Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Weirdly appropriate on the Sailor Pluto biz. She's the time one if I'm remembering correctly.

Mega Man fanatic extraordinaire

Reactions are always fun. Keep them coming.

I do! It's great!

"Just give it three episodes and then decide if you like it," is pretty much the go-to line in our household for convincing people to watch Madoka, whether they're fans of the Magical Girl genre or not. So far, everyone we've suggested that to has finished the series.

And only one time has a person responded with "I HATE YOU WHY DID YOU MAKE ME WATCH THIS!!!" And I should note that this person still finished the series and continued to be friends with us afterwards.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Oct 28th 2019 at 1:09:02 PM

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Madoka was quite literally made for this sort of thing.

One Strip! One Strip!

Well, see, there's two reasons I don't like that type of thing. One is that I just don't like mislead-the-victim pranks in general. Could write a full-length novel about why, but just to stay on-topic, that's literally what Kyubey does. If this show had been introduced to me like that, I'd probably have ended up hating it.

The other half is that it bugs me how Madoka is almost exclusively known as "that show where a magical girl gets eaten alive in episode 3." Like, yeah, to some degree the point of that episode was to scare away anyone not prepared for the oncoming angst typhoon. But it's become such a big meme that the rest of the show might as well not exist. Even the other "shocking twists" are overshadowed by this.

For me all of this is particularly strange because, the first time I watched it, that infamous twist was neither surprising nor all that horrifying. It's just the old Mentor Occupational Hazard thing, and people die in TV shows all the time. Kyubey being a Satanic Archetype is also super obvious. Those bits are not what make this show good or interesting. But we focus on them so much that every time a new person watches it the reaction is less "yay, new fan!" and more "hee hee, how are they gonna freak out when they get to this part?" which just rubs me the wrong way.

No fun allowed.gif.

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

Sir, this is a Wendy's

No, it's a Madoka thread. You don't have to agree with him, but don't give them shit for posting about Madoka stuff in a thread for posting about Madoka stuff.

Honestly though, I tend to agree that deliberately misleading someone on the nature of the show is kind of a dick move. Saying "here, watch this, I'm not going to tell you anything about it beforehand but I think you'll like it" is a different thing, as long as you actually think they'll enjoy it, rather than just showing it to them so you can laugh when they're horrified.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

I took her through episodes three and four.

Episode Three:

• Her reaction to that moment-

(Monster reaches down, opens it's mouth, and bites down) "Wait, is she about to die?"

(Monster chows down on the rest of the body) "Did she really just die?"

At the end of the episode, she has choice words about "the show's getting real" and how "it can't go off killing characters". She also had trouble accepting that Mami's actually dead, even pointing to her being in the title sequence and the new end credits.

Episode Four:

• I stopped at the introduction sequence to notice Sayaka's black cat on her lap while she, Madoka, and Mami were on a tower in their Magical Girl attire, which I swear I never saw outside of this shot. She calls it Luna.

• She still thinks the classrooms are weird.

• During Madoka and Sayaka's meeting on the roof, we had this conversation.

Sister: Are Witches human?

Me: (A few seconds of silence) No. They're monsters.

Sister: But they're made from a curse. So who made the curse? Where do they come from?

I made sure that she doesn't have a clue towards that juicy spoiler.

• When Violin Boy (sweet lord, I can never remember his name) starts griping about how he thinks Sayaka is trying to torture him with music, she said "I thought so". When asked to clarify, she said that she thought too that Sayaka was trying to hurt him to by bringing him violin music to listen to.

I made sure to notify her of her cruelty.

• She got creeped out when Madoka got dragged into the television Labyrinth. I made Persona jokes but she doesn't play Persona so they flew over her head.

What kind of Personas do you think Madoka and the rest of the Magical Girls would have?

• She approves of Sayaka's Magical Girl costume, thinks it looks cool.

• When Violin Boy raised his now-functioning hand at the end of the episode, she cracked up at my joke of me imitating him saying "Finally! I can masturbate again!"

She still wants to watch the show. I'm hoping to get her halfway through it, after Kyoko goes down with Sayaka.

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

Madoka is one of those shows where you can't really tell a person basically anything about the show, because every single thing that happens is a spoiler.

Mami's death is a spoiler.

Kyubey being the villain is a spoiler.

Homura not being the villain is a spoiler.

Hell, even just the fact that Sayaka's a Magical Girl is a spoiler.

It's so plot-intensive that even the tone of the show is a gigantic spoiler leading down a rabbit hole of spoilers. The show is best experienced with little to no foreknowledge going in.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Oct 28th 2019 at 12:58:44 PM

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

I'd say they'd be influenced by their witch forms (or going off Magia Record, are their witch forms ) But for a more SMT-accurate response my guesses are:

• Madoka: The initial persona will be based on Gretchen, as in the Faust Character her witch is named after. Later becoming Heimarmene. She will be the requisite Fool Arcana
• Homura: Her inital persona would be based on Faust, the title character of the eponymous play. Later becoming Lucifer Judas for Rebellion-related reasons. Her Arcana would be the Devil.
• Sayaka: Her initial persona would be based on Li Ban, a human turned mermaid from Celtic myth, which would be an ironic parallel to her The Little Mermaid Motif and more fitting to her fate. Later becoming Amphitrite (partly because of more irony). She will fill the usual "Best friend gets Magician" trend
• Mami: Her arcana will be The Tower, her persona would be Yolande in reference to the namesake of Candeloro's familiars (also would be based off a Dullahan). Would later become David of David vs. Goliath fame (and being the one that beheaded the latter)
• Kyoko: Arcana would be the Hanged Man. But I got nothing on her Persona so far. (I don't think she fits The Ophelia Shtick)

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Oct 29th 2019 at 5:08:18 AM

Ophelia is the wudan witch; her starting Persona can be Hua Mulan, and her ultimate can be, like, Morrigan or smth

Edited by asterism on Oct 29th 2019 at 1:21:58 PM

Heart of Stone

You know I'm actually now wondering how Magia Record would had been plot and gameplay-wise if it was closer to Persona than it already is?

