RWBY Discussion: Aura

Aura is one of the most important mechanics of the show. Let's explore how the show handles it.

[@zusfrankenstein8561]

I just realized that Aura is literally in-canon plot armor.

[@user-garnet]

Holy smokes

[@dracocrusher]

It's really interesting because it seems kind-of clear to me that this is a holdover from how internet animators on places like Newgrounds would tend to do fight scenes, like characters would generally follow more arcade-y physics, you'd see people be knocked around with weapons all the time and they'd just have hit sparks fly off of them, right? So Aura was kind-of intended to justify that to give that type of feeling. But the problem is that when you try to apply that to an actual story, suddenly, why can Weiss tank a chainsaw but threatening Blake with a sword is meant to be a big deal? In most shonen stuff that has a power system to defend against weapons it's never a 100% sure thing, like people will get wounded and start bleeding or they'll get staggered or something. But by the time RWBY's creators realized the aura stuff wasn't great at selling when someone was in danger they already made friendly sparring a regular thing, so it'd be kind-of messed up if they had a school-sponsored tournament arc where people were constantly getting bloody or getting limbs broken or something. So aura just fizzles out now... which works on paper, but it also creates the problem that now you hard-know when you're not supposed to care and then the aura's back on, which means they can't get that hyper-speed arcade-y feel anyways! My favorite way around this whole issue is how World Trigger handles it, where characters actually swap their bodies out with fake bodies made of energy that look like them. Which means that now you can have characters lose limbs and get messed up and all this stuff and it's fine because there's no gore and it's a fake body. But at the same time, all your fighting abilities are tied to that form, so if it goes away it's actually a big deal because if you can't escape then that character is screwed... unlike RWBY, where your Aura can fizzle out and then you just run off and keep fighting without a second thought. Honestly, if characters just lost their ability to fight in RWBY when their aura was gone, then that'd fix so many issues here. But nope, people just keep on going on as strong as ever and nobody's even really concerned about it.

[@Eugene-pq3gg]

I can just hear the microphone hitting the floor.

[@fightingmedialounge519]

Most shown just have the characters be naturally that strong.

[@oriongold395]

Aura, from Volume 3 onwards, are basically just the Spartan armor overshields from Halo. Thinking about it, that is actually nice callback to RoosterTeeth starting with just making Halo machinima, intentional or not.

[@lightdragoon88]

The more videos I see of these the more I believe RWBY should be rebooted. Better world, better use of Aura, and no Maidens.

[@lightdragoon88]

Samantha Pribble that the problem, they keep changing and recon their scrip every volume. They have already heavily move away from Monty plan that v1 and v2 are pretty much non-canon to the current story line (as these videos have shown again and again).

[@twiinsiink]

I feel a full reboot would be counter productive. That would mean halting progress on the story now that it's finally started making progress just to go back and retell all the set up we just finished. It's why I often suggest in these videos for the writers/directors to sit down and formulate hard rules, rather than suggesting going back to "fix" the show. I'd rather the show continue to progress with an established world with consistent mechanics, instead of seeing the show back peddle to explain away inconsistencies. We don't know what Monty's plan was, so we can't know for sure if Miles and Kerry have been accurate to it or not. Volumes 1 and 2 are very much still canon (they still went to school, they fought Torchwick, they met Penny and Sun). Elements have become muddied, but the story is still continuing. Rebooting RWBY would stop all of that. Instead of retelling the beginning over and over again until they "get it right", I believe focusing themselves and continuing on from here with more defined rules and mechanics would ultimately be for the best.

[@lightdragoon88]

Twiins iink well having volumes be release every other year instead of every year can help give them more time to make rules and prevent holes and recons from happening in my personal opinion.

[@thefandom5483]

Lightdragoon88 well that would be a long wait for fans

[@Luke-lq9rn]

There's currently a new Shonen Jump Manga adaptation of the RWBY stories that's released monthly and actually pretty good.

[@MrRemicas]

The lifebars during the tournament indicate percentages, with the rule that if you go below 15% you're out. So the size of the lifebar doesn't indicate how much people have, if one percent have 15 out of a maximum of 100 it will show the same as someone who has 30 out of 200. Which doesn't really help make things less complicated.

[@timothymclean]

It serves as a natural way to shrug and facilitate vagueness in areas that don't need to be clearly specified, which can prevent complications from arising in the first place. If you don't add enough additional complications.

[@maxentirunos]

It's even worse taking into account that people have different quantity of aura. The bar as measurement then make no sense. You can have someone with something of a 1000 units of aura fighting four people with a bunch of around a 100 units of aura. He could be eliminated by going under 15% and still have more aura left than any of his opponent.

[@brandonontama2415]

@@maxentirunos I literally hurt my head reading this, aura is really confusing.

[@zusfrankenstein8561]

I just realized that Aura is literally in-canon plot armor.

[@wyveriusblackfire3834]

@@maxentirunos It's actually not that bad. If you think about it, it teaches people to work within their own limits, something they'd have to be aware of in live combat. If your problem with that is a lack of fairness in a tournament setting, I'd say it's more than fair for you to be declared the loser when you've lost that much more aura than your opponent.

[@seejayDJ]

Rwby is an amazing anomaly. It seems like the more support is behind the show, the more garbage the writing becomes. The inverse relationship of the fanbase and production team size to the quality of writing is incomparable to any other show ever. Where did the charm go?

[@zekrom2359]

with monty

[@stuartherrera]

RWBY only exists because of the fanatical devotion that RT's fans have toward the company. It's honestly cult-like. They hand wave away any criticism of the show and sit with open mouths, ready to accept whatever M&K shit out next.

[@mariobadia4553]

@@stuartherrera The rwby subreddits are pure garbage since any criticism gets downvoted into oblivion and say all RWBY critics are part of an umbrella term known as the 'Hatedom' or some other stupid shit so they can immediately just dismiss criticism since they know it's true.

[@dracocrusher]

Well...... Monty died and stopped being the main animation director/showrunner, leaving things to the way rougher work of Miles and Kerry. If you watch season 1 and 2, all the really strong stuff is focused around the fights and everything else feels a bit inconsistent and worse written character-wise. So after that went down, Miles and Kerry had to hunker down with whatever plan they had left and it worked for a bit, but when they started running out of or leaving the existing planned material, stuff started falling apart hard again. Essentially, when things were hitting their prime, the people in charge changed hands and the guys making decisions now didn't know what to really do. And then after season 5, things changed hands a bit again because they hired on new writers to help improve the quality, but with that also came a lot more inconsistency because it dramatically changed the direction of the series again. So what we basically have is a situation where we had two seasons of people struggling to figure things out, then they had a season of things getting going but also being a bit out of touch with things, two seasons of "Well where do we even go now?" under new management, and now two more seasons of "Screw the old plan, this is the new direction".

[@seejayDJ]

@@dracocrusher That sounds very stressful. RT is hot company and from that chaos rwby was born. Not very enticing anymore, but it was entertaining. This is closure. Thank you sir

[@maxentirunos]

I often write fanfictions about RWBY and one of my most prominent point of rewriting is aura. My solution about aura is clear, simple, logic and pretty much self-explanatory. Aura is an MP bar that began to refill the moment you stop using it. You can use it for three things : force-field, semblances and transfers.There is nothing beyond that. Both need active decision to use them, keep using them, and as such can't be used if the person loss consciousness. Both can be used at the same time for cost discussed below. The principle is that aura is common to everyone and thing like aura transfer and aura-injectors are a thing. If your aura hit 0, you loss conciousness Force-field : The force field doesn't consume aura at being activated and kept, it consume it when you take blow, proportionally for the damage needed to be defused. When your aura get too low, it's useless to keep the shield has there isn't enough aura to deflect damage anymore. The Force-Field have a penetration ratio that can be trained (AKA, some attack can pierce partially or completely the force-field without breaking it, like Adam Moon Slice or AP bullets). By using more aura for the force-field, and making the ratio of aura taken by damage augment, you can extend the force-field a little beyond your own body (Ren in V1) and cover objects to make them unbreakable (Like Vol2 food fight). Semblance : To make it simple, any kind of semblance use a set quantity of Aura. Ruby use hers to accelerate herself, Blake create shadow clones and Sun clones that consume aura at being created, not maintained. Yang in most of my fanfic, have a semblance that make her ratio force-field to damage double when used in exchange for multiplication of strength for each hit until semblance or force-field stopped (watch exponential by ceroblitz for ideas). Adam moonslice make aura being consumed at a continuous pace while he can absorb damage through his sword (or anything he is wielding), store it, and use it as wish... but the energy is lost the moment he stop the semblance or have not enough aura left to feed it. What is the point of all this, would you ask? I just prove I can make a logic magic system based around this in two paragraph and twenty sentences... And with just that I can make lots and lots of tactics and plot points around. How characters would have to train to augment their aura quantity, force-field ratio and piercing point, or aura quantity being used by semblance. Learning when they should keep their fore-field up or not. Could Ruby make a bullet faster by covering it with force-field and applying her semblance on it before shooting? Could a whole team have a hit-and-run tactic around very powerful semblance that consume massive quantities of aura? Can some hunter and huntress being actually more rich than talented and simply buying belts of aura-injectors between each missions? I have even rewritten Pyrrha in some of them as being talented because she have this very mad combat style of keeping deactivating her force-field between each hits in fights to maximize her aura recuperation. Something, in this story, that take years to even learn to do, and even some of the elder huntsmen doesn't manage it this good. She is the invincible girl because it would either take grueling minutes of constant damage or hours of fights to make her fall

