#pmmm discussion

[himehomu]

While we all are pretty much aware that this is Madoka's concept art outfit finally being used for her new Magical Girl design, there seems to be a lock and some chains around her ribcage. The first thing I thought about was the metaphor “hearts are wild creatures, that's why our ribs are cages” which is meant to illustrate that the heart cannot be governed, that it will go anyway it wants, that it is uncontainable, hence the “wild creature” title, and the heart being a “wild creature”, needs to be encased, limited, caged, hence the “rib cage”. This could symbolize a lot in terms of Madoka's character, but one of my theories is that Madoka's memories of every loop where Homura fought for her and never gave up, the realization that someone like Madoka, whom has never seen herself as worthy of anything, let alone love, unless she was helping or being of use to someome else, actually had someone all this time who's loved her for who she is, not what she can do for others, the clarity of “oh. this is the love letter I've always wanted,” the reciprocation of Homura's love that transcends time and space, all of that is locked away with the final memory wipe at the end of Rebellion. Maybe the metaphorical key to unlocking it is her finally regaining all of those memories, all of that love. Of course, she'd have to regain her godhood to do so. My second theory is that maybe this is meant to symbolize Madoka's ultimate sacrifice being locked away both as a means to keep her alive as a human and as a means to spare Homura anymore grief; maybe eventually Homura's acceptance of her death and acknowledgement of her grief will be the symbolical key to unlocking Madokami... which unfortunately will kickstart the inevitable battle between God and the Devil.

[funnycreatortimetravel]

Whenever I rewatch the Madoka Magica episodes + the two recap movies, I always feel that the sentiment "Homura did nothing wrong," shines through the most here and less so Rebellion (I'll get into this later) even though ironically, the Rebellion movie is where that infamous saying was coined.

-Homura cannot DO any wrong when everything sort of already goes wrong no matter if she intervenes or not. Mami dies whether or not Homura intervenes (she goes crazy when she finds out that magical girls are all destined to turn into witches and then goes on a murder-suicide rampage, she's killed by Walpurgis, she gets caught off guard, etc.) All of these deaths happened on Mami's accord and not Homura's, so of course there's no wrongdoing to be had.

-Even if you argue that Homura could've been nicer to her, Mami automatically assumed that Homura had the worst intentions for Madoka and the others, so she never really gave her a chance even WHEN Homura went through the effort of finding a grief seed solely to befriend Mami (which Homura does in most timelines FYI.) The moment Homura isn't Mami's sweet little junior student anymore, Mami is automatically on defense and even calls her a loser just because she doesn't want Madoka to make a contract, and Mami just assumes that it's because Homura doesn't want competition (which makes no sense because Homura offered her a grief seed.)

-Mami does the same thing to Kyoko in the Different Story Manga; Once Kyoko's parents died and she became distraught, she didn't want to follow Mami's ideals anymore and this leads them into getting into a physical altercation (sound familiar?)

-Mami has never been a person you can just causally talk things through to. If she believes you don't share the same ideals on things, she can and will fight you. She doesn't fight Sayaka or Madoka because those two largely agree with her on everything, but Kyoko and Homura? They're free game if they so much as look at her sideways.

-Mami also says that making a wish should be something you seriously think about and not just dive in willy nilly, but then turns around and tells Madoka that she should wish for a cake if she still hasn't figured it out all because Mami doesn't want to be alone.

-I'm going to give Mami the benefit of the doubt and assume she wasn't being serious, but she knows how impressionable Madoka is and regardless of how serious or not she is, she's still fine with Madoka making a wish and becoming a magical girl just so she won't be lonely anymore.

-Homura tries her damn hardest to befriend Mami (she offers her a grief seed as I mentioned earlier, she listens when Mami tells her to go away without a fuss, and she warns Mami of the witch Charlotte only to be ignored and tied up) and the only thing she gets in return is Mami's unwarranted hostility. And once Homura is proven right and Mami is beheaded in front of Madoka and Sayaka, causing an insurmountable amount of trauma to them, she still quietly grieves for her even when all Mami did was assume the worst with no evidence.

-I don't necessarily blame Mami for assuming that Homura didn't have the best intentions since she's a veteran and I'm certain has had other negative run-ins with magical girls, but it's not like Homura even provided enough evidence that she would be like them. Mami was just being territorial due to force of habit (she's fine with other magical girls so long as they stay her juniors as evident in Rebellion when the moment Homura "turns different," she's highly suspicious and is ready to go guns blazing.) She doesn't even give Homura a chance to explain herself in either the show or the movie and that's one of her biggest flaws; she's so perfectionist that she can't even see what's in front of her sometimes.

-Despite this, Homura still values her as her old mentor and is hurt when the person who saved her all those timelines ago calls her a loser to her face. She even says that Mami has the softest heart of all and wishes she could forget how she trampled over her and other's feelings, (even though when you look back, Mami was the one who hurt her feelings rather than the other way around.)

And yet she still says this...

-"And it hurt me..." Homura admitting that shows just how much she cares. The fact that she's able to admit that it wasn't what Mami said that hurt her, but the fact that shattering Mami's optimistic viewpoint with the reality of the magical girl system was what hurt.

-Homura knows about Mami's tragic backstory with her parents and also knows that Mami, "doesn't have any other family to speak of," which shows she's been very close to Mami at one point, even seeing her vulnerable side just like Madoka did when Mami had that breakdown shortly before she died to Charlotte.

-She also "envies Mami" because Madoka states that she'll remember her even after she dies. Homura is obviously envying Mami because Madoka will forever see Mami in a good light in death while Madoka is afraid of her, but she could also just be envying Mami because, well, Mami died and left Madoka feeling attached to her while Homura thought she was going to die without ever being able to be close to Madoka as she once was. Context clues people, context clues.

-If you look at the different story manga, which I and many others consider canon, Homura clearly still has PTSD from Mami's murder-suicide attempt, which is the main reason why she tries to be gentle with her and listen to her when she's ordering Homura around.

-And she also notes that Mami never "held her hand," like that. Regardless of what Homura thinks, she clearly still wants or wanted that intimacy with Mami. She still saw her as an older sister figure and I know it crushed her heart when Mami said something so cruel to her.

-She also declines when Mami believes that Homura is going to kill her, even though her soul gem is stained and she technically is on her way to becoming a witch. Instead, Homura imparts some words to her.

-In the case of Sayaka...Whooo boy, it's like ten times worse than Mami. Sayaka is so caught up in her ideals that she hates anything too wild and selfish, but also weak and passive. She craps on Kyoko for being immoral and then also craps on Madoka AND Homura for not doing enough (she says that Madoka has a lot of potential but doesn't do anything with it and says Homura is too unskilled to fight effectively.) She views herself, or at least tries to, as the ultimate magical girl of justice who's moral, selfless, and most of all, strong. She doesn't view Homura, at least the one in the past timelines, as someone strong enough to be a proper magical girl.

