|
Kaijo - In fairness, I see where a lot of specific details favor your position. You're right that Madoka isn't terribly helpful right now.
However, I have this feeling that Urobuchi may be painting with broad strokes in the proverbial background, while allowing specific details to camouflage what's really going on. The genius to such an approach is that you get light foreshadowing that looks very good when the viewer looks over the series a second time, but also that you may end up surprising a lot of your viewers with a good plot twist for the initial viewing.
So let's put aside the trees of specific details for a second, and just focus on the forest of broad strokes.
Two girls are each asked to become a magical girl.
Both get to see a magical girl in action (and both the pros and cons which that entails) before making a choice.
One girl decides to become a magical girl, with a wish for a friend in mind and a desire to fight witches and familiars to protect people.
The other girl decides to not become a magical girl, as caution rules the day for her, with the magical girl role seeming too dangerous to her for its own good.
The girl that decides to become a magical girl slowly, but surely, spirals downward into an abyss because of it. First, it makes her more willing to engage in lethal combat with another person. Secondly, it's making her go downright psychotic, based on what we've read in this episode thread so far. As a person, Sayaka seems to be changing for the worst.
The girl that chose the cautious path tries to talk her magical girl friend into favoring a peaceful course of action over a violent one. She advises talking things out. And interestingly, it now seems that such a diplomatic course of action may have worked, as Kyoko makes a truce in this episode.
The girl that chose the cautious path also is the one suffering less, of the two girls. All of Madoka's current problems are due to Sayaka choosing to be a magical girl. As a person, Madoka has remained fairly constant, her beliefs and convictions left unchanged.
Now, it's clear that Madoka's decisions and words are shaped a lot by idealism. She doesn't want to risk her life fighting witches, but she does like the idea of helping people that are endangered by them (which is why she says "Sayaka is doing the right thing"). She refuses to give up on Sayaka, even after Homura repeatedly tells her to. She doesn't want Sayaka to engage in lethal combat, even with someone seemingly as psychotic as Kyoko is. It's abundantly clear that Madoka doesn't want to get her hands dirty, but she also doesn't want herself or anybody else to get hurt. Long story short, Madoka is desperately searching for a very idealistic solution.
Madoka hasn't found it yet, but that doesn't mean that she won't. If she does find it, then it could be seen as Madoka being rewarded for sticking to her convictions and values through a long, bitter storm.
Now, I'm not saying that this is what I necessarily want, but I do see it as a striking possibility.
Two girls, two different choices, and two different outcomes, with the more idealistic girl suffering less out of those outcomes. I think that might say a lot.
|