HOLY CRAP THAT WAS AMAZING.
→ One Piece is getting theme park events, which is seriously pretty rad. ♥
→ Another Madoka Magica discussion forum (on animesuki) that looks pretty active and I've been enjoying. There's even a specific thread just for episode 08! (They're also the one with the fantastic Madoka Magica manga thread that I enjoyed.)
→ Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica 08, which means SPOILERS and OH MY GOD THIS SHOW. I CAN'T EVEN--
As soon as the episode came out, both rubyd and yumemiya were both OMG OMG OMG over it, so I knew it was at least going to be a rather explosive episode, but even with my expectations raised, I was still absolutely blown away by this episode. It was non-stop in the second half there and I don't even know how to begin to cover all of it!
We got a couple of pieces of confirmed theorizing here--witches are indeed corrupted magical girls, Homura has time manipulation powers of some kind, and she's from another timeline. I'm not sure if that means she's from the future or if she's from a parallel timeline or what. They were careful to say that she was from a different timeline, not just say she's from the future, so I'm not putting my money on future!Homura yet, but... maybe from a different timeline all together? Possibly still the future, but this one breaks off, thus making it different? I'm not sure yet.
We also got the implication that Homura and Madoka are connected in some other way, though, the series was careful not to explain what exactly. I've seen theorizing that she's Madoka herself from a future timeline or the assumption that she's a (forgotten) childhood friend of Madoka's, but I'm not sure I'm putting money on either of those yet. (Especially not her being a different version of Madoka--I can't see Madoka being that devoted to herself, but I can easily see someone else loving Madoka enough to be that devoted to her.)
There were more hints of Walpurgisnacht as well--Homura knows the area where it's going to happen, Kyouko wonders how she knows, which is more evidence for future!Homura, I guess. We don't know how Kyuubei (QB?) figured Madoka out, but maybe he is evil or going to be the big bad--Homura called him Incubator (or, as I've seen, InQBtor, lolz), implying that she knew what his real plans were.
And she shot him, which was a HOLY MOTHER OF FUCK moment (and where the episode really kicked it into high gear) and turned him into Swiss cheese, then another Kyuubei came along and ATE THE PREVIOUS BODY OMG WTF WTF WTF WTF. I WAS STARING IN SHOCK AT THE SCREEN RIGHT ABOUT THEN. I-- I think I have to revise my earlier statements that Kyuubei wasn't evil so much as just not understanding human emotion. I AM WILLING TO CONSIDER THAT HE MIGHT JUST BE EVIL, EVEN THE BIG BAD.
I'm not 100% sold on the idea that the witch Sayaka turned into is going to be Walpurgisnacht (though, if I had to pick a horse in this race, that one would definitely be it), there's still the possiblity that it could be something Kyuubei is trying to bring about. And we don't know what's going to happen to Kyouko between now and then, since she wasn't in Madoka's dream, either. I'm not putting money on her surviving until the final episode (unless Madoka's wish is to bring everyone back).
There were also implications of what Madoka could become if she became a magical girl--she could become an omnipotent goddess, she could rewrite the laws of physics, etc. It makes one wonder if she couldn't just wish everything back to the way it was--that's one theory I kind of like about the ending, that maybe Madoka will finally become a magical girl, freeing all the other magical girls.
Also! So now that we know magical girls ==> witches, it makes me wonder if my Madoka = Charlotte theory is correct. Homura certainly warned Mami that Charlotte was more powerful than she was expecting--though, you'd think that Madoka would create the ULTIMATE witch if she fell. Which I'm wondering if that's not where they're going, because Homura said everything was about Madoka, that she didn't care about Sayaka beyond how it was affecting Madoka. As we've watched Sayaka become overtaken by grief and sorrow, we've also seen Madoka become overtaken by grief and sorrow, which will only continue as Sayaka's witch form needs to be hunted down. If she became a magical girl and she became corrupted, she would make one hell of a witch. (Or maybe several witches?)
And Sayaka. Oh, man. I'm glad they didn't try to drag her storyline out, because the pacing of it here was incredible. Everything just piled on and piled on, she lashed out at Madoka and then felt horribly guilty and that just fed into her misery even more. She was all alone, she wasn't using the grief seeds because she didn't want to selfishly use magic for herself and I love that it was understandable. I wish someone has just said, YOU WILL BECOME A WITCH THAT WILL HURT PEOPLE IF YOU DON'T HEAL YOURSELF, but she wasn't really listening. I could believe that she was so wound up in her own pain and misery, that everything had spiralled out of control on her, that she'd been so manipulated and tossed around by all these events, that she felt like she was already dead, that she wouldn't do it. It was a perfect storm for creating a witch out of her.