-Sayaka holds everyone to the standard of Mami Tomoe, someone who's graceful, strong, and selfless, but she never gets the chance to realize that that version of Mami Tomoe isn't the real one and the standard she holds herself and others don't exist, which is why in every single timeline, she ALWAYS ends up witching out. It's also why in every timeline, she's antagonistic to Homura no matter if it was her timid self or the one hardened by trauma.

-She blames Homura in one timeline for attempting to warn them about Kyubey, accusing her of trying to split the group up, but then in Magia Record, when Homura DOESN'T tell them about Kyubey because she's seen how pointless it is, Sayaka gets on her case for not telling them sooner and accuses her of not telling because Homura "finds it funny." She literally can't win, no matter how quiet and out of the way she is.

-And it doesn't get better once Homura becomes "stronger" (or at the least the facade of becoming it) Sayaka just thinks that she's one of those magical girls who kills only for herself (and while Sayaka's not ALL the way wrong as she will kill solely for Madoka, she also doesn't understand that the system is designed to be like that and that's the fault of Kyubey and not Homura.)

-We're never actually shown Homura saving civilians, but we also don't see her sit idly by and let them get hurt either. Homura's viewpoint is that magical girls aren't morally obligated to be heroes and she's right; magical girls are cattle being harvested and the "good" they do is only delaying the inevitable once they witch out. No matter how noble and pure Sayaka was or wanted to be, she was eventually going to witch out and harm others, even if she wanted to save people.

-The nature of magical girls is equivalent exchange; whatever "good" is done, an equal amount of or even more bad is sure to come of it. Sayaka was going to keep killing innocent civilians as a witch until someone put her out of her misery, and that was what Homura was going to do. Sayaka doomed herself the moment she made a contract with Kyubey, and more importantly, she doomed innocent civilians, and she doomed her friends.

-Sayaka's witching out leads Mami to go crazy and attempt to kill everyone, Madoka making a contract in several timelines to save Sayaka from witching out (she does so in the Different Story Manga and Sayaka still ends up hurt) and Kyoko dying either from suicide during her confrontation with Octavia or dying from the wounds she sustains from the battle. Not to mention Sayaka witching out breaks Madoka's psyche, which is what Homura is trying to avoid.

-It would be one thing if Sayaka just died on her own accord, but she always brings others with her down her descent into despair, whether it's by killing civilians as a witch or being mean to Madoka and making her feel as though Sayaka's witching out was partly her fault.

-That's why Homura was in the right to "put her down" essentially, and even though she said she would, she couldn't bring herself to because somewhere deep down, she still cared for Sayaka. She apologizes for blowing up Sayaka in one of the first few timelines when she witches out and she blames herself for Sayaka making a contract in the TV series timeline, even saying that she should've protected Sayaka as much as Madoka even though Sayaka has never been anything BUT mean to her in the beginning. She takes responsibility for the girls' downfall even though it was inevitable.

-Another thing is her kinship with Kyoko. Because Kyoko and Homura both grew up in religious homes (Homura with catholic school and obliviously Kyoko's father being a preacher) they have the closest views on what it means to be magical girls. Note how I didn't say similar, but closest. Homura and Kyoko's wishes were for someone else, and as a result, they firmly believe that their wishes are for the sake of those people and won't pretend to be heroes or the like. The only difference is that Kyoko is much wilder and rougher because her wish directly led to the murder-suicide of her family (cough cough, like a big sister figure that killed her OTHER found family.)

-It's also the reason why Homura and Kyoko became so close in Rebellion. Kyoko was the only magical girl, apart from Madoka and even SHE sometimes didn't trust Homura, to kill Walpurgis. Kyoko agrees to fight with Homura and even though she is purely doing this for her benefit, she at least gives Homura a CHANCE and hears her out, even offering her a pocky stick. She was willing to team up with her and was also the first person that Homura felt comfortable talking to in Rebellion when she felt that something was up.

(I'll go into further specifics in another post since I ran out of image/video usage. Damn this app 😭.)

[samble-movedd]

i just found out about madohomu fanart where they make homura a cis guy. my day is ruined.

wghat, like, specifically cis?

i try to ignore pmmm genderbends even if i tend to not like them (mostly because pmmm is what made me realize im a lesbian, so seeing them portrayed as dudes tends to rub me the wrong way) because it's objectively harmless and usually done by trans guys, but, like, Actually Cis? i wasn't aware genderbends were a) still super popular and b) specifically denoted as cis vs anything else.

[clegfly]

The best worst thing about my PMMM x omori au is combining PMMM’s ending with OMORI’s. Yeah I’d like two depressions for the price of one

(SPOILER WARNING IN TAGS!! MOOTS THAT ARE PLANNING ON WATCHING PMMM (I have a few of you hehe) LOOK AWAY!!!)

[vicsep7250]

Do you think if a Magical Girl ate another MG's Soul Gem, they'd ascend into a higher/stronger form of themselves, with remnants of the consumed Gem's magic and personality?

Do you think consuming a Soul Gem also creates a huge implosiom of energy and potential, and deforms the consumer into a different uncontrollable or inhumane form, like the Secret Stones in TotK?

Do you think any of the World Ending Witches (i.e. Walpurgisnatch or the other Record Witches) could've done that as humans and that's why they bevome uber powerful over time?

I'm fascinated by the consumption - literal and otherwise - of souls by other beings with souls.

[lullabynorth]

You know what? I'm going to say it. Every single Madoka Magica ship is unhealthy in its own right. But I'm not just talking about MadoHomu. KyoSaya is also unhealthy to an extent. Hitomi and Kyosuke isn't healthy, either. But it doesn't change how much we all support them. I'm not saying you can't ship them. I'm just stating that they aren't the healthiest relationships.

[bitchfendi]

madoka magica is a critique of capitalism

just trust me bro once you rewatch it with this in minds its kinda obvious

[lesbianpoetess]

yes!! they are blatantly opposite to each other – madoka's ideals and homuras wishes – they are yin and yang, except they can not exist in a world together. homura's selfishness cancels any of madoka's selfless acts, they can't ever love eachother the way the other does.

i love the way you expressed this, and i love Madonna Magica.

Fandom Problem #5529:

Personally, I always read Madonna Magica as a story of near-fundamental incompatibility between Homura and Madoka. They may both have genuine love for each other, but their values and the ways they love are diametrically opposed. Madoka’s philanthropic, self-abnegating love for all magical girls means Homura’s wish to protect and keep Madoka with her can’t be fully granted. Because Homura’s love of Madoka is possessive and she wants to be with Madoka, it means Madoka’s wish to let all magical girls have their wishes granted but spare them when they fall to despair can’t be fully granted. As much as they may love each other, it’s tragic love that can never be lived out peacefully in the way either of them would want.

