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I'm back. Sayaka is most likely imprisoned. From a previous analysis: We see Sayaka skewered to the ground, lying in the purple liquid we saw at the end of Rebellion, and being struck by multiple arcs of light. To me, I interpret this as Sayaka’s defeat, as she attempts to oppose Homura... And fails. But more importantly, what defined this conflict? The Concept Movie also supplies us with an answer: Sayaka: “This is a joke, right? What's the meaning of this? Why can I read these letters?” At some point after Rebellion, it seems as though Sayaka can read some characters which she thinks shouldn’t be readable. I interpret this as being able to read the Witch’s Runes; the language of the Witches, what Bebe speaks in Rebellion, and more broadly, a language associated with the Law of Cycles, wherein Magical Girl is joined together with Witch. Thus, Sayaka begins to remember the truth of the world, a truth shown to us in the Concept Movie:  (From the runes) “The Eternal Law” This shows us the imagery of Madoka’s symbol as the Law of Cycles, the Eternal Feminine, which was also present in Rebellion as Sayaka was explaining her role in the Law of Cycles:  (From the runes) “Das Ewig Weibliche - The Eternal Feminine” Effectively, Sayaka remembers that the Law of Cycles exist, and attempts to revive it. Thus the conflict is created between Homura and Sayaka, as Sayaka attempts to speak the truth of the world and her true existence to Madoka. However, she is defeated by Homura... But not destroyed. Rather, she is imprisoned:  (From the runes) “Because of the eternal law that is magic, this person's freedom and love were stolen." And made unable to speak:  Such that she cannot interfere with Madoka again, and is no longer able to speak the truth of her existence to her. Since this is the "B Version" of the Concept Movie, there's more stuff that wasn't present in the version I was analyzing before. Some random observations: I'm near 100% certain now that the first part of the Concept Movie's visual construction is based on the theming of Kimi no Gin no Niwa (Rebellion's ED). Essentially, Kimi no Gin no Niwa's main thesis is that Homura has trapped Madoka in her "room", by pulling her through the window that looks out on the Law of Cycles and closing the window on her. There Homura keeps her, as Homura's room symbolizes her new Labyrinth and her refusal to leave and join the Law of Cycles. "Slowly a door opens, beyond I see a fragile world. Will morning come, will night fall? A shy light seeps in:  Let us play some more until we are called. Let us repeat our days like a flower reborn. (Emphasis mine) This dream has always sung a gentle song for you, in this room. What is truth here? I chase the world I can most believe in. And run towards your silver garden." ... "Slowly they come closer. Without moving, from their perch on the windowsill, they sing of what they lost."  We see part of The Dying Swan here, which is used as a visual reference to Madoka being trapped in Homura's room as a bird bound to the earth, and continues Madoka's existance as defined in Kimi no Gin no Niwa. This is further expanded in the image of the skewered swans in the Concept Movie:  Which I'll explain in detail later in another post. Moving on: In the last thread, I suggested a timeline based on the Concept Movie. First, Sayaka rebels, then Mami. However, this appears to be somewhat incorrect, at least in the sense that Mami was inactive during Sayaka's rebellion:  Interestingly, Mami is using Sayaka's sabres, and not her muskets. I'm not sure why, seems strange to me. I'll need to think on it. Finally, the appearance of three Magical Girl sketches in the Concept Movie:    "Blue" and "Green" look new to me, but I may be misrembering. However, "Yellow", looks familiar:  Combined with what Madoka calls "fairies": Madoka: "So you can help me, too, fairies?" And similar imagery of colour primary silhouettes of what looks likes Magical Girls that seem to be in her Soul Gem:  This suggests Madoka is able to make contact with, and gain help from, the Magical Girls she saved and brought to the Law of Cycles. As well, while I checked the silhouettes of the Walpurgisnacht familiars and they aren't the same, this bit still reminds me of that element of Walpurgisnacht:  More to come, maybe I'll sit down and finish wrangling out that final analysis that turned into a super long mess. Perhaps in two parts. Lord Justice fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Sep 27, 2016 |
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Sep 26, 2016 12:51
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Paper Lion, have you watched Rebellion? It addresses the problem of Madoka's arc by switching the focus away from Madoka to Homura, turning Homura into the protagonist and Madoka into the foil for this new project. It certainly helps turns the series around if you don't like Madoka's character or arc, which I don't either.
