Part 4: Lavender's Lament
We've made it this far. The Homura summary and analysis. This will be something. Homura is, without a doubt, my favorite character in Madoka Magica. She definitely was not on my first watch, at least until the other shoe dropped and I understood her motivations and ideology. Before we get to that, though, we have to poke at the handful of scenes involving her over the preceding nine episodes. There's not much to poke at here, but it is noteworthy. First of all is the alliance she forms with Kyoko at the midpoint of the series, in order to defeat a super-powerful witch known as Walpurgisnacht. Kyoko has some qualms about how the hell Homura knows about this, but they make their little alliance anyway when Homura promises to clear out of the city after it's defeated. We know how things end up for Kyoko, so that leaves Walpurgisnacht as a threat... but before we deal with that, we need to get through Homura's tough and cool facade. We do just that in episode 8, just before Sayaka dies.
Homura has been adamant about Madoka not becoming a magical girl all series, but why is that exactly? Mami, bless her, only saw her through the lens of other magical girls like Kyoko; looking to eliminate her competition and get more commodity for herself. As time goes on, Homura is less a rival to Madoka and more this cool and detached person that Madoka can't understand. Madoka asks for Homura's help when Sayaka contracts, and Homura tells Madoka to give up on Sayaka. She intervened anyway to break up their fighting, twice. She somehow knew about all the secretive shit and shocking reveals, like Soul Gems holding souls and magical girls becoming witches. As she tells Madoka, nobody ever believed her when she told them before. Episode 8 has two powerful scenes that show Homura's true motivations. The first is when she attempts to help Sayaka, offering her a Grief Seed to purify her Soul Gem. Sayaka refuses, because in her eyes Homura is just a selfish magical girl. Once the refusal is clear, Homura makes her true intentions known:
Which. Jesus. She won't hesitate, bitch. Kyoko stops her, though, and Sayaka flees to eventually lose her faith in the world. Before that, though, Madoka is talking with Kyubey in a park, and her potential is laid out in full. She wouldn't just be a powerful magical girl. She would be the most powerful magical girl, with potential beyond what's theoretically possible. Madoka could become a God if she were to contract, and saving Sayaka would be child's play. The idea of selflessness, like Sayaka, of losing herself to save her friend is enough to make Madoka almost do it... until Homura turns Kyubey into Swiss cheese with her guns. It's here that Homura's tough facade finally cracks, and we get inside. What we see is a girl weeping over Madoka's foolishness, and Madoka has a fleeting moment of realization. Kyubey revives soon after, once Madoka leaves, and the experience is enough to make him realize Homura's deal. Her power is time manipulation, and she isn't from this timeline. Indeed, once we deal with Oktavia's demise and Kyoko's sacrifice, we head into episode 10 and enter...
Confusion. At least, that's what it was in 2011 for me. You've got a re-iteration of the mysterious transfer student scene from all the way back in episode 1, but this Homura is totally unlike the Homura we've come to know. Instead of a cold detached badass, we have a shy anxious mess with braids and glasses and a heart condition. Where the Homura we knew was good at every subject, this Homura has a heart condition and is bad at math. They even mirror and reverse the corridor confrontation from episode 1 with the stop and turn, as it's Madoka who does it instead. She's saying different things, of course, but you know we're all about mirroring here. This Homura laments her weakness, her uselessness at school, and that despair draws her into a witch lair while she's walking home. Thankfully some magical girls save the day... and it's Mami and Madoka! They're a team! They made it! Everything is great, and Homura has some new friends!
Then Walpurgisnacht comes, and Mami dies. Again. It's up to Madoka to go off into battle, despite Homura's protests. A noble and selfless sacrifice, ending in tragedy. Homura kneels over her friend's body, weeping, wishing that there were something she could do... and who should appear but Kyubey? Did someone say a wish? What's wild here is that, for all Kyubey has hidden things from the magical girls so far for his own reasons, he straight up tells Homura she's trading her soul for her wish here. Homura's wish is simple and to the point: to redo her first meeting with Madoka, and avert her death at the hands of Walpurgisnacht. So she is contracted, and so the world resets to just before Homura goes back to school. In this timeline, she joins forces with Mami and Madoka, but she's not the best at fighting with her new powers. Mami suggests using weaponry in conjunction with her time stopping, and this leads Homura to GOOGLING HOW TO MAKE BOMBS. In another thrilling witch battle, Homura uses time stop and bomb throwing to blow a witch to oblivion, getting a BIG BIG HUG from Madoka. Homura did it! Hell yeah! Three magical girls, Walpurgisnacht is toast!And then Madoka falls to despair and becomes a witch. Oops. That's another reset. Well, this time we'll just tell everyone the terrible truth about magical girls becoming witches. That doesn't work either. Sayaka, in her first timeline as a magical girl, just sees Homura's warning as Mami saw her; attempting to drive a wedge between the unity of the magical girls and accusing her of working with Kyoko. This does lead Sayaka to not want to work with Homura because of all the goddamned bombs, and Homura then stopping time and stealing guns from the Yakuza. Which, wild. Okay then, Sayaka and Homura can work together in this timeline now! Great, right?
