Madoka Magica - Episode 06 Discussion / Poll

[Makender]

Oh before I forget, for the glory of predictions and epeen growth, I hereby declare that there is some kind of connection between Hitomi and QB based off of preview. Extending this to how Hitomi was affected by the witch's kiss in episode 4 (which may be some kind of soul transfer) I tenuously assert that QB has a more sinister connection to the witches. In other words, QB made be a familiar to a witch. Albeit a very different kind of familiar than what we've seen, but let's not pretend we know all the possibilities witches and familiars are capable of.

FURTHER extending this theory, familiars may be houses for the witches souls (or a part of their soul more likely) and this is why a familiar is able to transform into a witch later as the partial witch's soul within them develops.

*pant pant* Bank on this people.

[Seihai]

I don't understand what you mean by soul transfer.

[Makender]

Originally Posted by Vanish

I don't understand what you mean by soul transfer.

In terms of the witch's kiss it seems to me to be like the witch may deposit a bit of her soul into a victim to affect their thoughts and mentality. In other words they put a little bit of their soul into a person when performing a witch's kiss for control purposes. Then there's a thin relationship to QB's mentality about the soul and the episode preview, which ties together into this harebrained theory.

In the end I'm gonna look like a genius. Maybe.

[Arkeus]

Originally Posted by dysaniac

It seems to me that Kyuubey isn't Mephistopheles, or a drug pusher, or a pimp. He is a military recruiter.

This falls flat on its face when we realize that it's more buying the person than buying a job- there is no "going back after you did your time". You die if you are lucky.

The only being capable of finding and creating magical girls, the only ones that can save the mass of humanity from their fate is Kyuubey. His methods may be underhanded, he may benefit from the magical girls killing witches, he be immoral, so what? He's the not the enemy in this show's world, witches are. He's the only one capable of creating the weapons that can and will save the human race.

isn't he? From what we know, we ca nsay with pretty much certainty that kyuubey isn't doing this in any way to save humanity.

The way he does he does his 'job' (if he didn't make the system) is pretty much "i don't care if human dies, and i don't care if magical girsl kill each others. All i want is XXXX".

We don't yet know what is the XXXX. It might be the grief seeds, or maybe he eats them, or maybe he does something unknown to them, or...

Or maybe it has to do with creating magical gril in itself (he gets to have his soul quota).

What we do know is that 'XXX' likely has nothing to do with preventing human deaths.

[felix]

My little problem with the otherwise excellent episode is well… at this rate Madoka might actually not even become a magical girl for another two or three episodes. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't at all the entire series, and the opening is just trolling us hard. That would be memorable, hehe.

[Makender]

If QB is a familiar then perhaps he eats the grief seeds to speed along or strengthen his blossoming into a full-fledged witch. It will be a beautiful transformation. QB is the boss witch in the first episode and QB was trolling the heck out of Madoka. I'm on a roll.

[Seihai]

Originally Posted by felix

My little problem with the otherwise excellent episode is well… at this rate Madoka might actually not even become a magical girl for another two or three episodes. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't at all the entire series, and the opening is just trolling us hard. That would be memorable, hehe.

Urobuchi said Kyubei is the key to everything. I really want to hope that it's not a lie, at least so far it all makes sense. And given that, I'm pretty sure he'll be able to contract Madoka. Or something different happens but I'm confident she will turn into one. Come on Urobuchi, don't make us rage!

[Hmm....]

Originally Posted by felix

My little problem with the otherwise excellent episode is well… at this rate Madoka might actually not even become a magical girl for another two or three episodes. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't at all the entire series, and the opening is just trolling us hard. That would be memorable, hehe.

My predictation is that Madoka will become MG in Ep 10 at the earliest. I won't be surprised if she wait until last ep (later part at that) before becoming one. If she won't become one at all.... that would be epic.

My bet is at last episode.

[dysaniac]

Originally Posted by Arkeus

This falls flat on its face when we realize that it's more buying the person than buying a job- there is no "going back after you did your time". You die if you are lucky.

He still asking girls to volunteer for service, I'll admit the time of service can be a tad long. And to be fair, we don't know for sure that this is a lifetime agreement or if a magical girl can get mustered out in time. People have speculated stranger things about this show.

Originally Posted by Arkeus

"I don't care if humans die, and I don't care if magical girls kill each other. All I want is XXXX"...

...We don't yet know what is the XXXX. It might be the grief seeds, or maybe he eats them, or maybe he does something unknown to them, or...

...What we do know is that 'XXX' likely has nothing to do with preventing human deaths.

