I have a pile of issues with Lalasa, and it bothers me that Kel forces her to learn self-defense, and her initial hyper-meek characterization baffles and bugs me. But learning self-defense can and does often make people feel more confident*, so I don't think that's necessarily an unrealistic development. And as I said earlier, I don't think being willing to defend oneself makes someone a "fighter", or anyone who's not a total pacifist is a fighter. Plenty of people are willing to do violence in self-defense who would never go bandit-hunting or join a military or pick fights.
*Not necessarily justifiably; self-defense techniques have to be drilled frequently and regularly or they are likely to be useless, and even then they are certainly not foolproof and people can freeze or miscalculate or be attacked by someone with a weapon or more skill. But learning self-defense provides a feeling of psychological control that can be beneficial.
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Date: 12 Jan 2011 08:40 pm (UTC)From:*Not necessarily justifiably; self-defense techniques have to be drilled frequently and regularly or they are likely to be useless, and even then they are certainly not foolproof and people can freeze or miscalculate or be attacked by someone with a weapon or more skill. But learning self-defense provides a feeling of psychological control that can be beneficial.