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The brilliance of Puella Magi Madoka Magica lies in its complete lack of unnecessary romantic subplots. Throughout the entire series, male characters are almost non-existent. The only boy with any significant screen time is Kyousuke, a character the fanbase has collectively labeled as cold and indifferent.
Despite Sayaka's immense sacrifice for him, he casually flirts with other girls, which serves as the final catalyst for Sayaka's descent into blackened despair. In stark contrast, the series focuses on three genuine pairings.
Mami Tomoe and Bebe, Sayaka and Kyouko, and of course, Homura Akemi and Madoka Kaname.
These relationships are all between girls. Free from the baggage of traditional romance, the bonds between the latter two pairs are so profound they feel like they are constantly on the verge of transcendence.
To call it mere friendship feels too thin; to call it simple love feels too shallow. Yet, without a doubt, this mutual, life-and-death devotion is an emotion that resonates deeply with every fan, regardless of their gender.
In the scene where Madoka and Homura pour their hearts out to one another in the moonlit field of flowers,
Madoka's boundless gentleness and Homura's intense longing, affection, and dependency explode onto the screen. Bashira sat frozen, her eyes wide as she absorbed the weight of the connection between these two characters.
"If those are your true feelings, then how great a sin did I commit? Back then... no matter what method I used, I should have stopped you!"
Upon realizing Madoka's hidden vulnerability, Homura finally understood that becoming a God was never Madoka's wish.
She just wanted to be with everyone.
The plot surged forward. Having discovered Madoka's truth, Homura reached a secondary, horrifying realization.
'What is she doing?' Bashira watched the screen with mounting confusion.
Homura boarded a bus, leaving her Soul Gem behind on the seat. As the bus drove away, a distance of several kilometers grew between the girl and her gem. Yet, Homura didn't change. She remained conscious. She remained human.
At first, Bashira didn't quite process the anomaly. Then, the established lore of Madoka Magica flashed through her mind like a warning siren. A magical girl's Soul Gem is her literal soul; if it is separated from her body by more than a few dozen meters, the body becomes a mindless husk. The flesh is merely a puppet controlled by the gem.
If Homura was unaffected by the distance, there was only one logical explanation.
"She... she's already a Witch?"
The realization struck Bashira's heart like a bolt of lightning.
That familiar, crushing sense of melancholy, the signature flavor of the creator, rose up once again. Bashira's eyes were fixed on the screen, trembling.
"Why? Why did you write it like this? Bastard, do you actually have no soul?"
If you were to ask any fan which character they pitied the most, the answer would always be Homura Akemi. She was the one who crawled through the river of time, failing a hundred times over a decade just to save the girl she loved.
It was precisely because she had survived the original ending that the fans had shown restraint when cursing the author.
But this? Bashira never expected that even in the movie, the Warrior of Love would force Homura to undergo the very transformation she spent her life trying to prevent.
Who created the Labyrinth that the city had become?
There was no longer any mystery.
The Labyrinth was the creation of the Witch that Homura had become. As Homura realized the truth, she drew her weapon and shattered her own Soul Gem.
In that instant, her fifteen familiars, the Clara Dolls, manifested. Fourteen of them arrived simultaneously, filling the screen with a surreal, gothic dread.
Looking back at the lore, it made perfect sense. How did Madoka become the most powerful magical girl in existence? It was because Homura's endless time-loops had twisted the causality of hundreds of parallel worlds and anchored them all onto Madoka. Essentially, Madoka's god-like potential was a gift forged by Homura's obsession.
In terms of raw potential, Homura was actually the true anomaly. Her only limitation was that her specific ability wasn't suited for direct combat. If a being like that fell into despair, the resulting Witch would be an entity of cosmic horror.
"Why? Why am I like this? When... just when did I become a Witch?"
The voice actress delivered a despairing scream that echoed through the room. Suddenly, the art style of the animation shifted violently.
