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takerfoxx · 7 years

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“The True Meaning of Christmas” Thoughts

Disappointing reception aside, I still really liked this story, and it’s worth talking about. So let’s jump in!

Like I said earlier, the premise for this special was actually recycled from the original idea I had for A Very Nineball Christmas, in which the various members of Team Nineball would try to explain the true meaning of Christmas to one another, with each explanation being more outlandish and inaccurate than the last. This was scrapped for reasons that I no longer remember, and the plot of Daiyousei's gift-hunting adventure was used instead. I always had an idea of writing a sequel that recycled the original idea, but it never materialized. However, when I was about ready to call the whole Christmas special thing quits on account of not having any ideas for another PMMM story, I realized that that old idea could be easily adapted into a PMMM setting, so the decision was made.

I knew from the get-go that I didn't want to make it a Resonance Days story, since the show's original setting worked just fine. I also knew I wanted it to be post-Rebellion since Nagisa was perfect for a sort of Little Timmy character for the other characters to try to explain things to. There were some changes to canon though. Everyone's still contracted with Kyubey in this version, even though the end of Rebellion implied that Homura had resolved to take care of the remaining Wraiths herself and would certainly not want Madoka anywhere near another contract. This was ignored to keep things at least somewhat familiar, as delving too far into what-if's would just distract from the story I was trying to tell. Granted, I did indulge in that little deviation with Madoka's vague Christianity, which, as I mentioned, just came from the particular English subs on my copy and doesn't seem to appear anywhere else, but it didn't change too much and stayed within the bounds of acceptable deviation, so it was kept.

Mami's story was sort of tricky. I wanted her to handle the family aspect given what happened to her parents, but unfortunately, the whole happy family at Christmas thing isn't the sort of thing that fills pages. In fact, originally it just had the one page and ended with her going downstairs and finding her parents waiting for her. But as the other stories kept getting longer and longer, I realized I had to beef hers up at least a little, so the whole bit with the arrows and the snowballs was added. Personally I would have liked to have done more, but even that bit of stretching was hard enough as it was, so I just left it.

Now, before I get to Kyoko and Sayaka's stories, let me just take a moment to comment on those two. See, it's no secret that they're my favorite PMMM characters, and I ship them oh so very hard. But the funny thing is, despite writing one of the biggest and certainly the longest KyoSaya fic running currently for the last four years or so, I realized during this story that I had never really written an actual interaction between them. Everything in Resonance Days was all Kyoko and Oktavia, and to date they had never hooked up. They did in Walpurgis Nights, but again, that's Ophelia and Oktavia, not Kyoko and Sayaka. Close, but not quite the actual thing. So this was the first time I ever got to write Kyoko Sakura and Sayaka Miki in a scene together that wasn't a flashback or a dream. And since this is my story and I do what I want, I just went ahead, killed the subtext, and made them straight-up gay for each other. And let me tell you: it was fun, especially since I got to get rid of Kyoko's cynicism and Sayaka's holier-than-thou attitude. As a result, I got a pair of wonderful goofballs that just bounced off one another beautifully. Getting the same chemistry out of Kyoko and Oktavia is always kind of difficult, since there's usually a melancholy note that dampens it. But this was just a delight, and I hope to be able to do something similar in the future.

Okay, let's get to their own stories. I had Sayaka cover Santa Claus, since she's the energetic, fun-loving one even in the original series. And because it's her, I had her butcher it terribly and turn it into her own weird fantasy where she coos over Nagisa (which she totally would) and eventually turns it into a cheesy Sailor Moon-esque show with skimpy outfits and Homura as the evil queen. Because she totally would. That one alternated between being fun and breezy to surprisingly difficult. It's easy to parody something that you are very familiar with, but seeing how I never watched Sailor Moon, I got stuck sometimes. It's easy for me to do silly. I am great with silly. But intentionally cheesy is another kettle of fish, and it proved to be more difficult than I expected.

Anyway, of course Kyoko would handle the Nativity, given her religious background. This story was probably the easiest of the bunch, since I already knew the Nativity story backwards and forwards. But what kind of held me up was exactly how to approach. I'll get into a little more in depth about my own feelings toward Christmas's religious aspects a little later, but even so, if I had her recite the actual Nativity story like Linus did in Charlie Brown Christmas it wouldn't have worked at all. For one, if you're going to go that route, you have to go all in like Peanuts did, and that just wouldn't have worked. It would've stuck out like a sore thumb, taken attention away from the rest of the story, and since I don't personally adhere to the religious aspects of Christmas, it would have felt fake and forced coming from me. Believe it or not, I personally feel that the lighthearted, irreverent parody I went with instead would have been less disrespectful instead, since it was made clear that it was just Kyoko having some fun, the other characters interrupted her constantly to tell her how much she was screwing up the story, and it never directed insulted the source material. Even so, while it was funny and the easiest of the stories, it was also kind of uncomfortable, as even though I don't go personally see Christmas as a religious thing, I don't want to disrespect those who do. That's just not me. So that was a bit of a tightrope to walk, but hopefully no one was offended.

