Lian watches Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Episode 9
I've had these notes lying around for ages, but I got so caught up with life and writing my other stuff that I haven't posted them. Time to correct that!
Episode 9: "I'll never allow that"
1. The opening sequence, once so typically magical girl fluff, has become almost unbearable to watch now.
2. Kyoko is angered by the coldness with which Homura breaks the news to Madoka, but Homura ignores her and tries once again to make it clear to Madoka that becoming a magical girl is a terrible thing. It's really hard to hear her talk about disposing of Sayaka's body, and how she calls it a hunk of meat. What happened to Homura?
(Note from the future: As mentioned before, Homura only cares about saving Madoka, that is her madness mantra, and she doesn't have the strength to do it gently and with consideration to her feelings anymore. Homura is really on her last legs here.)
3. OH GOD FUCKING KYUBEY AGAIN.
Choke on your ears plz.
As expected, he is completely unapologetic about his deceit and his monstrous operation. Infuriatingly, he falls back to the claim that the contracts were entered willingly, completely neglecting the fact that he stalks and creates situations, most of the time urgent, in which the girls are pressured by the circumstances to accept the trade (Mami is a prime example of this, as well as when Sayaka was in danger from her fight with Kyoko and Kyubey was pushing Madoka to become a magical girl so she could save her). Madoka points out that he is just tricking everyone, which is basically what I said summed up in a nutshell, because the poor soul is simply too broken to come up with a list of analyzed examples.
Kyubey says he doesn't understand what it means to trick someone, and I don't believe him. As always, everything with him is semantics-based. I am sure he understands deceit very well, but since he never outright lies, I think there is room for ambiguity here. He probably says he doesn't understand because he believes can never go through something like that, and therefore, when it comes to emotions, he thinks he cannot understand what he cannot experience? I don't know. Either way, what a detestable little creature.
He explains why he is doing this, and goes from trying to lure Madoka with promises of wishfulfillment and power to asking her to sacrifice herself for the sake of the universe.
Oh my beautiful baby, what is it doing to you?
(Note from the future: It's clear that the contract devised by Kyubey has a million strings, because in the end, it amounts to "lose your humanity, suffer and then die for the universe." And not a lot of teenage girls would really go for that, hence the need for subterfuge. And in a way, what Kyubey does makes sense from the perspective of his race. If we were to know that killing a few of us would save our entire universe, wouldn't we find a way to do it? I know it goes against our values and the thousands of years of ancestral struggle that our predecessors endured to get the world we have now, as flawed as it is, but in the end, it's a Trolley Problem. When forced to, we will choose to kill one to save more. It's somehow embedded in our genes, and it helped us survive through the ages. And as horrible and ethically corrupt as this logic is, I understand it. It makes me really uncomfortable to know and to admit it, but it makes sense to me.
However.
Kyubey's civilisation is really advanced, and they never thought about researching an alternative method for this in all those years? Especially since, as we will see in the last episode, they are able to grant what amounts to divine powers to other people. I refuse to believe that with their abilities, they couldn't have come up with something else. Even without emotions, they should have been able to draw the conclusion that not suffering is better than suffering and looked for an alternative, even more efficient method. ARGH.
Maybe Kyubey did just that and they made this anime to harvest the anger that emanates from me as I watch it, and in this case THE UNIVERSE IS SAVED, Y'ALL.)
4. Kyoko is preserving Sayaka's body in the hopes that she will be able to bring her back somehow, the beautiful cinnamon roll. She asks Kyubey if there is a way to recover Sayaka's soul gem, and he answers: "Not that I know of."
To which Kyoko concludes: "Does that mean there are things you don't know, then?"
That's a slippery slope, Kyoko. Kyubey's answer is ambiguous, but leaves enough room for interpretation to make Kyoko hopeful. If I learned anything from this show, it's that Kyubey will happily let you draw the wrong conclusion if it means an advantage for him.
5. Madoka still has to go to school and function as if nothing happened. I am screaming on the inside.
*
6. I like the symbolism here. Madoka has a unicorn on her side, a symbol of purity and magical healing powers. Not sure why Kyoko would be represented by a mermaid, though.
