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REVIEW: Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part 3: Rebellion

For me it is just crappy writing. The TV series gave them the lead in for a sequel at the very end of the show. But for some reason they decided to ignore the buddha like wraiths/demons for a 'lets turn the good character evil' plot line.

To do that, they had to crack Homura's character. So the decided to brute force it using the Kyubeys to imprison Homura. But somewhere their writing logic failed and they cast Homura as someone who would suffer an eternity of torment and complete isolation to protect Madoka.

And then when Homura was set to receive her richly deserved heavenly reward, the writers threw Homura under the bus, and then dragged her corpse through the gravel for good measure.

I would have grudgingly accepted an insanely evil Homura, who was made that way by the tortures of the Kyubeys, but the writers failed that by making her heroically good in the final battle with the Kyubeys. So we get devil Homura, who comes out of nowhere, who throws away her heavenly rewards for the ultimate betrayal.

Who power strips her friends, who memory wipes her friends, who implants false memories in her friends and for the cherry on top, who ultimately threatens to destroy her friends if they get in the way.

Insane Homura, would have somewhat been believable.
The devil Homura we got, was not.

I agree fully TarsTarkas. Maybe, as some have hinted, the team wanted to get a latent yuri element into Homura and Madoka's relationship? Some fans love that.

But, at the same time, I feel like arguing about it is pointless. It doesn't change anyone's minds. People who hate the movie usually seem angry at me just for suggesting that it might not suck, to say nothing of when I try to explain why I feel that way. If emotional perception of something as good or bad comes first, and thought and reason only acts to defend it, why do we even have these discussions? What do we learn from them? If we can't even see eye-to-eye about a movie, it's no wonder people will argue about political ideology until the end of time...

Among other things, Rebellion seems like a metaphor for its own unpleasable fanbase. The original ending was perfect. (And I agree with that, but there's more than one kind of perfect.) But if you leave well enough alone, people would get bored of the franchise. But if you make a sequel to something perfect, people will hate it if it doesn't change anything because that's pointless, and will also hate it if it changes things because it was perfect and now it's different so it must be imperfect, i.e. terrible. So, they decided to go all out, "blow up the ice scuplture" as the review put it, but also make the ending a different kind of perfect. spoiler[Nobody's dead! Everyone's happy! Well, Homura isn't, and Madoka's a normal person again, but there's always a price. If there was no price, people would have doubled up on the "but they didn't earn it!" complaints. As it is, they combined those with complaints that it's out of character for Homura, and stuff about it being "fake happiness." (I've tried to show that it's no less genuine than what Madoka created, but that's one of those things that makes people yell at me.)] What could they have done? People would have disliked it no matter what they did. At least all the literal insanity of what they came up with makes for more interesting fanworks, and that's what really sustains this series, anyway.

I didn't even know this is on sale already? D:

There is one thing for viewers to say that they didn't like that "Homura becomes evil" and then there is another to claim that there were NO hints in series that she was at least on a self destructive path, and certainly to claim that by the end of the movie that the so called twist was "out of nowhere" when pretty much every metaphorical sign along the route was yelling with a bullhorn that Homura is turning to the "Dark Side".

I can only guess that some viewers believe that "there Homura" is much more of a Heroic figure and she would not succumb to "her own weaknesses" in the face of the person she had self devoted a life time to.

The eternal problem of casting English-speaking actresses to these "peak moe" archetypes that have no established English-language vocal equivalent still hangs over the dub a little...

In the TV series, Homura always treated Madoka with respect. Homura tried to change many external things to reduce temptation, but she always allowed Madoka the choice.

The devil Homura is the exact opposite of this. Madoka has no choice. She is mind wiped and her powers hidden from her.

What did devil Homura get. For one thing, she didn't get the Madoka she knew, she didn't get the Madoka who knew all the things Homura had done for her. What devil Homura has is a stranger who looks like Madoka.

For me the fatal flaw in Rebellion was the final battle with the Kyubeys in Homura's egg. You had a Homura willing to lose Madoka forever and willing to suffer for eternity in isolation, to protect Madoka and her creation from the Kyubeys. That Homura is nothing like the devil Homura that comes after. That is why i said the devil Homura comes out of nowhere.

The devil Homura throws away heaven, throws away spending an eternity with Madoka and all their friends, for a world that doesn't respect Madoka, and a Madoka who doesn't even know all the things they all went through. Is that even relatable.

The writers failed in Rebellion because they made Homura too good, too honorable, and as in the TV series, she is still Madoka's very best friend. You cannot even squeeze a devil Homura out of that.

I was willing to suspend disbelief for a insane Homura that cracked under the machinations of the Kyubeys, but after the battle in the egg, the writers had bricked and mortar'd that pathway up, threw up electrified razor wire on top, and laid mines behind.

A Homura that would be willing to lose Madoka forever and suffer an eternity of torment for it, would not have done the things that devil Homura did. As Vizzini's favorite word, INCONCEIVABLE.

Magical Girls are practically immortal. The final, final battle in the TV series showed a desolate world,

The devil Homura throws away heaven, throws away spending an eternity with Madoka and all their friends, for a world that doesn't respect Madoka, and a Madoka who doesn't even know all the things they all went through. Is that even relatable.

Quote:

The eternal problem of casting English-speaking actresses to these "peak moe" archetypes that have no established English-language vocal equivalent still hangs over the dub a little...

While I'd have to agree that no one in the Madoka Magica dub really manages to achieve this, I'd say that actresses like Monica Rial, Luci Christian, Carrie Savage and a handful of others manage to knock "moe-voice" out of the park fairly regularly in dubs these days.

For others it can be hit-and-miss, but they usually manage to do an admirable job despite, which is why I like Madoka Magica's dub.