Puella Magi Madoka Magica

This. Seriously, think about the potential repercussions of Homura trying to drop nuclear weapons on Japan.

• Homura defeated Walpurgisnacht but killed Madoka with, if she's lucky, the fireball and if she's not, nuclear fallout!
• Homura defeated Walpurgisnacht but Madoka contracted with Kyubey to clean up the fallout!
• Homura's actions started a nuclear war, and Madoka contracted with Kyubey to end it!

Nuclear weapons aren't just really cool Ultimate Weapon bombs; they are horrific devices of total destruction that wipe out everything in their substantially massive blast radius, and then continue killing for decades after. One way or another, Homura bringing nuclear holocaust to Japan would result in Madoka contracting at best, and horrifically kill her at worst. Any method of defeating Walpurgisnacht that results in Madoka's death or contracting is a Pyrrhic Victory.

edited 24th Jul '14 7:38:49 AM by TobiasDrake

Madoka dying or contracting is Homura's failure condition.

From what we've seen, despite her best efforts, those are the only options she can achieve.

edited 24th Jul '14 7:57:43 AM by Diamite

Homura's best bet is to find one of the Precure and make Madoka become a Precure :V

hey, at least it isn't a contract with Kyubey.

I am aware that Nuclear Bombs are horrific killer devices and that there would be tremendous amounts of fallout and death and blah blah blah I'm an engineer not a moron.

I am also aware that after doing the exact same thing a few hundred times "fucking kill everything" would start to seem like a really good idea, at which point the question becomes "Would dropping nuclear subs on Walpurgisnacht kill it?"

Because if it does and Madoka still contracts, she can just go back and try it again. This time with the knowledge that "yes, if I blow up everything I can kill it. That's the big, major problem solved. Now I just need to figure out the next bit."

All other concerns, like nuclear war and tremendous amounts of climate and environment-changing damage, are pretty secondary to Homura's line of thinking.

edited 24th Jul '14 8:17:21 AM by Frishman

But, again, culturally, Japan has a rather fucking massive stigma against nuclear bombs, because there are still people to day suffering from their effects.

Which would prevent the anime from showing them.

But not Homura in-universe. When desperate, things like "culture" can start looking awfully restrictive.

So again, would it work? That's all I'm fucking asking! Not "what would the fallout be?" Not "would she actually do it?"

Just tell me if it would fucking work!!!

edited 24th Jul '14 8:26:23 AM by Frishman

Does she even know how to rig a nuke to initiate? It's not anything simple like a detonator or a fuse.

That's because her goal is largely unattainable. Ultimately, she's fighting Madoka's own free will; trying to prevent her from making a choice that Homura desperately wants her not to make, but that Madoka has repeatedly demonstrated the desire to make. What she is attempting to do would require her to undermine Madoka's own personality and desires, which is what makes it a Sisyphean Feat.

Ultimately, Homura is one side of a debate. The other side if Kyubey. Kyubey is offering whatever Madoka wants. Given enough time, Madoka will want something badly enough to outweigh any reasons Homura could offer for her not to accept the deal.

edited 24th Jul '14 8:31:34 AM by TobiasDrake

Well, in my hypothetical scenario, she's dropping boomer subs on Walpurgisnacht, which would explode and detonate the ICBM's inside. So she wouldn't really need to know. She'd just need to figure out the logistics of getting subs into the air over the thing.

That's beautifully put.

edited 24th Jul '14 8:30:07 AM by Frishman

Nukes don't go off unless you initiate them. You have to arm them, after unlocking the system with a password and two-factor authentication that physically requires two people. I doubt any of the other girls would help her with that.

edited 24th Jul '14 8:32:59 AM by AceOfScarabs

I think the Americans may deploy tactical nukes to Okinawa; might be wrong though. Maybe a ballistic missile submarine in Yokosuka?

@Ace: You do have a point, but it's not like she doesn't have time to figure it out. And I don't know if that's correct procedure for a submarine's missiles.

Seriously, I don't know. I know that's how it works for land-based nukes. If that's how it works for subs, too, then yes, we have a bigger problem.

Unless of course she just figures out that "hey, if I can stop time and reverse time, why can't I just make time-clones of myself?"

Or, you know, stop time immediately after initializing in the first sequence and initialize the second one while time is stopped, then release? Unless she can't change things while time is stopped.

You know what, just fuck it. I'm done.

edited 24th Jul '14 8:40:10 AM by Frishman

Well the doods who worked on the Manhatten Project's successors decided that they needed to make using nuclear weapons hard, so that it couldn't happen by accident or without consent of the one meant to be in charge of them.

If by two factor authentication you mean having to turn two keys at the same time at two different locations, then it's not going to matter to someone who can FREEZE TIME. But we are kinda derailing this thread.

The question is: Can nukes take out Walpurgisnacht, to which the answer would probably be "Yes". We can't tell for sure since Homura gives up at the Battleship stage, but considering Walpurgisnacht can be taken down by Homura and Madoka Timeline 2 working together, and Nukes > Homura + Madoka Timeline 2, Nuke can probably do the job.

Not that it matters anyway, on a long enough timeline, Madoka will Contract with QB. She has shone every indication of wanting to contract with QB and QB is actively gunning to turn Madoka into a witch. Short of QB abandoning their plan, it's really a question of when, not a question of if.

Then Homerun rewrites the universe and makes QB her slave.

edited 24th Jul '14 8:48:53 AM by CannonGerbil

The easiest solution is to kidnap a Mascot from another series and turn Madoka into a Magical Girl of the other system(s).

Still need the Launch codes though, without them the nuke is just a heavy, dirty paperweight.

edited 24th Jul '14 8:52:53 AM by AceOfScarabs

Thank you. That's all I wanted to hear. I would have also accepted "No, for X and Y reasons" as well, as long as said reasons weren't "culturally, Japan hates nukes" which has no bearing on Homura and "how could she even work the nukes," when the answer to that question is more than likely "magic, because she's a Magical Girl."

MAGIC!! It's not like she has to obey the laws of goddamn physics or reason, as otherwise every time she freezes time she would lose all sensation and be frozen in place because she just stopped literally everything from moving or being able to move, including the air that was applying one atmosphere of pressure on her.

Then she would suffer from vacuum exposure because it was no longer doing that.

edited 24th Jul '14 8:57:50 AM by Frishman

Magic has rules too, without enough power you can't do certain things.

Since Failure is the only option Homura opted to cheat and rewrite reality to avoid failure.

Yeah, but getting nuclear launch codes seems pretty simple when you can stop time while someone is logged into a computer where they're stored or otherwise has access to them. The real question is "how many times can she just try out inputting the launch codes before the system freezes."

Just because magic has rules doesn't mean it still isn't terribly, horribly able to break all the other rules.

edited 24th Jul '14 9:07:18 AM by Frishman

Did we ever get a clear idea of what exactly Magical girls can do with their magic? As far as I'm aware, they can do pretty much anything in exchange for accumulating corruption in their soul gems.

It seems like there's stuff all magical girls can do: healing, summoning their weapon, stuff like that, and then a set of abilities linked to their wish. But I don't know how far they could branch out. I doubt any of them could stop time like Homura does, and I don't think Sayaka could make a musket out of her swords or anything like that.

And she winds up finding the Precure Hunter.

Cosplay!

Nagisa is really cute.

They have specific magics that they can do that relate to their wish. Mami can summon ribbons, Kyouko can (or could) clone herself, Homura can stop and rewind time, Oriko can see into the future.

It appears to be tied to the wish they made.