*applauds the FFXIII/Madoka thing*

Very astute observations! I've seen scholarly papers attempt less cogent comparisons between stories.

What I mean is, this is excellent. Now it's time to lay it on the line: What does Furi ku-. er, these connections mean?!

In other words, time for synthesis. It may not need to, but it'd be lovely to use these similarities to put forward some sort of argument, related either to the genre these two stories inhabit (they're both basically "magical girl" stories in a classic sense) and/or its parallel development in different mediums, or something else.

But either way, it's really cool to see such a clear line of connection. Since I've beaten FFXIII and watched all of Madoka, I see exactly what you mean now. Thank you for that connection.

(Side note: Am I the only one who really liked FFXIII's battle system? I just played FFV this weekend and I realized something: Hitting the X button twenty times a battle to attack is BORING. FFXIII shifting user control to higher levels and letting the characters automatically hit "X" for you was great. But I liked it in XII just as much.)