User blog:ChishioKunrin/Dust: Fire! Water! Lightning! Energy?

I could go to each and every single person's discussion of Dust and explain what I think over and over, or I could write a blog that's much more organized than any comment or thread post. After all, I have quite a bit to say, and I want to include pictures because... well, they help explain what I mean.

So, today, World of Remnant 1: Dust came out (while I was asleep because I was exhausted, and sponsors always get the screenshots and info before I do, so eh, I gather what people miss and clean stuff up). Our mysterious narrator returned to give us a pretty brief lesson on Dust. While I was expecting to get to find out more about what each color does, it's still pretty awesome to finally find out how Dust works. Hell, people were right that Cinder's dress has Dust woven into it! Though, the fact that people infuse themselves with Dust was kind of shocking, even though I've actually thought about things like people ingesting Dust.

An interesting tidbit that we never guessed was that there are actually four basic types of Dust, and the rest of the colors are created by mixing Dust either artificially or naturally. I knew that people could mix Dust because Monty had mentioned it on Twitter, but I thought that Weiss' purple Dust was the only example we had seen of it.

So, what are the four main types of Dust?

If you ask me: Fire, water/ice, lightning, and energy. Of course, there are people saying green is wind and thinking yellow could be earth. So, allow me to explain my thought process.

We were told the four main types from the beginning
In The Shining Beacon, Weiss rants to Ruby about Dust and says "Dust! Fire, water, lightning, energy!" We see physical examples of the first three in this very episode, when Weiss, apparently not paying attention in her rage, causes powdered Dust to cloud the air.

We all know that she was shaking a vial of red Dust into the air, but less noticeable was the blue and yellow Dust that came out of her suitcase when she slammed it shut. These two colors are responsible for the ice and lightning that appeared in the fiery explosion that resulted from Ruby's sneeze.

So, red is definitely fire, blue (not cyan) is definitely water (which creates ice), and yellow is definitely lightning.

What about energy?
People seem to assume that all Dust can only have elemental properties. But I'm inclined to believe that, since Weiss mentioned energy, the fourth main type of Dust is energy, and that is what is used to power things like airships and androids, as mentioned by dear Corta-- I mean, narrator. Since the video showed red, blue, yellow, and green, I assume green is energy.

Where have we seen glowing green things, though? Hmmmm...

Yes, I'm including Beacon Tower's glowing green orbs. I've been wondering for a while why it glows like that and what it's for. If those orbs are filled with green Dust, though, it makes me worry what would happen if someone attacked them.

Confirmation on things we figured out

 * Cinder's dress has Dust woven into it.
 * Dust can be activated and utilized through the use of Aura.
 * It is possible to utilize Dust's energy through holding a Dust crystal.

What we still don't know
The main thing that we still haven't found out yet is what the other colors of Dust do. We still have orange, white, cyan, and Weiss' purple Dust. We also don't know what colors are combined to achieve the other colors. Of course, we can assume red and yellow Dust makes orange Dust.

Is purple Weiss' own personal concoction? The only place we've ever seen it is in Myrtenaster, and that's only if you look closely. It's easier to see if you look at Monty's screenshots of its model.

Can Dust be used with someone's Semblance to influence it? Many of us suspect this, and I recently went from "maybe" to "most likely" when I noticed that the blue Dust slot on Myrtenaster is lined up with its exhaust port in Painting The Town when she helped cover the Paladin in ice. Perhaps one of the World of Remnant videos will mention this if we get one that explains Semblance. I'm pretty sure one will explain Semblance, since they said, in the DVD commentary, that Semblance will be explained during this volume.

The White Trailer is unreliable
I just wanted to note here that, when it comes to trying to figure out Dust, the White Trailer is unreliable. I can't remember where, but I recall Monty mentioning that the White Trailer was kind of a... in my words, prototype for Dust. I can't remember exactly what his words were, but basically, it was when he was playing around with the idea of Dust. He hadn't yet completely solidified what color does what.

It's like how he hadn't yet come up with Ruby's personality in the Red Trailer.

Basically, the Black and Yellow Trailers are far more complete than the Red and White Trailers, in terms of canon and consistency.