#pastor sakura

[the-vivi-section]

do u ever think abt the parallels between sayaka and pastor sakura. because i do.

something abt how they both fought for what they thought was right, even if others disagreed. how they both eventually fell into despair when that didnt go as planned. how they coincidentally both killed two people right before commiting suicide (even though its more implied & metaphorical rather than said explicitly within sayaka's case)

i think that was at least subconsciously part of why kyoko tried so hard to save sayaka, because she didn't want to lose someone else she cared about. especially not in such a similar way.

these parallels arent acknowledged at all in the show tho (at least not in any way i picked up on) so i have no idea if this was intentional but yuh

[nokiapnjs]

pastor sakura u absolute douche of a man but dawg ill create my own au where he is a kind and loving father!!!!

[iveantive]

Hi, you can call me F! I mainly write for le sserafim, but i like all ggs!

my twt

my cc

my ao3

Masterlist

⚠️THIS IS ALL SMUT⚠️

g!p = girl penis

LE SSERAFIM

shinez (kazuha x yunjin)

yunjin gives kazuha a blowjob in the middle of the night. (g!p)

kazuha gets overwhelmed and cries (g!p)

kazuha hung and dumb (g!p)

purinz (chaewon x yunjin)

chaewon gets distracted during dinner (g!p)

summerz (kazuha x chaewon)

chaewon seduces the pastors daughter (g!p)

ssamkkura (chaewon x sakura)

sakura gets jealous and fucks chaewon

chaewon gets fucked by her mommy

petalz (kazuha x sakura)

sakura wakes up with a dick in her ass (g!p)

MIX AND MATCH

kazuha x jennie

kazuha meets her idol (g!p)

chaewon x yunjin x kazuha x yujin x minji

chaewon invites some friends over to play a game (g!p)

NEWJEANS

bbangsaz (minji x hanni)

hanni catches minji jerking off (g!p)

(G)I-DLE

sooshu (shuhua x soojin)

shuhua goes to soojin for comfort

ive

rei and gaul buy a squirting dildo(g!p)

IZ*ONE

kkuchae

Sakura being needy

PURPLE KISS

chaego (chaein x goeun)

chaein needs help relaxing

EVERGLOW

airen (aisha x yiren)

yiren first time

[canonsinthehead]

Naruto Modern AU/Hollywood pt.9 - THE GOSSIP FILES (Voted by the audience)

Get ready for all the tea and drama!

Did you know that Sera and Zabuza graduated from Kirigakure's Dance & Performance Arts Academy? Both in Dance degrees, this is why you can sometimes see them perform together, they've been attending the same schools since high school.

Regardless of his frown eyebrows and later change of carrer, Zabuza is a dance at heart.

I need to had that they would be the type to participate in Kiri's edition of a show like Dancing with the Stars and perform something like this

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Brother of the Financial figure, Madara Uchiha has been spotted at the performative artist/bordeline corn star Ibiki Morino annual boat party on a private beach in the Land of the Moon.

Obviously Mizuki (and the podcast bros) jumped on the case and proclaimed the existence of a promiscuity curse on the Uchiha Family and their close relatives.

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"KEEP MY HUSBAND NAME OUT YOUR MOUTH!" proclaimed WWE fighter Sakura Haruno after her opponent Kin Tsuchi got disrespectful during the pre-game weigh in. She insulted her and her family but the pink-haired world champion remained calm.

She won a soul-crushing victory with barely any injuries.

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Most popular streamer "Eida" issued an public apology after saying offensive words "Sorry guys, I didn't know any better because I'm an android..."

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ONCE AGAIN, Boruto Uzumaki gets injured after a prank "in the hood" goes wrong, he was discharged from the hospital 2 days later.

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A-List actor Itachi Uchiha is spotted with an undentified male at a Konoha motel. An employee claiming the existence of a sex tape, threaten to release security camera footage. A lawsuit is ongoing...

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Leader of the Jashin Cult, Hidan was finally arrested this past friday.

