Talk:Death Stalker/@comment-121.44.168.66-20130906120041/@comment-9090085-20130911175350

Relatively inexperienced then? We know at least Wiess and Jaune have almost no practical combat experience, and I'm guessing none of them have fought big Grim like the Deathstalker(well, except Ren, I guess). My point was more they haven't had much combat experience before coming to Beacon; I certainly wouldn't rule out that many characters have fought in life-and-death battles before(Including Wiess, if the White Trailer is anything to go by. Yes I know I just contradicted myself, but I said almost no experience - one battle clearly hasn't taught her to automatically assume the the correct stance: she still goes through her checklist for precious seconds in her first fight in this initiation).

I suppose I would be remiss if didn't say one of my favorite quotes: "Training is no substitute for experience"; they are not the same thing(Pyrrha is the champion of a sport; Jaune seems to have great talent at leading - again, not the same thing). All these "kids", even Jaune, have spent years learning how to fight; what they need now is experience fighting monsters. Beacon's Initiation is in many ways to "break the teeth" of the students, by throwing them into battle with relatively "weak" and "few" monsters which (relatively)inexperienced but well trained students can reasonably be expected survive and prevail, the school teaches a number of things you can only learn in combat. That's my take at least.

Again, though it would appear that may of the cast has some experience fighting(Ruby, obviously, if her that "should have been easy" line is to be believed), that experience was likely not overly relevant to a number of situations in the initiation: Ruby has never had to worry about getting in the way of teammates before the initiation, for instance.

And I was really comparing them to the people who trapped the Deathstalker before; they probably lost alot of people to just drive it away with their primitive weapons; while these "rookies" were able to kill it with fewer, but more modern weapons. Sorry if that wasn't clear.