Suave Sabre

An Imperial Officer, ready for battle.
"The Charging Chasseur" by Theodore Gericault.

"Have you seen those warriors from Hammerfell? They have curved swords. Curved. Swords."

— Random Guards, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Not every curved sword is a Sinister Scimitar. In fact, the sabre or saber in the hands of a Western-style cavalryman or Cavalry Officer is the ultimate sign of daring and panache. This trope probably reached its cultural peak during The Napoleonic Wars, in which sabre-wielding light cavalry called Hussars captured the imagination of the people with their braided hair and moustaches, flamboyant uniforms, and death-or-glory attitude in battle — something that modern works love to depict. Compared to the Royal Rapier and its cousin the smallsword, which are most famous as civilian weapons, a sabre more emphatically marks its wielder as a professional soldier.

For much of Western European history, curved swords such as the saif, shamshir, and tulwar have been associated with a barbarous "other", while in the east they were often seen as no different than any other blade. The mingling between East and West in the 17th century gave it a more positive image in the rest of Europe and beyond. In period pieces depicting the 18th or 19th century, a man in uniform was deemed attractive and characters of this stripe are often The Casanova or Casanova Wannabe. There might be some overlap with Miles Gloriosus, as they are often big braggarts who exaggerate their already impressive exploits. They also have a tendency to get into duels because any slight made to their honor is deemed unforgivable without retaliation. Another possibility is that he is an Officer and a Gentleman in the mold of Stonewall Jackson or George Armstrong Custer. Soldiers can come from either a gentlemanly or common background, but what they have in common is that the sabre gives them some extra swagger through its association with military service and glory, whether earned or not.

This trope has variations. The similar cutlass does not enjoy quite the same status because of its association with rough sailors and pirates. Short-curved swords such as the grosse messer and falchion can apply in some circumstances but are often separate. The user of a Suave Sabre does not necessarily have to be of Western origin, but usually at least belongs to a country that has adopted Western-style uniforms, weapons, and tactics as a result of or in reaction to European colonialism. Related to Katanas Are Just Better, which is more or less the Japanese version of this trope - katanas had a very similar military role and cultural impact to European sabres, especially during the chaotic Bakumatsu period of the late nineteenth century (when 'what would win - a sabre or a katana?' often became a relevant and pressing question). See also Heroes Prefer Swords which this trope handily goes with.

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Examples

Advertising

• A TV recruiting ad for the United States Marines depicts a smith forging one of the Corps' iconic Mameluke swords as a metaphor for how a marine is made, with the final shot being that sword carried as parade dress by a Marine.

Anime and Manga

• In Akame ga Kill!, Wave is a determined, idealistic Hero Antagonist from the Imperial Navy. When not in use, his Teigu takes the form of a short sabre.
• Berserk:
  • Griffith, the charismatic leader of the Band of the Hawk, is a Master Swordsman who uses an elegant saber in battle. It suits the fact that he is equally in his element at a fancy ball and on the battlefield, able to blend into Blue Blood society with his charm but never forgetting that he is first and foremost a soldier.
  • Serpico was a sabreur when Guts first met him, a seemingly harmless dandy and errand boy for Farnese whose Obfuscating Stupidity conceals a sharp tactical mind. He's the bastard son of a nobleman and a member of the Holy Iron Chain Knights, except unlike most noble sons in that largely ceremonial regiment he's a master with his weapon. That's partly owing to the numerous duels he fought on Farnese's behalf when they were younger.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, King Bradley is a tough, charismatic warrior who uses a set of sabres in battle.
• Sharrkan from Magi: Labyrinth of Magic wields a curved blade that he uses as his weapon of choice. He serves as Alibaba's sword trainer and is one of the strongest swordmasters in the series. The Crawling Sword is the name of his kingdom's fighting style and is regarded as snake-like and hard to predict.
• Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs: The titular Saber Rider, as an Officer and a Gentleman who rides a robotic horse named Steed into battle, is primarily armed with a sabre. He does switch to using his sidearm when necessary, and also has a rifle he uses for long-range sniping.

Comic Books

• At first, Antoine D'Coolette from Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) isn't too different from his Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) self, but after a whole heaping dosage of Character Development and Took a Level in Badass, he's become a very capable swordsman and now puts his saber to much better use, fully cementing his growth as a character.

Fan Works

• Bait and Switch (STO): In "Heis'he Ri'nanovai" and "Sienov Mnhei'sahein", Morgan t'Thavrau uses a Romulan honor blade patterned after a cavalry saber in respectively a sparring match against her Number Two (who favors a fencing rapier), and a Duel to the Death against a Watraii nobleman (who uses an arming sword). Morgan is a Heroic Bastard of Romulan nobility.

