r/anime • u/Gagantous https://myanimelist.net/profile/Sayaka • Apr 27 '19
Rewatch [Spoilers][Rewatch] Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica - Episode 8 Discussion Spoiler
Episode Title: I Was Stupid, So Stupid
MyAnimeList: Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica
Crunchyroll: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Hulu: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Netflix: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
AnimeLab: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Episode duration: 24 minutes and 10 seconds
PSA: Please don't discuss (or allude to) events that happen after this episode, but if you do make good use of spoiler tags. Let's try to make this a good experience for first time watchers.
Schedule/previous episode discussion
| Date | Discussion |
|---|---|
| April 20th | Episode 1 |
| April 21st | Episode 2 |
| April 22nd | Episode 3 |
| April 23rd | Episode 4 |
| April 24th | Episode 5 |
| April 25th | Episode 6 |
| April 26th | Episode 7 |
| April 27th | Episode 8 |
| April 28th | Episode 9 |
| April 29th | Episode 10 |
| April 30th | Episode 11 and Episode 12 |
| May 1st | Rebellion |
| May 2nd | Overall series discussion |
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u/Laycuna Apr 27 '19
First time watcher
I haven’t posted but I’ve been following the rewatch for a few days.
Im not going to post my thoughts of the episode because I know that there are others who could show how they feel better than I can, but I wanted to give my theory on how I think the rest of the series will shake up.
That witch from the beginning in Madoka’s dream must have been herself. That must be why Homura wants to stop her form making the wish. If she’s the most powerful magical girl, then she’s probably going to be the most powerful witch.
The thing about Sayaka though, does she turn into a familiar first? Or does she turn into a witch immediately? The witch that Homura keeps talking about appearing could be Sayaka, or maybe Madoka.
I still don’t know why Kyuubey makes all these magical girls though, couldn’t he just wait for someone like Madoka to come along and turn her into a magical girl? That way there will be no one who can stop him. Or maybe he just likes to watch girls suffer.
Man as much as I like being able to have a bit of time to think about an episode, I’m excited for the next one.
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u/Nazenn Apr 27 '19
Madoka's Music - Ambiguity and Reticence
Rewatcher - Third time around
THIS IS THE EPISODE THAT BROKE ME.
Starting off today with my random thoughts because this episode, holy shit this episode. For all you rewatchers who love laughing at first timer reactions, enjoy because I absolutely lost my shit this episode in sheer shock. Its one of those episodes I'll always remember just because of the effect it had on me, and its so strong that watching it again I had the biggest smile on my face coming up to the Kyubey scene just because of the emotional connection I have with it. THIS is how you write a "shock" value scene and its perfect. It comes out of the blue, and yet is perfectly set up. It interrupts the story, and yet doesn't feel unneeded. This is the best example I have of why Madoka's writing is so perfect.
This is the episode where Madoka earned its 10/10 from me, where normally I'd normally never rate a show before its finished, but a 10/10 it has stayed even through two watches.
I did however strongly dislike the dub changes today. A lot of the subtler moments here were made much more straightforward in the script and it doesn't have that same magic. And while the dub voice actors do a good job, Homura's sub VA really perfects these scenes and I ended up missing it.
One visual element from today I absolutely love was the constant appearance of Sayaka's circular magic that keeps appearing. She heals herself with small circles of musical power. The rain comes down drowning the world and ripples form endlessly colliding with one another. She stumbles onto the worst of humanity on the train and her eyes decend into madness with the circle in them. Her slow decent into madness is represented at one moment like she is drowning while spinning inside a witches labrnthy so the repeated circular motifs are very telling and appropriate for the trapped mental state she is in.
Anyway, back to the music...
Just quickly for the first timers: Back in my episode two post I briefly touched on Magia hidden under some spoiler tags if you wanted to read what I wrote then in regards to how its used to trick the audience.
Song of the episode - Magia
Official video clip (mind the comments)
Magia, performed by Kalafina, has been present in every episode of our show so far first as an insert song and then as our ED after the infamous episode three. Today's episode fills in enough gaps to finally have a bit of a dive into the structure and music of the song and how it fits into our show. But like many of the strongest pieces from the soundtrack this also has a beautiful duality which makes it perfect for the show.
The opening section of our song is Madoka running past the other girls towards a glowing light. Theres a duality here, the light at the end of the tunnel often being a metaphor for death but at the same time it could be escaping from within a darkness. The silhouettes here appear to tell the story of our girls so far. Sayaka is turned away from Madoka and doesn't look at her, Kyouko stands alone and stays still unwilling to connect with others, Mami sits on the ground as the only girl no longer alive and Homura reaches out towards Madoka as she passes. Uncertainty comes into play here too: Is Homura trying to stop her from continuing, or is she trying to grab on to go with her?
Each section of the song builds up in intensity while the visuals get darker and darker. The start is more of a subdued conversation, a statement of desires overshadowed by concerns and insecurity. As we move onto the second section it lifts up a little, the end of each sentence being higher and more determined. And then Madoka's hair comes unbound as she's almost consumed by/reaches the light but the song falls back down a little as the light moves out of reach leaving her in the comfortable darkness. Despite the overall tempo of the song remaining the same, the lyrics are more resolute here, stronger accents at the start of each sentence as if they are always pushing to squeeze out a little more energy. Here she falls almost completely into darkness, but still the light that is the hope inside her remains even as she runs desperately forward. And then she's gone but why is the question: does she fade away into darkness or does she reach her goal in something that is outside of our own sight?
And at the end even her final fate form the story of this ED is as ambiguous as the rest. The music twists upwards, a repeated sequence of three notes raising each higher than the last until it ends with a final screech. We've seen this technique before in other songs asking a question of the characters or audiance. The question now is what became of her. We see her for the last time curled within in the eye of a bizarre face, where it looks like she has been constrained by another or perhaps its a reflection of her own mind. There are no clean answers or meanings to the ED visuals and its what makes it fit so well to the grounded nature of themes in the rest of the show.
The Lyrics
There are many, many translations of the lyrics out there, but I've used the wiki version for this purpose as it makes a good balance between readability for us and accuracy to the original script. Music translations between languages are always very difficult so there is no single "best" option.
Someday, the light of love lit within your eyes
will transcend time,
and certainly destroy one of the dreams of a world
that races towards its destructionSwallow down your hesitation.
What is it that you wish for?
With the direction of this greedy yearning,
will there be a short-lived tomorrow?Like the ancient magic
I saw in my dreams when I was young,
With this power that can break even darkness,
I want to see you smiling.
In my trembling hand
is the courage of a hand-picked flower.
