Is there any point to purposely screw up the timeline?

Daniel_Naumov said:
Yes it was done on purpose - saying that is wrong. It was no done on purpose, it was originally designed to be a "messed up timeline", more precisely a series with episodes out of chronological order (except the last one I suppose). Viewer is supposed to be dumbfound at first and struggling to discover the "correct" sequence of in-universe events.
More than that I would say, nay, I know that the chronology is irrelevant, as the series is crafted especially to bypass the need of chronological storytelling - it deals with concepts and themes which become apparent and are considered discussed by the end of a single respective episode.
After all, it's Urobuchi Gen. A man who likes his viewers doing the brain-work, instead of wasting air-time in explaining stuff. It just happens that sometimes the viewer has to have some experience to actually do the brain-work relating to one or the other theme.
The industry, the narratives are evolving and we can not expect authors with experience and ambitions, convictions to stand in place and flipping paradigm in place without expanding it. Such a method, which makes their series and ideas clear to the viewers from the get go again and again, is a violation of creator's own dignity.