| 1 | [[AC:Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[WMG: Taking the evil option for the right reasons IS the moral of the story (and the ultimate subversion)]] |
| 4 | |
| 5 | One of the prevailing themes of the main series was the short-sightedness of selfless behavior. As highlighted by Sayuka, and Madoka is both of their selfless acts led to negative outcomes because they didnt consider the causality in the bigger picture. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | And despite being praised for being Space Magical Girl Jesus for forgiving everybody, Madoka’s wish actually had the most disastrous potential, because team Kyubey essentially planned on subverting it. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ...which raises a really interesting issue: none of the girls, except Homura actually regarded him for what he really was: the villain. As such, none of them were ever going to actually ‘fix the problem.’ After their respective narratives ended, there would still be more magical girls coming into existence and then dying. Not even Madoka actually solved that part. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Homura’s ultimate act of selfishness actually brought about everyone’s only hope for a happy ending: she put down the Kyubey threat for good. She remade the universe. Resurrected the fallen girls (once again, something Madoka failed to address). Lastly, she restored their right to live normal lives. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The laser-guided amnesia was an act of pure love because its the only way the cast could move on without significant PTSD. Giving Madoka the option to not be a god, was also a mercy, because Madoka originally resigned herself to an AndIMustScream-esque eternity of bearing the despair of the world, and euthanizing magical girls and absorbing their despair within herself so that they never become witches. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | In the end, Homura had to evolve. She had to be the self interested party who would finally put down the real threats. The plot pretty much plays out like a coming of age story where the whole point is understanding the world is a lot more complicated than simply ‘playing out a role,’ which is what the rest of the girls would have simply kept doing till they died. In Homura’s evolution, she actually surpassed Kyubey as well; drawing a balance between hard rationalism and pure emotion. In a way, she acknowledged that she had to be an aggressive force, scarier than the main threat, but still want the best outcome for everyone. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | The hard final piece, is people think she’s not happy with the choice she made. Actually, the real issue, is nobody is going to see her choice as being ‘good.’ However, if they fight her, she cant let them win, because then they will in-turn fall to Kyubey’s influence. They are the sad ending. She is the real protector, safe-guarding all the other characters, even from themselves. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | [[WMG: The second series will be a {{Deconstruction}} of {{Zero Approval Gambit}}s]] |
| 20 | This of course goes along with the ZeroApprovalGambit theory. The deconstruction will be mainly be psychological in nature. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | 1. The kind of people who enact them are not selfless messiah types. No, the ones most likely to do it are the emotionally broken types that truly hate themselves. Who does that sound like? |
| 23 | |
| 24 | 2. Such gambits are intrinsically self-destructive in nature. The effects of Homura trying to make everyone hate her on Homura's emotional state will come to a head. Even worse consideration that despite the way she acts, there's implications that Homura does indeed care about the other girls despite her claims to the opposite. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | 3. The psychological/emotional effects on the people on the receiving end of the gambit when they find out the truth. As an example: look at [[{{StartOfDarkness}} what happened to Big Boss]] when he found out the true motive of The Joy. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | [[WMG: [[TheVerse Madokaverse]] is metafictional, and the movie is a {{Deconstruction}} of a FixFic.]] |
| 29 | Homura is an AudienceSurrogate for the Western otaku demographic, having qualities that appeal to it by the virtue of being a StoicWoobie CombatPragmatist. Much like a typical player in a game with MultipleEndings, she is not satisfied with the original series' BittersweetEnding and looks for the perfect GoldenEnding no matter how much relentless SaveScumming would it take. Her attempts to fix the plot sadly end up stifling it and robbing it of artistic merit and creativity and ultimately lead her to outright defy the WordOfGod and end up RunningTheAsylum. In doing so, she causes the universe to undergo a bout of AudienceAlienatingEra rife with explicit {{Fanservice}} (Such as promoting the OneSceneWonder Charlotte to {{Mascot}} status based solely on fan appeal) and {{Flanderization}} (Witch transformation as a SuperMode? Really?) |
| 30 | |
| 31 | The reason Homura allows this to happen is because she fails to understand that the universe requires emotional energy to sustain itself PRECISELY because it's a work of fiction and thus [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly may only exist as long as it attracts viewers]] - and for that purpose, [[RuleOfDrama characters need to suffer]]. The only way out seems to be to find an intriguing, emotionally stimulating premise for the plot that nevertheless does not cause unneeded suffering for the characters - and thus Homura relieves the other magical girls of main character status and ends up resigning to be a DesignatedVillain so that the show would go on. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | * This theory is interesting, especially because a lot of people who watched the movie said that it felt more like fanfiction (with some outright labelling it ''bad'' fanfiction) than actual canon work. However, the exact kind of fans who write FixFic are not going to bow down and admit defeat. They are now going to write Fix Fics to ''fix a Fix Fic deconstruction''. This is going to end up meta on a level never seen before. |
| 34 | ** We sure this isn't canon? The movie can basically be read as "[[TakeThatAudience Congratulations audience, your fanfics ruined the universe!]]" |
| 35 | * Alternatively, deconstructing Fix Fics in this way might is meant to say the above with the addenum "...now make it better." It becomes a challenge to the fanfic writers to take their incomplete-because-you-left-holes-X-Y-and-Z fics and asks how to address Holes X, Y, Z, and whatever other letters can be found. More will come out that will (at least try to) fix these holes, which may further develop more holes for the writers to point out in ''Madoka Magica: The Awakening Story'' or whatever. The writers now play Homura/Satan, the prosecutor of the FixFic that made new problems. The FixFic writers are intended to rely the hope (Madoka) that a "perfect fix" can be found. |
| 36 | ** Potential idea: in continuing the series' theme about whether selfishness, selflessness or something in between is the way to go, the next movie (or its fanfic stand-ins) would revolve around the Unwanted Gift - the subjective nature of good done for another's sake that ends up being not quite so good from the perspective of the one it's bestowed upon. A lot of things in the series fall under this denominator, from magical girldom itself to the happy but hollow life Homura has given Madoka. The resolution is, of course, bittersweet: the virtue prevailing this time is freedom from coercion, and ultimate happiness is said to be an individual's complete freedom to do whatever they consider worthy, as long as they don't restrict the freedom of everyone else - which would mean every magical girl receives her own "barrier dimension" to do with as she pleases but would never meet her friends again to avoid oppressing them. Or at least until the next installment, which would cast down the virtues of individualism and strive for perfection in co-dependence through, say, an AssimilationPlot... and so on. The movies could, given enough worthy sequels, ultimately become a metaphor for themselves, as steps on an eternal road to reach the ultimate happy end for everyone. Each step may be no closer than the previous one, but much like the characters they so cherish, creative authors, official and unofficial, would persevere, because, y'know. Hope. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[WMG: The reason Homura can't let go of Madoka is her own wish.]] |
| 39 | In addition to granting her the power to do so, her wish actually compels her to become obsessed with, seek out and save Madoka. Unfortunately, Madoka's own wish - save the universe at the cost of her existence - contradicts this, making the conflict basically a result of two opposite wishes headbutting and trying to form a coherent state of the world. Somebody has set up reality a LogicBomb. |
| 40 | * It's deeper than that as well, a witch's curse is the invertion of their wish. Homura's wish was to save Madoka, but when Madoka [[RetGone retgoned]] herself to become the Goddess of Hope there was no way for her curse to express itself short of making Homura powerful enough to destroy Madoka. |
| 41 | * It's not really a LogicBomb, because Madoka wished to erase all witches and this is still in effect, but this may have happened because Homura's wish was never actually fulfilled. She wished to "become strong enough to protect Madoka," but she never achieves this...until Rebellion. Since it was by no means a selfless wish--she could have just wished Madoka back to life instead of asking for power--she finally gets what she wanted, in an extremely screwed-up fashion. Since Madoka is practically omnipotent, the only way for Homura to "protect" her is to make her forget about her godhood and make Homura powerful enough to keep her that way...for a while, at least. Kyoko's now-irrelevant wish (can't exactly send people to listen to her deceased dad) proves that wishes don't always last indefinitely, especially if they involve someone else. |
| 42 | ** There is also the question of the wording. Not just "protect" her, but also protect "her". Who is her? Who is the Madoka in the wish? Are Madoka the Concept and Madoka the Human the same? WordOfGod says that by Madoka becoming a concept, Homura failed. That is to say, her wish failed. But wishes can't fail; and Madoka said she wanted all wishes to come true. Homura's wish was a blind spot because of Madoka's selflessness. |
| 43 | [[WMG: The new Magical Girl, Nagisa Momoe, is Charlotte.]] |
| 44 | She kinda looks [[http://i.imgur.com/JQtJSsd.jpg like her]] (same general colors). Either she wished for something different in this timeline, or she didn't fall into despair as soon. |
| 45 | * And now there's that Charlotte doll. Anyone think Nagisa made or owned it? |
| 46 | * It's quickly looking to be more than just a doll: Charlotte's OneWingedAngel form makes an appearance in the most recent trailer, and images show Homura hanging by one hand from a ledge with something that looks like Charlotte in her other hand. Seems rather unlike her to risk her life for a simple doll. And while this is far from confirmation, the popcorn for the movie are coded by characters for each flavor: Madoka is strawberry, Homura is pepper, Mami is caramel, Kyouko is chocolate, and Sayaka is salty paste. Nagisa's flavor? Cheese. |
| 47 | * [[spoiler:Confirmed.]] |
| 48 | |
| 49 | [[WMG: Alternatively, Nagisa is...]] |
| 50 | * Kyubey in human form |
| 51 | ** [[GoldenMeanFallacy Alternatively, Kyubey and Charlotte]] [[http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=38323530 doing a]] FusionDance. |
| 52 | * An incarnation of Madoka |
| 53 | ** Alternately, Madoka's daughter |
| 54 | * A shared delusion by Kyoko and Mami (Momoe is similar to Tomoe and Kyoko's sister Momo.) |
| 55 | * The villain, responsible for creating the doll-like Nightmares...which doesn't preclude her from being Charlotte. |
| 56 | * Someone from Homura's past...which also doesn't preclude her from being Charlotte. (Charlotte's human self having known Homura in the hospital is about was part of a ''WMG/PuellaMagiOrikoMagica'' guess.) |
| 57 | * An Expy of [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Kaworu Nagisa]], with [[AntiAntiChrist all]] [[HeroicSacrifice that]] [[ICannotSelfTerminate implies]]. Hair and eye colors certainly match. |
| 58 | ** Alternately, she's Kaworu's kid sister, who went looking for a happier, saner anime to live in. Much to her dismay, however, she found ''Madoka Magica''. |
| 59 | * [[spoiler: Jossed. See above.]] |
| 60 | |
| 61 | [[WMG: [[VideoGame/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaPortable Ophelia]] will appear in a flashback or something]] |
| 62 | [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/File:The_Rebellion_Story_Key_Visual_02.jpg This movie poster]] has some acqueducts that look like [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/File:Inukare_Gallery_Ophelia_Barrier.png these]] from art of Ophelia's barrier. There's also that scene from the ''Eternal'' teaser trailer with the glowing signs that read [[spoiler: Kazamino, i.e. Kasamino, the city Kyoko is from]] which looks like something from a witch's barrier. And take a look at the background of the Mami and Homura fight - they seem to be fighting in a witch's barrier, and that barrier contains [[spoiler: crosses, as in a church.]] |
| 63 | |
| 64 | Also, it's oddly suspicious that ''Madoka Magica Online'' has Candeloro as a witch but not Ophelia. Waiting for a movie tie-in, perhaps? |
| 65 | |
| 66 | [[WMG: The Nightmares are connected to Walpurgis Night.]] |
| 67 | [[IncrediblyLamePun Walpurgis Nightmare, get it?]] Somewhat more seriously, Creator/AoiYuuki said the Nightmares were made from dolls in an interview. It's not clear if she meant they were made from dolls in real life or in story. If it is in-story...well, |
| 68 | Walpurgis is the only witch described as having a doll as part of it's body. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | [[WMG: Nagisa went through the same thing as Madoka]] |
| 71 | Only her wish created the witch system instead. Her wish either created the witch system from an even worse system like Madoka, or for some reason the demon/wraith/majuu or whatever the creatures of despair in Madoka's system are called was the original system and things snapped back to the way they were before creating a paradox, as two wishes are contradicting each other, creating a sort of [[TheAntichrist anti-Madoka]] |
| 72 | * Jossed. |
| 73 | |
| 74 | [[WMG: Someone (probably Kyubey) tricked Nagisa into wishing Madoka back into existence ]] |
| 75 | And now that there is nobody to keep [[MagicalGirl magical girls]] from turning into witches, things are going to hell again. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | [[WMG: [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-09-27/3rd-madoka-magica-film-3rd-key-visual-drawn-by-ume-aoki "And what is the new being that fights against the order of god and tramples the world?"]]]] |
| 78 | Well with a description like ''that'', it sounds like it's more than just Kyubey; in fact, it sounds like it's a devil to Madoka's god. Which makes sense, given the series's theme about the balance of hope and despair. |
| 79 | ** Confirmed. [[spoiler: It's Homura.]] |
| 80 | |
| 81 | [[WMG: The nightmares were created by the incubators]] |
| 82 | Homura should not have told Kyubey about the witch system. Now they are trying to replicate it |
| 83 | * [[spoiler: Confirmed.]] |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[WMG: The nightmares are a red herring]] |
| 86 | The real villain is Nagisa |
| 87 | * [[spoiler: Jossed. Kyubey is at first the villain, trying to recreate the old witch system and doing this by [[NoSell NoSelling]] Godoka's intervention by keeping Homura's Soul Gem in stasis and using it to make a barrier-contained universe where Nightmares exist. This plan ends up backfiring: the barrier gets destroyed, and Homura hijacks Godoka's method of intervention to steal her power and memories and create a universe under her watch, with despair going to make the world a better place instead of staving off the effects of entropy.]] |
| 88 | [[WMG: The anime will make a MoodWhiplash and make Rebellion have a dark turn ala 3.0]] |
| 89 | Bonus points if an IdiotBall or PoorCommunicationKills is used. |
| 90 | * [[spoiler: Seems to be confirmed, considering that the ending essentially sets Homura and Madoka as enemies.]] |
| 91 | |
| 92 | [[WMG: If there is another movie [[spoiler: Homura]] will get her wish.]] |
| 93 | * [[spoiler: Madoka will become more selfish]] Unfortunately it will be a case of "Be careful what you wish for." |
| 94 | ** You're saying that [[spoiler: Madoka will become the new BigBad?]] |
| 95 | ** [[spoiler: Homura already got her wish as well as her curse. Her wish was to save Madoka, and her curse was to destroy Madoka.]] |
| 96 | |
| 97 | [[WMG: [[spoiler: Homura will be the BigBad of the next ''PMMM'' movie or season.]]]] |
| 98 | Pretty much a given. |
| 99 | |
| 100 | [[WMG: [[spoiler: Homura will have a HeelFaceTurn.]]]] |
| 101 | And it will be a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} as she reunites with her best friend Madoka once again. |
| 102 | |
| 103 | [[WMG: Kyoko will become TheDragon to [[spoiler:Homura]].]] |
| 104 | Perhaps she'll agree with Homura's philosophy and goals and therefore become her main enforcer. This could lead to some interesting conflicts with Sayaka and possibly a TearJerker where they break their fire-forged friendship. |
| 105 | * Maybe Sayaka joins up with someone willing to restore the Law of Cycles by any means necessary, leaving Madoka and Mami to contend with both of them. [[Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei And they'll have to take control of new kinds of monsters entering the world in order to fight them.]] |
| 106 | |
| 107 | [[WMG: Next we'll have Ultimate Kyoko, and she'll be a ''literal'' [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragon]].]] |
| 108 | Due to Kyoko's rougher and more feral nature, her goddess form will be that of a great beast - an Oriental dragon would probably fit best, with the body and tail somewhat resembling her chain spear. She could act as the "balance" between Madoka's hope and Homura's despair, and could be themed on hunger, eating magical girls, witches and Grief Seeds in order to maintain this balance. |
| 109 | |
| 110 | [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial No, this is not inspired by]] [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Rayquaza, Giratina, Kyurem and Zygarde]]. |
| 111 | |
| 112 | * Pokemon magi system: |
| 113 | ** Madoka = Palkia |
| 114 | ** Homura = Dialga |
| 115 | ** Kyoko = Giratina |
| 116 | ** Sayaka = Azelf |
| 117 | ** Mami = Uxie |
| 118 | ** Nagisa = Mesprit |
| 119 | *** (OP) More like: already canon, we have Madoka = Arceus/Xerneas amalgam, Homura = Yveltal/Dialga amalgam. My theory has Kyoko as a Rayquaza/Giratina/Zygarde amalgam (Kyurem not so much), especially Rayquaza and Zygarde due to the fact that her goddess form would be a dragon while Madoka's and Homura's are not (they appear human), just as Groudon/Kyogre and Xerneas/Yveltal are not dragons. Still, there's nothing saying that Mami or Sayaka wouldn't become the third goddess instead. I just picked Kyoko due to her uniqueness, and she deserves something special after [[spoiler: Kyubey and Homura turned her into a flat character for this movie]]. |
| 120 | |
| 121 | [[WMG: The TwistEnding at the end of the movie is not a result of madness, evil, or obsession.]] |
| 122 | |
| 123 | It is, in fact, a brilliant first step to ThePlan to end all plans. |
| 124 | |
| 125 | The entire point of the movie was for [[spoiler:Homura]] to undergo a similar "Kyuubey is doing horrible things and I must do something" breaking moment as Madoka did in the series. [[spoiler:Homura]] found out that Madoka's greatest weakness really is her selflessness, even when its her greatest strength. And we know how [[spoiler:Homura]] feels about Madoka, and the entire system of magical girls being centered around Madoka in whatever way. But its not just about Madoka; its about all of the girls as well, as otherwise [[spoiler: they would not have been present in her "perfect" Mitakihara as her friends and comrades]]. The system as it stood was still unequal and unfair in many (subtle) ways, could be exploited, and the Incubators could manipulate it to turn back into the previous incarnation. Which was as unacceptable as the fact that the fate of the universe still rested on a 14-year-old, god or not. |
| 126 | |