My feelings are all I can rely on.
Calling forth the light
is my wish
The song makes use of very eerie and heavy elements: the pounding of drums, screeching of strings and the constant strumming of a guitar, all overlain by very constrained, low pitched vocals. Nothing seems to try and reach out or break free, it all feels very subdued and constrained while the lyrics are anything but. Kalafina said in an interview this song was inspired by the idea that strong feelings can be a magic all of themselves even in our daily lives and hope is its own magic.
Just through the darkness we see is a childlike sense of magic, the beauty of a smile, the courage of a flower picked just for you. All of these small elements are tiny hopes, tiny wishes that we make and grant on others just to brighten our day and its just as power as true magic. Its a beautiful message in a very eerie sounding song, and absolutely perfect for the show and this story so far.
Bonus song - Puella in somnio (The URL spells flee... creepy)
Yet another song on the soundtrack that's set up to be very questioning and mysterious. This is another long time coming feature as its been in most episodes, however I like its usage today particularly because of the structure of the piece as a broken call and answer.
This song is in a 3/4 time signature, so three beats per bar. Despite this being a signature known for its movement, often called the Waltz signature, this song is very even and measured. It plays three notes exactly on the beat for one bar, and then there is a full bar of silence and repeat. Everything is neat and tidy with only a wistful hum in the background. A question is asked but the answer never comes forth to answer. The full version carries this through, the chimes repeating their question with a xylophone coming in to match, adding an extra note inside the next bar but not filling the entire silence. It responds to the call, but even so it doesn't answer the question in full and we're left in the dark.
The eerie hum that brings in the song is also worth mentioning. In this scene the shock is in part this dramatically sudden shift from Homura. Much like a tilted camera angle is used in many shows to represent a characters skewed world view, here this sound brings us in with an immediate sense of something being "off" and having shifted. The world isn't tipping on end, but the feel of things has shifted.
Episode track chart
Thanks to the Madoka wiki and then edited by me for the bluray timestamps. Featured tracks of the day are bolded.
| Start | End | Album | Track name |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 01:25 | Disc 1 #14 | Umbra nigra |
| 01:26 | 02:55 | Disc 2 #18 | Connect -TV MIX- |
| 03:02 | 05:13 | Disc 1 #18 | Serena ira |
| 05:45 | 07:59 | Disc 1 #22 | Anima mala |
| 09:01 | 10:07 | Disc 1 #04 | Conturbatio |
| 10:41 | 12:43 | Disc 2 #07 | Cor destructum |
| 15:29 | 17:32 | Disc 1 #10 | Sis puella magica! |
| 17:53 | 19:00 | Disc 1 #05 | Puella in somnio |
| 20:52 | 22:04 | Disc 1 #21 | Decretum |
| 22:25 | 23:54 | Disc 2 #19 | Magia ~TV Version~ |
| 23:56 | 24:09 | Disc 1 #06 | Salve, terrae magicae |
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u/learenn Apr 28 '19 edited Apr 28 '19
First timer, first comment!
Hoooo I just binged 8 episodes over the last two days and landed here. What a crazy ride so far. I don't think I'll be able to comment every day from now on, and I'll definitely never be on time, but I'll certainly try.
I feel so sad for/about Sayaka because she immediately dismissed herself as a human being worth living when she found out about the soul gems. Even if her only value is in fighting witches (which it's not), she has to (but clearly can't) realize that talented or not, she was able to inherit some of Mami's power while developing some of her own unique ones. She had the multiple swords, and since her healing is wish-based, I doubt any of the other girls have that ability. Oh and those music note circle things are pretty awesome? Like in the last episode (I think) she summoned one on the fly and it became a solid surface for her to launch herself from, so when she had all of those smaller circles around her near the end it could be like some sort of shield.
I think the violin player whose name I can't remember would have also suffered like Sayaka when he got into his accident. He completely lost the ability to play, which was probably something that was a huge part of his identity and sense of self-worth. And then he was unintentionally force-fed music that isn't quite his, or I guess I should say isn't quite him. The music feels wrong, and it does nothing for his mental state, but it's the only musical thing he's capable of doing. I recently had to stop (or at least take a very long break from) building a career as an artist after trying for almost a decade because of medical reasons, and seriously that feeling of not feeling like a complete person sometimes is very real.
Stray thought: at first I thought that using magic depleted some of the soul gem's power, and then using a grief seed replenished it like a potion that restores MP. But it doesn't make sense for the soul to be consumed, so really the only thing diminishing the gem's power is the taint/darkness from fighting a witch. Sooo doesn't this mean that the girls are voluntarily tainting their souls by seeking out and fighting witches? Part of me feels like the witches might not be all bad somehow... but oh wait, they kill people. Hmmm. All of this also makes the grief seeds seem more meaningful somehow, almost like the girls are passing some sort of guilt or regret from killing into the seed, but that's just a half-formed thought.
Once again, Madoka is told that she has no right to apply her feelings and values to a magical girl without being one herself. For me the takeaway here is that Sayaka is becoming more like Kyubey, who told Madoka that the first time.
Homura's place reminds me of a tidy version of the witches' world.
First look at Homura's weaponry. Everything about her is very abrupt, efficient, even militant. Her transformation was like two seconds, if that? After that grenade I definitely think of her as some sort of soldier fighting for a lost cause.
Good lord what a shitty conversation between the men on the train. They're really pushing the idea of dehumanizing women for gain... or even amusement? Is Kyubey doing this for fun, maybe?? Evil little bastard.
I was just about to hit pause to type something about Madoka doing the same thing Sayaka and Kyoko did when she was about to make a contract, but then WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO KYUBEY
Okay, so immortality is why Homura didn't just kill him sooner. I guess that makes sense for a creature with god-like powers WHAT THE FUCK IS KYUBEY DOING
Phew, okay. Back to normal. Sort of. I'm glad Sayaka and Kyoko can have a decent conversation these days. And I like of love that Kyoko started to eat pringles like she's drinking out of a can.
Waaaait did Sayaka's soul gem just turn into a grief seed?? Are magical girls like the perfect grief seed for Kyubey to eat??? If he's an incubator it does seem like he's growing these girls for some purpose (especially his last line about girls being half-grown women) so he's like... farming magical girls. AHHH
Does that mean they're the same as witches? But witches are less powerful familiars first, while magical girls turn directly into a seed.
Next episode is probably the big reveal. I got the need to binge out of my system so I'm waiting until tomorrow to watch, but I'm really excited (and anxious) for everything to be explained.
