id say river. buffy is stronger, and possibly slightly faster reflex wise, but river is slighty psychic which would give her an edge. plus shes far more intelligent, and that intelligence transfers over to combat as we have seen in eps of firefly. one glance and she knows exactly how many soldiers are where and can shoot them without looking.
buffy never really seemed to be a really great figher, shes good against things that fight like animals with little defencive abilities or stratigy like vampires and demons, but i dont think she has all that much experience in taking someone as skilled as river. river tam all the way.
Originally posted by Decay
id say river. buffy is stronger, and possibly slightly faster reflex wise, but river is slighty psychic which would give her an edge. plus shes far more intelligent, and that intelligence transfers over to combat as we have seen in eps of firefly. one glance and she knows exactly how many soldiers are where and can shoot them without looking.buffy never really seemed to be a really great figher, shes good against things that fight like animals with little defencive abilities or stratigy like vampires and demons, but i dont think she has all that much experience in taking someone as skilled as river. river tam all the way.
not a great fighter? buffy know loads of fighting styles, she has been training since she was 14 with her first watcher. but your right about reflexes though, when angel was about to stab her in the show she caught the sword between her hands with her eyes closed!! river couldn't do this, if she tried she'd lose her hands about a quarter second before she died. Go Buffy!!!!!!!!!!
I think River would easily take Buffy. She held her own against an entire army of Reavers for God's sake!!! Demons are scarey, but the entire 'verse was terrified of Reavers, even Jayne (and he was pretty bad arse).
I love Joss Whedon's work, but Buffy would get her arse handed to her on a plate.
Bring back Firefly.
Buffy has incredible strength, but she cannot hit River Tam due to precognition and equivalent reflexes. This inability to hit River Tam really skews the results in favor of River.
In Hand to Hand combat, Buffy should win because River cannot do any significant damage to Buffy. Unless River manages to get Buffy into some kind of jujitsu lock, River will become exhausted and eventually lose to Buffy.
In Weapon combat, River should win because she now has the ability to damage Buffy. Buffy will continue to be unable to hit River with any attack she makes. More curiously, in spite of being trained with weapons since she was a teenager, Buffy never actually manages to use them with any serious degree of skill.
Reavers are human in every sense except for their mental condition. Buffy would have destroyed them too. Shes fought a LOT of demons at once, who are in every way superior to reavers. And no, reavers cant control advanced technology. The show is set in the future, its just plain old technology for them. Flying a spaceship there would be the equivilant to driving a car here. Also, Buffy easily lifted with 1 hand a giant hammer that Spike couldnt even budge (and again remember vampires are stronger than humans.) Also River doesnt really know how to fight exactly, she just does. Buffy has been training for years and has a host of impressive showings. Also her telepathy didnt prevent Jane from grabbing her in the first place. Buffy wouldve broken every rib in her body given the same chance.
Originally posted by redhotrashI will argue two things.
Buffy has been training for years and has a host of impressive showings. Also her telepathy didnt prevent Jane from grabbing her in the first place. Buffy wouldve broken every rib in her body given the same chance. [/B]
1) Buffy has never had an impressive showing. Her actual level of skill is easily eclipsed by hundreds of mortal practitioners.
2) River Tam would not have let Jane grab her if she felt actually threatened by Jane. As a precog, she was aware of exactly how little danger she was in. While Buffy would certainly shatter every rib in her body, she would never be given the opportunity to do so.