達人專欄譯者序
Spoiler-Filled Review: Madoka Magica 3: Rebellion。原作者Jed A. Blue，美國知名「圓學」理論家，圓學「浮士德論」代表性專書The Very Soil: An Unauthorized Critical Study of Puella Magi Madoka Magica作者。原文發表於2013年11月作者個人wordpress網站（現已關閉）。
全文
In Gnosticmyth, the demiurge Ialdabaoth traps its creator, the divine spirit of wisdom Sophia, in the prison we know as material existence.
In Buddhist myth, the demon Mara uses the illusions and temptations of material existence to try to ensnare the would-be Buddha, and prevent the attainment of enlightenment.
Why do they do this? Normally it is assume d that they are simply evil (or in the case of Ialdabaoth, so wildly incompetent as to amount to the same thing). But maybe they have motivations, one that we might find sympathetic if only we could understand the feelings of such vast, cosmic beings. Maybe their motivations are even something we smaller creatures can understand, feelings we ourselves share.
在諾底斯神話中，獅面蛇身造物主（Ialdabaoth）將其創造者，智慧之神索菲亞囚禁在我們所知的物質世界的監獄中。
在佛教神話中，天魔利用物質存在的幻覺和誘惑，試圖誘捕潜在的佛陀，並遏止其獲得啟蒙。
他們為什麼這麼做？通常情况下，人們認為他們只是邪惡的（或者在造物主的例子中，他們是如此無能，以至於等同於一回事）。 但也許他們有動機，如果我們能理解如此巨大的宇宙生物的感受，我們可能會感到同情。也許他們的動機甚至可被我們這渺小生物所理解，我們自己也能分享的感受。
In short, maybe they’re in love.
Throughout the first half of Rebellion, the main characters and their supporting cast are in what seems to be a far better world, for them. They are all happier than they were in the series: all five magical girls are alive and working together to easily take down Nightmares, Mami and Kyouko are no longer alone, Madoka and Homura are able to be friends as they were in the first timeline, and Sayaka is at peace with not getting the boy.
簡言之，也許他們陷入愛河了。
在《叛逆》的前半段，主角和他們的配角都生活在一個對他們來說似乎要美好得多的世界裡。 他們處於本系列中最幸福的時刻：五個魔法少女都還活著，一起努力輕鬆地消除夢魘，麻美和杏子不再孤單，圓和焰能夠像第一個時間軸中那樣成為朋友，沙耶香對戀愛失敗也釋懷了。
The downside is that no one outside this group is real, which makes sense for a world created by Homura; as I’ve argued before, she is the representative of in-group care ethics in the series, so of course her world only contains her in-group and a bunch of ciphers. Since the series is, arguably, Homura’s story, her in-group neatly maps on to the main and supporting characters from the series (though admittedly, she probably only drew in Madoka’s family, Hitomi, and Kyousuke because of their importance to Madoka and Sayaka).
但缺點在於，除了主角群體之外沒有人是真的，這對於焰創造的世界來說是有意義的；正如我之前所說，她是本系列中集體關懷倫理學（in-group care ethics）的代表，所以她的世界當然只包含群體中的她及其暗號。由於本系列可以說是焰的故事，她所在的團隊巧妙地映射到了本系列的主角和配角（儘管無可否認，她可能只描繪了圓的家人、仁美和恭介，因為他們對圓和沙耶香很重要）。
The movie thus functions as a critique of that care ethos, balancing the critique of consequentialism in the series. Just as, in the series, Kyubey’s excessive consequentialism led him to be willing to torture and sacrifice young girls to stave off the heat-death of the universe, so is Homura willing to ignore the entire rest of the population of Mitadake City to make her friends happy–and that’s only in the first part. Depending on how one reads the remainder of the film after the battle with Homura’s witch form (apparently named Homulilly in supplementary materials),she may be risking the entire universe and overriding Madoka’s own choices in order to keep Madoka in the world she cherishes.