| 127 | So [[spoiler:Homura's]] solution to the problem, once Madoka came during the final confrontation, was to [[spoiler:hijack Kyuubey's plan after she learned of it, much like Madoka's wish hijacked Kyuubey's system once '''she''' learned of it]]. When that happened, [[spoiler:she created a scenario again centered on Madoka, but this time, she very deliberately and very blatantly set it up in a way that was guaranteed to be unfair and mean-spirited (and also to exacerbate the heat death problem), even while making it "normal" and "perfect" at first glance]]. This is so that [[spoiler: Madoka (and by extension, Sayaka, and eventually Mami and Kyoko) would be forced to confront Homura in the future once they fully wised up/Madoka broke free from Homura's hold - remember, Homura pretty much said they would inevitably be enemies - which would, best-case scenario, find a way the first time out to create a universe that no longer relied on Madoka or magical girls to sustain it]]. Not just this, but [[spoiler: with Homura's rules currently in place, it would also mean the Incubators would be unable to exploit the inevitable battle to their favor and use it to remake the old system like they tried to do in the movie]]. Worst-case scenario would be that [[spoiler: the two girl gods would have to repeat re-making the universe until they found a balance, but considering how many times Homura '''herself'' rewrote history with her time powers originally]], this would not be new or, in [[spoiler:her]] current state, as difficult as before. |
| 128 | |
| 129 | However, in order for this to be possible, it meant [[spoiler:Homura would have to be the bad guy and seem insane and evil and blatantly selfish beyond anything ever seen in the universe]]. But then again, [[spoiler:Homura]] has become good at acting the part of the "bad guy" anyhow, given the distrust of [[spoiler:her]] in the original series, and such a perception of a sudden FaceHeelTurn is a small sacrifice for [[spoiler: finally fulfilling her promise to ensure Madoka - and the other three, who we know she cares for even if she pretends not to, were free from the system of Magical Girls forever]]. Given all that [[spoiler:Homura]] had to endure before, [[spoiler:Kyuubey breaking her even the way he did and her becoming a witch]] would not be "the tipping point to crazy" so much as a realization that the Rebellion of the title '''had''' to happen, as a first step, or else nothing would change. Even a lot of the outside media to show [[spoiler:her]] post-movie doesn't really scream "crazy" to me so much as "tired" - and really, I'd be tired of the bullhockey and looking for a way to end it for good if I were [[spoiler:Homura]]. |
| 130 | |
| 131 | Thus, the premise of the third movie... |
| 132 | |
| 133 | ** That theory is actually starting to gain ground in terms of popularity. Also note the Salamander symbolism used, which possibly gives more evidence to a ZeroApprovalGambit scenario. |
| 134 | ** She spent the first arc of the movie pretending to be [[spoiler:the hapless and harmless Moemura]], so it's only natural that by the end she'd be exuding fake evilness. TheStinger makes it clear that she did this partly to punish and subjugate the Incubators, to prevent them from screwing with Madoka's system again (and because she hates them). |
| 135 | |
| 136 | [[WMG:The entire movie was Homura's plan.]] |
| 137 | [[spoiler:If you notice, Homura might have been a bit too prepared for what happened. There's no way this was all by accident. She manipulated Kyubey and Madoka into giving her what she wants.]] |
| 138 | |
| 139 | [[WMG:The movie is a vision Kyubey got from [[Manga/PuellaMagiOrikoMagica Oriko]] before attempting the plan]] |
| 140 | Before being given the order to go with the plan to re-establish the Witch system, Kyubey had contracted Oriko, earning himself a {{Seer|s}}... And being instantly strangled when she saw what he was about to do, as the unhinged Homura with the powers of a RealityWarper would be a ''bad'' thing. Then the revived Kyubey asks her why she did that... And Oriko shows him her vision: the movie. After this, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Kyubey develops emotions]] and, needless to say, warns the other Incubator of the consequences, preventing it from happening. |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [[WMG:At the end of the third movie, Madoka will [[spoiler:RetCon ''Homura'' out of existence]]]] |
| 143 | * In order to undo the damage that [[spoiler:Homura]] has done, Madoka will be forced to erase her entirely. Since Madoka herself is now a concept rather than a person, she would avoid the paradox of [[spoiler:No Homura = No karmic burden = No Godaka]], and her system would be re-established. This or something similar is almost necessary because of how Madoka and Homura are at their basic level: Madoka protects the universe at the expense of herself, while Homura protects Madoka at the expense of the universe. It is more or less inevitable that Madoka will be forced to [[spoiler:kill Homura permanently]]. |
| 144 | |
| 145 | * Alternatively, Madoka will [[spoiler:use her divine power to act as the alternate energy source for the universe]] By doing so, she removes the reason for the Incubators to ever come to earth, thus preventing Homura from becoming either a magical girl or [[spoiler:Akuma!Homura]]. This would RetGone her in a manner not even [[spoiler:Akuma!Homura]] could prevent, and save every magical girl ever before they were even in danger. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | [[WMG: Akuma Homura was inevitable.]] |
| 148 | Dark and Light is released with every wish. Madoka's wording was able to temporarily shove the dark aspect of her wish into a paradox; but this could only be temporary; in whatever sense that word means cosmically. The "dark" aspect of Madoka's power originally manifested in Walpurgisnacht growing stronger with each timeline; then in Kriemhild Gretchen; and then finally into Homura; the progenitor. |
| 149 | * The only way for the Light and the Dark to balance is for Madoka and Homura to compromise their stances, and come up with a dual and equal partnership. They're going to have to talk ''to'' each other and understand each other's viewpoint; and not ''at'' each other like they've done throughout the series. |
| 150 | |
| 151 | [[WMG: A counter-rebellion will follow.]] |
| 152 | If the spinoffs are any indication, long-lasting magical girls aren't especially uncommon. The video game shows a stable group of four living easily in the same city. ''Noisy Citrine'' showed a trio of magical girls living not far away and quite capable of supporting themselves (even though one of them was suffering from PowerIncontinence). The Pleiades Saints stayed together well enough that their first member to fall, Michiru, fell out of despair, not running out of power. ''Different Story'' stated outright that Mami's "don't leave the familiars" policy was largely responsible for Sayaka's death. |
| 153 | |
| 154 | So what does this mean? It means that, if Mitakihara, Kasamino, and Asunaro are any indication, then there are hundreds of magical girls in Japan. Possibly thousands. What's more, we know that some magical girls have abilities relating to knowledge or memory. If Sayaka started asking them, they'd likely confirm her story, despite having lost their own memories, and even the ones that didn't would likely be weirded out by a girl with less than a month on the job somehow acting more experienced than veterans. Sayaka may have forgotten Madoka's guidance, but she might still have the skill and leadership that comes from three years of being the herald of a goddess. |
| 155 | Altogether, this means that Homura could easily be facing a far greater force than she imagined. Will they be able to stand against the might of a PhysicalGod? Probably not. But it'd be surprising if Sayaka didn't at least try. Even then, Kazumi's too heroic to not give it a shot, Oriko's got a bone (well, more of an entire skeleton) to pick with Homura, and Suzune, an assassin, likely isn't a fan of the new boss. |
| 156 | * three years? tatsuya is certainly not 6 people. homura did not last long |
| 157 | * Well about that...Kazumi might not exist anymore, and Homura is basically pulling a full rejection of the magical girl system which might be of interest to the Pleiades if they still have that motivation. Oriko might ally with Homura if Homura really is doing a ZeroApprovalGambit to the betterment of the world. |
| 158 | |
| 159 | [[WMG: Hitomi's Nightmare is a gentle criticism of Sayaka's arc's detractors]] |
| 160 | Even years after the series first came out, there are still plenty of people who dislike Sayaka for being a "bitch who only wanted to get into Kyousuke's pants". These people tend to ignore the fact that Sayaka becoming a witch wasn't only due to a single reason. I mean, she had the whole lich thing to deal with, an aggressive magical girl challenging her morals every step of the way, her own self esteem dragging her down, and finally Hitomi's confession tipped her over the edge. |
| 161 | |
| 162 | So, in Rebellion, what happens to Hitomi? She gets sick of Kyousuke favoring violin practice over her, and that's the only catalyst for her turning into a monster. It's clearly petty and isn't shown in a dark, serious light like Sayaka's dilemma was. It's as if Urobuchi and co. were sort of making fun of the people who saw Sayaka as a one-dimensional character and pointing out that she could have been a lot more pathetic. It doesn't help those who are tired of people bashing Hitomi and Kyousuke, but hey, it's something. |
| 163 | |
| 164 | * Alternatively, since the first part of the movie [[spoiler: essentially goes on in Homura's mind]], Hitomi represents the more petty aspects of Homura's feelings towards Madoka. Homura loves Madoka and [[IJustWantToBeLoved wants her to return those feelings]], but Madoka is more concerned with the entire human race than one individual, much like Kyosuke is obliviously choosing to focus more on his music than his girlfriend. [[spoiler:This "fake"]] Hitomi is essentially an avatar for Homura's selfishness. |
| 165 | ** [[TakeAThirdOption Another option]]: Likewise, since the movie takes place where it does, Homura actually ''dislikes'' Hitomi for what happened to Sayaka because she really does care about the latter somewhat, so she's punishing her by turning her into...''that'', much like ''Hitomi'' haters have done in fanfic. |
| 166 | |
| 167 | [[WMG: This ''entire'' movie actually takes place in Kriemhild Gretchen's barrier.]] |
| 168 | Madoka/Gretchen just wanted to save people from despair, including Homura. So...first she created a LighterAndSofter world where everything seems relatively normal and much more pleasant, and Homura, Madoka and company can have "traditional" magical girl adventures together. When Homura starts to catch on and points out that they're stuck in a LotusEaterMachine, Gretchen alters the illusion further so she can give Homura the only thing that could possibly satisfy her; a world where she can serve as Madoka's ultimate protector, whatever the cost. |
| 169 | * And as for Episode 12 of the series? That was her effect on ''[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou us viewers]]''. |
| 170 | * Sayaka and [[spoiler:Nagisa]] have werewolfy witch-transforming powers. Maybe Madoka does, too... |
| 171 | |
| 172 | [[WMG: The Nightmares are actually benevolent creatures.]] |
| 173 | They essentially act as "antibodies" in Homura's dream world, and anyone who they eat returns to the real world. Either Kyubey or Homura biases all the dream world's inhabitants to think of them as the enemy, however. |
| 174 | |
| 175 | [[WMG: Homura's dream world doubles as Incubator propaganda geared towards recruiting more magical girls.]] |
| 176 | The Incubators broadcast the happenings inside of Homura's Soul Gem to another country or planet with HumanAliens in order to convince young girls that being a magical girl is lots of fun and that they should do it, too. |
| 177 | |
| 178 | [[WMG: Kyoko will serve as a white knight in Homura's rewritten universe.]] |
| 179 | She'll become aware of hers and Sayaka's past lives, and proceed to save other girls from making the same mistakes that she and Sayaka made. |
| 180 | |
| 181 | [[WMG: Sayaka will be the pivotal character of the new series]] |
| 182 | Sayaka is shown in the ending to still remember what Homura did. Homura says that those memories are going to fade away with time, but Sayaka will either manage to retain something or find a way around it (a diary, perhaps?). |
| 183 | |
| 184 | The new series will begin with Sayaka being the leader of a Magical Girl group, probably mostly composed of seventh graders (just like Mami, a ninth grader, was the leader of a group of eight graders). Initially they will have "normal" adventures fighting wraiths/nightmares/whatever the new universe entails (because an apparently normal Magical Girl thing becoming something else entirely is the staple of Madoka Magica), but at some point Sayaka will realize that the universe is in a really sorry state (as implied by the familiar-like beings seen in the ending) and so Madokami has to be put back into place. At this point, Sayaka will also ask help to Mami and Kyoko again, and will have to win against their skepticism. |
| 185 | They will find a way to fully awaken Madokami, which will lead to a concept battle between her and Homurakuma. The battle will be something mindbending visually, with the two of them apparently engaged in random, normal activities and only having a verbal duel, while in fact clues of the true fight happening in the universe will be around both in what they are doing and around them, like news being continuously modified while they are being aired on TV. |
| 186 | In the end, Madoka will prevail and Homura will expect or even ask to be erased from reality. Madoka, however, will refuse to do so because she understands Homura's feelings and forgive her for what she has done. They will rewrite the universe together for a final time, with Madokami continuing her concept of hope stuff while Homurakuma ensures that both of them are able to also live a normal life on Earth and keeps the Incubators in check, finally balancing selfish and selfless love in a "Madoka looks after everyone and Homura ensures Madoka gets looked after herself" sort of way. |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[WMG: Homuras motives were left ambiguous on purpose]] |
| 189 | |
| 190 | The plot of rebellion is based (loosely) on ''Literature/ParadiseLost''. One thing about paradise lost is [[SympathyForTheDevil the devil is often said to be more sympathetic than God.]] By leaving Homucifers motives ambiguous, plus the parallels to paradise lost, the creators are basically encouraging [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation alternate character interpretation]] |
| 191 | |
| 192 | [[WMG: The second season will be based on the book of revelation]] |
| 193 | The first part of the season will be Sayakas quest to get Madokas power back. The second half will be the final battle. |
| 194 | [[WMG: Madoka ''faked'' being surprised when Homura rewrote the universe]] |
| 195 | Madoka, with her omniscience, actually knew that Homura was going to go bonkers. However, she also knows that Homura's rewritten universe is also the stepping stone to finally fixing the universe, and so Madoka let her do that. |
| 196 | In fact, Madoka and Homura might have come up with the plan together, with "Homurakuma" actually being just another mask (Homura's pretty good at those) to fool the Incubators into believing they have to deal with an insane girl. |
| 197 | The truth is that Ultimate Homura can do what Ultimate Madoka coudn't - alter the universe at will. The two girls are actually working behind the scenes to make the universe a better place. |
| 198 | The scene at the school is the exact opposite of what it look like - like in Homulilly's barrier, Madoka let her memories to be altered to better fool Kyubey. However, this time it isn't working as well so Homura, while pretending to erase her memories, she actually made Madoka remember all (plan included), because Madoka |
| 199 | accidentally using her powers while confused would cause a lot of trouble. |
| 200 | * Or Homura might not be in on the plan at all. Madoka arranged for Sayaka to leave something to restore her memories laying around. |
| 201 | |
| 202 | The post-credits snippet at the end is just a RedHerring to fool viewers into believing that Homura really went insane. |
| 203 | |
| 204 | * Actually, it's implied Kyubey's Isolation Field was blocking Madoka's omniscience, and futhermore by taking human form Madoka lost access to her omniscience. |
| 205 | ** Why would Madoka not get it back after the Isolation Field was broken? |
| 206 | ** Because she was still in a human form, even transformed in Madokami (which is her "true" Magical Girl form), that's why Mami and Kyoko could see her. The downside being that she was still experiencing time linearly and being unaware of the future, which Homura exploited to usurp her. Same goes with Nagisa and Sayaka, that's why they were visible to Mami and Kyoko and also ended trapped in the living world once Akuma Homura rewrote the universe. |
| 207 | ** So what? She had omniscience before she went in to rescue Homura, so she knew before things started how they would play out. Therefore, it can only be concluded that she was willing to accept the Akuma Homura scenario. |
| 208 | |
| 209 | [[WMG: Homura's PetTheDog moments at the end of the movie really aren't those at all.]] |
| 210 | |
| 211 | Bring back dead magical girl to life? Since she's staying on earth, maintaining a magical girl heaven obviously isn't in her priorities. Giving Mami and Kyouko happy lives? As shown by the illusion world, as long as those two are happy, they won't figure out anything on their own and fight back. |
| 212 | |
| 213 | [[WMG: Expanding on the above, Homura will use the prospect of a happy life (and the threat of taking it away) to make Mami and Kyoko into her CoDragons.]] |
| 214 | Homura will point out that, if not for her, Mami and Kyoko will have lived the same miserable, tragic lives that they lived in prior timelines, and threaten to take away their happiness should they not obey her. The three of them will form a team again, just like at the end of the series, only now fighting for Homura's more sinister intentions (which will likely involve both imprisoning Madoka and maintaining her rule over the universe). Mami will behave like a [[ForcedIntoEvil Pelagian villain]], while Kyoko will start showing some of her dark-side traits from her early anime appearances, but both of them will still resent the whole thing and suffer along the way. |
| 215 | |
| 216 | We will then have a full-on magical girl war: Madokami, Sayaka, Nagisa and their summoned familiars vs. Homucifer, Mami, Kyoko and Homura's familiars. And it will be '''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome GLORIOUS]]'''. |
| 217 | |
| 218 | [[WMG: The whole series is an extended retelling of ''Manga/DestinyOfTheShrineMaiden''.]] |
| 219 | * Compare the two main characters of both series. |
| 220 | ** Himeko and Chikane are the main character for ''Destiny''. Himeko is a young naive schoolgirl who thinks positively of the world. Chikane is a mysterious, beautiful girl with long black hair and a headband. As magical mikos, they go through battles against the supernatural/mecha forces of the Orochi and form a love relationship. In the climax, Chikane [[spoiler: fall under the Orochi influence and makes FaceHeelTurn to tear apart the previous enemies]]. On the other hand, Himeko [[spoiler: is raped by Chikane, going through BreakTheCutie moments. After crossing such a line, Himeko is forced to kill Chikane, who vanishes out of existence and reveals her actions were done out of love. They are reunited year later via reincarnation.]] |
| 221 | ** ''Madoka Magica'' has Madoka and Homura as the main characters. Madoka is the young naive schoolgirl and Homura is the mysterious student. They go through battles against the Witches/Wraiths/Nightmares and strong debatable love relationship is made between them. In the climax, Homura [[spoiler: becomes a GodOfEvil, breaking the previous villain in the process, and suppresses Madoka's powers. It is revealed that Homura is simply doing this out of love for Madoka and she warns the two will be enemies one day.]] |
| 222 | *** No guess what may happen next in the series. |
| 223 | |
| 224 | [[WMG: Madoka is letting Homura run the show on purpose, at least for a while.]] |
| 225 | What Homura intended out of evil/malice/selfishness/whatever (jacking the controls of the universe from Madoka), Madoka intends to turn it into good (or something along those lines). That last pre-credits scene when Homura suppresses Madoka's powers is an unspoken plea by Homura to let her indulge in her selfishness, and Madoka is relenting on the request by ObfuscatingStupidity. There are several possible (not necessarily mutually exclusive) reasons: |
