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Super Jay Mann
Nov 6, 2008

I feel like Aniplex is really pushing to finish up the rest of Monogatari before putting Shaft to more Madoka.

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Sakurazuka
Jan 24, 2004

NANI?

Yeah, they've been busy pumping out -gatari stuff lately, there's another four part OAV due out around New Years.

Mordaedil
Oct 25, 2007

Oh wow, cool. Good job.
So?
Grimey Drawer
They haven't shipped me my Devil Homura figma, so I am not too surprised they haven't produced anything just yet. Then again, Urobuchi has become really hot poo poo after this and is working on several series at once, I believe. Aldnoah.Zero 2 is due after January, BUT then again, I think he might be omitted from future Magica stories, which I consider a potential shame. I hope it retains some of that Cthulhu inspired madness if its other writers.

Kyte
Nov 19, 2013

Never quacked for this
In the interview they pretty much admitted that one of the objectives of Rebellion was to leave the door open for a potential S2.

Mercrom
Jul 17, 2009
The thin ground Homura's storyline in Rebellion is standing on is spending years trying to save Madoka. Loss of purpose and guilt, not just grief and a broken heart. A Kyoko x Sayaka tragic love story would be a trainwreck of terrible writing.

Also the reason Sayaka wasn't "resurrected" by Madoka is because she's the only magical girl who wasn't killed by a now non-existent witch. There was no evidence Madoka had any powers beyond making sure her wish stays true, the rest was up to faith. The entire original series is simple and elegant in it's writing which seems really rare for anime.

Then with Rebellion it seems the writers forgot all about that in favor of opening the floodgates for inane sequel speculation. Was Madoka or Homura the one who brought Sayaka back to life? Does Madoka somehow still exist as a person even though she was erased from existence or is it all just illusion created from Homura's memories of her? Can anyone become an omnipotent semantics argument like Homura or is she special because she traveled through time? These are some of the meaningless questions we can ponder in order to get hyped for the sequel.

Namtab
Feb 22, 2010

I only ship Homura x Kyuubei, personally

a cartoon duck
Sep 5, 2011

can magical girls grow up and get pregnant though?

Namtab posted:

I only ship Homura x Kyuubei, personally

i'm more of a homura x madoka's brother kinda guy

Lord Justice
Jul 24, 2012

"This god whom I created was human-made and madness, like all gods! Woman she was, and only a poor specimen of woman and ego. But I overcame myself, the sufferer; I carried my own ashes to the mountains; I invented a brighter flame for myself. And behold, then this god fled from me!"

Mercrom posted:

The thin ground Homura's storyline in Rebellion is standing on is spending years trying to save Madoka. Loss of purpose and guilt, not just grief and a broken heart. A Kyoko x Sayaka tragic love story would be a trainwreck of terrible writing.

Also the reason Sayaka wasn't "resurrected" by Madoka is because she's the only magical girl who wasn't killed by a now non-existent witch. There was no evidence Madoka had any powers beyond making sure her wish stays true, the rest was up to faith. The entire original series is simple and elegant in it's writing which seems really rare for anime.

Then with Rebellion it seems the writers forgot all about that in favor of opening the floodgates for inane sequel speculation. Was Madoka or Homura the one who brought Sayaka back to life? Does Madoka somehow still exist as a person even though she was erased from existence or is it all just illusion created from Homura's memories of her? Can anyone become an omnipotent semantics argument like Homura or is she special because she traveled through time? These are some of the meaningless questions we can ponder in order to get hyped for the sequel.

Perhaps it's a matter of semantics, but according to the official translation in Eternal, Madoka seems to be suggesting that she could, in fact, reverse Sayaka's wish. She didn't because to do so would mean crippling Kyousuke again and making it so Sayaka could not join her as part of the Law of Cycles. How much power Godoka has over the universe is up for debate, but my interpretation is that she had some ability to change things in the new world while it was still forming, and can't now. Essentially, she setup the new world to exist in a certain fashion.

