Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1.40.59.59-20160717064827/@comment-86.147.132.7-20180101221658

50.36.74.250 wrote: A lot of people on this thread keep saying that without aura a semblance cant be used. Winter mentions that a semblance is like a muscle, so it seems to me that no aura just indicates someone is exhausted. And if anyone knows what being exhausted feels like, I think that explains it. To get to the point of no aura someone was probably fighting for a while or exercising a lot. Which means they would be too exhausted to use a semblance.

Aura and semblance to me are two separate things, aura is the thing that is common between all souls while semblacne is the individuality of all souls. Winter said it's like a muscle in reference to how Weiss wasn't using all of her glyphs' skill trees, not because of some relation to the ATP content of one's body.

Having no aura doesn't mean you're exhausted: Ruby lost hers and still went on to leap absurdly high, whirl her gigantic 6' metal scythe about her head, and take the recoil of multiple .50 cal shots with not the slightest hint of fatigue. Just like how Ren and Nora have a calm, reflective chat after losing theirs without breathing like reboot Tomb Raider - plus not to mention how Ghira loses his, only to then throw Corsac through a wall

Ignoring the writing flatline of that ending to the Yang short, it is established lore that characters cannot use their semblances if their aura's been depleted. That's why Pyrrha couldn't save herself and we don't see Ruby turn into petals at any point after hers breaks