Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion
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.
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.
...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.
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.
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 And I Must Scream-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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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 what happened to Big Boss when he found out the true motive of The Joy.
Homura is an Audience Surrogate for the Western otaku demographic, having qualities that appeal to it by the virtue of being a Stoic Woobie Combat Pragmatist. Much like a typical player in a game with Multiple Endings, she is not satisfied with the original series' Bittersweet Ending and looks for the perfect Golden Ending no matter how much relentless Save Scumming 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 Word of God and end up Running the Asylum. In doing so, she causes the universe to undergo a bout of Audience-Alienating Era rife with explicit Fanservice (Such as promoting the One-Scene Wonder Charlotte to Mascot status based solely on fan appeal) and Flanderization (Witch transformation as a Super Mode? Really?)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 may only exist as long as it attracts viewers - and for that purpose, 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 Designated Villain so that the show would go on.
- 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 Fix Fic 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.
- We sure this isn't canon? The movie can basically be read as "Congratulations audience, your fanfics ruined the universe!"
- 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 Fix Fic that made new problems. The Fix Fic writers are intended to rely the hope (Madoka) that a "perfect fix" can be found.
- 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 Assimilation Plot... 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.
- 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 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.
- It's not really a Logic Bomb, 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.
- 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? Word of God 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.
◊ (same general colors). Either she wished for something different in this timeline, or she didn't fall into despair as soon.- And now there's that Charlotte doll. Anyone think Nagisa made or owned it?
- It's quickly looking to be more than just a doll: Charlotte's One-Winged Angel 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.
- Confirmed.
- Kyubey in human form
- An incarnation of Madoka
- Alternately, Madoka's daughter
- A shared delusion by Kyoko and Mami (Momoe is similar to Tomoe and Kyoko's sister Momo.)
- The villain, responsible for creating the doll-like Nightmares...which doesn't preclude her from being Charlotte.
- 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 Puella Magi Oriko Magica guess.)
- An Expy of Kaworu Nagisa, with all that implies. Hair and eye colors certainly match.
- 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.
- Jossed. See above.
◊ has some acqueducts that look like these
◊ from art of Ophelia's barrier. There's also that scene from the Eternal teaser trailer with the glowing signs that read 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 crosses, as in a church.Also, it's oddly suspicious that Madoka Magica Online has Candeloro as a witch but not Ophelia. Waiting for a movie tie-in, perhaps?
- Jossed.
- Confirmed. It's Homura.
- Confirmed.
- Jossed. Kyubey is at first the villain, trying to recreate the old witch system and doing this by 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.
- Seems to be confirmed, considering that the ending essentially sets Homura and Madoka as enemies.
- Madoka will become more selfish Unfortunately it will be a case of "Be careful what you wish for."
- You're saying that Madoka will become the new Big Bad?
- Homura already got her wish as well as her curse. Her wish was to save Madoka, and her curse was to destroy Madoka.
- 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. And they'll have to take control of new kinds of monsters entering the world in order to fight them.
No, this is not inspired by Rayquaza, Giratina, Kyurem and Zygarde.
- Pokemon magi system:
- Madoka = Palkia
- Homura = Dialga
- Kyoko = Giratina
- Sayaka = Azelf
- Mami = Uxie
- Nagisa = Mesprit
- (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 Kyubey and Homura turned her into a flat character for this movie.
It is, in fact, a brilliant first step to The Plan to end all plans.
The entire point of the movie was for Homura to undergo a similar "Kyuubey is doing horrible things and I must do something" breaking moment as Madoka did in the series. Homura found out that Madoka's greatest weakness really is her selflessness, even when its her greatest strength. And we know how 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 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.
So Homura's solution to the problem, once Madoka came during the final confrontation, was to 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, 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 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 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 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 her current state, as difficult as before.
However, in order for this to be possible, it meant 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, Homura has become good at acting the part of the "bad guy" anyhow, given the distrust of her in the original series, and such a perception of a sudden Face–Heel Turn is a small sacrifice for 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 Homura had to endure before, 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 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 Homura.
Thus, the premise of the third movie...
- 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 Zero-Approval Gambit scenario.
- She spent the first arc of the movie pretending to be the hapless and harmless Moemura, so it's only natural that by the end she'd be exuding fake evilness. The Stinger 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).
- In order to undo the damage that 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 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 kill Homura permanently.
- Alternatively, Madoka will 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 Akuma!Homura. This would Ret-Gone her in a manner not even Akuma!Homura could prevent, and save every magical girl ever before they were even in danger.
- 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.
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.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 Physical God? 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.
- three years? tatsuya is certainly not 6 people. homura did not last long
- 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 Zero-Approval Gambit to the betterment of the world.
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.
