Well bearing swords like that were always heavier than real swords not just often,even Zweihnder used for battle won't usually weigh more than 3 kg and often less.

I'm reminded of the German princeling (the castle's near Stuttgart, can't remember his name or the castle's now - WAY too many years ago that I was there) who according to a very early photograph was shorter than I am (around 5'4"). His sword (a two handed great sword) was in the glass case next to his armor that he wore into some battles, mounted on his warhorse. This IIRC was in the late 1800s - so probably some "local" (to him) disturbance.

The photo showed him in full armor, on the warhorse, with the sword drawn and held over his head. I was dumbfounded. The sword in the case next to the armor (which had very convincing dents and dings....) was TALLER THAN EITHER THE PRINCE OR ME. In fact, it wasn't much shorter than my over 6' husband.... Now, according to the docent there at the castle, the prince led many charges against various enemies. The sword according to him weighs around 10 pounds. The horse was well over 17 hands tall (a hand is 4 inches). Now, I have owned a 17 hand horse.... and believe me, even when I was young I had to put him in a ditch to get on him - and that was just in jeans, tshirt and riding boots. If I'd been in that suit of armor.... well, the docent (nice man) did say that he had squires to "assist him".

So yeah - reality is sort of non-germane to a fantasy game. I understand the appeal though - I'd LOVE to be able to replicate that German princeling's feats. Well.... I would have when I was 40 years younger.... Truthfully, I'd like to have been able to learn to jump sidesaddle too. Heh. The things you think you want to do until you give it a try.

And as far as the original question - I always do light armor and dual-wield. Unless I console in Ulfric's Clothes in non-sterile games - but I still dual-wield. I don't ever use archery, just really don't like this particular franchise's iteration of same. And I always use a katana craftable mod, because I just happen to LOVE katanas. Or wakizashis.

Light Armour.

This is a bad arena to bring "realism" in. After all, it's just a game right? But even so, I find Dual Wield and Archery just don't feel right in Heavy Armour. Even with my in-game pseudo logic, Light Armour allows greater freedom of movement. Vital for Archery or Dual Wield. If we want to bring realism more into it, even though many historical Archers carried one or more backup weapons, very very few outside of certain elites/nobles did so in Heavy Armour.

The armor of english archers could be everything from partial plate,Mail or gambeson so it's not that rare.Rich archers even became man at arms once they had enough armor.

"Heavy" and "light" armour the way Bethesda defines them are pretty unrealistic tho... I mean, according to Bethesda, chainmail is "light" armour.... I've worn a Viking chainmail byrnie, and it was far from "light"... And I'm a pretty big guy....