Puella Magi Madoka Magica

You know, this song really fits a lot of the girls when they are falling into despair and become a Witch, or Akuma Homura in general when it doesn't involve Madoka:

The darkest of night falls around my soul

And the hunter within loses control

Gotta let it out Gotta let it out Gotta let it out Gotta let it out

This demon inside has a hold of me

Clutching its power trying to break free

Gotta let it out Gotta let it out Gotta let it out Gotta let it out

Move fast baby, don't be slow Step aside, reload, time to go

I can't seem to control All this rage that's inside me

Hold it fast, they've been dancing on this Branded by fire born in the abyss

Red hot temper, I just can't resist All this vengeance inside me

All of these thoughts running through my head I'm on fire, face burning red Frustration is getting bigger

Bang bang bang Pull my Devil Trigger

Embrace the darkness that's within me No hiding in the shadows anymore

When this wickedness consumes me Nothing can save you And there's no way out

I'm a wildfire you won't tame Not even my temper can put out the flame

There's no way to contain This storm swelling inside me

I'm a bomb you can't defuse I would just accept you're gonna lose

Can't turn down, I refuse To hold back anymore

All of these voices inside of my head Blinding my sight in a curtain of red Frustration is getting bigger

Bang bang bang Pull my Devil Trigger

When the light ends, it's not over Weave right through to get closer

Like a silver bullet piercing through I throw myself into you

All of these voices inside of my head Blinding my sight in a curtain of red Frustration is getting bigger

Bang bang bang Pull my Devil Trigger

edited 13th Jun '18 4:19:21 AM by LDragon2

I think of PMMM every time I hear Dark Horse by Katy Perry. >_<

Now that I've seen Yuki Yuna is a Hero, I can't help but contrast these two franchises, especially the ending. Here, none of the main characters get the best possible ending for themselves personally, but the ending of the original twelve episodes is good for humanity as a whole. Any girl who fights after will have an easier time. Long term, as humanity's standard of living and population rises, Madoka's system could make the fight easier and perhaps even end someday.

Of course, if witches come back and familiars start to multiply, humanity faces a long term threat which can't be stopped by recruiting more girls. Who's to say if Homura was thinking long term.

Witches can't come back.

Witches can come back if someone ends up breaking the Law of Cycles. That was Kyubey's whole goal.

Someone having a goal does not mean the goal is actually possible to achieve. It's made clear that Kyuubey was utterly delusional in believing it could achieve that. Madokami proved that it never had a chance against her and didn't even inconvenience her. She even sattered the barrier from the inside, proving that the trap was utterly ineffective.

In regards to an earlier topic about Homura's magic use I would not be surprised if after enough loops she had a general idea how many grief seeds she would need to sustain herself for her mission.

Remember this fanvid? The Nightmagi Cometh

Wordy post but it is related not just to the thread here but many other threads as well.

Now this is likely the last time I will post here, but looking a few pages back is the statement that Kyoko is the "worst written character in the series". She is rude and doesn't take much responsible alot of the time, but worst written? Really? I would argue there isn't a single character I could genuinely call the "worst". She isn't my favorite necessarily(I like all the characters for various things) but just because a person doesn't like her doesn't mean you should insult the writing, which for her is frankly excellent even if she might not be as well written as the others. Don't have to like her but disliking her doesn't equal "worst written". This might seem like an unnecessary post, but this thread is moving at a snail's pace either way. Whether or not you "like" a character isn't indicative of the actual "quality" of the writing itself. Just a thought, not trying to start a fight or anything but I feel it's a little unfair, she isn't a good person necessarily(she is able to be good though in what she does) but isn't' "badly" written either. In regards to the attempted suicide scene in the film, I have to see the movie another time to remember the context and how it might be interpreted though I have seen thorough analysis videos describing how it is consistent and not inconsistent. After seeing those videos I was able to appreciate pretty much anything more than I did before.

I guess what I am saying is that whenever there seems to be a "flaw", I eventually think about it in a fashion that makes supposed flaws disappear, which seems to be partially why discussions are here is to think of different interpretations to ambiguous things and determine if they aren't good or are good. Which is pretty cool either way. People have opinions, but it's better to be fair about said opinions and, Idk not angry about them.

The fandom's "Yuri" though makes no sense. If it's not stated or explicit and is ambiguous instead, it could be interpreted in various ways and therefore isn't proof. Love doesn't have to be romantic, and it seems those fans cannot realize that. It's more a complex love that isn't able to be described, either way I dislike fandom's more often than not for their misinterpretations of how things are, if it's ambiguous it is but you don't have to make supposed "Yuri" where none exists. Undertones in my eyes do not equate "proof".

Either way though it's good that the thread has things that are discussed every now and then, I think it good to like the series how you want to like it. You have to make sure it's about the series and it's themes though and how they are portrayed, not about looking at undertones that may or may not mean anything. I guess that is partially why I don't like fandoms is due to how fans think is different than "how it is" much of the time. Good thread though, it's good to have different perspectives on ambiguous things but have enough room despite that to question various things.

My belief that Kyouko is the worst written character of the series has literally nothing to do with me believing that she is utter scum who should be executed as a service to the Universe. It's to do with the fact that her arc is rushed to the point that her behaviour seems inconsistent, makes her decisions look like rapidly passing fancies and makes people see her end character as such a different person from what we started with, that they ignore her past misdeeds.

