Madoka Magica 08 (again) & Supernatural 6x15
→ This round of Bleach wank is the oddest thing ever. I mean, there's not even any IchiHime bashing at the center of it! What is Bleach fandom coming to?
→ Pointed out by yumemiya, there's more Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica disscussion on the myanimelist forums, which even includes episode by episode discussion (which makes it so much easier to avoid spoilers), including episode 8.
→ As promised, I have been spamming a crapload of Madoka Magica art on tumblr, but I've also been busy with Arakawa Under the Bridge, One Piece, Gundam 00, Tales of Vesperia, Shaman King, Kingdom Hearts, Okami, Ranma 1/2, Bleach, and Final Fantasy XIII.
It's currently a struggle not to make a Final Fantasy-centric tumblr, you guys.
→ One of the side affects of being so hardcore into the Madoka Magica section on Pixiv is that I'm finding a lot of art of a whole bunch of different ships... and finding that I'm enjoying everything in this fandom. It's really nice to be in a fandom where there is a multitude of girls (well, five, but that's a decent sized cast, even if it's not Tenipuri or Bleach-sized) where they all have really defined relationships with each other. And you can ship just about anything because the series is good about having them all interact with each other! ♥
I definitely ship Homura/Madoka and Kyouko/Sayaka the hardest, but I always get a little shot of joy when I see pretty Homura/Kyouko or Mami/Madoka or Sayaka/Madoka. Which leads me to something interesting about this show that I never really realized until I started thinking about shipping: Madoka doesn't have a love interest. With some of the things she's said/been willing to do, as Wolfie pointed out, that's usually love interest territory--but instead, here, it's about friendship. It's a really interesting subversion of that trope!
Sayaka is the only one with an actual love interest... well, unless you count the potential Homura/Madoka, which I'm just about ready to by this point. Which, I have to say, would be one of the greatest subversions ever--you think she's just going to be a forgotten best friend from childhood or something, but then nope! LOVE INTEREST. (It'll never happen, but, oh, I wish it would.)
→ Okay, the real point of this post. There was a theory being tossed around about MAHOU SHOUJO MADOKA MAGICA EPISODE 8 and I went back to take a closer look and started spitballing more theories. That means SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS for this episode again, of course.
The theory is that Homura's possibly a future!Madoka (which I don't buy, given the way she's devoted to Madoka, it doesn't feel like the way she would be devoted to herself) because her soul gem was pink, when all the other girls' soul gems have matched their coloring. By that logic, Homura's gem should have been at least purple, right?
So, I went back to take another look at the scene where she tries to kill Sayaka.
I can see why people would think that her soul gem was pink, because that is an awfully light shade there when her soul gem on her hand glows. But I think it is actually meant to be purple, you can tell by the flare of light as she reaches for Sayaka, it's definitely a lot more purple there. It still does kind of give off a pink-ish tint, which I'm willing to think might still mean something in terms of her soul gem, especially because her coloring is awfully similar to that black cat, and Wolfie and I tossed around the theory was that maybe Madoka "died" in the future (or her body was ruined somehow) so Homura took her soul gem back into the past.
Ultimately, we both mostly dismissed these theories because Madoka is going to create ~*the utlimate magical girl*~ and I doubt that her soul gem would only be able to do as much as Homura's been able to. Even if you go with the theory that Madoka's being so powerful and being able to bend the laws of physics would allow her time manipulation and maybe that's where Homura got her power, it just doesn't quite feel like it adds up to me.
However! What was curious about that scene is Homura's shield, because:
- Homura has her soul gem on her wrist when she goes to kill Sayaka before Kyouko interupts by grabbing hold of her.
- Kyouko says, oh, I see, if I've got ahold of you, you can't use that technique of yours, so Homura grabs that grenade of hers and forces Kyouko away that way.
- In the split second before she does that, you can see her shield opening up to reveal two gems on it and, when Homura uses her ability to manipulate time so she can run away from the grenade blast, some sort of magical energy runs through the shield.
