Dendy&#x27;s Labyrinth

👀

Who are those two new girls? They look pretty unique to just be one-offs.....

#Had to #live-blogging with peace and quiet?#not on my watch #Muffin record

Down Muffin, they’re probably sisters and you’re about to apologize for spreading incest propaganda again.

The fact that she bitch-slapped her before spilling her feelings is really on-brand for Homura. Only took them 5 films together.

#madoka magica #scene 0 #mabayu aki #homura akemi

I... huh. Alright then.

What I understand is Homura and Mabayu found Madoka in Charlotte’s labyrinth. Homura dropped the Magical girls turn to witches truth bomb on Madoka right then and there to make sure she in no way makes a contract in that situation then goes with Mayabu to kill the doll worm. After a few scenes of Homura totally not taking her anger out on the Totally My Real Form little shit, the worm pops out… to which Homura and Mabayu beat the shit out of it.

Suddenly, however, Charlotte has an aneurysm and pops out Nagisa but like in Smash when someone already picked the character and you’re stuck with the shitty recolor. Time travel incorporated are flabbergasted but still kill the brain dead worm before its brain regrows.

Madoka shows up and is like I’m a magical girl now. Cue Horrifed Face Homura and she somehow is able to hold herself back from lunging at Madoka and screaming at her in the middle of a hospital lobby in front of Mayabro and the little shit the witch dropped, honestly good for her. She telepathically tells Madoka “We’re talking about this later” before everyone goes to Recompense and spend 10 minutes just:

Someone: “You mad?”

Homura: “No”

Someone: (Oh she’s totally pissed)

It all ends when Homura snaps at the dessert gremlin for pushing pro-sweet propaganda in the face of Homura finding out that Madoka felt sorry for the witch and decided to wish for her to “lose her despair” or something along those lines but don’t quote me on that. Cue Aunt Saki cutting in with cheesecake before Homura has a taste and discovers the gremlin they just picked up might just have some wisdom when it comes to the sweet delights of life. When time travel incorporated plus Madoka 4.0 remember the ‘picked up’ part of picking up the gremlin, they beg Aunt Saki to let her stay with Mayabro, and she literally agrees in the next line of text. But she demands labor in exchange for the gremlin’s lodging. Next day Madoka and Homura are helping out in Recompense maid-style, gay moment happens when Madoka thinks Homura looks good and she reacts like what you would expect.

This is as far I watched, take it all with a grain of salt since I didn’t really focus when going through it, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s mistakes a plenty.

#magia record #scene 0

mochimagiareport

Magia Report 258

Translated by Mochi

This is why Magia Report is 30% of why I play the game

I read Mitsuru’s event and there are some things that need to be clarified about her being 31:

She is 31…in the Kimochi-verse. So it seems, like Yuna, Juri, and Hikaru who are all older due to spending over a decade there raising baby Ao, Mitsuru might be another case of that, where the real world version of herself (who is confirmed to exist due to a myth between Futatsugi Magical Girls revolving around her) might be around their age (teens to late-teens) and we’re getting this older version of her inside this universe.

On the other hand, the event is still not done, so it’s still up in the air.

songforaname

So is this old screenshot still relevant?

You also got adult Yuna and Juri (who reach their 30s in the Kimochiverse), and Hikaru (in her late 20s) who got their magical girl forms, so I would say yeah (and that’s without reaching for the low hanging Pernelle fruit)

I read Mitsuru’s event and there are some things that need to be clarified about her being 31:

On the other hand, the event is still not done, so it’s still up in the air.

#Magia record

From what I can gather from the MUT discord, the new girl is from a romance story that Juri was reading waaaay back in Crimson Resolve. AKA, she's actually a fictional character who was seemingly brought to life during the Ao-baby kimochi time.

Which is. Fascinating actually.

This also makes the title of the event kind of sad:

Inami Mitsuru Wants to Be "Normal"

Perhaps she was to come to life and be a real person?

Just wait until they end up doing a Barbie movie plot where she finds her way to the real world and Ao is older and doesn’t need her

#magia record #Darkness Mitama #mitama yakumo

Sad Darkness Mitama Hour

“My, my, you came to see me again? But alas, the Coordinator’s shop is closed. Unless you came here to kill me?”

“Had I been in the same class as Tsukuyo-chan and Ria-chan and become friends with them, maybe I would’ve enjoyed my time at Mizuna Girls’ School.”

