Talk:The Great War (WoR episode)/@comment-142.163.158.58-20170115191951/@comment-76.184.22.235-20170116020500

Guns mainly actually became fundamentally superior to melee when they were made automatic, in real life. Until then, you needed both a gun for long range, and a melee weapon (usually a bayonet or sword) for close range, when you failed to take out an approaching opponent with your gun.

However, Aura and Semblance mean that bullets are fundamentally weaker than real life: They can wear away at a person's aura, but they can't guarantee an instant kill on or stop trained fighters before they get up close. This difference means that the world of Remnant has guns and melee on a far more equal setting: bullets are significantly harder to use in a meaningful way compared to weapons.

When you remove guns' stopping power, guns become significantly weaker. This is likely what gave Vale and Vaccuo their power.