If this is true (which it very well might be), the end result is the exact same. He gets his XXXX as you put it, what ever that is, but humanity still benefits overall. Kyuubei may be a parasite to the magical girls, but he has a commensal relationship with humanity.

And that ignores the fact that we still don't know if he's the smiling cat-weasel-thing behind it all, or if there's a man(?) behind the smiling cat-weasel-thing. Or what the overall big picture is, if there is one beyond what's been presented.

[Tyabann]

I spat out my cereal with rage when I saw how much Kyuube was poisoning Sayaka in the first few minutes. Utter rage.

[Arkeus]

Originally Posted by dysaniac

He still asking girls to volunteer for service, I'll admit the time of service can be a tad long. And to be fair, we don't know for sure that this is a lifetime agreement or if a magical girl can get mustered out in time. People have speculated stranger things about this show.

Everything we have seen about this show, and everything we know about soul-contract, is that they are made for people not to get out of.

If this is true (which it very well might be), the end result is the exact same. He gets his XXXX as you put it, what ever that is, but humanity still benefits overall. Kyuubei may be a parasite to the magical girls, but he has a commensal relationship with humanity.

Kyuubee works in such a way that maximise human death but still has people fighting witches.

IT would be *hard* for him to make more human death.

And that ignores the fact that we still don't know if he's the smiling cat-weasel-thing behind it all, or if there's a man(?) behind the smiling cat-weasel-thing.

There probably is. Not sure why it would matter.

Or what the overall big picture is, if there is one beyond what's been presented.

indeed, we don't know. It's possible that Kyuuber actually has a positive impact for all of his messing up, or that he actually tries to harm humanity as far as he can and not just for apparent reasons.

But unless you want to speculate about what could happen, we have to talk about what we know.

[felix]

Originally Posted by Makender

If QB is a familiar then perhaps he eats the grief seeds to speed along or strengthen his blossoming into a full-fledged witch. It will be a beautiful transformation. QB is the boss witch in the first episode and QB was trolling the heck out of Madoka. I'm on a roll.

I have another theory proposition: could kyubei eat sould gems? given how similar they are to the grief seeds. I wonder how many would be brave (and stupid) enough to defend it after that.

[RiderLeangle]

(Sorry if I'm getting a bit off topic but I couldn't make it through reading all 16 pages)

On one hand it seems you guys are reading in too much about possible evilness of Kyubey.. on the other hand there is something just a bit off about him (wait.. it is a him right?).. Definitely seems like a sadistic little thing.. Something does seem a bit suspicious over how eager he is to trying to get Madoka to make a contract...

[Kaijo]

Originally Posted by Arkeus

Kyuubee works in such a way that maximise human death but still has people fighting witches.

IT would be *hard* for him to make more human death.

Ark, now you're just being flat out silly. The only way he could make more human death, is if he did nothing at all. Then there wouldn't be any MG's to fight witches. Regardless of your opinion as to his motives, his actions result in less human death, thus a positive net gain to humanity.

So you're statement makes no sense on the surface, because Kyube minimizes human death by trying to make as many human girls as he can. And indeed, this is why he's trying to recruit Madoka; her great magical power would mean she could kill witches more quickly and easily.

It may be a bad move for Madoka, but it's a good move for the rest of us. If one of us has to be sacrificed to save all of us... it can seem cruel, but life is seldom nice like that. Eventually, those that disagree get the cold harsh water of reality dumped on them.

But unless you want to speculate about what could happen, we have to talk about what we know.

And what we know is that Kyube's actions are a net benefit to humanity. Unless you somehow think witches are a good one, and I'd love to see the mental contortions required to reach that conclusion.

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by RiderLeangle

On one hand it seems you guys are reading in too much about possible evilness of Kyubey..

Every single episode he's all "Hey Madoka, you can't do shit, but you COULD if you were a Puella Magi."

Then there's him extracting and processing souls...

[Mentar]

Okay... here's a couple of thoughts I've had throughout the day.

1) QB and Homura are almost always the exact opposites of each other. It's a tug of war over Madoka between them.

QB: Promises the fulfilment of a wish, a wonderful miracle, when you become a MG
Homura: Promises death, despair and the loss of everyone you hold dear on becoming a MG

QB: Cute, charming, open
Homura: Intimidating, gruff, unapproachable

QB: Repeatedly leading Madoka/Sayaka into dangerous situations
Homura: Repeatedly saving Madoka/Sayaka from this danger

QB: Badmouthing Homura and warning Madoka from her
Homura: Keeping quiet about QB

QB: Passive spectator in crises
Homura: Active proponent in crises

QB: Claiming to be sorry for including Madoka/Sayaka in this mess, yet doesn't seem to be at all
Homura: Claiming not to care about Madoka's plight (to protect Sayaka), but secretly does

You could extend this list ad infinitum. I realized this duality when I pondered how comes that QB-haters tended to be Homura-lovers and vice versa. And I think that I feel strong empathy for Homura and contempt for QB because in my opinion Homura is the type who talks gruff, yet does good, while QB talks good yet does evil. My preference is clear.