Films — Live-Action

• The Duellists, based on the Joseph Conrad story The Duel, depicts the story of two Hussars in Napoleon's army who develop a feud over some trifle and fight a series of duels with each other over a long period of years. The first, third, and fourth duels are fought with their cavalry sabres, while the last is fought with pistols. The major themes throughout are the pride and bravado of the Hussars, the macho military culture that created the expectation of dueling, and the personal obsession between the participants. The third duel, fought on foot with heavy sabres, actually subverts the trope by getting really ugly: it goes on for so long the duelists are gasping for breath, propping themselves up on their swords, and occasionally mustering the strength to make wild roundhouse swings at each other. The fight is ended by their seconds when they discard their swords and just start having at each other.
• The titular weapon from the martial arts film, Full Moon Scimitar, is an elegant ancient weapon powered by the moon, which the hero Ding Peng seeks on his quest to avenge his own defeat. It can only be wielded by one worthy hero which is pure of heart, however.
• The kung fu film, Fury of the King Boxer starring Jimmy Wang Yu, in which Jimmy's character uses a sabre instead of the classic Chinese jian in his other (mostly Wuxia) films, because the film is set in the 1930s instead of some Ancient Dynasty. He gets to kill scores and scores of corrupt soldiers in one massive fight scene before losing it from throwing the sabre into an enemy rifleman.
• In The Ghost and the Darkness, Remington's large knife/machete is actually a cut-down cavalry sabre, hinting at his Dark and Troubled Past as a Confederate Cavalry Officer in The American Civil War.
• Near the end of The Great Race, The Great Leslie confronts Baron von Stuppe, who is trying to make a getaway. Leslie is at first armed with a fencing foil, and the Baron picks up one to engage him with, but after a minute of back and forth (clearly making the Baron sweat), the Baron suggests they switch to the saber, "a man's weapon" according to the Baron. (However, these "sabers" look more like epees.) Leslie is still shown as better than the Baron, who flees.
• The Jaka Sembung series of films is set in Dutch-occupied Indonesia in the 1700s, with most of the Dutch commanders and military leaders armed with sabres as a sign of their authority. The resistance, including the titular hero, tends to use the Indonesian golok as a weapon.
• In the Lord of the Rings films, Elves are armed with a variety of curve-bladed weapons, from Legolas's twin knives to the longer single-edged Orcrist, a long-handled fighting sabre, and the huge double-bladed polearms used by the Wood-elves.

Literature

• In The Belgariad, the Algarians are primarily cavalry and strike from long range with horse-bows. When forced into close combat, however, they use scimitars.
• In Gene Storm: City in the Sky, Snapper favors a sabre made from pressed steel cable as she's a bit obsessed with hussars, despite the post-apocalyptic wild west setting. She has a bit of a debate over whether curved or straight swords are better with another character whom she ends up killing later, breaking his rapier.
• Dirk Pitt Adventures: Dirk Pitt, as a decorated pilot and adventurer, has enough working knowledge of sabre fencing to face off against the katana-wielding villain Kamatori.
• Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre: One of the two titular weapons, the Dragon Slaying Saber, is an ancient legendary weapon coveted by martial arts clans everywhere, due to its wielder being granted ultimate power and the weapon itself holding the secrets to domination of the world. Certain versions of the novel even claim that any wielder of the Dragon Saber will be invincible and only vulnerable to its rival weapon, the Heaven Sword.
• In Monstrous Regiment the main characters are mostly armed with sabres. They were supposed to be pikemen, but there was a bit of a supply issue and they managed to catch an enemy cavalry unit off guard early on.
• In Sharpe, most officers wear a slender sabre as a sign of rank. The titular hero is an officer and entitled to a sword, but he also came up through the ranks, and is not a gentleman, therefore his rough and ready nature favours a heavier blade. His weapon is the straight-bladed sabre of the heavy cavalry, which most men would struggle to use dismounted.

Live-Action TV

• In the finale of Hawkeye (2021), Jacques Duquesne (also known as the Swordsman in the comics) fully cements himself as a good albeit misunderstood guy by pulling out a saber and engaging in combat to defend himself and his former fiance's daughter against members of the Tracksuit Mafia. Even acting like a swashbuckler by taunting his enemies and applying a little bit of Sword and Fist.
• In North and South (U.S.), when he's at West Point Orry fights Jerkass upper-class cadet Bent in a sabre match, beating Bent after a dramatic fight. When George asks him where he learned to handle a sabre like that, Orry tells him that his father had him take lessons growing up because he felt that every Southern gentleman should know how to handle a sabre.

Music

• Visual Kei band Versailles' Kamijo spends much of the Aristocrat's Symphony music video posing with a slender, fancy saber.

Painting

• Edouard Detaille vividly depicted the charge of the 4th Hussars at the battle of Friedland, 14 June 1807 in his 1891 painting Vive L'Empereur. Waving their sabres in the air as the war cry goes up and bugles sound, this is the moment just before they make contact with the enemy.
• Theodore Gericault made a couple of paintings depicting Hussars with their sabres, including his 1812 Chasseur de la Garde. A hussar in the midst of the chaos of battle looks backward from the saddle of his rearing horse, a deeply curved sabre in his hand. He cuts a dashing figure in his fur shako, leopard pelt saddle blanket, and trimmed uniform, but one gets the sense that his youth and beauty could be cut down at any moment.
• The portrait of General Francois Fournier-Sarloveze, by Antoine-Jean Gros, 1812 in the Musee du Louvre shows the subject posing with his saber in elaborate Hussar uniform. A turbulent man and rabid duelist known as "the worst subject of the Grande Armee", he was the inspiration for Feraud in Conrad's The Duel and Ridley Scott's The Duellists.

