"I was told that I am just one of the countless specks of dust on this p-lanet,
But that is something I cannot yet comprehend.
[...]
I have no choice but to pretend that
I am a warrior who knows no fear."
One of the many marks of maturity would be the diminishing of fear. Or at least, apparently. When we were children, we would fear the dark, fear for ghosts, fear for new places, new people. In response, we protest and struggle to try to alleviate this emotion. Thus, fear is generally unpleasant, and for an adult, something to be suppressed, a shameful emotion perhaps. Yet, as it turns out, this emotion is rather pertinent, and is actually one of the driving forces of humanity.
A recent visit to the dentist made me, as the title suggests, "revisit" fear. It has been a good while since my last visit, approximately seven years or so. Then, I was at the stage where teeth had to be removed, and this indeed caused great fear. This time, there was a fear of having wisdom teeth to be removed. Having low tolerance of pain, it was natural for me to dread this appointment.
Yet, I asked myself: What was it that I fear? Surely, to conquer a fear, one must know what exactly it is, to perceive this emotion in an analytical manner. I knew that if I had abnormal growth, an operation which could be quite painful was inevitable. Perhaps it was the uncertainty related to my speculation of the probability this rather tragic outcome were to happen. Indeed, fear stems from uncertainty. If everything were to be predictable, there would be no reason to speculate, or rather put any thought into this future. This could be why a god is always portrayed as a calm and stoic individual, as he/she always knows what will happen.
Was it all uncertainty? A person about to encounter tragedy he/she knows is going to happen will still exhibit symptoms of fear, as far as I am concerned. It might be irrational hope that the tragedy might not actually happen, that there would be a slimmer of chance to change the future. In this case, the hope ironically introduces uncertainty, and hence inspires fear. In case of pain, one tends to forget what pain really feels like since it is an abnormality (we are programmed to avoid pain as much as possible). One might know pain will happen, but would not know what the pain will be like. In other words, even if there is no objective uncertainty, subjective uncertainty quite often accompany fateful encounters, causing fear to be rather inevitable.
Is this a good thing? If one were to be able to remove the faculties of the brain responsible for fear, would one do that? While fear seems unpleasant, it seem to be an innate mechanism of the brain to control one's actions against recklessness when faced with uncertainty. After all, we are selfish creatures despite our strong tendencies to form societies. Fear is rather like a self-defense against overt enthusiasm, as the person we would want to protect when faced with danger should reasonably be ourselves.
This brings me to my next point about the image of a fearless person. Most probably, the traditional archetypal fearless character would be a hero, to attempt what is impossible for normal frightful people to achieve and arrive at a heroic conclusion. I also like to think of criminals and rejects in the society as fearless: They have to overcome the fear of being isolated, of castigation and punishment to be a deviant, to defy his/her own sense of pain to incite the same emotion on others (though we do this every day unwittingly). What lies beyond the norms and morality of the society is rather uncertain, and I suppose to traverse this boundary would require the greatest courage.
It is easy to antagonize fear, to shun fear and avoid encountering situations that incite fear. It is natural to fear fear itself, quite frankly. Yet, it forms an indispensable part of the spectrum known as human emotions. Emotions is one of the most important ways of learning, and is what everyone falls back to when the guise of rationality falls off. It dictates what we do and how we think. Of them all, fear holds one's thoughts together within reasonable boundaries, and, should I say, is the most powerful force that binds human behaviour, in a complexity and beauty for which no law ever created could rival.
OP Discussion 2: Puella Magi Madoka Magica OP, Connect
"The beautiful blue sky always waits for me
Therefore I'm not afraid
I won't be disheartened anymore no matter what happens."
The first show that reminds me of fear would be NGE, but this show would come to a close second.
Those who have seen this show would know that this OP seems to be rather unfitting for a show with an incredibly dark view upon fantastical powers of magical girls. It is not impossible to find traces of thematic concerns in this OP though, and upon closer examination it almost seems to be rich with hints and insinuations of the tragedies to come.
Simply paying attention to the visuals would lead to the conclusion that the show is a typical magical girl show (I say this, yet I have not actually seen a magical girls show but I guess the archetype is there): Magical girl gains power almost gratuitously, defeats evil, and saves the world which dared to underestimate her. The elements of the stereotype are all too clear: Light colour scemes, transformation sequences, fighting "monsters", slice-of-life activities with fellow magical girls, and, towards the end, Homura quite clearly displayed as an antagonist, perhaps about to engage in a fight with Madoka. Of course, all of these would prove to be either ironic or simply distractions as the show runs.
Taking the perspective of one who has already watched the show, one would focus on Madoka welling on tears at the beginning, her running towards some objective despite the constant rain, the "eye-opening" scene lasting for a split second, and appreciate the irony and symbolism of the elements presented above (such as Madoka appearing tired, which is quite reminiscent of the devastated Madoka upon hearing Kyubey's secrets).
He would also be drawn more to the song. Again, ostensibly innocent and sung in an upbeat tone, the lyrics talks about promises to march on despite the darkness ahead, despite overwhelming "shadows of anxiety," solely on the belief that there would be better days ahead. In most overblown drama series, lyrics like these are but vacuous decorations. Here, as I delved into the struggle of Madoka to see her idealistic and rather childlike faith of the world getting torn apart through witnessing her friends withering away in front of her, I felt that these words are actually coming alive.
If we choose to focus on Madoka, PMMM is definitely a fit candidate for a coming-of-age story, perhaps taken to an extreme. However, it is extremes that provide progress, and forces beauty to surface. Fear, for one example, pushes humans to extremes, cornering them and forcing them to anticipate bad consequences. For one, this OP successfully traversed the realm of two extremes, leaving a sensation of conflicts that resounded well after the show ended.
Credits to openings.moe