“You’ve always got a smile on your face!”, “You always look happy, huh?” …I was only keeping up appearances. It’s better to seem cheery than grumpy so that you won’t get attacked, right? Heheh.

“I wonder, can you shatter my wish?” (Her battle start line)

(Translated by Ashes)

God they really went hard with the writing on this one

I will actually quit the game if i do not get them

#Weaklilmuffin #I’m joking too #I think

I would absolutely be willing to get them just to make you suffer. I just want you to know that

the mechanical horse is on Olga's 5* art, maybe it's part of her magic and maybe.... the memoria depicts Olga sending her sister to valhalla, if you get what I mean ;____;

#Lilbitchmuffin #Its been a while since I last slung mud at Muffin #magia record #Olga #Gunhild #Valkyrie of Vik #Spoilers

This game really loves killing little sisters and leaving the older sisters grieving.

Stil though, I really dig how Olga and Gunhild’s doppels foreshadowed this before the full event story dropped:

Gunhild’s doppel represents estrangement while Olga’s embodies loss. At a first look, both describe the two sisters’ pain at being separated with the line ‘twin tree’ being used by both of their doppel descriptions to describe their bond, but the emotions represented by each one reveals the painful reality, where Gunhild is stuck on the separation itself which was where things ended for her, Olga is grieving the loss of her little sister turning into a witch, with her doppel embodying loss.

Even their doppels’ mechanism go into different directions: Gunhild’s is a raging sea beast stuck in a cycle of destruction with no end (a reference to her fate of becoming a witch), while Olga’s doppel is more sullen, it’s an empty ship that floats around trying to find Gunhild (the ship’s sail even has both of their weapons combined), even though the description states that it’s a journey with no purpose while adding at the end that the only who can board the ship is Olga alone, not even Gunhild is mentioned to be the exception as it goes into the fate of any that board is to be turned into ghosts following behind the ship; another reference as to how Olga and Gunhild would never be reunited again.

Gunhild’s witch even resemble a kraken, a sea monster known in legends for destroying ships, so the symbolism goes hard on these two. Her nature is even described as a ‘lost dream’, which is probably in reference to Gunhild doing everything she could to make Olga’s dream of breaking the cycle of pillaging and slavery they lived in.

Puella Historia Thoughts and Predictions.

Considering how the emblem below the mirror matches with the one for Chizuru and Tsuyu’s story, we’re most likely going to have a double release for the next historical period with two new girls and their story.

Moreover, each historical magical girl fills in Infinite Iroha’s soul gem at the left with the missing emotions: Tsuyu and Chizuru’s story added amazement and vigilance (which are interestingly enough opposite to each other in Plutchick’s wheel of emotions), tying into their story revolving around unexpected betrayals and anticipating war. Ebony’s story, on the other hand, filled in joy. I’m not really all that clear on the specific plot, so I can’t expand more on the significance of joy for her.

So I’m expecting that the next Puella Historia event will represent the next two emotions on the wheel, which are actually another pair of opposites: adoration and loathing. I’m really interested in seeing how a story might delve into two literal polar opposites while also detailing a historical account of some kind.

#magia record #puella historia

I’m really surprised that so many people dislike Ria’s doppel? I thought Aimi’s was really boring but I actually love Ria’s. It really gives off this uncomfortable vibe of… idk, dysmorphia of some sort. Yachiyo’s spears at the end REALLY make me wish we had a doppel unlock story. I want Ria to doppel in front of Yachiyo and Yachiyo to be like… “why are my spears here? Did I traumatize you?”

Like… Ria made a wish to look different and was inspired by her favorite model. It’s hard not to draw Eating Disorder parallels there, and when her doppel is changing form and made up of mostly empty space… to the point that Ria isn’t even in it… It feels kind of sad and depressing. idk.

I do wish that we could see the prototype doppel cause I remember seeing the ribbon forming and thinking “huh, wonder what that is about,” but I like the doppel a lot as it is.

Aimi’s on the other hand is forgettable and sucks. Sorry Aimi.

natsumebookss

Something else I wanna add as an English major–people have also been saying that Ria’s Doppel being named after Jekyll and Hyde is weird because she’s not a two-faced character, but seen through this lens, the comparison is perfect.