This doesn’t mean I’m anti-MadoHomu, it just means I can’t get the diametric opposites thing out of my head when I see MadoHomu stuff. It is often very well-made art, though. And honestly, what are fanworks for if NOT for giving yourselves what canon can’t? Good on y’all for that

[himehomu]

Ugh.... My Madoka Magica rant is getting too much attention. To be honest, I closed Tumblr immediately after posting it bc I was scared this would happen.

With how much hate Homura is gonna get in Walpurgisnacht Rising simply for existing, I really just wanted to debunk the decade-long, unfairly popularized assumption that Homura was wrong to make Madoka human again and reunite her with her family and friends when it's literally canon that Madoka was lonely and sad in “heaven” as a goddess and I wanted to clear Homura's name before she gets anymore hate in this new movie. I also wanted to bring more clarity to Madoka's character seeing as how most seem to not understand that she has much more value beyond her ultimate sacrifice and her godhood, more importantly that she hides how she feels behind her pink and friendly demeanor most of the time and it feels like everyone fell for it considering they just.... assume she wanted to be trapped in a space prison of isolation where nobody even misses nor cares about her bc nobody knows she exists?? But between those who lack reading comprehension skills and those who've been dead-set on Homura being this evil monster with Madoka as her unwilling victim for over 10 years now, I don't want my post starting discourse that'll only double with whatever happens in Walpurgisnacht Rising...

[atamascolily]

There is a tendency I see in PMMM analyses and discussions to treat the witches simply as monsters that can be overcome with sufficient force regardless of other circumstances--and thus Homura's failure to ever win against Walpurgisnacht on her own terms is something that could be easily fixed with more firepower and different tactics. And while there's nothing wrong with this interpretation, it's not one that particularly interests me, either.

What I like about PMMM and what makes it so engaging for me, is that it can be read on multiple levels--both as a literal journey and as a symbolic one. In-universe, witches are the shadow selves of magical girls; is it really so surprising that they also serve as narrative foils to those who face them, thus making victory or defeat as much of a character issue as a tactical one?

It is not a coincidence that Mami Tomoe, a girl who was forced to grow up too fast and who could have wished to save her dying parents but didn't, meets her end at the hand of a particularly childish and immature witch, a lumpen, misshapen doll that transforms into a clown--a girl who never grew up, who could have wished to save her dying parent but didn't. Mami, an experienced veteran who wiped the floor with the Rose Witch and her familiars earlier, is completely caught off-guard and is eaten alive by a witch who embodies all of the issues she herself struggles with and has yet to overcome within herself.

Yes, Mami was careless and overconfident, which led to her doom--but she had also fulfilled her role of introducing Madoka to the world of magical girls. On a narrative level, her death was necessary--not only to free Madoka from her impulsive promise to become a magical girl too early in the story, before she'd learned all the facts and could make a fully informed decision, but also to teach Madoka one final, horrific lesson about what life as a magical girl is really like.

This is not to say that AUs where Mami survives are wrong or missing the point--I've written them myself and I love them! (It helps that Mami's survival is usually the result of someone else's interference, not something she accomplishes on her own.) Nor do I mean to suggest that Mami's death is a moral failing on her part--merely that I think that Charlotte represents Mami's own particular brand of kryptonite at that particular point in her life, one she might have been able to survive if she had been able to move beyond the psychological issues hobbling her.

Meanwhile, Homura is able to easily defeat Charlotte, because metaphorically she's moved beyond the childish worldview that Mami is still stuck in. From that same symbolic perspective, it's this relative level of maturity, as much as her time stop and pipe bombs, that allows her to win.

Likewise, it is not an accident that the next witch Madoka encounters is one that specializes in extracting the memories of its victims, trapping Madoka in a spinning carousel as she is tormented by her own grief and guilty conscience over Mami's death. She is freed by Sayaka, who has moved beyond such angst by her decision to take on Mami's role as an idealized magical girl protector. Later on, Sayaka's descent into dualistic thinking is symbolized by her fight against a witch whose world is literally black and white--whom Sayaka defeats, but only at the cost of pushing herself dangerously to her limits.

As with Mami, Sayaka's death is directly tied to her own psychological issues--in this case, by her incredibly strict rules about how magical girls should behave and her refusal to cut herself any slack whatsoever. Her metaphorical self-denial results in literal self-denial, and her death as a magical girl and rebirth as a witch.

Then we come to Walpurgisnacht, a witch made of cogs and gears--the one witch Homura cannot beat, no matter what she does. Homura is stuck in her loops, unable to imagine a future beyond them, increasingly isolated from any meaningful connections or relationships--Walpurgisnacht may be the "fool that spins in a circle", but so is Homura. The inside mirrors the outside; when we watch Homura fight against Walpurgisnacht, we are also watching Homura's struggle with herself. Unlike Mami and Sayaka, Homura's magic allows her to fight this battle over and over again--again and again she is forced to retreat and start over, unsatisfied with the results and determined to do better next time. She doesn't die, but she doesn't win, either--instead, she's locked into perpetual stalemate with no end.

Madoka, however, is able to see beyond the vicious cycle represented by Walpurgisnacht and thus easily and repeatedly defeats an enemy that Homura cannot, regardless of her relative power levels in any given timeline. It's probably too simplistic to say that hope triumphs over despair--and yet, that's exactly what happens, every single time. Homura has numbed herself through repeated exposure to where she no longer feels hope or despair, thus existing in perpetual stasis with her purpose the only thing driving her. Paradoxically, the one thing she needs to do to win is the one thing she cannot do--and the thing that Madoka can do all too easily.

(This is not to say that Madoka doesn't have her own issues--she does!--just that her issues are different from Homura's, meaning she's not tripped up by this particular obstacle in the same way that Homura is. And it's not that Homura's struggles were pointless--they were what allowed Madoka to get to point where she had both the power and the knowledge that she could save everyone, including Homura.)

Homura's final battle with Walpurgisnacht shows Homura going to insane lengths, including a wall of C-4 explosives inside a refinery, a flaming oil tanker, and a submarine with Type 88 Surface-to-Ship missiles--none of which has any lasting effect on Walpurgisnacht whatsoever. That episode goes to great lengths to show that Homura's approach to fighting Walpurgisnacht fundamentally isn't working; I don't think adding more nukes would help.

The one time Homura gets the closest to her happy ending is the one timeline where she and Madoka fight and fall together--the one timeline where they are shown as equals, and the one where they debate becoming witches together and destroying the whole world before Madoka thinks better of it. This is also not a coincidence. If there is ever to be a truly happy end to this franchise--or an end at all--Homura and Madoka must be equal and willing partners, not one protecting/sacrificing themself for the other again and again. It is also likely that they will remake the universe in the process, through the combined power of their mutual wish.

