Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26397825-20170730020549/@comment-30803571-20170804232322

ChishioKunrin wrote: 1. The Maidens did not exist as a concept in the show until volume 3. Monty did not come up with the idea for the Maidens until after they finished making volume 2. Therefore, absolutely nothing that happened before volume 3 can be explained with "That's because of the Maiden powers" out-of-universe. Cinder having partial Fall Maiden powers is technically a retcon. So, that was actually completely 100% pure Dust use. Not to mention that, when Ruby mentioned that her outfit lit up when she attacked, Ironwood attributed that to Dust being sewn into her clothing, which was the writers' way of telling us that that's what was going on.

2. Ruby said she didn't think Cinder's Semblance was glass, which was the writers' way of telling us "Her Semblance is not glass."

World of Remnant: Dust said that Dust can be triggered by Aura, and it said "While this (Dust bullets) has become the standard method of use, it is not uncommon to find individuals still practicing more archaic forms of Dust manipulation, such as weaving it into clothing or even fusing it directly with their own bodies." There must be some way that people can control Dust, and those "archaic forms of Dust manipulation" may have been more commonplace back in the day before guns were invented and people found ways to smith Dust into sword blades. Though, even then, I'm pretty sure Dust blades also require Aura use to get the energy to manifest, as Adam was able to decide whether he wanted to do a normal slash or trail fire in the Black Trailer. 1) even if it was a retcon that doesn't make it less true, retcons are retroacitve, i'm not saying dust can't be manipulated with aura or other methods. i'm just saying that what cinder did/does has been shown to be mostly from maiden powers, a good example of this is the delayed explosions she makes (when the floor lights up and then goes boom), she only started using that after getting that first half of her maiden powers.

also while i admit i didn't remmember ironwood said cinder must have had dust in her clothes, i think taking that as being definetly true is too much. i wont deny, though, that if anything the show was telling us what cinder did with her dress would have been possible by using dust. though i still think the dress must have ALSO had some kind of material to make the weapons with, as fire dust will only make fire, heck it could have been earth dust for all we know, make some earth/sand, superheat it and mold it into weapons, why not?

2) ruby saying cinder's glass wasn't her semblance i think should be taken with a grain of salt, ruby is a huntress-in-training and you can't really expect her to figure out an opponent that easily, especially if said opponent uses things she didn't even know existed (maiden powers), and she's also clearly not really versed in traditional (non bullet) dust usage, so even using a semblance in combination with dust could confuse her.

furthermore, cinder was shown using glass proyectiles during the fight with amber, there was no indication whatsoeevr that she was carrying dust on her, and she used the sand melted/superheated by amber's fireballs. there were no maiden powers on her at the time, and there was no sign of dust usage, there's usualy some kind of glow when sosmone uses dust, the only one that could do for makeshift telekinesis is gravity dust, and there was no black/purple energy thingy when she chucked sharp glass shards at amber, this is why i think her semblance is glass manipulation, NOT creation, she couldn't use it until she had some glass (molten sand) to work with. this could also be what made ruby doubt it, if she used dust and/or maiden powers + whatever is in her dress to make the glass, then her semblance (or just maiden powers 'cus they seem to come with telekinesis) to control/manipulate it, it could appear that it's not her semblance simply 'cus she isn't using only her semblance.

anyhow the point is, i didn't mean using dust to do the stuff cinder did in dance dance infiltration isn't possible, i think ironwood pretty much confirmed it is now that you mentioned what he said (save for the glass stuff). i just think it's more likelly cinder in particular didn't 'cus she can use the maiden powers for it instead, so why bother carrying dust?