Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-1860621-20140815015907/@comment-79.97.93.179-20140815083358

Bill2401 wrote: Everyone here is assuming that it works based on absorbing and redirecting energy. The way I interpreted it was that is was a sort of adrenaline rush type deal. The more injured she becomes, the more powerfull her attacks, not due to some sort of absorbtion of blows, but just due to whatever energy powers semblances in general. It certainly doesn't seem proportionate to the power of the hit. In volume one she gets some hair chopped off, and that gives her enough of a boost to launch a freakin' bear through a tree trunk. that either shows that it's also powered by rage (as I had assumed previously) or any amount of physical harm gives her a massive boost in power no matter how hard she was struck. She's already really strong in the first place though, she blasted Junior's goons all over the bar without being hit once as well. It's not like she's feeble without the semblance, it just stacks on top of strength that's already there. Redirecting the energy that enemies use to hit her with and adding it to her own physical reserves seems the most consistent with what Ruby said, imo.

Also, I think I get the whole "two semblances" dilemma now - what if Yang's flames are just her aura manifesting? You know, like how Ruby's aura manifests as petals while her actual semblance effect is her speed - maybe Yang's aura manifests as fire while her semblance effect is the energy absorbing/becoming stronger the more hits she takes.