I'd love to see a full-budget Magia Record spinoff game.

So. I took my sister to the end of episode 7 or 8. She's leaving this afternoon. I'll ask her in the morning what she thinks about the show and if she wants to finish it.

• She was impressed when Sayaka conjured up multiple swords during one of her fights.

• When Sayaka began chopping at the Witch with a broken arm, she expressed the professional opinion that Sayaka's losing her mind.

• She doesn't think that Hitomi did anything wrong with Sayaka, a position for which I will go on the record with agreeing.

• Her reaction to Kyuubey getting shot to pieces by Homura was hilarious. Her mouth was hanging open in shock, a reaction she didn't have when Mami got decapitated and consumed. She was also creeped out when Kyuubey came and ate his spare.

• She now knows that Witches come from Magical Girls, a fact she had me confirm after the episode ended.

Edited by fredhot16 on Oct 30th 2019 at 10:48:37 AM

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

So apparently this very day JP Magia Record has released the rest of the main Suzune cast, and the Powers What Are saw fit to make the chick with light magic not the light-element release. Bah humbug, says I.

First thing that comes to mind is that gameplay focusing on a relatively small, fixed group of party members rather than a random assortment of gacha pulls is gonna have significant effects on how the cast is treated. For one thing, it's gonna be a lot heckin' smaller without the need to keep adding new girls to bait people into spending. The main cast, however, is likely to expand, since five is pretty small for a Persona-style party. So make more of a thing out of Momoko and Yachiyo reconciling and promote Momoko's group to full protagonists and party members for a more respectable roster. And losing Tsuruno, Sana, and Felicia to brainwashing is either a yet greater gutpunch for mechanically fucking with your ability to do things, or cut because the players would hate that shit.

Magical girls not affiliated with Magius or the PC party probably function either as rivals to have territory disputes with (Nanami's group, the Azaleas) or as vendors (Konomi, Manaka, Mitama). The Holy Quintet continues to have a role as side characters because fanservice, spinoff gals like Oriko and Kazumi get cameos for the same reason, and anyone else not accounted for can just not exist because they have no bearing on the main plot (at least as much as has been released in English).

Of course, for the true Persona experience you need a bunch of plot-heavy side games going off in random genres. So you can go get to know Asuka and Sasara in the side-scrolling beat-em-up, or whatever.

Edited by rikalous on Oct 31st 2019 at 6:25:52 AM

I see. With that answered, I also want to ask about if such a game isn't an adaptation, but a Gaiden Game with its own plot (like your hypothetical example at the bottom of your post)

Also, the thing with Suzune's cast isn't unprecedented. IIRC. Rika is Fire elemental despite her weapon being a Compact that fires Orbs/Beams of light

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Oct 31st 2019 at 6:37:01 AM

I'm pretty sure that elements are mostly decided by color with only a few oddities (like Mami)

Fight for something, even if its meaningless.

I recognize they've done this shit before, I just think all the other instances are bullshit too. Pretty sure I bitched about Hayate Yagami not being dark element here a while back, for instance.

It's not like they even consistently go for the dumber option, either. Grey-dressed fire meguca Suzune is fire element while pink-dressed punch meguca Arisa is darkness element, where the color thing would imply the other way around. So why can't they just go ahead and pick the element that best matches the fluff?

I got no clue, boss. It's hard enough to guess what the actual Persona side games are going to be like without adding in extra layers of hypotheticals.

Edited by rikalous on Oct 31st 2019 at 8:35:40 AM

All I know is that Magia Record will probably do a Symphogear event at some point (They already did Nanoha) and they will make Hibiki the most powerful unit in the entire game.

Watch Symphogear

If Hibiki shows up I expect her and Akira to fistfight until they emerge united by an unbreakable bond of friendship.

You know, when I was 14, I played the violin and had an unrequited crush on a girl in my music class who was eventually involved with someone else. I guess that made my middle school self some sort of Bizarro Universe version of Kyousuke? ^note I am also happy to note that my middle school experience did not involve mysterious contracts, supernatural powers or Eldritch Abominations

Halper's Law: as the length of an online discussion of minority groups increases, the probability of "SJW" or variations being used = 1.

Well, neither did his as far as he knew.

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

On that note, I find it amusing that Sayaka and Kyousuke are dating in Magia Record (though Sayaka in her tsun tsun fashion keeps insisting it's not a date, even though she slips up and calls it a date in her mental monologue a few times). Reminds me a little of the Bonus Route of the PSP version where Kyousuke's actually pretty supportive of Sayaka if she's upfront with him about her issues rather than clamming up.

Also, that weird shit with girls not being able to see Kyubey until they've had their periods is flat out wrong. Nagisa is clearly younger than 12 and Yuma is flat out in elementary school.

Edited by PhiSat on Nov 4th 2019 at 2:06:15 AM

Oissu!

Well, puberty can start incredibly early in girls but more importantly, WTF? I hope that rule isn't canon...

Speaking of things being too early, apparently daylight savings time broke Record's supports list, making it impossible to play any story mission that doesn't have an NPC option. Supposedly this can be fixed by setting your phone's date to yesterday, haven't tried it though.