(Note from the future: As I now got a better look at Octavia, Sayaka's witch form, I know that she has a mermaid's tail! So the mermaid being on Kyoko's side is a foreshadowing of her fight with Octavia. Another interesting little bit is the number of bells (lines) hanging from or above each ornament. Madoka has seven, a lucky number, while Kyoko has four, which in Japan and in other cultures is the number representing death.)
7. Kyoko is inspired by Sayaka's passion and wants to save her, just like a knight in a fairy tale. I love how Sayaka's idealism and uncompromising love for justice has had such an impact on Kyoko's cynicism. Her death was like a great ember cracking and sending sparks everywhere, lighting little fires in the hearts of those who knew her. Oh God Sayaka, I will never get over you.
And the I Know You're In There Somewhere trope is invoked, a trope I am sure you are all familiar with. One of the characters is under a spell or mind control and their friends try to reach him and help him break free during their fight. It's one of the most common solutions to mind control in media, and I am afraid to hope for success, as uplifting as the girls' discussion is. They gather themselves and make one final attempt to save poor, wonderful Sayaka... but if this anime has taught me anything, it's that it tears tropes apart and eats them for breakfast.
(Note from the future:
)
8. It's amazing how big of a role architecture plays in this anime. The girls are dwarfed by the foreboding landscape, the columns of the bridge looking like a gate into the Underworld in the red hues of the sunset. And earlier, the gentle light of the after-rain gave a beautiful freshness to the bonding scene between them.
9. Sayaka's witch form is a mixture of symbols, starting with The Little Mermaid, who sacrificed herself for the sake of her beloved, and let him be happy with another girl, to the time when she saw Kamijou perform and presumably fell for him. She is now in the center of attention, commanding the not only the orchestra herself but also her entire universe. Octavia has control of her world now.
10. You tried, Kyoko. God didn't answer. He and Sayaka are both dead.
What's worse, it is revealed that once again, Kyubey used ambiguity to lure Kyoko into sacrificing herself, because it will leave Homura alone to face the Walpurgis and force Madoka into making a wish and becoming a magical girl.
Episode 9: "I'll never allow that"
1. The opening sequence, once so typically magical girl fluff, has become almost unbearable to watch now.
2. Kyoko is angered by the coldness with which Homura breaks the news to Madoka, but Homura ignores her and tries once again to make it clear to Madoka that becoming a magical girl is a terrible thing. It's really hard to hear her talk about disposing of Sayaka's body, and how she calls it a hunk of meat. What happened to Homura?
(Note from the future: As mentioned before, Homura only cares about saving Madoka, that is her madness mantra, and she doesn't have the strength to do it gently and with consideration to her feelings anymore. Homura is really on her last legs here.)
3. OH GOD FUCKING KYUBEY AGAIN.
Choke on your ears plz.
As expected, he is completely unapologetic about his deceit and his monstrous operation. Infuriatingly, he falls back to the claim that the contracts were entered willingly, completely neglecting the fact that he stalks and creates situations, most of the time urgent, in which the girls are pressured by the circumstances to accept the trade (Mami is a prime example of this, as well as when Sayaka was in danger from her fight with Kyoko and Kyubey was pushing Madoka to become a magical girl so she could save her). Madoka points out that he is just tricking everyone, which is basically what I said summed up in a nutshell, because the poor soul is simply too broken to come up with a list of analyzed examples.
Kyubey says he doesn't understand what it means to trick someone, and I don't believe him. As always, everything with him is semantics-based. I am sure he understands deceit very well, but since he never outright lies, I think there is room for ambiguity here. He probably says he doesn't understand because he believes can never go through something like that, and therefore, when it comes to emotions, he thinks he cannot understand what he cannot experience? I don't know. Either way, what a detestable little creature.
He explains why he is doing this, and goes from trying to lure Madoka with promises of wishfulfillment and power to asking her to sacrifice herself for the sake of the universe.
Oh my beautiful baby, what is it doing to you?
