Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25045079-20141111182202/@comment-68.49.230.229-20141112051036

I thought it was already agreed that all of the weapons were activated/shifted/fired by aura, mechanically everything is already a mess to work around (firing/loading mechanisms, dust feed lines, all of those moving parts) and if considering the space needed for wiring, almost all of the weapons are impossible to properly construct.

That is, without dust

Considering almost everything in that world is powered/moved with dust, we can assume they've already achieved ways of conducting aura, probably through dust infused wiring (yellow?), to activate their devices. Now implement that idea by having dust inlaid into the weapon's parts like a circuit, that would activate the necessary rotors and parts that are needed to allow a weapon to shift/fire.

But you would think "Even if that's how, then they'd be bogged down with trying to control their weapon from doing other functions besides the one they wanted. That's why, hear me out on this, the idea that a weapon is considered an extension of their body is literal.

Think about it, have you ever seen any of them activate a switch or trigger? All they ever do is enter a ready stance or show their intent to fight and the weapon shifts. Back when Ruby stood with Oobleck and saw those Goliaths, Crescent Rose shifted on her desire to kill them, Jaune's Crocea Mors shifted from shield to sheath when he wanted to show Ruby it could. The weapons are intuitive to its owner's desires, motivated by their aura to function accordingly.