Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26397825-20170730020549

Let's talk about Gravity Dust.

We've all seen the theory that it is just kinetic energy, not actual gravity, as proposed by SomeoneYouUsedToKnow, and the theory has been pretty much widely accepted across the board as what it is. This is because the most widely purported usage of the dust is when Ruby used it to 'bunny hop' and land safely after jumping out of an airship.

I was thinking this morning and remembered two things, which leads me to this hypothesis; Gravity Dust does affect gravity, and is not simply a kinetic blast.

The first thing is from the Director's Commentary of Volume 3; the alleged battles between Pyrrha and Nora against Sun and Neptune in the doubles round of the Vytal Festival. A lot of people focused on the joke about Neptune's floaters and forget about a very important aspect when it comes to Gravity Dust; Sun entered the Anti-Gravity Biome.

I believe it is Miles who tells us about how while in there, Sun looks around and realised that he's actually running on the roof. This is not something a kinetic blast could do, but is a direct manipulation of gravity in a small area - like the name Gravity Dust implies.

The other example I remembered is the RWBY vs ABRN fight in Round One. In it, Weiss uses her black glyphs which we have since figured out are Gravity Glyphs and in fact do use Gravity Dust. During the fight she places one underneath Bolin and Nadir, and they start to float in the air as though gravity didn't exist before crashing back down to the ice.

It is due to these two things that I think we can say that Gravity Dust is in fact affecting Gravity and that it is aptly named, not incorrectly labelled and simply a kinetic blast like has previously been hypothesised.

"But what about Ruby's Gravity Bullets? She was travelling too fast for a simple reversal in gravity to slow her fall."

This is true, but as we have seen in Two Steps Forwards, Two Steps Back and Taking Control when Weiss slams and jams doors with her gravity glyphs, you can decide how much gravitational force is being applied in the direction you choose. That's why Ironwood had trouble breaking through the door; he was fighting gravity itself, amplified and focused in the direction opposite to the way he wanted to go.

The same applies to Ruby. Intense gravitational force temporarily applied opposite her, reversing her own gravitational down, plus the recoil from her weapon which we have already observed in the show can throw her around like a dog shaking a bone, means that for a short moment she had enough resistance to stop her terminal velocity fall and simply 'bunny hop' to the ground.

"So if Gravity Dust allows you to manipulate gravity, why doesn't Reese use in her hoverboard?"

Because to hover with Gravity means you are entering what is called Zero Gravity - and you have pretty much no control in Zero-G. Wind Dust allows her to hover whilst still retaining control over momentum, directional facing and travelling, and standing position. If she tried to use a hoverboard that uses Gravity Dust, she could attempt to turn a corner and find herself floating along on her side instead of upright; sure she'll have turned the corner but she's also changed her vertical axis and now has to fight Zero-G to stand back up.

This isn't to say it can't be done; a skilled practioner of dust could easily use it in controlled bursts to keep themselves upright. And Reese also showed us that she can temporarily use Fire Dust to float by combining the heat from the Fire Crystal with the wind already in her board, though she merely uses it to melt some ice and never does any of the tricks she pulls off with Wind Dust. I believe we can all see that while skilled at riding a hoverboard, Reese is not that skilled at actually using Dust in complex ways, and the practicality and ease of using Wind Dust vs mastering Gravity Dust makes Wind a much more viable option.

This is again reflected in Amity Colloseum itself, where the floating Colloseum is held up with white Wind Dust. While Gravity could be used, it would have to be constantly micromanaged to ensure that the Colloseum does not drop or elevate from their set aeronautical course. Wind would arguably be easier for automated systems to keep in check, and is highly likely cheaper given the quantity they need to make the colloseum float and the fact that Wind is a base element whereas Gravity is not.

So. In short; we have examples both in show and from the Director's mouth about how Gravity Dust does actually affect gravity and is not simply a kinetic blast that does nothing to gravity that an amplified bit of recoil couldn't. It allows a person to choose the gravitational down of a small area, and increase the gravitational pull of that area in a specific direction for sustained periods of time if they desire. 