blackaeronaut Wrote:Scrambler Wrote:This frees the Puella Magi from dependence on Grief Seeds, but still gets Kyubei his corruption energy, so he would be likely to grant it. This may be so, but Kyubei must be punished. Blue and Orange Morality (DANGER: TV Tropes link!) is no excuse, either. What's worse, Kyubei makes no attempt to understand. In fact, if what I've heard is true, he even mocks human emotions by saying he doesn't understand them and steamrolls over anyone else's feelings. Given that his full name is "Incubator" I figured that he's probably an artificial construct created by whatever race he represents, and has certain parts of his mind hard-coded for his designated purpose, making him something of a victim as well. He doesn't feel bad about it, because he can't feel bad, and isn't allowed to even want to. The reason I cut Kyubei in on the action is that it both makes him more likely to go along with the wish, as well as making sure that whoever he's representing don't go looking for different methods to make their energy quotas and happen upon something even more destructive.
Otherwise, the wish would simply be "I wish that Soul Gems no longer produce corruption".
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Kyubei's as a mechanism? This could be... interesting. I am suddenly in mind of what happened in the webcomic A Girl And Her Fed where the ghost of Benjamin Franklin examines 'Bitty Bush' and finds that it is nothing more than a dumb program and totally lifeless.
In this case, Hayate (Nanoha A's) would come in handy as she has been learning about constructs of this sort. Though what exactly Kyubei does would probably elude her, so Zeke would have Kyubei packaged like a quarantined computer virus and sent to Skuld for further analysis. Full results would still take a while and we would have Zeke and Company bungle things up nicely in the meantime.
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Of course, there's a possibility that if the wish isn't thought up by the candidate, it won't work. Kyubei isn't allowed to suggest wishes, and his job would be so much easier if he could, so I think this is why that rule is in place. Of course, this is just my speculation.
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Hrm... No, the idea flies in cannon. Madoka is on the receiving end of all kinds of suggestions and Kyubei implies that whatever she wishes for, no matter how ridiculous her friends suggestions are, he'll grant it. This lends food to the idea that Kyubei is really a construct with a simple personality. It explains so much:
Why his facial expression never changes
Why he seems to be cute without actually acting the part
Why he just doesn't get people
Why he seems to have ulterior motives
Why he frankly just doesn't give a damn
And last, but not least... Call me crazy, but while he seems perfectly acceptable, if a bit odd at first, prolonged exposure puts him firmly in the Uncanny Valley.
EDIT: in an odd way, Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principal applies here -
it's hard for Kyubei to tell if any wish she has was not influenced by
anything but her own desire. Also consider, he's got a 'business' to
run, so he can't afford to be picky about his 'sales'.
EDIT2: OH SHIT! Just had a crazy idea come to me! Bob, what if the Soul Gems were also some sort of Mana Reactors? They feed off the ambient energies around them, producing refined "Magical" power for the girls. They do this taking the positive part of the energy - leaving the byproduct: negative energy... which is not used and is collected by the Soul Gem.
From there, MG's soul will become so corrupted by Negative Energy that she turns into a Witch... or she defeats a witch and offloads the negative energy into the resulting Grief Seed. Once a Grief Seed is filled to capacity, he eats it... which sends it off to his people so they can use it as they see fit.
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Kyubei does say that it is against the rules for him to make suggestions, though.
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Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber." --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.
paladindythe
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blackaeronaut Wrote:EDIT2: OH SHIT! Just had a crazy idea come to me! Bob, what if the Soul Gems were also some sort of Mana Reactors? They feed off the ambient energies around them, producing refined "Magical" power for the girls. They do this taking the positive part of the energy - leaving the byproduct: negative energy... which is not used and is collected by the Soul Gem.
From there, MG's soul will become so corrupted by Negative Energy that she turns into a Witch... or she defeats a witch and offloads the negative energy into the resulting Grief Seed. Once a Grief Seed is filled to capacity, he eats it... which sends it off to his people so they can use it as they see fit. That's good enough for story purposes. Roll with it!
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Jorlem: I can see how that works... and it can, again, play into what we've said about him being a construct: he lacks the creativity to even make suggestions.
Quick question: has Kyubei even bothered to give anyone any sort of advice beyond basic instruction? If so, it's yet more evidence of him being a simple construct.
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Well, he came on his own initiative to get Madoka in episode 6, and told Kyoko that Mami had died so the city was available. But beyond stuff like that, he doesn't really give explanations or instructions unless he's specifically prompted. He does mention that Sayaka isn't listening to his advice, so he might be able to give more than the basics, but has no one willing to listen, or that needs the instructions. Really, Kyubei acts as an incubator, a catalyst, not as an active player.
He does mention that his people (or his creators, or the ones who want this energy to stave off the heat death of the universe) do not have emotions. That's why they needed a species that have emotions, like humans, to use magic for them and supply the required energy. So, if one of the bases we are using for deciding that Kyubei is a construct is his lack of emotion, than his entire species are constructs. Which isn't completely impossible, though they could just as easily be beings that 'run' purely on logic, like what the Vulcans wanted to be. (Now that is a scary thought.)
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Scary, but ironically logical. They may be using the energy collected to seal themselves away in a pocket-universe that would be safe from the worst of entropy.
Scarier thought? Emotionless people that think that all others are insects and must be purged so they have a better chance of perpetuating despite the heat-death of the universe.
paladindythe
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And now you begin to see the parallels with Gurren Lagann.
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Only difference is, the GL universe was in danger of a big crunch, while the Madoka universe is in danger of a heat death.
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Never got around to seeing it, unfortunately, so I'm just gonna have to take your word for it. 
Unfortunately, while a bit of a cliche it's a very real thing, and it flies for that reason.
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