Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-25555436-20151003040843

In hindsight, most of the time we've seen Dust being used as a spell on purpose with Aura, Glyphs appear.

-When Cinder burned the concrete's remains, Glyphs.



- When Glynda used Dust, Glyphs. And even when she didn't, Glyphs.

-When Weiss does anything, Glyphs.

Most of the time Dust is used, by itself, with Aura, and not alongside a Semblance, there's a Glyph involved, unless your name is Weiss in which case there's always a Glyph involved. The exceptions being, as far as I can recall:

-When Glynda shot the laser things at the ship.

-When Ruby made the Dustplosion. But that was not on purpose, and she wasn't using her Aura to activate the Dust.

-When Cinder created the obsidian swords and bow. And even then, this one can easily be excused as her Semblance. Hell, we could even say they are entirely made of Aura and they just look like Obsidian.

-When Cinder made the eruption on the ground below Glynda.

-When Weiss and possibly Neo made the "shield" to defend themselves against the WF Lieutenant and Yang's shot respectively. Unless that wasn't Dust but some kind of advanced Aura technique we weren't told about, which is impossible to say.

Now, supposedly Weiss's Semblance is Glyphs, so in her case it could be excused. But what about Glynda? Her Semblance is the Force, telekinesis, move things like a Jedi. So how, or rather why, would she create Glyphs? Why would she need to? In fact, considering she has telekinesis, she should have even less reasons than Weiss to use Glyphs.

I've been thinking, and have only been able to reach 1 conclusion: ''When using Aura+Dust, but not one's Semblance, Glyphs appear, whose appearance depends on the user. This would explain why Cinder's, Glynda's and Weiss's glyphs are different. However, whether they appear or not depends on how much Aura is being used, or how they are being used.''

In which case, doing something small like shooting small lasers(?) or fireshots the size of your hand would not make a Glyph appear, while something that uses more Dust and/or Aura would make one appear.

It's also possible that the Glyph's appearance, in terms of color, depends on the type of Dust, meaning that the only differences between 2 person's Glyphs would be the the symbol or letters or whatever it has.

If this is the case, then it's perfectly possible that Cinder's were orange because she was using whatever element the bright orange Dust is.

And when Glynda used her Glyphs, they looked purple because she was using the Purple Dust, which is one of the candidates for Kinetic/Force/Physical Dust. When she shielded Ruby she was using the Dust to repulse the force of the explosion, thus why she was standing firm. And when throwing the laserthingies that were purple, they pushed the ship around, but just that. There was also a purple Glyph when she made the hail, and the remains she picked had a purple glow. Since she was using more Aura when shielding Ruby and holding the remains, that would explain why they looked brighter than the other moments.

Meanwhile, Weiss's Glyphs change color because they are her Semblance itself, instead of just a byproduct that appears when using Dust and Aura, and thus it's coloration is not dependant on the Dust used, but on how the Semblance it's used.

At the very least the look varies. Weiss's Glyphs are almost always a different color, but they always have the snowflake, except when she made the Haste spell, but back then she combined Dust with her Semblance instead of just moving it. Glynda's Glyphs, as you can see in the image above, always have the same symbol and form. Same with Cinder.

The real question, is what are those Glyphs? Why are they there? Weiss uses them to move the Dust and they are her Semblance, so she's excused, but why would Glynda or Cinder need to do the same? And even weirder with Glynda, because Glyphs are not her Semblance. 