Photography

• John S. Mosby, a.k.a. the ''Grey Ghost'', was the confederate cavalry commander of the 43rd Battalion, 1st Virginia Cavalry known as Mosby's Rangers. A photograph take in Richmond depicts him posing in immaculate uniform with high riding boots, his left hand on his sheathed sabre, and his right hand holding a pair of binoculars. He holds that sword with swagger.

Toys

• Transformers: In the Transformers franchise, the name Star Saber comes up quite a bit. However, it's a Non-Indicative Name.
  • Despite his name, Star Saber wields a gigantic two-handed longsword. To give an idea of its size, its hilt is formed from the nosecone of his starfighter mode and in his smaller Saber robot mode it's large enough to function as a shoulder-mounted shield. That said, Star Saber actually is a War Hero as commander of the Pan-Galactic Peace Alliance Defense Force.
  • The Star Saber weapon from Transformers: Armada is likewise a double-edged broadsword or longsword (to a smaller Transformer, it's basically a gigantic broadsword, to someone the size of Optimus Prime or Megatron, it's more like a longsword).
  • The Star Saber from Transformers: Prime is likewise a two-handed longsword rather than an actual sabre.

Video Games

• The page quote is referring to the Alik'r warriors in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim who do indeed carry scimitars, and for the most part are respected.
• Artwork for the first Final Fantasy game shows Garland with a saber, and he was a reknowned and noble warrior before his fall to evil.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Subverted in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword with the villain Ghirahim. He's a stylish, classy-acting demon who wields a saber in battle, but turns out to be very Ax-Crazy and as the game goes on, stays just a hair away from completely losing it. In the final battle, he ditches his saber for a two-handed claymore to hack with.
  • While only shown in game art, Tetra from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker also counts as this trope as she is shown having a cutlass, a rare variation. In Hyrule Warriors she is a DLC character and is actively wielding this cutlass in battle with many upgrades to enhance her fighting style.
  • While the Gerudo in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild prefer common scimitars, their champion Urbosa had an ornate saber to match her dignified personality and status. Link can get replicas of it later on, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom depicts Riju following Urbosa's example by wielding two sabers.
• In Mobile Legends Ban Bang, one of the characters you can choose is Khaleed who is a heroic fighter that wields a curved blade, appropriately called "Desert Scimitar" as he uses the powers of the desert in combat.
• Shovel Knight features Propeller Knight, a dashing and roguish airship commander who uses a saber both for combat and for issuing commands to his crew. The saber in question is almost completely straight and used exclusively for thrusting attacks, so it is not uncommon for people to mistake it for a rapier.
• Downplayed in the Soul Series. While Raphael and Amy both primarily use Royal Rapiers, a Roman saber called "Schweitzer" has been available as an alternate weapon for both of them at different points in the series.
• Rowen from Tales of Xillia and its sequel is a Magic Knight who uses almost exclusively Rapiers and Sabres in battle. This fits heavily with his Battle Butler theme, accentuating his intelligence and his elegance in battle.
• Played with in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Ardainian Special Inquisitor Mòrag Ladair's default weapons are whipswords that are styled and worn like sabers, but are not sabers completely. Mòrag is an extremely cool-headed character who almost never raises her voice and serves as one of the party's tanks, but rather than having high defense and health, it's more because she has high Evasion instead.

Webcomics

• The Dashing Hispanic Sky Pirate Julio Scoundrel from The Order of the Stick fights with an enchanted sabre and a Genre Savvy flair for the dramatic. At the end of Book 6, he gives the sabre to his protege Elan.

Western Animation

• In Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), Antoine wields a sabre as part of his royal 19th century "Officer and a Gentleman" design and fancies himself a heroic, intelligent, and dashing Freedom Fighter much like the typical image of sabre-wielding heroes in uniform. Most of the time, however, he's a pompous and rude Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey who often prefers to stand back rather than face danger.

Real Life

• After 1872, when Japan created its first conscription military, all officers had to be equipped with swords. The first generation of Gunto (military swords) used from 1875 to 1934, now called Kyu gunto (old military sword), had a knuckle-bowed hilt inspired by Western sabres, although often retaining a two-handed grip. This had to do with the fact that they were trying to modernize along Western lines, putting behind them the time when the samurai class dominated the military. Rising nationalism in the 1930s caused a return to the belief that Katanas Are Just Better, leading to the replacement of Kyu gunto with the Shin gunto (new military sword), a mass-produced version of the old-fashioned samurai katana.
• Officers in the United States Marine Corps wear a Mameluke sword, a type of sabre, with their dress uniforms. The Marine sabre is patterned after a Mameluke sword awarded to Marine Corps Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon by the local Viceroy during the First Barbary War in 1805.

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