The familiars wore unsettling, mocking grins. Fireballs rained from the sky, and the dome over the city began to crack and shatter like glass.
The visuals pulled Bashira's consciousness deep into the dying world of the movie. Madoka had become the Law of Cycles specifically to erase all Witches from the world. Yet here was Homura, having become a Witch without even realizing it, creating a Labyrinth so vast it trapped everyone she loved.
How could she ever face Madoka now?
At that moment, Kyubey made its appearance. The wicked, emotionless rabbit walked through the ruins. For the first time in the movie, it spoke, and it spoke directly to Homura.
"Kyubey... this was your plan all along, wasn't it?" Homura's voice was laced with a venomous rage.
The dialogue that followed finally unraveled the technical mystery of the plot.
The real Homura was currently at the critical threshold of transformation between a magical girl and a witch. Her physical body was currently in the outside world, encased in an experimental field created by the Incubators.
The city she lived in existed entirely inside her own Soul Gem. It was a world manifested from her subconscious. Kyubey had used an isolation field to prevent the Law of Cycles, Madoka, from sensing Homura's corruption and purifying her. They left a leak in the field, allowing those whom Homura's subconscious recognized to enter her Soul Gem, entering the city of her dreams.
Kyubey's objective was to observe the moment Homura was purified. They wanted to capture and analyze the Law of Cycles. They wanted to understand why magical girls vanished at the end of their lives instead of becoming Witches, which was their source of energy.
In her subconscious, Homura had forced herself to forget everything so she could live a peaceful life in a world she created. She had fallen into despair because a world without Madoka was unbearable, and that long-term suppression had finally curdled into a Witch.
But something unexpected had happened.
Kyubey saw an impossibility inside the murky depths of Homura's Soul Gem.
Madoka.
How could someone who no longer existed in the physical world respond to Homura's longing and be captured within the Labyrinth?
The truth was that Madoka is the Law of Cycles. Because of the rules of the Labyrinth, Madoka had forgotten she was a God, and Homura had forgotten she was a Witch.
But now that Homura had recognized the falsity of the world, the balance was shattered, and reality was warping into a nightmare.
"You didn't do all of this just to confirm Madoka exists. Your real goal... is to control her!"
Homura's fury was palpable, channeled through a performance by the voice actress that felt like it was bleeding emotion.
"Holy crap, Kyubey! This rabbit needs to be turned into a spicy stew!" Bashira couldn't help herself. She was shouting at her TV.
She had tolerated this creature for a long time, assuming it was just a background character in the movie, but it turned out the Incubators never changed their vile spots.
She kept watching, mesmerized.
Finally, it was clear why Madoka hadn't come to save Homura. Kyubey had isolated Homura's soul to use her as bait to trap the God herself. Homura's despair deepened, making the world more distorted and terrifying as she launched a frenzied attack on the Incubator.
Her body was being overtaken, bit by bit, by the Witch within.
"I will... save Madoka!"
Even now, that was her only thought. Even as a monster, her heart remained unchanged. She decided to complete her transformation into a Witch within the isolation field. She hoped that Kyouko, Sayaka, and Mami would kill her before she hatched out of the Soul Gem. If she died inside, the Incubators would never be able to use her to reach Madoka.
Bashira's eyes began to overflow with tears.
"If you die here, you will be destroyed before the Law of Cycles can reach you. No one will be able to save your soul. You will lose the chance to ever see Madoka again for all eternity..." Kyubey argued, trying to convince her to surrender.
But Homura didn't hesitate. She threw herself into the transformation. The most tragic Witch in the history of the franchise was born.
Homulilly, the Nutcracker Witch.
While other Witches are born with the instinct to destroy the world and bring misfortune, the Nutcracker Witch had only one thought.
Protect Madoka.
To ensure she wouldn't be a burden or a danger to the girl she loved, her first instinct upon birth was...
Self-execution.
Bashira was sobbing now. It hurt. This plot was pure agony. Why does he have to be this cruel?