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Sep 26, 2016 22:06
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More observations from the Concept Movie: Earlier, I suggested that this image is Sayaka's defeat by Homura:  However, there is an alternative explanation. In this version of the Concept Movie, we see Oktavia very clearly fighting a Wraith:  Which could explain Sayaka's apparent defeat in that shot. As we know, Witches are created from the "death" of a Magical Girl, symbolic or otherwise, so this could explain Oktavia's presence. I.E, Sayaka fought a Wraith, lost, and Oktavia appeared to fight the Wraith. With the presence of this shot:  A different story emerges, wherein Sayaka and "Homura" are in an alliance against the Wraiths, and...  Mami. Although why Mami would pair up with the Wraiths, or Sayaka with Homura, is a complete unknown to me. To be honest, while the above image of Homura and Sayaka doesn't really make sense with them being in conflict from Rebellion onwards, I still find that conflict to be a more likely story, even given the image. As well, this would also seem to contradict the earlier image of Mami fighting alongside Sayaka, so it seems reasonable to me to discount the importance of the Mami and Wraith image for now. However, there is another piece of the puzzle in regards to Sayaka:   If we look closely at Sayaka's feet in these two images, they seemed to be pinned to the ground with purple pins. The design of which looks oddly similar:   Which suggests that Sayaka was imprisoned by the Wraiths. Working for Homura? It would make sense, seeing as she would have absolute control over the space, but it remains to be seen. What seems odd, however, is that the Wraiths don't seem capable of this sort of action, going off the end of the series, and the little I've read of Wraith Arc. I could be wrong, though. As an aside, we see a closeup of Sayaka in her imprisoned state in one of the drawn pictures of the Concept Movie:  The handles of her sabres perhaps, missing the hand-guards, with gold and jewellery implanted in them. If we look closely again at the image of her prison, we can see the same objects hanging off her. Moving on. In the beginning of the Concept Movie, we see two things. The first, is a bust of Mami's head carved in stone crashing into what looks like Mitakihara:  The second is Madoka dancing The Dying Swan while she and Homura exposit on "The Definition of Happiness". While I've struggled to understand why Mami's head is crashing into Mitakihara before, I think I understand the significance now. There's two important factors to consider with the head. First, it is severed, and looking at the neck area, it was broken off from a larger statue. Secondly, it seems to be falling from space, which we know Mami goes to at one point:  This all suggests then the imagery of Mami's defeat at Homura's hands, leading into the portion of the Concept Movie where Homura has reasserted complete control with Madoka dancing The Dying Swan for her. In essence, it's just another clue which suggests the timeline I've mentioned, with Sayaka and Mami's defeat in the first half, and Homura and Madoka's narrative playing out in the second. Unlike the previous version of the Concept Movie, Demon Homura does make an appearance, although still not in any of the places she should also be:  Interestingly, there's only 14 Clara Dolls around her, with Love still missing. To be fair however, Love didn't make an appearance at the end of Rebellion either. If I were to interpret this image, it would be a reference to Rebellion itself, and not an indication of Demon Homura's appearance in the new project so far. Well, that's basically it, aside from some very minor things which I don't feel warranting a writeup for now. Here is the rest of the drawn images in the Concept Movie, along with an Imgur album of them at full resolution:               Upper right: "School seal" and "Tassel is attached" Bottom right: "furukoma (Vice and I couldn't figure this out, best guess is that the lizard is shaking its tail) "Slippery and moves easily."  "Tube Girl" "If it speaks, it makes a 'booooh' sound" "Has a singing voice like a horn instrument, with a graceful sound."  Upper left: "Made of Cast Iron" "Comparison." Bottom left: "Letter from --" ...Conveniently has who it's from cut off. "Long." Right: "Poor footing." (Thanks to Vice Virtuoso for translations)
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Sep 29, 2016 05:16
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Cephas posted:Madoka and Sayaka are ageless beings at this point. The Madoka Wiki estimates Homura at around 26. Though no matter what, they all have a big case of The current Madoka in Homura's Labyrinth is 14 and a normal human, although she becomes a Magical Girl again at some point. Sayaka as well, although Homura kept her as a Magical Girl for some reason (Wraiths, I guess).