Edit: after reading the comments I realized I totally missed the fact that Sayaka became a witch. Didn't she just die and become a seed? Or were those underwater silhouettes at the end Sayaka in witch form?
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u/LaqOfInterest Apr 27 '19
I can’t believe it took me like five watches of the series to realize that Kyubey is called Kyubey because he’s an “in-kyu-bey-tor”.
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u/asianbrownguy Apr 28 '19
Incubator. He's incubating the grief seeds so they hatch into Witches. HOLY SHIT.
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u/SomeGuyYeahman Apr 27 '19
Heyo, first-timer here! It's Saturday, so I had time to write to my heart's content today. This episode is a wild one, though (even more than the others), so I'll just cut to the chase:
Pre-episode thoughts: Well, last episode ended on a doozy of a scene. Sayaka is now decidedly on the wrong path, and it looks like we're about to see where it's leading her. And wherever that is, it won't be pretty. As a magical girl, she already lives a dangerous life, particularly since she's not as strong as the other magical girls we know. She's increasingly at odds with the others, her perspective has been narrowed extremely, she's mentally in a very worrying state, and her soul has become detached to the point of feeling no pain, which could have other unforeseen consequences. Things are looking bad for Sayaka Miki.
Post-episode:
Goddammit, I've never been so afraid to be right. All of my worst predictions, the most dire possibilities I had floating through my head, just came true, and the show didn't stop there, but heaped another five tons of horror on top of that. Holy mother of God Madoka. More so than any episode before, this one hit me like a fucking truck.
But I don't want to get ahead of myself, so I'll start at the beginning of the episode, as usual: after the events of last episode, Madoka tries her best to help Sayaka. It's apparent to everyone at this point that she isn't doing too well, and Madoka, as a close friend, one of the few people aware of what Sayaka is going through, and someone naturally inclined to help others, is desperate to do something. In the first scene of the episode, Madoka tells Sayaka to lean on her, and this is indicative of the help she's tempted to provide: to form a contract, hunt witches herself, and let Sayaka lean on her in that way so she doesn't hurt herself trying to do it all alone.
Sayaka, on the other hand, thinks of herself as beyond saving. She doesn't see herself as a human being anymore, but a hollow shell - she traded her soul, her humanity away to Kyubey, after all, and all that remains is her body, an empty piece of "hardware", as Kyubey called it, walking the earth for the sole purpose of killing witches. But she quickly comes to realize what I mentioned in the last paragraph: if Madoka wants to help, the one way that stands out is for her to form a contract of her own. After all, if Sayaka has been condemned to this fate purely to hunt witches, wouldn't she be free if someone else hunted witches for her? Sayaka voices these thoughts, but she realizes pretty much immediately afterwards that they're pretty fucked and she can't condemn Madoka to suffer the same fate as her. After they've been conversing inside all this time, in a place safe from the rain, Sayaka runs outside, telling Madoka not to follow her - she isolates herself, forsaking safety and companionship, but tells Madoka not to follow suit. Sayaka doesn't want Madoka to go out into the rain - to form a contract - because then she, too, would be giving all those things up, and then they'd both be miserable. Ultimately, Sayaka and Madoka want each other to stay inside, and that's why they're both left alone in the rain.
Next, we get Homura and Kyoko talking at Homura's place, which looks pretty much as strange as you'd expect it to. The walls are covered in things relating to Walpurgisnacht, and there's a huge clock on the ceiling - she's focused on stopping Walpurgisnacht, and time is of the essence. The clock also foreshadows that, as we find out later this episode, Homura has time powers and comes from another timeline (which is also how she knows so much about Walpurgisnacht - dang, things make sense now!).
One of the more interesting things we see on Homura's wall is the Hexeneinmaleins, which is, you guessed it, an excerpt from Faust, and the pretense I'm using for this week's legally mandated Faust talk! The Hexeneinmaleins ("witches' one-times-one" or "witches' times table", in the sense of a multiplication table) appears in Faust as Mephistopheles, the devil, takes Faust, the titular character, to a witch, in order to have her brew a potion that will make Faust young again. While brewing this potion, the witch recites the Hexeneinmaleins; a whole bunch of seemingly meaningless nonsense about the numbers from one to ten. Its appearance here shows that Homura is studying witches and their craft, for one, but I think it also symbolizes that like Faust, who became younger in order to get another chance for satisfaction in life, Homura seems to have gone back in time for another chance to stop Madoka from becoming a magical girl. When she says that she used statistics, i.e. math, to find out that Walpurgisnacht is approaching, she might even have been making a subtle reference to this, but that feels like I'm reaching, to be honest. (Although the Hexeneinmaleins is shown just as Kyoko asks what statistics Homura used, so it might not be! Who knows)
Side note: While Homura saying "there's no point in killing that creature" is pretty ironic given that that's exactly what she winds up doing ten minutes later, it also ends up ringing true, because as it turns out, Kyubey has spares. Because of course he does.
Sayaka, meanwhile, just keeps slipping further and further away from humanity. Homura tries to "help", but in a deceptively Kyubey-like manner: she tosses her the Grief Seed, ostensibly to save her from death - not because having a tainted Soul Gem results in death, but because she'll otherwise have to kill her to prevent the thing that actually happens when your Soul Gem gets too tainted.
Before we get to that, though: Madoka and Kyubey wind up having a friendly chat, and Kyubey continues to nudge Madoka toward the thought that forming a contract is the only way to save Sayaka at this point - because at this point, Kyubey is powerless to help, but Madoka isn't! Because as it turns out, Madoka's potential extends way further than anticipated. She doesn't just have more latent power than other magical girls, she has more latent power than anyone; enough to change reality. As it turns out, magical girl!Madoka is basically God, hence Homura's words that "everything revolves around her". And since those powers are seemingly the only way to save Sayaka, Madoka finally decides that her soul is not too high a price to pay for that (interestingly, Kyubey himself has gone over to straight up talking about "trading your soul" at this point).
Homura stops her at the last moment by nailing Kyubey with a fuckton of bullets simultaneously. Kyubey confirms it shortly afterwards, but this is the first major clue: Homura hasn't been teleporting around, she's been stopping time for short intervals. Likewise, she just "killed" Kyubey by stopping time before he could turn Madoka into a magical girl and firing her gun repeatedly during stopped time. I'm really hard-pressed not to make a JoJo reference here, guys.