2) The end of this episode was actually her mother's nighttime advice put in action. Her mom essentially told her that when all "right" options lead to something worse, then doing "wrong" sometimes yields better results. And that it's better to do mistakes sooner rather than later, and learning from them.

Well, snatching Sayaka's soul gem and tossing it away was certainly the "wrong" thing to do. Yet, as a result, things luckily turned out positive due to Homura's reaction: Sayaka is back alive, Kyoko is very shocked (and most likely not interested in fighting Sayaka again for the time being), and all of them (save Homura, who clearly knew beforehand) learned a critical piece of information about being MGs.


3) What happens when a soul gem can't be cleansed? I strongly doubt that a MG can simply sit back and do nothing - like go on a strike and refuse to do her job, spend no magic and act like a civilian. So she'll most likely have her soul gem pollute a bit by default (maybe maintenance for the husk which we now know about). But this leads to a followup question: What happens when the soul gem becomes too polluted, and the MG has no grief seed to purify herself?

The most logical explanation would be that soul gems would be filled with the same that fills grief seeds: Dark, negative energy. In other words, the same what gives birth to witches according to QB. Draw your own conclusions.

[felix]

Originally Posted by RiderLeangle

On one hand it seems you guys are reading in too much about possible evilness of Kyubey.. on the other hand there is something just a bit off about him (wait.. it is a him right?).. Definitely seems like a sadistic little thing.. Something does seem a bit suspicious over how eager he is to trying to get Madoka to make a contract...

Technically at the moment he's a demon (being in the soul business and all), and given we have "him" in the form of a animal it's basically a "it" from a technical standpoint. However, I don't think it's wrong to refer to it with a him, given it has a male voice (sort of). Hm, actually you have a point, is that a male of female voice; probably suppose to be in-between as in both and neither. Well, his name is male… um probably. *scratches head*

[novalysis]

Originally Posted by dysaniac

He still asking girls to volunteer for service, I'll admit the time of service can be a tad long. And to be fair, we don't know for sure that this is a lifetime agreement or if a magical girl can get mustered out in time. People have speculated stranger things about this show.



If this is true (which it very well might be), the end result is the exact same. He gets his XXXX as you put it, what ever that is, but humanity still benefits overall. Kyuubei may be a parasite to the magical girls, but he has a commensal relationship with humanity.

And that ignores the fact that we still don't know if he's the smiling cat-weasel-thing behind it all, or if there's a man(?) behind the smiling cat-weasel-thing. Or what the overall big picture is, if there is one beyond what's been presented.

Long terms of Service ? More like a service for eternity , as long as your Soul Gem does not completely Darken , or is destroyed. Plus, there's still the fact that Kyubey's essentially a necromancer turning girls into liches all but in name.

[Makender]

Originally Posted by felix

I have another theory proposition: could kyubei eat sould gems? given how similar they are to the grief seeds. I wonder how many would be brave (and stupid) enough to defend it after that.

I wouldn't put it past the little bastard. Every time I see him eying Madoka it's like he's just licking his chops.

[RiderLeangle]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

Every single episode he's all "Hey Madoka, you can't do shit, but you COULD if you were a Puella Magi."

Then there's him extracting and processing souls...

Did you read my whole post? You took my sentence out of context.. Something DEFINITELY seems suspicious about him but I'm not sure as to what.. Just saying "Evil" seems like it might be saying too much at this point in the show...
Although there is something really weird about the whole thing.. What's going to happen to all those Grief Seeds he "eats".. Where are they going because I'm sure they aren't just going inside of him..
Also something does seem a bit off about what's really going from the Soul Gems into them...

Aw damn it you've got me going with these Kyubey Conspiracies too XD

Originally Posted by felix

Technically at the moment he's a demon (being in the soul business and all), and given we have "him" in the form of a animal it's basically a "it" from a technical standpoint. However, I don't think it's wrong to refer to it with a him, given it has a male voice (sort of). Hm, actually you have a point, is that a male of female voice; probably suppose to be in-between as in both and neither. Well, his name is male… um probably. *scratches head*

Yeah... Maybe I shouldn't have asked since this is making things more confusing