I'm not sure I really agree that if Kyouko and Sayaka had a tragic end, it would be a "trainwreck of terrible writing". The themes of love and loss can be incredibly powerful if done right, and while it might be something of a lesser retread of Homura and Madoka, I feel Kyouko and Sayaka's situation is unique enough in Post-Rebellion to warrant it if the Magica Quartet does go in that direction. I feel it's also worth pointing that even if Kyouko does fall and become a demon, that isn't necessarily the end of the arc, there is the chance of redemption. Kimi no Gin no Niwa certainly suggests this with Homura and Madoka, the two of them holding hands and running into the distance is the possibility of redemption in contrast to Colorful's possibility of damnation.

Rebellion does have some answers to your questions, actually, although some of it will need to be answered in Post-Rebellion, yes. For the record, Rebellion only has one writer, Gen Urobuchi, although he did collaborate with others while writing it. Homura and Madoka becoming enemies was initially Akiyuki Shinbou's, the director's, idea.

For the first question, Homura answers it herself. "All I took was a tiny piece of it, just the records of the person Madoka was before she ceased to exist." Madoka the human still exists within Godoka, and what Homura is essentially saying is that she ripped this part of Madoka out of Godoka and placed her within this universal labyrinth. Homura has done more than that, however, in that she's shattered both the Law of Cycles and reality itself and rebuilt them. the imagery of broken glass as she transforms is important here, and explains why Sayaka and Nagisa are able to manifest in the universe proper. Much like Madoka, they were ripped from the Law of Cycles as well, and swept up into Homura's new universe. "Somehow, all of you wound up being pulled in as well, and it seems you can't return to wherever you were before."

Sayaka and Nagisa's "resurrection" as it were, is thus an unintentional consequence of Homura breaking the Law of Cycles and the universe to retrieve Madoka from Godoka. Homura never really intended to create a perfect fantasy for everyone, just Madoka and herself. However, since this is an impossible, perfect fantasy, the rest of the primary cast is also able to partake in it. Homura does have reason to allow this, though, as Madoka's happiness is somewhat predicated on her friends and the relationships she has with them.

How Homura really did this is an unknown, and I wouldn't be surprised if Post-Rebellion didn't really go into it, as I don't feel it's terribly relevant. There's certainly a number of theories, such that Homura's time traveling building up her karmic destiny enough that it would allow her to do what she did when she transformed into a demon. It's also possible that a demon is just this powerful by default, but I'm not sure I really believe that. It's also possible she stole Godoka's power, or some part of it, but I'm not sure I believe that either, and Rebellion seems to be suggesting that she did not. Godoka's power still exists, and Madoka is capable of accessing it if Homura does not stop her. This is what makes me think that the Law of Cycles is actively being blocked, and why Sayaka, Nagisa, and Madoka can't "return to wherever they were before.".

Lord Justice fucked around with this message at 08:00 on Oct 24, 2014

Namtab
Feb 22, 2010

I like the bit where kyouko eats a lot of food

Meowywitch
Jan 14, 2010

Fight for all that is beautiful in the world


edit: I changed my mind.

Meowywitch fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Oct 23, 2014

Mercrom
Jul 17, 2009
You know I kinda almost hope this turns into a long running show where power creep has reached it's logical conclusion and characters just keep overwriting the laws of the universe.

x1o
Aug 5, 2005

My focus is UNPARALLELED!

Mercrom posted:

You know I kinda almost hope this turns into a long running show where power creep has reached it's logical conclusion and characters just keep overwriting the laws of the universe.

If anything, the true happy ending of the series is when someone rewrites the universe to remove the whole magical girl system, thus leaving everyone as normal girls.

Mordaedil
Oct 25, 2007

Oh wow, cool. Good job.
So?
Grimey Drawer

a cartoon duck posted:

can magical girls grow up and get pregnant though?

Can't we just put Pedoman behind us? That guy was a tremendous shitposter and I haven't seen him in ages and I thank god every day.

point of return
Aug 13, 2011

by exmarx

TheHeadSage posted:

If anything, the true happy ending of the series is when someone rewrites the universe to remove the whole magical girl system, thus leaving everyone as normal girls.

