Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-81.96.198.15-20130914201239/@comment-11188061-20131016015054

... It's irked me a lot in the past, but right now it really seems that we need an actual lesson in Aura.

First, unless the person consciously uses Aura to create a forcefield, there would be no changes to the person's outer appearances.

Second, Aura is always active. I'm not even sure using active is the right word, it's just there. It is a person's soul, and you can't turn it on and off like it's a lightbulb or something. A person with an unlocked Aura and a person with locked Aura has literally no difference from each other, with the exception that the former has actual control over their Auras and the latter did not, and that they have heightened senses and strength overall (since the Aura is no longer just centered uselessly at one spot, and is spread throughout the body). That is all.

People with unlocked Auras have mastery over it, and they may even grow and strengthen it as time passes by. As such the combat capabilities between people who could use Auras and those who could not are vastly different. The people in RWBY are already naturally tough (otherwise, the goons Ruby handled in Episode 1 would be littered across the road as decapitated corpses) because of their inner Aura, but those whose Auras are unlocked and know how to use it are even tougher.

In the above discussed case, if Phyrra gets hit by the jar and in the worst case scenario on the head, it is likely that she will suffer some slight pain (DUH) and be shocked by the impact (since it came out of nowhere), and she will be drenched (like a normal person) but that is all. She would not even sustain injuries because RWBY people are ridiculously tough.

So far the only Aura forcefield we see (Ren) is visible, and he had used it only at the most dire of dangers. Nowhere else did we actually see the Aura forcefield being used (you would think that may Crimson or Goodwitch might use an Aura forcefield to defend from each other's attacks, but they did not), so we can conclude that creating one is actually a very draining experience. So as talented and top notch Phyrra is, I do not believe she has an active Aura forcefield all the time.

Like, seriously. Why use a forcefield, when the natural alternative - heightened senses to that she could anticipate the sudden projectile and dodge out of the way - is so much better? You don't even need to consciously 'activate' it, you already have it the moment your Aura's activated. Likely that Phyrra would just easily dodge out of the way had Jaune actually threw the jar at her.