Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-108.214.113.232-20151015061142/@comment-25396609-20151116233912

You really don't know me, do you?

Dust is the closest thing Remnant has to magic. For lack of a better comparison, it is like crystallized mana, pure energy given physical form, and Monty once likened it to Materia.

As for why bullets can be seen in flight? simple, it looks cool and is not representative of the actual mechanics at play.

RWBY is poorly written, badly paced, and is incredibly predictable, but the amount of internal consistency is in fact quite high. Things that are shown to function in a specific way will continue to function in that way, weapons are no more complicated than they absolutely need to be (exception; purse gun.)