Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25266931-20141008232543/@comment-7472785-20141026124148

For the question whether soulless entities can evolve and develop features we associate with Life, I recommend reading 'Code of the Lifemaker' by James P. Hogan - a bunch of robots developping all features of a living self preserving society.

Unquestionably the WF is out to kill - so Aura protected beings obviously CAN be killed in the world of Remnant. That leads to RWBY at least must be taking the possibility of the pilots of the paladins or the guys falling off a speeding train dying into account, and be unperturbed by it as a 'normal' collateral.

When Glinda fought Roman and Cinder on the plain she must have taken into consideration their death if the plane crashes - a goal she certainly tried to achieve. Nothing implicates that the Faunus on the planes that Penny crashed survived, even if we didn't SEE them dying. So I'd say that death as a consequence of combat is imminently implicated in this show.

That said, I'd concede that Ruby isn't out to kill - in episode 1 she clearly held back on the robberers in that respect. And I also don't see an indication of the hunter students killing a defeated (aura depleted) foe - contrary to Neo for example, who clearly was about to deal the finishing blow on Yang.