ScionOfCyan said:puppyblood said:
personally, i think rebellion was the most well made piece of media in the madoka magica series. I think it's pretty amazing, and while the original series kind of lays things out for you while still keeping a lot of strong symbolism in the background, rebellion just gives you some of the bits and pieces and makes you figure shit out. You obviously can't knock the classic, but everything that madoka magic did in it's perfection, rebellion did just as well. and honestly, in a more creative way imo. but to each their own! personally, i live for this movie and would never deny it's existence, and i can't wait for the sequel of this. cuz you have to realize, madoka magica was mainly madoka's story. if we're being technical, it was really the story of homura, but with focus on madoka.
Sequels are tricky. Fans of the original love the characters. Seeing the characters in action again gives good vibes. This can get conflated with how good the sequel is itself. “I had a good time, it must be good.” The fan searches for reasons for it to be good and fills in the blanks with speculation.
It looks a lot like you are going through this process. You started your title by saying this show is confusing. Your gut instinct is right. Saying “rebellion gives you bits and pieces and makes you figure it out” is basically a charitable way of saying that Rebellion communicates poorly and its full message is unclear. It needs ardent fans to think up theories and explain them to others. It doesn’t stand on its own. These fans would never do that with a new creation by no-name artists. They’d just say it’s bad and move on. We give Shinbo and Urobuchi the benefit of the doubt (which, admittedly, they have earned).
Here’s the issue with Rebellion. You say it’s a Homura story and I agree with that. Unfortunately, Homura is not a narrative-carrying character. Much of her identity is about being mysterious, guarded from others, and opaque to the audience. This is fine for a side character, but not a main character. A story resonates because of possible lessons, making the reasons behind a character’s choices important. If we don’t understand where they’re coming from, we can’t mentally mirror their psychology and think about how we could emulate their beliefs or avoid their bad thought patterns. In every good story, there’s at least one character that the audience feels they can relate to or understand. Homura is not that character. Shinbo and Urobuchi don’t put in enough effort to reveal her to us. We only see her from the outside, as a mystery. She’s a source of intrigue. She’s cool. She’s a symbolic figure representing The Dark Knight’s Batman or Milton’s Satan, depending on context.
Most of Rebellion is a fever dream in the mind of Homura. The entire ‘world’ is an externalization of her interior mind. Homura’s the only ‘real’ character, and we still don’t understand her well. Then she goes and instigates a giant plot twist that I guarantee you came out of the blue for many viewers. Because we still don’t understand the way she thinks at all. This is what makes Rebellion so confusing. This is why it’s reasonable to say this story doesn’t make sense. Every good story foreshadows. I don’t mean this in the sense that there are symbols that presage every major event. I mean that the story shares the tendencies of the main character, and then that main character goes and acts according to those tendencies. So, why does Homura disregard all the other mahou shoujo who Madoka could save? Is it contempt? Arrogance? Simple-mindedness? Ambition? Is she like Light with the Death Note? Is she more like Sayaka, who believes she is doing good, and is motivated by a desire to save? We have no clue. We have barely any idea what Homura thinks about the world, life, existence in general. It’s good to compare with these other characters (Light, Sayaka). They show you that a good story gives us something to connect with and an identity to relate to the actions. Homura’s pretty much a force of nature here. *That’s* what makes it confusing. We latch onto trajectories of characters, and if we don’t understand the main character well, the trajectory is random, for all we can tell.
“I desperately want to be with Madoka” is brutally insufficient characterization for a centerpiece. I see Rebellion fans try to expand on this one-sentence description, fill in the blanks of Homura’s belief system and thought process with their own speculations. It’s mostly stuff that isn’t in Madoka Magica or Rebellion itself. With good characters like Sayaka or Light or Kamina you don’t have to ‘figure out’ where they stand or how they feel about the world. The story works hard to make damn sure you understand the way they see the world inside and out, because it’s a crucially important step in a story. I can imagine 4 or 5 or 6 different reasons why Homura might regard all those other people as not worth saving.
Most tacked-on sequels aren’t good and Rebellion is no exception. But I don’t begrudge people their enjoyment of it. If you had fun, that’s good 😊