- Alternatively, since the first part of the movie essentially goes on in Homura's mind, Hitomi represents the more petty aspects of Homura's feelings towards Madoka. Homura loves Madoka and 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. This "fake" Hitomi is essentially an avatar for Homura's selfishness.
- 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.
- And as for Episode 12 of the series? That was her effect on us viewers.
- Sayaka and Nagisa have werewolfy witch-transforming powers. Maybe Madoka does, too...
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.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.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.
The plot of rebellion is based (loosely) on Paradise Lost. One thing about paradise lost is 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 alternate character interpretation
- Or Homura might not be in on the plan at all. Madoka arranged for Sayaka to leave something to restore her memories laying around.
The post-credits snippet at the end is just a Red Herring to fool viewers into believing that Homura really went insane.
- 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.
- Why would Madoka not get it back after the Isolation Field was broken?
- 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.
- 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.
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.
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 GLORIOUS.
- Compare the two main characters of both series.
- 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 fall under the Orochi influence and makes Face–Heel Turn to tear apart the previous enemies. On the other hand, Himeko is raped by Chikane, going through Break the Cutie 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.
- 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 becomes a God of Evil, 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.
- No guess what may happen next in the series.
- 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).
- 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 Being Evil Sucks if it goes beyond just tossing apples away or crashing tea-cups.
- 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.
- 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.
- If we allow this to go a 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 Book of Job, where Satan must ask God for permission to test Job.
- 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.
- 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).
- Alternatively, she puts all the curses on Kyubey, explaining what happened to him in The Stinger.
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 Disproportionate Retribution or trying to isolate complete innocents), but her selfishness will ultimately lead her to pick Madoka over enforcing the Homuverse Eighth Amendmentnote if the two conflict.
This might be the spark that sets off Madoka's Counter-Rebellion if she perceives the unfairness of it too much.
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?)
If there's a second Drama CD, it'll just be more non-canon Affectionate Parody fun stuff. Or maybe a day in the lift of Demon Homura's world but that's probably a pipe dream.
- This is either the universe or Madoka showing their displease with Homura's actions through her familiars, throwing said tomatoes.
- The familiars are showing Homura's own displeasure with what she has done, at least subconsciously, making this part of the Zero-Approval Gambit theory going around. In other words, Homura didn't like what she did and hit herself with a tomato.
- Urobuchi, knowing that people would hate the ending, scripted the familiars throwing tomatoes as their reaction to said ending, making the familiars the Audience Surrogate.
- I'll give a fourth: The tomato juice looks like blood, making it a Call-Back to her injuries sustained by Mami. Also #3 could have been done by the animators instead.
- 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.
- Alternatively, it was a shout-out to The Big O in reference to the "Tomato in the Mirror" scene, in that the world is a stage, fitting many of the other "play" elements of both anime.
They later invite Demon Homura for tea.
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.
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).
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.
Eventually, Madoka somehow learns about the broken Law of Cycles and decides that she'll try to find the missing piece...without realizing that she is said piece. This will lead to an extended parody of Sailor Moon's "find the Moon Princess" subplot.
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)".
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 Magical Girl duty.
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.
- 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.
Both sides can summon witches, because that leads to awesome. Also some demons might decide they don't like Homura manipulating them and join Madoka's side, while some angels might decide they like being alive again and join Homura's side.
- 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. Gen did say Homura was like Anakin...
Furthermore, 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.
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.
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.
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 Well-Intentioned Extremist and so is his race. And truly, ending the whole series with a heat death of the universe which the most hated character in the series was trying to prevent would be a troll move worthy of Gen Urobuchi.
As some of you may know, Homura is actually a critical chuuni. Madoka actually died before the TV series, hit by a car while trying to save a stray cat she called Amy (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 Incorruptible Pure Pureness; the girl we see is just an idealized figment of Homura's hyperactive imagination.)
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 a very violent relapse.
- 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. And you know what Homura did to him in ''Rebellion''...
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 Muggle Best Friend 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 Freak Out 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.)
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.
How could a Homuverse!Sayaka spur a Heel–Face Turn 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).
Come back, Homura. Please...
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 Friend Versus Lover decision...Bonus points if Kyoko decides she's not going to put up with Homura's manipulations and works to save Madoka.
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 Take Over the Universe, enslaving the Incubators whose only intentions were 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.
In Real Life, we all know that the Catholic Church, that as the creator of the Inquisition was the Trope Maker of the State Sec and the Corrupt Church, became an extremely-selfish totalitarian superstate spreading Propaganda of World Domination and Eternal Torture against Heretics, all for the sake of forcing All Souls to love Jesus Christ in thought. From the God-Emperor Cult full of rich golden pomp Jesus would have rejected, to the ruthless totalitarian persecution of 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.