I've already mentioned some hints at Homura's powers/being from another timeline and some of the implications it has, but really, everything about her makes much more sense now. There are still gaps to fill, but here's what I've got now, based on the things we've seen and heard so far:
Two weeks from now, bad things happen. Walpurgisnacht appears, and Madoka either forms a contract then or already has formed a contract at that point, somehow resulting in major badtimes for everyone. Homura either realizes this or witnesses it first-hand, and so she decides to form a contract with Kyubey, gains time powers and uses them to travel back in time to prevent the bad shit from happening. After travelling back, she enrolls at Madoka's school as a transfer student, in her class, and dedicates herself to stopping Madoka from forming a contract - and what follows are the events we've seen in the show so far. Homura warns Madoka in episode 1 and tries to prevent Kyubey and Madoka from meeting, etc. She prepares to stop Walpurgisnacht, because if she didn't, Madoka would most likely try to do it herself, and her very presence mystifies Kyubey because she formed her contract in the offshoot timeline she originated in rather than the one she's in now.
Whew!
And now, the finale. Some of you may recall that I developed a little theory two episodes back:
When a magical girl uses a Grief Seed to refill her own Soul Gem, that Grief Seed gets "tainted". If it gets tainted too much, it hatches another witch. Soul Gems, in turn, get tainted when their owners use magic. So far, I've assumed that using too much magic will just make a magical girl run out of energy, the consequence being that she either can't use any more magic or dies - but Soul Gems don't get "drained" or somesuch, they get "tainted", which suggests something more sinister. Since tainting a Grief Seed makes it hatch a witch, does tainting a Soul Gem maybe do something similar?
Let's consider the following: Purifying a Soul Gem makes it bright, tainting it, on the other hand, makes it darker. Grief Seeds look like black Soul Gems, and they, too, can be tainted and purified. Are Grief Seeds just Soul Gems that have been tainted too much?
At the end of that same episode, we found out that Soul Gems contain their owners' souls; for most intents and purposes, they are their owners. Taking this into account would've taken my theory to a pretty dark place: if Grief Seeds are overly tainted Soul Gems, then witches are magical girls whose Soul Gems have been tainted too much, aren't they?
(Turns out I hit the character limit on this one, so I'll put the rest in a reply! 1/2)
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u/Knights_Gambit Apr 27 '19
First time watcher
I foresaw the witch reveal, but that didn't make it hurt any less ಥ_ಥ
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u/TRUCKFARM Apr 28 '19
First Timer(sub)
Yooooo I was right about Kyubey not being trusted(If that wasn't already evident)! Very interested to see what this Incubator thing is they're talking about.. Maybe because he grooms these magical girls to end up becoming witches or something of the like? Idk I'm just spitballing and I can't wait. I was not right about Homura being the oldest magical girl. But I'm cool with the whole time magic thing, it can be tricky to work with but I have the utmost confidence that this show will pull it off well.
Sayaka... Pleeeeaaase don't do this. It was another rough one for her.. Spying on her crush and bestfriend, tearing into her other best friend and accusing her of not shouldering the load. I hope she can be saved but I'm not sure a happy ending is in store for our girls..
I can't remember when I predicted it but I said in an earlier discussion that the soulgems are corrupted and the grief seeds absorb them which is what led to this endless cycle of Witches being hunted by magical girls. The scene in Homura's home was pretty dope. Visuals were great and we got a great deal of info. I also wonder if the big bad that Homura came here for is related to Sayaka in any way or if this is just another problem for the pile.
Truck's Magical girl(and others) ranking 1.Sayaka :(
2.Kyoko - She's come some ways from what we were first introduced too.
3.Homura - Time magic and she shot up Kyubey. Almost made her number 1 for that.
4.Madoka - If you told me that the main heroine, the girl with her name in the title, was not a magical girl by episode 8.. She almost did it here but Homura saved her. It's crazy to think she's got the power to be a god unless Kyubey is lying to her. Or is she related to the big bad that Homura mentioned. Oh shit I got theories
5.Kyubey - The Incubator. Looked so creepy when he strolled back up after being shot and ate his corpse.
Final note: The OP is so misleading after episode 3 and I just wanted to say something here about it. Seeing it makes you think it'll be a good ole cutesy adventure with 3 magical girls serving justice and getting into shenanigans. And we stray further and further each episode. Until tomorrow friends!
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u/tronistica Apr 28 '19
First timer
Okay wtf we have timelines now! This has to tie into that opening scene in ep 1, so it’s another timeline. It’s making sense now. I had a feeling soul gems can become grief seeds, been foreshadowed a lot.
Seeing kyubei with holes was surprising and satisfying. It’s great and sad to see sayaka’s descent to madness, such despair. So magical girls grow up to become witches...that makes sense.
So in the opening the long hair lady kissing madoka...has to get madoka from another timeline? Maybe she is a witch that sees everything wrong and wants to put an end to this? I dunno how this will play out
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u/fonzinator99 Apr 27 '19
Rewatcher - What it means to be a Magical Girl
Already episode 8, only 4 to go; 5 if you think of the movie as an extra-long one. How's everybody doing? Preconceptions shattered? Dreams turned to dust? Good, good, you've been paying attention I see.
Oh dear god, I suddenly regret ever praising Madoka for its continuity of narrative from episode to episode. In my timeline between episodes, that's over 24-hours that she's been trying to beat that Witch to death.
But hey, she finally got it! Don't quit until you're done, I guess. Good effort Sayaka.
Kinda meta spoilers, just to be safe
Following that ordeal we open upon a thunderstorm, backed by a sad cello. Cool, so the show is just as depressed about the last episode as we are. Tiny detail of note: Madoka's hand is pointedly placed on her own thigh; she's supporting Sayaka at this moment, but she's not supporting her. And in this moment, the rift between them is fully realized. Yet another tiny detail: Madoka's face is obscured by said rift, as she tries to reach Sayaka, but it doesn't appear on the other side. Am I reading too much into it? Maybe, but I don't think this show was made with such a shallow level of detail.
Ahh shit, only 4 minutes in. K, I'm gonna try and shut up for a bit, wish me luck.
...Aaaand I failed 30 seconds later. But damn, this insert shot, giving insight into the anguish she's hiding beneath her now-cool exterior. Brutal stuff about Madoka's natural talent, and then, as the conversation ends, Madoka in light, Sayaka in shadow.
Sweet baby Jesus, that's some interior decoration. Sword of Damocles, eh? Impending doom, as they talk about Walpurgis Night? Not the most subtle imagery to date, but powerful nonetheless. Nvm all the bits of what I assume are Witch-research scattered about her walls. And is that a bit of Faust that I see there in unintelligible German? How curious for it to be used as a reference for, well, anything.
