Helpless

[CharmedSlayer85]

Okay this episode is on right now on FX and as I'm watching it it got me thinking. Even though Buffy's powers are gone because of the muscle relaxants that Giles gave to her, does that still mean that Buffy shouldn't be able to fight? Sure the drugs took away her strength and such, but her fighting skills came from her training and knowledge so again shouldn't she still have the technique but not the strength? Because her ability/power as a slayer doesn't automatically give her the power to fight, we've seen that when Buffy first got her powers she didn't know how to fight the vampire cause she wasn't trained.

 

[SpikedBuffy]

I think it was mainly just the confusion and disorientation that screwed up her technique. If you had superhuman powers and could fight well, and then all of a sudden, you had no strength, that would probably give you cause for alarm. That might throw off your game.

 

[Spirit_Of_Fred]

okay, im trying to sort out my thoughts as i type so bear with me. if her muscles are relaxed, then it does make it harder for her to fight. even if she has the technique and knows the skills and steps, she might not have enough strength to use them. Like, if you are throwing a ball for distance, and you know the proper technique, but have weak muscles, the ball might not go as far as if your muscles were stronger. oh, and this wont apply to that guy that cordy hit off for her, but the vamps and all have the superpowers she lacks, giving them an unfair advantage and making it easier for them to hurt her (no more superhealing), and harder for her to hurt them. plus, she probably had relied on her superstrength to be the power behind her punches, and now she realizes she needs to use all the extra force and effort, which is hard for her to adjust to, and even more so because her muscles are all relax-y. and also, what SB said 🙂.

 

[white avenger]

In the martial arts, a student is taught to fight by utilizing the natural skills that they posses. That is why there are so many different styles of fighting, some giving advantage to the more agile fighter (as in "drunken monkey" kung fu), the stronger fighter (as in the hard forms of karate), the smaller fighter (aikido, judo, hapkido, etc), or the more rounded stylist (tae kwan do, chang moo kwan, or tang soo do). Each fighter's style is then dictated by the skill that they have developed in a particular style, using their particular strong points. Buffy learned to fight in a style that utilized the enhanced strength and agility that the Slayer possesses. Once she lost that, her mind might still have had the techniques, but her body lacked the power to execute them.

(And people told me that forty years of martial arts training would never be of any use to me in my everyday life!)