Madoka is still Jesus, the Messiah of Unconditional Love and Mercy, but Homura aka the Ecclesiarchy fucked up her vision to all hell.
- 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?
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).
- Madoka comes down for Homura. She is seen by everyone.
- Homura grabs Madoka's hands
- Homura's Soul Gem turns black.
- A "color worse than curses" fills Homura's Soul Gem
- Cracks appear in reality, and Madoka is split from her goddess self.
- The colors burst from Homura's Soul Gem. The cracks spread throughout the universe, followed by the colors which engulfs the entire universe.
Let's analyze this point by point.
- 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 God in Human Form, 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.
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 "Eureka!" Moment - 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... - 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 God in Human Form and not a concept. (Homura's wish to become someone who could protect Madoka is probably also a factor).
- 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...
- ...but then something else happens. Black smoke...err, 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.
- 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.
- 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.
So now the big question: Why didn't Homura become a witch when she blocked Madoka?
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?".
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. But what if Kyubey was wrong?
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.
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!"
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.
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.
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. 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.
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...
...so what if the magical girl became something other than a witch?
If this is true, then the origins of The Power of Love 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.
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.
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.
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 Loophole Abuse. Morever, the magical girls Madoka saved 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.
- Holy... This is probably the most comprehensive, logical explanation this troper has ever seen for what happened in this movie.
- Thanks. ^_^
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:
- 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.
- 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:
- Permanent death to Sayaka and therefore Madoka, something which Homura realizes too late (Downer Ending). Possible this becomes a Thanatos Gambit if Homura brings her Timeline-reset power back out of storage.
- 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 My God, What Have I Done?. 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.
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 Goldstein, and so on.
- In that case, would those of us who would rather side with Homura in her rebellion be counted among her legion of fallen angels?
Homura's alternate self will be named the "Flame of Desires".
- Heh, Homura would have a piece of Madoka and Madoka would have a piece of Homura. Would that introduce Taoist philosophy?
- Probably.
- What, like an exorcism?
- Kinda, except that the demon gets to be with God forever.
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. Cue the next hundred-odd timelines and the events of PMMM and Rebellion.
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 feign ignorance and even emotion (as Kyubey seemed to exhibit at the end of Rebellion) in order let things go just as planned. This may not be the first time this huge loop has happened.
Maybe this is why it's called the Law of Cycles.
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, 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.
It is likely that Homura wasn't particularly good at ballet (her Transformation Sequence 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.
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.
Since the first part of The Movie essentially goes on inside her head, it makes sense that she'd view the girls as dancers (as seen in their transformation scenes):
- Mami is a figure skater because of her grace and elegance, but also because figure skaters have to remain very poised, and almost always smiling. Homura herself essentially calls Mami a fake and speaks poorly of her.
- Kyoko does a tribal dance to emphasize her feral nature. Homura has no commentary about Kyoko, but it seems based on 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.
- 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...
- 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 Plucky Girl 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.
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 The Nutcracker and Princess Tutu 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.
They never really became liches decaying into murderous Eldritch Abominations. Their only real enemies were the relatively benign Nightmares. Kyubey was always just the Team Pet who could only utter "Kyuu". The Cosmic Horror Story we've witnessed was All Just a Dream of the depressed, pessimistic Homura, who just needs the loving support of her dear friends...and perhaps a visit to a psychiatrist.
So yeah, 4KidsEntertainment was right all along!
All external influence includes the flow of time. How ironic that Homura's Soul Gem was caught in a Time Stands Still effect.
As for why time passed in the barrier, it's because barriers have their own rules. Or in other words, it's magic.
Actually, this would explain how Homura stops time in her own barrier...
- That would also explain why her soul gem didn't corrupted further with the passage of time.
- "Billionaire" (what the children's choir sang for the intro) - desire to have something that's not currently owned
- "Locked Out Of Heaven" - Never felt so much for one person before Madoka + the isolation field
- "Treasure" - Retraux throwback to 70's-era disco, "Oh girl I'm gonna show you that you're mine, all mine"
- "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
- "Just The Way You Are" - Echo of what she said to Madoka in Episode 8
- "Give It Away" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (about selflessness from a well-established group) is Madoka's two cents
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 raping Madoka.
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.
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.
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 Crucifixion.
Fast-forward into the future, where 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.
Cut to a pocket universe or plane of existence where 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....
- Above troper is a fan of Warhammer 40,000. Under said theory, Madoka = The God-Emperor of Mankind, Homura = Horus, Sayaka = Sanguinius.
- Technically speaking, both of those things have already been fulfilled within the same universe.
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 Equivalent Exchange", 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.
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.
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.
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.
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....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.
Eventually Kitaru would find out who he used to be and halls into a really bad [1] 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 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.
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.
- 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. Gen Urubuchi outright said at one point that the world hadn't ended.