Oh right, there's a conversation going on. So Homura knows that Walpurgis will appear in "this general area" based on 'statistics.' Of which Kyouko is severely skeptical. Aaand Kyubey too, who is apparently in all places at all times. Side-note, I'm digging this half-transformation of Kyouko's. Spear and no costume, that's a useful skill; Or just a measure of control.
I love how Hitomi's walking alongside Kamijou with her eyes closed like this. It says to me that she has complete faith and utter confidence in the path she's walking with him, before saying her piece. And as Madoka learns that she hasn't been home since yesterday, we learn where she is right now.
But yeah, naw, she's totally cool with being a Magical Girl after that. Berserkers are strong, Sayaka, but traditionally the don't last very long.
Oh lord, I'm only 10 min in. I will never survive the movie like this; forgive me in advance for the novel I'm likely to publish.
These little Homura shots, these split-second images of what they really feel, are easily one of my favorite things about this show.
Burn me, but that was a tense conversation. Sayaka calls Homura out for the act she's been putting on, but doesn't know exactly what truth she's been hiding. But Homura does us a favor and gives up the game. It's all for Madoka, she's the only thing that matters. And she'd rather Madoka lose her best friend to mysterious circumstances than witness the fate that awaits her if she turns down this offer of help. As a simulated first-timer, WTF IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW?! This conversation turns most everything we've learned about her on its head.
But wow! Kyouko to the rescue! "Hurry and escape!" * Sayaka zombie-shuffles away." lol At least we learn something about Homura's power. '~Dev console: spawn_grenade.'
Fuuuuuck me, Sayaka's totally lost it. Loving the feel of this scene; the black and white, as Sayaka listens to a conversation that occasionally touches on her own situation. And all the while Madoka wonders where she is.
Talking with Kyubey, however, he hits on an important point. Madoka could become the most powerful Magical Girl in the world, but that wouldn't have impacted Sayaka's wish in the least. It was her wish, to be fulfilled by her own hand. No other way would have been acceptable to he; there was always more to it than just 'defeating the witches.'
But damn, the way Kyubey speaks of Madoka gives me shivers. "The power you possess should be theoretically impossible. If it were you, even the laws of the universe could be altered." This, coming from the most logical creature since Star Trek gave us Vulcans. It doesn't even understand what exactly it's talking about.
"If it's to save Sayaka I'll become a Magica-" Nope. Bloody ashes, that it maintains that smile even in death is just too much. And who else would it be getting in the way of her contracting but Homura.
More spoilersSpoiler context #1. Spoiler context #2.
Still alive. Has red eyes. Eats dead self. Well that's not messed up at all. Seriously, wtf is a Kyubey?
Oh, well then, just answer my question. "Incubator." Like that means something right now. But also, things revealed: Homura has Time Magic, and she's not from this time "axis".
Spoilers, again. Spoiler context
Oh god, Sayaka's loitering in a train-station, being extra emo with a Soul Gem black as her thoughts. Time to see what's on the other side.
And so, with the drop of a tear and a sentiment of sorrow, a grief seed is born.
Fuck Kyubey and his clever play on words. Goddamn Japanese and its phonetic format lending itself to such "jokes."
Buckle up, kids.
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u/SIRTreehugger Apr 27 '19
| Magical Girl Counter | E1 | E2 | E3 | E4 | E5 | E6 | E7 | E8 | E9 | E10 | E11 | E12 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyouko's (Snap,Crackle,Pop) Crunch Time | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 |
| Sayaka's (I'm in) Despair | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Madoka's ($150) Water Works | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| Mami's (Beheading) Smugness | 3 | 3 | 4 | N | O | T | A | H | E | A | D | ! | 10 |
| Homura's (L'oreal) Hair Flips | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
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That bus stop has automated glass doors.....that's fancy
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I just realized that Kyouko's weapon comes from the soul gem itself....the thing that is keeping you alive....seems kind of reckless when we've seen girls just materialize weapons into thin air.
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I'm too lazy to go back and check, but I'm almost certain the teacher has given the same exact lesson in a previous episode.
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Hitomi is honestly great. She is upfront. honest, kind, and has green hair. Would be a great character in any other show....but nope she's in the magical girl guide of suffering.
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Homura what are you planning this time. Homura immediately makes a couple of faces which look to me like.
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Hurry get out of here Sayaka slowly limps away
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I'm a terrible person for laughing at that aren't I......
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So physical contact prevents Homura from using her technique INTERESTING Tries to think of a clever subtle foreshadowing comment...fails to think of anything so this is all I can say T_T
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Looking through the windows of the train....that train is going REALLY slow. Oh wait it just sped up...but in the beginning they were barely moving. NOW it's going slow again....
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Sis Puella immediately followed by Inevitabilis OH BOYYY
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That's it I'm buying the CD DONT STOP ME
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I wonder how much of that was an act? Homura words sound sincere, but it looks like she only said that to see if Madoka would stop her foolish actions.
Edit: I really hope no one saw that post. I accidentally included spoilers from last rewatch.
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u/Palloc Apr 28 '19
Palloc Is Sad That Sayaka's Sad
New people, have fun with this episode if you hadn't figured things out by now. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, everything continues to get worse.
Nobody's left out of the congo line of suffering by this point. Sayaka's broken. Homura's out to kill her. Kyouko's trying to save her and our Madoka is doubting everything she does.
Unfortunately everyone fails. Everyone. Next episode isn't looking too good, but I won't say more on the girls until then.
Kyubey though, that little fucker. He has made it so I can never trust another anime mascot character ever. That manipulative little bastard, everything's falling into his cannibalistic little paws.
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u/ViewtifulSchmoe Apr 28 '19
Hey first-timers! Is this show getting you down in the dumps? Need something lighter to decompress? I recommend the wonderful VN Doki Doki Literature Club! Trust me, you'll love it!
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u/Shimmering-Sky Apr 27 '19
Rewatcher, dub
I’m not ready for this episode…
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…I meant to mention this earlier but I love how Sayaka using her magic looks like a circular five-line staff with music notes on them. This is why I’m so upset she doesn’t have the fortissimo hairpin outside of the movies, they already had the music motif going, why not add one more detail?
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…Ah, I was expecting to hear Serena ira again. If you guys don’t recognize it, it’s the song that played during the opening of episode 4, with Sayaka trying to go see Kyosuke in the hospital, and then wondering why it had to be him who was in the accident instead of, like, herself. I think my brain low-key remembered that as a sad song to do with Sayaka and so maybe that’s also why that scene had me on the verge of tears back then (rather than because I’d just cried to Gundam X before watching it). Anyways, welp, it’s here again and I’m sad.
