[Asehpe]

Originally Posted by Vegard Aune

Are... Are you me? No seriously, that is almost exactly how I feel about it too. Hated the idea of a sequel, still saw Rebellion, initially hated it, eventually warmed up to it though I always thought it was absolutely terrible as an ending (not just for what happens in it, but also for how it presents itself; Literally every single scene is directed in such a way that it feels like setup for more conflict later, and at the end it feels like the movie just stops), and have been clamoring for some sort of sequel to it just because as it stands I feel the story is incomplete.

Personally though, I've already accepted that whatever comes next almost certainly will not be as good as the show. Nor do I think an ending as satisfying as the TV-series one can really be done again at this point. Not even if they were to end the hypothetical sequel with the TV-series ending fully restored exactly the way it was, because that would just make both sequels feel utterly pointless.

I would certainly like to think I am many people ()... I'm glad we are in agreement about this. Makes my day! Madoka knows how easy it is to find people who disagree with you in the internet, often as vehemently as a banshee...

As for me, I don't know if this is the right place to discuss 'Rebellion', but... I saw it as changing the topic. At first I was appalled at what it seemed to do to Homura; then I realized that Homura in the TV series was already somewhat creepily obsessed with Madoka. I thought a little more about that, read and watched some reviews of the movie (among which SFDebris' review, which I recommend, at http://sfdebris.com/videos/anime/madokarebellion.php), and came to the conclusion that the movie was actually quite good.

It does change the topic: from the dual relation of hope and despair in the series, to Homura's obsession with Madoka. But the topic that the movie chose, the change that it made, is... intriguing. Interesting. Now we face the comparison between Madoka as selfless love ('I sacrifice myself to alleviate the suffering of all those Magical Girls who died without hope...'), and Homura as selfish love ('I want Madoka to be happy, and I know what happiness is for Madoka, so I am going to give it to her no matter what!').

Homura wants 'her' Madoka to be happy, regardless of the actual choices made by all real Madokas in the TV series. Her conversation with Madoka in the middle of the 'Rebellion' movie may be what made her decide to do this, but she certainly also knew that the Madoka she was talking to was an unexperienced, 'naive' Madoka; she was not the 'informed' Madoka at the end of the TV series. And she certainly was not the Madoka-as-Incarnation-of-the-Law-of-Cycles that tried to save Homura by taking her soul gem to Magical Girl Valhalla. So, in a very true sense, Homura's decision was only Homura's; it was the decision of which Madoka she wanted to have, which Madoka she wanted to see 'happy'; after deciding this, her actions become sensible as steps towards achieving this happiness.

But since there are so many Madokas to choose from (which is not simply a feature of Madoka's; it's true for all human beings... I am not the same person I was when I was 10, or 17; if confronted with difficult situations, my 10- or 17-year-old self would certainly have made different, probably stupider, choices), Homura's choice of a Madoka simply translates as her deciding she knows what is best ('after I know what is best, I'll just think of the "right Madoka" who would also want this'). So it's all Homura's choice, even if she thinks she is doing 'what Madoka "truly" wants.'

So basically Homura is doing what she wants. She has decided what is best for Madoka, and so she forced it on Madoka, by basically trapping her in a fantasy world that is not essentially different from the fantasy world inside the Incubators' isolation field where Homura had been trapped.

Selfish love. The kind in which I say 'I know what is best for you, so just listen and do as I say'. Since this is not really Madoka -- not the Madoka at the end of the TV series, at least --, this is bound to lead to conflict, as was foreshadowed in 'Rebellion' when Madoka temporarily reconvered some memories of her previous self, and Homura ended up saying 'perhaps we will eventually be enemies'.

Yes, they will -- selfless love vs. selfish love. What will Urobuchi come up with for this particular dilemma? He did something awesome with hope and despair; it may not be utterly stupid to hope that he will come up with something interesting and insightful also in this case. He certainly surprised me in his take on hope and despair; he made me think about the topic in a way I never had before.

My first gut feeling is that Madoka's selfless love should win. Maybe she will eventually punish Homura by trapping her inside of a bubble universe with a little copy of herself, a little Madoka that Homura can go on protecting as she sees fit, Would that be a hell for Homura, or a heaven? She would basically have the same problem Madoka now has, the problem Sayaka understood (as Homura said in the TV series, Sayaka is sharp -- she understands things): the lack of authenticity of what she is doing. Would it be OK to do that to Homura? Was it OK to do that to Madoka?

Well, what will Urobuchi do with this? I don't know. Maybe something else, something I haven't thought about at all, something surprising, refreshing, new. Maybe he'll consider the topic of what happiness truly is: can Homura know what happiness is, or at least what happiness-for-Madoka is? Can Madoka? Can anyone? How can we choose if we don't know what happiness is? How can Madoka, or Homura?... Or maybe not, maybe Urobuchi will end up with something unsatisfactory. But it is possible to hope, and his past record makes this hope plausible.

Which is why I am not unhappy with sequels to the TV series. Because they're about new topics -- the TV series is so self-contained, I don't think there's anything Urobuchi could further say about hope and despair that isn't already there. But since it's a new, unrelated topic... the sky is the limit.