The animation was amazing in this episode. I continue to love the contrast of the cutesy character designs against the beautiful backdrops, some of which are just stunning. The scene of Sayaka's soul gem bursting apart as it turned into a grief seed was just incredible to watch. I can't even really comment much about it, because it was just too perfectly done. Her scene on the train, the lack of seeing their faces, the black&white inside there, even Sayaka's body language was all creepy as hell and masterfully done. I loved her defense of the women that those two douchebags were denigrating, I loved her calling them out on their shit, I loved that it just further destroyed her strength of will to keep fighting, by showing her just what (and whom) she's fighting for.
This episode also definitely brought around more Homura/Madoka--Homura's desperation to save her, her laser-like focus on Madoka's character at times, the way her tough, calm shell cracked when talking to Madoka and she cried so heartbrokenly that she couldn't even chase after Madoka. It reminds me that one of my favorite things about this series is the way the girls all have interesting relationships with each other. You can take nearly any two girls of the main five (if you include Mami) and there's at least been a scene that touched on their dynamic, that each girl has their own relationship with the others. It's kind of wonderful to be into a series with such strong female characters.
(If only they were a little older, then I might feel more comfortable with makeouts.)
Other stray thoughts:
→ Someone asked, "Does Sayaka retain her regenerative powers as a witch?" and I had a mental keyboard smashing moment because, oh dear lord, how horrible would that be? Trying and trying and trying to kill witch!Sayaka who just won't die? That would be awful for poor Madoka.
→ This episode made sure to bring back the theme of balance between hope and despire. Sayaka says she finally understands what Kyouko was talking about, she talked about hope for one person bringing despair for another, that a gift for one person brings a curse to another (or along those lines) and I'm not sure that it's a direct law of the series, more... a theme of the show.
→ It's impressive that so much of what happened in this episode has been theorized, that not a lot of it was a real surprise, and yet I was glued to the tv screen and my jaw dropped in shock at several points. This series is definitely going on at least my top 20 list (if not higher!) if it can keep that level of quality up.
→ I've seen theories that Madoka is the Walpurgisnacht, but I don't buy that just yet. Kyouko mentioned that it had never been seen in this area before, which implied that it had been seen in other areas. If Madoka is a level of magical girl that's never been seen before, I doubt that she would be what's coming. On the other hand, do we have solid evidence to tie Madoka's dream sequence to the Walpurgisnacht? We don't really know much of anything about that dream of hers, do we?
→ Going back to the Homura = future!Madoka idea, well, I have to take some steps back on that one. I was reading the animesuki forums and someone pointed out that Homura's soul gem was actually pink when she used it, but all the other magical girls' soul gems have all been their color (usually their hair color), so why wouldn't hers be at least a purple sort of color? Then it was mentioned that maybe Homura's body was different because her original one was destroyed, since soul gems may allow for a girl to be transplated into another body. If so, is Homura's body that black cat we see in the opening "transmuted" into a girl? And her power is one of time manipulation (in some way or other), which Madoka could likely have if she became a magical girl.
I'm not sure I'm buying that theory entirely, because I don't think future!Madoka would be so callous and uncaring towards Sayaka, I think she would want to do everything to save Sayaka, rather than just saving herself. Not to mention, as powerful as Homura is, she's not Madoka levels of powerful--if she were really future!Madoka, why wouldn't she have more power? (Unless she were damaged in some way, but that seems stretching things even further.) But, certainly, it does make one wonder about the signifigance of that black cat and why Homura's soul gem is a different color than you'd expect.
→ If you go by the theory that Homura is in a bit of a time loop (in an attempt to stop the apocalypse or whatever), it does bring to mind thoughts of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni's Rika and how closed-off she became, how she stopped feeling like an emotional young girl, but instead a hardened soldier, and I... I am not opposed to that idea. This series has often reminded me of Higurashi in some ways, even if it's not quite as dark. I'm not willing to put money on this theory, either, at least not yet, but I'm certainly keeping it in mind.
I suspect this may be Homura's first time trying to change things, honestly--but I have seen the theory that her line from episode 7 about "people not believing her" when she tried to tell them directly is why she won't say what she knows (which is clearly something, like how she wouldn't answer Madoka's questions after she'd shot Kyuubei), instead trying to nudge things in the right direction without having everyone outright disbelieve anything she says/does.