[@breakfastsquad9871]

Where could I find your fanfics?

[@zusfrankenstein8561]

Damn, that's some cool stuff.

[@thedaemonwolf1814]

Is it alright if I use some of your ideas in my own stories? And/or recommend them to someone else?

[@dracocrusher]

I feel like there's really one big change you need to make for this to work somewhat well (RWBY, not your fanfictions) and that's that I don't think characters should be able to keep fighting when their Aura 'fizzles out'. I hate it when the show does this, right? Because that situation just makes me feel like everything up to that happening is inconsiquential because now the 'real' fight is actually happening. I started a fanfic and kept it going for a good bit, but the aura stuff was just so frustrating to work with that I couldn't even bother keeping it going because it makes fights feel very limiting when you can't really deal with the storytelling that can come from things like combat damage or having to protect vital areas, right?

[@bluememe4652]

Where can I read your work ?

[@lightdragoon88]

Ok everyone falls for this mistake. Everyone thinks aura was recon from passive to active, but it was actually recton from active to passive then back to active. Back to Pyrrha explaining aura in V1, 3 times in the speech she talks about having to activate it. "Why didn't you activate your aura?" " by learning now to use our Aura, we can protect our self from Grimm." " with training, we can project our soul outward" ( not 100% on direct words but she does mention it 3 times) also when Jaune getting punch by Cardin he hurt, then he activate his aura to stop it, and Jaune is healed. V1 states, and shows that you have to activate and focus your Aura to protect. Then it was recton in the world of remeant to be a passive shield, then recton back.

[@khoseftadros2775]

DOUBLE RETCON!!!

[@lightdragoon88]

Khosef Tadros Double the headache!

[@TheIntratec9]

We were led to believe that activating or unlocking your Aura was a one and done deal, not something you had to do in every fight.

[@rashan141]

@@TheIntratec9 Except PYRRHA asks Jaune why HE didn't activate it, implying that it's not passive

[@TheIntratec9]

@@rashan141 what I mean is that once his Aura is unlocked/activated, it should STAY passive. That's it. No more constant turning your Aura on and off in between fights.

[@prohufflepuff6761]

tbh this is why I like Neo's fighting style more; dodge the attacks so you don't waste aura, and if you do block, use your weapon, and do careful strikes Also another thing that annoys me is that aura is shown to be used in battle as defense/offense in whenever it was introduced with Rea battling the Grimm, but the fighting part of the aura is never mentioned again in the series, and Jaune- who is said to have a 'strong aura'- never uses the combat fraction of it

[@imfunatparties2821]

After monty died every character went from strong to weak

[@zekrom2359]

I think you mean the whole show went from strong to weak after monty's passing

[@diyagore1784]

@@zekrom2359 I wouldn't say strong to weak, more pretty good to eh

[@TempestMaximus]

If Monty was still here, I have a feeling he makes characters strong yet, vulnerable. Like you are powerful, but your actions shows your true colors.

[@bryana.escaleralopez]

Everything was done because the writers wanted to keep Jaune around and he really had no reason to stay in the series like bruh these girls were fighting giant machines 😂 Just look at how much character development Jaune has gotten since monty died. Fans aren’t being sold rwby. They are being sold the Jaune show

[@enfuegobeat7953]

that's why they should have done something more visually striking like the aura shattering like glass to symbolize the protection being completely gone

[@twiinsiink]

That would definitely help.

[@enfuegobeat7953]

@@twiinsiink funfact the glass shattering was based off and idea I had in my own work that was inspired by RWBY were when that worlds equivalent of Aura breaks it shatters something that represents the character such as chains for the main character. allowing for characters to wail on each other but still letting you know when the character is in danger more easily.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

EnfuegoBeat Is the problem aura breaking looks not visually striking enough? From watching the video, I was under the impression Twiins iink complains there is too much aura breaking in the show.

[@enfuegobeat7953]

@@schwarzerritter5724 I'm pretty sure she meant that the aura being damaged and Aura breaking looks to similiar at times so it makes it confusing when the character can still fight vs when they are in danger of actually taking real damage. like the Oscar clip his entire body had the aura flash but as we see later he still had enough to fight later on with Hazel. at least that's what I got out of it. that's why I recommended the visual distinction so that mix up wouldn't happen

[@dddmemaybe]

@@twiinsiink A distinct sound effect that sticks out is absolutely necessary if going for that route too lol. Sound + Visuals _is_ the medium.

[@soarel325]

The retconning of Aura is one of the biggest betrayals of Monty’s show. He created Aura with the purpose of using it to explain his amazing fight choreography. M&K have retconned it in order to use it as a way of AVOIDING fight choreography. The contempt they have for the show’s MAIN SELLING POINT is disgusting.

[@TheCrazydude17]

Just look at Ren. He soloed a King Taijitu without weapons (basically without), because he could use a broken fang and Hyuga-worthy palm strikes to splode some heads. Now? He's relegated to the group's camo because they never use his fighting abilities.

[@lordsurvivor5663]

yeah, it'd be nice if it had a limit, my idea would be to give specific semblance types a certain amount of aura like Blake's semblance is to avoid damage via shadow clones so she has a small amount of aura and thus it makes sense for her fighting style to incorperate a fuck ton of dodges and maneuverability. Where as say Yang's semblance is a burst of anger brought on by taking damage, thus she has a large aura reserve mostly dedicated to sponging up damage and allows her to take on a more hands on fighting style. Weiss's would be somewhere in between, her semblance being summoning defeated enemies which not only takes time but focus, perhaps taking a good chunk of her aura away depending on how big the summon, perhaps dust magic wears down on a hunters aura more so then a semblance so while it is a resource dust is more or less a secondary option, something about human bodies not being able to respond to a natural resource that managed to survive the last civilization or something, basically prior to the show in the old world dust was used for magic which the old civs bodies were intuned to and after their destruction the god of light purposefully made the new civs less compatible with dust so they couldn't attempt to attack them with magic again; the maidens are just the exception rather then the literal god given wielders of relics they simply are the only ones capable now... or something idk, i don't right fantasy, more of a Goblin Slayer kinda guy

[@timothymclean]

Most of the time, when people blame Miles and Carrie for some problem in Volume 3 or later, I roll my eyes and point out that the problems being brought up are just extensions of trends I noticed going from Volumes 1 to 2 (because they affected things I cared about way more than most people did). But this seems to be 100% them, 0% Monty.

[@lordsurvivor5663]

@@timothymclean well it's not every day Miles fails to define what a semblance is beyond a random cool yet convenient power for the character of his choosing, see it's not that Jaune has a healing semblance, mostly, (although it is really stupid broken considering the world and lore and monsters, much like Ren's semblance which should be god tier but isn't cause of bad really really bad writing) it's rather what hoops need to be jumped over the burning bridge that is the Ruby v Cinder fight, they had to actively write it so Cinder impaled Weiss not Ruby in spite of her own vengeance in spite of Salem's warnings and clear desire to have Ruby brought to her alive, some things just happen to push the plot or characters along, the writers abuse this and call it the character or story arc, the fans eat it up of course.