| 226 | * Homura wants to have Madoka see firsthand what she had to go through all those timelines instead of being an outside observer (even when Madoka first ascended to godhood and suddenly remembered all those timelines, it would be as an observer outside of Homura), so she has her be the helpless transfer student this time around. A previous WMG suggests Homucifer had to happen in order to have the two stop talking at each other and start talking to each other - Madoka (she who was the most persistent in reaching out to Homura) may realize that walking a mile in Homura's shoes would allow her to figure out what can be compromised between their two clashing philosophies and what cannot (and, probably more importantly, ''why''). |
| 227 | * Madoka is letting Homura be at the controls to show that it won't be as enjoyable as she might think to toy with others. She's banking on BeingEvilSucks if it goes beyond just tossing apples away or crashing tea-cups. |
| 228 | * Homura may deign to be the Devil and may relish the coming fight with Sayaka, but Madoka is trusting that some part of Homura does actually care for everyone else as well (if not to the extent Madoka does) and would rather not be enemies - after all, she did dream up good scenarios for all the main characters post-usurpation. That part might even be a part that becomes frightened at what sort of being Homucifer as a whole has become, and so long as Madoka is there (even if no longer a goddess), hope remains for that part to find the strength to keep Homulucifer in check. |
| 229 | * Having seen that the Incubators have tortured Homura so horribly in their quest to combat entropy, Madoka allowed Homura to take the reins for a while in order to let off '''a lot''' of steam with them. Madoka may or may not have realized beforehand that asking Homura to just up and leave for Magical Girl Heaven after going through all the shit she's gone through would be too much to ask - forgiveness is not something Homura does well, as Kyubey can now attest. |
| 230 | * If we allow this to go a [[Literature/TheBible biblical parallel]], then Madoka as God is still in ultimate control of the whole shebang and is only letting Homulucifer do evil/"evil" if it serves some higher purpose. See the Literature/BookOfJob, where Satan must ask God for permission to test Job. |
| 231 | |
| 232 | [[WMG: Madoka isn't done yet - if she was God post-Episode 12, she's now UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} of Nazareth.]] |
| 233 | She might or might not actually [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory be in purgatory]], but as she's now effectively an ordinary middle-school girl, she can gain a true normal perspective. Homucifer is not going to do anything to actively harm her (at least physically) as that would go against the whole reason of her usurpation in the first place, but Madoka will eventually sacrifice herself again in order to defeat Homucifer('s reason for being the Devil). |
| 234 | |
| 235 | [[WMG: If Madoka is Jesus, then someone else is her Judas.]] |
| 236 | * Maybe Homura is her Judas having already made her betrayal, rather than being Satan. You could also make the claim that Madoka let Homura "betray" her with her god-powers as the thirty pieces of silver and combine with the WMG two entries up from here as to explain why. |
| 237 | * If someone else in a prospective second season/fourth movie must be it, Sayaka would be a prime choice as Homura did look rather... eager to address her directly. And it would most certainly be an accomplishment to bring Sayaka back from that (or, heck, even both her ''and'' Homura). |
| 238 | |
| 239 | [[WMG: The eventual compromise solution between Madokami and Homucifer will involve splitting both of themselves into two parts.]] |
| 240 | One part will maintain the new universe as God and Satan with their respective powers (possibly forever in opposition due to "creative differences", possibly as [[GodKartingWithBeelzebub two partners working with each]], or whatever other sort of relationship you can think of). Human Homura and Human Madoka, on the other hand, will finally get to be together without their basic philosophies clashing. |
| 241 | |
| 242 | [[WMG: In Homuverse, magical girls no longer exist]] |
| 243 | Since Incubators are now forced by Homura to eliminate all witches/demons/whatever they are fighting now themselves, magical girls are no longer needed or at least, not as much as before thus there is no reason to contract new girls. And if the girls are no longer forced to fight evil beings, there is a tiny chance of them dying because of magic overuse - so basically, Law of cycles isn't as important as it was earlier. |
| 244 | |
| 245 | [[WMG: Homura intends to maintain the balance between hope and despair in the Homuverse by becoming a reverse-Incubator - granting curses and letting whatever blessings that come out fall where they may. In other words, [[Anime/HellGirl Enma Ai]] without a fixed underlying for the contract.]] |
| 246 | She'll probably try to wire those blessings towards Madoka and maybe the others whether [[PragmaticVillainy out of sheer practicality]] or [[PetTheDog something less malevolent]]. And then Madoka will blow things up by placing a curse on herself. |
| 247 | * Alternatively, she puts all the curses on Kyubey, explaining what happened to him in TheStinger. |
| 248 | |
| 249 | [[WMG: When all is said and done, [=HomuMado=] will no longer be just a PortmanteauCoupleName - it'll be an actual character's name.]] |
| 250 | Madokami represents empathy, selflessness, and hope; but also naivety and selflessness. Homucifer is selfishness, coldness, and suffering/despair (think of how when she was Homulily she was being dragged in chains towards a guillotine like she was Marie Antoinette or something - also, most of her head was sliced off), but also guile and precise in her calculations. Combine the best aspects of both of them, and you're at least on the right track towards a better being at the controls of the universe. Incidentally, it also solves the problem of them being apart. |
| 251 | |
| 252 | [[WMG: The conflict between Homura and Madoka, between selfless hope and selfish love, will be resolved with...a marriage]] |
| 253 | A symbolic marriage between the two concepts, creating a synthesis and balance between both sides that will finally change the world for the better. |
| 254 | |
| 255 | [[WMG: Where the Madokamiverse was about alleviating the suffering of those who would fight for right by bringing hope, the Homuverse will be about delivering justice upon those who would do wrong.]] |
| 256 | This would make Homura less Satan and more the vengeful and jealous(!!)[[note]]"Jealousy" and "Envy", at least as I understand it, are two different things insofar as one is jealous over something one already has (e.g., a jealous husband over his wife) and envious of something one doesn't have (e.g., your neighbor's hot wife). "Jealous" was used by God to describe Himself when he was delivering the Ten Commandments in Exodus; "Envy" is one of the SevenDeadlySins.[[/note]] God of the Old Testament, who washed the sinful earth with a great flood and rained fire and brimstone on the irredeemable cities of Sodom and Gommorrah. At the very least, Homura's power and enmity [[DarkShepherd keeps the now-enslaved Incubator race in line]], as Madoka's hope and gentleness did not affect them in the Madokamiverse. Madoka might be the equivalent of the Israelites as Homura's chosen (along with, possibly, contracted Magical Girls should that system still be in place in some form - this might lure Sayaka into a Magical Girl contract as an Ally of (Darker) Justice). |
| 257 | |
| 258 | This will play into a fundamental difference between the Madokamiverse and Homuverse: the former gave the unrepentant guilty (i.e., the Incubators) mercy, while the latter is very likely to punish those that don't deserve it (at least from us viewers' point of view). Homura may try to alleviate the latter tendency by tempering the curses inflicted (whether trying to tone down DisproportionateRetribution or trying to isolate complete innocents), but her selfishness will ultimately lead her to pick Madoka over enforcing the Homuverse Eighth Amendment[[note]]8th Amendment of the US Constitution forbids "cruel and unusual punishment"[[/note]] if the two conflict. |
| 259 | |
| 260 | This might be the spark that sets off Madoka's Counter-Rebellion if she perceives the unfairness of it too much. |
| 261 | |
| 262 | [[WMG:Madoka will sacrifice herself for the ''Incubators''.]] |
| 263 | To paraphrase Mark Twain, between at least Episode 6 and Homura's usurpation how many viewers have felt any sympathy for the Incubator race for their actions? It's not likely to be a large number. But if anyone could ever feel sympathy for them, it's probably Madoka, especially if all she knows is that they work for the betterment of the universe, that they are under Homura's heel, and that Homura had previously betrayed her (maybe). She might agree that the Incubators need to be punished for everything they've ever done (even if [[SinsOfTheFather those particular Incubators don't remember committing them]]), but she's going to plead for their mercy before Homura would let them go. |
| 264 | |
| 265 | This might work better if they somehow become empathetic (maybe Madoka argues that physical pain doesn't really matter to them and they won't really suffer until they can feel emotion and thus it qualifies as a curse) and they become sympathetic to others (in both directions) - a major reason they're so hated by everyone who knows their nature is that they cannot empathize. Madoka may be able to use this to force Homura into either letting the Incubators go because enough's enough (and use that to start Homura back on the path away from demonhood) or force her death and thus negate the whole point of Homucifer. (It could backfire if the Incubators try to seize control on this, though if they're now emotional and empathetic at least some might reconsider...Incubator Civil War?) |
| 266 | |
| 267 | [[WMG: The movie will come with at least one {{Drama CD}} when it's released on home video.]] |
| 268 | Like two previous Drama [=CDs=] before it, it will explain something only hinted at in canon material. Namely, it will be everything we ever wanted to know about Nagisa Momoe. [[spoiler: People will buy it just to hear Charlotte's origin story. You owe us, Magica Quartet and SHAFT.]] |
| 269 | |
| 270 | If there's a second Drama CD, it'll just be more non-canon AffectionateParody fun stuff. Or maybe [[spoiler: a day in the lift of Demon Homura's world]] but that's probably a pipe dream. |
| 271 | |
| 272 | [[WMG: The three meanings of Homura being tomato'd]] |
| 273 | In the ending, while Homura talks to Sayaka, her familiars start to throw tomatoes, [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments and one of them lands in her head]]. This could have three meanings: |
| 274 | * This is either the universe or Madoka showing their displease with Homura's actions through her familiars, throwing said tomatoes. |
| 275 | * The familiars are showing ''Homura'''s own displeasure with what she has done, at least subconsciously, making this part of the ZeroApprovalGambit theory going around. In other words, Homura didn't like what she did and hit herself with a tomato. |
| 276 | * Urobuchi, knowing that people would hate the ending, scripted the familiars throwing tomatoes as ''their'' reaction to said ending, making the familiars the ''AudienceSurrogate''. |
| 277 | ** I'll give a fourth: The tomato juice looks like blood, making it a CallBack to her injuries sustained by Mami. Also #3 could have been done by the animators instead. |
| 278 | ** One more thing: Before they throw tomatoes, the familiars are jumping off a ledge. The familiars are barefoot, and the ledge has empty shoes scattered on it. In Japan, it's common for people to take off their shoes before trying to commit suicide. The conclusion? ''Even now, Homura still wants to die''. |
| 279 | * Alternatively, it was a shout-out to ''Anime/TheBigO'' in reference to the "TomatoInTheMirror" scene, in that the world is a stage, fitting many of the other "play" elements of both anime. |
| 280 | |
| 281 | [[WMG: [[VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry It's still a game between]] [[spoiler: Bernkastel and Lambdadelta]]]] |
| 282 | "All of you who love this kind of ill-natured story...like this level of pain more, don't you? *giggle* *giggle* Ahahahahahaha." |
| 283 | |
| 284 | [[spoiler: They later invite Demon Homura for tea.]] |
| 285 | |
| 286 | [[WMG: Homura is trying to enact the popular ZeroApprovalGambit theory, but is at constant risk of becoming straight-up Evil by getting DrunkWithPower.]] |
| 287 | Homura's selfishness and focus on Madoka is real, and cohabitates within Homura alongside her more benevolent desire to replace the MagicalGirl system entirely (the part that also cares for the well-being of Mami, Sayaka, Kyoko, and Nagisa). Subtle indications in her apparent behavior throughout the second season will hint as to which side is calling Homura's shots: for instance, if she's acting rather sultry or crazy (like ballet-dancing off a cliff) and actively antagonizing Sayaka, it's probably the former; if she seems forlorn and resigned or if there's any sort of hint of Moemura (braided hair, glasses, etc.), it might be the latter trying to do the equivalent of sneaking cookies to a sibling who was sent to her room without dessert. As mentioned before, she has to pretend to be the BigBad in order for the plan to work by uniting the others against her, but BecomingTheMask is going to be a constant danger, especially with such powers at her disposal. |
| 288 | |
| 289 | Madokami didn't have this problem because her selflessness would redirect using that kind of power towards helping others - she doesn't think about herself, which suited her just fine at the time. It's possible this played a role in Homura apparently betraying her by seizing control of the universe: Madokami didn't realize just how badly Homura being forcibly separated from Madoka had hurt her, and just coming to pick her up with an honor guard of Sayaka and Nagisa probably wouldn't be enough to sate her anger towards the whole damn thing. |
| 290 | |
| 291 | [[WMG: Sayaka is a MagicalGirl again in the Homuverse, and will be WrongGenreSavvy again about its nature (at first).]] |
| 292 | After Sayaka's last encounter with Homucifer in the movie, Hitomi and Kyosuke run into her and Sayaka acts like her usual self talking with them. There is a mark on the nail of her middle finger when she places her arms behind her head, suggesting she's a MagicalGirl already. |
| 293 | |
| 294 | As for her in-universe motivation, Sayaka had sworn to remember things about the truth of the nature of the Homuverse when Homucifer went to erase her memories - having most recently been with Madokami, the idea of bringing hope to others (i.e., rescuing Homura from Homulily, perhaps also getting Homura back from her present insanity/demonhood/opposition) stands a good chance of sticking in her mind. But as in the original universe Sayaka's ideals of fighting for justice wasn't what the whole magic system was about (before and after Madoka's ascension), her current ideal of bringing hope in a world where it is despair that (seems to) be the rule is going to run into a huge wall. Whether it sticks depends on how events play out, though as much as I want to be optimistic and forsee Sayaka being successful in getting back Moemura or a non-antagonizing pre-usurpation Homura, it seems more likely (and more Urobuchi) to have Sayaka fall into despair about being unable to bring someone hope (especially as while Sayaka's a much more capable warrior now, she's still prone to slash first and ask questions later, a rather-easily exploitable flaw). |
| 295 | |
| 296 | [[WMG: Madoka will become a magical girl in the Homuverse.]] |
| 297 | Homura realizes that Madoka will need some outlet to channel her selflessness, so Homura reluctantly allows Madoka to regain some of her power and become a magical girl. The idea is that Homura is basically venting steam to prevent an explosion; by allowing Madoka some activity as a magical girl it keeps her from fully remembering her true identity. Of course, Madoka might find that she has some unusual LivingShadow-like GuardianEntity powers... |
| 298 | |
| 299 | [[spoiler: '' kind of '' confirmed by director. Madoka will eventually turn back into Madokami with the right trigger, or after a certain period of time, and Homura apparently knows this.]] |
| 300 | |
| 301 | Eventually, Madoka somehow learns about the broken Law of Cycles and decides that she'll try to find the missing piece...[[DramaticIrony without realizing that she is said piece]]. This will lead to an extended parody of ''Franchise/SailorMoon'''s "[[TheUntwist find the Moon Princess]]" subplot. |
| 302 | |
| 303 | [[WMG: In the Homuverse, Magical Girls no longer "choose" to become one - they are now chosen (probably by Homura).]] |
| 304 | OK, yeah, the contracts the Incubators made under the original system can hardly be considered free contracts on grounds of unconsciability and being [[LeonineContract leonine]], but had it not been for their hijacking of a vulnerable system (i.e., prospective magical girls were fully informed, whoever making the contracts sticking with what we would consider fair negotiating tactics, etc.), it's unlikely we'd feel quite so sorry for those that still signed up(outside observers like the audience would still wish they didn't hurt so much but wouldn't be so enraged at the ones offering). It'd also result in a much lower energy collection rate (why the Incubators resorted to such underhanded tactics in the first place - their sole concern is combating entropy, all other things be damned). |
| 305 | |
| 306 | In the Homuverse, rather than choosing to become a Magical Girl, she might be forced into the whole system by being picked by Homucifer to carry the curse of being a Magical Girl - it might manifest spontaneously after being forced into a corner by a Witch/familiar/other bad spot. A possible in-universe example: Sayaka rushes to protect Hitomi from flying televisons (H.N. Elly's familiars) and Hitomi is backed into a corner when Sayaka throws what she thought was a bucket and a sword impales itself in one of the [=TVs=]. Camera turns back to see Sayaka in her Magical Girl outfit, confused as to what just happened and why she's wearing a cape. At this point Kyubey shows up and does his spiel (being unable to say what's really going on by Homura fiat) along the lines of "you have been chosen to wield this great power - use it for (insert ideal or goal suitable for girl in question here)". |
| 307 | |
| 308 | At the very least, it removes the whole "free choice" illusion from the original system by presenting it as fate rather than a free choice. Incidentally, this would also allow Homura oversight to ensure Madoka doesn't get picked for MagicalGirl duty. |
| 309 | |
| 310 | [[WMG: The WholePlotReference did not change from Myth/{{Faust}} in the series/first two movies to Literature/ParadiseLost in ''Rebellion''.]] |
| 311 | Rather, we are barely halfway through the story of Homura-as-Faust when she now uses supernatural powers by/as the Devil to have Gretchen-as-Madoka. Meaning Homura's intentions, however well-intentioned, will go wrong and cause Madoka suffering. It remains to be seen whether the eventual outcome will be the earlier renditions of Faust's story (Homura remains separated from Madoka forever, falls into despair and becomes resigned to being the Devil) or Goethe's (Homura continues to strive for redemption, Madoka works for Homura's sakes, Homura eventually reunites with Madoka in as-close-as-Heaven-as-can-be-allowed). |
| 312 | |
| 313 | [[WMG: In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'''s season 6 finale, Willow was possessed by Homucifer, or an aspect of her]] |
| 314 | Being driven to turn evil by the loss of a girl she loved, and trying to destroy the world... and by the way, if there's anyone who loves angst and ripping the heart out of viewers anywhere near as much as Urobuchi, it's Joss Whedon. |
| 315 | |
| 316 | [[WMG: Homura's action leads to the events of ''Anime/KillLaKill'']] |
| 317 | Remember how Homura store Madoka's divinity as a yarn? Homura later 'licenses' the yarn to people who will, in awareness or not, support the structure of her new world. This includes Satsuki Kiryuin and her fascist army. When you have a strong humanity, it will not fall to the temptation of the 'easy' way, which is having your wish granted and become a magical girl. |
| 318 | |
| 319 | Of course, Archangel Miki has her own plan. She manipulated Prof. Matoi to create a human version of her magical sword, known as the scissor blade. With this blade, Madoka's threads shall be collected and her divinity reconstructed. That's right: if Ryuko keep having Senketsu incorporating Life Fibers, Ryuko will eventually become the new Madoka. |
