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| Part 9: Episode Eight - "I Was Such a Fool" |
Link to Intro
Links to Episode: One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Nine Ten Eleven Twelve
Summary 'cause lots of things happened:
Sayaka finishes off Elsa Maria, but refuses to use the Grief Seed, giving it to Kyouko, and doesn't feel well afterwards. Madoka helps her go back home. They are sitting in a bus stop with Madoka crying over Sayaka's actions. Sayaka tells that all that is left for her in life is fighting witches. Madoka tells that she wants to make Sayaka happy, but Sayaka runs away, telling Madoka not to follow her, while her Soul Gem is dimming.
Kyouko and Homura are talking about Walpurgisnacht in Homura's apartment, Kyubey appears uninvited and tells them about Sayaka's current condition.
Madoka goes to Sayaka's apartment to find out that she's been missing since the day before. She rushes to try to find her.
As Hitomi and Kyousuke are walking home, the two of them stop in a park and have a lively conversation while Sayaka watches from afar.
Sayaka is seen wasting her magic and hunting familiars recklessly. Homura speaks with Sayaka, trying to get her to use a Grief Seed, but Sayaka refuses. Sayaka accuses Homura of putting up false pretenses and always lying to them. Homura admits she is just doing things for Madoka's sake and prepares to kill Sayaka, but Kyouko interferes. Homura uses a flashbang grenade and escapes.
Sayaka is riding in a train where two hosts are badmouthing their girlfriends and acting misogynistic. She interferes, asking them how they can speak this way about women who love them. Her words grow progressively more fatalistic as she wonders why she bothered trying to save such a worthless world, and darkness begins to overtake her.
Madoka talks with Kyubey and he tells her about her apparent power. He even tells her that she could become a god if she wished for it. She almost agrees to become a magical girl to save Sayaka, but Homura suddenly appears and riddles Kyubey's body with bullets before she can form a contract with him. Homura then breaks down in tears in front of Madoka, who has a strange moment of realization and asks if she has met Homura before. Before Homura can answer Madoka excuses herself and goes searching for Sayaka, ignoring Homura's calling out to her. Another body of Kyubey appears and eats his previous dead body. Kyubey realizes that Homura is a person from another timeline, and Homura says Kyubey's real identity is that of an "Incubator."
Kyouko finds Sayaka and sees that her Soul Gem is almost completely dark. Sayaka says that she remembers her saying hope and despair must always be in balance, and that she's cursed as many as she's saved. "I was such a fool!" Sayaka says, before a single tear drops on her soul gem, causing it to overload with in grief and transform into a grief seed.
The episode ends with Kyubey noting "Since this country calls women who are still growing up shoujo (少女 girls), for girls who on the way of becoming majo (魔女 witches), it's logical to call them mahou shoujo (魔法少女) magical girls."
Sayaka's witch barrier forms in the background...
What did we learn, kids?
- There is no such thing as a selfless wish.
- All magical girls, if they are not killed in battle, will eventually turn into witches.
- As a witch, you will curse as many people as you saved when you were a magical girl.
- Magical girls feed off defeated witches in order to keep themselves from becoming witches.
- Homura comes from a different time.
Questions I will answer:
q: So did Kyubey lie about witches?
a: No. It's true that he withheld information, but he never spoke a mistruth. In Episode 2, he said that magical girls are born from wishes and witches are born from curses. That was not a lie. Saying outright "When you die, you become a witch" to the girls then would not have helped his cause. Kyubey intentionally leaves information out or says it in a way that isn't false, but is misleading, to benefit him. You'll see another example soon.
a: What da hell's going on in Homura's apartment?
a: Those are projections from either computers or magic.
I would like you to look at the projections closely too, to see what Homura's studying.
q: Did Sayaka kill the two hosts on the train?
a: Shinbo says she didn't, Urobochi says it's intentionally ambiguous, and the manga artist Hanokage interpreted as she did.
q: What do you mean "there's no such thing as a selfless wish"?
a: Even though Sayaka wished for someone else, she still wanted to get something back (Kyouske's love). Everyone who makes a wish for someone else's happiness is also unconsciously hoping that it will also benefit themselves, even if only indirectly.
q: What is the significance of Kyubey's true name, "incubator"?
a: Definition - an apparatus in which eggs are hatched.
And, if you haven't noticed, Kyubey's name fits within the word as "in-kyu-bey-tor" (this is why pronouncing it Kyu-bay is important.)
Continuing with this revelation, Kyubey's design is based off an uterus. (When asked what animals were used as the basis for Kyubey's design, Ume Aoki was very cryptic because of spoilers. The only clue she gave is "coil".)
q: Why does Sayaka's grief seed look different?
a: It doesn't. It looks like this.
q: Madoka gonna sell her soul too?
a: Eventually, right?
Coool Stuff! :
SF Debris' Analysis
Mark Watches
Matt High's Review
Meduka Meguca - Seyiku lose it
Changes made in the Blu-Ray versions.
When Homura shot up Kyubey, she is shown to use a Beretta 92FS pistol. She unloaded a whole magazine (15 shots) onto him.
Nerds watch this show too, so they did an interesting Population Dynamics test to see the ratio of magical girls to witches based on the show's predator-prey system.
The scene on the train was based on a experience Gen Urobochi had.
Brief screenshots from Sayaka's "last thoughts". The first picture's runes translates to "affettuoso", and the second to "tempestoso". Affettuoso and tempestoso are musical styles. Affettuoso means to play a piece with a lingering sort of affectionate tone. Tempestoso means to play it loud and angry.
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| Billboard with references to a timeline |
You may cry now.
Theories that were confirmed:
Kyubey is Evil
Witches are Fallen Magical Girls
Take out your anger on Kyubey
Meduka Meguca - Seyiku lost it.
Become an Incubator and manipulate magical girls in this flash game
Ume Aoki's 4koma
Avoid falling teardrops from reaching your soul gem
Tiffany talks about some things:
So now that we know magical girls become witches, you can safely look at the wiki's witch pages (except the ones from Isabel and beyond) without spoilers. Those pages contain speculation and fanart of them as magical girls.
More speculation here.
The Witch's barrier is a space resembling the magical girl's mental landscape before she became a witch. Her familiars are also projections of the girl's heart. The barrier is also influenced by the location where it formed. There are some interesting concepts for their barriers and themes in the Guidebook. As you can see, they also provide some hints for the magical girl's wish. But the witch may not always be a completely accurate representation of the magical girl and it is difficult to do guesswork figuring out what the witches' magical girl form would be like. For perspective, take a look at Mami's and Kyouko's witch, as revealed in the PSP game.
Also the scene where Sayaka and Madoka are talking underneath the bus stop is so well directed. You can see the rain intensifies in tune with Sayaka's hostility towards Madoka. Remember how in Episode 6 she said she wouldn't let Madoka get in the middle of this? There's also that little clip of her angrily showing Madoka her soul gem in her psyche, with a contrasting red hue.
Questions to think about:
-We now know that Homura is a time traveler, but what are her motives?
-Do you think Sayaka's fate is "fair"?
-What will Kyouko do now?
-What are Kyubey's motives for setting up this whole system?
-What will Homura do when Walpurgis Night comes?
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