Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-24993958-20160711184711/@comment-26397825-20160809000145

Well...I'm iffy on the semblance as a whole because even though I have a very convoluted plot for a story running around my head that heavily features a person living their timeline twice (once normally, the second time whilst their younger self is running around as well, and they just have a vacation), it makes my head wonder about the actual use of the semblance. I mean, don't get me wrong. I can see how it works. That's not the problem.

The first problem I see is how does the user know that the recipient will actually do anything about the message. If I had random hallucinatory voices coming out of no where telling me that "There's a Grimm that way", I'd probably ignore it because hey, imaginary voices. Maybe even get my head checked out after the mission was over.

The second problem I see (and it's not really a problem, per say, just something I'm noting here) is that it's only a minute in the past; that's not very much time at all to actually react and change things. Say you get a message that a building is going to come down; you have to register the message, react to the message, and try to stop anyone else from entering the building in the space of 60 seconds. Huntsmen may have increased reflexes, but a sudden phrase from no where is still going to take one or two seconds to register and process. And that's not discounting the previous point either.

The third thing is more of a question; how long can the message be? Does the user have a time limit, like say he can only 'record' a message for 10 seconds before sending it back? And does the message start from the exact 1 minute mark in the past, meaning that a 10 second message takes 10 seconds to replay, thereby shortening the time that the recipient has to react to only 50 seconds?

And now for something completely different; if Vedrans personal feelings really counted that much towards the list, then so would mine. And if mine counted that much towards the list, then there would not be a single 'generates an element' semblance on that list whatsoever, because I personally dislike them. But there are. We are impartial towards the semblances, looking at them as a whole rather than letting personal distaste towards it get in the way. We read other's comments on the semblances as well, including their opinions in the decision. So while it may seem like the two of us just say yay or nay as we please, we really don't. Every single one of your, and every other user on these threads, comments on the semblances count.

That being said, I am also against the 'user is hurt by the semblance' thing because of one simple fact; the semblance is a unique manifestation of the soul shaped by the users mindset and personality. The soul would not seek to hurt itself, because to do so would reduce it's base functions upon unlocking; defense. Aura is used for defense first and foremost, and offensive maneuvers must be learnt, such as the Aura Slash's we have seen. I can see a soul deciding to use the pain others inflict on it for it's own purpose through a semblance, such as Yang's semblance utilising the pain others cause by hitting her to grow stronger, but I cannot see a soul going against its base function of protecting the user to hurt said user.

Also, can we please keep the hostility down?