[@timothymclean]

@@lordsurvivor5663 Don't get me wrong, RWBY has definitely gotten worse over time. But that started with Volume 2, not Volume 3, giving me the impression that most of the show's problems have as much to do with the foundation Monty created with his poor story-writing skills* as they do with what Miles built on top of them. *Monty Oum is awesome at fight animations and, if RvB is any indication, seems to be good at writing _scenes._ But a story isn't just a collection of scenes, which hinders character- and plot-driven series more than it does comedic ones.

[@Mobius_118]

I feel like Monty's vision of Auras was about the same as the shields in Halo. Players will do some off the wall shit while they're up, but when they get depleted, they start to fight more defensively, taking cover and acting less aggressive while waiting for them to recharge. Hell, he probably would've spiced the combat up at one point by giving one of the antagonists an "overshield" and attribute their defeat to a combination of teamwork and some (potentially) outlandish displays of power.

[@TheTiredNaiad]

I will be the devil's lawyer, even if I realise how many mistakes RWBY has. This might be how Aura could be saved and keep all of the rules from now. What I have got from what the show told us is that aura takes concentration to turn on, but once is it turn on a few times it gets so easly one can turn it on almost without realising. /Almost/ is the key word, as turning aura on could be as taking a short breath, but in moments of high stress a fighter would not be able to use their aura, as they are focused on something else. Consider aura controling as breathing. Usually it is not a problem to turn it off and on, but once you become aware that you have to use it, it takes a little bit more effort and a few more seconds to turn it on. I realise that the visual queues (I am not sure if I pronounced that right) of aura being drained//broken is very inconsistent, and I can't say anything about that. But, as for the healing I assume that aura cannot regenerate while is it healing, so if a character is damaged during battle right after their aura was drained their aura wouldn't regenerate, as it it immediately consumed to heal, leaving them weaker (as we saw with Amber, if that was her name) while if their aura drains and they don't take damage they can keep going because they don't have to spend any energy on healing themselves by regenerating their aura (As we saw with Ruby, Qrow and Tyrian)

[@twiinsiink]

Well said!

[@TheTiredNaiad]

Thank you!

[@zekrom2359]

@@TheTiredNaiad good theory, but let me say one word: hamon

[@alinahlamis783]

For the healing thing, I just assumed that it makes recovery easier. Like, if you get injured, instead of healing the normal way/time, it makes it so that you heal faster, that's why small cuts can heal quickly while stab wounds take a bit more time to recover. It's not just that you can hide for a minute or two until your stabs heal, just that compared to normal recovery, aura just I dunno, halves that time. That being said, after aura breaking, I just assumed that the person just regenerates their aura health bar first, before straight up going into healing (maybe up to 80-100% first, or just in the green). I would use Weiss' cut in the White trailer leaving a scar vs Jaune's in the Emerald forest/bruises in Forever Fall as an example but I dunno, if I can factor it as his having "a lot of aura" being the cause of his instant healing, or just his semblance.

[@TheCrazydude17]

Here's Aura as I see it: The Soul is a physical entity unlike in our materialistic world. It is the literal core of a personality, and every defining trait of a person. It can be taken out and placed in another person, which will cause a merge and gradual absorption. The person's senses, attacks, defenses, and Semblance are all a part of your identity. By "bearing your Soul outward as a force" (basically willing your soft, abstract features to have a concrete influence), you can reinforce these attributes with a limited supply of energy. Do you not hit hard enough when you attack? Use your Aura to physically improve that striking force. Is your armor not enough to block an attack? Use your Aura to improve not only the armor, but your own body. Semblances take this to an extra level. Not only can you improve existing, apparent features, but you can manifest your personality and experiences as a special power that is not entirely unique, but manifests for you in a way that differs slightly from similar powers. It is not a Force Field. It is not a physical barrier that blocks energy or matter in a trajectory. What it does is improve what you've got, or give you something new. Jaune's excessive Aura lets him amp this up to a true defensive shield with his buffing Semblance, while Tock's Semblance directly channels her Aura into such a powerful defensive edge that she is completely immune to harm. To explain Jaune having a "lot" of Aura, I'd say it comes down to two things: how much energy output you can will up for things like a Semblance (or healing, remember that Hazel's Aura was also recovering quickly), and also the concentration that Ren was talking about. If you have "little Aura" then you need a lot more mental focus to maintain it, especially at first. If you have "a lot" then you more quickly learn to handle difficult situations without having to worry about your Aura just dropping (see Ghira and Oscar in V5). Yang had spent a day chatting in a bar, back in V2. She then directed all of her aggression and will into fighting Torchwick's Paladin. As a result, she could withstand extreme duress in short bursts and her Semblance was able to wreck the mech, shredding it with a final punch. Contrast this to the end of V3, where she had been fighting enemies constantly, alone, for an extended period, and then went up against Adam. His attack is confirmed by the writers to have done enough damage that it tore through what was left of her Aura and then her arm. One might be led to think that her number had just gotten low, but I think it has more to do with her physical and mental stamina. The fall of Beacon and less recent events had been tearing Yang down, and she hadn't fully bounced back yet. So when faced with his sudden, powerful attack, she gave up. Not consciously, but her Soul gave up the fight.

[@doesntmatter2467]

Here's my main problem with aura, semblances, They have absolutely no effect on the world building their potential is virtually limitless, a single semblance could be of immense help to an organization, someone with a power like Raven's would be insanely helpful as would someone with a healing power(which definitely exist as Nora thought that was what Jaun's was), and that's not even mentioning the tons of powers we haven't even seen yet (if time and probability manipulation are both possible then what reason do we have to think any power no matter how game breaking is out of reach?). Yet they are never used for anything other then peoples combat gimmicks, Their are absolutely no limits to what they can do, I mean we know they can accomplish time dilation, what about time travel? Was their no one amongst all of the hunters, huntress's and students who could heal amber? The characters can distinguish what is and isn't a semblance, this alone means theirs limits to what a semblance can be but their never explained.

[@keloid123]

Time is possible and Probability is also Possible (Fucking Weiss and Vic Magnonia)

[@curseofgladstone4981]

Amber seemingly had half her soul ripped out. Simple healing wouldn't fix that. Apart form that I agree.

[@zusfrankenstein8561]

Semblances are also just limited in the creativity department. The powers are all some sort of emitter effect, not once do we see a transformation or permanent mutation type of Semblance. That limits the amount of semblances you can play around with. There can never be a semblance that turns you into an animal or a semblance that makes you grow a third arm because all semblances have to be super speed or clone generation for some reason. The closest we got to a transformation semblance is Elm's stretchy-arms thing in Vol. 7.

[@glrasshopper]

It makes more sense that the shimmer is the person's aura flaring up to protect them against a heavy hit that their normal passive field wouldn't be enough for. The full-body shimmer and shatter would then be their aura being pushed beyond its limit and failing on them.

[@wolshiver_]

If its okay for you to become one of RWBY's writers, I'll vouch for yah👌😁

[@MrRay568]

In short, how aura and Health work in Vol 1-3 was the Halo 1 HP system except your shields don't recharge, post 3 it's effectively the Halo 2 and onward HP system more or less

[@NurseValentineSG]

Seems like the biggest problem with RWBY is that the writers treat it with videogame rules and never thought how those things would work in the setting. The Yang thing is a very good example: Yes, from a videogame standpoint, her getting a damage buff from taking damage herself makes flawless sense. But now think about it without videogame rules: What does that even mean? Does she get the boost if she hurts herself? Is it a physical threshhold or a mental one? Every person feels pain in different amounts, after all. What if a person cannot feel pain? Do they still get a damage boost? Do you get tiny damage boost from bumping your elbow or hell, even just normal touch? It's the same sense after all, just not to the point where it overwhelms your nerves. Long story short: Aura was a terrible idea and Monty did the best with it that he could. They shouldn't have introduced it in the first place and just have all the characters be superhuman, but having an visual indicator of when it is broken really ruins any tension.

[@DarkBlitz15]

The concept of Aura is so broad that I’m pretty sure Jaune still doesn’t have a semblance

[@danyh12]

I can understand how aura breaking maybe confusing but In Vol 1 ep 6 it is shown that aura was originally active and could heal, I also I think it meant healing as in physical wounds. So without aura healing is not possible and your aura would need to regenerate but they haven’t really told us how long it takes for you to recover your aura after it is broken.