因此，這部電影起到了對這種關懷精神的批判作用，平衡了系列中對結果主義（註：即「功利」的丘比）的批判。正如在該系列中，丘比過度的結果主義導致他願意折磨和犧牲少女，以避免宇宙的熱寂一樣，焰也願意無視見滝原市的其他所有人，只讓她的朋友們幸福快樂——這只是電影的第一部分。在與焰的魔女形態（根據官方資料叫作Homulilly）戰鬥後，她可能冒著整個宇宙的風險，為了讓圓留在她所珍視的世界中，而淩駕於圓自己的選擇之上，這取決於你如何解讀接下來的電影內容。
Put another way, Homura’s actions anddescent into becoming a “demon” by the end of the film are based entirely onlove. She takes care to craft the new world into one where the five magical girls can be happy, and in particular making it match as closely as possible the world Madoka treasures. She is acting entirely in accordance with her careethos–but in the process is willing to become the living incarnation of evil, destroy the universe, and override Madoka’s preferences and choices for what Homura sees as Madoka’s own good. Just as Kyubey’s actions were correct from aconsequentialist perspective and utterly monstrous from a care ethics, virtue ethics, or deontological perspective, Homura is acting correctly from a careethics perspective and committing the worst possible violation of the others: risking universal catastrophe (consequentialism), becoming evil (virtue), and violating Madoka’s right to self-determination and agency (deontology).
換句話說，焰的行為與結尾變成「惡魔」的過程完全基於愛。她精心打造了一個新世界，讓五個魔法少女都能快樂，尤其是讓她盡可能符合當初圓遺留於世的珍貴遺產。她完全按照自己的關懷精神（care ethos）行事——但在這個過程中，她願意成為邪惡的活生生化身，摧毀宇宙，為了焰所認為的圓自身的利益，淩駕於圓的偏好和選擇之上。正如丘比的行為在結果論是正確的，從關懷倫理、美德倫理或義務論的角度來看是極其可怕的，焰（的行為）在關懷倫理是正確的，但在最壞的情況下，可能也對他人犯下了嚴重錯誤：
- 引起普遍性災難風險（牴觸結果論），
- 成為惡人（牴觸美德），
- 侵犯圓的自决權和代表權（牴觸義務論）。
This counterbalances the villainization of consequentialism in the series, because it is not that consequentialism is inherently wrong; rather, it’s that no meta-ethical approach is complete in itself. Excessive adherence to any one leads inevitably to becoming a moral monster in the eyes of the others; balancing them is the key to true morality.
這抵消了本系列中結果主義的邪惡化，因為這並不是說結果主義本質上是錯誤的；相反，這是因為沒有一種元倫理方法本身是完整的。過分依附於任何一個人都難免會成為他人眼中的道德怪獸；平衡兩者是實現真正道德的關鍵。
This concept of balance is, of course, yet another way in which the series is intensely Buddhist. In the series, the Buddhist symbolism was mostly given to Madoka, whose story is that of the Bodhisattva Guan-yin (Japanese Kwannon (archaic) or Kanon) even as Homura’s story follows Goethe’s Faust (hence Homura being a transfer from a Christian school at the story’s beginning). In the movie, however, it is Homura’s turn tostand in for a Buddhist figure. As a weaver of illusions who creates a world to trap the Bodhisattva and make her forget her Buddhist nature, Homura is quite clearly the demon Mara, who attempts to do exactly that to the Buddha.
當然，這種平衡的概念，是本系列的強烈佛教色彩的另一表徵。在本系列中，佛教的象徵意義主要被賦予了圓，他的故事是觀音菩薩的故事，儘管焰的故事遵循了歌德的《浮士德》（因此焰在故事開頭是從基督教學校轉學來的）。然而，在這部電影中，輪到焰扮演一個佛教人物。作為一個幻想的編織者，他創造了一個世界來困住菩薩，讓她忘記自己的佛性，焰很明顯是天魔，他試圖對佛陀做的正是這個。
Like Mara, Homura fails; Madoka and the other magical girls ultimately break free of her barrier and return to reality, where Madoka reconnects to her ascended self. Here the series turns away from Buddhism and back to Christianity, and more specifically to the (now regarded as heretical) mystical system known as Gnosticism. Madoka now become sidentified with Sophia, stripped of her power and trapped within the materialworld by her own creation Ialdabaoth (admittedly, Demon Homura self-created, but used power stolen from Madoka to do it). As Ialdabaoth, Homura has taken up the role of guarding and sustaining the material universe by becoming them is tress of the Incubators.