[It also wouldn't surprise me if that line foreshadowed future plot elements--after all, Madoka technically became a witch in the final episode of the TV series (she got better, thanks to the nature of her wish), and so did Homura in Rebellion--but we shall see if the series ever follows up on this.]

This is why I'm so excited that Walpurgis no Kaiten seems to be laying the groundwork for Homura creating her own enemies and her greatest enemy being herself--once again, making the metaphorical literal. I'm excited about the prospect of Homura getting a do-over with Walpurgisnacht, which would represent a chance for her to confront her narrative foil one more time, and show us how her character has changed. Though it may play out on a larger stage, the real battle will be inside Homura's mind and heart--and, I would argue, always has been. The only way the outcome will change--the only way we can move beyond what's been and into something new--is if/when she changes.

I want to be clear that there's absolutely nothing wrong with the strictly literal interpretation of witches, and I think people should write what they want to write; if that's the story you want to tell, then go for it! For me, however, I find it far more compelling--not to mention richer and truer--if the actions and words on-screen correspond to the characters' emotional and psychological journeys, and there's no question that this preference how I interpret media in general, and PMMM in particular. And it's not that I think Homura couldn't defeat Walpurgisnacht in an AU scenario--merely that any story where she achieves this victory without changing in any way or addressing her own psychological issues in some fashion removes exactly the elements that drew me to this series in the first place.

[muffinrecord]

Magia Record: Links Masterpost (Post-EOS)

Here is the old link to the previous Links Masterpost. This new one excludes information on how to play the game, given that it is no longer in service. I've pruned a few other links to keep this one tight on information.

Wiki Sources

Magia Record Fandom Wiki: A fandom wiki where you can read about information from the game. It includes memoria, characters, past events, enemies, a list of items, and so on. This Wikipedia is more based in game information than the below one.

Puella Magi Wiki: The link to this wiki is to the Characters section for Magia Record. I find it to be a good source of learning about characters easily. It also is a total overview of all the Puella Magi Madoka Magica properties and an interesting site to browse. Note: because anyone can edit this wiki, sometimes some character entries are hilariously inaccurate or biased.

Story Content / Translations

Magia Record Master Translation Sheet: A Google Spreadsheet showcasing Arc Two fan translations. Here you can see what has been translated, where to find it, and also who has done the translation.

Google Drive: A google drive containing archived videos of both NA content and the fan translations of Arc two. You can see what is on there and what isn’t by looking at the aforementioned Master Translation Sheet-- there’s a special column on the right that notes if something has been uploaded or not.

Magia Union Translations: A youtube channel that hosts all of the translated content in the game for both arc one and arc two.

MagiReco Event Guide: A guide to all of the events in Magia Record, written and edited by several fine folk: Grox, LuminousSky, Ai, SerenDark, hobe, Amano Suzune, and Pinknoise. It orders the events by release, notes who was released, gives the genre, a short synopsis and ratings.

Magia Record Master Playlist: Organized by @scarfanon, this massive playlist lists everything in order of release. And I do mean EVERYTHING-- all main story, magical girl stories, event stories, quotes, transformation videos, doppels-- it’s got it all. This is the most definitive playlist for the game out there. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by how much story content out there exists, give this a look! Please note that this playlist is still a work in progress.

Magia Record - Doppel Encyclopedia Translations: Tumblr run by Gilde which translates Doppel entries! This includes Arc 1 and Arc 2 content-- peruse the links at the top of the post to access all the character entries.

Null Magical Girl Translation: The Null Magical Girl story is translated! Translation done by @nymphatix.

Useful Bookmarks

Rika Ren: This site has it all-- a news Mirror, File Mirror, APKs, sound and video viewer, Live2D Viewer, Background and CG Viewer, and other things I’m sure I’ve forgotten.

Mochi Magia Report: This is a link to Mochi's translations for both Magia Report and the new Exedra comic, "Ready Set Exedra!"

Madomagitransparent: A tumblr blog that contains transparent character art from Puella Magi Madoka Magica and its spinoffs. The linked post in particular is a Masterpost itself for image resources.

Magia Record Costumes: This site is a visual list for all the alternate costumes in the game.

Discord Channels

PMMM: Magia Record Discord: This is what I often refer to as “The Big Discord.” It’s a large and active discord with different kinds of people inside of it. It's pivoting to become a Magia Exedra discord now that MagiReco is over.

Magia Union Translations Discord: This is the Translator’s Discord. You don’t need to be a translator to join, and this is a friendly and passionate group for discussing the game.

Project Mokyuu: This is the Project Mokyuu’s discord, which is for a project dedicated to dubbing the game into English.

Other Places

Music Collection: A google drive containing a ton of PMMM music. Don your pirate hat and take a peruse.

MuffinRecord2: A channel I am curating that hosts all of the Transformation/Henshins, Magia, and Doppel videos.

Magia Record Anime Official Guidebook 2: Scanned by @silvermoon424, this post hosts several links, including where you can download/view the book, a link to purchase it, and links to other scanned Magia Record merch by the same author.

Walpurgis Raid Dialogue: An imgur album that was collaborated on by many players, and collected all of the dialogue characters made during the Last Magia event.

Event Side Dialogue Recordings: YouTube playlist made by the ever amazing Vivi! This is not translated but should be helpful for any translators looking for cross-reference material or for adding in future videos.

[ellipsiseffervescent]

I am once again going to talk too much about Rebellion

and how people don’t understand Homura. Here I would like to address the reasons why people call Homura evil/the antagonist, which is usually their reason for disliking Rebellion. My blog has basically morphed into an obsessive discussion on why that movie is my favorite and elevates the story, so I’ve covered a lot of these topics before, but I hope to make things more comprehensive here.

I’ve seen some people call Homura “corrupted” by the part of her that is a witch. Two thoughts on that:

Rebellion goes out of its way to show you that witches are not inherently evil. They have experienced serious pain and are spreading that pain before Madoka’s sacrifice. However, if this meant that witches were inherently evil, then why are Sayaka and Nagisa not? They are still witches- that’s why their witch forms are still a part of them.

Also, in Rebellion, Sayaka warns Madoka’s essence to not fear Homura, as “she’s the one who’s most hurt”.

I think that people misunderstand the theme of what a witch is overall. A witch is an inevitable reality of magical girls because being a girl in a patriarchal/Kyubey system is CRUSHING. The transformation into a witch is a coming-of-age step into womanhood. It comes from the culmination of mistreatments and systemic oppression girls inevitably become overwhelmed by. This isn’t to say that all women are forever overwhelmed, but it is an unpleasant reality that most women become awoken to. Think of the resolution of the Barbie movie, for instance, where (BARBIE SPOILERS) the characters need to “wake up” the others to the suffocating reality of living in a patriarchy. Same principle, honestly.