[@twiinsiink]

This video was made before volume 6 aired, so I wasn't able to use any info from it. Also, what part are you referring to where it's show that aura "was originally active and could heal"? I don't remember that part?

[@NightfallNyx.]

they said *volume* 1, episode 6 (i understand the misread though lol) It was just after Pyrrha had unlocked Jaune's aura. Before Pyrrha made the comment of him not activating his aura, Jaune received a cut. Once his aura was unlocked, the cut healed almost instantly.

[@twiinsiink]

@@NightfallNyx. WHOOPS! Now it all makes more sense!

[@in_99]

I literally forgot that this entire mechanic existed

[@elenorejones30]

I like your voice and your videos, I think I’m gonna subscribe

[@twiinsiink]

Thanks!

[@jackferring6790]

ok, while I agree that the series lore and mechanics need an overhaul to better accommodate how the series has change, as its now a bit bloated and incongruous, your first complaint is wrong. yes the aura shattering thing was introduced in season 3, but 1. its not incompatible with past instances of peoples aura being low and being in danger. there is a difference between having no shield and your shield being at 5%, but your still in danger and 2. it is arguably a good choice to introduce so that we don't need to have someone pull out their scroll to convey to the audience that someone is in danger. otherwise good video. its only when in season 4+ they start burning through aura and are so inconsistent with it that becomes a problem

[@cosmomind7469]

A way to keep the aura being a passive constant shield while adding stakes is introducing a Grimm that cancels out aura. Have it show up during volume 4, it’ll make a shrieking noise at the protags disabling there aura temporarily. Have it explained that with Salem now having a maidens magic along with hers, she can augment the Grimm even more.

[@aidorygregan3849]

And then Vol 7 has shimmers AND aura breaks, which I like the best but it was really confusing at first when someone shimmered and then later lost their aura.

[@twiinsiink]

YEAH! I kind of just let myself accept it as like "the aura break glowy-stuff doesn't mean full broken aura anymore" which is annoying because like, I just want it to be consistent for once. But also I think this new deal they have going on is better because it allows for more blows to be actually traded as apposed to simply dodged.

[@X-35173]

I never realized just how convoluted this all was.

[@Kaelanore]

Season 7: Aura just becomes an AT field.

[@Luca-mv9vd]

There is actually a very simple change a writer can apply to Aura in order to keep Yang's Semblance unchanged and working; to make Aura able to *prevent* the structural damage to the material body it is applied to by dropping of the same amount of energy that would have caused that damage to occur. This way the actual kinetic energy of the hit does apply to Yang's body charging her Semblance and her Aura will drop at the same time, without damage or contradictions. Absorbing the energy do prevent the damage therefore the two things seems to be a repetition of one another, but the following steps is how i imagine it to work; - step one: the energy is transferred to the body while the damage itself is still not applied - step two: the Semblance gets activated and charged *before* the actual damage gets applied - step three: the Aura gets activated and prevent the damage that would have been applied Basically Yang's Semblance works in synergy with her Aura to magically break the physics of the real world in order to have an instance of reality to act within.

[@PepperPlay5]

now I love Halo even more

[@T.K.F.]

Best aura system is from HxH

[@avdeyevm4881]

some of my thoughts on how aura works. Aura Bar (my headcanon): these are showing in percentages (%). let's imagine that the average aura "bank" is 100 Aura Points. Jaune has more aura than most, so he has about 150 aura points (I'm just throwing out numbers, I'm no scientist). the aura bar shows that Jaune has a full bar, so it's 100% full. this just means that Jaune's full aura is more than Ruby's full aura (once again, just example). Aura mechanics (my headcanon): aura is both active and passive. active in that people can concentrate it in limbs (so blocking is still kinda relevant) to minimize damage, or prevent aura penetration ( a la Adam). passive in that it still works against small damage (pistol fire?). stronger attacks may breakthrough and be fatal. if you get punched in the face with passive aura, you feel pain, might get a bloody nose, but it's like they punched you through a pillow, meaning it "softens" the blow. being punched in the face with active aura (depending on how much aura you concentrate in the face) is like being punched in the face, minus bodily damage. you still "flinch", cuz the force of the punch didn't just disappear. if Yang punched you in the face with passive aura, you'll probably get KO'd (or die, depends on how pissed she is, all while still having aura). with active aura, you get launched across the room, still feel pain, but you'll live. semblance's drain aura in their own unique rate (I'm not even gonna bother with this one). aura also recharges when not in use. I guess each aura has their own recharge rate (I'm sure I heard somewhere that Hazels Aura recharges faster than usual, that why ReNora had difficulty dealing with him, and in V7 training montage Jaune aura literally recharged in a matter of seconds) aura also heals the person using it. I'm sure that its possible to heal mid-battle, although it probably limits aura shielding. it's situational. (use a potion of Resistance, or potion of regeneration? your choice.) aura will not function when unconscious(?). since it is possible to KO someone without depleting aura (if hit in the correct spot hard enough), their aura won't protect them (ex. Neo KO'd Yang on the train. it's possible that when Neo Yote Yang into the ceiling, yang used passive aura cus she was (probably) confused because she was flailing around in the air, and the hit was strong enough to KO Yang. Yang was at the complete mercy of Neo.) Aura breaks and flickers (my headcanon): aura will flicker when being dealt big damage (angry Yang, Maginhild, etc.), or when aura is low (maybe 15%? your choice) aura will break when your aura is depleted (0% aura, 0 aura points) REGARDLESS if the hit is strong (angry Hazel) or weak (StormFlower's Machine Gun). 0% is still 0%. Reasons Jaune still sucks IMO, having "big" aura isn't a win condition. give a random nobody an LMG and a professional an old Bolt-Action rifle, and make it a death battle. "Wow! that random nobody has an LMG! there's NO WAY that professional with a Bolt-Action can win, RIGHT?" Sure, Jaune has "big aura", but it doesn't mean shite if he can't friggin use it. all it means (for now), is that he's a Paladin (LOW damage, high HP, support role due to semblance). or a Meat Shield, your choice. soooo, uuuuh, thanks for listening to my Rant! feel free to correct me in the comments. Peace.

[@bhill2870]

Yeah that's how I see it. To me it's like ki from DragonBall or Ren from Hunter x Hunter. Ki for it being limited internal power, where sometimes when they block attacks they either block it or take it and be completely fine, or they block it using the last of their ki and either still have stamina or be completely exhausted. It's also passive and active like when someone weak punches a very strong person, they don't move at all, that's passive. When someone fires a ki blast and the other person actively puts up a strong ki barrier, then there's a big whole in the ground behind them where they themselves are unharmed. And for Hunter x Hunter, I say Ren is like being able to concentrate the energy in a certain place and the ability of specialization like for a semblance. I agree with your aura percentage too. Your tank ain't empty until it's empty.

[@MajorAfro]

Bruh 6:34 lmao, ive just started watching your videos. Incredibly informative and entertaining!

[@francescolombardi3438]

she forgot to mention "slowly walk past protagonist of show who you built a grudge with ever since Volume 3"

[@Snaaaaap]

If they ever reboot the show they could make aura work like Tekkai Kenpo from One Piece. So it would be always active in a fight. But we could have aura be manipulated in ways to penetrate others aura. For example, using aura to augment the effect of cutting and piercing weapons. So then it would explain flat out how Adam would cut through Yang effortlessly when she seemed good in aura. No semblance needed. Blunt attacks would be much more difficult to deal significant damage with unless the user was of equal or greater strength than the other. Remove the aura break animation and instead have characters be able to get cuts and bruises to indicate when they are getting too low in aura to keep up their passive defense. It would be gradual shift starting from just simple scuffs. Edit: Tried to elaborate more.

[@WorldofWarcraftfan02]

Aura is not the only thing the RWBY writers have recon. Magic, plot and history seem to change every volume.

[@kageace5434]

Think of arura like Persona, they have a somewhat similar healing technique, they would need to be activated, some people have a rare instance to have many, and when a person’s persona takes critical damage they will fade away leaving the person in a deathly state where they can almost die or die. Plus with a person with a resolve’s persona will undergo an evolution making it stronger.

[@kageace5434]

Aura Level (Aura)- This is the main thing that protects its user form damage but is also what they use to execute their special abilities known as semblances. If a user’s Aura is fully depleted they will be in a Aura Break status causing them to be stunned for some time and take extra damage from attacks. Based on most rules seen in every volume.