The right comic here is relevant, I think.

point of return fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Oct 25, 2014

Mordaedil
Oct 25, 2007

Oh wow, cool. Good job.
So?
Grimey Drawer

point of return posted:

The right comic here is relevant, I think.


Which one of them pertains to what you consider "power creep", I suppose.

Mercrom
Jul 17, 2009

point of return posted:

The right comic here is relevant, I think.

The universe will also be completely dead for all eternity in a googol years. Madoka had to think not only of her own civilization but also of infinite future civilizations if she wanted to be really selfless about it. Also I guess she may have made the concept of eternal recurrence actually true.

Well, atleast until Madoka Magica Series 2: Dark Energy Bogaloo.

point of return
Aug 13, 2011

by exmarx

Mordaedil posted:

Which one of them pertains to what you consider "power creep", I suppose.

Oops, that was supposed to be in response to this one:

TheHeadSage posted:

If anything, the true happy ending of the series is when someone rewrites the universe to remove the whole magical girl system, thus leaving everyone as normal girls.

Lord Justice
Jul 24, 2012

"This god whom I created was human-made and madness, like all gods! Woman she was, and only a poor specimen of woman and ego. But I overcame myself, the sufferer; I carried my own ashes to the mountains; I invented a brighter flame for myself. And behold, then this god fled from me!"
We’ve been discussing the ending a bit, specifically its perception by the viewer, and I feel there’s some insight there if we were to examine it. There’s a few other things about Homura as well that merit discussion, and which provide context for this perception. Rebellion is polarizing for a reason, and I believe this is wrapped up in the concept we’ve been talking about, that of the jouissance, along with Rebellion's theme of betrayal and its chaotic nature.

I term the jouissance as the impossible joy and the unreachable ideal. As a literary device, it lies outside of the character’s impossible struggle to attain it. Idealism here is the key, as it provides the frame for Homura’s motivation. If Homura’s motivation is tied with her ideal, what is her ideal? Simply put, it is Madoka.

This has been brought up earlier in the thread, but it is crucial to understand for contextual reasons. Homura does not know Madoka as a person, rather she knows Madoka as a certain ideal; that of the simple teenage girl who is her best friend and soul mate. Godoka Madokami thus stands opposed to this ideal in her existence, and while Homura is her most beloved disciple, they do not have the relationship Homura wants. We see this as Homura pontificates against the abandonment of her duty. Her Clara Dolls tell the real story: God is Dead. Homura has lost her connection to Madoka, and has lost her ideal.

What’s important here is that Homura believes that her ideal is actually Madoka the person, when it is categorically not. We see this in the field of flowers when Madoka embraces Homura, Homura flashbacks and remembers Madoka’s words at the start of Beginnings. Homura is essentially rejecting Madoka’s development in Beginnings and Eternal, and is not treating her as a person, but as an ideal that must be reached.

I frame Beginnings and Eternal as the affirmation of Madoka’s idealism, she makes her wish and reforms the system, and the world is better off, for Magical Girls at least. It’s important to note that Eternal’s ending is a happy one on its own, it is only with the context of Rebellion that it begins to fall apart. It is perhaps poignant that the scene just before Homura’s transformation features Mami and Kyouko, the only two surviving primary cast members at this point. Within Madoka’s new world, over half of the primary cast has moved on and is essentially dead or dying.

If Beginnings and Eternal are the affirmation of idealism, then Rebellion is the betrayal of that idealism. Rebellion operates as a deconstruction of Beginnings and Eternal, calling into question whether what really happened is really what it seemed, and whether it really was the best option. Homura’s decision is the culmination of this idea, as she rejects Madoka’s idealism and attempts to interpose her own. Within this context, Homura’s choice to betray Madoka is obvious, as she does not recognize Godoka as a person, but rather an obstacle in the path that leads to her ideal.

