Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1.40.59.59-20160717064827/@comment-86.158.222.50-20171113120043

Somethings fucked in my browser I can't quote specifically

Someone:

The way you’re putting it forward makes it seem like that is the only way to read it: that if you rely on emphasising the fight’s gravity by showing the limit of a character’s defense being reached multiple times, then where do you stop? You can’t pull that trick more than two or three times at the most and expect the audience'll still be tortuously gripped with fear as to whether ‘this time his defense could break!’ Actually, now I’m looking at it, you make your own arbitrary distinction between the damage one’s aura receives and how much it subsequently depletes. All we’ve seen from the show along these lines is how if you brace for the hit your body suffers less trauma (compare Coco & Sienna getting one-shotted by Emerald & Adam, to Yatsu’s telegraphed attack being directly blocked by Mercury) - so whether this means aura takes more of the damage onto itself (think sacrificial protection like used in bike helmets), or just flat out works to deflect more of the total force elsewhere (remember this?); we don’t know. What we do know is that say you take a near-fatal hit, your game hud turns into a blood-stained vignette, you know you can’t afford to take another hit like that. The way you say your theory doesn’t explain how Ruby’s aura could do its little shimmer thing thrice in a row. Just passing a sheen over the character’s body with a distinct lowering whine is enough to convey that they’re now in deep water. There is quite a difference in meaning between fights which are for fun and those which are for tension. We see vol2 open with a insouciant, all-out apocalyptic food fight and we were entertained and rapt all the way through. We see vol3 end with Ruby rushing towards the top of the tower, we see Cinder crush Pyrrha with brutal metal against unforgiving concrete and her aura drains in an instant; we are also glued to our screens. It’s in that instant that all the dread from Penny’s recent quartering and Yang’s impromptu surgery comes back to haunt us in the realisation Pyrrha is truly in danger. Remove that, by removing aura itself, and we never have such indicators of when the stakes suddenly skyrocket. _____________________________________________________________________________ Speaking of Ruby’s aura sparkles, I thought the bit behind those effects was... exactly that. Extra effects which CRWBY put in in celebration of their migration to Maya; showing us damage effects they could now do to illustrate critical body hits which were specifically weakening her aura- oh wait it was never used again. Not just that, but no visuals or sounds to differentiate them from when characters’ auras are otherwise depleted. Judging the lengths to which this show takes its artistic license - and how we have no prompting to assume they would put so much thought into it - the light shows around Ruby’s body were likely either something indeed specific to Tyrian (an innovation unsurprising lore-wise as he is supposedly an assassin), or attempts at showing damage taken by Ruby’s aura that apparently didn’t catch on with the animators. _____________________________________________________________________________ As for semblance usage after aura depletion; Miles supposedly in some livestream confirmed ‘passive’ semblances. Whether it was elaborated upon if that meant unconsciously active, or an exception to the ‘semblance requires aura’ rule idk, but I imagine Qrow having a power that unendingly drained his shield is just counterintuitive - surely there’s no way even GMK would let that writing pass (even if they did forget to tell the animators to make Yang’s depleted aura sheen over her body after she hits the ground) Also, since there’s undeniable evidence that characters remain super strong & durable after their auras are depleted; Tyrian just having general difficulty penetrating Qrow’s skin could be as good as explanation as any. I mean that is an implausibly shaped stinger with at least no resemblance to a scorpion telson whatsoever and not much practical use either, unless he sticks the end of his tail in cotton before curling it around himself - using it to inject significant doses of poison must be like trying to serve coffee with no elbows