和天魔一樣，焰也失敗了；圓和其他魔法少女最終擺脫了她的障礙，回到了現實，在那裡，圓重新連接到了高階的自我。至此，本系列從佛教轉向基督教，更具體地說，轉向被稱為諾底斯主義的神秘學體系（現在被視為異端）。圓現在與索菲亞產生了共鳴，被她自己的創造物剝奪了自己的力量，困在物質世界中（無可否認，是惡魔焰自己創造的，但源於從圓那裡偷來的力量來實現的）。作為造物主，焰透過成為孵化器（丘比）的女主人，承擔起保護和維持物質宇宙的角色。
But is Homura truly villainous now? Ialdabaoth certainly is, being ultimately responsible for all evil and suffering in Gnostic mythology. Gnosticism, however, is firmly world-denying; it opposes Ialdabaoth to Christ, who in Gnosticism is a purely non-human entity from outside material reality who enters it with the goal of liberating Sophia and all human souls from Ialdabaoth’s trap. Or, looking at it another way, he’s an inhuman alien being from an incomprehensible plane outside our universe that wants to destroy the world, rip out all our souls, and carry them back to his realm. In other words, if one regards the material universe as completely corrupt and worthless, Ialdabaoth is a cosmic evil; if one regards the material universe as being good, Christ is a Lovecraftian horror and Ialdabaoth our only protection from it.
但焰現在真的很邪惡嗎？獅面蛇身造物主當然是，後者對諾底斯神話的所有邪惡和苦難有最終責任。然而，諾底斯主義堅決否認世界；它反對造物主與基督，在諾底斯主義中，基督是一個來自外部物質現實的純粹非人類實體，他進入這個實體的目的是將索菲亞和所有人類靈魂從造物主的陷阱中解放出來。或者，從另一個角度來看，他是一個不人道的外星人，來自我們宇宙之外一個不可理解的層級，想要毀滅世界，撕裂我們所有的靈魂，把它們帶回他的王國。換句話說，如果一個人認為物質世界是完全腐朽和毫無價值的，那麼造物主就是一個宇宙的惡魔；如果一個人認為物質世界是美好的，那麼基督就是一個洛夫克拉夫特式恐怖（lovecraftianhorror，即「未知的宇宙恐怖」），而造物主是我們唯一的保護者。
Is there any hint that the movie might lean toward the latter perspective? To an extent there is. First, there’s the fact that the new reality is just that, a reality. The series has habitually used changes in art style to denote the illusory realms of the witch’s barriers, and the first half of the movie is no exception–even before Homura begins to figure out that the city is a fake, there are quite a few intrusions of other art into the false city. Despite that the new reality is shown as forming when Homura’s witch’s barrier expands to cover the entire cosmos, it is depicted consistently in the art style of the characters, with the few appearances of witch’s familiars only appearing at Homura’s command and self-erasing almost immediately. It is thus a real thing that Ialdabaoth/Homura is working to protect.
有沒有任何跡象表明，這部電影可能傾向後一種觀點？在某種程度上，有的。首先，新的現實（世界）只是現實的一種。本系列習慣性地使用藝術風格的變化來表示魔女結界的虛幻空間，電影的前半部分也不例外——即使在焰開始發現這座城市是假的之前，也有不少其他藝術（畫風）侵入了這座偽街。儘管當焰的魔女結界擴展到覆蓋整個宇宙時，新的現實正在形成，但它始終在描繪角色的藝術風格，魔女的夥伴很少出現，只在焰的命令下現身，且幾乎立即自我消除（註：電影1小時41分開始的對手戲）。 因此，造物主/焰正在努力保護的是一件真實的事物。
Second, Homura has had extensive character development by this point. Despite her declarations that she is now alone and taking on the role of everyone’s enemy, it is clearly just a role–she still arranges the new reality to be kinder and better for them than any previous universe. She worked alone throughout the series, but at the climax of the movie she demonstrates that she has learned to trust others–she knows that becoming a witch in close proximity to a depowered Madoka will not put Madoka at risk, because she trusts Mami and Kyouko to kill her. This is a Homura who can trust and work with others, who tries to bring some happiness, who has even managed to expand her in-group beyond Madoka to include other friends and allies–she is neither a monster nor a mindless gibbering incompetent, the two traditional depictions of Ialdabaoth. She is, in her interactions with Madoka, once again much closer to Mara, deliberately acting to keep Madoka focused on the world and away from connecting with her Buddha-nature.
