Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1.40.59.59-20160717064827/@comment-25936766-20171108222753

86.158.222.50 wrote: So was an in-universe explanation ever devised over wtf was with all the lore-breaking in the Yang short? Or at least any consenus which wasn't the writers finally giving the official middle finger to consistency? Re-posting my response to your question comment:

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In V5E4, it is explained that Aura does not protect or heal injuries unless activated, and while initially that requires intense concentration, it eventually becomes "second nature". However, it does mean that if one loses focus too much, then they can drop their Aura Shield, at least momentarily.

This means that one can be injured or bruised yet still have enough Aura to, say, use Semblances or use Dust. The Aura was simply not used up to protect the user.

Of course, there's the "Aura Sparkles" that supposedly indicate that someone's Aura reached 0%. If that's the intended purpose though, it's inconsistent then.

-Yang didn't show those sparks when she got 1-hit-KOd from Adam's attack, which was stated to take down her Aura to 0% and still have enough damage left to dismember her.

-Then there's Ruby showing said Aura Sparkles practically every time Tyrian hit her. If her Aura was taken to 0% then it wouldn't make sense for her to keep showing them on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th hits.

So I think that the Aura Sparkles should be treated more like this: They indicate that the hit was too strong and the Aura Shield could barely shield it all. However, this doesn't mean the Aura overall was taken down to 0%.

Like breaking someone's guard in a videogame; they block the attack and likely don't get hurt from it, but their guard is down, at least momentarily.

So in other words, this theory is that Aura Guard can only protect from so much damage or force, and Aura Sparkles show when X attack received reached the Aura Guard's limit.

...Now, whether this is consistent with what M&K said the Sparkles represented, that's another question entirely.