Weh meinem Kranze! Es ist eben geschehn!
So I am kind of deeply in love with Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and Sayaka is totally my favorite character, because when you stop a magical fight with a fire extinguisher in episode one and bring a baseball bat to another magical fight in episode two you basically earn my love forever. But this is Madoka Magica, and Sayaka has not had an easy time of it, culminating, of course, in the most recent episode ("I've been such a fool").
I'm still kind of processing Sayaka's character arc, so I have some brief thoughts on what it means below.
Sayaka's arc is, first and foremost, a deconstruction of the standard magical girl views of heroism. Your Magical Girl is supposed to want to help everyone, to try to fix everybody's problems, to always think of others first. Right? NOT IN THIS SERIES. When you put others before yourself, you destroy yourself, and that leads also to those around you suffering pain and destruction.
But this brings out two more critiques Uroboshi might be making- a coming-of-age deconstruction and an attack on sexism. Both of these things are, of course, strongly related to the magical girl genre as a whole, so it makes sense to talk about them.
There are two branches of coming-of-age being addressed, the kind that Homura is advocating (especially in episode 8) and the kind that Kyubei sets in motion. Homura urges Sayaka and Madoka to "grow up," to realize that they exist in a world of interpersonal relationships that they can find happiness and meaning in. Basically- "the mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." (Okay so maybe I really wanted to bring that quote up.) This means avoiding becoming a magical girl if you can, or working in your own interest once you are one. It's being aware of and working with the system you live in. It's entering the real world.
Kyubei, on the other hand, takes you from girl to magical girl, and from magical girl to witch. It's a process of going from real to construct. The girl starts out motivated by her own desires, but becomes a tool of Kyubei's brutal system (it might not be his system specifically but it's close enough) and eventually a monster that helps perpetuate it.
And that brings us to the attack on sexism, and probably on gender roles as a whole. What Kyubei is doing is forcing these girls into a particular social role. They have particular desires for taking on this role (to make their father happy, to make their childhood friend/crush happy), but don't fully realize what the role entails until they're trapped in it. Either they grow up in the way Homura advocates, creating their own identity to assert even while they live with the role (Kyouko, at this point at least), or they self-destruct and perpetuate the system by becoming a witch (Sayaka).
What drives Sayaka past the point of no return isn't some betrayal by Hitomi or Kamijo. It's two anonymous jerks talking about how they consider women less than human. There is no reward for conforming to the expectations society places on women- all it does is destroy the self.
The process magical girls undergo are highly dramatized versions of real processes- the choice to recognize and compromise with the real world or cling to wishful thinking, the choice fulfill expectations (set by others or yourself) or to prioritize your own identity and self-interest. Sayaka, for all the best reasons, makes very bad choices.
After dreamoflight marathoned the series so far she raised an excellent point! I thought this should be shared, so I asked permission to c/p it here.
Probably Suki: is it just me or does sayaka's arc have shades of rape metaphor in
she gets something taken from her without her permission, and then feels like she's not worthy to touch the guy she loves
Lady McDudeson:...I hadn't thought of that but it really does
Probably Suki: and then the whole thing about how it wasn't Hitomi or violin boy that put her over the edge
it was two random guys talking about treating girls like dirt
LMFAO i started thinking about this after reading your thing about magical girls and femininity
Lady McDudeson: yeah, she's just been totally taken advantage of
Probably Suki: and then a random conversation on /a/ between some guys going GOD I DON'T GET WHAT THE BIG DEAL IS kind of twigged me
lmfao I think at this point you can analyze a lot of things out of this
Lady McDudeson: yeah I've seen people going "but the soul gem makes sense, why is it such a big deal" and I'm like "IT'S A LOSS OF AGENCY YOU IDIOTS"
Probably Suki: YEAH EXACTLY tbh i didn't quite get it myself at first but after i started thinking of it in terms of loss of agency/violation it made a lot more sense
Lady McDudeson: yeah, that's what makes Sayaka become so dissociative, I think. She realizes that nothing about her belongs to herself anymore.
and she clings to the idea of being a perfectly good, independent magical girl because she sees that as the only thing she can control
Probably Suki: yeah. GOD IS IT THURSDAY YET
Lady McDudeson: I WANT IT TO BE THURSDAY
I'm still kind of processing Sayaka's character arc, so I have some brief thoughts on what it means below.
