BAM, Yuri!

Lmao wouldn't you like to know, Weasel

Miserably cheering: She said the line, everyone...

Girl I know you missed a lot of school but there were 3 of them - you can count, right?

-----

I swear to god every single scene starts with this exact image but a different background I'm gonna SCREAM

It really breaks my heart that Sayaka knows that she's doing things wrong, that she's pushing people away and isolating herself, but she just can't help it...

Girl you didn't convey SHIT

And just in the nick of time, when Sayaka sees Hitomi and considers following her, who should turn up but Kyouko!!

Really interesting that Kyouko is constantly used as a contrast to Kyousuke here, that Kyousuke seems so indifferent to Sayaka while Kyouko is obsessively seeking her out... parallels...

God there's so much delicious shit to unpack here. Kyouko keeps saying that she's here to "pick off" the girls one by one, and she's all about using as little magic as possible and minimising personal risk, AND YET

She refuses to just ambush Sayaka and beat her senseless. It has to be a fight. It has to be a duel, between Magical Girls.

Also I love her perspective of "before anyone intrudes" she really, really wants Sayaka all to herself she's so needy omg

I think we're alone now, there doesn't seem to be anyone around...

GOD SHE'S SO FUCKING JEALOUS I LOVE IT

"stop looking at that boyyyy look at me, handsome girl I keep saying I want to kill but I just can't help talking to"

AGHH THE KYOUMAMI TORMENTTTTTT

She really feels so betrayed by Mami goddddd

Kyouko's so strong for pursuing her crush like this even though her crush wants to kill her and is obsessed with her ex

lmao I just put an unspeakable amount of effort into such a childish joke with such bad results

clingy gf mad that she got interrupteeddddd

Also Mami's here, yay!!! Keeping true to her promise to back Sayaka up if she needed it!

God I just get so happy when all 3 of them are on the screen like thisss

"I can't let Mami know I'm trying to date her mentee"

Also it's really funny that Mami's diplomacy tactic is to just shoot them every time they start getting too riled up and then sigh like "oh I wish we could just have a civilised conversation...."

Fixed it for you Kyouko <3

OKAY LORE???

I think what she means here is that there was a dormant Grief Seed, kinda like Charlotte's, nearby (that's why mami was actually here) and just like in ep 3, we learn that Witches respond to the presence of Magical Girls kinda aggressively so their fighting triggered a defensive instinct of some kind

The Grief Seed was not mentioned at all prior to this moment btw

Same girl

Also shit it's actually Charlotte

Ah Kyouko already has a petname for her <3

Playing this with the KyouSaya goggles WELDED to my face btw

ouughhhhh as soon as Sayaka asks her to say her name she does ittt

It's incredible that ten minutes ago they were genuinely fighting to the death, then as soon as the Witch turns up Kyouko leaps on the opportunity to call a truce and starts acting like an old married couple with Sayaka

idk this just really presents Sayaka as someone who does all this for Kyousuke out of societal obligation, even though she's sure she loves him she can't for a single moment imagine a happy married life with him

idk it's so sad, this reveal that even before she became a Magical Girl she felt like she had no future

idk this just hits me so hard in the comphet feels

oh god

oh god oh fuck

in the second timeline, Kyouko, Sayaka and Mami face Charlotte together, and when they find themselves in trouble, Mami demands Kyouko and Sayaka retreat to find Madoka and Homura... When Sayaka refuses and gets attacked, Mami... takes the fall

God it's so sad Kyouko and Sayaka have to be there for that, and it's so sad that Sayaka's going to immediately blame herself for getting Mami killed, but!! I understand her!!

She's having such an identity crisis, she's trying so hard to find her place in the world right now and the ONE THING she can do is get hurt in place of other people. And when Mami insists Sayaka abandon her instead of doing that one thing... in her position I would have disobeyed too

And to say nothing of Kyouko's immediate obedience, the way that despite everything she trusts Mami so implicitly that she knows to back off when Mami says, she knows that Mami can hold off the Witch... oh my heart

hhhhhh I'm gonna die

This is such a fascinating glimpse into Kyouko's mind, she really just wanted to prove Mami wrong, after all this time... Justify everything she'd done, gain the acceptance of her senpai again...

WAIT NO SAYAKA NOT YOUR SOUL GEM NOT HERE

SHE THREW IT INTO THE LABYRINTH AS IT CLOSED OH GOD OH FUCK

"I quit being a Magical Girl" SAYAKA NOOOOO

WHEERRE THE FUCK WERE YOU TWO

I've, uhh... reached the image limit for a tungle post, but immediately when Madoka sees what's happened to Sayaka she blames Kyouko and my heart broke, but Kyouko was able to explain the situation and Kyubey smugly strolls on by to deliver horrific exposition about the Soul Gems and gives them two days to hunt down the Witch and recover Sayaka's Soul Gem.

Kyouko offers to take in Sayaka's body and keep it fresh... They also bring up the really interesting facts that Kyouko's not really very good at this kind of Magic, and that Madoka and Homura (presumably due to inexperience) probably can't do it at all even though it is possible for them, and that Mami was much better at this kind of thing... Perhaps a rare mention of her Wish Magic??

God tho what an experience

In the anime I thought Sayaka actually did have a proper relationship with Kyosuke (even if you want to view it as just platonic / puppy love) and I was expecting some more chemistry here... but nope, combined with this conversation about her seeing a conventional married life with children and a job as a half-hearted attempt to fit in and to fulfill the expectations of others, to be useful, to give her body up in service of bearing children or hunting witches... She's always gushing about Kyosuke playing the violin, but she never ever finds a single thing about the boy himself attractive or appealing. This truly feels like peak comphet concussion to me and unfortunately I speak from experience here. I wanted to be careful and not project my own baggage onto this too much, but the evidence is just there; this is what it looks like. Sayaka's not in love with Kyosuke, she's not even in love with the idea of him, she's in love with the idea of being in love. And her inoffensive childhood friend is just kind of there, convenient and unthreatening. When she says Kyuosuke means everything to her, what she actually means is clinging on to the hope that she can somehow "fulfill her duty" and still find happiness, even when serving the needs of others as a magical girl, means everything to her.

And Madoka reaching out to her in this time, wanting nothing but her companionship instead of servitude, feels like a slap in the face. Kyouko is there too, saying to give up on wanting to be useful, that it's better to say goodbye to the hope that a magical girl could ever live an "acceptable" life and to have an "acceptable" existence. Magical girls don't get married, they don't have children, they don't go on dates with boys; The only ones who can understand magical girls are other magical girls. And that thought... is so profoundly sad. But what's worse is that giving up on all that is freeing. A magical girl that follows Kyouko's advice is free to explore, to give the middle finger to all those expectations Sayaka already feels burdened by. In her own mind, even before she became a magical girl, Sayaka’s body was never her own. Accepting Kyouko here would of course mean upending this entire worldview, and that too is too much to bear. With freedom comes the pain of having to decide what your life will look like without the guidance of rules, the price is having to know who you are. And as highlighted by her clinging on to the idea that she gets to be in love with Kyosuke and that one day it would all make sense and be “normal”, Sayaka has no idea who she is or what she wants. Beyond her body that serves others, she’s dumb and cringe and an idiot. She doesn’t allow herself to want anything, and she dresses this insecurity up as her being a selfless defender of Kyosuke because dying for a cause is less frightening than figuring out who you are. And it is also true that Kyouko lost everything when she became a magical girl and started living “selfishly”, the evidence is right there. I truly feel sorry for them both, but yet they keep finding solace in each others company.