Dr. Henry Jekyll, in the simplest of terms, is a well-respected gentleman that exemplifies his era’s beauty standards. But unlike what the phrase “Jekyll and Hyde personality” has come to mean in our current language, Jekyll and Hyde are always depicted to be two sides of the same coin. Hyde is the manifestation of Jekyll’s own urges, the person he wishes he could be outside of his gilded cage, just as the Doppel and its master are one and the same (just corrupted versions of each other). More importantly for this discussion, though, Hyde is always described as deformed and hideous, a monster in human form to the society he lives in. To them, he looks like exactly the kind of person who would literally trample people on the street, and that’s what Jekyll is counting on. Hyde is not just a get-out-of-jail-free card for a rich man, but the monster behind his desires.

What does this have to do with Ria? I feel that she is, in some ways, a reverse Jekyll, someone who considers herself to be ugly and monstrous and uses magic to become beautiful and heroic. What Ria finds ugly about herself is left very much ambiguous–I’ve heard theories of EDs like this one as well as trans headcanons, though I feel like it would also be interesting if Ria feels this way due to some sort of severe medical event. What if she was one of those people who escaped a fire with major burns on like 70% of her body (though I mostly just like this theory because it lends itself to Hotaru Tomoe parallels and how she too feels her restored body is monstrous in the manga)? It doesn’t really matter in the context of Ria’s wish story, but whatever the case, the Jekyll and Hyde motif seems to suggest that Ria had immense self-hatred and found something about herself monstrous or nonconforming to beauty standards.

(This is also why Jekyll and Hyde works better as a motif than a more seemingly obvious one, like Frankenstein’s monster. In the original story, the Creature is seen as monstrous by society specifically because he hits the Uncanny Valley and, though he seems beautiful on first glance, something doesn’t seem quite right with him. This would be something I could see Ria facing after becoming a magical girl, with Kyubey’s wish giving her almost inhuman beauty, but not before. I also get the sneaking suspicion that the next new Frankenstein adaptation will play this up, considering it’s directed by Del Toro and stars Andrew Garfield, a team that could very easily do this concept very well.)

With that out of the way, what’s also important to note is that the transformation from Jekyll to Hyde (itself a sort of twisted proto-magical girl transformation, I would argue) comes with limits. Just as Ria’s beauty is tied to the magic in her Soul Gem, Hyde’s ugliness is triggered by a potion that appears to blend magic and science. At first, the ingredients are easy for Jekyll to find so he can turn back into himself whenever he needs it, but they progressively become rarer and rarer. Just like Grief Seeds! In fact, the original Jekyll and Hyde book is told in a letter format right when Jekyll is about to turn for the last time, letting people know that he’s turning into something awful and this time, it’ll be permanent. Obviously, this doesn’t mean as much in our timeline and its Doppel barrier, but in all others…yikes. Seeing how Ria’s Doppel, and in turn the witch she will become, is her personal Hyde that she’s running from, but yet she’s also made is just so terrifying and tragic to me.

#magia record #tsuyu mizuna

Jumping on this train with additions of my own!

The doppel description does add to it with this:

[…]The doppel, seeking the highest beauty of the master’s longing, succeeds in creating a transparent body that encompasses a star-like molecular arrangement structure that replaces the master’s body.

The struggle to achieve beauty standards is definitely a big part of it, considering how Ria herself is nowhere in sight. Furthermore, the doppel goes ahead and adopts a more traditionally attractive appearance, which I’m convinced is supposed to resemble Yachiyo, what with the spears and the general body shape, plus this little nugget:

But we can’t also forget the most crucial piece: Ria’s personal Memoria

Broken, But Still Beautiful She wasn't even close to the top... But the girl who could never reach her goal no matter how hard she tried is no more. An unrivaled beauty is reflected in the shards of a shattered mirror. Her allure does not fade, even when beheld in shards of broken glass.

So honestly? I really love them giving Ria one of the bleakest designed doppels, because that’s how Ria perceives herself. It works so well with the dark aspects of her character. I get wanting a big, stylistic production of a doppel, but deep character significance is something I like even more.

#magia record #ria ami

Good Tsuyu Characterization Moment

Tsuruno: “…Aren't you crushed by this situation, Princess Tsuyu?” Tsuruno: “You seem so tense all the time...” Tsuyu: “As a noble, the only things I must endure are games, poetry, and dance.” Tsuyu: “My ancestors would be ashamed if I dared compare my suffering to those who are starving.”

Tsuyu: “Tsuruno. Sana.”

Sana: “Y-yes!”