- 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.
- 1) Kyubey operates entirely on Exact Words, and at least presents as not finding strategic omissions dishonest.
- 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.
- 3) A magical girl's power level is a product of her potential and her wish, and to Kyubey is entirely predictable.
- 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.
- 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."
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.
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.
And so we have the situation at the end of Rebellion, with Homura sitting as a self-made God of Evil and Madoka as an Amnesiac God 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.
What would he get out of it? Hey, there have to be some big revelations we haven't heard yet.
- See the "Groundhog Day" Loop 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. Cue the next 100-odd timelines and the movies.
- 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 fake the emotion they seemed to be showing at the end of Rebellion. Or they may have developed some kind of resistance to Mind Rape. This might not be the first time this Cosmic Horror Story has happened.
- Maybe this is why it's called the Law of Cycles.
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.
- 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.
- That or: "I wish for the Incubators to destroy all witches in all timelines." That would've been DOPE.
- But then they wouldn't be there to collect Curse Cubes (or whatever you want to call them) and stop entropy.
- 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.
- 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 Morton's Fork situation.
- That or: "I wish for the Incubators to destroy all witches in all timelines." That would've been DOPE.
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.
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.
Take these into account.
1. Homura's absolute hatred for the Incubators (act very demon like in their contracts) for their deceitful ways.
2. Homura's general nature of outer mask (her cold, unpleasant facade) plus her true face (as seen in the illusion world.
3. Other works already referenced by this series.
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............
The Sea Witch from "The Little Mermaid" (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).
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 "Groundhog Day" Loop. Moemura>Nervous MG Homura>Badass MG Homura>Law of Cycles Homura>Homulily>Homucifer>Walpumura...Rinse And Repeat.
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 Homura declares hereself not a witch anymore, maybe they can turn into Homucifer-like reality warpers. Homucifer made alterations in the past, like making Madoka live in the United States for 3 years, so why can't they influence in the past too?
Also, if the Clara Dolls are how Homura sees herself, ''Love'' would be, well... And the clown-like appareance they have doesn't help either.
First off, let's analyze just what Ultimate Madoka is:
- At her core is Madoka Kamane, an All-Loving Hero 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.
- When taking on the soul of a deceased Magical Girl, she learns everything about them; all of their memories, experience, and trauma.
- This happens to every deceased Magical Girl in existence, even across different time periods, past, present and future.
- And this is only counting Earth: who knows what other intelligent races the Incubators have used in their energy-gathering schemes...
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 Memory Gambit that suckers Kyubey and the whole horde of Incubators around the 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 what Akuma Homura did to him and his race.
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 Manipulative Bastards; the race of infinite alien Manipulative Bastards needs protection from her. Praise Madokami indeed... though it makes Homura's decision at the end all the more tragically senseless and over-obsessive.
To recap the big twist at the end of the movie: 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 God for yourself should make it easy to run a world, right? Well, maybe not, because it might not be so infinite.
Think about how Madokami's power worked: 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 Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence; basically, she runs on giving hope to those who have succumbed to despair. Well, is Homura doing that? The implication is a resounding no; she's 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.
Homura's situation can be summed as has having a gigantic Magic Meter, but with no refills. Yes, it was big enough to 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 keep Madoka's memories locked away, her not dealing with Witches like Madokami did will cause them to appear again (perhaps as an act of desperation from the enslaved Incubators), her world could just plain collapse... the list goes on. And even if she does maintain it, the lack of Incubator-contracted Magical Girls could result in a faster universal heat-death.And this is providing the Rage Against the Heavens thing doesn't happen before any of the above.
Simply put, the time for Homura's new world is running short, and there's nothing she can do about it without giving Madoka her memories and power back, which she is dead-set to make sure never happens. Her half-joking line about destroying the world after the Wraiths are exterminated might be more true than we first thought...
...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.
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 Zero-Approval Gambit. She knows she can't stop Madoka, and that it's just going to make everyone hate her, but she does it anyways.
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..
This is the only logical explanation for the burning of the zeppelins and Homura Akuma's outfit.
After Homura's bizarre dance in the grassy field in The Stinger, 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 Character Development 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.
A number of events then happen which culminate to Kyubey's Heroic Sacrifice to save the girls.
Earth would probably receive a lot of collateral damage; YYY takes place in a post-apocalyptic world.
In this scenario, Homucifer wins and becomes Shinju-sama. Shinju's tree form may allude to Dantes Inferno 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.
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...
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.
- 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.
- 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.
The "Akuma-Homura" scene shouldn't be possible, given what we know about Madoka's ascension, for the following reasons:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Lilia: Instinct of the most basic, animalistic kind that keeps Homura moving through life, such as hunger, thirstnote , 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.
- 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.
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.
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?