All right, moving on to the next two. Again, it's weird to think about, but even with Walpurgis Nights being a thing, this was the first time I actually had a story that included Madoka and Homura. It was the first time they ever got lines. And that's just weird. For Madoka, I just copied how I did Gretchen in WN, but Homura was…well, I've been doing cold, sarcastic, and contemptuous characters for a while, so she was surprisingly easy to write for. Madoka's story had some issues going in though. I knew I wanted her to cover the romance thing, but like I've mentioned before, that sort of thing just doesn't come easy to me. Mami and Charlotte is pretty easy at this point since I've been developing their characters for so long and worked really hard at making their relationship believable, but this sort of cutesy one-off…well, it took some work and lots of rewriting. It kept veering into Homura almost guiltily confessing how she had brainwashed everyone, and obviously I couldn't include that, so for once I actually had to stop a scene from taking its own path and write something safer, which is not something I do often. I also had to figure out a way to explain why Madoka was sharing such an intimate moment with everyone when she hadn't even admitted that she and Homura were dating, and also find a reason why Homura wouldn't stop her. As such, the whole gimmick of her accidentally transmitting the memory to her soul gem was thought up. For that I feel it worked pretty well. I also got a kick out of the whole bit where Madoka is all embarrassed about coming clean, while everyone else is like, "Yeah, no shit you're gay." It was sort of difficult to think of an explanation for why she and her parents would skip out on having Christmas morning together. At least her totally not canon religiousness came in handy for that.

Anyway, things got darker during Mami's little emotional episode, though Homura did help turn things around. Funny thing is, I always loved the Homucifer twist in Rebellion, since it was a wonderfully dark way to take things, no one saw it coming, but it made perfect sense in hindsight. But I also acknowledge just how messed up Homura became and the many unfortunate implications there are concerning the extent she took her brainwashing of everyone else, especially seeing how she essentially erased Madoka and Sayaka's friendship. But those were implications for another story and I wanted to keep things light, so I just went a vague acknowledgement that this was indeed Homucifer and went for a more optimistic interpretation of her actions and left it at that.

Obviously Homura would be the one to set the record straight at the end, given how few fucks she's giving these days. And of course it would be a dry, Spock-esque recital, complete with her quoting Linus's famous line. Now to do this scene, I had to go back and do a little research of my own. I already knew that it wasn't actually Jesus's birthday and a lot is borrowed from ancient pagan holidays. And I had a fair idea of where Santa came from, and knew about Japan's own Christmas traditions. But a lot surprised me. Turns out Christmas has a really gnarly, and sometimes downright bloody history. Thank God a lot of it is no longer done, but things like caroling and gingerbread men come from some twisted sources. Also, I had heard about the connection between Odin and Santa, but this was the first time I had it confirmed. Turns out there's a lot of old Norse traditions sticking around, which is weird and really cool. But anyway, I felt it was a nice way to end things, with the confirmation that since Christmas has a really weird history that borrows from several dozen sources, everyone's reasons for celebrating it are equally valid.

Now that being said, let's get personal for a moment here. For me personally, Christmas is a weird time. Part of it is due to how I always have to work on it, and Christmas shifts are always pretty stressful, so that's a big bah humbug. And it gets harder to figure out what to get people every year. Further to the point, I was actually raised in a Christian household, so for many years the whole Jesus's birth was really important to me. But as I got older and learned more about the holiday's history I got more and more disillusioned with that bit. I mean I didn't come to have a problem with Christianity itself and certainly never had an issue with anyone who chose to celebrate Jesus's birthday on Christmas. But watching such dumbness like the War on Christmas and people getting all worked up about such things like "Taking the Christ out of Christmas" and moaning about secularization and all that when it was never actually Jesus's birthday to begin with…well, I didn't like it, let's just say that. It just seems like a dumb hill to die on, and seeing people I know and love still carrying on about it just really bothers me.

But even so, while I may be more cynical about Christmas these days, I can't deny that there's just something special about it. I still remember looking forward to it every year, the excitement of giving and receiving gifts, family all getting together and having a great time back before my aunts starting fighting, and just that feeling in the air. I still love Christmas music, Christmas decorations, and just that overall Christmas feel, and while I do like my job, getting my Christmases back is one thing I am really looking forward to once I finally leave.

So I guess right now my feelings toward Christmas are mostly in line with Homura and Sayaka's. There is something weirdly special about it, and it should be a fun day. And all the reasons for celebrating it are equally valid. So let's please stop with the dumb arguing and just have fun together, okay?

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