I’ve noticed in some reviews that people think Homura’s character is broken at this point of betrayal, but I believe this context shows that Homura’s character is entirely consistent. She spent a decade with Madoka, true, but it was repetition of one month over and over, and as such, Homura never really knew Madoka as a person. Madoka may call Homura her “very best friend”, but Sayaka is much more deserving of the title, and knows Madoka far better than Homura does. It is perhaps telling that Sayaka grew up as it were, joining Madoka, accepting Oktavia into herself, and transforming into what I term a Magical Woman in contrast to a Magical Girl.

Homura’s development, then, stands in opposition to this transformation. Indeed, one of Kimi no Gin no Niwa’s primary themes is that of Homura playing in her own room and choosing to remain there. Rebellion’s ending is a refusal to grow, to leave that room and that fantasy and that ideal, and instead fall into it completely. “The gate to adulthood is firmly closed to them.” This is what a demon is, a Magical Girl who refuses to become a Magical Woman; one who rejects salvation by the Goddess and instead chooses damnation within their world. The similarities to a witch are apparent, but while a witch was an inevitable outcome, the transformation into a demon is a choice.

Rebellion makes this apparent in the scene where Madoka reaches into Homura’s dream and brings her out of it. It’s a long quote, But I believe the whole thing is important for this concept:
“I’m sorry. I’m so spineless. I just wanted to see you one more time. And If I had to go so far as to betray that wish...Yes, I knew I could shoulder any sin. No matter what I became, I knew I’d be fine with it. As long as I could have you by my side.”
“Homura-chan, you aren’t afraid? No, I’m all right. I won’t hesitate any longer.” (Emphasis mine.)

Now, how does this tie into Rebellion’s perception by the viewer, and its polarizing nature? It stems from three things: The concept of the jouissance, the betrayal of idealism, and Rebellion’s seemingly chaotic structure.

Jouissance, I feel, is an unpopular story. In literary terms, it means that a character never achieved their ideal, either by it being distorted or destroyed. To step outside of Madoka, Oyasumi Punpun is a great example of this sort of phenomenon. It too uses the concept of jouissance to full effect, and when events directly tied to that concept were introduced in the manga, sales dropped. Many people use stories as a form of escapism, to identify with larger than life heroes, see evil defeated and have good triumph. Jouissance does away with this sort of story, instead focusing on a character’s impossible struggle, and where they never really succeed, or if they do, it is a hollow victory.

To follow from this, Beginnings and Eternal is an example of the former story, where Madoka does triumph over the system and the Incubators and creates a better world. Not a perfect one, but certainly one much better than what was present before. Rebellion takes this world and asks if this really was best of all possible worlds, whether Madoka’s wish was a triumph or not, and directly addresses Homura’s despair in this world rather than glossing over it as Eternal’s ending did. Rebellion addresses more than just Homura’s rebellion against Madoka, it is a rebellion against the series that came before it.

Which leads into the final reason, the chaotic nature of Rebellion itself. Cephas said it best, I think:

Cephas posted:

The original Madoka is a closed system with an easy world of binaries to understand: hope, despair; grief seeds, soul gems; magical girls, witches; humans, Kyuubey; etc. Rebellion removes itself from this closed system by blurring these definitions, repurposing ones it finds outdated, and adding in new elements that may not have obvious counterparts. If the original Madoka is a very clean, heroically-structured story, then Rebellion certainly is messy. But the deliberate act of messiness should not be misinterpreted as laziness or thoughtlessness. The world presented in Rebellion is chaotic, shapeshifting, and boundless. A rebellion has taken place, but is there a new order or not?

Rebellion stands in stark contrast to Beginnings and Eternal’s structure. It takes the concepts there and takes them apart, repurposing and reusing them as it sees fit. It is not a clean story, but rather a chaotic one. Rebellion is, I feel, not an “easy” film for this reason, as to understand it, you first must make sense of the chaos, and to do so requires thorough analysis. Rebellion is not a film that can be watched once, it must be re-watched, and only then will you begin to make sense of the order behind the chaos.

These three elements aren’t necessarily readily apparent when you watch Rebellion for the first time, but you do notice them. To use a familar quote from Red Letter Media: “You didn’t notice it...But your brain did.” This is why Rebellion is such a polarizing film, and why you get reactions like this:



TheHeadSage posted:

If anything, the true happy ending of the series is when someone rewrites the universe to remove the whole magical girl system, thus leaving everyone as normal girls.

