62375


Near the end of season eight, Penny is infected by a virus and subsequently
saved through the intervention of the spirit of the Staff of Creation. The
only thing is, I didn't quite understand what Ruby and the others told the
spirit to do. They told him to create a new version of Penny, but there was
something in there about how the spirit couldn't destroy her soul and thus
this little nuance would force him to save her. And I think Ruby said
something about copying the virus as well. It was a bit confusing. I'm not
entirely sure whether Penny's soul stayed in her old body and the virus was
put in the new one, or if Penny's soul went into her new body and the virus
was put in the new one.

What happened?


CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-23T18:39:12.000
62272
2021-04-05T14:20:20.857
19307
question
rwby
How did they save Penny?


As these things sometimes go, the answer came to me after some thought. It
took a while for some of the details to sink in. I believe I can explain what
happened with some clarity now.

First, the order to the spirit of the Staff of Creation was to create a new
version of Penny, exactly the same at the current one, with the virus still in
it, **out of the same parts as the current one**. This would cause the current
Penny to be destroyed. However, here comes the loophole: the Staff of Creation
is not allowed to destroy (or create) life. Penny has a soul, as evidenced by
her use of aura, therefore he cannot follow this order. His only choice is to
give Penny a **flesh-and-blood body**.

This explanation meshes well with some details that initially confused me. For
instance, Penny starts hugging everyone immediately after and marvels at how
warm hugs are. And in the final episode of the season, she has blood.

The [wiki](https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Penny_Polendina) seems to confirm my
suspicions:

> In "Creation", she was transformed into a Human by Ambrosius when he created
> an exact replica of her using her robotic parts.

Disclaimer: I did this answer from memory, rather than consorting the episodes
again. But I _think_ my memory is accurate in this case. Hopefully. Feel free
to correct me if I got any of the details wrong.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-05T14:20:20.857
62375
2021-04-05T14:20:20.857
19307
62272
answer