Thinking about @thundamoo and her absolutely incredible story âMagical Girl Mechanical Heartâ and I wanted to ramble a bit about a theory Iâve been cooking up relating to it. (Go read it if you havenât - this post will be discussing events up to the current chapter, 46)
So. One of the biggest questions in MGMH is âWhat the hell happened between the Apathy and the Preservers?â And weâre getting bits of information. I think, with our latest look at an emotional power plant, it seems like whatâs happened is obvious. But thereâs a few more interesting threads to play with - specifically, Umaâtamaâs story of what happened between the two groups.
And I think thereâs one small detail that might explain why the Preservers acted the way they did with the Antipathy. One of the very first things we learn about the Antipathy is they seemingly understand emotions in a different way than Humans do- they use cardinal directions as an expression of mood. Itâs unclear how an Antipathy might actually show said emotion, given theyâve been wiped out, but the fact remains - they are a different species. Though they interface with emotions, it isnât in the same way.
Which leads to an interesting question - what about the Preservers? They (or at least Umaâtama) seem oddly disjointed. They are a hyper-advanced group, but they seem to be ignorant in several areas - empathy being one of them, but even beyond that they seem to struggle with emotions.
So. If the Antipathy interacted with emotions in a different way than humans, whoâs to say the Preservers donât do the same? Specifically, they interact with them as a power source first, and an emotion second. Itâs like charging a battery by riding a stationary bike - you might feel something in the act of riding the bike, but you have no other real connection to the energy produced. Itâs just there. (Probably not the best metaphor but I hope you get what Iâm going at)
Tying this back together, letâs tell a story. You are a hyper-advanced civilization, capable of magic and who knows what else. You struggle to produce magic - itâs tied to emotions, and for all your ability to use magic, emotions are much, much harder to induce. At least among your species.
But, you arenât the only species. In fact, you find another one whoâs quite efficient at creating emotions! You share your technology, your magic, and in return they help provide the power for both your civilization and theirs.
For a while, it goes well. Magic is tricky to work with, given it follows the users intent, so the places you build to help this other species focuses on cultivating peaceful, joyful magic. But thereâs something you donât realize.
The production of magic comes at a cost. The cost is as alien to you as the absence of it is to the other species, so you disregard it and focus instead on making magic yet more mailable, allowing control over the wilder aspects of it.
But you go to far. The other species lashes out, and you realize your foley. The cost you waved away is integral to the function of the other species, and youâve been draining them of it without realizing the consequences. You fight back, reluctantly, and the other species consumes itself in an attempt to harm you.
It does, but it also risks damage to another place. Another species. Who are far more similar to the Antipathy, the species you drained, than to you. They produce magic too, though they lack the ability to focus it. But you made a grave mistake with the Antipathy, and you refuse to repeat it. You change the tools once used to drain magic to instead focus it, and find members of this new species to use them for the safeguard of their species as a whole. But you dare not go further - you dare not risk taking something from this species that would cause them harm in the same way you did the Antipathy.
And thankfully, for all the damage done by the Antipathy, their final act is both curse and gift - an immense amount of magic, more than you would ever need. And you are capable of harnessing it, using it instead of this new species to power your cities, your technology, your world.
But you curse yourselves every time you have to. For all the horrors the Antipathy inflicted, you cared for them. But your ignorance irreversibly hurt them. You will not do that ever again.
Is this what actually happened? I donât know! But itâs my current theory. Iâm looking forward to where Thundamoo takes this story, and what the true secret the Preservers are keeping is.
A few more thoughts:
I wonder if Preservers struggling to induce emotions ties into them creating the Magical Girl gems, and also their seeming complete ignorance of emotional regulation skills. Like their only advice seems to be âfeel moreâ, given how when Fulgora/Minerva asks for help to be stronger Umaâtama gives her whatâs effectively hypercompressed emotions.
The idea is, Preservers have gotten really good at the intent part of spellcasting, to the point theyâre almost fully separated it from the emotion-induced intent. Like, casting a spell is X + Y = Z with X being the emotion, Y being the intent, and Z being the outcome. You need both variables, but if X is small (because the emotion doesnât fit with the outcome of the spell - say healing with anger, or attacking with sadness) by increasing Y you can still have a bigger Z, a bigger outcome.
And if my idea is right, and the Preservers struggle with emotion (X), it makes sense why they would initially focus on improving intent (Y). One of those variables would be far easier to mess with. And they seem to have succeeded, at least in part. Magical Girls are capable of quite a variety of spells, be it flight, healing, lasers, or whatever. It changes from person to person, and different emotions (X) do still lead to greater outcomes, but the intent (Y) has been refined to a point it can be effective even if the emotion is not well-suited for the spell.
And I think this ties back into them not really understanding emotional regulation and such - they have a small amount already, so with Y already being a solid baseline their only answer to increasing the outcome (Z) is to increase emotion (X).
Of course, it seems like the spellcasting equation on the emotion side is far more complicated than that - Nanaya, Cappelia, and Luna all recognize that. All emotions are important, and âfeeling moreâ isnât really that effective for increasing power (Or at least there are other ways that work better).
This is full of assumptions but I hope it gets the idea across? IDK.
Well with chapter 59 out I might have even more evidence for my theory. As always, spoilers below.
So one of the minor interactions we get between Umaâtama and Luna is really interesting with this whole idea of Preservers interfacing/experiencing emotions differently than humans. Specifically, the part where Luna asks about LCIâs.
Luna uses the Antipathy term for them - Liquid Cardinal Injectors. And that fits with what we know about how the Antipathy interacted with emotions.
But Umaâtama calls them something different - Liquid Chromatic Injectors. And that made me realize something. One of the big things associated by Preservers with emotion is color.
Each magical emotion has a different color when used with a Preserver-made transformation stone. Luna calls this out as weird way back in chapter 14, when she mentions that pride falls in the spectrum of yellow-green.
But the human eye lies to itself. A lot. Colors are kind of all made up because our eyes have a limited number of cones and rods, and so our brain approximates whatever it doesnât have an exact answer for. Like the color purple, which doesnât actually have a proper wavelength.
(More reading about this stuff in the link!)
Color vision - Wikipedia
So, if Preservers are a completely alien species, whoâs to say their spectrum of âvisibleâ light would be the same as ours? Especially because in the world of MGMH emotions are kind of their own sort of fundamental law that allows you to fly if you feel enough the right way, emotions having their own wavelength akin to light would make sense. Then, we have the Preservers, who evolved to interface with this source of power by seeing it, instead of tying it to a feeling or a direction like Humans and Antipathy.
In conclusion I think we should give Umaâtama a tumblr specifically so we can watch their reactions to the smooth shark post.