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Oct 2, 2016 00:54
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Sea Sponge Run posted:if i were younger when this show came out mami'd be a role model i think A person with crippling loneliness issues such that she attempted to entrap two other girls into her situation and was also somewhat responsible for Sayaka's death?
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Oct 2, 2016 02:08
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Oct 2, 2016 04:30
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Ranzear posted:Ah, right! I kinda glazed during that part I think, the movie was a bit too visually noisy to be reading subtitles after a whole day of them, but I still don't think Homura would let them run willy-nilly making more. I guess more MGs are possible then, but Madoka's universal constant (if not her real self) should still be going to prevent witches, or at least that was Homura's intent? Magical Girls still exist as normal in Homura's Labyrinth, Sayaka still has her ring and Wraiths still exist. It's important to keep in mind that, while Homura betrayed Ultimate Madoka, she didn't lose the idealism behind Ultimate Madoka, or her old self. The concept of Magical Girls existing as a force to fight what is effectively an eternal war still defines Homura's thinking now, she just didn't want Madoka personally involved with it (Madoka herself has been reverted to a normal human at the end of Rebellion). Also, here's the Concept Movie, which is a short film based on ideas SHAFT has come up with in regards to what will follow Rebellion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4JVJKpl0Dc And the transcript with a translation: https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Puella_Magi_Madoka_Magica_Concept_Movie/Transcript
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Nov 28, 2016 07:22
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There's only one true best girl: In regards to how Magical Girls played a role in human history, we don't really have much conclusive evidence, and the Incubators didn't really tell us anything:  Kyuubey: "We have been involved with your civilization since before you recorded history. Countless girls throughout history have formed contracts with Incubators, had their wishes granted, and ultimately succumbed to despair. That which begins with a prayer of hope ends with a curse of despair. Such is the cycle that countless magical girls have repeated to this day. Some changed history forever, and elevated your society to new stages of development... It can't be denied that their sacrifices shaped human history. The current standard of living you enjoy was made possible by all those tears shed in the past." Madoka: 'If none of you had come to our planet..." Kyuubey: "You'd probably be still living in caves." While this sounds like Magical Girls were necessary for civilization to exist the way it does, the Incubators are playing around with their words merely to assert that this assumption is true, while not directly stating that it actually is. Yes, "Magical Girls" were involved at various stages of human history, but here's a key point to consider: what effect, if any, did the role of Magic play in these developments? Those women who were involved with shaping history: did they change history because of magic, or for some other reason? The fact that the Incubators are very careful to play up the role of influential women who were Magical Girls, while edging around Magic's role in history itself, is very suspicious to me. Notice how the effects of wishes are never once mentioned or described on a broader societal level, any effect they had is purely assumption. The changes to history were created by actions of Magical Girls, or girls who had already made wishes. Furthermore, we know the Incubators never lie, and will use the truth when convenient to them. Consider their motivation in this scene: they want Madoka to make a wish and generate energy, and are trying to trap her into a no-win situation. What better method than getting her to believe that the Incubators and Magical Girls are necessary for human civilization? But if this is the case, and they know it to be true, thus the "history lesson", why couch it in the terms they do? Why not "You'd still be living in caves", but instead "you'd probably be still living in caves". Why end with an assumption when a statement of fact will work just as well? The Incubators never lie, so... Would such a statement of fact be a lie? It seems to be that way, why would they say it otherwise? Which leaves us with two possibilities. Either 1, the Incubators don't actually know if Magic is necessary for human civilization, in which case they're an unreliable narrator and their "history lesson" isn't objective truth, or 2, they do know the role Magic has played, and it wasn't actually necessary for human civilization! In addition to this, we can catch the Incubators in their own manipulation. Earlier in episode 11, we have a scene with the Incubators and Homura, in which this is said:  Kyuubey: "You see, a magical girl's