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.

Correct.

The point is, as Sayaka confronts Kyubey at the top of episode 7, is that he didn't explain any of this in his contract making. Kyubey's response is a simple "you didn't ask.". OF COURSE THEY DIDN'T ASK, YOU FINE PRINTED FUCK, BECAUSE YOU MADE NO EFFORT TO COMMUNICATE THE DRAWBACKS OF THE DEAL! Of course, Kyubey doesn't see ripping one's soul out of their body without express consent as a "drawback". By his logic, it makes the magical girls heal faster and resistant to more pain so they can effectively fight, and if they never learn about it (as Mami never did) then where's the harm? To demonstrate how generous he was to Sayaka, he shows her what one of Kyoko's attacks would have felt like were she human, and she collapses to the floor in agony. Yes. That's very generous of you, causing your contractee unimaginable pain as a fucking demonstration. His point is, they can mitigate the pain. They can even cut it off totally, but he doesn't recommend that. Well, who gives a shit what you recommend?


Sayaka takes this about as well as you expect, staying in bed in a fit of sudden depression rather than going to school, but she gets an unlikely visitor in Kyoko. This is an olive branch of sorts, as Kyoko wants to take her out and talk about things. What follows is a fascinating half an episode of Kyoko talking sincerely about her wish, her regrets regarding it, and how she and Sayaka aren't so different after all. She does it in her own Kyoko way, of course, and that hostility hasn't faded; when Kyoko offers Sayaka and apple and she tosses it away, Kyoko goes for the throat and warns Sayaka to never waste food. We learn just what Kyoko wished for when she made the contract: her father was a priest with radical ideas and sermons, but said radical ideas got him excommunicated and left his family starving. Hence the rather... shall we say, forceful insistence Kyoko has about wasting food.


Kyoko's wish, then, was a selfless one for someone else. All she wanted was for people to listen to her father's sermons. She wanted people to understand her father and his words, and so they did... but that was her folly. She made a wish for someone else without knowing exactly what they wanted. When her father found out the only reason anyone was listening to his sermons was because of magic, he lost his shit and called his own daughter a witch for enchanting his parish like that. Then he killed himself and his family, save for Kyoko. Heavy shit, but it taught her a lesson; a lesson of self-reliance. Selfish acquisition, if you will. An ideology, born out of suffering and despair, to live by; never use magic for others again. As Kyoko puts it, in her own Kyoko way:

This is Kyoko, genuinely trying (within the parameters of her own ideology and worldview) to help Sayaka. The two of them started with the same mistake in using their wishes for other people. They both paid too high a price for their wish, so that's Kyoko's advice. Sayaka may as well just go ham with it, do whatever the hell she wants for herself, and get her money's worth out of her wish. Again, she's thinking in terms of acquisition and commodity, as per her worldview... but it's incompatible with Sayaka's. Sayaka apologizes for having the wrong idea about Kyoko, but rejects any idea of regretting her wish. She can do great noble and heroic things with her magic, and she chastises Kyoko for having obviously stolen the bag of apples she's been eating from for the entire scene. Noble heroines don't steal. Sayaka understands Kyoko's deal now, but she won't have any part of it. If they come to blows again, so be it. It's an interesting high ground for Sayaka to take, as the noble defender who gave up so much to heal Kyosuke. Well, at least a budding friendship can blossom there, right?


Yeah, about that. As it turns out, Hitomi has fallen for Kyosuke now. Thanks to almost dying in that witch attack, she's living with no more unsaid regrets and has decided to confess her feelings. She comes to Sayaka first, though, because she has an inkling of how Sayaka feels and doesn't want to go behind her back with this. With that, she gives Sayaka a day to say anything she needs to say to Kyosuke, to go for it herself. It's a very kind gesture, a respectful one among friends embroiled in a love triangle. It also completely emotionally blindsides Sayaka. As she later tearfully confesses to Madoka, she can't confess her feelings to Kyosuke. Not now that she knows she's a walking corpse holding her own soul. For one brief and terrible moment, she almost regretted saving Hitomi's life. Dark and terrible thoughts are a normal part of life, but Sayaka is holding herself to an impossible standard. She's the noble heroine. Noble heroines don't ever think terrible thoughts like that. Sayaka is about to lose it all, thanks to the fine print she didn't even read... and after crying it out, she comes to her answer for what to do. Kyubey gave it to her.

Oh dear. Sayaka's selflessness has reached an unhealthy critical mass. The noble heroine who sacrifices herself for others has cut herself off from her own pain, all for the sake of protecting the city from the witches. She even gives away the Grief Seed she got from the above fight to Kyoko. She's not like those other magical girls who are in it for themselves. Take the goddamned reward, you selfish girl. I'm not like you. After the fact, Madoka tries to be her compassionate self, to reach out to Sayaka... but Sayaka rejects it. Her selflessness has manifested in a toxic and negative manner, and she rejects Madoka's kindness. Madoka could help Sayaka by becoming a magical girl, since she has all that potential... but she won't. Sayaka doesn't blame her; you can't just give up your humanity out of pity. She runs out, telling Madoka not to follow her, and that is the last time either will see the other alive. Sayaka is filled with immediate regret over saying these things, but she's too damaged to do much about it.

