User blog comment:Zolnir/Zolnir's Completely Random Speculations/@comment-24.158.202.97-20130911002844

3) Maybe. Or it could be as simple as the white-colored circle pushes, the black pulls. As for the red circle.....you forgot one element. Ruby. It  seems pretty clear that her aura manifests as the appearance of rose petals; which says something about the level of -her- aura. Or her heritage. But, the circle turned red, sped up rotating, and there was a burst of petals as she launched. It could simply be the circle picked up =her= aura pulsing in anticipation, and the added external energy changed the color and spun up the effect. The only other times we see her petals is as she's approaching the nevermore (where she could be either tweaking her trajectory or pushing her velocity as high as she could to compensate for her lack of mass), and when she gets her half second advantage & decapitates the thing.....the point where she puts everything into Cresent Rose.

There is also no evidence that Weiss has to spread a trail of anything to use her air step; from her trailer, she scattered the dust at her feet. After that, the circles appeared at her will, and wherever she willed them to be. There was no time for -anyone- to scale that cliff, get back down, not be seen by the big, ugly birdy etc. Never mind that such an event would be a rather crucial story point. If any -was- scattered, it was on Rubys' boots to give her the needed connection to establish the circle she landed on. Weiss collapsed after she willed the path into existance, which has some interesting ramifications; it's the first sign that there is a limit to what a dust user can manifest, and the weak link isn't how much dust you use, but your will and possibly your actual physical resilience. She was up again in seconds, but she still went down in an apparent faint.

8) Or Jaune is simply one of those people who do best when the fire is hottest and they don't have time to think themselves into blithering idiothood. And if you look closely, you can see him right next to Pyrrha, swinging his sword in time with hers. No forgery or conspiracy, he just doesn't shine until he has to. And he listened to too much 'sage advice' from his elders...