2011-04-22, 06:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 2011-04-23, 12:25 AM by Smooth Criminal.)
Madoka 11-12, responses to Swerve inside as well:
[spoiler=]
If there was anything I felt to be more convenient than Madoka's wish, it was probably how easily Madoka convinced her mom to let her out of the shelter to go to Homura.
Episode 11 was great, though. Walpurgis Night had a sweet introduction, the music was insane, and the fight looked amazing. The countdown was especially intense to me.
Episode 12 felt too condensed. It would have been nice if they had stretched it out for another episode. Still, I found the ending to be good, but not perfect and not bad at all.
I really enjoyed the religious themes and symbolism of Madoka, especially the way they were present in this episode. I like how Gen phrased it in one of Kyubey's lines, that Madoka became a "concept". Homura's talk with Madoka while the world was being rewritten was a kind of interesting possible look on people's relationship with God, and I like how Homura went from skeptic to being able to trust Madoka with this. I did see them as being symbolic of God and Jesus, but I think they could also represent Jesus and the Apostles. I personally am starting to lean towards the later, because I feel there's more examples of that in the series. Madoka having to resist the temptations of Kyubey throughout the whole series was symbolic of what's celebrated in the Lent season- how Jesus had to resist the temptation of the devil while he was fasting in the desert for 40 days. The devil tried to tempt Jesus by making Jesus test his powers as the son of God: like asking him to make manna in the desert, to jump off a really tall building to see if angels would save him, and finally when the devil took him to the highest point in the land overlooking all of the nations in the world and asked Jesus if he would make them all his own; very much like how Kyubey continually tried to tempt Madoka about her potential and what she could do with it. Plus, there's also the whole MADOKA DIED FOR YOUR SINS. Homura is fitting of the Apostles because at the ending, she acts as a "messenger" and loyal to Madoka, rather than being about sacrifice like Jesus was. Homura was also skeptical about the idea of God, kind of like how the Apostles had their doubts.
For me, the ending was inspirational and very emotional. I really liked that idea that they sum up nicely after the credits: "Don't forget. Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember that, you are not alone." I haven't really felt very strongly towards religion in a while, and for the first time in a long time, I felt a spark of what it means to really believe in my religion again. Even without the religious nature it seems to of point at, it's still a really moving and beautiful message. I was also really moved by the scene with the arrows, especially when Madoka helped out the girl on the way to the death camp. Some of Madoka's lines about hope and the one about proving people that it's wrong to think that believing in hope is wrong were nice.
It really pulled at my heartstrings how no one, including her mother, was able to remember Madoka except for Homura. I was kind of glad that Sayaka found some kind of peace, but it was still sad how she died either way. Again, she had intrinsic flaws and there's still no getting over the fact that magical girl bodies don't age.
Hm, as to what a few people were asking about what the demons were, I think that the demons in the new world created by Madoka's wish come from the taint in Madoka's soul gem that I imagine she takes in from the new system of collecting and harvesting energy to prevent energy. It could be possible that they're also just plain a new outlet of the curses/despair in the world.
Homura seems to work directly for Madoka as an agent of sorts for her, since she probably gained her new set of powers from Madoka and how she and Madoka can communicate. It was cool to note how Homura's wings appear to resemble a witch's dimension and had a number of signature items of the witches like wheels for Oktavia and roses for Gertude. The ending was interesting, though. Could it be an entire "dimension" of sorts, maybe Homura is somewhere back in time? Actually pretty confusing.
[/spoiler]
Actually, Walpurgis Night wasn't born of any specific magical girl. I like to think of Walpurgis Night as being born from the collective despair and hatred of all witches, and being born from a concept instead of a magical girl. Walpurgis Night never gives a Grief Seed when it dies based on episode 10 and among its familiars are shadowy magical girls. The first suggests that there was no real single magical girl behind it, and the other suggests that it was born out of many.
It's possible that the Walpurgis Night is some sort of balance to ensure that all magical girls eventually tire out their Soul Gem (and it's even possible that it's an artificial witch created by the Incubators), but it's not well proven.
EDIT: I watched parts of it again, and when Walpurgis Night is defeated, it breaks up into different shadowy magical girls.
[spoiler=]
Swerve Wrote:Episode 11 was great. Episode 12 seemed tacked on and the series really needed to bend over backwards in order to have a "happy" conclusion. It is sad because much of the show relied on revealing each rule or premise in a step wise fashion. The last episode kind of made the slow structure build up completely obsolete.
