The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 3 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX) [3.5]

(Continued from 3.4)

Part 5: Melody Of Memory

Of course, alchemy being alchemy, Carol still has some power creep ass pulls left in her. Like a song of her own. It's not translated, again, but a cursory glance at the lyrics shows that she's singing about genocide and the dissection of all things. Okay, it's the literal Dirge of Despair playing again. It's incredibly powerful, though, and the waveform analysis shows the truth: this is a Climax Song. Carol's using the Symphogear system's own power against our girls, and for good reason. Let's take a quick peek at her world-ending Château de Tiffauges again:

The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 3 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX) [3.4]

(Continued from 3.3)

Part 4: Falsetto Of Fatherhood


I'm fine. I'm fine, really. I had a lay down and a Gatorade. We are going to ignore... that plot twist for the immediate moment, and jump back in time with the series to poke at the events we skipped while discussing curses and powerups. Before that, some flavor context. Symphogear GX has multiple plot threads and character motivations/personal growth arcs dealing with the characters' fathers. The specific running undercurrent connecting them all was the challenge Carol laid down for Hibiki in their first encounter: what these girls' fathers have passed down to them, and how they come to realize those legacies to learn and grow from them. We'll start by dovetailing into the curse/powerup discussion and talking about Tsubasa's personal growth episode, because it's all about her relationship with her father.

The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 3 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX) [3.3]

(Continued from 3.2)

Part 3: Cacophany Of Curses


We're going to have a lot of fun quantifying what the powerup arc means for Symphogear GX. Before that, though, we have to set the terms and settle up the "weakness" arc with Tsubasa and Chris here fighting back. They're quite effective at dealing with the Alca-Noise now, and thanks to alchemy enhancement they can't have their Symphogears shattered again. Which is a plus! Okay, maybe we can deal with this shit! Or, you know, Carol could show up to kick everyone's asses as the final boss of alchemy. She's got lots of tricks up her sleeve. Like playing a harp and Symphogear transforming while also turning into a grown woman, Hyperdimension Neptunia style. Okay then. She's not singing, but she is shitblasting Tsubasa and Chris with alchemy. Something we neglected to mention regarding alchemy: you remember how the Autoscorers siphon memories to power themselves? Well, as it turns out, alchemy is powered by memory... such that, when you use it, you burn away a memory in equivalent exchange. The Autoscorers are clockwork so they've been just burning away stolen memories. Carol's been alive for hundreds of years, so she's burning up her own with every burst of magical energy. Scary stuff. The only way to match it is with a powerup. Let's see what Project Ignite can do.

The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 3 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX) [3.2]

(Continued from 3.1)

Part 2: Waltz Of Weakness


Before we get into it, here's something cute! At the time of starting this section of the writeup, it's September 13th. The date is notable because it's Hibiki Tachibana's canon birthday. Happy birthday, Hibiki! You're an inspiration to us all and now I'm going to write in part about how you're having a mental crisis of utopic tension in a series all about power creep and alchemy and having to go SUPER SAIYAN SYMPHOGEAR. Oh, you think I'm fucking kidding. Just you wait 'till the next section. Anyway. We have established that alchemy is a power beyond anything the Symphogear users have faced so far; enough to actually shatter Tsubasa and Chris's relics. Are we getting a retread of the "can't fight" arc Hibiki went through last season? Well, not quite. Before we get into that, let's muse a little on the storytelling philosophy of the anime power creep and power-up arc.

The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 3 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX) [3.1]

(Here we are again, and so soon, too! One last magical girl push before spooky marathon coverage. Since we were here last, one very exciting thing to acknowledge: in a month's time there will be an official physical release of the first season of Symphogear! Even better, they've already announced plans for a Symphogear G release in 2021. In a year's time, we could even see the season we're about to cover on Blu-Ray! How thrilling it is! How mournful it is for my wallet! Anyway, let's get on with the show. You know the drill by now: Massive spoilers ahead for Symphogear. You've been warned. Now, how the hell am I going to start this thing...?)

