I was actually fairly unimpressed by the ending of Madoka. I was a little more impressed when I watched the movie. Ultimately the best part of the entire series was Homura explaining herself. Homura does an amazing thing, Madoka does not.
There are just so many bad decisions and things that don't make sense that by the time the ending came around it just didn't seem like much of a resolution. I dunno, does someone wanna help me with this?
Here's a question I thought of this morning (No I don't just think about this sort of thing, I was prompted)
Time is, in no way, reset after Madoka does her thing with, right?
I was actually fairly unimpressed by the ending of Madoka. I was a little more impressed when I watched the movie. Ultimately the best part of the entire series was Homura explaining herself. Homura does an amazing thing, Madoka does not.
There are just so many bad decisions and things that don't make sense that by the time the ending came around it just didn't seem like much of a resolution. I dunno, does someone wanna help me with this?
Here's a question I thought of this morning (No I don't just think about this sort of thing, I was prompted)
Time is, in no way, reset after Madoka does her thing with, right?
*Madoka spoilers*
The way that I perceive Madoka, is that when she said 'Kami-sama demo nan demo nai' meant that Madoka didn't even care if she became the entropy that drags the universe into it's inevitable doom. Madoka became entropy herself, a self-sacrifice solely so that the people that become magical girls do not have to cry knowing that their efforts have been all for naught. It is the peace of knowing that there is a saviour out there that has and always will be fighting for you. Madoka became 'hope' and 'entropy' combined. She became the reason why Kyuubey and the like are 'incubators'.
The reason why Puella Magi fight in the world, is because they have a benevolent god that grants their wishes. That's the only difference between space-time before and after it gets reorganized by Madoka's new laws of the universe. Instead of getting a wish granted and then watching reality twist their wish into the exact opposite of what they wanted, Puella Magi disappear because that's simply the payment for creating a net good on the world. They get their wishes granted without having to cry tears of sorrow, because Madoka exists and all Puella Magi have her as their patron saint.
At least, that's the way I interpreted things. The reason why Homura wields a bow and has 'witch' wings at the end of Madoka is because her original wish became granted. She wanted a life where the only thing that mattered is her love for Madoka. Thus, when she thought that all hope was lost and that she couldn't live on, she remembered Madoka and also the promise that they made. The promise, simply being that no one would ever forget Madoka or the good that she tried to inflict upon the world.
I was actually fairly unimpressed by the ending of Madoka. I was a little more impressed when I watched the movie. Ultimately the best part of the entire series was Homura explaining herself. Homura does an amazing thing, Madoka does not.
There are just so many bad decisions and things that don't make sense that by the time the ending came around it just didn't seem like much of a resolution. I dunno, does someone wanna help me with this?
Here's a question I thought of this morning (No I don't just think about this sort of thing, I was prompted)
Time is, in no way, reset after Madoka does her thing with, right?
I mostly agree with you, I was unimpressed with Madoka's character for most of the series just because she was so useless. But upon further consideration, and especially upon reading A Different Story, I've started to come around.
Anime spoilers follow; manga spoilers are marked as such, as vol. 3 of A Different Story just came out.
The other four may be smarter, stronger, more outwardly confident and decisive. That much is true. But all four are also deeply conflicted; they present facades to others or to themselves. Whether out of pride, fear, or whatever other reason, all four retain these delusions until they forget how to live any other way--and that's what ultimately engineers their destruction.
Homura refuses to tell others when she's hurting and when she needs help; she deludes herself into thinking she can handle everything alone. Result-- She alienates everyone else, puts herself through a lot of emotional pain, and plays into QB's hands.
Mami puts on the image of a perfect heroine when really she's just lonely and needy. Result-- She gives Sayaka unrealistic expectations, and she doesn't have Homura's help in the fight against Charlotte, with predictable results. Furthermore, she almost goes Witch when her bottled-up feelings of abandonment come out. She's also indirectly responsible for Kyouko's death, by getting in a fight with her over a misunderstanding that could've been avoided if the two had been frank about how they feel about each other.
Sayaka wants to be a shining ray of justice like she thinks Mami was. She doesn't realize that ideal is unrealistic, and in fact Mami didn't live up to it either. She doesn't realize it's okay to want to be with Kyosuke. She doesn't realize that heroes have failings too. Result--she blames herself for everything, and succumbs to despair. Her descent is all the sharper in the manga where she actually neglects to save Hitomi. She changes her mind and comes back to save Madoka and everybody, of course, but she feels horrible about it. She then cuts off her ties with Mami, because for Mami to team up with a failure of a hero is incompatible with Sayaka's image of Mami. Eventually, Sayaka does learn that Mami isn't perfect and just wants a friend--but it's already too late for her.)
