So You Want to Watch Madoka Magica? - a guide - pt 7 (episode 6)

Part 7: Episode Six - "This Just Isn't Right"

This blog post is written by a dedicated fan of the anime and is designed for new watchers to get the most out of the Madoka Magica experience! This is Part 7 out of 14. Please watch Episode 6 before reading this post.
Link to Intro
Links to Episode: One Two Three Four Five Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve

s--- just went down again:

As presented in the previous episode, Kyouko Sakura almost finishes off Sayaka, only to discover that her spear has stabbed the ground several feet away from Sayaka and Homura has intervened. Sayaka is quickly knocked out by Homura. Annoyed, Kyouko asks Homura whose side she is on. Homura then states she is with the rational, cool-headed thinkers and against the idiots that fight for no reason, and asks Kyouko to identify which group she belongs to. Kyouko complains, but retreats. Madoka asks Homura if she came to save Sayaka, but Homura berates Madoka for not following her advice at all. She warns that next time she may consider other (presumably brutal) options to make the fool listen, leaving Madoka horrified.
Sayaka uses a Grief Seed to clean her Soul Gem, and asks Kyubey how important it is to do so. Kyubey answers that it's needed to strengthen her magic. He advises Sayaka to get more Grief Seeds in order to become stronger, and tells her that if Madoka contracted, she'd have the power to defeat rivals like Kyouko. However, Sayaka firmly rejects the idea of involving Madoka.
Homura approaches Kyouko in an arcade and proposes a deal to Kyouko. She says in 2 weeks something called Walpurgisnacht will come. If they can beat it together, she have the city as her territory. Homura forbids her to attack Sayaka. Kyouko offers Homura a snack in a gesture of cooperation.
Madoka, concerned about the violence between Sayaka and Kyouko, tries to persuade Sayaka to seek a truce. She argues that Sayaka and Kyouko are both magical girls, who are supposed to battle witches, not each other. Sayaka rejects the idea, pointing out that selfish magical girls such as Kyouko intentionally let familiars attack humans, resulting in the deaths of innocent victims. Next time, it may even be Madoka's parents or Tatsuya. Sayaka concludes that if there is someone more evil than a witch, she'll fight her, even if she is a magical girl.
Madoka, deeply worried about Sayaka, asks her mother for advice. She tells Madoka that people sometimes need to make mistakes. If there's no right answer, it's necessary to be wrong - something she believes Madoka must learn how to do gracefully in order to become an adult.
The next evening, Sayaka is once again confronted by Kyouko, who goads her into another fight on top of a highway bridge. However, before the battle starts, Madoka arrives and seizes Sayaka's Soul Gem, the source of a magical girl's energy, throwing it off the bridge in the hope of stopping the fight. To Madoka and Kyouko's shock, this causes Sayaka to suddenly collapse, lifeless. Kyubey says Madoka has just thrown Sayaka. It turns out that as part of the contract, the Soul Gem literally contains a magical girl's soul, with their body becoming a mere shell that turns limp and lifeless if the Soul Gem is more than 100 meters away from them.
Kyouko is appalled, claiming that what Kyubey has done is practically turning girls into zombies. Kyubey expresses his difficulty in understanding the girls' repulsion towards the idea, describing how useful the arrangement is for enabling girls to survive witches' attacks. Meanwhile, Homura rushes to retrieve the Soul Gem and brings it back to Sayaka in order to revive her. Sayaka wakes up, not remembering anything that happened after Madoka threw her gem away.

Questions I will answer:

q: dafuq is a walpurgisnacht
a: Do some digging.

q: Wait, wait, wait. If the soul gem thing is true, can't Mami be still alive if her soul gem is intact?
a: Thing is, her soul gem was located on her head, on a hairpin. It was crushed by Charlotte.

q: What if you don't return a soul gem after it gets too far away?
a: There is a 2 day time limit to return the soul gem back to the user's body, otherwise she will be lost forever. And even until then she will start decomposing. (This was revealed in the PSP game.)

q: You know, I wouldn't call them "zombies"...
a: You're right, they're more like liches.

q: Madoka gonna become a soul gem too?
a: Yeah, later.

Coool Stuff!

SF Debris' Analysis
Mark Watches
Matt High's Review
Changes made in the Blu-Ray versions.

Meduka Meguca - DO NOT THROW SOULS
For my friends who understand Japanese or Chinese, take a look at the reversed endcard.
Ume Aoki's 4koma
Drop the Soul Gem and hope it lands on the truck

Tiffany talks about some things:

Junko Kaname is my spirit animal.

Questions to think about:

- Do you trust Kyubey now?
- Why would Madoka be such a powerful magical girl?
- How do you think things are going to turn out for Sayaka?
- How did Homura do this?

Keep thinking about any previous questions that haven't been answered.