(Continued from 2.5)

Slap your knees and hold onto your asses, it's round 3 of the eternal clash between the Harmony Of Hope and the Dirge of Despair! Okay, that's a weird way to start off, but sometimes you need to just say fuck it and throw out the first opener that comes to your head. See? Now we're in the thick of it, and we've begun the marathon deep dive magical girl exegesis ahead of us. Yes, it's another marathon because I don't know how to sprint. So, then. Another go at the coffee shop, just you and I. Last time on Symphogear we dealt with a great many things. A slow and steady corruption from within which threatened our entire utopic ideal. Betrayal that was happening left, right, and center as everyone and everything we loved lost their ability to understand us, if only for a heart-stopping moment. The duality of heroism and nobility, in which our protagonist learned to reject the mantle of hero and our antagonist couldn't let go of it because he was the worst, most selfish little fucker alive. Enough about him. I don't want to talk about him ever again if I can help it. Instead let's do what we came here to do, and talk about the third season of Senki Zesshou Symphogear: Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX (hereafter referred to as simply Symphogear GX).

Coming Pretty Soon: 31 Days, 31 Screams: A New Beginning

Hello there! Did you enjoy Entropy's Dark Gleam last week? I had quite a good time working on it. I'm also having a really good time working on Part 3 of The Harmony Of Hope, the big look at Symphogear's third season. I've got a week to finish it, so that deadline's lit a fire under my ass. The reason I have only a week to finish it is because the week after that puts us into October. You know what October means around here, don't you? We put down the magical girls and delve into dark excursions of SPOOKS and SCARES and HORROR and GOBLINS!!!


So yes, very soon it will be time to start the fifth annual 31 Days, 31 Screams marathon. A post a day all throughout October about some form of spooky-themed media. Could be a simple horror movie, a spooky novel, an ambient video game, some episodes of a show... A lot's on the table! Not enough on my end to fill in the whole month, though, which is where you lovely readers come in! Spooky times is when I reach out to you to let you get involved and suggest wild shit for me to cover! I only have two rules: that your selected media be less than 4 hours long, and that it be easily obtainable; my usual platforms are Youtube and Canadian Netflix, but if things aren't too pricey on Amazon I can consider that as well. It's all subjective, really.


I'll leave you to it, then, and get back to what I've been up to. Namely a juggling act between watching old missing 60's Doctor Who, playing through games on the Switch, and of course writing about Symphogear. Gosh, when I finish writing this one I get to watch more Symphogear. I also want you all to know that I'm so used to writing in Notepad that I put shorthand brackets around what I just italicized, which is what I do when I want to note what I want to empathize via italics later. Except I'm typing this directly into Blogger and I can just italicize with a click. Whoops. Okay. Fire off the spooky suggestions, please! See you for more Symphogear, and then the SPOOKY STUFF! OOOOO!!!

Entropy's Dark Gleam (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) [Part 5]

(Continued from Part 4)

Part 5: Rose's Resolve


Here we are at last, then. A section on our main character. The twists and turns we've encountered so far, all the shocking revelations... they've happened around her. She's lost her mentor, she's lost her best friend, and it's all entirely too much to bear. Before we get to the final reveal, the reason why this world of magical girls works the way it does, there's one oft-repeated motif we need to examine. You could call it Madoka's own ideology, if you like. Several times over the series, Homura or Kyubey or some other person will explain some inescapable grim fact about the life of a magical girl. Fighting endlessly for the sake of your wishes, being a walking corpse cradling your soul in an elaborate jewel... or even just the reality that you can't win by doing what's right all the time. Madoka will, without doubt, respond honestly; she thinks that's just too cruel. It's unfair to those who fought and love and died that the system is so uncaring towards what they wanted. The system is far crueler and far more unsympathetic to magical girls' wants and needs than Madoka could ever know, and once the jig is up regarding Sayaka it's time for Kyubey to explain.

Entropy's Dark Gleam (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) [Part 4]

(Continued from Part 3)

Part 4: Lavender's Lament


We've made it this far. The Homura summary and analysis. This will be something. Homura is, without a doubt, my favorite character in Madoka Magica. She definitely was not on my first watch, at least until the other shoe dropped and I understood her motivations and ideology. Before we get to that, though, we have to poke at the handful of scenes involving her over the preceding nine episodes. There's not much to poke at here, but it is noteworthy. First of all is the alliance she forms with Kyoko at the midpoint of the series, in order to defeat a super-powerful witch known as Walpurgisnacht. Kyoko has some qualms about how the hell Homura knows about this, but they make their little alliance anyway when Homura promises to clear out of the city after it's defeated. We know how things end up for Kyoko, so that leaves Walpurgisnacht as a threat... but before we deal with that, we need to get through Homura's tough and cool facade. We do just that in episode 8, just before Sayaka dies.