Both him and Mega cruch pastor Kakuzu Osteen has been linked a networks of various online scams and misinformation. Their funds made of illegal donation collections goes up to 300 millions $ The authoritiess are still looking for the pastor who vanished after the arrest of the cult leader.

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Madara's Uchiha's 3rd wife, Maria Uchiha has won won a child support settlement going up to 300,000$ per months for the two children they had together. It is the highest ever seen comparing to his 3 other wives and 6 other children. According to private documents, she is the only one figured on the man's testament.

I know this one doesn't make any sense because Madara is supposed to death al ong time ago according to this HD BUUUTTTT hear me out... I still picture him a someone who would have multiple wives even if he's nothing but a pack of bones.

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Rapper Hanabi is getting backlash online over her group last single TOMBOY.

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Renowned fashion designer Orochimaru kicks off this year's fall collection with Basketball player Kiba Inuzuka & Bussiness owner Neji Hyuuga.

NEXT PART

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BACK TO PART.1

[tozettastone]

hi tozette i hope you're going okay

i was just wondering if would you ever consider explaining your process for writing kabu?

Hello! I'm okay.

I don't mind being asked about writing process, but I don't think I have a heap to tell you about this one, sorry. Here's the summary of items of Kabu trivia I can think of:

ETA: it's pretty long so I'm adding a cut.

I am chronically ill and I want to write about disabled but badass Itachi, who has all his chakra skills but struggles with physical tasks, getting a sleepy retirement. (He is ill with something I have based a bit on TB like I have in my Sakura & Itachi & Kisame fic, but in both cases I have also been vague enough that I am not worried about the infectious disease police "well, actually—"ing my magical ninja illness. But in Kabu he has, basically, chronic problems resulting from complications related to that ~mystery illness~.) I like cats and miss living with a pet so I gave him Radish, his tortoiseshell mouser who doesn't like his shadow clones but does like it when he kills rabbits for her.

I also enjoy the pastoral fantasy setting, which is like, a subsistence lifestyle but nobody ever discovers the local aphids are out of control and starves, I guess? So that's why it reads like something out of an 18th century eclogue... or perhaps a 21st century cottagecore blog.

I have comments turned off on all of the Kabu fics because it's really nice to write a fanfic however you want and not dread people responding to it sometimes.

What else...? Oh, everyone is named after food, including the village, because it meant I didn't have to think very hard about names, and because it fits the pastoral setting.

Kabu is named after turnips and the nearby village of Ninjin is named for carrots.

Granny Shoga is named after ginger, which matches her personality.

Nasu is named after Japanese eggplant, because he's [eggplant eggplant water emoji sweaty face emoji] about Itachi.

Tamanegi is an umbrella term for onions... there's no real reason for that. He doesn't have layers. Sorry. And his wife Renkon is named after a lotus root.

Radish is named after a radish. 😤

I'm trying to think of other things... I guess Itachi being a bad cook is a recurring problem for him because I like the idea of him lacking this previously irrelevant skill (I mean, we see him buying food, for example) that is suddenly quite important. Who else is cooking for you, Itachi? Nobody. Haha. It's good to have him experience being bad at things occasionally. Keeps him... humble? Humbl-er. Humble-colocated. He also doesn't know how to build a pond, or that the sugar Nasu gave him is meant to be used in preserving some of his bounty of random fruits and vegetables. Jam is so easy to make, Itachi, and it will be winter and cold early spring before you know it.

...um, he hasn't figured out Nasu would like to marry him yet, but he thinks his eagerness to please is probably indicative of inconsistency of character, rather than just an unfortunate side effect of Itachi lounging around half dressed. He's nice to cats, too. Nasu doesn't know what he's actually like and only sees him being relaxed and cute. I think, for my own satisfaction, I'd like to develop his crush a little before all his affections are inevitably obliterated by the reality of, you know, Itachi's personality.

I WILL eventually get to introducing Kisame to the village. (In the grand scope of people who are obviously ninja, Kisame is somewhat more challenging to ignore than Itachi.)

I think that's all the Kabu trivia I have for you.

[sabraeal]

People you'd like to know better!

Tagged by @fistfuloflightning!