I also think that people sometimes interpret the Christian imagery in a stereotypical “good vs evil” way than looking at the situation, especially when it comes to Homura’s demon label and Madoka’s sacrifice.

I’ve talked about this a lot so I won’t go into too much detail, but I believe that the series is going out of its way to create its themes around the dark reality of the self-sacrificing nature of girls. For a brief recap:

Making wishes for someone else is considered taboo

Madoka mattered as a girl. Throughout all iterations of pmmm and its sequels, Madoka laments on the tragedy of magical girls vanishing from the world without anyone knowing and says in Rebellion that she would never want to go anywhere where she couldn’t be around her friends and family. Her mom had plans for them when Madoka grew up, her brother remembers her, and it drives Homura insane that she’s the only person who remembers the other timeline. Madoka was always worried that she wasn’t good enough at anything to have a place in the world and I truly have a hard time believing that this series is saying that young girls who don’t feel they have value anywhere else are best served to sacrifice themselves into oblivion. That’s basically been the history of women, forever.

Homura calls herself a demon because, “[Madoka] was sacred as a god and I couldn’t help but pull her from heaven and undermine her.” Throughout the Wraith Cycle, Homura commits herself to honoring Madoka’s sacrifice and new world order, so the phrase “and I couldn’t help but pull her from heaven undermine her” is, I think, more of a reflection of her self-loathing for going against Madoka’s wish and less of a true admission of evil, because I don’t think that Madoka’s erasure from the world was ever an okay thing. I think people get too hung up on “demon-bad” without thinking of the nuances of the imagery. I don’t believe that Madoka’s godhood is inherently good, and I don’t believe Homura’s demonhood is inherently bad. I think that Madoka’s godhood is more an alignment with self-sacrifice, and Homura’s demonhood is an alignment with desire, and I think that too much of either is a bad thing. It’s why they both needed to come together to eviscerate the Kyubeys.

I think that the label of “demon” makes Homura irredeemable to people and I think that people are deeply unforgiving of the not so pretty things that make us human. I’ve seen that a lot of what I assume are younger users are completely unforgiving to girl characters who go through things and make mistakes. I’m not even talking about Azula defenders (though I think there is a nuanced conversation there) but the Catra-type haters. As others have pointed out, ya’ll about women’s wrongs until a girl suffers a time loop to try to save the love of her life (who, lest we forget, begs Homura to shoot her in one timeline) and her friends and almost loses her mind by being the only person to remember the love of her life in the timeline that ya’ll think was the good one. I even hesitate to call it “toxic yuri” until the last movie comes out. Now, this isn’t to say that Homura has made no mistakes. I think the fact that her rewriting of the world to include the Kyubeys is going to be a BIG mistake on her part, and she did pull the identity of Madoka away from the Law of the Cycle against her wishes. But I think that to take everything Homura has done to try to save Madoka and even give Madoka the power to become the Law of the Cycle and say that she is irredeemable or toxic because she is traumatized…. It’s heartbreaking to me.

Moreover, this perception of Homura as irredeemable flies in the face of all this Christian imagery. Throughout the entirety of Rebellion’s ending (and as you’ll see further down) Madoka assures Homura that she loves her no matter what, that she is always there for her. Madoka in her fullness can see in intimate detail what Homura endured for her- literal YEARS of suffering yet never giving up- do you really think Goddess Madoka can’t and shouldn’t forgive Homura? Are the “good” guys in Christianity not all about forgiveness?

And finally, the real reason I made this long ass post: Homura and Rue from Princess Tutu are parallels. For those who don’t know: in Princess Tutu, the character Rue transforms into an “evil” persona- Princess Kraehe, daughter of the Crow. While Rue is convinced that she is now an agent of evil, the main character Ahiru/Duck insists that she is not. Also important to note is Rue may not rewrite the universe, but objectively commits more women’s wrongs than Homura. She rips the shards of emotion from her lover’s breast and tries to sacrifice innocent people’s hearts to her father, but the story does not paint her as condemned or irredeemable. She’s been lied to, groomed, and traumatized. She’s not an evil person, she’s a girl trying to navigate horrible circumstances, like Homura. Rebellion creates these parallels because Homura is forgivable and it wants you to know that.

So anyway, first parallel is the outfit. Demon Homura is SOOOOO inspired by Kraehe it HURTS:

And finally, Rebellion went so hard to reference this scene:

PLEASE put on sound they translate it differently but here she says "homura chan is homura chan"

so yeah if you stuck around thanks! love u muah

[samble-movedd]

we as a fandom have never discussed the implications that come from kyubey merchandise such as costumes and pajamas existing in-universe in pmmm (including variations, like here). is there a rogue magical girl obsessed with making kyubey merch? was his species pitched as "fantasy" in-universe? what.

[autistic-ben-tennyson]

After getting involved in some NGE shipping discourse, I think there needs to be a discussion about the difference between anime with yaoi or yuri in it vs western shows that are meant to have lgbtq rep like SU, TOH or She-Ra. NGE can certainly be read as queer but it’s not the only interpretation one can have and Kaworu was created as a shadow archetype, not because they wanted to make a gay show. It’s not necessarily queer erasure for one to prefer to ship Shinji with Asuka or Rei. There are homophobic dudebros who dismiss Kawoshin but a lot of fans who prefer m/f ships are queer too and it’s not self hating to dislike the popular yaoi ship.

Japan has different views on queerness than the west. There’s less religious opposition to it and there aren’t One Million Moms groups starting moral panics over something like PMMM or Utena having yuri in it. Much of the homophobia in Japan stems from their views on conformity, hence why they think it’s okay to show youth in a sapphic relationship in anime but believe they must grow out of it and have a traditional marriage. Gay marriage is still banned and the government is fairly conservative. Japan has a complicated view of homosexuality and anime having gay characters is not necessarily for the same reason as western cartoons doing so.

[felixcloud6288]

Madoka Rebellion Discussion

I realized I never gave more than live reactions and quick thoughts on the movie and never really did an obsessive talk about it.

I still hold to my statement that this is a story written by people who love the magical girl genre. But at the same time, PMMM is a series that is aggressively antithetical to a stereotypical magical girl series.

While reading about the movie on TvTropes, a recurring statement was the movie was made to mock various fanworks that insisted on making the girls alive, together, and happy. Such works kind of miss the point of the series which said that the life of a magical girl is gruesome, unfulfilling, and brief. And in the end, it is still those things, but they can still live a happy life in a glass-half-full sort of way.

Rebellion comes in with the intent to show that it's not possible to make a world where everyone gets to live in the world of fanfiction. The happy life of everyone having fun and fighting together is just fiction, and the world where everyone can live their lives free from burden is a glass-half-empty world.

