THESE PRECIOUS THINGS
A Feminist Critique of the Magical Girl Archetype as Seen in
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
We'll I'm not seventeen
But I've cuts on my knees
Falling down
As the winter takes one more cherry tree
~Tori Amos "Girl"
I'm your monster i'm just like you
All my life is right before you
~Slaeter-Kinney "Call the Doctor"
HARVESTING
There are a lot of tears, a lot of pain, and a lot of deaths before Kyubey finally tells the whole and bitter truth of what he's doing. He is an alien and his people are trying to save the universe from losing all of its energy. The best way to harvest energy is when a young human girl turns from being magical to a witch. The more powerful the girl, the more wicked and hurt the witch, the more power he can gain. It doesn't matter who is hurt in the process. It doesn't matter if the whole world is destroyed, so long as he can harvest the energy he needs.
When Madoka confronts him about this, he is unmoved by her protests that he is using them. He knows he is using them, but for the greater good. What happens to them in the process is meaningless. He knows she will make "the most wicked of witches" when she falls, and that is his only interest in her.
Of course, it isn't Madoka who we witness go through this whole cycle. That is Sayaka Miki. Sayaka, like Madoka, starts out as an innocent in all of this and gets seduced into it by first glamorizing and then mourning Mami. Sayaka uses her wish to save a boy she loves and then realizes she can never be with him. She becomes dedicated to fighting witches and "saving the world." She becomes tainted and crazy. When she finally becomes a witch, it's because she realizes this world isn't worth saving. Her Soul Gem goes black and she becomes a very difficult witch to defeat. In fact, Kyoko loses her life in the process.
Interestingly, Kyubey even manipulates Kyoko to her death. He leads her to believe she can have Madoka there to talk to Sayaka and help her find her way out of the darkness. In a less serious story, this may have worked. Here, it completely fails and failed on purpose. Kyubey's goal is for Madoka to be forced into becoming a magical girl. To do so, he has to kill off as many of the other as he can so she has no choice in the matter.
Of all the metaphors to the real life of young women in our society, the concept of harvesting energy via their destruction seems to be the most clear. I think Disney is powering their whole operation this way. Don't believe me? How many times now have we seen some young girl get on Disney and become insanely popular as a child/teen star on one of their shows only to reach maturity, find a bottle of vodka, and crash and burn as publicly and horribly as she can?
And it isn't just Disney that does this kind of thing. Many people are almost giddy when the cheerleader gets pregnant out of wedlock or gold girl with perfect grades who is caught puking at a party. The appeal of Girls Gone Wild isn't just girls taking off their clothes, it's wealthy, educated, privileged young women being disarmed and talked into doing so. It's the gleeful idea that this will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Our society likes to watch the pretty girls fall. In that moment when people are enjoying this process, they probably do feel a bit of an energy spike. Sick fuckers.
Homura tries with all she is to stop Madoka from becoming a magical girl and eventually a witch. She repeats the same situation over and over again, hoping to change it. However, even the fact that she used her wish to be able to do this is a trap. All she is doing is making Madoka more powerful and making Kyubey want her more. By the time she finally realizes that even her wish can't stop the process, all hope seems lost.
HARVESTING
There are a lot of tears, a lot of pain, and a lot of deaths before Kyubey finally tells the whole and bitter truth of what he's doing. He is an alien and his people are trying to save the universe from losing all of its energy. The best way to harvest energy is when a young human girl turns from being magical to a witch. The more powerful the girl, the more wicked and hurt the witch, the more power he can gain. It doesn't matter who is hurt in the process. It doesn't matter if the whole world is destroyed, so long as he can harvest the energy he needs.
When Madoka confronts him about this, he is unmoved by her protests that he is using them. He knows he is using them, but for the greater good. What happens to them in the process is meaningless. He knows she will make "the most wicked of witches" when she falls, and that is his only interest in her.
Of course, it isn't Madoka who we witness go through this whole cycle. That is Sayaka Miki. Sayaka, like Madoka, starts out as an innocent in all of this and gets seduced into it by first glamorizing and then mourning Mami. Sayaka uses her wish to save a boy she loves and then realizes she can never be with him. She becomes dedicated to fighting witches and "saving the world." She becomes tainted and crazy. When she finally becomes a witch, it's because she realizes this world isn't worth saving. Her Soul Gem goes black and she becomes a very difficult witch to defeat. In fact, Kyoko loses her life in the process.
Interestingly, Kyubey even manipulates Kyoko to her death. He leads her to believe she can have Madoka there to talk to Sayaka and help her find her way out of the darkness. In a less serious story, this may have worked. Here, it completely fails and failed on purpose. Kyubey's goal is for Madoka to be forced into becoming a magical girl. To do so, he has to kill off as many of the other as he can so she has no choice in the matter.
Of all the metaphors to the real life of young women in our society, the concept of harvesting energy via their destruction seems to be the most clear. I think Disney is powering their whole operation this way. Don't believe me? How many times now have we seen some young girl get on Disney and become insanely popular as a child/teen star on one of their shows only to reach maturity, find a bottle of vodka, and crash and burn as publicly and horribly as she can?
And it isn't just Disney that does this kind of thing. Many people are almost giddy when the cheerleader gets pregnant out of wedlock or gold girl with perfect grades who is caught puking at a party. The appeal of Girls Gone Wild isn't just girls taking off their clothes, it's wealthy, educated, privileged young women being disarmed and talked into doing so. It's the gleeful idea that this will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Our society likes to watch the pretty girls fall. In that moment when people are enjoying this process, they probably do feel a bit of an energy spike. Sick fuckers.
Homura tries with all she is to stop Madoka from becoming a magical girl and eventually a witch. She repeats the same situation over and over again, hoping to change it. However, even the fact that she used her wish to be able to do this is a trap. All she is doing is making Madoka more powerful and making Kyubey want her more. By the time she finally realizes that even her wish can't stop the process, all hope seems lost.
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