Homura tries to help next, in her own way, and it's a scene I want to save analysis for when we get to her section. For now, let us just say that Sayaka again refuses any help from a "selfish" magical girl like Homura, and swears to only use her magic to help others. Later Sayaka will find herself on a train, and two misogynist shitbags are talking about women in a total misogynist way, devaluing their love and affection in such a way as to set Sayaka off, and so when she confronts them...

It's left ambiguous what happens, but it's easy to read that she totally killed those guys. The noble heroine, who fought selflessly to save the world, now finds herself having lost everything. The boy she made her wish for. Her human form. Her friends. The train was the final thread, as now Sayaka has lost even her belief that this grim, depressing, piece of shit world is even worth protecting. Kyoko eventually finds her, and we get to The Scene. The grand reveal at the end here is a big deal that we'll be talking about, but let's not forget what we lose here. We lose Sayaka to the Dirge Of Despair. She can't even remember what she was protecting any more. Her Soul Gem, the shining beacon that is her true self, is almost jet black. Sayaka acquiesces to Kyoko's way of thinking. She was right about the balance of hope and despair. Sayaka's noble and heroic hope shone as bright as the sun. Now that light has dimmed, and it's the dark gleam of despair which shines in her soul. Sayaka has balanced to zero. She saved some lives, but look what she did to herself in the process. She wished for someone else's happiness, and so she took on all the sadness. This is the true natural order of magical girls. The final secret. And so, Sayaka Miki, having fallen to the Dirge Of Despair, says her last words.

So. Several things to unpack there. First and foremost, Sayaka Miki is dead. Like I said, let's not let that fact slip through the cracks between this lore reveal. She's dead, and we'll soon have Madoka crying over her lifeless corpse. This is not the end of her, though. Sayaka Miki is dead. What she became is still out there... and what she became is a witch. Kyoko spoke of the natural order in terms of the food chain before, but it's really a food cycle. Witches kill humans. Magical girls kill witches. Magical girls then, eventually, fall into despair and become witches... and the cycle goes on. Oh, Kyoko. You weren't earning the commodity. You were the commodity. Just another potential Grief Seed in the pile. That is the cruel and terrible system of magical girls and contracts. Why it is the way it is, we will delve into... but first, some hope still burns for Sayaka.


It's Kyoko and Madoka, of all people, who form an alliance now. In any other typical magical girl show, this would be cause for celebration. The hard-edged ideology of Kyoko, softening to accept hope and love and friendship. Given what we've just learned, there's hardly time to celebrate... but Kyoko is trying for the hell of it. She doesn't want to give up on Sayaka, and her grand plan is to bring Madoka into the witch's lair, and hope that somehow Sayaka's best friend can call her back to the path of the light. That leads us into the lair of a newborn witch, Oktavia Von Seckendorff. You thought a Dirge Of Despair was loud? Try an entire concerto of the stuff, because that's what we've got. Oktavia's lair is a massive concert hall, grand music piping through as a phantasmal orchesta plays on and on. It's a dark mirror to everything Sayaka held dear, everything she wished for, and now it's here to murder anyone in its way. Kyoko now takes the role of protector, guarding Madoka from Oktavia's barrage of wheels (does Oktavia use wheels because of Sayaka's train experience, I wonder?) and parrying every blow, rather than being her old aggressive self. As Kyoko muses to herself, while they fight and artsy shit happens...

So there's some wild shit going on there. As the fight goes south for them both, Kyoko ends up praying to God for just one lucky break. One wonders what sort of faith crisis she went through as the daughter of a preacher, having all that horrible shit happen to her. Homura ends up saving Madoka from a nasty fall, and that leads Kyoko to her own final attack. Her swan song, if you like. There are some final poignant parting words that will resonate with Homura for reasons we'll get into, and then Kyoko stays with Oktavia-- no, Sayaka until the very end, channelling all her magic into one massive blast. All her accumulated power and wealth, shared at last, to take them both out. A selfless death for Kyoko. She even takes up a prayer pose as she charges up. That's the end of them both, though. Homura is the last magical girl standing, and there's a storm coming. Not just a storm, but a witch of unimaginable power. As Kyubey notes once Homura escapes and has a quiet moment, there really was no chance for saving Sayaka. There's no hope in a world like this, but why? Why is the world this way... and why is Homura the way she is?


Walpurgisnacht is coming, but we have all the time in the world to finally learn the truth.

(Continued in Part 4)