Now, I still consider her well written. I consider everything in this show well-written. It's my favourite piece of fiction. But in comparison to the absolute masterpiece most of the show is, her character arc looks like a sloppy mess in comparison.

Edited by Sereg on Aug 4th 2018 at 9:31:37 AM

Sereg, I am curious, have you read any of the spinoff manga? Many of them do a pretty good job of showing how Kyoko reacts in different situations and flesh out her character a bit more.

I really like this picture. Not just because it has Kyosaya shipping in it, but also because the scenery is really pretty.

Oh yeah. I said I'd be coming here. Doesn't look like my advice was taken though.

Shame that. Anyway, I hear that Gen apparently compared the girls to War Criminals (and that wasn't exactly what he said, but something worse)?

What the hell Gen?

I have heard nothing about this, so I don't know how many interpretations it's gone through in whatever game of telephone took place between a man saying it in Japanese and you posting it here. Given that there's still that apocryphal Rowling quote about a muggle with a gun beating a wizard with a wand floating about, I'm gonna wait until I've got a more solid source to assume that this is even a thing that was said.

@Phi Sat Yes, I have. (I'm known for considering Oriko a hero. And before you bring up Different Story, yes, I've read it. No, it doesn't make me any more sympathetic to Kyouko at all.) Again, I do not consider her badly written in a vacuum. The others are just better.

You're probably thinking of that interview where he compared them to Al-Qaeda? This was apparently a whole thing, for predictable reasons. Though it looks like what he actually meant was that righteousness can be misguided, causing bad stuff, and he certainly wasn't saying terrorists are good people. (I doubt he really meant it as "my magical girls are basically the 9-11 bombers," either, but that's how Americans interpreted it.)

Edited by Kotomikun on Aug 18th 2018 at 6:29:16 AM

There was a string of terrorism acts in my country. The preps brought their kids when they tried to blow up several churches and a police post. From our view, such act is very, very evil. Crazy even. Even the supposed terrorist leader of these guys are condemning them as crazy for bringing kids into suicide bombing.

Then our officials, psychiatrists, and ministers were questioning the sole surviving kid about this incident. And from that, they all made the same conclusion; these guys don't consider themselves evil. Because they were taught that their cause was righteous, they would do anything to fight what they considered 'evil'. Hatred toward this 'evil' caused them to do evil against this 'evil', because the opposite of 'evil' is good, right? From their point of view, they were heroes who sacrifice their lives to fight against evil. From our point of view, they were of course terrorist scums. So it is said that condemnation toward these kinds of guys aren't the right way to fight them, because it would perpetuate the hatred between the two sides and validates their point of view that their opponents are evil.

On the other note, Taro Yoko also made the same statement regarding this.

Ok, I read it.

C'mon man! How can fighting creatures that literally eat peoples souls (what did Witches do again?) be a Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters situation?

I get it. Happiness is bad and all that shit, and you feel (or at least felt) a need to depress the hell out of everyone, but this is too far.

Thank god he got away from his tragedy syndrome.

And this is why I always say that terrorism/freedom fighters has absolute squat to do with your goal or the nobility of your cause. It's to do with your methods. That's it. People can fight for good reasons, yet be engaging in terrorism. People can fight for incredibly evil reasons and refrain from it. it's all about how you treat civilians. (Which is why I consider Kyouko a terrorist)

EDIT:Witches dump their supernatural depression onto the surrounding populace, causing enough psychological torture to drive people to suicide. They also reproduce, and given the methods for doing so, likely do so by brainwashing the souls of their victims into copies of themselves.

Edited by Sereg on Aug 19th 2018 at 6:20:20 AM

It depends on the point of view. Vlad III is a national hero in Romania. He was so because he skewered 10.000 Turks in the ass and paraded the bodies. Wu Zetian is one of the best Chinese emperor. She also paved her way up by scheming against her rival consorts and drowned her torture victims in poisonous wine jar.

Also, the witches reproduce by feeding their familiars people so they can grow up to copies of the witch.

There's literally no view of the Witches that isn't anything but spreading suffering and death. Trying to nake anything benign out of that is like trying to act like the Incubators ever cared about anyone but themselves.

They certainly try to spin the idea they do, but it's a lie to fool the dumb cattle.

Every witch is basically a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, but it's not like they're intelligent enough for that to matter in terms of actually fighting them.

It's not toward the witches the analogy is aimed at; it's toward the magical girls. They are young girls who were trapped in a system that is bad for them and they try to survive by doing things that is bad for everyone else. When several magical girls teaming up to ration their GS, they end up looking like gangsters that fight against other gangster teams in turf war. Your kind senior is a merciless villain toward those she doesn't understand, your new friend is feeding civilians to familiars so she can eat in the next day, your best friend is getting crazier everyday shen she finds out she's fighting a hopeless battle. Out there, other teams fight the system by the way of human experimentation and genocide, while several truly evil individuals are just wanting to kill shitton of people.

Ah kay I misunderstood why you added witches to that post after how one mans hero can be viewed as a monster by another.

Being regarded as a hero doesn't stop you from being a terrorist. The leading party in my country were terrorists who are retarded as heroes entirely because they were fighting the incredibly evil policy of Apartheid. That doesn't excuse what they did, just as the horror of the magical girl system doesn't excuse magical girls

It all worked out for the better in the end. Everyone who suffered and died as a result of witches retroactively never suffered or died as a result of witches. No harm no foul.

EDIT: Except Homura. Girl just can't stop.

Edited by Zeromaeus on Aug 20th 2018 at 6:08:17 AM