Entropy's Dark Gleam (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) [Part 3]

(Continued from Part 2)

Part 3: Turquoise's Turmoil

(TW: blood)

This whole magical girl deal just keeps getting worse and worse all the time, doesn't it? You're forced to fight terrible monsters which could you kill at any moment, every night, for the rest of your life. You're also, as we learned last time thanks to Madoka's little oopsie, a soulless shell holding your own soul in a convenient little gem. That alone is enough to make Kyoko (and Sayaka, at the top of episode 7) go "what the fuck". Hey, though, at least you get any wish you want, right? No! Not really! Some magical girls just have more latent talent than others (and, as Kyubey keeps parroting, Madoka has like all the potential) and even that factors in to your wish. So, while Mami and Sayaka had the potential necessary to heal themselves and Kyosuke, respectively, it's doubtful they could have wished for anything massive like infinite wishes. One wonders what would happen if a magical girl with low potential tried to do that, but that's besides the point.

Entropy's Dark Gleam (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) [Part 2]

(Continued from Part 1)

(TW: suicide)

Part 2: Crimson's Conflict


Right then. So that's the truth at the heart of Madoka Magica. It strung you along for three episodes with a typical magical girl-like structure, a status quo totally familiar to anyone with passing knowledge of Sailor Moon. It then just killed one of its main cast, letting the veil drop. There are other dark and terrible truths to be learned, but we must tread carefully in this grim world of despair. As this section suggests, we're going to get some good old-fashioned magical girl ideological conflict in a bit. Before we can get there, we have to set things up and try to cope with the loss of our friend Mami. How do Madoka and Sayaka take that?

Entropy's Dark Gleam (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) [Part 1]

(Hello there! This is not a new Harmony Of Hope post on the third Symphogear season, but I am Douglas Adams-ing my way through the deadline on that one. Considering October is spooky month here, I've got to bang out Harmony Of Hope 3 in the next few weeks. What we've got here instead over the next week is exactly what it says on the tin: a deep dive essay on the magical girl show, Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Why are we doing this? Promises and Patreons. This is a stretch goal of sorts I set in support of Christine Kelley's Patreon reaching the $300 mark. Christine is an amazingly talented writer who runs the blog Dreams Of Orgonon, looking at the career of Kate Bush song by song. I adore Kate Bush, and I adore Christine's writing about Kate Bush. She deserves your support! Perhaps in the future, if my creative writing circle rallies together more stretch goals for Christine's Patreon, we'll do other work in the Madoka Magica series. Perhaps I'll do it of my own volition. No promises as of yet. For now, I'll be hard at work on the new Symphogear post... but please enjoy a different flavor of magical girl exegesis.

Oh, right. There's spoilers for Puella Magi Madoka Magica all over this, even after the Read More. It's almost a decade old and they're infamous twists, but if you've not seen the show, give it a go. Right. On with it.)


Well then. Let's get the ball rolling on this one with some personal recollection. As I said two years ago (which might as well be a thousand years ago now, considering the year we've all had), in 2003 I had a brief yet memorable fling of watching Sailor Moon on TV. I did this in my own private solitude, and got caught once or twice doing it and thus a little mocked for it. We've got an interesting bit of recursion here; watching Sailor Moon in 2003 made me want to be a writer. Rewatching Sailor Moon in 2018 turned me into some sort of magical girl critical analysis type, and between that and my still-ongoing deep dive into Symphogear? I've written a literal book on this stuff, and now I will do that again. Before any of that happened, though, in 2011 I encountered this show. Puella Magi Madoka Magica (hereafter referred to as Madoka Magica). I don't remember the exact circumstances which drew me to it, unlike the vivid memory of encountering Sailor Moon, but I do know that I knew the big dark twists going in. It didn't ruin it for me, and I remembered it being an emotional gut punch.


More than that, I remember revisiting Madoka Magica, even back then. Over time, friends of mine visited the show and I got to experience it with them. Whether it was dodgy livestreams of the episodes with their reactions, or just text chats as they reacted and screamed, I got to watch them go through this journey. Unlike my solitary Sailor Moon screenings, Madoka Magica is this very shared thing for me. Beyond that, though, I hadn't really thought of the series in years. It got a sequel movie in 2013 which I watched once, and is a whole other can of worms that we won't be covering at the moment. I did consider it again, briefly, back in January. In introducing my Symphogear writeup series, I framed its title character as one of the "Eternals" and gave a brief little summary of what I took from the show, and how it fit into my broader magical girl experience and expectations. That's a remarkable bit of brevity for me, and I'm honestly impressed looking back at it that I managed to nail it down so succinctly despite not seeing the show in several years.


Now let's fuck it all up and go into 10,000 words of excessive detail and plot summary about how good this goddamned show is.