Kyouko thinks she's happy just eating and playing and fighting. She doesn't realize until too late that she wants to be friends with Sayaka--and with Mami, in the manga. Result-- a lot of needless fighting, and in both stories, Kyouko's death fighting Oktavia.
Contrast Madoka. Unlike Mami and Homura, she's not afraid to admit when she's hurting. Unlike Sayaka, she doesn't tie her self-worth into an external, unattainable ideal. Unlike Kyouko, she's always willing and ready to approach others. For these reasons, she makes friends very easily. This is especially so in the manga--Kyouko avoids Mami for much of the story because she doesn't think her old senpai would ever take her back. It's Madoka who approaches Kyouko and makes the first steps toward bridging the gap.
Of course, it's easy for her to be honest when she doesn't have any skin in the game. She's powerless to affect the horrible things that are happening around her. For much of the show, she doesn't even know what she wants for herself. But, I submit, that's better than having the wrong idea what you want for yourself. She is warm, open, and selfless to her core, and because of that, she's willing to give Homura and Kyouko a chance, she's willing to keep calling out to Sayaka at great personal risk, and she's willing to be friends with the shy, sad new transfer student--which starts the chain of events that lead to the story in the first place.
Magical girls turning into Witches is a powerful metaphor because it's ultimately what's inside the girls--their own emotional blocks, their own excuses for not getting along better with others--that destroys them. No amount of fighting prowess will overcome that. And so in the end, it's Madoka--poor, weak, naive, useless, honest, kind, genuine Madoka--who turns the tide.
also pink hair is cute
Doesn't QB lie to Kyoko in order to make her think she can save Sayaka, causing her to go on a suicide mission, and pushing Madoka toward making a contract.
IIRC, QB says it's simply never been done before. This seems like it'd be pretty true. Incubators don't even fully understand how it works, and with the nature of the system in itself...
Plus in Kazumi Magica they actually somewhat manage to revert a witch back into a magical girl... KINDA SORTA, with questionable but still kind of workable results?
About the previous discussion on Madoka's character; part of the stuff they said was that after Madoka turned into a magical girl, she matured and become a strong (pseronality-wise), responsible individual. But that since Homura prevents it in the anime, it doesn't happen until the end.
About the previous discussion on Madoka's character; part of the stuff they said was that after Madoka turned into a magical girl, she matured and become a strong (pseronality-wise), responsible individual. But that since Homura prevents it in the anime, it doesn't happen until the end.
Even before becoming a magical girl, Madoka shows the frankness and openness I was talking about. This is more clearly shown in A Different Story, where she defends Sayaka against Kyouko's criticism, and later approaches Kyouko about making up with Mami, and befriends her.
But it's also visible in the anime. All the other Puellas, at some point or another, hide their feelings because they think the other party won't listen, or they're afraid of what the other party will think:
-Mami hides her reasons for becoming a magical girl from Madoka and Sayaka;
-Sayaka hides her pain from Kyosuke and Hitomi;
-Kyouko hides her own feelings from herself, and convinces herself she's happy to play and eat all the time;
-Homura hides her pain from everyone around her, and convinces herself she doesn't need anyone else.
Madoka may be the weak, useless one of the team, but she does what she can, and that's to face the terrible reality around her without hiding behind pretenses and rationalizations. That takes strength of a different sort, and it's what makes her special among the cast; it's what lets her keep calling out to Sayaka/Homura/Kyouko, and it's what makes the other characters so willing to drop everything to protect her.
I'll see if I can't accelerate the watching and see what I think.
Finished episode 12... how was this sad? Wasn't it a happy, albeit atypical, ending? Maybe because I never really invested with any of the characters. I thought it would have been extremely tragic if Madoka's wish retroactively made it that every magical girl, through the past and future, never existed as well. Possibly with the implications that either entropy would kill the universe, or that humans would never advance beyond cave-dwellers
. Though reading the wiki now is making me think it's a bittersweet ending, as the cruelty of being a magical girl still exists, as well as what happens upon expending the last of one's mana; in exchange for a wish of course.