I feel like the development team trusted the viewer to be able to realize what was going on before the movie explicitly tells them what is happening. The first shot we get is Homura's soul gem with the dark cloudiness of a curse in it.

From there, we have several hints with various levels of subtly to the nature of the witch. One of the most subtle hints was the Nightmares having a ballet theme and Homura's transformation also being ballet themed. I personally realized what was going on when Sayaka said the Witch "wants to keep things as they are."

As Homura recaps what happened previously, bubbles emerge from her soul gem and we see the interior of some of them. Later in the movie, Kyubey tells Homura she's been able to pull victims into her labyrinth by inviting them. I think those bubbles are the invitations and she's inviting us to enjoy the performance she wishes to put on for everyone.

The movie opens with a sign saying "Welcome to Cinema" as a pair of hands puppeteer a Nightmare and silhouettes of ballerinas dance. The movie is welcoming us to enjoy the performance, but it is equally welcoming the magical girls to enjoy as well.

It's subtle, but those hands are puppeting the Nightmare and they show up throughout the movie. Notice that the left, middle finger is covered up. If we could see it and the magical girl marking on the nail, we'd know exactly who is responsible for everything.

So I want to point out some things about the opening. It manages to give an abstract presentation of what this movie is about. It opens to someone turning a barren wasteland into a lush greenland. And the first person we see is Madoka, so we might be mistaken into thinking it's her doing. But it's important to note that the person who did this was bare-handed and wore white bracelets. And the only person we ever see wearing them is Homura.

Furthermore, the land isn't actually transformed. Nothing in the before and after matches up. Instead, the lush green fields are being placed over the actual world.

And we see snapshots of Madoka over several months going from being alone to being friends with everyone else until Homura appears. But when Homura gets to be with Madoka, everything falls apart and time rewinds itself to before. And while everyone else is able to laugh and dance and enjoy themselves, Homura cannot join them because she knows none of this is real.

And the moment she reaches for what she truly wants - she reaches for Madoka's hand - the illusion crumbles apart and she's left in the barren ruins with the cruel reminder that the world she wants has long turned to dust.

So yeah. This story takes place in an illusion of Homura's making. And the illusion is doomed to collapse.

The first ~25 minutes of the movie is just having fun with being a magical girl. It happily indulges in magical girl tropes by having lengthy transformation sequences, everyone being friends who go to school together, and they fight malevolent forces that prey on negative emotions and the way to defeat them is with the power of love, friendship, and song.

It's cheesy, but after what everyone has suffered through, it's nice to see them actually have fun.

But let's think about how this is Homura's ideal world. In her ideal world, she is the same shy, awkward person she was before she became a magical girl. And being a magical girl is fun. Homura is not above indulging in magical girl tropes and she may even love them.

Four quick notes about the transformation sequences. 1) Sayaka's sequence involves her running straight at her Magical Girl form. She ultimately regretted becoming one in the main series, so it's nice seeing her actually be enthusiastic to be one. 2) Homura's shield is on her right arm during her transformation. I'm pretty sure it's always on her left arm in every other instance. 3) The rainbow behind Madoka may be a Bible reference. Revelations 4:3 says a rainbow shines around God's throne. 4) At one point during Homura's transformation, she makes the ballet pose for "death"

Somehow, I missed the shot where we see Mami's finger marking. It's an orange flower with four petals. With this, I think it's safe to say that those markings are supposed to be simplified versions of their soul gems when they transform.

When Homura was strangling Bebe and demanding to know what she was doing, Bebe said something that sounded like "Kyubey."

Halfway through the movie, the witch asks Homura and us if we're enjoying the movie?

Are Homura's witch self and real self different entities? Sayaka can use her witch form like a Stand. And in the main story, Kyubey said she was suffering from a curse when she was on the verge of transforming.

I think maybe the Witch form is just always there in the Soul Gem. It is the chaotic, uncontrolled magical force created from the Magical girl's emotions and she uses her soul to suppress the witch and channel that magic into orderly purposes. But once the soul is too worn down, she can no longer suppress the witch and it bursts out of the soul gem.

Grief Seeds are dropped when Witches are killed and overusing a Grief Seed can spawn a Witch from the Seed. And using the Grief Seed causes some essence to flow out from the Soul Gem. Maybe using magic builds up the Witch's strength as well and using a Grief Seed is a process that strips the magic from the Witch.

Anyway, Homura is in a strange situation where her Soul Gem has been sealed by an external force so her Witch self should be able to burst out but is trapped in her Soul Gem. Under normal circumstances, I think the actual thinking conscious of the Magical Girl dies when she transforms, but pieces of her soul related to her emotions and desires are swallowed into the Witch. But because her Soul Gem is still intact, the part of Homura that can think and understand is trapped in the labyrinth made by her raw emotions.

The Kyouko and Mami drawings look nice but the Sayaka one make her look like an idiot. Homura really does not like Sayaka.

After realizing they're all trapped in a Witch's labyrinth, Homura gets mad that the others choose to live in this blissful existence rather than devoting their lives to fighting the wraiths. To her, not fighting is putting Madoka's sacrifice to waste.

Homura seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding about the reasons behind Madoka's wish. Madoka wished to stop Magical Girls from turning into Witches. The Witches represent the corresponding despair that is formed from the hope of a Magical Girl's wish. Madoka's role is to step in when the burdens become too much for them to handle. She would love if everyone could live without fighting and strife.

And as Homura declares her intent to correct this "wrong" in service to Madoka, her familiars start pelting the Madoka statue with tomatoes while shouting "God is dead" in German. Homura's mind and heart are at odds with each other. She hates Madoka becoming a god and leaving her. She hates how the only way she can feel any sense of closeness to Madoka is through living this life she thinks fully utilizes Madoka's sacrifice.

When Madoka assures Homura how she would never willingly leave her, she began braiding Homura's hair to put it back to how it was before Homura had devoted herself to saving Madoka. It's like Madoka is saying "It's okay. You don't have to carry this burden anymore. You can go back to the happiness you had before all this. You can go back to being your true self. You can leave the rest to me."

I don't think the fault for what happens later is Madoka's. She said she could never bear to leave her friends and family and doesn't have the courage to do it even if it were necessary. And this drives Homura to the brink of despair.

But this is a Madoka who lost all her memories. Before, this would have been true. But at the end of the series, Madoka had grown to be someone who can shoulder that pain and has the courage to do so. Homura has gone through so many cycles trying to save Madoka that she can't really grasp that Madoka has become someone who she doesn't need to protect anymore.

She said it herself: Magical Girls forsake everything for their wish. Homura has lost the purpose behind her wish and refuses to acknowledge that.

When Homura realizes she is the Witch responsible for everything, the clock strikes 12. At first, I thought it was going to be a reference to the witching hour. Wikipedia doesn't give a lot of specifics but it mentions that some cultures assign 12-1 am as the witching hour while others assign 3-4 am.