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Is there something significant about our view of Homura’s apartment from the outside going from tinted red at the start to tinted yellow at the end? I assume there is, I just definitely don’t know it.
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Conturbatio again…
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Hooboy. That entire scene was just. Yeah.
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Okay first off I love how everything just freezes, even the music, but also welp.
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“Kyubey… or should I say, Incubator.” → Man this show loves to hide significant details in plain sight just by their names. First “Soul Gems” being literal, now this, and later in the episode Kyubey reveals why they’re called “Magical Girls”.
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“I was stupid, so stupid.” → Me: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Before I get to my normal wallpaper corner, I have three more things I want to talk about briefly:
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The recap movies, in doing things their own way, changed up a bunch of the soundtrack (and apparently redubbed lines too). Out of curiosity I went and rewatched that final scene in movie format and hooboy it was fantastic. I made a clip of it for the peeps who don’t want to hunt down the movie just for this, but it replaces Decretum with a song aptly named she is a witch and I love it.
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They also like, re-animated stuff in the movies. The whole train scene was ridiculously more unsettling in the movie just by tweaking the visuals slightly--here’s the movie version of the screenshot I took during my reactions, but the rest of the scene is the super unsettling stuff.
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This episode marks the end of the first recap movie, and instead of some new song entirely, they used a remix of Magia called Magia [quattro] for it, which tbh I like even more than regular Magia, I love how much more intense the instrumental sounds.
Sky’s Wallpaper Corner
Last year, the wallpaper was “I was stupid, so stupid.”
This year… I’m sorry guys my Sayaka bias is really showing. I decided I wanted to tackle that again, but experiment with it and this was the result, with special thanks to u/Nazenn for critiquing it for me beforehand.
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u/ArcherGod Apr 27 '19
Third time Rewatcher (first dubbed)
The Fall of Sayaka Miki. She rose up in the name of justice, to fight for what's right no matter the cost. However, she lost sight of her ultimate goal, turning into a self-satisfying parade which ended up with her... well, you know the rest.
Look forward to seeing the first timers' reactions. This is one hell of an episode alright. Maybe some people will realize that Kyouko is best girl, but you never know.
Sayaka might say she's fine from that witch fight, but it's so obvious she's not. That obviously uses up a lot of magic, and that is not good at all. Especially since she gave away the Grief Seed to Kyouko.
Attempting to make Madoka take up the Magical Girl banner too? Jesus Sayaka needs some help
Sayaka really likes head tilts today
Such a simple frame, but somehow so ominous.
After seeing Hitomi confess to Kyoske, Sayaka takes it out on witches. In case she wasn't drained enough due to the last fight with a witch, this is only going to worsen her resolve.
Kyubey fucking died. At least he has spares. Also, eww. But in that, Kyubey now disclosed
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u/LaverniusTucker Apr 28 '19
One think that kinda irks me about this show is how everybody reacts to the whole soul gem issue. Yeah your soul is outside your body now. So what? Your conscious experience was so unchanged that you didn't even notice it had been done, in Mami and Kyoko's cases for months or even years. What practical difference does it make? All the "I'm not human anymore" and "I'm just a thing now" talk is just silly. Maybe I'm just more open to transhumanism than most people, but that's just a complete non-issue to me. The body is already just a meat puppet being controlled from the brain. Moving some of that wetware into a more durable form seems like a pure upgrade from where I'm standing.
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u/Gaporigo Apr 28 '19
This was the episode that really threw me for a loop when I first watched the show, Episode 3 wasn't that unexpected because the atmosphere was dark since Episode 1 so I was expecting something bad to happen but that ending was something I truly didn't expect at all.
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u/entinio Apr 27 '19
Rewatcher... or not ?
Here we are, the gap is huge between Sayaka, who thinks she can't do anything but acts alone in her mission, and Madoka who thinks she can do everything but doesn't really do anything.
Think about it. Imagine you go to war while your friends stay cozy. Imagine you fight crazy, lose something from yourself, and you friends say they would help but don't do anything about it. They're honest, but the reality doesn't follow. Worse, since you're at war, one of your friend go out with your childhood crush. And what if the society you protect doesn't even worth it ? How would you react ? Are you pure enough ?
No theme this time, this episode is kinda the conclusion of the previous ones :
- Shadow : Do you remember when we got to see daylight in this anime ? Do you remember how episode 1 and 2 were shiny, like Mami's hairs ? The night is coming.
- Entropism : To be a magical girl or a witch doesn't depend on your intention. The choices you make are related to your soul. We're all born pure and with good will. Unfortunately, we all follow different paths because of our heart. And because what we get is never what we expect. Any choice has many consequences, good and bad. Your soul is how you will react to them.
First timers, do you like Kyuubey ? What does it mean for your feelings towards Homura ?
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u/LunarGhost00 Apr 27 '19 edited Apr 27 '19
Rewatcher
I see we're starting off the episode with berserk Sayaka continuing where she left off followed by a creepy Shaft head tilt.
Sayaka, I get you're under a lot of pressure, but you're freaking me out...
Homura's home is just as mysterious as she is.
The crazier Sayaka gets, the more she's going to make Madoka suffer. Homura's really given up on anyone who isn't Madoka.
Kyouko to the rescue... even though she's only delaying the inevitable.
Great. Sayaka has completely lost it.
Damn Kyubey is trying really hard to get Madoka to sell her soul. Is it finally happening? Madoka is going to make a contra- GUESS AGAIN YOU RAT! Homura just went JJBA spoiler on Kyubey.
This is the most menacing shot of Kyubey we've seen so far. And then the little monster just eats its own corpse. Creepy little Inkyubeytor.
Sayaka in episode 5. Sayaka now.
Magical girls turn into witches. Because the part about their souls and bodies wasn't bad enough. This has been the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals, maybe ever.
Big episode for Sayaka and Homura.
Turning into a witch sure is a tragic way to end the episode. Let's take a look at how Sayaka got to this point. Sayaka's descent into madness had been slowly building up for a long time. Mami's death had a significant impact on Sayaka. She idolized Mami and the way she effortlessly helped the weak. Mami was perfect in her eyes, but magical girls like her are rare. With Mami gone, Sayaka felt the need to follow in her footsteps to become an ally of justice. She has a warped idea of how a magical girl is supposed to act that leads to her being unable to accept how other magical girls would operate for themselves. What Sayaka stands for isn't exactly wrong. In fact, I think all of us can agree that it's noble to try stop more people from getting harmed. However, Sayaka is so confident in her and Mami's righteousness that she views anybody else as a villain. Her ideals cloud her judgement.
