Madoka Magica: Just Sign On The Dotted Line

[Jinx999]

The analysis isn't very good, though. As far as I can tell, it doesn't take into account that Magical Girls have to kill Witches to get the grief seeds that stop them from turning into witches. There is a complex relationship between B (the proportion of magical girls becoming witches) and K (the proportion of witches killed at each iteration) that the model doesn't include.

[Jorlem]

If you look on the discussion page, they are working on more refined models, which I think is trying to take stuff like this into account.
-----
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.

[Jinx999]

Hmm. I suspect, after thinging about it, that it'd make things worse for Earth.
OTOH, it took a lot for Sayaka to turn. Requiring that she turned down a lot of offered help.
I'm not sure how the population dynamics works out. You also need multiple witches to support even one magical girl, which implies that falling is common. Conversely, neither Kyoko not Mami, both of whom are portrayed as experienced, knew where witches came from. The Magical Girls are usually in competition and solitary, but they do
know about each other (Kyoko came to town after hearing about Mami's
death). At a guess, Kyubey is the guy who spreads news about dead or "dead" magical girls - and he, naturally, leaves out things he doesn't want his sheep to know.

[paladindythe]

They did a bit more work, and found a hint on a stable population. Basically, Kyuubei needs to make sure that there aren't too many witches for the magical girls to handle to keep things from getting out of control.

[Jinx999]

Yeah, but that's a chaotic situation where any pertubation will result in the equilibrium failing.
And in any real system . . .. there are always pertubations.
Which would imply that Kyubey's continued work is necessary to prevent the destruction of the human race, by Kyubey's earlier work.
Edit: What was I thinking, without a steady supply of new magical girls, they'll all soon die or become witches and then everyone dies. Of course, Kyubey's continued work is necessary to keep the human race from swiftly dieing out. . . .. excuse me, i'll go cry in a corner now and hope i don't have any dreams tonight.
Hmm. I wonder. Can witches die naturally, not from being killed by magical girls? Disappear inside their own barriers from soliphism?
And in the stable situation? The magical girls have to significantly outnumber the witches. In the show, it's pretty clear it's the other way around.

[Jorlem]

Well, we only see one city, which Kyoko claims is a very good hunting ground. What we see might not be representative of the world in general.

Also, the airdate for the final episode? It's April 1st. I am wary.
-----
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.

[Berk]

At least it isn't April 4th.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

[Jorlem]

April 1st is April Fools Day. What's April 4th?
-----
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.

[Berk]

4th day of the 4th month.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

[Jorlem]

Ah, yes. That would be bad.
-----
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]

And a Monday as well.

[Jorlem]

God [BLEEP] it! Its been pushed back to mid April, if we're lucky. [BLEEP]!

http://twitter.com/user/status/50517715831619584
Google translation
-----
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]

Sad Panda.
Looking kinda behind the scenes is episode 10, it looks like Walpurgis Night included a tsunami disaster. I'm thinking that SHAFT was... convinced... to change it.

[Jorlem]

I just did a rewatch of the series, and I caught something I had noticed before, in episode ten. In the original timeline, before any of the looping had started, Mami knew that the Walpurgis Night was coming, and when it would appear. Anyone else think that this is rather odd?
-----
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.

[ECSNorway]

Innnteresting.

And yet in TL4, Mami didn't know any of the Horrible Sekrits.

Crazy Thought: They're ALL loopers. There will be a 'season' focusing on each one. S2 will be Kyouko, S3 Ayaka, S4 Madoka, S5 will be Mami and back to square one.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Jorlem]

Hmm. I wonder if her knowing might be because of Madoka's original wish. Kyubei came to all the others when they were at their low points, or in Mami's case, when she was about to die. When he came to Madoka, on the other hand, it seems like he originally just showed up on her windowsill one night, and made the offer. Given that Madoka was initially enthusiastic about becoming a magical girl in the timeline we saw, and that Kyubei showed up in much the same way Luna did in Sailor Moon (which likely has some analogue in their universe, given Kyoko's comments in ep. 9.), I wonder if Madoka might have made a wish relating to being a magical girl. If she had made a somewhat genre savvy wish, she might have been able to find out about the 'boss enemy' she would have to fight later. That way, Madoka would know about the Night, and could tell Mami once they met.
-----
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]

Best explanation/justification I've heard so far.