The next thought I had was Cinderella. Cinderella's Fairy Godmother cast a spell that turned Conderella's clothes into a dress to go to the ball in but at the stroke of midnight, the spell would be broken. And at the stroke of midnight, the spell Homura had cast was broken and the false Mitakihara that everyone had been playing in was destroyed.

The blimps came crashing down on the locations of several previous scenes such as the park from the opening, the school roof, the classroom, the place Homura and Kyouko had lunch, and the alleyway Sayaka talked with Homura.

As Mitakihara is destroyed, Homura's familiars start chanting "Fort! Da!". TvTropes says it is a reference to a story Sigmund Freud told about a boy hiding his toys. I looked into it a bit more and it's actually a story about one of the things his 18 month old grandson Ernst would do when playing. When Ernst grabbed an object, he liked to toss it away so he couldn't see it and he would make a particular noise that his mother thought was supposed to be "fort" which is German for "gone". Then when he found it again, he would delightfully say "da" which means "there". Ernst would also make the "fort" sound whenever he saw his reflection and then hid from the mirror.

Freud's original idea was the two halves of the game derived pleasure in different ways. "Fort" focused on the pleasure of making something or yourself disappear. Meanwhile "da" focused on the pleasure of finding something thought lost forever.

Homura has been living in a "da" phase. She managed to find Madoka and she knows for sure that it is the real Madoka. But now she is entering the "fort" phase. She's going to make all this and herself disappear.

Part of the isolation field Kyubey created is a seahorse with a human face. I looked up a few myths and meanings related to seahorses but didn't find anything relevant.

Kyubey is a selfish being and it ultimately expects everything else to be just as selfish. I think Kyubey's end goal is to be immortal and driving back the heat death of the universe is the final step in that plan. And it doesn't care about what happens to anything else as long as it can achieve that goal.

Kyubey expected Homura to seek salvation which would allow it to capture Madoka. It never expected Homura to be willing to disappear and be forever separated from Madoka.

We get a countdown and the curtains rise to the final act of this performance. As Homura is escorted to the guillotine, a ghostly pair of hands appear from the bow on her back and they desperately grab at the ground behind her to stop her advance.

Despite us now being in a real battle, I get the feeling this is still a performance by Homura just like the Nightmares from the beginning. She's a surprisingly passive witch and only becomes aggressive when her audience deviates from the script she laid out. The first time she showed any hostility was when Homura and Kyouko tried to leave Mitakihara. And she only attacks the others because they insist on interfering with her execution.

So yeah, I think she just wants everyone to see how self-sacrificing she is for Madoka's sake. Her familiars cry crocodile tears over how such a selfless girl would go to such lengths for another. But the one thing Homura does is desperately try to hold something to slow down her procession for even a second. Deep down, Homura doesn't want to do all this.

Bebe's magical girl transformation is so goofy, especially if you compare it to everyone else's from the beginning. Everyone else's transformation came with a dance performance. But Bebe instead runs around like a hyperactive child and falls into a bowl. She was the dessert witch and her transformation is her making a cake mix and pouring it into a magical girl mold. And she shouts the name of a cheese when she transforms.

The Homura wallowing in despair is the Homura from before she became devoted to saving Madoka. Maybe in that moment, she thought it would have been better if she had never wished to protect Madoka.

In the first timeline, Madoka died fighting the Walpurgis Night. In the second timeline, Madoka became a witch. In the third, Homura had to kill Madoka to stop her from becoming a witch. After many timelines, Madoka ended up becoming a god.

Homura thinks Madoka is suffering because of all this, and none of it would have happened if Homura had just let her stay dead. So she wishes to kill the person she has concluded is the true root of Madoka's suffering.

In the third timeline, Madoka asked Homura to save her from being tricked into becoming a Magical Girl, and Homura promised she would do that. She failed in every timeline and Madoka ended up in a place where Homura could no longer fulfill that promise. So when she had the opportunity to grab Madoka and pull her back into the world, she took it without hesitation.

I don't think the universe was rewritten so much as it has been entirely swallowed up inside a giant labyrinth where Homura can make the rules.

Homura won and she casually mocks the others over her victory. She broke a teacup next to Mami, tricked Kyouko into throwing away an apple, and shows Sayaka how she cannot do anything to stop her.

Sayaka wanted to be a hero who fights for justice when she became a magical girl. She's the only one who we've seen still has her soul gem and had any memories of before Homura rewrote the universe. Homura said she could be Sayaka's enemy after Homura destroys all the wraiths. Perhaps Homura's end goal is to destroy everything that would necessitate the existence of Magical Girls. Then once she's done, she plans to let Sayaka be the one to destroy the evil demon who has imprisoned the world.

And as Homura told Sayaka everything, Homura's familiars threw themselves off buildings and pelted her with tomatoes. They are booing her for constantly engaging in these self-serving theatrics and are telling her to just get to the part where she kills herself already.

When Homura promised she would always wish for Madoka's happiness, she began tying Madoka's hair to put it back to how it was before Madoka had devoted herself to saving everyone. It's like Homura is saying "It's okay. You don't have to carry this burden anymore. You can go back to the happiness you had before all this. You can go back to being your true self. You can leave the rest to me."

I have more I want to say but I hit the image file limit so I guess I'll make a part 2.

back

[natsumebookss]

Tragic Yuri or Tragic Yuri: On Female Autonomy, Reclaiming the Narrative, and 2011's Moodiest Magical Girls

(contains spoilers for Madoka Magica and Heartcatch Precure, very slight spoilers for Winx Club, topics of loss and depression, and the author screaming into the void about anime bullshit that happened over a decade ago)

If you've spent any amount of time in the Precure or PMMM fandoms, you've probably come across this quote. It's natural in many ways for Urobuchi to feel the way he does--imposter syndrome is intensely common for artists and I'd imagine attempting to write a subversion of a common genre while a piece of media from that genre is wrapping up a super successful run is challenging. While I won't pretend Heartcatch reached the levels of popularity that PMMM ended up at, it was the highest-selling season for years in terms of toy sales and many still remember it very fondly. (I'm a bit more critical of it, personally, but more on that later.) And so much was made of Urobuchi confessing he hadn't seen Heartcatch at the time of writing his own show, with PMMM antis saying that meant he had no real appreciation for the genre.

But what if I were to tell you that not only would PMMM have been significantly worse if he'd made it more like Heartcatch, but Heartcatch would've been better off if it had been more like Madoka?

A disclaimer before we go any further: I am not suggesting that Heartcatch should've retooled into a darker series, or that it even had the ability to since the shows were made pretty much in tandem. The damage done to Heartcatch, in my opinion, was already done before Madoka's finale even aired. This is purely an exercise in comparing two magical girls from roughly the same anime season (one ending about when the other was starting) and seeing what they could learn from each other. Also note that my title on my main blog is literally "Heartcatch Precure finale anti," so there will be some bias involved. With that out of the way, let us proceed.

