Hello everyone, it's erejnion's brother here using his blog since I cba to make my own for one post
(btw he hasn't even watched Rebellion Story yet....)
So yeah, I've been thinking about the theism in
Rebellion. The most central theme, that no group seems to agree upon,
is of course Homura. We all saw that she's the Devil, even she said
so herself. The question is - in what sense exactly? The role of the
devil varies from religion to religion. If we are to say Homura
symbolizes something, the no-brainer answer is “love”. Yet if you
ask a hundred people if they associate love with God or with the
Devil, a hundred would answer “God”. Which makes me think the
system here might be different from what we're used to, even if
Homura clearly represents love. Let us consider what she created –
a world where everyone can live their mortal lives happily. She gives
Madoka her flesh back in exchange for her godly self. Then it would
make sense to say that Homura is the Devil because she represents the
material world, and her deeds are giving the characters we all know
the pleasures of the flesh. Still, putting it this way seems to be a
bit off-track. When you say “pleasures of the flesh” you usually
think of something... let's say “dirty”, a fall into depraved
self-indulgence. Yet what Homura gives them is the pleasure of an
everyday life, and her love seems to be pure (remember her flower?).
From a Buddhist point of view though, pure love is also a type of
desire, and thus the source of suffering. Meaning that Homura
represents the material world, but not in the classic western sense.
For example, even if you give food to a starving child, you are
giving him material pleasures. This is a classic model in Buddhism,
where all desire is condemned, and Homura would be associated with
desire, while Madoka – with enlightenment. Still, from a classic
non-buddhist moral standpoint, it seems that she is not condemned for
being the Devil. On the contrary, actually. Remember the scene in the
end, with the half-moon? Its meaning back then was nothing short of
obvious – God is imprisoned, only the Devil is active, and so
something's wrong with the world, only one half is there. Yet if
Madoka is the other half, doesn't that mean she cannot be the whole
by herself? It's implied that before that too, something was wrong
with the world, that it also needs a Devil. While God represents the
transcendent – the soul, the girls aren't spared from suffering
throughout their mortal lives – and that is Homura's place. Rather,
if you remember one of the main reasons for her actions, she will
protect Madoka from QB – who is a part of the mortal world. So the
Devil protects God from the dangers of the mortal world, and is thus
not just accepted, but necessary. What does that leave as message
though? Surely not that the Devil is just as good as the God –
otherwise they'd have just been two gods. No, the material world has
always been less important than the immortal soul, and we get creepy
music to remind us that the Devil is the Devil and not another god.
It's just that the two – God and Devil – do NOT represent good
and evil, but transcendent and material.
inb4 Homura is crazy, stop building
your opinion on atmosphere rather than on what's actually happening
inb4 “keep telling yourself that”,
you keep never presenting me any arguments not to tell myself that
“But what about us?” If God doesn't
represent good, and the Devil – evil, what morals would we learn
from Madokism? If you ask me, the only clearly stated moral is hope.
In Madoka's words “If someone says it's wrong to have hope, then
I'll tell them they are wrong, every single time.”
oh, and about the divine beings
themselves. Remember the ribbon Homura gives to Madoka in the end of
Rebellion? When she accepts that the will to protect everyone is a
part of Madoka. Accepting her selflessness means she goes against
love (desire). Still, despite the early glitch, she continues the
changed reality, hoping it will work out. Madoka herself as well –
from their relationship in the labyrinth and many other scenes, it
seems that Madoka feels something special for Homura. So the Devil is
not without hope, and God – not without love. IMO they are best
represented by the well-known sign with the circle split in two tears
– one white, one black, with a small black dot in the white circle
and a small white dot in the black circle.
No comments:
Post a Comment