1. Three ships

Obi/Shirayuki (AnS), Inomata Maria/Kamitani Hayato (Gakuen Babysitters), Soowon/An Lili (AnY)

2. First ship

Either Anastasia/Dimitri or John Crichton/Aeryn Sun. At least, those are the two I first looked for fic for (quickly followed by Syaoran/Sakura)

3. Last song

Talk Too Much by COIN

4. Last movie

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

5. Currently reading

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (first read through; been on my list for a while because I have IRL friends who were obsessed. Only a quarter of the way through and it's fun, I can see why people were hype about it if they aren't used to this kind of storytelling)

For manga, currently reading Soul Eater! Read it once long ago, before it finished, and lost track at the beginning of the last arc. Finally gonna finish it now 🤣

6. Currently watching

Mostly keeping up with this season of anime; currently: Malevolent Spirits S2, Sugar Apple Fairy Tale S2, Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts, My Happy Marriage, Pastor Lawrence & Saint Cecelia, and Undead Girl Murder Farce.

Also watching Soul Eater with my Obiyuki ladies!

7. Last thing I wrote

Just finished Brewed With Intent's next chapter for obiyukiweek, but last posted was Just a Second Away From being In Love (Or Alone)

Tagging: @kirayaykimura, @jhalya, @ccprovolomies, @scarletfantasia

[candied-mushroom]

Pastor at Sakura, Byakuya and Kenshiro’s poly wedding : I now pronounce you girlboss, mansplain and male wife.

[prskcostumes]

Card Costume Directory (Year Two, First Half)

All event cards are placed under their own tag to be grouped together properly, but this list is to help people find the exact costume they might be looking for.The list is in order of release. This post goes from after the 1st anniversay event (Bout for Beside You) until the 1.5 anniversary event (Cherry Blossoms Across Sekai, Interconnecting Our Feelings).

Bout for Beside You - Don't give up・Style - Believe in・Style

Revival my dream - Archaic Alchemist - Forest Guardian

My Footprints, Your Destination - Dark Clouds Cloak - Seeking Cloak

Unwavering Feelings, Now Put Into Words - Tenderness Sister - Thoughtful Sister

Buddy・Funny・Spend Time♪ - Twinkle Parade - Sweet Night Parade

Intersecting Melodies, Glowing Warmth - Snowflake Jacket - Snow Crystal Coat

MOREMOREMakingXmas - Sweet Queen Dress - Lovely Rook Dress

Evillious Collab - Lucifenia Kingdom's Princess' Formal Dress - Lucifenia Kingdom's Servant Attire - Bloodstained Insanity Dress - The Female Duke's Bewitching Dress - USE Dark Star Bureau's Judge Attire

Same Dreams, Same Colors - Winter Camp Jacket - Autumn Camp Jacket

Colorful Festival - Supercalifragilistic Balloon Dress - Galaxy Dark Suit

Beyond Prayers, the Tomorrow We Wish for Is… - Oracle Girl Style - Tranquil School Style - Elegant Street Style

POP IN MY HEART!! - Captain☆Mix Candy - Waffle Ambassador - Gummy Bear Tour Guide

Someday, From the Depths of Despair - Reminiscence Gothic - Dim Light Gothic - Not Lost Gothic

Operation ♡ Secret Valentine! - Sweetheart Lady - Café Mocha Daughter - Cutie Ribbon Girl

Legend still vivid - Sky Runner Jacket - Dream Scenery Style - Bloomy Sky Hoodie

That Day, the Sky Was Far Away - Rider on the Road - Hard Rock Riders - Long Trip Riders

The Gentleman Thief's Thrilling White Day!? - Chivalrous Chevalier - Noble Paladin - Optatio Eques

Cast Spell on You - Magical Tailor Witch - Pretty Cat Witch - More Fortune Witch

On This Blank Canvas, I Paint - Peinture Cloth - Poetry Cloth - Pastoral Cloth

Colorful Festival - Lovely Vivid Devil - Notice Suspenders

Cherry Blossoms Across Sekai, Interconnecting Our Feelings - Evening Cherry Blossom Matoi - Spring-Colored Sukajan - Sakura Student - Hanageki Attire・Sakura

[catholic-character-tournament]

Kyoko Sakura (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) is probably not Catholic on account of her father being a pastor with a whole wife and family and all. But then the show uses some pretty catholic imagery for her backstory so I see why someone might submit her lol

Eastern Catholics are allowed to be married/have a family, only Roman Catholics are weird about that. Or they could have been Orthodox.

