Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-121.222.136.235-20140704221339/@comment-4010415-20140731061339

The reason why Monty refuses to have dust be called magic is because, to him, magic can do anything it wants to do. Dust, however, has rules. He doesn't want dust to be some magical substance that can do anything.

As far as characters getting too powerful, well... From what I can tell from the DVD directors commentary in Black and White, Miles is trying to act as the brakes. He hadn't seen Black and White until they did the commentary, and when he saw Penny cutting airships in half, he yelled "You son of a bitch!" When he calmed down, he explained that he said he doesn't want the characters to cut or break things in half because that would be OP, especially this early on.

He also explained this recently at a panel and said that Monty often teased him after he first said he doesn't want things being cut in half. He was surprised Monty actually went through with it when he saw Black and White, though he said in the commentary that it's alright that Penny did it because she's super powerful.

So... I guess RWBY, JNPR, and SSSN aren't as powerful as Penny.