Context

Pictured: a completely normal Facebook discussion about a kid's anime character from almost 15 years ago.

For those unfamiliar, Cure Moonlight has essentially built up a reputation for being the Leafpool of Precure. For those unfamiliar with Warrior Cats, this is one of the worst things you can be called in fandom--someone with legions of fans who got screwed over so badly that those fans will never shut up about it. Being a Leafpool is not merely being a tragic character, but being actively fucked over by the narrative at every possible turn.

Let's explore Cure Moonlight in a bit more detail before comparing her to Homura and how, I argue, Homura did a similar story path to hers better. Like Homura, Cure Moonlight is first seen fighting a massive threat to humanity inside our pink magical girl Tsubomi's dream. The dream cuts off before we learn her fate, but all we can see on her face is pure sorrow before it does. The minute she is introduced, she already knows loss.

Throughout the show's run, we get to know her as Yuri Tsukikage, a veteran magical girl forced into retirement after her transformation item has been shattered. She has half of the broken Heart Seed that remains, and her foil Dark Precure, who broke the seed, has the other. Yuri is intensely depressed for this exact reason: she has lost her powers, her duties to the world, her fairy companion (who died in the battle with Dark Precure), and her father has also mysteriously vanished. The audience first sees her as a friend of one of the lead's older sisters, a senpai who excels at both sports and academics, before revealing her to be a broken person inside. The goal of Yuri's narrative, seemingly, is to restore her Precure powers, allow her to confide in new friends, and find her missing father.

The first two are accomplished in a pretty straightforward but heartwarming manner--Yuri begins to find a new purpose in training her Precure kohais and eventually regains her powers through hard work and determination. Typical kid's show stuff, even if seeing Cure Moonlight reappear for the first time is indisputably badass. It's the third one, however, that I have the most problems with.

Frequent followers of my main blog @curemoonliite may be familiar with a term I have called "moonbitching." This is what I call it when I rant at length about the Heartcatch finale and what it did to Cure Moonlight's character, or even just allude to it in the tags. Since this post will already be long enough without it, I'll go light on the moonbitching, but do just enough of it to give you the facts.

In the last few episodes of the series, Yuri learns that her father was brainwashed by the main villain of the series, Dune, and that Dark Precure was cloned from her genetic material while he was brainwashed. This is legitimately a fascinating plot point that, by itself, I have no problems with. However, soon after learning about this, both Dark Precure and her father are killed off in the final battle and all Yuri can do is watch.

Her father sacrificed himself for her in a moment of clarity, she didn't even get time to really process that she's been fighting her sister all along, and she's lost everyone all over again. She started the show with just her and her mother, and the second she sees hope at having a family again, it's taken away from her.

Her kohai Tsubomi, upon seeing this, begs Yuri not to take revenge on the Big Bad that's stolen everything from her. This isn't the Yuri I know, she shouts. But somewhere along the line, we've lost the Yuri we know. All her development, all her growth, has been torn away the minute she's forced to lose everything again. Her path as a character is now uncertain, the narrative deciding it won't allow her to pursue even the slightest act of revenge.

And all Yuri can do is watch alongside us.

Homura and Yuri

The minute I saw this finale for the first time, I was reminded of how a classic piece of children's/family media handled a similar plot point. Allow me to be cliched for a moment, but if we look at someone like Inigo Montoya, we can see that his decision to pursue revenge is never really questioned by the narrative. This is something that's always bothered me about female characters in media, especially magical girl stories--a magical girl can never just say "give me my father back, you son of a bitch." They may want to, but due to sexist notions about women and violence, they're always expected to take the high road.

Oftentimes, this is done by using the magical girl leader as a mouthpiece to directly dismiss their teammate's desires--Bloom and Aisha go through something very similar in S4 of Winx Club when Aisha's fiancee is killed. Neither Bloom nor Tsubomi are naturally dismissive people, and the narrative tends to characterize them as kind, but they are briefly mischaracterized in moments like this to give the typical "revenge is bad" message that kid's shows tend to have. A message that is often distinctly missing from boy's cartoons, but I digress.

Aisha is at least allowed the dignity of separating from the main team for a few episodes to join some extremists, but Yuri doesn't even get that.

And Homura gets so much more.

I'll admit, I still have mixed feelings about Rebellion to this day, but what I do appreciate about it is that it isn't hampered by these restraints that magical girl media made for children seem to have. That villain arc the Facebook commenter from before said Yuri should've had? It was too late for her by the time the finale ended, but it wasn't too late for Homura.

Homura is, in many ways, an anti-Yuri, and a lot of that comes from her having autonomy within the narrative. Female autonomy is something we see discussed in the social justice sphere a lot, but not quite as much in the storytelling sense. Probably the main difference between the two is that Homura, as a time traveler, can stop the ones she loves from ever being killed. In fact, that's also her greatest weakness, as she wears herself down with the timelines so much that she can barely bring herself to care for anything else sometimes.

Homura's depression comes from the idea that she Can Stop The Thing, but can't figure out precisely how to. Yuri's depression comes from the fact that she Can't Stop The Thing, thinks she knows how to, and gets herself into more trouble along the way. One of these makes for an intensely more active character that doesn't feel unfairly dunked on by the narrative, and oddly enough, it's not the kid's show character.

Yuri, as a children's character, is kept from doing certain things by what that entails. Homura, however, has no such restrictions. She can travel through time and repeat everything over literally until she breaks herself. And that she very, very much does.

Homura doesn't have to be convinced in the finale to let Madoka go, she just peacefully comes to terms with it herself. That alone gives her more autonomy than Yuri had, even if we recall that Rebellion's ending was not the original one that Urobuchi had planned. However, Rebellion's ending serves as an ultimate rebuttal to the narrative that a magical girl must simply allow hardship and loss to happen to her. If the world isn't fair to her, if not even time travel works out, why not just remake it?

This action comes at the cost of stripping Madoka of a lot of her autonomy, sure. But it is, in a way, the natural conclusion of how magical girl leaders are often made to strip their "angsty" team members of theirs. Homura's fall from grace is a flipping of this script in every way possible, and even if it's far from the best decision for her to make, we can see that it's 100% fully her own.

The revenge is complete. No one is there to stop her. Even the writers don't really know what to do with her now. Homura has now transcended the fate of the purple magical girl, and that's the best thing that could've ever happened to her.

A girl who seeks revenge is a devil. A girl who cannot become a princess is doomed to become a witch. But ask yourself, is the fear of becoming these things worth becoming a spectator in your own story?

And, if that's the case, is it truly better to reign in hell than serve in heaven?