latent potential is based on the weight of the karmic destiny she bears. I could have understood if she had been the queen or saviour of a country, but I couldn't comprehend why Kaname Madoka, who led only an ordinary life, should have so many threads of fate woven so tightly around her." (emphasis mine) Karmic destiny seems to exist outside of the Magical Girl system, and the magical power of the girl making a wish is dependent on her role in history. But wait: if this is true, then wouldn't those women have already or are in a position to shape history? What role does Magic play here, if any? Their "karmic destiny" exists outside of that system, so, it would follow that their effect on history would happen regardless. If this is the case, then the "history lesson" begins to make more sense in a way. The Incubators are referencing influential women with high karmic destinies as changing the world (they did) but leaves out the role Magic actually played (most likely, it's not nearly as important as the Incubators are implying). Finally, we can go one step further with a thought experiment. Let's assume for a second that Magical Girls are as important to civilization as the Incubators imply, with Magic being a central force. Why, then, does the world Madoka uses seem so similar to our own, to the point of being basically identical? Magical Girls are girls who have been granted incredible power; they can fight better than 300 humans at once (if Tart Magica is to be believed, which had 3 Magical Girls completely destroying a regiment of 1000 French troops, and did so effortlessly on their part), have general magic powers to do all kinds of things, (Homura's fight against Walpurgisnacht comes to mind), and given the latent control they have over their bodies, are effectively immortal if supplied with Grief Seeds. Yet, given all that, Magical Girls had only a limited role in history, in that Madoka still seems to be running on our male dominated patriarchal system. Why did these effective gods among women not conquer humanity and lead to a matriarchal society with Magical Girls being conferred elite status, especially since Magical Girls seem to have existed since pre-history? Why is there no nigh-immortal Magical Girl supreme leaders who control other Magical Girls to supply them with Grief Seeds? Why do Magical Girls hide in modern times, and not rule the world in its entirety? Given this, we're left with the idea, that, no, Magical Girls are not necessary for civilization, and aren't even that important in the grand scheme of things. It seems likely the Incubators know this to some degree as well, which then creates the situation with their "history lesson". Ytlaya posted:*And also possibly necessary for human civilization, if Kyubey is to be believed, though I never understand exactly how magical girls lead to science/technology/culture/etc. Maybe the Incubators specifically chose girls they knew would make wishes that ultimately lead to societal/technological advancement? You're assuming that the Incubators are benevolent or care about human civilization or the species in general. They don't:  Kyuubey: "In this form, I imagine it will only take her around ten days to destroy the entire planet. Oh, well. What happens next is mankind's problem, not ours. We've pretty much met our energy quota at this point." They only care about their energy, nothing else matters. Humans can be wiped out in the process and they're perfectly ok with that. They aren't the mindful farmers they portray themselves to be to Madoka, they're hunters who bait a trap with something tempting and will destroy whatever gets in their way or is no longer useful to them. This is why Madoka's attempt at reaching an accord with them in the new universe ultimately failed. They were never going to cooperate given a choice, and Homura's solution was pretty much the only way to get them to stop and save humanity from being destroyed. In regards to the ending, I still rather strenuously disagree, and even moreso than I have in the past. At this point, I consider the original ending of Madoka to be incredibly weak narratively, and it only makes sense in the larger context of Rebellion and the next project. A big problem I've found is that Madoka's solution within the narrative rather neatly ignores the vast majority of the series itself. Her wish and her thinking is focused only on the idea of "witches = bad", and shows that her thinking hasn't progressed since the early part of the show. Witches are bad and need to be removed. Ok, fine, and that's reasonable in context, especially given that they'll destroy the world and that needs to be addressed, but what about the rest of the series? The series spent a very long time focusing on Sayaka's rise and fall. Sayaka represents what Madoka imagines Magical Girls to be, a warrior of justice and hope. But when faced with the reality of the system and her circumstances, Sayaka fails, falls into despair, and ultimately dies. This is what Magical Girls are, a method of destruction for troubled girls who are conned into a contract they don't understand with horrible, awful consequences. The