Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14640999-20140724024429/@comment-24198837-20140812080834

Well, we have to remember that it was Ren's Aura that prevented the piercing, not Ren himself. He didn't actually "catch" the attack.

Taking what Jaune said into account ("It's like a force-field!!!"), we can assume that Ren, well, put up a force-field that should, in theory, only apply where it's needed. Meaning, he put up a wall of Aura that only drained him when it was breached.

I know I talk about it a lot, but if you've ever played Halo, think about the Energy shields on the Mjolnir (Spartan) Armour. They have the same strength whether blocking a bullet or a fist or a car, but the shield concentrates all of it's energy on the point of impact.

What Ren did would have the same result of he was struck by a massive attack (Surface area wise) of the same total force. He's applying his aura where it's needed.

And because Aura functions this way (if it functions this way), it doesn't matter how small the surface area he's blocking is. It has the same effect on him as it does on the snake - as he pushes out, his aura condenses around the palm of his hands on his side, just as it condenses around the tips of the fangs on the Taijitu's.

If you couldn't tell, most of that was complete speculation. But that's half the point. Not only does RWBY have magic, but we don't know how said magic works. Example  - the Eragon books, they have a magic system -  But the books explain how it works (I'm not describing it all here). HERE, we know there's Aura, but how does it work? Why? These things aren't answered. SO, while it would already be hard to use real-world science as a talking point if we understood what we were talking about,'' we don't even understand what we're talking about! ''We can't accuratly judge feats of science (Penny) vs the feats of Magic (Ren), because we have no comparison! When those two go into an Injustice-style clash and their fists meet mid-punch, we'll see who's stronger. Untill then, it's impossible to know.