This is a pretty interesting idea, actually, and I’ve speculated on it a bit. A world without Magical Girls, is, in a sense, the opposite of Madoka’s ideal. If the ending of Madoka were to feature this occurrence, this “Ending Story”, as it were, would be the destruction of idealism, in contrasts to Eternal’s affirmation of idealism. It is an interesting possible progression, from the affirmation of idealism to the betrayal of that idealism with an opposing one. Then to how that new idealism is unreachable, resurgence of the old idealism (Godoka’s reascension), the futility of both of those ideals, and finally their destruction.

Lord Justice fucked around with this message at 10:33 on Jan 20, 2015

Meowywitch
Jan 14, 2010

Fight for all that is beautiful in the world


So I decided to stop waiting for the stupid dub and watch Rebellion today and it was really, really bad and potentially retroactively ruined the tv show. Well, I don't need to write or read a thesis to get in depth impressions on why the movie was dreck, nor can anything convince me otherwise because I know all of its intentions, so why am I here again.

Oh yeah, gently caress them for actually thinking that movie was a good idea.

Hemingway To Go!
Nov 10, 2008

im stupider then dog shit, i dont give a shit, and i dont give a fuck, and i will never shut the fuck up, and i'll always Respect my enemys.
- ernest hemingway
If Rebellion was just the first half and everything from Homura Ruins Everything Forever onward was removed and replaced with something else would you like it?

I said come in!
Jun 22, 2004

Rebellion was an amazing movie. All haters can suck it.

ViggyNash
Oct 9, 2012
I feel like I'm the only one paying any attention to Lord Justice's posts at this point. Everything he's said is spot on, and well presented to boot.

"But of course it's not anime if someone can write a professional literary thesis on it. Of course not; Rebellion's just some trashy and pretentiously edgy nonsense some wannabe writer poo poo out and thought was cool."

Just because you don't get it or don't like it doesn't make it bad; it's just not you're thing. But at least make the point of saying that you don't care to jump into this abyss instead of taking a poo poo one the efforts of someone actually trying.

Mercrom
Jul 17, 2009
ViggyNash maybe you should write a summary of Lord Justice's posts for the less intellectual among us, since you have such a firm grasp on them.

Bakanogami
Dec 31, 2004


Grimey Drawer

I said come in! posted:

Rebellion was an amazing movie. All haters can suck it.

Homura was right.

PerrineClostermann
Dec 15, 2012

by FactsAreUseless

Bakanogami posted:

Homura was right.

Homura did nothing wrong.

Sakurazuka
Jan 24, 2004

NANI?

Volt Catfish posted:

So I decided to stop waiting for the stupid dub and watch Rebellion today and it was really, really bad and potentially retroactively ruined the tv show. Well, I don't need to write or read a thesis to get in depth impressions on why the movie was dreck, nor can anything convince me otherwise because I know all of its intentions, so why am I here again.

Oh yeah, gently caress them for actually thinking that movie was a good idea.

It's a good film, sorry.

Super Jay Mann
Nov 6, 2008

I said come in! posted:

Rebellion was an amazing movie. All haters can suck it.

I concur with this sentiment.

cheetah7071
Oct 20, 2010

honk honk
College Slice
Rebellion only became a good movie the second time I watched it. It's incomprehensible gibberish the first time.

Namtab
Feb 22, 2010

Im ignoring all the convoluted "anime is deep" posts because they make the Madoka movies even more overhyped garbage than they already were.

E:

ViggyNash posted:

I feel like I'm the only one paying any attention to Lord Justice's posts at this point.

There's a reason, and that's that they are very long and very boring unless you really love overthinking anims

Namtab fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Oct 26, 2014

PerrineClostermann
Dec 15, 2012

by FactsAreUseless

cheetah7071 posted:

Rebellion only became a good movie the second time I watched it. It's incomprehensible gibberish the first time.