creation of a witch is just the end-point of an entire existence of misery, and critically, Madoka does not address this at all. Much of the problems of Magical Girls exist in the new world, the contracts most likely aren't fully spelled out (what reason do the Incubators have for being honest about it, exactly?), they're still liches, and crucially, still die in a similar fashion. Not even the problem of despair and pollution of the Soul Gem is addressed, as while Sayaka dies in battle in the new world, Homura very plainly does not. In short, and as Rebellion and the Concept Movie shows, Madoka failed, and she failed precisely because of her love for the concept of Magical Girls without considering how they actually function. Madoka is so wrapped up in her own ideal of what a Magical Girl should be, she can't see them for what they actually are. Thus the solution, which Rebellion began with Homura's betrayal and destruction of Madoka's wish, what the Concept Movie continues, with its "Definition of Happiness", this new project will end with, hopefully: the rejection of Magic and Magical Girls for the idea of remaining human. Lord Justice fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Dec 1, 2016 |
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Dec 1, 2016 03:14
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Ranzear posted:I think it's less about what they have and more about what they have to lose. The energy harvested comes from the net change from hope to despair, so losing one's entire kingdom, for instance, is one of the greater sources the Incubators could look for. While an interesting idea, I'm not sure this bears out in practice. While you're probably right that losing something like a kingdom would generate more despair, karmic destiny itself seems to be unrelated to that. Keep in mind, karmic destiny doesn't just affect the power of the witch, it affects the power of the Magical Girl as well. The higher your karmic destiny, the more magical power you have. Madoka's karmic destiny is so insanely high because Homura has been effectively resetting the universe almost one hundred times in order to save her specifically, so the "threads of fate" are all focused on her. Karmic destiny seems to be tied to how you relate to the world/universe, and Homura has made Madoka into the sole focus of her repeated world. Thus it makes sense that she would have power to effectively rewrite the universe with her wish, as well as destroy the planet in her witch form. Ytlaya posted:I agree with most of what you said in your post, but you could argue that it's in the Incubator's interest for the human population to increase (which requires improvements in technology, etc) since more people = more magical girls = more energy. Ah, yeah, you're right about that. Of course, I'm not sure how much of human civilization existing was actually planned by the Incubators, and how much of it was a happy accident in their favour.
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Dec 1, 2016 19:51
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Ranzear posted:Watched the Concept short, and then framed through it a bit to admire the art, and it kinda womboed with something Sayaka had going on in Rebellion and I really, really, hope it goes this direction: I put all the drawn images in an Imgur album if you want to look at them further, and had translations in this post of the Japanese that appears in some of them. I haven't watched Jojo and I have no intention to, but aren't they called "Stands" because they stand behind the person?: 
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Dec 6, 2016 11:25
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The function of Magical Girl combined with Witch is a property of the Law of Cycles. The Witch forms aren't really separate from the person, the Sayaka and Nagisa we're seeing in Rebellion aren't just Sayaka and Nagisa, they're also Oktavia and Charlotte: "The mermaid witch. Once dreamt of love. This witch was cut loose once again from a part of the Law of Cycles. Unlike the witch of sweets, the human and witch's body can act independently. She can appear anywhere as long as there is water." "The mermaid witch. Once dreamt of love. The Law of the Cycle split off some of its souls and sent them to the earth. One of them took the form of sweets. Another took on the form of a mermaid. And the Law of Cycles itself descended upon the surface, more reverently than the morning dew. Her form was like that of a magical girl who once was." (From the Oktavia witch cards for Rebellion) Essentially, the Law of Cycles adjusts the fate of the Magical Girl such that they accept and merge with their Witch form, rather than being overwhelmed and destroyed by it. The two parts work in tandem as a complete being, although with different levels of independence. With that in mind, Homura is not part of this system, as she A, never went to the Law of Cycles and merged with Homulilly, and B, never actually turned into a Witch in the first place. The Homulilly in Rebellion is just another creation on Homura's part in her dream, not the actual Homulilly.