| 320 | * Actually, Life Fibers are ATL Incubators: They gave us civilization and magic, when in fact they simply sought to harvest Human energy so that they could reproduce. |
| 321 | |
| 322 | [[WMG:The next season will involve an all out war between upgraded magical girls.]] |
| 323 | The movie sets two interesting precedents. It says that magical girls taken by the Law of Cycles essentially become "angels", and can come back under certain circumstances. It also says that somehow magical girls can use ThePowerOfLove to become "demons". So...what if Homura invokes SoLastSeason to make magical girls turn themselves into demons (though with far lesser power than Homura), while angels descend from the broken Law of Cycles to reawaken Madoka? (Obviously, there would have to be a reason why Homura can't RealityWarper them away.) |
| 324 | |
| 325 | Both sides can summon witches, because that leads to awesome. Also [[AscendedDemon some demons might decide they don't like Homura manipulating them and join Madoka's side]], while [[FallenAngel some angels might decide they like being alive again and join Homura's side]]. |
| 326 | ** Obviously the angels would include the magical girl forms of witches seen in the anime. Gertrud is pretty much a shoo-in since the Anthonys are the staff's favorite familiar. The other big one, of course is Walpurgis Night (or at least, the magical girl who became the witch who combined with other witches to form Walpurgis, assuming that's still canon). While the idea that Walpurgis is Homura's witch form is more or less {{Jossed}}, it still possible for her to have some kind of connection to Homura. [[LukeIAmYourFather Gen did say Homura was like Anakin...]] |
| 327 | |
| 328 | [[WMG: As an extension of the above, the familiars left behind in Homura's barrier will allow magical girls to enter Homura's world from the Law of Cycles.]] |
| 329 | We see a Pyotr and some Anthonys at the end of the movie, with the implication that there are other familiars running around (besides Homura's). Obviously the Pyotr's might help Nagisa remember who she is, but beyond that it's possible the other familiars might be touched upon in the continuation. The Anthonys are seen gathering roses for Gertrud. What if they're trying to summon Gertrud? |
| 330 | |
| 331 | Furthermore, [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Familiar#Familiar it's officially stated]] that familiars can form their own barriers. (Probably how Homura's familiars traveled when they went out to capture people) Since Homura's barrier was able to invite Madoka, it's possible that the familiars can invite their parents magical girls and witches from the Law of Cycles. |
| 332 | |
| 333 | So what if Episode 1 of the second season is a mirror of Episode 1 of the anime, where Madoka and Sayaka hear an odd voice in their heads, and they rescue something from Homura. That something turns out to be a group of Anthonys. Then a bunch of wraiths attack and the girls are rescued by Mami and/or Kyoko. Then in episode 2 an Anthony eats some wraith cubes to summon a barrier, and then Gertrud and her magical girl self appear, just like she appeared in episode 2 of the anime. |
| 334 | |
| 335 | [[WMG: Homucifer fucked everything up, forever.]] |
| 336 | Although she may not ''know'' that. |
| 337 | |
| 338 | Yanking Madoka out of the Law of the Cycle will have catastrophic consequences on the whole thing. Since Madoka's wish was to erase every witch "with her own hands", that essentially means '''Madoka IS the Law of the Cycle'''. Trying to separate Madoka from the concept is in reality impossible, since she IS the concept. However, Homucifer is too deluded by her obsession with Madoka's safety to understand that. Now it's only a matter of time before the Witches come back in full force. |
| 339 | |
| 340 | Even worse, Homucifer has now enslaved the Incubators, but does she even understand entropy herself, or is she only using them to her own ends and completely stopping them from actually doing their job? Even though everybody hates Kyubey, a lot of people tend to conveniently forget he is a WellIntentionedExtremist and so is his race. And truly, ending the whole series with a heat death of the universe which the [[TheScrappy most hated character in the series]] was ''trying to prevent'' would be a {{troll}} move worthy of Gen Urobuchi. |
| 341 | |
| 342 | [[WMG: [[WMG/PoisonOakEpilepticTrees Poison Oak]] time!]] |
| 343 | |
| 344 | As some of you may know, Homura is actually a critical {{chuuni|byou}}. Madoka actually died before the TV series, hit by a car while trying to save a stray cat she called Amy ([[AllThereInTheManual in the drama CD, Madoka said the first time she contracted was to save Amy]]; this is also why Kyubey looks like a cat.) The traumatized Homura, of course, concocted a nightmarish dream world wherein she kept trying and failing to save the girl she loved. (This may explain Madoka's seeming IncorruptiblePurePureness; the girl we see is just an idealized figment of Homura's hyperactive imagination.) |
| 345 | |
| 346 | This could still be true after the events of ''Rebellion''. But although Madoka "disappeared" in Episode 12 after Homura temporarily realized that she was gone forever, it obviously wasn't the end for Homura's mental anguish. ''Rebellion'' likely represents [[FridgeHorror a very violent relapse]]. |
| 347 | |
| 348 | * For more poison...consider how Kyubey is often trying to "read" her throughout the series, and then actually has her sedated and studies her mind in ''Rebellion''. In reality, Kyubey's witch-barrier studies could be an MRI, and he was actually her psychiatrist. [[CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure And you know what Homura did to him in ''Rebellion''...]] |
| 349 | |
| 350 | [[WMG:If Homura undergoes a HeelFaceTurn, Sayaka will be the key in inducing it.]] |
| 351 | Sayaka's wish was to heal Kyosuke's arm and let him play the violin again, but her desire was to have Kyosuke notice actually-socially-timid-when-it-comes-to-romance her. Him not doing so (via Hitomi's ultimatum) was, among other things, what pushed her over the threshold because she had used her wish incorrectly (at least in terms of what would really make herself happy)[[note]]It's my feeling that Sayaka would have had at least a fair chance of not going Witch after Hitomi's ultimatum had she not also undergone seeing Mami die, dealing with a Kyoko whose philosophy was pretty much her opposite, learning about being an effective zombie, and pushing away her last friend in Madoka in emotional distress[[/note]]. By the end of the series and into ''Rebellion'', Sayaka has come to terms with her mistakes and has repurposed herself into assisting Madoka, including becoming a key player in Madokami's plan to rescue Homura. Old wounds from all their previous clashes will not disappear and Sayaka clearly isn't happy with Homura's hijacking of Madokami's powers, but their two previous major scenes together - the one after the gun-fight with Mami ("Maybe this Witch isn't so bad, if she's put up this pretty nice world around here") and the Homulily battle (neither Oktavia nor the Anthonies are really aggressive in fighting Homulily or her guards, just trying to block the way to the guillotine) - seems to show Sayaka trying to reach out to Homura again. |
| 352 | |
| 353 | Homura's wish was to be able to protect Madoka instead of vice versa, but I suspect at least part of that was not wanting to feel useless in general - consider that [=Timeline1!Homura=] was hospital-bound for years, has no immediately family as an orphan, was terrible at athletics, was far behind academically and needed plenty of help, and was the MuggleBestFriend of Madoka (and Mami, to a lesser extent) in the latter's magical girl adventures. In early timelines Homura was on at least cordial terms with all the main characters (even Sayaka, if one considers the Drama [=CDs=] and the ''Oriko'' manga), but in her repeated timeline travels they all appear to turn hostile on her in some manner (especially Mami's FreakOut in Timeline 3 and Sayaka in multiple timelines - Kyoko would likely not have made a positive first impression on Moemura). Homura eventually turns cold to them because she could not see gratefulness for her efforts from them. (Additionally, this could also explain why Homura seems to be such a masochist and wanting to suffer: in order for others to be grateful for your efforts, you need to do something for them (i.e., take their burden). Ideally, the suffering should only come incidentally - it's when you start seeking out pain for the sake of saying, "Look what I've gone through for you!" that things become pear-shaped.) |
| 354 | |
| 355 | The exception to all this is, of course, Madoka, whose tendency to see the best in everyone meant that she was the lone character who never turns on Homura in all her timeline resets (Sayaka, Mami, and Kyoko may well have been grateful as well depending on the timeline, but angry outbursts are going to stand out more in the mind of someone who doesn't want to feel worthless and those three aren't ones given towards emphatic displays of public affection to a relative stranger; contrast Madoka jumping all over Homura in Timeline 2) - even in later timelines when it was Madoka who openly felt useless, Madoka kept trying to seek out Homura to get her to open up. In timeline after timeline where the details played out so variedly (even if the end result was the same), Madoka (or at least her willingness to be nice to Homura regardless of circumstances) ''was'' the only signpost Homura had left (the only constant she could grasp at to make sense of each new world). When Homura and an amnesiac Madoka talk in that field of flowers, Homura got the (probably inaccurate) impression that Madoka, too, was going to abandon her by choosing the world/her ideals over being with Homura - how dare Madoka be ungrateful for all she had gone through, oh dear God she's going to lose Madoka, there goes the last bridge, and Homura is now metaphorically a cornered rat whose only recourse is drastic action. |
| 356 | |
| 357 | How could a Homuverse!Sayaka spur a HeelFaceTurn in Homura? Sayaka swore to remember what had happened just before Homucifer appears to wipe out Oktavia and her memories. Optimistic case: Sayaka remembers enough of what happened before (or recovers enough down the road) to realize Homura is worth trying to save and goes to recover her (the latter may require Madoka's unwavering optimism) using the previous similarities to try to put home the point that "you are not alone and we will still come after you even if you push us away". (Plus, if Sayaka does remember it means Homura wasn't being honest about eliminating opposition to her goal.) More likely case: Sayaka won't remember those things but she'll still have her personality - Homura may disdain her foolhardiness but they are both strongly convicted in what they believe is the right thing (that they don't agree on what is the right thing is what leads to much of their clashing), Sayaka still vocalized her opposition to Homura's actions where Kyoko and Mami didn't (those two weren't there to do so), and it doesn't appear Homura delights in being the bad guy (she did think up good things for everyone twice and became the embodiment of evil for a separate purpose - if she could see another way she would at least consider it). |
| 358 | |
| 359 | [[spoiler:Come back, Homura. Please...]] |
| 360 | |
| 361 | [[WMG: Alternatively, Homura will induce a HazyFeelTurn in Sayaka.]] |
| 362 | Little does Sayaka know that if she gets her memories back, she's thrust into a serious moral dilemma. If she does the "right" thing, and save Madoka, it means that Sayaka will have to go back to the Law of Cycles...and abandon all her friends again. And it's not just about Sayaka sacrificing her own happiness for Madoka...because if Sayaka sacrifices herself, she is also sacrificing her friends' happiness as well. It's a decision Sayaka would struggle with, if she's made aware of how many people she would hurt by dying again. And Homura plays dirty; she would make sure Sayaka would learn the consequences of her actions. |
| 363 | |
| 364 | Things get more twisted if Homura somehow finds a way to turn Kyoko into a demon-like entity and cut her off from the Law of Cycles (see the angels vs. demons WMG above). It would become one heck of a FriendVersusLover decision...Bonus points if Kyoko decides she's not going to put up with Homura's manipulations and works to save Madoka. |
| 365 | |
| 366 | [[WMG: Love is refined despair]] |
| 367 | Kyubey's Isolation Field didn't just prevent the Law of Cycles from taking away Homura's Soul Gem, it also prevented it from transforming into a Grief Seed. Homura's despair built up in it with nowhere else to go. The effect was similar to carbon becoming diamond under high-pressure; Homura's despair changed into a new state. |
| 368 | |
| 369 | [[WMG: [[AllJustADream The whole story is a nightmare Homura had]]]] |
| 370 | Kyubey ''did'' try it, but every time he approached Homura to set up the Isolation Field [[BoltOfDivineRetribution he was speared by an arrow of light]], and, after realizing that Madoka, [[PhysicalGod being all-powerful and]] [[AbstractApotheosis transcending time and space]], can casually stop him and may decide to stop joking and just kill him for good, stopped and had to explain the girls why he had been hit by pink arrows so often. And where Kyoko got a good laugh at calling him an idiot (being the daughter of a Christian priest the divine retribution to her was obvious), Homura dreamed this movie. |
| 371 | |
| 372 | [[WMG: If Homura did go with Madoka at the end, Kyubey would repeat his Isolation Field experiment on Kyoko and Mami.]] |
| 373 | At the same time. |
| 374 | |
| 375 | [[WMG: Akuma Homura is a reference not to Lucifer...]] |
| 376 | In Literature/TheBible, when Peter tried to become a vehement opponent against Jesus' prophecy of self-sacrifice, Jesus replied: ''Get thee behind me, Satan''. Jesus just compared Peter to Satan in that. And if [[MessianicArchetype Madoka is Jesus]], who is Peter? Her closest disciple, Homura. |
| 377 | |
| 378 | So no, Homura isn't just Lucifer, but a metaphor for St. Peter, and by extension... '''The Catholic Church'''. In the movie, Homura, mutated into a {{Yandere}}, goes against both the Laws of Physics ''and'' Madoka by expanding her Witch Barrier to [[TakeOverTheWorld Take Over the Universe]], enslaving the Incubators whose only intentions were [[WellIntentionedExtremist saving the world from universal entropy]]. Unlike Madoka who forgave the Incubators and allowed them to exist to give us civilization. She also prevented Madoka in becoming selfless against her will, and even admitted that, unless Madoka stop sacrificing herself and start becoming selfish, then they'll become mortal enemies. She essentially exceeds the Incubators' role of tempting Madoka to become selfish. The Incubators tempted Madoka to be selfish because it yielded Energy to save the universe; while Homura tempted Madoka to be selfish simply for becoming selfish itself. |
| 379 | |
| 380 | In Real Life, we all know that the Catholic Church, that as the creator of the Inquisition was the TropeMaker of the StateSec and the CorruptChurch, became an extremely-selfish totalitarian superstate spreading Propaganda of World Domination and [[{{Hell}} Eternal Torture]] against Heretics, all for the sake of forcing All Souls to love Jesus Christ in thought. From the GodEmperor Cult full of rich golden pomp Jesus would have rejected, to the ruthless totalitarian persecution of [[ThoughtCrime heretics]]. All these despite the fact that what the Church did went against Jesus Christ's philosophy of unconditional selfless love and mercy. If Jesus was walking around during the time of the Middle Ages, he would be extremely appalled by the hypocrisy of the Church, just as he was appalled by the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. |
| 381 | |
| 382 | Madoka is still Jesus, the Messiah of Unconditional Love and Mercy, but Homura aka the [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Ecclesiarchy]] fucked up her vision to all hell. |
| 383 | * If Jesus was walking around during the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church likely would've turned on Him. Now, what does Homura do when Madoka comes to get her after the witch-out? |
| 384 | |
| 385 | [[WMG: To follow up on the previous, Sayaka and/or a reawakened Madoka will be the equivalent of Martin Luther or John Calvin.]] |
| 386 | Those two would have the most philosophical beef with Homura, the former is defiant and stubborn, and the latter retains great power and requires active suppression to be kept under control. Those two are the most likely to do something that would cause conflict in the Homuverse vis a vis the new entropy system. Madoka season 2, therefore, would be something like the Magical Girl verison of the Reformation and European wars of religion in the 16th and early 17th Centuries, with the outcome of the active fighting being some kind of stalemate (more plausible if Homura can establish that she has a point regarding the shortcomings of the old system(s)). |
| 387 | |
| 388 | They would then be faced with some new threat (maybe the Kyubes revolt, maybe Mami/Kyoko/Oriko start something else, maybe all the fighting is allowing entropy to accelerate unchecked, etc.) that causes this particular conflict to be called off in a truce (e.g., Homura scales back the excesses while Sayaka stops actively trying to sabotage her; Madoka would be the mediator between them), though the wounds will remain for a long time thereafter (i.e., anti-Catholicism feelings lingered long after the end of the religious wars in Europe, especially in America). |
| 389 | |
| 390 | [[WMG: How Homura did it.]] |
| 391 | Forget what Homura says about ThePowerOfLove. The devil lies, after all. Let's take a look at exactly what happens in the key scene when Madoka comes down for Homura. |
| 392 | #Madoka comes down for Homura. She is seen by everyone. |
| 393 | #Homura grabs Madoka's hands |
| 394 | #Homura's Soul Gem turns black. |
| 395 | #A "color worse than curses" fills Homura's Soul Gem |
| 396 | #Cracks appear in reality, and Madoka is split from her goddess self. |
| 397 | #The colors burst from Homura's Soul Gem. The cracks spread throughout the universe, followed by the colors which engulfs the entire universe. |
| 398 | |
| 399 | Let's analyze this point by point. |
| 400 | |
| 401 | #The interesting thing here is that Homura, Mami, and Kyoko can see Ultimate Madoka. Remember that in Episode 12 Kyoko and Mami didn't see what happened to Sayaka when she vanished. Here they can. Also, Kyubey's goal in the movie is to observe the Law of Cycles - and when Madoka enters Homura's barrier, she's not an omnipresent concept. Instead, she takes the form of a human with her powers and memories suppressed. With the Isolation Field destroyed, Sayaka and Nagisa unseal Madoka's memories and powers...but she ''still'' hasn't returned to being an omnipresent concept. She's now a GodInHumanForm, the form Kyubey was trying to see all along...because if they observe it, they can interfere with it. It's suggested that Madoka ''can't'' return to being an omnipresent concept until she deals with Homura's Soul Gem. In other words, and in accordance with her wish, Madoka needs to erase Homura's potential witch before she can move on to the next potential witch.\ |
| 402 | \ |
| 403 | Now take a look at Homura's face. She seems surprised to see Madoka. Then she reverts back to her serious persona - maybe she's thinking about what it means to see Madoka coming for her, and remembering what Kyubey told her about Madoka being observable and able to be interfered with. And then Homura grins. The grin seems like an EurekaMoment - a realization that she has just figured out how to get everything she wants. And as the movie indicates, Homura doesn't really want to be with Madoka forever in the Law of Cycles... |
| 404 | #When Homura grabs Madoka's hands, it looks like she's stopping Madoka from purifying her Soul Gem. This is probably exactly what is going on here; Homura is keeping Madoka away from her Soul Gem, nothing more and nothing less. The only reason she can do this is because Madoka is a GodInHumanForm and not a concept. (Homura's wish to become someone who could protect Madoka is probably also a factor). |
| 405 | #Homura has now stopped Madoka from purifying her Soul Gem. She has successfully blocked the Law of Cycles, just as the Isolation Field did. The Isolation Field stopped Homura's Soul Gem from becoming a Grief Seed, preventing her witch from being born. But now there is no Isolation Field. Her Soul Gem turns black because her witch is going to be born...and Madoka has failed to stop it. Homura has fulfilled Kyubey's ultimate goal... |