One looks pink/maroon-ish, the other (it's in shadow, though, so it's hard to tell) looks blue.
It made me think about the conversation on Madoka's soul gem being with Homura as she travelled back in time, but maybe... it's Kyouko and Sayaka's soul gems instead. Which got me thinking--because I generally assume Sayaka is going to die/be corrupted at some point, since she wasn't in Madoka's dream--about how maybe that was Madoka and Sayaka's soul gems on her shield. Maybe she's using their magic to try to manipulate this timeline into a better outcome somehow? Is it possible to use another person's soul gem? Why else have that brief flash of Homura's shield, showing it opening up to reveal the gems just before she used her power? But why would Homura have Sayaka's gem, if she's been corrupted as a witch? (I'm assuming this happened in her previous timeline as well.)
And then I thought, well. It makes me wonder if a witch's grief seed could be purified in the same way a magical girl's soul gem can be corrupted--maybe those are the soul gems of Sayaka and Kyouko instead, because it looks awfully similar to Kyouko's coloring.
And that made me think: How horrible would it be if there was a way to purify a grief seed back into a soul gem, but Kyuubei never told them that because a) he needs lunch and b) well, they never asked~.
Other stray observations about this episode:
→ I forgot to mention Kyuubei's speech at the end. Young women in this country are called "shoujo" and they use "mahou", becoming "mahou shoujo" so it's only natural that they become "majo". Jfc, that was disturbing.
→ It's confirmed that they're fighting former magical girls, which brings a whole new level of disturbing to the entire series. It's not surprising (by this point) but it really piled on in this episode with Sayaka's descent. It's not a pretty sight--you're so angry and miserable yourself that want to lash out at others, want to make them experience what you're experiencing, because you feel so alone in this hell of yours, you want other people to do something for you by understanding what you're going through. Sayaka said those very things herself--why don't you become a magical girl, Sayaka, if you want to understand what I'm going through? To be trapped in that until a magical girl comes to kill you. That's your existance now. Knowing that they're after your grief seed, that you're just going to be used and then thrown away, all over again.
Just so I'm not all Madoka Magica, I watched last night's Supernatural this morning, so SPOILERS for 6x15 - "The French Mistake". (Along with some mentions of the previous episode.)
So, I watched "Mannequin 3: The Reckoning" last week, which was a fairly routine episode, though the mannequins were pretty creepy in the way they would staaaaaare at their victims and then kill them. After the opening scene, the title popped up on the screen and I can't lie. I laughed out loud for a good thirty seconds. MANNEQUIN 3: THE RECKONING, LOL LOL LOL. BEST EPISODE TITLE EVER.
The rest of the episode was just sort... there? Not bad, I enjoyed it. And I'm glad that Lisa and Ben weren't killed off, but still managed to be put on the backburner because, well, Supernatural is never going to let either Dean or Sam be in a long-term relationship. So, this was probably the best situation that could come of it. And, even if it changed nothing, I enjoyed Ben calling Dean out on abandoning them, I enjoyed the show not having to get out the biggest sledgehammer they had to draw the parallels to Dean's own childhood with John.
I also enjoyed the haunted kidney storyline, even if I thought it was wrapped up way too neatly by just killing the sister off, too. It's an interesting premise to raise, an interesting twist on the usual ghost stories they tell, but the way it was all just conveniently swept away by the end kept it from being a really standout idea.