Tsuyu: “Could you help me dig some graves…?”

Tsuyu: “I don't think the people who escaped will come back. I want to properly mourn their loved ones.”

Tsuruno: “Of course…”

Tsuyu: “Thank you… I'm sorry you have to do this…”

Jesus

Yachiyo’s magical girl story sucks

like. first off. it fucks up the timeline. Momoko introduces Yachiyo to Kaede and Rena… but Momoko and Yachiyo are on good terms here??? THEN Yachiyo meets Tsuruno???

That’s not how it worked!

Then Yachiyo is… complimented for realizing… that Rena was the one who ate her doughnut… wow… such smart… so good…

Then you have the fight with her and Tsuruno. At first it’s kind of okay (although peanut gallery Momoko, Rena, and Kaede is boring and stupid). But then it goes back into bullshit. She tricks Tsuruno into attacking a duplicate…? and then she ties her up? with rope?

since when the fuck could yachiyo make duplicates?

where the hell did she get the rope???? Did she just??? have that in her pocket??? does her dress have pockets??? is that a power/ability of hers????

Did they forget that Yachiyo isn’t Mami? This is some Mami bullshit is2g

I haven’t even gotten to the third part yet…

Sorry Yachiyo stans, her mgs just sucks ass.

oh and also it’s a pain in the ass to record cause sometimes it stalls and I have to manually click the thing forward but I always catch it too late and I have to start over so that it’s not just stuck on the screen for like 6 long long long seconds

You said it. Thank god Starchiyo’s MGS is amazing enough to make up for it.

4. Who has your favorite character design of arc one? What about arc two?

7. What character(s) do you think deserve more love and attention from the writers?

10. Are there any characters you thought you’d dislike, but the writing made you really enjoy them?

20. Was there a moment in the writing (for main story, another story, magical girl side stories, any of the events, ect) that hit you unexpectedly hard?

22. What character do you want to know more about?

4) For Arc 1: Mitama, and for 2, easily Livia. I really like the magician-aesthetic.

7) I’m gonna go ahead and add that (s), because it’s a lot: we got Hinano (even though she did get a significant amount of screentime in the Main Story, it was more of her being involved than focused on her character), there’s also the usual victims of Kanoko and Konomi (although things have been better for Konomi lately, just not to my liking yet), maybe even Sayuki, Mayu, and Ria, haven’t seen that trio in a while, especially any character development from the first two. There are a bunch more, but I can see why the writers haven’t devoted much time lately to the side, considering the Main Story just wrapped up recently, so I can’t really fault them for it.

10) I wouldn’t say disliked, but I can’t say I was all that excited for Himena’s character arch-type back when she first was introduced. The fact that they made her passive for a bunch of the earlier chapters, just being shady in the background didn’t really help. But I gotta say, I found her character fascinating when she was laid bare. Her being an extremely vicious manipulator who WILL dip into emotional manipulation if she needs to all while being an extreme misanthropist and narcissist did make her a solid counterpart to both of Shizuka and Iroha. Seeing her lead Neo-Magius into new extremes that not even Touka went down and seeing how it affects her relationship with Sasha was good writing. And then seeing her unveil after she goes too far too fast and getting dropped by Sasha, Mitsune, and Shigure and Hagumu was a good way to reach the climax of her villain arc. Also seeing her interact with the rest of the faction leaders after that left some memories (her asking point-blank “so are we gonna get back to killing each other or what?” after they hit a setback) Basically, the writing treats Himena as bad as she would be IRL, and that’s great.

20) AKA ‘one of the gayest things to come out of this game’, I have talked about this before, but I love the transition behind Ren’s ‘We can’t go back to how things were’ in this event initially reflects how their friendship is ruined because of an uncomfortable moment transitioning into ‘I know that I can’t go back to how things were’ when she realizes that she sees Rika as more than a friend and that being the reason she felt so much in general throughout (she describes it as ‘Jealousy makes it sound cute. But it’s just pure envy’ and ‘if I were to weight this feeling against her feelings, I bet the scales would break’). My Diary with You is just so good. 22) At this point, the game has covered most of the characters, so it’s mostly going to be minor picks, like say Meguru and Maria. Meguru has barely gotten much in terms of characterization, like maybe the worst case in all of the game even. Maria, on the other hand, I just would like to know more about, the final scene of her MGS adds a bit of darkness for her character that I would like to see explored.