| 406 | #...but then something else happens. Black smoke...err, [[EnhancedOnDvd rainbow light]] spills out from Homura's Soul Gem and a new color appears in it. This is strange. Kyubey hypothesized that if they blocked the Law of Cycles, magical girls would become witches again, but this is not what happens when Homura does it. Why? We'll table that for later. Right now, let us just say that Homura has stopped Madoka from preventing her witch from being born, and now Homura is in the process of becoming something other than a witch. |
| 407 | #Because Homura is now becoming something other than a witch, Madoka's job is now technically done. She has failed to purify Homura's Soul Gem in time. She must now move on to the next potential witch and return to being an omnipresent concept. But Homura is still grabbing onto Madoka - in other words, Homura is still interfering with the Law of Cycles. She is preventing Madoka from leaving. In a sense, Homura is acting as an anchor; Madoka's role as the Law of Cycles is dragging her elsewhere, but Homura won't let her go. Madoka is now being pulled in two directions...and as a result, reality starts breaking. Eventually, the "strain" is too much and Madoka herself breaks. The part of Madoka that acts as the Law of Cycles is now freed from Homura's grasp and can continue it's role, while the human Madoka, the part Homura held onto, has been torn away from her goddess self and remains in reality. Instead of saying that Homura took Madoka from the Law of Cycles, it might be more accurate to say that the Law of Cycles broke off Madoka in order to escape Homura's grasp. |
| 408 | #Reality cracks further as a result of the Law of Cycles losing a piece of itself. The cracks propagate throughout the universe, indicating the change in the Law of Cycles. The cracks are closely followed by the colors bursting out of Homura's Soul Gem and engulfing the universe. It's been suggested that the colors are Homura's barrier engulfing the universe, and this is probably true. |
| 409 | |
| 410 | So now the big question: Why didn't Homura become a witch when she blocked Madoka? |
| 411 | |
| 412 | Remember, the "color worse than curses", the color of love, only appears in Homura's Soul Gem after she blocks Madoka. Either this color was present in Homura's Soul Gem and was not noticed until then, or it only appeared after Homura prevents Madoka from purifying her Soul Gem. If the colors were present before, this would seem to contradict canon. If they appeared afterward, then again, the question is "why?". |
| 413 | |
| 414 | Let's go back a bit. The only reason we know that blocking the Law of Cycles will allow magical girls to become witches again is because it's what Kyubey says. ''[[UnreliableExpositor But what if Kyubey was wrong?]]'' |
| 415 | |
| 416 | Homura and the viewers actually know something Kyubey doesn't know for certain, and that is exactly what Madoka wished for. We know that Homura told Kyubey about the witches. We don't know what else she told or didn't tell Kyubey. Even if she did tell Kyubey about Madoka's wish, Kyubey has no way of knowing how accurate or truthful Homura is being. |
| 417 | |
| 418 | Why is this important? Let's look at Madoka's wish: "I wish to erase all witches before they are born...all the witches in all the universes, both past and future...with my own hands!" |
| 419 | |
| 420 | Madoka's wish is interesting because it technically hasn't come true yet. Rather, ''it's in the process of becoming true''. As long as it's possible for witches to be born, Madoka's wish will not finish becoming true. |
| 421 | |
| 422 | Therefore, if a witch is ''ever'' born, then that means Madoka's wish will not come true. Now maybe it's possible to prevent a wish from coming true, but keep in mind that this is Madoka, who had the karmic potential of a god when she made her wish, and who said she wouldn't let any rule or law stand in her way. Clearly, Madoka's wish is coming true no matter what. Which means that the birth of a witch...is impossible. This is something that Kyubey could not have known for sure, because he has no memories of Madoka's wish. |
| 423 | |
| 424 | But even if it's impossible for a witch to be born, the movie shows it is possible to prevent Madoka from erasing a witch about to be born. [[ExactWords Madoka's wish guarantees that witches will never be born again, but it does not guarantee that Madoka will purify every Soul Gem before it becomes a witch.]] |
| 425 | |
| 426 | So how can Madoka's wish come true if she's prevented from purifying a Soul Gem before it becomes a witch? If the magical girl became a witch she would be invalidating Madoka's wish... |
| 427 | |
| 428 | ...''[[TakeAThirdOption so what if the magical girl]] [[ProphecyTwist became something other than a witch?]]'' |
| 429 | |
| 430 | If this is true, then the origins of ThePowerOfLove reveals itself. Homura has blocked Madoka from erasing her witch before it is born. In order to come true, or in other words, in order to preserve itself, Madoka's wish filled Homura's Soul Gem with a new color that has never entered a Soul Gem before, and Homura becomes something that is not a witch. Homura has attempted to stop Madoka's wish from coming true, and while she has technically failed she was able to make it come true in a twisted fashion. |
| 431 | |
| 432 | Now Homura could not have known what she would become. In fact, it's possible she didn't even know that she could break Madoka that way. But she knew that she could stop Madoka from purifying her Soul Gem, and (assuming this WMG is true) she may have realized Kyubey was wrong, and that she would not become a witch no matter what happens. |
| 433 | |
| 434 | Remember what Homura tells Madoka before they destroy Kyubey's Isolation Field? "No matter what sin, I can take it on. No matter what I might become...I'm certain it'll be fine, as long as you're by my side." Homura's real plan was to grab onto Madoka and not let go no matter what. And it worked. |
| 435 | |
| 436 | This makes interesting thematic sense. Madoka was able to destroy Kyubey's system by turning it against itself. Similarly, Homura defeats Madoka system through a bit of LoopholeAbuse. Morever, the magical girls Madoka saved [[OurAngelsAreDifferent essentially become angels.]] Homura is the first magical girl to sucessfully ''reject'' Madoka's salvation, and since she can't become a witch, she becomes a demon instead. |
| 437 | * Holy... This is probably the most comprehensive, logical explanation this troper has ever seen for what happened in this movie. |
| 438 | ** Thanks. ^_^ |
| 439 | |
| 440 | [[WMG:In Season 2, there will be a WholePlotReference to the early chapters of the Literature/BookOfExodus.]] |
| 441 | We already have Sayaka's memory being messed with by Homura after she voiced opposition to her actions (Moses in the reed basket escaping the Pharaoh's infantcide order, or Moses as a member of Egyptian royalty having to flee Egypt after killung a particularly cruel Egyptian slavemaster that was beating an Israelite). Sayaka would then be "out in the wilderness" for a while doing stuff (Moses among the Midians) before regaining her memories of ''Rebellion'' somehow and going back to confront Homura (Moses and the burning bush). |
| 442 | |
| 443 | The first demand to let Madoka go backfires in Homura vindicatively making the lives of Kyoko, Mami, and Nagisa miserable (Pharaoh's decree of "bricks without straw") - the latter three may or may not know why, but Homura would try to guilt-trip Sayaka with it. Sayaka, ever the stubborn one, returns and once again demands Madoka's release; Homura, of course, refuses. Now come the Ten Plagues equivalent, which can go one of two ways: |
| 444 | |
| 445 | * Sayaka is able to tap Madokami's power to some extent and demonstrates Homura is no longer the only one with power over the Homuverse by directing mass actions without Homura's consent. Start by turn Homura's tea into blood, moving on with plagues of different varieties of familiars to represent the frogs and locusts, etc., the last warning being an aura so dark even Homucifer is chilled before Sayaka delivers her ultimatium: Let Madoka go or else "death will come". Homura misinterprets this as meaning Sayaka will destroy Homura and angrily declares Sayaka to never return or else she will kill her, but Sayaka meant ''Madoka'' would die (Sayaka would probably have to struggle mightly over making such a cold-hearted declaration first, but perhaps Madokami would reassure her that she would be willing to go through with it if it will get Homura to finally stop). "Bonus" points if the last one is done inadvertently by Homura, so that Sayaka's hands would be clean. |
| 446 | * Homura's the one who sends the Ten Plagues on Sayaka, but each time Sayaka refuses to waver and returns demanding that Homura stop this madness. Each time Sayaka returns Homucifer becomes more enraged at her insolence and sends the next plague, not noticing that each plague she places upon Sayaka she's also placing on Madoka in the process (perhaps they make some connection that means whatever happens to Sayaka also happens to Madoka - Sayaka remembers her mistake in pushing Madoka away in Episode 8 and resolves not to repeat it by connecting with her again). By the ninth plague Sayaka is battered, bruised, boil-covered, and blind by darkness, but again she will make her demand, and Homucifer will go to bring Plague #10. At this point: |
| 447 | ** Permanent death to Sayaka and therefore Madoka, something which Homura realizes too late (DownerEnding). Possible this becomes a ThanatosGambit if Homura brings her Timeline-reset power back out of storage. |
| 448 | ** A truly pitiful Madoka emerges into view, having experienced everything Homura had inflicted upon Sayaka to that point. An angry Homura may then try to blame Sayaka "for making me do this", but eventually her guilt catches up and Homura breaks down with MyGodWhatHaveIDone. She may break the bond and go to inflict perma-death on Sayaka, but with Madoka looking on Homura may or may not go through with it. |
| 449 | |
| 450 | [[WMG: The "[[RageAgainstTheHeavens God]]" Homura rebelling against isn't Madoka, but ''[[RageAgainstTheAuthor God]]''.]] |
| 451 | Specifically, [[GodIsEvil God]], the Creator of the world. Not just the de facto creator of Madoka, Creator/GenUrobuchi, but ''[[YouBastard all of us]]''. In other words, ''[[AGodAmI we]] [[AGodIsYou are God]]''. It is Us who want to see Madoka [[BreakTheCutie suffer and cry over and over]], and We loved her series inthe first place to Evangelion-scale levels of merchandise, even to the point of establishing a near-religious cult, the [[JustForFun/IntellectualPropertyReligion Church of Madoka]], simply because [[MemeticMutation Being Madoka is Suffering]], for the same sick reasons why the tropes of RuleOfDrama, CrapsackWorld, TrueArtIsAngsty, TorturePorn, {{Ryona}} and sadistic hentai doujins are so popular. When Madoka demanded that she erase every witch from past and future so that no Puella may suffer despair from their karmic destinies ever again, in exchange We forced her to become a [[MessianicArchetype Jesus Christ]] by making her bear and absorb the full dreadful weight of the despair of every Puella at every point in space and time in return. It is We, as God, who want to see Madoka be tortured, teased, ridiculed, mocked and laughed at, and cry for our sins over and over again. Do not deny it, if Madoka was actually happy and free from those kinds of torture, then We, as God, would have no longer any motive to support her universe any longer. The Incubators would interpret Our lack of support for their universe as the Destruction of their Reality. The constant suffering of Madoka is the entertainment of Us, of God. |
| 452 | |
| 453 | This, sensibly, is where Homura would have the motive to rebel against Our tyranny even if it meant screwing up Our Canon. However, because of her sin of selfish rebellion against Our Will, that is the Will of God, We hated her and designated her as the Villain, the Devil, the Traitor, the Akuma, the Arch-Heretic, the [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Goldstein]], and so on. |
| 454 | * In that case, would those of us who would rather side with Homura in her rebellion be counted among her legion of fallen angels? |
| 455 | |
| 456 | [[WMG: Homura will cause the Law of Cycles/Madokami to break off a piece of Homura herself.]] |
| 457 | She broke off a piece of Madoka, it's only fair for Madoka to break off a piece of her. (All part of Homura's plan to alter the magical girl system, of course). |
| 458 | |
| 459 | Homura's alternate self will be named the "Flame of Desires". |
| 460 | * Heh, Homura would have a piece of Madoka and Madoka would have a piece of Homura. Would that introduce Taoist philosophy? |
| 461 | ** Probably. |
| 462 | * What, like an exorcism? |
| 463 | ** Kinda, except that the demon gets to be with God forever. |
| 464 | |
| 465 | [[WMG: This is the halfway point of one huge GroundhogDayLoop.]] |
| 466 | |
| 467 | Godoka will likely awaken at some point, and fight and defeat Homura, separating off a piece of her and blanking her memory so she can be happy, as was her and Gretchen's desire. Homura will again wake up in the hospital...in Timeline 1, with only highly suppressed memories of the horrors before, and will meet Madoka and co. (and Kyubey) for the first time. [[HereWeGoAgain Cue the next hundred-odd timelines and the events of]] ''[[HereWeGoAgain PMMM]]'' [[HereWeGoAgain and]] ''[[HereWeGoAgain Rebellion]]''. |
| 468 | |
| 469 | The Incubators know all this, and discovered that the eternal love followed by clashing between a demigoddess and a demidemon is the ultimate universal energy source, and have learned to [[ObfuscatingStupidity feign ignorance]] and even emotion (as Kyubey seemed to exhibit at the end of ''Rebellion'') in order [[MagnificentBastard let things go just as planned]]. This may not be the first time this huge loop has happened. |
| 470 | |
| 471 | [[FridgeHorror Maybe this is why it's called the Law of Cycles]]. |
| 472 | |
| 473 | [[WMG: Homura Akemi was a ballerina with an eating disorder.]] |
| 474 | |
| 475 | Her "strange heart disease" and lengthy hospitalization were really due to her eating disorder. Perhaps it was really a mental health hospital, or maybe she really did have a heart illness, but it works fine either way. Her mother, an ex-ballerina who was already strict towards her and controlling of her behavior, [[ParentalAbandonment abandoned her]] due to the shame of having a child that developed a mental illness, as well as the "pain" of losing her last chance at success once Homura is made to leave her ballet classes. Fatherless, Homura lived alone soon after that event. |
| 476 | |
| 477 | It is likely that Homura wasn't particularly good at ballet (her TransformationSequence did seem a bit sloppy), but kept going to make her mom proud in spite of the bullying she endured in her class. Eventually the stress of wanting to be perfect, coupled with her mother's extremely controlling and overbearing behavior ''on top of'' the bullying drove her to slowly developing an eating disorder for some semblance of control. Eventually, things got out of hand, and she either a) developed a heart illness due having gone too far or B) snapped under pressure and grew so unhealthy that she was eventually put in a recovery/mental hospital. |
| 478 | |
| 479 | This makes sense as a {{Backstory}} because dancers who fail at a move simply redo it until they've perfected it. Her mother, who'd failed as a prima ballerina herself, used Homura as a "redo" at success (and also centered her life around her in an unhealthy manner, as Homura would eventually come to do with Madoka). These were factors she'd dealt with from a very young age, and eventually, she grew to believe them to be ideals. This is why she views her constant time resets as an acceptable manner of dealing with essentially everything, or maybe even an admirable one. |
| 480 | |
| 481 | Since the first part of TheMovie essentially goes on inside her head, it makes sense that she'd view the girls as dancers (as seen in their [[TransformationSequence transformation scenes]]): |
| 482 | * [[StepfordSmiler Mami]] is a figure skater because of her grace and elegance, but also because figure skaters have to remain very [[MaskOfSanity poised]], and almost always smiling. Homura herself essentially calls Mami a fake and speaks poorly of her. |
| 483 | * [[FieryRedhead Kyoko]] does a tribal dance to emphasize her feral nature. Homura has no commentary about Kyoko, but it seems based on [[HeroicSacrifice similar circumstances]] that she views her to be not so different after all. Otherwise, her {{Flanderization}} in the film could symbolize Homura's negative views on gluttony and laziness in general. |
| 484 | * [[IdiotHero Sayaka]] is breakdancing because she herself is unpredictable, prone to putting herself in danger, and brash as all hell; traits that Homura ''despised''. It seems as though the dances emphasize traits Homura dislikes in the other girls, except... |
| 485 | * [[BadassAdorable Madoka]]. She's performing a cute, J-pop style dance not necessarily because that's how she is, ''but because that's how Homura wants her to be''. Homura wants her to remain the cute little PluckyGirl she was when they first met - the one who knew nothing about suffering and loved everyone. Madoka's sequence includes a small part where a line of Madoka "copies" are dancing together in harmony. It really gives off a "mass produced doll" type of vibe. |
| 486 | |
| 487 | In the film, Homura's fixation on killing Bebe is really metaphorical; she wants to kill "food," or at least the forces and negative feelings of hunger. Her witch form contains a skeletal ribcage that highlights her emotional emptiness but also supports the "eating disorder" theory. The shout-outs to ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'' and ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' in are not hard to miss, and can easily attribute to my "ballerina" theory as well. Her small stature is essentially a side-effect of her eating disorder; her growth is stunted because of her poor eating habits from a developmental age. Her disturbing focus on Madoka is another factor of her deteriorating mental health - she constantly needs to be focused on something, ''anything'', or her life isn't worth living (as seen by how pathetic she felt when she was walking home after her first day at school). First it was dance and her mother, then her eating habits, and eventually Madoka. Without an object to obsessively focus on, Homura loses all semblance of "self." When her final object of focus was taken away, part of the reason that her soul gem started to darken is because the event triggered her feelings of the past again. In the end, she becomes so desperate for an object to focus on that she decides to do so by force, and rather than controlling ''one'' object, she has much wider aim. |
| 488 | |
| 489 | [[WMG:The LighterAndSofter world at the beginning was the real world of ''PMMM'' all along.]] |
| 490 | |
| 491 | They never really became liches decaying into murderous {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. Their only real enemies were the relatively benign Nightmares. Kyubey was always just the TeamPet who could only utter "Kyuu". The CosmicHorrorStory we've witnessed was AllJustADream of the depressed, pessimistic Homura, who just needs the loving support of her [[ThePowerOfFriendship dear friends]]...and perhaps a visit to a psychiatrist. |
| 492 | |
| 493 | So yeah, 4KidsEntertainment was right all along! |
| 494 | |
| 495 | [[WMG: The Isolation Field was basically a stasis field.]] |
| 496 | |
| 497 | All external influence includes the flow of time. How ironic that Homura's Soul Gem was caught in a TimeStandsStill effect. |
| 498 | |
| 499 | As for why time passed in the barrier, it's because barriers have their own rules. Or in other words, [[AWizardDidIt it's magic.]] |
| 500 | |
| 501 | Actually, this would explain how Homura stops time in her own barrier... |
| 502 | * That would also explain why her soul gem didn't corrupted further with the passage of time. |
| 503 | |
| 504 | [[WMG: Homura influenced UsefulNotes/SuperBowl XLVIII, specifically the choice of songs that were performed at the halftime show by Music/BrunoMars.]] |
| 505 | * "Billionaire" (what the children's choir sang for the intro) - desire to have something that's not currently owned |
| 506 | * "Locked Out Of Heaven" - Never felt so much for one person before Madoka + the isolation field |
| 507 | * "Treasure" - {{Retraux}} throwback to 70's-era disco, "Oh girl I'm gonna show you that you're mine, all mine" |
| 508 | * "Runaway Baby" - "Run run runaway, runaway baby/Before I put my spell on you" directed at the other girls; "Your poor little heart will end up alone" is more passive-aggressive self-hatred because she knows the situation's not going to last |
| 509 | * "Just The Way You Are" - Echo of what she said to Madoka in Episode 8 |
| 510 | * "Give It Away" by the Music/RedHotChiliPeppers (about selflessness from a well-established group) is Madoka's two cents |
| 511 | |
| 512 | [[WMG: Homucifer's wish to make Madoka selfish will backfire.]] |