O-oh. This again. I'm intrigued by what gets left out here in this timeline. Oktavia's lair is totally different, and it's a big idol stage show with backup dancers instead of an orchestra hall? What did she wish for in this timeline? What made her fall to despair? We don't know. What we do know is Kyoko and Madoka are doing the same thing we'll see them do in the other timeline, trying to reach Sayaka from within Oktavia. It's Homura who delivers the killing blow to Oktavia... and then this timeline goes to absolute hell thanks to, of all people. Mami. She binds Homura up in ribbons so she can't time stop and then shoots Kyoko's Soul Gem. The awful truth of the magical girl cycle is too much for Mami. The witches are terrible things which have to be killed, and magical girls are witches... so they all have to die, here and now. It's Madoka who stops the rampage, killing her mentor and friend before sobbing at the sheer waste of it all. Sayaka, fallen to despair. Kyoko, murdered. Mami, killed before she could suicide pact all of them. Jesus Christ, is Mami the Rory Williams of Madoka Magica? Okay then. Madoka and Homura against Walpurgisnacht. How's that go?
About as well as you expect. They both lay there, dying, and it's here that we see Homura's final transformation. As the despair overtakes their Soul Gems, Madoka manages to use her last Grief Seed to purify Homura's. Once again, Madoka has given her life to save Homura, but now comes the direct request from Madoka. Two of them, really. The first we'll show here:
The second is, unfortunately, to stop Madoka from becoming a witch... and there's only one way to do that. Homura has to end her friend's suffering, her misery, and go back to avert the catastrophic mistake Madoka made for the sake of one wish. With this act, here and now, the shy Homura with her glasses is dead. This is the birth of the Homura we know, the hardened and cool detached magical girl working to prevent Madoka from contracting at all costs. Suddenly, we understand all of it. The silent moments of fist-clenching and biting her lip. The sheer determination to let Madoka know how much of a mistake it is to become a magical girl. Finally breaking down and crying, letting the facade fall, when this dumbass she's trying to save almost bungles into the same mistake again. It's just as she said to Sayaka, when she tried to kill her; everything Homura does is for Madoka. She's not just trying to keep her promise. She's trying to save the friend she loves most.
With that, we come back to where we started. The end of the world, a striking dark melodic tune playing as a girl with magic powers fights... something or other. We know better now. This is Walpurgisnacht, and Homura Akemi is fighting it to protect the friend she loves most as the Dirge Of Despair plays. Despite her efforts, Kyubey tells Madoka she has the power to stop this, and we see the end of this timeline that once was a dream. Madoka's potential was incredible, and she killed Walpurgisnacht in one shot... but then became a witch. As Kyubey muses, her witch form will destroy the planet in ten days. It doesn't matter to him, though. He got what he wanted. Kyubey's purpose will become clear soon enough, but standing in the ruins of this timeline, Homura's resolve is hardened once more. She will save Madoka. She will stop Kyubey from getting what he wants.
A funny thing happens then, as we cycle back to the scene in episode 1 where Homura tried to kill Kyubey; cycling back to the timeline we've been following. The episode ends, not with the Dirge of Despair that is Magia, but with the bubbly opening credits that have seemed to mock the dark atmosphere of despair with its dissonance. Now that we know what we know about Homura, though... look at the lyrics. All along, this song hasn't been about Madoka. It's been about Homura's steely resolve. How many times has she done this, over and over? We see half a dozen or so over the series, but it could easily be more. Her determination is strong... but remember how this world works. Things balance to zero. Actually, let's back up. We're about to finish this, but now that we understand so much, there's only one line of questioning left.
What does Kyubey want? How does this cruel world of balancing hope and despair to zero even work? We need to find out, if we have any hope of cutting the threads of fate.
(Continued in Part 5)
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