Syrio’s dance master

“Remember, child, this is not the iron dance of Westeros we are learning, the knight’s dance, hacking and hammering, no. This is the bravo’s dance, the water dance, swift and sudden. All men are made of water, do you know this? When you pierce them, the water leaks out and they die.”

—Syrio Forel, A Game of Thrones

This weekend, Miltos Yerolemou, our very own Syrio Forel, tweeted that he’d recently been given fighting tips from the very respectable and lauded William Hobbs:

Bill Hobbs has been a legend! he surely is the ‘lord’ of the ‘dance’. i am indebited to him.

Miltos affixed this URL to his tweet, linking an old New York Times article about Mr. Hobbs.

Bill Hobbs has had a hand in many of the most memorable fencing duels set to stage and screen. His movie and television credits include The Count of Monte Cristo, The Mists of Avalon, Rob Roy, Ladyhawk, Robin Hood, Willow, The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, Shakespeare In Love … The list goes on.

Ralph Fiennes, who worked under Hobbs’ watchful eye training for his fight scenes in a Broadway production of Hamlet, said, “Bill gives you the sense of a real fencing competition; there’s a real danger.” Mr. Fiennes went on to win a Tony Award for his performance.

Fire And Blood: Mr. Hobbs is not officially affiliated with Game of Thrones, but his presence, even peripherally, can give us an idea where Syrio’s fighting style is headed; true to the books, it will probably not involve “hacking and hammering.” Just so.

• Published on 07/18/2010 at 10:32 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/20/2016 at 5:14 PM CDT