[@TrizRocks]

I think they never retconned the passive/active bit of Aura, they simply worded it terribly. You have to activate your aura, then it will protect/heal you until you run out or until you deactivate it.

[@hyphenq]

The Background music got me vibin'

[@jonsku6662]

I always simplified Aura as a mix of a (secondary) health bar and mana bar (or you know, kinda like how some NES era games had abilities cost health because a second resource bar was not common yet), semblances use up aura lightly to do their work, but it's the same resource that primarily does the self-preservation stuff, As soon as it's brought to low enough level, it barely prevents a papercut (and thus causes an aura break as well as any leftover damage from it) and you're left with not enough "mana" to use your semblance and you're just left as weak as the rest of us Ofc, for that to add up, you'd just have to do what anyone would do to fix all these inconsistencies, reboot and do it right from the beginning, same for the general writing thanks to the hindsight from what the show ended up as...

[@UmiLee]

i honestly cant understand why its so confusing to people. when the aura shimmers like that qrow shot, it means its in danger of breaking. if they shimmer and that 'machine shut down' sound plays like with mercury then its broken....???? am i missing something?

[@twiinsiink]

I had never noticed the difference between a shimmer or a break. I always saw them as the same thing until just recently. It doesn't help that these terms (shimmer, break, ect) aren't used in the actual show, which also means they've been given no clarification. A lot of people reference the aura breaking as to being akin to shields in Halo- perhaps it's easier to understand if you've played those games (which I haven't).

[@UmiLee]

@@twiinsiink I haven't either so touche haha

[@DatCameraMON]

@@twiinsiink When you are shot in Halo, your shield pops up as a yellow-gold barrier around you. As more damage is dealt to the shield, you can visually see the shield crackle and pop before it eventually is depleted and does a "pop" and flashes yellow again. During the time it is down, (if, say, you are looking at the person that you shot and broke their shields) there is small sputters of the yellow shield trying to reboot and recharge around the character. Originally, Aura worked like a Halo energy shield, where if your aura went down, you could still fight because that is all it was, a shield. Now, Aura is more like your stamina, when you run out, you collapse briefly and are helpless. Good video, by the way.

[@twiinsiink]

@@DatCameraMON Informative. Thanks!

[@kingjp1229]

i do agree in some parts but i did not need to study a thing yet understood what was going on through out the series when the concept of aura was developing

[@theartshrimp9656]

I feel like if there is a reworking of aura, we mainly want to get rid of all of the stuff introduced after aura breaking, but leave some stuff in to make some semblances making sense. So here is a sample idea I think of. TLDR: Aura=Muscle (to an extent) Aura Is kind of like a force field but even more, a health bar (whatever ten did against the king taijitsu no longer happens). Aura is a passive force that protects the body from harm. It must first be unlocked, and then can be trained to become stronger in different ways, and there is a small natural difference between everyone’s aura amount (aka allowing Jaune to reasonably have his high aura). When you have your basic aura, you are a citizen who can take some attacks to protect themselves but your amount depletes faster, no matter your natural amount, and the lower your aura gets, you actually get fatigued (explaining how beginner jaune still felt odd even though he had a lot of aura). Trained huntsmen and huntresses however have stronger aura that works normally like in the show with people that aren’t jaune. The fatigue aspect is gone from low aura or zeroing out but semblances cannot be used at low aura levels, providing another effect that doesn’t stop action for miles and Kerry and gives some visual cue besides a health bar to the audience and keeps us on the edge of our seat when a character isn’t using their semblance. Also this is why weapons are important for people. Aura amount varies between all individuals and the training allows stuff like regenerating aura to occur quicker. Edit: Maiden powers would work without aura, to give more of a difference from semblances and make maidens like cinder big threats. It can be harder to control or reduced to just one element then (if we are keeping Maidens have all elements) but that isn’t necessary. Also jaune can still transfer his aura like normal it works the same, and semblances don’t consume aura, just also disappear when aura does

[@joshuafrazier3904]

I personally think aura’s rules should be that it is a passive forcefield, that upon being fully depleted visibly shimmers and shatters. This puts the user in winded a state. So that is pretty basic so far. As for the healing I believe it's necessary for your aura to not be broken to use it to heal, and since aura is passive the healing is also passive and is at fixed rate. It increases and decreases in speed depending on how much aura you have. Aura amount is based off of strength and natural birth so as you yourself grow stronger so does your aura and your aura’s natural size and potential is based on genetics similar to body type.

[@andrewrodriguez7087]

This series really should of took notes from Hunter X Hunter. Another series where the characters use arua, or Nen, and is explained and explored much better then here.

[@snowboundwhale6860]

I'll be honest half these clips of aura breaking in seasons 4-5 I thought where just a visual reminder that these character's have aura/ their aura is active and that's why they're able to withstand these blows unscathed, particularly Oscar tanking Lionheart's meatball, I didn't realise that was supposed to be a "oh no his aura's down, he can get hurt now!" moment when watching, I thought it was a "look, Oscar can harness his aura _this_ well now that he can take heavy blows like the others".

[@runawayfromtoads674]

Honestly how I understood aura was kinda how I understood a shield in Bioshock: an invisible armor that can be broken after multiple or heavy, catastrophic damage. And once broken, you're going to have to deal with the actual constitution of the individual. Initially, I found it interesting that perhaps, this weakness could be bypassed by buffing up or something. Of course, you're vulnerable by then to getting your hand chopped off or die from a gunshot wound. Then I'm just confused as the later volumes go by.

[@Mr.ANDERSONYOURASCAL]

I know it's 5 years old by now, but since I saw it I really want to add that Ruby should be second only to yang and maybe third if you count nora in terms of hand to hand combat and sheer power, in volume 1 she could literally throw people twice her size like they were a sack of potatoes, without her weapon, not to mention the sheer power she should have by just using that thing, I know that weight is relative in this show, sometimes it's as light as a feather, and other times it feels like freaking Mjolnir, but in any case, one punch from ruby should be the equivalent of a truck going 100 mph straight into your face, she also shouldn't be absolutely ass in hand to hand combat, like we see with oscar, I mean seriously, why is something so simple so inconsistent? It's literally in chapter 1

[@alinahlamis783]

On a related note, for the questions about Pyrrha's aura unlock ritual or whatever you call it and as to why not a lot of common folk just unlock their aura (especially with the Oscar thing)....I just assumed: *1)* That the passage, however flowery it is, was either just a Nikos family thing, like a personal tradition or maybe something related to Minstral culture, explaining how Oscar didn't need to unlock it first that way (or maybe Oz just did it offscreen.) *2)* Maybe some people just didn't have a lot of aura to be worth unlocking (if the dialogue having "a lot of it", is to be believed then I guess aura is somehow quantifiable?) or *3)* Again, going by V1, Pyrrha said that she "used her aura to unlock Jaune's", so does that mean that non-huntsman families would need to have someone with an already unlocked aura to activate theirs, and that's why they didn't know/didn't bother? And on that note, who _did_ unlock everyone's aura first, if that was the case? -Wrote this on an empty stomach so I'm sorry if some of it was unclear.-

[@dragonhex3832]

I always thought you had to be conscious for your aura to work

[@obamaxbox264]

Yeah you do.

[@B0TFrosty]

Imagine if there was some sort of downside of having your aura broken, Yang could just let it go to about 1%, turn it off, get a stupid ass damage boost, keep fighting that way until the aura is fully healed up, turn it back on/taking actual damage and then turning it back on and repeating that cycle, she could fucking solo anyone ever

[@GnarledStaff]

I never realized how much of this concept was built on knowledge of fantasy and game tropes. It seems to be pretty simple to me. Its a magick shield. It absorbs damage by reducing spirit energy (mana, magick, etc) Its the same idea as the shields in halo or the new way they do damage in Call of Duty series and a bunch of FPS games. While shield is up you get minor health regen. If the enemy does more dmg than your shield can take that damage applies to the body. Also, physics are kinda rough in this show. Force field or not, hitting the ground at high speeds should rupture internal organs. The active/passive debate is interesting. I think its somewhere in between. I’ve come across the idea of an aura when dealing with magic systems. Aura is an energy field around a person. It is recharged from the soul and protects the soul from magic. So the aura exists in everyone. Its like a muscle. Its always there but not always flexed. Not everyone trains their muscles. So while activating an aura would be a reflex for a fighter, a civilian would not know how to turn that energy into a protective shield. Therefore an unconscious person would be helpless as they would drop their aura shield. John, as a new and undisciplined fighter, shows this. He may have a “strong aura” or whatever, but getting hit still hurts and he lacks the discipline to Its active in the sense that it must be activated and requires some concentration or effort if you want to use it shield physical damage. (Which can become a trained response). But its passive in the sense that it provides minor healing benefits as a passive skill, and probably has internal benefits like stamina regen or just keeping the body functioning. When it “breaks” it can no longer provide active benefits but that might be different from being depleted. Aira depletion implies there is no energy to form a shield. An aura breaking means that the shield is no longer active. Theoretically it could just be the user losing concentration. But it could also be running out of energy. At least, thats how I see it. Maybe I’m too accepting of contradictions.

