerys II Targaryen’s Kingsguard, and holds his own for a while against the legendary Ser Arthur Dane.

It’s more than obvious we made a mistake leaving Eddard off the previous list. If you can trade blows with Jaime, Gerold and Arthur and live to tell about it, you’re no slouch.

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