| 513 | Homura loves Madoka to the point that she wants to make her less of a MessianicArchetype and encouraged her to become selfish, lest they become enemies. The problem is, that Madoka's selflessness ''was the exact reason why Homura fell in love with her in the first place''. If Madoka wasn't a Messiah, but a selfish bitch like Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya, then Homura would have never have fallen in love with her. If Madoka was a selfish bitch, then Homura would have rejected her and committed suicide instead of making Madoka her reason to live. Thus is why Homura's ambition to stop Madoka's saintly instincts will inevitably fail. What Homura did in Rebellion isn't love, but possessiveness, that which will inevitably destroy herself. |
| 514 | [[WMG: Homura's actions in Rebellion were a result of her wish in the original series.]] |
| 515 | Remember what her wish was? "I want to redo my meeting with Madoka, but instead of her having to protect me, I'll be strong enough to protect her." By the end of PMMM, the wish was never granted, because Madoka saved HERSELF without Homura's help. The wish continued into the new universe [[spoiler: and the only way Homura could be strong enough to protect Madoka was to be as powerful as Madoka herself, that is, become a god.]] |
| 516 | |
| 517 | [[WMG: The [[Literature/HorusHeresy Homura Heresy]]....]] |
| 518 | Homura's obsession with making Madoka hers eventually led to the destruction and enslavement of the Incubator civilization, as well as numerous aliens who became clients of the Incubators, as shown in Rebellion. However, the Incubators uphold logic and order against the forces of Entropy, and does she even understand entropy herself, or is she only using them to her own ends and completely stopping them from actually doing their job? More likely than not. She's basically consumed by the selfish desire to make Madoka hers which led her to eventually remake the universe slowly into what Homura considered to be a Utopia, but unfortunately, this abuse of her emotional power, to force her will into the world despite growing more and more irrational, results in Chaos which corrupts Homura further into propagating more Chaos if it meant Madoka would never become a Puella. This will accelerate Entropy to the point that suffering becomes an epidemic, where everyone else suffers except Madoka therefore arousing suspicion against her, make scientists all over the world search for the Entropy problem and eventually come to the existence of the Incubators, and lead the Incubators to attempt to go public and revolt, sacrificing many of their own in order to make everyone else aware of Homura's insanity. Sayaka, ever the stubborn, would eventually lead a massive Puella Magi Civil War against Homura and her Daemonic minions who will not hesitate to torture asnd brutalize the rebels. a competition to see whether should Madoka be aware or should stay normal. As the Daemon, Homura tempts Madoka into selfish wealth and fails because eventually, Madoka's inner sense of selflessness and duty, as well as her suspicion on Homura's actions, will eventually reawaken a portion of Ultimate Madoka, who gains some awareness of Homura's atrocities and shatters the entire illusion-world so that everyone, including Madoka's family, becomes aware of the Masquerade. |
| 519 | |
| 520 | Homura realizes that eventually, Ultimate Madoka will always awaken, and in order to subdue her, she must use force-physical force. Homura boasted that it was her who gave Madoka her powers, and that she can always make her a slave if she wants to. Madoka calls Homura foolish because, even if they loved each other, she simply cannot afford everyone else suffering for her own benefit, because the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Madoka also explained that she forgave the Incubators because she knew that they had good intentions and brought mankind civilization. Also, what Homura was doing now was not love, but possessiveness. Offended at the notion that the Incubators could be forgiven, she, in a fit of impulse, attempts to subdue Madoka with force, vowing that she will make Madoka hers forever and ever. The die was cast. Each god-like being knew that the fate of humanity now hung in the balance. A battle that was both physical and psychic in nature. Though Madoka's psychic gifts were unequaled, she found herself unwilling to summon Her full strength against Her most beloved. Homura tries to strip Madoka of her powers so that she would never be a potential Puella ever again, despite not realizing that it was also destroying Madoka's very soul causing immense amounts of agony. Homura's self-centred lust and love, along with her hatred of Madoka for her seeming ungratefulness, continues to multiply, until she does the unspeakable: humiliating, torturing and outright [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil raping Madoka]]. |
| 521 | |
| 522 | The crying Madoka was completely and utterly devastated by the act Homura did to her, but still, in her compassion for who she considered her best friend, she accepted whatevr torture was imposed upon her. At that moment Sayaka, despite her knowledge that she was nothing before the Two Goddesses, that she was standing before a walking Avatar of Chaos, tries to intervene with all the little might she could muster, just to protect Madoka from being ravished further. She told Homura that true love is letting somebody else go. All parents had to learn that eventually, despite their love for their children, they had to learn that when they grow up, these children are not their own. and despite knowing herself that Kyousuke selecting Hitomi over herself caused her immense pain, she learned to let them go becasuse she still loved him and in a true act of love she must let him decide for himself. Therefore, what Homura was doing is, and will never be considered, an act of love, but possession. Again this offends Homura who attacks and kills the charging and valiant Sayaka. |
| 523 | |
| 524 | The casual brutality the Archdaemon Homura inflicted finally galvanizes Madoka as she realized what awaited Mankind under the perpetual rule of the Daemons of Chaos. Madoka accepted all the rape imposed upon her, but for others to be harmed traumatised her into the final solution. Realizing that her beloved was finally lost to Chaos, Madoka gathered all her awesome psychic might and prepared to not just kill Homura, but completely and utterly subject her to Euthanasia and put her out of her misery, that is erase her very soul from existence, despite knowing that it would be so painful for Homura that Madoka would regret it and punish herself for it for the rest of her life. Driving all her near-infinite reserves of compassion from her mind for the sake of Humanity, the Incubators and all those sapient life that she loved and will love, Madoka utterly and completely incinerated Homura's soul from reality. Just before Homura died, she briefly returned to sanity, reduced back into the moeblob that she was, begging for forgiveness and for herself to suffer for all that she has done. Madoka, in an act of forgiveness, refuses to enact any form of additional torturous vengeance against Homura, and commented that because Homura's time-travel was at least instrumental into the very state Madoka was now, she forgives her and they still remain very best friends. Madoka sacrifices her very own soul as she and Homura hugged each other again in repentance, while the latter was completely Euthanized and disappeared. |
| 525 | |
| 526 | The aftermath of the Battle of the Goddesses leave the universe devastated and into a total state of nearing entropy, while Madoka, consumed by regret from killing Homura, was showing signs of becoming the very super-Witch or Daemon she fought against. If she witches in planet Earth, then humanity is doomed. However, if she is put in stasis in the Incubators' homeworld before she does, then they would benefit from the perpetual source of energy. Madoka, in a mirror of the contractor-contractee relationship, issues a final contract to the Incubators: they would no longer contract any Puella Magi ever again and will assist the advancement of Humanity, but in exchange, she would offer herself to them and be restrained by their stasis technology into a pocket plane of existence so that her divine power and perpetual grief would restore the universe from Entropy and benefit them day and night for all eternity. Herown sacrifice shall serve as a redemption for what she has done to her best friend. Yet in her sacrifice, both species shall benefit, and that it was the least she could do. From this Final Contract, she outlines the fundamental Constitution for the eventual political merger of the Human and Incubator civilizations, an Imperium of Enlightenment dedicated to the education of other young alien races as the Incubators have enlightened and incubated Mankind. Madoka returns all Puellae Magi who survived back to normal humanity, then she bids farewell to all Mankind, including her own crying mother and family. As she ascends into the stars, her restraint, sacrifice and eternal enslavement under the Incubators is symbolised by a [[Main/FauxSymbolism Crucifixion]]. |
| 527 | |
| 528 | Fast-forward into the future, where [[TheFederation the Human-Incubator Federal Imperium]] becomes a highly-successful space superpower that has colonized many worlds and dedicated themselves to educating and enlightening young alien races as the Last Will of the God-Empress wanted. The oldest of the resident Incubators, due to their long suffering under Homura and also thanks to their long alliance with mankind, have acquired a vast array of emotions. They were also seen narrating young alien children about the story of whom the current Human-Incubator Civilization worships as their Founder, Messiah and God-Empress. |
| 529 | |
| 530 | Cut to a pocket universe or plane of existence where [[AndIMustScream Madoka was essentially imprisoned tormented for all eternity by her memories in the Heresy, but also shedding tears of hope and joy for the species she so loved]].... |
| 531 | |
| 532 | ** Above troper is a fan of TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}. Under said theory, Madoka = The GodEmperor of Mankind, Homura = Horus, Sayaka = Sanguinius. |
| 533 | |
| 534 | [[WMG: Sayaka will create a new universe overwriting Homura's]] |
| 535 | Allowing both Madoka's desire for there to be no more witches and Homura's desire for Madoka to live a normal life to be fulfilled. |
| 536 | * Technically speaking, both of those things have already been fulfilled within the same universe. |
| 537 | |
| 538 | [[WMG: The Rebellion was a MemoryGambit by Madokami]] |
| 539 | She, an omniscient being, purposefully let Homura steal a piece of her, including her memories, and develop that through her intense love into an equal and opposite God. Homura's rule may have ushered in an era of chaos, with Madoka forgetting about her memories, but that was supposed to be temporary. The plan was that once, after a bunch of conflict involving Sayaka and the Kyubeys, Amnesiac-Madoka would eventually rediscover the still unjust Puella Magi system and realise her innate connection with Akuma-Homura, which would restore her own memories so that she can reawaken as Ultimate Madoka and reconcile with Homura once again. Equal but opposite, action versus reaction, you know where this goes. |
| 540 | |
| 541 | Madokami purposefully lets herself be captured to set the plan to solve the energy loss of Entropy once and for all. That is, through becoming living concepts of "Newtonian EquivalentExchange", the ultimate animating essence of Energy itself in all existence. An ever-cycling engine trapped at every point in space and time yet locked away from it, unable to interact with anyone else but only each other in a state of eternal love, eternal conflict and eternal reaction all at the same time, restoring the laws of Equivalent Exchange in the decaying universes and abolishing the loss of energy to Entropy. The Incubators, therefore, would no longer have any reason to manipulate innocent girls into becoming witches, for they shall have all the energy they need. However, since they are a scientificially-minded species of explorers, there is still a chance, Madokami hoped, that they may guide young species such as humans into scientific progress. |
| 542 | |
| 543 | TL;DR: Madokami gave Homura her powers, plans to reconcile again, and wants to solve Entropy by transforming Homura and herself into a yuri-powered engine. |
| 544 | |
| 545 | [[WMG: Homucifer's revenge on the Incubators is ''forcing them to endure the despair of magical girls''.]] |
| 546 | |
| 547 | Pretty much all of Kyubey's evil tendencies come from the fact that it can't feel emotions. It acts with what it considers perfect logic to everything it encounters. It can't feel regret and it can't understand any of what happens after Demon Homura is born. But Homura does mention that the Incubators do have a role in her new universe... and the next time we see him, he's shivering, with clouded eyes, curled up in a traumatized heap on the ground. She's literally damned them to a living Hell: to be subject to unimaginable pain, rooted in emotions that the Incubators have no capacity to understand or control or contextualize. This world has no wraiths. Instead, the darkness that Soul Gems would normally collect is funnelled directly into Kyubey.. because, as an infinite hive of alien intelligence whose function was originally to swallow the collected Grief of magical girls, ''he has no upper capacity for now much suffering he can hold''. |
| 548 | |
| 549 | [[WMG:Madoka's powers are sealed inside Homura's earring.]] |
| 550 | |
| 551 | I don't believe that Homura's new earring is just a pretty piece of jewelry. Notice that Madoka starts to question her role and purpuse after the gem on the earring glints at her while Homura was showing him around the school. My theory is that The Law of Cycles is sealed inside that little gem and when it's close to Madoka, her powers will try to reach her, if Homura is not careful enough. Consider that when Madoka got split from her goddess' self, Madoka the human was real, but Madokami was merely a reflection in a violet crystal, that or maybe trapped intoa violet crystal. Also, it would explain how Homura could rewrite the world, if she's not a witch. Homura just separated Madoka from the Law of Cycles, but kept her powers into the gem when Madoka got split, and it's using them for her own profile. |
| 552 | |
| 553 | * [[AllThereInTheManual Confirmed in suplemental material]] |
| 554 | |
| 555 | [[WMG: In addition to the above, that earring is also a soulgem-created accessory item.]] |
| 556 | |
| 557 | As of Kazumi Magica, we know earrings are suitable places for grief seeds that have been turned back into soulgems for whatever reason through !!SCIENCE!!, similar to the regular ring that goes on the finger of regular magical girls, meaning they are an acceptable place storywise to put soulgems in compact form. Homura despairs and almost-somewhat witches out, thus creating the earring for the grief seed that we normally never see because of how witches are (even though she wasn't a witch yet, maybe that part of the process occurs just before the soulgem becomes the grief seed to initially launch the witch, which is just before Madoka destroys the witch in the new world?), but then the whole Madoka rescue occurs, then Homura does what she did, and since Homura is now Akuma Homura and thus will never need to put her soulgem into an earring, it is probably where she'd keep a soul (such as the Madoka-free Law of Cycles) that isn't her own. |
| 558 | ...Yes, this was made entirely after seeing Kazumi's bell earring soulgem and thinking of Homurakuma's earring-that-looks-like-a-soulgem-hanging-on-the-end. |
| 559 | |
| 560 | [[WMG:Homucifer created ''our'' universe.]] |
| 561 | The universe will still succumb to loss of energy, but the still-intact Wraiths will give it a few billion years. Whereas under the pre-Godoka system, it would've burned out almost instantly if the Incubators stopped their work. |
| 562 | |
| 563 | [[WMG: By dumping all the magical girls' despair into the Incubators, Homura gave them emotions. Including anger.]] |
| 564 | Say what you will about Kyubey; he was never truly malicious, as he never understood why humans would perceive what he was doing as wrong. Now imagine, if you will, a Kyubey that ''can'' feel frustration, anger...and [[FridgeHorror notions of vengeance]]. And he still has ''his'' powers... |
| 565 | |
| 566 | [[WMG: The broken Law of Cycles will become its own character in some follow-up materials.]] |
| 567 | Homurakuma removing Madoka from Madokami still leaves... uh... mi. The law of cycles fresh from having Madoka ripped out from its core still has a human shape until at least the universe breaks and Homulucifer is born, and without Madoka's human psyche defining it it can either become a partially-defunct law of physics or become a new character. Since its main function appears to be "Kill magical girls out of reality so witches aren't formed", possibly extending to "Vent excess grief into wraiths for harvesting" and maybe "Kill Kyubey whenever he tries to contact a particular magical girl to prevent a contract situation and thus prevent a wish as well as a witch" since Madoka implied she could have stopped Sayaka's contract scenario altogether but kept it for Sayaka and Kyosuke's sakes, it will probably be murderous or something, and Akuma Homura will either destroy it, beat it up, or at least put it in a different cage (see the above 'Madoka's Powers Are In Homura's Earring WMG) from Madoka to prevent the two from merging and Madokami slapping Homura for her own good, or just because it looks too much like Madoka but since everything that originally was Madoka was forcibly dragged out of it by Homura, it is most certainly not the Madoka that Homura obsesses over. |
| 568 | [[WMG: After the movie, the series will focus on an incubator in the form of a amnesic human boy who is being hunted by Homura.]] |
| 569 | During the time it was being tortured by Homucifer, Incubator developed emotions. The crushing guilt, the self-loathing and sheer pain was too much for them to bear and they began to kill themselves enmass. The last one left was too scared to follow suit and ran away. Homura tried to take it back, only for it to suddenly disappear. That's when Homura realizes that for a brief moment, the Law of Cycles had managed to protect and shield the Incubator. A week passes, and Madoka's class gained a new student (Let's just call him Kitaru Itsuki). Literally the only thing keeping Homura from killing Kitaru is that he managed to wiggle into Madoka/s good graces- which is to say she approaches him and offers to be friends with him.Over the course of time, Kitaru would become friends with Sayaka, Kyouko, Mami and Nagisa as well. |
| 570 | |
| 571 | Eventually Kitaru would find out who he used to be and halls into a really bad [[HeroicBSOD]] and existential crisis and this allows Homucifer to capture him. She taunts him, asking if he thought he could ever atone for the agony he had caused her for so long, along with every girl or female that they had preyed on. But she wouldn't let him die, that would be too easy; she would duplicate him to keep the Incubators alive and as her slaves to fight off entropy. However, the above five mentioned before come to his rescue by aid and Madoka (having gotten back parts of her memories as Madokami) lectures Homura for her actions, especially towards the Incubators, pointing out that despite their actions, they were still trying to [[WellIntentionedExtremist preserve their universe]] and that the only vice that made them evil was that they had no emotion, therefore they didn't understand how or why they had hurt others. Madoka would go on to say that they had suffered enough and that Homura had no right to treat them cruelly. |
| 572 | |
| 573 | This angers Homurucifer quite a bit and she protests that she had done it all for Madoka's sake, so the Incubators would never use her. However, Madoka gently reminds her of the day she (Homurucifer) asked her what was more important; her desires or the world. She reaffirms that always, the world will be more important in her eyes and that she would no longer allow Homura to use her as an excuse or to impose her desires on anyone else because of her. |
| 574 | [[WMG: Homura's attempt to give Madoka a normal life won't affect Madoka's system at all in the end.]] |
| 575 | In other words, each iteration of the time loop doesn't affect anything in future loops, with the exception of the person who initiated the time loop. Homura, knowing this, pulled Madoka into yet another time loop, erasing her memories. Furthermore, homura's goal is to give Madoka a normal life. Normal people don't live forever. They grow old and die. Once this happens to Madoka, Homura will return Madoka's memory. Since Madoka's wish is retroactive, Madoka will just ascend to godhood like the end of the first season and create yet another timeline identical to the first timeline she created. Bonus points if this was planned by Madoka in advance specifically to give Homura what she wants. |