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Dec 6, 2016 20:42
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AlternateNu posted:Uhhh, what? Where is that mentioned/hinted at? It's not so much hinted at as a conclusion reached on available evidence. The Nutcracker Witch, unlike every other Witch we've seen, does several inexplicable things if we assume it's actually a Witch. -First, Homura's Soul Gem never breaks, and no Grief Seed appears. The Incubators' Isolation Field wouldn't stop that from happening, all it does is stop the Law of Cycles from interfering. In theory, if Homura had actually turned into a Witch, her Soul Gem would have become a Grief Seed. -Second, Homura is still conscious in this form, and is able to be drawn out of it. This is in direct contradiction to Sayaka's case in the series, and if Homulilly was real, Homura would have been gone and unable to be saved. -Third, the nature of the Labyrinth is unlike those of other Witches. it's much larger than other Labyrinths, creating an entire city within it, and those caught in it don't act like those actually caught by Witches. There's no Witch's Kiss, and in fact, everyone seems to have been captured by the Clara Dolls. As well, there is no attempt to kill those in the Labyrinth, merely keep them there. -Fourth, while we're told over and over that Homura is becoming a Witch, we're principally told this information from the Incubators. However, these Incubators' are not those of the series, whatever information they have on Witches is whatever Homura told them, and whatever they have managed to figure out on their own. They are no source of authority on the subject at this point. -Fifth, Homura's Soul Gem is not actually polluted by despair, but love, and always was. This leads to the creation of a Demon, and if we examine how Demons work with the ending of Rebellion as an example, then what happened earlier becomes clear. The Labyrinth within her Soul Gem wasn't the result of a Witch, but a Demon. It follows the rules as we know them, for the most part, such as the increased size of the Labyrinth, as well as what happens to people pulled into it. Edit: Sixth, the actual Homulilly isn't the Nutcracker Witch, but the Witch of Mortal World (Which should have shown up if she was actually transformed into a Witch): 
Lord Justice fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Dec 7, 2016 |
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Dec 7, 2016 00:11
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AlternateNu posted:There's nothing saying the shape/name of a girls witch form is immutable. It could change based on the circumstances of their transformation. The issue here is having to make exceptions and new rules out of whole cloth based on unreliable information. The Nutcracker Witch is the only Witch who operates the way she does. What exactly about the Isolation Field is causing this sudden break in the rules? More to the point, why is the Isolation Field stopping her Soul Gem from breaking? That's not actually explained and is suspicious considering Homura is "raising a curse". Nothing about the Isolation Field should be stopping her Soul Gem from becoming a Grief Seed, since the point of it is to stop the Law of Cycles from interfering. Since this is the case, it should become a Grief Seed, considering what we know of Witches. The way I see it, to accept Homulilly as a Witch means to accept a lot of contradictory information that doesn't make sense given what we know of Witches. If this Homulilly is merely a creation of Homura's mind, and this Labyrinth a creation of her "proto-Demon" self, then it becomes consistent with the rules as we know them.
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Dec 7, 2016 01:15
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Snak posted:So the movies come after the show? I wasn't sure if they were seperate or edited adaptions of the series. I'm like a half-dozen episodes into the show right now. The Beginning Story and the The Eternal Story are a re-adaptation of the series into two movies. The Rebellion Story is a sequel that takes place after the series ending.