[@dustinogan6891]

yes very well explained

[@dualitygrief576]

Well imo: Aura is the strength of the soul, willpower is a great way to say it, since aura is (not really) determined by the person and their supposed semblance, aura is NOT used to attack, rather the semblance works itself, but the semblance needs aura to work. Basically semblance activates when you have aura, but doesn't consume any, if it doesn't affect the user and their surroundings (example Jaune, with his sembalnce) Tyrrian has a weird sembalnce that NEVER has been explained in the series, so it is easy to get lost during his fights when he makes direct hits (his semblance negates aura btw)

[@handhelder823]

There are some points i would argue are actually consistend. Including Aura-breaking. The kids fight in the school until the Aura gets below 15. They could go further, but don't. That's why Jaune was in the red, but not out. His Aura was heavily depleted, but not out. That's why Mercurys Aura broke: it was at Zero. The shimmers don't show before, because they never occur

[@TrizRocks]

While I like the introduction of aura break, I also think it's not necessary for tention. Take Adam vs Yang during volume 3 as an example: Yang had her aura low enough for Adam to bypass it with a powerful attack. They could have done something like that for Weiss on volume 5.

[@choliosis2551]

I feel stupid I thought that effect was when emerald used her semblance :,)

[@tobizerker4153]

When the characters aura is in red it's at a danger portion, it isn't broken. When aura reaches 0 from an attack that's when it the shimmering effect happens. Being in the red in v3 was just for tournament rules and isn't meant to be an indicator for it breaking. Mercury's aura was at 0 when it broke in v3 and he's the only one who's aura we know broke on screen during tournament.

[@madladdie7069]

8:56 Wasn't Aura healing the user one of the first things we see it do? How is it surprising? Jaune's Aura heals the cut that he got from that branch.

[@thebanditman5663]

Easiest way they could have written it. Everyone has different quantities of aura, the HP bar is a percentage of that quantity, a shimmer or break is what happens when you drop to bellow a certain unit of aura (say 20 HP points as a standard. Like 3 good 9mm rounds away from bleeding.) not a percentage. So for someone like Ruby who has less aura than someone like Jaune, she is going to be shimmering more often if hit, because she is physically weaker than him. This reasonably makes it so an audience can go, "oh ok, she's weak, 15% for her is like 50% for Jaune." and can keep tension, while never having to divulge exact numbers. This would also explain why near everyone up until the mercury fight did not shimmer, they just never got to that point, then Yang got Yangry (hehe) and utterly destroyed his. You 100% FEEL everything hitting you, and it does't prevent internal moment of the body. Nut shot gag aside this is clear from however many times Jaune got his ass kicked in V one and two. This makes it so that characters still have to think about what they get into, because even though it won't injure them, getting shot will hurt like a bitch, and anyone who uses holds or grappling can break bones or dislocate limbs by moving the person inside their own aura. (Kicking in someones kneecap when a leg is extended, straining someones arm until their shoulder pops out of it's socket.) An aura as an extension of the body, is like a muscle, it must be flexed (active) for it to be useful. Like any muscle breaking it down makes it stronger, and once you train enough you can keep it "flexed' for near indefinite periods of time. (Endurance runners, strongmen competitions, shit like that.) This makes it so that people can be ambushed if they aren't in fight or flight mode like in V7 when the ace ops caught them, or if they have been fighting for 4 hours straight it means they are going to be tired even with it up. It can be penetrated with enough force concentrated to a single point. Adams semblance cut through Yang's aura because it was that strong as a thin line slicing and not a big hammer smack distributing the force. (Guns on remnant are weak because they use fire dust as a propellant and not smokeless high pressure powder, leading to bigger projectiles smacking hard for damage, and not fast projectiles puncturing through aura.) As far as healing is concerned, any wounds received from internal damage (Dislocations, compression bone breaks, Aura not being active at the time, or if penetrated,) will be healed by an ACTIVE aura, and aura will always regenerate itself. With rates depending on how much you have. Shit can still scar if it's deep enough because the body is using scar tissue to patch up the wounds at an accelerated rate. Weiss' scar, Blake's abdomen puncture, so on. To most hunters this will be a mute point as it's near always on when they are out on mission, but lore wise this makes seance. Healing is done on the cellular level, the body needs energy, (food) to heal. Hunters seem to eat a shit load, therefor energy is required to heal. This also wrangles in Yang's semblance logically without making her OP. She takes damage be it aura or physical, and then redirects it. Her aura regens and then she heals, her buff disperses, and she resets. That said, taking physical damage is never advisable because allowing yourself to bleed for a small boost could be life threatening, but it would be useful when responding to a sucker punch. In any other scenario Yang should be mastering a balance of her aura taking damage and then her dishing it out, instead of just flying in to fuck people up, she can be smart and overcharge herself to end fights quicker. Dropping to say 60% of her total HP points, (For math sake we say she has 100) to dole out the 40% of damage into 80% (80 points for math) on the return, but she should never play glass canon because even though taking 90% of her aura off to return 180% more damage would end near any fight with one good hit, any slip up and she could die. As a numbers game it gives her room to be smart, and can create tension through an equilibrium. "Do I let myself get hit by this?" "Can he tough through the damage I'm returning?" Tell me this isn't the most consistent way it should have been explained from the start.

[@flyboy3510]

It would be easier to use the fate route with supernatural abilities. Show the scenes that need sight, and leave the others up to imagination. Like we don't really need to see aura breaking, but seeing it when the field takes damage is pretty useful. As with the regeneration thing, it dual natured. It has a really slow passive healing effect, but you can actively speed it up with some focus. Some of the exeptions include Poison and being knocked unconscious, because aura can't stop poison properly and its passive affects aren't very useful.

[@TabbyVee]

in my opinion Aura has always seemed the same way for me, like its so simple, Aura = Shield, Shield heals health(body), if you got no shield you got no heals, shield breaks when it hits 0, you can also toggle on and off this shield as you see fit and channel it into certain parts of ur body, like how you never see Pyrrha's entire body get that black glow around it, just her hands, as she is using that part of her body to channel her Semblence the only real problem ive ever seen is Jaune having "alot" of Aura despite still being vulnerable in fights at the same rate as other fighters. With Yang's Semblence, she powers up BY taking damage to her Aura, even after it heals, so she can store it up between fights if she wanted, but instead uses all of it to finish the fight (which is dumb 60% of the time)

[@TabbyVee]

i do agree that the "Breaking Point" did kinda come out of no where, but meh fuck it i guess, its gonna be in for the rest of the show

[@furyberserk]

Why would aura being low mean it shimmers? It should only shimmer when it's depleted. By that, Juane's aura never shimmered because he was never out, and the same for the tournament, but makes sense for yang vs mercury as mercury's leg was broken at the end of the fight. So it breaking isn't a bad thing or bad inclusion and I don't see it as breaking lore, but I would have to wonder if moonslice can cut through aura or if there are requirements to the activation. Trying to fix it where it is rather than ignoring the problems with the show.

[@handhelder823]

Didn't Ren use his Aura actively against the snake? I mean, couldn't it be like normally passive, but also that it can be used directly. Isn't it explained that blunt damage is prevented by Aura, while piercing damage like a cut with a sword or a stab is more effective? Aura enhances regenerating

[@twiinsiink]

Where/when do they say blunt damage is prevented?

[@handhelder823]

@@twiinsiink not prevented, just better blocked by aura because of the area of effect

[@twiinsiink]

@@handhelder823 But when do they explain that?