Sayaka's arc is, first and foremost, a deconstruction of the standard magical girl views of heroism. Your Magical Girl is supposed to want to help everyone, to try to fix everybody's problems, to always think of others first. Right? NOT IN THIS SERIES. When you put others before yourself, you destroy yourself, and that leads also to those around you suffering pain and destruction.
But this brings out two more critiques Uroboshi might be making- a coming-of-age deconstruction and an attack on sexism. Both of these things are, of course, strongly related to the magical girl genre as a whole, so it makes sense to talk about them.
There are two branches of coming-of-age being addressed, the kind that Homura is advocating (especially in episode 8) and the kind that Kyubei sets in motion. Homura urges Sayaka and Madoka to "grow up," to realize that they exist in a world of interpersonal relationships that they can find happiness and meaning in. Basically- "the mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." (Okay so maybe I really wanted to bring that quote up.) This means avoiding becoming a magical girl if you can, or working in your own interest once you are one. It's being aware of and working with the system you live in. It's entering the real world.
Kyubei, on the other hand, takes you from girl to magical girl, and from magical girl to witch. It's a process of going from real to construct. The girl starts out motivated by her own desires, but becomes a tool of Kyubei's brutal system (it might not be his system specifically but it's close enough) and eventually a monster that helps perpetuate it.
And that brings us to the attack on sexism, and probably on gender roles as a whole. What Kyubei is doing is forcing these girls into a particular social role. They have particular desires for taking on this role (to make their father happy, to make their childhood friend/crush happy), but don't fully realize what the role entails until they're trapped in it. Either they grow up in the way Homura advocates, creating their own identity to assert even while they live with the role (Kyouko, at this point at least), or they self-destruct and perpetuate the system by becoming a witch (Sayaka).
What drives Sayaka past the point of no return isn't some betrayal by Hitomi or Kamijo. It's two anonymous jerks talking about how they consider women less than human. There is no reward for conforming to the expectations society places on women- all it does is destroy the self.
The process magical girls undergo are highly dramatized versions of real processes- the choice to recognize and compromise with the real world or cling to wishful thinking, the choice fulfill expectations (set by others or yourself) or to prioritize your own identity and self-interest. Sayaka, for all the best reasons, makes very bad choices.
After dreamoflight marathoned the series so far she raised an excellent point! I thought this should be shared, so I asked permission to c/p it here.
Probably Suki: is it just me or does sayaka's arc have shades of rape metaphor in
she gets something taken from her without her permission, and then feels like she's not worthy to touch the guy she loves
Lady McDudeson:...I hadn't thought of that but it really does
Probably Suki: and then the whole thing about how it wasn't Hitomi or violin boy that put her over the edge
it was two random guys talking about treating girls like dirt
LMFAO i started thinking about this after reading your thing about magical girls and femininity
Lady McDudeson: yeah, she's just been totally taken advantage of
Probably Suki: and then a random conversation on /a/ between some guys going GOD I DON'T GET WHAT THE BIG DEAL IS kind of twigged me
lmfao I think at this point you can analyze a lot of things out of this
Lady McDudeson: yeah I've seen people going "but the soul gem makes sense, why is it such a big deal" and I'm like "IT'S A LOSS OF AGENCY YOU IDIOTS"
Probably Suki: YEAH EXACTLY tbh i didn't quite get it myself at first but after i started thinking of it in terms of loss of agency/violation it made a lot more sense
Lady McDudeson: yeah, that's what makes Sayaka become so dissociative, I think. She realizes that nothing about her belongs to herself anymore.
and she clings to the idea of being a perfectly good, independent magical girl because she sees that as the only thing she can control
Probably Suki: yeah. GOD IS IT THURSDAY YET
Lady McDudeson: I WANT IT TO BE THURSDAY