And now I am going to go look at a hundred thousand pieces of fanart until episode 9 comes out. *chews on own arm in the meantime*
→ Another Madoka Magica discussion forum (on animesuki) that looks pretty active and I've been enjoying. There's even a specific thread just for episode 08! (They're also the one with the fantastic Madoka Magica manga thread that I enjoyed.)
→ Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica 08, which means SPOILERS and OH MY GOD THIS SHOW. I CAN'T EVEN--
As soon as the episode came out, both rubyd and yumemiya were both OMG OMG OMG over it, so I knew it was at least going to be a rather explosive episode, but even with my expectations raised, I was still absolutely blown away by this episode. It was non-stop in the second half there and I don't even know how to begin to cover all of it!
We got a couple of pieces of confirmed theorizing here--witches are indeed corrupted magical girls, Homura has time manipulation powers of some kind, and she's from another timeline. I'm not sure if that means she's from the future or if she's from a parallel timeline or what. They were careful to say that she was from a different timeline, not just say she's from the future, so I'm not putting my money on future!Homura yet, but... maybe from a different timeline all together? Possibly still the future, but this one breaks off, thus making it different? I'm not sure yet.
We also got the implication that Homura and Madoka are connected in some other way, though, the series was careful not to explain what exactly. I've seen theorizing that she's Madoka herself from a future timeline or the assumption that she's a (forgotten) childhood friend of Madoka's, but I'm not sure I'm putting money on either of those yet. (Especially not her being a different version of Madoka--I can't see Madoka being that devoted to herself, but I can easily see someone else loving Madoka enough to be that devoted to her.)
There were more hints of Walpurgisnacht as well--Homura knows the area where it's going to happen, Kyouko wonders how she knows, which is more evidence for future!Homura, I guess. We don't know how Kyuubei (QB?) figured Madoka out, but maybe he is evil or going to be the big bad--Homura called him Incubator (or, as I've seen, InQBtor, lolz), implying that she knew what his real plans were.
And she shot him, which was a HOLY MOTHER OF FUCK moment (and where the episode really kicked it into high gear) and turned him into Swiss cheese, then another Kyuubei came along and ATE THE PREVIOUS BODY OMG WTF WTF WTF WTF. I WAS STARING IN SHOCK AT THE SCREEN RIGHT ABOUT THEN. I-- I think I have to revise my earlier statements that Kyuubei wasn't evil so much as just not understanding human emotion. I AM WILLING TO CONSIDER THAT HE MIGHT JUST BE EVIL, EVEN THE BIG BAD.
I'm not 100% sold on the idea that the witch Sayaka turned into is going to be Walpurgisnacht (though, if I had to pick a horse in this race, that one would definitely be it), there's still the possiblity that it could be something Kyuubei is trying to bring about. And we don't know what's going to happen to Kyouko between now and then, since she wasn't in Madoka's dream, either. I'm not putting money on her surviving until the final episode (unless Madoka's wish is to bring everyone back).
There were also implications of what Madoka could become if she became a magical girl--she could become an omnipotent goddess, she could rewrite the laws of physics, etc. It makes one wonder if she couldn't just wish everything back to the way it was--that's one theory I kind of like about the ending, that maybe Madoka will finally become a magical girl, freeing all the other magical girls.
Also! So now that we know magical girls ==> witches, it makes me wonder if my Madoka = Charlotte theory is correct. Homura certainly warned Mami that Charlotte was more powerful than she was expecting--though, you'd think that Madoka would create the ULTIMATE witch if she fell. Which I'm wondering if that's not where they're going, because Homura said everything was about Madoka, that she didn't care about Sayaka beyond how it was affecting Madoka. As we've watched Sayaka become overtaken by grief and sorrow, we've also seen Madoka become overtaken by grief and sorrow, which will only continue as Sayaka's witch form needs to be hunted down. If she became a magical girl and she became corrupted, she would make one hell of a witch. (Or maybe several witches?)
And Sayaka. Oh, man. I'm glad they didn't try to drag her storyline out, because the pacing of it here was incredible. Everything just piled on and piled on, she lashed out at Madoka and then felt horribly guilty and that just fed into her misery even more. She was all alone, she wasn't using the grief seeds because she didn't want to selfishly use magic for herself and I love that it was understandable. I wish someone has just said, YOU WILL BECOME A WITCH THAT WILL HURT PEOPLE IF YOU DON'T HEAL YOURSELF, but she wasn't really listening. I could believe that she was so wound up in her own pain and misery, that everything had spiralled out of control on her, that she'd been so manipulated and tossed around by all these events, that she felt like she was already dead, that she wouldn't do it. It was a perfect storm for creating a witch out of her.