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Apr 3, 2017 06:43
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Hemingway To Go! posted:The criticism I've heard a lot that the series is anti-magical-girl, a "deconstruction", sexist, gets really frustrating. Ironic, how at first people would say not to watch the series unless you had seen ALL of Sailor Moon or you might MISS A REFERENCE and that's the ENTIRE POINT OF THE SHOW back in the day. Nowadays the series is said to be about how girls should not have wishes. This is actually how people describe the series, that it's about punishing girls for agency, when Madoka's wish is the single greatest action anyone takes. Plus you're also sexist if you watched Madoka but won't watch pre-cure or other magical girl shows. Madoka is doing its own thing and isn't really there to critique other things, so your frustration is understandable. While it has a lot of referential base to it, and a lot of that is based on prior magical girl anime, it's also clearly creating its own narrative out of that. I feel you're being kind of unfair with the sexism comment though. Madoka is in an entirely different genre and intended for an entirely different demographic than most other magical girl anime. You can like Madoka and not other magical girl anime for that reason, and sexism doesn't really need to enter the equation. I don't really agree with your interpretation of wishes either, here. It's important to keep in mind that wishes don't exist in a vacuum, they're intrinsically tied to the greater system of Magical Girls and magic. To put it simply, to engage with magic and make a wish is to destroy yourself as a human being, generally with the death of the person making the wish. Sayaka dies due to the system and the exact same way as she did in the old world. Nagisa as well, or at least I assume as much. Homura, of course, falls into despair. In other words, besides no longer transforming into Witches, Magical Girls are exactly the same as they were in the old world. They're still child soldiers drafted into an eternal war (albeit against Wraiths instead of Witches), are most likely still scammed into it (what reason do the Incubators have for telling the girls they're attempting to manipulate the entire truth of things, even in the new world?), and die in basically the same way. More to the point, they're robbed of any chance of real maturation, into actual adults, and Madoka's "heaven" is no solution. I feel it's particularly relevant now considering how the Concept Movie opens, with the dialogue between Homura and Madoka: “Madoka & Homura: Do you know what happiness is? Madoka: It's bright May sunshine. Homura: It's the warmth of family. Madoka: It's fried eggs for breakfast. Madoka & Homura: But there's nothing like that in Heaven. Madoka & Homura: Do you know what happiness is? Homura: It's having your name called by someone. Madoka: It's calling someone's name. Homura: It's when someone is thinking of you. Madoka & Homura: But God alone cannot have any of this.” (Emphasis mine) Madoka, as a series, then, exists as a conflict of Magic vs. Humanity. To choose magic, as Magical Girls do, is to reject their humanity, and if they don't, they just die faster. Sayaka attempted to hold onto hers, and was dead in weeks. Kyouko became animalistic and predatory, and survived for a few years. Homura effectively became a machine, and Madoka, well, she destroyed her human existence completely and utterly. Thus, to choose magic is to reject humanity, to reject the definition of happiness put forth in the Concept Movie, and, crucially, to reject growing up. The anti-thesis of this in the series is Junko, Madoka's mother. She represents the opposite of what the Magical Girl is as a concept. She's a strong, independent woman, successful in her career and the breadwinner of her home. She did all of that without wishes, without magic, without Incubators or anything else. Where Madoka failed, Junko succeeded, never using wishes or magic. As a further point, I can't really agree with the characters having "agency" with their wishes. Do they make the choice of their own free will? Yes. Do they do it with the full knowledge of the consequences? Absolutely not. The Incubators withhold information or manipulate it to their own advantage, which is the generation of energy, and nothing else. Sayaka is pretty much the titular case here, as she made her wish without knowing what would happen to her. What agency is there in being tricked by the Incubators into destroying yourself so they can make their energy? Magical Girls and the entire system is a trap, formed out of manipulated information and misguided idealism. Sayaka also exists as a rebuttal of "feminine ideal" in the narrative, considering her arc. Sayaka destroys herself because of her wish. A wish for what? To heal Kyousuke's hand, and effectively, to give him his career back as a consequence. In other words, you have a woman destroying herself for a man, and the reasoning isn't even that she's saving Kyousuke's life, she's just killing herself so he can play the violin again. Where is the strong female agency in this? What happened to Sayaka was terrible, and what's worse is that Madoka completely agrees with this outcome. Sayaka should not have died over what happened. What happened wasn't a good thing. At least Homura has the sense to realize this at some level, even if she didn't really intend to revive Sayaka: (From the runes) “Because of the eternal law that is magic, this person's freedom and love were stolen." Lord Justice fucked around with this message at 01:05 on May 3, 2017 |
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May 2, 2017 23:54
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