Lan - Undisputably the best there ever was.

Gawyn - I used to rank Galad high above Gawyn, but after witnessing the sheer awesomeness that is Gawyn during the climax of ToM, my money is on Gawyn. In fact, I think it's fair to say that the smart money is on Gawyn -- especially if he's fighting for someone he loves. Maybe Galad could kick his ass back before he survived innumerable duels as a youngling, with a practice blade, but now I think Gawyn has surpassed him.

Gareth Bryne - Only because of the Warder Bond and the Tower Training. And because he's one of the five great generals. Hell, who am I kidding? This guy's the man.

Galad - Looking back at Galad, I think it's seriously impressive that the only fight he ever lost was to a boy with a stick. I think if we were to rank him before Gareth's warder bond, Galad would come first. I make this assessment because Galad consistently defeated Gawyn on the practice yards, and I still don't think of him as standing very far below Gawyn. Also, in tGS, I think it was pretty clear that if Gawyn had wanted to, he'd have put Gareth into the dirt.

Ituralde - I don't think it's wise to undermine the value of an intelligent combatant. If you look at the way Galad handled Eamon Valda, I think it's likely that we'd see similar things from Ituralde.

Eamon Valda - Hey, he gave Galad a run for his money, and as has been mentioned before, he probably would have won if he had taken the fight seriously. But dead is dead.

Toram Riatin - He won against Rand. I'm sorry, I don't accept the excuse that Rand was distracted or that there was a miasma in the area -- he won. Maybe their fight would have gone differently? Or maybe Rand is an awesome channeler and a shit blademaster. I mean, seriously, what has he done? "Ooh, but he fought Ba'alzamon in the skyyyy!" Ba'alzamon sucks.

Sleete - He's a warder. Rand is a gimp, and even when he wasn't a gimp, I think the only reason I ever felt like he improved was because he was shepherd before he held a sword. Sure, Rand could balefire Sleete into oblivion, but I think Sleete would whoop him in a swordfight.

Rand - He did defeat Narg...

Narg - Holy shit. I just realized Narg was a blademaster on account of his crippling defeat of Tam...I'm putting Narg on this list. Go, Narg!

Tam - Really? This guy? Sorry, I want to believe that Tam is an amazing swordsman, but I think the fight with Narg speaks for itself. I could be judging him a little too harshly, I mean, the guy was a farmer for God knows how many years...eh. I'd like to see him in his prime.

Turak - Does he even count? All that flaunting about how "We have to earn our heron in Seanchan" only to be obliterated by a shepherd with his father's longsword. I vote we take Turak off the list and put Narg up instead.