I also enjoyed Sam's puppy faces again and Dean's beautiful line of how to handle their lives: "You shove it down and let it come out in spurts of violence and alcoholism." Dean = ♥
OKAY, SO. THE FRENCH MISTAKE. (A decent title, but nothing really great like last week's.) I KIND OF LOVED IT RIDICULOUSLY. I love that it was completely over the top meta, I love that the show was poking all kinds of fun at itself, I love the poking fun at all the names on this show ("I'm something called a Jared Padalecki?" "So what? Now you're Polish?" LOLLING SO HARD), I love the references to Sera Gamble and Erick Kripke (SLO-MO WALKING WHILE GETTING SHOT, LOL FOREVER) and I love pretty much everything. I love that Edlund found the ~*magic*~ again and I don't know how long it's been since I laughed this hard at an episode. ♥
I love how they just went for the balls to the wall self-referencing meta here, I love that it was completely over the top batshit insane and, because of that enthusiasm and willingness to poke fun at themselves, it worked brilliantly. I love that it wasn't about mocking the fans this time around, maybe they've finally learned that lesson? (I was wincing in preparation of mocking the fans, especially mocking the Wincest fans, but it never happened and the episode was so much stronger for that.) It didn't try to overreach itself, either, which I super appreciated--it was one giant excuse to have an episode where Dean and Sam are shoved into the bodies of Jensen and Jared, which is all it needed to be. It didn't have to push the Mother of All storyline, it barely changed much of the fight in Heaven, but that's okay. That's not what this was about.
(Okay, there was the one line about how "So we'd have to blow off the scene where they sit on the Impala and talk about their feelings." and "You answer the hate mail." but I think that was actually pretty friendly.)
And, yeah, they didn't do anything revolutionary with it, but I think I would have been disappointed if they hadn't made fun of Jensen's trailer or his time on a soap opera or the blue steel gazes on the cover of TV Guide or Jensen's marriage to Genevieve (I kept waiting for mentions of Danneel, but I guess her not really being connected to the show kept her out of the storyline--or maybe she just didn't want to get caught up in it? I certainly wouldn't blame her, given that show's crazy fanbase) or Jensen's house or Misha and his tweeting or Kripke and Gamble. I would have been dissatisfied if they hadn't gone to those jokes! I would have been disappointed if they hadn't had a scene where Dean and Sam have to act and oh my lord. Watching Jared look anywhere but the camera, watching Jensen try to glare and growl, watching Jared CONSTANTLY FIDGETING in the background, I was crying with the lolz. MISHA'S FACE when he's mouthing "What the hell?" as he turns away from them!
I know that they're never going to be genius actors, but I really think they've become good actors, with these characters and on this show. Certainly, they both have a gift for the comedic episodes, because even the greatest script in the world doesn't mean much if you can't get an actor who can fidget just right or do a mockery of his character's dark glare with just the right notes. When this show is on, it's really on, something I can alllllmost respect again.
And the characters! Like Sam! In this life where he's not responsible for the apocalypse and he has a great house and an adorable wife (oh my god how cute were they? if I were into western rpf, I might totally ship that ♥) and trying to play it cool while talking to her and then still choosing to go back to his own world because they mean something there.
I loved the WTF WE'RE IN CANANDA? references to Vancouver and I love that we didn't actually get any real people on the show (aside from Jensen, Jared, Genevieve, and Misha) because it lets this storyline take place in a world that's similar to reality, but not actual reality. This way they can kill off Misha, they can make everyone look like a tool, they can make fun of Jared and Jensen, they can make fun of Kripke and Gamble, but it's not actually true. Instead, it's a silly, let's poke fun at ourselves, version of the whole thing instead. I loved that.
I enjoyed the actual plotful stuff at the end, too. I enjoyed Balthazar's return, I enjoyed that he was working with Castiel, I enjoyed that it was all one big goose chase (which makes a lot of sense for them), I enjoyed Balthazar and Castiel working together (plz let them continuing being awesome together, show!)
Stray observations:
→ I'm not nearly up enough on the behind the scenes stuff with Supernatural to catch all the references to the crew, to know which ones played themselves and which ones were actors, but I laughed really hard at every scene Clif was in.
→ I love how the plot of the episode (such as it was) was mirrored through the dialogue, it was actually a pretty clever way to keep things moving.
→ Misha's blue sweater!! IT WAS AMAZING. And SOUNDING OUT THE FROWNY FACE EMOTICON. And! HOLA, MISHAMIGOS. Crying when Virgil killed him! Taking the subtle picture of Dean and Sam after a bad day of "acting"! You can tell this was a total blast for him.