[@handhelder823]

@@twiinsiink i do have to admit, that i was wrong on this regard. My apologies. Though it is somewhat aparent

[@handhelder823]

@@twiinsiink if i find it somewhere, i will let you know

[@myturn02]

What's the song at the end?

[@twiinsiink]

Home from Undertale

[@thehiddengamer142]

One thing I've always wondered is what is aura's healing extent, can it reconnect limbs just lost or if stabbed through the heart, if say John gave you aura can the wound be healed or can it just fix cuts a cat could make and scratches.

[@janniek8295]

this is just my view on this but the aura breaking only happens when someone runs out of aura completely and the red zone on their scrolls is just and indicator for the person themself that they need to worry because their aura is gone. i dont know about the other things about aura unlocking. This might be wrong but this is how I would think about it.

[@lesbianmoonstone7967]

I know this is an old video, but I got some ideas for Aura. 1. Get rid of the shimmer, it makes the fights tenser because you won't know if the character's aura is depleted until it is too late. 2. Make it evident that Jaune has more aura. 3. Make it so, normally, you'd have to train for your aura to heal you but if you have extra like Jaune, it doesn't take as much training. 4. Just make it so Oscar didn't unlock his aura yet like Jaune in the first season

[@BunnieProductions]

Really, the aura breaking thing could've just been explained away as a maiden thing. The maiden, because they have so much magic power they are not ready for, their aura is weaker, so much weaker, their aura's break. A normal aura can't break but a Maiden Aura can. That would be my idea at least.

[@ben_does_stuff]

Aura breaking could be due to a sudden loss of large amounts of aura, more of a stun or disabling status effect than a sign of depletion.

[@obi_oma]

Good video.

[@miasmacaron]

I swear the only reason your channel hasn't caught on more is because the thumbnails aren't the best.

[@twiinsiink]

This one's definitely the worst. I'm embarrassed about it.

[@octoberviberations233]

I feel aura should be something like a Diamond. Not that it’s indistructable, but it’s very useful as it can block things that would crush a regular human. Like a Diamond tho, it can still crack from a certain angle or way. Diamonds are not indestructible, as they can break, just from a certain angle. I’m not saying auras should deplete by some certain move, but this can explain and be more vivid when an aura depletes by getting punched. Either it took a lot of stress, or that blow was so concentrated that it made it dissolve

[@aeonofdisaster]

Am I the only one that thought of that aura shimmer as just a critical hit

[@twiinsiink]

They really don't explain it well.

[@lilpunk9341]

You know they could easily freeze frame put the health bar above each head leave it up for maybe 5 seconds and continue that would be way easier than having to make a effect.

[@T-Jex]

The reason no one can tell exactly what Aura is, is because Kerry and Jeremy dont know eithet

[@timbreuer7579]

The aura number on the scroll Was in percentage %

[@shiverman8]

Weiss Aura did break before she got stabbed by the spear. Rewatch the episode.

[@twiinsiink]

I never said it didn't break?

[@demonitizeddemonz5977]

I mean technically-- Pyrrha did ask Jaune why he didn't use his aura thus implying he had to manually turn it on. And when he got it activated it immediately healed the cut on his face.

[@Victor-056]

Honestly, I think they should make the 'Aura Shield' like the over Shield in Halo, with the Semblance being an Active thing, like Halo Reach armor abilities. Why? Because in Halo, the MJOLNIR Shields only have to be turned on _once,_ normally after the Spartan has been in Cryo for a While and Thus, has to Disable their Shield system to allow the Cryo Pod to Work properly, or be turned on after the armor is worn for the first time. The Shield goes down only when enough damage whittles it down, leaving the Spartan Vulnerable to attack. The idea I have is that Aura _powers_ both the Shield and Semblance, being like a reactor that provides the Energy, rather than the Aura _just_ being the Shield. That means Someone having a lot of Aura means that Jaune can choose between Boosting his Shield, or Amping his Semblance, which, if the Aura Level is Depleted to Zero, will mean the Huntsman looses consciousness from the drain. And the idea is that the 'Health bar' only measures the Shield ability, rather than the Aura itself. So that means if Yang abuses her semblance too much, she will conk out from her Aura being Depleted, and frankly, making it so her Semblance counts the damage that hits her Shield, means that Yang will have a high-risk, high-reward Semblance, since her semblance and Shield are both working in tandem together, meaning While she does more damage, she has to have insane levels of mental Control to Keep micromanaging both of them... Which means Tai Yang will _not_ have that Bullshite 'speech' of how Yang 'basically Throws a Temper-Tantrum' to use her Semblance, While also fitting her Team-Mom Mentality, basically, her reason to Master such a Mentally taxing Ability to protect her little sister and later, her Teammates. And Frankly, Jaune just being 'Ze Healer' is kinda a Waste. Should have made it so that his Semblance allows him to Replenish another's Aura, or Creating 'Constructs' as an extension of his shield, ala Green Lantern, but different in the sense that making the Construct too complex will Rapidly deplete his Aura to Zero, meaning he either forms Physical Armor, or basically creates a 'Stand' like in Jojo. It Would allow him to be a Jack of all trades, good at a few things, but best at nothing, the Bulwurk that protects, but can't pull off Dodges like Ruby or Blake, nor Tank like Yang. He would have better Range than her, but that is it. Also, it makes me Imagine Jaune healing everyone by punching them with his 'Stand' and That's funny. XD

[@zekrom2359]

jaune is now josuke and his semblance is now crazy diamond

[@lolroflundxd]

Obviously blocking would mean you need to expend less aura to absorb the (weaker) damage.

[@twiinsiink]

That makes sense, but they just keep blocking and then having their Aura break from that in the show. Maybe it should be like, "block small attacks, but try to dodge bigger ones"?

[@Sungura_Kaiser]

How does one turn on their aura? By taking it to dinner first.

[@olotocolo]

I really didn't consider aura more or less confusing from the beginning. If aura is hp bar... than how is it a forceshield? The only purpose of forcefield is to take hits and keep something behind it intact. But we have seen characters get hit, get thrown across the ring and hurt. Aura cannot be hp if it's forcefield. It would only mean the fight is over *after* aura is gone and first attack on someone without an aura was done. After all, after loosing forcefield protection you can still do damage and probably take down enemy forcefield. And it was healing from the day one, the first time we have seen aura activated (and yes it was activation base then) it was healing Jaunes cut on his face. So my initial theory was: it is kinda like forcefild but more like a charm put on someone. It takes some part of the damage and heals the rest. 100% aura can aborb 100% dmg done to you but it will be depleated as a result. The less you have it, the thinner it gets and thus it passes more damage and it heals less efficient. That is why they deal so heavy blows to each other (cause being struck with a metal hammer with your aura on would be like being struck with a plastic toy) and they have to stop fights before it's off, because every hit with aura below 15% can be too devastating to the body. It alsoe explains why they are hurt, and tired and generally behaving like people who got the shit kicked out of them in shounen anime. story short: Ruby (aura: 100%, hp: 200) Ruby got hit - 100 dmg Ruby (aura: 80%, hp: 200) Ruby got hit - 100 dmg Ruby (aura: 60%, hp: 180) -> aura heal -> Ruby (aura: 60%, hp: 190) Ruby got hit - 100 dmg Ruby (aura: 40%, hp: 150) -> aura heal -> Ruby (aura: 40%, hp: 155) Ruby got hit - 100 dmg Ruby (aura: 20%, hp: 85) -> aura heal -> Ruby (aura: 20%, hp: 87) That is why amount of aura is good way of measuring the fight and why it's factor that ends them. That is also why aura shatter exists, there can be ultra attacks that straight up break aura immidietly instead of making it thinner. Aura breaks should be most common at the end of a fight, when it's already low, but they also can appear anywhere if the hit is strong enough (show fucked it up, aura break was done by mere kicks, but oh well). And the active/passive thing is unimportant here in my scenario. There is little reason to not have it active, unless you feel really safe, taking it off would be immidietly considered as loose and Yang is getting struck both in aura and physically.