| 576 | |
| 577 | [[WMG: In the pre-Godoka world, all Witches would eventually have evolved into demons like Homucifer.]] |
| 578 | This didn't happen too often, fortunately, as the Witch would need much time to grow and power up. But Walpurgisnacht (Walpucifer?) and the last two timeline forms of Kriemhild Gretchen may have been on the verge of becoming Antichrists as well. |
| 579 | |
| 580 | [[WMG: Rebellion takes place after the end of the world.]] |
| 581 | Although the explanation of the inclusion field contains images that suggest the outside world is proceeding as normal, there is strong evidence to suggest otherwise. The post-credits scene at the end of the series itself shows Homura fighting Wraiths in a barren and rubble-strewn desert, indicating that something went -extremely- wrong with the world at some point. Remember, even if the fate of Magical Girls has been resolved, absolutely nothing prevents a nuclear war or other completely mundane disaster to cause the extinction of humanity (and we see that the Incubators don't really care in the slightest, given their reaction to the creation of a witch that would destroy the world in a matter of days). Magical Girls are the best-equipped to survive such a disaster, so they could conceivably continue fighting wraiths long after the rest of humanity had burnt itself out. While it isn't stated directly that Magical Girls are immortal, it could be reasonably inferred that death via aging is no longer an issue they face. Rebellion provides more evidence for this hypothesis during the latter half of the third act, when the inclusion field is broken and the quintet make it through to the real world - which is almost exactly like the one depicted in the post-credits scene at the end of the series. Despite this shocking imagery, none of the quintet question it at all, further indicating that this is the natural state of things. The presence of non-Magical Girl characters inside the inclusion field (such as Madoka's family) can be explained by Homura's time powers - she could theoretically have reached back into a previous timeline and brought these characters into the present, or simply recreated them from her memories within the witch barrier. Taken all together, one might say that her actions not only saved the quintet, but also reversed the extinction of humanity itself. We may have more to thank her for than we realize. Madoka may have saved all Magical Girls, but when taken out of context, her ascension to the rank of deity only helped a very narrow subset of humanity. While one can't exactly fault a sheltered teenage girl for taking the wider viewpoint, it's clear that her actions, while noble, could have had much broader and appreciable consequences. |
| 582 | ** Highly unlikely. While it is an interesting idea, there's a scene that josses it: namely, when Kyubey is talking about how Homura is bringing in people she knows. It shows Kyouko, Mami, Kyousuke, Hitomi, etc. going about their daily lives in a perfectly intact Mitakihara as the Clara Dolls stalk them from a distance. [[WordOfGod Gen Urubuchi]] outright said at one point that the world hadn't ended. |
| 583 | |
| 584 | [[WMG: Charlotte isn't speaking cute gibberish (in-universe): she's speaking 'Witch']] |
| 585 | That gibberish is how you pronounce the runes. |
| 586 | * Going back to a WMG on PMMM Page 4, the Witch "language" could actually be the Incubator language, and the runes are their alphabet. Witchification is like malware of the soul, and it would make sense for the "programmers" to use their own language. |
| 587 | |
| 588 | [[WMG: Everything so far has been according to original-timeline Kyubey's plan]] |
| 589 | In the anime's episode 10 watch the scene where Homura makes her wish. Kyubey baits her into it, and is practically giddy when he hears the phrasing. Now consider the following: |
| 590 | |
| 591 | * 1) Kyubey operates entirely on ExactWords, and at least presents as not finding strategic omissions dishonest. |
| 592 | * 2) A wish has two effects: the wish itself and the abilities the wisher acquires as a magical girl, like Sayaka's healing wish giving her regeneration abilities. Time manipulation is the second for Homura. |
| 593 | * 3) A magical girl's power level is a product of her potential and her wish, and to Kyubey is entirely predictable. |
| 594 | * 4) Anime-timeline Kyubey realized that Homura repeatedly going back in time for Madoka's sake was the cause of Madoka's high power the second he heard about, and understood the mechanism. |
| 595 | * 5) The exact wording of Homura's Wish was "I wish I could meet Miss Kaname over again. But this time rather than her protecting me, I want to be strong enough to protect her." |
| 596 | |
| 597 | Kyubey knew that his alternate selves would always recruit Madoka, and that Walpurgisnacht would always be too much for Homura to take alone. The lines of destiny would therefor keep ratcheting up until Madoka herself was able to win a lasting victory. Note that anime Kyubey drops the idea of her wish making her a god in conversation with her a few times, he knew full well it was possible. |
| 598 | |
| 599 | So now there's a goddess, but Homura's wish still isn't fulfilled since she still failed to protect Homura and is nowhere near powerful enough to be the one with the protector role. The only ways for this to happen is to drag Madoka back down, which would return to the original cycle, or for Homura to become at least equally powerful. |
| 600 | |
| 601 | And so we have the situation at the end of ''Rebellion'', with Homura sitting as a self-made GodOfEvil and Madoka as an AmnesiacGod who will someday come back into her full might. From the starting position of that original wish (unless wishes can fail which has never been stated), this result was entirely predictable with his information even if the road to get there was not. Just. As. Planned. |
| 602 | |
| 603 | What would he get out of it? Hey, there have to be some big revelations we haven't heard yet. |
| 604 | |
| 605 | * See the GroundhogDayLoop WMG above. To keep Homura happy, but also retain her goddess role, after she eventually defeats Homucifer Madoka will reset the universe ''again'' and send Homura back to her hospital bed, but this time erase her memories and send a memory-blanked copy of herself to keep Homura "distracted". She'll meet Madoka, Kyubey, and co. for seemingly the first time. [[HereWeGoAgain Cue the next 100-odd timelines and the movies]]. |
| 606 | * The coming battle royale between two cosmic beings who love each other yet remain attached to diametrically opposed ideals is the ultimate universal energy source, and the Incubators have learned to [[ObfuscatingStupidity fake the emotion]] they seemed to be showing at the end of ''Rebellion''. Or they may have developed some kind of resistance to MindRape. This might not be the first time this CosmicHorrorStory has happened. |
| 607 | * [[FridgeHorror Maybe this is why it's called the Law of Cycles.]] |
| 608 | |
| 609 | [[WMG: When Madoka regains her memories and finds out what transpired at the end of the movie, she'll be...]] |
| 610 | ESTATIC. ''Over the goddamn MOON.'' Surprised, to be sure, but incredibly happy: while she does have self-esteem issues, it would be extremely OOC of her to dislike a system that legitimately makes everyone happy as she wanted simply because it's not her sacrifice doing so. That'd just be ego on her part, and honestly it's ego she simply doesn't have. She was only scared during the event itself because she had no idea what was about to happen: only that she was being torn apart. When she learns what Homura's made of the world, she'll be completely on board with it. |
| 611 | |
| 612 | Unfortunately, up until that point Homura will be wracked with self-loathing, desperate to keep Madoka from finding out for fear of what will happen: these (ultimately unfounded) fears and self-hatred will cause more problems then they really should and drive the drama of whatever continuation we get, rather than some contrived clash between two forces fighting over HOW to get something they both ultimately want. |
| 613 | |
| 614 | * Honestly Madoka could have achieved the same thing if she had phrased her wish differently, she probably just didn't realize it was an option to directly change the law of physics without doing all the saving manually. |
| 615 | ** That or: "I wish for ''the Incubators'' to destroy all witches in all timelines." That would've been DOPE. |
| 616 | *** But then they wouldn't be there to collect Curse Cubes (or whatever you want to call them) and stop entropy. |
| 617 | *** Considering there's a shitload of Incubators and only one Madoka, I'm not sure they'd be subject to that same loss of identity that hit her: unlike Madoka, they COULD theoretically be everywhere at once. |
| 618 | *** The trouble with that is, she was going to go Witch either way as soon as she contracted, which was what caused her deletion after destroying Ultimate Gretchen. It was a particularly grim MortonsFork situation. |
| 619 | |
| 620 | [[WMG: Conversely, Homura may eventually grow angry with Madoka, and ''embrace'' her role as her enemy.]] |
| 621 | Her wish was never really granted as she wanted it, and, having to remain isolated from her dear friend, she may come to think of Madoka as ungrateful for not wanting to be saved by her and seeing her world as false. |
| 622 | |
| 623 | [[WMG: Next season, the Incubators will sacrifice their entire species to preserve the universe]] |
| 624 | Homura's wish to protect Madoka was never really granted at all. This is why Madoka could not take Homura to heaven. If Homura had been taken away, then she would not have protected Madoka. Madoka would have saved her. So Homura created a situation where she is more powerful than Madoka in order to protect her. But just having the ability to protect her is pointless if there is no threat, to protect her from. Also, if there is no threat to protect her from, then Homura's wish will not have been granted, meaning if Madoka breaks free of Homura's control, Homura's wish will never be granted, creating a paradox that will eventually destroy the universe. The Incubators will become that threat on purpose, and kidnap Madoka, with the stated intention of destroying her to drive Homura into despair, knowing full well that Homura would go after them, and that they stand no chance against her, effectively allowing themselves to be destroyed in order to grant Homura's wish. |
| 625 | |
| 626 | [[WMG: The Witch system is back....as an IronicHell for Incubators.]] |
| 627 | The old system is back, but its not magical girls that become them. Once an Incubator is no longer able to withstand whatever it is Homura is doing, they turn into witches, albeit less powerful than ones made from magical girls. This thus finishes the karmic punishment Homura was wrought upon such a ConsumateLiar race (lies of omission count as lies for this purpose), with magical girls "pushing Incubators off the cliff" rather than the other way around. The oppressor has become the oppressed, and the Incubators 100% deserve it for being the cause of Rebellion. |
| 628 | |
| 629 | |
| 630 | [[WMG: The Madoka we see in the movie is not Madokami]] |
| 631 | |
| 632 | Madoka's wish was to kill every witch, ever, before they were born. When the very first magical girl was about to transform into the very first witch, she was there. This means she retro-actively exists before Madoka Kaname, which also means that the two of them are separate entities. When "Madoka" appeared in Homura's dream world, that was not the Goddess of Hope but the {{muggle}}. |
| 633 | |
| 634 | The Madoka Kaname that appeared was the original Madoka, wished back into existence. Madokami was not involved. Her powers were not sealed or stolen because she did not have them. Madoka Kaname never had powers in this timeline, only Madokami did. She allowed Homura to "rebel" against her in order to alleviate her loneliness. There are now two Madoka in the universe: the divine being that Homura can adore from afar and the mortal that she can protect up close. |
| 635 | |
| 636 | [[WMG: Homucifer will be erased.]] |
| 637 | When Madoka became Godoka, she said that any law or rule that interfered with her wish would be erased or changed. |
| 638 | |
| 639 | [[WMG: Madokami planned the Rebellion because of [[JustForFun/IntellectualPropertyReligion Madokamism]].]] |
| 640 | Take Christianity, how its worship of an all loving MessianicArchetype degenerated into the fanatical ''BURN THE HERETIC!'' and add more {{Moe}} into the fanaticism which would multiply the fanaticism by a thousand. Madoka being Madoka would rather have a religion around her dismantled than to have another fanatical Dark Ages inbound. |
| 641 | |
| 642 | [[WMG: Homura [[{{NobleDemon}} won't exactly be very demon like in terms of her contracts]].]] |
| 643 | |
| 644 | Take these into account. |
| 645 | |
| 646 | 1. Homura's absolute hatred for the Incubators (act very demon like in their contracts) for their deceitful ways. |
| 647 | |
| 648 | 2. Homura's general nature of outer mask (her cold, unpleasant facade) plus her true face (as seen in the illusion world. |
| 649 | |
| 650 | 3. Other works already referenced by this series. |
| 651 | |
| 652 | Put them together and one can gather that Homura's approach to magical girl contracts will be very different from Incubators. Homura won't be out to screw people (likely being bluntly honest about how it works), but given how dark this work is there will be some very nasty blow back effects (most likely when the gem turns dark) on the client, possibly lethal depending on their constitution. Therefore the character Homura will be closest to in approach will be none other than............ |
| 653 | |
| 654 | The Sea Witch from "Literature/TheLittleMermaid" (note: NOT the Disney version, the Hans Andersen version who was a morally neutral, bluntly honest witch who's magic was very dangerous to use). |
| 655 | |
| 656 | [[WMG:Walpurgisnacht is Homura's ultimate Witch form after all.]] |
| 657 | After adding Godoka's powers to her own considerable arsenal, who knows what the eventual effects might be? Also, she of course now controls the Law of Cycles, which means she has access to the Witches and Familiars we saw in the battle against Homulily. Fandom strongly believes that Walpurgis was not just a single Witch, but an agglomeration of several (similar to how in the original German legend, Walpurgis Night was when all the witches would gather). And much has been mentioned several times in the TV series WMG pages about Walpurgisnacht's clockwork nature and spinning gears vs. Homura's being stuck in a time loop. This could also go hand in hand with the previous guess about Homura being a ballerina, with Walpurgis spinning in the sky, and the dancing motion of some of her Familiars, and her desire to "make the world her stage". On top of all that, Homura probably still has her time-traveling abilities, and having brought physical form back to her memories of Madoka, she may be able to travel back in time to a world with Madoka--the previous timelines. |
| 658 | |
| 659 | This may go hand in hand with the WMG above about the TV series/first two movies and ''Rebellion'' all being part of one huge GroundhogDayLoop. Moemura>Nervous MG Homura>Badass MG Homura>Law of Cycles Homura>Homulily>Homucifer>Walpumura...RinseAndRepeat. |
| 660 | |
| 661 | [[WMG:Alternately, ''Love'' and the other Clara Dolls are Walpurgisnatch]] |
| 662 | |
| 663 | In the original series, is stated that a sufficiently powerful minion can turn into a independent witch. The Clara Dolls are stated to be more powerful than some magical girls and witches. If [[spoiler:Homura declares hereself not a witch anymore]], maybe they can turn into [[spoiler:Homucifer]]-like [[{{RealityWarper}} reality warpers]]. [[spoiler:Homucifer]] made alterations in the past, like [[spoiler:making Madoka live in the United States for 3 years]], so why can't they influence in the past too? |
| 664 | |
| 665 | Also, if the Clara Dolls are how [[spoiler:Homura]] sees herself, [[{{LoveMakesYouEvil}} ''Love'' would be, well...]] And the [[{{MonsterClown}} clown-like appareance]] they have doesn't help either. |
| 666 | |
| 667 | [[WMG:Madokami didn't need protection from the Incubators.]] |
| 668 | You've likely seen the theory by now: Homura's rationale for [[spoiler:stripping Ultimate Madoka of her powers]] was because the Incubators were still around and, having witnessed Ultimate Madoka's presence, would be able to find a way to [[spoiler:[[HijackingCthulhu counter and enslave her]]]]. In the case of anyone else this would be understandable, but Ultimate Madoka... might be a bit of a stretch. |
| 669 | |
| 670 | First off, let's analyze just what Ultimate Madoka ''is'': |
| 671 | * At her core is Madoka Kamane, an AllLovingHero whose ultimate wish to Kyubey was to erase all witches from existence before they were born. She does this by taking away their Soul Gems when they're fully corrupted. |
| 672 | * When taking on the soul of a deceased Magical Girl, she learns everything about them; all of their memories, experience, and trauma. |
| 673 | * This happens to every deceased Magical Girl in existence, even across different time periods, past, present and future. |
| 674 | * And this is only counting Earth: [[FridgeHorror who knows what other intelligent races the Incubators have used in their energy-gathering schemes...]] |
| 675 | |
| 676 | Ultimate Madoka has the knowledge and experience of a literally uncountable amount of people and a reach that spans across all of creation, and as such has more experience with the Incubators than anyone in existence or non-existence. This is exemplified to perfection in her [[spoiler:MemoryGambit]] that suckers Kyubey and the whole horde of Incubators around the [[spoiler:Isolation Field]] hook, line and sinker. And this is only the ''first'' time we've seen her outwit them intentionally; her world-changing wish from the anime that turned her into a God in the first place wasn't so much a middle finger to Kyubey as it was her vision of a better world that just ''happened'' to bite Kyubey in the ass. If she ''had'' been targeting him then, we'd probably have seen something similar to [[spoiler:what [[SatanicArchetype Akuma Homura]] did to him and his race]]. |
| 677 | |
| 678 | To sum it up: Ultimate Madoka has proven herself amazingly capable of outwitting the Incubators on multiple occasions, and would likely have little-to-no trouble doing it again. She doesn't need protection from the race of infinite alien [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulative Bastards]]; the ''race of infinite alien Manipulative Bastards'' needs protection from ''her''. [[MemeticMutation Praise Madokami indeed]]... though it makes [[spoiler:Homura]]'s decision at the end all the more tragically [[SenselessSacrifice senseless]] and [[EntitledToHaveYou over-obsessive]]. |
| 679 | |
| 680 | [[WMG:[[spoiler:Homura can't maintain her new world.]]]] |
| 681 | Not in the RageAgainstTheHeavens sense that would ensue when [[spoiler:everyone inevitably gets their memories back and remembers what Homura did]], though. This is a bit less obvious. |
| 682 | |
| 683 | To recap the big twist at the end of the movie: [[spoiler:Homura stole Madoka's power and used it to create a new world where everyone lives, Madoka included, but their memories are erased and Madoka's threaten to return at any moment.]] It sounds simple; taking the infinite power of [[spoiler:{{God}}]] for yourself should make it easy to run a world, right? Well, maybe not, because it might not be so infinite. |
| 684 | |
| 685 | Think about how [[spoiler:Madokami]]'s power worked: [[spoiler:a Magical Girl dies after succumbing to despair, she steps in to take away the despair and fill them with hope again by helping them AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence]]; basically, she runs on giving hope to those who have succumbed to despair. Well, is [[spoiler:Homura]] doing that? The implication is a resounding '''no'''; she's [[spoiler:messed with everyone's memories, all of her efforts are put into making Madoka happy (and amnesiac), and she honestly has no idea what she'll do with the world once all the Wraiths are gone]]. She's neither giving hope nor receiving despair, two fundamental things that the Madokaverse runs on. |
| 686 | |