[Jorlem]

And maybe in timeline four, Madoka might have wished something along the lines of "I wish I had been strong enough to help her." Given the way Madoka thinks of herself, and the way Kyubei presented what was going on when he showed her the Walpurgis Night, it could explain Madoka's power surge after that. The other time she turns into a witch, it looks to be a normal, if rather powerful, witch, not the world destroying one in TL4. Also, in TL3, she didn't seem to be any more powerful than in TL1, so I think Madoka's absurdly high potential is a result of her TL4 wish.
-----
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.

[CrimsonKMR]

http://www.animenewsnetwo...me-to-resume-on-april-21

The official website of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica television anime series announced
on Sunday that the anime will resume with its 11th and 12th episodes —
the final scheduled episodes — on April 21. The anime's final two
television episodes had been pre-empted out of "self-restraint" in the aftermath of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster, and then delayed temporarily.

The MBS television station in the Kansai
area will run the 11th and 12th episodes back-to-back on Thursday,
April 21 at 26:40 (effectively Friday, April 22 at 2:40 a.m.) The TBS
television station in Tokyo's Kanto area will run the 10th, 11th, and
12th episodes on Thursday, April 21 at 27:00 (Friday, April 22 at 3:00
a.m.) TBS had preempted its airing of the 10th episode due to its news coverage of the earthquake. CBC in central Japan will also air the last three episodes on Sunday, April 24 at 26:45 (Monday, April 25 at 2:45 a.m.).

After the announcement of the delay, the official Twitter account for the anime had posted
that the staff was still aiming to get through the final episodes in
April. Early Sunday morning, the anime's series script supervisor Gen Urobuchi reported on his Twitter account that good news would be coming at about 7:00 p.m. Japan Time (6:00 a.m. EDT).

There is no coincidence, only necessity....
- Clow Reed

[Berk]

Thank God.

This whole 'self restraint' thing has really gone overboard.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

[paladindythe]

Thank God.
This whole 'self restraint' thing has really gone overboard.

Maybe. I'm wondering if the flooding we see in ep. has been changed, or that the studio was waiting for 24-hour news coverage to die down...
  

[Berk]

I did not think it was possible, but Gen Urobuchi has warmed my heart.

Bravo!
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

[paladindythe]

Now THAT's an ending. Not quite what I was expecting, but it was awesome nonetheless.
The 4chan meme:

Spoiler

Madoka died for your sins.

[Bob Schroeck]

Okay, for those of us who are only absorbing this series second-hand, what happened?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[paladindythe]

Bob Schroeck wrote:

---

Okay, for those of us who are only absorbing this series second-hand, what happened?

I'll just put this whole thing in a spoiler tag.

Spoiler

ep 11, the setup
Kyubei forms his hypothesis about why Madoka is so powerful: since Homura's countless time looping has been focused on saving Madoka, lines of fate from the different timelines are wrapped around her, which translate to power.
Kyubei then tries to convince Madoka again, by showing how the Incubators have been around since prehistory, doing their thing, and how the wished of Magical Girls have drives society forward. (Cleopatra and Joan of Arc I reconized...)
     Madoka [angry] "What if you never came to this world?!"
     Kyubei "You would probably be living in caves I think."
The key point is that Kyubei showed the hopes and despairs of Magical Girls throughout time. That, along with Homura's timeline hopping gave Madoka the pieces she needed for her Wish.
Madoka takes a deep, cleansing breath.
"I want to erase every Witch before they are born! Every Witch from every world, from the past and the future. With my own hands."
That wish got a reaction out of Kyubei. It even covers her own transformation into a Witch. 
Madoka essentially rewrites the rules of reality. The catch is that for this to work, she becomes an omnipresent being without beginning or end devoting to giving each and every Magical Girl a peaceful end collecting Soul Gems as they expire. "You're not just bringing us [Magical Girls] hope, you're becoming Hope itself."
There are still distortions in the world, taking the form of demons, and their defeat still give Magical Girls with what they need to purify their Soul Gems to go on. It's just that there are no more Witches, and Soul Gems simply disappear when they expire.
It's a bittersweet end, but it works nicely.

Edit: fixed a couple of little things