[@grantcollins3088]

I like how when ruby's aura broke we shouldn't be scared because Tyrian is supposed to bring ruby back alive :/

[@lordsurvivor5663]

I thought it was established every volume that aura is whatever Miles says it is and if you argue with him you get blocked. Honestly I don't care, it's not like anyone we like is going to die ever. None of the villains are a threat except Salem and she's busy putting wings on gorillas so she may very well be retarded instead of incompitent

[@pickyphysicsstudent201]

Why does Jaune have so much aura yet collapse after like 4 hits? Because the writers don't know how to handle a character, properly. They need and desperately cling to the idea that Jaune should serve as comic relief, yet hold promise for being a great Huntsmen so there are majour contradictions in how we should feel about him. He got knocked out of the food fight early because (according to Monty) 8 people fighting was too much, so so long Jaune. General rule applies throughout the series. Jaune can never be shown to be holding his own, in any way ever because reasons, I suppose. But hey, they tell us that he is improving and show him kill one grimm at the end of Volume 2, while Nora one shots a fucking giant snake. Three words: Why comic relief? Does anyone anywhere like comic relief characters, as a general rule? Okay maybe but when I'm watching a group fight a fucking Goliath of a grimm, I don't want to see a "hit in the nuts" joke.

[@ajiththomas2465]

I can understand and empathize with your frustration on the writers’ inability to differentiate Jaune when he needs to be the improving underdog Huntsman playing catch up and when he plays the comic relief. And it makes no sense because we see Ruby that they can handle her being comic relief when the moment allows it and then have her be a serious competent leader and strategist when a Battle comes. I’m really hoping they fix that moving forward. On the other hand, I can answer your question as to why Jaune collapsed after 4 hits from Cardin despite being described to having large reserves of Aura. As explained in V5, Aura has to be be trained and requires intense concentration at first to use it defensively in combat. In addition to the gap in battle experience that Jaune and Cardin had, Jaune knew nothing about how to use his Aura in combat. The only reason he probably survived getting hit by Cardin and his heavy lace is probably because of his armor and his large quantities of Aura providing him an instinctual inferior Aura Cloak to protect him slightly. Jaune only really learned how to use his Aura in combat after the Bullying Arc, when he accepted Pyrrha’s offer to train and be tutored. The fact that he could survive as long as he did with an untrained Aura speaks a lot more to his natural endurance.

[@pickyphysicsstudent201]

@@ajiththomas2465 kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqSQpaiQf55gr9E

[@tamarrartis2918]

I forgot all about Aura. I just assumed the people who went to huntsmen schools or jobs were given 5-U-93-R like pills or something.

[@madirondud]

ive formed a conclusion that aura is similar to mjolnir armour from the halo franchise as in its basically a forcefield that when broken, shines to indicate they will now take bodily damage. its not a health bar, more like a shield bar in a videogame. if a character gets hurt from one attack it can both destroy the shield and cause bodily harm (health bar) think of it less realistically and more like a videogame after all rwby is inspired by fantasy and videogames because thats what roosterteeth is about

[@psnfailout000]

Here’s my issue with Aura, even from the very beginning in season one: Monty Oum felt the need to justify the crazy, over the top fights and how these guys can tank massive damage. The series strangely stresses Aura as a defensive mechanic. It’s like you’ve succeeded in explaining away how your characters get away with certain feats and showings, but you’re only addressing or at least putting much more focus on defense rather than offense and other things. Not much justification is given for the ridiculous levels of aerodynamics-abusing acrobatics shown in the show, or even for the various speed feats being past supersonic. Don’t even get me started on power. The best we got are potential hints. I mean, if there’s to be an explanation for how durable these characters are, I don’t see any reason to stop there; just have Aura be responsible for *all conventional aspects* of power. Yang being a powerhouse, for example, or various characters running on walls can all be due to Aura. Why should a protective forcefield be given so much importance for Aura when we see these characters manifest various levels of strength, speed, and acrobatics when they fight?

[@zusfrankenstein8561]

A lot of anime just say "f*ck it" and just hand-wave how characters can pull off so much superhuman feats while fighting as a form of suspension of disbelief. Like there's a lot of characters in MHA that are freaking fast as heck even when that's not their superpower. And fatal damage that should definitely kill someone just doesn't, without (almost) any explanation as to why. Action anime is an already highly unrealistic medium to begin with, so why make up excuses for why characters can realistically survive an spine-shattering punch if you're going to have them careen around the screen like a firecracker on crack?

[@psnfailout000]

Zus Frankenstein You’re gonna hafta ask Monty that, man. Too bad he dead...

[@thomasraines1396]

Everyone in this show moves around like they’re on meth.

[@bryana.escaleralopez]

Bro, the rule of cool literally let’s you get away with these things. People will forgive you. But they won’t forgive you when the show is about Jaune going on his revenge tour vs cinder because his not girlfriend he didn’t like, died. People are justifying jaune having the most development because of it but it ruined the show direction. Cinder explicitly wants to kill ruby but when she confroted ruby is like: nope and then Jaune randomly transforms his sword and swings it at Cinder. You can tell where the focus is now

[@psnfailout000]

@@bryana.escaleralopez I only watched the first volume and a lot of clips of the later stuff. Couldn’t get into the show, but so I likely have an incomplete picture of what’s happening. Is the current volume focusing on Jaune?

[@limelillypad2152]

In volume 1 Jaune doesn’t have his aura activated either Pyrrha helps him activate it

[@cakeday4058]

When people mention Aura, all I can think of is Hunter x Hunter

[@ema.303]

I'm getting into this channel props to you

[@twiinsiink]

Hooray!

[@johnynoway9127]

you could litteraly make it like the Dead Space rig armor lol

[@Benheartsart]

I feel like the only think that wasn’t fucked up was dust, and even that’s iffy

[@lilman227]

Spartan shield. Got it

[@Alejandro_One_and_Only]

i think you got the healing part wrong, aura can heal the body of the person, not itself, it heals jaune's cheek when he gets hit with a branch, but the only way to recharge it is to rest

[@bell7567]

when explaining aura, I just compare it to pokemon, and how you need to weaken the pokemon before you can catch it. aura works like that. it needs to be weakened before you can land fatal attacks.

[@garrettkiley522]

I have a question if anyone still watchs and goes to this video comments. How does armor work with aura? Like say a big metal plates man gets hit does his aura just take the damage but save him actual body harm if broken or does it take some of the damage away from aura?

[@twiinsiink]

It seems to be clothes are all "protected" by aura along with the person. If Jaune got punched in his chest plate, while his aura was activated, his aura would take the damage.

[@Rob.N.]

@@twiinsiink Well if that's the case what's the point of wearing armor then, fashion? Also aren't semblances fueled by aura? And since Yang semblance requires her to take damage doesn't that mean if she takes too much damage(and her aura shatters) she can't use her semblance? Because she needs a certain amount of aura to trigger her semblance? I might be wrong however.

[@twiinsiink]

@@Rob.N. I guess so if your aura breaks you can still be protected? Some people say semblances are fueled by aura, but that's never been stated in the show and we have multiple instances of characters still using semblances after their aura's depleted, so I don't really buy that one.

[@obamaxbox264]

@@twiinsiink ok this comment has been bothering me. When do we see this? Edit: the semblance thing

[@twiinsiink]

@@obamaxbox264 Which Semblance thing? You mean people using their semblances after their aura breaks? Yang does that all the time, but most notably in her character trailer before volume 5. Qrow is still bad luck after his aura breaks fighting Tyrian. Ruby is still fast in that same fight. It definitely happens, but I also know it can be tough to notice since the characters aura's shimmy, shimmer, and break so often that it can be easy to just ignore it outright.

[@joshuafrazier3904]

The logic you used for Yang’s semblance is stupid. If Yang permanently stayed on low aura as you suggested she could simply get hit like three times and lose access to her aura and semblance, of she never has her aura active then she would literally die in near every fight because she couldn't tank even the most basic attacks.

[@stephanvandermerwe1468]

*GASPS* That means Jaune is a Aura Yoda!!!!!!

[@bluexero9285]

I tried making an oc and the aura and semblances annoy me cuz everything you make is either op or underpowered or make no sense. Its for the roleplays i mean. If it wasnt for an rp then it would be MUCH easier.

[@garrettkiley522]

How do you rp rwby? Is there like a game or site?

[@kitchenjail3546]

My headcannon is the original passive aura, plus aura breakage when it works like "your aura took so much damage that it went into the negative and collapsed". None of this "you have to turn it on" crap

[@Rob.N.]

Yeah which is dumb because then that retconned how Jaune unlocked his aura. He didn't train, heck he didn't even know what it was. Yet Pyrrha unlocked it for him in less than 20 seconds.