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| Puella Magi Madoka Magica |
There're a lot of things you could talk about when discussing the show:
How do you like the artwork? Isn't Kyubey (creature in the middle of above pic) just so cute? Who's your favorite character?
Or maybe... Best show of the season? How about that storyline? A wish that can grant you anything? They didn't really deal with the wishing for more wishes or other ridiculous things like that. I wonder what they would have added if they had more episodes...
Or, what if you analyze the deeper questions raised by the show? Use this story as a lens to look at some difficult questions about human life and values? Sounds like an English class? I thought so too (not that I'd know, coming out of an engineering college). It's what I'm going to consider in this post. You might not want to read more if you haven't seen Madoka yet and you don't want to spoil just about everything. But come on, who (else) would not have seen it yet but still be planning on seeing it eventually?
1) Humans and Cattle
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| "Do you ever feel bad for cattle?" |
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| How kind of you. |
Taken out of the context of Madoka, I guess the question is this. Could you be repulsed by the idea of some kind of advanced civilization using human souls for energy but then not care about the fate cattle? If you're cattle, it's like Madoka, but worse (no choice and no superpowers and stuff), and that's reality. Who's to say that it's okay to just kill animals? Just because Kyubey couldn't understand human emotions doesn't mean people would say that that's a valid reason to just use humans in such a terrible manner. But animals don't have emotions or feelings or stuff like that, so it's okay to use them, right?
To be honest, I have no answer. Or I guess I have three. 1) Say it doesn't matter. Although the circumstances in the show seem awful, the show was made to make you feel that emotion. But maybe it wasn't that wrong. A soul (and a little extra despair and troubles) in exchange for a miracle? For the impossible? That seems like a fair trade. And animals? Does it really matter? 2) Say that throwing away human souls and animal's lives are both wrong. Become a vegetarian. 3) Ignorance is bliss! Move on to the next topic.
I like meat and value human lives, so I'm leaning toward 3.
Or I guess you could just say humans are special, emotions and conscious thought are what matters, stuff like that.
Or I guess you could just say humans are special, emotions and conscious thought are what matters, stuff like that.
2) Human Form
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| "You need to make something wrong." *Throws Sayaka's gem over the rail* |
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| Oops. That was too much wrong. |
There's something disturbing about having your soul put into a gem, making your body just a shell. Did I mention that this show was really disturbing?
But, what was it that was so bad about it? Especially if it gave you extra powers, like letting you use magic, allowing your body to be damaged without you dying, etc... I suppose that the whole concept of being human is tied to the image of a human body. But still, they walk around in (their own) human bodies, only what keeps them alive is now in a gem. Is disgust at that idea just a fear of the unnatural or should Puella Magi not be considered humans at all? Did you expect me to answer the question?
3) The loss of one
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| According to Kyubey, Earth has a population of 6.9 billion, growing by 10 every 4 seconds. |
My best answer is that we find people we value, people we care about. It's a big fuss when that one person isn't just some unknown 1 out of 6.9+ billion, but is someone who is connected to me.
Why care about the loss? Well, it's just like something will always be missing. And that someone had goals and hopes and dreams and all of that will be forever gone...
But that could be said about everyone, right? It seems like such an awfully harsh statement to say, "These are the people I care about; that person wasn't one of them, so it doesn't affect me as much that they died." But isn't that basically what we did? Answer #3! Maybe, maybe not. Let's think about this later... Moving on...
4) Balance of happiness
I don't believe that there is a set amount of happiness in the world. Any big new discovery, like a better way to fight a disease or grow food, could potentially improve the lives of many people without really hurting anyone.
Oh gosh, now I have to try and go to sleep after re-watching a bunch of disturbing Madoka scenes and thinking about depressing topics... Uh...
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| Look how cute Madoka is! |
It's just Puella Magi Madoka Magica, another Mahou Shoujo: cute girls and friendship and happiness! Nothing bad ever happens in those kinds of shows!
And then Kyubey.
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| Oh God that face!!! It sends shivers down my spine!!! Haunts my dreams!!! I'll never be able to sleep!!! AHHHHHH!!!!! |
Sleep doesn't happen after marathoning Madoka. Instead, you are tormented by swirling visions of Kyubey and HomuMado set to Magia.
ReplyDelete1) As humans, we're forced to approach morality from an anthropomorphic perspective. Furthermore, we're a decidedly selfish lot. We'll put humans before everything else, and ourselves before all humans. Even the self-sacrificing oddballs are driven by selfish desire - they derive satisfaction by feeling personally responsible for the happiness of others. I don't really believe true altruism exists. A pessimistic view, to be sure, but admittedly, I haven't seen much to convince me otherwise.