→ Basically, I kind of loved everything. ♥
→ Pointed out by yumemiya, there's more Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica disscussion on the myanimelist forums, which even includes episode by episode discussion (which makes it so much easier to avoid spoilers), including episode 8.
→ As promised, I have been spamming a crapload of Madoka Magica art on tumblr, but I've also been busy with Arakawa Under the Bridge, One Piece, Gundam 00, Tales of Vesperia, Shaman King, Kingdom Hearts, Okami, Ranma 1/2, Bleach, and Final Fantasy XIII.
It's currently a struggle not to make a Final Fantasy-centric tumblr, you guys.
→ One of the side affects of being so hardcore into the Madoka Magica section on Pixiv is that I'm finding a lot of art of a whole bunch of different ships... and finding that I'm enjoying everything in this fandom. It's really nice to be in a fandom where there is a multitude of girls (well, five, but that's a decent sized cast, even if it's not Tenipuri or Bleach-sized) where they all have really defined relationships with each other. And you can ship just about anything because the series is good about having them all interact with each other! ♥
I definitely ship Homura/Madoka and Kyouko/Sayaka the hardest, but I always get a little shot of joy when I see pretty Homura/Kyouko or Mami/Madoka or Sayaka/Madoka. Which leads me to something interesting about this show that I never really realized until I started thinking about shipping: Madoka doesn't have a love interest. With some of the things she's said/been willing to do, as Wolfie pointed out, that's usually love interest territory--but instead, here, it's about friendship. It's a really interesting subversion of that trope!
Sayaka is the only one with an actual love interest... well, unless you count the potential Homura/Madoka, which I'm just about ready to by this point. Which, I have to say, would be one of the greatest subversions ever--you think she's just going to be a forgotten best friend from childhood or something, but then nope! LOVE INTEREST. (It'll never happen, but, oh, I wish it would.)
→ Okay, the real point of this post. There was a theory being tossed around about MAHOU SHOUJO MADOKA MAGICA EPISODE 8 and I went back to take a closer look and started spitballing more theories. That means SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS for this episode again, of course.
The theory is that Homura's possibly a future!Madoka (which I don't buy, given the way she's devoted to Madoka, it doesn't feel like the way she would be devoted to herself) because her soul gem was pink, when all the other girls' soul gems have matched their coloring. By that logic, Homura's gem should have been at least purple, right?
So, I went back to take another look at the scene where she tries to kill Sayaka.
I can see why people would think that her soul gem was pink, because that is an awfully light shade there when her soul gem on her hand glows. But I think it is actually meant to be purple, you can tell by the flare of light as she reaches for Sayaka, it's definitely a lot more purple there. It still does kind of give off a pink-ish tint, which I'm willing to think might still mean something in terms of her soul gem, especially because her coloring is awfully similar to that black cat, and Wolfie and I tossed around the theory was that maybe Madoka "died" in the future (or her body was ruined somehow) so Homura took her soul gem back into the past.
Ultimately, we both mostly dismissed these theories because Madoka is going to create ~*the utlimate magical girl*~ and I doubt that her soul gem would only be able to do as much as Homura's been able to. Even if you go with the theory that Madoka's being so powerful and being able to bend the laws of physics would allow her time manipulation and maybe that's where Homura got her power, it just doesn't quite feel like it adds up to me.
However! What was curious about that scene is Homura's shield, because:
- Homura has her soul gem on her wrist when she goes to kill Sayaka before Kyouko interupts by grabbing hold of her.
- Kyouko says, oh, I see, if I've got ahold of you, you can't use that technique of yours, so Homura grabs that grenade of hers and forces Kyouko away that way.
- In the split second before she does that, you can see her shield opening up to reveal two gems on it and, when Homura uses her ability to manipulate time so she can run away from the grenade blast, some sort of magical energy runs through the shield.
One looks pink/maroon-ish, the other (it's in shadow, though, so it's hard to tell) looks blue.