It was easily comprehensible the first time. My friends and I debated it the entire ride back.

a cartoon duck
Sep 5, 2011

so when are you gonna analyse kazumi magica

Namtab
Feb 22, 2010

Mercrom posted:

ViggyNash maybe you should write a summary of Lord Justice's posts for the less intellectual among us, since you have such a firm grasp on them.

a cartoon duck posted:

so when are you gonna analyse kazumi magica

Let me tell you about selfish love vs selfless love :words::spergin::words:

cheetah7071
Oct 20, 2010

honk honk
College Slice

PerrineClostermann posted:

It was easily comprehensible the first time. My friends and I debated it the entire ride back.

None of my group did better than "I think I understand maybe most of it" coming out of the theater.

Lord Justice
Jul 24, 2012

"This god whom I created was human-made and madness, like all gods! Woman she was, and only a poor specimen of woman and ego. But I overcame myself, the sufferer; I carried my own ashes to the mountains; I invented a brighter flame for myself. And behold, then this god fled from me!"
Like I've said previously, I feel Madoka, and Rebellion especially, are good enough and complex enough to warrant in-depth literary analysis. Maybe you disagree, and that's fine. But I have to say this: This is not GBS. I don't see why this thread needs to be held at the standard of that forum. If you disagree with my analysis, discuss or debate it. Present a thesis on why Rebellion is a bad film or whatever rather than just asserting it is. I'm more than willing to have a discussion on the topic; I consider Rebellion to be my favourite film and an artistic masterpiece in its own right, just so my stance on the topic is clear.

As for people thinking Rebellion is bad, well...That's just Rebellion working as intended. Like I said before, the usage of the jouissance and Rebellion's betrayal of the series is going to rub some people the wrong way. And that's fine, that type of story isn't going to work for some people, I'd honestly say a majority of people. I wouldn't be surprised if Post-Rebellion is much less popular than Beginnings, Eternal, and Rebellion was at time of release.

On the topic of my posts themselves, for those of you confused by them, what about them exactly is confusing? I am currently training as an academic, yes, but I've tried to keep my posts relatively straightforward in both prose and word choice. Am I not explaining the concepts well enough? I could elaborate more, but that would increase the size of my posts further, so... I do tend to make assumptions, like assuming that people know what "God is Dead" means, or that I don't need to translate "Kimi no Gin no Niwa" more than once, for example.

Getting back to the first topic, I'll pose a question to the rest of thread and perhaps Zorak if he's reading this. What standard are we holding ourselves to? Are my posts breaking the standard in some way? What is this thread for, exactly, if not to discuss Madoka? Are we only to discuss Madoka in one simplistic fashion, or work from the assumption that Madoka is anime and thus not to be taken seriously?

Personally, I feel that Madoka's status as anime is irrelevant, and that decrying it as "anime" and not to be taken seriously for that reason is absurd. Anime is an art form like anything else, with many, many terrible works, but a few really good ones as well. Anime can be good or bad, and Madoka is an example of the former, and worth discussing for that reason.

Lord Justice fucked around with this message at 10:23 on Oct 29, 2014

Mordaedil
Oct 25, 2007

Oh wow, cool. Good job.
So?
Grimey Drawer
If I were to hold any criticism of Rebellion personally, it'd be that it is overtly too literal with its symbolism, such as when the owls come home to roost, it is a literal thing that happens and doesn't fit the context of the world we're seeing other than that it is something really crazy.

It does this at several point, and I feel it could have done with a little more subtlety and realism, like the original series had.

Then again, the original series could have used Kyubey correcting them all on "Zombies? Naw, you're more like Liches, which are cool."

Volt Catfish posted:

So I decided to stop waiting for the stupid dub and watch Rebellion today and it was really, really bad and potentially retroactively ruined the tv show. Well, I don't need to write or read a thesis to get in depth impressions on why the movie was dreck, nor can anything convince me otherwise because I know all of its intentions, so why am I here again.

Oh yeah, gently caress them for actually thinking that movie was a good idea.

Good.

