Buffy had free will, though - Echo does not, at least in theory. Granted, Buff's reaction to the council was never great, but I still think it took years for her to really tell them to stuff it and make clear who had the power/control.

Huh. If someone's had sex with me and then started trying to kill me by chasing me with a bow and arrow, my instinct is to stop the fucker, forget the talking.

I can see that I might try to stand someone down if they'd only been threatening my life but not actually made an attempt on it. But after getting hit by that arrow, dude's first inkling that I had a gun would have been looking down and wondering where his shiny new exit wound came from. Or possibly hearing the report from the shot that missed—no idea if I'd still have decent aim while hopped up on the wacky juice (though my coordination does get better 3 shots of tequila in). But I'd at least have let the first shot do the announcing of gun possession for me.

There's a great bit of research done by David Grossman, an expert on the psychology of killing. During World War II, the US army did a research study on their soldiers - they found only between 15-20% of riflemen would fire on an exposed enemy, for example. That's on a battlefield. People were willing to die, but most of them were not willing to kill.

They fixed it, of course - they now do conditioning processes to debase soldiers, then they rebuild them without the typical societal mores, by rewarding desired behaviours and by dehumanising the enemy. It's now over 95% are willing to fire. However, there's incredible levels of mental troubles in soldiers as a result - in fact, recently more soldiers who had returned from battle committed suicide than died in Iraq and Afghanistan in battle.

you crack me up, Cindy. i also enjoy your spicy brains.

My Psych 101 prof put me on the spot one day in front of the whole class and asked me if I would ever hesitate to kill had my unit been called into combat. I told him I'd never thought about it. Felt like an ass for ever having been in the military.

I love Cindy.

That is all.

Minor casting thing I shall white out - Check out who's on Tim's epi of Dollhouse: [link] - Yep, the dude who keeps beating up Fillion in Drive.

Speaking of Nathan Fillion (who's not the minor casting thing), I thought the fake ranger sounded oddly like Mal.

Me, too, ita.

And me, too, Steph.

That guy has the most amazing eyes. He was, dare I asy it, hawt on SCC too.