[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Decagon

I think by being so concerned with defending QB as not being "evil" you tend to pass over the weight of his actions on Madoka, Sayaka, and Kyoko who have been portrayed as victims to such a simple omission as what a soul gem is.

Well, I think that you greatly overestimate the weight of those actions, because you're putting more emphasis on subjective and far from infallible character reactions than on the core facts of the matter.

Fact: The appearance and shape of Sayaka's body is completely unchanged. At least so far.

Fact: Sayaka's capacity for human emotion and feeling is completely unchanged.

Fact: Sayaka is still able to hug other people and cry, as demonstrated by this episode.

Fact: Sayaka still thinks as a human does. So does Kyoko. So did Mami. Only Homura seems a bit off here.

Fact: Sayaka is still able to go through her day-to-day life as though nothing has changed, with the only exception being the addition of her magical girl activities, of course. This is seen by how Sayaka attends school this episode, and the school day goes by as normal for her and her classmates (aside from the commotion that Kamijo's return caused, of course).

So how exactly has Sayaka been dehumanized in any relevant way? Fact is, she hasn't been. Her body may have been made sturdier and/or slower than what it was before, but that doesn't dehumanize her. I mean, to say that would be like saying that someone who takes steroids dehumanizes himself or herself by doing so.

I highlighted what I don't agree with. This position should not keep us from evaluating the situation from a character's perspective.

Then you're not disagreeing with me, but rather agreeing with me. All I'm saying is you have to consider every character's perspective, not just "the victims".

So of course we should consider the situation from Sayaka's perspective. But we should also consider it from Kamijo's perspective, and we should also consider it from Hitomi's perspective (Hitomi being someone who would probably be dead right now if not for Sayaka's choice to become a magical girl), and we should also consider it from Homura's perspective (Homura being someone who said that Kyubey does not consider his own actions to be cruel, which if accurate obviously rules out evil intent on Kyubey's part), etc..., etc...

I think it should be apparent from their reactions in episode 6 and 7 that the girls are quite disturbed by that one revelation,

Sayaka and Madoka are, but Kyoko seems to already be over it, and not care about it anymore. So why aren't you considering Kyoko's perspective as much as you are Sayaka's? Why aren't you saying "Well, maybe Sayaka is overreacting, given how well Kyoko is coping with it"?

I'm not going to consider Sayaka's perspective the only one worth considering here. That would be incredibly narrow-minded, in my view.

I think it's a disservice for your fellows to not ask yourself why these girls reacted in such a way to something you seem to dismiss and your cohorts see as an advantage. You said yourself it is a disservice to not consider the perspectives of all the characters, so 3/5 main characters being disturbed by the soul gem revelations isn't that light is it?

Wait, who are the three characters?

I only see 2 being disturbed for any significant length of time. Those two being Madoka and Sayaka.

I'll elaborate since I'm sure someone would end up asking me to, but feel free to look up her dialog.

Sayaka does not see herself as human anymore--she quite flatly states that she's now some thing that no longer possesses the qualifications to pursue a romantic relationship with Kyosuke. Ever since she asked Mami about making a wish for others, and through her continuing visits to Kyosuke after making her wish, we know that she is interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with him. Her current state of being essentially means she squandered her wish which, according to some, is supposed to be due compensation for constantly risking her life.

That's just what Sayaka thinks. Just like Mami thought she never had time for friends, which seems extremely dubious to me given how Sayaka has time for school.