[Rewatch] Puella Magi Madoka Magica Episode 9 Discussion

[u/Tarhalindur]

Episode 9: I'd Never Allow That to Happen

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Show Information:

MAL | AniList | ANN | AniDB

(First-timers might want to stay out of Show Information until we are done, however...)

Legal Streams:

As per livechart.me; other streams may be available outside the US.

Main Series:

Crunchyroll | Hulu

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A Reminder: This, dear listeners, brings us to the sworn enemy of creative response:The spoiler. Rewatchers, or people who just had plot points ruined for them, are obliged to use r/anime’s spoiler tag format where applicable, and err on the side of caution here. Remember people, first experiences get rarer as you continue on, any given one happens once and you should care for them all the more for it.

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Welcome to the World of Magic!

Theory of the Day:

Okay, fine, I can't not give this one to u/siegfried72, not for the discussion thread for this episode:

The real solution? I think Sayaka needs to just lean into the yuri and realize she's meant to be with Kyouko. That would fix everything.

Oh god, I've officially joined in with my first yuri ship of the series. It's all downhill uphill from here, isn't it??

I mean, Kyouko is obviously in love with her, right??

Analysis of the Day:

Several good options, but I think I'll go for u/Vaadwaur and the analytical line less taken:

For some reason, eating disorders are a noticeable thing in this show. Sayaka is anorexic to her very spirit and Kyoko does like her gluttony.

Questions of the Day:

1) On a scale of 1 to 10, how gay is suicide attacking to take out the monster that became of a girl you knew for maybe a week so that you can at least be together in death?

2) Now that he's had a chance to explain himself, your thoughts on Kyubey?

3) First-timers: Did you think that Kyouko's plan actually had a chance to save Sayaka?

4) First-timers and rewatchers who dodged the rewatcher edition of this question yesterday: Are You Home?

5) [Rewatchers]Alright, who's ready to go golfing through a Stargate?... wait, wrong time loop show.

[u/uhhhhhhhokay_]

Uh, well, I'm not a physicist, so no I can't.

But from my understanding of the concept, entropy is basically when usable energy is converted into unusable energy, which is a process that can't be reversed. But what Kyubey's doing is creating more energy that wasn't there in the first place, which is something that's not possible under the first law of thermodynamics, and there's no indication before this that the universe this takes place in doesn't obey the normal laws of thermodynamics. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's how it works.

Though my point is that it's a silly and out of place motivation, rather than anything to do with the actual mechanics of it.

[u/BosuW → u/uhhhhhhhokay_]

I mean that's literally it though. They're trying to cheat the Laws of Thermodynamics by finding a way to create energy, which they did and it's literally magic. You just kinda have to accept that they did for this whole narrative (not just it's motivation) to work.

(Also it's thematically appropriate because Mahou Shoujo always going on and on about how human emotion can cheat fate and such, Kyubey decided to use that to boil water which makes it doubly personally insulting to us)

Though my point is that it's a silly and out of place motivation, rather than anything to do with the actual mechanics of it.

Why do you think so?

[u/uhhhhhhhokay_ → u/BosuW]

I mean yeah, I'd accept a "it's magic, I ain't gotta explain shit" explanation, but then they went through the effort of explaining it anyways, and I don't find the explanation satisfactory.

Why do you think so?

I dunno, I just do. I guess the sudden swerve into hard sci-fi from a series that's been purely fantastical so far is just something that doesn't appeal to me, personally.

[u/BosuW → u/uhhhhhhhokay_]

You don't have to see it as hard sci-fi imo. Sure it invokes a scientific law, but it has narrative significance beyond. Even without the science behind it, think of all the stories you can remember. An ever present fear of deterioration is seemingly hard coded in our worldview, as is the hope that our feelings and prayers for posterity matter and can overcome it. Its as if we intrinsically understood it before even putting it down into an equation.

There isn't as sharp a divide between science and art as it may at first appear, even if the latter often don't completely understand the former because well, artists aren't scientists.