[emblematicemblazer]

World building and theories of Engage

In the Elyso universe each kingdom represents one of the four seasons. Firene represents spring. 

The biblical meaning of spring

“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.” (Psalm 1:3)

Spring is a time for growth, whether it is nature growing in abundance with the right combination of sunlight and rainfall or a person growing spiritually with God's guidance. 

Alear starts their path of growing into the role of divinity in Firene after the loss of Lumera. The seeds of divinity are planted and Alfred is the first friend to start watering it. In Firene Alfred's and Alear's friendship starts to grow as well. Real Veyle is first encountered in Firene as well, and the seeds of friendship are planted. 

Spring also represents new beginnings. Firene is where Alear begins their journey as the Divine Dragon.

Peace is also associated with spring. Firene is a pastoral land not built for the violence of war. 

In the Bible spring rain is an analogy for God's teaching refreshing the mind and nourishing the spirit. Firene is known as a pious country meaning that they are nourished by the teachings and hope provided by the kindness of the Divine Dragon.

Buddhism and spring.

Vesak is a very important festival celebrated in spring. The birth, enlightenment and death of Gautama Buddha is commemorated. It is a colourful celebration where hymns are sung, birds and insects are released to symbolise freedom to those in captivity, and flowers, candles and joss sticks are offered to the Buddhist teacher to symbolise that beautiful flowers soon die and candles soon extinguish. As little harm as possible is undertaken by eating only vegetarian or vegan meals.

Alfred is the beautiful flower that blossoms, sees the joy and good in the world, then soon passes. 

Veyle's appearance in Firene as both real and dragonically enhanced versions relates to the symbol of the bird that needs to be freed. She is adorned with feathers like a bird but cannot fly free while she is tethered to her desire for a father figure. 

Vesak is also a day to bring happiness to others such as the poor, refugees, aged, sick and disabled. Some Buddhists give gifts while others volunteer their time to help others. Firene is described as a  country generous with their charity. 

Hanami

The celebration of Hanami coincides when the Japanese symbol of spring, the cherry blossom, starts to bloom. The festival is celebrated with picnics of traditional foods and sweets as well as sakura (cherry blossom) tea and parties. The myth associated with this festival is about the Shinto goddess of joy, happiness and good health; Uzume.

Amaterau was the goddess of the sun and she went into hiding when her brother killed one of her sacred animals in a jealous rage. He was jealous of her beauty and popularity. Amaterau was so upset that she went into hiding to grieve. While she was grieving, winter ascended upon the land.  It was Uzume's dancing that cheered up the goddess of the sun and ushered in the return of the sunshine after a long winter. 

I like to think that Alfred is Uzume and it is his friendship and personality that helps bring Alear's sunshine to the people of Elyso. 

[wazzuppy]

@/miles-edward-obrien left this reply and it's actually something i wanna discuss as i find kyoko and her backstory to be generally very misunderstood. this isnt like, an attempt to call this person out or start drama or anything, just a response as an excuse for further discussion (bc i want to talk about pmmm until i die)

so, first off, if you want a more thorough breakdown of kyoko, her father, and the specific way pmmm frames her backstory thats meant to demonstrate her father's cultism (is that a word. its 4am im trying), this post by @/luna-mistrunner is a great analysis.

but, in short, pastor sakura is framed in a way thats meant to tell the audience he's shady af and when looking at his actions and motivations he's pretty blatantly a cult leader. personally, i'd say that another story (a canon spinoff manga about kyoko and mami) cements this with this line luna-mistrunner also mentioned:

[TEXT ID]

"Saying the world can save itself without me... that's the devil's talk as he grinds believers under his heel and laughs, is it not?"