It made me think about the conversation on Madoka's soul gem being with Homura as she travelled back in time, but maybe... it's Kyouko and Sayaka's soul gems instead. Which got me thinking--because I generally assume Sayaka is going to die/be corrupted at some point, since she wasn't in Madoka's dream--about how maybe that was Madoka and Sayaka's soul gems on her shield. Maybe she's using their magic to try to manipulate this timeline into a better outcome somehow? Is it possible to use another person's soul gem? Why else have that brief flash of Homura's shield, showing it opening up to reveal the gems just before she used her power? But why would Homura have Sayaka's gem, if she's been corrupted as a witch? (I'm assuming this happened in her previous timeline as well.)
And then I thought, well. It makes me wonder if a witch's grief seed could be purified in the same way a magical girl's soul gem can be corrupted--maybe those are the soul gems of Sayaka and Kyouko instead, because it looks awfully similar to Kyouko's coloring.
And that made me think: How horrible would it be if there was a way to purify a grief seed back into a soul gem, but Kyuubei never told them that because a) he needs lunch and b) well, they never asked~.
Other stray observations about this episode:
→ I forgot to mention Kyuubei's speech at the end. Young women in this country are called "shoujo" and they use "mahou", becoming "mahou shoujo" so it's only natural that they become "majo". Jfc, that was disturbing.
→ It's confirmed that they're fighting former magical girls, which brings a whole new level of disturbing to the entire series. It's not surprising (by this point) but it really piled on in this episode with Sayaka's descent. It's not a pretty sight--you're so angry and miserable yourself that want to lash out at others, want to make them experience what you're experiencing, because you feel so alone in this hell of yours, you want other people to do something for you by understanding what you're going through. Sayaka said those very things herself--why don't you become a magical girl, Sayaka, if you want to understand what I'm going through? To be trapped in that until a magical girl comes to kill you. That's your existance now. Knowing that they're after your grief seed, that you're just going to be used and then thrown away, all over again.
Just so I'm not all Madoka Magica, I watched last night's Supernatural this morning, so SPOILERS for 6x15 - "The French Mistake". (Along with some mentions of the previous episode.)
So, I watched "Mannequin 3: The Reckoning" last week, which was a fairly routine episode, though the mannequins were pretty creepy in the way they would staaaaaare at their victims and then kill them. After the opening scene, the title popped up on the screen and I can't lie. I laughed out loud for a good thirty seconds. MANNEQUIN 3: THE RECKONING, LOL LOL LOL. BEST EPISODE TITLE EVER.
The rest of the episode was just sort... there? Not bad, I enjoyed it. And I'm glad that Lisa and Ben weren't killed off, but still managed to be put on the backburner because, well, Supernatural is never going to let either Dean or Sam be in a long-term relationship. So, this was probably the best situation that could come of it. And, even if it changed nothing, I enjoyed Ben calling Dean out on abandoning them, I enjoyed the show not having to get out the biggest sledgehammer they had to draw the parallels to Dean's own childhood with John.
I also enjoyed the haunted kidney storyline, even if I thought it was wrapped up way too neatly by just killing the sister off, too. It's an interesting premise to raise, an interesting twist on the usual ghost stories they tell, but the way it was all just conveniently swept away by the end kept it from being a really standout idea.
