Anka Aquila
Is it weird if I really, really don't get the Yuri fandom in this series?
Like, I can understand Sayaka/Kyousuke or Mami/Kyouko in the backstory, maybe Madoka/Kyouko in other mangas, but Sayaka/Kyouko and Madoka/Homura? those two are not good pairings, not to mention the former could only go to friendship at best and the latter is a really, really toxic relationship, so much that Madoka is practically better off with anyone else other than Homura.
edited 14th May '18 8:00:28 PM by raziel365
Instead of focusing on relatives that divide us, maybe we should try to find the absolutes that tie us.
Homura x Madoka's Mom makes more sense than Madoka x Homura.
edited 14th May '18 8:37:52 PM by higurashimerlin
When life gives you lemons, burn life's house down with the lemons.
World's Cutest Direwolf
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Before Rebellion came out and made everything weirder, Mami's main ship was with the worm monster that ate her head when she tried to blow it up. Shippers gonna ship.
The less facetious answer would be that the shippers like the characters and want them to be happy, so they prefer to assume that apparent interest from one party is going to be reciprocated and everything is going to be ~just fine~ between them.
I am assured by the internet that two anime girls calling each other their best friend is basically putting a ring on it.
Given that the alternative for Mami would be Forever Ronery (tm) or dead, is it any surprising?
World's Cutest Direwolf
I don't see that Charlotte is an alternative to death, frankly. What with the killing and all.
"The less facetious answer would be that the shippers like the characters and want them to be happy, so they prefer to assume that apparent interest from one party is going to be reciprocated and everything is going to be ~just fine~ between them. " Kind of works with Mado Homu but Kyou Saya isn't even one sided.
When life gives you lemons, burn life's house down with the lemons.
Planeswalker
I like the Idol Singer ending in the PSP game where Homura gives Mami confidence by getting her into singing. How the Idol industry is in reality notwithstanding.
As for ships, the only one I really liked is Kyoko/Mami in backstory. Madoka/Sayaka's alright I guess.
edited 15th May '18 9:16:47 AM by PhiSat
Oissu!
World's Cutest Direwolf
Yeah, if it wasn't a goofy side route a meguca idol would probably just end up suffering under all the stresses of the job.
*checks Magia Record page* Huh, doesn't look like we have a Magic Idol Singer in there yet. Kind of surprised, to be honest.
*shrug* Sayaka clearly meant something important to Kyouko by the end, and by shipper rules that definitely equals romance.
edited 15th May '18 12:13:54 PM by rikalous
We have a magical idol; it's just she's not playable yet. But we have a lot of fashion models, school idols, and at least one (deceased) musician.
Anka Aquila
I keep forgetting it's like a default nowadays of the Mahou Shoujo genre that it also goes the Yuri route with it's female leads.
Or maybe it's because of Lyrical Nanoha that the Yuri is so intertwined with the Magical Girl genre that seeing a het romance is almost unheard of now.
Instead of focusing on relatives that divide us, maybe we should try to find the absolutes that tie us.
Mighty No. 51345
Eventually, Sakura and Syaoran's relationship will be considered weird and anomolous for the genre.
Mega Man fanatic extraordinaire
World's Cutest Direwolf
You know shit's gotten weird when the thing by CLAMP is considered unusually heterosexual.
edited 16th May '18 1:11:05 AM by rikalous
Planeswalker
The focus on the girls before any male members of the cast will always result in people seeing Yuri relationships in the genre. Who wants to pair your favourite character with some underdeveloped nobody?
Oissu!
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
To be fair, that's just as likely to happen in a series with a heavy Yaoi fanbase as well.
Especially since most shonen push women to the sidelines, resulting in far more emphasis on male / male friendships.
But yeah, in the past few years, there's been more emphasis on Yuri in Magical Girl series.
Only the really old school ones (Sailor Moon, and the aforementioned Card Captor Sakura) still really care about putting the main female with a male...and both of those still have Yuri relationships in the form of Uranus and Neptune's relationship and Tomoyo's crush respectively.
One Strip! One Strip!
Planeswalker
Yeah, the magical girl genre is by no means the only genre to do this.
Even in Sailor Moon there was a lot of Ship Tease between Usagi and Rei for instance. The anime went out of its way to make Tuxedo Mask less significant and then he spends all of Stars dead and the anime ships Usagi with Seiya. Who's... Male most of the time in the anime adaptation.
... Yeah I don't really know where Sailor Moon falls on this one. Usagi's just a Launcher of a Thousand Ships, maybe.
Oissu!
It isn't the yuri ships that bother me. It's the main ships that all the official and fan art promote that bothers me. Kyouko x Sayaka is zero sided. And Homura x Madoka involves a 14 year old girl and a 22 year old who in the end got friend zoned by god.
When life gives you lemons, burn life's house down with the lemons.
World's Cutest Direwolf
Homura's emotionally stunted and hasn't undergone the physical brain development expected of someone older than fourteen, so it's arguable if she counts as a 22-year-old in a meaningful sense. Really, if you wanna talk about age gap there Madoka is currently a the-entire-universe-old so Homura's chasing an older woman.
As for Kyouko and Sakura, whatever you think of their relationship in the original anime last we saw they were holding hands while Sayaka talked about how she gave up nirvana-heaven to see Kyouko again so there's certainly development now. Ain't Ascended Fanon wonderful?
Planeswalker
Pandering to the Base at its finest, that.
Oissu!
Anka Aquila
And, it doesn't help that the majority of the fandom prefers to roll with the Yuri than to analyze if those ships are actually viable or not. Not even the NGE fandom has it that bad, at least they accept part, if not all, of the cast is screwed up.
Instead of focusing on relatives that divide us, maybe we should try to find the absolutes that tie us.
What about Chiharu and Yamazaki?
World's Cutest Direwolf
There's also Rika and her teacher, as well as Eriol and Kaho. Though since those are both elementary students with elementary teachers I can understand blocking things out.
Anka Aquila
Maybe it's just me, but I think there is some potential in trying to bring more character depth to the perifery members of the cast, after all, Madoka does interact with them and knowing their story can enrich the bigger picture overall.
Instead of focusing on relatives that divide us, maybe we should try to find the absolutes that tie us.
Yeah I don't see them as a couple. More so after rebellion. Even the original series there was serious problems with it besides Homura being 22. Also Madoka's feeling towards Homura after learning the truth about her. https://aminoapps.com/c/bobs-amino/page/blog/friendzoned-by-god/bXZV_oKIoum3XDJeMqaVn5dBmD5bpZZlEx
I wished I could just post that image.
When life gives you lemons, burn life's house down with the lemons.