第二，到目前為止，焰的角色發展已相當之寬。儘管她宣稱自己現在是孤獨的，承擔著每個人的敵人的角色，但這顯然只是一個職責——她仍然安排新的現實，且比以往任何宇宙都更友善、更美好。在整個系列中，她都是獨自工作的，但來到電影的高潮，她已經學會了信任他人——她知道，當她在喪失神力的圓附近成為魔女後，不會對圓的造成危險，因為她相信麻美和杏子會殺死她（註：電影中段，焰與丘比在繭之塔的對話）。這是一個可以信任他人並與他人合作的焰，她試圖帶來一些幸福，她甚至將她的團隊擴展到圓一人之外，涵蓋其他的朋友和盟友們——焰既不是怪物，也不是無意識的無能者，這是對造物主的兩種傳統描述。在與圓的互動中，焰更加接近天魔，故意讓圓專注於（假）世界中，遠離她的佛性。
Homura, in other words, has not fallen. She is not Lucifer, trying to usurp the power of God and as a result transforming into a creature of pure evil. Homura is a complex character, not a cosmic force such as Madoka became at the end of the series; she is not the incarnation of Love or Evil or anything else, but a person, who has made choices good, bad, and arguable, and now must live and work with the consequences of those choices.
換句話說，焰沒有墮落。她不是路西法，不是試圖篡奪上帝的權力，結果變成純粹邪惡的生物。焰是一個複雜的角色，而不是像圓在系列結尾時那樣的宇宙力量（神性）；焰不是愛或邪惡或其他任何東西的化身，而是一個做出了好的、壞的和有爭議的選擇的人，現在必須生活和工作在這些選擇的後果中。
Despite that she has done everything wrong from the perspective of most moral systems, she has also done everything right. From a consequentialist perspective, yes, she destroyed the universe, but now she is the universe’s protector. From a deontological perspective, yes, she overrode Madoka’s choices from the end of the series, but at the same time she has kept the goal Madoka sought intact while allowing Madoka to continue to exist as an incarnate person–she has, in other words, enabled Madoka (and Sayaka and Nagisa, for that matter) to regain their lost agency and capacity for self-determination. In terms of virtue ethics, yes, she embodies Evil now–but also she embodies Love, which most systems regard as being a virtue worth cultivating. And finally, from a universal care ethics perspective, she is helping to maintain the system Madoka established and holds the Incubatorsin check.
儘管在大多數道德體系的角度，焰的所作所為都是錯的，但也把所有事情都做對了。
- 在結果論的角度，她摧毀了宇宙，但現在她是宇宙的保護者。
- 在義務論的角度，她在推翻了圓的選擇，但同時她保持了圓追求的目標不變，同時允許圓繼續作為化身（人形）存在——換句話說， 使圓（以及沙耶香和渚）重新獲得失去的功能和自决能力。
- 在美德倫理方面，她體現了邪惡——但她也體現了愛，大多數制度認為愛是一種值得培養的美德。
- 從普遍關懷倫理的角度，她正在幫助維護圓建立的系統，並控制孵化器（丘比）。
Devil and saint, good and evil, concept and character, demiurge and struggling young woman; Homura is an embodiment of contradictions and opposites, proving ultimately that all these seemingly disparate concepts are really one. It’s hard to get more Buddhist (or, for that matter, postmodern) than that.
魔鬼與聖人，善與惡，概念與實存的人，彈指造物與艱苦掙扎，這一切都是她；焰就是衝突和對立的化身，最終證明了所有這些看似不同的概念實際上是同一個概念。很難找到比這更佛教的（或者說，後現代的）存在了。
