Photo: A Flurry of Flashing Steel

There were a lot of things to see at VCON 36, and one in particular that I'd never run into at any other convention - a demonstration of actual swords. Academie Duello, the swordplay academy in downtown Vancouver, gave a few demonstrations during the convention. Swords tend to show up a lot in science fiction and fantasy literature, and it's instructive to see them being used by modern-day swashbucklers who know how to use them; unlike fistfights in TV and movies, swordfights really do sound like that, though they also tend to be "blink and you'll miss it."

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