| 687 | [[spoiler:Homura]]'s situation can be summed as has having a gigantic MagicMeter, but with no refills. Yes, it was big enough to [[spoiler:reshape the world]] no sweat, but with no despair coming in and hope going out, that meter is only going to drain more and more. Several things could happen here: she eventually won't have enough power to [[spoiler:keep Madoka's memories locked away]], her not dealing with [[spoiler:Witches like Madokami did will cause them to appear again (perhaps as an act of desperation from the enslaved Incubators)]], her world could [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt just plain collapse]]... the list goes on. And even if she does maintain it, the lack of [[spoiler:Incubator-contracted Magical Girls could result in a faster universal heat-death]].''And'' this is providing the RageAgainstTheHeavens thing doesn't happen before any of the above. |
| 688 | |
| 689 | Simply put, the time for [[spoiler:Homura]]'s new world is running short, and there's nothing she can do about it without [[spoiler:giving Madoka her memories and power back]], which she is dead-set to make sure never happens. Her half-joking line about [[spoiler:destroying the world after the Wraiths are exterminated]] [[FridgeHorror might be more true than we first thought...]] |
| 690 | |
| 691 | [[WMG:Homura can't hurt Madoka.]] |
| 692 | |
| 693 | ...I just thought of something interesting. Homura's wish was "to meet Madoka again, but this time as ''the one protecting her'', not as the one being protected". This has ''very'' interesting implications, in that she is completely unable to do anything that would kill Madoka (whether directly or indirectly, such as making her mortal again resulting in her eventual death of old age), and very possibly might be unable to do anything that would harm Madoka. After all, killing your charge, and even harming them, are the exact opposite of protecting them, are they not. |
| 694 | |
| 695 | So, if you think about it, the worst that her rebellion can do is just get in Madoka's way for a little while. Considering how calculating she's become, she's likely entirely aware of it, too. If you think about it like that, it lends credence to the theories that she's going for a ZeroApprovalGambit. She knows she can't stop Madoka, and that it's just going to make everyone hate her, but she does it anyways. |
| 696 | |
| 697 | [[WMG: Sayaka was right. It was mostly obsession, not love.]] |
| 698 | |
| 699 | When looking at the "horrible colors" coming out of about-to-Akuma Homura, she mentions the possibility of it being something other than despair (or love), possibly obsession. Considering how heavily obsessive Homulucifer's actions ended up.. |
| 700 | |
| 701 | [[WMG: Homura always suspected that if none of this ever happened, she would have crashed, burned, and possibly become a model or stripper.]] |
| 702 | |
| 703 | This is the only logical explanation for the burning of the zeppelins and Homura Akuma's outfit. |
| 704 | |
| 705 | [[WMG: The hero of the second season will be...]] |
| 706 | '''Kyubey'''. |
| 707 | |
| 708 | After Homura's bizarre dance in the grassy field in TheStinger, he'll slink away in order to find Madoka and the other girls. He'll warns them to beware the girl named Homura Akemi and that she will be the greatest enemy they will ever know. Perhaps he'll even attempt to tell them about the events of Rebellion too. His CharacterDevelopment will revolve around his newly acquired emotions; at first, he will act only in his race's best interest, but over time he'll gain a genuine concern for the girls. Which will, of course, be something he will be consistently incredulous about. |
| 709 | |
| 710 | A number of events then happen which culminate to Kyubey's HeroicSacrifice to save the girls. |
| 711 | |
| 712 | [[WMG: ''YuukiYuunaWaYuushaDeAru'' takes place in the aftermath of the eventual Godoka/Homucifer battle.]] |
| 713 | |
| 714 | Earth would probably receive a lot of collateral damage; ''YYY'' takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. |
| 715 | |
| 716 | In this scenario, Homucifer wins and becomes Shinju-sama. Shinju's tree form may allude to ''DantesInferno'' in how suicides supposedly become trees in Hell, and of course Homura displays strong suicidal tendencies. The fairies in ''YYY'' are either enslaved Incubators or Familiars, and the Vertexes could be Witches released from a degraded Law of Cycles. |
| 717 | |
| 718 | [[WMG: Madokami knew what was going to happen the whole time.]] |
| 719 | Remember in the plane between worlds where Madoka says that she sees all possible universes, including those not yet born? You know what wasn't born just yet? The new universe that Homurakuma reordered when she ascended herself, and possibly whatever universe Post-Madokami-ascension!Homura was swapped into. |
| 720 | |
| 721 | [[WMG: Sorry, Homura, but Madoka's just not that into you.]] |
| 722 | Given everything that's happened, it's safe to say that Homura is in love with Madoka, as in romantic feelings and a sexual attraction. The subtext is freaking everywhere at this point. But, unless I'm mistaken, Madoka hasn't shown much in the way of romantic/sexual attraction towards Homura. She loves her, certainly, but as a friend, closer than any of the others, even Sayaka. But maybe Madoka is, well, straight/asexual, and thus can't reciprocate those feelings in the same way. |
| 723 | |
| 724 | While it would probably end with the director and writer being murdered in an alley by shippers (just a joke, please don't hurt me!), after the events of Rebellion, it'd be one last twist of the knife for Homura. Madoka just can't feel the way towards Homura that Homura feels towards Madoka, just through a quirk of biology, and it might be the catalyst that makes everything just fall apart one more time... |
| 725 | |
| 726 | Interestingly, though, Homura's transformation into Homucifer could be a metaphor for sexual awakening--maybe what she feels for Madoka (aside from the "Ai yo" line is passion? Deeper than despair? It would explain her different body language and behavior in the new world. |
| 727 | |
| 728 | * Or possibly, Homura will eventually realize that the feelings she's termed as "love" are in fact obsession and lust (Sayaka even throws out such a theory as Homucifer is born). She'll also realize, or be made to realize that this obsession with Madoka is actually extremely unhealthy for her and as a result, is hurting Madoka. The next step from here is the eventual realization that the true love that she feels for Madoka is still deep and personal, but it's not romantic. Madoka reciprocates and they both finally resolve the problems in their relationships that have caused so much trouble. And building on this, what if none of the girls are going to be paired in the end,as a sort of statement of "yes, this story was about deep love, but not THAT kind of deep love." It would probably be controversial, with some saying it's out of character, while others appreciating a take on true love that isn't romantic. |
| 729 | |
| 730 | [[WMG: Nagisa is just pretending to have lost her memories.]] |
| 731 | We can assume that, like Sayaka, Nagisa is strictly loyal to Madokami, right? Going with that, what if Nagisa remembers everything in Akuma Homura's new universe and is just pretending to have forgotten? Homura only erased Sayaka's memories when Sayaka made a passionate outcry against her. Meanwhile, assuming Nagisa also remembered, the young magical girl doesn't say anything to Akuma Homura and instead runs around laughing and playing. Since she never gave Akuma Homura any reason to believe she remembers, Akuma Homura may have neglected to erase her memories, letting Nagisa keep her memories, hide her cards, and giving her time to come up with a way to restore Madokami. Might sound a little too complicated for an elementary kid to get, but Nagisa definitely proved she's advanced for her age during the movie. |
| 732 | * Interestingly, you could tie this theory back into one of the closing scenes of the movie. Namely, the crossroads, where one sign read "Good Morning," and the other, "Country of Sweets." This could seen as a Sayaka/Nagisa parallel, as the former is Sayaka's line from a couple of minutes previous during her reunion with Kyousuke and Hitomi, while the latter has the obvious sugar connotation that ties in with Nagisa. But if we look deeper at that juxtaposition, we can interpret the "Good Morning" line as symbolizing Sayaka's admitted happiness to reunite with those she lost in a new world with new memories. Then, "Country of Sweets" would logically point to a ''different'' path than that of finding joy in Homura's world - namely, the memory of Madoka's Valhalla, a place we could creatively see as a country - and associate that path with Nagisa. |
| 733 | |
| 734 | [[WMG: The Homuniverse isn't any more real than Homulilly's labyrinth. They're still inside her Soul Gem.]] |
| 735 | |
| 736 | The "Akuma-Homura" scene shouldn't be possible, given what we know about Madoka's ascension, for the following reasons: |
| 737 | |
| 738 | * Madoka became the Law of Cycles because her wish caused a temporal paradox, and the universe was forced into a reset to resolve it. If her wish hadn't messed with the space-time continuum, it wouldn't be any different from any other magical girl's wish and Madoka would witch out as the exchange demanded. Homura was already a magical girl, which means she'd already made the contract and thus already got her wish granted. And her wish, given her bow, was probably "I wish to never forget Madoka". Which she doesn't. She eventually starts thinking she made it all up, but she never forgot about her; if that wish contradicted the new timeline, it would have reset the universe, but it doesn't, because human memory is fallible. We have a word for it when someone remembers something that couldn't have happened, it's called a delusion. |
| 739 | * Homura deliberately shattered her Soul Gem, which (bizarre colors notwithstanding) was no different from any other. Shattering it should have just killed her. But, not only does she not die, it reshapes into a new object altogether. Soul Gems are made from Incubator technology and Homura doesn't know any more about them in the movie than she did during the series. If you smash an iPhone with a hammer and melt the broken phone down and remold it as a sphere, you can call it the iBall if you want to, but you're not gonna be making any phone calls with it. |
| 740 | * Ultimate Madoka visibly appears, with Sayaka and Nagisa riding one of Walpurgisnacht's carnival carriages, in a glorious halo on a path paved with stars and flowers. We saw what happened to Sayaka when she was killed in the new universe and what happened to all the other magical girls that Madoka saved: the soul gem shattered and they faded out of existence. Madoka doesn't make live appearances. Homura may have been a special case as Madoka's favorite, but she wouldn't have needed all the fanfare: by escaping the seal and the Soul Gem, she would already have been right there. Ditto the witches' familiars setting all the people Homura drew into her barrier down on the ground, asleep, around Homura's altar. |
| 741 | |
| 742 | So what's the point of all this? Simple: This is Homura's afterlife as a magical girl. That's why Sayaka can still resist Homura's influence; they're peers in Heaven. Madoka knows full well how much pain Homura lived through and how deeply lonely and saddened she was, how helpless she felt, how much she hated herself for even trying. What we have here isn't a universe under the control of an evil goddess, what we have here is a literal purgatory: this is why Madoka is surprised despite her omniscience, because it's not a real timeline or a real universe, it's basically a thought exercise so that Homura can work through all her pain before moving on. Madoka ''is'' purifying her Soul Gem, but Homura's carrying so much more pain than the average magical girl that it requires a much more elaborate process to cleanse it. Recall the last things Kyubey told Madoka before she left the emergency shelter: it's not possible for Homura to stop fighting or to give up, or she'll lose everything. As a product of that universe, Homura ''will'' continue fighting forever if she has to. |
| 743 | |
| 744 | So, long story short: the point of the Homuniverse is for Homura to finally exhaust all her options for protecting Madoka, until she's ready to give up and accept her own death. None of it is happening in the real world. |
| 745 | |
| 746 | [[WMG: Homura DID die inside her Soul Gem]] |
| 747 | |
| 748 | Who's controlling Homura's body after everyone escapes the containment field, then? Simple: Homulily. The weirdness with her Soul Gem is the result of a Witch being fully born inside it without shattering it. Homulily's seeming defeat and all the stuff about her escaping with the other magical girls was essentially a ruse. |
| 749 | |
| 750 | I mean, the process of becoming a Witch is supposed to be irreversible for good reason: it's like burning a log. You can't reconstitute a magical girl from a witch for the same reason you can't reconstitute a log from ashes: Entropic stuff, arrow of time, etc. So why when Homura became a witch was the process suddenly supposed to be reversible? Answer: It wasn't. She actually did die when we saw her soul collapse as Homulily emerged, and what is now left is Homulily controlling Homura's human body. |
| 751 | |
| 752 | She is, after all, very much acting on instinct in the same sort of way that witches do. She has a basic desire and is pursuing that blindly without regard for anything else, much like many of the Witch descriptions that we have seem to indicate. |
| 753 | |
| 754 | [[WMG: Nagisa suffers from Waardenburg Syndrome]] |
| 755 | Her appearance as a magical girl fits well with the physical symptoms of the disorder. People with Waardenburg Syndrome often have prematurely white or grey hair (sometimes from early childhood), and central heterochromia (eyes where the middle of the iris is a different color from the fringe) is common. |
| 756 | |
| 757 | [[WMG: One of the newer series/movies will explore the idea of Kyubey gaining a conscience.]] |
| 758 | A bit far-fetched perhaps. But what if Kyubey somehow managed to gain a more "human" understanding and actually developed into a good person. The ability to feel emotions would be a great source of aangst and create a lot of self loathing in him. But possibly, one of the girls will befriend him and help him through it and he'll decide on his own to stop creating Magical Girls and try and repair the damage he and his kind have done. |
| 759 | * Possibly as an ironic way this might happen is, at the end of Rebellion, it's theorized that Homura is making Kyubey feel all the pain and curses that normally were taken up by Witches and/or Wraiths. What if this process is actually what finally makes Kyubey understand emotions and come to respect humans as something beautiful. So the irony would be that, in her attempt to punish Kyubey, Homucifer instead puts him on the path of redemption. |
| 760 | |
| 761 | [[WMG: The entire plan was a XanatosGambit in order for everyone to escape from Godoka's heaven.]] |
| 762 | At least Nagisa seemed to be unhappy with Godoka's heaven. As an entry in the FridgeLogic page pointed out, she left the place for cheese, meaning that there's no cheese in heaven. Down in Homuillily's barrier, however, there would be cheese there. So perhaps the rest of the magical girls, and potentially Godoka herself, came down to the barrier because it was so, dreadully, '''boring'''. It's possible that another reason was to retrieve Homura, who appeared to have not made it into Godoka's heaven. |
| 763 | |
| 764 | [[WMG:What each of Homulilly's familiars represent, aside from the Clara Dolls]] |
| 765 | * Lotte: '''Self-loathing''' for failing to protect Madoka. Its duty is to mete out punishment and organize Homulilly's funeral procession and path to the guillotine. It hates white rats because Kyubey is a very big part of the reason why Homura can't be with Madoka anymore. |
| 766 | * Luiselotte: '''Hatred''' directed entirely at Kyubey. Her job is to hunt and eliminate white rats, inflicting long-deserved retribution for every terrible thing Kyubey has done to Madoka. And Homura herself, for that matter. And Sayaka...and Kyoko...and Mami...and every other magical girl who has ever existed or will exist. And while we're at it, let's count all the innocent people who were eaten by witches, and anyone else whose loved one suffered an early death from being turned into a magical girl. |
| 767 | * Liese: '''Devotion''' to protecting Madoka, which leads to single-minded tunnel vision that blinds her to everything else. Its vision is impaired by its headgear, which causes it to ram into moving objects, which is symbolic of the fact that Homura is not concerned with anything around her that does not involve Madoka in some way. |
| 768 | * Lilia: '''Instinct''' of the most basic, animalistic kind that keeps Homura moving through life, such as hunger, thirst[[note]]yes, I know magical girls are basically zombies and don't need to eat or drink, but bear with me[[/note]], self-preservation, and desire to protect Madoka, which she has been doing for so long that it has become a fundamental part of her personality. Unlike the humanoid Lotte and Luiselotte, or the bird-like Liese, Lilia is a walking tooth monster with a simple, cartoonish design, because its role is built on less complex reasoning, the same way you don't need to think to make your teeth move in your mouth when you eat food. Its job is as simple as it gets--to chew up, crush, and spit out any unwanted foreign substances (i.e. get rid of anything that hinders Homura's goal of protecting Madoka), or destroy them with the nut cannon it fires from its mouth. It is also covered in a rock-hard enamel coating with a hardness of 10--this represents Homura building an emotional wall around herself and refusing to let anyone in besides Madoka. Obstacles? Removed. Witches? Removed. Kyubey? Removed. Everyone else? Stay the hell out of Homura's way. |
| 769 | * Lisa: '''Desire''' to make the world a better place like Madoka always wanted. Its role is to rewrite the memories of the humans in the false Mitakihara City. Since Homura doesn't like the idea of Madoka rewriting the world but having to be vaporized from the mortal plane in the process, she will fulfill Madoka's desires herself. |
| 770 | |
| 771 | [[WMG:Stupidity the Clara Doll will be the key to getting Homura to believe in herself again, or in a first for familiars, will be the first to be swayed into making a HeelFaceTurn independently of her "mother witch."]] |
| 772 | According to the booklet that comes with the ''Rebellion'' Blu-ray, Stupidity goes around telling everyone, "I heard a story about the goddess. The goddess who glows so beautifully is sure to love us." Her name implies Homura thinks of herself as an idiot for believing Madoka could ever love her after her sins and failures. But the fact that Stupidity expresses this sentiment at all means she still holds on to a small vestige of hope, deep down there. |
| 773 | |
| 774 | Since the Clara Dolls are more powerful than ordinary familiars, and have somewhat unique personalities (as opposed to most familiars of the same type who behave identically), they may also have the capacity to develop further sentience. Stupidity does not enjoy tormenting her mistress like the other Dolls, and worships the goddess in her own way when she isn't "on duty". She must do it secretly, though, or the other Dolls would laugh at her for thinking that such a beautiful and perfect being would love ''them''. After all, (they think) there's no way she could love their good-for-nothing failure of a mistress, so of course she would not love them who are merely extensions of the good-for-nothing's will. Not even human, not even magical girls. |
| 775 | |
| 776 | But if someone else told her there was a way to bring back the goddess, so Stupidity could behold her radiance with her own eyes...what would she do? |
| 777 | |
| 778 | [[WMG: It's not necessarily love itself that Homura's powered by, but rather Love that's both selfish and selfless at the same time.]] |
| 779 | Selfless because she can and will give everything to protect Madoka-the Incubators were experimenting with the Law of Cycles, and if they'd been allowed to continue their plans, they might have succeeded. Homura didn't want Madoka to be captured and trapped by the Incubators-she didn't want Madoka to suffer at all, so her living a normal, happy life would make Homura happy, because Madoka would be safe and could still be with the ones she loves. (Homura became a Witch and a Demon to save her, after all.) But it's also selfish because, after all the hell she went through, Homura (understandably) feels entitled to a happy ending. She fought so, so hard to keep Madoka safe-and her reward is this? For all that she would genuinely do anything to protect Madoka, she didn't give her a choice-the new world is a happy lie, yes, but it's still a lie. |
| 780 | |
| 781 | ----- |
| 782 | ->''You have some really great ideas there. I can make them all come true.'' |
| 783 | ->''Just make a con...'' |
| 784 | ->/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人 |
| 785 | ->***[[KilledMidSentence GAAAAAAKKKK]]*** |
| 786 |
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