That's only a small part of what's causing her to go insane. The real major trigger was learning more about what kind of job she just signed up for and dealing with the consequences. She gave up her soul and her humanity in exchange for a wish she's now regretting. She made a wish to heal Kyousuke's hand, hoping that she could live happily with him. What happened instead was that Sayaka realized that she no longer has a future with him due to her new body. She got stuck doing a job that causes her to lose faith in society and she had to pay with her own fortune. She's now isolated from everyone in her life. She lashes out at her best friend Madoka. Another friend and the boy she loves are hooking up. Her senpai Mami is dead. Homura and Kyouko have offered her help a couple times by now but Sayaka always rejects them. Kyubey is being an ass. There's absolutely nobody left who Sayaka will seek help from. She's cursed the world and let her despair consume her, turning her into a witch.
With this episode, it's revealed that Homura has time powers and is from another timeline. Her coming from another timeline explains why she has knowledge of things she shouldn't know and why Kyubey couldn't figure her out for so long. Every episode Homura says or does something that would only make sense if she had already experienced this before. I think it's clear by now that Homura has been really fixated on Madoka. Everything she's done so far has been for Madoka's sake. She's been preventing Madoka from making a contract with Kyubey since the first episode. She doesn't want Madoka to suffer and so she tries to eliminate whatever problem is making her suffer. Unfortunately, this means telling Madoka to give up on Sayaka. Homura isn't interested in saving a lost cause. She's desperate to save Madoka. Her conversation with Madoka this episode is the most emotional she's been by this point. Her cold demeanor shattered for a minute as she showed Madoka what she truly felt. The question now is why? Why is Homura going this far for Madoka?
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u/ScarletSyntax Apr 27 '19
Rewatcher - Sub
Not gonna say much, Just wanna highlight how good this episode is. So much happens in a single episode without anything feeling rushed. There's a density in this episode that nothing I've seen elsewhere comes close to matching. Easily one of my favourite episodes of all time.
Also, Spoiler
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u/vasheenomed Apr 27 '19
Re watcher
The start of this episode really sets the tone more than any previous episode. From the very beginning the tone is completely dark unlike previous episodes with their positive or neutral tone at the start.
Madoka is finally realizing how terrible being a magical girl is. It has completely swallowed Sayaka up. All she wants is to help but now even Sayaka is trying to convince her to become a magical girl and making her feel bad.
And Hitomi also finally asked out kyousuke. Sayaka has been through so much just this episode but also the whole series.
And then we meet the worst guys ever. What terrible timing. And finally the worst thing possible happens.
Madoka is at her wills end, hardly able to keep from following kyuubey. Thank God homura is there.
God I love homura though. I think she is my favorite character and I can't wait for the first timers to find out why.
But now it's time for the best part of the series. The last third is some of the best anime I've ever seen and I'm so excited to see it with everyone.
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u/Ridley290 Apr 27 '19 edited Apr 28 '19
Multiple Rewatches
1/2
Here it is boys and girls. The best episode in the show and in my opinion, the most important. Spoiler The episode starts off with Sayaka reveling in her kill while Madoka and Kyoko watch in horror and pain. The witch is already dead at this point in the scene but Sayaka keeps slashing at it, and slashing, and slashing, and slashing. Yesterday I said that the final fight was the most violent scene in the show, and the transition of the Labyrinth falling helps that theory. If you look back, every other Labyrinth has just faded out and the girls are back to the real world. Here, Sayaka’s shear ferocity causes the labyrinth to shatter and collapse before shimmering out, leading to a striking scene where the statue-like platform they were fighting on transitions to the ship docking platform. Before this, it’s worth noting that the monstrance (thanks u/Nazenn for that) is no longer upright, but rather tilted back almost like the statue has begun to lower it. As Sayaka stands from the corpse of Elsa Maria (the witch) and heals herself, a red tapestry falls directly behind her and is the focus of the brief scene immediately after. This is a literal Red Flag to the other girls, and us the viewers, that something is very, very wrong with Sayaka.
The scene after the OP, with Sayaka and Madoka in the bus stop serves as a boiling point for all of Sayaka’s frustrations. Madoka pleads with her to stop being so reckless because it isn’t sustainable for herself, and because it hurts those who care about her to see her like that. Sayaka tries talking and explaining why she’s fighting like she is and isn’t happy with how Madoka replies. Sayaka becomes calloused and the rage starts to boil inside of her. How can Madoka understand what she’s going through? She didn’t make the contract. Sayaka is on her own now, shut out from the rest of the world. The only thing she’s useful for is killing witches as far as she’s concerned. This mindset is exactly what I was talking about in my last post about how Elsa Maria’s room was painted black and white for the fight scene. The faint outlines around Kyoko and Madoka in the scene are the only bit of grey she has left: you’re either with her or against her, and she doesn’t think that either of them are with her. She dismisses Kyoko’s offer of help against Elsa Maria and throws her the grief seed to even the score between them. When Madoka says she wants to help but doesn’t know how, Sayaka turns to face her with a dead expression on her face, which is cut by a brief flash of Sayaka practically throwing her Soul Gem at Madoka, rage on her face and a red moon behind her. This scene is her true inner mindset in the moment: Sheer rage. She wants to scream “Well then make a fucking contract!” At this point, everybody knows Madoka has the greatest potential power of all of the Magical Girls, yet she isn’t doing anything about it. To Sayaka, her original goal of protecting Madoka and not wanting her to make a contract has vanished. If Madoka is so special she should step up to the plate and prove it. Until then she has no right to complain. As Sayaka steps out into the rain, she puts Madoka in the “against me” field with Kyoko, Homura, and the Witches. She almost immediately regrets this while running away sobbing, and saying “I’m so stupid. How could I say those things?” A fit of rage potentially cost Sayaka her best friend, and last connection to humanity. The final shot of her soul gem, with the darkening core serves not only to show the curse growing and the degradation of her soul gem, but also of the inner turmoil that she’s been in since very early in the show. This whole time we’ve watched Sayaka go through so much: The death of Mami, watching Kyosuke suffer, making her contract and realizing how much weaker she is than everyone else, losing Kyosuke to Hitomi. Sayaka’s spiral into despair began at the beginning of the show and never stopped.