[END ID]

he doesn't care about what he's preaching, he cares about being seen as a savior. he wants power, control, and admiration, and he attempts to achieve this by leaving his church and starting a cult. something that would have starved and killed his family (which he was certainly aware of) had kyoko not made her wish.

while he could be read as a protestant (which is, to oversimplify it, basically a regular catholic except instead of catholicism's whole "faith and good deeds make you a REAL believer" deal, its "faith alone is all you need to be a follower"), we are not given enough information about what he was teaching outside of kyoko saying it wasnt in the bible to say if he was, and outside of that he is pretty explicity written and framed as a cultist and not protestant.

as for kyoko and her father's relationship, i admittedly fumbled what i was trying to say there a bit. it's less that kyoko doesnt realize her father did bad things and doesnt resent him for it, but that she doesnt realize the extent of his abuse towards herself and their family. see, the thing is, even after he kills himself and their entire family, kyoko still thinks he was a good person and blames herself for what happened. this is almost certainly because of his reaction to finding out about her wish (calling her a witch and spiraling into an even worse state than before). she thinks if she hadnt made her wish or he hadnt found out about it, he never would have done the things he did. and maybe he wouldnt have, but he still wouldn't have been a good person. he manipulates those around him (especially his daughters) and was willing to let his family starve rather than not start a cult, all in service of his own ego and desire for control. he wasnt upset because he thought kyoko was trying to play god, he was upset because he wasnt the one genuinely in control.

i think, when talking about and analyzing her character, its important to remember the fact that kyoko was indeed raised in a cult and that shes a victim of child abuse from her father, and that she doesnt even realize these things.

[luna-mistrunner]

on pastor sakura and kyouko

you’ve all forced my hand. we deviate from Homura to talk about kyouko’s dad, father pissshit

These are my thesis statements.

Pastor Sakura started a cult and was a cult leader.

Pastor Sakura was not a good father and Kyouko is an abuse survivor.  This is why she frames the story the way she does.

Kyouko’s backstory sequence is meant to parallel the way a magical girl falls into despair and becomes a witch.

Kyouko herself doesn’t actually believe her father was a very good man, but she needs to believe he is, or else she could fall into despair and become a witch for the same reasons Sayaka does.

Throughout the essay, I will be referring to this transcription I made of the scene using the Netflix subbed version of episode 7, “Can You Face Your True Feelings?”.

Also, (edit) shout out to @werewolfcave for giving me brainworms by showing me the most infuriating takes they receive on this topic and also talking about it in general <3

Let’s get into this.

In Episode 7 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Sakura Kyouko takes Miki Sayaka back to her old church to explain why magical girls shouldn’t work for the benefit of others, but for their own benefit.

"'You get what you pay for' - that's how I live.  And if you live only to benefit yourself, you've got to pay for your own mistakes too.  So I don't hold this against anyone and I don't regret anything.  If you think like that, you can take most anything without getting down."

Kyouko says all this while taking Sayaka to her old church, where she lived once with her family.  Because of Tumblr’s image limit, I posted all the images here in this post and added descriptions of each frame I posted (4), but it’s important to note the way the cathedral is framed.  This is the first indication we get about what kind of story Kyouko is about to tell.

The wide shot shows the cathedral as an imposing, dark figure in Kyouko’s past, cut across a fiery sky.  She kicks the doors down and breaks the beams beneath her feet––this is not a sacred place anymore.  The stained glass is jagged and broken, the podium is empty, and the glass behind it is completely gone.  This is not a place of good doctrine.  It is completely barren, and it is––was––dangerous.

Here, after offering Sayaka an apple, Kyouko tells her story.  She talks about what lead her to make her wish, which she assumes is relevant to Sayaka’s choices and well-being.  After all, Kyouko, too, made a wish to benefit someone she loved, but did not return that love.  Kyouko, too, made a wish she came to regret.

