Madoka Magica: The Rebellion Story

FlaviusAetius

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Has anyone else on this forum had a chance to see this movie when it was out in theaters? I suppose I made this thread because the series had the gall to get me emotionally invested only for the sequel to make everything I saw good in the original tv series absolutely worthless.

First off the movie on its own is visually beautiful and the music is just as gorgeous. The story on its own is also good, its really just the concluding message I have a problem with.

Spoilers

Without giving too much away the third movie created a transformation of the character Homura Akemi. At the end of the tv series we're left with Homura as almost a St. Peter, Apostle type of character. She's the only one that remembers Madoka and the sacrifice she made for magical girls throughout history and with that knowledge takes up the mantle of preserving her new world; even going as far as her weapon changes from a shield to a bow.

The third movie Rebellion basically tossed that view of her character and embraced this Nietzsche individualism ideology. Through Homura's actions she essentially becomes Nietzsche's ubermensch, abandoning the idea of fighting for Madoka's sacrifice and instead changing the world so that she can pull Madoka back down from her sacrifice and return her to earth. The worst thing about this is the ending seems to imply that this is legitimately for the better, that godly unconditional love for all (Madoka) is inferior to selfish single-minded love (Homura). Nothing bad happens to the universe due to Homura ending Madoka's sacrifice; which to be clear Madoka had happily accepted without regret.

The worst thing is if there ever will be a sequel following up on the movie it won't be for many years. I just feel bitter now, this series provided so much happiness in its ending for me and now that ending is tarnished to the point where the tv series emotional ending has nearly no meaning anymore.
 

Noxot

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I have not seen it yet but I loved the show.

from the eyes of heaven those 2 views of love are the same view. the one who sacrificed herself also deserves the love she so gave reflected back to her. at least that is how the heavenly church feels about her husband. think of it as one of the loves is spirit and the other love is soul. this " selfish single-minded love" is a sacrifice in and of itself, just shown in a different manner that is not to common of an idea within the church due to preconceived ideas about what love is supposed to be.

what does it matter if someone sacrificed themselves for all if the only thing that matters to some is that they lost a friend. perfect love is not hindered by the idea of sacrifice which is why it can both sacrifice and then resurrect and everything be fine.

I tell you that love is madness and God is chaos but humans have never tasted this insane sweetness because all they know about him is that he is logical and just.

love rebels just as much as it obeys.
 
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FlaviusAetius

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First off thank you for replying, I'm sorry that my spoilers were actually more revealing than I initially said. Though at this point the only way to see the movie is to pre-order the bluray.

Right now I would consider this show more of an obsession now than love, over analyzing it seems to just prove how wrong I was about the conclusion which in term tends to leave me feeling less happiness. I was actually prepared to argue against you out of bitterness, but I found you made a lot of points that seemed to strike true to me.

Mainly it was your allusion to Jesus, in that you're right about sacrifice. He died and then in 3 days he came back to comfort his despairing friends. Someone with complete bitterness in their heart could argue that if death was so easy to overcome then there was never any sacrifice in the first place for Jesus or that he was ruining his own sacrifice by returning to comfort them. However you make a convincing point that the sacrifice isn't the most important part, it's the love shown through willingness to sacrifice oneself. To use another example, would we not call someone who would willingly die for Christ a martyr just because a friend saved them from execution? Their willingness is what matters, not the blood that is spilled.

Now to completely contradict all this optimism I wrote above...

Maybe I'm just easily prone to unhappiness and pessimism but despite everything I said above I still can't find myself finding any happiness from the original tv show, it's conclusion, or the Rebellion movie. Even the notion of Madoka becoming a goddess to save magical girls is tainted by the strong implication that low self-esteem and the need to feel useful is the reason she made that sacrifice.

Homura pulling Madoka from her godhood without destroying the benefits of Madoka's sacrifice in Rebellion should make me feel happy but it doesn't. I mean I understand that it's no different from Jesus coming back to his Apostles on the third day of his death(breaking the rules of sacrifice to comfort his grieving Apostles), yet I can't appreciate it when it happens in the Rebellion movie.

I don't know I need an outside opinion from fellow Christians. That's why I wrote this thread, right now I can't find any stable ground to accept and I can't just quit the series and move on to something else.
 
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