User blog comment:PerhapsTheOtherOne/Synthetics In RWBY and Beyond: What's that all about?/@comment-25405817-20150601025235

I don't think that Penny is 100% Synthetic as people believe she is.

This is purely especulation, but it is worth noting:

I believe Penny was born human, but due to an accident that left her body severly damaged, her father sought for a way to bring her back the only way he could think of, re-building her.

But then why doesn't Penny remember being human before? Because her father, blinded by love, altered her memories, making her believe she has always been Sythetic, and save her the trauma of waking up with a mechanical body, plus forgetting anything about the accident.

It would explain why her father is so over-protective of her, and it would surely avoid the issue of a machine being able of generating an Aura, plus having also an Ego.

That's just my opinion though.