“He thought that in order to save a new generation, we needed to have a new religion.” (first line of the second paragraph on my transcript post; L1, P2)

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a cult as “a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious,” with “spurious” being defined as “outwardly similar or corresponding to something without having its genuine qualities : false.”  In the Guardian’s 2009 article (old, I understand), they stated that people with connections to cults prefer the term “new religious movement,” or an “NRM.”  Shortly after Pastor Sakura came to the conclusion that they needed to change religion to “save a new generation,” he began to preach “stuff that wasn't in the Bible” and his followers stopped coming to his sermons.  He was “excommunicated by the church,” so he lost all his authority and influence.

Based on these things alone, the movement Pastor Kyouko attempted to start within the church can be defined as a “cult.”  However, Kyouko states next, “I guess it was only natural, huh?  From the outside, he probably looked like some raving cultist.“  It appears as though, because she is aware of cults, she might be wary enough to know if her father was starting one.  However, this is unlikely to be the case.

According to Cult Research’s “What makes a cult” article, cults are defined by four things: 1) a charismatic leader, 2) a transcendent belief system, 3) systems of control, and 4) systems of influence.  Even if Pastor Kyouko lost influence and control over his former church, he still had a system of control and a system of influence over his two daughters, Kyouko and Momo because he was still their father.  Kyouko describes her father thusly:

“He was an overly kind and earnest man.  Like, the type who cries reading the morning paper every morning and seriously thinks about how to make things better.” (P1)

According to definition two of “charisma” in the MW dictionary, “a special magnetic charm or appeal,” Pastor Sakura is technically charismatic.  His daughters clearly love and rely on him, to the point of being his only supporters when his church goes under.

In this sense, he was their charismatic leader.  He was their father, so what else could he be?  When you’re a kid, you hold your father up on a pedestal.  In this shot, Kyouko is shown both as a child that idolized her father even after everyone had left them, and as the hand that holds up his puppet, obscured from view, doing all the heavy lifting of framing and telling the story.

Is he necessarily a charismatic leader at this point in the story?  Well, no.  But he wanted to be.  Kyouko knew that, and she believed in him.  She believed everything he said, and couldn’t understand why no one else would listen to him.  At this time, she is at most twelve years old (as evidenced in the flashback and in Different Story), but it’s extremely likely that she was younger during the lean times.  They starved because he refused to do anything except evangelize, and Kyouko became increasingly frustrated with their situation.  So she made her wish.

“I asked Kyubey to make everyone listen seriously to what my dad said.“ (P8)

“But Luna!” you say to me.  “The argument that he’s a cult leader to his own children is rather ridiculous!”  And you’re right.  That is kind of ridiculous.  Let me re-frame this for you.  Pastor Sakura is an abusive, controlling, egotistical father.  He starves his children, indoctrinates them into a false religion, isolates them from their peers, and, ultimately, he kills them.  These are all canonical things, without any analysis, shown on screen.  The structures of power that create cult leaders are inherently abusive, comprised of control and influence, and who has more of that over a twelve year old girl than her own father?

Now.  It’s important to note that Pastor Sakura only becomes a true cult leader once he gains both a system of control and a system of influence through Kyouko’s wish.  He, himself, had no true power, no true charisma past enchanting his daughters.  It should be noted that, actually, for many men, this is enough influence.  It wasn’t, for him, and he doesn’t even seem to consider his daughters significant enough to include in his definition of “a new generation,” as indicated by the image of himself, preaching to the people in the pews compared to the shot that includes only him and his daughters.  In this shot, while he takes center stage, his daughters are pushed off to the side.  The shot’s focus is him and the empty pews.  The shot is meant to place you behind him, so you focus on this too.  It’s not about the doctrine, it’s not about saving people, it’s about the emptiness, and it’s about the way he sees himself in it.

I said that it’s only through Kyouko’s wish that her father becomes a cult leader.  She says to Sayaka, later, the following:

“Because I went and made a wish for someone else without really knowing what he wanted, I ended up bringing everyone misfortune.”  (P19)

The problem with this statement is that this is exactly what he wants.  He wants influence, he wants control.  There are notable animation shifts in this part of the story.  Most importantly, Pastor Sakura becomes fully animated in standard Studio SHAFT animation.