Swerve Wrote:MadokaI agree with you that the resolution was 100% Deus Ex Machina, but on the contrary, I felt that the ending didn't betray any of the build-up to when Madoka finally made her wish. Madoka was told that she could reach godhood early in the series by Kyubey, but Madoka didn't understand how she would be able to help or if she was willing to accept something like that. As Madoka sinks into a heroic BSOD with all of the tragedy that's happened throughout the series, the conversations in episode 11 are what allowed Madoka to develop from being helpless into becoming heroic and prepared her for making her wish. Kyubey's conversation with Madoka at the beginning of the episode about the tragic history of magical girls helped Madoka realize that magical girls were an important part of human history and to erase the system of Incubators and magical girls would be wrong because it would not only undo that progress, but it wouldn't prevent the heat death of the universe that's been mentioned before. Homura's conversation with Madoka at Homura's home and Kyubey's discussion with Madoka in the shelter go hand in hand: Homura's conversation makes Madoka realize the tragedy Homura had been facing all of this time and Kyubey's talk with Madoka about how Homura continued to fight even without hope inspires Madoka to decide to carry on the burden of the world's suffering, so that there was someone who was always fighting for the magical girls. It made Madoka consolidate everything she's learned from learning all of the rules or premises and decide to step into becoming a hero who'd continue to take on tragedy and preventing it. In a sense, it's a coming of age and Madoka deciding it at that moment wasn't exactly so sudden and actually very well-built up, but it's just that the solution itself was so easy to accomplish.
Ending was 100% Deus Ex Machina.
If there was anything I felt to be more convenient than Madoka's wish, it was probably how easily Madoka convinced her mom to let her out of the shelter to go to Homura.
Episode 11 was great, though. Walpurgis Night had a sweet introduction, the music was insane, and the fight looked amazing. The countdown was especially intense to me.
Episode 12 felt too condensed. It would have been nice if they had stretched it out for another episode. Still, I found the ending to be good, but not perfect and not bad at all.
I really enjoyed the religious themes and symbolism of Madoka, especially the way they were present in this episode. I like how Gen phrased it in one of Kyubey's lines, that Madoka became a "concept". Homura's talk with Madoka while the world was being rewritten was a kind of interesting possible look on people's relationship with God, and I like how Homura went from skeptic to being able to trust Madoka with this. I did see them as being symbolic of God and Jesus, but I think they could also represent Jesus and the Apostles. I personally am starting to lean towards the later, because I feel there's more examples of that in the series. Madoka having to resist the temptations of Kyubey throughout the whole series was symbolic of what's celebrated in the Lent season- how Jesus had to resist the temptation of the devil while he was fasting in the desert for 40 days. The devil tried to tempt Jesus by making Jesus test his powers as the son of God: like asking him to make manna in the desert, to jump off a really tall building to see if angels would save him, and finally when the devil took him to the highest point in the land overlooking all of the nations in the world and asked Jesus if he would make them all his own; very much like how Kyubey continually tried to tempt Madoka about her potential and what she could do with it. Plus, there's also the whole MADOKA DIED FOR YOUR SINS. Homura is fitting of the Apostles because at the ending, she acts as a "messenger" and loyal to Madoka, rather than being about sacrifice like Jesus was. Homura was also skeptical about the idea of God, kind of like how the Apostles had their doubts.
For me, the ending was inspirational and very emotional. I really liked that idea that they sum up nicely after the credits: "Don't forget. Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember that, you are not alone." I haven't really felt very strongly towards religion in a while, and for the first time in a long time, I felt a spark of what it means to really believe in my religion again. Even without the religious nature it seems to of point at, it's still a really moving and beautiful message. I was also really moved by the scene with the arrows, especially when Madoka helped out the girl on the way to the death camp. Some of Madoka's lines about hope and the one about proving people that it's wrong to think that believing in hope is wrong were nice.
It really pulled at my heartstrings how no one, including her mother, was able to remember Madoka except for Homura. I was kind of glad that Sayaka found some kind of peace, but it was still sad how she died either way. Again, she had intrinsic flaws and there's still no getting over the fact that magical girl bodies don't age.
Hm, as to what a few people were asking about what the demons were, I think that the demons in the new world created by Madoka's wish come from the taint in Madoka's soul gem that I imagine she takes in from the new system of collecting and harvesting energy to prevent energy. It could be possible that they're also just plain a new outlet of the curses/despair in the world.
Homura seems to work directly for Madoka as an agent of sorts for her, since she probably gained her new set of powers from Madoka and how she and Madoka can communicate. It was cool to note how Homura's wings appear to resemble a witch's dimension and had a number of signature items of the witches like wheels for Oktavia and roses for Gertude. The ending was interesting, though. Could it be an entire "dimension" of sorts, maybe Homura is somewhere back in time? Actually pretty confusing.
[/spoiler]
Razmos Wrote:Oriko Magica starts soon, and i think it's pretty obvious she is the Magical Girl who becomes Walpurgis Night, considering the way she is drawn in official artwork (With her mouth open and her arms out, as well as a blue dress with white sleeves). Madoka isn't over yet folks, considering Kazumi Magica is still running.
Actually, Walpurgis Night wasn't born of any specific magical girl. I like to think of Walpurgis Night as being born from the collective despair and hatred of all witches, and being born from a concept instead of a magical girl. Walpurgis Night never gives a Grief Seed when it dies based on episode 10 and among its familiars are shadowy magical girls. The first suggests that there was no real single magical girl behind it, and the other suggests that it was born out of many.
It's possible that the Walpurgis Night is some sort of balance to ensure that all magical girls eventually tire out their Soul Gem (and it's even possible that it's an artificial witch created by the Incubators), but it's not well proven.
EDIT: I watched parts of it again, and when Walpurgis Night is defeated, it breaks up into different shadowy magical girls.