Sailor Star Dust wrote:Was having a discussion on Twitter about Madoka and Rebellion with somebody who just finished Madoka, and thoughts on Rebellion are definitely mixed: Most fans who replied besides me were saying to avoid Rebellion/pretend it doesn't exist.

Personally, I'm interested in seeing where the story goes in Movie 4, and I can properly judge Rebellion based on that. Though Rebellion's definitely dark (and I understand that character differences would piss fans off), I enjoyed it for what it was.

I liked rebellion better overall then the series myself. I still say this would be an awesome way to end the franchise, it was a movie that I found enjoyable and also pissed a lot of other people off, thats a great way to end things!

But hey maybe movie 4 will be even better, I thought this was just milking things when i heard they were continuing madoka past the series but was pleasantly surprised with how good the movie was, so maybe it will happen again.

pwhodges wrote:I found Rebellion a fine film that trampled all over what had gone before, and not in a good way. Very mixed feelings.

Ikr?

On top of flushing (almost) everything that had been accomplished before in the series, how could Homura do something selfish?

Ray wrote:Ikr?

On top of flushing (almost) everything that had been accomplished before in the series, how could Homura do something selfish?

I wouldn't be so quick to judge, I've always said that if I had been in Homuras shoes I probably would have acted simialerly. One reason why is despite being a god, Madoka almost fell into Kyubeys trap. Once Homura stole Madokas power she pretty much kicked the asses of the entire Kyubey race from the look of it, Madoka may not have done that and they may have tried again. In other words it comes down to trusting yourself to carry the power and deal with those who might wish to exploit it more then trusting someone else to do so. I can say without any hesitation I would have done something similar to what she did if I had been in her situation, maybe it wouldn't have been exactly what she did but I would have done something along those same lines.

Dub Madoka (never saw the dub) is Hotaru Tomoe for VIZ Sailor Moon. What madness is this?

Hoping she can pull it off! IIRC, VIZ Rei is Homura...

pwhodges wrote:I found Rebellion a fine film that trampled all over what had gone before, and not in a good way. Very mixed feelings.

Rebellion was definitely a film that split the fanbase in two-- I've not really seen anybody that didn't fall into the love it or the hate it camp. For good reason, too-- there's a lot of big stuff that happens (yes, I'm being vague) that can be interpreted in a lot of different ways.

Personally, I loved Rebellion-- but of course, I have respect for those that disagree.

Defectron wrote:I wouldn't be so quick to judge, I've always said that if I had been in Homuras shoes I probably would have acted simialerly. One reason why is despite being a god, Madoka almost fell into Kyubeys trap. Once Homura stole Madokas power she pretty much kicked the asses of the entire Kyubey race from the look of it, Madoka may not have done that and they may have tried again. In other words it comes down to trusting yourself to carry the power and deal with those who might wish to exploit it more then trusting someone else to do so. I can say without any hesitation I would have done something similar to what she did if I had been in her situation, maybe it wouldn't have been exactly what she did but I would have done something along those same lines.

Well, she probably didn't count on

Ray wrote:Ikr?

On top of flushing (almost) everything that had been accomplished before in the series, how could Homura do something selfish?

I thought that it was actually more of a deconstruction of the previously perceived relationship between Homura and Madoka. I'll try to be as vague as possible outside of the spoiler boxes, but the film does seem to attempt to explore how Homura's feelings towards Madoka have been twisted due to all those years of time loops, as well as critiquing Homura's personality and modus operandi in general (as well as whether the original series ending was really that great).

A significant deciding factor in which side of the 'love-hate divide' someone falls on seems to be whether they consider this interpretation of Homura as coincident with her portrayal in the anime/first two films, or drastically different.

Mr. Tines wrote:It sounds like you were lucky enough to come to the series relatively unspoiled. How did you manage that after all these years?

What BobBQ said. I knew that Madoka was exceptionally dark but that was just about it - I never bothered to read more about the series or to watch it. Also, I've never gone through much of this thread.

^I was one of the rare people who hadn't heard anything about the show before watching it except for an KST Madoka AMV which I thought was supposed to be a parody. I thought it was just basic mahou shoujo fluff until Episode 3. It is still pretty easy to go into the show without realising its true nature, unless you open a lot of spoilers or read Youtube comments.

Shinoyami65 wrote:Well, she probably didn't count on

SPOILER: Show

Homura blabbing the whole story of the anime to Kyubey

I think Homura probably thought Kyubey would just be all "cool story bro" when she did that with the excuse probably being that she just needed someone to tell her story to. Of course it didn't go that way and Kyubey was like "you know that really is a cool story bro. Lets see if we can make it happen in this timeline?"

I'm guessing Homura needed someone who wouldn't assume she was insane to tell her story to, I should know having weird stuff happento you makes you want to talk to people about it and Kyubey was probably the only person who'd be likely to listen to her without any bias about her story. All things considered though it probably would've been better if she just talked to her fellow magical girls about it instead and risked them thinking she was crazy.

^That does actually become a plot point in Rebellion

So apparently Kitsune (Japanese mythological foxes) are in possession of „Kitsune no tama“ a spherical ball. If those fluffy foxes are separated from them for too long, they might die. And if a human steals one of those from a kitsune, it’ll grant the person a wish.
The more you know...

For those who don't know, there's a interquel manga called Wraith Arc that began serialization in the Kirara Magica magazine.

As you probably guessed, it's an interquel between the end of the TV series and the events of Rebellion, starting with the Magical Team formed by Mami, Kyouko and Sayaka sometime before this world's Homura joins them and the arriving of the Homura from the previous universe, and apparently plans to continues up until the events of Rebellion, explained what the fuck was Homura doing in a desert in the middle of god-knows-where.

That makes it the first and so far only official work depicting the universe created by Madoka's apotheosis, with Wraiths rather than Witches. We learn more about said Wraith, notably that they works like Shadows from Persona (eating their victims' emotion until they are only an unemotional husk), also the interaction between Kyouko and Sayaka is pure gold, a constant blending of sass, infighting and yuri bait!

A scantrad can be found here.

^Consider my interest piqued.

By the way, ElMariachi, did you hear about the Madoka Magica historical spin-off featuring Jeanne d'Arc?

I don't know if I should find this blasphemous or awesome. Considering Joan of Arc is a big Icon in both Protestant and Catholic tradition. Which I consider myself a part of.

Most comic books never really address how inherently spiritual historical figures fit into inherently nihilistic universes. Aside from one off jokes like Joss Whedon made during his run on X-Men.

It's not like this is her first outing in Japanese media.

and it's somewhat forgivable when you consider Japan has a population that is less than 1% Christian, and you consider the Urobutcher's inherently nihilistic and grimdark style of writing.

^It helps that the anime has actually shown us where this story ends:

Well. . . . with what Homura did to the Universe and Madokami that might be retconned at least to a certain extent.

FINALLY sat myself down and watched PMMM!

It was a well-done show with lots of interesting ideas, definitely deserving of the praise it's received. I'm still in the midst of processing it, as there are some elements I'm not totally certain about. Since I doubt my ability to write a coherent review at this time, I will simply itemize my thoughts.

Reichu wrote:

• I don't know anything about the movies yet (I'll be watching them later), but no way they drop this "wraith" stuff on us at the end and then never explain it...

Ahahaha...well...

I do hear it is explained in the manga which I have not read yet.