Pastor Sakura is shown in Studio SHAFT typical animation style, preaching to a smiling crowd of followers wearing his cross.  He moves with enthusiasm.

At this point in the essay, I will point out something important about the directing and animating for this entire scene.  Kyouko’s backstory is told almost entirely with Inu Curry animation, with only small breaks in the narration to show SHAFT’s more typical animation style.  These changes are significant, because they indicate a certain shift in symbolic meaning.  The Inu Curry puppets are concepts, people, and portrayals that have been idealized or abstracted, and are a part of the fiction that Kyouko tries her very best to believe.  But those shifts in animation to SHAFT’s more standard animation style indicate a shift to something more grounded and real.  The grain filter over the characters doesn’t change, because it does indicate that the characters are still in the past.  However, the stylized use of Inu Curry animation depicts ideas that, for Kyouko, are either dead or disingenuous.

Refer to the post I’m linking here for the next examination of this use of different animation.  On the left, the crowd is depicted using Inu Curry style, shown smiling, moving, listening with attentiveness.  Pastor Sakura preaches with fervor, in SHAFT style.  On the right, the crowd is revealed to simply be entranced, expressionless.  The left image is shown from behind Pastor Sakura –– another shot from his perspective.  A rapt audience, influence, ultimately, power.  But the shot from the side shows the reality.  Pastor Sakura symbolizes more than just an abusive father.

Kyouko uses her one great moment of ultimate agency to help her father achieve his dreams.  If he were truly a good man, maybe all he would want is for someone to listen.  Maybe just having his two daughters listen to him would be enough, then, but it isn’t.  He isn’t a good man.  But Kyouko thinks he is, so she makes a wish in that good faith.

“Saying the world can save itself without me...that’s the devil’s talk as he grinds believers under his heel and laughs at their pain, is it not?” (Different Story, canonical spin off)

Kyouko’s wish is that people listen to her father, because she can’t understand how someone she loves and believes in so much could be ignored.  But this is why.  His ego shows itself here.  It’s not about saving the world, it’s about him saving it himself.  The second criteria of a cult is thus: a transcendent belief system.  Cult Research defines it thusly:

Most religions and even political groups are going to have a transcendent belief system, meaning they’re stating how to get to some better place. But what’s different in cultic groups is they have their way to get you there. It’s what I call the recipe for change. In order to be part of the group, you have to go through a transformational process, which they dictate to you and you can’t be there otherwise. That’s the indoctrination program.

And this transcendent belief system hinges on Pastor Sakura being an integral part of it, based on the quote.  The system is very loose: just listen.  But it has to, without fail, be through him.  This cements his intent thusly: he wants to become the charismatic leader of a salvation cult.

When he learns that this is not the case, he tears everything down, calls Kyouko a witch, drinks himself into stupor, and kills his wife and daughter, Momo, leaving Kyouko the sole survivor of the tragedy.  Kyouko made the wish to benefit her father and her family, and her father took her whole family away.  Hope to Despair equilibrium, created in death and regret.  But Kyouko did not become a witch there.

Refer back to the crowd.  A rapt audience that comes to listen to someone who ultimately will bring despair?  That’s the same basic structure of a witch.  Wouldn’t that make Kyouko a witch?  No.  Symbolically, it makes Kyouko more similar to Pastor Sakura’s Familiar, who would do anything to protect the witch and the witch’s intent.  It’s Kyouko’s father that didn’t care about the doctrine––he cared about power.  He cared about holding that power in his own two hands.  But where does that leave Kyouko?

Kyouko, when she meets Sayaka and the others, is a girl with no beliefs––at least, that’s what she says.  And yet, she won’t attack you while you share food, she will offer you a snack as a greeting, and she becomes easy friends with anyone who explains themselves honestly with her.  Her abrasiveness is a front.  Her selfishness is a facade.  She still desperately wants to believe in the greater good, in a hero, in being one.  But she’s hurt, traumatized.  Her hero, her father, betrayed her in the worst ways possible.  That’s why she and Sayaka fight.  She wants Sayaka to prove to her that the world can be good, that there’s still hope to change it, that there’s still hope at all.

