Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Even while some magical girl shows can get sinister, Madoka felt a bit obvious from the get go. The apolocalyptic dream in the beginning (with the sinister end playing in the beginning), the mascot getting more obviously hurt than would be usual and just the general atmosphere. Though I guess it all come to a-head by episode 3 for others

A major contrast is that the fairy companions in Pretty Cure will get around to showing the girls exactly what they're fighting for, and there's a high chance they get to see their predecessors in some way. Those guys actually do show what they're asking help for eventually, once they realise the girls aren't just mooks and are ready to know the truth.

In comparison, Kyubey is quite evasive in answering some things, and quite omissive of the finer details.

On the other hand of the scale, Kaleido Ruby is helpful in some ways, but is also an unrepentant pervert in other ways. The mind driving a priceless and powerful magical artifact should NOT creep on its own operator, damn it!

Also Artemis and Luna are helpful but way too naggy to the girls about their birthrights and past lives and final goals at times.

Edited by AceOfScarabs on Sep 19th 2019 at 10:32:00 PM

Which is rather appropriate for an Mephistopheles archetype.

Luna is not naggy enough because she's not willing to constantly get Usagi to focus on her goal beyond killing monsters. She has an actual goal beyond that but she's not really going doing much to get Usuagi to focus on that goal.

Kyuubey...seems untrustworthy. "Contracts" are usually associated with "fine print" and "bend over" and his willingness to make a Contract with a random dying girl seems predatory.

"Welp, she can't run away this time."

I've never really thought that Madoka fit the Faustian plotline very well, personally. There are surface-level similarities, for sure, but the themes don't really line up. The Faust archetype generally knows for a fact that they're making a deal with the devil, but do it anyway out of either hubris (they think they can get the better of the devil) or greed (they just can't resist the temptation of the immediate rewards) and the themes of the story are generally "don't make deals with the devil, it never ends well". Madoka isn't really the same thing on any of those levels.

What if Homura as the Faust archetype though? Would line up with Madoka's witch being named Gretchen.

On another note I notcied that the villains seems to have a theme of noble ends trying to be brought about by sacrificially unjustified means. Zombifying chilren twice over to prevent entropy, subverting Madoka's agency to bring her back to Creation, outright trying to kill Madoka to prevent the Apocalypse, and then there's the Wings of the Magius' plans. Kinda feels like that "the ends don't justify the means" is another recurring theme.

Magical girl mascots are consistently terrible about giving actual evidence that they're the good guys, often relying on being attacked by some obviously evil person or creature to gain sympathy for the cause. Kyubey and a couple others are just the few examples to actually take advantage of this tradition.

In other news, with 39 tickets and 1550 gems I now have as many pulls as Disney has Dalmations. And thus more than enought to hit the pity on any banner of my choosing

Still gonna save up though because the banners I want to pull on are there yet and I'm waiting for the monthly reset to try my hand at the premium gacha with the discounted 10-pull ticket.

Fred, regarding Mami and the guns?

I believe I recall the official explanation being that Mami's muskets and bullets are shaped from her ribbon-making magic (basically, her weapons are entirely constructed from hardened magic ribbons). Mami can't (or hasn't worked out how to) cheese the ribbon-making magic enough to recreate the internal mechanics of a gun with an ammo magazine, so she's limited to single-fire weapons.

Magic ribbons?

Edited by fredhot16 on Sep 19th 2019 at 6:37:01 AM

The weapons associated with Mami and Homura aren't their firearms, but ribbons and a shield, respectively. Mami somehow was able to turn her ribbons into muskets (among other things) while Homura uses her shield as a Bag of Holding and to freeze/go back in time. (FTR, If you're expecting a meguka that actually uses a shield as a weapon, there is Sana from Magia Record).

Why Mami got saddled with the ribbons had to do with the small scale of her wish. I'll leave it at that for now.

EDIT: forgot that the time travel thing was supposed to be a twist

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Sep 19th 2019 at 6:47:52 AM

Excusez-moi? She can manipulate time? Since when?

Also, Homura isn't the only with mystical holding powers since the last time I saw Mami, she pulled guns from her beret, her skirt, and her chest. Well, not in the usual way for the latter.

Edit: Well, now I'm spoiled. I'll try to forget it but I won't forget what you've done. Bastard.

She's not really pulling the guns from anywhere, she's actually creating them out of nothing. She just acts like she's pulling them out of hammerspace because it's stylish.

I see you have started my favourite show and have excellent tastes in favourite characters.

By yes, please avoid spoilers. Half the fun is seeing people react to the unexpected.

That said, yes, different magical girls have different powers and Mami can create ribbons she can make stuff with. This includes her guns.

Long time no see Sereg, Since we're kinda on the topic of favorite girls, I might as well inquire about your affinity with Oriko.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Sep 21st 2019 at 9:38:08 AM

On another forum,.I was often compared with Oriko, and as I happen to really like and agree with Oriko (considering her the hero of her story), I embraced the comparison and made her my main avatar there. She's also a major character of my quest (the protagonist is an OC and my current avatar here)

(That said, I am nowhere near Oriko's oujo-levels and my girlfriend doesn't have much in common with Kirika)

Interesting.

BTW regarding the Darc event I'll have some questions (that I'll be putting in a folder for the sake hiding certain spoilers.):

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Sep 21st 2019 at 1:05:20 AM

Putting this under spoiler tags since I don't know how to get folders to work.

From Tart Magica, Corbeau, is one of Isabeau of Bavaria's three (adopted) daughters. Isabeau gained Kyubey's powers through her wish and they all contracted with her in her quest to gain more and more power with Corbeau torturing girls into making wishes to their benefit. Isabeau turned into a Witch and Corbeau's oldest sister wished she'd turn back into a human, it didn't work fully and she ended up with a witch's mind in a human body and wanted to destroy France. Corbeau ended up getting murdered by her youngest sister for caring more for her sisters than their mother.

Alright, halfway through the series! Going to stop now, let everything sink in, might come back next month.

• Yes.
• She said it the beginning of the event; she bought it from an antique store. How those candles got in the antique store is explained in Tart event part 2.
• This is already explained .
• Yes. When in the manga Cube said that her witch is capable of covering the entire Europe in her barrier, turns out it's actually just the initial estimation. The witch ends up even more powerful and swallows all of Earth, which means the Incubator can be wrong with their damage assertion.

From the way Tart's Doppel is described, I get the feeling La Pucelle de Blanchefleur is deliberately meant to come off as very similar to Kriemhild Gretchen.

@fedhoot: Halfway? So you've seen episode 6?

Correct. Kuubey, you’re now officially creepy.

“Why do Humans always cry and moan whenever I tell them I ripped out their souls and made their bodies into hollow shells? Isn’t this better?”

Edited by fredhot16 on Sep 22nd 2019 at 5:40:02 AM

Yup. It's stuff like that which really shows what Kyuubey is like.

Thoughts on the other characters so far?

Though it makes wonder why the Magical Girls are kept secret. I mean sure the girls would prefer to not drag their loved ones into the crosshairs of the witches or have their lives disrupted, but the Incubators, who want their despair, should have little reason to keep the cat in the bag. I speculate that its for self-preservation (They're pretty much up there with the 456 in how much Humanity would collectively "NOPE" at their means) or preservation of their assets (I suspect things are going in a Mai-Otome direction, if corporations and governments know of the Puella Magi. And that in turn leads to unscrupulous actors using them much like the Incubators are, but just for smaller scale goals).

EDIT: Post is in spoilers just in case.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Sep 22nd 2019 at 9:39:26 AM