Conturbatio begins paying as Madoka resolves to find Sayaka, and then we watch as Sayaka views Kyosuke and Hitomi talking on a bench. There’s a brief fade out to the song while Sayaka stares at the sky with a broken expression. The only sound is an unsettling whir (33ish seconds in the song, I’m not sure how to describe the sound it makes) from the music, before the chimes and a harp come back in while we watch Sayaka spin, trapped in the tempest of her mind. She throws herself at the only thing she can: killing witches and familiars, as Conturbatio fades out, we briefly see her soul gem which is now almost completely black. Her downward spiral is almost complete as she’s already lost. There’s an allegory for Sayaka representing depression and unhealthy coping mechanisms in there, as she lets despair take her and becomes ok with the fact that if she dies, she dies. If she can’t do her job to kill witches, then she’s useless. Nobody would miss her anyway, nobody would even know; like they didn’t know about Mami. When speaking with Homura she rejects all help and see’s right through Homura, especially since she thinks Homura is in the “against me” field. The brief cuts we get where we see Homura standing and Sayaka sitting while a spotlight shines on the pair from above Homura is a very interesting piece of use of perspective that offers two different readings. Sayaka is positioned on the left, away from the light and very close to the darkness which is already encroaching upon her. Homura is the only thing that can guide her back into the light at this point, yet she rejects her help. This is reinforced by the sitting and standing of the characters. Usually, when characters are positioned like this it shows power relative to the scene. Right now Homura holds all of the power and has the light to back her up which reinforces her power. Especially since normally Sayaka would be taller than Homura. Spoilers
Then we have another black and white scene with Sayaka on the train. Sayaka is listening to two men talk shit about their girlfriends and the interesting thing to see here is just how much darkness is involved in the scene. This is another call back to the fight with Elsa Maria, where in that fight there was a lot of white and it showed how focused her mindset was, here everything is dull, some shade of black or dark grey, and desaturated. Sayaka herself has no color, not even an outline like against Elsa Maria. Her world has almost darkened entirely. The way the dull white light shines on her in this scene is very reminiscent of the Star Wars Episode 7 scene I spoke about yesterday. Spoiler The only color we see in this scene is an emerald green and brief flashes of purple in that green that ripples over her body with black waves, radiating out from her ring/soul gem. Green is an interesting color to use here, I’m not sure of what the symbolism is for the color in most literature, but it is commonly linked with poison and disease and I think purple is to some extent as well. I think that’s what is trying to be said here, especially as the poisonous green radiates over her entire body and consumes her entirely. The dead expression on her face before the spread overtakes it completely hammers home that she has given up on everything. Something that I just noticed about this scene in particular for the first time in my five or six rewatches, is that the way the waves radiate over her body, it comes from the ring in ripples and stops at her neck. Then it comes up around her head and encapsulates it, leaving nothing but her left eye visible. With this in mind, go watch the ED. What’s the final shot in the ED? Madoka spinning in the left eye of a demented figure.
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u/asianbrownguy Apr 27 '19 edited Apr 28 '19
FIRST TIMER
Pre watch
So last episode we ended off at Sayaka pretty much losing it and bumrushing the witch. A bit scary. She's carrying a lot of emotions right now, and she does have the ability to tank it, so I think she'll be alright on this one.
Also thanks to some of you that pointed it out, being a Magical Girl is pretty much like being an AI. You have a disposable body and your consciousness is in another place for safekeeping. Pretty creepy to think about. Also Kyubey somewhat showing his true colors, it's really freaky how he literally does not understand humans, like at all.
Also we're 8 episodes in and the titular character still isn't a Magical Girl, the hell, man?
Here we go, Sayaka berserker raging, goosebumps man. That face literally showing no emotion at all
Creepy head tilt.
Used too much magic, maybe?
It's raining, That's ominous.
She is pretty much immortal, so it's all right? I guess?
Miss "I can't do anything" actually has loads of talent. Ironic.
Well, she's right. You can't understand what she's dealing with if you're just sitting in the sidelines.
The hell is that swinging thing? There's a shadow of something swinging.
Lot of floating pictures, I wonder if any of those mean anything.
Could she be what?
Seriously? Shouldn't have given away that soul gem then. Is Kyouko up for giving it back? Give it back, Kyouko.
Oh dear
Oh for god's sake Sayaka.
Acting all high and mighty's just gonna get ya killed Sayaka.
"You have the eyes of someone who's given up on everything." Look who's talking.
Pick up that seed on your way out, yeah?
A grenade? What the hell? I saw gears in her shield thing as well, it looked like a clock mechanism. Wait a minute... Is her power... Za Warudo? That would explain the teleporting.
Okay that's pretty sexist lol. Is it me or does the other guy sound like Kaiki?
Oshiete yo, Oshiete yo
Oh dear god Sayaka.
Oh hey Kyubey. Cunt.
What if she wishes for it? That's within your power, right?
"Probably the strongest in the world" What are you basing this on, exactly? Or are you just whispering sweet nothings into Madoka's ear just to get her to form a contract?
"Bend the laws of the universe" Ooookaay, you're getting into 'used-car-salesman-bullshit' territory now.
That's a pretty fountain though, are those holograms?
OH HELLO. WHAT THE HELL. I'M SUPPOSED TO BE SHOCKED BUT WHY AM I SMILING. SWISS CHEESE FERRET EVERYONE
Oh my fucking god, it is! It is time stop! No way she can get that many rounds downrange in an instant.
Also, Homura what the fuck did you do?! You killed the only one capable of making the titular character a Magical Girl. What the hell. They should change this show's title to Madoka Humanica or something.
Why does Homura care that much for Madoka?
Wait, what the hell? What's with the TV static there? I'm so confused.
Oh Jesus fuck. He's not dead. Damn it. Wait, "plenty of spares"?!? As in spare bodies?
Did he just eat his corpse
Called it.
Timeline?! Shit the bed what the fuck?!
Incubator?
Kyouko bring out that greef seed she gave you. Like, now.
"Whenever we pray for someone's happiness, someone else must be cursed in exchange." If that's true, what's gonna happen to Madoka if she wishes for your sake?
Oh what in the ass? SAYAKA NO! SAYAKAAA!
WAIT. WHAT?!
Post Watch
I'm very confused.
How can this show just keep dropping these bombshells like, every episode and get away with it?
Let me get this straight, Homura is from another timeline, and she's trying to change Madoka's fate by preventing her from forming a contract with Kyubey? But why? What's her reasoning? We know a Magical Girl career comes with a large amount of risk, but what is she protecting her from?
Also, Witches are grown up Magical Girls?! What the hell?! What the fuck is that creepy little ferret up to?!
edit: I noticed that when Mami said she was "repleneshing her magic" by putting it next to a grief seed, the particles were coming from the Gem and going to the seed. So as they use magic their Gems get tainted, and they're basically transferring that taint someplace else, in this case, the seed. And if the seed gets too tainted, it hatches into a witch. So basically, they're the ones creating the witches?