The animation was amazing in this episode. I continue to love the contrast of the cutesy character designs against the beautiful backdrops, some of which are just stunning. The scene of Sayaka's soul gem bursting apart as it turned into a grief seed was just incredible to watch. I can't even really comment much about it, because it was just too perfectly done. Her scene on the train, the lack of seeing their faces, the black&white inside there, even Sayaka's body language was all creepy as hell and masterfully done. I loved her defense of the women that those two douchebags were denigrating, I loved her calling them out on their shit, I loved that it just further destroyed her strength of will to keep fighting, by showing her just what (and whom) she's fighting for.
This episode also definitely brought around more Homura/Madoka--Homura's desperation to save her, her laser-like focus on Madoka's character at times, the way her tough, calm shell cracked when talking to Madoka and she cried so heartbrokenly that she couldn't even chase after Madoka. It reminds me that one of my favorite things about this series is the way the girls all have interesting relationships with each other. You can take nearly any two girls of the main five (if you include Mami) and there's at least been a scene that touched on their dynamic, that each girl has their own relationship with the others. It's kind of wonderful to be into a series with such strong female characters.
(If only they were a little older, then I might feel more comfortable with makeouts.)
Other stray thoughts:
→ Someone asked, "Does Sayaka retain her regenerative powers as a witch?" and I had a mental keyboard smashing moment because, oh dear lord, how horrible would that be? Trying and trying and trying to kill witch!Sayaka who just won't die? That would be awful for poor Madoka.
→ This episode made sure to bring back the theme of balance between hope and despire. Sayaka says she finally understands what Kyouko was talking about, she talked about hope for one person bringing despair for another, that a gift for one person brings a curse to another (or along those lines) and I'm not sure that it's a direct law of the series, more... a theme of the show.
→ It's impressive that so much of what happened in this episode has been theorized, that not a lot of it was a real surprise, and yet I was glued to the tv screen and my jaw dropped in shock at several points. This series is definitely going on at least my top 20 list (if not higher!) if it can keep that level of quality up.
→ I've seen theories that Madoka is the Walpurgisnacht, but I don't buy that just yet. Kyouko mentioned that it had never been seen in this area before, which implied that it had been seen in other areas. If Madoka is a level of magical girl that's never been seen before, I doubt that she would be what's coming. On the other hand, do we have solid evidence to tie Madoka's dream sequence to the Walpurgisnacht? We don't really know much of anything about that dream of hers, do we?
→ Going back to the Homura = future!Madoka idea, well, I have to take some steps back on that one. I was reading the animesuki forums and someone pointed out that Homura's soul gem was actually pink when she used it, but all the other magical girls' soul gems have all been their color (usually their hair color), so why wouldn't hers be at least a purple sort of color? Then it was mentioned that maybe Homura's body was different because her original one was destroyed, since soul gems may allow for a girl to be transplated into another body. If so, is Homura's body that black cat we see in the opening "transmuted" into a girl? And her power is one of time manipulation (in some way or other), which Madoka could likely have if she became a magical girl.
I'm not sure I'm buying that theory entirely, because I don't think future!Madoka would be so callous and uncaring towards Sayaka, I think she would want to do everything to save Sayaka, rather than just saving herself. Not to mention, as powerful as Homura is, she's not Madoka levels of powerful--if she were really future!Madoka, why wouldn't she have more power? (Unless she were damaged in some way, but that seems stretching things even further.) But, certainly, it does make one wonder about the signifigance of that black cat and why Homura's soul gem is a different color than you'd expect.
→ If you go by the theory that Homura is in a bit of a time loop (in an attempt to stop the apocalypse or whatever), it does bring to mind thoughts of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni's Rika and how closed-off she became, how she stopped feeling like an emotional young girl, but instead a hardened soldier, and I... I am not opposed to that idea. This series has often reminded me of Higurashi in some ways, even if it's not quite as dark. I'm not willing to put money on this theory, either, at least not yet, but I'm certainly keeping it in mind.
I suspect this may be Homura's first time trying to change things, honestly--but I have seen the theory that her line from episode 7 about "people not believing her" when she tried to tell them directly is why she won't say what she knows (which is clearly something, like how she wouldn't answer Madoka's questions after she'd shot Kyuubei), instead trying to nudge things in the right direction without having everyone outright disbelieve anything she says/does.
And now I am going to go look at a hundred thousand pieces of fanart until episode 9 comes out. *chews on own arm in the meantime*