Talk:Weapons/@comment-10390252-20130915080444/@comment-10390252-20130915162129

There is no direct proof that Aura is needed to charge Dust but it is certainly one consistent way to square the circle of two apparently contradictory statements:

In the Prologue of Episode 1:

"... in time, man's passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds. This power was appropriately named Dust."

And Pyrrha to Jaune in Episode 6:

"All of our tools and equipment are conduits for aura."

So, what is it? Are the tools based on the power of Aura or of Dust?

What my theory tries to do is to create a compromise between these two extremes. The aura itself is a fairly limited tool and direct usage tires out the user very quickly (we've now seen three examples of that - Pyrrha, Weiss and Ren, with Ren suffering the worst fatigue). Dust's role seems to be that of a projector and a multiplier. Not only does it stretch out the endurance of the user's aura but it also allows allows for these effects to be delivered at long range (whilst pure aura-based attacks seem to be dependent on physical contact).

Dust can work without interacting with aura (as the sneeze bomb in Episode 2 proves). But being charged by Aura is the most efficient and controllable use. Similarly, even the strongest aura-user will find their powers multiplied many times if they use a suitable Dust-enhanced tool.