It's the whole Jekyll/Hyde thing. As rational modern people, we're supposed to want to be the Dr. Even Wolverine chose samurai over beserker.

Nice summation, ita. I'm just too damn wordy.

I'm also not sure the berserker thing is absolutely true WRT Buffy. Prior to "Primeval" at least, she was at her most physically powerful at the end of "Prophecy Girl," when she was also uncharacteristically serene and in control.

I'm also not sure the berserker thing is absolutely true WRT Buffy. Prior to "Primeval" at least, she was at her most physically powerful at the end of "Prophecy Girl," when she was also uncharacteristically serene and in control.

Ditto when she killed the Ubervamp in front of the Potentials. Contrarily she was weaker than usual fighting Sunday until she mastered her emotions. Mostly she just needs to focus.

There's two ends of it. Being a beserker doesn't mean sloppy or out of focus. Getting in touch with the primal is powerful -- but that's not what she was doing against Sunday. Her emotions were sapping her fight, not feeding them. Faith feeds her fight with passion. Buffy not as much.

Zen's on the other side, where emotions aren't even in the picture, mastery instead of abandonment -- that's where Buffy wants to be.

eta: Kendra was not Zen, IMO. She was cut off.

Zen's on the other side, where emotions aren't even in the picture, mastery instead of abandonment -- that's where Buffy wants to be.

Are we sure of that, though? In season 2, Buffy forced Kendra to get angry and her anger actually helped her fight better, as Buffy claimed it helped her. Yet, in season 5, I would have said that Buffy was going for a more Zen approach (mastery through detachment), to the detriment of her fighting skills and effectiveness. However, I often felt that Buffy was seeking a balance. To be focused and effectual, while drawing on her emotions, her ties to her family and the world, for strength. It's not necessarily what may be espoused by real world martial arts programs, but it was what I saw in Buffy.

You could make the argument, though, that it's the events (particularly of seasons 2 and 5) that would make Buffy want to be detached. Also, watching Faith may well have soured her on using emotions to fuel power.

See my edit, SailAweigh. Being cut off isn't Zen -- being Zen is being awash with everything, but not fighting it, not submerged in it.

Kendra was never Zen -- she was remarkably brittle.

I don't see the striving for Zen in S5, so I can't really comment on that. The fight choreography was too random for me to extrapolate from it.

Thanks for the clarification, ita. Hmmm, so Zen is using emotions in a controlled manner, then? Like the ten ox-herding pictures of the way. You start with technique and conscious thought which gives way to technique becoming nature and unconscious mastery.

I felt they were maybe starting this in Buffy in season 5 where at the end of BvD when Buffy told Giles she still needed him to train her, but she seemed more concerned with the technical aspects of her calling. Although, when I think about it, there was that scene in the training room where she was doing the one-armed handstand while focusing on the crystals that makes it seem as though meditation was also a part of her training. But they never seemed to take it farther than that. In fact, as season 5 went on it seemed like they were trying to show Buffy as being more and more divorced from her feelings, particularly love. They broke her up with Riley and she had a hard time accepting that the First Slayer said she was full of love. She didn't feel it. And I gotta agree, though, if you try and judge things on the fight scenes shown in season 5 there's no way to judge. The fights were lame and in no way relate to the real world. I never got the feeling that she was using her abilities at her best. If she had, she never would have had to take the dive off the tower.

An article from the Toronto Star on the academic conference in Nashville. I note that they had a OMWF singalong too. Geeks.

t grins

Scholars flock to Nashville conference