I also enjoyed Sam's puppy faces again and Dean's beautiful line of how to handle their lives: "You shove it down and let it come out in spurts of violence and alcoholism." Dean = ♥
OKAY, SO. THE FRENCH MISTAKE. (A decent title, but nothing really great like last week's.) I KIND OF LOVED IT RIDICULOUSLY. I love that it was completely over the top meta, I love that the show was poking all kinds of fun at itself, I love the poking fun at all the names on this show ("I'm something called a Jared Padalecki?" "So what? Now you're Polish?" LOLLING SO HARD), I love the references to Sera Gamble and Erick Kripke (SLO-MO WALKING WHILE GETTING SHOT, LOL FOREVER) and I love pretty much everything. I love that Edlund found the ~*magic*~ again and I don't know how long it's been since I laughed this hard at an episode. ♥
I love how they just went for the balls to the wall self-referencing meta here, I love that it was completely over the top batshit insane and, because of that enthusiasm and willingness to poke fun at themselves, it worked brilliantly. I love that it wasn't about mocking the fans this time around, maybe they've finally learned that lesson? (I was wincing in preparation of mocking the fans, especially mocking the Wincest fans, but it never happened and the episode was so much stronger for that.) It didn't try to overreach itself, either, which I super appreciated--it was one giant excuse to have an episode where Dean and Sam are shoved into the bodies of Jensen and Jared, which is all it needed to be. It didn't have to push the Mother of All storyline, it barely changed much of the fight in Heaven, but that's okay. That's not what this was about.
(Okay, there was the one line about how "So we'd have to blow off the scene where they sit on the Impala and talk about their feelings." and "You answer the hate mail." but I think that was actually pretty friendly.)
And, yeah, they didn't do anything revolutionary with it, but I think I would have been disappointed if they hadn't made fun of Jensen's trailer or his time on a soap opera or the blue steel gazes on the cover of TV Guide or Jensen's marriage to Genevieve (I kept waiting for mentions of Danneel, but I guess her not really being connected to the show kept her out of the storyline--or maybe she just didn't want to get caught up in it? I certainly wouldn't blame her, given that show's crazy fanbase) or Jensen's house or Misha and his tweeting or Kripke and Gamble. I would have been dissatisfied if they hadn't gone to those jokes! I would have been disappointed if they hadn't had a scene where Dean and Sam have to act and oh my lord. Watching Jared look anywhere but the camera, watching Jensen try to glare and growl, watching Jared CONSTANTLY FIDGETING in the background, I was crying with the lolz. MISHA'S FACE when he's mouthing "What the hell?" as he turns away from them!
I know that they're never going to be genius actors, but I really think they've become good actors, with these characters and on this show. Certainly, they both have a gift for the comedic episodes, because even the greatest script in the world doesn't mean much if you can't get an actor who can fidget just right or do a mockery of his character's dark glare with just the right notes. When this show is on, it's really on, something I can alllllmost respect again.
And the characters! Like Sam! In this life where he's not responsible for the apocalypse and he has a great house and an adorable wife (oh my god how cute were they? if I were into western rpf, I might totally ship that ♥) and trying to play it cool while talking to her and then still choosing to go back to his own world because they mean something there.
I loved the WTF WE'RE IN CANANDA? references to Vancouver and I love that we didn't actually get any real people on the show (aside from Jensen, Jared, Genevieve, and Misha) because it lets this storyline take place in a world that's similar to reality, but not actual reality. This way they can kill off Misha, they can make everyone look like a tool, they can make fun of Jared and Jensen, they can make fun of Kripke and Gamble, but it's not actually true. Instead, it's a silly, let's poke fun at ourselves, version of the whole thing instead. I loved that.
I enjoyed the actual plotful stuff at the end, too. I enjoyed Balthazar's return, I enjoyed that he was working with Castiel, I enjoyed that it was all one big goose chase (which makes a lot of sense for them), I enjoyed Balthazar and Castiel working together (plz let them continuing being awesome together, show!)
Stray observations:
→ I'm not nearly up enough on the behind the scenes stuff with Supernatural to catch all the references to the crew, to know which ones played themselves and which ones were actors, but I laughed really hard at every scene Clif was in.
→ I love how the plot of the episode (such as it was) was mirrored through the dialogue, it was actually a pretty clever way to keep things moving.
→ Misha's blue sweater!! IT WAS AMAZING. And SOUNDING OUT THE FROWNY FACE EMOTICON. And! HOLA, MISHAMIGOS. Crying when Virgil killed him! Taking the subtle picture of Dean and Sam after a bad day of "acting"! You can tell this was a total blast for him.
→ Basically, I kind of loved everything. ♥