That’s why she’s the only one on that platform when we see Sayaka witch out in episode 8.  That’s why she tries so hard to save Sayaka, even bringing Madoka into a labyrinth to call out to them.  That’s why she turns into a witch if Sayaka dies in the portable games.  More than just using too much magic, the original PMMM series emphasizes that the key to turning into a witch is despair, which is defined by the dissonance between ideals and lived reality.  Both are contextual, framed by a person’s mindset and the events happening around them.  Kyouko could live selfishly and without regrets if there weren’t any idealistic people in the world, if there was nothing but selfishness.  But not if she thinks that hope exists and will always be taken away, the way Sayaka was taken, the way her father took everything, the way the Incubators eventually take everything too.  If every hero is destined to fall, what’s the point?

If even Sayaka, who looked despair in the face and said, “Fuck you!” could turn into a witch, if even their ideals could be smothered by something, then what’s the fucking point?  If Pastor Sakura only starved their family for his own selfish desire for power, what was the god damned point?  Kyouko needs to believe her father had something good in him, the same way she needs to believe calling out to Sayaka will bring them back.  She needs to believe that every single thing that happened since her wish went sour was her fault.  Because if it’s her fault, she can do something about it––she can change it, she can do penance, she can get back the agency she lost, it’s her fault, not her father��s.  Because Kyouko believed in saving the world and making it a better place first, and she’d hurt herself so much to make it happen.  But if her father was just a horrible person?  Her hero, loveless and faithless enough to kill her whole family and then himself, disowning her and condemning her in the process?  Then what the hell was the fucking point of all that horrible suffering?  And it would be so much worse if she then became a real witch, just like her father called her.  Familiars can incubate and become witches, too.

Kyouko doesn’t become a witch in the main series because, I think, narratively, it worked more for her arc to witness Sayaka becoming a witch and sacrificing herself to make sure Sayaka isn’t lonely.  It cements her for what she really is: someone who cares and loves a lot and, despite everything, still has faith in something good.  I believe strongly that Kyouko is one of the most badly misinterpreted characters in PMMM because she starts out talking about her story in lies to herself.  She says she’s selfish, but she dies to protect Homura and Madoka and, ultimately, all of Mitakihara city.  She dies to make sure she doesn’t turn into a witch.  She dies to make sure Sayaka doesn’t die alone.  She’s easily one of the most friendly, caring, smart characters on the show.  Her father, however, was never a good father or pastor.  He was just some guy that needed to be propped up by his oldest daughter’s emotional and physical labor, and he didn’t even love her for that.

[viviadrae]

Can't sleep so thinking about pmmm, specifically a good au focused on Kyoko and her family. Her backstory is also changed so her wish has the same effect but without changing the family themselves and thus they never find out until after Walpurgisnacht and stuff

It starts with Kyoko getting back to the house insanely bloody with probably missing limbs telling her dad to get a box in her room, and go to the address in it ( where Yuma is ) as well as giving her the black ball with a line through it ( grief seed ) and so he brings her to Yuma and on the way Kyoko tells him that she's a magical girl and fights monsters, but not much from there. While Yuma is healing Kyoko they are talking about how he might think there witches, but in the fantasy kind instead of the pmmm kind, and he overheard and learns everything.

Then later Kyoko's father makes his church have a soul gem in the logo/icon ( to let magis know he's good ) and a building that looks abandoned on the side for helping magical girls.

[werewolfcave]

How dare Homura Akemi call herself the Devil when Kyoko lived with Him for 13 years

[goji-pilled]

Sayaka Miki's list of things to do after regaining her memories through Madokami

Kick Pastor Sakura's ass for everything he's done to her girlfriend Kyoko

Go and do Madokami's assignment

yes I know its messy but I don't have the motivation for more

[butchford]

I HATE PASTOR SAKURA SO MUCH

sorey for screaming at you

I just... Now im thinking ab kyouko and homura and if they bonded over religious trauma

no PLEASE scream at me FUCK that guy AND the reason homu & kyok click near immediately during the series is bc religious trauma mean lesbian 2 religious trauma mean lesbian communication this is a fact <3