(Note from the future: It's clear that the contract devised by Kyubey has a million strings, because in the end, it amounts to "lose your humanity, suffer and then die for the universe." And not a lot of teenage girls would really go for that, hence the need for subterfuge. And in a way, what Kyubey does makes sense from the perspective of his race. If we were to know that killing a few of us would save our entire universe, wouldn't we find a way to do it? I know it goes against our values and the thousands of years of ancestral struggle that our predecessors endured to get the world we have now, as flawed as it is, but in the end, it's a Trolley Problem. When forced to, we will choose to kill one to save more. It's somehow embedded in our genes, and it helped us survive through the ages. And as horrible and ethically corrupt as this logic is, I understand it. It makes me really uncomfortable to know and to admit it, but it makes sense to me.
However.
Kyubey's civilisation is really advanced, and they never thought about researching an alternative method for this in all those years? Especially since, as we will see in the last episode, they are able to grant what amounts to divine powers to other people. I refuse to believe that with their abilities, they couldn't have come up with something else. Even without emotions, they should have been able to draw the conclusion that not suffering is better than suffering and looked for an alternative, even more efficient method. ARGH.
Maybe Kyubey did just that and they made this anime to harvest the anger that emanates from me as I watch it, and in this case THE UNIVERSE IS SAVED, Y'ALL.)
4. Kyoko is preserving Sayaka's body in the hopes that she will be able to bring her back somehow, the beautiful cinnamon roll. She asks Kyubey if there is a way to recover Sayaka's soul gem, and he answers: "Not that I know of."
To which Kyoko concludes: "Does that mean there are things you don't know, then?"
That's a slippery slope, Kyoko. Kyubey's answer is ambiguous, but leaves enough room for interpretation to make Kyoko hopeful. If I learned anything from this show, it's that Kyubey will happily let you draw the wrong conclusion if it means an advantage for him.
5. Madoka still has to go to school and function as if nothing happened. I am screaming on the inside.
*
6. I like the symbolism here. Madoka has a unicorn on her side, a symbol of purity and magical healing powers. Not sure why Kyoko would be represented by a mermaid, though.
(Note from the future: As I now got a better look at Octavia, Sayaka's witch form, I know that she has a mermaid's tail! So the mermaid being on Kyoko's side is a foreshadowing of her fight with Octavia. Another interesting little bit is the number of bells (lines) hanging from or above each ornament. Madoka has seven, a lucky number, while Kyoko has four, which in Japan and in other cultures is the number representing death.)
7. Kyoko is inspired by Sayaka's passion and wants to save her, just like a knight in a fairy tale. I love how Sayaka's idealism and uncompromising love for justice has had such an impact on Kyoko's cynicism. Her death was like a great ember cracking and sending sparks everywhere, lighting little fires in the hearts of those who knew her. Oh God Sayaka, I will never get over you.
And the I Know You're In There Somewhere trope is invoked, a trope I am sure you are all familiar with. One of the characters is under a spell or mind control and their friends try to reach him and help him break free during their fight. It's one of the most common solutions to mind control in media, and I am afraid to hope for success, as uplifting as the girls' discussion is. They gather themselves and make one final attempt to save poor, wonderful Sayaka... but if this anime has taught me anything, it's that it tears tropes apart and eats them for breakfast.
(Note from the future:
)
8. It's amazing how big of a role architecture plays in this anime. The girls are dwarfed by the foreboding landscape, the columns of the bridge looking like a gate into the Underworld in the red hues of the sunset. And earlier, the gentle light of the after-rain gave a beautiful freshness to the bonding scene between them.
9. Sayaka's witch form is a mixture of symbols, starting with The Little Mermaid, who sacrificed herself for the sake of her beloved, and let him be happy with another girl, to the time when she saw Kamijou perform and presumably fell for him. She is now in the center of attention, commanding the not only the orchestra herself but also her entire universe. Octavia has control of her world now.
10. You tried, Kyoko. God didn't answer. He and Sayaka are both dead.
What's worse, it is revealed that once again, Kyubey used ambiguity to lure Kyoko into sacrificing herself, because it will leave Homura alone to face the Walpurgis and force Madoka into making a wish and becoming a magical girl.