Ztarlit_Sky
Mar 4, 2014
Nap Ghost

Lord Justice posted:

Getting back to the first topic, I'll pose a question to the rest of thread and perhaps Zorak if he's reading this. What standard are we holding ourselves to? Are my posts breaking the standard in some way? What is this thread for, exactly, if not to discuss Madoka? Are we only to discuss Madoka in one simplistic fashion, or work from the assumption that Madoka is anime and thus not to be taken seriously?

I'll say that you most certainly should keep posting. Your perspective and analysis is interesting and those who don't care for it are free not to read it. I may not agree that the Rebellion movie is that great, but that is more because I consider the story unfinished and in need of the follow-up.

If nothing else, you contribute a lot more than the random "Madoka sucks, you are all overanalyzing idiots." posters.

Mordaedil
Oct 25, 2007

Oh wow, cool. Good job.
So?
Grimey Drawer
All of Gen Urobuchi's stuff lends itself to overanalysis anyway, since he draws so much from great philosophers and introspective writers of the west, so it isn't just analyzing "dumb anime", which I guess the majority of anime is.

Then again, all the best of anime out there lends itself very well to analysis.

Mercrom
Jul 17, 2009

Lord Justice posted:

Present a thesis on why Rebellion is a bad film or whatever rather than just asserting it is. I'm more than willing to have a discussion on the topic; I consider Rebellion to be my favourite film and an artistic masterpiece in its own right, just so my stance on the topic is clear.
Well it makes me a lot more interested in your posts knowing you are writing about Rebellion because it's your favorite movie, and not because you are really bored at work or something.

Lord Justice posted:

As for people thinking Rebellion is bad, well...That's just Rebellion worked as intended. Like I said before, the usage of the jouissance and Rebellion's betrayal of the series is going to rub some people the wrong way. And that's fine, that type of story isn't going to work for some people, I'd honestly say a majority of people. I wouldn't be surprised if Post-Rebellion is much less popular than Beginnings, Eternal, and Rebellion was at time of release.
I'm not one of those people. Betraying the original series is the most interesting thing Rebellion could have done, and hearing that it did was the only thing that made me interested in what would otherwise be a meaningless sequel. I think the movie failed at that, but I still respect it somewhat for trying.

The reason I love the original series is because as far as I can tell it's almost everything you say Rebellion is. The series shared my cynicism, my nihilistic view of the universe, and my mistrust of idealism. Homura already had an eternal, pointless struggle that only made things worse, and she was about to give up on life. The series could have ended there and I still think it would be a lot better than Rebellion.

gently caress it, why don't you just challenge me and list the themes of Rebellion that aren't explored somehow in the original?

Lord Justice posted:

On the topic of my posts themselves, for those of you confused by them, what about them exactly is confusing? I am currently training as an academic, yes, but I've tried to keep my posts relatively straightforward in both prose and word choice. Am I not explaining the concepts well enough?
I'm not sure. Your posts feel like they lack a bit of structure, and use too many words to explain too little. I'm not saying you are better than me, I have the opposite problem, but I wish your posts were more like Cephas' which seem to make perfect sense even if I have no idea what they are actually about.

Sidesaddle Cavalry
Mar 15, 2013

Oh Boy Desert Map
I liked it when Lord Justice used pictures, I think that needs to be done more often than once in the same posts.

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Mercrom
Jul 17, 2009
I watched Rebellion again, and have some new thoughts. The only redeemable part of the movie is the last 20 minutes, the rest is terrible.

The most interesting thing about it is that Homura has effectively replaced Kyubey in the story. Of all the characters, Homura was the one closest to understanding Kyubey, and kind of like Kyubey, saw emotions as a hindrance to achieving her goals. She frequently withheld the truth and did what was hard but necessary. In the end the world she created is the same as the one Kyubey created when mankind lived in caves, a paradise built on suffering and lies. Instead of magical girls bearing the curses of humanity, incubators do. She also makes herself evil and embraces sin for the "greater good", the most ignoble and utilitarian of self sacrifices, and might destroy the world someday just like the witch system almost did.

The story is basically back at square one.

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