That said, I would definitely object to another civilization harvesting human souls for energy, even it was to delay the heat death of the unvierse. Screw them. I'm human, and I'm on our side. And on the flip side of the coin, if we found a way to create clean, infinite energy by torturing baby rabbits or something, I'd be all for it. That's a hypocritical statement to make, and I'm fine making it. There's safe answer to morality, and if I'm going to be damned either way, I may as well root for my own species. Now, what if we found a way to harvest other humans for energy? Humans using humans. It's too familiar a melody.
As for exchanging your soul for your dreams, I'd argue a lot of us already give it up for far less. I've seen too many people compromise their own principles and personal integrity for money and status. To me, that's the same as giving up your soul. I don't think I could live happily knowing I gave up everything I stand for, no matter how much material wealth I got for it. But Madoka gives us a rather interesting take on it. To live as an unsung hero and die an unrecognized villain, in exchange for a miracle. A miracle that'll be twisted by Kyubey at the first hint of selfish motivation. Would I do it? To be honest, I don't know. I don't even know what I'd wish for. I doubt whatever I thought of would be pure enough to work as intended. In the end, only Madoka beat the system, and she is disgustingly altruistic.
2) In that we are tied to the image of the human body, you're definitely right. I don't think we can biologically accept anything that doesn't look human to be human. People don't act like they do in movies and in anime. That said, whether or not the Puella Magi are human is a difficult question. They certainly deserve the respect you would give another human - after all, they still possess emotions, judgement, and sentience. But as Homura so flatly states in episode 9 in response to Kyouko's outburst, the Puella Magi are shouldered with the burden of making some incredibly inhuman decisions. In particular, accepting that the fall to witchdom is inevitable, and that they will have to destroy their own fallen comrades to maintain the vicious, twisted justice Kyubey has imposed on them.
It's ironic, really. They're a representation of real people who sacrifice their own morality and put on the mask of the villain so we don't have to. It's convenient for us to hate someone else for making inhuman decisions and performing abominable acts, and taking the underlying benefits for granted. There are a lot of really uncomfortable cases like this, particularly in the field of medicine (and human experimentation), but for the sake of sanity, it's best not to think too hard about stuff like that. Again, a hypocritical statement to make, but the only moral decision there is to reserve judgement.
3) A combination of numbers 1 and 2. We're far too emotional a species to put math and philosophy together, and in decisions requiring us to choose one or the other, we're too often paralyzed. Ever hear of the moral paradox of the train? An out-of-control train is heading toward a fork. On its current path are 5 trapped people that will surely die if the train keeps going. You are given the choice of throwing a switch that will put the train onto a different track, on which a single person lies. Do nothing, and 5 people die. Act, and only one need die. But if you throw that switch, you are personally responsible for that single death, one that wouldn't have occured if you hadn't acted. Math obviously states you should throw the switch. But I'm willing to bet a lot of us would be paralyzed by our own morality, and ironically, the colder among us would more easily make the "correct" decision.
ReplyDeleteThere's no satisfying answer to this question, because our own morality is contradictory. The needs of the many versus the needs of the few - we're not morally satisfied unless we have both, even it that's impossible. Answer #3, indeed.
4) I agree with you here. Happiness isn't a zero-sum game. You can come out with a net positive gain. But the inverse is true - a whole lot of happiness can be sacrificed to see a small gain elsewhere. And unfortunately, a lot of civilized society is governed by people who are okay with that net loss, so long as they enjoy the gain. Suppressed technology, anyone?
And now it's 2 in the morning. Damn you, Kyubey!
@Chris - Hey, it's too bad you weren't there, cause we missed you (and your piano skills, but Gene and Chaeha made up for that somewhat).
ReplyDeleteI agree with pretty much everything you said for 1 and 2. I'm not sure true altruism doesn't exist, but I'm not sure it does exist either. I believe I wouldn't make a contract because for anything I'd want to wish for, I'd probably find some reason why I shouldn't wish for that also, so I wouldn't be able to commit to it. But, who knows...
I heard that train paradox thing in NHV, with some other variations. At first I figured I'd throw the switch, but then I started to think that I might not, and now I don't know. But for things like these, no matter what anyone says beforehand, I think they'd have to actually go through the experience to know what they'd really do. And I don't see this scenario occurring very often in real life, so... Well, who knows?
And yeah, you could have a net loss of happiness too. But how often is it that people are okay with it, or that people choose to make it happen? I'm not sure on that one either.