Quote:
Originally Posted by SkullFaerie
By the way, I wouldn't really say her decision to become a Puella Magi was "noble". If anything it was her ep 12 decision to keep things as they are. To be honest, it is a decision that bothers me at the same time though, depending on how you interpret Kamijou.
|
Sayaka's ending is interesting. I'm somewhat dissatisfied with it, but it's complex. First:
When I look at it from the position of emotional development, the ending is plausible. I'm also quite happy that Sayaka found peace in her decision. That is, I quite like the direction it has taken. But compared with the detailled and extraordinary development she went through during the show, it feels sort of flat. Too simple. Too smooth. (And Kamijou's "Sayaka?" was downright cheesy.) That is: what happened is basically okay, but how they treated it... it just felt hurried. We're shown just enough to see that Madoka made the right decision. The exectution of Sayaka's ending was about Madoka, really, not Sayaka. (And due to time constraints, that makes sense, too.)
From a moral point of view that smoothing bothers me a bit. Basically, Sayaka has sacrificed everything and is fine with it. If I'd call that noble I sort of condone that as an ideal. But that only works if I make a distinction between extraordinary people and normal people. I can't ask of
everyone to sacrifice themselves, or there'd be no-one left to sacrifice yourself
for. I simply can't condone that total self-sacrifice. I can't call it noble, without applying a double standard of the following sort: I hope that people sacrifice themselves for me, while at the same time hoping that I won't have to sacrifice myself. Yet, that sort of attitude is sort-of necessary to keep up self-sacrifice as "noble". Someone has to receive the sacrifice. Basically, someone's dealt the shitty cards, but we put a pretty face on it so that some people
want to draw the shitty card.
Now look at that situation from a gender point-of-view. Look for "I'm happy if you are" support scenes and see how often you find boys in the support role. And that's the magical girl genre in a nutshell. It's Madoka's ending, but above all it's Sayaka's ending. Basically, the show's telling us that Sayaka's life was not wasted because Kamijou got to live his dream.
Considering the circumstances, this is probably the best Sayaka can hope for. But I feel that smoothing over the conflict inherent in such a ending cheapens Sayaka's struggles and writes off "Dark Sayaka" as an aberration rather than as a part of her.
This is what bothers me. (Not sure that makes sense; as I said - it's complex.)
EDIT: Above you mention
X-1999. I love the way
that ending plays with the sacrifice trope, pushed onto the characters by fate; they subvert that fate by fulfilling it but also subverting it through mutual respect.