Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-85.130.101.225-20130816112245/@comment-14909251-20130918002639

BenRG wrote: The Devil's Advocate WP wrote: The prologue did not emphasize that at all. It emphasized that mankind was only able to fight them off with the power of Dust. Ren blew the Taijitu's head off without using Dust. You're missing a key point of Ren's adventures in the Initiation. After using an aura attack, Ren was at half power or less for the rest of the test and was of only minimal usefulness against the Death Stalker and Nevermore. Because Aura is a bio-generated power, it is finite and high-level use fatigues the user. Extremely high-level use (like Ren's shotgun punch) can leave you burnt out until you can rest and recuperate (something unlikely in battle). The total ineffectiveness of Jade Dragons against the Taijitu mean that I'm sure Ren was forced to almost exclusively use his aura against them. That's why he was at such low energy, collapsing from exhaustion when everyone else was still bouncing around.

So, Aura is not a game changer. It is a leveller but really is only effective in extended use for defensive applications (basically to keep you alive as you retreat). To force the foe back, to hold your ground and to win, you need a way to multiply its power many times over and widen the scope and reach of its applications. You need Dust. I am not saying Aura is a game changer. You just seemed to be implying that only Dust can effectively kill the Grimm. Dust can be used for many applications and there is no reason to believe every weapon has to incorporate Dust for it to have been effective. We are given the impression that Dust is the power of industry in Vytal and that would include mass-production of weaponry and armor. Industrial processes could also be improved to allow for enhanced metallurgy. It doesn't have to mean that every weapon has some Dust power. Not that I am saying Jaune's weapon wouldn't have such a power and I would be surprised if his weapon would not have some special power, but it doesn't naturally follow that any weapon used against the Grimm needs to have Dust powers or Aura to be capable of bringing them down.