Resized to 85% of original (view original)
alice margatroid and kyubey (touhou and 1 more) drawn by chata_maru_(irori_sabou)

Artist's commentary

  • Original
    •

    シャンハー…イ？

    ■「僕と契約して魔法幼女になってよ」　ラフ画の段階では上海を抱いてました。ロリス逃げてぇー！■総合DR209位、イラストDR167位ありがとうございます。

  • Comments
  • Recommended
    •
    Kryptik
    [hidden]

    This really is horrifying when you think about it.

    Alice is a Witch herself. And considering her judicious use of dolls and such (a.k.a. Familiars) and the handwaving about her appearance...oh god, Alice made a contract. She is(was) a Lich girl!. And Shanghai is her Soul Gem/Grief Seed!! OH MY GOOOOOOD!!!

    -1 Reply
    Ferrinic
    [hidden]

    RiderFan said:
    Do not worry people! If it does one thing to harm Alice Shinki will do things to it that will make it wish it was dead.

    Kyubey didn't seem to phased by what happened to him recently in episode 8. I'm not sure torture of any kind would be of any actual effectiveness.

    -4 Reply
    Saladofstones
    [hidden]

    My problem is that Kyuubee isn't evil, hes purely neutral. He is not allowed to care or influence others and can only repeat the status quo. For me, Kyuubee's wish is similar to a literal genie concept: The wish-granter only grants the wish literally, it doesn't bother or cares to delve deeper into the wish. Its not his job.

    So Kyuubee isn't evil to me, nor does he, at least to me, deserve the hatred towards him. While he is a bit blunt and harsh, his point with Sayaka was that the soul gem was a better system, and he has good reasons for believing so, its just that the concept of remaining human doesn't concern him. Its a contract, he doesn't coerce anyone to accept it, and once they accept it, he's not going to stop it.

    If anything, the main characters lack of maturity, so far, and lack of really questioning everything, is doing the harm. May Kyubee take advantage of this? Perhaps, but its to his benefit to get people who can do their job right. Not to mention that the characters had plenty of chances to walk away. And that they were aware of what it was to be in that position and Kyuubee never said anything in the contrary to what was being shown to them.

    Hes neutral to an extreme extent, I guess in D$D he would be lawful neutral, he follows the law, to its letter, regardless of anything else. Most anime protagonists tend to be chaotic good or chaotic neutral.

    For the picture, Alice seems pretty content with being distant from people and not bothered by being an empty vessel so I don't imagine her being too disconent with the cost.

    3 Reply
    Heparine
    [hidden]

    Anelaid said:
    My problem is that Kyuubee isn't evil, hes purely neutral. He is not allowed to care or influence others and can only repeat the status quo. For me, Kyuubee's wish is similar to a monkey's paw concept: The wish-granter only grants the wish literally, it doesn't bother or cares to delve deeper into the wish. Its not his job.

    That was my point... until yesterday.
    I'm not making any more conclusions as they're apparently walking the good ol' fate/conspiracy line.

    0 Reply
    Saladofstones
    [hidden]

    Heparine said:
    That was my point... until yesterday.
    I'm not making any more conclusions as they're apparently walking the good ol' fate/conspiracy line.

    Conspiracy stories get boring after awhile. Its more interesting if its less, "part of some hidden conspiracy ,the world isn't like this" and more "This is how the world works."

    I feel that Homura is even more ruthless since she basically said that she was willing to kill Sayaka. Kyuubee doesn't intefere in what people want to do, while Homura clearly is doing that if it meant getting through to Madoka. Remember episode 8, Kyuubee says, "are you willing to sell your soul" hes not hiding anything. Changing someone's fate or decisions, forcibly, is an ethically difficult thing to justify, even for good, and it depends on what qualifies as good. I felt there was something odd since the system is reliant on there being an endless conflict between witches and magical girls, and endless amounts of replacements. But to purposely create witches? I think there is a problem with most apocalyptic/lost-like shows is that the answers for why the system is the way it is tends to be less than interesting.

    0 Reply
    Saladofstones
    [hidden]

    Who knows, he may as well be some type of eldritch abomination that feeds on despair. Kill the witches that get too powerful, the magical girls that get too powerful become witches, and the process continues. It might be interesting, it might not. I personally think this is the direction this is going.
    I'd love this series more if it went away from this direction and was just messing with us.

    0 Reply
    sgcdonmai
    [hidden]

    Anelaid said:
    For me, Kyuubee's wish is similar to a monkey's paw concept: The wish-granter only grants the wish literally, it doesn't bother or cares to delve deeper into the wish.

    The Monkey's Paw was a cursed item that intentionally interpreted wishes so that they'd be granted in the most horrible way possible, antagonistic to the wisher. I understand the meaning of what you're saying, and I'm not disputing that, but get the reference right, man!

    0 Reply
    Saladofstones
    [hidden]

    sgcdonmai said:
    The Monkey's Paw was a cursed item that intentionally interpreted wishes so that they'd be granted in the most horrible way possible, antagonistic to the wisher. I understand the meaning of what you're saying, and I'm not disputing that, but get the reference right, man!

    Whoops, I got my references mixed up. I was thinking of the literal genie, which tends to be a mischievous concept as well

    0 Reply
    underscoreCF
    [hidden]

    Well, these are all intriguing ideas, but as I see it, We're no strangers to love / You know the rules and so do I / A full commitment's what I'm thinking of / You wouldn't get this from any other guy / I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling / Gotta make you understand. And what's more, I Never gonna give you up / Never gonna let you down / Never gonna run around and desert you / Never gonna make you cry / Never gonna say goodbye / Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.

    I mean, We've know each other for so long / Your heart's been aching / But you're too shy to say it / Inside we both know what's been going on / We know the game and we're gonna play it / And if you ask me how I'm feeling / Don't tell me you're too blind to see.

    TL;DR: I Never gonna give you up / Never gonna let you down / Never gonna run around and desert you / Never gonna make you cry / Never gonna say goodbye / Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.

    -3 Reply