Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-14138255-20170108170343/@comment-30530552-20170121231835

Eh, when your Semblance is made to look like an overall "be all, end all," something like what happened to her is unprecedented and unexpected. Certainly some of the audience believed that she'd have something bad happen when she saw Adam, but I'm pretty sure no one expected the loss of an arm.

One thing I will disagree on is "emotional trauma vs. actual injury." I'm pretty sure losing an entire part of your body counts as injury...so I'd call it both. We saw actual blood, [both when Adam flicked it off the sword for a flicker of a frame and when Ruby first saw her injured] and that in itself is horrible.

Mercury, referring to his prosthetics, has said: "These things ain't exactly cheap you know." Unless you've got the money, obtaining a cybernetic/prosthetic is difficult if not impossible. Taiyang mentions that he thought he'd "have to pull some strings, call in a few favors", and even Oobleck mentioned that Yang receiving hers is a rare/special case. Ironwood would likely have it because he's a general, and he probably earned it himself. Even still, he probably has lots of money because he's from Atlas, which is generally made to look wealthy with the exception of Mantle. If he comes from Mantle, then he most certainly earned it.

Point being, its not as easy as it would seem to obtain a simple arm like that. [Unless you're referring to the real world, then I'd agree with you.]